Belmont Park

Chad Brown saddles a trio so strong in Belmont's GI Just a Game S. Saturday that it would be quite surprising if he does not take home his fourth straight renewal of the event. Leading the Brown contingent is Uni (GB) (More Than Ready), who makes her first start of 2020 after a championship 2019 season. Winner of the 2018 GI Matriarch S., the chestnut kicked off last term with a win in the Perfect Sting S. over course and distance June 29 and was third to the re-opposing Got...

Grade I winner Promises Fulfilled (Shackleford) makes his first racetrack appearance of 2020 Saturday in Belmont's GII True North S. Victorious in the 2018 GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S., the chestnut was fourth in a loaded renewal of the prestigious GI Met Mile last summer and romped in the track-and-trip GII John A. Nerud S. last July. Fading to sixth behind champion Mitole (Eskendereya) and the re-opposing Firenze Fire (Poseidon's Warrior) in Saratoga's GI Forego S. Aug. 24, Promises Fulfilled was last seen finishing sixth when trying to defend...

Come Dancing (Malibu Moon), a five-time stakes winner in New York, returns to the Empire State after making her last two starts elsewhere as the likely favorite in the GIII Vagrancy H. in Belmont. Winner of the GIII Distaff H. and GII Ruffian S. last spring, the dark bay checked in second to champion Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) in this venue's GII Ogden Phipps S. last June. Returning to winning ways with a dominant score in the GI Ballerina S. at Saratoga in August, she followed suit with a decisive...

Eclipse Award winner Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) will run next in the GII Ruffian S. on July 11 at Belmont Park, reports trainer Brad Cox. The champion 3-year-old filly of 2018, Monomoy Girl was sidelined for nearly a year and a half before making a successful return to the races with a May 16 allowance win at Churchill Downs. Like the Ruffian, her comeback race was a one-turn mile event. "She's really training well and we feel like the one-turn mile at Belmont will really suit her well right now and...

Coming off one of the most talked about performances of the year, Gamine (Into Mischief) is headed back to the barn of Bob Baffert, who will wait a few weeks before deciding what's next for the 3-year-old filly. Nothing could have overshadowed the win in the GI Belmont S. by Tiz the Law (Constitution), but Gamine came close in the GI Acorn S. With John Velazquez aboard, she won by 18 3/4 lengths and her time for the mile, 1:32.55, shattered the stakes record (video). Her effort earned a 110...

2nd-Belmont, $59,520, Msw, 6-21, 2yo, 5f, :57.86, ft. RODERICK (c, 2, Into Mischief--Cayala, by Cherokee Run), pounded down to 2-5 while facing just three foes after his chief market rival scratched in the paddock, dueled and drew off to prove much the best Sunday at Big Sandy. Having recorded breezes over the Palm Meadows turf, Gulfstream Park West dirt and Keeneland main track, the Wesley Ward pupil was out-footed slightly by rail-drawn Berhanu (The Factor) but sidled up to that foe entering the bend as they posted an opening quarter...

Tiz the Law (Constitution) won the GI Belmont S. Saturday, dominating nine rivals who were outclassed by the best 3-year-old colt in North America. Let the debate begin. What, exactly, is Tiz the Law's place in racing history and should he win the Triple Crown, does he belong in the same sentence as Secretariat, Citation, Seattle Slew and the other 10 immortals? Some will say no. Their point is that he won the first third of a Triple Crown that is unlike anything anyone has ever seen, starting with a...

Saturday's 12-race GI Belmont S. day card, featuring six graded stakes, generated all-sources handle of $67,753,336. All-sources handle on the Belmont 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. To align with required health and safety measures implemented in New York to mitigate risk and combat the spread of COVID-19, the Belmont card was held without spectators in attendance.

Decorated Invader (Declaration of War) was hammered down into heavy favoritism for the GII Pennine Ridge S. and ran to the money, charging through late for a dominant score. Handier than usual from third as Proven Strategies (Sky Mesa) set opening splits of :23.86 and :47.50, the bay saved ground all the way under a patient Joel Rosario. Spotting an opening on the fence approaching the bend, Rosario sent Decorated Invader through and the colt responded with a brave punch, pushing past the pacesetter and rolling clear to score. "I've...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 2nd-BEL, $64K, Msw, 2yo, 5 1/2f, 1:50 p.m. Wesley Ward has a pair of Keeneland-based juveniles entered in this spot. Breeze Easy's Roderick (Into Mischief) was a $550,000 KEESEP yearling and is a full-brother to two-turn GSW One Liner. He hails from the extended female family of highest-level winners Albertus Maximus, Daredevil and King Charlemagne. Roderick's stablemate Copley (Air Force Blue) is from a Ned Evans family that includes the likes of Grade I winners Swagger Jack and Malibu Prayer. Winfromwithin (Into Mischief), just a...

The last shall be first; and the longest, shortest. Insofar, that is, as we have a Triple Crown series at all. This year, to many, the GI Belmont S. is just another mile-and-eighth GI Kentucky Derby prep, conveniently loaded with qualifying points. For those deigning to line up, however, an asterisk is a perfectly acceptable price for becoming a 152nd consecutive name in the annals of the oldest Classic, extending all the way back to Ruthless at Jerome Park. The modern ruthless can perhaps be found at Churchill Downs instead--albeit...

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...