posted May 30, 2008 at 20:35 EST in Triple Crown Betting Trends

Trainer Barclay Tagg was so close, oh so close, to winning the Belmont Stakes in 2003. The horse he saddled, Funny Cide, was a media darling having been the first gelding to win the Kentucky Derby since Clyde van Dusen in 1929. Just three weeks before the 2003 Belmont Stakes, Funny Cide had dominated his rivals in the Preakness Stakes by something like 11 lengths. There was no doubt in Tagg’s mind that his horse had a chance to win the Belmont Stakes and to make history by being the first horse to win the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1979.

Then, in what was supposed to be nothing more then a maintenance work, Funny Cide ran his eye-balls out - - too hard, too fast - - and the word began to spread that Funny Cide might be over the top. When the gates actually opened for the 2003 Belmont Stakes, just a few days after Funny Cide’s blistering work, everybody watching that day knew from the outset that the race was over. Funny Cide wasn’t going to win the Belmont Stakes. He was in the deepest part of the Belmont strip, the rail, and looked to be spinning his wheels in the mud. It had rained for three days straight before the 2003 Belmont Stakes and even though there was nothing in Funny Cide’s pedigree that said he wouldn’t like the mud, there was nothing in his pedigree that said he would relish it either. Mudders are usually individuals as it is. You never know how they will run until they actually do it.

Funny Cide’s chance to win the Belmont Stakes had almost gone out the window before the race had even started.

Now, Barclay Tagg returns to the site of his most heartbreaking defeat with a chance to spoil the dreams of a fellow New York trainer, Richard Dutrow. Tagg comes to the 2008 Belmont Stakes party with Tale of Ekati, a regally bred son of Tale of the Cat.

Tale of Ekati is also the 2008 Wood Memorial winner. The horse will be fresh, bigger, stronger, more relaxed in the Belmont Stakes. Tagg has a chance to do to Richard Dutrow what fellow New York trainer, Bobby Frankel, did to him in 2003 - - that is deny Dutrow and Big Brown the Triple Crown.

Known more for turf horses such as Royal Mountain and Showing Up, Tagg started his career with show horses before entering college. He got involved with racehorses in 1963 and then learned his trade under the tutelage of Hall-of-Famer Frank Whiteley.

It wasn’t until 2003 that Tagg made his presence felt in the Triple Crown races. Funny Cide was an absolute monster. Tagg almost didn’t want to run Funny Cide in any of the Triple Crown races, he was so set on keeping the horse fresh and ready for the summer, but decided to go ahead and do it after Funny Cide barely lost to 2003 Belmont Stakes winner, Empire Maker.

With Tale of Ekati, Tagg has his best chance to win the Belmont Stakes since 2003. Like all of Tagg’s horses, Tale of Ekati will no doubt go into the Belmont Stakes ready to roll.

Will it be enough? If history is any indication, it might be. Barclay Tagg turned Nobiz Like Shobiz into a turf beast after the horse failed in the Kentucky Derby. He did the same thing with Showing Up. It shows that Tagg knows what he’s got in his horses.

If Tagg is saddling Tale of Ekati in the 2008 Belmont Stakes, then you can be sure that he will try to win the race and not just pick-up a paycheck while Big Brown runs around the track uncontested. Besides, Tagg is still smarting from Funny Cide’s loss in 2003.

What goes around, comes around, right? Barclay Tagg hopes so. There’s no doubt that he feels the gods of racing owe him one after Funny Cide’s horrible experience in the 2003 Belmont Stakes.