• Complete Preakness coverage

"Start spreading the news. We're leaving today," Bill Baffert sang in an atonal mix of Irish tenor and barking dog. It was barely 6:30 a.m.

They want to be a part of it -- New York. And if ever there were two pairs of vagabond shoes, those were them.

ON JUNE 7 AT BELMONT PARK, BOB BAFFERT, horse trainer and little brother of Bill, will attempt a feat that has gone undone since 1978 -- that is, to win the Triple Crown. A few have tried it since -- Spectacular Bid in 1980 and Sunday Silence in 1989 -- but they failed in the Belmont after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Baffert's big gray colt, Silver Charm, is in such a position, having won the Derby and Preakness, and now faces what history calls the "Test of Champions" in the 11/2-mile Belmont Stakes.

"I'm sure it will hit me when I get to New York," Bob Baffert said, sitting in the Pimlico track kitchen Sunday morning. "Right now, I don't want to think about it. I'm keeping this blank spot in my mind. I don't want to go into a panic mode, like, `What am I going to do!"'

Brother Bill couldn't resist a straight line like that.

"Can you imagine the number of blanks spots in his mind?" he asked, cackling. "They're fighting for position."

It would have to be quite a fight to match the one Silver Charm got into the day before in the Preakness. Silver Charm was a head in front of Free House, who was a head in front of Captain Bodgit at the finish line.

IT WAS THE CLOSEST THREE-HORSE CHARGE to the wire in the Preakness since 1932, when Burgoo King was a head in front of Tick On, who was a nose in front of Boatswain at the end.

And it was very reminiscent of the finish in the 1989 Preakness, when Sunday Silence beat Easy Goer by a nose after a quarter-mile duel between the two great colts.

"I love watching horse races like that," Baffert said, ``I just don't like being involved in them. I like to win by daylight, but Silver Charm just isn't that kind of horse."

The top three finishers in the Preakness were the same as in the Derby on May 5 at Churchill Downs, except in Kentucky, Captain Bodgit was second and Free House was third.

SILVER CHARM'S TWO ARCHRIVALS ARE EXPECTED to do him battle once again in the Belmont.

"I think after a mile and a half, they'll be separated a little more," Baffert said. Baffert complimented Captain Bodgit's trainer, Gary Capuano, on "a great job," then politely asked him to stay away from Belmont.

"I told him the Ohio Derby would be a great place for him," Baffert said, laughing, then turned his attention to Free House's trainer, fellow Californian Paco Gonzalez.

And Paco, he ought to take that horse back to base," Baffert said.

Captain Bodgit went back to his home base at nearby Bowie after the Preakness and isn't expected to ship to New York until the day of the race. Free House was set to go to New York on Monday. Silver Charm, meanwhile, left for Churchill Downs in Louisville on Sunday, and he will be based there until moving to New York early Belmont week.

Baffert said Silver Charm would have his final serious work at Churchill Downs before he was shipped. Baffert likes the deep, loamy Kentucky Derby track better than the sand-based track at Belmont, where his Derby runner-up from last year, Cavonnier, was injured.

WHEN SILVER CHARM FINALLY DOES ARRIVE in New York, he will bring with him an excitement that hasn't infected horse racing since the Spectacular Bid-Sunday Silence days. There were three Triple Crown winners in the '70s -- Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed - and none since. The experts give Silver Charm an excellent chance to end that drought.

"Belmont is finally going to be able to fill those seats way at the end of the bleachers," Baffert said. "They've got the three big guns. I don't even want to think about it. To me, I'm just playing it as another race. I've set my mind back to Los Alomitos."

That's the Arizona track where Baffert began his career as a quarterhorse trainer more than 20 years ago. Now 44 and with more silver hair than his horse, Baffert's easy manner and stunning success have made him one of thoroughbred racing's biggest stars.

"So now I am Silver Charm's only obstacle to the Triple Crown," Baffert said, smiling from behind his omnipresent sunglasses. "He can't get sick. You can't do this, you can't do that. But so far, it looks like it was meant to happen."

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