US Gates
EMPIRE MAKER TRIUMPHS IN BELMONT
Trainer Bobby Frankel has said all year that Empire Maker was
the best three-year-old in the country. On Saturday, June 7th,
Frankel’s colt lived up to expectations, stalking Funny Cide down
the backstretch, pulling even in the far turn, taking command at
the top of the stretch, and hold off Ten Most Wanted to win the
$1-million Belmont Stakes.
“This is probably the greatest thrill I’ve had in racing,” said
Frankel, a native New Yorker and four-time Eclipse Award winner.
“And I’m excited because all along I’ve thought he was the best
horse. This was a little bit of vindication.”
“I rode him like he was the best horse in the country, and he
proved today that he was,” said six-time Eclipse Award winning
jockey Jerry Bailey.
Empire Maker, a son of Unbridled out of 2002 Broodmare of
the Year Toussaud, pushed Funny Cide right from the start,
shadowing him through the backstretch. As the two approached the
far turn, Bailey began inching his way toward the leader. He caught
him midway through the turn for home and pushed in front at the top
of the stretch.
“I knew I had him from the top of the backstretch,” Bailey said.
“I knew that he’d tired himself out and didn’t have much, if
anything, left for the stretch drive.”
Bailey may have been confident, but his trainer wasn’t.
“I knew I had Funny Cide in the turn,” Frankel said. “But
I got a little nervous when I saw Ten Most Wanted get up on his hip
in the stretch. As soon as he saw him, though, he dug in and made
sure he wasn’t going to get beat.”
“Empire Maker was just a better horse today,” said Ten Most
Wanted’s jockey Pat Day.
Jerry Bailey said Empire Maker was the best 3-year-old he had
ever ridden.
Frankel said Empire Maker would point next to the August 3 Jim
Dandy Stakes (Gr.2) and August 24 Travers Stakes (Gr.1), both at
Saratoga in New York.
Date:
10 June 2003