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Belmont Stakes 2026 picks: Betting predictions for who will win it all

There will be a Kentucky Derby winner in Saturday's Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. Golden Tempo returns to the races after skipping the Preakness.

There will be a Preakness winner on the Belmont card. It won't be Napoleon Solo, who won the 2026 middle jewel of the Triple Crown. Rather, 2025 Preakness winner Journalism will be on the undercard in a strong edition of the Met Mile.

The final leg of the Triple Crown, which will be broadcast on FOX with a 7:04 p.m. post time, drew a field of nine horses. The race will be contested at 1 1/4 miles rather than the usual Belmont distance of 1 1/2 miles. Saratoga's course layout can't handle such a long race without benefiting certain post positions.

The race will return to Belmont Park in 2027 and "The Test of the Champion" will go back to 12 furlongs.

As for the 2026 edition, expect Derby runnerup Renegade to be the favorite from post four. He was bumped around when leaving from the rail in the Run for the Roses. Despite that, Renegade made a huge late run to finish second behind Golden Tempo.

Both the Derby winner and Renegade enter this Belmont fresh after passing up the Preakness Stakes. Renegade feels like a much stronger play than Golden Tempo, figuring there won't be the same kind of wicked pace as in the Derby.

Another horse that ran into trouble in the Run for the Roses was Chief Wallabee. Trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado, Chief Wallabee took the worst of it in the Kentucky Derby and still closed strongly to finish fourth. His performance was every bit as impressive as that of Renegade and Golden Tempo.

It would be a charming story if trainer Cherie DeVaux could return to her native Saratoga and capture the final leg of the Triple Crown. Golden Tempo is a dead closer and would need a similar pace collapse to run by the field in the Belmont.

Another runner coming from the Kentucky Derby to the Belmont is Commandment. The Florida Derby winner finished ahead of Chief Wallabee twice already. Commandment is being dismissed here off his seventh-place finish in the first leg of the Triple Crown.

The feeling is that race can be tossed. Commandment will be force of a horse in the Belmont, as will Chief Wallabee. Renegade and Golden Tempo will be charging late... but too late.