Results and payouts from the 153rd running of the Belmont Stakes on June 5, 2021, at Belmont Park, won by Essential Quality.

2   Essential Quality – $4.60 / $3.00 /$2.60 

4   Hot Rod Charlie – $4.10 /$2.90 

3   Rombauer – $3.50 

6   Known Agenda 

1   Bourbonic

7   Rock Your World

8   Overtook

5   France Go de Ina

$1 Exacta (2-4) – $7.50

50-cent Trifecta (2-4-3) – $10.85

$1 Double (4-2) – $5.00

$1 Pick Three (3-4-2) – $59.00

50-cent Pick Four (8/3/4/2) –$269.25

By historical standards, the eight-runner field in the Belmont Stakes is already small. It’s even smaller considering three entrants are field-fillers with little more than a prayer.

But five runners in the Belmont are legit – once-beaten favorite Essential Quality, Preakness winner Rombauer, Kentucky Derby third-place finisher Hot Rod Charlie, likely pacesetter Rock Your World, and late-runner Known Agenda.

One can make a case the final outcome of the Kentucky Derby, in part, came down to trips with many of the leading candidates having their chances compromised by unlucky runs of varying degrees. Many of those horses will meet again Saturday in the Belmont Stakes. Primary among that group is KNOWN AGENDA, who was completely eliminated from contention after the opening furlong of the Derby when put in tight quarters along the rail and forced to steady back to near the rear of the field in a race ultimately dominated by horses racing on or close to the lead.

Other than his undefeated record, ESSENTIAL QUALITY lost little when beaten only a length in the Kentucky Derby. He took a good bump leaving the gate, and that might have cost him a bit of early position. After that, he raced wide around both turns and was still punching on in the stretch. One of his best assets is his tactical speed, and he shouldn’t be too far off the leaders when the real racing begins. Fresh after skipping the Preakness, he’s worked swiftly coming into this race.

At the three-sixteenths pole of the Kentucky Derby, you’d have to have made HOT ROD CHARLIE the favorite. There had been a spot of early trouble going past the stands the first time, but jockey Flavien Prat eased Hot Rod Charlie into decent position and for the race’s last mile gave his mount a perfect trip. He saved ground around the far turn, popped outside for his final charge, and looked like he was going best – until he wasn’t.

The consistent and reliable HOT ROD CHARLIE, one of five legitimate contenders in the 2021 Belmont Stakes, gets the call based on improving form, established class, and the likelihood of a forwardly placed trip among the first three pacesetters/pressers.

Each start by Hot Rod Charlie has been better than the start before, including his perfect-trip third in the Kentucky Derby. He saved ground just off the pace, angled out, and was third across the wire. No excuses, none needed. He ran well and got beat.

HOT ROD CHARLIE was a big surprise in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile when nearly pulling off a 94-1 upset, and he arguably ran as well as eventual winner ESSENTIAL QUALITY in that race while making the first move into a wicked pace. He has since proven that effort was no fluke with a convincing win in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, followed by a close third in the Kentucky Derby – where he finished just ahead of Essential Quality.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Traffic is back. Curfews have been lifted at bars and restaurants. The Belmont Stakes has been restored to its rightful place – and distance – on the calendar.

Everywhere you look in New York these days, there are signs of life returning to normal after 15 months of restrictions and disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Brad Cox woke up May 1, 2021, thinking he’d win his first Kentucky Derby later that day.

Never mind Cox was saddling his first Derby starter. This is a man, chronically optimistic, who says, “I will” and “I can” right up until the point it’s proven he actually hasn’t.

Commendable won just two races in his career, a debut victory against maidens at Del Mar in the summer of 1999, and nearly 10 months later, after six straight races in which he finished out of the money, the Belmont Stakes. He was the fourth Belmont winner for trainer D. Wayne Lukas, the third for jockey Pat Day, both already members of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame by then.