The BulleTin • Sunday, June 6, 2021 B3
MOTOR SPORTS | NASCAR CUP SERIES
HORSE RACING
Essential Quality wins Belmont Stakes
BY STEPHEN WHYNO
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Brad Cox
picked up his first Triple
Crown victory with Essential
Quality’s romp to victory in
the Belmont Stakes on Satur-
day while waiting to see if he’ll
be awarded another from the
Kentucky Derby.
Cox could be a Derby win-
ner with Mandaloun if Bob
Baffert-trained Medina Spirit
is disqualified. But Cox was
able to enjoy this one with Es-
sential Quality beating Hot
Rod Charlie by 1¼ lengths.
Essential Quality, who went
off as the 6-5 favorite, passed
early leader Hot Rod Char-
lie around the final turn and
held on to win the 1½-mile $1
million race. He paid $4.60 to
win, $3 to place and $2.60 to
show.
“That was a long way
around there a mile a half but
it was exciting,” Cox said. “It
looked like the horse on the
inside, he still had run left. I
knew it was going to be a bat-
tle down the lane.”
Preakness winner Rom-
bauer was third and Known
Agenda fourth.
Essential Quality, a strik-
ing gray colt, finished fourth
as a beaten favorite in the
Kentucky Derby because of a
rough trip. Essential Quality
showed in the Belmont why
he has long been considered
one of the top 3-year-olds in
the country.
“In the Kentucky Derby we
were so confident that we’re
John Minchillo/AP
Essential Quality, with jockey Luis Saez, crosses the finish line to win
the Belmont Stakes on Saturday in Elmont, New York.
gonna win that race,” said
jockey Luis Saez, who won a
Triple Crown race for the first
time. “He was ready for the
race. But we have a little un-
lucky start. … Today the main
thing was try to break clean
and the rest I know he’s gonna
do it.”
Backdooring his way to
becoming the first Louis-
ville-born trainer to win the
Kentucky Derby wouldn’t al-
low Cox the same joy of vic-
tory as the Belmont, which the
up-and-coming star will likely
remember as his first true Tri-
ple Crown triumph.
And Cox saw this coming.
He predicted last summer that
Essential Quality would be his
horse for the Belmont, and
that proved true in beating
a tough field of seven other
horses.
It was something of re-
demption for Saez, who
thought he had his first Triple
Crown win finishing first in
the 2019 Derby with Maxi-
mum Security. But Maximum
Security was disqualified for
impeding other horses.
There was no DQ this time.
“Hot Rod Charlie ran a tre-
mendous race and I thought
(with) the hot pace we were
in a good spot where they
would come back,” Cox said.
“Luis did a fantastic job of get-
ting him in position turning
for home and he was able to
really show his stamina late,”
Cox said.
Saez said Belmont was his
“second home,” adding, “This
was the race I wanted to win.”
United Arab Emirates ruler
Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid
Al Maktoum owns Essential
Quality. Cox made it a point
to mention him moments af-
“It is a matter of checking
in with (the seniors) and
making sure they are
engaged when they are
out of school but still have
to come to practice. Their
daily routine is off but they
still have to show up and
perform. It is vital that they
stick it out for our younger
kids because they are such
a help to them and have
helped a young group grow
very quickly in this very,
very short season.”
Mountain View
Continued from B1
The rhythm of the athletic
year has been thrown off sev-
eral beats by the COVID-19
pandemic. As the year reaches
its final weeks, there is now a
unique wrinkle — seniors out
of school across the state who
are still going to suit up for
their high school team.
Keeping a team together
while parts of the team are no
longer in school is just adding
to the growing new reality that
competing and coaching the
past 15 months has brought.
But for the players who
have put in the time and
bought into the culture the
team has been building,
Mountain View coach Megan
Dickerson does not see much
changing in the final weeks of
the season.
“It is a matter of checking
in with them and making
sure they are engaged when
they are out of school but still
have to come to practice,” said
Dickerson. “Their daily rou-
tine is off but they still have to
show up and perform.”
Having the seniors continue
to play has been important
for a program seeking its first
postseason appearance since
2011.
Bowles and the senior class
have been extensions of the
coaching staff on the court
and at practice, which helped
lay a foundation for future
seasons, Dickerson said.
“It is vital that they stick it
out for our younger kids be-
cause they are such a help to
them and have helped a young
group grow very quickly in
this very, very short season,”
NFL
Continued from B1
Players are seeking those
changes because they believe
the quality of play in 2020
was as good as ever despite no
in-person work last offseason
because of the pandemic.
“I think teams have done a
good job of working it out be-
tween coaches and players,”
agent Ron Slavin said.
Case in point, the Lions.
They were among roughly
two-thirds of NFL teams to
issue statements through the
union in April saying they
planned to skip in-person work
during formal offseason prac-
tices known as organized team
activities.
By the time those dates ar-
rived in late May, most players
were attending. In other cit-
ies, the issue of staying away
wasn’t even a dominant part of
virtual interviews with players
ter the Belmont.
