BALTIMORE– Even without a Triple Crown on the line, the upcoming Belmont Stakes is one of the most anticipated horse races in the history of the sport.
That’s because it is being contested at Saratoga Race Course for the first time, part of a two-year hiatus in upstate New York while the former Belmont home in New York City is demolished and rebuilt.
“When you play sports, you can do unique things, and having a Belmont at Saratoga is unique for us,” said New York Racing Association President and CEO David O’Rourke. “Everyone up there was so involved in this event, it’s really cool. It’s hard to describe the level of enthusiasm up there other than the fact that everyone is all in.”
Likely including Preakness champion Seize the Grey, who ended Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan’s Triple Crown bid with a wire-to-wire victory on Saturday. His 88-year-old Hall of Fame trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, said it was likely Seize the Gray would go away.
He wouldn’t be alone, considering the historic nature of the Belmont at Saratoga, and also that it is being shortened to 1 1/4 miles from the usual 1 1/2-mile “champion test” distance because of the girth of the track. At that distance, the race would have started on a bend, so it was decided to shorten it, which could motivate more owners and trainers to let their horses run.
“It’s a totally different business,” said Lukas. “We’ll have some new faces. There’s some guys sitting backstage. I’m sure Todd (Pletcher) and Chad (Brown), with the depth they have in their stables, will be involved. The fact that it’s a mile and a quarter, I think which makes it more attractive.”
Two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer Bob Baffert also approves of moving away from a longer distance not typically covered by 3-year-olds or even many older horses.
“You really don’t want to send a horse a mile,” Baffert said. “They only do it once in a lifetime. … A mile and a quarter, okay.”
O’Rourke said the race will return to 1 1/2 miles when it returns to the new version of Belmont Park in 2026. Given how much Lukas talks about his next crop of horses, he will no doubt show interest in yearlings born in 2023 for Belmont’s return to the interior of the state.
For now, the question is to what extent the final leg of the Triple Crown will be a kind of rematch of the Derby or Preakness. Brown-trained Sierra Leone, who finished second at Churchill Downs on May 4, could run, as could Mystik Dan.
Trainer Kenny McPeek is sending the Derby winner and Preakness runner-up to Saratoga but will wait a week to 10 days to make a decision. Baffert on Friday appeared to rule out the Belmont for Muth because the Preakness morning line favorite became ill upon arriving in Baltimore and likely would not be able to heal in time to train for the June 8 race.
There will be no shortage of interest in attending the Belmont at Saratoga, which has been around since 1863 and is one of horse racing’s most venerable venues. The field won’t match the Derby’s 20 horses, but it will almost certainly be larger than the Preakness’s eight.
“The Belmont field is kind of erratic and depends on a lot of other factors,” O’Rourke said. “I think it will be an exceptionally deep field. It will be a big field, but it will be exceptionally deep, that’s my projection at the moment.”
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