The Baeza Brand Rings True at Belmont Time

Apologies to our British friends gathering at Epsom Downs Saturday, but the race the whole world will be watching this June 7 will match the American classic winners Sovereignty and Journalism in the 157th Belmont Stakes (G1) at (checks notes) Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Anyway, the Epsom Derby (G1), now 246 years old, runs at a mile and a half. We Yanks don't do a mile and a half anymore. Presenting a 1 1/4-mile Belmont Stakes at Saratoga is like turning the Masters into a three-day LIV Golf tournament at Trump National in Westchester. At least they haven't changed the name, although, for the second year in a row, there will be a glaring asterisk attached, and the winner always will be saddled with a big helping of what if. What will an eight-horse Belmont Stakes at a mile and a quarter prove that a 19-horse Kentucky Derby did not? Maybe that you shouldn't run 19 horses, but that makes way too much sense. Even with an eight-pack, there will be traffic trouble for someone at some point—the riders will make sure of that—and the stretch run should be intense. But if they keep running the Belmont at a mile and a quarter, how will we ever again thrill to the victories of horses like Sir Winston, Ruler On Ice, or Editor's Note? It's been two years now, and already those mile-and-a-half Belmonts at the former Belmont Park are fading from memory. There was a break from right in front of screaming stands and the sprint to the quick first turn, followed by the squealing of brakes as riders gear down around the clubhouse bend. They'd go off into the Long Island countryside, ants crawling along the horizon, out of sight and nearly out of mind until Tom or Larry or Marshall or Dave would stir the crowd into a fresh frenzy for a mad dash into the stretch and back to the place where the ordeal began. Okay, so some of those last quarters might take 26 seconds or more. That's the price you pay for all that Mr. Prospector blood. But it was a test, maybe not of champions, but a serious test. Last year, when Dornoch became the first winner of a mile-and-a-quarter Belmont Stakes since 1905, some of us fools wondered aloud why a mile-and-a-half race could not be run on the 1 1/8-mile Saratoga main track. There seemed to be no problem pulling the switch to 1 1/8-mile Aqueduct Racetrack, from 1963 through 1967, while the Belmont grandstand they just tore down was being built. The starting gate was placed over there on Aqueduct's far turn, just back of the three-eighths pole. Riders drawn outside took their medicine and held their lanes until the end of the turn approached, while the track crew tucked the starting gate along the outside fence of the backstretch. During that period, the Triple Crown dreams of Northern Dancer and Kauai King were dashed, but nobody blamed their defeats on the position of the gate, and the dignity of the Belmont was preserved at a mile and a half. Darby Dan Farm's Derby winner Chateaugay had no problem with Aqueduct's mile and a half in his 1963 Belmont victory. Once around the opening turn, Braulio Baeza saved all possible ground with his colt, slipped inside John Rotz and Choker in the stretch, and passed favored Candy Spots and Bill Shoemaker to win with ease. Chateaugay gave Baeza his second of three Belmont victories. It was the kind of performance that inspired Lee Searing six decades later to christen his $1.2 million McKinzie colt "Baeza" and send him to John Shirreffs for training. After finishing third to Sovereignty and Journalism in the Derby, the four-legged Baeza will try to spoil their pas de deux Saturday, and in the process put a deserving spotlight on the outstanding rider his name brings to mind. "I started going to the races in 1956," said Searing, who founded a California-based company that manufactures steel tubing with his father and brother. "Soon after that, every Christmas Baeza would come out for the opening of Santa Anita. He was a great rider and easy to remember, obviously for the way he sat on a horse and the way he carried himself. He had that look." Ramrod straight and expressionless, Baeza would go to the post as if on military parade, then fold his frame flat and melt into the saddle atop horses like Buckpasser, Dr. Fager, Arts and Letters, Roman Brother, Honest Pleasure, and Key to the Mint. He was a five-time national champion, and in four of five seasons between 1965 and 1969, Baeza was the regular rider of the Horse of the Year. "I have a tendency to name horses after athletes," Searing said. "I named a horse Ycaza. Kobe's Back was very successful for us. I just named a horse Tarkenton after the Minnesota Vikings quarterback, and also named a horse Theismann. After he won, Joe Theismann called and sent me a jersey." Baeza, who turned 85 this year, has been in the Hall of Fame since 1976. Among living riders, only fellow Panamanian Laffit Pincay Jr., has been in longer. "I only met Braulio Baeza once," Searing added. "But he was always on my mind when it came time to name horse. You hope you pick a good one, and I think Baeza is a good horse already, but he needs to take that next step in a race like the Belmont. According to John he likes this track. He's not washing out at all, and he's enjoying himself. I think Saturday is going to be a good day for him." If it is, the two-horse Belmont could become a three-way thriller like the 1938 running, when Pasteurized, Dauber, and Cravat hit the line necks apart. Or like 1949, when Capot, Ponder, and Palestinian were separated by a half and a half at the wire. Or like 1976, when Bold Forbes watched six lengths disappear between the eighth pole and the wire and hung tough to beat McKenzie Bridge by a neck, with Great Contractor a neck back in third. There have been many years that the first three Derby finishers made the Belmont field, although no three-cornered confrontation was more widely hyped than the 1969 edition, also run on the seventh of June. In the Derby that year, Majestic Prince and Bill Hartack edged Arts and Letters, under Baeza, by a neck, with Dike and Jorge Velasquez only half a length behind. Ten lengths later, the fourth horse came along. Dike passed the Preakness Stakes, leaving the unbeaten Majestic Prince to get the best of Arts and Letters again, this time by only a head, and after surviving Baeza's claim of foul against Hartack for an incident 50 yards into the race. In Sports Illustrated, Whitney Tower was effervescent in his praise of the contest: "These two sleek runners—one already a public hero, the other a battling, gutsy contender—gave the tumultuous crowd a duel that few will ever forget. And at the wire, just as in Kentucky, there was Bill Hartack on Majestic Prince bouncing along in that unorthodox, uneven riding style, outlasting the smooth, rhythmic Braulio Baeza on Arts and Letters." The day after the Preakness, trainer Johnny Longden announced that Majestic Prince was dog tired and going home to California for a rest. "Much as I like the honor of the Triple Crown, I love this horse more," said Longden, who rode 1943 Triple Crown winner Count Fleet. "I just don't want to take the chance of breaking him down." Owner Frank McMahon initially agreed with Longden's decision, then eventually succumbed to the firestorm of media fury over snubbing a chance at the Triple Crown and overruled his trainer. So the stage was set for another Majestic Prince-Arts and Letters showdown, with a fresh and frisky Dike back in the picture. Unfortunately, the 1969 Belmont was an artistic flop. Hartack rode Majestic Prince as if every step might be his last, while Baeza loped along in front on a 1:16 and change three-quarters. On sheer class alone, Majestic Prince finished second, 5 1/2 lengths behind his rival, while Dike was an unthreatening third. Hopes are high this time around for a Belmont 157 to remember, and for all the right reasons. Journalism drops jaws whenever he walks by. Just once I'd like to find out what it feels like to breathe his air. The relentless Sovereignty, racing in his backyard, will get last run, and in the Derby it was best. As for Baeza, a half brother to both Dornoch and 2023 Derby winner Mage, the bandwagon is already full. But if he has anything close to the class of his namesake, a Belmont Stakes at any distance might be his destiny.