Gold Better Than Silver

ELMONT, N.Y. —  The quips kept coming from trainer Bob Baffert, even though his Silver Charm had lost the third race of the Triple Crown, sending a $5-million bonus down the drain.

“I’ve got to find out who put the patch on that horse, I’m going to hire that guy,” Baffert said Saturday, only minutes after Touch Gold, a horse with a recently repaired cracked hoof, ran down Silver Charm in the Belmont Stakes to win by three-quarters of a length before 70,682, third-largest crowd in the history of Belmont Park.

After Silver Charm won the Kentucky Derby, he tacked on a win in the Preakness, on a day at Pimlico when many analysts reasoned that Touch Gold was the best horse. Touch Gold finished fourth in Baltimore, beaten by only 1 1/2 lengths, even though he broke by nose-diving to the dirt and then was twice stopped by traffic the rest of the way around.

This is a colt who is barely three years old--his foaling date in 1994 was May 26--and who had skipped the Derby because his Hollywood Park-based trainer, David Hofmans, didn’t think he had the seasoning to handle 1 1/4 miles. “We’re running in this one,” Hofmans said one pre-Preakness morning at Pimlico, “but the Belmont is the race that should be made to order for this horse.”

Touch Gold came out of the Preakness with a cracked hoof on his left front leg, something that was eventually patched with a fiberglass material that’s also used to repair battleship propellers.

“We stabilized what he had,” Hofmans said. “There was no discomfort.”

Under a sterling ride Saturday from Chris McCarron, Touch Gold--who had fallen back after setting the pace the opening half-mile--came from fourth place, in the middle of the track, to run down Silver Charm, who was only a sixteenth of a mile away from becoming the first Triple Crown champion since Affirmed in 1978. Silver Charm had disposed of Free House, who had lost the Preakness by a head, and didn’t see Touch Gold and McCarron sailing into the picture.

“At the the sixteenth pole, it looked like we were going to win,” said Gary Stevens, who rode Silver Charm. “I thought it might have been Crypto Star coming after us. Touch Gold was the last horse I expected to be making another run.”

In the box seats, Hofmans watched the finish unfold and kept yelling, “Dig, dig, dig,” to his horse, the cadence of his encouragement virtually matching each stroke Touch Gold felt from McCarron’s left-handed whip.

Later, watching a rerun, Baffert turned from the screen and said: “I know that feeling.”

Touch Gold, coupled in the betting with Wild Rush, paid $7.30 as the second choice, running 1 1/2 miles in 2:28 4/5. Of the $721,000 purse, $432,600 belongs to the winner, who was a $375,000 purchase at auction and races for Canadian resident Frank Stronach (75%) and Robert and Janice McNair (25%) of Houston. Touch Gold, who has won four of eight starts, began his career at Woodbine under trainer Danny Vella and was moved to Hofmans, one of Stronach’s California trainers, this winter.

Silver Charm, the even-money favorite, finished one length ahead of Free House, and after them, in order, came Crypto Star, Irish Silence, Wild Rush and Mr. Energizer. It was 14 lengths from Free House back to Crypto Star in fourth place.

Usually, post positions don’t mean much going 1 1/2 miles in a seven-horse field, but Baffert thought Silver Charm’s chances diminished when he drew the No. 2 hole, just outside Touch Gold, two days before the race.

“The inside of the track was dead,” Baffert said after the race. “If I could have done anything different, it would have been to get a better post. In the stretch, Silver Charm never saw [Touch Gold]. That’s what happens when you draw an inside position. The key to the race was that McCarron was where we usually are. He ran a smart race. He got the rush on us, and that’s the only way you can beat our horse. My horse got ahead of Free House and he thought his job was done.”

As can frequently happen in the Belmont, the race was snail-paced. The first six furlongs went by in a pedestrian 1:13 4/5 and the time for the mile was 1:38 4/5.

Touch Gold and Wild Rush were up front early, with Silver Charm outside them and Free House, in fourth place, the widest of all.

On the far turn, Touch Gold hung in there and Silver Charm moved up, battling Free House and taking the lead with an eighth of a mile left. Touch Gold, swung outside the first two horses by McCarron, was relegated to third place, 1 1/2 lengths behind.

“I felt like I had more horse underneath me than I did in Silver Charm’s other races,” Stevens said. “About 75 yards from the wire, I saw a shadow. But my horse never saw Touch Gold until about 10 jumps from the wire, and by that time the other horse had a full head of steam.”

Silver Charm’s owners, Bob and Beverly Lewis of Newport Beach, were philosophical about the Triple Crown wafting away in the cool New York air.

“What this shows is what a tough, tough situation it is to win the Triple Crown,” Bob Lewis said. “But how can we feel downhearted? We’ve won the Derby and the Preakness, and that’s a wonderful achievement.”

Before the race, as Silver Charm was being saddled in the paddock next to Touch Gold, Baffert may have had a premonition. McCarron came out of the jockeys’ room to get his instructions from Hofmans and Baffert, spotting the rival jockey, said: “If you want to scratch your horse behind the gate, it’s all right with me.”

The press, eager to report on a Triple Crown sweep that might rejuvenate a tired sport, seemed somber in an interview room after the race, and it was the still-lively Baffert who tried to cheer them up.

“What kind of mood is there in here?” the trainer said. “I’m going to live. Things are going to be all right. I’ve never seen a crowd that wanted this to happen [more], and I’m sorry that it didn’t happen for them. But my horse showed up. He ran his heart out. I was worried that racing luck might get us, and I think the post position was the main factor.”

When Carl Pascarella, president of Visa USA, the sponsor of the $5-million bonus, entered the room, Baffert smiled and said, “But we did get you nervous, didn’t we?”

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Two for Three

Horses that won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, but didn’t win the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown:

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Year Horse Finish Winner 1932 Burgoo King DNR* Faireno 1936 Bold Venture DNR* Granville 1944 Pensive Second Bounding Home 1958 Tim Tam Second Cavan 1961 Carry Back Seventh Sherluck 1964 Northern Dancer Third Quadrangle 1966 Kauai King Fourth Amberoid 1968 Forward Pass Second Stage Door Johnny 1969 Majestic Prince Second Arts and Letters 1971 Canonero II Fourth Pass Catcher 1979 Spectacular Bid Third Coastal 1981 Pleasant Colony Third Summing 1987 Alysheba Fourth Bet Twice 1989 Sunday Silence Second Easy Goer 1997 Silver Charm Second Touch Gold

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* Did not run