How to bet the 2023 Dwyer Stakes

A total of six sophomores will travel one mile on the Belmont Park main oval in Saturday’s $200,000 Dwyer S. (G3). The one-turn tilt attracted some very good prospects and promises to deliver an exciting result.

I’ve been super impressed by the efforts put in by #2 Saudi Crown from two career tries for conditioner Brad Cox and will give the colt top billing while he makes his stakes debut. The $240,000 son of Always Dreaming was an electric debut winner at Keeneland in April and followed that up with a measured allowance victory at Churchill Downs last time out as a heavy favorite.

Saudi Crown has early speed and a turn of foot, and the sophomore colt has both the pedigree and running style to excel in this event in his stakes bow as well. This Kentucky-bred has been training in swift fashion leading up to this race and could sit a perfect trip just in behind a contested early tempo to the top of the lane with Javier Castellano picking up the mount.

The horse to beat is the Bob Baffert-trained #5 Fort Bragg, who just missed in the deep Pat Day Mile S. (G2) at Churchill Downs last time out. By Tapit, the expensive $700,000 purchase was sharp most recently and will add blinkers after getting a bit lazy in the latter stages last time out. The bay colt can run from on or off the early pace, and a repeat of his latest offering will make him very dangerous on Saturday. John Velazquez will be in the stirrups.

For the lower rungs of the exotics, I can envision Bay Shore S. (G3) winner #6 Joey Freshwater getting a piece of the pie late at a fair price. The dark bay son of Jimmy Creed draws in the clear on the outside, and he seems like a nice fit at eight panels after proving to be more than capable at seven-eighths earlier this season. The overachieving $35,000 purchase was a stakes third in his lone local assignment and will be closing behind a strong pace under Jose Ortiz.

Dwyer Stakes

$20 exacta: 2 with 5 ($20)

$10 exacta box: 2, 5 ($20)

$5 trifecta: 2,5 with 2,5 with 6 ($10)

$1 superfecta: 2,5 with 2,5 with all with 6 ($6)