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Wait’ll next year for return to horse-racing interest

Well, that’s it for me for this Triple Crown horse-racing season.

It was bad enough that the “winner” of the Kentucky Derby actually was the second-place finisher, given that the initial winner, Maximum Security, got disqualified for interfering with other horses’ gallop down the stretch.

Now we hear that Country House, the Derby “winner,” isn’t going to run in the Preakness, the No. 2 leg on the chase for horse-racing’s vaunted Triple Crown.

That’s it. I’m out.

I was thrilled to watch Justify win the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes in 2018. It thrilled me even more to watch American Pharaoh do it in 2015, as it had been 37 years since Affirmed won all three of ’em in 1978.

The same horse has to win the first two races for me to gin up any kind of excitement for this sport.

So, the horse-racing season is over for me.

I’ll just bet, too, that TV ratings for the Preakness and the Belmont are heading into the tank.

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Now, let's go for the Triple Crown

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17preakness-master675

Hey, what’s going on here?

I usually don’t watch any of the Triple Crown legs until the Belmont Stakes comes up. And then it’s only if the same horse has won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.

So, what did I do today? I sat down with my wife and watched American Pharaoh win the Preakness.

What’s more, the horse won it going away … in the slop … in a downpour.

It was impressive.

Now I’m going to watch the Belmont Stakes for sure to see if this horse can become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978, when Affirmed beat another great horse, Alydar, in the sport’s greatest two-horse duel over the course of all three races.

I’m pulling hard for American Pharaoh to win the Belmont.

But if you want to see the sport’s greatest exhibition of equine dominance, take a look at this:

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Bring on the Belmont!

How ’bout that California Chrome, winning the Preakness Stakes today?

My interest in horse racing has just increased manyfold. Why? Well, California Chrome has a chance to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.

Affirmed was the latest horse to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.

Seattle Slew did it the year before. Secretariat won it in 1973 by smashing the Belmont field in that fantastic runaway 1,000-length victory … or at least it seemed that way.

Affirmed had to work real hard to win the Triple Crown, which in its way makes his victories even more memorial. Alydar, another great horse, raced Affirmed nose to nose every galloping step on the way only to come up short by, oh, that much.

Horse racing doesn’t never has piqued my interest much. It does, though, when a horse is in position to win the Triple Crown.

I know what I’ll be doing when they sound the bugle in Elmont, N.Y. I’ll be rooting for California Chrome.