The New York Racing Association has been making plans to bring one of its biggest events to Saratoga Race Course in 2025. Now, it’s likely to happen a year earlier.
As downstate Belmont Park prepares for a nearly half-billion overhaul, the New York Racing Association suggested it could move the Belmont Stakes north in 2025 for the first time. That would require opening Saratoga early, in June instead of July.
The Belmont is the last leg of the Triple Crown series, which also includes the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
Saratoga’s season currently lasts 40 days, running five days a week from late July through Labor Day. Now, NYRA spokesman Patrick McKenna says the move could happen in 2024 instead to allow for the uninterrupted renovation at Belmont.
“As we just saw throughout the 2023 summer meet, attendance continues to exceed expectation. The overall interest and enthusiasm around the summer meet continues to be incredibly strong,” he said. “So with that in mind, we believe that a Triple Crown event at Saratoga will certainly capture the attention of the sports world.”
Opening the tourist magnet for a new festival in early June is something the city is prepared for, according to Mayor Ron Kim.
“Obviously we’d be really excited if it moves forward in this manner. It’d be an historic event for an historic track,” Kim said. “Given the fact that it’d be in June, and sort of a defined time period, it sounds like, we definitely think that the city will be ready and happy to welcome the world to our city for a Triple Crown race.”
Kim, a former public safety commissioner, says the city has plenty of experience handling an influx of visitors.
“We’re very good at dealing with large crowds and people who want to come to Saratoga Springs. We’ve done this many, many years,” he said. “We’ve had big weekends. We just had one when Phish was performing at SPAC on the same weekend as the Travers. It was estimated we had 100,000 people coming in and out. So we’re really practiced at this and so we’ll be able to do it.”
NYRA has ruled out holding the Belmont Stakes at downstate’s Aqueduct — which hosted it for several years in the 1960s. And Saratoga would represent a significant change for the race: the mile-and-a-half Test of the Champion would likely be run at a mile-and-a-quarter, to avoid a three-turn race.
But McKenna says even if the event is a success, expanding the Saratoga meet permanently is not on the table.
“Whether it’s Thursday through Sunday or Friday through Sunday is yet to be determined, but it will be a standalone racing festival,” he said. “We are not contemplating any changes to the format of the summer meet. We would come up to Saratoga for that four- or five-day period, return to Aqueduct at the conclusion of the Belmont Stakes racing festival, and then reconvene in Saratoga as we have since 2018 for the traditional 40-day race meet.”
The schedule shift still needs official state approval.
Todd Shimkus is president of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce.
“The businesses were excited to think about having it here in 2025, so if given the opportunity to host two years, that essentially doubles the pleasure,” he said. “It will give a huge boost to our local community and region’s economy, frankly, for both those years.”
Trackside parking lot owner Lawrence Angolini spoke with WAMC in July.
“It’s gonna help us out, we’re gonna have five extra days," said Angolini. "From what I understand we’re gonna open up the track for five days during the Belmont race, that timeframe, and they’re gonna close it down and then open it back up on the regular schedule…”
This development comes on the heels of a 2023 Saratoga meet that ended under a cloud — with more than a dozen horse fatalities. That led to increased scrutiny from the federal authority that oversees horse racing and new safety protocols for the closing week.
The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has also formed an advisory group focusing on track surfaces. The Track Surface Advisory Group will analyze dirt, turf and synthetic surface consistency at thoroughbred racetracks across the U.S.
The group was sent to Saratoga to review the dirt and turf surfaces in late August. NYRA’s vice president of facilities and racing surfaces is among the seven members of the advisory group. NYRA says it supports HISA’s efforts and says it’s exploring the use of synthetic surfaces at Saratoga and Aqueduct.
