“If he doesn’t want to accept my challenge, I respect his right to do that.”BOB LEWIS, OWNER OF CHARISMATIC Chris Antley, rider of Triple Crown hopeful Charismatic, and Mike Pegram, owner of champion filly Silverbulletday, have weighed in on the $200,000 winner-take-all side bet Charismatic’s owner Bob Lewis offered to make with Silverbulletday’s trainer Bob Baffert in the Belmont Stakes. Lewis issued the “put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is”challenge after reading that Baffert said Silverbulletday was the “best 3-year-old in the land.” Baffert added he might not run her in the Belmont for fear of costing Charismatic the Triple Crown.
Antley, a stock-market whiz who posts daily investment tips on the internet, added this nugget to Wednesday’s e-mail:
“I read trough a recent fax that Mr. Bob Lewis is willing to challenge Mr. Bob Baffert a $200,000 wager as to who is the best 3-year-old this year. Mr. Baffert is in thoughts of running Silverbulletday in OUR 3rd leg of the Triple Crown, Silverbulletday vs. Charismatic.
“And I say that the amount of $200,000 should be raised to $300,000. Just don’t like stopping with the 2 number! So I am adding to the challenge my 100,000 beans to participate in maybe one of the greatest moments that may come to pass in the running of the last leg of our Triple Crown.”
Pegram said, “I need some odds if I’m going to make side bets, and I’m not going to do it in the newspaper.”
As for whether Silverbulletday should run, “You have to look at it logically,” Pegram said, “and it’s not logical not to run her just because it would keep Bob Lewis from winning the Triple Crown. That’s what makes horse racing great.”
Pegram recalled giving Gary Stevens a ride to the track in his limo the day of last year’s Belmont, when Pegram’s Real Quiet was going for the Triple Crown.
“Yet, when it came down to the money, who rode the hair off Victory Gallop?” he said. Victory Gallop, Stevens up, beat Real Quiet by a nose. Baffert said he will decide in two weeks if Silverbulletday will go, adding, “If she comes to New York, it will be to run in the Belmont, not the Acorn [for fillies the day before].” If she does run, Baffert said, there will be no side bet.
“If he doesn’t want to accept my challenge, I respect his right to do that,” Lewis said. “I still want him to have Silverbulletday in the race.”
