Reviewing replays and trips can be a time-consuming, though often rewarding, experience – particularly in cases where the trouble goes unnoted in the charts. In preparation for the Belmont, I went through and examined the last-race trips of all the competitors. They follow below in post position order.
If Exaggerator can win the Belmont he would join some fine company. With or without the presence of the Derby winner, adding the Belmont to the Preakness is no mean feat.
Exaggerator, second in the Kentucky Derby, comes off a win in the Preakness Stakes and on Saturday will try to add another Triple Crown race win to his résumé when he starts as the strong favorite against 12 other 3-year-olds in the 148th Belmont Stakes.
Here is a look at the five-race sequence in Saturday's pick five at Belmont Park, and my strategy for hitting it.
In the United States, the three classics – the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes – have long been used by breeders as measuring sticks for potential stallion prospects. A classic victory is worth millions in future stud fees, which is why these races – especially the Kentucky Derby – draw sizable fields almost every year.
Without prior form to divine those most capable of getting the Belmont Stakes demanding distance, pedigree becomes an especially important part of analyzing the field. A helpful way to quantify and compare stamina capability for a Belmont contender is by measuring the average winning distance of his sire and dam's progeny.
Since Julie Clark met trainer Keith Desormeaux at a horse sale in Kentucky, they have become a couple, both personally and professionally, and they are having their greatest success yet with Exaggerator, who will be favored to add the Belmont Stakes to his glittering résumé.
Yours truly has been tasked with writing about Saturday's all-stakes pick four at Belmont Park, the one that ends with the Belmont Stakes. And that's great. If I'm still breathing, I will play this sequence. Happily. With gusto.
Triple Crown winner American Pharoah's days on the racetrack are now a memory growing ever more distant. The champion retired at the end of his smashing 2015 campaign and is now nearing the completion of his first season at stud at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky. But part of the beauty of the Thoroughbred industry is that it never stops moving on, and a number of American Pharoah's close relatives are preparing to one day make their own names in racing.
DRF sales editor Joe Nevills analyzes the Belmont Stakes field, in post position order, in the form of Haiku, a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five.
