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\u201cHad Tacitus won the Kentucky Derby, I suppose we would have taken a chance at the Preakness, but we didn’t feel like we wanted to run him back in two weeks,\u201d Mott said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Tacitus, ridden by Jose Oritz, will also likely draw a lot of interest from the New York crowd at the Long Island track. He finished fourth in his first race at Belmont last October, before winning his first race in a maiden special weight a month later at Aqueduct.<\/p>\n
After winning the Grade II Tampa Bay Derby in Florida in March, he returned to Aqueduct a month later and claimed the Grade II Wood Memorial. He overcame a rough start to win that by 1-1\/4 lengths. In the Kentucky Derby, he rallied from 16th place at the half-mile mark to finish fourth and then get placed into third.<\/p>\n
Japanese Colt Third Choice<\/h2>\n
There appear to be several value selections as only one other horse, Master Fencer at 8-1, drew single-digit odds for the race. Bettors lightly considered the Japanese colt in the Kentucky Derby, but he wound up sixth. He raced last in the 19-horse field throughout the first mile before finding his stride late, moving from 12th at the top of the stretch to finish seventh before the stewards\u2019 ruling.<\/p>\n
Under jockey Julien Leparoux, Master Fencer will start from the third gate.<\/p>\n
The other horses in the field include (in order of post position): 30-1 Joveia; 12-1 Everfast, who finished second in the Preakness; 15-1 Tax; 12-1 Bourbon War, who will now have Mike Smith on the saddle; 15-1 Spinoff; 12-1 Sir Winston, another Casse-trained colt; and 10-1 Intrepid Heart, a Belmont stabled horse.<\/strong><\/p>\nWilliam Hill\u2019s sportsbooks in Nevada posted identical odds for the entries on its futures board Wednesday. As did offshore book USRacing.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tacitus earned morning line favorite status for Saturday\u2019s Belmont Stakes after the Bill Mott-trained colt drew the outside starting gate for the third leg of horse racing\u2019s Triple Crown. Oddsmakers gave Tacitus 9-5 odds for the 1-1\/2-mile Grade I stakes race, which drew 10 entries. The second choice, Preakness Stakes winner War of Will, will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":106377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Oddsmakers Consider Tacitus, War of Will Prime Contenders for Belmont<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n