June 8, 2014 
California Chrome—certified American Hero—The People’s Horse—The Triple Crown Slump Buster—staggered home in yesterday’s Belmont Stakes in a tie for 4th. Deflating, to say the least, but not unfathomable, if you’ve been paying attention over the past few decades.
Then, this happened.
Very unfortunate and an important lesson learned: do not put an upset drunk on live TV. It was the unconventionality of Chrome’s gregarious co-owner Steve Coburn, a blue collar California Cowboy and self-panned “dumb-ass,” that became part of the charm of this whole story. But this sad “GET OFF MY LAWN!” declaration reeks of sore loser. It’s a whole lot of dumb and even more ass.
“This is a coward’s way out, in my opinion. If you’ve got a horse, run him in all three,” Coburn ranted. “If you’ve got a horse that earns points, that runs in the Kentucky Derby, those horses should be the only ones who should run in all three races.”
This has been one of the chief complaints over the years from the camp who support changing the Triple Crown format to even the playing field and presumably yield more Triple Crown winners.
This is selfish reasoning, in my opinion. Sure, it would glorious to see it happen again, but we aren’t owed a Triple Crown winner every decade. Can it just be OK to win the Kentucky Derby? How many thoroughbreds get to do that each year? Same with the Preakness, same with the Belmont. That’s pretty special, not to mention, lucrative. Considering Coburn’s relative pittance of an investment in California Chrome, he should be riding into the sunset thanking his lucky stars that he turned Chrome into Gold. Instead, he’s wagging his finger at the world denouncing the sport that just took him on the ride of his life. The sport that gives every man, and horse, a chance.
Tonalist was forced off the Kentucky Derby trail early in the year with a lung infection. He was given time off to heal then slowly worked his way back to full strength and earned his way into this race by winning the Grade II Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont last month. Wouldn’t it be just as unfair to Team Tonalist if he were automatically excluded from this race because of his illness early in the year?
Eleven horses have won the Triple Crown. It truly is one of the most improbable feats in all of sport. Is it perfectly fair? Of course not. If everything had to be fair in horse racing how many races could ever be run? If every horse had to be feeling 100%, perfectly happy with the surface and the distance, the weather picture perfect, the jockeys free of mistake and nothing ever going wrong during the race and…well, you get the idea. Let’s not forget, where and when a horse runs is entirely up to the owner. If you feel the deck is “stacked against you” or your horse is not ready to compete, then don’t send them to the starting gate.
Hopefully, here on this Sunday Morning Coming Down, Coburn can think clearly enough through his hangover and issue an apology to Team Tonalist, Belmont Park, and his own horse and trainer whose magnificent accomplishments he painted over with whisky-bent brush strokes.
The beauty of horse racing is also the frustration: anything can happen. If you can’t handle disappointment, then go breed puppies.
