The final leg of the Triple Crown horse race gambling championship is drawing nearer, and with a little over a week to go for the Belmont Stakes, people who bet on horses have a pretty good idea of what the field will look like.
J Boys Echo
This Mineshaft colt threw his hat in the Triple Crown ring following a third place at the Withers Stakes and a win at the Gotham Stakes – which is sadly not sponsored by Wayne Enterprises – and finished 15th in the Kentucky Derby. That turn of events convinced trainer Dale L. Romans to have J Boys sit out the Preakness Stakes. Romans, by the way, trained Keen Ice – the only horse to ever defeat Triple Crown champion American Pharoah. “He surprised us and maybe he has one of those surprises left,” Albaugh Family Stable general manager Jason Loutsch said of Echo.
Horse Race Gambling on Lookin At Lee
And speaking of surprises, Lee came in second in Churchill Downs behind Always Dreaming and fourth at Pimlico following Cloud Computing, Classic Empire, and Senior Investment. People who bet on horses certainly cannot blame trainer Steven M. Asmussen for eyeing a second straight Belmont win following Creators first place at Belmont Park last year. Lookin At Lee’s sire, Lookin At Lucky, won the 2010 Preakness.
Classic Empire
With Kentucky winner Always Dreaming and Preakness champion Cloud Computing both out of the Belmont Stakes horse race gambling picture, there is arguably nothing standing in Classic Empire’s way – except bad luck. A foot abscess resulted in Empire coming in a distant third place at the Holy Bull Stakes. The abscess healed in time for Classic to win the Arkansas Derby, but the colt’s tribulations were far from over. A collision in Churchill Downs left the Pioneerof The Nile colt pretty banged up, and while he managed to finish 4th, it could be said that his Triple Crown were dead on arrival.
Meantime
This Shackleford colt started his career in February 2017, and thus was a latecomer to the Belmont Stakes trail late. Like ‘Gold Diggers of 1933,’ Meantime finished in the money in his first 3 starts, and showed promise stretching out over a mile and one eighths. He took an early lead in the G3 Peter Pan over a sloppy track, and led the field into the final turn but could not sustain the momentum and dropped to a second place finish. Meantime’s trainer Brian A. Lynch had seven graded stakes wins in 2015 and won his first Breeders’ Cup in 2016 with Oscar Performance in the Juvenile Turf.
Epicharis
The Japanese-based sensation has the added motivation of being eligible for a $1 million bonus should he win the Belmont Stakes. Whether or not that has an effect on his horse race gambling remains to be seen. Epicharis’ owners, the U. Carrot Farm Racing Syndicate – which in spite of its name is not evil – decided to skip Kentucky to allow the colt to recover from the UAE Derby, in which Epicharis finished second.