The 156^th Belmont Stakes (G1) is Saturday, June 8, at Saratoga Race Course. The 1 ¼-mile race, shortened from 1 ½ miles due to the change of venue as the Belmont Park rebuild continues, is the final leg of the Triple Crown. usracing.com is publishing profiles of the contenders.

SEIZE THE GREY

By US Racing Team

Once mud-loving Seize the Grey took the lead in the Preakness, he got into a rhythm for young Jaime Torres and couldn’t be caught. It seems unlikely he can do that again, not with Fierceness and Dornoch likely to contest the early pace.

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas thinks that won’t matter.

Seize The Grey is a versatile runner, trainer D. Wayne Lukas says

“Seize the Grey doesn’t need the lead. He will rate very kindly,” he said. “This horse is very manageable. We’ll just run our race and let the others do whatever they want to do.”

Seize the Grey had never won back-to-back races before, but the ever-optimistic Lukas thought he could do it at Pimlico. Prophetic words: “I think if he runs the same race as he did in the Pat Day Mile, he’ll be right there.”

Except for Triple Crown heroes Justify (2018) and American Pharoah (2015), no horse has hit the Preakness-Belmont double since Afleet Alex did it in 2005. If not for a horror trip in the Kentucky Derby, Afleet Alex would have swept the classics, and he was clearly the best colt in his crop. Not even Lukas would say that about Seize the Grey, who will be up against a tougher field than he faced in Baltimore.

Top contenders Sierra Leone and Fierceness skipped the Preakness, and fresh horses generally do well in the Belmont.

“The Belmont might be the best race of the three,” Lukas told drf.com.

On Wednesday, May 29, Seize the Grey worked 6 furlongs in 1:13.00 at Churchill Downs with Torres aboard. It’s his final work before the Belmont, which will be the colt’s fifth race in 11 weeks.

“I couldn’t be more pleased the way he’s responded to what we’re trying to do,” Lukas told bloodhorse.com. “He really has done well.’’

2024 Preakness Stakes Contenders, Odds, and Post Positions: Seize The Grey

Belmont Stakes Betting advice: If you didn’t have Seize the Grey at $21.60 in the Preakness, think twice about playing him. Remember the old horse racing adage: “If you missed the wedding, don’t show up for the funeral.”

Post position: 1

Odds: 9-5

Jockey: Jaime Torres

Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas

Owner: MyRacehorse

Career record: 10-4-0-3

Career earnings: $1,819,938

Most recent race: Preakness, May 18 (1^st)

Top Equibase speed figure: 101

Pedigree: Arrogate-Smart Shopping, by Smart Strike

Color: Gray/roan

Running style: Frontrunner/stalker

Notes: Seize the Grey’s Preakness upset was a “feel good” story in more ways than one. Not only did the 88-year-old Lukas become the oldest trainer ever to win a Triple Crown race, but thousands of MyRacehorse owners celebrated with him … The most recent of Lukas’ four Belmont winners was Commendable (2000). The Coach won six consecutive Triple Crown events in the Nineties – 1994 Preakness and Belmont (Tabasco Cat); 1995 Derby and Belmont (Thunder Gulch); 1995 Preakness (Timber Country); 1996 Derby (Grindstone).