Belmont Stakes favorite Tiz the Law runs on the main track during a morning workout at Belmont Park. Reuters

Tiz the Law was made a 6-5 favourite and drawn into the eighth post for Saturday's Belmont Stakes, the first leg of a 2020 coronavirus-disrupted US horse racing Triple Crown.

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The 152nd running of the Belmont Park classic, trimmed from 1 1/2 miles to 1 1/8 miles and delayed two weeks due to the deadly virus outbreak, is the opening jewel in US flat racing's epic treble for the first time ever.

Tiz the Law gets a kiss from barn foreman Juan Saldana at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida. AP

The pandemic has forced the Kentucky Derby, the usual Triple Crown opener at Churchill Downs in Louisville, from the first Saturday in May to September 5 while the Preakness -- normally two weeks after the Derby -- is set for October 3 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Tiz the Law, with four wins in five starts, is the only Grade 1 event winner in the 10-horse field off his March 28 victory at the Florida Derby and triumph last October at Belmont in the Champagne Stakes.

Trained by 82-year-old Barclay Tagg with Manuel Franco aboard, the colt leaves from a gate that has produced only five winners in Belmont history.

Agence France-Presse