Afleet Alex affirms his greatness
Mid-Atlantic-based Preakness winner soars to seven-length victory in the Belmont
Story by Sean Clancy Photographs by Stuart Haman

Jeremy Rose led a phalanx of reporters, well-wishers, hangers-on and what looked like a SWAT team through the Belmont Park tunnel, moments after he had guided Afleet Alex to an emphatic Belmont Stakes victory.

Over the commotion, a woman’s voice could be heard from the grandstand.
“ Jeremy, you’re the greatest,” she said.

Rose stopped, turned and smiled.
“ No,” Rose said. “Alex is the greatest.”

So true.
After five weeks of Triple Crown frenzy, there was one constant. It wasn’t trainer Nick Zito, who went zero for 11. It wasn’t Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo, who eventually proved that it was the rapid pace of the Derby that made him king on the first Saturday in May. And no, it wasn’t a tough-luck Smarty Jones or Funny Cide story that brings tears to the most hardened of racegoers.

The constant was a compact bay colt who somehow lost the Derby, miraculously stayed on his feet in the Preakness and implausibly got better in the Belmont. It’s a rare horse who can improve over the five-week, nearly four-mile bender that is the Triple Crown. Afleet Alex thrived while everyone else wilted.

Trained by Marylander Tim Ritchey and owned by Mid-At­lan­tic-based partnership Cash is King Stable, Afleet Alex handled the Triple Crown in a manner reminiscent of top runners in the mid-20th century. The Florida-bred colt by Northern Afleet trained hard—his two-a-days are now part of racing lore—and ran hard. He took it out on his competition in the afternoon and had enough zest after each race to take it out on his rubber ball back in his stall. Sure, he can run like the wind and handle training like a Marine, but he can also kick a ball like Pele.

The Belmont, run on June 11, was Afleet Alex’s coronation. Sent off as the 6-5 favorite in an eclectic field of 11—it ranged from a maiden to a Derby winner—Afleet Alex popped out of stall number 9 before Rose eased him toward the rail, a move akin to his Preakness swath that put him into perfect position. Going into the first turn, he had one horse beaten, maiden Nolan’s Cat. Down the backside, Afleet Alex loped in ninth while Pinpoint and A. P. Arrow set the pace. Second-choice Giacomo was uncharacteristically close to the pace, lying fifth and always eager.

On the turn, Pinpoint and A. P. Arrow retreated while Gia­como went to the lead under Mike Smith and Afleet Alex continued to close the gap.

For a moment, it appeared that a showdown might develop between classic winners, as Giacomo and Afleet Alex arrived together near the quarter pole. That was wishful thinking. This was Affirmed and no Alydar. In a flash, Afleet Alex was gone, five-wide and flying. He sprinted past Giacomo and rolled down Belmont Park’s long stretch. Rose gave him several right-handed cracks, more out of idle time than dire need, and they stormed home to win by seven lengths.

Afleet Alex blitzed the last quarter-mile in :24.50. No horse had done it faster since Arts and Letters in 1969.

“ It was a great race,” Ritchey said afterward. “The horse could not have run better than he did. What cost [Smarty Jones and Funny Cide] the Triple Crown was they never got a chance to relax, take a deep breath and run a long race. That’s never been a problem with him. He’ll sit there as long as you want. He’ll lope along until you pick him up and ask him.”
Ritchey had survived—flourished—through a long and sometimes unsettling Triple Crown odyssey. Like John Servis last year and Barclay Tagg the year before, Ritchey was making his first foray into the Triple Crown maelstrom, in which the world knows your horse’s every training move. Using his show riding and steeple­chase background, Ritchey mapped out a plan after last year’s Breeders’ Cup to get Afleet Alex to and through the Triple Crown. Renowned boxing trainer Angelo Dundee never got a heavyweight through 15 rounds with fewer bruises.

The horse relaxed when he had to, punched when he needed to, and carried the Triple Crown upon his shoulders.

“ It’s probably a combination of the horse’s mentality, Jeremy’s riding style and my training style. And it all fit together like pieces of a puzzle,” Ritchey said. “It went faster than I thought it would. They say it’s drawn out, but to me, the Arkansas Derby seems like just the other day. We’ve already gone through all three Triple Crown races?”

Yup, they’re all over. The Ken­tucky Derby was the only one that got away. Last year, Servis said the hardest thing about the Triple Crown was having Smarty Jones sharp enough to win the Derby, resilient enough to win the Preakness and relaxed enough to go the 12 furlongs of the Belmont. After watching Afleet Alex slug his way through the Preakness and the Belmont, the Derby goes down harder than a hot pepper sandwich. Afleet Alex grabbed the lead but couldn’t hold off Closing Argument and Giacomo, falling a length short.
How did a horse lose to two horses he would come to dominate?

“ It was the way the race was run,” Ritchey explained. “There were instances where Jeremy had to spurt through little holes, and use him a little bit to get in position. He couldn’t make that one big three-eighths-of-a-mile run like you would want a horse to. That probably cost him a little bit. He ran a great race to get beat a length. If it was meant to be, he would have won. My feeling is it wasn’t meant to be. Obviously, in the Preakness he could have gone on his head very easily, so it was absolutely meant to be.”

And the Belmont, well, it didn’t have to be “meant to be”—quite simply, the horse was superior. No theatrics, no excuses, just pure race horse doing what he does best. After five weeks of delirium, Cash is King Stable, Rose and Ritchey had another chapter heading to what was fast becoming a book of dreams.

“ I’ve been very lucky to find him and the owners to keep him and go through this whole thing,” Ritchey said. “Horses make trainers. Trainers don’t make horses. The trainer can fine-tune them, keep them healthy and keep them going. The horse is the priority. It’s like a football coach or a baseball coach—if you don’t have stars on your team, you’re not going to do anything. You’re going to be a loser.”

Chuck Zacney is the ringleader of Cash is King Stable. From Phoenixville, Pa., Zacney rallied friends Joe Lerro, Jennifer Reeves, Bob Brittingham and Joe Judge to put together some money and buy a race horse.

This happens all the time. What doesn’t happen all the time is when the first purchase wins two legs of the Triple Crown and earns $2,765,800 in his first 12 starts. The horse is now worth eight digits—and counting—and the group who started out on a lark now owns 15 horses.

The Cash is King fivesome shared their thoughts on everything but the management of the horse: “Whatever Tim says” is their motto.
“ Unbelievable. Once again, coming in here, getting two out of three of the Triple Crown legs, fantastic,” Zacney said. “We’re thrilled to death to be here. I’ve got to give all the credit to Tim. From day one, he took this horse, took him under his wing, had the horse ready and anybody who questioned whether or not this horse could go a mile and a half, he proved it rather convincingly.”

Ritchey’s future plans for Afleet Alex consist of four races, culminating at the Breeders’ Cup at Belmont Park on Octo­ber 29. En route, he’ll likely compete in Monmouth Park’s Has­kell Invitational Handicap-G1 on August 7, Saratoga’s Travers Stakes-G1 on August 27, and the Super Derby-G2 at Louis­i­ana Downs on October 1.

Ritchey is playing it coy when it comes to his precise Breeders’ Cup objective. When pressed, he would commit only to “one of the Breeders’ Cup [races].

“ I kiddingly said I’m going to talk to the racing secretary and ask him to write the Sprint as the first race and the Classic as the last, and it would bring a new meaning to two-a-days,” said Ritchey. “He’s an amazing animal. He does things that I never thought horses could do. Knowing him, he would be in the race in both."