Belmont Stakes Scheduled for June 20; Now First Leg of Triple Crown

When it comes to horse racing, there are no races bigger than the Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes are arguably the three biggest races on the horse racing circuit. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that completely shut down the sports world for nearly two months, there has been shuffling of the schedule when it comes to everything, including horse racing. After a lot of uncertainty and plenty of handwringing to come up with a schedule, we finally have things set in place.

On Tuesday, it was announced that the Belmont Stakes, originally scheduled for June 6, has been shifted to a new date. After New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced over the weekend that racetracks would be able to reopen on June 1 without fans, the New York Racing Association went to work coming up with a schedule. As a result, the Belmont Stakes, normally the final leg of the Triple Crown, will be the first leg this year with the race taking place on June 20 from Belmont Park. It marks the first time that the Belmont will be the opening race of the Triple Crown in the history of the event.

There are some changes for the Belmont this year in addition to it being the opening race of the Triple Crown. For starters, the distance is going to be shortened as instead of the typical 1-1/2 mile course that they have run since 1926, the track will be shortened to 1-1/8 miles for this year. In addition, the purse for the race has been reduced as instead of the $1.5 million that was up for grabs last year, this year’s purse will be an even million dollars. The decisions for the shorter course and the smaller purse were touched on by Dave O’Rourke, the chief executive of the NYRA:

“It was tough to ask developing 3-year-old horses to go that far after not racing for months. As far as the purse, we partly rely on casino revenues, and it doesn’t look like they are running any time soon.”

The two-week delay of the Belmont Stakes was a minor delay compared to the other Triple Crown races. The Kentucky Derby was originally scheduled for May 2 but was rescheduled for September 5, though Churchill Downs reopened for the season on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Preakness Stakes was expected to run on May 16 but was pushed back to October 3, two weeks after the Kentucky Derby. Had the Belmont been pushed back to be the final leg of the Triple Crown, it would have run right up against the Breeders Cup World Thoroughbred Championships and would have to compete with college football for ratings. As it stands, NBC will air the race in a three-hour block beginning at 3 pm ET on June 20.

Belmont Park is expected to start their racing season on June 3 for 25 days of racing. There has been no racing in New York since Aqueduct was shut down in March after a worker who was involved in taking care of the horses and lived at Belmont Park tested positive for the coronavirus. Belmont Park wasn’t racing at that point in time. As for which horses could take the track for the Belmont, there are some big options. Tiz the Law won the Florida Derby and is based in New York, while perennial contender Bob Baffert has a pair of horses that could run. Both are undefeated as Nadal and Charlatan each claimed a division in the Arkansas Derby. Charlatan cruised to a six-length win in the first division while Nadal took the lead for good around the three-quarters of a mile mark en route to the win.

As for who might race otherwise, that’s anyone’s guess. As O’Rourke said, contenders are welcome:

“If you got a 3-year-old ready to run, we have a $1 million race.”

We’ll see who might throw their hat in the ring in the coming weeks as the field begins to fill out leading into the race, which is just about a month away.