The Grade 1, $1.2 million Metropolitan Handicap has a history of being a stallion-making race, because it showcases the brilliance so desired in the American market.The latest case in point came last year, when Frosted romped by 14 1/4 lengths in the sparkling time of 1:32.73.
The 1 1/2-mile distance of the Belmont Stakes will be uncharted territory for all 12 horses entered in Saturday's race, and most of them will never stare down a race of that length again. The Kentucky Derby poses a similar test at 1 1/4 miles five weeks earlier, but history has shown that the winners of the Derby and Belmont can be very different types of horses.
For all the accomplishments in his remarkable career, including victories in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Breeders' Cup Classic, 1989 Horse of the Year Sunday Silence also lives in racing notoriety for one of his losses – an eight-length defeat at the hands of archrival Easy Goer in the Belmont Stakes, extending the Triple Crown drought of the time.
Roca Rojo has a chance to make a statement on Saturday as she takes on Dickinson and Celestine in the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes. The Irish-born mare won three of her first five starts in the U.S. last year, including the Grade 3 Athenia Stakes on the Belmont turf, and finished second by a nose to Miss Temple City in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes. She announced that she was poised to continue her ascent when rallying to win the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard five weeks ago.
Twisted Tom will be the first horse to carry Cobra Farm's colors in the Belmont Stakes. However, the historic property, and the people currently behind it, have already played a role in some major moments in the history of the last and longest American classic.
Craig and Holly Bandoroff's Denali Stud has a pair of auction graduates pointed for the Belmont Stakes, and they head into Saturday's race from completely different points on the spectrum.
With two winners each, Overanalyze and Awesome Patriot rank first and second, respectively, in the nascent 2017 freshman sire list by earnings. Both have a chance to add to their totals this week at Belmont Park, as the track cards the $150,000 Tremont Stakes and the $150,000 Astoria Stakes for fillies, the first juvenile stakes of the year on the lucrative circuit.
This spring has been a major one in making the careers of young stallions whose first foals are the 3-year-olds of 2017. First, Always Dreaming, from the first crop of classic-placed Grade 1 winner Bodemeister, captured the Kentucky Derby. Two weeks later, Cloud Computing struck in the Preakness Stakes for Maclean's Music, brilliant winner of his only start.
Epsom Derby winner Wings of Eagles is from the second crop of Coolmore’s 2011 Epsom Derby winner Pour Moi, who was moved for the 2017 breeding season from Coolmore’s main farm at Fethard to its Grange Stud, whose stallions are marketed strictly as sires of jumpers.
Chad Brown was on a plane back to his barn at Belmont Park just hours after saddling his first classic winner, Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing. Meanwhile, Mike Ryan, whom Brown credited with discovering Cloud Computing, was hard at work back in Maryland, looking for the next star.
