Richard Migliore won 4,450 races and more than $160 million in prize money between 1980 and 2010, primarily at NYRA tracks such as Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Saratoga.
Migliore, 60, who currently serves as a horse racing commentator for NYRA and Fox Sports, will be a guest on Fox’s coverage of the 156th Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on FS1, 4 to 7 p.m. on Fox and after the race from 7 to 8:10 p.m. on FS2.
Migliore told Post readers he thinks the race is going to go this way:
Out of the gate
It looks like he has plenty of speed for this Belmont Stakes.
When riding 1.25 miles, riders will be less careful in the first part than when riding 1.5 miles.
Many of these colts already have experience at the 1.25 mile distance.
There’s Seize the Grey, who won the Preakness Stakes from start to finish.
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas and jockey Jamie Torres have changed their strategy and I don’t think it will be a successful one.
He has speed.
Dornoch will also be hoping to keep up the pace.
He was essentially dropped out at the start of the Kentucky Derby, moved to the back and not able to get his usual front position.
I’m hoping he’ll show some speed, and then we have a horse called Mind Frame who hasn’t raced much but has two wins from two starts and has been a finish-to-finish winner both times.
He is also part of the speed horses, so if there are 10 horses in the race, essentially one third will be forward or speed horses.
detour
I think Mystik Dan will settle in behind them, with Resilience settling into second flight.
Mystic Dan has already proven himself to be very brave, not afraid to run on the inside, even through the eye of a needle.
So is jockey Brian Hernandez: fearless.
He came from a small margin to win the Kentucky Derby.
It was just an incredible ride and also shows the bravery of the horse who accomplished it.
If we were to explain it in terms of horses, Mystique Dan would be a Porsche or a Ferrari.
He can accelerate hard, idle, and accelerate again.
Sierra Leone, who I think is the horse to win, and in fact is my favourite, is a horse that can’t stop and start.
He’s a bigger horse, not as agile, not as dexterous.
They put their head down and charge. Think Larry Csonka and Jim Kick. Larry Csonka was going to charge through the lines and Jim Kick was going to show them his dance moves.
I think Resilience is a horse to watch, he’s had some great training here.
Bill Mott, the youngest trainer ever inducted into the Hall of Fame, will command a small price.
Mystic Dan, his energy level is great, he’s actually put on weight since the Preakness, which is unusual for a horse that races that many races in a short period of time.
Until the very end
And then we see Sierra Leone coming in for the final push.
He’s a horse who created problems for himself by trying to force his way in.
He is just two noses away from an unbeaten record and an argument could be made that he would have won both the Remsen and Kentucky Derby if not for these struggles.
But the new equipment makes it easier for our rider (Flavian Prat) and I think he will overtake everyone in the second half.
The horses I would use in place of Sierra Leone are She’s the Gray, who I don’t think the Preakness was a fluke, Resilience, and of course the Derby winner Mystic Dan.
