Belmont Stakes Winners Analysis (2000 to 2014)

I have looked at the past Belmont winners for this century.  This spreadsheet is not to possibly shed light on the norms, but, to make you aware of the tendencies.  Either the trends will stay as they are, or, if you are one that believes the law of averages has to come around, the times they will be a changin’.  

EXPLANATION OF COLUMNS:

NAME:  Self-explanatory name of the Belmont winner.

ODDS:  Final times of the eventual winner.  If the odds are in bold, that particular horse was responsible for denying a possible Triple Crown winner.  In 2012, I’ll Have Another did not compete, to attempt a successful Triple Crown bid.  Therefore, Union Rags’ final time odds weren’t emboldened.

On a side note, the story of Kenneth McPeek, in 2002.  McPeek had two of the early favorites for the Triple Crown, in Repent  and Harlan’s Holiday.  Repent would run second, as the favorite,  to eventual Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem in the Illinois Derby, but would be sidelined for the upcoming Kentucky Derby, due to injury.  Harlan’s Holiday would run sixth in the Kentucky Derby as the tepid 6-1 favorite, and then would run a disappointing fourth in the Preakness Stakes.  The owner decided to part ways with their trainer at that point.  Once in the lap of luxury with two favorites on the Triple Crown trail, McPeek, who seemed to now have the cupboard bare,  pulled off a Belmont Stakes victory with 70-1 long shot Sarava.  Vengeance had to be sweet for Mr. McPeek!!!

LIFETIME RECORD and EARNINGS:  Self-explanatory.  These numbers would only indicate the overall success of the Belmont Stakes victor.

AFTER BELMONT:  Will show each horse’s record, if they would continue racing after the Belmont Stakes.  Normally, one might think that this race might be the finale, because of the grueling length of the race.  But, this is not the case.  13 of the past 15 winners continued to race on past the Belmont.

GRADE and RACE:  These two columns go hand-in-hand, both coinciding with “AFTER BELMONT”.  They would show the Grade, and name of race won, following their Belmont success.  In a race that will be on the Belmont undercard, as HRN editor Brian Zipse mentioned in his blog, “The Met Mile Is Coming Up Huge”, there is a possibility that the most successful horse after the Belmont, Palace Malice, could butt heads with the most successful horse at Belmont Park(see next column’s explanation), Tonalist.

BELMONT:  This is the overall record of each Belmont Stakes winner at Belmont Park(hope that ain’t too confusing).  It should be noted that each record will also reflect the Belmont Stakes victory.  So, if a horse has a record that only shows one victory, that will be the Belmont Stakes.

DERBY and PREAKNESS:  Will show each victor’s placing in the Kentucky Derby and/or the Preakness Stakes.  This would be show how much the eventual winner, participated in the Triple Crown.  As it indicates, no horse that had won the Kentucky Derby, had come back and won the Belmont.  And, off the top of my head, I believe that only Swale(1984) and Thunder Gulch(1995) have been able to pull the Derby/Belmont double since the last Triple Crown winner, Affirmed.  Lastly, no horse has used the Preakness Stakes as a stepping stone to the Belmont, with the exception of Afleet Alex or Point Given, and both of them won the Preakness.

In closing, I hope that this info can provide somebody with additional usage.  This analysis was inspired by Laurie Ross, author of the blog, “Pedigree Power”.  Laurie, I hope that my spreadsheet is comparable with your always-informative blogs. 

On this Memorial Day weekend, great thanks go to all veterans, who provide me with the privilege to do anything that I want to do, in this Land Of The Free.

~Written by CauseForConcern

Here is the numbers accumulated, with a description of the columns: