Drosselmeyer races to win

Drosselmeyer unleashed a devastating late sprint to win Saturday’s 142nd running of the $1 million Belmont Stakes, the third and final leg of US racing’s famed Triple Crown.

Perfectly ridden by jockey Mike Smith, Drosselmeyer surged clear of his 11 three-year-old rivals on the home straight and held off Fly Down to win the mile and a half (2400m) classic by three quarters of a length.

“It was a great trip. It was all about getting into the rhythm and we did it,” Smith said.

“It worked out. It was incredible. It’s great to come home.”

First Dude, runner-up in the Preakness Stakes, held on to take third, a further neck away, after leading for most of the race in a repeat of his eye-catching second placing in the Preakness Stakes.

“We had a perfect trip and everything went like we planned, we just couldn’t hold it together right there at the end,” First Dude’s trainer Dale Romans said.

“He ran hard, he did all the work again on the lead. I’m real happy with him. He put in a great effort. No excuses.”

Game On Dude was fourth while Uptowncharleybrown crossed the line fifth but was later disqualified for dropping a lead pad approaching the post during the race and returning to scale under weight.

The short-priced favourite Ice Box, runner-up in last month’s Kentucky Derby and a stablemate of Fly Down, failed to run on and could only manage ninth, later upgraded to eighth, on a steamy summer’s day at Belmont Park.

“Fly Down ran great. Obviously I’m disappointed about Ice Box,” trainer Nick Zito said.

“He didn’t deal with the heat well. The Pulpit came out in him a little bit today.”

Drosselmeyer could not even get a start in the Kentucky Derby and began Saturday’s race as a 13-1 outsider but timed his run to perfection to provide Smith and Mott with their first wins in the Belmont.

Smith completed a full set of Triple Crown victories. He partnered Prairie Bayou to land the 1993 Preakness then saluted on Giacomo in the 2005 Kentucky Derby but had failed to capture the Belmont in 12 previous attempts.

For Mott, best known as the trainer of Cigar, the 1995 and 1996 U.S. Horse of the Year, it was his first win in any of the Triple Crown races in 14 attempts.

The absence of the Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver and the Preakness winner Lookin At Lucky had seemingly left the race at the mercy of Ice Box and First Dude.

But Ice Box got stirred up as the 45,000-strong crowd joined in the singing of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” which replaced Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” as the race’s new official theme song.

Ice Box settled near the rear of the field and never threatened the leaders as First Dude charged across from the second widest barrier to lead with Drosselmeyer settling midfield before circling the field on the final bend.

A big-striding chestnut colt, he travelled four wide but was still able to burst clear of First Dude in the final furlong and hold off the fast-finishing Fly Down to receive the traditional winner’s garland of white carnations and the $600,000 purse. —