The third leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown will take place on June 5, at Belmont Park will host the Belmont Stakes, which will be one of the most competitive iterations of the race in many years. Last year, the Belmont Stakes was the first leg of the Triple Crown, with the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes postponed due to COVID-19. This year, though, the three races are back to their typical schedule. The Belmont Stakes is the longest of the three races, at 1 ½ miles, and it is also the oldest of the three, dating back to 1867.
Here are some interesting Belmont Stakes betting facts about the race, as well as some of the latest news stories.
Horse Racing News: Belmont Stakes Rumors
The betting favorite typically does well here
In 152 races, the favorite has won 64 times, or 42 percent of the time. However, in recent years, that has not held as reliably: in the last 16 years, only four favorites have won: Tiz the Law (2020), Justify (2018), American Pharaoh (2015) and Afleet lex (2005). Of course, that means that three of the last six have also gone to favorites (50 percent).
The largest payout for a winner came in 2002
Sarava won the 2002 Belmont Stakes at 70.25/1 odds, which means that bettors who put down $2 on him to win walked away with a cool $142.50.
Can Rombauer follow up his Preakness Stakes win with a victory at Belmont Park?
Rombauer was held out of the Kentucky Derby despite qualifying for the race in points. His third-place finish at the Blue Grass Stakes ensured that he would make it into the field at Churchill Downs. However, his owners decided that, as a late closer, Rombauer would do better at the Preakness, a race that has less traffic on the Derby, and their choice paid off with a win.
Rombauer now has three wins, a second and a third in seven career races. His other finishes include a sixth at the Del Mar Juvenile Turf Stakes and a fifth at the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Rombauer had developed a reputation of a horse that would give maximum effort, but the Preakness Stakes showed that he had reached a new level. His previous high Beyer Speed Figure had stood at 88, but now it sat at 102. His Brisnet speed rating jumped from 96 to 103, and his best Equibase Speed Figure rose from 100 to 103. He won the Preakness in 1:53.62, the second-best time in the last 14 races. The only one faster came from Swiss Skydiver, the family who won the Preakness in October.
Rombauer is a closer who comes off the pace, preserving that stamina for a big push at the end. His natural speed gives him the ability to run closer to the front when he needs to, like he did at the Blue Grass Stakes. He did this somewhat at the Preakness, as he was in sixth place after the first half-mile but just four lengths back of the leader. Running him as a stalker/closer might pay off more than as a deep closer, although he used that closing speed to pull off a furious comeback from the rear to win at the El Camino Real Derby back in February.
Rombauer’s trainer, Michael McCarthy, formerly worked as an assistant to Todd Pletcher, who will enter the Racing Hall of Fame in a couple of months. He was part of Pletcher’s crew when Rags to Riches and Palace Malice took first at the Belmont Stakes, in 2007 and 2013 respectively. Pletcher also trained Super Saver to a 2010 win at the Kentucky Derby with McCarthy as an assistant.
McCarthy started his own training business in 2014, picking up 38 stakes wins and 28 graded stakes wins, including wins by City of Light at the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in 2018 and at the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes in 2019. McCarthy had never started a horse in a Triple Crown race before Rombauer entered the Preakness, and now McCarthy has his first Triple Crown win. It will be intriguing to see if he can go two for two.
Belmont Stakes Betting Odds
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