6/7 (BEL): 140th Belmont Stakes
 

11th (6:25) Belmont S. (G1)

1 1/2 Miles | Open | 3 Year Olds Stakes | Purse: $1,000,000

1 Big Brown Desormeaux K J 126 L
2 Guadalcanal Castellano J J 126
3 Macho Again Gomez G K 126 L
4 Denis of Cork Albarado R J 126 L
5 Casino Drive Prado E S 126
6 Da' Tara Garcia Alan 126 L
7 Tale of Ekati Coa E M 126 L
8 Anak Nakal Leparoux J R 126 L
9 Ready's Echo Velazquez J R 126 L
10 Icabad Crane Rose J 126 L

I was hoping to see Pyro and/or Col. John take another shot... maybe their connections will reconsider over the next 3 weeks.

Why is Tomcito in this race?? :eek: He has done enough. Try the turf for a change.

What about Monba? He couldn't do any worse than he did in the Derby... or could he... eep!?

Colonel John is targeting a Cali race - the Sham maybe?

EDIT: The Swaps in July actually, not the Sham.

Has the Triple Crown lost it's luster ?

I just laughed out loud when I saw Anak Nakal is being considered.

I would like to see Miner's Claim enter, but I saw he was scratched out of a stakes race Saturday at Woodbine due to illness (colic).

Yeah, it's aweful. A sham. No good. Not even worth going to watch. I think I'll climb trees on June 7th and act like a hairy gorilla.

We're 2 1/2 weeks away... You'll see more horses entered

I was thinking about it this morning and boy would it be familiar to see a Zito trainee jump up and run a big race in the Belmont.

I think Zito is something like 17-1-6-1 in the Belmont.

Not great, but a decent ITM % over that time. A.P Valentine, Royal Assualt, A. Hero all hitting the board at good odds. Plus Birdstone 36-1 on top in 2004.

It's three weeks away, it's only a probable list, but I'll be keeping my eye on the Saratoga workout sheets for Anal Nakal.

No Macho Again, Icabad Crane, Behindatthebar, or Ready's Echo?

Why should third string horses run is this race? Hell, even if you win in fluky year (which AIN'T happening this year), it really doesn't increase your stud value. Birdstone is a big $10,000 per shot; Commendable (possibly the worst TC race winner ever) is in frickin' Korea.

Why not try to win the Ohio Derby (May 31) instead of getting dusted at Belmont?

Before the recent mania of "running" (and I use that word advisedly) in every TC race possible, there were often quite short fields in the Belmont--four horses showed up to challenge Secretariat. BB is not Secretariat, but the rest of this lot not in the same league as BB or (probably ) Casino Drive.

As Dirty Harry might have once said, a man's got know his (horse's) limitations.

For a horse like Anak Nakal a third place finish in the Belmont is a lot more likely than winning the Ohio Derby.

Not all TC winning Belmont's were with big fields either.

This horse might like the Aug 2nd race at the Mountain for 750K

Actually glad to see the Zito marathoner entered.

Hopefully the field fills out to help with payouts.

When Casino Drive wins by open lengths, are people going to say he still hasn't beaten anyone except a tired Big Brown?

Can I get 50-1 on Kent riding Casino Drive, whom I am thinking about referring to henceforth as The ACE? (Free coffee mug to anyone who can explain the nickname.)

LOL

Macho Again is on his list.

Infinite OOOOOOOOOO...

one of the best posts ever.

He has the breeding for it.

His talent level is lacking(assuming he has been perfectly healthy as a 3yo), but it wouldn't be a bad division for him if he ever gets his act together.

No one thought he could do any worse than he did in the Fountain of Youth. Then came the Derby.

My guess is that we won't be seeing Behindatthebar in a race anytime soon, if ever again. Even if he was capable of starting, would they really try a 12f race when the colt has never been beyond 8.5f?

Dermot Weld and Aidan O'Brien ought to scour their barns for something to try. I see that Achilll Island has been stinking it up on the 2nd tier circuit in Europe, might as well try and give the now-pensioned Sadler's Wells that elusive Grade 1 winner on dirt. Not sure if the Weld horse from the BC Juvenile Turf has shown back up this year.

Icabad Crane is supposedly going.

Behindatthebar, Ready's Echo, Spark Candle are all possible per DRF.

I'd like to see him try polo.

Asmussen is the only one who might reconsider. I think they should go, but then again, I'm a sporting type of guy.

As SlotDirt stated, Colonel John's connections are meekly pointing toward the Swaps. Harty can't exactly reconsider because I'm not even sure he has the horse back yet. A friend of mine said he read that they were turning CoJo out at WinStar for approximately two weeks.

We need more trainers like Allen Jerkens who had the guts and some confidence to run Onion and Prove Out against Secretariat. Colonel John made a strong move in the Derby before Nakatani apparently lost control of him and blew the turn at the top of the lane. I think it is well within reason to think he could have gotten up for a nice second had he not lost all momentum, which we know is his kiss of death. I would have come out of the Derby and said, "let's try and get him in the Belmont, which should play to our advantage in terms of distance, schedule, and preparation." Perhaps Big Brown would still drub him, but oh well. TC comes around once. Like Jerkens or Zito with Birdstone or McPeek with Sarava, take a shot. Is potentially missing the Swaps that big a loss? I don't think so.

I know all of this is pretty much preaching to the choir, but I just get agitated at this weak mentality and unwillingness to compete. It's one thing to run horses less often, but to run and hide with those few starts is unacceptable in my eyes.

I actually think it DOES make sense for them to run him in the Belmont. He ran a respectable enough race in the Kentucky Derby and while he was absolutely awful early in the year he has been....well.....slightly less awful recently.
He reminds me a lot of other Zito horses like Andromeda's Hero and Royal Assault who both combined outstanding distance pedigrees with a one-speed plodding style to hit the board in this race in recent years. I don't think a similar result for Anak Nakal would be completely out of the question.

The interesting thing to me about the field is that if all of the projected horses end up actually running in the race, this field (despite the overall weakness of the crop) strikes me as actually being better than the awful 2005 or 2006 versions of this race.

That is too often the attitude these days and is why we wind up with 4 or 5 horse fields in whatever races a big horse shows up at and then full fields in the big races they skip. And the horses that wind up 6th in the full field probably could have cashed a 2nd or 3rd place check in the race where they may have had little to no shot of actually winning. Zito is the only one that takes advantage of this. Getting Andromeda's Hero close to $1 million on his career was nothing short of a miracle.

agreed

Zito basically refuses to run his horses on turf though.

so, am i crazy for thinking that tale of ekati could play the spoiler in a couple weeks?

Yup

oh well, i'm still thinking it. someone has to, may as well be him.

but then, i was also told malibu moonshine had no shot a few weeks back. i think he paid close to $40.