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.
The order of finish for the 2019 Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park.
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Trainer Bill Mott on Saturday morning said Tacitus was good to go for the Belmont Stakes. The colt was treated Friday with 30 CCs of acetylcysteine, according to the New York State Gaming Commission website, for what his veterinarian Saturday described as a "tiny, tiny bit of mucous."
All 10 members of the Belmont Stakes field were on the grounds for Thursday's training session at Belmont Park, with routine gallops the order of the day. JOEVIA and EVERFAST galloped over the main track for the first time, while WAR OF WILL and stablemate SIR WINSTON went out earlier than usual, perhaps with the thought of finding a quieter time for the energetic Preakness winner to train this morning rather than during the hustle and bustle after the renovation break.
What a short, strange trip this Triple Crown season has been, starting with a disqualification in the Kentucky Derby, a subsequent appeal and lawsuit, and then a Preakness where one of the horses lost his rider at the start, tried to keep up with his buddies, and briefly became a folk hero. What might the Belmont Stakes have in store?
Bill Mott never had won the Kentucky Derby until this year, so it's not like the Hall of Fame trainer has a point of reference as to what it feels like to cross the wire first instead of getting put up via disqualification.
There are two different War of Wills competing in Saturday's Belmont Stakes. There is War of Will, the sporting proposition, and there is War of Will, the betting proposition.
After an eventful and somewhat dismaying seven-furlong work here last week, MASTER FENCER was given a second opportunity to breeze over the Belmont Park main track shortly after the renovation break Wednesday. Unfortunately for his connections, the end result was not really any more encouraging.
Jockey Luis Saez ranks second in North America in wins (140) through the first five months of this year, but it's the one win that was taken away by the Churchill Downs stewards that still resonates throughout the sport.
