Free Race Picks for Man O' War Stakes at Belmont Park

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Betting This Saturday’s Race Card at Belmont Park

Coming off one of the biggest upsets in the history of major stakes horse racing at Churchill Downs last Saturday, this Saturday’s lineup of races at Belmont Park features a full card of betting action. It will be hard to top the excitement of Rich Strike winning the Kentucky Derby at 80-1 odds. However, the Saturday could be a good time to go back to betting on the favorites.

Belmont Park in Elmont, New York is back on the betting board in anticipation of this year’s Belmont Stakes on June 12 as the final race of 2022 Triple Crown racing season. As the field starts to come together for next Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Belmont’s card this Saturday offers up five major graded stakes events.

On the undercard, the Beaugay Stakes  and Vagrancy Stakes highlight some top-flight fillies and mares competing on the dirt and the turf. The Runhappy Stakes is a six-furlong sprint on dirt open to horses four and older as another Grade 3 event.

A group of three-year old Thoroughbreds looking for a spot in the field for June’s Belmont Stakes will battle it out over 1 1/8 miles on the dirt track in this year’s Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes. My ‘one to watch’ in that race is Golden Glider coming off a fourth-place finish in this year’s Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

The featured race of the day on Saturday’s card is the Grade 1 Man O’ War Stakes with a total prize purse of $700,000. Contested on the turf track at Belmont over 1 3/8 miles, Horse Racing Nation has listed seven horses as probable. Below are my three picks to finish in the money in this graded event.

Saturday, May 14

Man O’ War Stakes – Belmont Park

Win: Yibir

This four-year old colt bred in Great Britain is trained by Charlie Appleby. With a second-place run in this year’s Grade 2 Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket on April 29, he has finished first or second in his last five graded events.

This lucrative run includes a victory in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar. Sired by Dubawi, he covered the 1 ½ miles on turf in 2:25.90 past Broome and Teona in that impressive win.

Place: Gufo

Trained by Christophe Clement, this five-year old Kentucky-bred horse is coming off a victory in this year’s Grade 2 Pan American Stakes at Gulfstream Park on April 2. He covered the extended 1 ½ miles on turf in 2:27.28 past Abaan and Novo Sol. He placed second in the Man O’ War last year.

The son of Declaration of War has now finished in the money in 14 of 15 events with eight victories. This is the kind of consistency that pays off race after race. His only finish outside the top three horses during this incredible run was a fade to 10^th in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf against the best turf racers in the world.

Show: Abaan

The best of the rest in the probable field for Saturday is trained by Todd Pletcher. Prior to his second-place finish behind Gufo in the Pan American Stakes, the five-year old gelding started the 2022 racing season by winning the Grade 3 WL McKnight Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 29. He went on to finish fourth in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida Stakes at that same track in early March.