Racing analyst Richard Migliore breaks down what to expect at Belmont Stakes

Sports

By Richard Migliore

Richard Migliore won 4,450 races and earned purses totaling more than $160 million in a career that ran from 1980-2010, mainly in the NYRA circuit of Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Saratoga.

Now a racing analyst for NYRA and Fox Sports, Migliore, 60, will appear on Fox’s coverage of the 156th Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on Saturday. Programs will air on FS1 from 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Fox from 4-7 p.m. and FS2 post-race from 7-8:10 p.m.

Migliore gives Post readers his thoughts on how the race will shake out:

Out of the gate

It appears to me there’s an ample amount of speed in this Belmont Stakes.

Going a mile and a quarter, riders are going to be less cautious the first part than they would be going a mile and a half.

A lot of these colts are already seasoned at the mile-and-a-quarter distance.

You’ve got Seize the Grey, who won the Preakness wire to wire.

I don’t see trainer D. Wayne Lukas and jockey Jaime Torres changing strategies with them having success with that strategy.

He has speed.

Dornoch wants to be on the pace, as well.

He got eliminated basically at the start of the Kentucky Derby where he was shuffled back and couldn’t get his customary forward position.

I expect him to show speed, and then you’ve got a lightly-raced horse named Mindframe, who’s 2-for-2 and went wire-to-wire in both of his starts.

He’s part of the speed, as well, so in a 10-horse field, basically a third of the field are going to be forward or speed-type horses.

The way around

I think Mystik Dan settles in behind them, Resilience kind of in that second flight.

Mystik Dan already has shown that he’s very brave. He will come through the eye of a needle; he’s not afraid of running inside.

And the same with his rider, Brian Hernandez. Fearless.

He came through a whisper of a hole in the Kentucky Derby to win it.

It was just an incredible ride and, again, a brave horse to do it.

The way I explain it with horses, Mystik Dan would be a Porsche, a Ferrari.

He can rush up, idle, accelerate again.

Where Sierra Leone, who I think is going to be the horse to beat and actually is going to be my top selection, is a horse you can’t stop and start.

He’s a bigger horse, not as shifty, not as handy.

Kind of puts his head down and barrels forward. Think Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick. Larry Csonka was going to bull his way through the line; Jim Kiick was going to give ’em some dance moves.

I think Resilience is a horse people shouldn’t overlook. He’s training sensationally here.

Youngest trainer ever in the Hall of Fame, Bill Mott, and he’s going to be at a little bit of a price.

Mystik Dan, I love his energy level. He’s actually put on weight since the Preakness, which is unusual for a horse having a lot of racing in a small period of time.

Down the stretch

Then I see Sierra Leone coming with the last run.

He’s a horse who has created some of his own problems wanting to lug in.

He’s two noses away from being undefeated, and you can make a case that he should have won both of those (Remsen and Kentucky Derby) if it wasn’t for the lugging in.

But now with the new equipment he’ll be much easier to handle for the rider (Flavien Prat) and I think he picks them all off late.

The horses I’m going to use underneath Sierra Leone are Seize the Grey because I don’t think his Preakness was a fluke, Resilience and certainly your Derby winner Mystik Dan.