HE TAKES A MCPEEK INTO POETIC JUSTICE.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Horse Racing 

ELMONT, N.Y. - Where once he dreamed of celebrating the ultimate victory, Ken McPeek gladly settled for enjoying the last laugh.

For most of this year, McPeek figured that if any horse trainerwas going to enter the Belmont Stakes with a shot at a Triple Crown, it was going to be him, a 39-year-old Kentuckian peering through the window to the big time. His wintertime barn at Gulfstream Park near Miami was home to Repent and Harlan's Holiday. Both colts were consensus contenders for the springtime classics.

Elsewhere in the barn, about 20 stalls down from the stars, lived a sore-footed specimen named Sarava, not that anybody paid attention to him back then.

First, McPeek's Triple Crown arsenal began to fall apart.

Then he did.

By Saturday, McPeek had seen Repent get beaten by War Emblem andinjured in a Kentucky Derby prep, seen Harlan's Holiday enter the Derby cursed by being the tote-board favorite and finish seventh, and seen Harlan's Holiday led to another trainer's barn early this week on orders from the colt's owners.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, McPeek got injured himself,breaking a foot in a pickup basketball game and needing crutches to hobble around the dusty Churchill Downs backstretch last month.

``You gotta be pretty resilient to play this game,'' McPeek saidSaturday, meaning horse racing, not basketball.

He said that with the smile of a man who just found out that sports occasionally mete out a poetic form of justice.

In the Belmont Stakes, where War Emblem was going for the TripleCrown, the forgotten Sarava rallied from sixth under jockey Edgar Prado's white and red silks to win at 70-1 odds, recording the biggest upset in the 134-year history of the so-called Test of Champions.

Somewhere, Harlan's Holiday owners Jack and Laurie Wolf might have been thinking McPeek is good enough for them, after all.

Why, even Bob Baffert, the disappointed trainer of War Emblem, had to applaud McPeek's redemption.

``Good for Kenny. Hey, that's great. He showed that guy (Wolf) he knows how to train horses,'' Baffert said. ``He had a lot of disappointment in the Derby. He thought he had a Derby winner. Now he gets a taste of it.''

McPeek, already a clear-thinking man, learned to handle setbacksover the past few years.

His wife, Sue, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer of the jaw while she was pregnant. Labor was induced, the couple's daughter Jennifer was born healthy, and Sue battled the cancer to submission through surgery and chemotherapy.

After Harlan's Holiday was taken to Todd Pletcher's barn on Tuesday, McPeek said: ``When you've dealt with almost losing your wife, losing a horse doesn't seem that important.''

Sarava's entry in the Belmont seemed likely to be a footnote tohis up-and-down winter and spring. The colt came into the race after winning a minor stakes on the Preakness-day undercard and appeared way overmatched Saturday.

After coming to America from England for an ownership partnership of Louisville's Gary Drake and Surrey's Susan and Paul Roy, the son of Wild Again endured a foot condition known as a quarter crack. The treatment forced a veterinarian to cut away one-quarter of one hoof. An acrylic patch remains on the hoof.

The injury sidelined Sarava from December to April, so never mind any Triple Crown dreams McPeek might have harbored for him.

But the Sir Barton victory, in Sarava's third race back, persuaded McPeek to try the Belmont, and recent workouts convinced him the horse could win.

``Kenny and I were over there (at the Belmont track) watching him and we were looking at each other in disbelief at how well he was training,'' Drake said. ``(Winning) was a shock, but it wasn't, because he'd been touting himself to us.''

Sarava's three victories in nine starts included a maiden win at36-1 odds.

``He's used to people discounting him and not giving him much attention,'' Drake said of Sarava. ``Hopefully they'll give him some attention now.''

Drake gave the credit to McPeek.

``We (owners) wanted to push, sometimes, and he said, 'Patience,patience, patience,' '' Drake said.

Patience: It'll all work out in the end.

``It's awesome,'' McPeek said of his reward.

For him, what went around came around, all the way around for a mile and a half.

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Photo:

Sarava's surprise triumph in the Belmont, with jockey Edgar Prado aboard, was sweet to trainer Ken McPeek.

Richard Drew/Associated Press