Belmont Stakes Morning Line

From a handicapping perspective, this seems to be the easiest of the Triple Crown races to figure. Dunkirk, Charitable Man and even Zito's Miner's Escape (possibly Brave Victory based on earlier races pace figures) will run up front on a managable pace. Breeding of all but Brave Victory suggest the 1.5 mile distance is not a problem. They are all fresh horses. MTB (along with Summer Bird, Chocolate Candy, Flying Private and Mr. Hot Stuff) will make his late run but got to figure that after two big tops and the extra distance it is going to take some pop out of his notorious 3 furlong late sprint, especially when the very fresh front runners will have plenty left for the drive. MTB catches third at best.

Zito has a pace setter... but Charitable Man figures to be close. How far do they go? How far did we think Da Tara would go? Without Rachel... oh well, it's still a fun race.

Mine That Bird has his work cut out for him with not much pace in here at all... Borel will truly have to pull off a magical ride...

It's interesting that this race is an entirely new ballgame in many ways... and that fact that Charitable Man is a solid 3-1 second choice and that the 50-1 Derby winner is a convincing 8-5 demonstrates just that. Good line.