With Drosselmeyer’s win in Belmont, racing’s 3-year-old division still lacks a front-runner

Racing’s glamour division is lookin for a leader

NEW YORK — Three Triple Crown races. Three different winners.

No clear leader has emerged among the 3-year-olds this season, although that may be sorted out this summer in two $1 million stakes — the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 1 and the Travers at Saratoga on Aug. 28.

Then again, the picture might just get murkier. It’s been that kind of year in thoroughbred racing’s glamour division.

The upset by Drosselmeyer in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday closes another year without a Triple Crown. It’s 32 years and counting since Affirmed became the 11th Triple Crown champion by sweeping the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont.

At first, it appeared the brilliant 3-year-old colt Eskendereya had a chance to end the longest drought between Triple Crown winners. But the Fountain of Youth and Wood Memorial winner developed swelling in his left front leg and was pulled from the Derby a week before the race.

It was a tough blow for trainer Todd Pletcher, who came to the Derby with an 0 for 24 record. But on Derby day, Pletcher’s Super Saver came through on a patented rail-hugging ride from Calvin Borel.

In the Preakness two weeks later, after Borel had guaranteed a Triple Crown, Super Saver gave way in the stretch and finished eighth. Lookin At Lucky, so terribly unlucky in the Derby, won the Preakness.

Neither Super Saver nor Lookin At Lucky went on to the Belmont, leaving the final leg of the Triple Crown without either classic winner for the second time in four years and just the third time since 1970.

Drosselmeyer, ridden by Mike Smith, gave Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott his first victory in a Triple Crown race. The Triple Crown was also a huge success for WinStar Farm of Versailles, Ky. It captured two jewels, the Derby with Super Saver and the Belmont with Drosselmeyer.

Elliott Walden, WinStar’s racing manager, said both colts will be pointed toward the Travers. Each will likely get one prep, the Haskell or the $500,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga on July 31.

“We are blessed to have both horses and, you know, we’ll probably look to separate them in the next start, but probably come together in the Travers and see what happens,” Walden said.

That should help establish a pecking order in the division.

“I think you can group all three together,” Walden said. “It’s hard to really differentiate between them until we get into the Haskell and the Travers and then the Breeder’s Cup Classic. I think the rest of the year will decide who the best is. As we sit here today, I’ve got to believe that we have two of the top three in Drosselmeyer and Super Saver.

The 12 Belmont horses appeared to come out of the 1½-mile race in good shape. The biggest disappointment was Ice Box, the 9-5 favorite who finished ninth. Trainer Nick Zito said the Haskell could be the next stop for Ice Box. Zito also sent out Fly Down, the Belmont runner-up, who looks to be Travers bound.

Zito said Ice Box, the Florida Derby winner and Kentucky Derby runner-up, was bothered by the heat and humidity Saturday and had trouble breathing.

“We scoped him after the race and he was clean,” Zito said, referring to an endoscopic examination. “He had no blood and no mucus. He’s an excitable horse. It was very, very hot down here. We didn’t catch a break that way. The last two days he was ready to explode, he was ready to do something, and he probably left his race somewhere else other than the track.”