Belmont Stakes Results: Drosselmeyer Wins at Belmont Park June 5
Posted on Saturday, June 5th, 2010
13-1 longshot Drosselmeyer took the lead in the middle of the stretch and went onto a 3/4-length victory over Fly Down on Saturday afternoon at Belmont Park to take the 142nd running of the $1-million Belmont Stakes 2010 (G1).
The win gave Hall of Fame race horse trainer trainer Bill Mott and Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith their first victories in the 1 1/2-mile “Test of the Champion,” while owner WinStar Farm now owns two Triple Crown wins this year, having taken the Kentucky Derby in May with Super Saver.
View the Belmont Stakes results & payouts and the updated list of Belmont Stakes winners.
The Belmont victory gave Mott, best-known for campaigning two-time Horse of the Year Cigar, his first win in a Triple Crown race.
“Miracles never cease to happen,” said race horse trainer Bill Mott, who had sent out just four previous Belmont Stakes starters, the last of which was second-place Vision and Verse in 1999. “It feels great, just great. It was a pretty good feeling watching him come down the stretch. I thought going wide was going to cost him, but he kind of found another gear.”
Jockey Mike Smith, aboard Drosselmeyer for the first time after replacing jockey Kent Desormeaux on the son of Distorted Humor, ended an 0-for-12 streak in the Belmont Stakes that began with a second-place finish aboard the Nick Zito-trained Thirty Six Red in the 1990 Belmont.
“Billy told me to give him a nice, comfortable rhythm and … he stayed in that nice cool rhythm all the way,” said jockey Mike Smith, who earlier on the card won the Grade 1 Just a Game on Proviso for Mott. “By the three-eighths pole, I started picking them up. As soon as I asked him, he really kicked in. All I had to worry about was Ice Box or somebody behind me, and he kept on going, and going, and going. It was really a great race today.”
Race horse trainer Nick Zito, who was bidding for a third Belmont Stakes winner, was as disappointed with the ninth-place finish of 9-5 favorite Ice Box as he was delighted with the second-place performance of Fly Down, who edged pacesetter First Dude by a neck.
“Fly Down ran great, obviously, I’m disappointed about Ice Box,” said the Hall of Fame trainer, who has sent out 24 Belmont Stakes entries, more than any other trainer. “He didn’t deal well with the heat today. He was ready to go the last couple of days, but I guess he just left his race somewhere. We’ll have to regroup and see what happens.”
“When I asked him to run, he showed no interest,” added jockey Jose Lezcano, aboard the beaten favorite, who was runner-up in the Kentucky Derby. “He didn’t have it today; he didn’t fire.”
As expected, when the gate opened, it was the Preakness runner-up First Dude who went straight to the lead, setting moderate fractions of 24.15, 49.19, 1:14.94 and 1:40.25 with Interactif in close pursuit. Approaching the quarter-pole, Game On Dude made a run to move into contention, but it was Drosselmeyer who was moving fastest of all on the outside, collaring the leaders in midstretch and edging clear in the final yards to hit the wire in 2:31.57.
Fly Down, under jockey John Velazquez, also came charging hard at the end to nip First Dude for place, with Game On Dude holding on for fourth.
“We had a perfect trip and everything went like we planned, we just couldn’t hold it together right there at the end,” said Dale Romans, trainer of First Dude. “He ran a mile and a half, ran hard, did all the work again today on the lead, and I’m real happy with him.”
Uptowncharlybrown finished fifth, but was disqualified to last for a weight violation after losing the eight-pound lead weight pad at the quarter pole; following him under the wire were Stay Put, Interactif, Stately Victor, Ice Box, Make Music for Me, Dave in Dixie, and Spangled Star.
Drosselmeyer, who had finished fourth in the Risen Star (G2), third in the Louisiana Derby (G2) and second in the Dwyer (G2), is now 3-3-2 from eight starts. Kept out of the Kentucky Derby for lack of earnings
, he has now bankrolled $801,170 with the Belmont winner‘s purse of $600,000.
Drosselmeyer returned $28, $11.60 and $7.70. Fly Down paid $6.80 and $5.10 while First Dude showed for $4.90.
“We always believed in him so much,” Doug Cauthen, president and CEO of WinStar Farm, said of Drosselmeyer. “We did think this was the day he would either put up or we’d have to quick, make an excuse, and he really put up. He just ran a super race.”
Horse racing news edited from www.nyra.com.
Tags: Dave in Dixie, Drosselmeyer, First Dude, Fly Down, Game On Dude, Ice Box, Interactif, Make Music for Me, Spangled Star, Stately Victor, Stay Put, Uptowncharlybrown
"Belmont Stakes Results: Drosselmeyer Wins at Belmont Park June 5" was posted on Saturday, June 5th, 2010 at 11:16 pm and is filed under Belmont Park, Belmont Stakes, Horse Racing Industry, Horses, Race Tracks News, Results & Payouts, Stakes Races, Triple Crown, USA Horse Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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