Belmont Stakes: Pletcher runners favored in field of nine
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ELMONT, N.Y. - Seven of the last 10 winners of the Belmont Stakes have come from the barn of trainers Todd Pletcher, Brad Cox, Bob Baffert, and Steve Asmussen.
Those four horsemen accounted for seven of the nine 3-year-olds entered Tuesday when post positions were assigned for Saturday’s $155th Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park.
The New York Racing Association added a little wrinkle for the draw, similar to what has been done in draws for international races. A racing official selected the name of a horse and a representative for that horse came up to the dais and picked a statue. The number on the bottom of the statue corresponded to the post position from which the horse will start.
Pletcher, who has won three of the last 10 Belmonts and four overall, has Forte and Tapit Trice, who were made the first and second choices by NYRA morning-linemaker David Aragona for this year’s running.
Forte, who was scratched out of the Kentucky Derby - for which he was favored - the morning of the race due to a bruised foot, drew post 6 and was made the 5-2 favorite. Tapit Trice, the Blue Grass winner who finished seventh in the Kentucky Derby, landed in post 2 and was made the 3-1 second choice.
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Last year, Pletcher finished one-two in the race with favored Mo Donegal and fourth choice Nest.
Forte, last year’s 2-year-old champion, will be attempting to win the Belmont off a 10-week layoff, or since he won the Grade 1 Florida Derby on April 1.
“It’s not the way we drew it up by any means, at the same time we didn’t miss a whole lot of training,” Pletcher said. “We missed the race and a work. Once we got here, we got our first work in which was good and the then we got the real big work where he galloped out a mile in 1:38. That’s when I started to feel confident that we had enough foundation to maybe give this a try.”
Brad Cox won the Belmont Stakes in 2021 with Essential Quality, the 2-year-old champion of 2020 who crossed the wire fourth in the Kentucky Derby but was elevated to third after the disqualification of Medina Spirit.
Saturday, Cox sends out Angel of Empire, Hit Show, and Tapit Shoes. Angel of Empire, who inherited the favorite’s role in the Kentucky Derby after Forte came out, finished third. Cox is adding blinkers to his equipment for the Belmont, on the suggestion of Flavien Prat.
“He trained in them all winter, we just never made a change obviously, he was running very well,” Cox said. “He ran well last time, but Flavien came back and said it might not be a bad idea to add the blinkers to him and see if it works out.”
Hit Show, the Grade 3 Withers Stakes winner, finished fifth in the Derby and will break from post 7 Saturday under Manny Franco. Tapit Shoes, a newcomer to the Triple Crown scene, drew the rail and Cox said he would likely send the horse away from the gate, which could put him on the lead under Jose Ortiz.
“We’re going to ask him to run out of there, we’re not going to do too much, we’re going to let him break on his own terms and go forward,” Cox said. “It doesn’t look like there’s a tremendous amount of speed in the race.”
Red Route One, who has no early speed, is trained by Steve Asmussen, who won the 2016 Belmont with Creator. Red Route One comes out of a fourth-place finish in the Preakness. He’ll break from post 9 under Joel Rosario.
Bob Baffert won the Belmont in 2015 and 2018 when American Pharoah and Justify, respectively, completed sweeps of the Triple Crown. Baffert also won the race in 2001 with Point Given.
Saturday, Baffert will send out National Treasure, who three weeks ago gave Baffert his record eighth Preakness victory. National Treasure, who did not run in the Kentucky Derby, will break from post 4 under John Velazquez.
In 2014, Peter Pan Stakes winner Tonalist won the Belmont. Saturday, Arcangelo will attempt to pull off that double as he comes out of a hard-fought head victory over Bishops Bay in the Peter Pan.
Arcangelo, trained by Jena Antonucci, will break from post 3 under Javier Castellano, who is 0 for 14 in the Belmont.
On Tuesday, Arcangelo worked an unscheduled five furlongs in 1:02.47 over Belmont’s main track.
Il Miracolo, the outsider in this field, drew post 5 and will be ridden by Marcos Meneses.
The Belmont Stakes will be shown on Fox with a post time of 7:02 p.m.
The forecast calls for mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 75 and 80 degrees.
| Post | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Odds |
| 1. | Tapit Shoes | Brad Cox | Jose Ortiz | 20-1 |
| 2. | Tapit Trice | Todd Pletcher | Luis Saez | 3-1 |
| 3. | Arcangelo | Jena Antonucci | Javier Castellano | 8-1 |
| 4. | National Treasure | Bob Baffert | John Velazquez | 5-1 |
| 5. | Il Miracolo | Antonio Sano | Marcos Menenses | 30-1 |
| 6. | Forte | Todd Pletcher | Irad Ortiz, Jr. | 5-2 |
| 7. | Hit Show | Brad Cox | Manny Franco | 10-1 |
| 8. | Angel of Empire | Brad Cox | Flavien Prat | 7-2 |
| 9. | Red Route One | Steve Asmussen | Joel Rosario | 15-1 |
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