Grindstone
06-06-2012, 11:51 AM
By Gary Quill
www.wnst.net/wordpress/author/garyquill
Twitter @HorseRacingNut
I’ll Have Another Draws Post #11 (4-5 M/L) for Belmont Stakes
Is this the year horse racing fans finally get their Triple Crown winner?! The 144th running of the Belmont Stakes is shaping up to be not that tough a race for I’ll Have Another. The consensus seems to believe there are only two (2) foes (Dullahan and Union Rags) that have a shot at spoiling the end the 34 year Triple Crown Drought. Actually, there are twelve (12) 3 year olds scheduled to break from the starting gate at Belmont on Saturday, for the $1 million 1˝ mile classic, Post Time is 6:40pm. NBC-TV will have “live” coverage from 5pm-7pm.
Late morning on Wednesday the Post Positions were drawn for Saturday’s 144th running of the Belmont Stakes. A field of 11 will break from the starting gate on for this 1 1/2 mile “Test of Champions”, the final jewel of the Triple Crown. Below is how they’ll line-up in the starting gate, along with track oddsmakers Morning Line and what I (G.Q.) predict will be the Post Time odds…
Before you put the champagne on ice, think back over the past 10 years at how many times the Derby and Preakness winner was thought to be a “shoe in” to win the Belmont. There’s Big Brown (2008), Smarty Jones (2004), Funny Cide (2003) and War Emblem (2001). And those horses seemingly didn’t have much competition standing in their way of the Triple Crown, but “The Big Sandy” (aka Belmont) found a way to deny them their place in thoroughbred horse racing history.
I’ll Have Another has proven to be a worth champion, but the reality is there hasn’t been a Triple Crown winner for 34 years because it’s NOT an easy feat! I was 15 years old in 1973 when Secretariat won the Triple Crown. The first to win it since Citation in 1948! At that time it seemed like an eternity. That gap was ONLY 25 years. Today it just doesn’t seem has if it’s been 34 years since Affirmed won it in 1978… has it to you?! Maybe I’m just getting old?
Read the rest on the blog (http://www.e-ponies.com/blog/)
www.wnst.net/wordpress/author/garyquill
Twitter @HorseRacingNut
I’ll Have Another Draws Post #11 (4-5 M/L) for Belmont Stakes
Is this the year horse racing fans finally get their Triple Crown winner?! The 144th running of the Belmont Stakes is shaping up to be not that tough a race for I’ll Have Another. The consensus seems to believe there are only two (2) foes (Dullahan and Union Rags) that have a shot at spoiling the end the 34 year Triple Crown Drought. Actually, there are twelve (12) 3 year olds scheduled to break from the starting gate at Belmont on Saturday, for the $1 million 1˝ mile classic, Post Time is 6:40pm. NBC-TV will have “live” coverage from 5pm-7pm.
Late morning on Wednesday the Post Positions were drawn for Saturday’s 144th running of the Belmont Stakes. A field of 11 will break from the starting gate on for this 1 1/2 mile “Test of Champions”, the final jewel of the Triple Crown. Below is how they’ll line-up in the starting gate, along with track oddsmakers Morning Line and what I (G.Q.) predict will be the Post Time odds…
Before you put the champagne on ice, think back over the past 10 years at how many times the Derby and Preakness winner was thought to be a “shoe in” to win the Belmont. There’s Big Brown (2008), Smarty Jones (2004), Funny Cide (2003) and War Emblem (2001). And those horses seemingly didn’t have much competition standing in their way of the Triple Crown, but “The Big Sandy” (aka Belmont) found a way to deny them their place in thoroughbred horse racing history.
I’ll Have Another has proven to be a worth champion, but the reality is there hasn’t been a Triple Crown winner for 34 years because it’s NOT an easy feat! I was 15 years old in 1973 when Secretariat won the Triple Crown. The first to win it since Citation in 1948! At that time it seemed like an eternity. That gap was ONLY 25 years. Today it just doesn’t seem has if it’s been 34 years since Affirmed won it in 1978… has it to you?! Maybe I’m just getting old?
Read the rest on the blog (http://www.e-ponies.com/blog/)