THERE'S NO CRYING IN HORSE RACING!

Secretariat leading the field at the Preakness in 1973.
 

USA Sports Commentator Christine Brennan is completely wrong in her assertion that it was unfair for California Chrome to race at Belmont against horses that had competed in the other two Triple Crowns races. (Here's the link: "Why California Chrome owner is right about Belmont" ) Then she used an absurd comparison by saying it was analogous to a baseball team not playing any games during the regular season and showing up for the World Series. Huh? With that logic I suppose that a golfer that doesn't play any tournaments before the Masters has the advantage over the field when they tee it up at Augusta. We all know, and pardon the pun, that's a bunch of horseshit.

Perhaps one reasonable comparison would be the London 2012 Olympics and Ryan Lochte losing gold in the 200 Individual Medley to Michael Phelps. Some might say, "Hey, that wasn't fair. Ryan Lochte had just raced in the final of the 200 backstroke earlier that night." Actually, Phelps did the same thing to Lochte in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Of course, and Ryan Lochte would be the first to agree, that kind of reasoning just doesn't hold water, pun intended.

So sorry Chrome fans, but all the horse had to do this year was tie Secretariat's track records in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont, and the Triple Crown would have been his. In fact, he could have won all three with much slower times than Secretariat's runs in 1973, and still have taken the coveted trophy.

Is the Triple Crown elusive? Yes it is, as it should be. Is it "unreasonably elusive," as Steve Coburn, the owner of California Chrome griped and Christine Brennan echoed? No it is not. Between Citation, who won the Triple Crown in 1948, and the great Secretariat in 1973, there was a 25-year dry spell for a Triple Crown winning thoroughbred. Certainly at 36 years the dry spell has been longer since Affirmed, the last Triple Crown winner, raced to immortality 1978 (Affirmed would have won it this year as well). To end the previous one it took a horse with the caliber of Big Red, Secretariat's real name for those didn't see the Disney flick on the "in flight movie."

How do you get another Triple Crown winner? It's very simple to explain, but not easily done, and it doesn't take a Secretariat to end the current drought. Just foal a race horse that can go ten furlongs in under two minutes, nine and a half furlongs under 1:54.00, and a mile and a half in 2:26, voilà, there is the next Triple Crown winner. But please future novice owners that win two of the Triple Crown events, guaranteeing millions in syndicate fees, yet fall short on the Belmont; don't whine and cry about it when your horse runs out of gas on that last one for all the marbles. After all, that's horse racing, that's sport. Just take a cue from Ryan Lochte; be a gracious winner, and never a sore loser.