Saturday, June 08, 2002
Alert rider steers War Emblem from trouble
Belmont notebook
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — War Emblem galloped on the sloppy Belmont Park track Friday and had to cut into an off-limits path when nearby horses got spooked.
Several horses were entering the track on a windy and rainy morning as War Emblem came by under exercise rider Mick Jenner.
Rubber cones marked the path nearest the rail as off-limits. But to avoid being squeezed between the nervous horses and the cones, Jenner sent War Emblem close to the rail until they cleared the crowd.
“I was like, "Uh oh, what do I do here?' ” he said. “If I go to the inside, the track was too hard; if I go to the outside, I'm going to hit a horse. Oh what the heck, we might as well go on hard ground.”
Trainer Bob Baffert was looking on and approved of Jenner's action.
“Mick Jenner is a very seasoned gallop boy and he saw it coming so he took the old fast lane,” he said.
Asked if his heart skipped a beat, Jenner said, “Yeah, because I was worried about if he was going to yell and scream at me when I got back to the barn.”
Jenner joked about what he called the “herd” of horses.
“They all came to see him,” he said, referring to Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner War Emblem. “Even the horses want to see him.”
MAGIC APPEARS: Magic Weisner, runner-up to War Emblem in the Preakness, arrived Friday afternoon by van from Laurel Park in Maryland.
Nancy Alberts, who bred, owns, trains and exercises the gelding, has never raced outside of Maryland.
Magic Weisner will be ridden by New York native Richard Migliore, who has never won the Belmont.
“I've always held the Belmont in high regard,” he said. “It's a classic that speaks for itself.”
Magic Weisner had never run as fast as he did in the Preakness on May 18, giving credence to talk that the colt may “bounce,” or regress in the Belmont.
“I can't discount the bounce theory,” Migliore said. “The thing I like about him is he's improved his game steadily with each race. The Preakness was a career-best effort, but he's a hardy little horse.”
KILLING TIME: With the serious preparations out of the way, D. Wayne Lukas sent Proud Citizen out for a gallop in the slop.
“In the rain, you alter your schedule as far as when you're going to go and how far,” Lukas said. “He was the first horse to step foot on the track this morning and it was nice and smooth.”
Bob and Beverly Lewis, who owned Charismatic, stopped by Lukas' barn for a visit. The Lukas-trained colt was going for the Triple Crown in 1999 when he broke his leg in the stretch and finished third.
The Lewises gave equal time to Bob Baffert, who trained Silver Charm for them in 1997. They chatted inside his barn, perhaps recalling how that colt got beat in the Belmont and lost the Triple Crown.
Several of Baffert's loved ones are here, including fiancee Jill Moss, his mother, Ellie, and his 11-year-old son, Forest.
The blond-haired boy sat on the shoulders of a friend, making him as tall as Baffert, who stood on a plastic bucket to be seen and heard above the media fray.
“Of my (four) kids, he's the one that really realizes what his dad is doing. The other ones think it's easy,” Baffert said. “My oldest one said, "I'll be here for the next one.”'
BAD LUCK? Victor Espinoza, War Emblem's jockey, was supposed to throw out the first pitch at Thursday night's game between the Orioles and the Yankees, but it was postponed.
“I was ready,” he said. “I practiced the whole day in my room.”
Later Friday, he rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. The market has taken a beating this week.
“Maybe I can help,” Espinoza joked.
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Alert rider steers War Emblem from trouble
