Fox Sports analysts have opinions about Belmont 2026

They are the faces of the New York Racing Association on Fox Sports. Well, two of them are. The third spends more air time talking football, but he goes in with both hands on horses.

Andy Serling and Maggie Wolfendale from “Saratoga Live” and Chris Fallica of “Big Noon Kickoff” will be among the prominent faces on the telecasts of Belmont Stakes 2026. Yes, telecasts. Plural. There will be one show Saturday from 3 to 7:30 p.m. EDT on main Fox. The other feed runs from 10:30 a.m. to 8:15 p.m. EDT and will be split between FS1 and FS2.

Ed DeRosa's Belmont Stakes fair odds.

“We always do an (FS1 and FS2) show where we try to focus more on gambling,” Serling said, “where (main Fox) is a more broad-based show for fans.”

Wherever they are seen and heard, differing opinions are sure to follow. Wolfendale shared hers last week on Horse Racing Nation’s Ron Flatter Racing Pod. Serling and Fallica offered theirs in separate conversations Tuesday for this week’s episode, which will be posted Friday morning.

Highlights of their conversations about the Belmont Stakes and its undercard are distilled here:

The Belmont Stakes subject that keeps popping up is the projected pace. Is there enough early speed to make it an ideal race for likely favorite and Kentucky Derby runner-up Renegade? What role will stablemate Powershift provide? What are your storylines coming into this race?

Maggie Wolfendale

I have I admit I have read the paces wrong in both jewels of the Triple Crown so far. I did not see it being supersonic fast in the Derby. It just collapsed. ... I am taking it with a grain of salt, but I am not seeing as much pace, at least before hindsight was available, as the Derby. I feel as though it’s not going to set up for (Derby top two Golden Tempo and Renegade), but I also wonder that riders adapt to that, and they get a little more drawn into the race. ... I’m not saying that a horse like Renegade is totally up against it and not going to win as the likely favorite. I just don’t see it playing out that way. But also, I could see him being a bit more forward naturally

Andy Serling

Emerging Market was too close to the pace (before finishing 10th in the Kentucky Derby), there’s no doubt about it. Even (fourth-place) Chief Wallabee, arguably, too close to the pace. (Seventh-place) Commandment just got one of the really historically bad rides in the Derby by moving too soon and being close. You don’t want to necessarily say, “Well, I was too close to the pace of the Derby, so I’m going to take him back in the Belmont.” No. You want to dance with the girl that brought you there. Just because it didn’t work out at the Derby doesn’t mean it won’t work in the Preakness or the Belmont. They’re all different races. They’re all different circumstances. I do think Powershift is going to go. ... If you like Emerging Market, which I do to a certain extent, how do you not think that Powershift, who just lost to him by three-quarters of a length in his debut, is talented enough to be competitive in this race? I’m not sure he’s quite ready for this jump. A horse like Emerging Market benefited greatly from his being in the Derby and moving forward. But I don’t think Powershift is some bad rabbit they’re sticking in here. I think he’s a horse with speed that may have the talent to beat these horses. Maybe not this Saturday, but certainly going down the road, he could be one of the best 3-year-olds in the country. I don’t think that’s an impossibility.

Chris Fallica

Renegade is likely a must-use in the exacta. He probably ran the best race in the Derby, and it was unbelievable job by Irad (Ortiz Jr.) to get that horse off the rail and into a position to have an opportunity to win. I threw him out in the Derby. I didn’t think he had a chance, but he ran an unbelievable Kentucky Derby, and I think he is primed to fire big (in the Belmont). A well-deserving morning-line favorite here in Renegade.

Is Golden Tempo going to be an underlay coming out of his Kentucky Derby victory?

Serling

I think Derby winners sort of always are, right? They do tend to get overbet. But here’s my question. I didn’t like him in the Derby. I discounted his chances completely, even in the possibility of a meltdown. I didn’t like him. I was wrong. That’s fine. He was 23-1 that day. Do you really need to bet him back here at 5-1 in a race that probably is going to be run in a slightly less advantageous way? He can’t have things go better, you know? José (Ortiz) gave him a great ride, though in fairness to him, he wasn’t an incredibly lucky winner. He had to alter course in the stretch around Renegade. He ran very, very well, and he’s a good horse. I just don’t think this is the right race for him, and he was 23-1 last time. He’s going to be, what, 20-25% of that this week? For me he’s a horse I could never bet. I’m not going to fall out of my chair if I’m wrong. I’m not going to be shocked if I’m wrong about Renegade. I just don’t think he’s a good bet around 2-1.

Wolfendale

You’re getting the worst of it now, because (Golden Tempo) won the Derby. He was 23-1, and he’s going to be a fraction of that because it’s a smaller field, too. This horse is completely pace-dependent. ... He ran so straight and true in the Derby that I feel like there’s the possibility that this horse is just continuously getting better. He’s shown that with the way he looks, the way he’s developing physically. But we’re not reinventing the wheel with him. He is the most pace-dependent horse in this race, in my estimation.

Fallica

I don’t want to say I’m sour on Golden Tempo, but I think that was a once-in-a-lifetime type of race. He’ll probably be a little bit too far back, and I don’t think the pace is going to be as hot as it was in the Derby. I don’t think he’s going to get that trip on the outside to come flying home late. While I think Golden Tempo is obviously a very talented horse, I think he’s going to have a little bit of too much to do, and I can see a place or a show finish being his ceiling here. 

