Belmont Stakes Racing Festival Set for Saratoga

The race, aka the “Test of the Champion’’ because it’s traditionally run at 1 ½ miles over the huge Belmont dirt track and completes the grueling five-week Triple Crown series, will be contested at 1 ¼ miles at the Spa.

For the first time since 2013, the Derby winner (Mystic Dan) and the Preakness winner (Seize the Grey) are expected to run in the Belmont. So is Derby runner-up Sierra Leone, second best in a three-horse photo in the Derby. In 2013, Palace Malice defeated Preakness winner Oxbow, with Derby winner Orb third.

FOX Sports will televise the Belmont, and Frank Mirahmadi will call the race for the first time.

The racing festival, however, is a four-day affair, from Thursday-Sunday (June 6-9), and totals an amazing 24 stakes races worth $10.25 million. The purse of the Belmont Stakes increased to $2 million from $1.5 million last year.

Now that the New York Racing Association (NYRA) has set up shop at the Spa, the festival opens Thursday:

Thursday’s card features four stakes: the $250,000 Belmont Gold Cup (G2), which offers an automatic berth into the $8.4 million Melbourne Cup (G1) on Nov. 5; the $150,000 Jersey Girl; the $150,000 Tremont, and the $150,000 Astoria. First post for the 10-race program 12:50 p.m. ET.

On Friday: Three Grade 1s – the $750,000 New York, the $500,000 Acorn (led by Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna), and the $500,000 Just a Game – and the $200,000 Intercontinental (G2) with three Grade 1 winners, War Like Goddess, Fev Rover, and Didia. First post for the 12-race card is 12:20 p.m. ET.

Six Grade 1s, topped off by the Belmont Stakes as race xx with a post time of 6:41 p.m. ET, and a total of nine stakes races.

Three of the Grade 1s offer Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In’’ berths to the corresponding race: the $1 million Metropolitan Handicap [BC Dirt Mile]; the $500,000 Ogden Phipps [BC Distaff]; and the $500,000 Jaipur (BC Turf Sprint].

The other stakes on 14-race card are: $1 million Manhattan (G1), the $500,000 Woody Stephens; the $350,000 True North (G2), the $350,000 Suburban (G2); and the $350,000 Poker (G3).

First post is 10:45 a.m.

New York-breds take over on the final day of the festival with six stakes on the card: the Kingston, the Mount Vernon, the Mike Lee and the Bouwerie, each with a $125,000 purse; the $200,000 Commentator and the $200,000 Critical Eye. Also set is the $150,000 Beverly R. Steinman (G1), a new 2 3/8-mile steeplechase event.

The oldest of the Triple Crown races, the Belmont Stakes was not run at Belmont Park every year. Yes, this is the first time it’s being run at Saratoga, and it will be run at the Spa in 2025 as well, but here are the other sites for the Belmont, which didn’t open until xxxx.

Jerome Park 1867-1889

Morris Park 1890-1904

Aqueduct Racetrack 1963-1967

The Belmont was not run in 1911 and 1912

After the brief festival, racing returns to Aqueduct until the Spa summer meet opens on July 1x.

The town of Saratoga Springs, a racing haven of 30,000, is ready.

“I mean, this has beena rumor for a couple of years regarding the Belmont in Saratoga,’’ Mayor John Safford said. “The fact that it actually came about is just exciting.”

Cavernous Belmont Park is undergoing a $455 million renovation which could take two years or more to complete. Already, the Belmont is set to return to the Spa in 2025 as the project continues.

Since reconstruction has begun, Belmont has been closed and the race dates have been moved to Aqueduct, about 11 miles away.

Once NYRA president David O’Rourke asked Saratoga to host the race in 2022, the city went to work, renovations at the track were approved, and here we are.

“We’ve been anticipating this for almost two years now and can’t wait,’’ Todd Shimkus, Saratoga Chamber of Commerce president, said.

The crowd has been capped at 50,000, a number the track has handled in the past. It is home to the Traver Stakes (G1), aka Summer Derby, that has drawn 40,000-plus for the race more than a few times.

Also home to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, a sold-out crowd of 27,000 showed up last year to see Phish perform; the next day, 47,000 fans showed up for the Travers.

The one-day attendance record at the Spa is 72,745 in 2007, a year that saw Derby winner Street Sense win the Travers.