A wild and unpredictable Triple Crown season came to an appropriately stunning conclusion on Saturday as long shot Ruler On Ice won the 143rd running of the Belmont Stakes.
Ruler On Ice, a gelding who didn’t run in either the Kentucky Derby or the Preakness and was wearing blinkers for the first time, Ruler On Ice sat just off the lead for most of the race, and then jockey Jose Valdivia Jr let him surge to the lead in the home straight.
The temperamental but talented Ruler On Ice ran hard to the line, holding off Stay Thirsty and Brilliant Speed, giving Valdivia and trainer Kelly Breen their first win in a Triple Crown race.
“At the half-mile pole, I was hearing whips cracking behind me and I could hear guys chirping at their horses,” Valdivia said.
“I still felt like I had a lot of horse under me. Turning for home, everything started going in slow motion. At the 16th pole, I thought ‘this is the true test of the champion’.”
Although most of the 55,779 in attendance at Belmont Park expected the race to unfold as a duel between Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom and Preakness winner Shackleford, that match-up never materialised on the sloppy track.
Shackleford charged out to an early lead but he faded considerably around the final turn and finished a disappointing fifth.
“We had it the way we wanted,” said trainer Dale Romans. “He just didn’t hang on.”
Animal Kingdom was never a factor in the race, rallying to finish sixth after a mishap at the start.
He almost fell after clipping hooves with Mucho Macho Man, and jockey John Velazquez lurched forward, barely hanging on to his mount. His right foot came out of his stirrup, and for the first quarter mile (400m), he was mostly just trying to hang on.
“The horse almost fell down,” Animal Kingdom’s trainer Graham Motion said.
“Johnny couldn’t believe the horse stayed up. He lost his iron, and it took him until halfway around the turn to get his foot back in the iron. It’s really disappointing. It’s disappointing not to give the horse his chance to run his race.”
Meanwhile Ruler On Ice was happy to take advantage.
Considered a fussy colt lacking focus and discipline for most of his racing career, his connections still didn’t know what to expect from him even days prior to the race.
He had to be gelded when he was being broken in because one of Breen’s employees told him the horse was “so nutty, he was going to hurt someone”.
The horse also acted up often, repeatedly kicking the walls in his barn.
“He wouldn’t grow up,” Breen said of the decision to put blinkers on his horse.
“He didn’t mature as fast as we wanted him to. He’s already a gelding and we can’t castrate him again, so we put blinkers on him. Sometimes, the bulb just goes on.”
Ruler On Ice showed just why he has been labelled difficult during the presentation.
He refused several times to wear the blanket of flowers awarded to the winner, bucking and ducking his head.
But that scene served as a fitting end to a strange Triple Crown season. Nothing, not even the post-race celebrations, went according to script.
MCT AAP TURF