“Sheik Mohammed, he’s
been supporting us the last
two years and this is a tremen-
dous organization, world-class
organization and we wouldn’t
be here obviously without this
horse and his support, so I just
wanted to really thank him,”
Cox said.
Sheik Mohammed faces
scrutiny of human rights is-
sues after a judge in England
ruled that he orchestrated the
abductions of two of his adult
daughters.
The race was run without a
horse trained by Baffert, who
was banned by the New York
Racing Association after Me-
dina Spirit failed a post-Derby
drug test for the presence of a
steroid. Churchill Downs sus-
pended Baffert for two years
after an second sample from
the Derby came back positive
for betamethasone, which is
prohibited at any level on race
day in Kentucky, Maryland
and New York.
Normalcy returned to the
Belmont after a topsy-turvy
2020 that featured the race
leading off the Triple Crown
at a nontraditional 1⅛-mile
distance at an empty race-
track. The race was back in its
traditional spot as the third leg
of the Triple Crown five weeks
after the Derby and three af-
ter the Preakness, was back to
its “test of the champion” dis-
tance and had thousands of
mostly maskless fans roaming
the vast grandstand at Bel-
mont Park.
— Megan Dickerson,
Mountain View girls hoops coach
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Mountain View High School’s Liliana Overcash (24) drives to the
basket to score during the first half against Redmond High School
on Friday night in Redmond.
said Dickerson.
Mountain View is starting
to see its efforts pay off. Seven
games into the season, the
Cougars have won five, in-
cluding handing Ridgeview its
first loss Thursday, beating the
reigning Intermountain Con-
ference champs 49-48 on their
home court.
“They are embracing the
culture and getting an under-
and reporters.
Campbell said he was talking
to players about the offseason
program before the coordi-
nated effort by the union, and
he wanted the conversation to
be about the needs of players —
and coaches.
“All I can say is this is the
first step,” Campbell said last
month as offseason practices
were starting. “These guys were
willing to take the first step, and
to me, that speaks volumes.
So, this leadership and these
players, they wanted to do this.
They wanted to be here and
they’re here.”
Sure, there are some big
names staying away from off-
season work at team facilities,
Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady and
Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay
among them. But some, like
Rodgers and his showdown
with the front office, are unre-
lated to issues of offseason re-
quirements.
standing of what they need
to do to be successful,” said
Overcash on the team’s devel-
opment. “That was a big win
for us and I think it will help
us moving forward.”
There is still work to be
done. With five games left on
the regular season schedule,
Mountain View sees its pro-
gram rounding in form with
five games left, four of which
are against rivals Summit and
Bend High.
“This team has good chem-
istry,” said Dickerson. “When
we are shooting the three ball
well and shooting free throws
better than we ever have.
Scoring is happening which
is great, but we are still find-
ing out what kind of defensive
team we want to be.”
Waiting has been common
practice for high school ath-
letes in the past year. Waiting
a couple more weeks to finally
feel done with high school
only seems appropriate.
“It hasn’t hit yet,” said Over-
cash. “It is just weird because
we have games, but maybe
it will hit that we are finally
done after the season.”
e e
Reporter: 541-383-0307,
brathbone@bendbulletin.com
“I mean obviously we talked to some of the NFLPA reps
just on what those meetings are about. But as far as
these guys and this locker room, didn’t really have much
conversations about guys not showing up.”
— Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys quarterback
Contracts are also playing a
role in whether players show
up. The union didn’t ask mem-
bers to stay away if they had
workout bonuses, or provi-
sions for reduced pay if they
don’t show up in the offseason,
known as de-escalators.
Dallas tight end Dalton
Schultz, the team’s player repre-
sentative, said at least 20 veter-
ans on his team have contracts
with compensation tied to off-
season work with the Cowboys.
“I think a lot of guys were in
that mindset anyway of, ‘I’m
going in to save the money
that’s in my contract,’” Schultz
said. “It started there and once
we realized there’s going to be
a lot of guys there, I don’t think
there was any hesitation about
going in, at least from a per-
sonal perspective. If there’s go-
ing to be 20 guys, it’s like, ‘I’m
going to be there too.’”
Something else was at work
as well.
Quarterback Dak Prescott
missed the rest of the 2020 sea-
son after his horrific ankle in-
jury in Week 5. He’s gearing up
for a return after signing a $160
million, four-year contract, and
the Cowboys believed the vir-
tual-only offseason was a huge
issue that sidetracked coach
Mike McCarthy’s first season.
Nell Redmond/AP
Car owner Rick Hendrick, right, congratulates Kyle Larson in victory
lane after Larson won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor
Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, on May 30.
Hendrick train rolls into Sonoma
seeking its 4th straight victory
BY JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
The Hendrick Motorsports
train rolls into Sonoma Race-
way on a three-race winning
streak that pushed it past Petty
Enterprises as NASCAR’s win-
ningest organization.
Think the juggernaut will be
stopped Sunday at NASCAR’s
first visit to California in nearly
two years?
It’s going to be tough.
Sure, Martin Truex Jr. is the
two-time defending race win-
ner dating to 2019, the final
time before the pandemic that
NASCAR stopped at the pic-
turesque rolling road course in
wine country. In the time since,
though, reigning Cup cham-
pion Chase Elliott has become
king of the road and the four
Hendrick cars have hit a differ-
ent dimension.
