Lupica: Another year with no Crown

Lupica: Another year with no Crown

Kevin Hagen/for New York Daily News

I’ll Have Another (r.) gallops on main track at Belmont on Friday before being ruled out of Saturday’s race.

This was going to be race track magic out of the past in New York on this Saturday in June, out of the 70s, out of Secretariat and Seattle Slew and Affirmed sticking a nose ahead of Alydar one last time in the last moments of the 1978 Belmont Stakes. This was going to be all of that old magic at Belmont Park late this afternoon, about a big horse.

There wasnt the same romance that we got with the last big horse, Affirmed, ridden by a teenager named Steve Cauthen, running the same race against Alydar at the Derby and the Preakness and finally the Belmont. Not that kind of romance, even though Ill Have Another had beaten Bodemeister in the stretch this time at Churchill Downs, and then at Pimlico.

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And of course there was the sketchy background of Ill Have Anothers trainer Doug ONeill, a backstretch character about to serve a 45-day suspension in California because it turns out his horses have this habit of turning up with excessive levels of carbon dioxide in their system, which helps them fight off fatigue. ONeill says he is innocent, that its all a big mistake, and sounds a bit like an athlete testing positive for some banned substance.

And still: Here came Ill Have Another riding into New York with a chance to be the first Triple Crown winner in 34 years, be the big horse who could close the deal the way so many others could not at Belmont.

There is a big soccer game at MetLife Stadium this afternoon and tonight the Mets play the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. And over in Newark, the Devils try to keep their season alive in the Stanley Cup Finals. So this was a Saturday when we really were going to feel like the sports capital of the world again.

But the main event was to be at Belmont Park in front of 100,000 people until the word got out Friday morning that not only was Ill Have Another hurt, and out of the 2012 Belmont Stakes, but that the horse would never race again. This time the horse with a shot didnt even make it to the post. This time it wasnt the mile-and-a-half length at Belmont, another horse who came here and couldnt make the distance. So we found out once again that even the legs of a champion racehorse are as fragile as a pitchers arm, the way these stories sometimes are.

There were so many endings predicted for Saturday, big horse wins or big horse loses. Just not this ending, on Friday at Belmont instead of late this afternoon. This is extremely tough for all of us, ONeill told reporters outside Barn 2 at Belmont. Though its far from tragic, no one died or anything like that, its extremely disappointing and I feel sorry for the whole team. We have had such an amazing run, you know, for me, taking three buses to go to Santa Anita at age 10 to be here and try to make history.