ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Bob Baffert is taking a pass on this year’s Belmont Stakes.
Baffert, who has won two of the last four Belmonts – completing Triple Crowns with American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018 – confirmed Friday that Game Winner, last year’s 2-year-old champion male who finished fifth in the Kentucky Derby, would not run in the Belmont on June 8. Baffert said he was not pointing any other horse to the last leg of the Triple Crown.
New York native Mike Repole has made no secret that his greatest ambition in racing is to win Long Island’s biggest race, the Belmont Stakes. Repole Stable has sent out four horses as a solo owner in the oldest and longest leg of the Triple Crown, with Stay Thirsty finishing second in 2011. Last year, he ran two horses in partnership, with Repole Stable and St. Elias’s Vino Rosso finishing fourth behind the unbeaten Justify.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher is throwing out Spinoff’s 18th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby and plans to run him in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on June 8. On Sunday, Spinoff worked a half-mile in 48.72 seconds over the Belmont training track, his first work back since the Derby.
ELMONT, N.Y. – While the focus of the racing world was on Baltimore on Saturday, trainer Bill Mott was on Long Island, and his Kentucky Derby winner was in Louisville. Mott seemed perfectly content with that.
Mott was at Belmont to oversee the workouts for several of his horses, most notably Wood Memorial winner Tacitus, who breezed a half-mile in 48.41 seconds as he prepares for the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on June 8.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Tacitus, the winner of the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct and the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, returned to New York on Wednesday and is based at Belmont Park, where on June 8 he will run in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, potentially as the favorite.
While Peter Pan winner Global Campaign is unlikely to run in the Belmont Stakes, two horses who finished behind him on Saturday are being pointed to the third leg of the Triple Crown.
Sir Winston, who rallied from last to finish second to Global Campaign, and Intrepid Heart, who finished third after stumbling at the break of the race, are both targeting the Belmont Stakes, according to their trainers.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Though Intrepid Heart won his debut by 7 3/4 lengths on Feb. 18, his connections did not opt for the fast track to the Kentucky Derby a la Justify, who had won his debut by 9 1/2 lengths on the same date one year prior.
What the connections of Intrepid Heart would like to have in common with Justify – last year’s Triple Crown winner – is a victory in the Belmont Stakes. To get there, Intrepid Heart must first perform well against four opponents in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park.
Voters overwhelmingly chose the Belmont Stakes win by undefeated Justify as the 2018 Moment of the Year, according to the administrator of the contest, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.
The Belmont win, which made Justify the 13th Triple Crown winner in U.S. racing history, was tabbed by 829 voters as the Moment of the Year among 11 other options. The NTRA received a total of 2,260 responses in the voting, which was tallied through Twitter likes and an online poll. Votes were limited to one per Twitter account.
ELMONT, N.Y. – The Belmont Park stewards on Thursday talked to jockey Florent Geroux regarding his ride on Restoring Hope in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes.
New York State Gaming Commission steward Steve Lewandowski would only confirm that he, Jockey Club steward Jimmy Edwards, and backup NYRA steward Juan Dominguez spoke to Geroux. He referred all other inquiries to the gaming commission office.
The gaming commission, via email, declined to comment on the matter.
