Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mystik Dan and Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Seize the Grey top a competitive field of 10, including eight Kentucky-breds, in Saturday’s 156th running of the $2 million Belmont Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. The race is being held at Saratoga this year because of construction at Belmont Park. Due to the configuration of Saratoga’s main track, the 2024 Belmont will be contested at 1 ¼ miles rather than the traditional 1 ½ miles.

Mystik Dan, a nose better than returning rival Sierra Leone in the Kentucky Derby, will become the only horse to race in all three legs of this year’s Triple Crown. Owned by Lance Gasaway, 4 G Racing, Daniel Hamby, III, and Valley View Farm, Mystik Dan, who finished second to Seize the Grey in the Preakness Stakes (G1), is trained by Ken McPeek and is ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr.

McPeek praised Hernandez, saying, “He’s ultra-consistent and he’s not scared to go inside. Any tactic he takes, I trust it. As a relationship between jockey and trainer, it’s the best one I’ve ever had. He gets a horse to travel very well underneath him and they’re very efficient when he’s on them. So the way they move across the ground and how a rider gets a horse to flow in the middle of the race can be more important than the finish.”

Bred in Kentucky by Gasaway, Hamby, and 4 G Racing, Mystik Dan is by Goldencents out of the winning Colonel John mare Ma’am. He has earned more than $4.1 million and has a record of 8-3-2-1.

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas has won 15 Triple Crown events. He seeks to add a fifth Belmont win with the horse that provided him a seventh Preakness victory in MyRacehorse’s Kentucky-bred Seize the Grey. The talented gray colt is by the late Arrogate, who also sired last year’s Belmont winner Arcangelo. A $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale acquisition, Seize the Grey broke his maiden at Saratoga last July.

“He’s not one-dimensional,” Lukas said of Seize the Grey who recorded a front-running win the second leg of the Triple Crown. “He’ll rate very kindly. Now, at a mile and a quarter, again the early fractions are probably going to be a little slower. He could end up on the lead again.”

An earner of more than $1.8 million, Seize the Grey owns a record of 10-4-0-3. He is out of the stakes-placed Smart Strike mare Smart Shopping.

Installed as the morning-line favorite is Kentucky-bred Sierra Leone, who is owned by Peter Brant, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, and Brook T. Smith. The Derby runner-up skipped the Preakness and will sport a new rider in Flavien Prat. The regally-bred Gun Runner colt was a $2.3 million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale graduate, is trained by Chad Brown.

“You have no choice but to move forward,” Brown said of Sierra Leone’s narrow Derby defeat. “It’s not something I think about every day, but that’s horse racing. I’ve been on both ends of it and it just so happens that it was the biggest race in this country. It’s a tough think to lose the Kentucky Derby by a nose, but hopefully he can redeem himself in this race and I’m just so grateful I have the horse.

“He ran a super race and never let us down in terms of not showing up in the race,” Brown added. “He’s always fired.

The Belmont Stakes is slated as Race 12 on the 14-race card with a post time of 6:41 p.m. ET.