Roth Regatta

The 2009 Belmont Stakes was the 141st race of its type in Belmont. The Belmont Stakes is the third leg of the Triple Crown in horse racing.

 

With the Belmont Stakes being the third leg of the Triple Crown there are advantages and disadvantages. On any given year the Belmont Stakes could be the most important race to take place in all of horse racing. After a horse wins the Kentucky Derby, everyone is watching that horse at the Preakness. If that same horse manages to win the Preakn

ess, excitement really starts to build in the sport. That leaves one race to win before that horse and jockey have won the elusive Triple Crown. This is why the Belmont Stakes can be so big. Everyone floods to the track to see the race when this sort of thing happens at Belmont.

 

Unfortunately, there are disadvantages. If the same horse does not win both of the first two races, then nobody really is as interested in the Belmont Stakes. Certainly it is still one of the biggest events in rac

ing, but there is no Triple Crown at stake. This is the situation that the Belmont Stakes was up against in 2009. There was no contender for the Triple Crown.

 

With no Triple Crown contender, the attendance at the race was 52, 861. This represented a 44% drop in attendance from 2008.

Entering into the race, news was released that the winner of the Preakness would not take part in the race. That left Mine That Bird, the winner of the 2009 Kentucky Derby, as the favorite to win the Belmont

Stakes. The horses that would challenge Mine That Bird included Summer Bird, Birdstone, Dunkirk, Chocolate Candy, Brave Victory, Flying Private, Charitable Man, Luv Gov, Miner’s Escape, Mr. Hot Stuff and Nowhere To Hide.

 

As the race progressed, three horses really stood out. These horses were Summer Bird, Dunkirk, and the favorite horse, Mine That Bird. Towards the end of the race Summer Bird was able to put together a hard, solid run. This run allowed him to close out the race against Dunkirk and Mine That Bird, his two competitors. This solid run down the stretch made Sumer Bird the winner of the 2009 Belmont Stakes. He won the race from the 4th Post.

 

The other two competitors, Dunkirk and Mine That Bird, continued to duke it out. They battled until the end, when Dunkirk managed to win the consolation of 2nd place over Mine That Bird. After being the favorite in the race, Mine That Bird managed to only finish in 3rd place in the race.

 

Summer Bird collected 600,000 dollars of the total one million dollar payout at the race for winning. Dunkirk collected 200,000 dollars and Mine That Bird won 100,000 dollars for third place. To round out the top 5, Charitable Man won 50,000 dollars in fourth place and Luv Gov won fifth place in the 2009 Belmont Stakes and took home 30,000 dollars. Luv Gov managed to fare that well after having just 20-1 odds to win the race coming into the Belmont Stakes.