2025 Belmont Stakes Betting Guide: Odds, Predictions, and Best Bets

For the second consecutive year, the final leg of the Triple Crown races will not be held at Belmont Park. Instead, the Saratoga Racecourse will be Saturday’s home for one of the most anticipated races of the year.

The Kentucky Derby winner, Sovereignty, will face off against Journalism for only the second time in 2025. Journalism took home the Preakness Stakes with Sovereignty out of the field, allowing Journalism to stake its claim to being one of the best of all time.

Can Journalism win this final leg of the Triple Crown to prove the Preakness wasn’t a fluke, or will Sovereignty continue its dominance? We’ll cover that and provide our top three bets for the Belmont Stakes and an exacta wager below.

Journalism To Show (8-5)

Journalism enters as the favorite to win for the third consecutive Triple Crown race. Last month’s victory at the Preakness was the biggest of jockey Rispoli Umberto’s career, and it was owner Michael McCarthy’s second time winning the Triple Crown’s shortest race.

Can the three-year-old win in its second head-to-head against Sovereignty? Both the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes are 1 ¼ miles, allowing the Sovereignty or another horse to pass Journalism down the stretch. Bettors should expect that to happen and take Journalism to show for the Belmont instead of winning.

Hill Road To Show (10-1)

If you’re looking for a dark horse – pun intended – in the Belmont Stakes, look no further than Hill Road. The horse has raced only five times, winning two of those and showing in two more competitions.

Hill Road is among the best closers in the race, allowing the three-year-old to make up room down the stretch. Additionally, Irad Ortiz Jr. is the jockey for this race, and he’s a two-time winner at Belmont. Take Chad Brown’s horse to finish among the top three in this year’s Belmont Stakes.

Sovereignty To Win (2-1)

It’s possible that Sovereignty would have become the 14th Triple Crown winner had the horse attempted the Preakness. Instead, the three-year-old will attempt to become the first horse since Thunder Gulch to win both the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes without winning the Triple Crown.

Trainer Bill Mott has been here before. The 71-year-old oversaw Drosselmeyer’s victory in 2010, the trainer’s first-ever Triple Crown race win. Expect him and jockey Junior Alvarado to have their horse ready for Saturday. Take Sovereignty to become the 12th horse to win the Derby and Belmont Stakes in the same year without winning the Triple Crown.

Bonus Exacta: Sovereignty, Journalism, Hill Road