Belmont Stakes: Wide trip costly for favored Tacitus

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott thought drawing the outside post with Tacitus for Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes was going to work to his advantage. Just five weeks earlier, Mott had won the Kentucky Derby with Country House, who had the outside post in a 19-horse field.

In the end, the outside post – and the subsequent wide trip under Jose Ortiz – may have been Tacitus’s undoing.

Unable to save ground at any point, Tacitus, the 9-5 favorite, had to settle for second place, one length behind 10-1 upset winner Sir Winston in the 151st Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park.

Tacitus was three to four wide down the backstretch and then made a five-wide move around the far turn to gain contention turning for home. He bumped with a tiring War of Will in upper stretch, then lugged in a step when he changed leads in midstretch. Though he was charging at Sir Winston in the last sixteenth, Tacitus ran out of real estate. He finished three-quarters of a length in front of pacesetting longshot Joevia.

“We had the 10 hole. I thought that could actually be to our advantage at some point,” Mott said. “I thought the fact that he got a clear trip could be to his advantage. He’s a big, long-striding horse. From out there, he’d be able to have a nice cruising trip down the backside. You don’t want to lose ground, but you don’t want to get stopped with a big horse like that either.”

Mott was quite confident in Tacitus coming into the Belmont following his fourth-place finish – elevated to third after the disqualification of Maximum Security – in the Kentucky Derby.

Tacitus, a Juddmonte Farms homebred son of Grade 1 winners Tapit and Close Hatches who won the Tampa Bay Derby and Wood Memorial in the spring, had trained terrifically leading up to the Belmont. There was so much buzz on Tacitus that he was favored over Preakness winner War of Will.

“I thought he could win,” Mott said.

The Belmont result wrapped up a weird Triple Crown for Mott, who five weeks ago was trying not to feel bad about winning the Kentucky Derby with Country House, who had crossed the wire second but was elevated to first following the disqualification of Maximum Security. Country House got sick after the Kentucky Derby and missed the Preakness and the Belmont. He recently resumed training at Churchill Downs.

Tacitus got shuffled back to 16th early in the Kentucky Derby and came with a late run that fell 3 1/4 lengths short.

“Both horses are good horses. They showed up for the Triple Crown races,” Mott said, adding that Tacitus “showed up for two of them; he’s run good both times. You can’t say he’s horrible. He’s run well. I think he’s a nice horse. With that being said, and hopefully I’m right, he’ll get better and better as time goes on.”

Mott said Country House and Tacitus will head to Saratoga by the middle of June to prepare for the second half of the season, with the Jim Dandy on July 27 and the Travers on Aug. 24 – both at Saratoga – to be considered.

“I wish we would have won today. I’m slightly disappointed that we didn’t win,” Mott said. “Of course, you’re that close, it’s like what could I have done to make it a little better? What could I have done to get that extra length out of him? We’ll keep trying.”