Belmont Stakes 2016 Payout: Prize-Money Purse and Order of Finish

Creator won the 148th running of the Belmont Stakes by a nose, edging past Destin at the wire in a photo finish.

NBCSN shared the amazing finish:

Here's the full race:

Exaggerator—who won the Preakness Stakes and finished second at the Kentucky Derby—finished a disappointing 11th in the race, visibly running out of steam down the stretch.

Here are the full results:

Place	Horse	Lengths Behind	Earnings
1	Creator	-	$800,000
2	Destin	Nose	$280,000
3	Lani	1 3/4	$150,000
4	Governor Malibu	4 1/2	$100,000
5	Stradivari	6 3/4	$60,000
6	Brody's Cause	7 1/2	$45,000
7	Cherry Wine	8 1/2	$35,000
8	Gettysburg	9 1/2	$30,000
9	Suddenbreakingnews	10	-
10	Trojan Nation	11 3/4	-
11	Exaggerator	14 3/4	-
12	Seeking the Soul	16 1/2	-
13	Forever D'Oro	18	-

Creator finished 13th in the Kentucky Derby, the third-worst finish at the Derby for any horse that has gone on to win the Belmont Stakes, according to ESPN Stats & Info, so his win Saturday evening surely surprised quite a few folks.

The race was a generally bunched affair into the final turn, with Gettysburg setting the pace and Destin right on his heels. Exaggerator was pushed wide, meanwhile, while Creator was biding his time near the back of the pack.

Destin distanced himself from the pack initially down the final stretch, but Creator eventually met his pace, while Lani showed an excellent burst of late speed out wide. Creator slowly but surely chipped away at Destin's lead, surpassing him by the smallest of margins at the finish.

It was the perfect run, as horse racing writer Steve Haskin noted:

For Exaggerator, meanwhile, the race didn't develop ideally, as trainer Keith Desormeaux pointed out, per Claire Novak of Blood-Horse:

"I was hoping to dispel the sloppy track thing, but that's got to come into play as well," Desormeaux  said after the race, per the Lexington Herald-Leader. "That is a good son of a gun, Creator. I put him in my exacta in the Derby. And I had him in my exacta today."

Indeed, Creator showed off his full potential at the Belmont Stakes, impressively running down Destin to earn the win in the final jewel of the Triple Crown. And Creator also reminded racing fans, once again, just how impressive American Pharoah's Triple Crown conquest a year ago was.

Last year, one horse made history. This year, three horses—Nyquist, Exaggerator and finally Creator—each won one of the three races. And so the next Triple Crown drought, now a year old, has begun.

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