Animal Kingdom (5-2)
With two races down and two different winners, we will have to wait another year to crown a Triple Crown Champion, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of excitement this Saturday at Belmont Park for the 143rd running of the “Test of a Champion”.
The mile-and-a-half long track will host twelve 3-year-old colts all hoping to make history by winning one of the most prestigious races in the sport—the third leg of the Triple Crown—the Belmont Stakes.
Favorites Animal Kingdom (5-2) and Shackleford (9-2), the winners of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, will be in favorable positions to win this weekend’s race.
Animal Kingdom and his once-Belmont-champion jockey John Velazquez, will no doubt have the advantage in the “Run for the Carnations,” but Shackleford is riding high after a surprise victory at Pimlico.
Shackleford’s only knock in his Preakness win was that he almost gave it up towards the end, and with Belmont being on a much longer track, this has to be a scary thought when considering putting your hard-earned money down on this contender.
Other favorites like Mucho Macho Man (8-1) and grandson to Triple Crown winner Secretariat, Nehro (7-2), will surely have a grand shot at Belmont. Mucho Macho Man has to be more aggressive if he wants to finish his career on a high note after the disappointment in the Preakness.
Nehro will have a chance to use his well-known running style to his advantage in this race more so than the first two of the Triple Crown, when he got too far behind to allow his finishing skills to win. This being a much longer track than either of the first two, he will have a much better chance at gaining ground, and even gaining the lead, rounding the quarter pole.
Master Of Hounds (11-2) is a bit of an enigma, as he should have been a major contender at all three races, but he fell back in both and never was a threat to Animal Kingdom or Shackleford. The Irish colt will start at the most disadvantaged postposition in the race –far outside 12, where horses tend to get closed off at the beginning, but with Master Of Hounds finishing-type running style, it’s hard to count him out.
Santiva (14-1) is my dark horse for this race, and with his odds, he would provide a huge payout. In his preparation for the race, he has looked magnificent, and the sixth-place finisher at the Kentucky Derby has fresh legs, having only raced in three races all year.
Long shots like Prime Cut (20-1) and Ruler On Ice (20-1) will look to surprise at Belmont Park, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise if either of these two horses finished in the top three on Saturday. Ruler On Ice is a great sleeper pick because of the great season he has had when he has never finished below third place.
Pick–Animal Kingdom – My pick has to be Animal Kingdom. Although he had a disappointing finish in the Preakness, the fact that second place among the top thoroughbreds in the nation was a disappointment says enough all on its own. Any other horse coming around that final corner ahead has to be considered a dark horse behind Animal Kingdom.
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