Baffert scratches Potente from Belmont Stakes, sends Crude Velocity to Woody Stephens

Bob Baffert changed the shape of Belmont week with one move that mattered twice: Potente came out of the June 6 Belmont Stakes, and Crude Velocity and Brant were confirmed for the seven-furlong Woody Stephens Stakes. The result is a sharper, faster undercard at Saratoga Race Course and a narrower path to the 1 1/4-mile Belmont for the remaining sophomores still chasing a place in the final leg of the Triple Crown.

Potente’s exit removes one of the more closely watched names from the Belmont picture. He had been under consideration for the classic distance, and earlier this spring Baffert had also pointed him toward the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe Stakes, a sign the colt had been handled as a versatile stakes horse rather than a one-lane classic prospect. Instead, he now sits out the Saratoga spotlight, trimming another layer from a race already carrying the weight of being the third and final Belmont to be run at Saratoga in the current arrangement. The Belmont Stakes Racing Festival runs June 3-7, with the Belmont itself set for 7:04 p.m. ET on June 6.

Baffert’s sprint plan looks much clearer. Crude Velocity, undefeated and coming off a 3 3/4-length victory in the 102nd running of the $750,000 Pat Day Mile on May 2 at Churchill Downs, will step into the Woody Stephens for his Grade 1 debut. That Pat Day Mile performance, on the Kentucky Derby undercard, was decisive enough to justify staying at one turn rather than stretching him into deeper waters. He went past pacesetting Englishman inside the eighth pole and drew off, which is the kind of acceleration that plays in a seven-furlong race.

Brant gives the Woody Stephens another name with real baggage and real upside. The $3 million colt won his debut at Del Mar last summer with a 101 Beyer, then followed with a gate-to-wire win in the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity and later ran third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. His 2026 return was less polished, as he finished fifth in the San Felipe, but this race offers a clean chance to reset against a strong group of sophomores on a marquee weekend.

The Belmont field also lost Steve Asmussen’s Chip Honcho, who finished third in the Preakness on May 16 and will not continue on to Saratoga. With Potente and Chip Honcho sidelined, the festival’s biggest races now lean even harder toward the horses Baffert is sending to the sprint division. That is the real shift: Belmont week did not just lose a runner, it gained a new center of gravity.