To months in a year, inches in a foot, signs of the Zodiac, members of a jury, and days of Christmas, the number 12 now includes Triple Crown winners. American Pharoah put an emphatic exclamation point on the 2015 Triple Crown with a runaway victory Saturday at Belmont Park in the 147th Belmont Stakes, romping by 5 1/2 lengths in front of a crowd of 90,000 that included former President Bill Clinton.
The Rainbow 6 mandatory payout Saturday at Pimlico resulted in a payoff of $12,518 for a 10-cent wager to multiple ticketolders.
Twelve horses have won the American Triple Crown – composed of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes – which was patterned after the English Triple Crown that dates to 1809. When Sir Barton won the three races in 1919, it was not considered a Triple Crown feat. The three races were not acknowledged as being tied together as the Triple Crown until the 1930s. The Thoroughbred Racing Associations commissioned Cartier to craft a Triple Crown trophy – with three sides representing the three jewels – in 1950, and the trophy was retroactively awarded to the eight previous winners of the three races. Secretariat in 1973 was the first horse to be awarded the trophy after he accomplished the sweep.
Belmont Stakes order of finish and payoffs
Kiss Moon notched the first graded stakes win of her career Saturday at Churchill Downs, running down favored I’m Already Sexy to take the Grade 3,$100,000 Mint Julep Handicap.
Two year-plus layoffs, a 10-race losing streak dating to August 2013, a sale at auction last fall, Juddmonte Farms finally deciding to part with a once-promising grass horse, and finally, a very late-in-life equipment change, blinkers on, midway through his 7-year-old season. Slumber was a most unlikely first-time Grade 1 winner, but his victory Saturday at Belmont in the $1 million Manhattan Stakes was as decisive as it was unexpected.
Sent to the front by jockey Eduardo Nunez, Lady Shipman ($3) cruised to a 1 1/2-length victory in the Crank It Up Stakes at Monmouth Park, collecting her fifth win in six starts since last November.
After winning her maiden and a first-level allowance in back-to-back starts at Keeneland and Churchill Downs, Warriorscmoutoplay stepped up to stakes company and scored as the heavy favorite in Saturday’s $75,000 Jostle for 3-year-old fillies at Parx Racing.
The Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap was one of the few important races that had eluded trainer Shug McGaughey in a Hall of Fame career that has spanned 36 years.
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