2015 Belmont Stakes Field: Entries List, Betting Lines and Picks for Elmont Race

Saturday is a day of judgement, at least as far as the world of horse racing is concerned.

American Pharoah is poised to become the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to win the Triple Crown of horse racing after magnificent performances at the 2015 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

The Belmont Stakes is the challenge—1 ½ miles of track at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.

It's the longest of the three legs of the Triple Crown, and American Pharoah will have to dig deep into his reserves of energy to hold off seven other horses and win his third Grade 1 race in five weeks.

Here's a rundown of the Belmont entries, latest odds and picks for each horse.

Post Position	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Odds	Prediction
1	Mubtaahij	Irad Ortiz Jr.	Michael De Kock	14-1	4th
2	Tale of Verve	Gary Stevens	Dallas Stewart	20-1	7th
3	Madefromlucky	Javier Castellano	Todd Pletcher	16-1	6th
4	Frammento	Mike Smith	Nick Zito	40-1	8th
5	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	Bob Baffert	2-3	1st
6	Frosted	Joel Rosario	Kiaran McLaughlin	6-1	2nd
7	Keen Ice	Kent Desormeaux	Dale Romans	25-1	3rd
8	Materiality	John Velazquez	Todd Pletcher	13-2	5th

Odds courtesy of Odds Shark and updated as of June 4 at 4 p.m. ET.

According to Belmont-Stakes.info, the No. 5 post has produced 13 Belmont Stakes winners, tied with the No. 3 post for second-best of all time. This bodes well for American Pharoah, who proved during the Kentucky Derby—where he drew the No. 18 post—that he can work his way in from the outside and get out in front of other horses.

Getting to the inside rail could prove critical for AP. Of the other seven horses in this race, only Tale of Verve ran in the Preakness.

Every other horse is working on plenty of rest—especially Madefromlucky, a new shooter to the Triple Crown who made a statement by winning the Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park on May 9.

Trainer Todd Pletcher has been in charge of prepping both Madefromlucky and Materiality for this race. Materiality will be racing from the far outside at the No. 8 gate, which hasn't produced many winners.

Post	Winners
1	23
2	11
3	13
4	9
5	13
6	7
7	11
8	5

Still, Materiality has some very favorable odds, as does Frosted, who will start right alongside American Pharoah.

Kevin Modesti of the Los Angeles Daily News correctly picked Tonalist to upset California Chrome at Belmont last year; he likes Materiality on Saturday:

Frosted trainer Kiaran McLaughlin believes his horse can pose a threat to American Pharoah but admits the task will be difficult.

"Like I said, I love our horse. He couldn't be doing better. But wow, it's going to take a subpar race from American Pharoah. I'm afraid," he said, per the Courier-Journal's Jennie Rees.

Frosted's most notable win came at the Twinspires.com Wood Memorial Stakes (Grade 1) on April 4 of this year.

Daily Racing Form's Barbara Livingston notes Keen Ice, a long shot at 33-1 odds, has been running well for trainer Dale Romans:

Keen Ice is bred for the 12 furlongs at Belmont Stakes, per Daily Racing Form's Joe Nevills. While he posted a middling seventh at Churchill Downs and doesn't possess a particularly great race record, this well-rested horse could be one of the surprise contenders on Saturday.

No matter what special qualities one sees among American Pharoah's challengers this year, this is still the Triple Crown hopeful's race to lose. Jockey Victor Espinoza coaxed excellent performances at Churchill Downs and Pimlico, with American Pharoah displaying long, powerful strides down the home stretch in each of those races.

With a small field unlikely to create much of a scrum on Saturday, American Pharoah likely won't have to expend too much energy jockeying for position. He and Espinoza can simply lie in wait until the final stretch and hopefully burst forth for an instantly famous win at the Test of a Champion.