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Spectator-Free Belmont Stakes Day Wagering Tops $67 Million

Saturday's 12-race Belmont Stakes Day card at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., featuring six graded stakes and highlighted by Tiz the Law's victory in the 152nd running of the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes, generated all-sources handle of $67,753,336.

Tiz the Law, the 3-year-old colt owned by Sackatoga Stable based in Saratoga Springs, became the first New York-bred to capture the Belmont Stakes since 1882.

To align with required health and safety measures implemented in New York to mitigate risk and combat the spread of COVID-19, the Belmont Stakes Day card was held without spectators in attendance. To properly account for the schedule adjustments made in response to the pandemic, the Belmont Stakes was run at a distance of 1 1/8-miles instead of the traditional 1 ½ mile test.

For the first time in history, the Belmont Stakes served as the opening leg of the Triple Crown, with the Kentucky Derby moved to September 5 at Churchill Downs and the Preakness rescheduled for October 3 at Pimlico Race Course.

All-sources handle on the 152nd Belmont Stakes itself, carded as Race 10, was $34,088,475.

The 2019 all-sources handle was $102,163,280, a NYRA record for a non-Triple Crown year.

The Belmont Park spring/summer meet continues through Sunday, July 12, with live racing conducted Thursday through Sunday. First post is 1:15 p.m.

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Report: 27 Workers At Keeneland Tested Positive For COVID-19 Since May 9

As states continue the rolling back COVID-19 closures and restrictions, the Lexington-Herald Leader reported Friday that more workers at Keeneland have tested positive for the virus than any other employer in Lexington.

Since reopening in Kentucky began on May 9, the newspaper reported 27 people at the track have tested positive. Most of them are backstretch workers, rather than Keeneland employees.

All but two of the 27 have since been cleared to return to work.

Keeneland officials reported that 1,000 tests have been administered to workers as part of its biosecurity protocol. Anyone testing positive is required to quarantine off-site.

Read more at the Lexington Herald-Leader

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Belmont Stakes Kicks Off Upside Down 2020 Triple Crown

ELMONT, NY — Shortened to 1 1/8 miles and to be contested free of spectators, the reshuffled Triple Crown gets underway with the 152nd renewal of the GI Belmont S. Saturday.

The winner will have to wait until the first Saturday in September for the GI Kentucky Derby, however, to continue a bid for what would have to go down as the most unique of sweeps if able to join the legendary previous 13 to do so. The series concludes with the GI Preakness S. at Pimlico Oct. 3.

Welcome to horse racing amidst a global pandemic in 2020.

Jack Knowlton and trainer Barclay Tagg have been here before. Well, sort of. In 2003, the folks at Sackatoga Stable famously packed a school bus and made winning stops in Louisville and Baltimore with the popular gelding Funny Cide (Distorted Humor) before coming up short in Elmont.

Tiz the Law (Constitution), a dominating winner in his two starts at three, led by the GI Curlin Florida Derby at Gulfstream Mar. 28, can provide some redemption for the group at 5:42 p.m. ET Saturday. He is the 6-5 morning-line favorite.

Both New York-breds, Funny Cide and Tiz the Law were produced by first-year WinStar stallions.

“We’re excited to have an opportunity to be in the Belmont again,” Knowlton said. “The pressure isn’t quite as great this time given the fact that we were trying to end a Triple Crown run at Belmont the last time and win a $5-million bonus from Visa, so there was a lot more at stake in that sense going into that race.

Knowlton continued, “But this is exciting. It’s historical and we’re hoping that we can win the first leg of the Triple Crown at Belmont and complete Sackatoga Stable’s Triple Crown, albeit with two different horses, and be the only horse that has a chance in this crazy upside down year to make a Triple Crown run.”

They won’t be able to gather at the races this weekend due to the COVID-19 epidemic, but that won’t stop a good portion of the 35 partners in Tiz the Law-representing 13 states across the country–from getting together, following proper social distancing guidelines, of course, Governor Cuomo.

