SPORTS

Belmont Notebook | Tonalist trainer basking in victory

Jennie Rees
USA TODAY Sports

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Christophe Clement was back at work at 5:30 Sunday morning at Belmont Park, still basking in Tonalist's head victory over Commissioner in Saturday's Belmont Stakes.

Asked if he felt he'd joined a fraternity with his first Triple Crown race triumph, Clement said cheerfully: "No. Maybe I should. Not really. At the moment I'm just very, very happy. Happy for the owner, Mr. (Robert S.) Evans. Very happy for the whole team back at the barn — everybody working with me from an assistant to groom to hotwalker to rider. And I'm very grateful to the people behind the horse."

Clement is better known for his grass horses. The Belmont was only his second Grade I win on dirt, following Funny Moon in the 2009 Coaching Club American Oaks.

The French-born Clement said he has received texts from "all over: the States, France, England, everywhere. I've got to start to sit down and answer all my texts, which I will. I'm just going to enjoy this for a day or two. It's a nice feeling.

"I think we always forget that this should be fun. It's nice to enjoy it for a few days, for all of us: the horse, the whole team. We're New York people, so it means a lot to us."

Clement said he expected Tonalist, winner of Belmont's Peter Pan in his previous start, to run a big race.

"It would be pretentious to think we were going to win," he said, "but I was pretty confident he was going to run a nice race."

Other updates

• Commissioner: WinStar Farm President Elliott Walden said he's looking for a big autumn campaign from Commissioner, who is still seeking his first stakes victory.

"Maybe he's the Will Take Charge of 2014," he said, referring to last year's ­3-year-old champion who won the award with a big second half.

Walden acknowledged the Belmont was a tough beat. "But then I have to remember that I won one like that," he said of training 1998 Belmont winner Victory Gallop, who won by a nose on the last jump over Triple Crown hopeful Real Quiet.

"I don't think we have an excuse," he said. "When you run that well and you're that close, you start playing that kind of 'what if' game. But Tonalist ran a big race, proving to be a good horse. He'd beaten this horse four lengths the time before. We got beat fair and square. But I think this is an improving horse, and we all know A.P. Indys get better with age."

• Medal Count: Louisville trainer Dale Romans said the Belmont third-place finisher is "starting to back up what I say about him all the time. And he's just going to get better."

The Blue Grass runner-up has shown ability on dirt, grass and synthetic tracks. Romans said he could be pointed toward a 3-year-old grass race such as Arlington's Grade I Secretariat or take on older horses in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar, the last year that track will have a Polytrack surface. Romans won the 2012 Pacific Classic with the 3-year-old Dullahan.

• Ride On Curlin: Louisville trainer Billy Gowan reiterated that Ride On Curlin, who was eased in the race, had suffered pulmonary hemorrhaging, a common affliction known as "bleeding." He said the colt bled once in a race as a 2-year-old but had not done so this year before Saturday.

"At the three-eighths pole, his head kind of came up," he said. "John (Velazquez) said he smooched to him one time and didn't have any horse, and he just eased him up. He did the right thing. Glad he did. ...

"I think it's just the mile and a half, hot, stress of running. But heck, he ate every oat last night, his legs look darn good. We'll be all right. We'll just back off him a little bit. We need a little break anyhow after all this. I think I need a break and he needs a break."

The Ride On Curlin camp had become very friendly with the California Chrome people, the two horses staying in the same Belmont barn. Asked about the Derby winner's co-owner, Steve Coburn, suggesting no horse should be allowed to run in the Belmont without also racing in the Derby and Preakness, Gowan said, "I think if you own the horse, you ought to be able to run in any kind of race you want.

"And I think Coburn has the right to say anything he wants to say. But in my opinion, Tonalist had every right to be in the race. A.P. Indy did it. He missed the Derby with a foot problem, and he won the Belmont and wound up Horse of the Year."

• Thief in broad daylight: While groom Raul Rodriguez was outside washing off California Chrome's feet Sunday morning, someone unhooked and ran off with his Belmont Stakes "webbing," the stall door guard. It was replaced with one of trainer Art Sherman's green webbings.

• Rating game: NBC reported a 12.9 overnight rating and 29 share for the Belmont, the second-best in "People Meter history" dating to 1988, trailing only the 15.6/31 for Smarty Jones' Triple Crown bid in the 2004 Belmont. That rating was up 36 percent from the last time a Triple crown was at stake, when ABC's broadcast earned a 9.5/21 in 2008 for Big Brown. The overnight rating also was up 180 percent from last year, when Palace Malice won the Belmont. Louisville topped all markets at 21.1/38.