Road to the 2020 TRIPLE CROWN???

Below are the post positions and Belmont 2020 odds as of June 17:

1. Tap It to Win (6-1)
Trainer: Mark Casse
Jockey: John Velazquez

2. Sole Volante (9-2)
Trainer: Patrick Biancone
Jockey: Luca Panici

3. Max Player (15-1)
Trainer: Linda Rice
Jockey: Joel Rosario

4. Modernist (15-1)
Trainer: Bill Mott
Jockey: Junior Alvarado

5. Farmington Road (15-1)
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Jockey: Javier Castellano

6. Fore Left (30-1)
Trainer: Doug O’Neill
Jockey: Jose Ortiz

7. Jungle Runner (50-1)
Trainer: Steve Asmussen
Jockey: Reylu Gutierrez

8. Tiz the Law (6-5) 
Trainer: Barclay Tagg
Jockey: Manny Franco

9. Dr Post (5-1)
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Jockey: Irad Ortiz Jr.

10. Pneumatic (8-1)
Trainer: Steve Asmussen
Jockey: Ricardo Santana Jr.

Watch the 2020 Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 20 from 2:45 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET on NBC, NBCSports.comand the NBC Sports app. 

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Tiz the Law heavily favored off layoff in Belmont Stakes

David GreningJun 18, 2020

Barbara D. LivingstonTiz the Law is seeking his third Grade 1 win in the Belmont.

He won the Champagne at 2 and the Florida Derby in his last start on March 28.Bet Now

ELMONT, N.Y. – Welcome to the *** Crown.

In the era of COVID-19 where everyday life everywhere has been impacted, Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown series certainly has a different look. Two weeks after the Triple Crown would have concluded with the Belmont Stakes at 1 1/2 miles, the series kicks off Saturday with the $1 million Belmont now at a shortened 1 1/8 miles. Instead of being the last leg of a five-week sprint, it’s the first leg of a 15-week marathon with the Kentucky Derby rescheduled for Sept. 5 and the Preakness four weeks later on Oct. 3.

The Belmont will be run in front of an empty Belmont Park grandstand. No fans or owners will be permitted to attend, part of the protocols put in place by state government and health officials to allow New York racing to resume earlier this month after an 80-day shutdown.

“I don’t think there’s any question that at the end of 2020 you can put a big asterisk by the whole year and the Triple Crown is certainly part of that,” said trainer Todd Pletcher, who has two horses in the Belmont. “It’s not going to be the same, it’s going to be spread out over a much different time frame, different distances, different order. It goes without saying it’s a non-traditional Triple Crown series. I don’t think it would take away from the accomplishment of a single horse if they were able to win one, two, or three legs of it. These are still very difficult races to win.”

In 2003, the New York-bred Funny Cide won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness but could not complete the Triple Crown and finished third in the Belmont. The same connections of that gelding, the Sackatoga Stable and trainer Barclay Tagg, are back with Tiz the Law, a dual Grade 1 winner who will be heavily favored in a field of 10 to win Saturday’s Belmont.

Mark Casse, the trainer of Belmont contender Tap It to Win, says simply of Tiz the Law, “I think if you beat him you win.”

It’s hard to argue the point.

Tiz the Law is a Grade 1 winner at Belmont, having taken in the Champagne by four lengths last fall. In two starts this year, both at Gulfstream Park, Tiz the Law dominated the Grade 3 Holy Bull off an eight-week layoff and the Grade 1 Florida Derby off a nine-week layoff. He would have been ready to run back if the Kentucky Derby had been May 2 as scheduled. The delay does not seem to have impacted him, though Tagg is looking forward to finally being able to run him.

“He’s feeling really good, he’s sharp as heck,” Tagg said Thursday following Tiz the Law’s training session.

Perhaps the most drama Tiz the Law experienced this week was Thursday when a horse got loose and ran free while Tiz the Law was on the track. An outrider corralled the loose horse before he got near Tiz the Law, who proceeded to gallop 1 1/2 miles and visit the starting gate without issue.

The race could set up well for Tiz the Law, who breaks from post 8 under Manny Franco, who is riding his first Belmont.

Tiz the Law likes to come from two or three lengths off the pace, and there appears to be speed with Tap It to Win, who has the rail, and Fore Left, who will break from post 6. Tap It to Win is coming back just 16 days off a career-best effort, but Casse, who won the Belmont last year with Sir Winston, has had success running horses back on short rest.

John Velazquez will ride Tap It to Win, who, it would seem will be sent to the lead from his rail draw.

“If we get the same performance out of him again as we did two weeks ago, he may not win, but you’ll know he’s there,” Casse said.

