Through all the tumult of the past five weeks, the final leg of the 2013 Triple Crown season has in some sense come full circle to where things stood on the eve of May 4.
Trainer Todd Pletcher again has compiled a five-horse arsenal to face morning-line favorite Orb in a classic test.
Jockey Rosie Napravnik has fielded more inquiries than she cares to recall about her potential history-making exploits.
And the dean of the backstretch, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, is certain he can deliver a Triple Crown clinic at his distinguished age of 77.
The impact players from Kentucky Derby 139 have pretty much all returned for the 145th Belmont Stakes on Saturday. Similar as the surface story lines may be, so much has changed in the undercurrent.
Redemption and validation are just a couple of the themes woven throughout the 14-horse field for the $US1 million Belmont, with Kentucky Derby winner Orb and Preakness Stakes conqueror Oxbow the respective poster children for each.
The way Orb manhandled 18 other challengers during his victory in the Kentucky Derby – his fifth consecutive win – was such that even his Hall of Fame trainer, Shug McGaughey, let his mind ponder how it would feel to be at his Belmont Park base with a Triple Crown on the line this weekend.
The acceleration that launched Orb from 16th to first on Derby Day was shockingly absent when the son of Malibu Moon ended up trapped inside during his fourth-place finish behind gate-to-wire winner Oxbow in the Preakness.
For his part, McGaughey has said he is drawing a line through that outing, chalking up the defeat to a tiring inside path and the exceptionally slow fractions Oxbow was allowed to run.
“I know for a fact that Orb runs much better on the outside,” he said.
“The track (Pimlico) was dead in there and he was tucked the whole way around on the inside, so that was the difference.”