“About half of the partners are going to descend upon Saratoga Springs,” Knowlton said. “One of our partners, Bruce Cerone, owns a restaurant named Pennell’s and he has an outdoor patio. Current plans are to get the group together and enjoy three hours of the NBC telecast.”

Knowlton added, “This group has a number of people that have been in Sackatoga for many years and some other people that are very fortunate and it’s their first horse. It’s a good group. We’ve expanded-a lot of people from all over have joined Sackatoga.”

Tiz the Law was picked up for $110,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling, Sackatoga’s only purchase at public auction in 2018. Out of the graded stakes-winning Tiznow mare Tizfiz, Tiz the Law hails from the extended female family of Horse of the Year Favorite Trick. He was bred in the Empire State by Twin Creeks Farm.

“It’s all Barclay Tagg and Robin Smullen,” Knowlton said. “They’re our trainer and assistant trainer, and our bloodstock advisors. They’re very good at what they do and we’ve now had two very serious horses. We buy typically one, maybe two horses a year, and always New York-breds. The most we’ve ever spent on a horse was $180,000.”

Tiz the Law’s resume also includes a visually impressive win at two in the GI Champagne S. going a one-turn mile at Belmont last fall. Shortened from its traditional 1 1/2-mile distance, the Belmont will also be contested around just one turn this year.

The lone hiccup from the bay so far in five career starts was a close third with a less-than-ideal trip over a sloppy track in last November’s GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. beneath the Twin Spires.

Manny Franco will be aboard for the fifth straight time Saturday.

“It’s going to be a long time before we get to go to Churchill [for the Derby], but we’d love the opportunity to go there as the winner of the first leg,” Knowlton concluded.

“If we’re fortunate enough to be healthy and sound by that time, we will be back in maybe a couple of school buses for social distancing purposes.”

Saturday’s forecast on Long Island calls for a mix of sunshine and clouds and temperatures in the low 80s. A stray afternoon thunderstorm is possible, per weather.com.

Potential Belmont Upsetter?

With Grade I winners like Cuvee (Carson City), Pyro (Pulpit) and Olympio (Naskra) sprinkled all over his catalogue page, and the product of a stakes-placed Tapit mare to boot, the Winchell family will be very well-represented by blue-blooded homebred and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Pneumatic (Uncle Mo) in Saturday’s Belmont.

Pneumatic’s fourth dam is foundation mare Carols Christmas (Whitesburg), who was claimed for just $25,000 by the late Verne Winchell in 1981.

This is the family of graded winners such as War Echo (Tapit), Wild Wonder (Wild Again), Fun House (Prized), Early Flyer (Gilded Time), Will He Shine (Silver Deputy) and Bien Nicole (Bien Bien).

The aforementioned Fun House went on to produce champion Untapable (Tapit) as well as GISW and GI Kentucky Derby third Paddy O’Prado (El Prado {Ire}).

“The best $25,000 claim ever,” David Fiske, racing and bloodstock manager for Winchell Thoroughbreds, said of Carols Christmas.

“Mr. Winchell was sitting at his desk one day looking at the Racing Form and just decided, ‘I’m gonna go claim this mare.’ She had some of the worst confirmation, she hooked in at her ankles in front, both knees were offset, and she was horribly swayback. But she was a good-sized mare and she had a pretty head. She was actually pretty fast, though, and that’s what kind of attracted her to him.”

He continued, “She produced Olympio, who could’ve been 3-year-old champion in his year and [graded winner] Call Now (Wild Again), who was the third best 2-year-old in her crop behind Flanders and Serena’s Song. But where she really made her mark was four of her daughters who never earned any black-type went on to produce and produce and produce. Four of them were graded stakes producers and it just exploded from there.”

Pneumatic earned his Rising Star badge with a visually impressive late run going a mile at Oaklawn Apr. 11, then battled throughout after drawing the rail en route to a solid third-place showing in the GIII Matt Winn S. at Churchill Downs May 23.

