Saratoga adds Grade 1 Beverly Steinman steeplechase to Belmont Festival

The New York Racing Association will host a new $150,000 steeplechase race during its Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, to be run this year on June 9 at Saratoga Race Course, the association announced on Monday.

The 2 3/8-mile grass steeplechase race for older horses has been designated a Grade 1 by the National Steeplechase Association, which administers the steeplechase calendar and allocates funding for steeplechase purses. It is being called the Beverly R. Steinman, in honor of a prestigious Thoroughbred owner and breeder and New York racing fixture who has raced top-class horses over the jumps and flat.

“The New York Racing Association is excited to incorporate a steeplechase event into the 2024 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival,” said Andrew Offerman, NYRA’s senior vice president of racing and operations, in a release. “We value the longstanding relationship that NYRA and the NSA have shared and are pleased to honor Peggy Steinman with this wonderful new event.”

The Belmont Stakes Racing Festival will be held June 6-9 at NYRA’s Saratoga Race Course this year. NYRA established the festival to accommodate the June 8 Belmont Stakes after it received final approval last year from the state for a $455 million loan to tear down Belmont and replace it with a modernized facility. The project is not expected to be complete until the fall of 2026.

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The Beverly Steinman will become the first major steeplechase event of the year at a NYRA track. The Steinman will be followed on July 17 by the Grade 1 A.P. Smithwick Memorial at Saratoga and the Grade 1 Jonathan Sheppard Memorial on Aug. 14, also at Saratoga. Like the Steinman, both races are at 2 3/8 miles on the turf and worth $150,000.

The Saratoga steeplechase schedule also includes two $75,000 novice stakes, the Jonathan Kiser on July 31 and the Michael G. Walsh on August 28.

The steeplechase series will conclude with the Grade 1, $150,000 Lonesome Glory and the $75,000 William Entenmann novice stakes, both to be held at Aqueduct in the fall. Dates for those races have yet to be announced.

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