Creator wins the Belmont by a nose

ELMONT, N.Y. - Irad Ortiz Jr. was already among America's best young jockeys. His ride in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday won't do anything but cement that position and perhaps put him in the conversation for best of any age.

Riding 16-1 Creator for the first time after the Arkansas Derby winner finished 13th in the Kentucky Derby, Ortiz quickly got the colt to the rail from his extreme outside-post position in the 13-horse field. He patiently moved the horse from 10th on the backstretch to sixth by the quarter pole. Then Ortiz sent Creator through a hole between two horses when he could not afford even a second of hesitation.

Once Creator got through, he took off after Destin, an 8-1 shot that looked like the winner the entire homestretch - until Ortiz just started pushing Creator as hard as he could in the final yards. It was just enough as Creator caught Destin on the last stride to win by a nose. The Japanese horse Lani was third.

A postrace downpour came a few minutes too late for mud-loving Preakness winner and Kentucky Derby runner-up Exaggerator. Jockey Kent Desormeaux had his mount in mid-pack, but when he asked the colt to catch up on the far turn, he could not do it.

"I said, 'Show me your stuff,' and there was nothing there," Desormeaux said. Exaggerator, the 7-5 favorite, finished 11th.

The winner, trained by newly minted Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, paid $34.80 and ran the mile and a half in 2 minutes, 28.51 seconds.

Creator is the ninth horse this century to run in the Derby or on Derby weekend, skip the Preakness, and win the Belmont Stakes. Creator is a late-developing son of superstar sire Tapit that got hot at Oaklawn Park this winter and spring. The colt was highly thought of before the Derby, but lost all his momentum in traffic at the quarter pole and finished a deceiving 13th.

"Going up to the Derby, I thought he had a wonderful chance," Asmussen said. "The progress the horse had made through the spring, we were extremely confident Derby week. Traffic that day obviously didn't allow him to show it."

Creator showed it at Belmont Park.

"We hoped he would give us another chance to prove it," Asmussen said. "We are very fortunate to be in this position because there's just a couple of chances to prove you're a classic winner."

At the top of the stretch in the Acorn Stakes, the third race on the Belmont undercard, jockey Javier Castellano thought he was a "cinch" on Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia. However, the filly, locally owned and trained, turned inward toward the rail after taking the lead, did not have the same kick she had at Churchill Downs five weeks ago, and had to settle for third, beaten by 21/4 lengths by Carina Mia.

The winner ran the mile in 1:34.97. Cathryn Sophia, a $30,000 purchase, earned $70,000 to push her career earnings past $1 million.

"She had no excuse," trainer John Servis said. "The pace wasn't crazy."

The filly was always going to get a break after this race. Servis hopes to bring Chuck Zacney's filly back in the Test Stakes at Saratoga to get ready for the Sept. 24 Cotillion at Parx.