Trikari scores thrilling upset, wins by a nose in Belmont Derby
New York
On a hot and humid day at Aqueduct for the Grade 1, $750,000 Belmont Derby Invitational, red-hot trainer Graham Motion continued his winning ways when Trikari won a stretch duel by a head at odds of 5-1 to get his third victory of the year.
At the current Belmont at the Big A meeting, Motion won with four of his seven starters, and his overall record at mid-Atlantic tracks is 10: 5-2-1.
Click here for Belmont at the Big A entries and results.
Trikari gave Motion his first Grade 1 victory in 2024.
“You know you’ve got to have good horses,” Motion said. “We just have a really nice group of horses and good owners. So it was due to come back around.”
The Belmont Derby, the first leg of the Turf Triple in New York with the Saratoga Derby Invitational (G1) and the Jockey Club Derby Invitational (G3), drew a field of five to race 1 3/16 miles. The starters included three graded-stakes winners and the top three finishers of the Pennine Ridge (G2) on May 25 at Aqueduct.
Trikari was part of the early pace in the Belmont Derby along with Chad Brown runner White Palomino. Jockey John Velázquez and Trikari sat in second place about a length behind White Palomino for most of the race. The pace was not fast with fractions of 25.00, 50.24 and 1:14.56.
At the top of the stretch Trikari drew even with White Palomino to his outside and was able to gain a narrow margin. White Palomino was game nearing the wire and actually got closer, but Trikari would not give up the lead and he crossed the finish line with a winning time of 1:54.71.
“He settled nice, and at the five-sixteenths pole I make sure I put a little pressure on the horse in front, because he was just waiting,” Velázquez said. “I got him kind of quickly, and then he came back at me, and mine put his head down again. It was a nice run.”
Godolphin runner Legend of Time from the Saratoga barn of Europe trainer Charlie Appleby was the 3-2 favorite. The winner of the Pennine Ridge had a troubled trip and finished third.
“We were drawn 1, and were stuck down on the fence, and they hacked around there,” Appleby said. “(Jockey) Will (Buick) just said he could never get a crack at it. It’s one of those runs where you draw a line through it and go back to Saratoga and hopefully head to the Saratoga Derby.”
Trikari paid $12.40, $5.10 and $2.60 for a win, place and show wager. White Palomino also was 5-1, and he completed a $2 exacta that returned $70. Legend of Time finished the $2 trifecta payoff of $122.
The second leg of the Turf Triple will be Aug. 2 at Saratoga and would be a logical goal for Trikari, who has run in three graded stakes since May 4.
“You’d have to look at it,” Motion said. “I mean I want to be careful. I don’t want to overrun him, but we’ve got to look at it.”
Bought by Amerman Racing for $27,500 in October 2022 at an OBS yearling sale, Trikari added $412,500 from Saturday’s win to bring his purse earnings to $996,630. He ran his record to 7: 4-1-1, including a victory in the American Turf (G2) on the Kentucky Derby undercard. Trikari finished a close third last out May 31 in the Penn Mile (G3) at Parx Racing.