The excellent Al Bello track-level photograph of the Belmont finish, top, tells us a few things about Commandment’s hard-fought stretch duel with the eventual victor Golden Tempo, pictured left, at Saratoga on June 6. First, both horses had plenty of room down the lane. Ortiz had gotten aerodynamically small behind Golden Tempo’s head to hold their skinny lead through the wire. In a word, Ortiz was justifiably concerned about his rival Commandment, just over Ortiz’ right shoulder a step or two off.

For his part, in the nanoseconds before he hit the wire, Hall of Fame jockey John “Johnny V” Velasquez, brand-new in the irons atop Commandment in that momentous race, was doing everything he could to gain on Ortiz. Johnny V and Commandment were stalwart in preventing Golden Tempo from winning going away, but that was the best they could do, the race was cooked, the line was upon them. Still, as a performance, it was leagues better than Commandment had delivered a month earlier at Churchill, when he placed seventh. It’s odd to say it this way, but the grit and power Velasquez coaxed from Commandment in the Belmont was the much-needed public proof that the contender was a real racehorse in the telling sense that he just would not crumble in the second-biggest race thus far in his short track life.

But before we dive down into the muck of the onrushing battles Commandment must wage with Renegade, Chip Honcho and Silent Tactic this Saturday, herewith, a refresher on the Jim Dandy field and its morning line.

(Post Position, Trainer, Jockey, Morning Line Odds)

1. Chip Honcho, Steve Asmussen, Jose Ortiz, 3-1

2. Asked and Answered, Antonio Arriaga, Jaime Rodriguez, 30-1

3. Renegade, Todd Pletcher, Irad Ortiz Jr., 7-5

4. Silent Tactic, Mark Casse, Luis Saez, 6-1

5. Commandment, Brad Cox, Flavien Prat, 6-5

(Source: New York Racing Association, 7/30/2026)

Ove the Commandment’s Hall of Fame trainer Brian Cox is occasionally at pains to rehabilitate the public perception of his athlete’s Derby flummox, and has offered this deft contrarian view to the Daily Racing Form: “Obviously, that was not the performance we were looking for in the Derby but I thought it was a good run and I think he’s a little bit forgotten. I think if you do zero in on him and watch his race, he actually ran pretty well. I think we would have been fine if we would have just settled a little bit more as opposed to asking for the position (in the back that) he got going into the first turn. It’s always easier to look back and second-guess things."

This presumes a bigger run than Commandant was able to muster in the last furlongs, but simply put, Cox is saying that then-jock Luis Saez brought Commandant up a little early and didn’t conserve as much energy as he should have against the Derby’s fast pace, thus taking Commandant’s ability to bring a bigger run down a notch or two. What Cox is also saying is, despite that, he ran a very respectable seventh.

And yet, it’s the Derby, not the Belmont performance to consider when betting the late runner in the Jim Dandy, precisely because, as has been bruited about ad nauseum, the “spoiler-ness” of Saratoga lies in what is considered to be the track’s bias for speed.

Which, in turn, goes toward explaining why no less a prominent New York Racing Association handicapper/presenter/Saratoga-gabfest-maven than Andy Serling suggests (on the NYRA website that the Jim Dandy will see Commandment down toward the bottom of the order of finish, with Renegade, Silent Tactic, Chip Honcho battling it out at the line before him. That can mean that Commandment is – at one and an eighth miles – in danger of leaving himself too much to do in a late run.

It’s by no means certain that this will be Serling’s top race scenario at week’s end – it’s a wild world out there in Jim Dandy-land what with all this surfeit of talent that can be read so many ways – and it can also be that, price-wise, it just plain more fun to see Silent Tactic and Chip Honcho up in the exotics mix.

Meanwhile, Cox has his Jim Dandy athlete in blinkers now, to help his concentration in the turns, which may help. And Cox is relying on Johnny V to get Commandment up and around. But it’s fair to say that not a lot of Commandment’s connections have quite wrapped their minds around the morning line favorite running fourth.