A portrait of contentment on a 90-degree afternoon, Craig Perret was poolside at Monmouth Park, hoping to interrupt his sunbath by making waves with a 5-2 shot in Monday`s fourth race.
Arlington Park, where he first made a name for himself as a jockey, was out of sight, only a snapshot in the scrapbook of his mind`s eye.
In the forefront of his stream of consciousness was Saturday`s 119th running of the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park, two hours to the north.
If you made a wager on Perret`s mount, Bet Twice, in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, you know he ran second in each of the first two legs of the Triple Crown.
Do you bet thrice on Bet Twice?
”I think Alysheba is a half-length better horse,” cautioned Perret.
”I don`t think a mile and a half suits Bet Twice the best. Actually, I don`t think it suits any of them, other than Alysheba. With his long strides he seems to be the best router. If Alysheba is as good as he has been in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, he`ll win the Belmont.
”But I love the colt I`m riding. He`s just a good solid horse. When you hook Bet Twice, you have to get by him, because he`s a fighter. My horse will hang in and make it a good fight at a mile and a half.
”No 3-year-old in the country will handle Alysheba if Bet Twice doesn`t. Bet Twice is so good mentally right now. Alysheba better not be a little off his game, or he`ll have to pay the piper.”
Either seven or eight rivals, depending on weather conditions, are expected to try to thwart Alysheba in his quest to become thoroughbred racing`s 12th Triple Crown winner.
New York Racing Association linemaker Don LaPlace projects him as the 8-5 favorite, followed by trainer LeRoy Jolley`s entry of Gulch and Leo Castelli at 5-2, Woody Stephens` coupling of Gone West and Conquistarose (if it rains) at 5-1 and Bet Twice at 5-1.
Gulch and Leo Castelli prepped for Saturday`s classic with compelling victories in major races at Belmont Park. Gulch defeated older horses in the Metropolitan Handicap, and Leo Castelli outran his fellow 3-year-olds in the Peter Pan.
Gone West was second in the Peter Pan after taking the Withers at Belmont, and his Hall of Fame trainer, Stephens, has won the last five Belmonts.
Perret is impressed but not in awe. ”Woody Stephens is a great horseman,” he said. ”You have to listen to him and respect him. But to make it six in a row, he has to beat Alysheba by running against him and not talking about it. And the last two times in races that were completely different it was Alysheba and Bet Twice 1-2.
”We beat Conquistarose hands down in the Futurity at Arlington last summer, and we did the same with Cryptoclearance (another Belmont adversary). We outran both of them again in the Kentucky Derby, and we did it to Cryptoclearance again in the Preakness.
”Gulch? He ran against my horse in New York, California, Florida, Kentucky and Maryland and never once did Gulch get by him.”
Only twice in his 12-race lifetime has Bet Twice finished out of the betting money. He was fourth in the Breeders` Cup Juvenile last November at Santa Anita and fifth in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park in April.
”He was starting to tail off before the Breeders` Cup from a lot of traveling and a lot of races,” said Perret. ”The Florida Derby is a mystery. The chart says he was blocked and didn`t have room. But that wasn`t it. He was in trouble because he wasn`t firing. He was dull. He just wasn`t himself.
”Then, he had a couple of dynamite works before the Kentucky Derby and was himself again. I was flying in to Churchill Downs to work him and I could see he was growing. He kept growing in the two weeks between the Derby and the Preakness. It`s the same now. He`s a better horse now than he was going into the Preakness.
”When I first rode Bet Twice here at Monmouth last year he showed a little flash. But I wasn`t as impressed with him as I was with Faster Than Sound, another 2-year-old I was riding.
”Bet Twice got better every time he ran. He made you like him. After he ran last year you`d say, `I must have been overlooking something; I didn`t realize he could do that.` He grew on you.
”He`s sound. He ships. He trains right. He never gives up. Then, one day you wake up and realize this is a dream horse.”
It was different with Perret and Monmouth Park. In the case of the racetrack on the Jersey shore it was love at first sight.
”I came here with (trainer) Lou Goldfine in 1973 when he had Shecky Greene and My Gallant and Barely Even,” remembered Perret. ”And I saw what a paradise this is. How many tracks have a swimming pool outside the jockeys`
room?
”We did really well. Lou decided to go back to Chicago after a couple of years because that`s where his clients were and that`s where they wanted their horses to be. Then, (trainer) Joe Pierce came to Monmouth, and he was like my dad. He was the guy who took me to Arlington from Hot Springs in 1967 when I was starting out riding.
”He took me to Arlington when fantastic riders like Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincay, Johnny Sellers, Ray Broussard and Bobby Ussery were there.”
The big names left in the late 1960s, and jockeys such as Carlos Marquez, Earlie Fires and Perret moved into the void.
Perret`s Arlington accomplishments were a foretaste of the success he has enjoyed on the Jersey shore. He has won the Monmouth jockey title twice and perennially ranks in the top five.
When the Monmouth meeting ends, he takes a month or two off, then resumes riding at Hialeah and Gulfstream during the winter, as he did when he was based at Arlington.
”It`s not all racing for me,” Perret explained. ”After I came here and started a family, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to divide the time I spent on my career with the time I spend with my wife and my daughter, Jennifer.
”I didn`t want to wait until my daughter was 14 years old till I got to know her, and miss out on one of the most beautiful times of our lives. For me, this is the perfect place to be.
”I don`t have to work around the clock to make a good living. I have opportunities with top horses here, and I can go up and down the East Coast, which wasn`t the case when I was in Chicago. Arlington is like an island. To get to another big-time track you have to get on a plane. Here you don`t.
”I`m not in the top three in the national standings in winners or in earnings, and I`m not in New York, which definitely is the place to be if you want to be a big name and make big, big money.”
For Perret, New York and Chicago are nice places to visit when you`re traveling with a horse like Bet Twice. But, his heart tells him, he wouldn`t want to go to the Big Apple to live any more than he`d want to return to the Windy City.
”It`s not the city (that influences his decision) as far as riding is concerned,” said Perret. ”When you go to a racetrack and get on a horse, you don`t even know the city you`re in. It`s just you and the horse. And when the starting gate opens, it`s a different world.”
