Belmont Stakes: What’s left of the 2017 Triple Crown

It’s no secret that this year’s crop of contenders on the Road to the Triple Crown were suspect from the beginning.

As if the racing gods knew there would be no Triple Crown winner in 2017, Not This Time, proceeded to kickoff the Derby preps back in September by winning the Iroquois at Churchill.

And since then, it’s been a head-scratching, roller coaster ride for some early favorites like El Areeb who went on a four race winning streak that ended with an injury in the G3 Gotham and unable to compete in any of the Triple Crown races. But he wasn’t the only one.

McCraken was highly touted as a top Derby contender and possible favorite after winning his first four races. But his true ability was revealed when as the heavy favorite in the G2 Blue Grass he fell several lengths short with a third place finish behind Irap who entered the starting gate as a maiden before leading all the way that day.

And as for last year’s two-year-old champ, Classic Empire, his loss as the heavy favorite in the G2 Holy Bull was a fitting reminder of how weak a bunch he faced in the BC Juvenile which included the runner-up and the aforementioned Not This Time.

I could go on. But suffice it to say that when Always Dreaming won the Florida Derby for his third in a row, a closer inspection of the talent, or lack thereof, that he faced leading up to the Roses was plenty enough reason to believe that he was just an average three-year-old with a chance to win it all.

So on Derby Day when the rains came, the stage was set to carry the speed of Always Dreaming all the way to the bank. And into the record books he ran as the 143rd winner of the world’s most renowned horse race and the hope of many a horse racing fan who still believes that somehow, someway, we can make horse racing great again.

But it won’t be this year and it won’t be easy.

Always Dreaming finished an up-the-track 8th in the Preakness at Pimlico and will sit out the Belmont. As will the Preakness winner Cloud Computing.

Who’s left? Why Classic Empire, of course. He’ll open as the heavy favorite and the one to beat.