Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 5, 1993 TAG: 9306050231
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Is there an upset in the making?
A victory by Virginia Rapids, making his debut in Triple Crown competition, would be an upset, but not on the scale of the shocking defeats of Secretariat in 1973 by Onion and Prove Out, both also trained by H. Allen Jerkens.
Virginia Rapids was at 5-1, the early third choice behind Preakness winner Prairie Bayou, 8-5, and Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero, 4-1. Cherokee Run, the Preakness runner-up, was the 8-1 fourth choice in a field of 14 3-year-olds for the final race of the Triple Crown.
"When he won the Peter Pan, it put him in the limelight," Jerkens said of Virginia Rapids. "But the horse still has to prove he can run with these other horses, too."
Virginia Rapids' fast-closing second in the mile Withers on May 5 and his victory in the 1[-mile Peter Pan on May 23 at Belmont Park have helped lower the odds on the colt.
So has the reputation in New York of Jerkens, a 64-year-old Hall of Fame trainer.
Jerkens, based in New York since becoming a trainer in 1950, doesn't see his Belmont debut as any big deal.
"I never had a horse good enough or ready to run it," he said. He has had two Derby starters, but none in the Preakness.
Jerkens' first Belmont comes on the 20th anniversary of the 31-length victory that made Secretariat the first Triple Crown champion since Citation in 1948.
Two of Secretariat's three defeats that year were engineered by Jerkens.
Besides beating Secretariat with Onion in the Whitney Handicap and with Prove Out in the Woodward, he sent out Beau Purple to upset the great gelding Kelso twice in 1962 and again in 1963.
He also upset Cicada, a three-time filly champion, in the Black Helen Handicap in 1963 and upset Buckpasser with Handsome Boy in the 1967 Brooklyn Handicap.
Jerkens will be in position to be upset in the two stakes at Belmont this weekend. He trains Devil His Due, the favorite in the Nassau County Handicap today and Sky Beauty, the choice to win the Mother Goose on Sunday.
While Jerkens will be making his debut as a Belmont Stakes trainer, another Hall of Fame trainer will be saddling only his second Belmont starter. He is 71-year-old Mack Miller, trainer of Sea Hero. In his only previous Belmont, Miller finished ninth with Zulu Tom.
Two other Hall of Fame trainers in the Belmont will be Scotty Schulhofer and Ron McAnally.
Schulhofer, 67, will start Colonial Affair, runner-up to Virginia Rapids in the Peter Pan. The colt will be Schulhofer's fourth Belmont starter.
McAnally, 60, will saddle Arinthod, the French-bred colt making his U.S. and dirt-track debuts after posting one victory, two seconds and four thirds in 10 starts in his native country.
Belmont Stakes The third jewel in horse racing's Triple Crown, for 3-year-olds, from Belmont Park, N.Y. WSET Channel 13, 4:30 p.m.
by CNB