Sports news from racingfigures.com / belmont

Heading up to Saratoga this morning, but I didn't want to leave without mentioning marvelous Music Note, who kept her win streak rolling with another seemingly effortless victory in the Coaching Club American Oaks on Saturday: Last of five at the half, she moved into contention on the outside going into the stretch, then drew away to an 11-length win, running her final quarter in a very respectable :24.17 for a final time of 2:01.66. "She looked like she was stronger than her last race," said trainer Saeed bin Suroor, who was in the paddock to saddle her and could...

Transit of Venus is 3-1 on the morning line in the first at Belmont this afternoon, making his second start for trainer Gary Contessa after finishing third at the same level on Met Mile day. This was a bad beat for me: I played Transit of Venus at 5-1 in the fifth and had to watch in frustration as the 5-year-old gelding was checked in the stretch, then trapped behind a wall as the field neared the sixteenth. When rider Rajiv Maragh found a hole in the final yards, Transit' burst through, actually getting a neck in front of ultimate...

- Finally, a winner (I have not done so well with my TBA picks today). J Be K, pressured through a first half in :44.89, rebuffed dogged longshot True Quality at the top of the stretch, drawing away to take the Woody Stephens with a final time of 1:21.85 and paying $7.20 for the win. Silver Edition got up for second, True Quality finished third. It was second stakes win of the day for rider Garrett Gomez, who will be aboard Macho Again in the Belmont. - The Manhattan is the deepest, most competitive stakes on today's card, with the...

Commenter John S. reports from the scene: The entire Belmont Park plant has NO WATER! All the toilets are backing up and it's 96 degrees and there, obviously, is no drinking water for the lord-knows-how-many patrons. Never make fun of Pimlico again! Sounds dreadful, and dangerous. Let's hope the problem is taken care of quickly, for everyone's safety and comfort. 4:15 p.m. update: I just talked to Teresa of Brooklyn Backstretch, up on the Belmont third floor, and she has a sorry tale -- the men's bathrooms have been locked, the women's bathrooms are in poor shape, and the situation...

... then thank God that your flights were actually on time for a change. But seriously folks, I'm on the ground in New York and relaxing in my digs for the next few nights: the Red Roof Inn in Westbury. As Bart Simpson once said while eating dinner in his panties, "This ain't the Ritz," but as far as Red Roofs go, it's much nicer than any Accor brand hotel I've ever stayed at and infinitely nicer than the Red oof Inn (sic) I stayed at in Arlington Heights for the 2002 Breeders' Cup. To think a girl I was...

Well, it was touch and go for awhile, but I've managed to convince the powers that be that our coverage of the Belmont Stakes just wouldn't be the same without my insights. So, rather than watching Big Brown's quest for history at Keeneland I'll be live on the scene. While I'm not a big fan of the racing-needs-a-Triple-Crown-winner line of thinking, I can say that a Triple Crown winner would help my business because more advertisers would want to be a part of the issues devoting to covering such a historic event. Offshore gambling site Bodog sums up why I...

- The bird who chirped to Ernie that I preferred Divine Park over Commentator in the Met Mile had it right, although I profited little from the opinion, getting knocked out of a small pick three the leg before and missing the (logical in hindsight) $15.40 favorites' exacta, cashing only a straight win bet on the 2-1 Kiaran McLaughlin trainee. I can't claim any great handicapping insight: It seemed likely that Commentator would be pressured through torrid early fractions (as happened, with First Defence pushing the 6-5 favorite into first half fractions of :22.48 and :44.52) and Divine Park, coming...

- Nice handicapping by Ed, who alerted us yesterday to Monastic Springs in the seventh at Belmont this afternoon. Check out the head-on replay on Cal Racing and marvel at the rough stretch run the blinkered first-time starter had to survive to hit the wire on top. Steadied behind the two leaders as the field entered the stretch, Monastic Springs tried to move into the clear on the outside at the same time that eventual runner-up He Struck It Rich began drifting in the same direction, forcing Monastic Springs into tight quarters with Bob's Star, who drifted slightly to the...

Music Note, so promising in her two starts last fall, won for fun this afternoon in the third at Belmont, her first race in more than six months. Relaxed and on the rail, she tracked the pace two lengths behind until the top of the stretch turn, when rider Javier Castellano nudged her to the outside and gave her a couple taps of the whip on the shoulder. Under a handride, the 8-5 favorite finished seven lengths ahead of the pricey Todd Pletcher-trained Charming, described in the results chart as "powerless to stall the winner" (PDF). Indeed. I hope this...

