Belmont Stakes | Horse Racing Free Tips

Team Arcangelo Enjoying Belmont Victory

The team around Arcangelo (Arrogate) was still basking in the glory of his GI Belmont S. victory Sunday morning, even as trainer Jena Antonucci admitted no future plans had been mapped out for the gray colt who was taking a power nap nearby.

“There is zero idea,” Antonucci said of a potential next start for Arcangelo. “We know what the calendar is and what's where, so we'll let him come out of this and tell us. [The Aug. 26 GI Travers] is on our radar, but the stakes schedule is there and if it's seven weeks until we run or 11 weeks until we run, we'll just back into it.”

Antonucci, who won her first Grade I and became the first woman to train a winner of a Triple Crown event, said she is still processing the scale of the accomplishment 12 hours later.

“Everything is still a little bit numb on some levels and I'm just trying to sort everything out,” Antonucci said. “I'm just grateful and appreciative of what he did for us yesterday and it's pretty cool.”

Arcangelo was a little more subdued than his trainer Sunday morning.

“He's taking a nap and that's normal for him,” said Antonucci. “He's a hard sleeper.”

The Travers is the likely summer target for Belmont runner-up Forte (Violence), as well as stablemate Tapit Trice (Tapit), who was third on Saturday. Trainer Todd Pletcher said the July 22 GI Haskell S. or July 29 GII Jim Dandy S. would be considered as prep races for both sophomores.

“I think both races would be possible with both horses targeting the Travers, just deciding what we're going to do leading up to the Travers,” Pletcher said. “We'll just give it a couple weeks, see how they come out of it, how they're training and go from there.”

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Letter to the Editor: Amanda Luby

I didn't realize how badly I wanted Jena Antonucci to win the GI Belmont S. Saturday until Arcangelo slipped up the rail and drove past National Treasure under a perfect ride by Javier Castellano and I started screaming at the TV and feverishly clapping the horse onto the wire. It wasn't until Acrangelo crossed the wire first and Javier pumped his fist in the air that I started jumping up and down, tears streaming down my face that I realized how much it mattered to me, a nearly 50-year-old woman who's loved Thoroughbred racing since growing up in Oklahoma and reading the Black Stallion books as a child.

I don't even know Jena, but her reputation as a superb horsewoman preceded her win, that reputation spread by the women in the industry devoted to aftercare, quality horsemanship, and always doing right by the horse. You see, there's a network of us in the sport in various segments of participation, from equine attorneys and small breeders like myself, to exercise riders, grooms, hotwalkers, bloodstock agents and pedigree consultants, media, farm staff both in and out of the office, racetrack employees, veterinarians, and trainers, many of us who weren't born into the industry, but who found our way into racing because of the sheer love of the animal. These women represent a large swath of participants in the sport doing their best to make it better, oftentimes unheralded, underpaid, unnoticed, and underappreciated.

We all know how hard it is for small trainers–let alone female trainers–to get support from owners and racetracks. While Jena's win was the second win for a female in a Triple Crown race (jockey Julie Krone being the first by winning the Belmont S. in 1993), the 30 years between such victories reflects the painfully slow growth in opportunities that women continue to experience in racing, a sport with a rich history of hurting itself.

There's no need to regurgitate the depths of those issues here, but I will conclude with this: representation matters. Jena's win matters, for all of us. It gives us hope. It ignites fires in young girls across the nation and it re-sparks old flames that have flickered in the winds of time.

Amanda Luby, Welbourne Stud

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‘Tapping’ into the Field for the 155th Belmont Stakes

ELMONT, NY – Breathe easy.

Following significant improvement in air quality conditions throughout New York State, the 155th GI Belmont Stakes–celebrating the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's performance of a lifetime in the final leg of the Triple Crown–will go on as scheduled Saturday evening.

If there's one sire's name that you want to see when handicapping the 1 1/2-mile Classic, it's Tapit.

Responsible for a co-record four Belmont winners, two second-place finishers and two third-place finishers, the 22-year-old Gainesway kingpin will be represented by potential race favorite Tapit Trice (Tapit) and the rail-drawn longshot Tapit Shoes (Tapit) in the field of nine as well as an additional four runners as a broodmare sire.

“Tapit's everywhere,” Gainesway's General Manager Brian Graves said. “He's a once-in-a-lifetime horse. We'll probably be quite content if we just have a few stallions half as good as him at Gainesway in the near future.”

The $1.3-million Keeneland September yearling graduate Tapit Trice, winner of the GI Toyota Blue Grass S. and seventh-place finisher in the GI Kentucky Derby, was bred by Gainesway and is campaigned in partnership by Antony Beck's operation along with Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm.

“We're hoping for our own selves that Tapit Trice can win this race and stand beside his dad at Gainesway,” Graves said. “We're very proud. We bred this horse and we have the mare on the farm. We bought her as a 2-year-old and raced her, so it's a family that we have created right here. There's a lot of excitement in the air hoping that Tapit Trice could be a special horse. We're all dreaming right now.”

