When Bodemeister bowed out of the 2012 Belmont Stakes after just missing wins over I'll Have Another in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, he left the surprise Triple Crown contender without a legendary, screenplay-selling foe to attempt to vanquish in the story's final act. Into that breach, after some weeks, appears to have stepped Dullahan, the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, left intentionally out of the Preakness to keep him fresh for this long final leg.
Here's an AP article about Dullahan's trainer's perfect contentment with playing the spoiler, which will have to be changed into a steely, sociopathic disdain for society's awards and applause in the screenplay but will, after that, do quite nicely for a villain. Dullahan's an excellent horse, by all accounts, and in the last few days it looks like he and Dale Romans have successfully taken the second-largest share of media attention ahead of race day Saturday.
For more Belmont Stakes 2012 coverage on SB Nation St. Louis, I humbly suggest:
- More unorthodox media attention has been doled out lately to a man who is apparently the most famous practitioner of horse chiropractic.
- We've also gotten an earful about the horse-racing equivalent of overreaction to baseball's steroids scandals: The New York regulatory body's heavy-handed detention barn policy.