The 148th running of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, and 2018 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival is on Saturday, June 6. Choose from the options below to find out more information regarding the event of the summer.
A little after 6:50 p.m. ET on Saturday at Belmont Park, just outside of Queens in New York, American Pharoah will break from the gate at the Belmont Stakes with the chance to become the 12th horse to win thoroughbred horse racing's Triple Crown. Thirteen have attempted the feat in the 37 years since Affirmed nosed ahead of Alydar for the victory in 1978. All have come up empty in their bids.
There's been debate among experts why, exactly, the Triple Crown is so hard to win. Theories range from the distance to running on tired legs, to horses just not being bred to be able to sprint at the Derby and Preakness and be able to run the longer mile-and-a-half distance of the Belmont. Wired.com even noted that Triple Crown winners have all but dried up since trainers began giving their horses a diuretic drug called Lasix in the 1970s to help prevent them from bleeding into their own air passages. The side effect was a loss of electrolytes and dehydration.