While the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets is the headliner of the Saturday, June 6 card at Saratoga Race Course, the Hill ‘N’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap commands plenty of attention by itself as the $1 million secondary feature race on Belmont Stakes day. The 2026 “Met Mile” shapes up as intriguing match-up between many of this year’s best older horses competing at the middle distances.

The Met Mile is a million-dollar Grade 1 race that is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” Series, but even those credentials usually underestimate the importance of this race in the older male division. Three of the last four Met Mile winners – Flightline in 2022, Cody’s Wish in 2023, National Treasure in 2024 – went on to win Eclipse Awards as champion older dirt male with Flightline and Cody’s Wish both also being voted Horse of the Year.

1. Nysos (9-5 morning-line odds): Grade 1 winner has been lethal at middle distances throughout his career ranging from seven furlongs up to 1 1/16 miles, so he’s a perfect candidate for success in the year’s most important one-mile dirt race. Owns seven wins and two seconds in nine lifetime outings, and the only horses ever to beat him were Mindframe in Nysos’s 2025 return from a 15-month layoff; and Forever Young, arguably the world’s No. 1-rated dirt horse, who beat him by a length in his most recent start at 1 1/8 miles in the $20 million Saudi Cup. Last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner should sit an ideal stalking trip at Saratoga and has shown the late kick to outfinish just about anyone out there at this distance. Trainer Bob Baffert has won the Met Mile twice with Mor Spirit in 2017 and National Treasure in 2024.

JOCKEY: Flavien Prat; TRAINER: Bob Baffert

2. Vibe (15-1): Gets a big class test in this spot after posting an impressive one-mile win on the Kentucky Derby undercard last time. Comes into the Met Mile on a three-race winning streak – all at a mile – and his speed figures keep getting better and better each time. That said, he’s never faced competition nearly as tough as he’ll face in this race, and he’ll need a career-best race to even have a chance to hit the board.

JOCKEY: Luis Saez; TRAINER: Todd Pletcher

3. Antiquarian (6-1): Has built a reputation as an accomplished two-turn route horse in his 11-race career so far with five wins, but he also demonstrated last time that he can win a graded stakes race at this mile distance, too, when he romped over Bishops Bay in the Grade 3 Westchester Stakes at Aqueduct. He returns to Saratoga, which was the scene of his top lifetime triumph in last summer’s Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, and cannot be overlooked for trainer Todd Pletcher, who has won this race on two prior occasions with Quality Road in 2010 and Palace Malice in 2014.

JOCKEY: John Velazquez; TRAINER: Todd Pletcher

4. Saudi Crown (8-1): Saudi Crown is a 6-year-old who has had an up-and-down 18-race career to date. Currently, he’s “up” with two wins in a row so far this year entering this race. When he’s good, he’s really good, and that could make him a sleeper candidate if he shows up with one of his tip-top efforts. The main knock on him in terms of the Met Mile, however, is that he perhaps seems to be at his best at 1 1/16 miles or 1 1/8 miles around two turns, and at this advanced point in his career his class might be a notch below the best horses in this field at one mile.

JOCKEY: Irad Ortiz Jr.; TRAINER: Brad Cox

5. Rated by Merit (10-1): Enjoyed a blazing-hot start to his career by demolishing Florida-breds four straight times, but that happened way back in 2024. Since then, he’s only made it to the racetrack twice, a win in Aqueduct’s 2025 Discovery Stakes and then a fourth-place finish in his only start so far this year in Aqueduct’s Grade 2 Carter Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets. To be fair, the Carter was a tough field and Rated by Merit finished only 2 ½ lengths behind the likes of runner-up Book’em Danno while making his return from a six-month layoff. He flashed freakish ability when beginning his career as a 2-year-old and now stands to improve in his second race back. A win is not very likely to happen against a field of challengers like this that contains four Grade 1 winners, but it’s not impossible. Trainer Chad Brown is still looking for his first win in the Met Mile, however, his mentor, the late Bobby Frankel, won the race four times.

JOCKEY: Dylan Davis; TRAINER: Chad Brown

6. Knightsbridge (7-2): The dirt mile distance at Saratoga is run at an odd configuration from a chute going 1 ½ turns, and the Met Mile at the Spa looks much more like a short route race than it does like an elongated sprint. That could make things more difficult for Knightsbridge, who will be making the first start of his career going beyond a true one turn. Knightsbridge is, however, a very accomplished multiple stakes-winner at this mile distance with a list of impressive victories that includes February’s Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Mile Stakes Presented by Fierceness, which he won by 11 ¼ lengths with a huge 112 Beyer Speed Figure. If he does that again, it will be tough for anyone to beat him. The question is: Can he replicate his career best or did that race take something out of him? Last time out, he got run off his feet by Japanese invader T O Elvis in the seven-furlong Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes Presented by Ford and finished a sub-par fourth. Now, he’ll need to get back to his best in a difficult spot. Trainer Bill Mott and jockey Junior Alvarado teamed to win the Met Mile with Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish in 2023.

JOCKEY: Junior Alvarado; TRAINER: Bill Mott

7. Journalism (5-2): The favorite in both the 2025 Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve and the 2025 Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets (at Saratoga) finished second to Sovereignty both times. When Journalism got away from Sovereignty last year, he was able to win three times at the Grade 1 level in the Santa Anita Derby, Preakness Stakes, and NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes. Can he add a fourth Grade 1 win in this spot? No one will doubt Journalism’s quality or class. If he loses this race, it will be because of the distance. He has not run in a one-mile race since his maiden win in November 2024 and the big races since then when Journalism made his mark were between 1 1/8 miles and 1 ¼ miles. Will a mile be too short for him when facing a powerhouse like Nysos? When Journalism gets beat, it’s by elite dirt horses like Sovereignty, Fierceness, Sierra Leone, Forever Young, and White Abarrio, who are the only horses that have finished ahead of Journalism in his last 11 races. Therefore, despite the potential doubts at the distance, Nysos or one of these others are going to have to bring their “A” game to defeat Journalism.

JOCKEY: Jose Ortiz; TRAINER: Michael McCarthy

THE PICK: Nysos

LIVE LONGSHOT: Antiquarian

SUPERFECTA: 1-7-3-6