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6 unusual facts about Belmont Stakes


Bedford Park, Bronx

Jerome Park Racecourse became the first home of the famous Belmont Stakes horse race, until 1890.

Jerome Park Reservoir

It is named for Jerome Park Racetrack, a part of the former Old Bathgate Estate which opened in 1866 and which was the site of the inaugural Belmont Stakes in 1867.

Long Island Rail Road

On the day of the Belmont Stakes horse race, extra trains to accommodate the large amount of spectators attending the event.

Spring Grand Slam

The Triple Crown — involving the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes — is contested only by three-year-olds who race over distances between 1910 metres (Preakness) and 2400 metres (Belmont).

Thomas J. Barry

Barry proved correct as the colt won the 1958 Belmont Stakes, at a mile and a half, the longest of the U.S. Triple Crown races.

However, from two entries in the third leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series, the Belmont Stakes, Tom Barry's horses won both.


Count Fleet

He won the Withers Stakes before heading to Elmont, New York for the Belmont Stakes where he captured the Triple Crown by scoring a 25-length victory, a record margin that stood until 1973.

David Hofmans

Training for prominent horseman and Magna Entertainment Corp. Chairman, Frank Stronach, in 1997 Hofmans won Canada's most presigious race, the Queen's Plate, with Awesome Again and won the Belmont Stakes that saw his colt Touch Gold end Silver Charm's bid for the U.S.Triple Crown.

Eight Thirty

He sired 44 stakes winners and was the damsire of 1962 Belmont Stakes winner Jaipur.

Elmont, New York

Elmont is famous as the home of Belmont Park which hosts the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the prestigious Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing.

Go and Go

He then ran fourth in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial, after which his handlers decided to try him for the first time on the dirt and entered him in June's Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in New York.

Horometer

Bred and raced by Col. Sam McLaughlin's Parkwood Stable, he was brood of the mare Star Pal and sired by Hourless, the 1917 American Co-Champion 3-Yr-Old Male Horse and winner of the Belmont Stakes.

Miesque

She returned to the U.S. to defend her Breeders Cup title at Churchill Downs in Kentucky and once again was up against a very strong field of older males including Belmont Stakes winner Bet Twice and the Daniel Wildenstein-owned champion, Steinlen.

Temperence Hill

After showing strong potential throughout the spring of 1980, with wins in Kentucky Derby prep races, the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby, Temperence Hill's breakthrough performance came in the 1980 Belmont Stakes where he defeated Kentucky Derby winner Genuine Risk and Preakness Stakes winner Codex at odds of 53-1.


see also

Sam Hildreth

In 1909, Hildreth also won his second Belmont Stakes with his own horse, Joe Maddon, and went on to capture the first of three consecutive leading owner and trainer honors in the United States.

Warrensburg-Latham Community Unit District 11

Famous alumni include Stephen Mason (guitarist with Jars of Clay), Hall of Fame jockey John L. Rotz (rider of the winners of two Triple Crown races, the 1962 Preakness Stakes on the horse Greek Money, and 1970 Belmont Stakes on the colt, High Echelon), and

West Hempstead, New York

Lucien Laurin, award-winning horse trainer who won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths in 1973.