How Long Is the Belmont Stakes?

Key Takeaways:

• Traditionally, the Belmont is run over 1½ miles, making it the longest and most grueling of the Triple Crown races.
• Next to the traditional length, the race has been run at five different distances throughout history, including 1⅝, 1⅜, 1¼, and 1⅛ miles.
• Since Belmont Park is currently being renovated, the 2024 and 2025 Belmont Stakes are being run at a shorter distance of 1¼ miles at Saratoga Race Course; it’s scheduled to return to 1½ miles in 2026.
• In all Belmont History, only one Triple Crown winner, Sir Barton in 1919, won at a distance other than 1½ miles (1⅜ miles).

The Belmont Stakes is the final jewel of the Triple Crown. The race is known as the Test of the Champion because not only is it the last one in a grueling series, but the traditional distance is the longest of the three Triple Crown races: 1 ½ miles on the testing, sandy Belmont Park dirt.

Even though this is the traditional distance, it is not the only distance at which the race has been run. And, even though the recent 1 ¼-mile editions at Saratoga Race Course are an anomaly in the last hundred years or so of Belmont horse racing history, the distance of the race has undergone significant changes quite often.

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These are the distances of the Belmont Stakes during its history.

The Traditional Distance: 1 ½ Miles

The Belmont Stakes did not start at what has evolved into its traditional trip. The race was shortened from 1 ⅝ miles to 1 ½ miles for the 1874 edition, won by Saxon. Even then, however, it was not a done deal. It looked like it was becoming a tradition: the Belmont Stakes was contested at 1 ½ miles at Jerome Park every year from 1874 through 1889. Some of the best of that era include Preakness and Travers champion Duke of Magenta (1878), champion and leading sire Spendthrift (1879), and horse of the year and leading sire Hanover (1887).

The race returned to 1 ½ miles at Belmont Park in 1926. The race had been run at Belmont for about two decades, since Tanya in 1905, but Crusader’s victory in 1926 was the first time the Belmont Stakes was run at a single loop around Belmont Park’s sweeping dirt surface.

The Belmont Stakes at 1 ½ miles has been the scene of triumph: of Secretariat and Citation, of War Admiral and Count Fleet, of Easy Goer and A.P. Indy. It has been the scene of surprise, as with Sarava and Sherluck. And, it has been the scene of Triple Crown heartbreak, with Northern Dancer and Spectacular Bid, with Sunday Silence and Silver Charm, with Smarty Jones and California Chrome. The history of the Belmont Stakes at 1 ½ miles isn’t the entire history of the Belmont, but it fills most of the pages.

1 ½ miles was the Belmont distance every year until 2020, when it was shortened to 1 ⅛ miles due to the race schedule changes in the pandemic. The race was also run over a shorter trip at Saratoga Race Course in 2024 and will be again in 2025, but when Belmont Park reopens in 2026, the final race of the Triple Crown series will be back at its best-loved distance.

Triple Crowns at 1 ½ Miles

Part of the mystique of the Triple Crown has come from the Belmont being 1 ½ miles. After all, not only is it demanding to go through the prep season and then race three classic races within five weeks, but the longest of the Triple Crown races is saved for last.

All but one Triple Crown winner has won the Belmont at 1 ½ miles. Everyone from Gallant Fox all the way through Justify won their Belmont Stakes at this traditional distance. The only exception is Sir Barton, who won it at 1 ⅜ miles, seven years before the Belmont returned to 1 ½ miles.

Other Belmont Stakes Distances

Even though the 1 ½-mile distance of the Belmont Stakes is one of the best-loved traditions in horse racing, the race has been run at four other distances during its history. Most of these races have been early in the Belmont’s history, though two—soon to be three!—altered-distance editions of the race have happened during the 2020s.

1 ⅛ Miles

The least common Belmont Stakes distance is also its shortest: 1 ⅛ miles on the dirt. It was run at that length at Morris Park in 1893 and 1894. Both of those early 1 ⅛-mile editions of the Belmont Stakes were won by jockey Willie Simms, with Comanche in 1893 and Henry of Navarre in 1894. Henry of Navarre went on to become champion three-year-old that year, as well as horse of the year at ages three and four.

The Belmont has been run at 1 ⅛ miles one other time—in 2020, when it was run as the first jewel of the Triple Crown due to COVID-19 pandemic-related schedule changes. Tiz the Law, impressive winner of the Florida Derby, showed no signs of rust when he returned about three months later. He tracked the pace and romped home to win by 3 ¾ lengths, well befitting the bettors’ confidence, making him the odds-on favorite.

1 ¼ Miles

Six early editions of the Belmont Stakes were run at 1 ¼ miles. Those included the 1890 through 1892 editions, the 1895 running, and the 1904 edition at Morris Park, as well as the 1905 edition, its first time at Belmont Park. The best remembered of these early 1 ¼-mile winners is Tanya, one of only three fillies ever to win the Belmont Stakes. The 1890 edition, won by Burlington, was interesting for a different reason—the Preakness Stakes, open to older horses at the time, was run on the same day at Morris Park!

It would be over 100 years until the Belmont Stakes would return to a 1 ¼-mile distance. Due to the New York Racing Association’s rebuild of Belmont Park, the Belmont Stakes was run at Saratoga Race Course in upstate Saratoga Springs in 2024, and will return to that course in 2025. Since a 1 ½-mile dirt race would require putting the starting gate on a turn, the race was shortened to 1 ¼ miles for its two-year stint at Saratoga Race Course.

Dornoch bounced back from an off-the-board outing in the Kentucky Derby with an excellent horse racing effort in the Belmont Stakes. He attended the pace from the outset and still had plenty left to get the best of Mindframe in a long stretch duel, even after Mindframe seized the lead mid-stretch.

The 2025 Belmont Stakes will return to Saratoga Springs, and this 1 ¼-mile distance. Next year’s Belmont Stakes is expected to return to Belmont Park—and its traditional 1 ½-mile trip.

1 ⅜ Miles

There was a time when it seemed that 1 ⅜ miles would become the traditional distance of the Belmont Stakes. It was stepped up to that trip in 1896 at Morris Park, and was run at that trip every year through 1903. After a pair of 1 ¼-mile editions in 1904 and 1905, the race was stretched back out to 1 ⅜ miles in 1906.

Some of the most memorable names in Belmont Stakes history won the Belmont Stakes at this distance. The great Peter Pan won the 1907 Belmont at 1 ⅜ miles, and the undefeated Colin won the next year. Sir Barton won the third jewel of his Triple Crown, something he achieved before the series was ever given that moniker, in 1919, going 1 ⅜ miles at Belmont. He is the only Triple Crown winner to take the final leg at a distance other than 1 ½ miles. The year after Sir Barton, one of the greatest horses in history, won the Belmont at the same distance, Man O War won by 20 lengths in a match race over Donnacona.

However, the Belmont would not be run at 1 ⅜ miles forever. In 1926, it was lengthened to 1 ½ miles, the distance that has become the race’s signature.

1 ⅝ Miles

The original Belmont Stakes distance was also its longest: 1 ⅝ miles. The first seven editions of the race, run at Jerome Park, were all contested at this distance. The best-remembered horse to win at this trip, for several reasons, was Ruthless. She was the first, in 1867, years before the Kentucky Derby or the Preakness Stakes would be inaugurated. The lone filly in the race, she prevailed by a head over DeCourcey. She is still one of only three fillies to win the race, followed only by Tanya and Rags to Riches so far.

After seven runnings at 1 ⅝ miles, the Belmont Stakes was shortened to 1 ½ miles.

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