Also under consideration for the GIII Ohio Derby June 27, Pneumatic punched his ticket to New York with a five-furlong bullet in :59 4/5 (1/14) at Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen’s Churchill Downs base June 8.

What would it mean to add a Classic win to this storied family from Pneumatic?

“It would be like the cherry on the sundae,” Fiske replied.

Pletcher Takes Two Swings at Number Four

Seven-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher will have a pair of chances to capture his fourth win in the Belmont.

Dr Post (Quality Road), fourth in his Belmont unveiling behind subsequent GSW & GISP Green Light Go (Hard Spun) going 5 1/2 furlongs last summer, has been perfect in two attempts at three, led by a tenacious score while making his route debut in the Unbridled S. in Hallandale Apr. 25. Dr Post, a $400,000 KEESEP yearling purchase by Vinnie Viola’s St. Elias Stable, is listed as the third choice at 5-1 on the morning line.

“In Dr Post’s case, he’s really a beneficiary of the change in schedule and I think under a traditional Triple Crown calendar, he would’ve probably been just behind schedule a little bit,” Pletcher said. “We were unsure like everyone else of exactly when New York would be able to reopen, but we also had an idea that should it reopen, that they might have to cut the distance of the Belmont. So after Dr Post won the Unbridled, this became our target. We’ve been very happy with the way he’s trained and progressed. This is a big class test against some really high-quality horses, but he’s been indicating to us in his training that he’s that kind of horse as well.”

The stretch-running Farmington Road (Quality Road) sprinkled in a second-place finish in the Oaklawn S. Apr. 11 between a pair of fours in split divisions of both the GII Risen Star S. Feb. 15 and GI Arkansas Derby May 2, respectively.

In addition to winners Rags to Riches (2007), Palace Malice (2013) and Tapwrit (2017), Pletcher has also saddled five second-place finishers and three third-place finishers in the Belmont.

“Belmont is home for us and the Belmont S. always takes on special meaning,” Pletcher said. “It’s traditionally the third leg of the Triple Crown and such a prestigious race, and to be able to participate in it a number of times and be fortunate enough to win it three times, it’s one of our stable’s favorite races and list it up there very high on the races you hope that you could possibly win.”

Two Return on Quick Notice

Woody Stephens may be smiling somewhere if either Tap It to Win (Tapit) or Sole Volante (Karakontie {Jpn}) are covered in white carnations Saturday evening.

The legendary late horseman won the 1982 GI Metropolitan H. with Conquistador Cielo, then added the Belmont just five days later. Woody’s Corner, a tribute to Stephens and his five straight Belmont winners, greets fans at the Belmont clubhouse entrance.

Live Oak homebred Tap It to Win, two for two this term for newly minted Hall of Famer Mark Casse, couldn’t have been more impressive running a salty group of allowance runners off their feet going 1 1/16 miles at Belmont June 4. He earned a 97 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort.

Sole Volante, winner of the GIII Sam F. Davis S. Feb. 8 and runner-up in the GII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby Mar. 7, returned from a break with a well-timed, come-from-behind tally going a one-turn mile in a Gulfstream optional claimer June 10. Patrick Biancone trains the 9-2 morning-line second choice.

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To Hell and Back: Belmont Marks a Deserved Triumph for New York City

The history of Belmont Park, believe it or not, goes back over 350 years, to when America itself wasn’t even an idea yet. In 1665, New York’s colonial governor Richard Nicholl constructed a racetrack called Newmarket in Queens. It stood for over a century, and proved so popular that even after the British were expelled in 1783, a thirst for horse racing lived on in the hearts of newly independent New Yorkers. Union Course sprouted up in 1821 and became the country’s leading track. After that came Brighton Beach Race Course, which helped create the New York institution of amusement at Coney Island. The plants of Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Jerome Park, Aqueduct and many others followed soon after as enterprises competing to satisfy the city’s enduring racing fix.

