They Made the Stakes Too Long

It happens every couple of years. Some passing-good thoroughbred manages to win both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, and everybody figures that the sport of kings is due for another coronation. But the last horse to win U.S. racing's Triple Crown was Citation in 1948--and the less said the better about his attempts to prolong the royal line at stud. Pretenders still keep popping up: Tim Tarn in 1958, Carry Back in 1961, Northern Dancer in 1964. What does them all in is the

Belmont Stakes, the last of the Triple Crown races and--at 11 mi.--the longest. That is at least 1 mi. farther than most race horses want to run.

Not even his royal name could help Kauai King win a Triple Crown last week. Owner Mike Ford must have figured that the Belmont might be too tough for his colt, because he didn't even bother to pay the $100 nominating fee. He changed his mind after Kauai King won last month's Derby and Preakness. By then, entries for the Belmont had closed, so Ford had to pay a penalty of $5,000 to get his horse into the race.

The bettors at New York's Aqueduct Race Track made Kauai King the odds-on favorite (at 3-5), invested a whopping $104,953 on him to show figuring that he could not possibly finish worse than third out of eleven horses. They would have been wiser to play the market. Kauai King took the lead on the backstretch, held it all the way around the final turn--but then, with exactly 1 mi. still to go, he seemed to run into a river of molasses. A 5-1 shot named Amberoid, who couldn't even win a $12,500 claiming race a year ago, went on to win by 21 lengths, take down first money of $117,700. Staggering all the way through the stretch, Kauai King wound up fourth. Owner Ford at least made a profit. Fourth place was worth $6,250.

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