California Chrome co-owner Steve Coburn calls from the grandstand at Belmont Park after his horse finished fourth in the Belmont Stakes horse race on June 7, 2014, in Elmont, N.Y.Nobody likes a sore loser. Especially when he drags handicapped children into his arguments.
So it is more than a little tempting to completely dismiss California Chrome co-owner Steve Coburn’s angry rant about “cheaters” taking a “coward’s way out” to knock off Chrome in this past Saturday’s Belmont Stakes and deny him horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner in 36.
Especially when he chose the rather tasteless analogy of “That would be like me, at 6-2, playing basketball with a kid in a wheelchair … would that be fair?,” to compare his horse’s challenge of going against Belmont winner Tonalist and runner-up Commissioner, both of which ran in the Belmont after skipping the earlier Triple Crown races — The Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.
(As a side note, I’ve covered both wheelchair basketball and tennis in my time and I’ve seen athletes in both sports who could probably embarrass the 61-year-old Coburn. But that’s another column for another time.)
Truth is, this may be one of those don’t-shoot-the-messenger-just-because-you-don’t-like-the-message moments in American sports. Because love him or loathe him, Coburn makes an interesting argument.