posted June 5, 2008 at 18:53 in Triple Crown Betting Trends

The Barclay Tagg runner Tale of Ekati was one of the top two-year olds in the nation last year. In fact out of all of the horses running in the last leg of the Triple Crown, the 2008 Belmont Stakes, Tale of Ekati is the only horse to have run in last year’s Breeders Cup Juvenile.

Tale of Ekati finished a non-threatening fourth in that race 17 ½ lengths behind eventual 2-year old champion War Pass.

Going into his 3-year old season, Tale of Ekati was definitely one of the 3-year olds that online racebook fans were watching closely. Because his trainer is Barclay Tagg, the man who campaigned Funny Cide to Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes victories in 2003, there was no question that Tale of Ekati would improve from his 2 to 3 year old seasons. How much was what everybody wondered.

Well, in his first three races so far this year, Tale of Ekati doesn’t appear to have improved all that much. In his first race in 2008, Tale of Ekati lost by 6 ½ lengths to early Kentucky Derby future book favorite, Pyro, in the Grade II Louisiana Derby. In his second race of 2008, Tale of Ekati actually beat the before mentioned War Pass by ½ a length. In his third race of 2008, the Kentucky Derby, Tale of Ekati drifted out and finished a non-threatening fourth losing by 11 lengths to Big Brown.

Now Tale of Ekati is entering the 2008 Belmont Stakes as a prohibitive long-shot. His BetUS online racebook odds are currently 20 to 1 to upset both Casino Drive and Big Brown.

The question of improvement is a valid one since the Belmont Stakes will be Tale of Ekati’s fourth race in 2008. If he didn’t improve in his first three races in 2008, and based on the facts that he only won one of the three and didn’t run fast doing it he hasn’t improved this year, will he improve in his fourth race of 2008?

That’s the biggest question regarding Tale of Ekati’s BetUS online racebook future book odds to win the 2008 Belmont Stakes. Usually, a horse will improve in his third or fourth start. Most horses have that sort of form cycle. The difference with 3-year old horses is that they tend to improve either early in their 3-year old seasons, like Pyro and Big Brown did this year, or later on in their 3-year old season.

Some 3-year old colts maintain the same form they had as a two-year old, which Tale of Ekati appears to have done early on in 2008, but it’s rare. Usually, a horse that can compete in the graded ranks as a two-year old will improve enough as a 3-year old to compete in the graded ranks.

That’s what I see coming out of Tale of Ekati. His 3-year old pattern reminds me more of a horse like Flower Alley who was terrible early on in his 3-year old campaign but then, as the summer months started to approach, blossomed, no pun intended, into a serious threat for trainer Todd Pletcher.

The same can be said for one of the horses that finished in front of Barclay Tagg’s Funny Cide in the 2003 Belmont Stakes - - Ten Most Wanted. Ten Most Wanted didn’t become a real racehorse until the 2003 Belmont Stakes.

Will Tale of Ekati prove to be a horse like Ten Most Wanted and Flower Alley? Or, will he just fade into the background as Casino Drive and Big Brown battle it out in the 2008 Belmont Stakes betting extravaganza?

I’m thinking the former for the simple reason that 20 to 1 odds are great odds on a horse that appears to be coming into his own. Tale of Ekati has been training beautifully. He appears ready for his best effort and looks to be holding more flesh then he did earlier in the year.

At 20 to 1 in the BetUS online future book, Tale of Ekati looks like a viable play to upset Big Brown in the 2008 Belmont Stakes.

Click Here For More Information On This Years Belmont Stakes Gambling Odds!

Keep checking the Locker Room all through the Triple Crown season, as we will cover the trainers, horses and jockeys in each race. You can get your early Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park bets in now in the BetUS sportsbook in the Future / props section, under Horse Futures: 2008 Belmont Stakes.