Those are my picks also, and I’ve been neck-deep in handicapping this race since the Preakness.
I knew the lion’s share of IHA’s money would go to Dullahan,
and will be real interested to see how the rest of it gets
spread around among Paynter, UR, Street Life,etc. I hope Street Life remains a moderate “longshot” at around 8-1
because that will at least ensure a modest triple payoff.
But we need at least one real longshot in there for fourth
to make a decent superfecta. That could be Atigun or My Adonis. The day Street Life was announced for the Belmont
I looked up his PPs and got very excited. I have been touting him for at least two weeks, and only lately, in the last 3-4 days, has he been getting some buzz among the experts-—like long articles in the Daily Racing Form,He will be getting more today as race-time approaches, so his odds may go down further-—his original morning line two weeks ago was 15-1! He is set for a big effort today-—even though I doubt he could beat Dullahan, if the race is run without hitches or glitches (it should be-—the 1 1/2 mile distance pretty much ensures any horse in temporary trouble can get out of it without losing too much ground).
Interesting to note that the ONLY horse remaining in the Belmont field who raced in the first two TCrown races is
OPTIMIZER, who has had miserable performances in all his graded stakes races, with no real excuses. But I even put him fourth in some of my superfecta tickets.
One thing is sure-—without IHA in the race the exotic payoffs will be a bit more decent than with him in it, winning or placing second.
He could easily pay 7 or 8 bucks for show. With a $200 wager, that's a return of $700 or $800. Not a bad payday.
Unfortunately, I’ll be at work when the race goes off. And the damn thing isn’t on any local (NY) radio stations anymore! At least the Derby and Preakness weren’t, as far as I knew. There apparently isn’t even a phone number you can call for a live race call. What I did for the Preakness was called my brother and asked him to place the phone near his TV.