Belmont to be run June 20 without fans
The Belmont Stakes will be run June 20 in New York without fans and serve as the opening leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown for the first time in the sport’s history.
The New York Racing Association on Tuesday unveiled the rescheduled date for the Belmont, which will also be contested at a shorter distance than usual. The 2020 Belmont will be 11⁄8 miles instead of the 1 1⁄2-mile “test of the champion” that has been the race’s trademark for almost a century.
This is the first time the Belmont will lead off the Triple Crown ahead of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. The Kentucky Derby was moved from May 2 to Sept. 5 and the Preakness from May 16 to Oct. 3 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Belmont was originally scheduled for June 6. But racing in New York halted in late March after a backstretch worker tested positive for COVID-19, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo didn’t give the green light to resume until Saturday. COLLEGE ATHLETICS The number of teams facing postseason bans because of low scores on the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate has nearly doubled in one year.
Fifteen teams face the most severe sanction next season or the season after compared with eight in 2019-20. Stephen F. Austin and Alabama A&M each had three teams on the list that was released Tuesday.
Any teams posting a four-year score below 930, which predicts about a 50% graduation rate, can be penalized. Scores are based on academic eligibility, graduation and retention. Each athlete receives one point per semester if they remain academically eligible and another if they graduate or return to school for the next term.
The men’s basketball team at Stephen F. Austin posted the worst score of any Division I team, an 810, while the Lumberjacks’ football program finished with an 894. Both programs, along with the school’s baseball team, now face postseason bans.
Alabama A&M’s men’s track and field team posted the second-lowest score in the nation, 866, and will be prohibited from postseason competition along with its men’s basketball and women’s soccer teams.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers must wait two more days for their first race since the coronavirus pandemic shut down racing, after heavy rain Tuesday washed out their scheduled return at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.
Officials called the race about two hours after the scheduled start. The event is now set for 11 a.m. Thursday.
Also, the start of the Cup Series race Wednesday was moved ahead to 5 p.m. due to the threat of bad weather.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Center Jeff Ngandu, a native of the Congo who played scholastically in Canada, has signed a letter of intent to play at Seton Hall.
The 6-foot-9 Ngandu attended Orangeville Prep, which went 19-0 in winning the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association championship last season. One of his top performances was a 12point, 13-rebound game in October.
TRACK AND FIELD
Olympic runner Bralon Taplin lost his appeal against a four-year ban for dodging a doping test and will miss next year’s Tokyo Games and the next two track world championships.
The 28-year-old Taplin, a former NCAA relay champion for Texas A&M who competes for Grenada, has been banned until Sept. 24, 2023.
Taplin is the eighth-fastest man on the all-time list in the indoor 400.
SOCCER
Manchester City’s appeal against a two-year ban from European soccer will be heard from June 8-10, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said.
Man City was banned by UEFA in February for “serious breaches” of financial monitoring rules and failing to cooperate with investigators.