While there will be some price increases in admission and seating for this year’s Belmont Stakes, they are not nearly as steep as initially thought when NYRA President and Chief Executive Chris Kay suggested they would be in line with prices for the Kentucky Derby.
One week after announcing that the June 7 Belmont Stakes Day card will be the second-richest program on the North American calendar, the New York Racing Association released the entire spring/summer schedule that will present 62 stakes worth $17.95 million in purses – including six races worth at least $1 million.
The New York Racing Association announced Friday that the June 7 Belmont Stakes Day card will offer purses totaling $8 million and 10 stakes races - six Grade 1’s - including the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, which has been moved from its traditional Memorial Day spot on the calendar.
A popular expression used to describe an appealing horse in the bloodstock market is to say that he or she “ticked all the boxes.” For breeder William S. Farish III, Palace Malice’s triumph in the Belmont Stakes did just that.
W. Cothran “Cot” Campbell, president of the trailblazing Dogwood Stable partnership, always felt there were bright things in the future for Palace Malice, a well-regarded colt who, through a run of bad luck, entered the Belmont Stakes without a graded stakes victory to his name.
No longer will the deeply loyal Dogwood fans of Aiken be satisfied by merely hitting the board in a classic, or making the lively pace. If the local reaction to the Belmont is any indication, nothing less than a grand triumph will ever be tolerated again.
The Belmont Stakes broadcast on NBC on Saturday had a final national rating of 4.5 with a share of 11, slightly down from the figures last year but slightly up from the 2011 figures, according to numbers distributed by the network Tuesday.
Orb won the Kentucky Derby but finished behind Oxbow in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, and those two colts both were behind Palace Malice on Saturday in the Belmont, leaving the male 3-year-old title up for grabs nearing the midway point of the year.
Palace Malice, who won the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, came out of the race in good condition and is likely headed to Saratoga for the Jim Dandy Stakes on July 27 and the Travers on Aug. 24, trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday at Belmont Park.
Handle on the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in New York on Saturday was $52.6 million, down 6.2 percent compared with handle of $56.1 million on the race last year, according to the charts for the two races.
