History
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A mile and a half, longer than any other Triple Crown race and longer than most thoroughbreds have ever run. The race has been held in New York since 1867.
The Belmont Stakes is the third and final race of the American Triple Crown, run in June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is the oldest of the three races, first run in 1867, and its nickname, "the Test of the Champion", comes from its distance.
The distance
The Belmont is run over a mile and a half, 12 furlongs, on a dirt oval. It is the longest of the three Triple Crown races, since the Kentucky Derby is a mile and a quarter and the Preakness a mile and three-sixteenths. Most thoroughbreds have never run that far before the race, so it tests stamina in a way the two earlier races do not.
The Triple Crown
A horse that wins all three races in the same year is a Triple Crown winner, and there have been thirteen: Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018).
Secretariat's record
Secretariat won the 1973 Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths in 2 minutes 24 seconds, a time that remains the track record for the distance and a world record for a mile and a half on dirt. It is still taught as the benchmark for how the race can be won.
Saratoga in 2024 and 2025
Belmont Park's grandstand was closed for reconstruction, and the Belmont Stakes was run at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs in 2024 and 2025. For those two years the distance was shortened to a mile and a quarter, because Saratoga's main track is shorter than Belmont's. The change was a departure from the race's identity and was described by the New York Racing Association as temporary.