Belmont Stakes | Horse Racing Free Tips

New, Old School Combine In Ownership Of Hot Rod Charlie

A varied ownership group spanning multiple generations will be on hand at Belmont Park to cheer on Hot Rod Charlie in Saturday's Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets.

Trained by Doug O'Neill, the son of 2013 Preakness winner Oxbow is owned by Bill Strauss, Greg Helm and Roadrunner Racing, as well as Boat Racing, which is headed by the conditioner's nephew, Patrick O'Neill, and made up of five friends who met when playing football for Brown University – Dan Giovacchini, Reiley Higgins, Alex Quoyeser and Eric Armagost.

Strauss and Helm bring years of knowledge and wisdom to the table, while the youngsters from Boat Racing provide youth, energy and charisma. The difference in generation is noticeable, but they all share a passion for horse racing.

Strauss, the founder of ProFlowers.com, enjoyed top-level success as co-owner of graded stakes winners Turbulent Descent, The Pamplemousse and two-time Breeders' Cup-winner Mizdirection.

“Our backgrounds are so diverse and so different. We all come from different life experiences, but when it comes to plotting out how to campaign 'Charlie', we come to an agreement,” said Strauss, 62. “It's been great. These are friends I have for life. It's nice when you hit your 60s and you're still making new friends.”

Helm, a semi-retired ad executive, races under the Roadrunner Racing moniker with friends from San Joaquin Country Club in California. Prior to Roadrunner Racing, Helm and his wife Glenna were a part of racing syndicates on the west coast.

“It feels great. I have terrific respect for the Boat Racing guys. They're terrific people, true gentlemen and great fun to be with,” said Helm. “It's been a joy to be partnered with them and Bill, as well.”

While Strauss and Helm are seasoned veterans, the 28-year-old Patrick O'Neill and his four college friends bring fresh faces to the game.

“It's been a very fun experience. I have to give a lot of credit to Bill and Greg Helm,” O'Neill said. “They're kids at heart and they're bringing that same energy that we're bringing. It's a complementary relationship and it's been such a fun ride.”

Hot Rod Charlie, a $110,000 purchase 2019 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale, added blinkers when graduating at fourth asking in October traveling one-mile on the main track at Santa Anita. He had previously tried his luck in a pair of turf maiden special weights at Del Mar.

“We had tried different things with him, but things didn't click until his fourth start, where we went two turns on the dirt with blinkers on. That's when he sprang up and ran a different race,” Strauss said. “He was training sensationally coming out of that race. The light bulb went on.”

Hot Rod Charlie arrived at the Breeders' Cup Juvenile as the longest shot in a field of 14, going to post at 94-1 odds.

“He was competitive based on that first race he won. His numbers matched up pretty well with the rest of the field,” Strauss recalled. “He was training well and he fit numbers-wise, so we decided to take a shot. When a horse is two, they change so much from race to race, and he was changing so much in front of us day to day and week to week, but looking at the odds I was thinking 'Gosh, I hope we don't get embarrassed. I don't think I had ever had a horse in a race at 94-1.'”

Strauss and company felt the opposite of embarrassed once the race was over when Hot Rod Charlie ran a strong second to Belmont Stakes-rival Essential Quality in the Juvenile.

Hot Rod Charlie carried his effort into a close third in the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis in January at Santa Anita ahead of a two-length triumph in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby in March at Fair Grounds Race Course, where jockey Joel Rosario sent him straight to the front and never looked back.

“After the Breeders' Cup, we gave him some time off. Young horses need time off after the big race he had run that day,” Strauss said. “Doug knows how to get it done. The goal wasn't the Bob Lewis in February, it was the Kentucky Derby in May. When we came to New Orleans, he was fitter and tighter. It was Joel's idea to send him to the front, and as you can see it worked out perfectly.”

Hot Rod Charlie did not disgrace his connections in the “Run for the Roses,” finishing a length shy of victory in third.

“We had some high expectations going into Kentucky. If you asked me six months ago if I would take third in the Kentucky Derby, I'd be thrilled,” Strauss said. “Turning for home it looked like we could win. No disappointment. Everything about the day, week and race itself surpassed my expectations. We had lots of close friends and family with us. We're going to do it all again this week and hopefully get it done on Saturday afternoon.”

Heading into Saturday's engagement, Patrick O'Neill and his college friends are soaking up every minute of action as they dive deeper into their love and appreciation of the sport.

