Belmont Meet Begins April 29

The June 6 Belmont festivities will begin June 4 with 17 stakes races over a three day period worth more than $10 million in purses. Since 2008 three horses – Big Brown (2008), I’ll Have Another (2012), and California Chrome (2014), have reached the Belmont Stakes with aspirations of becoming the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978, but each horse fell short of accomplishing the rare feat. The Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, annually considered one of the top races in the country for older dirt horses, will again be part of a legendary Belmont Stakes undercard that includes four additional grade one events: the Manhattan, the Ogden Phipps, the Just a Game, and the Acorn with the Grade 2 Woody Stephens and Grade 3 Jaipur also part of the card.  

June 5 card features five stakes 

Friday, June 5 at Belmont will feature five stakes races worth a combined $1.2 million including the Grade 2, $300,000 New York for fillies and mares, and the Grade 2, $250,000 True North for sprinters.  

Derby day card also loaded 

In conjunction with the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, the Saturday, May 2 card at Belmont includes the Grade 2, $200,000 Sheepshead Bay Stakes and a pair of $150,000 Grade 3 events – the Fort Marcy and Westchester Stakes.