2024 Belmont Stakes Contenders: DORNOCH

“A hundred yards in, he had no shot,” said trainer Danny Gargan.

Shuffled back in traffic approaching the half-mile pole, jockey Luis Saez managed to put Dornoch into position to make a bid, only to be bumped hard and checked with a quarter-mile to go. Angled to the outside, he had a clear shot to make up ground but had little left and finished 10th.

The Preakness was not under consideration for the Good Magic colt, whom Gargan took to Saratoga to prepare for a possible start in the now 1 ¼-mile Belmont Stakes on June 8. He returned to the worktab on May 24, zipping a half-mile in 48.48 – fifth-fastest of 59 at the distance – and followed that up a week later by covering the same distance in 48.68 while in company with 4-year-old stakes winner Ramblin Wreck.

NYRA clockers caught the pair in splits of 11.56 and 23.42 seconds, with Dornoch edging ahead in the final yards, galloping out in 1:02:27 and up in 1:16.11.

“He’s training really well. He worked good. We are really pleased with him,” Gargan said of the breeze, third-fastest of 51 at the distance. “He is doing everything we want right now.”

Dornoch, a full brother to 2023 Derby winner Mage, made his debut at the Spa last July 29, finishing second, 1 ¾ lengths behind eventual Preakness winner Seize the Gray. He graduated third out at Keeneland and then made the starting gate for the Derby with a pair of back-to-back Grade 2 wins in the Remsen and the Fountain of Youth, along with a fourth behind Sierra Leone in the Blue Grass, all under Saez, who will be making his seventh appearance in the Belmont, having won in 2021 with Essential Quality.

“We are hoping,” said Gargan of Dornoch, who will be his second Belmont starter (Tax finished fourth in 2019). “We just have to stay focused and get lucky. Hopefully, have a good trip this time.”

Betting advice: Can Dornoch turn it around after two disappointing outings? Derby runners who have skipped the Preakness have fared well in the Belmont – but not this time.

Post Position: TBD

Odds: TBD

Jockey: Luis Saez

Trainer: Danny Gargan

Owners: West Paces Racing, R.A. Hill Stable, Belmar Racing and Breeding, Two Eight Racing, Pine Racing Stables

Career record: 7-3-2-0

 Career earnings: $552,275

Most recent race: Kentucky Derby, May 4 (10^th)

Top Equibase speed figure: 102

Pedigree: Good Magic-Puca, by Big Brown

Color: Bay

Running Style: Front-runner

Notes: Dornoch, named for the Royal Dornoch Golf Club in the Scottish Highlands, is owned in part by former outfielder Jayson Werth, who shook up baseball in 2010 when he signed a seven-year, $126 million contract with the Washington Nationals. Over 15 seasons in the majors, Werth hit 229 homers, appeared in 63 postseason games and won a World Series title with the Phillies in 2008. But from a competitive standpoint, he said he gets just as much out of co-owning Dornoch as he did from playing baseball at the highest level.

“It’s the only thing that I can do at this point in my life that has any relevance to what I did for so long,” Werth told the Washington Post. “Then the day of the race that your horse is running, the nerves — I mean, I never got nervous for baseball. I had a job to do, and I knew I was going to do it. But this? You know, the hair on the back of your neck stands up.”