Belmont Stakes Day betting was way down compared to last year’s record number

Belmont Stakes Day generated a handle of more than $98 million.

Mo Donegal’s win Saturday in 154th running of the Belmont Stakes was the highlight of a day that generated an all-sources handle of $98,766,906 across 13 races, the New York Racing Association reports. That number represents a drop-off of more than 12% from last year’s handle of $112,725,278, which was an NYRA record for a non-Triple Crown year.

Notably, 2022 was also a non-Triple Crown year after the owner of long-shot Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike opted out of the Preakness Stakes, and Preakness winner Early Voting didn’t run the Derby or Belmont. Epicenter, the Derby and Preakness favorite who finished second in both, also didn’t run at Belmont.

Could all of that have played a part in why interest in Belmont Stakes Day betting was way down despite a paid attendance of more than four-times the capacity-restricted event of 2021? Maybe. But I wouldn’t overlook inflation either, as soaring prices have people protecting their money a little more.

The all-sources handle for the main race, carded as Race 11, was $50,248,624 – down from $60,459,330 a year ago. Over the course of the entire three-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, which featured 33 races, more than $127 million in handle was generated from all sources. That number is down from about $142 million in 2021.

[listicle id=1908202]

[mm-video type=video id=01g4ftbns5a2nyz4y3cj playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01g4ftbns5a2nyz4y3cj/01g4ftbns5a2nyz4y3cj-7856f3b4ba456f80ce7f78191f69d3f9.jpg]

Belmont Stakes: 2022 post position draw results and morning line odds

Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike is back in the field, but not the early favorite

The final jewel of the Triple Crown is up for grabs this Saturday at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York as horse racing turns its attention to the 2022 Belmont Stakes.

After skipping the Preakness Stakes to prepare for the annual June event, Kentucky Derby-winner Rich Strike is back in the field and one of the favorites to win the 1.5 mile dirt race at 7-2.

It’s been a wild season for the former 80-1 longshot who stunned the world at Churchill Downs. Now he’ll get to face off against some familiar names. Though just eight horses were entered into Tuesday’s post position draw, the experience among them is nothing to take lightly.

We The People opens on the rail as the odds-on favorite at 2-1.

Barber Road and Mo Donegal will get a long-awaited rematch with Rich Strike following their battle at the Kentucky Derby. Preakness entrants Creative Minister and Skippylongstocking will try to improve on their respective third- and fifth-place finishes.

Early Voting, who won last month’s Preakness Stakes, has opted to skip the Belmont Stakes in order to prepare for the  Travers Stakes in August.

Here’s a look at the post position draw and morning line odds for the 154th running of the Belmont Stakes.

Early Voting wins the 147th running of the Preakness Stakes setting up Belmont matchup with Rich Strike

The Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown belongs to Early Voting

With 2022 Kentucky Derby-winner Rich Strike withdrawing from the field for the Preakness Stakes, the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown was wide open for the taking.

In just 1:54.54, Early Voting went out a nabbed it with ease.

A rather slow pace allowed jockey Jose Ortiz to hang back in the middle of the pack before taking charge with Early Voting (5-1) just before the final turn. When the pack broke down the stretch, Early Voting successfully pulled ahead with a three-lengths lead and couldn’t be caught.

The victory on Saturday seemingly sets up an epic matchup next month at the Belmont Stakes as the last leg of the Triple Crown is expected to pit the Derby and Preakness winners against each other in New York.

Epicenter (6-5) entered the week as one of the favorites after nearly pulling off the win at Churchill Downs before Rich Strike completed the second-largest upset in Kentucky Derby history at 80-1 odds. He made a late charge to take home second place while Creative Minister (10-1) grabbed third.

Race Results

  1. Early Voting ($13.40/$4.60/$3.60)
  2.  Epicenter (N/A, $2.80/$2.40)
  3. Creative Minister (N/A, N/A, $4.20)

(Based on $2 bet)

$2.00 Exacta: $25.80

$1.00 Trifecta: $66.50

$1.00 Superfecta: $162.90

Purse Payouts

  1. Early Voting $900,000
  2. Epicenter $300,000
  3. Creative Minister $165,000

[listicle id=1900020]

[listicle id=1899952]

Preakness Stakes: 2022 post position draw results and morning line odds

The field is set for the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown

The 147th running of the Preakness States may be the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, but there will be no attempt at horse racing’s biggest title in 2022.

After winning the Kentucky Derby as an 80-to-1 longshot, Rich Strike will pass on the Preakness in order to better prepare for the Belmont Stakes later this season. That means an already wide-open field will get more of the spotlight as the sport turns its attention to Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course on Saturday, May 21.

The 1 316 miles track will see plenty of names familiar to those who tuned into the Derby with Epicenter (6-5 morning line favorite), Ethereal Road and Simplification all back in the field.

Here’s a look at how they’ll line up after Monday’s post position draw.

Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike will skip the Preakness Stakes to prepare for the Belmont Stakes

Rich Strike’s quest for the Triple Crown is over

The 2022 horse racing season will not see a Triple Crown winner.

After a stunning victory in the Kentucky Derby, Rich Strike will not run in the Preakness Stakes on May 21 and instead prepare for the Belmont Stakes on June 11, owner Rick Dawson and trainer Eric Reed announced.

The colt was an extremely late entry into the Kentucky Derby field, drawing in on Friday after a scratch opened up a spot in the field. That saw the three-year-old’s odds languish at 80-to-1 before pulling off the second-largest upset in Derby history.

