But he's a big horse, and both Hill and trainer Ken McPeek came out of Baltimore saying the Belmont would be right up his alley. "But his misfortune is fortunate for us".
J Boys Echo is one of five Belmont runners who skipped the Preakness after running in the Derby, a route taken previous year by Belmont victor Creator.
John Malone is chairman of Liberty Media Corp., whose holdings include Sirius XM radio and the Atlanta Braves.
Tapwrit's connections picked up $800,000 in prize money out of the $1.5 million purse.
Always Dreaming and Cloud Computing will likely line up for that one, while Classic Empire's camp will be desperate to see him get a big race win on the board in 2017.
To make matters even worse, two year old champion and Preakness runner up Classic Empire has also been pulled from the contest due to an abscess that popped up after training this week.
Martin Panza of the New York Racing Association says Epicharis wasn't ready to run three days after the colt was treated for lameness in his right front hoof.
All that left it a wide-open race, and in the end it was Tapwrit that proved he was up to the grueling 1 1/2-mile challenge.
"Tapwrit was getting a handsome trip", Pletcher said, according to the AP.
"It was everything we talked about in the paddock before the race", Pletcher said.
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"The horse was close to being able to compete but we ran out of time".
There was a freshness about Tapwrit as he motored to the head of the field at Belmont, steadily chopping down the gap to Irish War Cry.
Irish War Cry led for the majority of the race but faltered down the home stretch.
Tapwrit, meanwhile, settled in third, right behind the dueling leaders.
His latest triumph comes with a huge assist from jockey Jose Ortiz, who gave the son of Tapit an ideal ground-saving trip from post 2 in a field of 11.
It took a while for Tapwrit to find his best gear.
If Irish War Cry's jockey, Rajiv Maragh, was disappointed in coming up just short, he didn't show it after the race. "I knew I had him when I passed the eighth pole".
That's when Tapwrit took up the chase in earnest. Tapwrit was up to the task, but Gormley flattened out as the field turned for home. "I'm probably using Tapwrit, Gormley, maybe Twisted Tom in there, Senior Investment and Multiplier. I am not going to knock any of the competitors". It is offering a new $1 million (110,289,555 Japanese yen) bonus to Epicharis if he wins as part of an effort to recruit a Japanese horse to the Belmont. Pletcher is the first trainer since D. Wayne Lukas (1996) to have different horses win the Kentucky Derby and Belmont.
The race was held at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.
He started on the road to the Triple Crown with a 3 3/4-length victory in the Lambholm South Holy Bull Stakes (G2), ran seventh by 21 3/4 lengths in the Xpressbet Fountain of Youth (G2), won the Wood Memorial presented by NYRA Bets (G2) by 3 1/2 lengths, and came in 10th in the Kentucky Derby.
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