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Is Always Dreaming in the 2017 Belmont Stakes?

By Michael Whitlow

May 20, 2017; Baltimore, MD, USA; John Velazquez aboard Always Dreaming reacts after the 142nd running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
May 20, 2017; Baltimore, MD, USA; John Velazquez aboard Always Dreaming reacts after the 142nd running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /
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Is the Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming racing in the 2017 Belmont Stakes?

The Belmont Stakes marks the final run in the Triple Crown hunt each summer and unlike American Pharoah in 2015, there will not be a horse vying for the crown in this year’s Stakes.

Widely seen as the toughest of the three legs to win in the Triple Crown of thoroughbred horse racing, the Belmont Stakes is a mile and a half-long sprint to the finish that usually signals the end for horses that have won the first two legs of the Triple Crown.

Always Dreaming, the horse that had a chance at achieving the second crown in three years, didn’t come out on top at the Preakness, finishing in a distant eighth place after fading away at the halfway mark of the second crown race of the year.

The question is, would the Kentucky Derby winner even be at the Belmont Stakes to try and attempt to win at least two legs of the Triple Crown?

The answer to that question is no.

The Associated Press reported on May 26 (via the Los Angeles Times) that the Derby winner would be skipping the Belmont Stakes.

"Trainer Todd Pletcher says the 3-year-old colt will be pointed toward either the $600,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga on July 29 or the $1-million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on July 30, according to the Daily Racing Form."

Along with Always Dreaming not participating in the Belmont is the winner of The Preakness: Cloud Computing. That’s a big hit for NBC executives like many years are when no horse that’s won two of the first three Triple Crown legs is racing at the Stakes.

As for those actually participating in the race up at Belmont Park in New York, the horse to beat (according to the odds) is Irish War Cry at 7-2 (as of Friday evening). That sounds like a horse that got named after Notre Dame, who … in case you forgot, went 4-8 last season.

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