After watching War Emblem, his April acquisition, win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, Prince Ahmed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia was a no-show Saturday when the colt finished eighth in the Belmont.
“He’s back in Riyadh,” Richard Mulhall, the prince’s racing manager, explained before the race. “He had some family obligations to take care of. He went back right after the Preakness. He thought he was going to come. Everything was set for him to be here. He just couldn’t make it.”
Mulhall insisted the prince hadn’t stayed home because he feared for his safety in New York in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in which some Saudis were involved. “We talked a little bit, but there was no real concern,” Mulhall said. “His little brother, Prince Faisal, is here. If it were a security thing he wouldn’t have his brother here.”
Roller-coaster ride: War Emblem’s trainer, Bob Baffert, said it was “gut-wrenching” to watch the 1.25-1 favorite stumble at the start and make a futile attempt to rally after recovering.
Baffert took Saturday’s loss much harder than the 1997 and 1998 second-place Belmont finishes that thwarted the respective Triple Crown bids of two of his other horses, Silver Charm and Real Quiet.
“The hardest loss compared to this was when Cavonnier got beat by a nose in the [1996] Kentucky Derby,” Baffert said. “I never thought I’d be back [in the Derby].”
Baffert said he was happy for Ken McPeek, trainer of Sarava, who won the Belmont as a 70-1 shot. “He deserves it,” Baffert said. “He had the favorite in the Derby and didn’t get it done. It was fate. Ken loses Harlan’s Holiday and then wins this race. That’ll show those other guys.”
“Those other guys” Baffert was referring to are Jack and Laurie Wolf, who took Harlan’s Holiday away from McPeek earlier in the week and gave the horse to trainer Todd Pletcher to train.
Proud Citizen hurt: Proud Citizen, runner-up in the Kentucky Derby and third-place finisher in the Preakness, was taken off the track in the horse ambulance following his fifth-place finish, He wasn’t seriously injured.
“He’s got a cracked left shin,” trainer D. Wayne Lukas said. “He’s got no swelling in his ankle or knee. He’s comfortable and standing with his full weight on it.”
Time and money: Sarava went the 1 1/2-mile route in a slow 2 minutes 29.71 seconds and paid $142.50, $50 and $22.40. He and Medaglia d’Oro collaborated on a $2,454 exacta and they teamed with Sunday Break for a $25,209 trifecta.
In the superfecta betting, which links the 1-2-3-4 horses, fourth-place Magic Weisner put the finishing touches on a $145,334 payoff.
The biggest previous win payoff in 134 Belmonts was $132.40, returned by Sherluck in 1961. True to form: At 70-1, Sarava wasn’t the longest shot on the board. The biggest long shot was Artax Too, who emerged from the starting gate at odds of 71-1 and wound up the caboose in the 11-horse race.
