2024 Belmont Stakes Contenders: RESILIENCE

Resilience, winner of the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct in April, posted a solid 4-furlong work in 48.00 on Sunday (June 2) at the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga, and is set to go in the Belmont.

In the Derby, Resilience was in second place with a quarter-mile to go, but could not catch Mystik Dan, and yielded in deep stretch.

Resilience took four tries to break his maiden, accomplishing that feat on New Year’s Day at Gulfstream Park, under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez. Riding the colt for the second time six weeks later in the Risen Star at the Fair Grounds, in which he finished fourth, Velazquez noticed a hesitation to pass horses and suggested outfitting the bay colt with blinkers for his next start in the Wood.

“I thought blinkers [would] keep him smart and focused and running,” Velazquez said.

It worked in the Wood. In the Derby, however, Velazquez was aboard the beaten favorite Fierceness, while Junior Alvarado rode Resilience for the first time. In his most recent work, Resilience was blinkers on.

Keith McCalmont of the NYRA press office posted a quote from Mott on X that read: “It was very, very good. The time was good, and he did it the right way. We intentionally wanted him to go out a bit around the turn after the work, which he did.”

Betting advice: Other than a win in the Wood, Resilience is 1-for-6. Pass.

Post position: TBD

Odds: TBD

Jockey: Junior Alvarado

Trainer: Bill Mott

Owner: Emily Bushnell, Ric Waldman

Career record:  7-2-1-1

Career earnings: $494,630

Top Equibase speed figure: 103

Pedigree: Into Mischief-Meadowsweet, by Smart Strike

Color: Bay

Running style: Stalker

Notes: Mott has one victory in the Belmont, with Drosselmeyer in 2010 … Pam and Marty Wygod bred Resilience and he is co-owned by their daughter, Emily Bushnell, and Ric Waldman, who oversaw the career of influential stallion Storm Cat at Overbrook Farm … Resilience’s debut at Saratoga was an eventful one, hitting the gate at the start, going six-wide on the first turn, getting bounced around at the five-sixteenth pole and having nothing left and finishing sixth.