Belmont at the Big A
🇺🇸 NEW YORK
Racing at Belmont at the Big A
Belmont Park
Wager on the Test of Champions and plenty of other prestigious stakes races at New York's most famous track.
Most famous as the host of the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown, Belmont stands as one of the country's oldest and most storied horse racing tracks. The season here spreads out over two meets: one in spring and summer commencing on the second Wednesday in May and lasting until the fourth Sunday in July and another in fall running from the Friday after Labor Day until the fourth Sunday in October. A number of other important races in addition to the Belmont Stakes take place at Belmont Park. Top fillies race in the Mother Goose Stakes and the Coaching Club American Oaks, while the Bowling Green Handicap and Man O' War Stakes represent the track's most prestigious turf races.
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Belmont Track History
Belmont Park opened on May 4, 1905, nearly 40 years after the first Belmont Stakes took place. The race, which was named after its main financier, August Belmont Sr., immediately moved from Jerome Park Race Track to its new home, which August Belmont II helped build. With a few small exceptions, Belmont Race Track remained largely unchanged until after World War II. In the 1950s, the facility replaced its clubhouse and tore down the turreted Manice Mansion, which had housed the Belmont Turf and Field Club.
In 1963, Belmont Park began a major overhaul of its massive grandstand after the structure was deemed unsafe. Reopening in 1968, the updated grandstand could accommodate 100,000 spectators, with seating for 33,000 of them and room for an additional 10,000 in the adjacent backyard. Today, Belmont remains one of the world's largest venues for horse racing and horse race betting. Some 120,139 spectators watched Smarty Jones try to cap off his Triple Crown bid here in 2004.
Belmont Track Details
Known as "Big Sandy," the main track at Belmont runs for 1 1/2 miles, making it the longest dirt track for thoroughbreds in the United States. It features a straightaway chute that enables the running of 1 1/8-mile races with a single turn. Inside of Big Sandy sit two turf courses: the 1 5/16-mile Widener Turf Course and the 1 3/16-mile Inner Turf Course. The former has one chute for 1 1/16-mile races and another for 1-mile races. The Inner Turf Course also contains a chute for 1 1/16-mile races.
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