BloodHorse.com

In his hauntingly melodic song, “Hallelujah,” Leonard Cohen wrote, “Baby I’ve been here before. I know this room, I’ve walked this floor.”Many of the 85,811 on hand at Belmont Park June 9 had been here before, familiar with every hallowed nook and cranny of this historic structure. They walked its floors nervously waiting and hoping and believing, ...

Here's a quick follow-up to our pre-Belmont post on pace, where the take-home was that flatter pace lines do best in the 12-furlong classic. This year's race gave another example where the winner had the more consistent pace. Mike Smith wanted the lead with Paynter, but to get there they had to run a very quick opening quarter (:23 3/5), one of ...

We won’t even begin to express our disappointment and disgust over the scratch of I’ll Have Another. All we will do for now is kill the paragraphs already written and leave the leftovers. This is what is left of the Belmont Stakes.Dullahan’s last work was the standout, only because it totally fooled us and everyone else. It looked as if he were ...

Approaching the Belmont Stakes (gr. I)—the longest leg of the Triple Crown—why does it seem that those day-and-night distance questions we asked for every starter going into the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) are now pushed to the back burner? Now we focus more on the riders, and who has the experience to ride effectively in what is a most unusual ...

.commentForm, .postComments, #comments{display:none;} <a href=''http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=87e9a3ada8'' >Belmont Stakes Live Blog</a>

What do Bobby Frankel, Max Hirsch, and John Sabini, chairman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, have in common? They have all used Barn 2 on the Belmont backstretch to leave an indelible mark on Thoroughbred racing. The first two gave racing countless thrills. The third gave it a black eye. Yes, we know the implementation of a ...

We taped That Handicapping Show this morning, and I selected Paynter as my key horse in the Belmont Stakes. I'll Have Another clearly has proven to be the best of this crop. But for gambling purposes, I can't take 4-to-5 on a horse trying a new distance. Additionally, I'll Have Another could be worn down by the first two legs of ...

Will I'll Have Another be crowned as Triple Crown winner number 12? Or will there be a spoiler? How will the rest of the field finish? writeRanker(''http://i.bloodhorse.com/xml/ranking/2012BelmontOrder.xml''); To participate, use your cursor to drag the selections on the left (currently arranged in post position order) to the blank ...

The 1 ½-mile distance of the Belmont Stakes is the biggest wildcard of the American Triple Crown. These three-year-olds have never gone this far before, and most never will again. Very few American horses are bred to go 1 ½ miles, so a horse with 1 ½-mile blood in its family could hold a significant edge. In the absence of 1 ½-mile form, look for ...