Great Meadow: How to bet the Steeplethon S.

The first of three stakes taking place on Saturday’s International Gold Cup card at Great Meadow is the Steeplethon S., a three-mile timber test featuring a small field of five starters.

On paper, the race is shaping up as a two-horse battle between #1 Duc de Meran (6-5) and #2 Bodes Well (8-5). If the prospect of these two waging a fierce battle sounds familiar, that’s because they were separated by only half a length when running 1-2 in a 2 5/8-mile allowance at Glenwood Park at Middleburg two weeks ago.

That allowance saw Duc de Meran and Bodes Well pull 13 3/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher #4 Gaye Breeze (6-1), with #5 Nathanielhawthorne (8-1) another 12 3/4 lengths back in fourth place. #3 Real Good Man (10-1) has also finished behind Bodes Well this year, so unless the form lines shake up dramatically in the Steeplethon, Duc de Meran and Bodes Well rank well ahead of their three rivals.

The tricky part is determining which one—Duc de Meran or Bodes Well—will visit the Great Meadow winner’s circle. Certainly Bodes Well offers a lot of appeal; he won a three-mile Steeplethon S. at Great Meadow during the spring by 26 lengths, and last year he won the Steeplethon on International Gold Cup day by 5 1/2 lengths. The speedy seven-year-old is conditioned by Leslie Young, the National Steeplechase Association’s leading trainer by wins, and has hot jockey Thomas Garner named to ride. Since the beginning of 2021, Garner has compiled a stellar 8-for-20 (40%) record riding at Great Meadow.

But Duc de Meran may be capable of maintaining his supremacy on Saturday. The Glenwood Park allowance marked his first start since May 2021, when he wired a three-mile allowance at Great Meadow in determined fashion. The seven-year-old gelding has only run four times in the United States and still has upside for improvement under high-percentage jockey Jamie Bargary, who has gone 2-for-4 (50%) teaming up with trainer Cyril Murphy over the last two months.

The good news is, the International Gold Cup $10 Bet Back promotion from TwinSpires allows us to place a $10 win bet on Duc de Meran and receive a refund if he settles for second place. For good measure, we’ll bet him over Bodes Well and Gaye Breeze in exacta and trifecta tickets. This race might look chalky, but if we play our tickets cold, we might still catch enticing payoffs.

• $10 win: #1 Duc de Meran
• $12 Exacta: 1 with 2
• $8 Trifecta: 1 with 2 with 4
  Total: $30

Good luck!

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