Belmont Backside: Legends, Tales

You might look in Barn 60, where six stalls are filled with Bill Turner-trained horses, the most accomplished of which, Pernice, broke his maiden in his seventeenth start last year.

Or else in Barn 4, where a pair of aged photos on assembly coordinator Steve Jordan’s desk show him walking Secretariat or holding Riva Ridge.

Triple Crown connections are there if you look for them–Pernice’s grandfather, Seattle Slew, won the crown for Turner in ’77, and this week I’ll Have Another’s trainer Doug O’Neill did just that: Tracked down Turner to chat strategy, technique.

Turner is, in fact, the only surviving Triple Crown trainer.

And Jordan, who’ll celebrate his 64th birthday on Saturday, rang in his 21st while grooming for Lucien Lauren one fateful day in ’73.

Read the tales of Bill Turner, including his take on modern training, on ESPN (thanks to Valerie for the tip) and Steve Jordan, who says the grandstands “literally started to shake” when Secretariat pulled away from Sham, on BloodHorse.

Four days till I’ll Have Another has his chance at the next, thoroughly overdue chapter. You reckon he’ll do it?