SARATOGA SPRINGS — While many horse racing fans are expecting Saturday’s Belmont Stakes to be a rematch, it just might turn into a threematch.

Baeza made a late rush from the back of the pack in the May 3 Kentucky Derby, coming up less than two lengths short of winner Sovereignty, with Journalism in between.

Journalism then won the Preakness two weeks later, while Sovereignty rested.

Now, in the second Belmont Stakes to be conducted at Saratoga during Belmont’s renovation, Baeza is the third-favorite at 4-1 to get his slice of the Triple Crown pie.

“I had a hard time finding him [in the Derby] because it was so muddy that day, but once he got out and made his move, he was obviously finishing faster than any horse in the race,” trainer John Shirreffs told The Post. “After the race, [jockey] Flavien [Prat] said he didn’t get all the run he could have out of Baeza had he had an opportunity to get out a little sooner.”

Shirreffs is best known for training 2005 Kentucky Derby champion Giacomo and 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Zenyatta.

Prat has two Triple Crown wins — the 2019 Kentucky Derby aboard Country House and the 2021 Preakness with Rombauer.

Baeza himself is in position to claim a place in history.

With a victory on Saturday, his broodmare, Puca, would become the first to have produced three Triple Crown race champions, and she would have done it in consecutive years.

Mage won the Kentucky Derby in 2023 and Dornoch captured the Belmont Stakes last year.

Both were by Puca and Good Magic.

Baeza was sired by McKinzie. Like Mage and Dornoch, Baeza spent his first year and a half of life at Runnymede Farm in Paris, Ky.

“[Baeza is] a dream to train. I mean, there’s nothing I would want to change about that horse,” Shirreffs said. “He’s the perfect weight. He’s the perfect size. He’s got a beautiful stride. He’s got this great appetite. He’s the total package.”

Baeza is named after Hall of Fame jockey Braulio Baeza, who in 1963 became the first Latin American rider to win the Kentucky Derby aboard Chateaugay.

Owner Mike Repole, the billionaire benefactor of St. John’s basketball, has a Belmont Stakes championship with Mo Donegal in 2022 and a second place with Mindframe last year.

On Saturday, he sends 30-1 Uncaged to the post with trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey Luis Saez.

Saez won last year’s Belmont Stakes aboard Dornoch.

Repole’s Fierceness will be hunting for an automatic bid to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile when he runs in the $1 million Metropolitan Handicap, Saturday’s eighth race.

Fierceness won the Travers Stakes in 2024, the signature event of Saratoga’s summer meet.

Giants board director Chris Mara made it to the winner’s circle on Friday.

He’s part of the ownership group of Bellacose, who won the first race for jockey John Velazquez and trainer Wesley Ward.

SHELBYVILLE, Ky. (LEX 18) — A local missionary family living in Rwanda made it back to Kentucky last week to lay their 6-year-old daughter to rest.

Isabella Grace died of an asthma attack in April. For weeks, her mother LaShanda Bradley has been trying to get Bella back to Shelbyville for her burial. It finally happened last week.

“Very grateful to everyone who has made it possible, because making it here, to this day, has been a journey,” said Bradley. “This type of pain is one that no one should feel, no mother should have to walk through this, no mother should have to say goodbye to their child.”

Bradley told LEX18 she had an army of those behind her, helping with the logistics of travel, arranging services, and emotional support. Her long-time friend Ronesha Roberts never left her side. Roberts also has a baby who has passed.

“It was long nights, but I didn’t care because I had already walked that journey, I had six months with mine, she had six years with hers, that’s a different kind of hurt,” said Roberts.

Bradley says her faith is carrying her moment to moment.

“I describe grief as waves, the times when the waves feel like they’re taking me under, it’s too much, and I’m just missing her so much, God gives me these nudges of she’s not gone, she’s here, she’s always here with me,” said Bradley.

Bradley, her husband, and two children say they’re being called back to Rwanda to continue their missionary work. They have a GoFundMe to support what they’re calling their new normal.

A former Kentucky sheriff accused of murdering a local judge has tried a hail Mary defense in the hope of having his case dismissed.

Shawn ‘Mickey’ Stines filed to have his indictment for killing Letcher County District Judge Kevin Mullins in September 2024 thrown out, accusing the prosecution of misconduct.

Attorneys for the ex-top cop alleged in new court documents on Wednesday prosecutors had an undocumented meeting with the grand jury before it indicted him.

