In 2003, Sackatoga Stable and trainer Barclay Tagg made an unlikely run at the Triple Crown with Funny Cide, a New York-bred gelding from the first crop of his sire, Distorted Humor. Funny Cide won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes before finishing third in the Belmont Stakes on a sloppy track.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Trainer Barclay Tagg enjoyed the sounds of silence Saturday at Belmont. He enjoyed the sights even more.

On a Saturday that Tagg said was unlike “any other Saturday at the track that I’ve ever known,” he completed his own personal Triple Crown by winning the 152^nd Belmont Stakes with Tiz the Law, who as the 4-5 favorite dominated the race by 3 3/4 lengths.

The win came 17 years after Tagg watched Funny Cide come up short in his bid to win the Triple Crown when he finished third before 101,864 at the Belmont Stakes.

Handle on this year’s Belmont Stakes was nowhere near normal, but there was nothing nearly normal about this year’s Belmont Stakes.

A Triple Crown season like no other in the history of the sport began with a New York-bred, Tiz the Law, drawing off to a popular and totally dominant 3 3/4-length victory over Dr Post in the 1 1/8-mile Belmont Stakes in front of an eerily deserted grandstand Saturday at Belmont Park. Max Player finished another 1 1/2 lengths farther back in third.  Tiz the Law is trained by Barclay Tagg, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness with Funny Cide in 2003 only to lose his bid for a Triple Crown when finishing third in the Belmont. 

In less than an hour on Saturday, trainer Neil Drysdale’s year started looking a whole lot brighter.

First he sent out the comebacking Toinette to a victory in the Grade 3 Wilshire at Santa Anita, then he settled in and watched Oleksandra rally from last to first to beat the boys in the Grade 1, $250,000 Jaipur Stakes for turf sprinters at Belmont Park.

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ELMONT, N.Y. - Decorated Invader asserted his class edge in a major way Saturday at Belmont Park, laying closer to the pace than usual, then finding another gear along the inside in the stretch to win the Grade 2, $150,000 Pennine Ridge Stakes.

Sitting within two lengths of the pace-setting Proven Strategies, Decorated Invader, under Joel Rosario, confronted that one along the rail when an opening presented itself at the top of the lane and drew clear in the final furlong to a 4 3/4-length score.

ELMONT, N.Y. - No Parole easily passed his class and distance test by cruising to a front-running 3 3/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Woody Stephens Stakes for 3-year-olds at Belmont Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Jack Knowlton and a few dozen friends and family will be in upstate New York on Saturday, eating meatballs and Italian food at Pennell’s, a popular restaurant a few furlongs from Saratoga Race Course. In Southern California, Lew Titterton will be with family, cracking open lobsters he will have flown in from the East Coast.

Horseplayers can be a tough bunch. There’s been a mile-and-a-half’s worth of griping this week about short fields on the Belmont Stakes undercard, to say nothing of the relative horror over the shortened Belmont itself. Listen, I can gripe with the best of them, but given the utter chaos the last three months, I’m going to try and relax and enjoy this card. There are plenty of talented horses racing and despite the limited field sizes, some opportunities to get a decent price home.

Belmont Stakes

Casual and Gamine both have raced just twice, neither in a stakes, yet the way in which they have won all their starts makes them appear as the formidable talent against five fillies with stakes experience in the Grade 1, $300,000 Acorn Stakes for 3-year-old fillies Saturday at Belmont Park.

In addition to its Grade 1 status, the one-mile Acorn takes on added significance this year as a points-scoring race toward the rescheduled Kentucky Oaks, postponed four months to Sept. 4. The race offers 85 points overall, with 50 to the winner.