2024 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga

[Squeaky]

Fierceness and Antiquarian pointing there from Pletcher. Bob says Muth will miss that race too due to an “infection”. Maybe more sick than they thought? Hope he recovers well.

[Flanders]

Fierceness and Antiquarian pointing there from Pletcher. Bob says Muth will miss that race too due to an “infection”. Maybe more sick than they thought? Hope he recovers well.

https://www.drf.com/news/muths-bloodwor ... emperature

Baffert said the bloodwork showed Muth had an infection but his bloodwork today showed he is improving.

[Slewfan2]

Honor Marie is doing fantastic and will have his first post-Derby work tomorrow. He’s pointing to the Belmont.

https://x.com/legionbldstk/status/17916 ... 92714?s=46

[Squeaky]

Probables

Fierceness
Sierra Leone
Honor Marie
Antiquarian
Seize the Grey
Mystik Dan

Possible

Tuscan Gold

[CoronadosQuest]

Probables

Fierceness
Sierra Leone
Honor Marie
Antiquarian
Seize the Grey
Mystik Dan

Possible

Tuscan Gold

I wonder if Mindframe is still pointing there if Fierceness is.

[Squeaky]

Probables

Fierceness
Sierra Leone
Honor Marie
Antiquarian
Seize the Grey
Mystik Dan

Possible

Tuscan Gold

I wonder if Mindframe is still pointing there if Fierceness is.

Would like to see this but maybe will go Haskell-Travers route instead

[Flanders]

Also possible:

Thorpedo Anna
The Wine Steward
Dornoch

undecided:
Mindframe

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing ... -for-lukas

[Mylute]

It would be cool if Mystik Dan and Thorpedo Anna showed up but I'm not really convinced either of them would do well at the distance. It is still 1 1/2 miles despite being at Saratoga, right?

[CoronadosQuest]

It would be cool if Mystik Dan and Thorpedo Anna showed up but I'm not really convinced either of them would do well at the distance. It is still 1 1/2 miles despite being at Saratoga, right?

It is 1 1/4 miles this year

[Mylute]

It is 1 1/4 miles this year

OK interesting! Either I missed that or just forgot.

I am much more faithful in their chances, then.

[BaroqueAgain1]

This will be another Belmont that gets an asterisk.
Could be worse...you could be Tiz the Law, who won a terribly truncated "Belmont Stakes" in 2020, run at only 1 1/8-miles. What a palid rendition of the 'Test of the Champions.'

[MySaladDays]

Fierceness and Antiquarian pointing there from Pletcher. Bob says Muth will miss that race too due to an “infection”. Maybe more sick than they thought? Hope he recovers well.

He was 56 Dslr before the preakness. If not running in the belmont that is going to be a lot of time off.

[Flanders]

Fierceness and Antiquarian pointing there from Pletcher. Bob says Muth will miss that race too due to an “infection”. Maybe more sick than they thought? Hope he recovers well.

He was 56 Dslr before the preakness. If not running in the belmont that is going to be a lot of time off.

pointing to the Haskell.

https://www.drf.com/news/lukas-leaning- ... ont-stakes

[Mylute]

This will be another Belmont that gets an asterisk.
Could be worse...you could be Tiz the Law, who won a terribly truncated "Belmont Stakes" in 2020, run at only 1 1/8-miles. What a palid rendition of the 'Test of the Champions.'

Never understood why they felt the need to drop the distance down for the 2020 Belmont. Made zero sense.

[Tessablue]

There wouldn't have been a Belmont in 2020 if they hadn't dropped it. Training was badly disrupted by covid and the horses weren't ready to go long. I think horsemen were pretty open and public about the fact that they wouldn't participate in a longer race that year.

I get why they dropped it to 10f this year--it would have been fun if they'd increased the distance instead, but I doubt anyone would have run in it.

[Mylute]

West Saratoga possible for Belmont or Matt Win.
https://paulickreport.com/news/triple-c ... -matt-winn

[CoronadosQuest]

STG confirmed for Belmont

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing ... or-belmont

[MySaladDays]

I get why they dropped it to 10f this year

I don't really understand the 10F at all. They could have moved the gate, or held it at AQ, as it was held the last time BEL was being rebuilt . But they can't make that work at SAR? At AQ they put the gate on the far turn instead of at the clubhouse. Even if their excuse is not beginning a race on the turn, they could still put the gate at the top of the stretch and run it at 1-3/8. which is the distance Man O'War won.

We delight in shortening up races though. It happens and is happening, gradually, (hence Jockey Club Gold Cup distance now or even Brooklyn Handicap will now be 1-3/8 instead of 12F at AQ). Shortening up race distances does a huge disservice to the TB breed because it eliminates allowing them to display their true range of athletic majesty, i.e. what TBs are actaully bred to do!

I remember when someone said "what would have happened to Yeats if he'd been born in the US?" It may have been steve roman, but we'd not have Yeats if he was born and raced here, winning 4 Ascot Gold Cups at 2-1/2 miles. Thankfully there are still some on the planet in the racing world who are breeding and racing 11F+ TBs.

I guess it explains why many Belmont stakes winners are banished to places like Venezuala, Turkey, etc. it's not as if anyone is clamoring to breed or buy 12F type horses here. I would even say 11F horses are not desired......too much time necessary to put "foundation" into them, and nobody wants to pay patient trainers who are willing to do that because those horses aren't precocious, win-early types.

Not to mention the breeding shed, where they are bred 2x and 3x the suggested rate for matings. Last time I looked (which was a while ago) Justify covered 400+ mares in 2023 - 220+ in US in addition to almost 200 in Australia.

Didn't the Jockey Club have a rule at one point about keeping it limited to 140, that they revoked? It WAS 140, until this in 2/22: The Jockey Club will rescind its 140 mare cap for stallions, the organization announced in a press release Thursday morning.
www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/jockey-cl ... -cap-rule/

Authentic was barely off the track and not even acclimated to his new status and they put him to work quickly to breed 230+ mares. And --------Nobody who "puts the horse first" thinks that over 400 matings for Justify is "putting the horse first. "

[Mylute]

Batten Down Prepares for Belmont Stakes Assignment
https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing ... assignment

Full brother to Tacitus.

[Squeaky]

Looking like a tough race for Grey- no easy lead this time. Hopefully he can rate just off the speed like he did in Pat Day mile. This is going to be a much tougher race for him. I wonder if the Matt Winn might have been a better choice. But he keeps surprising us so will hope for the best!