Real Quiet Horse

The massive power outage that crippled Pimlico Race Course for hours Saturday didn't mean a watt to Real Quiet. Making a move on the far turn that impressed jockey Kent Desormeaux more than his winning burst in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, the lightly regarded, much-derided colt added the Preakness to his treasure chest with a 2 1/4-length victory and put his trainer, Bob Baffert, in position again to sweep the Triple Crown.

Real Quiet continued his jet-setting Wednesday with a 90-minute flight from Louisville, Ky., and a police-escorted ride from JFK Airport to Belmont for Saturday's Belmont Stakes. At the invitation of Mike Pegram, who owns Real Quiet, Kent Desormeaux made his first plane trip with a horse Wednesday, and a little later, at the barn where the Derby-Preakness winner is stabled, the 28-year-old jockey all but predicted a win Saturday and a Triple Crown sweep.

There were too many drawbacks for Indian Charlie. First of all, a favorite hadn't won the Kentucky Derby since Spectacular Bid in 1979. A California-bred hadn't won since Decidedly in 1962. A horse with only four career starts hadn't won since Exterminator in 1918. But these might be esoteric reasons for Indian Charlie's third-place finish at 5-2 Saturday. The one thing that really stopped him was that he was pooped in the stretch.

Gathered around a TV in the Del Mar press box last Aug. 24, a small group of fans agreed on one thing: Despite its $571,000-plus purse, the Indian Nations Futurity Cup they had just watched on a simulcast from Santa Fe was one of the ugliest races they had ever seen. Even though he had zigzagged his way through the stretch like a halfback making his way downfield, Grady had won by a neck in a race that was quick early and painfully slow late.

A year ago Tuesday, there was high drama, with a few hearts aflutter. Silver Charm, working out for the upcoming Belmont Stakes after winning the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, almost collided with another horse at Churchill Downs. This time, the morning was routine for trainer Bob Baffert, who will be back Saturday at Belmont Park to try a Triple Crown sweep with Real Quiet. It's a $5-million assignment that Silver Charm couldn't pull off last year.

Real Quiet had one of his biggest days at Pimlico, the Baltimore track where Free House suffered his most heartbreaking defeat. Today these survivors of different Triple Crown wars square off for the first time, and what better place than Maryland, where they're the favorites--Free House at 6-5 and Real Quiet 8-5--in the $500,000 Pimlico Special.

Saturday was the second-best day of Kent Desormeaux's life. It was the day he rode the winner in the Kentucky Derby, the dream he's had since he was 6 years old and coaxing his Shetland pony out of the starting gate at Acadiana Downs, the track his father built in Louisiana. Crossing the finish line first on Real Quiet, Desormeaux, 28, was overcome with emotion, crying as he remembered he'd finished 16th on his first Derby horse 10 years before on the day his grandmother died.

Larry Damore, trainer Bob Baffert's exercise rider, answered the phone at the Pimlico stakes barn about 8 a.m. Sunday. William T. Young, the Kentucky owner-breeder who's won Triple Crown races with the Wayne Lukas-trained Tabasco Cat, Timber Country and Grindstone, was calling. "Is Wayne there?" Young said. "Wayne who?" Damore said. "Wayne Lukas," Young said. "This is Baffert's barn," Damore said. Realizing he'd misdialed, Young asked for Baffert.

From his vantage point in the box seats Saturday at Belmont Park, Bob Baffert saw Victory Gallop charging down the stretch a short time before Kent Desormeaux did and a long time before Real Quiet did. "No," Baffert cried. "No, no, no, no." An eternity later, while waiting for the stewards to study the photo and declare a winner in the Belmont Stakes, the trainer tried to console his young daughter, whispering hopefully in her ear, "We got it. Yeah, we got it." He was right the first time.

For Karen and Mickey Taylor, the owners of Seattle Slew, the last hours leading to the 1977 Belmont Stakes seemed longer than the three weeks that had gone before. "It started raining the morning of the race and it never stopped," Karen Taylor said. She and her husband suddenly had doubts about Seattle Slew, who had never failed them and their partners, Jim and Sally Hill, winning all eight of his races.