LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Keen Ice, seventh in the Kentucky Derby, worked five furlongs in 1:01.80 on Friday at Churchill Downs in preparation for the Belmont Stakes on June 6.

Trainer Dallas Stewart was dismayed that Tale of Verve did not get a chance to compete as an also-eligible in the Kentucky Derby despite four horses having scratched from the race, leaving a field of 18 starters and two open gates.

Stewart was well aware of rumors surrounding the well-being of El Kabeir and International Star, both of whom were declared out of the race after the 9 a.m. Eastern deadline the morning before the Derby. Tale of Verve would have carried saddle cloth No. 22 if he had been allowed to start.

The New York Racing Association will cap the attendance at this year’s Belmont Stakes at 90,000, in part to avoid overcrowding and other logistical problems that were incurred at last year’s event.

Chris Kay, NYRA’s president and chief executive, announced the attendance cap Wednesday at the end of a conference call that also announced the Goo Goo Dolls will be the headline ontrack entertainment for Belmont Day.

Tickets for the June 6 Belmont Stakes will go on sale Monday at 10 a.m., the New York Racing Association announced Saturday, and, unsurprisingly, there will be price increases.

Grandstand admission will cost $15, while clubhouse admission will be $40. Last year, those prices were $10 and $30. According to a NYRA press release, the increase in grandstand admission is the first since 2005.

NYRA is encouraging fans to purchase tickets through Ticketmaster.com. Tickets also will be available through the NYRA box office.

The Belmont Park main track was playing extremely fast the day before the great Belmont Stakes card. On Belmont Day, it was as fast until the seventh race. It slowed down a bit before another Palace Malice tour de force in the Metropolitan Handicap. The surface slowed down more for the Belmont itself and the 13th race, an optional claimer.

That is why Norumbega’s winning time (2:27.13) in the 1 1/2-mile Brooklyn Handicap was assigned a Beyer Speed Figure (101) just one point higher than Tonalist’s figure (100) in the Belmont Stakes, when he ran the same distance in 2:28.52.

Soon after California Chrome finished fourth in the Belmont Stakes, my sister fired off a private Facebook message likening the Triple Crown to the Hunger Games – a hyperbolic tantrum I chalked up to frustration and disappointment.

Commissioner, the Belmont Stakes runner-up, will miss the summer’s major races in the 3-year-old division due to a chip in his left front ankle that will require surgery, according to a press release issued Wednesday by his owner, the WinStar Farm.

Commissioner will have the chip removed this week by Dr. Larry Bramlage at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., according to the release.

To the dispassionate outsider gazing down upon Thoroughbred racing from a perch of sports neutrality, the Belmont Stakes with a shot at a Triple Crown has all the trappings of a cynical bait-and-switch, with customers lured by the promise of witnessing a historic event. Then, when the event goes bust – as it has now 13 times since 1978 – fans are subjected to a dreary lecture about sandy racetracks, rough trips, and the inherent fragility of the modern-day Thoroughbred.

Handle on the Belmont Stakes on Saturday at Belmont Park was $92.15 million, according to a revised chart released by Equibase, slightly higher than an initial estimate reported by Daily Racing Form just after the first chart was released Saturday night.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Had California Chrome finished off a Triple Crown sweep with a victory in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, he would have had the male 3-year-old championship locked up, and very likely Horse of the Year, too, even with more than six months to go in the calendar year.

Instead, both categories are still in play after California Chrome finished in a dead heat for fourth in the Belmont.