Tapit Trice's Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher has won the Belmont four times himself, including with Tapit's Tapwrit following a sixth-place finish on the first Saturday in May, and will also saddle morning-line favorite and last year's champion 2-year-old colt Forte (Violence). The latter was forced to scratch on the morning of the Derby with a well-documented foot bruise.

The field for the Belmont also includes wire-to-wire GI Preakness S. winner National Treasure (Quality Road) and beaten Kentucky Derby favorite and third-place finisher Angel of Empire (Classic Empire), who adds blinkers for the first time.

Keeping it 100…

Commanding a stud fee of $185,000 in 2023, North America's three-time leading sire Tapit is responsible for 100 graded winners worldwide–31 at the highest level–including Belmont winners Essential Quality (2021), Tapwrit (2017), Creator (2016) and Tonalist (2014).

Tapit is the broodmare sire of 12 Grade I winners, including this year's GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief), who returned with a thrilling victory in Friday's GI Acorn S., and Saturday's GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H. 7-5 morning-line favorite and GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Cody's Wish (Curlin).

He'll have four chances to collect his first Belmont trophy as a broodmare sire with the lightly raced GIII Peter Pan S. winner Arcangelo (Arrogate); Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}), a better-than-it-looked fifth in the Kentucky Derby after racing close to a hot pace; last out Gulfstream optional claiming winner Il Miracolo (Gun Runner); and Bath House Row winner and GI Preakness S. fourth Red Route One (Gun Runner).

Tapit's progeny will also be featured prominently on the absolutely stacked Belmont undercard via Charge It (Tapit) (GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H.); Highest Honors (Tapit) (GI Resorts World Casino Manhattan S.); and Portos (Tapit) (GII Brooklyn S.).

Star Power…

There will be eight additional graded stakes races–five at the Grade I level–on the blockbuster Belmont undercard.

The aforementioned fan favorite Cody's Wish (Curlin) will put his five-race winning streak on the line in the stallion-making GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H.

Clairiere (Curlin) and Secret Oath (Arrogate) will meet for the third straight time in the GI Ogden Phipps S. The former defeated two-time champion Malathaat (Curlin) by a head in a thrilling renewal of the Phipps last year.

Last out GI Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic S. winner Up to the Mark (Not This Time) will take on nine rivals, including the Charlie Appleby-trained duo of Ottoman Fleet (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and Warren Point (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), in the GI Resorts World Casino Manhattan S.

A terrific field of 13 sophomores, including top two choices General Jim (Into Mischief) and Arabian Lion (Justify), will throw down in one of the best betting races on the day in the seven-furlong GI Woody Stephens S.

Last year's GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Caravel (Mizzen Mast) will face an overflow field of males, including two-time GI Jaipur S. winner Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed), in a very deep edition of the six-furlong turf sprint Saturday.

Streaking champion sprinter and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Elite Power (Curlin) looms large in the GII True North S.

Chez Pierre (Fr) (Mehmas {Ire}), winner of the GI Maker's Mark Mile S. at Keeneland this spring, is the even-money, morning-line favorite for the GIII Poker S.

And a field of 11 stayers will be locked and loaded in front of the crowd at the Belmont distance of 1 1/2 miles in the GII Brooklyn S.

The legendary Tom Durkin will make his return out of retirement to the announcer's booth to call the Belmont S. as well as all the races aired during FOX's Belmont Day coverage scheduled for 4:00-7:30 p.m. ET.

Saturday's forecast calls for partly sunny skies and a delightful high of 77 degrees on Long Island.

First post for the 13-race program, featuring a trio of Breeders' Cup 'Win and You're In' events (Met Mile, Ogden Phipps and Jaipur), is 11:20 a.m. ET. Post time for the Belmont is 7:02 p.m.

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Belmont Stakes Analysis: It’s ‘Show’ Time

Hit Show (Candy Ride {Arg}) can make some noise at what has to be a terrific price in Saturday's GI Belmont S. He continues to improve with each of his six career starts for trainer Brad Cox, and was a bit unlucky in his last two tries. The handsome gray came up just a nose short with a wide trip after bouncing off rivals down the stretch in the GII Wood Memorial S., then was a respectable fifth after racing too close to a scorching pace in the GI Kentucky Derby.

By the sire of Gun Runner out of a two-time graded stakes-winning Tapit mare going 1 1/8 miles, Hit Show is certainly bred to handle Classic distances. He also gets plenty of stamina from his Canadian champion second dam Milwaukee Appeal (Milwaukee Brew), who hit the board in the GI Alabama S. as well as two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown facing males. Hit Show boasts the right running style for the Belmont and should sit a perfect trip just off the early leaders if he's good enough.

Tapit Trice (Tapit) looks like the one to beat for four-time Belmont winning trainer Todd Pletcher if he can overcome his slow-starting ways in what appears to be a race without a whole lot of pace signed on.

Arcangelo (Arrogate) has come on nicely in his last two, led by a game win in the local prep GIII Peter Pan S., and still has room to take another leap forward while making his two-turn debut.

Sherack Selections: 1-#7 Hit Show (10-1). 2-#2 Tapit Trice (3-1). 3-#3 Arcangelo (8-1).

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