Belmont Stakes: 2-time winner Rosario will ride Barber Road

Jockey Joel Rosario, a two-time winner of the Belmont Stakes, is booked to ride Barber Road in this year's 1 1/2-mile "Test of a Champion."

In both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, Rosario finished second as the favorite aboard Epicenter. Barber Road, who skipped the Preakness, rallied to be sixth in the Kentucky Derby under Reylu Gutierrez. 

Rosario's agent, Ron Anderson, confirmed the Belmont commitment aboard Barber Road on Saturday. 

"Part of my job is to run in these high-profile races and Epicenter wasn't running back," Anderson told Horse Racing Nation. "I tried a couple of people and knocked on the door and that one answered."

Barber Road is winless in five starts this year for trainer John Ortiz, but has been runner-up in three stakes including the Arkansas Derby (G1). In the Kentucky Derby, Barber Road was last of 20 after a quarter mile and still in 14th with 440 yards to go. The chart notes Barber Road went "11-wide" at the quarter pole and rallied "mildly" through the lane to be beaten less than five lengths.

"I thought he ran sneaky OK in the Derby and I don't think it's the toughest Belmont we've ever seen," Anderson said. "And Johnny obviously does a good job. I actually knew him when he was a kid. His dad galloped horses for Bill Mott when I had Jerry Bailey. He's grown up in this business and knows his stuff."

Daily Racing Form, which first reported Rosario's Belmont ride, noted Barber Road will run without his customary blinkers in the Belmont.  

On Saturday at Churchill Downs, Barber Road turned in his final Belmont Stakes work. The Race Day colt broke from the schooling gate and worked in company, breezing five furlongs in 1:00.80. Early fractions were 24.6, 36.0 and 48.2 seconds with a six-furlong gallop-out in 1:14, according to Churchill Downs clocker Peter Vestal. 

Rosario's pair of Belmont wins came aboard Sir Winston in 2019 and Tonalist in 2014, both with Anderson as his agent. Anderson has also won the Belmont twice with Gary Stevens aboard Thunder Gulch in 1995 and Victory Gallop in 1998, and with with Jerry Bailey in 2003 on Empire Maker.