ELMONT, NEW YORK – JUNE 10: Arcangelo with Javier Castellano up wins the 155th Running of the … [+]
Going off at 7-1, Arcangelo lived up to his name and floated to the line in front of Forte to give the 2023 Belmont Stakes a surprise and rather commanding winning flourish. Tapit Trice gritted it out down the stretch to show behind Forte. Arcangelo paid $17.80 to win, Forte an expected, low $4.30 in place, and Tapit Trice a mere $4.10.
The race was an upset in one other, arguably greater way: Trainer Jenna Antonucci is the first female trainer to win the Belmont in the race’s 155-year history — a fine boost for Ms. Antonucci and for the sport. She said generously of her exceedingly game runner: “We’re trying to soak this all in now — just so proud of this horse right now. He’s just got the heart of a champion. He’s just that guy.”
Significantly, Arcangelo showed an abundance of command presence throughout the race that masked his extreme outlier status. To say that the colt is lightly raced is an understatement — he just broke his maiden in March. His May 13 performance in the Peter Pan put him on the map, and in this race, but none of that presaged today’s skillful, cool, courageous performance. The narrative there is the classic one of equine athletes developing at different times in their lives — they just need the patience from their human handlers to do it.
The running of the race came also as a compliment to Forte’s and Tapit Trice’s trainer Todd Pletcher and a mixed blessing. Certainly having two horses from his barn hit a hard-fought second and third in any Belmont Stakes is a good thing. Suffice it to say the order of finish for the place and show horses may have been imagined by the trainer and the two horses’ connections, but the schooled, gritty win by Arcangelo was not part of the vision.
It was the vision of a surprising number of players, however, as Arcangelo’s live odds began slowly coming down around noon. Call it horse sense. Some had it.
As expected, Bob Baffert’s National Treasure was the pacesetter in the early going, and behind him, at the quarter mile, were Hit Show and Tapit Shoes. Ominously for those three, however, Arcangelo and Forte were laying right behind them, precisely mirroring their order of finish a mile-and-a-quarter down the road. Into the far turn, National Treasure seemed to be holding on, but Javier Castellano skillfully guided Arcangelo through a small eye-of-the-needle up inside a clearly-fading National Treasure and the pair motored on by as they turned for home. National Treasure, the Preakness winner, finished a lackluster sixth.