Horse Racing

Dornoch pulls ahead down stretch to win 156th Belmont Stakes in major upset

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3 months ago

June 8, 2024

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Dornoch pulls ahead down stretch to win 156th Belmont Stakes in major upset

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Dornoch’s Kentucky Derby start may have been the horse racing equivalent of a 6-4-3 double play as he finished 10th, 18 lengths behind the winner.

But on Saturday, he very much hit a home run when he won the 156th Belmont Stakes, the first contested at Saratoga Race Course due to a multi-year renovation of Belmont Park.

The reason for the baseball analogies is that Dornoch’s co-owner is Jayson Werth, a power-hitting member of the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies World Series team.

“I didn’t do anything. That’s what these guys are for. I’ve got good partners and a good trainer, and a great horse,” said Werth, who hit 229 homers in a 15-season MLB career. “I’ll put this up there with anything I’ve ever done.

“Horse racing is the most underrated sport there is,” Werth continued. This is as big as it gets. The emotions you feel when you play in a playoff game, when you win a World Series game, it is the top of sports, and this is where we’re at.”

Dornoch kept a low profile all week as the focus was on the battle between Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan and Preakness champ Seize the Grey, when it wasn’t on 88-year-old trainer D. Wayne Lukas’ quest for a 16th Triple Crown race championship, or even on Mindframe, who, despite having raced only twice, was the second-favorite on the morning line.

But as the field turned for home in front of a roaring crowd of 50,000, Dornoch won the sprint to the finish line in 2:01.64, paying $37.40. He held off Mindframe by a half length, with favorite Sierra Leone another length back in third.

Lukas’ Seize the Grey held the lead through the first turn before Dornoch overtook him on the backstretch. Mindframe made his move coming out of the final turn and drew even with Dornoch with a furlong to go but had an erratic finish, bearing out and back in as Dornoch darted straight for the wire.

“I’m still just taking it in. It’s pretty exciting,” said Dornoch’s trainer, Danny Gargan. “It’s a special thing just to be a part of these races, not to mention to win one with a horse you … have had it for its whole [racing] life.”

Gargan said a slow start out of the one-hole in the Derby made it “game over” early, but that was far from the case Saturday.

“We got overlooked a little bit because he ran one bad race. Now, they’ll look at us a little more next time, hopefully. I never lost faith in him,” said Gargan, who saddled just his second Belmont Stakes entrant. “He’s a big, powerful horse. You just have to be patient and not lose focus and just grind away, and hopefully, you get lucky and win one of these.”

Jockey Luis Saez won his second Belmont Stakes, following up his victory on Essential Quality in 2021. He admitted he feared the race might be slipping away when Mindframe came alongside him on the outside.

“At that point, I thought the other horse was going to beat us,” Saez said. “But Dornoch, he kept finding. He never let the other one get by. Pretty nice horse, big heart.”

Mindframe’s trainer, Todd Pletcher, who also finished fifth with Antiquarian and sixth with Protective, agreed a misstep or two were the difference.

“[Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.] said he drifted out on him a little bit and it felt like he [Mindframe] lost focus for a moment,” Pletcher said. “He angled him back inside so he could see Dornoch and he re-engaged and was closing but just ran out of time.”

Queens-born-and-bred entrepreneur Mike Repole, co-owner of Mindframe and owner of Protective, continued to roll up the Belmont success. Last year, he finished second with Forte; in 2022 he took the top two spots with Mo Donegal and Nest, and in 2011 he had a runner-up finish with Stay Thirsty.

About 4¹/₂ hours earlier, Repole watched his 4-year-old colt, Crupi, come from last place and roar home to win the Grade 2 Suburban, paying $7.10.

The result was special for Repole as he named Crupi after a late friend who helped him select many of the horses he has purchased.

“His name is Jimmy Crupi and may he rest in peace, he’s got a graded stake for him on this track,” said Repole, the St. John’s alumnus and booster who has a group of 70 family members and friends — including Red Storm men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino — in Saratoga rooting on his horses this week.