“Patrick was always watching TVG. We'd watch it in the film room sometimes when we were supposed to be watching football stuff,” said Giovacchini. “We slowly started to ask questions and started to want to know more about it. A few years later, we were all at Del Mar and we decided why not take a shot together?”

Higgins said he's enjoying the moment.

“We bring the enthusiasm, they bring the brains. It's been an amazing experience for us all,” Higgins said. “Personally, I've been trying to soak up every second of this as have as much fun as I possibly can. I know these guys have been doing the exact same thing. We realize how lucky and blessed we are to be in this position. That's been my takeaway from this whole thing.”

Quoyeser said the team appreciates each and every part of the race-day experience.

“After spending one day with Team O'Neill at the track and getting in the winner's circle, it's hard not to have a good time,” he said. “A day at the track isn't just about the horses, it's about the people you're spending time with all day. You're just having a good time drinking, eating and gambling.

“We're enjoying every second of it,” Quoyeser added. “We're going to be doing every activity we can all week while we're here in New York. For the Kentucky Derby, we brought 160 of our closest friends and family to the track and this week we'll have dozens. We're very blessed to have the opportunity to be here, but also to share this with people we care about.”

Should Hot Rod Charlie's Belmont Stakes endeavor be successful, it won't just mean more good times for his enthusiastic owners.

“It would validate Charlie as being a great horse,” Strauss said. “He's in the top tier of the 3-year-old division. He's always right there against the best. Winning this race – an American Classic race, will memorialize him and put him on the charts and give him the recognition he deserves. It would solidify everything we think he is. Hopefully it set us up for this year and beyond.”

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This Side Up: True Positives of Testing a Champion

Let's get one thing straight. Just because our community has weathered so many other storms, through 152 previous runnings of the GI Belmont S., nobody should be complacent that we can rely indefinitely on some inborn, imperishable flair for survival.

Yes, this venerable race has endured even crises that penetrated the Turf like the tendrils of some pernicious bindweed rooted in the wider world. There was no Belmont in 1911 and 1912, because of anti-gambling laws; a couple of years later, it was being staged despite a world at war. Last year, as if anyone needs reminding, the great carnival of New York citizenry was chillingly suspended by a pandemic. And some believe that the 1968 running, sequel to the one previous Kentucky Derby contaminated by a drugs DQ, can only be properly understood in the context of the civic strife of the time.

On that occasion, Stage Door Johnny intervened to deny an awkward place in the Triple Crown pantheon for Forward Pass, who was promoted in the Derby after just holding out for second, but had meanwhile won the Preakness. This time round, it's going to be hard for any of just eight with places laid to drag public attention from the specter at the feast.

We won't get bogged down here in the merits of the Medina Spirit (Protonico) case. We can leave that, with due foreboding on behalf of an industry that can hardly benefit from the process, to the tenacity of lawyers. However things play out, the narrative Bob Baffert has proposed as exculpation will continue to be received with vexation, at the least, by many fellow horsemen.

Perhaps the most significant three words coming out of Churchill Downs, in support of his two-year exclusion from the home of the GI Kentucky Derby, referenced the “increasingly extraordinary explanations” for serial lapses in Baffert's medication regime. You can hear the irritation in every syllable. Even if Baffert happens to have been as exotically unlucky as he claims, he has been culpably inattentive whenever “another fine mess” has lurked in the routines of a Hall of Fame barn.

We all know the power of perception in the modern political agenda. Baffert and his defenders certainly do, the man himself having infamously got it into his head to describe Medina Spirit as a victim of “cancel culture”; and the owner's attorney this week depicting Baffert's treatment as “like rejecting climate change.” But these clumsy attempts to shoehorn the story into a wider context only remind us how much more coherently the anti-racing lobby can do the same. Totally unnecessarily, our sport's enemies have been gifted an opportunity to present an inherently marginal skirmish as a potentially decisive breakthrough in a great war of attrition.

That's why we now find ourselves condemned to satisfy many who will judge us on the most superficial basis. It's becoming less important to be doing the right thing than to be seen to be doing the right thing. Potentially that's a really invidious state of affairs, but we have nobody to blame but ourselves. Most of us believe that there are far more nefarious operators than Baffert in fairly plain sight. If we all had a clear conscience, in everything we do to our horses, or at least knew that we would be suitably punished if not, then we would not be in this pickle in the first place.

