Antonucci becomes first female trainer to win Triple Crown race

Arcangelo won the 155th running of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday as Jena Antonucci became the first ever female trainer to win a Triple Crown race.

The three-year-old gray colt, who broke from the No 3 post in an nine-horse field under Javier Castellano, rode the entirety of the one-and-a-half-mile race along the rail, breaking free from a head-to-head lead with Preakness Stakes winner National Treasure on the top of the stretch before holding off a heart-pounding challenge from a pack of four closers led by Forte and crossing first in 2:29.13 to win the $1.5 million contest.

“He’s just the got the heart of a champion,” Antonucci said. “He’s just that guy. He’s just amazing. A true blessing, an amazing gift and I’m just so grateful.”

Antonucci became the first woman to saddle a winning horse in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness or the Belmont, America’s three most celebrated races which have composed thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown for more than a century. Since 1937, a total of 30 different female trainers had made 47 attempts to break through on the sport’s biggest stage and come up short.

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Forte, the Kentucky Derby favorite until he was scratched on the morning of the race with a bruised foot, finished one-and-a-half lengths behind second in the $1.5 million race. Tapit Trice was third, Hit Show four and Angel of Empire fifth, followed by National Treasure, Il Miracolo, Red Route One and Tapit Shoes.

Arcangelo, the sire of Arrogate purchased by Blue Rose Farm’s Jon Ebbert for $35,000 as a yearling, skipped the Derby and Preakness but showed his class by winning the one-and-a-half-mile Peter Pan Stakes. Saturday’s win at 7-1 odds made him the first horse to complete the Peter Pan-Belmont double since Tonalist, who spoiled California Chrome’s Triple Crown bid at Belmont Park in 2014.

Castellano, the Hall of Fame jockey and New York mainstay who broke an 0-for-15 hoodoo at the Kentucky Derby when he rode Mage to victory at Churchill Downs five weeks ago, ended another skid on Saturday by winning the Belmont for the first time in his 15th attempt.

“I give all the credit to the horse,” Castellano said. “This is a wonderful horse. I’m really happy for her, you know, she’s a really good woman. She’s a good horseman.”

The 47-year-old Antonucci, a former show rider from Florida who started as a thoroughbred trainer 13 years ago, was the 11th woman to send out a horse for the final jewel of the Triple Crown and the first since Kathy Ritvo saddled Mucho Macho Man to a seventh-place finish in 2011. The best previous result for a female trainer was Dianne Carpenter’s second with Kingpost in 1988.

“Never give up,” Antonucci said. “And if you can’t find a seat at the table, make your own table. Build your team and never give up. You are seen. People see you. Just keep working your butt off.”

Antonucci’s breakthrough win was an upbeat curtain-dropper for a Triple Crown season that’s further battered the sport’s reputation. A total of 12 horses died at Churchill Downs in the weeks surrounding the Kentucky Derby, including two on the day of the race, while the day of the Preakness was marred by the on-track euthanization of a horse trained by Bob Baffert as the trainer returned from a two-year suspension.

The death count didn’t stop with Arcangelo’s win: Excursionniste was put down after suffering a catastrophic leg injury on the final race of Saturday’s card, the third fatality of the current meet at Belmont Park. – Guardian