By Dylan Butler
But for the 62,274 fans who sweated out the 137th running of the Belmont Stakes, they caught a glimpse of one very special horse.Afleet Alex's Triple Crown bid may have been ruined when 50-1 longshot Giacomo won the Kentucky Derby last month, but the Preakness winner proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is the top three-year-old this year, easily winning the mile-and-a-half Belmont by seven lengths.”I don't want to hear any more criticism about my horse,” Afleet Alex's jockey Jeremy Rose said. “He's one of the best we've seen in a long time.”Trained by Tim Ritchey and owned by Cash is King LLC, 6-5 favorite Afleet Alex crossed the finish line in 2:28.75 on the fast track. Andromeda's Hero was second and Nolan's Cat finished third. The 9-7-1 trifecta paid $1,249.Ridden by John Velazquez, Pinpoint took the lead out of the gate and remained the leader for about a mile. Giacomo briefly took the lead from Southern Africa with three furlongs to go. But then Afleet Alex exploded from the outside and blew past Giacomo around the final turn and ran the final quarter-mile in 24 2/5, the fastest final quarter-mile since Art and Letters in 1969.”All I kept saying was, 'Be patient, be patient, be patient. Wait, wait, wait,'” Ritchey said. “He just exploded. That was the plan. With these big, wide turns, you have to save all the ground you can. Jeremy Rose has now ridden three Triple Crown races like a Hall of Famer.”Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