Saturday's card at Belmont is as deep as can nowadays be enjoyed on the East Coast, pending some reconciliation with the Breeders' Cup. It should be an exultant showcase for what we do and the way we cherish our noble charges. Instead it finds us divided between internal recrimination and the manning of barricades.

So on a day when elite sophomores either side of the ocean embrace their most exacting and historic test at 12 furlongs, let's just remind ourselves of the purpose of races like the Belmont or the G1 Epsom Derby.

These Classics are the ultimate measure of the speed-carrying Thoroughbred, designed to measure the eligibility of maturing horses to recycle those attributes that best sustain the breed. And those genetic assets must be presented in a manner that can be trusted by future generations.

It's not just backside pharmacology that is neglecting this obligation to the future of the breed. In pursuit of a fast buck, commercial breeders herd appalling numbers of mares towards unproven stallions that will, in the majority of cases, soon be exposed as purveying genetic junk. (Given the consequences, in terms of class and soundness, this may well be a factor in the undersubscription of so many big races nowadays.) In Europe, moreover, the situation is arguably even worse.

Yet again, the Epsom field is dominated by just about the only dynasty deployed by breeders aspiring to Classics. Even with Ballydoyle's unusual (and presumably significant) departure from their usual practice, vesting all their hopes in a single runner, their chosen son of Galileo (Ire) faces-among 11 opponents–six colts by sons of Galileo, and three by his half-brother Sea The Stars (Ire). That otherwise leaves just an outsider apiece for Camelot (GB) and Dubawi (Ire).

A very familiar state of affairs, by this stage. On the one hand, commercial farms there confuse precocity with elite speed, which is not the same thing at all. On the other, the most powerful end users are almost all failing to renew the historic regeneration available through speed-carrying dirt stallions.

That, of course, owes much to a distrust of the American Thoroughbred as masking its infirmities by medication. Lazy thinking, for sure, but perfectly understandable. Far less pardonable is the belief among many “professionals” in Europe-not an especially valid noun, in many cases, despite the status and resources of their patrons-that American breeders are obsessed with speed, a laughable inversion of the true state of affairs. Whatever else may be going wrong, breeders here still set a premium on the possibility of lasting two turns on the first Saturday in May.

The point about using the right genetic materials is that horsemanship will then get you everything you need without recourse to syringes. One of the most salutary performances of the year came at Belmont last weekend, when the juvenile Sense Shines made a trademark Wesley Ward debut in an off-the-turf maiden over five furlongs. Bred and owned by the trainer, he's a son of Flintshire (GB)–an exemplary racehorse, who packaged all the class we associate with the Juddmonte program, but received by the commercial market as tepidly as any other turf stallion.

Breed the right horses, and we can dispense with any trickery. We can just draw out their natural resources. That way, a horseman like Ward can get an early dirt blitz even from a colt by a grass stayer.

Obviously it's no longer an option anyway, now that the two races share the same card, but no modern trainer would dream of the GI Met Mile-Belmont double achieved by Sword Dancer, with a two-week gap; Arts and Letters, after eight days; and Conquistador Cielo just FIVE days after romping to a 1:33 track record on Memorial Day. These days, it's a rare distinction even to come back and win the Met a year after the Belmont, as did Palace Malice in 2014 (though Tonalist, who has just sired his first Grade I winner, had a pretty good go the following year).

Fortunately our industry does retain a few horsemen of genius working on the constitution of the Thoroughbred. In his 80th year, the man who put Galileo on the map–by breeding juvenile champion Teofilo (Ire) and Derby winner New Approach (Ire) from consecutive early crops–is still plowing his own furrow; still breeding and training horses whose class is partly expressed as sheer toughness.

Jim Bolger's Derby runner Mac Swiney admittedly doubles down on the dynasty he helped to create, bred on a cross that very few would risk: by New Approach out of a Teofilo mare, i.e. inbred 2×3 to Galileo. But hear this. A couple of weeks ago Mac Swiney beat barnmate Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}) by a nostril in the G1 Irish 2,000 Guineas. Incredibly, by the timid standards of our time, that was Poetic Flare's second Classic inside a week. Six days previously, he had been beaten a couple of lengths in the French equivalent; and that performance, in turn, followed 15 days after he had won the Guineas proper, at Newmarket, by a short head. Three Classics in three weeks, then, including two photo finishes.

Yet here we are, concluding a Triple Crown series where not one horse has shown up for all three legs. Interestingly, half of the few who have made it to the Belmont are by sires who did just that.

