Triple Crown veteran Todd Pletcher had a simple tip Saturday for jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. before the Belmont Stakes.
“Be patient,” Pletcher said. “I think you have the best last quarter of any horse in the race.”
Sometimes it’s less Mo.
Mo Donegal pulled away from the home stretch and held the Nest pasture to win the Belmont Stakes, giving Pletcher a 1-2 and his sixth victory in the Triple Crown, including four on this track on the outskirts of New Town York.
“To be honest with you, we were a little confident to get into the race today,” said Donegal Racing CEO and co-owner Jerry Crawford. “When he got home, I said, forget it. I know Todd thought he could get a strong last quarter mile, and I’m sure he did.”
Donegal rounded the 1 1/2 mile track in 2 minutes and 28.28 seconds, ahead of Nest and Skippylongstocking. Pletcher, who lives on Long Island, adds another Belmont title following his victories with Rags to Riches in 2007, Palace Malice in 2013 and Tapwrit in 2017.
Mo Donegal beat an eight-horse open field without a clear favorite: We the People, a mud monster, opened 2-1 in the middle of a rain forecast, but reached 7-2 at the time of the race when the showers stayed.
MO MO MO DONEGAL run away with the Belmont Stakes presented by @nyrabets! @iradortiz pic.twitter.com/FhPHpSQUVx
– Belmont Stakes (@BelmontStakes) June 11, 2022
Mo Donegal entered the door as a betting favorite with a 5 to 2. We, the People, led much of the race, but Mo Donegal and Ortiz took charge at the end of the final round.
The 3-year-old foal paid $ 7.20, $ 3.80, and $ 3. Nest, who almost became Pletcher’s second pasture to win Belmont after Rags to Riches, paid $ 5.30 and $ 4.10, and Skippylongstocking returned $ 5.60 to show up.
Rich Strike, an impressive Kentucky Derby winner with an 80 to 1 chance, was sixth after owner Rick Dawson and coach Eric Reed pulled him away from the Preakness with his eye on Belmont. Rich Strike was the first healthy Derby winner to jump Pimlico since 1985.
Reed said the team encouraged jockey Sonny Leon to try to push Rich Strike from the outside, but the horse kept trying to get back inside, where he made a late charge beyond 19 horsepower to beat Churchill Downs. .
“I think we just made a tactical mistake,” Reed said.
Like Rich Strike, Mo Donegal was behind the group in the Derby, but the foal did not have enough stitches in Churchill Downs. He found it Saturday, winning the 154th race of the $ 1.5 million race.
It is the fourth year in a row that three different horses have won the Triple Crown races, a first for the sport since 1926-29.
The race marked a return to form for Belmont after the 2020 Stakes closed to the public due to the pandemic, and the 2021 event was limited to 11,238 spectators due to virus restrictions.
Capacity was again limited, this time to 50,000, due to congestion concerns arising from the newly built arena alongside the NHL New York Islanders. Still, fans crowded into the cars on Long Island Rail Road and brought the 117-year-old track to life with floral hats, pastel dresses and the unmistakable musk of drink and cigars.
The stands were not as crowded as when the venue hosted 120,139 fans in 2004. Not surprisingly, given the unstable weather forecast and the lack of a Triple Crown contestant.
The field was also sparse. No horse ran the three-legged Triple Crown this year, raising concerns that three races in five weeks may be too tight a schedule to keep horses healthy.
The winner of the Preakness Early Voting was left out, likely to prepare for the $ 1.25 million Travers Stakes at the Saratoga Race Course on August 27th. Epicenter, the runner-up in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, also skipped.
In the $ 500,000 acorn for 3-year-old foals, Matareya got a 6 1/4 length victory. Favorite Echo Zulu scratched in the post on the advice of the track vet.
Trained by Brad Cox and ridden by Flavien Prat, Matareya ($ 2.60) ran the mile in 1: 35.77, winning for the fifth time in eight early starts.
The big-favored Flightline went down a slow pace, overcame an early traffic problem and got a six-mile victory at the $ 1 million Hill ‘N’ Dale Metropolitan Mile.
The victory kept the 4-year-old Tapit foal undefeated in four early starts. This was the first time he did not win by double digits.
Flightline ($ 2.90) was also assembled by Prat and coached by John Sadler.
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