/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/XXFQ6UMCPPX32WAHSCX6LE4QXQ.jpg "Belmont Stakes notes: The shift to Saratoga means a shorter Triple Crown finale")
The 156th Belmont Stakes is being held at historic Saratoga Race Course on Saturday because of renovations to Belmont Park. As a result, the length of the race has been shortened from 1½ miles to 1¼ miles because of the difference in track circumference. The Belmont Stakes is expected to return home in 2026.
Attendance at the track in Sarasota Springs, N.Y., is being capped at 50,000. The largest Belmont crowd ever was in 2004 when Birdstone nipped Smarty Jones before 120,139 fans, disappointing many from the Philadelphia region.
Saratoga is the Wrigley Field/Fenway Park of horse racing. A trip there should be on the bucket list of every sports fan.
“We’ve been racing horses here for almost 160 years now,” Chamber of Commerce president Todd Shimkus told the Associated Press. “This is a major destination in a city of 28,000 people. That story gets told as a result of the Belmont Stakes being here.”
Legendary trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who has Preakness winner Seize the Grey, is looking for his fifth Belmont win and his first since Commendable in 2000. Seize the Grey opened at 8-1 odds in the No. 1 post.
This has to be a bittersweet event for Lukas, whose first horse to win here was Tabasco Cat in 1994. As a 2-year-old in the winter of 1993, Tabasco Cat got loose and seriously injured Lukas’ son Jeff, an assistant trainer. Jeff Lukas suffered brain damage and was never the same after the accident. He died in 2016.
Lukas has won the Kentucky Derby four times, the Belmont four times, and the Preakness Stakes seven times. Only Bob Baffert (17) has more wins in Triple Crown races.
Notes from the paddock
The Belmont purse, similar to the other two Triple Crown races, increased in 2024. The Belmont’s overall prize money is up from $1.5 million to $2 million. The winner gets $1.2 million, up from $900,000. There are 10 horses entered and the top eight all get a piece, including $20,000 each for finishing seventh or eighth.
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Bill Mott, who used to train horses for George Steinbrenner, remembers his first winner, which would have been around 1968. “My Assets at the bush tracks when I was 15,” he has famously said. “She dead-heated for first.”
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An undetermined allergy sidelined The Wine Steward from racing from October until April, which included being scratched from the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. This will be his seventh career race, running from the No. 4 post at 15-1 odds. “It’s not like he doesn’t deserve this chance,” trainer Mike Maker told DRF.com. “He’s never been worse than second and all of his seconds were strong races.”
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Co-owner and New York native Pete Proscia pushed for The Wine Steward to run in the Belmont. The only New York-bred horse since the 1900s to win the Empire State’s most coveted race was Tiz the Law in 2020 at a mostly empty Belmont track because of the pandemic. That also was the first leg of the Triple Crown that year.
Pay up
The last five Belmont winners and some of their payouts based on $2 wagers.
2023: Archangelo, $17.80 to win. Exacta 3-6, $68.00. Trifecta 3-6-3, $266.48
2022: Mo Donegal, $7.20 to win. Exacta 6-3, $27.60. Trifecta 6-3-2, $187.50
2021: Essential Quality, $4.60 to win. Exacta 2-4, $15.00. Trifecta 2-4-3, $21.70
2020: Tiz the Law, $3.60 to win. Exacta 8-9, $19.60. Trifecta 8-9-3, $99.50
2019: Sir Winston, $22.40 to win. Exacta 7-10, $96.00. Trifecta 7-10-1, $1,244.00
Also
2005: Afleet Alex, $4.30 to win. Exacta 9-7, $44.00. Trifecta, 9-7-1, $1,249.00
2004: Birdstone, $74.00 to win. Exacta 4-9 (Birdstone-Smarty Jones), $139.00. Trifecta 4-9-6, $1,589.00
1973: Secretariat, $2.60 to win. Exacta 2-5, $23.50. No trifecta wagering.
Belmont birthdays
A look at the date each horse was born in 2021:
Feb. 16: The Wine Steward (4)
March 1: Protective (7)
March 4: Mystik Dan (3)
March 24: Resilience (2)
March 31: Sierra Leone (9)
April 20: Seize the Grey (1)
April 22: Dornoch (6)
May 4: Honor Marie (8)
May 11: Antiquarian (5)
May 13: Mindframe (10)
Source: Equibase.com.
Last time out
Program number in parentheses.
Won: Seize the Grey (1), Preakness Stakes, May 18
Ran sixth: Resilience (2), Kentucky Derby, May 4
Ran second: Mystik Dan (3), Preakness Stakes, May 18
Ran second: The Wine Steward (4), Peter Pan Stakes, May 11
Won: Antiquarian (5), Peter Pan Stakes, May 11
Ran 10th: Dornoch (6), Kentucky Derby, May 4
Ran third: Protective (7), Peter Pan Stakes, May 11
Ran eighth: Honor Marie (8), Kentucky Derby, May 4
Ran second: Sierra Leone (9), Kentucky Derby, May 4
Won: Mindframe (10), Claiming race/Churchill Downs, May 4
