Belmont Park - History

History

Belmont is known as "The Championship Track" because almost every major champion in racing history since the early 20th century has competed on the racecourse — including each of the 11 Triple Crown winners. Along with Saratoga Race Course, Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Churchill Downs in Louisville, and Del Mar and Santa Anita racecourses in California, Belmont is considered one of the elite racetracks in the sport.

The largest crowd was in 2004 when 120,139 witnessed the Belmont Stakes as Smarty Jones was seeking the Triple Crown but was upset by Birdstone.

Belmont Park 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 Race Course, and the now-defunct Jamaica Racetrack (the Rochdale Village housing development now occupies the site of Jamaica).


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