OT: Belmont Stakes Viewing and Discussion Thread.
Justify is going for the Triple Crown today at 6:37.
Justify is currently 1-1 odds. He drew the 1 post, which is not ideal, so it adds to the excitement.
Anyone watching? Who are you rooting for and what’s your bets?
I am rooting for Justify, I think he’ll pull it off somehow and just for fun my 2$ strait trifecta is 1-9-2.
Definitely watching. I have several Superfecta's boxed. I used Justify in all of them, but I think he fades today and finishes around 2-4.
I don’t do anything boxed. Win big or go home!! Haha!!
That horse did flinch or fade! History books here he comes.
How do I edit a post. I meant did NOT flinch.
Any of your superfectas come out?
Nope. I had 3 of 4 in several, but no winners.
Damn.
I feel you. Had some boxed exactas with Justify, but left Gronk out of all of them , so I am coming up empty. Cool to see history tho
Just curious...do you guys place your bets through twin spires? If not, how do you place your bets?
I do through 5dimes .
Who’s at the race?
I wish I was.
Go Justify!
Rooting for the triple crown.....however, I think Justify will struggle with the distance at Belmont.
Will be nice to be able to see the race today. No mud. No fog/rain!
It's always the distance at this race. I agree with you. I don't which horse will win, but I'd take the field over Justify.
Shows what I know!!!
Hoping to see the Triple Crown but Justify barely held on last race.
Watching it, but no bets. I think Justify can hang - the Preakness was just a bad day for him in the mud.
BTW, I showed the kid the 1973 Belmont just a bit ago. Secretariat beat the living shit out of the field that day - 25 lengths and still opening at the finish. Never touched with the whip and the jockey never sat down to get him to run. Unbelievable race! He was passed on the outside, and when Secratariat noticed it he said 'nope'. The race was over at that point - with a good mile left!
Secretariat’s Belmont Stakes win is one of the most impressive accomplishments in any sport. Time of this race will be approx 2:27; Secretariat’s time was 2:24. One second ~ 8 lengths
Time was 2:28, which was a bit slower the Twice a Prince, who finished second in the 1973 Belmont
Secretariat's brilliance simply grows with time. My kids don't watch sports much, but they've seen the movie, and the fact that Secretariat still holds the record in all three triple crown races is just amazing. It's remarkable that you can tell them that the dramatic blowout in the Belmont was, in fact, just as dominant in real life.
Horse racing is, in this way, remarkable different from human sports, where a combination of improved training / nutrition and PEDs have rendered virtually all records vanishingly temporary.
I'm not a huge fan and the gambling aspect of the sport turns me off, but as a sports fan I can appreciate that a great deal.
Secretariat, GOAT
Wow!!! What a win. Justify is amazing and one of the best ever!!!
Wire to wire Triple Crown!!! Congrats, Justify and Bob Baffert and Mike Smith!!!
Wow. What a strong horse!! Wire to wire win!!!!!!###
How fantastic is Mike Smith. Man that is so awesome.
Just plain awesome! Justify making history. Love it. so much for fading haha.
Yeah that was awesome!
Let’s be honest. That was a very weak field. Very weak.
Let’s be honest. That was a very weak field. Very weak.
I disagree. Justify just made them look weak. He just took the lead against the early speed and nullified it with a nice first quarter, backed the pace down a notch, waited for the stretch runners and then broke them in the last quarter.
That's pretty much the definition of tactical speed in horse racing.
You might have heard Mike Smith immediately after the race when asked about the horse being an "old soul" say that the horse was so quiet in the gate that he was afraid he wouldn't break, but when the gate opened he took off like he was running 440 yards at Ruidoso. That's a reference to the All American Futurity, a straight 440 yard sprint championship for Quarter Horses. What he was telling you is that the big horse took that lead because he was the early speed.
He then kept it because he was the late speed as well.
You can disagree all you want Roanman, but its a fact. You and I aren't the ones that decide if the field was strong or weak. Justify is a very good horse but he didn't beat one good horse today.
