The
Memorial Day Met Mile (G1) at
Belmont Park has drawn a small but extremely talented and contentious field.
The six horses have battled with and beaten the best so many times that this
feels like a prizefight, so "Let's get ready to rumble."
The
field of six has five millionaires with combined earnings of just under $8,000,000
from 56 victories and 105 in the money finishes. Four of the six have won a grade
one stake and the other two are claiming horses that have turned into multiple
stakes winners. Between them they
have victories in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, the Preakness, the Ohio and
Pennsylvania Derbies, the Carter, the Forego, the King’s Bishop, and the Cigar
Mile. This group has won 16 graded stakes. Trainer Dale Romans said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a champion in this race.”
To Honor And Serve (3-1 morning line) is
trained by the three-
time Eclipse Award winning Hall of Famer Bill Mott. To
Honor And Serve leads this field with five graded stakes wins. This son of
Bernardini has won over $1 million with seven wins in 12 starts. To Honor And
Serve is unbeaten at the mile distance (3/3) and on the Belmont Park track (2/2).
Head to head he beat Caixa Eletronica in the Cigar Mile. “He’s had
two good works, and he seems to be looking good,” said Bill Mott in his usual
understated way. “It looks like it’s a good race coming up. Nice horses here,
without a doubt.”
Shackleford's (4-1 morning line) recent impressive
win in the Churchill Downs (G2) over Breeders’ Cup Sprint champion Amazombie
ended a winless streak that dated back to his 2011 Preakness victory. Shackleford
defeated Caleb’s Posse in the last year’s Indiana Derby and twice beat To Honor
And Serve in Gulfstream Park Derby prep races. The leading money winner in the
race has only run the mile distance once with a second place finish in Caleb’s
Posse’s Breeders’ Cup win. Shack’s only start at Belmont was in the final leg
of last year’s Triple Crown.
Millionaire
Caleb's Posse (8-5 morning line
favorite) will be making his first career start at Belmont Park. He has two narrow losses this year at
Aqueduct with the most recent coming to Jackson Bend in the Carter Handicap. Of
course Caleb’s Posse won last year’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. He has twice beaten Shackleford and he
topped To Honor And Serve in the Amsterdam at Saratoga last summer. His other victory
at a mile was in the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park in 2011.
Saginaw (10-1 morning line) was claimed by trainer
David Jacobson for $30,000 on March 12th at Aqueduct and since then
he has won four in a row including two New York-bred stakes. He has eight wins
and 4 seconds at the mile distance and he has three wins at Belmont. The Met
Mile represents a tremendous jump up in class and required a $10,000
supplemental nomination fee. Saginaw is also a main track only entry in the state-bred
Kingston Stakes on Saturday at Belmont.
Caixa Eletronica (15-1 morning line), which means ATM or
cash dispensing machine in Portuguese, was claimed for $62,500 by Repole
Stables and five-time Eclipse winner Todd Pletcher. On April 14th,
Caixa Eletronica won the $1,000,000 Charles Town Classic (G2) pushing his
earnings over the $1 million barrier. He has four wins at the mile distance and
he has one win at Belmont in four tries.
In
his last race Jackson Bend (3-1
morning line) defeated Caleb’s Posse and Shackleford in the Carter. He also
beat Caixa E. in the James Marvin last summer. Jackson Bend is the fourth
millionaire in the Metropolitan. Jackson Bend has not won a race at Belmont in
two tries and he is one for five at this mile distance.
