I find the Manhattan, race 10, unwieldy and don’t really like anyone very well, and find race 13, the second-level, $62,500 optional-claiming dirt sprint, unwieldy and don’t really like anybody. So, without strong opinions anywhere in the sequence, the idea of putting together an expensive play seems unwise. In fact, I’m going caveman style here and merely narrowing things to the horses I like best – no backups – in those two tricky races.
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DRF Past Performances
ELMONT, N.Y. – Through the steady rain falling in the dark at Belmont Park, you can hear them – the ghosts of Triple Crowns past, echoing through the mammoth grandstand and around the sweeping final turn.
"… in a position that seems impossible to catch. He's into the stretch."
“In the stretch, here he comes, and he’s opening up again!”
"We'll test these two to the wire!"
Belmont Stakes Day action starts promptly at 11:35 a.m. Eastern, and Todd Pletcher wastes no time making his presence felt with Stanford as the 6-5 morning-line favorite in the first of 13 Saturday races. But does he have to win when making his first start since the Louisiana Derby? Well...
ELMONT, N.Y. – There’s something for horseplayers of all wagering persuasions on this 13-race Belmont Stakes card, whether they like to shoot for the moon in the four guaranteed multirace exotic pools or make solid percentage plays on legit favorites, or both.
After a couple of cloudy and raw days, weather conditions are forecast to be ideal, with fast and firm conditions and temperatures warming to more seasonable levels in the mid-70s.
American Pharoah will be sponsored by Monster Energy Drinks for his attempt to win the Triple Crown in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in New York, the parties to the deal announced on Friday.
Under the deal, Monster’s logo will be featured on apparel worn by American Pharoah and his connections, including owner Ahmed Zayat and trainer Bob Baffert. The horse has been made the 3-5 morning-line favorite to win the Belmont off his earlier wins in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.
DRF sales editor Joe Nevills analyzes the Belmont Stakes field, in post position order, in the form of Haiku, a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five.
Mubtaahij
Bred for the distance
But his Derby was so-so
Can’t get excited
Tale of Verve
Shocking Preakness run
But we’ve seen this play before
It ends off the board
Madefromlucky
Peter Pan winner
Takes a third swipe at Pharoah
On a track he likes
Racing fans have many reasons to admire American Pharoah. The colt possesses high speed, which he displayed in the Preakness. He is a battler, as he proved in the Kentucky Derby. He always puts forth a top effort; he has scored six straight victories by a combined total of 30 lengths.
As he bids to win the Belmont Stakes, American Pharoah possesses not only superior credentials but also a potentially significant tactical advantage. In a field with a shortage of early speed, he has the potential to take the lead and control the race from start to finish.
Victor Espinoza, the self-proclaimed “luckiest Mexican on Earth,” has been shopping on the sly lately, avoiding some of his usual San Gabriel Valley haunts.
“I like talking to the fans, especially the kids,” he said between races at Santa Anita the other day. “But now they all want to talk about the Derby, and the Belmont, and the Triple Crown. I hate to tell them I might be late to be somewhere else, or that I have something else to do. And sometimes I really get into the conversation. So, I found a couple different places to shop.”
BELMONT PARK
TRACK: FAST
WEATHER: CLEAR
TEMPERATURE: 60
ELMONT, N.Y. – There are no more uneventful mornings on the Belmont Stakes workout watch now that AMERICAN PHAROAH has arrived, and he put on another great show during a 1 1/2-mile gallop here Thursday, showing great energy dragging his rider around at a two-minute clip for the opening mile before coming to hand down the stretch.