2011 Belmont Stakes Betting: Take Nehro Over Animal Kingdom, Shackleford

2011 Belmont Stakes betting is hitting high gear as the final race of the Triple Crown will be run this Saturday at Belmont Park, and even though we won’t have a winner of the Triple Crown, we should still get an exciting 143rd running of the Belmont Stakes, the longest of the races at 1.5 miles. While everyone is falling over themselves to wager on Animal Kingdom and Shackleford, the winner will be a horse that had a brilliant run at the Kentucky Derby, and sat out the Preakness.

Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom (+200) should be running for the Crown now, but he came up just short in the Preakness Stakes against Shackleford (+450), who is probably the fastest horse out of the gates, which he proved at Churchill Downs and Pimlico. Mucho Macho Man (+600) will be in the mix after a third-place run in the Derby, and a sixth-place run in the Preakness, but his run at Pimlico was compromised by a lost shoe, the second time that has happened to Mucho Macho Man. He has new shoes that shouldn’t come off now, so look for this horse to push the lead group.

The longshots to watch for online horse betting players are Master of Hounds (+1200) and Santiva (+1500), and Master of Hounds is a horse from Ireland, where they bred horses for endurance rather than speed, so that should help for the Preakness. Santiva has been up and down when it comes to his most recent races, and he’s run against some pretty talented fields, so it all depends which Santiva decides to show up on Saturday. Both horses have been off since the Derby, so they’ll be rested.

But the horse to wager on is Nehro (+400), who would be the guy who sneaks into the ring out of nowhere to draw a comparison to WWE Monday Night Raw. Nehro finished second in the Derby, his third consecutive runner-up finish in a race, and along with Animal Kingdom, he made a late run to surge past the field. His handlers held him out of the Preakness in hopes that he’ll be 100% for the Belmont, and it appears as though he is in good shape heading into the final Triple Crown race. He was getting stronger as the Derby wore on, which is excellent when discussing the 1.5-mile Belmont, and he’ll hope to do it again. A saying goes in sports, if you put yourself in position to win enough times, eventually you’ll win, and Nehro has done that plenty in recent months. Get a little value and go with Nehro in your online sportsbook.