Then, on May 4, 1905, on a vast 400-acre expanse of land straddling the border of New York City and Long Island, Belmont Park opened. It was in the same area that Newmarket had sat atop hundreds of years earlier, but instead of a monument to British occupation and wealth, Belmont became an American treasure, open for all to enjoy. Which they did, by the tens of thousands, from all walks of the now industrialized city.

“The attendance, moreover, was not restricted to any one locality nor to any one class … The Bowery and the Avenue mingled in the surging democracy of the betting ring,” said the New York Tribute in its coverage of opening day.

The Belmont Stakes, previously run at Jerome Park and Morris Park, moved to its permanent home later that spring. Over the past 115 years, legends were born and furnished in that race and at that track. Man O’ War, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, American Pharoah, all had to come prove their greatness by passing the Test of the Champion.

Beyond the equine performances, the track has seen the ups and downs of modern history and weathered every storm. The anti-gambling laws that shut it down for two years soon after it opened. The Great Depression. World War II. But nothing could prepare Belmont, or New York City, for what was visited upon it this spring.

New York City is a gateway to the rest of the world. But this year, that role cost it dearly, as flights from Europe packed with coronavirus-infected travelers poured into the area by the hundreds of thousands through March. It was a timebomb. By April, it had exploded. The biggest city in America screeched to a halt as everyone, from the governor to the citizens, turned their lives upside down and inside out to try to mitigate a horrendous pandemic that had already spread like wildfire.

By mid-April, 800–eight hundred–of our neighbors were dying every single day. The equivalent of all the lives we lost on 9/11, every four days. The plague was so ubiquitous and murderous that freezer trucks had to be parked outside of our hospitals because the morgues had so quickly reached their capacity of bodies. The steady wail of ambulance sirens was a constant reminder of the hell we were in. Going to the grocery store, a chore we never thought twice about before, suddenly meant taking your life into your hands. All in all, over 20,000 people in the city have been killed. That’s more than one in every 400 New York City residents. And it’s not over.

But one thing about New York City that makes it special that you can’t understand if you haven’t lived here, is that we look out for each other. We’ve proven it time and time again. We bounced back from 9/11 with solidarity and generosity and went about our lives. When outsiders predicted chaos, we took care of our city during the 2003 blackout and again through Hurricane Sandy. Crime plummeted exactly when the city was at its most vulnerable. Yes, there’s bluntness and some rudeness and if you’re a tourist you might’ve been bumped out of the way once or twice by a muttering New Yorker. But there’s also compassion, understanding and empathy. You can’t survive in a city of 8,000,000 without all of those attributes.

We stared down the greatest existential threat to a city that’s faced far too many of them. The devastation has been incomprehensible. I personally lost a friend. But we tamed the beast far better than projected and we flattened the curve, again because we looked out for each other and sacrificed. Today, New York, after being the epicenter of the global crisis, is in a far better position with the virus than most of America.

Because of that, we get a summer. We get to live our lives with reasonable precautions for the next few months. And amid a sports desert, racing has been an oasis. So it’s fitting that on the first day of that summer, we get: the Belmont Stakes. The first major sports attraction in New York since the pandemic descended upon us.

In my high school days, I would sit alone in the sprawling Belmont grandstand on a random Wednesday and just soak in the sights of a game I loved. The bucolic serenity of essentially having the country’s biggest racetrack to myself helped me clear my mind and battle the anxiety of a teenager growing up in post-9/11 New York. It was peace at a time when life in New York didn’t have much of it. So it makes sense on a personal level that that cavernous track returns to provide peace in a time of distress for the city once more.

And even though we may not have the roar of the crowd this year, that just amplifies the sounds unique to our sport even more: the thundering rumble of hooves, the exultations of jockeys, the reverberating ring of the starting gate.

Whatever lies beyond the horizon, we have reason right now to be proud even as we mourn. Communities are what get humans through hardship, and through that hardship, those communities become tighter knit. It’s happened in racing, and it’s certainly happened in New York City. So you’ll excuse me if I shed a few tears when those horses come out to that track Saturday to the echo of booming horns and Frank Sinatra’s timeless voice. We’ve all earned the opportunity to let it out.

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