Trainer Brad Cox has several 3-year-olds in his barn who could have a say in the race for the champion of that division before all is said and done in the division.

With that in mind, it could be surprising to hear who Cox says is the current leader of the 3-year-old crop on June 11, less than 24 hours after the completion of the 2023 Triple Crown chase at Belmont Park.

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“Forte,” he said about the 2-year-old champion and runner-up in the June 10 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets in his lone Triple Crown start. “He obviously has a really good résumé. He’s a Grade 1 winner. I thought his race yesterday was very, very good and I’m not taking anything away from the winner (Arcangelo) but to me Forte is the best 3-year-old right now.”

With a fifth straight year featuring three different winners of the Triple Crown races in the books, the battle for an Eclipse Award seems destined to be once again decided Aug. 26 in the $1.25 million Runhappy Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, with the July 22 Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park also playing a role.

The last two years the Travers winner was eventually crowned the division champ, with Epicenter, who was second in last year’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve and Preakness Stakes, and Essential Quality, the 2021 Belmont Stakes winner, taking home the prize.

Little figures to change this year after another muddled Triple Crown season.

“It seems all the main players are pointing in that direction and it would make for an exciting renewal of the Travers,” said Todd Pletcher, who trains Forte and Tapit Trice, who was third in the June 10 Belmont, a nose behind Forte.

Of course, there are some biased opinions on the matter with connections backing their own horse.

Jon Ebbert, owner of Belmont Stakes winner Arcangelo, quite understandably put his horse in the No. 1 spot after the son of Arrogate won the 1 1/2-mile Test of the Champion by 1 ½ lengths at 7.90-1 odds in his fifth career start and first in a Grade 1 stakes.

“We won the Belmont, so we feel we have the best 3-year-old in the country right now,” said Ebbert, who races under the Blue Rose Farm banner. “The top 3-year-olds were all there. It was an amazing race and it was so close. Right now we stand number one. It looks like the Belmont was the best 3-year-old race to date.”

The win was the third straight for Arcangelo, who gave Jena Antonucci the distinction of being the first female trainer to win a Triple Crown race.

Arcangelo won the 1 1/8-mile Peter Pan Stakes at the Elmont, N.Y., racetrack to prep for the Belmont and before that posted an impressive 3 1/2-length maiden victory at Gulfstream Park in which the son of Arrogate bred by Don Alberto Corporation earned a Ragozin Speed Figure of 5, the fastest career number for any of the nine Belmont starters.

Antonucci said no decision has been made on the next start, noting, “The horse will tell us. We’ll wait for that.”

“We really don’t know,” Ebbert said. “We’re happy now. It will be a top 3-year-old race but we haven’t sorted it out. We just sorted it out to this point. This was the goal and it wasn’t really a goal. It just kinda came about. We won the maiden and took a Peter Pan shot. We won the Peter Pan and took a Belmont shot.”

Pletcher said the Travers would be a target for Forte and Tapit Trice, but he was uncertain of how they would get there after coming out of the Belmont fine.

“We’ll give them a couple of weeks to come out of it and see how they are training and take it from there,” Pletcher said. 

Todd Pletcher at Churchill Downs. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Pletcher agreed with Cox that Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable’s Forte is the division leader, but admitted to being biased.

“Forte’s body of work is very impressive. He beat the Kentucky Derby winner (Mage) in the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby and came back with a big effort despite not having an ideal schedule leading up to it,” the Hall of Famer said. “Everyone wants to make divisional rankings early in the year but all that stuff should be decided in the summer and the fall.”

Nevertheless, the way Forte ran after an eventful five-week period filled the eight-time Eclipse Award winner with pride. Forte was the favorite in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve but was scratched on the morning of the race due to a foot bruise. As a result, he was placed on the vet’s list and could not run in the Preakness Stakes and came into the Belmont without a race in 10 weeks since winning the Curlin Florida Derby Presented by Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm at Xalapa and beating eventual Kentucky Derby winner Mage for the second time this winter/spring.

“Once he gets back on schedule he should be fine. Once you get off schedule like we did, it’s not easy to get back on it but thankfully we were able to get this race in and hopefully it will set him up for the rest of the year,” Pletcher said. “He lost position around the 3/8ths pole and had to swing wide (in the Belmont Stakes) and that was a key part of the race. I think all things considered, first time out in 10 weeks, going a mile and a half, I was proud of him. It was a big effort.”

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There was some speculation that the mile and a half distance might be beyond Forte’s scope, but the son of Violence was closing quickly at the end. After losing some ground on the final turn, the 2.25-1 favorite was sixth at the eighth pole but gained four lengths on Arcangelo in the final eighth of a mile in an effort that bodes well for a mile-and-a-quarter showdown such as the Travers.

“It wasn’t far enough,” Pletcher said with a chuckle about the Belmont. “A little more distance and he might have got there.”

Whisper Hill Farm and Gainesway Stable’s Tapit Trice, a son of Tapit, broke last then rallied just inside of Forte in the stretch and narrowly missed the place spot.

“We wanted to get him in the clear and into a rhythm,” Pletcher said about the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes winner. “I thought going into the far tun he had a big chance and he stayed on and kept fighting to the end. It seemed he was emboldened a little bit when Forte came up outside of him. It was a good effort. He just couldn’t get there.”

Cox reported his three Belmont Stakes starters came out of the race tired but fine.

Tapit Shoes led after the opening quarter-mile but faded to last in the field of nine. Angel of Empire, the 3.45-1 third choice who was third in the Kentucky Derby, finished in a dead heat for fourth with stablemate Hit Show.

“They ran well. Both Angel of Empire and Hit Show ran respectable. They are good 3-year-olds and I think there will be a lot of opportunity for them moving forward. We’ll ship back to Kentucky tomorrow, let the dust settle and give them a good solid week to recover and go from there,” Cox said.

Disarm takes the Matt Winn Stakes June 11. (Coady Photography)

Aside from the top five in the Belmont, a key player in the summer showdowns will be Mage, who skipped the Belmont and has the Travers as his main summer goal.

Preakness winner National Treasure was a disappointing sixth in the Belmont for trainer Bob Baffert after leading on the backstretch, but the Hall of Famer has a couple of candidates for the Haskell, and then perhaps the Travers, in undefeated Southwest Stakes winner Arabian Knight and Arabian Lion, who captured the seven-furlong Woody Stephens Stakes Presented by Mohegan Sun Saturday at Belmont.

Cox mentioned Bishops Bay, who was second to Arcangelo in the Peter Pan, as a possibility for the June 24 Ohio Derby and/or Haskell. Two Phil’s, runner-up in the Kentucky Derby, is also a candidate for the Ohio Derby.

Cox-trained Verifying, who finished a close second in the Blue Grass before dueling for the early lead and then fading to 16^th in the Kentucky Derby, rebounded with a good runner-up effort to Derby fourth-place finisher Disarm in the Matt Winn Stakes June 11, which was moved to Ellis Park. Both of those colts appear to have untapped potential and could be factors in the major 3-year-old races this summer.

Cox said Stonestreet Lexington Stakes winner First Mission, who was scratched the day before the Preakness with an ankle issue, will be sidelined for about another 45 days, likely knocking him out of the major summer tests for 3-year-olds.