151st Belmont Stakes

■ SIR WINSTON made it over to the rail before arriving at the end of the homestretch, tracked the front-runners patiently handled, gained sufficient room with which to advance along the inside route after Everfast vacated it at the half-mile pole, snaked his way into a good striking position, was forced to wait behind some traffic nearing the quarter pole, accelerated when put to some encouragement, outracing a pair of opponents for position spinning into the lane, straightened away approximately four-wide and took off after the ones to catch, ground his way to the front end, wresting away the advantage just inside the furlong marker and edged away.

■ TACITUS brushed with War of Will springing from the starting gate, settled into stride and into the midpack, raced three-wide around the clubhouse bend, was rated proceeding along the backstretch, tipped to the outside coming up to its conclusion, wound up on the overland route making his way on the far turn, got called upon leaving the five-sixteenths marker, bumped with War of Will as they spun into stretch directly abreast of each other, shifted closer to the rail when rein-ridden traversing through the furlong grounds, was taken hold and maneuvered back into path five at the eighth pole, gained ground in a steadfast manner to garner the place.

■ JOEVIA broke in line with Tax, established the top by the crown of the opening bend, showed the way with the aforementioned rival in attendance to the outside, was put to the test by that opponent nearing the quarter pole and was turned loose, offered resistance before yielding to the winner in midlane, weakened into the show slot.

■ TAX hand-urged from the gate, was taken hold once Joevia assumed control, prompted the pace two- to three-wide, bid for the top as the field stepped into the stretch, wandered out fourwide during the ensuing furlong, wasn’t up to the task at hand and weakened.

■ MASTER FENCER (JPN) rode the rail until the half-mile pole, responded when let out a notch, working his way into path three by midpoint, paused at the five-sixteenths pole then proceeded to shift six-wide from that station to the three-sixteenths pole, rallied mildly mainly improving position.

■ SPINOFF strung out three-wide on both turns, lacked the necessary stretch response.

■ EVERFAST loosely pocketed to the half-mile pole, was wedged in between rivals two-wide on the second bend, swung into the lane, failed to make the necessary headway and retreated in the last eighth.

■ INTREPID HEART brushed at the start after losing his footing, raced two- to three-wide to the quarterpole, stepped into the stretch under a ride and had no rally.

■ WAR OF WILL made light contact with Tacitus after losing his footing as the field was sent off and running, was in path four making his way on the first turn, was still in same path in pursuit of the front-runners, the widest of all, and without benefit of cover, departed the backstretch once again stationed in the four path, got cued up approaching the quarter pole, turned into the lane in tight quarters with the second-place finisher, resulting in a solid bump between them, kept up its pursuit for a little while longer before faltering.

■ BOURBON WAR unhurried during the initial stages sitting at the back of the pack in the two path, failed to reach a contending position. (c) 2019 Equibase Company LLC, all rights reserved.