Stopping the Madness

Play the horses long enough and you will always find new and exciting ways to be humbled. How about watching and touting a horse the entire Spring only to be disappointed time after time. Then as soon as you say, "I need to move on and stop the madness," the horse goes and wins one of the most important and historic races in the United States. Yes, my friends, this sport that we love, is quite a game! The horse of whom I speak, of course, is Drosselmeyer, and yesterday he was able to fulfill all the promise that many, including me, saw in him before he had ever run in his first stakes race. Much like last year's winner Summer Bird, Drosselmeyer is a strikingly handsome chestnut colt who made the Test of Champions his first career stakes win. The son of Distorted Humor, out of the stakes winning Moscow Ballet mare Golden Ballet, won for the third time in nine starts with a nearly one length win yesterday at Big Sandy. In winning, Drosselmeyer gave his Hall of Fame trainer, Bill Mott, his long awaited first Triple Crown victory, and also carried his popular new rider, Mike Smith, to his first ever Belmont Stakes victory. It was nice to see two of the sport's good guys collect their first Belmont Stakes win. The win also marked the second Crown victory of the year for owner WinStar Farm, who also own Super Saver. Wrapping up coverage of the Triple Crown, that saw three different winners, yesterday's race for 2nd place behind Drosselmeyer, saw Fly Down nip the pacesetting First Dude near the wire. Incredibly, it was the same trainer photo finish as the Kentucky Derby, in which Ice Box passed Paddy O'Prado at the wire, and the Preakness when First Dude just held off Jackson Bend for 2nd. Once again it came down to the last few jumps to see if it would be Nick Zito or Dale Romans who would train the classic's 2nd place finisher. Zito made it two photos out of three when Fly Down passed Roman's First Dude late.