Belmont Stakes 2024: Start time, horses, channel, how to watch and stream

Today is the 156th running of the Belmont Stakes, and while there’s no chance of a Triple Crown winner, a bit of history will be made.

Ordinary the final leg of the Triple Crown is run at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y. But with $455 million worth of renovations underway at that track, the race will instead be held three hours upstate at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, a first in the race’s 156-year history. Though it’s not the first time the race has been relocated — the Belmont Stakes was held at Aqueduct Racetrack in the 1960s due to renovations at Belmont.

Due to differences in the two tracks, this year’s Belmont Stakes has been shortened from 1½ miles to 1¼ miles, the same distance as the Kentucky Derby.

Sierra Leone (9-5) enters as the favorite after a dramatic comeback in the Kentucky Derby left him a nose short of winning. There’s also Seize the Grey (8-1), the winner of the Preakness Stakes last month. Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan’s (5-1) is trying to become the first horse to win both the Derby and Belmont without winning the Preakness since Thunder Gulch in 1995.

Calling his first Belmont Stakes for Fox will be veteran track announcer Frank Mirahmadi, the full-time announcer at Santa Anita Park in California. He also announced the summer meet every year at Saratoga Race Course, but this will be his first time calling a Triple Crown event.

“My job is to pretend it’s not as big of a race as it is, and just call a nice mile-and-a-quarter event on the legendary Saratoga surface,” Mirahmadi told WNYT in Albany this week.

A big question heading into today’s race is how many people will actually tune into Fox to watch the Belmont Stakes with no Triple Crown on the line?

In 2018, 12.7 million viewers watched Justify clinch the Triple Crown. But for Fox’s Belmont debut last year, when no Triple Crown was at stake, the race drew just 3.5 million viewers. That makes it the least-watched Belmont Stakes in at least 30 years, according to Sports Media Watch (not counting 2020′s pandemic-delayed race, which drew just 3.3 million viewers).

Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream this year’s Belmont Stakes:

Coverage of the Belmont Stakes will begin on FS1 at 10:30 a.m. Coverage will switch to Fox at 4 p.m., following the first game of the Phillies’ London series against the New York Mets.

The race will stream on the Fox Sports app, though a cable login is required. Fox is also available to stream on a host of subscription services, including YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, fubo, and DirecTV Stream. You can also stream Fox for free with a digital antenna in just about any metropolitan area, including Philadelphia.

Anchoring Fox’s coverage is Curt Menefee, the longtime host of Fox NFL Sunday. Joining him will be trainer Tom Amoss and retired jockey Richard Migliore, the winner of more than 4,400 races over his 30-year racing career.

Charissa Thompson will join the broadcast from the paddock, along with Fox Sports wagering expert Chris Fallica and handicapper Jonathon Kinchen.

While NBC isn’t broadcasting the third leg of the Triple Crown, MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki offered his predictions of the race. He thinks Sierra Leone will be the likely winner, but his heart told him to pick Seize the Grey, a “speedy, versatile horse who’s getting better and whose best we may not have yet seen.”

The winner will take home $1.5 million from a purse of $2 million, up from $1.5 million last year. That’s split between the owner, trainer, and jockey. The jockey’s agent and the valet also get a cut.

The second-place team will receive $360,000, while finishing third will net $200,000.

For more details, Ed Barkowitz has a breakdown of each horse, complete with their jockeys, career earnings, and 2024 stats.