The stakes schedule for the 51-day Belmont Park spring/summer meet, featuring 58 total stakes races worth $18.65 million starting Friday, Apr. 24 through Sunday, July 12, was announced by the New York Racing Association, Inc. Saturday.
The meet will offer 11 total Grade I contests and five races with purses of $1 million or higher, with the first four of those contests coming during the three-day GI Belmont Stakes Racing Festival from Thursday, June 4 through Saturday, June 6.
The festival will encompass 17 total stakes, including eight Grade Is on Belmont Stakes Day, capped by the $1.5-million “Test of the Champion” in final leg of the Triple Crown.
In addition to the 152nd running of the Belmont S. June 6, the card will also include three Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” qualifiers: the $1.2-million GI Runhappy Metropolitan; the $700,000 GI Ogden Phipps; and the $500,000 GI Jaipur. The day's third seven-figure purse will come with the $1-million GI Manhattan.
Rounding out the stacked card will be the $700,000 GI Acorn; the $500,000 GI Longines Just a Game; and the $400,000 GI Woody Stephens.
The Stars & Stripes Racing Festival returns Saturday, July 11 and features five graded stakes headlined by the opening legs of NYRA's Turf Triple Series. After a successful program launch in 2019, the Turf Triple returns with a pair of races earning Grade I status, the $1-million Belmont Derby Invitational and the $750,000 Belmont Oaks Invitational.
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