It doesn’t get any better than that!
The way it looked on paper it was a rematch of the Dwyer. In the G2 Dwyer, Fly Down, ridden by Jose Lezcano, broke from the outside of Drosselmeyer with jockey Kent Desormeaux aboard who was kept bottled up long enough for Fly Down to run past him on the outside in a race in which he ran the last 1/8 miles in :12 and 1/5 seconds at what seemed to be an overlay at 7 to 2 against the 7 to 5, Drosselmeyer.
Fly Down stunned the crowd in the Dwyer as he won under wraps running on the wrong lead throughout the stretch to win by six commanding lengths. Inside money in the Dwyer probably was the result of comments made by Desormeaux about his own performance in the La. Derby and must have assured the connections a win that didn’t happen. In the Dwyer, he chased Fly Down home for second at pennies on the dollar.
Today, in the G1 $1,000,000 Belmont, Drosselmeyer turned the tables on Fly Down to win the Third Leg of the Triple Crown.
Ice Box, who was bet down off his come from behind performance in the Kentucky Derby that was arguably the better barring the redirects he was guided to make by Jose Lezcano. Nevertheless the troubles he endured, his flourishing finish, no doubt, was because the track was sloppy.
It was a performance that Bill Mott got from his decision to give Desormeaux the boot, and the luck of the draw. In return he got a masterful ride from the veteran Hall of Fame Jockey, Mike Smith, who was able to keep John Velazquez stuck inside THROUGHOUT that turned the tables on Fly Down and denied Nick Zito his ‘hat-track’ in the Belmont.
