The final leg of the Triple Crown is here: the 155th Belmont Stakes.
Horse racing’s spotlight will shine down on Belmont Park on Saturday as eight contenders vie to emerge victorious at the Test of Champions that is the Belmont Stakes.
Although no Triple Crown title is at stake, that doesn’t mean this final leg won’t be entertaining.
After all, Bob Baffert makes his return to New York following a suspension, and a championship pedigree will be on full display. Additionally, championship-laden jockeys are set to ride once again.
Looking at area for the 2023 Belmont Buy-ins
The field for the Belmont Stakes, consisting of nine horses, is stacked.
From the favorite Forte to top contender Tapit Trice, and even including Angel of Empire and National Prize, the starting gate appears to hold numerous strong contenders based on morning odds alone.
| Post Situation | Horse | Jinete | Odds |
| 1 | Tapit Shoes or boots | Jose Ortiz | 20-1 |
| 2 | Tapit Trice | Luis Saez | 3-1 |
| 3 | Arcangelo | Javier Castellano | 8-1 |
| 4 | Nationwide Treasure | Mark Velazquez | 5-1 |
| 5 | Arianne Miracolo | Marcos Meneses | 30-1 |
| 6 | Stand out point | Irad Ortiz Jr. | 5-2 |
| 7 | Strike Show | Manny Franco | 10-1 |
| 8 | Angel of Disposition | Flavien Prat | 7-2 |
| 9 | Red Way One | Fran Rosario | 15-1 |
Belmont Stakes filled with tournament pedigree
From horse pedigrees to jockeys and trainers, there is plenty of previous success in the Belmont Stakes within the 2023 field.
The teachers
Start with trainers. Brad Cox has three horses expected to run on Saturday: Angel of Empire, Strike Show, and Tapit Trice. Two additional entrants come from Todd Pletcher in Forte and Tapit Trice. Meanwhile, Bob Baffert makes his return to New York with Preakness champion National Treasure. And Steve Asmussen boasts Red Route One.
Those four names have combined for nine Belmont Stakes victories, led by Pletcher’s four wins and Baffert’s three. The single outlier is Jena Antonucci. Should her trainee Arcangelo win, she would become the first female trainer to groom a Belmont victor.
The particular jockeys
The jockeys, naturally, have their own stacked resumes.
Five riders have combined for eight Belmont Stakes wins in the last 16 years, including each of the past four races. Among them is Irad Ortiz Jr., who will saddle up Forte and led Mo Wicklow to the 2022 Belmont Stakes win — his second Belmont victory in seven years.
It’s a family affair for the jockey, as his brother Jose Ortiz won in 2017 atop Tapwrit.
John Velazquez will mount National Treasure for trainer Bob Baffert. That combination made headlines in 2021 with Medina Spirit, who tested positive for a substance above allowable limits. That resulted in Baffert’s suspension, setting up his 2023 return.
Jockey Joel Rosario, riding Red Route One on Saturday, has wins in 2014 and 2019, while Luis Saez (2021) and Manny Franco (2020) have also enjoyed success at Belmont.
The particular lineage
In the last 10 years, four Belmont Stakes winners originated from the stallion Tapit.
This year, two will attempt to add to that legacy.
Tapit Shoes and Tapit Trice will fittingly start side by side on Saturday. (Fun fact: Jose Ortiz, riding Tapit Shoes, won in 2017 aboard another Tapit offspring: Tapwrit.)
With Vital Quality’s win in 2021, Tapit tied Lexington for the most Belmont Stakes winners from the same sire. He will have two chances on Saturday to claim the record for himself.
Famous data planning into 2023 Belmont Buy-ins
No post position has produced more Belmont Stakes winners than the No. 1 spot, which could prove fortuitous for Tapit Shoes, who has the second-longest odds to win on Saturday.
The first position has led off 24 winners at Belmont, eight more than the next-best starting positions in No. 3 (Arcangelo on Saturday) and No. 5 (Il Miracolo).
Since 2000, here is how the starting positions have fared at the Belmont Stakes.
| Post situation | Total those who win | Winners considering 2000 |
| Number 1 | 24 | Empire Creator (2003), Warrant (2018) |
| Number 2 | 13 | Tapwrit (2017) Essential Top quality (2021) |
| Number 3 | 15 | Commendable (2000), Ruler about Ice (2011), Union Cloths (2012) |
| Number 4 | 12 | Birdstone (2004), Summer Chicken (2009) |
| Number 5 | 15 | Da’ Lacra (2008), United states Pharoah (2015) |
| Number 6 | 9 | Mo Donegal (2022) |
| Number 7 | 14 | Cloths to Wealth (2007), Drosselmeyer (2010), Friend Winston (2019) |
| Number 8 | 7 | Jazil (2006), Tiz the Law (2020) |
| Number 9 | 4 | Stage Given (2001), Afleet Alex (2005) |
A few remarkable coincidences dot the starting gates on Saturday.
Irad Ortiz Jr., for instance, will start from the No. 6 position atop Forte. Last year, Ortiz led Mo Wicklow to the win from the same position, the first time No. 6 produced a winner at the Belmont Stakes in over two decades.
Similarly, Luis Saez will ride Tapit Trice from the No. 2 spot, the same gate he was in with Essential Quality for the 2021 victory.
Grant Lucas is the senior managing editor for PlayNY. A longtime, award-winning sports writer, Grant has covered gambling and legal gaming since 2018, when he began reporting on the New Jersey and Pennsylvania industries. He currently oversees PlayNY as New York expands legalized gambling to include sports betting and online casino gaming.
