A Sweet Ending for Lemon Drop Kid Owners

ELMONT, N.Y. — Twenty-six years earlier, the tears came sooner for Laddie Dance.

Along with wife Jeanne Vance, he owned a share in Secretariat, purchased when owner Penny Chenery syndicated the colt after her father's death.

Watching perhaps the greatest single performance by a thoroughbred in the 1973 Belmont Stakes was too much for Dance, a retired horse auctioneer. He broke down even before Secretariat finished off a 31-length victory. "I didn't see the finish because I was crying," he said.

He remembered being overwhelmed by what he calls "the greatest sports event I've ever witnessed."

On Saturday, his emotions didn't get the best of him until after the wire when Lemon Drop Kid's $61.50 stunner in the Belmont Stakes was reality.

A $200,000 yearling purchase in 1997 by Dance and Vance, who were married, divorced and later remarried, Lemon Drop Kid became the latest to thwart a Triple Crown sweep.

But unlike the previous two years, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner didn't finish second.

The saga of Charismatic ended sadly--taken away in a van after finishing third with a career-ending injury.

Meanwhile, Vision And Verse, who at 54-1 was nearly twice the price of the winner, finished second in a photo finish, missing by a head.

When possible spoilers were discussed in the days leading up to the 131st Belmont, names such as Best Of Luck, Patience Game and Stephen Got Even were mentioned.

But Scotty Schulhofer, the trainer of Lemon Drop Kid, was quietly confident in his colt, a son of Kingmambo.

Schulhofer, who won his only other Belmont with Colonial Affair in 1993, felt Lemon Drop Kid had legitimate excuses for his three recent defeats.

He had a troubled trip when fifth in the Blue Grass, which was won by Menifee. In the Kentucky Derby, he drew post 19 and checked in ninth. Then, in the Peter Pan Stakes 13 days earlier, he finished third when jockey Jose Santos said he didn't care for the mud.

Named by Vance in honor of a champion show horse from years back, Lemon Drop Kid had done well in the days since the Peter Pan and a quicker-than-anticipated pace helped him to only his second graded stakes win.

The other came last Sept. 20, when he wore down Yes It's True going a mile in the Futurity on this same track.

"He had trained great into this race," said Schulhofer, whose last Belmont starter, Signal Tap, finished fourth in 1994. "You couldn't have had a horse doing any better.