SARATOGA SPRINGS — At 15-1 odds, Crudo is an extended shot to outrun Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty and Preakness champion Journalism to the wire in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes at Saratoga.
One might argue, nevertheless, that this end result could be no extra of a shock than the circumstances that led Crudo into the Triple Crown race within the first place for homeowners Bobby Flay and Jimmy Ventura and Corridor of Fame coach Todd Pletcher.
“Jimmy and I were going to buy him as a pinhook proposition — we bought him as a weanling and we were going to sell him as a yearling. We brought him to the Saratoga [Fasig-Tipton] sale, and he didn’t sell, so we kept him,” Flay, the chef, restaurant magnate and Meals Community star instructed The Submit early Friday morning earlier than visiting Crudo.
“I don’t usually race colts. I usually race fillies only. But I have him, so he’s racing, and he’s turned out to have talent,” Flay continued. “The Belmont Stakes is New York’s most important race and as a New Yorker, it’s clearly important to me.”
Flay, 60, says he’s been watching horse racing since his teenage years when he and his associates from the Yorkville neighborhood in higher Manhattan would reduce faculty and take the A practice to Aqueduct.
The Belmont Stakes has lengthy been a staple of Flay’s social calendar.
“I go to the Belmont every year. I usually take 20-30 people to Belmont Park and make a day out of it,” Flay mentioned. “It’s become a tradition where I have people over to my house for brunch, everyone comes dressed in their racing gear — suits, summer dresses, hats. I feed them in the morning and then put everyone in cars and we go to Belmont and we have a day.”
He mentioned these nights normally finish with a bunch dinner at Wolfgang’s Steakhouse on thirty third Avenue.
However Saturday, the stakes can be a lot greater.
On Preakness Day at Pimlico, in his third profession begin, Crudo gained the Sir Barton Stakes by 7¹/₂ lengths.
Pletcher, a four-time winner within the Belmont, gave the son of 2018 Triple Crown champion Justify a couple of weeks to breeze, thought-about different choices and determined to offer it a go within the $2 million race.
“The horse is here, he’s doing well, I don’t see a whole lot of pace in the race, we’ve got [jockey] John Velazquez available,” Pletcher mentioned. “I couldn’t come up with a reason not to give it a try.”
Crudo’s identify, not surprisingly, has ties to the culinary world.
“I came up with the name,” Flay mentioned, explaining he acknowledged uncooked expertise, although on menus all over the place the phrase means uncooked fish. “It’s so laborious to call these horses. I favored the truth that it meant uncooked as a result of he was such a younger horse once we purchased him and he had expertise.
“I told Jimmy what I named him and he was like, ‘Really?’ He wasn’t impressed,” Flay added about his associate, who’s in industrial actual property and has been concerned in horse racing for greater than 30 years. “Naming horses and naming restaurants. If they turn out to be good, the name makes perfect sense. It couldn’t be anything else.”
Flay spent a lot of his spring rooting on his beloved Knicks from the primary few rows at Madison Sq. Backyard.
Like most followers, he reveled within the workforce’s longest playoff run in 25 years and nonetheless is feeling the frustration.
“I remember all the playoff seasons when we ran into Michael Jordan,” mentioned Flay, who lists the Knicks and Yankees as his largest sports activities passions. “We were good then, but we kind of couldn’t get past it. It was fun to watch those guys play this year. They’re a really good team and, unfortunately, they lost to Indiana.”
Flay mentioned he was shocked on the firing of coach Tom Thibodeau.
“I am. I thought he did a good job. I mean, we beat the world champions. We beat the Celtics soundly,” he mentioned. “A couple things go different ways and you’re in the Finals. I don’t always think that new is a good idea, but it’s not my team.”
His workforce on Saturday is Crudo-Flay-Ventura-Pletcher.
“Both Bobby and Jimmy love horse racing. Bobby’s been terrific to train for, for a number of years,” Pletcher mentioned. “He’s knowledgeable and also always says, ‘You can make the decision.’ We’ve had some success together and these guys are fun to train for.”
