The 158th Belmont Stakes goes to post tonight at Saratoga Race Course – Saturday, June 6 at 7:04 p.m. ET – with Belmont Park still in the final stretch of its multi-year renovation, making this the third consecutive year the Triple Crown finale runs upstate.
The $2 million race carries $1.2 million to the winner, and it sets up as a direct rematch of the Kentucky Derby with the two headline horses skipping the Preakness to meet again here.
Renegade is the 2-1 favorite despite losing the Derby by a neck to longshot Golden Tempo, who comes back at 9-2. The distance is 1¼ miles – shorter than the traditional 1½-mile test at Belmont Park – and that single detail reshapes the entire handicapping picture. Here is everything you need to lock in your Belmont Stakes picks before post time.
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Select Saratoga track, navigate to Race 13, and place your wager before the 7:04 p.m. ET post time. If you need a walkthrough by state, check the full regional betting guide here.
2026 Belmont Stakes Odds – Full Field
Current Belmont Stakes odds for all nine horses, sourced from the morning line:
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- Renegade: -200 (2-1)
- Chief Wallabee: +300 (3-1)
- Golden Tempo: +450 (9-2)
- Commandment: +600 (6-1)
- Emerging Market: +600 (6-1)
- Powershift: +1200 (12-1)
- Growth Equity: +1200 (12-1)
- Ottinho: +2000 (20-1)
- Vitruvian Man: +3000 (30-1)
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Top Contenders To Watch On Belmont Stakes Day
Renegade (2-1, Post 4) is the clear horse to beat, and the market is right to install him as the favorite. Trained by Todd Pletcher – who has four Belmont Stakes wins, most recently in 2022 – and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., who won this race in 2016 and 2022, Renegade brings a loaded connections profile to post 4. The Arkansas Derby winner has 2 wins, 3 runner-ups, and a third across 6 career starts. He bypassed the Preakness specifically to be fresh and ready here, and that inside draw at post 4 gives him the stalking lane he wants at 1¼ miles. The Derby loss by a neck was not a failure of class – it was a photo finish. At this shorter Saratoga distance, where closers have less room to operate, Renegade’s tactical efficiency becomes a genuine edge.
Chief Wallabee (3-1, Post 3) is the most underrated number on the board. Bill Mott and jockey Junior Alvarado won the 2025 Belmont Stakes at this exact track with Sovereignty – they know how to prep a horse for this specific race at Saratoga Race Course. Chief Wallabee finished fourth at the Kentucky Derby and third at the Florida Derby, and while neither result screams upside, he has never finished worse than fourth in four career starts and post 3 puts him right where a stalker wants to be. The connections angle here is not a minor footnote – it is the central reason to take him seriously at a number that still offers real value.
Commandment (6-1, Post 7) ran seventh at Churchill Downs, which looked bad on paper but came off a four-win streak that included the Grade I Florida Derby and Grade II Fountain of Youth. Trainer Brad Cox won the 2021 Belmont Stakes, and Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez knows this race. A month of freshening between the Derby and tonight is exactly how Cox operates. If Commandment bounces back anywhere close to his pre-Derby form, 6-1 is a number you will wish you had taken.
Golden Tempo (9-2, Post 9) is the Kentucky Derby winner at a price that would have seemed absurd when he broke 30-1 at Churchill Downs. The outside draw at post 9 is genuine trip risk for a horse who closes from the back – he will need a clean, uncrowded run. Trainer Cherie DeVaux is attempting to become the second woman to win the Belmont Stakes, and Jose Ortiz gives him a capable hand. But before the Derby, Golden Tempo finished third in back-to-back Grade II stakes races. The Derby win was real. The 9-2 price demands he repeat it from a difficult post. That math is harder than it looks.
Expert Betting Predictions For The 158th Belmont Stakes
The 1¼-mile distance at Saratoga is a stalker’s race tonight. The deep closers – Golden Tempo, Emerging Market – need more ground to truly fire, and an outside post for Golden Tempo only compounds the issue. Renegade sits at the ideal post, with the ideal connections, targeting this exact spot for the past month.
For the exotics, Commandment represents the highest-upside trifecta piece at 6-1. He has the class – four straight wins before the Derby dip – and the trainer-jockey combination to get back on track. Chief Wallabee at 3-1 belongs in every exacta and trifecta construction given how cleanly the post position and connections align. If you want a deeper dart, Growth Equity at 12-1 won the Grade III Peter Pan on May 9 and made his career debut at Saratoga – familiarity with the track is worth something.
Horse racing betting does not guarantee outcomes, but the logic here points clearly in one direction.
Our Pick: Renegade to win; Commandment and Chief Wallabee hitting the board for the trifecta.
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