page_title: Belmont Park
section_title: Belmont Park today
hierarchical_section_title: Belmont Park / Belmont Park today
caption_attribution_description: English: The "Woody's Corner" display in the first-floor clubhouse lobby commemorates the five consecutive Belmont Stakes winners trained by the legendary Woody Stephens from 1982 to 1986. Photo by Dave Mock
context_page_description: Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse racing facility in the northeastern United States, located in Elmont, New York, just east of the New York City limits. It was opened on May 4, 1905.
  It is operated by the non-profit New York Racing Association, as are Aqueduct and Saratoga Race Course. The group was formed in 1955 as the Greater New York Association to assume the assets of the individual associations that ran Belmont, Aqueduct, Saratoga, and the now-defunct Jamaica Race Course.
  Belmont Park is typically open for racing from late April through mid-July, and again from mid-September through late October. It is widely known as the home of the Belmont Stakes in early June, regarded as the "Test of the Champion", the third leg of the Triple Crown.
  Along with Saratoga Race Course in Upstate New York, Keeneland and Churchill Downs in Kentucky, and Del Mar and Santa Anita in California, Belmont is considered one of the elite racetracks in North America.
  The race park's main dirt track has earned the nickname, "the Big Sandy," given its prominent overall dimensions and the deep, sometimes tiring surface.
context_section_description: Racing at Belmont Park is conducted in two annual installments, or "meetings". The "spring-summer meeting" usually now begins on the Thursday or Friday of the week before the Kentucky Derby in April and lasts through the first or second Sunday in July, depending on the start of the Saratoga meet that follows (the Saratoga meet was expanded to eight weeks in 2019).  The "fall meeting" follows the Saratoga Season, commencing on the Thursday or Friday after Labor Day and ending on either the last Sunday in October or in some years the first Sunday in November, usually dependent on the dates of the Breeders' Cup. Racing is held at Saratoga Race Course, during the time between these two meetings. Prior to 1977 a summer meeting was contested at Aqueduct from mid-June until the Saratoga meet began; its abolition led to the Belmont spring meeting being lengthened to its present duration (and eventual renaming).
  The autumn installment is known as the Fall Championship meet, since many of the eventual Eclipse Award title winners have earned key victories in some of the meeting's races, such as the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Before the advent of the Breeders' Cup series in 1984, the Belmont Fall Championship races themselves helped determine the divisional championships.
  Belmont has been home to the day-long Breeders' Cup championship in 1990, 1995, 2001 (the first major sports event to be held after the September 11 Attacks in the metropolitan area) and most recently in 2005.
  Belmont's backyard is well known as a gathering place for racing fans to see their horses saddled before they hit the track. The center of the paddock is dominated by a white pine that pre-dated the track itself—it turned 180 years old in 2006. A stylized version of the pine has been the centerpiece of Belmont Park's corporate logo since 1968.
   The paddock area also serves as a picnic area for the increasing numbers of fans who make Belmont Stakes Day—the Saturday that falls within the range of June 5 through June 11—a tourist attraction.
caption: The "Woody's Corner" display in the first-floor clubhouse lobby commemorates the five consecutive Belmont Stakes winners trained by Woody Stephens from 1982 to 1986.
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