Belmont Stakes

D. Wayne Lukas has had plenty of success with horses running in the second leg of the Triple Crown. His five career wins at Pimlico's featured event speak for themselves. But this year, Lukas decided to take a slightly different approach. His horse, Optimizer, will be using Saturday's Preakness as an opportunity to prepare for the Belmont Stakes in June, the longest of the Triple Crown races - one Lukas thinks the colt has a better shot at winning. Lukas made a switch at jockey, giving the mount to Corey Nakatani to get the new rider some experience before the final leg of the Triple Crown three weeks from Saturday.

A wild and unpredictable Triple Crown season came to an appropriately stunning conclusion Saturday as 24-1 long shot Ruler On Ice won the 143rd running of the Belmont Stakes. Ruler On Ice, a gelding who didn't run in either the Kentucky Derby or the Preakness and was wearing blinkers for the first time, sat just off the lead for most of the race, and then jockey Jose Valdivia Jr. let him surge to the lead with 1/4 of a mile to go. The temperamental but talented colt ran hard to the wire, holding off Stay Thirsty (second)

News item: Kentucky Derby winnerAnimal Kingdom and Preakness winnerShackleford will try to break their Triple Crown tie on Saturday in the Belmont Stakes. My take: If it were a match race, I'd go with Kingdom based on the way the first two races played out, but I'm guessing somebody will come out of nowhere to steal the 1 ½-mile Belmont. And since it doesn't cost me a dime to make a wild prediction, I'll go with our old friend Edgar Prado on 15-1 shot Prime Cut. Thank me later.

The extra distance in the Belmont should play well for the favorite, Animal Kingdom. He ran out of room in the Preakness before he got to Shackleford, despite getting fast early fractions to set up his late run. Even in that narrow defeat, Animal Kingdom debunked the bounce theorists and proved he was not a one trick pony. He has been training well and seems well-rested. I expect he will show up and will be the one to beat. To that point, Animal Kingdom is not the only horse who will be running late.

Due to potentially record-breaking heat, Belmont Park has canceled live racing for today. The heat wave is expected to break on Friday in time for the running of Saturday's Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown. On Wednesday, Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness runner-up Animal Kingdom, who is based in Fair Hill under trainer Graham Motion, was made the morning-line favorite at 2-1 . Nehro, runner-up in the Derby, was made a surprising 4-1 second choice. Preakness winner Shackleford was the 9-2 third choice.

Kentucky Derby winnerAnimal Kingdom was made a 2-1 morning-line favorite Wednesday for the 143rd running of the Belmont Stakes after he drew the No. 9 stall in the post position draw. Animal Kingdom, who is conditioned by Maryland trainer Graham Motion, will have his work cut out for him as he tries to become just the 12th horse to win the Derby and the Belmont. Only four winners have come from that position since 1905. But Motion said he doesn't think it will matter much. When horses are running a mile and a half, post position is less important.

Preakness champion Shackleford arrived Monday at Belmont Park 12 days before a probable start in the Belmont Stakes. The 3-year-old colt got to the Elmont, N.Y., track shortly before 10 a.m. after an overnight van ride from Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. "He looks good," said Scotty Everett , assistant trainer to Dale Romans . "We are excited to have him here at Belmont. " Shackleford, fourth in the Kentucky Derby, will go to the track Wednesday to become familiar with the 11/2-mile oval.

Sagamore Farm is back in a Triple Crown race. Monzon, bred at the Baltimore County farm, will run in the Belmont Stakes on June 11. Tom Mullikin, general manager at Sagamore Farm, said Tuesday that it has been the plan for about the last 2 1/2 months to run the gelding in the Belmont. Monzon (pronounced Mon-Zone) won the Count Fleet Stakes at Aqueduct on Jan. 1, but struggled when shipped to Florida. Monzon last raced in the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont on May 14, finishing sixth. "When we won the stakes race, we starting dreaming big," Mullikin said.

With Animal Kingdom committed to run in the Belmont Stakes, can Shackleford be far behind? Those horses, winners of the first two legs of racing's Triple Crown, are expected to contend for the third time at Belmont on June 11. After Animal Kingdom jogged 1-1/2 miles Friday morning at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, trainer Graham Motion pronounced the Kentucky Derby winner fit to go in the race many see as the rubber match between the...

Trainer Dale Romans said Sunday morning there is a better than 50 percent chance Preakness winner Shackleford will run in the Belmont Stakes in three weeks. "If he trains like he did going into the Derby, I don't know why we would pass," Romans said. "I've always thought, just like Woody Stevens said along time ago, that the Belmont is really a speed horse's race. A mile and a half is such a grueling race, they'll all be tired when they get to the eighth pole. " Romans said he hopes Animal Kingdom will be there as well because a rivalry between the two would be good for horse racing.