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Afleet Alex takes Belmont by storm

* Afleet Alez completed the 2.4km course in 2 minutes, 28.75 seconds, well off Secretariat's record of 2:24 in 1973 * Nolan's Cat, winless in five previous starts, was 6 3/4 lengths behind Andromeda's Hero, who finished second * Indy Storm was fourth, followed by A.P. Arrow, Chekhov, Giacomo, Southern Africa, Watchmon, Reverberate and Pinpoint * Sent off as the even-money favorite by the crowd of 62,274, Afleet Alex returned US$4.30 for a US$2 wager to win Source: ap

As far as apologies go, the one offered by Jeremy Rose shortly after crossing the finish line seven lengths ahead of his nearest challenger in the 137th running of the Belmont Stakes was among the strangest. Neither Afleet Alex nor his rider, Jeremy Rose, was breathing hard despite swooshing around the far turn and rolling down the stretch as if he were riding a jet stream.

"He should be a Triple Crown winner, but I messed up or whatever," Rose said.

It was a startling and somewhat puzzling proclamation by Rose, who could not get the bad taste of a third-place finish in the Kentucky Derby on May 1 out of his mouth.

He and Afleet Alex had enthralled the nation three weeks ago in the second leg of the Triple Crown when together they turned a bad stumble at the top of the stretch at Pimlico Race Course into a gravity-defying recovery and runaway victory.

At Belmont Park on Saturday, 62,274 fans marveled as Afleet Alex passed seven horses on the final turn and made the Belmont Stakes' grueling mile-and-a-half distance seem puny.

"I knew I had the fastest quarter-mile when I needed it," he said of his patience here Saturday. And the record book, indeed, proved he was correct: Afleet Alex came home the fastest of any Belmont winner since Arts and Letters in 1969, in 24 2/5 seconds, and in the process became the 11th horse to win the Preakness and Belmont Stakes after losing the Kentucky Derby. He finished in a modest 2:28.75.

"The only thing that could get him beat was me, so I stayed out of his way," Rose said.

In fact, Rose and Afleet Alex stayed out of the way of his 10 challengers for all but the most important part of a race that has earned the title of Test of the Champion. They loped along in eighth place for a mile as the Nick Zito-trained Pinpoint (Zito finished 0 for 11 in the Triple Crown) and as the D. Wayne Lukas-conditioned A.P. Arrow set a tepid pace in the hopes they could steal off with the race.

Uncharacteristically, it was the Derby winner, Giacomo, who took up the chase first. At Churchill Downs, Mike Smith had waited patiently in 18th place aboard the gray Giacomo and let a wickedly fast pace wobble the legs of those ahead of him. Saturday, Smith and Giacomo ran in tandem with jockey Jon Court and Southern Africa around the far turn to run down Pinpoint and get a jump on the stretch.

Smith was not changing tactics; he was trying to salvage a good performance from his ailing colt. Before the race, Giacomo flipped his palate, a condition that obstructs the airways.

"You could hear it; he made a roaring sound," Smith said. "I heard it into the gate and it got louder during the race."

Meanwhile, Rose and Afleet Alex were scooting down the middle of the track, inhaling challengers and squaring their shoulders for an explosive final sprint. They passed Giacomo and Southern Africa as did the distant second-place finisher Andromeda's Hero and the third-place finisher, Nolan's Hero.

"It really was an uneventful race," Rose said. The stop watch and tote board bore him out: Afleet Alex, a son of Northern Afleet out of the mare Maggy Hawk, was the heavy favorite and paid his backers US$4.30 for a US$2 bet to win, and his final time was not particularly fast.

The same could be said about this Triple Crown season. After three straight years of horses pulling into Belmont Park with a chance of making racing history, there was a pall cast over the final leg of one of the most difficult feats in sports.

Rose knew it. He had ridden Afleet Alex in 11 of his 12 starts, including all eight of his victories. He colt was surrounded with pathos and subplots: Afleet Alex's breeder, John Silvertand, who has outlived his cancer prognosis; Alex Scott, the girl who died last August at age 8 but not before turning a lemonade stand into a foundation that raises money to battle juvenile cancer; and Tim Ritchey, the trainer of Afleet Alex, who chose an unorthodox training path of training his colt twice a day for up to five miles of work.

But Rose understood that none of it equals sweeping a Triple Crown. He and Afleet Alex were beaten by a length in the Derby even though they had the lead with 60 or so yards to go. No one has really accused Rose of getting the colt beat, but somehow he seems to sense it may be true.

"You can't blame Tim, and you can't blame Afleet Alex," he said. "So if you have to blame someone, blame me. I don't want to hear any more criticism about my horse. Knock me, but don't knock him. He's one of the best we'll see in a long time."
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