LOUISVILLE – As Triple Crown candidate War Emblem galloped his customary mile-and-a-half yesterday morning at Churchill Downs, going at a brisk two-minute lick while gearing up for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, you had to wonder if the lanky young trainer watching him from the clockers’ stand had a twinge of regret.
Six months ago, Elliott Walden had a chance to buy War Emblem for WinStar Farm – and passed. The black 2-year-old colt had just won a mile allowance race at the Fair Grounds by 4½ lengths, and Walden flew down to New Orleans to take a look.
Elliott liked what he saw. But when veterinarian Dr. William Baker gave War Emblem a pre-purchase exam and X-rays revealed bone chips in his ankles, the deal fell through. War Emblem was still for sale after winning the April 6 Illinois Derby, when trainer Bob Baffert snatched him on behalf of Prince Salman’s The Thoroughbred Corp.
“He was a good-looking horse, and I thought he had a chance to be a good 3-year-old,” Walden said. “But it’s tough to look through a crystal ball in December versus April.
“Do I have any regrets? Not really. I thought he had the potential to run in the classics, but to say he’d be the Derby winner, no, you couldn’t. I am a little surprised. Of course I wish I had him. But I can’t look back.”
Following War Emblem’s victories in the Derby and Preakness, Walden calls the celebrated chips “a complete non-issue.”
“War Emblem has always been a very sound horse,” he said. “He doesn’t know he has those X-rays.”
The same Dr. Baker who warned of War Emblem’s potential problems OK’d two other horses Walden did buy despite physical flaws. Both went on to be major stakes winners.
“It’s not a black-and-white thing,” Walden said. “Distorted Humor had a stress fracture, and he became a multiple Grade 2 winner.”
The other colt was eventual champion Victory Gallop, purchased by Walden in November as a 2-year-old for $500,000.
“He injured himself as a yearling and had an elongated sesamoid (bone). You could tell just by looking at his ankle, and he was turned down by three other vets. The sesamoid scared them off, and the first two or three times I ran him, it scared me too.”
Walden needn’t have worried. As a 3-year-old Victory Gallop won the Arkansas Derby, was second in the Kentucky Derby by a neck, second again in the Preakness, then came on in the final stride to win the Belmont Stakes by a nose, stopping the Triple Crown bid of Real Quiet – trained by Bob Baffert.
What goes around, comes around. Because, ironically, Baffert turned down Victory Gallop before Walden got him.
“I heard about that sesamoid and ran the other way,” he said.
Are there any Victory Gallops this year that can knock off War Emblem in the Belmont?
“I thought Sunday Break was awfully impressive (winning the Peter Pan),” Walden said. “He’s got the biggest chance. Or maybe Murray Johnson (who trains Perfect Drift).
“War Emblem is the best horse in this crop. But if he gets keen (to run early) like he did in the Preakness, that mile-and-a-half might be tough.”