While Tap It to Win is coming back in just 16 days, Sole Volante is running in the Belmont 10 days after winning a one-mile allowance race at Gulfstream. Having not run since a second-place finish in the Tampa Bay Derby on March 7, his connections felt that race would bring him more forward than simply training up to the race.

“He wasn’t at peak fitness going into that allowance, he needed that race to bring him into form and he’s fresh and happy,” said Andie Biancone, part-owner of Sole Volante and assistant trainer to her father, Patrick Biancone. “We did a little open gallop on Monday; if it was easy for him we would go, if it wasn’t we would take the extra time and go to the Blue Grass. But he was so well you couldn’t not send him.”

Luca Panici rides Sole Volante from post 2.

Pletcher, a three-time Belmont winner, has two contenders in Dr Post and Farmington Road. After a setback following his debut last summer, Dr Post has come back with a maiden victory and a win in the Unbridled Stakes, both at Gulfstream Park. In the Unbridled, Dr Post got bounced around a bit but still managed to win after getting clear.

Pletcher believes Dr Post has the talent to win the Belmont, it’s just a matter of whether “he’s seasoned enough and mentally prepared enough” to beat a “quality horse like Tiz the Law,” he said.

Farmington Road has just one win in six starts, but his late-running style could make him an upset candidate if the pace is swift enough and Tiz the Law fails to fire. Javier Castellano rides Farmington Road from post 5.

Max Player is coming off a 140-day layoff since he won the Grade 3 Withers on Feb. 1 at Aqueduct. Trainer Linda Rice had considered the Arkansas Derby on May 2 and the Matt Winn on May 23 for Max Player, but ultimately decided not to ship out of town and wait for the Belmont.

“Nobody wants to come into the Triple Crown off a five-month layoff, but he’s trained well, we kept him at home, I’m happy with the way he’s matured,” said Rice, who could become the first female trainer to win a Triple Crown race. “I think it’s just a matter of whether he’s good enough.”

Fore Left comes off a similar layoff as Max Player, having not run since winning the one-mile UAE 2000 Guineas at Meydan in February. He was rerouted from the seven-furlong Woody Stephens to the Belmont by owner Paul Reddam and trainer Doug O’Neill.

Modernist won the Grade 2 Risen Star before finishing third in the Louisiana Derby. Trainer Bill Mott and owner Marty Wygod were considering next week’s Ohio Derby before Modernist turned in a strong workout here Sunday.

Pneumatic, trained by Steve Asmussen, is similar to Dr Post in that he’s a lightly raced horse with a lot of upside. He is coming off a third-place finish to Maxfield in the Grade 3 Matt Winn Stakes.

Asmussen also sends out Jungle Runner, a horse who on paper seems overmatched.

The Belmont will go as race 10 of 12 on a card that begins at 11:45 a.m. NBC will be on air from 2:45 to 6 p.m. Eastern with the Belmont scheduled for 5:42 p.m.

The top four finishers from the Belmont earn qualifying points (150-60-30-15) to the Kentucky Derby.

According to weather.com, Saturday’s forecast calls for a high near 80 with a 20 percent chance of showers or a thunderstorm.

Horse Racing’s Triple Crown: 10 Fast Facts

Explore 10 facts about American horse racing’s ultimate prize.

CHRISTOPHER KLEIN – THE HISTORY CHANNEL

1. Sir Barton was the first Triple Crown winner in 1919.

Even though he was the grandson of 1893 English Triple Crown winner Isinglass, Sir Barton was a most unlikely thoroughbred to become the first to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont. Sir Barton was entered in the 1919 Kentucky Derby to set the pace for his more famous stable mate, Billy Kelly, but he ended up winning the Run for the Roses by five lengths. Just four days later in Baltimore, Sir Barton won the Preakness. (Present-day thoroughbreds have two weeks between the two races.) On June 11, 1919, the equine set an American record in defeating two other horses in the Belmont. It wasn’t until the 1930s, however, that the sweep of the three races was widely referred to as the “Triple Crown.”

2. There have been 13 Triple Crown winners.

Thirty horses have won the first two legs of the Triple Crown, but 19 of them failed to win the Belmont. In addition to Sir Barton, the other Triple Crown winners have been Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018).

3. The longest gap in Triple Crown winners was 35 years.

After Affirmed’s Triple Crown in 1978, the longest drought in Triple Crown history began in 1979 with Spectacular Bid‘s failed Triple Crown attempt at the Belmont Stakes, and lasted until American Pharoah won in 2015. There were plenty of near misses, however. Between 1979 and 2014 13 horses, including I’ll Have Another, won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, but not the Belmont Stakes.

