Belmont Stakes: 2024 date, time, location, how to watch, purse, horses

With the 2024 editions of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes - won by Mystik Dan and Seize The Grey respectively - in the books, the focus switches to the upcoming Belmont Stakes - the final Triple Crown race of the season.

The race is a Grade 1 contest for three-year-old thoroughbreds run over one and a half miles - although this has been reduced for this year’s running - on dirt and is widely referred to as the ‘Run for the Carnations’, as the winner is draped in a blanket of carnations upon their triumph. 

The historic race is also regarded as ‘The Test of the Champion’, due in part to the fond name given to its usual course at Belmont Park being ‘The Championship Track’.

But also because those chasing the Triple Crown must land the Belmont to complete the feat as well as the distance being the greatest of the three contests. 

The 2024 edition will be the 156th running of the great race, with the first Belmont Stakes being contested back in 1867 at Jerome Park in the Bronx, and we have you covered with all you need to know about the latest Test of the Champion. 

2024 Belmont Stakes date

The 2024 Belmont Stake will be run on Saturday, June 8, 2024.

2024 Belmont Stakes start time

Coverage for the 2024 Belmont Stakes will begin at 4 PM ET.

2024 Belmont Stakes location and venue

With Belmont Park being renovated, the 2024 Belmont Stakes will be held at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York.

The most significant change that comes from the switch of venues is the slightly reduced trip to 1 1/4m due to the configuration of Saratoga’s main track.

How to watch 2024 Belmont Stakes, TV channel and streaming

In the United States, Fox hold the broadcasting rights for the 2024 Belmont Stakes. Fox Sports 1 will air the preliminary coverage starting at 10:30 AM ET.

Streaming will be available on any service that carries Fox, such as YouTube TV or fuboTV.

2024 Belmont Stakes purse

It was announced earlier in the year that the purse for the 2024 Belmont Stakes would be increased to $2 million, up from the $1.5 million from 2023.

The breakdown of how that purse will be split is yet to be announced, but it is thought the winner of the Belmont Stakes will earn over $1 million for the first time in history.

Belmont Stakes history

With the Belmont Stakes being run 155 times since 1867, it is a race steeped in history.

The race is named after August Belmont Senior, who helped build Jerome Park Racetrack where the contest was held until 1890.

The inaugural running was won by Ruthless - one of only three fillies to ever win the Belmont alongside Tanya (1905) and Rags To Riches (2007) - in the Bronx.

Between 1890 and 1904 the race was held at Morris Park Racecourse before moving to its home ever since, Belmont Park.

The first running at the iconic venue was, like the inaugural contest, won by a filly, Tanya. That victory came over 1 1/4m, with the trip fluctuating between that, 1 3/8m, 1 1/8m and 1 1/2m, with the latter the most common distance of the Belmont.

The fastest ever winning time over 1 1/2m belongs to the legendary Secretariat, with his 1973 time of two minutes and 24 seconds yet to be bettered, while those contesting this year’s edition will have 1904 winner Delhi’s 2:06.60 time to target.

Secretariat’s unbelievable time saw him win by 31 lengths - another 1 1/2m record - with Lucien Laurin’s iconic star also being one of the 13 horses to land the Belmont and, subsequently, the Triple Crown, with Justify being the most recent to do so in 2018.

Jim McLaughlin and Eddie Arcaro are the most successful jockeys in Belmont Stakes history, with six wins apiece, while James Gordon Rowe Senior is out on his own in the trainer department with a sensational eight triumphs.

Rowe, along with George Martin Odom, is also one of the two people to have won the Race for the Carnations as both a trainer and jockey.

23 horses have missed the chance to become Triple Crown champions in the Belmont Stakes, highlighting the difficulty of the historic race, with the most recent of those being California Chrome in 2014.

The last British winner of the race was Celtic Ash back in 1960, with the last foreign champion being crowned in 1998, with the aptly-named Canadian raider Victory Gallop taking the prize that day.

Outsiders have a decent but not consistent record in this race, with the biggest odds of a winner in the past 20 years belong to 2004’s champion Birdstone, while there have been three odds-on favorites who have won in that time.

Last year’s winner Arcangelo represented a big landmark in American racing as Jena Antonucci became the first female trainer to land a Triple Crown race. Will there be more history made this year?

2024 Belmont Stakes horses and post positions

A full list of horses and post positions will be added here once information becomes available.

Any odds displayed were correct at the time of writing and are subject to fluctuation.