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For War of Will, the Belmont Is About What Might Have Been

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The colt was gaining ground before getting cut off in the Kentucky Derby then won the Preakness.
It has been a strange Triple Crown season, one that kicked off with the confusing and controversial disqualification of apparent Kentucky Derby champion Maximum Security and that will end Saturday with the 151st running of the Belmont Stakes.
In between, the owners of Maximum Security filed a federal lawsuit seeking to restore their colt’s Derby victory.
Then, there are the dead horses – 27 of them since December — at Santa Anita Park in California that have prompted an investigation by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and calls from elected officials and animal rights activists for the track to be shut down.
Each story line has conspired to overshadow the work of an old school trainer by the name of Mark Casse to put a talented colt, War of Will, in the position to claim a significant piece of history, and leave the horse racing world wondering what might have been if not for an unfortunately located puddle.
War of Will, with Tyler Gaffalione aboard, is the only horse among the Belmont’s field of 10 to compete in all three legs of this year’s Triple Crown. He can become the first horse since Afleet Alex in 2005 to fail to win the Derby but complete a Preakness-Belmont double, a feat that just 12 horses have accomplished.
If War of Will can follow his gritty victory in Baltimore with a win at that grand old racetrack on Long Island, he would take his place alongside immortal thoroughbreds like Man o’War (1920), Native Dancer (1953), Nashua (1955) and Damascus (1967).
“I learned a long time ago to not think about that kind of stuff,” Casse said recently. “Right now, the only thing I’m focusing on is getting there.”
Casse, 58, has had horses in plenty of big races.

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