4. There were seven years in which it was impossible to have a Triple Crown winner.

Winning a Triple Crown is a tough enough task, but there were years when it was simply impossible. In 1890, the Belmont and the Preakness were held on the same day, while in 1917 and 1922 the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness coincided on the calendar. The Preakness was not run between 1891 and 1893, while the Belmont was cancelled in 1911 and 1912 after New York State passed anti-gambling laws that failed to exempt horse racing. (While horse racing was suspended at Belmont Park, the Wright Brothers brought airplane races to the track for a 10-day event in October 1910. The highlight was a race to the Statue of Liberty, which drew a crowd of 150,000 to watch the start and finish.)

5. No filly has ever won the Triple Crown.

The filly Ruthless won the very first Triple Crown race, the 1867 Belmont. Only two female thoroughbreds have captured the Belmont since, however. (In fact, only 22 fillies have ever competed in the event.) Three fillies have won the Kentucky Derby, and five, the most recent being Rachel Alexandra in 2009, have won the Preakness.

6. No horse was faster than Secretariat.

On June 9, 1973, Secretariat didn’t just become the first horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown—he may also have blazed the single greatest performance in horse racing history. After winning the Kentucky Derby in a record time that still stands, “Big Red,” as he was known, set a world record for a mile-and-a-half distance on a dirt track at 2 minutes, 24 seconds. The overwhelming favorite, at 1-10 odds, crossed Belmont’s finish line an unfathomable 31 lengths in front of the field. Secretariat was such a star that he was the only non-human on ESPN’s 100 Greatest Athletes of the Twentieth Century.

7. African-American jockeys dominated the early history of the Triple Crown.

While there are few African-American jockeys in horse racing today, that was not the case in the early years of the Triple Crown races. In the inaugural Kentucky Derby in 1875, 13 of the 15 jockeys—including Oliver Lewis, who rode Aristides to victory—were black. Fifteen of the first 28 Derby-winning jockeys were African-Americans, including three-time victor Isaac Murphy. During the course of the 1890s, Willie Simms became the only black rider to win all three of the Triple Crown races.

8. The Belmont Stakes is the oldest and longest Triple Crown event.

New York banker August Belmont established the Belmont Stakes, which was first run at Jerome Park in the present-day Bronx, in 1867. The race predates the Preakness (first run in 1873) and the Kentucky Derby (first run in 1875). At a distance of a mile and a half, it is the longest of the three races.

9. On five occasions, betting on the Belmont Stakes was as easy as flipping a coin.

While a field of 12 will race in the 2012 Belmont, there were five times when the race had only two horses in the field: 1887, 1888, 1892, 1910 and 1920.

10. The Belmont Stakes favors inside-post horses and favorites.

Looking to put a sawbuck or two on the Belmont? Here’s some history. Since 1905, the most winners, 23, have come out of the No. 1 post. Street Life will have the inside post for the 2012 Belmont. Also, the race often goes to form. Of the 143 previous runnings of the Belmont, the betting favorite has won 61 times, nearly 42 percent of the races.

Racing from Home

with

Jerry Bailey and Randy Moss

Bob Baffert talks Kentucky Derby 2020 prospects 

 NBC Sports

On the same day Churchill Downs announced it’s considering “the timing of the 146th Kentucky Derby this year” given the coronavirus pandemic, five-time winner Bob Baffert said he’s hearing the Run for the Roses could be moved to the summer or fall.

“Nobody’s really sure when anything is going to happen,” the trainer said Saturday at Santa Anita Park, according to a release from the park. “Churchill is saying they’re not going to run the Derby without the people there, so I’m hearing maybe June or in September.”

Baffert’s comments came after his Charlatan won an allowance race by 10 ¼ lengths at Santa Anita, putting himself in contention for the Kentucky Derby.

Churchill announced Saturday it has “been working carefully and diligently with relevant health experts and authorities to ensure we make the most responsible decision” regarding this year’s Derby, which is scheduled for May 2.

Rebel Stakes analysis

Jay PrivmanMar 15, 2020

Barbara D. LivingstonNadal earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 96 for his victory in the Grade 2 Rebel.

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Grade 2, $1 million Rebel Stakes, 1

1/16 miles, Oaklawn Park, March 14, 2020
(50 Derby qualifying points for a win, 20 for second, 10 for third, 5 for fourth)
Winner: Nadal, by Blame
Trainer: Bob Baffert
Jockey: Joel Rosario
Owners: George Bolton, Arthur Hoyeau, Barry Lipman, and Mark Mathiesen
Beyer Speed Figure: 96

One of the earliest handicapping factors one learns, and which has stood the test of time, is that pace makes the race, and there is no finer example of that concept than this performance by NADAL. His Beyer figure is perfectly fine, but when viewed through the context of how this race unfolded, and what he had to do to win, this performance rates as one of the best seen on the current Derby trail.

