Belmont stakes triple crown race

The final jewel of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes ---Test of the Champion for 3-year-olds, is the oldest of the top three races and the longest at one and a half miles. Horse racing fans also call it the Race for the Carnations.

Winning the Belmont not only allow horses to take home the $1 million purse, but also the once-in-a-lifetime chance of winning the Triple Crown honors.

The Belmont Stakes can vary from a huge excitement to a laid back race, depending on the results from the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes races. If only one winner emerges from these first two legs, the time leading up to the event will be total madness with the media and horse racing fans from all over the world coming to witness a possible coronation of a Triple Crown winner since 1978.

But the atmosphere will be much more relaxed if two different winners come out of Louisville and Maryland, although far from fans losing interest in the Belmont Stakes altogether.

Belmont Stake's inaugural running was in 1867 at Jerome Park Recourse. It is the oldest of the Triple Crown races, it predates Preakness by six years and the Kentucky Derby by eight. Furthermore, it is also the fourth oldest race overall in North America.

The first running took place on a Thursday at a mile and five furlongs, with an entry fee of $200 half forfeit with $1,500 added. The Belmont was transferred from Jerome Park to Morris Park in 1890, it was to stay there until 1905 when the Belmont Park was opened. Belmont Stakes is run on the first Saturday of June