[2] In 1991, Hansel began his three-year-old campaign at the end of March when he won the Grade II Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky, in track record time.
[1] As a result of his poor performance, trainer Frank Brothers initially decided to skip the Preakness Stakes.
However, after a good workout by Hansel and encouragement from Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg, for whom he had worked as an assistant, Brothers changed his mind and shipped the colt to Pimlico Race Course.
In the 1991 Belmont Stakes, Hansel had to race without Lasix, a drug used to control bleeding that the NYRA had banned at the time.
However, Hansel held off a late charge by Strike the Gold to win the Belmont Stakes by a head, with Mane Minister finishing third as he had in the Derby and Preakness.
He was then named American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse winning the Eclipse Award by a comfortable margin over the other finalists.
He returned home to stand at Allbritton's Lazy Lane Farm in Upperville, Virginia (formerly Isabel Dodge Sloane's Brookmeade Stud), and stood there until he was pensioned in 2012.