Rich Strike becomes just the third horse to win the Kentucky Derby and skip the Preakness since 1996. Justify in 2018 remains the last horse to win the Triple Crown.

Over the last 30 years, Derby champions who won with odds of 10-to-1 or longer have won the Preakness four times (I’ll Have Another in 2012, Funny Cide in 2003, War Emblem in 2002 and Charismatic in 1999). In 2019, Country House won the Kentucky Derby at 65.2-to-1 odds before skipping the Preakness after contracting a virus.

Mandaloun, which was deemed winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby following the disqualification on Medina Spirit, also skipped the Preakness.

The remainder of the 2022 Preakness field has yet to be announced.

[listicle id=1890164]

[listicle id=1890353]

Bob Baffert has done irreparable harm to horse racing. But will this force a change?

It’s long past time for a reckoning.

There was a theory — or maybe a hope — during the 37-year lull between Triple Crown winners that having a super horse come along again would reinvigorate the sport.

Then American Pharoah won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes in 2015.

Justify did it in 2018.

Not much changed. Those events remained appointment viewing for a large number of sports fans, and crowds flocked to them (unless there was a pandemic.) Betting on horses remained robust at around $10 billion a year, even as betting on other sports expanded.

The lesson: Horse racing is already wedged into America’s sports consciousness, and that’s enough to keep the industry going.

The only thing threatening this whole equilibrium is, well, what we saw play out this year, with Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit testing positive for a prohibited anti-inflammatory drug.

Despite that potentially disqualifying test result — which has not yet been confirmed by a second sample from Kentucky — Medina Spirit was allowed to run (with special conditions, including extra tests that he passed) in the Preakness, where he finished third.

Perhaps, as USA TODAY’s Dan Wolken argued, that’s for the better. The controversy over the scandal would have only grown as the colt chased a Triple Crown. The horse’s trainer, Bob Baffert, was already doing what he could to minimize his own exposure and opted not to attend the Preakness Stakes.

The problem is this: The damage is done, and yet it does not seem likely that we’re any closer to a true reckoning that would lead to lasting change.

Baffert, in a statement given to NBC, maintained his innocence:

“I have been deeply saddened to see this case portrayed as a ‘doping’ scandal or betamethasone labeled as a ‘banned’ substance. Neither is remotely true. Betamethasone is an allowable and commonly used medication in horse racing. Further, 21 picograms would have zero pharmacology in a horse. All I ask is that everyone not rush to judgment and allow all of the facts, evidence and science to come to light.”

In case you haven’t been following the story closely, Baffert originally claimed that Medina Spirit had never been given betamethasone before changing his story to say that an ointment used on the horse included the drug.

And that’s the problem: If the most well-known trainer, with seemingly unlimited resources, is not really sure what medications are being used on his horses, what’s going on with the rest of the sport?

Baffert should be different. He should be the exemplar of a clean trainer who takes impeccable care of his horses. But he has now been cited five times for violations in the last year; the New York Times found 29 violations over 40 years. Baffert has deflected many of these charges successfully: Justify, for instance, tested positive for a banned substance after the Santa Anita Derby, but the case was eventually dismissed because it was blamed on contaminated feed. If Medina Spirit’s second sample comes back positive, you can expect a long, drawn out legal challenge that will throw the “official” result of the Kentucky Derby in doubt for years.

Maybe that helps Baffert sleep better at night, but it does nothing for horse racing’s reputation. Every time the Triple Crown chase involves talk of drugged horses, it alienates bettors who want a fair contest but also threatens to awaken casual sports fans to how horses who aren’t running in million-dollar races are treated. It creates discussion around the ethics of driving such young horses — or any horses, for that matter — to be so competitive, and the lengths some might go to in order to keep them running.

Perhaps that’s a conversation we should be having, but there’s still a lot of money at stake in horse racing so it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

So what can be done? There’s long been talk of forming a national governing body to establish rules and regulations around the sport. Right now, much of that is left to individual state racing commissions, leading to confusion.

Thanks to legislation passed late last year, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency will take over monitoring the medicines used on horses and a regulatory board will monitor other track safety issues starting in July 2022. That could lend a sheen of legitimacy to horse racing.

Whether the sport as a whole accepts these changes remains to be seen. Horse racing is made up of many disparate interests — trainers, owners, breeders — and it’s hard to imagine them all openly embracing one national program.

But it needs to happen.

Having a Triple Crown winner (or two) turned out to be only a nice boost to the sport. It was not transformative.

Having horses continue to test positive for substances that should not be in their blood on any race day let alone the biggest one of the year, though, could be transformative. It could bring the whole thing down.

Preakness Stakes: 2021 post position draw results and morning line odds

The field is set.

The 2021 Preakness Stakes is Saturday and the two favorites, including one who could challenge for the Triple Crown, will be under heavy scrutiny because of their controversial trainer.

Medina Spirit — the Kentucky Derby winner trained by Bob Baffert who would be stripped of that title if a second drug test comes back positive for betamethasone — is indeed slated to run at Pimlico along with the trainer’s other horse, Concert Tour.

Both Medina Spirit and Concert Tour will be subjected to additional testing and monitoring as a condition of their entry in the race.

As for the rest of the field? The Preakness post position draw took place on Tuesday afternoon, so here’s the official order and opening odds for the 10 horses set to run on Saturday: