Star of the show on a stakes-laden weekend as the Belmont Stakes Festival moved to Saratoga was last year’s Preakness Stakes winner National Treasure, who slammed his rivals for a 6¼-length victory in the Metropolitan Handicap. The Bob Baffert-trained four-year-old is a tough nut to crack on the front end, and he went gate-to-wire in the historic $1m event better known as the Met Mile to earn a major points boost on Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s exclusive Global Rankings, where he jumps into the Top 3 overall. He is now the highest-ranked dirt performer on the list.
Cutting back to a mile for the Met Mile – held at Saratoga while Belmont Park undergoes a multi-million-dollar renovation – he dictated affairs before charging away down the stretch to finish strongly from Post Time.
“He’s a good horse and in his last couple works, he tipped me off that, ‘Hey, I’m back,’” Baffert said. “I’m proud of the horse. When he shows up, he’s super.”