Preakness winner Rombauer, Kentucky Derby favorite Essential Quality and third-place finisher Hot Rod Charlie headline a deep field of eight that will rival almost any other race in 2021. “It’s a formidable group,” said trainer Todd Pletcher, who has three horses in the race. Trainer Michael McCarthy hopes Rombauer can be the first non-Baffert horse to win the Preakness and Belmont since Afleet Alex in 2005. Essential Quality opened as the 2-1 favorite, and rival trainers believe the gray is the horse to beat. Essential Quality trains the day before the 153rd running of the Belmont Stakes horse race in Elmont, N.Y., Friday, June 4, 2021.

Source: thestar June 04, 2021 17:26 UTC