Former MLB All-Star's horse overcomes 17-1 odds to win Belmont Stakes

When Luis Saez first rode Dornoch at Saratoga Race Course last summer, he told trainer Danny Gargan, “You have the Derby winner.”

While that prediction did not come true, Dornoch validated Saez's optimism on Saturday by winning the first Belmont Stakes held at Saratoga. Dornoch hugged the rail and held off Mindframe to secure a major upset in the Triple Crown finale at odds of 17-1.

The horse, co-owned by World Series champion Jayson Werth, triumphed in the Belmont five weeks after a troubled trip resulted in a 10th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. This time, Dornoch sat off the leader Seize the Grey, passed the Preakness winner down the stretch, and held on for a 1 1/2-length victory.

“I would put it right up there with winning on the biggest stage. Horse racing is the most underrated sport in the world, bar none,” said Werth, who won Major League Baseball's championship with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008. "It’s the biggest game: You get the Derby, the Preakness, the Belmont. We just won the Belmont. This is as good as it gets in horse racing. It’s as good as it gets in sports."

This win marks the first Triple Crown race victory for Gargan and the second Belmont win for Saez, who never lost faith in Dornoch.

“He’s one of the top 3-year-olds in the country, and we’ve always thought it,” Gargan said. “We let him run his race, and he won. If he gets to run, he’s always going to be tough to beat.”

This year marks the sixth consecutive year that a different horse has won each of the three Triple Crown races. Sierra Leone, the Derby runner-up and the favorite, finished third, while Honor Marie came in fourth.