Seattle Slew

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Winner of 11 straight races by a combined 38 lengths, Cigar has championship credentials beyond suspicion. He is obviously the real deal.But just how great is he? Is he a legitimate heir to Spectacular Bid, Seattle Slew, Secretariat and the other horses considered the best since World War II? Or is he just the best of a mediocre generation?These are bar-stool questions without definitive answers, like "Who was better, Bird or Magic?" But the subjective nature of the issue isn't keeping opinions from flying before the Breeders' Cup tomorrow at Belmont Park, where Cigar is a 3-5 favorite to win the Classic.

ELMONT, N.Y. - When Secretariat swept the Triple Crown in 1973, it had been 25 years since Citation accomplished the feat. Now, it has been another 25 years since Affirmed captured the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont in 1978. On Saturday, Funny Cide will attempt to add the Belmont to his Derby and Preakness conquests, thus becoming the 12th winner of racing's coveted, but elusive, Triple Crown. If he fails, the gap between Triple Crown heroes will be the greatest since Sir Barton became the first horse to sweep the three races in 1919.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- He failed to win either of his last two races leading up to the Kentucky Derby.After winning the Derby, he was relegated to the third choice among bettors at the Preakness.Overall, he has stood in the winner's circle just five times in his career.That's the biography of a Triple Crown winner?Say hello to Silver Charm, the gray colt who will redefine the shimmering image of racing's greatest achievement if he wins the Belmont Stakes tomorrow.He isn't a superhorse out of the mold of Secretariat, Seattle Slew or Affirmed -- the only three horses to win the Triple Crown since Harry Truman's presidency.

The Kentucky Derby left many observers cold. It established that this country's most popular race, at least in 2002, was all about money. A Saudi Arabian prince bought War Emblem, the eventual winner, less than a month before the race. Then the colt, a 20-1 long shot, led every step. The first three finishers maintained their positions all the way around the track, depriving fans of late drama down Churchill Downs' often-dramatic stretch. Thank goodness for the Preakness, which often corrects inadequacies of the Derby.

MONROE, Wash. - Regal in bearing and regally bred, a late-flying dynamo named Little Current reigned over the Preakness and Belmont in 1974. He might have been forever revered among Triple Crown winners of that decade - linked with Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed - had it not been for a fluky field in the 1974 Kentucky Derby. The centennial edition had attracted 23 horses, the most in Derby history. After finishing a frustrating fifth in that impenetrable crowd, Little Current won the second and third legs of the Triple Crown with such ease that racing changed its rules.

High-profile trainers Nick Zito, Bob Baffert, Todd Pletcher and D. Wayne Lukas saddled half the field in the 20-horse Kentucky Derby. The best any of their horses finished was seventh. By contrast, the top three finishers - Giacomo, Closing Argument and Afleet Alex - were trained by Derby novices John Shirreffs, Kiaran McLaughlin and Tim Ritchey, respectively. What's more, Shirreffs became the third straight trainer to win the Derby on his first try, following John Servis with Smarty Jones last year and Barclay Tagg with Funny Cide the year before.

V. L. Churchman, 82, avid golfer and homemakerVirginia Lucy Churchman, a homemaker and avid golfer, died Monday of cancer at Manor Care Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Ruxton. The Hamilton resident was 82.Born Virginia McClenaghan in Detroit, she traveled the United States with her parents and learned weaving and flower arranging in her youth, skills at which she later excelled.In 1936, she married Norman P. Churchman in Detroit. They moved to Baltimore County in 1942 and, eight years later, settled in Hamilton.

Sam P. Siciliano, the Pimlico Race Course publicist who during the 1970s and 1980s coordinated national media coverage of such famed Preakness Stakes winners as Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed, died of heart failure Tuesday at his home in Shrewsbury, N.J. He was 89. Mr. Siciliano was born and raised in Neptune, N.J., and graduated in 1935 from what is now Monmouth University in West Long Branch, N.J. He began his career in the late 1930s as...

One of Maryland's great thoroughbred stables is about to disperse its racing stock.Israel Cohen, the Giant Food chairman and longtime owner/breeder who built his own deluxe barn to house his horses at Laurel Park, will be selling 25 racehorses in a special sales event at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic auction at the Timonium Fairgrounds on Dec. 4.Cohen, 82, is suffering from a malignant bone marrow disorder that forced him to step down from his position at...

Fans in Maryland, even those who don't like to leave the comfort of their living rooms, can glimpse racing's newest sensation Saturday in a potentially spectacular race in Florida.Pulpit, the most-talked-about horse in the East after only two races, will run in the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The key prep for the Triple Crown races, graced with other budding 3-year-old stars, as well, will be televised on ESPN.Frank L. Brothers, Pulpit's respected trainer, said Thursday that he and the colt's owners at Claiborne Farm had decided to enter the lightly raced colt against more experienced runners in what should be a highly competitive Grade II stakes.