Jockey Mike Luzzi earned his 3000th career win in the nightcap aboard Too Tough Pete, making his second start for trainer Richard Schosberg, another whose barn is running well this spring (he's now 11-4-2-1 through Saturday). Luzzi scored win number 2999 the race before, when Cowgirls Don't Cry captured the Shuvee Handicap by 2 1/4 lengths over favored Rite Moment. (Aside: Add Shuvee to the list of great distaffers who raced males without problem. The Triple Tiara-winning filly took the Jockey Club Gold Cup not once, but twice. Brooklyn Backstretch recounts.)...

... of the great racemare (and equally great broodmare) Personal Ensign makes his debut in the fourth at Belmont this afternoon. Listed at 8-1 on the morning line and showing three April works, Baronial, a 3-year-old Kingmambo colt, attempts six furlongs over the Widener turf** for trainer Shug McGaughey. He's an unlikely winner today -- McGaughey takes time with his blueblood stock, and the field includes Bedford Arch, who finished third in his March debut at Gulfstream, as well as 4-year-old Forest of Dreams, returning from a lengthy layoff for trainer Jimmy Jerkens, and the live Just a Warning from...

- Trainer Pat Reynolds (the man who lost Big Brown) is in a slump, with only one winner out of his 15 horse stable this year, and I have some reservations that Money Manager, breaking from post 12 on Belmont's inner turf, will turn things around, but despite being on the outside the horse looks good today in race four, a competitive 1 1/16 mile maiden claiming event. In his last start, dropping out of maiden special company and trying turf for the first time, Money Manager showed more speed and interest than he had in his two previous races,...

- Low-key Billy Turner leads the Belmont trainer standings after winning three races in a row on opening day, one of those with Just Zip It, part of the Left at the Gate stable. - In the day's feature, 5-2 Divine Park won the Westchester Handicap by five lengths, upsetting favored Grasshopper, who finished second. "He's a very nice horse," said trainer Kiaran McLaughlin after. He's so understated. Divine Park has been a favorite of mine since he broke his maiden at Aqueduct over the inner dirt last year. I love his pedigree -- his damsire is the late Canadian...

Gutting out a nose victory in today's fifth at Gulfstream, Tazarine became the fifth filly out of the 10th at Belmont on October 14 to win or stakes-place in her next couple of starts. Melissa Jo, winner of that maiden special, finished third in her next start, the G2 Demoiselle,...

- Thanks to Teresa at Brooklyn Backstretch for alerting me to the appearance of Sargent Seattle in the Sunday Belmont entries. The Stanley Hough-trained Vindication baby broke his maiden debuting at Saratoga opening day, finishing 6 1/2 lengths ahead of runner-up Bold Trust (who came back to run second in...

This could only have been more amusing if it had happened on October 24: Leningrad and Stalingrad finished one-two in the fifth at Belmont on Wednesday in what announcer Tom Durkin called a "Russian geography" exacta. (Never mind that Leningrad is once again Saint Petersburg and Stalingrad now Volgograd.) Leningrad...

Yesterday's prices for the winners of each race in the tough Belmont pick six sequence: $9.90, $14.60, $8.20, $7.00, $19.00, $8.00. Short prices, mostly, yet not a favorite in the bunch. Payout on the pick six, a very generous $191,700 apiece to the holders of the two winning tickets....

Genuine Devotion went on my watch list after her last race, a six-furlong N1X over the Belmont turf on September 15, in which she'd wired the field in 1:07.97. Pretty good, but what impressed were the fractions: She ran the first quarter in :22.63, the second in :23.01, the penultimate...

- Life Is Sweet, a full sister to 2004 champion juvenile filly Sweet Catomine, routed her competition in the fifth at Belmont this afternoon, going 1 1/16 miles on the grass in 1:41.47. It was the two-year-old's second career start for trainer Bill Mott. Debuting at Saratoga (in the same...

- Looking a little stunned in the winner's circle following the Champagne Stakes, trainer Nick Zito thanked his help for sticking around "through a long couple of years." The 1 1/2 length win by War Pass over longshot Pyro was the first graded stakes score for the Zito barn since...