Road to the Triple Crown

ROAD TO THE TRIPLE CROWN

JUNE 15, 2005

by James Scully

AFLEET ALEX (Northern Afleet) wrapped up the Triple Crown with a rousing

performance in Saturday's Belmont S. (G1), rallying past horses in an effortless

manner leaving the far turn while appearing to be traveling about twice their

speed and then toying with the competition through the stretch. He has towered

over the three-year-old division this season with brilliant performances in the

Arkansas Derby (G2), Preakness (G1) and Belmont, but his third in the Kentucky

Derby (G1) sticks out like a sore thumb. That wasn't the true Afleet Alex at

Churchill Downs on May 7.

The Triple Crown continues to be one of the most difficult challenges in

sports. Afleet Alex should've captured the Kentucky Derby before dominating the

Preakness and Belmont, but we'll never know what happened in Lousiville,

Kentucky.

We can try to explain it, proposing that perhaps Afleet Alex bounced off a

strong win in the Arkansas Derby (G2). He had never won around two turns

entering the Arkansas Derby and was exiting the worst race in his career, a

last-place finish in the Rebel S. (G3) due to a lung infection. After drilling

four furlongs in :46 1/5 four days prior, Afleet Alex demolished the Arkansas

Derby competition, finishing his final eighth of a mile in :11 3/5 while drawing

off to a record-setting eight-length victory. He could not run back to this

performance three weeks later.

We can blame the trip. Afleet Alex was bumped entering the first turn, raced

on the dead part (inside) of the track through the far turn while having to stop

and start several times in the Kentucky Derby. Jockey Jeremy Rose took his mount

near the back of the field in the early stages before rallying on the far turn

of both the Preakness and Belmont, but Afleet Alex was spotted much closer to a

wicked early pace in the Kentucky Derby, about eight lengths back of the

pacesetter through the opening half-mile and within five lengths after six

furlongs. He ran into fast fractions and had nothing left for the finish.

Maybe it was the track, which can play funny on Derby Day.

Afleet Alex has never bounced off a hard race in his career, and the

well-traveled Florida-bred has taken his track with him wherever he runs.

Trouble is difficult to avoid in a 20-horse field, but Afleet Alex can overcome

a lot, as he showed when avoiding disaster at the top of the stretch in the

Preakness.

He came up flat in the final furlongs at Churchill Downs, but completed the

final quarter-mile in the 1 1/2-mile Belmont in :24 2/5, the fastest final

quarter since Arts and Letters in 1969. No horse has dominated the last two legs

of the Triple Crown like Afleet Alex since Point Given, another tough-to-explain

loser in the Kentucky Derby.

The Triple Crown mystique claimed another worthwhile candidate in 2005. It

doesn't make much sense that exceptional horses like Afleet Alex, Smarty Jones,

Point Given and others have failed to win three straight Triple Crown races over the last 27 years,

but we can't explain it. It's the Triple Crown, so we just keep waiting.