Belmont Stakes Belmont Stakes The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held on the first or second Saturday in June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a horse race, open to three-year-old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nicknamed The Test of the Champion, and The Run for the Carnations, is the third and final leg of the Triple Crown and is held five weeks after the Kentucky Derby and three weeks after the Preakness Stakes. The 1973 Belmont Stakes and Triple Crown winner Secretariat holds
Kentucky Derby to its approximate duration. It is the first leg of the American Triple Crown and is followed by the Preakness Stakes, then the Belmont Stakes. Unlike the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, which took hiatuses in 1891–1893 and 1911–1912, respectively, the Kentucky Derby has been run every consecutive year since 1875. The Derby, Preakness and Belmont all were run even every year throughout both World Wars, when the Olympics and nearly all professional sports seasons were canceled, due to the fact that nearly all the athletes enlisted. A horse must win all three races to win the Triple Crown. In the