2001 Belmont Stakes - Point Given : Full Broadcast

Nothing slowed Point Given, the prohibitive 6-5 favorite, in the 133rd running of the Belmont Stakes yesterday.

Not the rambunctious Dr Greenfield, whose reluctance to load in the starting gate delayed the race.

Not a soft pace set by the lone speed horse, Balto Star.

And not a hustling move on the far turn by A P Valentine, the New York horse from a New York trainer, or a late one by the Kentucky Derby winner, Monarchos, who is conditioned by a Kentucky trainer.

When Point Given barreled into the stretch all alone, the 73,857 people at this grand racetrack on Long Island roared as the mammoth colt just kept going and going and going with strides as powerful as a paddle wheel. Point Given looked good winning the Preakness three weeks ago but yesterday, as he turned his 7-length lead into 8, 10 and finally 12 1/4 lengths, his challengers knew they were being rocked in the wake of something special.

''We ran into a monster,'' said the trainer Nick Zito, the New Yorker whose A P Valentine looked briefly like a winged horse on the final turn but was a well-beaten runner-up.

''The winner ran an over-the-top race, and I congratulate him,'' said John Ward, after watching his colt Monarchos muster a slingshot move that was deadly in the Kentucky Derby but too little, too late yesterday. Monarchos failed to gain a step on Point Given en route to a third-place finish, two and three-quarters lengths out of second.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/10/spo...