Tawny Port, Corruption top wide-open G2 Belmont Gold Cup
America’s top-rated staying test on turf, the 12th edition of the Grade 2, $250,000 Belmont Gold Cup for 4-year-olds and upward, returns with a competitive renewal on Thursday, June 4, at Saratoga Race Course, including eight contenders set to tackle a stamina-sapping two miles on the famed oval’s inner turf course.
A pair of hard-knocking Grade 1-placed aspirants, Peachtree Stable’s Tawny Port and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Harry Colburn’s Corruption, lead the long-winded lot, collectively hoping to stamp their Upstate ticket to Down Under.
Continuing the partnership between The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) and the Victoria Racing Club, Thursday’s test of endurance is a ‘Golden Ticket’ event, offering the victor an automatic berth into the two-mile Group 1 Lexus Melbourne Cup, “the race that stops a nation” worth more than AUD $10 million [USD $7.2 million] in total prize money. One of the globe’s most prestigious thoroughbred affairs, the Melbourne Cup will be held on Tuesday, November 3.
Fans will have the opportunity to take their photo with the Lexus Melbourne Cup trophy on Thursday from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Jockey Silks Porch. The 18-carat trophy is created from 34 gold pieces and was hand-crafted for over 200 hours. The Melbourne Cup is awarded to the owner of the winning horse, and smaller replicas are given to the trainer and jockey.
A five-time winner from 31 starts who has earned nearly $2.2 million, the Miguel Clement-conditioned dual Grade 3-winner Tawny Port makes his second start of the season after a fourth in the Grade 2 Elkhorn on April 18 at Keeneland over 12 furlongs. A nose-beaten runner-up in the Grade 1 Canadian International last October, he brings class to the table, but the nine-time graded stakes-placed 7-year-old seeks his first victory since Saratoga’s Listed John’s Call over 13 furlongs in August 2023. Flavien Prat, winner of the 2019 Belmont Gold Cup on Amade, will ride from post 3.
“He’s been training remarkably well, so I’m cautiously optimistic,” Clement said. “I think he’ll relish the two miles. He had a prep race the other day at Keeneland, which went perfect. He came back better, tighter and he thrives in training at Saratoga. He is one of the few rare horses that I really think takes his level to another element once he’s at Saratoga.
“Last year, he ran three races for me while based at Saratoga in a span of 40 days,” Clement continued. “He nearly won a million dollars. He ran at Kentucky Downs, came back six days later there and then nearly won a Grade 1 in Canada. He really thrives at Saratoga. He is eating better. He looks better. He just flourishes here, like no other horse.”
Corruption [post 7, John Velazquez], third last out in the Grade 1 Turf Classic over nine furlongs on May 2 at Churchill Downs, has boasted solid form throughout his 13-race, five-win career. Consistency and New York blacktype are in the blood of the son of Grade 1 Travers-winning Medaglia d’Oro, as his dam Thundering Sky broke her maiden at Aqueduct and won stakes at Belmont and Saratoga, while also placing in no less than five graded stakes in her final season of racing [2018].
Trained by Hall of Famer Mark Casse, Corruption stretches out beyond 12 furlongs - a distance over which he was second in Gulfstream Park’s Grade 3 Pan American in March - and seeks to return to the winner’s circle for the first time since taking an 11-furlong turf optional claimer in July over this surface. Hall of Famer John Velazquez, winner of the race a record four times - Parchment Party [2025], The Grey Wizard [2024], Baron Samedi [2021] and Charming Kitten [2014] – retains the mount.
“He won’t mind [the two-mile distance] at all,” Casse said. “He’s a galloper and he’ll go all day. Johnny knows him well, now. It’s his third start off the layoff, so he should be good. He had a bit of a troubled trip [in the Turf Classic]. He broke slow, which doesn’t work well for him because he wants to be up close to the lead, and then he got checked a couple times. Nothing went right, so I thought his effort was better than it looked.”
Another with a pedigree that screams top-tier New York action is Mrs. Fitriani Hay’s Wesley Ward-trained Navy Seal [post 2, Jose Ortiz], a former Coolmore disciple who joined the Ward yard two summers ago and has rewarded the Kentucky-based conditioner with a pair of allowance victories and a third last out in Keeneland’s Grade 2 Elkhorn. By Dubawi, sire of 2023 Belmont Gold Cup-winner Siskany, the 5-year-old three-time winner from 17 starts is out of 2018 Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational victress Athena.
“He trains like he'll run all day long,” Ward said. “I don't get many of these [stayers]. I was lucky enough to win a mile-and-three-eighths race there last year with him and he just seems to want to run all day. We've been galloping him two miles. Usually, my gallops are a little over a mile but with this guy, he goes out there and gets a pretty good clip going for two miles. The funny thing about him is you can't get him tired. He comes back feeling like a million bucks.
“I've never been to Australia,” Ward continued. “I ran a horse in Australia, Cannonball, and I wasn't able to go because I had a horse beat half a thumbnail in the Florida Derby, and we were on the Derby trail. I've always wanted to go to Australia my whole life, but the Melbourne Cup is a long stretch. I'd have to talk to [racing manager] Alex Cole and the Hays and see what they'd want to do if we're successful enough to win this race.”
Another talented sort looking to get his overdue day in the sun is Wachtel Stable, Gary Barber, Nicolas Drion and Mathilde Powell’s 8-year-old West Coast stalwart Flashiest [post 1, Irad Ortiz, Jr.], who ships in from Santa Anita Park to make his 40th lifetime start.
