Will Pneumatic, Max Player, or Modernist win the 2020 Belmont Stakes?

• The Belmont Stakes starts at around 5:42 p.m. EST on Saturday.
• Tiz The Law is a major favorite in the race, with -150 odds to win.
• Pneumatic, Max Player and Modernist occupy the middle of the pack, and have seen significant movement in their odds.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The Belmont Stakes takes place this Saturday, June 20, 2020, and there has been no shortage of ink spilled on the favorites in the race.

Every horse racing bettor, by this point, is aware that the online sportsbooks and racebooks think that Tiz The Law is a heavy favorite.

Similarly, most people by now are aware of the underdogs at the bottom of the table, like Jungle Runner and Fore Left.

This article, instead, will focus on some of the horses in the middle of the pack - not the biggest underdogs, but certainly not favorites.

It will discuss Pneumatic, Max Player and Modernist, and break down each of their odds to win the 2020 Belmont Stakes.

Before the article segues into talking about the individual horses, remember that this year’s Belmont Stakes will be different than normal - due to the changes to the schedule, this year’s race will be 1.125 miles instead of 1.5 miles.

With that said, let’s jump into the odds.

Pneumatic Belmont Stakes Odds

Pneumatic’s odds will differ drastically depending on which online sportsbooks one uses for their horse betting needs.

For example, at Bovada, Pneumatic has +2000 odds to win the Belmont Stakes, behind Dr. Post, Sole Volante, Tap It To Win and Tiz The Law.

At BetOnline, however, Pneumatic has +1200 odds. Pneumatic is still behind the same four horses, but this demonstrates the different opinions that many horse race bettors hold with regards to his chances to win.

In this case, if one wanted to place a wager on Pneumatic, they would want to place that wager on Bovada - the increase in odds from +1200 to +2000 is extremely significant.

Max Player Odds For The Belmont Stakes

While Pneumatic sits right behind the second tier of horses, Max Player is firmly into the third tier on most online sportsbooks.

At Bovada, Max Player is actually tied with Pneumatic and Farmington Road, with +2000 odds, once again reflecting Bovada’s doubt of Pneumatic.

At BetOnline, Max Player is +1800, once again tied with Farmington Road, but notably behind Pneumatic’s +1200 odds.

At Bovada, there are odds available on the head to head between Pneumatic and Max Player - and they favor Pneumatic.

This is interesting - both of them have the same +2000 odds on Bovada to win the race outright, but the head to head notably favors Pneumatic.

This could imply that the tied odds in the main race are a mistake - they certainly are a big difference from BetOnline’s odds.

Modernist Belmont Odds

Modernist is notably behind the other two horses on most of the major online sportsbooks.

Where Pneumatic lines up just behind the second tier, and Max Player comes behind even that, Modernist is just above the longest of long shots.

At Bovada, Modernist has +2500 odds, ahead of only Fore Left and Jungle Runner.

Meanwhile, at BetOnline, Modernist has +3000 odds, but is once again ahead of only Fore Left and Jungle Runner.

The horses seem to be roughly arranged into tiers, and they look something like this:

Tier 1: Tiz The Law

Tier 2: Tap It To Win, Sole Volante, Dr. Post

Tier 3: Pneumatic, Max Player, Farmington Road

Tier 4: Modernist, Fore Left, Jungle Runner

The gap between Farmington Road and Modernist marks the gap between tier 3 and tier four, roughly speaking.

This is just an attempt at a framework for understanding the race, but it seems to hold up across the major online horse racing betting websites.

Regardless of how one approaches betting on the race, the Belmont should be an excellent betting opportunity.

The Belmont Stakes starts at approximately 5:42 p.m. EST on June 20th, 2020.