Meet the horses running in the Belmont Stakes

Yahoo

14 hours ago

The Belmont Stakes is set to host a rematch in New York on Saturday of the top three finishing horses from the Kentucky Derby to close out horse racing's Triple Crown for 2025.
Five weeks after Sovereignty won the Derby over Journalism and Baeza, the three horses will be among the eight competing in the last race of the Triple Crown — the series for 3-year-olds consisting of the Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont. Sovereignty's connections chose to skip the Preakness in Baltimore to prepare for the Belmont, meaning no horse would win the Triple Crown this year.
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2025 Belmont Stakes horses and odds
Journalism, who won the Preakness two weeks after coming in second at the Derby, was picked as the morning-line favorite for the Belmont with 8-5 odds. The odds will change as bettors place their wagers leading up to Saturday's approximate post time of 7:04 p.m. EDT. Here's a list of all the horses racing in the Belmont in order by their number with their morning-line odds:
1. Hill Road, 10-12. Sovereignty, 2-13. Rodriguez, 6-14. Uncaged, 30-15. Crudo, 15-16. Baeza, 4-17. Journalism, 8-58. Heart of Honor, 30-1
The Belmont will be 1 1/4 miles long instead of the usual 1 1/2 miles, making the race known as the Test of the Champion the same length as the Derby. The change is because the Belmont is temporarily being held at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York, about a 45-minute drive north of the state capital of Albany.
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"Shame the Belmont is not a mile-and-a-half," said Heart of Honor's trainer, Jamie Osborne, according to a news release after the Preakness. The brown colt didn't have the best start, but passed four horses to finish fifth in the 1 3/16-mile race, the shortest of the Triple Crown races.
The Belmont is expected to return to Long Island's Belmont Park next year after the completion of a massive redevelopment project.
While the Triple Crown has been won twice in the past decade — with American Pharoah ending a 37-year drought in 2015 and Justify in 2018 — winning just the Preakness and the Belmont has become more of a novelty. It was last accomplished in 2005 by Afleet Alex, who finished third in the Derby.
At the Preakness, Journalism barreled down the stretch to overcome Gosger and win by half a length at Pimlico Race Course. The bay colt was the morning-line favorite for the Preakness as well as the Derby, winning over oddsmakers with four straight victories in California, including April's Santa Anita Derby, March's San Felipe Stakes and December's Los Alamitos Futurity Stakes.
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Jockey Umberto Rispoli, who was aboard Journalism for those three races, the Preakness and the Derby, will have the mount again for the Belmont. Journalism's trainer, Michael McCarthy, has only had one other horse in the Belmont, Rombauer, who came in third in 2021.
Journalism trains on the track for the 157th running of the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on June 5, 2025, in Saratoga Springs, New York. / Credit:With 2-1 odds in the morning line, Sovereignty will try to achieve a rarer feat than winning just the Preakness and the Belmont: victories at the Derby and the Belmont. The last horse to do that was Thunder Gulch in 1995 after finishing third at the Preakness.
While Sovereignty skipped the Triple Crown's middle jewel, the bay colt wasn't completely out of the news. His jockey, Junior Alvarado, was fined $62,000 and suspended for two racing days in Kentucky by the state's Board of Stewards for allegedly using his riding crop too much in the Derby. Alvarado is appealing the decision.
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Alvarado will be riding Sovereignty on Saturday, which will be the jockey's fourth mount in the Belmont. Last year, he was aboard Resilience, who finished in 10th place and was trained by Bill Mott. The two have teamed up again with Sovereignty. Mott has trained a Belmont winner before — Drosselmeyer, who won in 2010.
Sovereignty comes into the Belmont after finishing second at March's Florida Derby and winning the Fountain of Youth Stakes in Florida and October's Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs, the home of the Derby.
Sovereignty breezes during morning workouts on the Oklahoma Training Track at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York, June 4, 2025. / Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
Baeza didn't initially draw a post for the Derby and only entered the field when Rodriguez was scratched from the race two days before the Run for the Roses. He broke from the post on the far outside and came in third behind Journalism by a neck. Before the Derby, the bay colt came in second at the Santa Anita Derby, also behind Journalism.
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Baeza was given 4-1 morning-line odds for the Belmont and will be under Flavien Prat, who also had the mount in the Derby. Prat's been in the past four runnings of the Belmont, riding Hot Rod Charlie to second place in 2021. Trainer John Shirreffs has had three other horses in the Belmont, most recently Gormley, who came in fourth in 2017.
Baeza breezes during his morning workout at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York, June 4, 2025. / Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
Rodriguez was scratched from the Derby over what co-owner Tom Ryan described as a "small but slightly sensitive foot bruise." Trainer Bob Baffert said the dark bay colt has healed and is performing as well as he was before he won the Wood Memorial Stakes in April at New York City's Aqueduct Racetrack, according to a New York Racing Association news release.
Baffert has trained three Belmont winners: American Pharoah, Justify and Point Given, who won the race by 12 1/2 lengths in 2001. With 6-1 odds in the morning line, Rodriguez will be under Mike Smith, who's looking for his fourth Belmont win.
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Hill Road, who was given 10-1 morning-line odds for the Belmont, won the Peter Pan Stakes at Aqueduct last month and finished third in the Tampa Bay Derby in March and in November's Breeders' Cup Juvenile in California.
Irad Ortiz Jr. will be aboard the bay colt in pursuit of his third Belmont win, most recently riding Mo Donegal to victory in 2022. Hill Road will be trainer Chad Brown's fifth career entry in the race. He's still seeking his first Belmont win after coming close with third-place Sierra Leone in 2024 and second-place Gronkowski in 2018.
Crudo, who's co-owned by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, was given 15-1 odds in the morning line. The bay colt won the Sir Barton Stakes, one of the undercard races for the Preakness, and will be trainer Todd Pletcher's chance for a fifth Belmont win. John Velazquez will have the mount, going for his third victory at the race.
Pletcher's second horse in the race, Uncaged, won at Saratoga in August and at Aqueduct in April but came in sixth at the Peter Pan. With 30-1 morning-line odds, the bay colt will be under Luis Saez, who won the Belmont with Dornoch last year and with Essential Quality in 2021.
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With Heart of Honor, the other horse to be given 30-1 odds in the morning line, Saffie Osborne has a chance to become the first woman to ride to victory in a Triple Crown race since Julie Krone won the Belmont in 1993 aboard Colonial Affair. In addition to finishing fifth at the Preakness, the British-bred brown colt raced in the United Arab Emirates, coming in second at the UAE Derby in April.
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