Forever Unbridled and Forever d'Oro will get wildly different receptions from horseplayers on Saturday at Belmont Park. Forever Unbridled is a Grade 1 winner who is part of a star-studded field in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes. Forever d'Oro is a recent maiden winner and will be a longshot in a Belmont Stakes topped by heavy favorite Exaggerator.
Since the start of the millennium, eight of the 16 runnings of the Belmont Stakes have been won by horses who ran on Kentucky Derby weekend at Churchill Downs, then had five weeks off prior to the Belmont. That angle could prove pivotal again this year, as five of the contenders in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday have been similarly managed in the hopes of pulling off an upset over favored Exaggerator.
Lani took center stage on Wednesday, breezing five furlongs in 1:00.74 following another extended training session. Lani accelerated once turning for home, completing his final quarter in 23.64, and then was urged on to gallop out an additional furlong, pulling up six furlongs in 1:13.97.
Two years removed from Tonalist's victory in the Belmont, trainer Christophe Clement is back with Governor Malibu, a New York-bred son of Malibu Moon who was one of 13 horses entered Wednesday for Saturday's 148th Belmont Stakes.
WinStar Farm has an interest in three horses in Saturday's renewal of the Belmont – Creator, Exaggerator, and Gettysburg. Creator and Gettysburg carry the WinStar colors in the classic, and the farm also owns the future stallion rights to Preakness Stakes winner Exaggerator, the favorite for the Belmont.
All eyes were on Exaggerator Tuesday morning at Belmont Park, with the Preakness winner turning in his final major prep for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. He worked five furlongs in 1:00.92 over a very fast main track after the renovation break.
Kent Desormeaux got reintroduced to Belmont Park and Exaggerator Tuesday morning, guiding the Preakness winner through his final workout in preparation for Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes.
Exaggerator, the Preakness winner and Kentucky Derby runner-up, completed his serious preparation for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes with a five-furlong workout on Tuesday morning at Belmont Park which Daily Racing Form timed in 1:00.92.
Twenty-five years later, Hansel still enjoys attention for his impressive Belmont Stakes victory.
Closers don't win the Belmont Stakes. So goes second-level thinking these days in horse racing's hive-mind. Like the debunked myth of tight turns at Pimlico in the Preakness, the oversimplified notion suggesting the 1 1/2-mile Belmont favors late-rallying horses that have run out of ground at shorter distances has been kicked to the curb.