Chad Brown trains Emerging Market, Growth Equity and Ottinho. How does he play this race?

Serling

Naturally, maybe Growth Equity has a little more speed. I would think Powershift is going to go. Chief Wallabee is going to be in attendance to him. I’d want to be sitting sort of third and fourth behind them. You look at the pace projector. I think either Growth Equity or Emerging Market could be sitting anywhere between second and fourth. One of the things that’s going to compromise Golden Tempo, to be fair, he has closed into less than super-fast paces before. The same could be said of Renegade, but I think they are going to be more compromised because they have less speed.

Wolfendale

I don’t think (Emerging Market) is that deep of a closer. I think in this Belmont, he’ll be forward. Not on the lead if they decide to run. Here’s a horse that you chalk (the Kentucky Derby) up to inexperience. Chalk it up to that pace coming apart, that he deserves another shot here because he was very good in his (winning Grade 2) Louisiana Derby performance and he beat the eventual Kentucky Derby winner, because it was only his second start. You watch the head-on, and Pavlovian is kind of herding him out and playing a little bumper cars the whole way down the stretch. He had to fight and earn that victory. I don’t know how good (Growth Equity) is yet. A lot of people are high on him. I could see him. He was very good in (winning) the Peter Pan (G3). I feel like we know these other horses, but maybe he’s the horse that steps up and gets the job done. ... Maybe (jockey Flavien Prat choosing Emerging Market) gives us a little bit of a hint, though you can’t read too much into that, I find.

Fallica

I’ve been very high on either Chief Wallabee or Emerging Market. ... I thought Emerging Market would run a little bit better in the Derby than he did, but I think the fact that he didn’t means we’re getting a little bit better of a price here. I think the other Chad Browns in here, Ottinho and Growth Equity, I think one of those two will likely be the sacrificial lamb to potentially go to the front. They may not give Emerging Market a front-end trip. He may be a little bit not as close to the pace as he was in the Derby. I do think there are going to be multiple horses on the lead. Obviously, Powershift is in the race to make sure Renegade gets something honest to run into, and I think one of the other two Chad Brown horses are in there to make sure that Emerging Market can sit back off as well. I think there’s going to be a little bit more pace in here than we thought. ... You don’t want to get nostalgic or anything, but Chad Brown would love to win a Belmont Stakes, and obviously up at Saratoga it would be extra special. Right now as we sit here on Tuesday morning, and having a chance to look at the race and not know the weather and whatever else, I think Emerging Market at 6-1 is a very, very attractive play to me.

Chief Wallabee, who was fourth in the Derby, will want to come off the pace.

Fallica

Every time out now I’ve been making an excuse for Chief Wallabee. He needed the blinkers. A bad trip. He just might be one of those horses that every time out, it’s just something happens to go wrong. I think he’s immensely talented, but I think Emerging Market is certainly the price point.

Wolfendale

I don’t think (Chief Wallabee) needs (to be off the pace). A lot of people have questioned this horse’s desire to go further, and I get where they’re coming from. Watching (his second-place finish in) the Florida Derby (G1), for instance, he kind of gets to wandering. I think that was a product of needing blinkers. I watched this horse’s Derby. He arguably runs best in the Kentucky Derby because he’s a bit more closer to that pace that ultimately collapsed. I don’t want to say severely interfered with, but he did get interfered with within the last three-sixteenths of a mile and was still finishing. I would think that he’s the horse that I want coming into the Belmont, Chief Wallabee.

Do you dare draw a line through the Kentucky Derby for a horse like Florida Derby winner Commandment?

Serling

I don’t draw lines through races. I think you have to analyze him and say, was there a valid excuse? I like (jockey) Luis Sáez. I think that he is an incredibly talented rider, but he can be a little impatient, and that was the wrong race and the wrong course to be as impatient as he was. Frankly, given the trip that he got against his nature of his best running, the fact that he only lost by 5 1/4 lengths is nearly miraculous. I’m not sure Commandment isn’t close to the horse to beat in this race. A lot of people justifiably like Chief Wallabee. Why would you want to take half the price on him as opposed to Commandment? If you were a big fan of Commandment going into the Derby, take another jump in the pool.

Fallica

He didn’t have the best race in the Derby either. It’s odd because for whatever reason, Brad Cox’s horses in the Triple Crown have not fired the way they have in the prep races leading up. I think in the last 15, 16 races in the Triple Crown, only one or two of his horses have hit the board, and no one’s even cracked the exacta since Essential Quality won the Belmont in 2021. For the great job that Brad does getting these horses ready, for whatever reason, once they step into the deep, deep end of the pool, they haven’t necessarily fired on the top end. Now we have Johnny (Velázquez) taking him out here for the fourth different jock in four races for Commandment, so we will see. I’m kind of a wait and see with Commandment here.

Wolfendale

He was a little bit more involved in the (Kentucky Derby) pace. He got knocked back, and then he was trying to move forward throughout. He’s the one that I’ve always questioned a little bit with the distance or the overall maturity. He’s a horse that I also feel a little bit like Chief Wallabee, and the proof is in the pudding. Those Florida races at Gulfstream were the strongest, at least coming into the Derby. There’s still that on the table. Are they going to be able to realize the fact that the two horses were perceivably the best coming into the Kentucky Derby? ... If Commandment is able to break a little cleaner, get a more comfortable trip, can we see him get back to what he had shown us prior to the Kentucky Derby? I very well could see that happening and playing out.