Saratoga Springs welcomes with Pomp and Circumstance the inspiring and triumphant Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 8.
The oldest and most demanding Thoroughbred racing event is this traditional third and final leg of the American Triple Crown. Remembered as The Test of Champions and The Run of the Carnations, for the first time, the Saratoga Race Course will have the honor of hosting the 156th renewal of The Test of Champions.
The 2024 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival will be a four-day event from Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9. Included will be 24 stakes races with purses totaling over $10 million. From Albany to Saratoga Springs to Lake George, New York, hotels and motels are booked with guests eager to participate and to be part of this momentous occasion.
The grandeur and uplifting melody of Pomp and Circumstance is synonymous with celebrating success. As your Mayor, a sense of pride fills each day, as preparations unfold for the entire four-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival of events.
While having my initial focus on rebuilding civility and cooperation, on the cornerstone principle of harmony, our Saratoga Springs community is suddenly off to the races. The spotlight will be on our Saratoga Race Course and we will gain international exposure, benefiting our town, our residents and our business community.
History on the racecourse actually started several centuries ago, when in 1711, Queen Anne went riding near Windsor Castle in England, and stumbled upon an open expanse which looked, in her words, “ideal for horses to gallop at full stretch.” Thus, in August 1711, Ascot Racecourse was born. August 3, 1863, one hundred and fifty-two years later, the first United States organized Thoroughbred race card was on Saratoga’s Oklahoma Track!
Three years later, on June 19, 1867, Thoroughbred racing was inaugurated. The American Triple Crown first opened on May 4, 1905, with Belmont eventually becoming one of the best-known racetracks in the United States, while Sports Illustrated named Saratoga Springs, the place where the past comes alive, in our historic grandstand every summer.
As history continues, Belmont was granted $4.1 million to construct a new re-imagined Belmont Park. Learning shortly thereafter the exciting news that the 2024 and 2025 Belmont Stakes would run at Saratoga Race Course, until the reconstruction is completed.
Over a century ago, in the late 1800’s, it was our naturally flowing, carbonated waters that first brought visitors here in droves. Today, the oldest, continuously operating race horse track in the country, our Saratoga Race Course, is the center of attraction within the Thoroughbred racing community.
As a driving force, my goal is behind building and maintaining a healthy, harmonious, viable resort community, that thrives year round, in track season and beyond. Our great City is now open to meeting the challenges, while bursting at the seams with pride, hope and glory.
Let us all roll with any inconvenience, welcome the crowds, take extra time to reach your destination and know, in the end, our town of “Health, History and Horses” will experience beneficial, unexpected acclaim and prosperity in many different and unimaginable ways, with only four days on center stage.
John Safford is Saratoga Springs Mayor.
![Before Native Americans or Europeans settled in the Troy area, it was a river plain filled with oak and yellow (Pitch) pine, probably similar to Albany’s Pine Bush.The pine barrens environment was extensive in the Capital District and part of a larger sand belt that extended up to Warren County. Eventually it became known as […]](https://www.saratogian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/donRittner.jpg?w=256 "Before Native Americans or Europeans settled in the Troy area, it was a river plain filled with oak and yellow (Pitch) pine, probably similar to Albany’s Pine Bush.The pine barrens environment was extensive in the Capital District and part of a larger sand belt that extended up to Warren County. Eventually it became known as […]")
