Belmont Stakes will move to Saratoga in 2024
Next year’s Belmont will be held in Saratoga, not Belmont.
In May, major renovations to Belmont Park on Long Island, including replacing the grandstand and all three racetracks, were approved by the New York State Legislature, putting the track in Elmont, NY out of commission and requiring a temporary home for the Belmont Stakes. the third race in the Triple Crown.
The race will be part of a special session at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, NY, June 6-9, 2024, Governor Kathy Hochul of New York Announced on Wednesday. There will be 23 stakes races, including the Belmont on June 8. Saratoga’s annual meeting will take place as usual from mid-July through Labor Day.
The remainder of the Belmont races, normally held in the spring and fall, will move to Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens in 2024. Once renovations are complete, Belmont Park will be able to host year-round racing. could close.
The Belmont Stakes began in 1867 at Jerome Park in what is now the northern Bronx. It moved to Morris Park, also in the Bronx, in 1890 before moving to the newly built Belmont Park in Nassau County in 1905.
The race was last held anywhere other than Belmont from 1963 to 1967, when it was held at Aqueduct while Belmont was undergoing an earlier renovation.
The Belmont Stakes is known for being contested at the penalty distance of 1½ miles, earning it the nickname the Test of the Champion. But because of the track configuration at Saratoga, the 2024 Belmont will be 1¼ miles long. In 2020, the race was run at a shorter distance, 1⅛ miles, as the coronavirus pandemic shuffled the racing calendar.
The Belmont traditionally follows the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness as part of the Triple Crown for 3-year-olds. Only thirteen horses have won all three races, including Whirlaway, Secretariat, Seattle Slew and, most recently, Justify in 2018.
It is unknown how running the Belmont in Saratoga will impact the bottom line. But Saratoga has developed a reputation as a place where misfortunes happen, earning it the nickname The Graveyard of Champions. Man o’ War and Triple Crown winners Secretariat and American Pharoah all lost at Saratoga.
Renovations at Belmont are expected to continue beyond 2024, but there was no immediate news on the location of the 2025 race. The grandstand will be modernized and made smaller for the smaller crowds that horse racing has attracted in recent years. But there will be more accessible outdoor space so the track can host large crowds for the Belmont and Breeders’ Cup.
Prize money for the 2024 Belmont will also increase from $1.5 million to $2 million.