There will be no Triple Crown winner anointed at this year’s Belmont Stakes, but the race should be plenty exciting nonetheless. Exaggerator, who denied Nyquist a chance at the Triple Crown by winning the Preakness Stakes after the latter took the Kentucky Derby, is the favorite to win it. That’s especially so after Nyquist was recently pulled out of the Belmont Stakes due to a fever.
Belmont Stakes 2016: Live stream for the post position draw
The post position draw for the 2016 Belmont Stakes will give everyone a better idea of who will be contending in this year’s Test of the Champion.
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
There will be plenty of competition for Exaggerator, including Suddenbreakingnews, Cherry Wine and Stradivari. Suddenbreakingnews, ridden by jockey Mike Smith, has consistently been labeled the second-most likely to win behind Exaggerator. The horse is well-suited for longer races and should be able to push Exaggerator. In the latest race odds, Cherry Wine and Stradivari were both listed at 8-1 odds, third-most likely to win.
Cherry Wine impressed with a runner-up finish at the Preakness, but Stradivari is definitely one to watch as an early frontrunner. Whether Stradivari, ridden by two-time Belmont winner and Hall of Fame jockey John Velasquez, fades nearer the end of the race is one of the bigger questions.
The draw for the 148th running of the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes draw will be hosted by the New York Racing Association and held beginning around noon on Wednesday at Rockefeller Center. There will be a live stream for the post draw available at NYRA.com, which requires signing up for a free account. That stream is expected to begin around 11 a.m.
While the draw won’t flip the odds around regardless of where the favorites wind up placing, the post position is always an important aspect of the race. Winning from the outside is, as a rule, more difficult. Meanwhile, a total of 23 winners have won from post one, the most of any slot. American Pharoah, who took the race -- and the Triple Crown -- last season, won the Belmont from post five. But the previous two races, won by Tonalist and Palace Malice, were started from 11 and 12, respectively.
It’s worth noting that a horse hasn’t won from that top slot since 1997.
The complete Belmont Stakes Racing Festival will get underway on Thursday, featuring a total of 19 stakes races over three days with $10 million in total purse winnings. Two draws for two other Grade I races will also be announced Wednesday: the Manhattan and Metropolitan Handicap.
Belmont post position draw a glance
Time: 11 a.m. ET (with the Belmont draw closer to noon)
Stream: NYRA.com
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