Daily Horse Matchup - Belmont Park Race 8

Belmont Park resumes their week of racing this Wednesday, July 1st, with a nice card. There aren’t a lot of great races on the card as Belmont, like every other track in the United States this weekend, will wait until the 4th and 5th of July to showcase their best horses, trainers and jockeys.

But the racing is plenty good enough for BetUS online racebook fans to find the winner of a particular match-up.

Let’s take a look at the match-up in Race 8 at Belmont Park on Wednesday.

Belmont Park – Race 8

Allowance $50,000

1 mile on dirt

El Tamberito -135 vs. Hurricane Heat +105

Analysis: This is a very tough mile race on Belmont’s main track with some speed, some pressers, and some closers. El Tamberito has won both of his last two races, gets an outside draw, and retains the services of Ramon Dominguez who has ridden him in his last 5 races.

Trainer Anthony Dutrow is winning with 30% of his entrants and El Tamberito has laid behind the speed early in his last two before taking off and pulling away. He’s won his last two races by a combined 7 ½ lengths. There’s a lot to like about this son of Well Noted.

But are those things enough to take him as a big favorite in a straight-up matchup against Hurricane Heat? As his name implies, Hurricane Heat has one way to go, that’s get the lead and just keep going. He did it very well in his last race, a $17,500 claimer, and won by a fantastic 8 ½ lengths. The key, as jockey Jorge Chaves no doubt will go for the lead, is whether or not Hurricane Heat can hang on while El Tamberito chases him from about 2 to 3 lengths off.

The answer is no. Even though Hurricane Heat is an exceptionally fast horse, the presence of Golden Weekend, should Golden Weekend’s connections run him in this race, will compromise any chance Hurricane Heat has of getting the lead and then running off without getting passed by El Tamberito.

Hurricane Heat is going up in class and faces a much tougher speed horse in this than he did in his last. That should set things up for his rival in this matchup, El Tamberito.

I’m betting El Tamberito at -135 in this.

Pick: El Tamberito