Belmont Stakes Racing Festival Kick Off Picks

As far as Thursday cards go, the kick off to Belmont Stakes Racing Festival turned up a good one with three stakes bolstering a nine-race card that features a $30,261 Pick 6 carryover and the usual slate of a pick 5, two Pick 4s, and the grand slam.

Two of the three stakes exist on opposite ends of the confidence spectrum with the inaugural Belmont Coronation Invitational an inscrutable sextet poised to go 1 15/16 miles on the inner turf and the Intercontinental Stakes featuring my most likely winner on the card #8 Zindaya. The Coronation ends the Pick 5 and early Pick 4 and begins the grand slam that ends with the Intercontinental.

My day will build around Zindaya winning the Intercontinental with Shrinking Violet my only life preserver in there. 

The full ABC grid is below. My "top pick" in each race is in the TP column. We've been hot this week at Thistledown & Fort Erie, but as legendary trainer Woody Stephens said, "When you cross the Hudson, those buildings get taller and taller." Let's hope for a bigger and bigger bankroll to go with them.