Final leg of the Triple Crown: Belmont Stakes

Ice Box will be the favorite, in the 5-2 range. Not for mine.

 

Over 20-1, you'll get. But this ain't Calvin's preferred venue.

 

Good piece by Tim Layden on why we don't need to change the TC format.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/tim_layden/06/04/belmont-preview/index.html?eref=sihp

 

I'm going with Fly Down to win and I have that one in boxed exactas with Make Music For Me and Game On Dude.

Bonne chance to all...

 

I'll take Ice Box and Spangled Star on a 1-2 exacta.

 

Beautiful day, five Grade I races on the card, looks like there are plenty of empty seats. Too bad. NYRA needs every dime it can get.

 

6:30ish I believe.

 

So now someone who wasn't involved in the original, far overplayed recording of Let's Hear it for New York is singing it before the Belmont.

So is it a law now that this song has to be played before every significant event in that damn state? Jeebus.

 

I understand Layden's point, but here's why I think it is flawed:

Afleet Alex came up injured after the Belmont and never raced again.
Smarty Jones had chronic ankle problems and never raced again.
Charismatic got hurt in the Belmont and never raced again.
Big Brown raced twice more before getting hurt.

Since Real Quiet, there hasn't been a single horse that has run the Belmont for the Triple Crown and been much good afterward. Funny Cide was decent, I guess, but it takes so much out of the horses that it ruins their careers.

 

Me

 

Nicky claims Ice Box flipped his palate, which will slow you down.

Theoretically, those of us who hated Ice Box (at 8-5!?!? Good grief) had
something of a 20% inherent advantage in the win pool, but there still
weren't many screaming bargains posted, with the inside two horses
especially-bad prices. Wound up with a very small play on Game On Dude,
who ran respectably throughout and still finished fourth after taking the worst of it in the running in the endgame. The winner WAS WinStar's chief
hope entering the year, but he didn't really find his rhythm until Saturday . . .
and make no mistake -- that was a terribly-slow race . . . about two full
seconds slow, given the track condition and what you might expect
from a representative Belmont field.