These Classics don't just measure our horses. They measure our horsemen: breeders, trainers, veterinarians, the owners who hire them, and the agents assisting their choices. So if we want Belmont day to be a sustainable institution, it's not just Baffert who owes it to the breed to provide a transparent and reliable test of the Thoroughbred's resources. It's all of us.

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Flashback: Brooklyn Native Walter Blum Spoils Canonero II’s Triple Crown Bid

Much has changed in a half century at Belmont Park, from the amount of real-time information available digitally to increased purse money to the way most fans place wagers.

But the draw of a potential Triple Crown holds the same appeal as it did in 1971, when a then-record crowd of 81,036 came out to Elmont to witness Venezuelan champion Canonero II's quest to add the third jewel of the 3-year-old season to his collection in the Belmont Stakes.

But New York City native and jockey Walter Blum thwarted Canonero II's chance at becoming just the ninth Triple Crown winner in history at the time, guiding 34-1 longshot Pass Catcher to a three-quarters of a length win in the Belmont. Reflecting on the 50-year anniversary from his home in Florida, Blum said he is proud for earning his lone victory in an American Classic in a Hall of Fame career. Despite five decades flashing by, Blum said he still remembers feeling better about Pass Catcher's chances than the betting public did leading up to post time.

“When I walked out on the track, I felt confident,” Blum said.

A large portion of the crowd arrived at Belmont to cheer on the Edgar Caibett-owned Canonero II, who was bidding to be the first Triple Crown winner since Citation in 1948.

Canonero II, trained by Juan Arias and ridden by Gustavo Avila, rallied from 18th place to post a 3 3/4-length win over Jim French to win the Kentucky Derby, paying $19.40. In the Preakness, Canonero II was more forwardly placed and won again, defeating Eastern Fleet with Jim French in third to set up a potential history-making moment in the 1 1/2-mile “Test of the Champion.”

Pass Catcher readied for that test by being placed on trainer Eddie Yowell's self-professed “five-day plan,” where he ran second to Bold Reasoning in the Jersey Derby on May 31 at Garden State Park before wheeling right back to the Belmont on June 5. After winning two of his five races to start his 3-year-old campaign entering the Belmont, Blum said the effort in the 1 1/8-mile Jersey Derby gave him plenty of confidence when competing on a bigger stage.

“He ran a week before at Garden State Park and after the race, he came back so strong. I could see at the finish line he was just starting to run; another three jumps he was going to win,” Blum said. “I told everybody I knew that I was riding this horse in the Belmont who is a longshot, but I think he's going to win. I really liked his chances and sure enough, he won at 34-1 and won convincingly. It was a great time in my life.”

The popular Canonero II drew a large crowd from the area, who came out to view a colt who would go on to the Eclipse Award for Outstanding 3-Year-Old Male Horse. Instead, Pass Catcher stalked Canonero II's early speed before overtaking the leader when the field reached the top of the stretch.

Jim French, ridden by Hall of Famer Angel Cordero, Jr., closed late for second but Pass Catcher held on for the win, completing the course in 2:30 2/5 and returning $71. Canonero II finished fourth.

Blum said he was pleased with his effort but took no extra joy in playing spoiler to the heavy favorite.

“I was proud of myself in that I thought he would win and he ran as well as he did, but I wasn't proud of the fact that Canonero got beat for a Triple Crown,” Blum said. “That didn't mean much. I felt good about winning but I felt bad about him losing. They were all there to see Canonero and if I didn't win, I would have liked to have seen him win, too.”

Tackling the two wide turns on Belmont's Big Sandy, along with the marathon distance, are the signatures of the Belmont Stakes, though the race's unique circumstances set up well for Pass Catcher that day.

“It' not like any other race,” Blum said. “In this country, mile-and-a-half races are few and far between. But I was looking forward to a mile and a half with that horse because I knew he would rate easily and when I wanted to pull the trigger, he would fire, and that's exactly what happened.”

Cordero, Jr., who won three editions of the Kentucky Derby, tallied two Preakness wins and won the 1976 Belmont aboard Bold Forbes, said he wasn't confident initially that Pass Catcher would relish the distance.

“I didn't think he (Pass Catcher) wanted to go that far,” Cordero, Jr. said. “On paper, that was a little too fast for him – 2- and 3-year-olds can do things better than when they're older – and sometimes they don't want to go that far but they do. You get horses that outrun their pedigree.”

