It was only five short years ago that the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival was created. And it was created exactly for years like this one. I hate to throw ice water on this Belmont Stakes, but let’s be real. This year’s Belmont is not the most compelling one we’ve ever seen. In fact, it only suffers more in comparison to very recent Belmonts like the 2018 and 2015 editions, which had live Triple Crown chances that were actually completed. Before the Belmont Festival came into being, Belmont Stakes Days in years like this one, where there wasn’t a live Triple Crown shot or a matchup between the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners, could feel oddly empty. But no more. It doesn’t matter that this Belmont lacks the colt who finished first in the Kentucky Derby (Maximum Security), or doesn’t have the colt who was awarded victory in the Derby (Country House), or sadly has but one colt who will somehow find the strength to compete in all three legs of the Triple Crown (War of Will), the Holy Grail of American racing that, as a series, increasingly seems to be nudged to the periphery by some of the folks who should be most vested in protecting it. It doesn’t matter, at least superficially, because seven other Grade 1 events in addition to the Belmont on a monster card that has rapidly – and perhaps arguably, though not in my mind – become the best day of American racing this side of Breeders’ Cup Saturday will not allow it to matter. The Belmont might ostensibly be the feature Saturday at Belmont, but the race I suspect everyone wants to see is the $1.2 million Met Mile. The Met Mile has always been one of my favorite races, and this one promises to be a beauty. There are six Grade 1 stakes winners pointing to this Met Mile. We have McKinzie, who has collected three Grade 1 victories and was a smashing winner of the Alysheba on the Kentucky Oaks undercard. And we have the international traveler Thunder Snow, who has fashioned four Group or Grade 1 scores, including the last two runnings of the Dubai World Cup. We have Firenze Fire, who has won two graded stakes going a mile on the Belmont main track, including the Grade 1 Champagne, and was a blowout winner of the Runhappy Stakes last month in his return to Belmont; Pavel, the winner of last year’s Grade 1 Stephen Foster; Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens winner Promises Fulfilled; and Mitole, who just became a Grade 1 stakes winner when he walloped Promises Fulfilled in the Churchill Downs Stakes on the Kentucky Derby undercard. And this Met Mile also has Coal Front, who, while not a Grade 1 winner, is a five-time graded stakes winner, including the Group 2 Godolphin Mile most recently, his third straight graded stakes victory. What’s so exciting about the Met Mile, aside from it being a prestigious prize with a great and long history that would probably attract pretty much the same field with half the purse, is its distance. The one-turn-mile distance is neutral ground for middle-distance runners and stretch-out sprinters alike. It’s sport at its finest, and this Met Mile field illustrates the point perfectly. Thunder Snow, for one, has made his last seven starts dating back 16 months in races at 1 1/4 miles or longer. Pavel has made his last nine starts dating back 16 months at 1 1/8 miles or longer. And McKinzie has made six of his last seven starts dating back 15 months in races longer than one mile, including all three of his starts this year. Coal Front’s recent distance profile says the mile of the Metropolitan is right in his wheelhouse. His three recent stakes scores came at seven furlongs, 1 1/16 miles, and one mile. Technically, Firenze Fire, Promises Fulfilled, and Mitole are the stretch-out sprinters in the Met Mile. But as noted earlier, Firenze Fire is a two-time graded stakes winner going a mile at Belmont, and Promises Fulfilled won the Fountain of Youth early last year going two turns after controlling the pace, which he is fast enough to do Saturday if that’s what his people want. Mitole is the one true stretch-out sprinter in this field. His first nine starts were at six furlongs, and he finally went as far as seven furlongs last time out in the Churchill Downs. But Mitole is also perhaps the most intriguing member of this Met Mile field. He has won six straight by the no-doubt margins of 7, 9, 6 1/4, 4 1/4, 2 3/4, and 3 1/2 lengths and is the only member of this field with five straight triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures. Moreover, the way Mitole won the Churchill Downs might even be more important than his win margin or his Beyer. It was revelatory how, in the longest race he’s run in yet, Mitole so willingly rated just off the early lead until he was ready to dominate. That strongly suggested a one-turn mile should be well within Mitole’s scope, and it makes him a spicy addition to a tremendous Met Mile field. It’s a testament to what the Belmont Stakes Day program has become that horses like Bricks and Mortar and Serengeti Empress have to share the undercard spotlight. Bricks and Mortar, who has won all three of his starts this year and has already banked more than $3.4 million in 2019, looks to win his third seven-figure-purse race of the year in the $1 million Manhattan. Serengeti Empress, whose decisive victory in the Kentucky Oaks made her the ranking 3-year-old filly in the nation, goes in the $700,000 Acorn. One other race I’m eager to see is the $700,000 Ogden Phipps and the matchup between three-time Grade 1 stakes winner Midnight Bisou and the wildly improved Come Dancing. Midnight Bisou is 7 for 7 at the Phipps distance of 1 1/16 miles, while Come Dancing, who had long threatened to be something special, could not have been more impressive in winning the Distaff and Ruffian in her two starts this year. Notably, Come Dancing’s 114 Beyer from the Distaff is the highest this year by a horse of any sex or age, on any surface, and at any distance.