Nadal had the rail draw and had to be sent along to take the lead. He set swift fractions of 22.89 seconds for the quarter and 46 seconds for the half. AMERICAN THEOREM was right with him through those fractions; American Theorem wound up getting beat more than 27 lengths. NO PAROLE, who was with those two through the first quarter, was beaten nearly 50 lengths. After disposing of those two, and having two other rivals make bids a quarter-mile out, Nadal had to hold off the longshot EXCESSION, who was last early and was able to rally into that scalding pace. Nadal turned him back, too. All this in his first race around two turns, first on an off track, and in only his third start while having to ship.

Nadal won his debut Jan. 19 at Santa Anita and then came back three weeks later, with a mere half-mile work in between, and still beat a quality field in the seven-furlong San Vicente. With five weeks between starts heading into the Rebel, he was trained far more aggressively – workouts of six, seven, and five furlongs, all best of the morning, all with requisite gallop-outs. He needed that extra conditioning to pull this off, but he couldn’t have done it if he wasn’t a top-class horse.

He’s an imposing animal, and his speed allows him good early positioning. Owing to his draw this time, he had to go. If he ever gets a stalking trip where he doesn’t have to be sent along through wicked fractions, look for his Beyer to jump.

:: KENTUCKY DERBY 2020: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more

In this race, Nadal used his good speed to take the lead, with No Parole and then American Theorem right alongside him heading into the first turn. He was sent along to maintain a slight lead over American Theorem down the backstretch, started to inch away from American Theorem while rounding the far turn, spurned bids from THREE TECHNIQUE and SILVER PROSPECTOR near the top of the lane, then held safe Excession while he and Excession drew well clear of the rest of the field. He remained in front on the gallop-out, too.

Excession, who finished second, was the beneficiary of the fast pace. He also likes an off track, as he had a win and a third in two prior starts on wet tracks. He has no early speed and went into the first turn at the back of the field while saving ground. Far back down the backstretch, he began to advance on the far turn while continuing to save ground, then had to wait a bit in traffic nearing the quarter pole. He got through inside of Silver Prospector and Three Technique coming off the bend, angled out to take a run at Nadal, but never could get past the winner while slightly drifting out. This was definitely his best race yet, though the pace and off track helped his cause.

BASIN, who was third, saved ground around the first turn while under a snug hold while following the early pacesetters. He seemed a bit keen, understandable as this was his first start in more than six months and his first around two turns. He was more settled going down the backstretch, went into the far turn in the two path, just outside stablemate Silver Prospector, got shuffled back nearing the quarter pole and had to angle to the three path, kept to his task and finished well between rivals. This was a deceptively good race considering the layoff. He can move forward. But whether he wants 10 furlongs is still a question. He definitely likes an off track, as his Hopeful win was earned in the slop.

Three Technique, who was fourth, was three paths wide around the first turn while following American Theorem, never could drop over down the backstretch, and went into the far turn in the four path. He ranged up menacingly outside Nadal and American Theorem rounding the turn, but couldn’t go with the top two through the lane and lost the show position late.

COACH BAHE, who was fifth, lacked speed and was in front of only Excession around the first turn. He remained well back down the backstretch, moved closer while in tandem with Excession three furlongs out, was angled to the four path midway on the turn, was under an aggressive drive in upper stretch but flattened out the final furlong.

Silver Prospector, who was sixth, raced between Basin and Three Technique around the first turn, then eased back between those two heading into the backstretch and was guided to the rail. He raced inside Basin while following Nadal around the far turn, looked to be in position to pounce heading off the bend, but not long after dropped back between Excession and Three Technique and steadily retreated.

American Theorem, who was seventh, bobbled slightly leaving the gate but used his good speed to advance into the first turn and prompt the pace initially from the three path. He moved past No Parole heading into the backstretch and engaged Nadal from the six-furlong pole all the way until midway on the far turn, when he began to weaken. By the time he turned into the stretch he was exhausted from his early efforts and was allowed to coast home.

No Parole, who finished last of eight, broke best and went into the first turn between Nadal and American Theorem. He eased back from between those two six furlongs out, entered the far turn in the three path while just inside Three Technique, but weakened before reaching the quarter pole and quickly retreated.

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2020 Road to the Kentucky Derby Point Standings