Belmont Stakes live updates, start time, betting odds and results

Los Angeles Times

7 hours ago

Sovereignty trains at Saratoga Race Course in New York on Friday ahead of the 157th running of the Belmont Stakes.
Why Baeza might be the best bet in the Belmont Stakes Baeza works out at Churchill Downs in April.
The favorite for Saturday's Belmont Stakes may not be who you think it might be. Based on early betting information connected to a double matching the winner of Friday's Acorn with Saturday's Belmont Stakes, it appears that handicappers believe Baeza to be the best bet on the race.
The Acorn was won by long shot La Cara, knocking off undefeated in seven starts Good Cheer. It set up some very good prices for those who can complete the double. They are called 'will pays' and often give a good indication where betting on the second half will land.
If you have a Good Cheer-Baeza ticket, you could win $135 for the $5 bet. Second is with Journalism paying $163.75 for the combo and Sovereignty pays $165. The real money is a La Cara-Uncaged double which pays $4,052.50.
Here's a look at all the 'will pays.'
1 — Hill Road $758.75
2 — Sovereignty $165.00
3 — Rodriguez $305.00
4 — Uncaged $4,052.50
5 — Crudo $851.25
6 — Baeza $135.00
7 — Journalism $163.75
8 — Heart of Honor $2,005.00
What time does the Belmont Stakes start? What TV channel is it on? Sovereignty, second from right, comes off the track after training at Saratoga Race Course on Friday.
For the third time in five weeks, you may have awoken only to wonder where and what time you can watch a leg of horse racing's Triple Crown. Well, the time is about the same, 7:04 p.m. EDT, which you should round to 7:05 p.m by the time the gates open. But, as for watching, it's an entirely different television network. NBC is on the sidelines and Fox has the main broadcast.
Before we get too far into it, let's do a little time conversion to help you wherever you are in the U.S. If you are out of the country, you're on your own. The race should start at about 4:04 p.m. PDT in Los Angeles.
You can make it 5:04 p.m. if you are in the Mountain Time Zone, such as Denver.
Going farther east, you can count on the race to start about 6:04 p.m. in Chicago, which used to have a signature race track in Arlington until Churchill Downs decided it was more valuable to close it and sell the land.
Getting all the way back to East Coast, that's where you'll have the local start of 7:04 p.m. EDT.
Now racing is known as a sport that whenever it has a chance to make a decision to benefit the sport, it always does the wrong thing. In this case, does it really make sense to have the first two legs of the Triple Crown on NBC and the final leg on Fox? Well, things changed when Fox bought 25% of NYRABets, the advance deposit wagering arm of the New York Racing Assn. With that, of course, comes the fact that Fox would get the most important leg of the Triple Crown if the same horse wins the first two legs. Such is not the case this year.
Coverage will start at 10:30 a.m. EDT. It will be on FS1. At 2:30 p.m. EDT, it switches to Fox, where it will stay until 7:30 p.m. EDT. During various parts of that time, there will also be duplicate coverage on FS1.
While there is some continuity with the NBC stations across the country, the same does not hold forth with Fox stations.
If you are in L.A., look for FOX on Channel 11. In New York, try Channel 5. Heading west, it's Channel 32 in Chicago and 31 in Denver.
There will be a familiar voice calling the races at Saratoga Race Course, this year's home of the Belmont Stakes. Frank Mirahmadi, the voice of Santa Anita and Saratoga, has a week away from Arcadia to call the Belmont Stakes weekend. Unlike NBC, which likes to supplant the local race caller with Larry Collmus, Fox allows Mirahmadi to call the races both live and on television.
Collmus recently replaced legendary Trevor Denman as the voice of Del Mar, meaning that Southern California has the two most important race callers in the country.
As for pre-race festivities, the highlight is the singing of a chopped-up version of New York, New York, made famous by Frank Sinatra. Tough assignment when you are basically doing a cover of a song so iconic that it will likely never be duplicated.