SARATOGA SPRINGS — At 15-1 odds, Crudo is a long shot to outrun Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty and Preakness champion Journalism to the wire in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes at Saratoga.
One could argue, however, that this outcome would be no more of a surprise than the circumstances that led Crudo into the Triple Crown race in the first place for owners Bobby Flay and Jimmy Ventura and Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher.
“Jimmy and I were going to buy him as a pinhook proposition — we bought him as a weanling and we were going to sell him as a yearling. We brought him to the Saratoga [Fasig-Tipton] sale, and he didn’t sell, so we kept him,” Flay, the chef, restaurant magnate and Food Network star told The Post early Friday morning before visiting Crudo.
“I don’t usually race colts. I usually race fillies only. But I have him, so he’s racing, and he’s turned out to have talent,” Flay continued. “The Belmont Stakes is New York’s most important race and as a New Yorker, it’s clearly important to me.”
Flay, 60, says he’s been watching horse racing since his teenage years when he and his friends from the Yorkville neighborhood in upper Manhattan would cut school and take the A train to Aqueduct.
The Belmont Stakes has long been a staple of Flay’s social calendar.
“I go to the Belmont every year. I usually take 20-30 people to Belmont Park and make a day out of it,” Flay said. “It’s become a tradition where I have people over to my house for brunch, everyone comes dressed in their racing gear — suits, summer dresses, hats. I feed them in the morning and then put everyone in cars and we go to Belmont and we have a day.”
He said those nights usually end with a group dinner at Wolfgang’s Steakhouse on 33rd Street.
But Saturday, the stakes will be much higher.
On Preakness Day at Pimlico, in his third career start, Crudo won the Sir Barton Stakes by 7¹/₂ lengths.
Pletcher, a four-time winner in the Belmont, gave the son of 2018 Triple Crown champion Justify a few weeks to breeze, considered other options and decided to give it a go in the $2 million race.
“The horse is here, he’s doing well, I don’t see a whole lot of pace in the race, we’ve got [jockey] John Velazquez available,” Pletcher said. “I couldn’t come up with a reason not to give it a try.”
Crudo’s name, not surprisingly, has ties to the culinary world.
“I came up with the name,” Flay said, explaining he acknowledged raw talent, though on menus everywhere the word means raw fish. “It’s so hard to name these horses. I liked the fact that it meant raw because he was such a young horse when we bought him and he had talent.
“I told Jimmy what I named him and he was like, ‘Really?’ He wasn’t impressed,” Flay added about his partner, who is in commercial real estate and has been involved in horse racing for more than 30 years. “Naming horses and naming restaurants. If they turn out to be good, the name makes perfect sense. It couldn’t be anything else.”
Flay spent much of his spring rooting on his beloved Knicks from the first few rows at Madison Square Garden.
Like most fans, he reveled in the team’s longest playoff run in 25 years and still is feeling the disappointment.
“I remember all the playoff seasons when we ran into Michael Jordan,” said Flay, who lists the Knicks and Yankees as his biggest sports passions. “We were good then, but we kind of couldn’t get past it. It was fun to watch those guys play this year. They’re a really good team and, unfortunately, they lost to Indiana.”
Flay said he was surprised at the firing of coach Tom Thibodeau.
“I am. I thought he did a good job. I mean, we beat the world champions. We beat the Celtics soundly,” he said. “A couple things go different ways and you’re in the Finals. I don’t always think that new is a good idea, but it’s not my team.”
His team on Saturday is Crudo-Flay-Ventura-Pletcher.
“Both Bobby and Jimmy love horse racing. Bobby’s been terrific to train for, for a number of years,” Pletcher said. “He’s knowledgeable and also always says, ‘You can make the decision.’ We’ve had some success together and these guys are fun to train for.”