Bargain Buy Arcangelo Takes Ebbert to Belmont Stakes

Horse owner Jon Ebbert can thank his grandmother for his introduction to horse racing, coming when he was around 6 years old. "So we're gonna take her out to eat and she says, 'I can't go out. I've got bets on the Kentucky Derby (G1),' " he recalled. Winning Colors won the Derby that year, 1988, Ebbert remembers, though he cannot recall if his grandmother cashed her tickets. "Then I asked for riding lessons when I was like 8. It just kind of stuck with me," he said of involvement with horses. Watch: Ebbert Says Arcangelo Earned Opportunity in Belmont So did horse ownership. Though his first horse, Daydreamin Boy, failed to hit the board in 15 starts for him (and in 20 overall races including starts for another owner), Jon Ebbert persevered in the sport. He subsequently dabbled in pinhooking and breeding. Now, 15 years after his initial ownership experience, Ebbert is on the verge of having a starter in the final leg of the Triple Crown, the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes (G1), when the Jena Antonucci-trained Arcangelo races for his Blue Rose Farm in the 1 1/2-mile classic June 10. "A blue rose is kind of impossible. So it's trying to achieve the impossible," he said of his stable name. Not an original nominee to the Triple Crown, Arcangelo, the Peter Pan Stakes (G3) winner, needed to be supplemented to Saturday's race for $50,000—more than he cost at auction when Ebbert bought the son of the late Arrogate for $35,000 from Gainesway's consignment at the 2021 September Yearling Sale at Keeneland. "He made the money. We're gonna go for it. We have faith in the horse," Ebbert said of his $167,400 earner. The Christophe Clement-trained Tonalist in 2014 is the last horse to win the Peter Pan in advance of a Belmont Stakes triumph. "A $35,000 horse to be in the Belmont—you have to be happy man," said Ebbert, who is involved in real estate in Pennsylvania. Sesamoiditis and immaturity contributed to his being buyable at a modest price, the owner said of the Don Alberto Corporation-bred ridgling, who is out of the Tapit mare Modeling. His acquisition of Arcangelo was similarly fortuitous for Antonucci, who met Ebbert only a day earlier. "Sometimes things are way out of our control in life, right?" she noted. Arcangelo is also a potential breakthrough horse for Antonucci, having already provided the trainer with her second graded stakes win, following Doctor J Dub in the 2016 Turf Monster Stakes (G3T) at Parx Racing in 2016. An 8-1 shot on the morning line to win Saturday's Belmont, Arcangelo showed he was a good-feeling horse June 6, registering an open gallop under his exercise rider that was so fast that clockers timed him covering a half-mile portion of it in :48.94. "He is who he is. It's the reason why he's doing his proper breezes 10 days out," said Antonucci at her barn after having accompanied Arcangelo to the track on her stable's pony. Javier Castellano—who rode Mage to victory in the Kentucky Derby and to the colt's third-place finish in the Preakness Stakes (G1), the middle leg of the Triple Crown—is aboard Saturday. Mage is not running in the Belmont, an absence that removes some of its pre-race publicity, but it left Castellano available to ride Arcangelo. The Hall of Fame jockey is 2-for-2 on him, taking a March 18 maiden race at Gulfstream Park before the 1 1/8-mile Peter Pan at Belmont. The ridgling's initial two races were promising defeats under Jose Ortiz. The Belmont is the only Triple Crown race Castellano has not won, though he has three runner-up finishes. Neither Ebbert nor Antonucci previously had a starter in the race. Antonucci is set to become the 11th female trainer to run a horse in the Belmont. Their horse will line up against horses trained by Belmont winners Brad Cox, Todd Pletcher, Steve Asmussen, and Bob Baffert. The latter three are in the Hall of Fame for their long, successful careers, and all four are Eclipse Award winners. The Pletcher-trained Forte and Tapit Trice are the morning-line favorites at odds of 5-2 and 3-1, respectively, with Cox's Angel of Empire next at 7-2 and Baffert's National Treasure, winner of the Preakness Stakes, pegged at 5-1. Cox also starts Hit Show (10-1) and Tapit Shoes (20-1) "It's awesome that Jena and I are in the race with Hall of Famers," Ebbert said.