The highly anticipated announcement came Wednesday after months of speculation over where the Belmont Stakes will be run while a $455 million construction project at its 117-year-old home track on Long Island is underway.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul made it official, announcing a short racing festival to begin June 6th at the longtime “August place to be.”
“It’s good we have at least an alternative to, instead of shutting down Belmont completely, that we can take the races elsewhere in the state,” said Hochul.
Democratic Mayor Ron Kim says the city has the experience to run the Belmont weekend, including the marquee race on Saturday, June 8th, without a hitch.
“Our local government, our businesspeople, our non-profits, they’ve all come together when we’ve had a challenge like this. And I’m certain that we’ll be doing that in the coming months with both the local government planning for safety, crowd control, etcetera. We do this a lot, so part of this is very familiar,” said Kim.
NYRA spokesman Pat McKenna says there’s plenty of time to prepare.
“We work in collaboration with not only the city of Saratoga Springs but its business community, local leadership, elected officials. We’ve had incredibly productive conversations beginning in October and those will continue throughout the next four or five months in anticipation of a mega event in Saratoga. And there is no town that can walk and chew gum quite like Saratoga, we see it each and every summer,” said McKenna.
McKenna said that more details about tickets and weekend packages will be announced in the new year.
Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce President Todd Shimkus says the racing festival will bring tremendous economic benefits to Saratoga Springs and surrounding communities.
“Well, I think it might have been the worst kept secret in Saratoga’s history. This is like hosting the Super Bowl. You know, this is about tens of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of people coming to the region, not just Saratoga Springs. Four days in June of ’24 and again in ’25,” said Shimkus.
NYRA has not confirmed that the Belmont Stakes will be in Saratoga Springs in 2025.
Shimkus expects the race will fill Saratoga’s 50,000 fan limit and draw large crowds to the area throughout the weekend.
President of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemens Association Joe Applebaum says that the Spa City must attend to the needs of racetrack and training staff.
“How do we make sure that there’s enough horse related staff, can give proper care to the horses, right? How do we make sure it’s affordable for our staff, that there’s a place for them to stay and that they can do their jobs? That’s really our focus, less on the celebration, right? We want to focus really on the horse care and the ability of our trainers, especially, to function,” said Applebaum.
In a statement to WAMC, Public Safety Commissioner-elect Tim Coll said both the city’s fire and police departments are in communication with NYRA security and law enforcement partners, and that additional training exercises will occur to ensure their preparedness for the landmark event.
Saratoga Race Course, which runs a 40-day meet from late July through Labor Day, has never operated in June. New York Thoroughbred Breeders Executive Director Najja Thompson says the Belmont’s benefit to the Saratoga Springs season will be tremendous.
“You know, its just a chance for the wider nation to get more eyes and focus on Saratoga. The great fans, the horsing history that’s in the town. You know, ‘Health, History, and Horses,’ is the motto of Saratoga Springs and to be able to display that with national coverage at a Triple Crown race at our historic facility is just a tremendous opportunity,” said Thompson.
Speaking with WAMC on opening day of the 2023 summer season, racing fan Owen Pennant Jones welcomed the idea, but expressed concerns over the race’s distance – the Belmont is a 1½ mile race, but will be run at 1¼ miles instead due to the configuration of Saratoga’s main track.
“This will be the place to run it but don’t shorten the distance, it’s got to be a mile and a half and, yeah, I’ve often thought Saratoga could run a spring meet as well but there’s something special about the ‘summer place to be,'" said Pennant. "But if you’ve gotta run the Belmont somewhere else I would say Saratoga’s absolutely the place to do it.”
The purse is being raised to $2 million.
