Final leg of the Triple Crown: Belmont Stakes

Charming, I know.

But this ain't Churchill.

 

No Derby winner. No Preakness winner.

Might as well be the number 8 race on the card at Santa Anita, for all anyone is going to care.

The Belmont loses much of its luster when there is no triple crown on the line. But at least show up, for the love of God!!!

 

You could hear between the lines from Pletcher than even after the Derby win, he didn't like SS's chance to prevail going a mile and a half.

Lookin At Lucky performed to the max in Baltimore. I don't blame Baffert a bit for blowing this off, given the three-week interval. LAL's a useful
horse. I wish I owned him, but he's by no stretch great. Lots of money
to be made, without abusing him.

 

Yeah. No good reason for either of those horses to be grinding at Belmont.

 

No good reason for watching the Belmont.

 

Now, if you KNEW Ice Box would run out of the money, and a couple of the other favorites might come up empty . . .

 

Or you can pick a place contender for a triple, like me. I'm going with 4-5-6.

 

Ice Box is going to have a heck of a time winning this race. No speed whatsoever outside of First Dude, and he's not a speed ball. These 1 1/2 mile races are often won by pacesetters or horses with tactical speed, and not by closers as you might think. I'd play against Ice Box and probably go with the other Zito horse, Fly Down (I believe it's a Zito horse).

 

Oh, contrare . . . my wallet will be very interested in this 2 and a half minutes.

Assuming it's a dry, fast track, I'm using the remainder of my Derby profits and taking the 5, Fly Down, in all my exactas and trifectas.

Good luck to all. See you at the Spa.

 

I find it fascinating that Ice Box is only -110 to win a hundred to FINISH IN THE TOP THREE at Olympic Sports (www.thegreek.com). I think they're
trying to tell us something.

 

That the race is wide open? Some horse has to go in as the favorite, eh? They can't all be like 10-1, can they?

 

I don't care this isn't the Derby at 20-1 and on the rail, you gotta at least some sort of flyer on Calvin Borel.