While it's often grouped together with the other treble sprints, the Belmont Stakes has unique merit and value that helps differentiate it from the rest. While it is seen as one of three, it carries enough weight to stand truly on its own.
And while we can just tell you this, it's better for us to show why the Belmont Stakes is such a unique, high-profile race. But when given the knowledge that it is not only the longest of the Triple Crown races, but also the longest American dirt race in all of thoroughbred racing, the significance starts to reveal itself. The extended distance turns the Belmont Stakes more into a game of survival than one of skill. With few races around the world being run at the length of the Belmont Stakes, fewer and fewer horses are being bred to run at that rate, which makes sense strategically.
Why breed a horse for a length that it could potentially only run at once in its career? But still, when attempting to tackle the dirt track at Belmont Park, a horse and jockey know that they are about to climb the biggest hill of their careers. More science and aspects of a true sport go into the Belmont Stakes than any other race.
October 3, — The th running of the Preakness Stakes takes place without spectators. Swiss Skydiver wins the race. The race was originally scheduled for May 16, but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The longest of the three triple crown races at 1. Secretariat set a world record at the race that still stands for the mile and a half distance on a dirt track at The winner of the race is given a blanket made of between white carnations, the traditional flower of the Belmont Stakes.
June 20, — The nd Belmont Stakes takes place without spectators in attendance and as the first leg of the Triple Crown for the first time in history. Tiz the Law, with jockey Manny Franco, wins. Its dirt is mixed with a hefty dose of sand due to heavy rains and humidity in the area. Remember the first time you tried to run in thick sand at the beach? Sham, Secretariat's rival in , ran all three races and was the Derby and Preakness runner-up. And Affirmed spent almost the entirety of his Triple Crown campaign in a neck-and-neck duel with Alydar, the only time the same horses have finished first and second in all three races.
According to Dan Duggan of NJ. With so much riding on the Kentucky Derby, the field is always jam-packed with as many as 20 horses in the race. In , there were 19 horses making the mad dash for position out of the starting gate. That makes the Derby more of a crapshoot than any other race, and sometimes the losers can rightfully claim they were beaten more by circumstance and gridlock than by talent.
Risen Star was a good example of that in Andrew Beyer of The Washington Post reports that some recent Belmont winners have been virtually ignored as studs and that winner Da' Tara had so few dates in U. Beyer, perhaps the most respected horse racing writer in the U. From , the winning times ranged from , but at the last five Belmonts the winning times have averaged about —Palace Malice won last year in Byron Rogers , a bloodstock consultant who is known for studies of equine DNA, points out that the decline in winning times at the Belmont have coincided with stricter drug testing in horse racing.
Rogers had this to say regarding milkshaking and steroids on his website, Performance Genetics :.
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