THE 149TH BELMONT STAKES

By Rick Francis —-

A field of twelve three-year-old colts and geldings will load into the Belmont starting gate, each looking to add a garland of flowers across their manes as a champion in the final leg of the 2017 Triple Crown series; let’s take a look at the starters.

Race 11) 1½ Mile. Belmont S. presented by NYRABets. Grade I. Purse $1,500,000 FOR THREE YEAR OLDS Post Time: ( 6:37)/ 5:37/ 4:37/ 3:37 ADVANCED FORECAST: Isolated Thunderstorms, High 73 Low 64.

Twisted Tom (1), Brown/Castellano; winner of 3-of-4, three straight including last out’s muddy Tesio score here in April. Speed figures are a bit below some of these, but trainer/jock tandem are hot, hot, hot.

Tapwrit (2), Pletcher/Ortiz, J; Tampa Bay Derby winner has struggled in his last two, Blue Grass and a distant sixth in the Kentucky Derby. He’ll need to be more forwardly placed to have a chance, but bear in mind, Tapit sons have won 2 of the last three Belmont’s.

Gormley (3), Shirreffs/Espinoza; multiple Grade winner failed to make up any ground in the Derby, and he had his chances, so the distance is an obvious issue. Post position is a plus today and back class over most of these merits an exotics keeper.

J Boys Echo (4), Romans/Albarado; should be glad to return to New York, where he showed in the Withers and won the Grade 3 Gotham. Troubled starts in both the Blue Grass and Derby cost him, a clean break and ground saving trip are a must; Albarado returns.

Hollywood Handsome (5), Stewart/Geroux; a last out first level allowance score at Churchill and off the board efforts in his two previous graded stakes starts, that’s his resume for this. A solid jock and a trainer that seems to find a spot on the board in these type of contests; exotics?

Lookin At Lee (6), Asmussen/Ortiz, I; will be the lone entry to have started all three Triple Crown races; is always close just can’t seem to get there. His late kick keeps him in this once again, and jock change to 2016’s winning rider Ortiz is a big plus.

Irish War Cry (7), Motion/Maragh; son of Curlin has shown he can rebound from a dismal effort, winning the Wood after folding in the Fountain of Youth. He is the field’s lone starter to have posted three triple digit speed figures in his career; not a solid favorite, but the favorite.

Senior Investment (8), McPeek/Hill; has shown solid improvement in each of his last two, winning the G3 Lexington and showing last out in the Preakness. Colt by Discreetly Mine should continue forward; trainer knows something about taking a longshot to the winners circle here (Sarava 2002).

Meantime (9), Lynch/Smith; lightly raced colt had control of the G3 Peter Pan here, but couldn’t hold to finish second, which brings up distance issues. Always forwardly placed, however a mile-and-a-half is a long way to take them.

Multiplier (10), Walsh/Rosario; G3 Illinois Derby winner finished a steady sixth in the Preakness, and in the hopes of another step forward connections go with first time blinkers today; a steady but average angle for trainer Walsh.

Epicharis (11), Hagiwara/Lemaire; distance will not be an issue with this Japanese-bred; arguably the best dirt horse on the island, and there have been health concerns leading up to this, as his staff reported lameness after a workout on June 8th and he hasn’t returned to training; we shall see.

Patch (12), Pletcher/Velasquez, J; La. Derby runner-up is a feel good story, but the story in the Derby wasn’t as good as he was abused early on and breaking from post 20 didn’t help; top connections in his corner, he’ll be ready.

(Wide-open, go as deep as you can)

Selections: 2, 1, 7 w/ 6, 8, 3