Cordero, Jr. said Canonero II's training regimen and previous accomplishments garnered the most attention leading into the Belmont, but added that Pass Catcher deserved the victory despite sending a vast majority of the crowd home disappointed.

“Pass Catcher was a real good horse. But that year, Canonero was probably the best horse … he trained at high altitude,” Cordero, Jr. said. “I didn't win it, but I always enjoyed being in those big races and knowing I had a chance. Every time you run in a race like that, and there's a real good horse that beats you, it's not like you're jealous. Every time you run a race like that and actually beat the big horses, it's like beating Muhammad Ali.”

Blum stopped riding in 1975, embarking on a 24-year career as a racing official and steward in New Jersey and Florida. He amassed 4,382 career victories in 28,673 starts, with only Hall of Famers Bill Shoemaker, Johnny Longden, Eddie Arcaro and Steve Brooks ahead of him on the all-time list for jockeys at the time of his retirement.

Blum said he did not view his lack of a victory in an American Classic to that point as a box waiting to be checked off, having established a reputation as one of the best riders in the sport by winning prestigious races such as the Whitney, Santa Anita Derby, Coaching Club American Oaks, and twice capturing the Metropolitan Handicap and the Frizette.

“It certainly didn't hurt getting to the Hall of Fame, but I think my career in general and my comradery with the people involved in the industry helped me get in,” said Blum, who led all North American jockeys in wins in 1963 and 1964 and was inducted in 1987. “Most of my career was behind me, and I had done almost everything I wanted to do, so it didn't do much as far as furthering my career, but I was just glad to win that race at that time.

“Everyone wants to win the Kentucky Derby, but I'll take the Belmont any time,” Blum said with a laugh.

Blum, now 86, grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and attended Samuel J. Tilden High School. On July 29, 1953, at the age of 18, he won his first race at the now defunct Jamaica Race Course just 10 miles away from home, guiding a 36-1 longshot filly named Tusciana to a victory for Hall of Fame trainer Hirsch Jacobs.

Blum, who now lives less than a mile from Gulfstream Park, said he still follows racing and praised the competitive jockey colony in New York, where brothers Jose and Irad Ortiz, Jr. continue to reside at the top of the standings in a circuit that also counts Hall of Famers John Velazquez and Javier Castellano as regulars.

Blum's empathy for jockeys is something not every trainer shared during his career, though his success with Yowell partnered him with a conditioner who started his career as a rider. Yowell had trained a previous Belmont winner prior to Pass Catcher, with Hail To All winning the 1965 edition as well as that year's Jersey Derby and the Travers at Saratoga Race Course.

“Some of the trainers, I don't know if they could picture what a jockey's life was like with dieting all the time, keeping the weight down,” Blum said. “Living this kind of life is very difficult, in addition to the problems that can arise from the challenges of running a race. But when we're in the paddock, we're both thinking about the same thing as far as winning the race.”

While his win aboard Pass Catcher is near the top of his career ledger, Blum raced against some of the most notable names in the sport's history, including beating Hall of Famer Kelso while aboard fellow Hall of Famer Gun Bow in a photo finish victory in the 1964 Woodward. The next year, Blum piloted Priceless Gem to a win over Hall of Famer Buckpasser in the Futurity.

Blum even was part of history-making events that didn't result in winner's circle trips but still factored into the sport's lore. In 1973, he rode Royal and Regal in the Kentucky Derby that spring-boarded Secretariat's famed Triple Crown run.

“I was on a horse who had just won the Florida Derby, so I thought he had a shot,” Blum said. “I wasn't really that much aware of Secretariat at the time until he flew by me at the top of the stretch. He ran by me like a shot and I said, 'who the hell is that?'”

Blum, who twice rode six winners on a single card, stayed in racing upon the end of his riding career, first serving as an association steward at Atlantic City Race Course before becoming a state steward in Florida.

“I loved being a jockey but you can't do that forever,” Blum said. “I enjoyed being an official almost as much as riding. The people riding under me, I knew their problems and I knew them [as people]. They respected me for what I knew and how I acted. That's why I became a steward; I always respected the stewards I rode under and I always knew that it was something I wanted to do when I stopped riding. That helped me retire and it was one of the best things I ever did. I left with a good reputation as a jockey and a steward, and I'm very proud of both.”

