For the 2024 season, the famed third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes will be moving to Saratoga Racecourse for June 2024.
With major renovations needed to Belmont Park and a $455 million project approved, New York Governer Kathy Hochul announced the move to Saratoga as a temporary solution.
Hochul was quoted as saying, “Yes, it is a temporary situation, and we hope to be even further ahead of schedule so we can end it sooner,” at a press conference in the Bronx.
This is not the first time the Belmont Stakes has been moved to another racetrack. From 1963-1967 the race was moved to Aqueduct in Queens when Belmont Park was last renovated.
With nothing official yet, the initial reports expect this to be a two year move to Saratoga.
The Belmont Stakes will also be shorter the next two years for the move, as it is traditionally a 1 1/2 mile race, but the Saratoga Racecourse is only 1 1/4 miles long.
They are upping the purse, however, from $500,000 to a crisp $2 million to get the best horses to come out and run.
They are calling the race weekend of June 6-9, 2024, the Belmont Stakes Festival, and the race will be on Saturday as always.
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