There are great sports debates _ Mays, Mantle or Snider can still rile up folks in these parts _ and then there are forced ones. So trying to assign perspective and context to this Belmont Stakes and this Triple Crown run is an unwanted task.
But if we must, here goes: Asterisk required, whether placed there in ink or by our memories of these crazy times. And that surely will anger veteran trainer Barclay Tagg, who told Newsday six days before his 4-5 favorite Tiz the Law dominated down the stretch that "what will bother me is if they put an asterisk after it. If it's the Belmont Stakes, let it be the Belmont Stakes. There are good horses in it."
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the sports world and mostly put a stop to it. So, surely, it should have been enough to just appreciate Tiz the Law's win in the 152nd running of the $1 million Belmont Stakes on a picture-perfect Saturday. The first day of summer brought the first major sporting event in New York since St. John's-Creighton was called off at halftime and the rest of the Big East Tournament canceled on March 12.