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‘Those Are Good Memories’: Breeder Dalos Remembers Victory Gallop’s Historic Belmont Run

Ivan Dalos, just as he has every year since 1998, will be wearing a proud smile when the horses load into the gate for Saturday's 153^rd running of the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

For over 40 years, he's been one of North America's most successful Thoroughbred owners and breeders, a passionate horseman with a sizable trophy case to showcase his impressive array of accolades and awards.

The number of champions Dalos has bred is a lengthy and enviable list, one that includes Victory Gallop, a colt that went on to achieve great success as a racehorse and sire, including his stirring score in the 1998 Belmont Stakes.

“It is a real trip down memory lane,” started Dalos. “I recall he was very precocious. I was just a little operation at the time and had a little farm with the mare [Victorious Lil]. I went to visit him [he was foaled and raised at Joanne Clayton's Darrowby Farms in Loretto, Ontario] when he was about four or five weeks old, and the lady kept him at the barn so that I could see them come out. They came out and they went onto this hilly pasture. This little guy, he just took off and the mare couldn't keep up with him. He was running, she was chasing him and he was not to be caught.”

Victory Gallop would eventually show that impressive turn of foot, but instead of being the one chased, he would methodically track down his rivals, one by one, until he was the one who couldn't be caught.

It's precisely what the son of Cryptoclearance did 23 years ago at Belmont Park.

And what a victory it was.

After finishing a hard-charging second to Real Quiet in the Kentucky Derby – Victory Gallop was last behind 14 horses at the half-mile pole – the bay settled for the runner-up prize to Real Quiet once again, this time in the Preakness Stakes.

In the Belmont, he went one better, denying Real Quiet the chance for Triple Crown immortality.

Victory Gallop also delivered a first that day, becoming the first Canadian-bred to win the third jewel of the U.S. Triple Crown. He is the only one to hold that distinction.

“This is a great boost for breeding in Ontario,” said Clayton at the time. “There you go folks, we can raise a champion racehorse on Ontario grass, with Ontario water and Ontario feed.”

Dalos, who has won some of Canada's biggest races and produced a long line of champions, remains modest of his connection to the Belmont champ.

“It was at the beginning of my horse-breeding experience, so I was nowhere near as experienced as I am now in recognizing talent. It's very hard to tell with young horses, to know if they will go on to greatness. I've had horses that showed absolutely nothing as babies, but they turned out to be great racehorses, and others that you felt might be good, they didn't have the heart or gumption to compete. It's hard to judge them when they are so young. But obviously, things worked out well for Victory Gallop.”

Ivan and Irene Dalos of Ontario's Tall Oaks Farm

The multiple graded stakes-winning owner isn't interested in taking a victory lap over the accomplishments of Victory Gallop, who was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2010.

Instead, what drives Dalos is in crafting the blueprint for his next stable star. He remains a student of the game, immersing himself in learning the latest techniques in the world of breeding.

It's that dedication to detail, among other things, as to why Tall Oaks Farm is still a major player in Thoroughbred racing.

The outfit's broodmare band continues to carry Victory Gallop's legacy forward. Victorious Ami, Galloping Ami, Keen Victory, Keen Mischief, Keen Success, and Silver Ami are Victory Gallop offspring. He is the grandsire of racehorse and future broodmare, Golden Ami.

Tall Oaks is also home to star stallions like Ami's Flatter, Amis Gizmo and Ami's Holiday, and champion racehorses like Channel Maker, Johnny Bear, Gamble's Ghost and Ami's Mesa.

Dalos is excited to see who might follow in their hoofsteps.

“Of course, I was proud to see Victory Gallop win the Belmont. I had never had a horse in an American Stakes at that point. I only had horses running in Canada that I had bred, but this was the first big horse, so to speak. I was immensely proud. We made history. But I try not to look back, other than what the learning experience of previous endeavors has taught me. Every horse I've been connected to has done that for me. I always try to repeat success or find more.”

Being in the position to chase the next win, he'll happily tell you, is a victory in itself.

And while he continues to be a forward thinker, Dalos will take a moment this weekend, perhaps the same time it takes to run the Belmont, to remember the handsome, high-speed colt that streaked across a hilly meadow just over 25 years ago.

“I recall watching the Belmont all those years ago and thinking, 'This is the little guy that I watched running around when he was four or five weeks of age.' I can still picture that day at the farm and then watching him win the race. Those are good memories.”

This article by Chris Lomon (@chrislomon on Twitter) originally appeared at www.woodbine.com and is republished with permission of the author.

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