It's official: Belmont Stakes will be held at Saratoga in 2024

The 2024 Belmont Stakes will be held at Saratoga because of construction at Belmont Park.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the decision in a news release Wednesday.

The New York Racing Association raised the purse for the race to $2 million from $1.5 million. And because of the configuration of Saratoga's main track, the race will be run at 1 1/4 miles rather than 1 1/2 miles, if approved by the North American Graded Stakes Committee.

It would be the first time the race is run at 1 1/4 miles since 1905. Typically the third leg of the Triple Crown, it was run at 1 1/8 miles as the first leg in 2020.

Highlighted by the 156th edition of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 8, the 2024 Belmont Stakes racing festival will begin on June 6 and continue through June 9. The four-day festival at Saratoga will include 23 stakes races in total with purses totaling $9.7 million, the highest purse levels and number of stakes offered since the launch of the multi-day festival in 2014.

Under Hochul’s executive budget, NYRA received approval to build new Thoroughbred racing facilities at Belmont Park. This project will upgrade the 117-year-old track, improving hospitality and expanding the amount of open space available to fans and the surrounding community.

After the Belmont festival at Saratoga, the NYRA circuit will return to Aqueduct for the remainder of the spring meet before racing shifts to Saratoga for the annual 40-day summer meet beginning Thursday, July 11. Before the Belmont festival, the Belmont spring-summer meet will be conducted at Aqueduct.

The fall meet customarily held at Belmont Park again will be shifted to Aqueduct in 2024 while construction of a new Belmont Park continues.

Although 2024 will mark the first time the Belmont Stakes is held at Saratoga, the race was moved to Aqueduct from 1963 to 1967 when Belmont Park last underwent significant renovations.