Before Saturday’s 135th Belmont Stakes, Neil Milbert picks the best of the oldest Triple Crown race
1) 1973: Secretariat completes his sweep of the Triple Crown by winning by a record margin of 31 lengths in 2:24, world-record time for 1 1/2 miles on dirt.
2) 1978: Affirmed counterattacks in the stretch to edge Alydar by a head, capture the Triple Crown and climax the greatest rivalry in the history of the series.
3) 1998: Victory Gallop surmounts a 4-length stretch deficit to nip Real Quiet by a nose and prevent him from becoming the 12th Triple Crown winner.
4) 1900: Idrim is the winner in a three-way fight to the finish in which he and second-place finisher Petruchio and third-place finisher Missionary are heads apart.
5) 2002: Sarava wins by a half-length after being dismissed as a 70-1 long shot, producing a $142.50 win payoff, the largest in the Belmont’s 134-year history.