Arcangelo took the lead at the top of the stretch and won the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, making Jena Antonucci the first female trainer to win a Triple Crown race. After the horse crossed the finish line, Antonucci doubled over and rested her arm and her head on the back of a chair. She kissed the horse on the nose when it returned to the area in front of the winner’s circle. Arcangelo finished the 1 1/2-mile race in 2:29.23 and by 1 1/2 lengths in front of favored Fotre, with Tapit Trice third, per the AP.
The heart-warming victory put a positive note on a Triple Crown series marred by deaths of horses at Churchill Downs in the weeks around the Kentucky Derby and another on Preakness day for a trainer Bob Baffert. The 47-year-old Antonucci, who started riding show horses as a preschooler and later held a plethora of jobs in racing, became a trainer in 2010, running a modest stable. She had sent less than 2,000 horses to the post in her first 13 years. All the work paid off in one race. “Never give up,” said Antonucci, who cried several times in talking with the media. “And if you can’t find a seat at the table, make your own table and build your team and never give up. You’re seen. People see you. Just keep working working your butt off.”
Antonucci was only the 11th woman to race a horse in the Belmont and the first since Kathy Ritvo sent out Mucho Macho Man to a seventh-place finish in 2011. Dianne Carpenter’s Kingpost had the previous best finish, second to Risen Star in 1988. “I’m really happy for her, you know, she’s a really good woman," said winning jockey Javier Castellano. "She’s a good horseman.”
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