This year's Kentucky Derby field (and 3 year old crop as a whole) was widely regarded as the deepest since probably Barbaro's win in 2006. The fact that this horse had zero 2 year old foundation, and was not on anybody's radar as late as February, makes what he's accomplished even more impressive.
I used to be a horse racing fan. It just hasn't been fun anymore. I'm sick if seeing Baffert's face and I'm sick of races where no jockey really has their horse challenge the favorite. Yes, he's the superior horse, but there's a strategy component to horse racing to stop the favorite from running it the way they want to, and that just isn't happening in the american classics lately anymore (especially in the derby).
It's weird to say, but I couldn't care less that we just had a triple crown winner.
Haha! Whaaaat?
As a bettor who loves the excitement of getting behind underdogs, and a fan in general who loves parity in horseracing, I'm in a sour mood after the conclusion of this year's American classics and how its been the past few years.
You can at least humor me with a conversation rather than a writing a pointless comment where a simple downvote would've sufficed.
I honestly was confused that’s why I said what? How can you say the jockeys of the other horses don’t have a legit strategy. That makes zero sense.
I saw everyone running their own race today, a strategy that focused on their own horses' strengths and weaknesses rather than that of the other horses they were going up against. Noble Indy for example has the speed as a horse that likes to get out in front early. That didn't happen and it seemed like he was held back a little bit to see if he could have enough left to make a push down the stretch, which obviously didn't happen.
If he did, Indy could pressure Justify enough to throw him off a bit and possibly open the door up for Hofburgs strong closing style. That's just the stuff I expected to see at least attempted, and was dissapointed I didn't. When you have a dominant horse in the field, you can't just run your own race and expect to win.
Ok.... I see what you’re saying....but I disagree because you are acting like the result of how each horse ran is a direct correlation of what their said strategy was. Things don’t always pan out in sports, especially horse racing. The combination of horse, trainer and jockey working together is what makes the TC so elusive. If one of the three don’t click just right, they’re not winning anything let alone a race like that. Again, I don’t think that’s an indictment on their planned strategy.
I agree - run race strategy suited to your horse. Smith did that with Justify today. He never pushed Justify, he only got his attention in the stretch with a couple of love taps. If the front runner couldn't push the pace early, that's a fault with him, Justify out dueling him, or his jockey - it's not a function of racing to some other horse's strength or weakness.
The last time I saw other horses run a race simply to beat someone else was the 2006 Belmont - when Barbaro was railroaded. He easily won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, but lost the Belmont by a bunch. His owners weren't part of the old boy network in Kentucky, and they paid for it. Several horses were entered after the Preakness, including a couple of early speed horses that had no business being in a Triple Crown event. Predictably, they pushed the pace ridiculously fast and Barbaro was run out of the race. It was fucking awful, and I don't want to ever see that crap again. There is no doubt in my mind Barbaro was colluded against. No doubt.
You're thinking of Smarty Jones, but your point remains valid.
Yep... Thanks for the fix!!
No collusion!
So, you'd rather see a jockey sabotage their own chance at winning just to make sure another horse doesn't win? Jerry Bailey did that to Smarty Jones in 2004, and people still haven't forgiven him. Also, while it's only been 3 years since American Pharoah, this is only the second Triple Crown in 40 years. People in 1978 were probably pretty "sour" about having had 3 in 5 years.
Besides, I'm not sure it would have mattered. Horses with early speed on top of high "cruising" speed like Justify and AP can establish the position they want and dictate the race to their liking. Had Noble Indy been sent, without any other tactical speed in the race, its likely that Justify would have happily stalked him around the track and took command whenever he was ready. Don't forget, he was pressed through quick early fractions in the Derby, and had Good Magic at his throat for the first mile of the Preakness, and the outcome was the same.
It's actually worse than that, because perhaps the most significant racehorse in the interim between AP and Justify is just-retired Arrogate, and he's a Baffert horse, too.
Fun to watch, though.
The big horse just blew their doors off. We got to see greatness today.
Secretariat finished at 2:24.18. If he'd run that today, he would have finished the same distance ahead of Justify—who ran 2:28—as he did in 1973. About 25 lengths.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfCMtaNiMDM
Larry Collmus (thanks Chatster!) with another crackling call. Makes these events so much better.