A field of 10 horses is expected in Belmont betting on Saturday, June 5th. There will be four main contenders, a few dark horses and three big long shots in Belmont odds. Do any of the big longs hots have a chance?Belmont betting will likely favor Ice Box and he will be followed in the odds by First Dude, Fly Down and Drosselmeyer. There will be a few other horses after those four and then the three big long shots. They are Spangled Banner, Stay Put and Uptowncharlybrown.
Spangled Banner probably doesn’t belong in this race but trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. has said that the horse is doing well. While Spangled Banner doesn’t have the resume of a winning horse he does have Dutrow as his trainer and he is going to get Garrett Gomez in the irons. Normally getting a jockey like Gomez would be good news but he did nothing aboard Lookin at Lucky in the Derby and then finished poorly aboard Dublin in the Preakness. Spangled Banner finished third last time out on April 17th in the Withers.
Uptowncharlybrown could be worth more of a look in Belmont odds than Spangled Banner. His trainer Kiaran McLaughlin believes the horse will like the distance. He has a big stride and could be a surprise horse in the Belmont. He was third in the Lexington Stakes.
Another horse that is going to have big odds is Stay Put. His connections believe he will really like the mile and a half distance. Trainer Steve Margolis has been preparing him to run a long distance. Owner Richard Klein also believes that Stay Put will like the long distance. He was fifth in the Risen Star and in the Louisiana Derby. The connections would have liked to have run in the Kentucky Derby but they did not have the graded earnings to make the field. They considered holding back Stay Put and running him in the Northern Dancer at Churchill Downs but they decided the distance of the Belmont could be a good thing for Stay Put.
With the Belmont being a mile and a half, anything can happen. The three big long shots, Spangled Banner, Uptowncharlybrown and Stay Put will have long odds but in this year’s race they might have more of a chance than normal since there is no marquee horse in the race.