ESPN.com - Triple Crown 2000 - Postrace notebook: Another jewel lights up Lewises' eyes

Postrace notebook: Another jewel lights up Lewises' eyes
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Much like Mint Juleps and Jim McKay, the perma-grinned faces of Bob and Beverly Lewis have now become staples of the Triple Crown series.

The funny thing is -- after the nation cheered alongside the affable couple in hopes of seeing the first Triple Crown winner since 1978 wear the robe of carnations two of the past three years -- no one expected to see much of them on Saturday.


	The Lewis family celebrates after Commendable wins the Belmont Stakes.

Maybe if their highly regarded 3-year-old High Yield was part of the Belmont field, but surely not with a longshot like Commendable. Right?

No, says Bob. Not when your $575,000 investment is in the hands of a Hall of Fame trainer.

"When you least suspect it is when Lukas wows and nails you," said the 76-year-old horseman.

After rising to national fame in 1997 due to Derby and Preakness victories that the Bob Baffert-trained Silver Charm brought them, it was like déjà vu all over again last spring with the surprising success of Charismatic. But once again, the pristine grounds of Belmont Park transformed into a hall of terrors for the Lewis family when the Lukas-trained colt was pulled up quickly after the wire due to a left foreleg injury.

Whatever wince-inducing feelings the Lewis' felt deep within their souls when hearing the opening chords of "New York, New York," they are now a thing of the past. Commendable has given them their first Belmont victory.

"Yes, we wound up with some heartbreak in the end," said Lewis about the Triple Crown near-misses, "but when you're playing with fire, you have to get used to that. It happens. We couldn't be more thrilled."

Some owners wait patiently for over a dozen years to get their hands on that one promising yearling that might have a chance to run in one of the classics. Bob and Beverly realize this, so the fact that they've now had six of their purchases win a leg of the Triple Crown in just 10 years of being in the owner business has them in awe.

"I'm sure you perceive it as being a very grueling situation for the owners ... but being able to have [so much success] in our short span of racing Beverly and I have had -- it's just absolutely incredible," said Lewis. "I certainly have to say to all of you, the heartaches and trials of our previous runs in the Belmont with Silver Charm and Charismatic and not making the Triple Crown, a lot of that is erased by this victory today.

"So here we are and Pat [Day] brought us a victory and we're so grateful to both of you, Wayne and Pat, believe me."

Don't be fooled by smiling grandfather and grandmother act the Lewises pull off. The family is as smart as they come. It all starts with how they surround themselves. They work with great trainers like Lukas and Baffert, and place extreme confidence in their abilities by letting them do their thing.

Such was the case when Commendable was the ugly little stepsister of the barn as a 2-year-old to High Yield. Lukas saw something in the colt they purchased at Keeneland's July sale of 1998. He told them not to worry about his results because he moved beautifully and could run all day.

"We also hoped he could run fast all day," kidded Beverly. "I guess that's what he did today."

The Lewises may not have forced Affirmed's name off of the trivia cards -- yet -- but they now can claim to have won each jewel of the mysterious lady revisited each spring that is the Triple Crown.

Apt trip
Favorite Aptitude lingered at the back of the field for the majority of the race, but lived up to his billing by storming past the pack for his second consecutive second-place finish in a Triple Crown race.

"The pace was so slow he couldn't make up the ground once he got running," explained trainer Bobby Frankel of his horse, who was also runner-up to Fusaichi Pegasus in the Kentucky Derby.

"He got better when we got to the mile pole," said jockey Alex Solis. "He got in gear and started running. At the five-eighths, pole he kicked in and got going good. At the eighth pole, I still thought I had a chance. But Commendable had too easy a time."

"He came back good, we just have to be a little luckier," added an upbeat Frankel. "You'll never see a horse that tries any harder than he does."

The A.P. Indy-sired dark bay is expected to be a stalwart throughout the rest of the season, and could very well easily wind up as the 3-year-old champion. His main competitors are expected to be all three winners of the classics -- FuPeg, Red Bullet and Commendable -- as well as Todd Pletcher's Impeachment and Unshaded, who took third on Saturday.

No worries for Unshaded
Shortly after the Belmont coverage went off the air, Dr. Celeste Kunz, the NYRA attending veterinarian, reported that third-place finisher Unshaded simply had a case of mild heat exhaustion after the crossing the wire.

"He acted like a person would if he or she became overheated," said Kunz, who lowered his body temperature by applying ice water onto the colt. "He recovered very quickly and he walked back to his barn."

Before Carl Nafzger's gelding fell victim to the blazing temperatures at Belmont Park, he made a furious attack on the lead after lingering at the back of the pack throughout most of the race.

"I was patting myself on the back at the three-eighths pole," said jockey Shane Sellers, on his third Belmont mount. "We I asked him to run, he really kicked in on the turn for home. I thought I was home free then."

"The heat began to get him about a sixteenth [of a mile] from home," said Nafzger, who won with Unshaded's sire, Unbridled, at the Belmont in 1990. "His head went up and he started to lose his action. But he kept going. Shane pulled him up as soon as possible and we started taking care of his heat problems."

New Yorkers flock to the track
Without a Triple Crown on the line for the first time in four years, race officials didn't know what type of crowd they'd get on Saturday. They ended up being pleasantly surprised when 67,810 spent their Saturday at the track to set a new non-Triple Crown record at Belmont Park.

Clothing was scant on this day, as temperatures in the Greater Long Island area approached 100 degrees throughout.

They said it
Scotty Schulhofer, trainer of Postponed, on his horse's performance: "I have no excuses. He just didn't run today."

Globalize's jockey Mike Smith on his horses problems: "He was standing well in the gate and then he put his head down when the gate opened. He lunged into the air. The race was over after that."

Curule's jockey Jerry Bailey, winner of five races on Saturday, on his horse's trip: "He fought me the entire way. He just kept pulling and ran himself into submission."

Belmont winning trainer D. Wayne Lukas upon arrival at his press conference with a soda in tow: "No Coke ever tasted so good."