“I think we all look at them
as being a really strong team
and having really strong race
cars consistently,” Truex said. “I
think across the board they’ve
been strong, all their teams, all
their drivers at different tracks
have been strong and winning
races.”
Truex is the last non-Hen-
drick driver to win a race,
nearly a month ago at Dar-
lington Raceway. Since then it
has been all Hendrick Motor-
sports, starting with an Alex
Bowman-led 1-2-3-4 sweep at
Dover. Elliott then got the win
at Circuit of the Americas in
Texas over teammate Kyle Lar-
son when the race was called
for rain, and Larson last Sun-
day beat Elliott at Charlotte to
give Rick Hendrick his 269th
Cup win — one more than
Richard Petty-owned cars.
Out in wine country, Elliott
will be seeking his first career
victory at Sonoma. But six of
his 12 career wins are on road
courses, including five of the
last six stops. Those six wins tie
him for third on NASCAR’s all-
time road course win list with
Bobby Allison, Richard Petty,
Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace.
Sonoma was not good to
him in four previous visits,
with a fourth-place finish in
2018 Elliott’s best result. He
led the first three laps of his
career at Sonoma in 2019 but
dropped out of the race 30 laps
short of the finish with an en-
gine issue.
“Sonoma is a place that I ha-
ven’t done a very good job in
the past,” Elliott said. “It’s been
a pretty big challenge for me.
It’s been a couple of years since
we’ve been there, so it’s been a
while. When we were there in
2019, I felt like we were doing
“Believe it or not there wasn’t
many conversations about not
showing up,” Prescott said.
“Coming from me and coming
from the guys and a lot of lead-
ers, I mean obviously we talked
to some of the NFLPA reps just
on what those meetings are
about. But as far as these guys
and this locker room, didn’t re-
ally have much conversations
about guys not showing up.”
Washington was among a
few teams that shortened the
schedule for voluntary work-
outs and moved up minicamp.
There were plenty of teams that
didn’t use all available practice
dates, and some that said the
schedule was flexible.
Indianapolis made a dra-
matic change, scrapping mini-
camp after two weeks of light,
voluntary works followed by
a two-month break before
training camp. The traditional
amount of time off is about six
weeks.
a great job and in a good po-
sition before we had our me-
chanical issue, so I’m looking
forward to getting back and
having another shot at it.”
Around the carousel
NASCAR has raced at
Sonoma 31 times since its in-
augural 1989 event on two
different configurations of the
track.
The famous Carousel was
eliminated in 1998 in favor of a
chute that shortened the track
to 1.949 miles, but Speedway
Motorsports scrapped that af-
ter the 2018 race. Now the Car-
ousel is back and the multi-ele-
vational layout is 12 turns over
2.52 miles with several high-
speed sections.
NASCAR used a higher
downforce package when it
raced Sonoma last in 2019, and
it returns with lower down-
force and no practice or qual-
ifying because of pandemic
precautions. The Carousel goes
down from Turn 4 through
Turns 5 and 6 before lead-
ing into the course’s longest
straightaway and the Turn 7
hairpin.
Truex went to the Toyota
simulator earlier this week
“just to kind of reacclimate
myself to the track,” but drivers
aren’t sure what to expect with
this downforce package and
the Carousel.
“I think it’s just a really awk-
ward corner, and it doesn’t feel
like a corner a race car should
be going through,” said Cole
Custer, who has only run a
K&N Pro Series West race on
the configuration.
“It’s really tight, really
downhill, off camber. It’s just
a really tough corner, and it’s
something that you never go
through there and feel like you
did it right. It never feels nat-
ural, so it’s one of those things
you just kind of have to hit
your marks and make sure you
don’t overdo it through there.”
Odds and ends
Elliott is the 11-5 favorite to
win Sunday, according to Fan-
Duel Sportsbook. … Truck
Series regular Ben Rhodes will
make his Cup Series debut
driving for Spire Motorsports
in the No. 77 Chevrolet. He
won the truck race on the Day-
tona Road Course earlier this
year and is the fifth different
driver to pilot the No. 77 for
Spire this season. … There are
five California natives in the
field, including Cole Custer
from Ladera Ranch and Tyler
Reddick from Corning, both
making their Sonoma debuts.
“We’re all pros and I think
the coaches, they put the trust
in you to during offseason to
put the work in, whether it’s
at the facility or not,” New En-
gland running back James
White said. “It’s up to you to
put the work in and make sure
you’re prepared. Taking care
of your body. So I think that’s
what’s most important.”
Like most teams, the two-
time defending AFC champion
Kansas City Chiefs planned
no changes to their minicamp
schedule, and the biggest name
among them participated in
earlier offseason work.
“I think the biggest thing is
you get to experiment a little
bit more,” quarterback Patrick
Mahomes said. “I know they’re
voluntary, but we’re able to ex-
periment and not go extremely
hard and still get some good
work in, get the guys together
and build that chemistry, be a
part of the team.”