Belmont Stakes Horse Odds - Belmont Park Betting Odds

2008 Belmont Stakes

The 2008 Belmont Stakes takes place on June 7, at 1:00 PM at Belmont Park in Elmont, NY and will be the 140th running of this Grade 1 horse race. The prize purse is $1 million. The third jewel of the Triple Crown is the Belmont Stakes, held five weeks after the Kentucky Derby.

The oldest of America's three Triple Crown races, the Belmont Stakes was first run on June 19, 1867, at the Jerome Park race course, an oddly shaped, English-style track that required its runners to negotiate three turns instead of two because of a dip in the middle of the backstretch. A filly, Ruthless, won the first Belmont's $1,850 winners purse, outlasting DeCourcey by a head. The race has been run every since, with the exception of 1911 and '12, and the Belmont has established itself as the ultimate test of championship stamina in this country. Its 1-1/2-mile distance now has become a rarity in American dirt races.

The Belmont was even longer in its early days, contested at 1-5/8 miles through 1873. But from 1890 through 1926, the race dropped down to distances varying between 1-1/8 and 1-3/8 miles. The 1926 Belmont was run at 1-1/2 miles and was won by Crusader, a son of the legendary Man o' War, in a time of 2:32-1/5. The race has been run at that distance ever since.

Because of its distance and status as the race that can make or break a Triple Crown champion, the Belmont Stakes has been the venue for some of the most famous moments in American racing. There was Count Fleet destroying two nondescript rivals by 25 lengths in the 1943 renewal; Secretariat one-upping his fellow Triple Crown victor 30 years later, winning by 31 lengths in record time and there was Affirmed and Alydar, slugging away at each other for nearly a mile before Affirmed prevailed to become a Triple Crown winner in 1978.

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2007 Belmont Stakes Winner

The previous winning fillies were Ruthless in 1867 and Tanya in 1905. Nineteen other fillies had previously run in the Belmont Stakes. With John Velazquez as her rider for the first time, Rags to Riches also gave trainer Todd Pletcher his first win in a Triple Crown race. Rags to Riches completed the mile and a half trip in 2:28.74 and paid her backers $10.60 to win.

Belmont Stakes Past Winners

Belmont Stakes Traditions

According to the official Web site of the Belmont Stakes, "The white carnation is the traditional flower of the Belmont Stakes. The blanket requires approximately 350 carnations, glued to green velveteen spread and weighs between 30 and 40 pounds. The flowers are shipped from California or Bogota, Columbia."

The Belmont Breeze is the official drink of the Belmont Stakes. Created by New York’s premiere beverage authority Dale DeGroff, the profile of the Belmont Breeze comes from the colonial recipe: one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong and four of weak.

The ingredients are:
1 1/2 ounces of a good American blended whiskey
3/4 ounces Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry
1/2 ounce of fresh lemon juice
1 ounce of simple syrup
(1 ounce of sweet and sour mix may be substituted for the lemon juice and simple syrup)
1 1/2 ounces fresh orange juice
1 1/2 ounces cranberry juice
1 ounce 7-Up
1 ounce Club Soda

Shake first six ingredients with ice, then top with 7-Up and club soda. Garnish with mint sprig and lemon wedge.