Saturday, June 11, 2011

Acorn & Belmont Stakes Day

Only six fillies will compete in today's Acorn Stakes, the girls' equivalent to the Belmont; and only one filly has run in either of the previous two races of the series, Her Smile. Her Smile will break from post position 1 today, and is facing Turbulent Descent, Savvy Supreme, It's Tricky, Victoria's Wildcat, and Snow Fall. Her Smile finished 11th of 13 in the Kentucky Oaks. I'm rooting for Snow Fall - she's a beautiful bay filly with *Forli bloodlines. Post time for the Acorn is 2:34 EDT; Versus TV begins live coverage at 3:00 EDT, moving over to NBC at 5:00 EDT. Today dawned grey and dreary at Belmont Park, with puddles of rainwater standing on the track and along the backstretch. If the breeze picks up, and there's no more rain, the track may be dry by the time the Belmont is run.
Today's Belmont features 10 colts and 2 geldings running one and one-half miles. Yesterday, the Brooklyn Handicap was run over the same distance, and the horse that took the lead away from the gate controlled the pace, and went on to win, after leading all the way. Is that a plus for Shackleford, with his front-running style? Besides Animal Kingdom and Shackleford, another chestnut joins the fray - Ruler On Ice, who is also a gelding. The other gelding is the dark bay/brown Monzon. Currently the betting favorites are Animal Kingdom and Master of Hounds.

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