Dornoch holds off Mindframe to wins the first Belmont Stakes 2024 run at Saratoga Race Course in Upset.
"You have the Derby winner," Luis Saez informed trainer Danny Gargan after mounting Dornoch for the first time at Saratoga Race Course last summer.
Though that did not materialize, Dornoch delivered on that hope on Saturday when he triumphed in Saratoga's inaugural Belmont Stakes, fending off Mindframe and hugging the rail to cause a significant upset at 17-1 odds in the Triple Crown finale.
Five weeks following a rough journey that resulted in a tenth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, the horse co-owned by World Series winner Jayson Werth won the Belmont. This time, Dornoch held off leading Seize the Grey, overtook the Preakness victor in the final stretch, and won by a distance of one and a half lengths.
It’s the first win in any Triple Crown race for Gargan and the second in the Belmont for Saez, who said he never lost faith in Dornoch.
It’s the sixth consecutive year a different horse won each of the three Triple Crown races. Sierra Leone, the Derby runner-up who went off as the favorite, was third and Honor Marie fourth.
Despite there not being a Triple Crown on the line, it’s a historic Belmont because the race was run at Saratoga for the first time in the venue’s 161-year history. It returns next year while Belmont Park undergoes a massive, $455 million reconstruction with the plan for the Triple Crown race to go back to the New York track in 2026.
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