Call it fate. Call it kismet. Whatever title you prefer, Rags to Riches seemed destined to give trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez their first classic winner. Although “Johnny V” has been Pletcher’s first-call rider for years, it took a last-­minute decision to run the filly and a madcap jockey scramble to bring them together for the 139th Belmont Stakes (gr. I).

Rags to Riches wins in a photo finish over Curlin in the 139th Belmont Stakes 2007.

Eighty minutes or so before the sport’s top three-year-olds battle it out in Saturday’s 139th Belmont Stakes, some of the fastest and classiest three-year-old fillies around meet in the 77th Acorn. The Grade 1, $250,000 Acorn – race 9 on a spectacular 13-race Belmont Stakes Day program that kicks off at noon – will be contested at one mile.