ELMONT, N.Y.–Unlike Bob Baffert, D. Wayne Lukas knows how to win the Triple Crown.
But Proud Citizen’s trainer isn’t listed with the 11 Triple Crown winners because he accomplished the feat with two different horses in 1995. Sandwiched between Thunder Gulch’s triumphs in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont was Timber Country’s victory in the Preakness.
All told, Lukas has won the Kentucky Derby four times, the Preakness five times and the Belmont four times, giving him a career total of 13 Triple Crown triumphs.
In Saturday’s 134th running of the Belmont, Proud Citizen will be trying to make it 14. And if the Kentucky Derby runner-up and the third-place finisher in the Preakness takes Lukas to the winner’s circle, he will thwart Baffert’s bid to make War Emblem the 12th Triple Crown winner and the first since Affirmed in 1978.
“I’m going to do everything I can to bust that egg,” Lukas said. “It’ll be difficult, but I think we can. When you’ve been in the arena so many times, you get a feel for what it takes.”
Proud Citizen is playing catch-up in more ways than one. The Belmont will be the colt’s fifth race in two months. He ended his first year of racing Sept. 1 with a sixth-place finish in the Hopeful at Saratoga and then had minor surgery to remove a spur on his knee.
The recovery process took a long time. Proud Citizen didn’t make his 2002 debut until April 6, when he finished seventh in the Santa Anita Derby. Two weeks later Lukas ran him back in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, and his front-running 3 1/4-length victory earned him a trip to the Kentucky Derby.
“He’s probably achieved as much as a horse in his position could achieve,” Lukas said. “Since he came back he has really maximized those eight weeks. If Prince [Ahmed bin] Salman didn’t buy War Emblem, we win the Kentucky Derby.”
Looking back on the Preakness, Lukas regrets his decision to choose post position No. 12 for Proud Citizen.
“I would have picked another post in light of what I saw [in the 13-horse race],” Lukas said. “I was figuring a couple of the speed horses would clear and drop over to the rail. I don’t think anyone could have predicted what happened.”
What happened was that only Menacing Dennis, the longest shot in the field at 45-1, cleared the pack and angled to the inside to duel War Emblem for the lead. War Emblem pressured the long shot for the opening three-quarters, then seized the lead and went on to win by three-quarters of a length.
Meanwhile, Proud Citizen was having a difficult trip.
“War Emblem ran an incredible race, but I thought I had a legitimate excuse,” jockey Mike Smith said. “Proud Citizen broke to the right and kind of got out of position. Pimlico is a very fast racetrack, and when you get hung out there six or seven lengths you’re pretty far out.
“I had enough horse to get to War Emblem’s heels [in midstretch], but he had another gear and I wasn’t able to match that gear. I lost so much ground on the first turn, I wasn’t able to get to him. I don’t know if we’d have won, but it cost me second.”
The runner-up was the hometown horse, Maryland-bred Magic Weisner, a 45-1 stretch-running long shot who wound up three-quarters of a length behind War Emblem and three-quarters of a length ahead of Proud Citizen.
Owner-trainer-breeder Nancy Alberts didn’t send Magic Weisner to the Kentucky Derby, and the trip to New York for the 12th start of his career will be the gelding’s first venture outside Maryland.
“If he ran well in the Preakness, I wanted to run him in the Belmont,” Alberts said. “The best thing I have going for us is that Richard Migliore rides there all the time. He knows the racetrack. In the Preakness that’s exactly how I asked Richard to ride him, and he closed relentlessly.”
Although Magic Weisner’s late kick left him short of War Emblem, the second-place performance in the Preakness sent his value sky high.
“I’ve had quite a few offers,” Alberts said. “One was for $1 million. For a gelding, that’s a lot.”
Tradition rules: Eleven opponents are expected to be in the Belmont lineup facing War Emblem after entries are taken and post positions are drawn Wednesday. The New York Racing Association uses the traditional drawing format so trainers won’t have a choice of post positions, as they did in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
Fellow travelers: War Emblem, Proud Citizen, Perfect Drift (who passed up the Preakness after running third in the Derby) and Lone Star Derby winner Wiseman’s Ferry are scheduled to arrive on a Wednesday morning flight from Louisville.
Rehearsal: War Emblem had his last workout before the Belmont at Churchill Downs on Tuesday. His 5-furlong time was 1:01 and his furlong fractions were 12 1/5 seconds, 24 1/5, 36 2/5 and 48 1/5.
“He’s ready to roll,” Baffert said. “He was just breezing. He looks excellent.”