The filing further alleges the grand jury requested records about the case that the prosecution did not provide, arguing these two incidents may have biased the jury. 

Despite prosecutors presenting footage alleging to show Stines shooting Mullins in his court chambers, Stines’ attorneys argue the alleged misconduct should dismiss the case entirely.

They are requesting a hearing to prove the grand jury bias, and are asking for the judge to throw out the indictment ‘with prejudice’, meaning Stines couldn’t be tried again, per WHAS11. 

The former sheriff had previously indicated he was preparing an insanity defense in court, and his attorneys said the shooting was the result of ‘fear for the safety of his wife and daughter.’ 

Police have not offered details of a motive behind the shooting, however Stines’ attorneys said it came after testimony that Stines gave at a deposition where he answered questions about one of his deputies allegedly sexually assaulting jail inmates in Mullins’ chambers. 

Although footage of the shocking shooting of Letcher County District Judge Kevin Mullins in September 2024 was shown in court, Stines’ attorneys are trying to get his indictment thrown out ‘with prejudice’, meaning Stines couldn’t be tried again

In March, before the alleged prosecution misconduct emerged, Stines’ defense team said his state of mind at the time of the shooting would become key to his upcoming trial. 

Defense attorney Jeremy Bartley previously told NewsNation that he was preparing to argue extreme emotional distress led Stines to carry out the shooting, and indicated it was related to the sheriff’s deposition that came days before. 

An accuser in that case claimed that she was forced by former Deputy Sheriff Ben Fields to have sex in Mullins’ chambers for six months in exchange for staying out of jail.

Accuser Sabrina Adkins previously told NewsNation in a separate interview that Mullins ‘does have some videotapes of some stuff in the judge’s chambers… just with girls, sexual and stuff.’ 

Fields was fired by Stines before being ultimately arrested and sentenced to six months of jail, with Stines testifying in his case. 

Since Mullins was gunned down in his own chambers, allegations have surfaced that his courtroom office was used by one of Stines’ deputies in a sex-for-favors scandal 

Stines, seen after his arrest, was reportedly telling officers that his ‘wife and kid’ were in danger when he was detained for Mullins’ shooting 

Bartley said Stines feared that backlash from his deposition testimony caused him to fear that his or his family’s lives were in danger.

The attorney said Stines’ ‘mental health’ was affected by the perceived threat, adding: ‘Ultimately, he was in fear for the safety of his wife and his daughter, and I think what you see there is the result of that.’ 

The shooting rocked the small town of Whitesburg where Stines and Mullins were well known figures, with allegations since coming out that Judge Mullins himself may have been tied to the sex-for-favors scandal. 

When Stines was taken into custody for the shooting, he allegedly exclaimed: ‘They’re trying to kidnap my wife and kid.’ 

Bartley added at the time of his insanity defense filing that he believes there may be ‘more evidence that would support a finding that he wasn’t criminally responsible’, but did not offer specifics. 

Stines has remained in custody since the shooting, which was captured on shocking footage that showed the sheriff enter Mullins’ chambers and blast eight bullets into him.

In the moments before, officials said that Stines tried to call his daughter before grabbing Mullins’ phone and also trying to call her.

Stines’ attorney previously indicated that he had ‘more evidence that would support a finding that he wasn’t criminally responsible’ for the shooting, but did not offer it until his shock filing this week alleging prosecution misconduct 

Stines’ attorney Jeremy Bartley previously indicated that he was preparing an insanity defense in the case 

Prosecutors said the shooting came seemingly out of the blue, as the sheriff and judge had enjoyed lunch together that afternoon, and shared an outside table at the popular Streetside Grill & Bar on Main Street for lunch, only a few hundred yards from the courthouse.

The pair were longtime friends and lunchtime regulars together at the sports bar and on that fateful Thursday ordered their usual – both having the $13.99 wings with salad.

Detectives are probing a potential motive, with one theory reportedly investigated by detectives being whether Stines discovered his daughter’s phone number in Mullins’ phone because he called her moments before the shooting. 

Video of the shooting shows Stines pointing his weapon at Mullins as his hands are raised cowering behind his desk – but the sheriff’s lawyers insist the killing was not planned.

‘It was not something that was planned and occurred in the heat of passion. For us, the highest level of culpability should be manslaughter based on the partial defense of extreme emotional disturbance,’ Bartley previously told PEOPLE. 

It is not clear when Stines’ murder trial may get underway, with prosecutors previously saying the discovery process could take ‘some time.’