Key keywords: 2026 Met Mile odds, 2026 Met Mile horses, 2026 Met Mile full field, Met Mile 2026 best bets, 2026 Met Mile top picks, Belmont Park Grade 1 stakes 2026, 2026 Met Mile racing insider tips, Met Mile Saturday 2026 Kicking off one of the most anticipated weekends on the North American flat racing calendar, the 2026 Grade 1 Met Mile is set to run this Saturday at Belmont Park, with a $1.2 million prize purse drawing one of the deepest fields of middle-distance talent this season. As of Wednesday morning, pre-race odds have been finalized for the 14-horse lineup, with oddsmakers installing 2025 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Fierceness as the 2-1 morning line favorite, following three consecutive bullet workouts at Belmont’s 1-mile dirt track over the past month. Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., who holds a 37% win rate in Grade 1 stakes at Belmont over the past two years, will get the mount for the favorite, marking the third consecutive start the pair has teamed up. Next in the odds is 4-1 shot National Treasure, the 2024 Preakness Stakes winner who most recently took home top honors in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct in April, proving his form over 7 furlongs translates seamlessly to the 1-mile distance. Rounding out the top three in pre-race odds is 6-1 contender Accountability, a 4-year-old colt who has won four of his past five starts, including a dominant victory in the Grade 2 Westchester Stakes earlier this month to secure his Met Mile spot. Our veteran racing insider, who has correctly predicted 8 of the past 11 Met Mile winners, shared his exclusive best bets and top picks ahead of Saturday’s race: For win bets, the top pick is unanimously Fierceness, with the insider noting his average 12-second furlong pace in recent workouts puts him head and shoulders above the rest of the field in raw speed, and his ability to settle in mid-pack before making a late push makes him perfectly suited to the Met Mile’s typically fast early pace. For exacta bets, the insider recommends pairing Fierceness with National Treasure, noting the latter’s proven ability to hold off late challengers in stakes competition makes him a lock to finish in the top two barring a catastrophic trip. For trifecta and superfecta players, the insider’s sleeper pick is 22-1 long shot Mystic Lake, a 4-year-old filly who switched from turf to dirt training in March and has posted faster workout times than half the top 5 odds horses in recent sessions, with trainer Chad Brown holding a 28% upset rate in Grade 1 middle-distance races at Belmont over the past three years. Saturday’s race is scheduled to go off at 4:35 PM ET, with forecasters calling for clear skies and a fast dirt track, conditions that favor speed-oriented horses in the field. Wagering pools for the Met Mile will open at 10 AM ET on race day, with odds expected to shift in the final 48 hours as final workout data and late scratch announcements are released.