2025 Belmont Stakes Picks & Predictions: Best Exotic Bets

by Travis Pulver |
Jun 06, 2025

The Triple Crown is not in the picture, but that doesn't make the final leg any less special. With both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners (Sovereignty and Journalism) in the field, some are saying it's a race for third place.

If that's the case, this could be the perfect race to place a few exotic bets. Here are our best exotic bets for the 2025 Belmont Stakes.

2025 Belmont Stakes Best Exotic Bets: Picks & Predictions

Belmont Stakes: What is an Exotic Bet?

An exotic bet is essentially just another name for a parlay, but it sounds more appealing. They aren't exactly like parlays, but there are some similarities. If you want a shot at a massive payout without necessarily betting a small fortune of your own, you want to bet on exotics (much like a parlay).

With parlays, while the outcome of each leg is independent of the other legs, that is not the case with exactas, trifecta, and superfectas. With them, you are betting on who will finish first and second, first, second, and third, or first through fourth. Easy enough, right? Well, it does get a little easier.

If you are confident about the horses but not confident about the order, you'll want to box your exacta/trifecta/superfecta. What this means is that you're betting on all possible combinations. Let's say you bet on Sovereignty and Journalism to finish first and second. If you 'box' your exacta, you win no matter who comes in first or second as long as it's one of those two.

But before you go nuts 'boxing' exotics, you have to put money on each possible combination. If you box an exacta, there are two possible combinations, so if you bet $1, your total wager is now $2.

Now that you know what exotics are, here are my favorites for the 2025 Belmont Stakes:

Belmont Stakes: Exacta Box

Journalism
Sovereignty

One won the Kentucky Derby, the other won the Preakness Stakes, and they are favored to win the Belmont Stakes (Journalism 8/5 and Sovereignty 2/1). These two finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the Kentucky Derby, so it is not hard to imagine it happening again in this race.

Belmont Stakes: Trifecta Box

No. 1: Journalism, Sovereignty, Rodriguez
No. 2: Journalism, Sovereignty, Baeza

Go ahead and call me unoriginal for using Journalism and Sovereignty in both. But I'm not trying to give you different bets; I'm trying to provide you with winning bets. If you want to understand why I'm so high on both of those guys, find a video of the Preakness and Kentucky Derby and enjoy.

It's just a shame that Sovereignty didn't run in the Preakness, too.

Rodriguez would have been a contender in the Kentucky Derby had he not been an early scratch. It would have been even more fun to see him run in Baltimore at the Preakness as well, but his injury was not quite healed. But it is now, he’s ready to go, and is expected to set the pace for the Belmont Stakes.

There are a few really good closers in the pack, but if Rodriguez has enough of a lead, there may be no catching him. As for Baeza, he nearly came in second at the Kentucky Derby and missed first by 1 3/4 lengths. So, we know he can run with Journalism and Sovereignty.

Belmont Stakes: Superfecta Box

Journalism, Sovereignty, Rodriguez, and Baeza
Any of the above three and Crudo.

I've already talked about why I like Journalism, Sovereignty, Rodriguez, and Baeza. Picking all four of them to finish in the top four would be a solid bet. However, if you want to bet on someone other than the favorites, give some serious thought to taking one of those four out and including Crudo.

He's inexperienced, having run only three races, and he lost big in his first race. But then he came back strong and won the next two. He's raw and has a lot of room for growth, but if the stars align and John Velazquez (his jockey) can put Crudo's speed on display...

Crudo could make things interesting.

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