Night had fallen on a rain-drenched Saturday when no one saw the sun, and in the mud and puddles at Belmont Park were strewn the remains of the day. Scattered everywhere were thousands of bits of paper, many bearing the number of the 4 horse in the 11th race. Many of Funny Cide's fans had come to buy win tickets they didn't intend to cash. Two minutes and 28.26 seconds after the gates opened for the 135th Belmont Stakes, they were worthless souvenirs.

For the 25th consecutive year, there would be no Triple Crown, because Empire Maker blew away the people's horse on the far turn and held off Ten Most Wanted to win by three-quarters of a length. The colt who in April was the consensus choice to win all three classics was the one who prevented the former underdog from a sweep. The wheel had come full circle, and to a detached intelligence, it seemed like poetic justice. To Funny Cide's legion of rain-soaked followers, it all seemed so unfair.

Their hero had failed his moment of truth, and many were feeling deprived and cheated by fate. "We deserved a Triple Crown and we didn't get one! Waaaaaaaaaah!"

As Clint Eastwood said just before shooting Gene Hackman in "Unforgiven," "Deservin's got nothin' to do with it."

When jockey Jerry Bailey was bringing Empire Maker to the winner's circle, he heard boos. New York audiences are tough, but this was extreme even for them. A journalist who had made a significant bet on Empire Maker was pumped, which put him among a select few.

"Right after the race, my feeling was 'Yes!' " he told me that night, "and then I realized almost everybody else looked as if they had just lost their dog."

The Funny Cide frenzy, which began with his Kentucky Derby upset and gathered the momentum of a Category 5 hurricane with his Preakness runaway, ended very badly, as passionate love affairs often do. The bandwagon of millions, which included most of the media, hit a rut and jolted all of its passengers into the Belmont mud.

Journalists had written as if the Triple Crown were preordained for the gutsy New York-bred gelding owned by the regular guys from little Sackets Harbor, N.Y. Some compared him to Secretariat and decided he could single-handedly resurrect the sport and thrust it into the mainstream. I'm proud I didn't, and that I picked the Belmont triple cold, but during the week I was made to feel almost un-American when I kept insisting Empire Maker would win.

As trainer Bobby Frankel said, "It's vindication. It's nice to be right once in a while, because you're wrong so often in this business."

He got that right.

So another Triple Crown is over, and what have we learned? The greatest lesson is the oldest one, that if you want to be a winner, never be afraid of going against the grain. Empire Maker was glorified before the Derby and prematurely coronated as the king of his generation, so it made sense to bet against him there. Five weeks later, Funny Cide was being portrayed as a combination of Man o' War, Mister Ed and Pegasus, so my gut feeling was he would fail.

Never discount cosmic vibrations when handicapping. Whenever too many people want something too badly, it seems as if it's destined to be denied. Many assumed the Funny Cide saga would end like the upcoming movie "Seabiscuit," with a glorious triumph by a horse from the wrong side of the tracks, so poignant that it thrills a nation and makes men weep with joy. That actually occurred in 1938, but it didn't guarantee a rerun 65 years later. This is a sad, bad world, and anticipating ecstasy is a no-win proposition.

That's not to take anything away from Funny Cide, who didn't win the whole thing but still owned the spring. Jose Santos, a classy gentleman, was thrilled to be along for the ride, even if it did include baseless allegations that he carried something illegal in the Derby and ended sadly.

"I am very proud and I'm not disappointed at all," said Santos, whose horse was a bit rank on the lead and didn't handle the off track. "He had a great run and to win the Triple Crown is very difficult.

"Everybody was applauding Funny Cide and me when we came back. That was something unbelievable, because I've never seen a horse get beat and hear them still cheering for him."

If both horses stay healthy, they'll meet again soon, perhaps in the Haskell Aug. 3 at Monmouth Park or the Travers at Saratoga three weeks later. Maybe we'll get a rivalry out of this, or maybe they'll never face each other again.

Racing is a game of the day, where everything changes quickly and there are no final victories. Most of the time you zig when you should zag, or vice versa. As a bettor, you have to savor the times you land in the right places and shake it off when you don't. Funny Cide's backers got two-thirds of a Triple Crown; Empire Maker's believers got the last laugh. It was exhausting and intriguing, and we'll do it again next year, maybe with a few thousand new fans, courtesy of Funny Cide.

Sounds like a happy ending all the way around.