Belmont Park to Host 59 Stakes in Spring/Summer Meet

Belmont Park will host 59 stakes worth $16.95 million in purses for its spring/summer meet from April 22-July 11, the New York Racing Association announced Feb. 12.

The stakes purses are a reduction from the more than $18.48 million that was offered during the spring/summer meet in 2019. Last year, during a COVID-19-abbreviated season from June 3-July 12, the track ran 38 stakes worth about $6.78 million.

The Belmont spring/summer meet will offer 11 grade 1s and seven races with purses of $700,000 or more, with four such contests coming during the three-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival June 3-5. The festival will encompass 17 stakes, including eight grade 1s on Belmont Stakes (G1) Day, June 5, capped by the $1.5 million "Test of the Champion" for 3-year-olds in the 1 1/2-mile final leg of the Triple Crown.

Some of the stakes are up from 2020 but down from levels before the pandemic. The June 5 Manhattan Stakes (G1T), for example, was a $1 million race in 2019, dropped to $400,000 last year, and is worth $750,000 in 2021.

Tickets for the 2021 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival are not yet on sale to the public. Additional information and the timing of the sale will be released in the coming weeks.

On Feb. 10, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that live sports and entertainment venues will be permitted to re-open to a limited number of spectators beginning on Feb. 23. In order for qualifying venues to re-open, those sites must gain New York State Department of Health approval and limit the number of spectators to 10% of seated capacity. All attendees must present a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of the event and adhere to health and safety requirements, including mandatory facial coverings and social distancing. 

NYRA is reviewing the newly announced guidelines to determine how they apply to Aqueduct Racetrack, where the first floor is currently the site of a New York State COVID-19 vaccination center, and to Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course.

In addition to the 153rd running of the Belmont Stakes on June 5, that day's card will include three Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" qualifiers: the one-mile $1 million Metropolitan Handicap (G1) for 4-year-olds and up (Dirt Mile); the $500,000 Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1) for older fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on the main track (Distaff); and the $400,000 Jaipur Stakes (G1T) for 3-year-olds and up going six furlongs on turf (Turf Sprint). 

The blockbuster Belmont Stakes Day card will also feature the Manhattan for 4-year-olds and up going 1 1/4 miles on turf; the $500,000 Acorn Stakes (G1) for 3-year-old fillies going one mile; the $500,000 Longines Just a Game Stakes (G1T) for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up at one mile on the turf; the $400,000 Woody Stephens Stakes (G1) in a seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds; and the $400,000 Brooklyn Stakes (G2), a 1 1/2-mile test for 4-year-olds and up.

The Belmont Stakes Racing Festival opens with three stakes races June 3, including a pair of turf events worth $200,000 in the Intercontinental Stakes (G3T) for older fillies and mares and the Wonder Again Stakes (G3T) for 3-year-old fillies. Rounding out the June 3 card is the $150,000 Astoria Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong main-track sprint for juvenile fillies.

On June 4, the $750,000 New York Stakes (G2T), a 1 1/4-mile turf test for older fillies and mares will headline a day featuring four graded stakes. This year's renewal of the New York will offer a bonus to any previous winner of the Belmont Oaks, Saratoga Oaks, or Jockey Club Oaks who wins the 2021 edition of the New York, with the winning owner to receive $315,000 while the winning trainer would earn an additional $35,000.

Also featured on the June 4 card are the 400,000 Belmont Gold Cup Stakes (G2T), the $300,000 True North Stakes (G2); the $300,000 Bed o' Roses Stakes (G3); and the $150,000 Tremont Stakes.

The Stars and Stripes Racing Festival returns July 10 and features a trio of graded stakes headlined by the opening legs of NYRA's Turf Triple Series. Launched in 2019, the Turf Triple returns with a pair of races earning grade 1 status, featuring the $1 million Belmont Derby Invitational (G1T) for sophomores going 1 1/4 miles and the $700,000 Belmont Oaks Invitational (G1T) for 3-year-old fillies over the same distance. 

Implemented by NYRA as the turf equivalent of the Triple Crown series, with all the legs contested at Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course, the Belmont Derby Invitational will again launch the male division of the Turf Triple series that encompasses the Saratoga Derby this summer and the Jockey Club Derby during the Belmont fall meet. 

The Belmont Oaks Invitational commences the female division of the Turf Triple Series, which will be followed by the Saratoga Oaks this summer and conclude with the Jockey Club Oaks during the fall.

Other prominent racing programs are centered on Man o' War Stakes Day on May 8 and on holiday weekends.

April 23 will kick off the meet's stakes action with the $100,000 Affirmed Success Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for New York-breds 4-years-old and up, and the first graded races of the meet begin May 1, the date of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) at Churchill Downs.