Win, Place And Show

TigerBlog has never bet on a horse race. He wouldn't begin to know how to read a racing form.

While he grew up in the shadow of Freehold Raceway, he spent way more time across the street from the track, at the Jersey Freeze, ordering milk shakes or brownie sundaes.

He did watch Secretariat run away with the 1973 Belmont Stakes, and he did see Affirmed and Alydar have their epic battles a few years later. Since the 1970s, he has basically only paid attention to the sport if the same horse won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.

Affirmed's three close wins over Alydar came in 1978, which capped a six year run that featured three Triple Crown winners, along with Seattle Slew in 1977.

Since then, no horse has won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in the same year.
 This past weekend, I'll Have Another became the 12th horse since Affirmed to win both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. None of the previous 11 has won the Belmont.

I'll Have Another gets his chance in three weeks. The Belmont is a weird race, since when the Derby winner doesn't win the Preakness, it loses almost all of its appeal.

Only 11 horses have won the Triple Crown. And only one jockey has done so more than once. TB will give you awhile to figure it out.


Besides, when it came to racing this past weekend, TigerBlog was much more interested in the human kind.

Princeton senior Donn Cabral ran a remarkable race Friday night in Sacramento, winning the 3,000-meter steeplechase to break the American college record, one that lasted nearly as long as there hasn't been a Triple Crown winner.

Cabral's time of 8:19.14 was 0.17 faster than the time of Weber State's Farley Gerber back in 1984. It was also nearly 10 seconds better than the Ivy League record, which dated back to 1985.

Cabral, the NCAA steeplechase runner-up last year, is at the top of the stretch (if TB may mix metaphors or something) for his grueling year, one that has seen him compete in cross country and track and field for Princeton - winning three Heptagonal team titles along the way - all with an eye on being at his sharpest for the Olympic Trials.

His race in California was huge in that his time beat the Olympic qualifying standard.

The Olympic Trials will be held June 21 through July 1 in Eugene, Ore. The steeplechase has its preliminary round on June 25 and the final on June 28.

The top three finishers in each event at the Trials earn a spot on the Olympic team, unless they don't meet the qualifying standard. In the case of the steeplechase, that time is 8:23.10. As TB understands it, Cabral could make the Olympic team even if he doesn't come in the top three at the Trials, if the ones who do don't run the standard.

Meanwhile, TB continues to be amazed by Cabral and the way he is pushing himself this year to compete for Princeton and possibly into the Olympics. It's been wild to look out the window every day and see Cabral going through his workouts, especially with an understanding of what his ultimate goal is.

Friday night was a big step in that direction.

TB wishes him luck.

Meanwhile, the 11 horses who have won the Triple Crown are:

Sir Barton, Gallant Fox, Omaha, War Admiral, Whirlaway, Count Fleet, Assault, Citation, Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed.

Eddie Arcaro, who rode Whirlaway and Citation, is the jockey who did it twice.