Belmont Stakes

1509: England's King Henry VIII married Catherine 1509: England's King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon. 1776: The Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence calling for freedom from Britain. 1919: Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing's first Triple Crown winner. 1977: Seattle Slew won the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown. 2001: Timothy McVeigh was executed by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

Elmont, N.Y. -- Two-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher causes other trainers to shake their heads over his ability to win wherever he enters his horses. The only exception to the rule is Triple Crown races. Pletcher is 0-for-19 in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Belmont Stakes Belmont Park, Elmont, N.Y., Saturday, post time 6:35 p.m. TV: 5 p.m., chs. 2, 7

Fans at Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park who want to bet on today's Belmont Stakes - and cash out if they win - will be able to, despite the continuing dispute between the thoroughbred tracks and the state's standardbred tracks over how to share revenue from simulcasting. In April, Pimlico and Laurel Park began closing at night because state law says that in a dispute over simulcasting, the standardbred side can shut down the thoroughbred tracks after 6:15 p.m. Post time for today's Belmont Stakes is scheduled for 6:38 p.m. But, according to Pimlico spokesman Mike Gathagan, the rule doesn't apply on so-called "big days."

137th Kentucky Derby When: Saturday, May 7. Where: Churchill Downs, Louisville, Ky. TV: 5 p.m., NBC. Post time: 6:25 p.m. (approximate). Purse: $2 million with $1.45 million to the winner. 2010 winner: Super Saver with Calvin Borel aboard. Other Triple Crown races Preakness Stakes , May 21, Pimlico Race Course , Baltimore Belmont Stakes , June 11, Belmont Park, Elmont, N.Y.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- The $695,800 Belmont Stakes tomorrow has the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners in a rematch and nearly had the winner of the Kentucky Oaks for fillies, too.But there aren't a whole lot of fireworks going off as this third and final race in the Triple Crown series builds to an almost anticlimactic climax."

Holy Bull will not run in the Belmont Stakes June 11.The horse's owner-trainer, Jimmy Croll, said he reached that decision yesterday, three days after the gray 3-year-old colt decisively beat older horses Monday in the Metropolitan Handicap.Instead, Holy Bull could make his next start in the July 3 Dwyer Handicap at Belmont Park and use that race as a springboard to the July 31 Haskell Invitational Handicap on Croll's home grounds at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J."It's just too quick to run him back in the Belmont [Stakes]

Like the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, the Belmont Stakes has its own drink to raise in celebration of its jewel in horse racing's Triple Crown - the Belmont Breeze. But until recently, neither the Preakness nor the Belmont Stakes was able to establish a drink that seemed to satisfy as many fans as the storied mint julep. The "traditional" drinks of both races have undergone revisions in recent years to reflect changes in fans' preference. The julep escaped this indignity, perhaps because bourbon seems to be as much a part of the fabric of Kentucky culture as horse racing, or because the julep provides such a pleasing marriage of mint, sugar water and good bourbon.

Even without I'll Have Another going for the last leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes did OK in the ratings for NBC, drawing an overnight audience 13 percent larger than last year's and 74 percent above 2010. Saturday's telecast drew a 5.4 rating and 13 share (rating is percentage of TV households in U.S., while share is the percentage in use). The actual number of viewers nationally will not be available until Tuesday, according to NBC Sports. Here are the overnights for the last six years, and the TOP 10 markets for Saturday's race, as provided by NBC Sports.

TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS NASCAR Sprint Cup Gillette Fusion 500 prac. SPEED10 a.m. N'wide Federated Auto Parts 300 ESPN28 IndyCar Izod Firestone 550K VS.8 MLB Tampa Bay@Texas 454 Florida@Mets 54 Boston@Orioles MASN, 137 Cincinnati@Washington MASN27 Teams TBA MLB7 Cleveland@White Sox...

ELMONT, N.Y. -- The first three finishers of the Belmont Stakes are headed in different directions, but it is winner Tabasco Cat who has the most ambitious immediate future.He could take on the speedy Metropolitan Mile winner Holy Bull in about seven weeks in the $500,000 Haskell Handicap at Monmouth Park.The July 31 stakes could pit the two Kentucky Derby also-rans against each other. Both ran dismally in the May 7 race at Churchill Downs; Holy Bull, the favorite, finished 12th and Tabasco Cat was sixth.