Who Won the 2024 Belmont Stakes?

Key Takeaways:

• Dornoch won the 2024 Belmont Stakes at 17.7-1 odds, followed by Mindframe at half a length, with Sierra Leone coming in third.
• It was trainer Danny Gargan’s first Triple Crown victory and jockey Luis Saez’s second Belmont Stakes victory.
• Although he only finished 10th in the Kentucky Derby, Dornoch had shown earlier class with wins in the Fountain of Youth and Remsen Stakes.
• After the Belmont, Dornoch won the Haskell Stakes, ran fourth in the Travers, and was later retired due to injury; he now stands at stud at Spendthrift Farm.

The 2025 Belmont Stakes is coming up at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday, June 7, rather than its typical home of Belmont Park, which is being renovated. Before going headfirst into that race, however, let’s look back on the historic 156th edition that happened on June 8, 2024.

Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan and Preakness Stakes winner Seize the Grey both came back three weeks after filling out the exacta at Pimlico Race Course. However, neither was the favorite—that honor went to Sierra Leone, who missed by a nose to Mystik Dan on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs, and then trained up to the final jewel.

When the 1 ¼ miles at Saratoga were over, however, it was a long shot who earned the blanket of carnations. Dornoch, coming off a tenth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, was a graded-stakes winning juvenile but still had questions to answer about whether he had trained on at age three. He answered those in the affirmative, pressing the early pace and digging in to deny Mindframe at double-digit odds.

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2024 Belmont Stakes Field

With no Triple Crown at stake and no horse who looked like an insurmountable favorite, the 2024 Belmont Stakes drew a field of 10. After missing by only a nose in the Kentucky Derby, the consistent Sierra Leone was the hot favorite at 1.7-1. Behind him, last-out allowance winner Mindframe, Preakness Stakes winner Seize the Grey, and Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan were all close in the betting.

In addition to Sierra Leone, three others also came in straight from the Kentucky Derby five weeks before: Honor Marie, Resilience, and Dornoch. Mindframe had run on the Kentucky Derby card, though in an undercard allowance. Seize the Grey and Mystik Dan were the only two runners coming out of the Preakness. The other three horses, Antiquarian, Protective, and The Wine Steward, came out of the Peter Pan (G3).

This was the field for the 2024 Belmont Stakes:

2024 Belmont Stakes Horse Race

The day of the 2024 Belmont was a beautiful day for horse racing: 69 degrees, clear, with a fast track. It was a far cry from the sloppy Preakness day at Pimlico that Seize the Grey and Mystik Dan had dealt with before, though both of them were also on a grueling schedule, with three races in five weeks.

Seize the Grey seized the early lead, just as he had done in the Preakness. However, Dornoch was just outside him, and even Resilience and Mindframe were not too far behind early. Dornoch continued to pester the Preakness winner, and wrested the lead approaching the quarter pole.

Dornoch was not home free, however. Mindframe was launching a three-wide bid and was already looming over Dornoch’s outside as he took the lead. Dornoch was moving best into the lane, but Mindframe was not going away. Mindframe drifted out and then in down the lane—but Dornoch stayed straight on to the finish line, holding by half a length over his less experienced pursuer. As usual, Sierra Leone made his late run, but it was too late on the day. He settled for third, a length behind Mindframe.

Honor Marie, coming from even further back than Sierra Leone, was another four lengths back in fourth. Antiquarian, Protective, Seize the Grey, Mystik Dan, The Wine Steward, and Resilience completed the finish order.

Dornoch was the first Triple Crown race winner—and in fact, the first Grade 1 winner at all—for his trainer, Danny Gargan. Gargan had started one other horse in the Belmont Stakes before Dornoch: Tax, who ran fourth behind Sir Winston in 2019. Winning jockey Luis Saez had more Belmont Stakes experience. He had ridden in the race six times previously, and won the race with Brad Cox trainee Essential Quality in 2021.

Dornoch’s pedigree was already familiar to Triple Crown fans, being by Good Magic out of the stakes-winning Big Brown mare Puca. That made him a full brother to Mage, the 2023 Kentucky Derby winner. Fans of Mage and Dornoch can also cheer on Baeza in the 2025 Belmont Stakes—a son of McKinzie, Baeza is also a son of Puca.

Dornoch Before the Belmont Stakes

Though Dornoch was a Belmont Stakes long shot off of his recent form, he had shown class before the race.

As a juvenile, he needed three starts to break his maiden, but was keeping quality company from the first jump. On debut, he finished second in a maiden sprint at Saratoga Race Course, behind another future classic winner: Seize the Grey. At second asking, he ran second to Noted, a horse who had already won, in the Sapling Stakes at Monmouth. Dornoch romped by 6 ½ lengths in a maiden special weight route in October, shedding his maiden label. Then, in his last start at three, he nosed out Sierra Leone in the Remsen (G2) in a thrilling battle.

Dornoch began his sophomore season in the Fountain of Youth (G2) at Gulfstream in early March. The race was originally going to be a showdown between Dornoch and Locked, but Locked was scratched—in fact, the field scratched down to just five, leaving Dornoch as a 1-5 favorite. He obliged, leading at every call.

His next two starts were tougher, however. Dornoch was the second choice behind Sierra Leone in the Blue Grass (G1) at Keeneland, but he did not get the lead, and he finished an unthreatening fourth. Four weeks later, in the Kentucky Derby, he drew the rail, settled well off the pace, got into trouble into the lane, and checked in 10th in the 20-horse field. After those last two starts, betting cooled on him in the Belmont Stakes, but he outran those expectations.

Dornoch Later in his Three-Year-Old Year

A month and a half after his first Grade 1 win, trainer Danny Gargan got his second when Dornoch returned in the Haskell (G1) at Monmouth. He set the early pace while pressed by Timberlake. Though Timberlake engaged Dornoch in a duel, Dornoch finally sent him packing. His old foe from the Belmont Stakes, Mindframe, got the next shot. Mindframe even got by, but Dornoch showed more grit than ever, coming back to win by half a length.

Dornoch returned two months later in the Travers (G1) at Saratoga. Though he was in range of the early pace set by Batten Down and even made a run on that foe, he did not have enough in the lane and flattened out to finish fourth, 8 ¼ lengths behind that thrilling head bob between Fierceness and Thorpedo Anna.

His connections were looking toward the Breeders' Cup Classic, but Dornoch was diagnosed with bone bruising before starting his last phase of training before that end-of-season race. He was retired to stud at Spendthrift Farm, where he stands for a $40,000 stud fee.

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