Post Time: Dornoch upsets Belmont field at Saratoga

Closing out the triumvirate of this year’s Triple Crown races, the son of Good Magic held off a game Mindframe, who was wandering erratically in the stretch, in addition to the late closing Sierra Leone.

Once again, the Spa lived up to its name of “Graveyard of Favorites,” with the heavily favored Sierra Leone running out of track in the final 100 yards to get to the winner. The race was held at Saratoga Race Course while Belmont Park is being renovated in time for the 2026 Belmont.

It was a partly sunny, breezy afternoon in the foothills of the Adirondacks, where a crowd nearing 50,000 witnessed the 17-1 longshot battle the Preakness winner Seize the Grey early and then fend off the lightly raced Mindframe in the deep stretch.

The win in the 156th edition of the race added $1.2 million to the colt’s earnings that increased to $1,752,275.

It was trainer Danny Gargan’s first Belmont Stakes win, and jockey Luis Saez’ second Belmont after piloting Essential Quality to victory in 2021 at Belmont Park.

Dornoch is the first horse owned by a combination of owners that included West Paces Racing, R.A. Hill Stable, Belmar Racing and Breeding, Two Eight Racing and Pine Racing. Former MLB infielder Jayson Werth, who won a World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies, is part of the ownership group.

The winner completed the mile-and-a-quarter trek in 2:01.64, defeating the runner-up by a half-length to complete a $1 exacta that paid $163.25.

Dornoch returned to his backers $37.40 for the win, $17.60 to place and $8.10 to show. Post Time top selection Mindframe went off at 5-1 in only his third career race, paid $6.80 to place and $4.20 to show. Sierra Leone, the 8-5 post time favorite, finished third, a length behind Mindframe, to pay $2.60 for the show.

Saez, 32, a native of Panama, steered the winner to a front-running position, trading places with the Preakness winner throughout the run down the backside of the Spa oval. The colt had run 10th in the Kentucky Derby, never getting into the mix in Louisville, finishing 18 lengths behind.

Gargan explained that being forwardly placed on Saturday was the plan all along after having traffic trouble in the Derby from the rail position.

“We wanted to be on the lead. In the Derby, the one-hole got us,” Gargan said. “He broke a touch slow, right after Brian (Hernandez Jr. on Mystik Dan) came over, and we got checked out of there. It’s game over then.”

Saez coaxed him to make his move on Seize the Grey at the five-sixteenths pole, swinging the colt three-wide in the upper stretch. He was actually headed by Mindframe inside the three-sixteenths pole, before his rival started drifting out, and he dug in gamely down the rail to hold off the son of Constitution.

Saez returned the bay colt to the front-running style in which he won the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park in March and the Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct in December, earning the points necessary to compete in the Derby.

It was all the difference in the race.

“The horse broke pretty sharp,” Saez said. “It was the position we were looking for. He did everything right. He came to the top of the stretch. I still had a lot of horse. He’s a horse that really has a big heart and, man, he ran the perfect race.”

Werth gave the raucous ownership group a charge in the winner’s circle, proclaiming his newfound love of horse racing.

“Horse racing is the most underrated sport in the world, bar none,” Werth said. “This is as good as it gets in horse racing.This is as good as it gets in sports.”

Mindframe proved he was the real deal with the second-place finish, and if not for his floating outward in the stretch, he was the likely winner, if he only straightened out. He had won his first two races at a combined 20 1/2 lengths without challenge.

Trainer Todd Pletcher signaled that his immaturity and inexperience led to his downfall in the stretch trying to get to the leader.

“He just got a little green in the stretch,” Pletcher said on the track after the race. “Irad (Ortiz Jr.) said that he drifted out on him a little bit and felt like he lost focus for a moment, so he angled him back inside so he could see Dornoch. He reengaged and was closing, but he ran out of time.”

Pletcher said the Belmont being his third race, first time at the distance and being challenged for the first time made the difference between winning and losing.

“It was all the things we were concerned about,” Pletcher said. “If he just would’ve run a straight course down the lane, that could have been the difference.”

Mindframe has a bright future, however, and could make his mark in the 3-year-old colt division this summer with a little more seasoning.

For conditioner Chad Brown, it was another disappointing big dirt race at Saratoga, this time by Sierra Leone, who was slammed at the start, sending him to the rear of the field. Still seeking his first Belmont Stakes, in addition to a Travers Stakes at his hometown course, Brown was left on the outside looking in, again.

“He had an opportunity to engage the bit and improve his position down the backside, and he really didn’t do it,” Brown said. “At the quarter-pole, it looked like he wasn’t going anywhere, then he grabbed the bit late, and he came on. It was a hard track today to close ground on.”

So, that’s a wrap on quite the Triple Crown season that saw Mystik Dan capture the Derby at 18-1, Seize the Grey upset the Preakness at 9-1 and Dornoch post a win at double-digit odds in the final leg at Saratoga.

On the national scene, we head into the summer racing season for the 3-year-olds, returning back to the Spa for the Jim Dandy in July and the Travers in August and the Haskell Stakes at Monmouth in July. We may even see 3-year-old filly Thorpedo Anna, who impressed in the Acorn on Friday to back up her Kentucky Oaks bid, take on the boys down the road.

Locally, we head into the Canadian Triple Crown season north of the border. The King’s Plate is scheduled for Aug. 17 at Woodbine, and the Prince of Wales will be Sept. 10 at Fort Erie Race Track.

Gene Kershner, a Buffalo-based turf writer, is a member of the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association, and tweets on X @EquiSpace.