Total handle on the Belmont Stakes on Saturday was far short of the wagering totals for the race last year, when a Triple Crown was on the line, but the figure compared more than favorably to the last time the race was run without the additional attention from a Triple Crown try in 2017, according to charts of the races.
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DRF Past Performances
July 20.
Aug. 24.
Sept. 21.
Nov. 2.
Those are the respective dates of the Haskell, Travers, Pennsylvania Derby, and Breeders’ Cup Classic. And those are the dates and races that will, in all probability, determine the champion 3-year-old male of 2019 after Sir Winston’s upset of Saturday’s Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park brought down the curtain on an odd and somewhat unsatisfying (if you’re not trainer Mark Casse) Triple Crown season.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott thought drawing the outside post with Tacitus for Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes was going to work to his advantage. Just five weeks earlier, Mott had won the Kentucky Derby with Country House, who had the outside post in a 19-horse field.
In the end, the outside post – and the subsequent wide trip under Jose Ortiz – may have been Tacitus’s undoing.
For 125 years, Daily Racing Form has provided premium and authoritative editorial coverage of the sport of horse racing. With dozens of reporters at racetracks around the country, DRF is the most trusted source of horse racing news and information. Here is a compilation of our editorial coverage of the 151st running of the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park on Saturday, June 8, 2019. Click here to find a retail location near you to purchase the print edition.
Sat, 06/08/2019 - 09:40
Trainer Bill Mott on Saturday morning said Tacitus was good to go for the Belmont Stakes. The colt was treated Friday with 30 CCs of acetylcysteine, according to the New York State Gaming Commission website, for what his veterinarian Saturday described as a "tiny, tiny bit of mucous."
"The best way to describe it is it's a prophylactic attempt to keep the airway clean," Dr. James Hunt said on Saturday morning of the treatment.
Hunt said he scoped Tacitus after training Friday. He described the amount of mucous as "very, very light."
ELMONT, N.Y. – What a short, strange trip this Triple Crown season has been, starting with a disqualification in the Kentucky Derby, a subsequent appeal and lawsuit, and then a Preakness where one of the horses lost his rider at the start, tried to keep up with his buddies, and briefly became a folk hero.
What might the Belmont Stakes have in store?
“I hope we have a nice, quiet Belmont,” said Mark Casse, the trainer of War of Will, who will be the only horse to run in all three legs of the Triple Crown this year.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Bill Mott never had won the Kentucky Derby until this year, so it’s not like the Hall of Fame trainer has a point of reference as to what it feels like to cross the wire first instead of getting put up via disqualification. But he instinctively knows it’s different, and he has sensed it in the way people congratulate him for Country House’s success five weeks ago.
