good enough for me. I picked Silver Charm to win the Kentucky Derby, then went into temporary retirement before the Preakness ... now I'm back picking Silver Charm to win the Belmont by an eyelash.
ELMONT, N.Y. -- It wasn't exactly Broadway Joe Namath lounging on a poolside cabana. Nevertheless, Gary Stevens stood before God and Visa on Wednesday and announced that there will be a Triple Crown winner in 1997.
He even used the G-word, assuring us that Silver Charm will win Saturday's Belmont Stakes.
"I guarantee it," Stevens said, providing us with the second-best guarantee possible -- right from the jockey's mouth.
That's good enough for me. I picked Silver Charm to win the Kentucky Derby, then went into temporary retirement before the Preakness ... now I'm back picking Silver Charm to win the Belmont by an eyelash.
It only seems fitting that since Silver Charm won the Derby by a head (over now-retired Captain Bodgit), the Preakness by a head bob (over Free House), this next race will really be close.
THREE WINNING PHOTO-FINISHES within five weeks by the same horse? Why not? If capturing the Triple Crown by the length of three footballs -- total -- isn't enough to bring mainstream America back to the race track, nothing is.
Silver Charm, the dark gray colt with the white-blazed face, has been the toast of New York this week. Trainer Bob Baffert, affable and glib, continues to be the master of the sound bite. He will be a guest of Jay Leno on The Tonight Show Monday night ... but only if Silver Charm wins.
"He has that Michael Jordan look," Baffert said of Silver Charm this week. "He's a very confident horse."
Don't laugh. A lot of karma goes into the outcome of a horse race. Silver Charm is surrounded by a Hall of Fame jockey, a laid-back California trainer and some congenial personalities in owners Bob and Beverly Lewis.
Call it Camp Happy. Call it magic. Whatever you want to call it, Silver Charm, who avoided a near-catastrophic track collision on Tuesday when he was accidentally grazed by a 5-year-old gelding named Firecrest, has been living a charmed life.
"We dodged a bullet," Baffert admitted after Tuesday's close call.
STRANGELY ENOUGH, SILVER CHARM is favored for the first time in these Triple Crown races. He was the third and second betting choice, respectively, in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
But now Silver Charm is considered the best 3-year-old on the planet, not only among this year's 3-year-old class but, according to the experts, all 3-year-olds who have galloped and gone over the past two decades.
"I think it's the best crop of 3-year-olds we've seen in 20 years," Stevens told the Louisville Courier-Journal last week.
"These are the three greatest 3-year-olds I've ever seen in my life," Baffert said of Silver Charm, Free House and Captain Bodgit, whose 1-2-3 finish at the Preakness three weeks ago was separated by less than a combined head-and-a-half.
"This crop of 3-year-olds is the best in many years and the best we are likely to see for a long time," Andy Beyer, longtime turf writer and track guru, recently wrote in The Washington Post. "Any one of (Silver Charm, Captain Bodgit, Free House and Touch Gold) could have dominated most of the Triple Crown events of the 1990s."
So while, on one hand, it's not much of a limb to go out on to pick Silver Charm, on the other hand, it is because of the competition. Yes, if Silver Charm wins the Triple Crown, he will have earned it.
This is a 3-year-old class which has had to overcome injury to pre-Derby favorite Pulpit (arthroscopic surgery after a fourth-place finish) and Captain Bodgit (retired) since the Triple Crown series began May 3; a resilient 3-year-old class that has proven to be strong enough, deep enough, to pull it off.
A huge factor in predicting a Triple Crown winner for the first time since Affirmed in 1978 is that Silver Charm doesn't have Captain Bodgit breathing down his neck anymore.
BODGIT WAS THE POST-TIME favorite in each of the first two races. More than that, however, he was the horse who always seemed capable of overhauling Silver Charm, if given a clean trip and a smart tactical race from his jockey.
But just as Affirmed had Alydar, Silver Charm still has Free House.
Free House, the smallish light gray colt who carries the devil red silks of Calumet Farms, beat Silver Charm in two of three California prep races prior to the start of the Triple Crown series, then showed and placed, respectively, in the Derby and Preakness.
Touch Gold, who had never finished worse than third, skipped the Kentucky Derby but then finished an impressive fourth despite literally dropping to his knees coming out of the gate. The dark brown colt now draws the rail in Saturday's seven-horse field.
Right next to Touch Gold -- coming out of the No. 2 hole -- will be Silver Charm, ready to run into the record books. Free House draws the No. 6 post position.
The last time there was a Triple Crown winner, the races were decided by 1 1/2 lengths, a neck and a head, in that order.
Affirmed had Alydar to push him to greatness. Now all Silver Charm needs is another push from Free House or Touch Gold -- and some long eyelashes.
It says here, he'll get it done.
Ray Buck is CBS SportsLine's national columnist.
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