Essential Quality Wins 2021 Belmont Stakes

    Up until the final furlong, it looked like Hot Rod Charlie was going to win the Belmont Stakes, after setting a blistering pace in the first half-mile, pushed on by Rock Your World and  France Go de Ina.  But Essential Quality started his move just before the final turn  and slowly worked his way to the front, finishing ahead of a dogged and determined Hot Rod Charlie by 1 1/4 lengths.  Essential Quality finished the 1 and 1/2 mile race in 2:27.11, only 3.11 seconds slower than the great Secretariat in 1973.  

   Essential Quality was the betting favorite in both today's Belmont and in the Kentucky Derby.  But the Kentucky gave him a lot of bad racing luck, and he finished 7th, the first defeat in his racing career.  Taking a rest after the Derby, he came roaring back in the Belmont, taking home $800,000 of the $1.5 million in purse monies.

   Hot Rod Charlie, who was third in the Kentucky, and also by-passed the Preakness, took home $280,000 for finishing 11 1/4 lengths in front of Rombauer, the winner of the Preakness Stakes three weeks ago.  Rombauer, who finished 3/4 length ahead of Known Agenda, received $150,000 in purse money for his third-place finish.

Essential Quality wins the 2021 Belmont Stakes

   The rest of the field finished in the following order, with the amount of purse winnings in parentheses: Known Agenda ($100,000); Bourbonic ($60,000); Rock Your World ($45,000); Overtook ($35,000); and France Go de Ina ($30,000).

   With a small field and only three entries in double-digit odds, the payouts for bets were on the small side.  As usual, I always post the payouts for a $2 bet...  Essential Quality paid $4.60 to win; Hot Rod Charlie paid $4.10 to place; and Rombauer paid $3.50 to show.  The Perfecta paid $15; the Trifecta paid $43.40; and the Superfecta paid $121.40.

  *** The only question in this year's Triple Crown now, is whether the Kentucky Thoroughbred Racing Commission will vote to strip Medina Spirit of his win in the Kentucky Derby after testing positive in two separate blood tests for a banned race day drug, namely betamethasone.  Churchill Downs Incorporated has banned trainer Bob Baffert and any horses under his care for racing at their tracks for two years - through the end of Spring racing in 2023. ***