Belmont Stakes 2016: What impact could Gettysburg have on Saturday’s race?

On Wednesday, the 2016 Belmont Stakes post position draw took place and if you hadn’t been paying careful attention to the headlines, you might have been surprised by the addition of a 13th horse to the race: Gettysburg.

The horse, owned by WinStar Farm and whose entrance was announced on Monday by WinStar’s racing manager Elliott Walden, will be trained by Steve Asmussen for this race. In Gettysburg’s past seven races, he was trained by Todd Pletcher, who already has a full plate for the Belmont while training Stradivari, one of the favored horses in the race and Destin.

Both Stradivari, a horse that has won five of its six races, and Destin, who is a natural stalker, were in the discussion for setting the pace. With both horses under Pletcher, the pace was essentially in his hands.

Notably, Asmussen also trains Creator, who is also owned by WinStar Farm. The style between the now two horses entered by WinStar is an interesting clash, as Creator finds most success as a closer while Gettysburg is considered a pace-setter. Both are competing on Saturday.

With Gettysburg potentially being a front-runner early on and potentially tiring out some of his competitors, that could open the door for Creator to make a surprise push for the win. He set the pace in the Arkansas Derby before fading late and finishing fifth place in the race that was ultimately won by Creator, who rallied from last place.

Then again, Exaggerator, the horse that took down Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist to win the Preakness Stakes, also has ties to WinStar. They own the breeding rights to Exaggerator, and taking the Test of the Champion over Creator and the rest of the field benefits them just as much.

Cherry Wine and Suddenbreakingnews, two of the other highly-favored horses in the race, are also notable closers and could benefit from a hard early push and a late fade from Gettysburg. The addition of the horse should have an impact on the race, but it could affect so many potential outcomes it doesn’t look like a calculated strategy from WinStar to push Creator to victory.

Gettysburg has one win, coming at Gulfstream Park in a 1 1/8-mile race, in seven total races. Paco Lopez will ride Gettysburg in the race on Saturday. Gettysburg drew the sixth post in Wednesday’s draw. Creator comes in at No. 13, while favorite Exaggerator is also on the outside, at post No. 11.