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ITM Telegraph

Monday, June 8, 2026  |  Post-Belmont Week  |  Free Horse Racing Analysis

By ITM Staff

Triple Crown Reform: The Belmont Left More Questions Than Answers

Golden Tempo is a dual Classic winner. The Belmont itself was a good race — not a great one, at least not on speed figures. The DRF’s notable Beyers from Saturday tell the real story of the day: Englishman ran a 115 in the Woody Stephens, Nysos ran a 109 in the Met Mile, and Golden Tempo ran a 98 to win the Belmont. The best figure on the card belonged to a horse trained by the same trainer as the Belmont winner, and that horse lost by several lengths. Bob Baffert said afterward that Crude Velocity will never face Englishman again in a sprint. That tells you what he thinks of that rival.

But the quote that most demands attention came from Todd Pletcher, trainer of Belmont third-place finisher Renegade, via the Paulick Report’s post-race notes: “The only excuse I’d make is that he probably ended up needing a little bit more time between races.”

Five weeks between the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes. And still, apparently, not enough.

Earlier this week, PTF published a piece for At The Races arguing that the Triple Crown schedule needs to change — that the five-week window between races is the central structural problem, and that moving to a first-Saturday-of-May, June, and July format would bring the best horses back together and restore what makes the series genuinely great. As Randy Moss put it in the piece: “Imagine what it would be this year with Golden Tempo and Renegade, with the Ortiz brothers rematched against each other in the Preakness.”

Pletcher’s quote doesn’t vindicate that argument. If anything, it complicates it. If a trainer as experienced as Todd Pletcher cannot get his horse right in five weeks, the obvious question is: would eight weeks be enough? Would twelve? At what point does the problem stop being the schedule and start being something else entirely — the way modern horses are trained, state of the breed, the medication landscape, the economics of a sport in which connections weigh every risk against the full picture of a horse’s season?

Cherie DeVaux addressed that landscape directly in a candid interview with The Athletic earlier this week: “Things that could [have gotten] a horse who came out of a race a little sore could have been done in the past within the rules — now we don’t have that.” That isn’t an argument against the medication reforms — those reforms are necessary and correct. But it is an honest acknowledgment that the world in which the Triple Crown schedule was built no longer exists, and the schedule has not caught up.

The Pletcher quote is not proof that reform would fail. It is a reminder that reform alone would not be enough. Changing the calendar would be a step in the right direction, not a magic bullet. Even with more time between races, trainers would still make the same calculations — about risk, about wellbeing, about what the rest of the season looks like. The problem runs deeper than the schedule.

What is not in doubt is that the story of the 2026 Triple Crown — like so many before it — is partly about what we did not get to see. A Preakness with Golden Tempo and Renegade. A proper three-race examination of the best horse of this generation. Instead, we got Napoleon Solo winning the Preakness in a weakened field, and a Belmont that proved Golden Tempo is very good at winning races without running big figures.

The Travers on August 29 at Saratoga will give us a rematch. It is not the Triple Crown. But it may tell us more about this crop than any race run so far.

What’s Next — The 3-Year-Old Division

The Triple Crown is over. The second half of the season starts now. Here is where the major players are headed.

Englishman’s 115 — The Figure of the Weekend

While the Belmont dominated the conversation, the most significant figure run on Saturday came in the Woody Stephens. Englishman (Cherie DeVaux / Jose Ortiz) won in track record time — 1:20.40 — earning a 115 Beyer Speed Figure. Bob Baffert, whose Crude Velocity finished behind him: “I will never run against that horse again. Crude Velocity will never see that horse in the gate again, unless they are going two turns. That was, I mean — wow. Crude Velocity was doing so well. I saw that time — that was crazy.” Via NYRA notes.

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