Home › Racebooks Lines › Racebooks Articles › Belmont Stakes Contenders
Belmont Stakes Betting: Winning isn't exactly everything in horse racing, but it certainly does mean a lot. Sure, Twisted Tom has never run against fields quite as good as the one he's going to see at the Belmont Stakes. But if winning is an indicator, he's the only horse in this field that has won each of his last three races.
The Belmont Stakes will go to post on Saturday, June 10, 2017 at 6:50 p.m. ET at Belmont Park in Elmont, NY. Catch the Belmont Stakes live on NBC.
Twisted Tom
Career Record: 4-0-0 ( 6 Races )
Career Earnings: $209,040
Belmont Stakes Odds at BookMaker.eu: +1600
Twisted Tom has never run in a graded stakes race before, and he's never been better than a 2 to 1 favorite in any given race he's run. Heck, at the Federico Tesio Stakes, he was only 5 to 1 and ended up winning. Thus, it's hard to make a case for Twisted Tom to be anything more than one of the longer shots on the board to win the Belmont Stakes. He won't be the longest shot because of his recent success on the track, but a price of +1600 doesn't quite feel big enough either from where we're sitting.
Why Twisted Tom Will Win the Belmont Stakes
Twisted Tom kind of feels like a winner to us. Top jockeys don't know a lot about maiden horses they ride from time to time, but generally, if you see a really good jockey on a horse in his first career race, that's a sign that perhaps there's something there. Joel Rosario rode Twisted Tom twice before turning him over to Irad Ortiz for his third race. That probably tells you something.
The results don't lie. Trainer Chad Brown has gone easy on Twisted Tom, only inserting him in races with prize pools up to the $125,000 of the Federico Tesio, but he's done the job, winning each of his last three. It's time to take that jump in class, and that might as well come at the Belmont Stakes.
Why Twisted Tom Won't Win the Belmont Stakes
It's really all about the level of competition. It's so awkward watching a horse move up from running in nothing but allowance races and ungraded stakes races to running against the big boys, but that's what we have here with Twisted Tom. If he's really that much of a winner, he'll prove to the rest of the world that he should have been on the Triple Crown trail the whole time.
We also hate that Twisted Tom is probably going to be asked to come out of the blocks relatively quickly and challenge both Epicharis and Classic Empire along with the rabbit of the field, Meantime. It just feels like a horse who has done his best running in races in the past early on won't have the distance in him to be as strong at the end of a mile and a half, particularly after a month and a half long layoff.
The Final Verdict
We can't help but wonder why in the heck Brown decided to hold off running Twisted Tom in the Preakness Stakes only to take him to Belmont Park. Sure, he was a New York horse through and through before transferring to Laurel Park, but it was a natural progression to enter the weakest of the three legs of the Triple Crown.
Brown must truly believe that Twisted Tom needed the extra rest and can use that to his advantage in the longest race any of these ponies will ever be in. We're not so optimistic. We think it takes a lot to jump from never running in a graded stakes race to running in a big Grade 1. The field is on the weak side at the Belmont for sure, but that's not enough to make us consider Twisted Tom as a legitimate contender.
Triple Crown previews, race recaps and wagering are always available in the racebook at Bookmaker. Bet on these events live. BookMaker offers play-by-play betting odds for live sporting events every day! The user-friendly wagering interface on your smartphone provides an easy way to place bets on the go. Mobile betting lines are updated by the minute so click here to start gambling on thrilling live action at BookMaker sportsbook!
2017 Belmont Stakes Contenders
