California Chrome and sour grapes

No Triple Crown for California Chrome. Once again, the Belmont reared its ugly mile and a half head and CC faded at the end to finish merely tied for fourth.

Yet the colt's owner, Steve Coburn, couldn't resist a whine. It's not fair, he said. Some of these other horses have skipped races and were only here to try and win this one. Note to Mr. Coburn -- shut up.

If the three weeks between the last race your horse ran (the Preakness) weren't long enough for it to be properly rested and recovered, then like so many others over the last 36 years, you had a two trick pony between the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. It was not worthy of winning the Triple Crown.

That's the thing about the Belmont Stakes. Instead of the mile and a quarter in the first two legs, part 3 of the trifecta consists of a mile and a half. And that extra quarter mile seems to make a big difference with a lot of horses. When California Chrome's jockey "went to the whip" down the home stretch, the horse didn't, or couldn't respond. It appears a mile and a quarter is as far as its endurance is good for. Perhaps that should be no great surprise.

After all, most such thoroughbred 3 year old horses have been pampered, groomed, and trained since they were merely foals for only a certain amount of endurance. When their internal clocks go ding, they're pretty much done. It's baffling when one thinks about it. Be it a mile and a quarter or a mile and a half, these horses are only asked to run at a full gallop for less than two minutes. Good grief, in so many western movies we've seen horses run full speed for at least a half hour chasing cowboys or indians through deserts and forests, up and down hills, rocky formations, and swimming through rivers to continue the chase at the other side. So what's the problem with highly trained elite horses maxing out after less than two minutes and shutting down like Lebron did in Game 1 of the NBA Finals?

Sure, world class sprinters like Usain Bolt can't be expected to run a steeplechase or a marathon, because they're not geared up for that. But if they stretched that 100 meter dash into 125, would they fade that far in the last couple seconds? Are they that finely tuned and fragile?

I dunno. Affirmed may have been the last horse to win the Triple Crown in 1978, some 36 years ago. But it was a close finish at Belmont, with Affirmed winning by about a length.

But the horse of all horses remains Secretariat. Big Red not only handily won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 1973, but in the added quarter mile of the Belmont Stakes, didn't fade but poured it on even more, winning by some 31 lengths.

With apologies to Mr. Ed, a horse is a horse, of course, of course, but Secretariat was some kind of special equine. There will likely never be another like him.