The dirt hung in the air like steam, and only moved when the fans waved their betting tickets.
It was a Saturday afternoon race with the same anticipation of a sunrise. Everyone knew who was going to win. Empire Maker was nearly an even-money favorite to capture the Kentucky Derby, and the words "Triple Crown" could be heard bouncing around press boxes from Belmont Park to Hollywood Park.
But that phrase is the only thing to survive the two weeks of the Triple Crown races as Empire Maker has taken a backseat to Funny Cide, a gelding who won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. Now, Funny Cide will try for horse racing's 'crown' achievement this Saturday at the Belmont Stakes in New York.
Funny Cide's charge to the forefront of horse racing has been impressive and his story is an easy one to support. A group of high school friends pitched in some money on an ownership group and are suddenly the toast of the country with a horse that might land them the Visa USA Triple Crown bonus of $5 million.
A victory for Funny Cide at the Belmont might do something more than earn a bunch of regular Joes a paycheck. It might save horseracing.
The sport has been floundering for the last decade and has turned to off-track betting and partnerships with casinos in an attempt to stay in the black.
Many in horseracing have begun to wonder why a sport that once competed with baseball for the nation's pastime has fallen to just three significant races per year, at most.
The answer is simple. The nation used to love horseracing because it had personality. There were feisty characters that filled newspapers on a daily basis. There were heroes people could connect with for many years.
Today's horses pale in comparison as recent fan favorite and last year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner War Emblem ended his racing career at age 3 and is now out to stud. Fiscally, it's a good move by the owners but it is killing the sport.
Funny Cide is a gelding, or neutered, and should be able to race for long after the Belmont. He has the potential to create a fan base and to breathe new life into the industry.
Time will only tell if Funny Cide can win the Triple Crown and bring America back to horseracing.
It also wasn't that long ago that Time featured a horse on its cover.
Reach the reporter at cameron.eickmeyer@asu.edu.
