All five entities in the ownership of Triple Crown hopeful Justify along with trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Mike Smith have pledged to donate a percentage of any earnings from Saturday's Belmont Stakes to the New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program.
Blended Citizen has taken a circuitous route to the Belmont Stakes. His trainer, Doug O'Neill, who will be saddling his first Belmont Stakes starter, has taken an even more unusual path to the race.
There were no surprises at entry time on Tuesday at Belmont Park, as 10 horses were entered in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday. Posts are to be drawn Tuesday night at Citi Field prior to the Mets game against the Orioles.
Triple Crown-winning riders Victor Espinoza and Steve Cauthen both said the three weeks between the Preakness and Belmont seemed to pass in slow motion.
One would think the marathon 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes rewards experience, seasoning, an extensive racing history. It doesn't.
Even four decades on, it doesn't take a phone call to launch Alydar's retired trainer, John Veitch, into a fond reverie. The mahogany red chestnut put Veitch on the road to the Hall of Fame, while allowing the young horseman – he was 32 during the spring of 1978 – to apply many of the lessons learned at the knee of his Hall of Fame father, Sylvester Veitch. Those lessons were never more dramatically tapped than for the Belmont Stakes, when Veitch was convinced he had made the adjustments that would deny Affirmed and his effervescent Cuban trainer, Laz Barrera, the Triple Crown.
On Saturday, for a record fifth time, Bob Baffert will be on the precipice of winning the Triple Crown. Justify, who already has won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, on Saturday in the Belmont Stakes here at Belmont Park will attempt to become racing's 13th Triple Crown winner, and the second for Baffert. Only one other trainer, Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, has won the Triple Crown twice, with Gallant Fox in 1930 and Omaha in 1935.
Winning the Triple Crown with American Pharoah in 2015 provided a learning experience for the team that is now on the brink of once-in-a-lifetime – for the second time – with unbeaten Justify.
Bob Baffert’s work is mostly done. The Hall of Fame trainer sent out Triple Crown hopeful Justify for the colt’s final pre-race breeze Monday morning at Churchill Downs and now will look to jockey Mike Smith and the racing gods to see what awaits Saturday in the 150th Belmont Stakes.
That Hofburg will compete in two legs of the Triple Crown is more a function of the horse than his trainer.