Boasting four wins and six graded stakes placings, including a run of three consecutive seconds going into this, the stakes winner exits a half-length runner-up effort in the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham over 10 furlongs. Trained by Leonard Powell, the son of Mizzen Mast is another who tries the two-mile trip for the first time, while seeking his first victory since May 2024. Irad Ortiz Jr., winner of the 2015 edition on Innovation Economy, rides from the inside post.
“He’s had a few seconds lately, but he’s run some big races and he’s doing very well,” Powell said. “He’s kind of found a niche going longer distances since he turned eight and we’re shipping with high expectations. I think the two miles will suit him and he’s a good horse, especially when he’s on the lead, that relaxes very well. He has his quirks and he’s not an easy horse to be around, but we are very attached to him.”
Damchu Stables’ New York-bred Miztertonic [post 4, Javier Castellano] is one of a capable pair trained by Keri Brion, along with Watters Edge’s Worthington [post 5, Chris Elliott].
Exiting a pair of thirds in allowance company, including last out over 11 furlongs on the Big A turf on May 7, Miztertonic broke his maiden on the Saratoga grass in July 2024 before coming back to win a state-bred allowance over the same 1 1/16 miles last August. Hall of Famer Javier Castellano, who wore the late Queen Elizabeth II’s royal silks to take the 2018 edition on Call To Mind, has the call.
“I love this horse - I wish I had a barn full of him - and I know it looks ambitious on paper, but I have told the owner for two years that the farther he goes, the better he is,” Brion said. “I’ve even wanted to make this horse a jumps horse, because I feel like even going a mile-and-three-eighths, he hasn’t shown his very best. I thought, looking at the race, it was the best time to take a shot, and I believe there’s more to this horse that we have not actually seen, especially with a chance to go over two miles. He’ll settle early and come running late and he’s been training awesome coming into it, with a really good work this past Wednesday.”
Homebred Worthington makes his first start on record since a third in October’s two-mile, $150,000 John Forbes Memorial at Far Hills. He seeks his first victory for the trainer and third lifetime, while appearing to be a future dual-purpose sort.
“He’s coming in great, and we were considering just turning him into a steeplechase horse, but he obviously ran so well going two miles, despite getting into a lot of traffic at Far Hills,” Brion said. “He is a funny horse who is difficult to ride because you have to get him covered up or he runs off, so he’s a little bit of a project, but Chris is riding him and knows the plan. He’ll come home strong if he does that. You won’t see it in his past-performances, but he has run at a couple of these steeplechase meetings going a flat mile and a half and two miles to try to get him settled, instead of running on the flat, which might light him up too much, so his fitness is fine. That’s been going well, so we’ll see what happens.”
The John Forbes winner, Paul and Molly Willis’ Fleetfoot [post 8, Kendrick Carmouche], a former Shadwell pupil trained by Jim Bolger in Ireland up until a second in Leopardstown’s Group 3 Kilternan over Irish Champions Weekend last September, makes his sixth start for trainer Barry Foley and exits a second in a 2 1/2-mile hurdle maiden on May 2 at Great Meadows and a three-length win in a two-mile allowance on the flat on May 25 at Fair Hill.
Ninth in the Elkhorn to kick off his season, one race prior, he brings substantial class to the fore, including a lucrative 12-furlong handicap victory over Irish Derby weekend and a respectable run behind Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf champ Ethical Diamond in York’s Ebor Handicap.
“This has been the plan for him, but the only worry I have is that the inner turf may be a bit tight for him,” Foley said. “Other than that, he’s in great order. I’ll be hopeful for a big run. I think, at Keeneland, the ground was too quick for him, and he also needed that run. Winter in Virginia, where we train, isn’t very easy for it and there weren’t many days when I had a good track. He’s also a hard horse to get fit because he has a lot of ability and I don’t have anything else that can work with him. That said, the couple of runs this season should have him spot-on to get him through.”
Stuart Janney, III.'s Kentucky homebred Concord Green [post 6, Manny Franco] has banked $154,317 through an 11-2-2-1 ledger for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.
The 4-year-old War Front gelding relishes a distance of ground, entering from a pair of strong efforts traveling 12-furlongs on the turf topped by a neck score in an optional-claimer on March 7 at Gulfstream Park. Concord Green arrives from a prominent 1 1/2-length second in a Keeneland allowance on April 16.
Concord Green, a half-brother to Grade 3-winner Scarlett Sky, is out of the winning Arch mare Mata Mua - a half-sister to Grade 3-winner My Impression. His third dam is Grade 3-winner Sky Blue Pink.
Completing the field, one would be remiss not to mention Pin Oak Stud’s main-track-only entrant Parchment Party, last year’s winner over a rained-off 14 furlongs for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. A winner of his last four stateside races, with two stakes victories apiece sandwiching a 20th of 24 runners in the Melbourne Cup, the son of Constitution took Churchill Downs’ 12-furlong Listed Isaac Murphy last out.
The Belmont Gold Cup [Race 10] is one of four stakes on Thursday’s 11-race program, and is co-featured with the Grade 2, $250,000 Intercontinental [Race 8], the Grade 3, $300,000 Pennine Ridge [Race 3] and the $175,000 Jersey Girl [Race 2]. First post is 12:35 p.m. Eastern.
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