Belmont Recap

Congratulations to WinStar Farms, Bill Mott, Mike Smith and of course Drosselmeyer for winning the 142nd running of the Belmont Stakes.  WinStar takes 2 out of 3 legs in the Triple Crown (Derby-Super Saver). 

The key to the race was pace.  As mentioned here, the pace was not going to be fast and in fact it was slow at :24, :49 and ultimately the slowest running of the Belmont 2:31.2 since Thunder Gulch in 1995.  This killed any chances of Ice Box as he is a deep closer who needs early speed to weave his magic.  I think Nick Zito's day was summed up by the change from Sinatra to Jay-Z for the post parade as extremely FLAT even though Fly Down did get up for 2nd.  First Dude tried to wire the race but 1 1/2 miles proved to be too long for him.

Riders Up! Selection - Fly Down 2nd

• Fly Down came in second finishing 3/4 off of Drosselmeyer.  Hypothetical $100 WPS would have yielded net of $295 ($595-$300). 
• Rider's Up had the top 5 finishers in Belmont as it's top 6 contenders. (note Uptowncharleybrown was DQ'd due to losing 8lbs bag from its saddle in the stretch but finished 5th).  Ice Box was my weakest link finishing 9th (placing 8th due to Uptowncharleybrown). 
• Had you placed a 6 horse exacta box would have cost you $720 and returned $10,658 (I obviously did not do this).

Finally, ABC's coverage of the race was sub-par which fell into place with "Empire State of Mind."  Why would you show the start of the race from ground level 50 yards from the gate then cut to a straight on view at ground level view into the first turn?  Can't see the break and positioning of any horse heading into the 1/4 pole.  Chalk it up to a failed experiment. 

See you in the Winner's Circle. Riders Up!