Belmont Stakes

A JUDGE HAS sentenced former Auburn wide receiver Antonio Goodwin to 15 years in prison for an armed home-invasion robbery that also resulted in charges against three teammates from the 2010 national championship team. Lee County Circuit Court Judge Christopher Hughes imposed the sentence Tuesday in Opelika, Ala., while Goodwin, 21, stood silently with arms behind his back. "I want to apologize for my action and my poor judgment," Goodwin said before the sentencing. "In the time I was at home, I had time to think about it and I've become a better person and a better decision-maker.

ELMONT, N.Y. — Would I'll Have Another have won the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown if he had not gotten injured? Would Union Rags have won the Kentucky Derby if he had not been eliminated at the break? The fascinating 2012 Triple Crown season did not play out like it had been envisioned when the prep races began and it ended without any answer to the two most pressing questions. What we did get was three great stretch runs in Kentucky, Maryland and New York sandwiched around one crushing disappointment within hours of a potential coronation and one setback seconds into the race that may be the start of the Triple Crown, but will always be the most important in American racing.

I was hanging at Pimlico the day before the 1978 Kentucky Derby when I suddenly decided I needed to be at Churchill Downs the next day so I could bet on Affirmed. Back in those days, you could buy a plane ticket at the last minute, cruise to the gate and get where you needed to go without going broke. I ended up sleeping in the Louisville Airport that night. I was up early and walked over to the track, several large bills hidden in my pockets. After a day that I can barely remember (other than my first and last corn dog and first and last taste of a mint julep)

NEW YORK - Bob Baffert sure knows how to lose thrillers. It happened again Saturday, when Union Rags nipped the trainer's front-running Paynter at the wire to win the Belmont Stakes. The nail-biting defeat made it three straight for Baffert in this season's Triple Crown races. Add those to two of his three near-misses with a Triple Crown on the line, and that's quite a run of tough luck. There's more. Baffert also came up on the losing end of a photo finish in the 1996 Kentucky Derby with Cavonnier.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Phyllis and Jamie Wyeth were alternately looking at the small monitor to their right and down the long Belmont Park stretch beyond the finish line to their left. The colt that had been raised at Point Lookout, their Chadds Ford farm, was just a few lengths off the lead with 200 yards to run in the Belmont Stakes. From their second-floor vantage point, the same spot where they watched the Champagne Stakes last October, they could see Union Rags was gaining momentum with every stride.

ELMONT, N.Y. - It wasn't much of a hole for Union Rags to navigate, little more than a slip of light between the rail and Paynter, a speed horse that was threatening to steal away with the Belmont Stakes on Saturday evening. On another day, in another race, with luck that didn't hold quite as well, there wouldn't have been enough room for jockey John Velazquez to urge Union Rags from the shadow of his previous two races and into the winner's circle at last. Union Rags has experienced those days in what had been a disappointing racing season, but this time he got through, and this time, there's no longer a reason to question whether it was more than just bad racing fortune that held him back before.

NEW YORK - I'll Have Another's bid for a Triple Crown ended Friday morning with the shocking news that the chestnut colt was out of the Belmont Stakes because of a swollen left front tendon. According to Dennis O'Neill, brother of trainer Doug O'Neill, the heavy 4-5 betting favorite galloped early and after a veterinary scan, his tendon seemed "kind of tender. " "The horse is sound and happy, but it's not worth it," O'Neill told The Associated Press. It was the first time since 1936 that the Derby and Preakness winner didn't run in the Belmont.

I WAS WALKING walking out of Pimlico a few hours after an unforgettable Preakness when I spotted a few friends still taking about I'll Have Another's impossible rally past Bodemeister. Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey was in the group. He said to me: "Did you think there was any way he was going to catch him?" My answer: "No, did you?" No, again.   That was the instant that clinched in my mind what my eyes had seen. When a horse does something you almost can't believe, that horse has gone into some other dimension and you better take him very seriously.

I'LL HAVE ANOTHER got post 19 of 20 in the Kentucky Derby and 9 of 11 in the Preakness. Completing the outside, away-from-traffic posts, the colt going for the Triple Crown on Saturday in the Belmont Stakes drew post 11 of 12 Wednesday morning. "Being in the 11-hole, we're able to see how the pace sets up," trainer Doug O'Neill said. "If they're crawling, we'll be hopefully leading the crawl. And if they're flying, we'll be sitting in behind the horses flying. " I'll Have Another was made the 4-5 morning line favorite.

Horse racing is the ultimate "what if" sport. What if I'll Have Another did not have an inflamed tendon? What if the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner had run in Saturday's Belmont Stakes? Would he have been the 12th Triple Crown winner? We will never know. What we do know is that on Friday, it was announced that he would be scratched and retired. I'll Have Another will be on the track at Belmont Park early Saturday evening, but horse and rider Mario Gutierrez will be leading the post parade, instead of being in it. "I'm afraid history is going to have to wait for another day," owner Paul Reddam said Friday.