By:Jerry Burke
Over 103,000 fans piled in to Elmont's own Belmont Park in hopes that War Emblem would break the drought that began after Affirmed won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont in 1978.
No such luck. Unless, of course, you took a flier on 70 to 1 longshot Sarava. If you did, a $2 bet would have netted you a whopping $142.50.
Running from the outside post, Sarava kept pace with the pack until jockey Edgar Prado made his move at the sixteenth pole. From there, it was a neck-and-neck battle with Medaglia d'Oro to the end, with Sarava winning the 1 1/2 mile race by a half-length in 2:29.71.
The odds were against War Emblem from the start with an out-of-the-gate stumble followed by a slight crash into fourth-place horse Magic Weisner. The Bob Baffert-trained horse recovered sufficiently to take a brief lead at the mile marker, but could not keep up the pace. He finished eighth, 19 1/2 lengths behind Sarava.
The $142.50 payoff was the biggest in the history of the oldest leg of the Triple Crown. Sarava paid $50 to place, $22.40 to show, nabbed a $2,454 exacta with Medaglia d'Oro, and took a $25,209 trifecta with Sunday Break in third. If you hit the superfecta, chances are you quit your job: $145,334 with Magic Weisner in fourth.
While the payoffs were large, they were scattered. War Emblem's odds were 6 to 5 at post time.
Sarava's trainer, Kenny McPeek, couldn't believe his luck after his more heralded horse, Harlan's Holiday, failed to hit the boards at either the Derby or the Preakness. "I am pinching myself, of course," McPeek said. "Who wouldn't at 70-1?"
The mystery horse was a longshot with good reason. The Stakes was only his third victory in nine career starts. "There was absolutely no good reason to pick that horse," said racing enthusiast Rudy Schmidt of Queens. "Unless you were crazy. But if you did, now you're crazy and loaded."
War Emblem became the 16th horse to fall in the Belmont after winning the Derby and Preakness and the eighth since 1979. Baffert has trained three of them in the past six years, including Silver Crown and Real Quiet in the 1997 and 1998 Belmonts.
