ELMONT, N.Y. - — ELMONT, N.Y. - -Kent Desormeaux and Calvin Borel not only took different paths around the track in Saturday's 141st running of the Belmont Stakes, with Borel going outside and Desormeaux hugging the inside, but the two jockeys also used different pre-race tactics.
Desormeaux rode in a handful of early races on the card, winning three straight at one point, while Borel didn't ride until the Belmont. While Borel might have been better rested, Desormeaux said he felt as if the extra confidence he picked up from those victories helped him. He also got a good feel for the track, something Borel might not have had, considering he had not ridden in the Belmont Stakes before Saturday.
"It's a very, very different lay of the land here at Belmont," Desormeaux said. "They don't call it the Big Sandy for nothing. The sand is different, and the horses probably get a little stoved up training here. They're not fast like [at] Churchill or Pimlico."
Desormeaux said he didn't have a problem with Borel's guarantee that Mine That Bird was going to win earlier in the week.
"I've given [guarantees] out before and had some success," Desormeaux said. "You learn in the end you usually just shoot yourself in the foot, though. I can't blame [Borel] for it. I think that you start to feel like Superman. You feel invincible. I guarantee you he went into the race with the utmost feeling he could not lose, and I wouldn't want anybody any different on my horse."
Members of the New York media seemed annoyed that Borel promised a victory and then failed to deliver in the manner that Joe Namath and Mark Messier once did. In the post-race news conference, he was twice asked whether he regretted saying what he said. Borel said he had no regrets.
"If you're not going to come here with confidence, you may as well not come," he said.
Skipping the Preakness is key
Summer Bird's victory marked the fifth time in seven years that the Belmont winner competed in the Kentucky Derby then skipped the Preakness to rest. In fact, fresh legs surrounded Mine That Bird down the backstretch. Summer Bird and Dunkirk hadn't run since the Derby, and Charitable Man didn't run either of the first two legs of the Triple Crown.
Dunkirk trainer Todd Pletcher, who won the Belmont in 2007 with Rags to Riches, thought he had a real shot at another victory when his horse surged into the lead before Summer Bird ran him down. There was some bumping between Dunkirk, Mine That Bird and Charitable Man late in the race that led to an official inquiry, but the stewards let the results stand.
"We wanted to get him into his rhythm," Pletcher said of Dunkirk. "He made the lead very easily, and we were very happy with that. At the three-eighths pole, we thought he might have been lucky."
