The short answer: the 2026 Belmont Stakes runs Saturday, June 6, 2026 at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is the 158th running of the race, the third and final year of the temporary Saratoga relocation while Belmont Park finishes its multi-year rebuild, and the centerpiece of a five-day racing festival that opens Wednesday, June 3 and closes Sunday, June 7. If you have been Googling ‘when is the Belmont Stakes’ or ‘what time does the 2026 Belmont Stakes start’ and getting a mix of dates, post times, and venues, the rest of this guide pins down the full schedule, the broadcast window, why the distance is shorter this year, and how to plan a last-minute weekend that still works ten days out.

What Date and Post Time Does the 2026 Belmont Stakes Start?

The 158th Belmont Stakes goes off Saturday, June 6, 2026 at Saratoga Race Course. The race itself is the marquee event on a long Saturday undercard that features seven graded stakes races. The full day of racing opens early in the afternoon and builds toward the Belmont Stakes itself, which has historically gone off in the 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. Eastern window when it shares the Saturday card with a national broadcast block. NYRA traditionally publishes exact post times and a finalized race-by-race lineup roughly seven to ten days before race day, so the 2026 Belmont Stakes post time will be confirmed in late May or the first days of June.

If you are planning your travel window around the race itself, build the day around a late-afternoon to early-evening Saturday post and assume a long afternoon at the track before the headline race goes off. The Belmont Stakes is the last of the seven graded stakes on the card, which means the entire day is essentially a build-up to that single race. Most travelers who come in just for race day end up arriving Friday night or Saturday morning and staying through Sunday morning so they are not driving the Northway out of Saratoga in the dark after a 7 p.m. post.

What Is the Full Belmont Stakes Racing Festival Schedule?

The 2026 Belmont Stakes is not a single Saturday event. It is the climax of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, which runs five consecutive days from Wednesday, June 3 through Sunday, June 7. Each day of the festival has its own slate of graded stakes races, and the schedule deepens as the weekend gets closer. Belmont Stakes Day on Saturday is the heaviest racing day of the year at Saratoga, with seven stakes races stacked on a single card.

  • Wednesday, June 3: Opening day of the festival. Lighter card built around mid-week stakes racing and the festival’s first arrivals.
  • Thursday, June 4: Stakes-heavy weekday card. A practical day to be in town if you want trackside seating without the Saturday crowds.
  • Friday, June 5: The traditional “Friday of Belmont” card. Features multiple graded stakes including races that have historically been moved up from the Belmont Stakes Day undercard.
  • Saturday, June 6: Belmont Stakes Day. Seven graded stakes including the 158th Belmont Stakes itself. This is the day every other day of the festival builds toward.
  • Sunday, June 7: Closing day. Shorter card, calmer crowd, and the easiest day to walk up if you want to add a final morning at the track before flying out.

FOX Sports broadcasts wall-to-wall coverage across all five days, with FOX One available for streaming. If you are trying to plan a longer weekend that pairs the Belmont Stakes with Saratoga’s other late-spring events, the wider Triple Crown race-day calendar overlaps with the early NHL and NBA Finals broadcast windows, which is worth keeping in mind if you are booking dinner and bar reservations around game watch parties.

Why Is the 2026 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Instead of Belmont Park?

Belmont Park on Long Island has been closed for live racing through a multi-year capital project that is rebuilding the grandstand, paddock, and surrounding facilities. NYRA shifted the 2024 Belmont Stakes to Saratoga, ran the 2025 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga again, and the 2026 Belmont Stakes will be the third and final year of the Saratoga relocation. The new Belmont Park is scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2026, which puts the 2027 Belmont Stakes back at its traditional Long Island home. The full backstory on why the race moved to Saratoga while Belmont Park finishes a multi-year rebuild walks through what changed and what stayed the same.

One immediate effect of running at Saratoga is the race distance. The traditional Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park is 1 1/2 miles, which is what earned it the “Test of the Champion” nickname and made it the longest of the three Triple Crown races. Saratoga’s main track is smaller, so the Belmont Stakes runs at 1 1/4 miles (10 furlongs) at Saratoga, the same distance as the Kentucky Derby. That changes the strategic shape of the race itself. Closers who would normally have an extra furlong to grind down the field have less ground to work with, and front-runners that might fade in the final 16th at Belmont Park have a real chance to hang on at Saratoga’s shorter trip.

It also changes what the trip feels like. Saratoga Springs is a destination town in a way Elmont, New York is not. The walking village around Saratoga Race Course has its own bar and restaurant scene, the track itself is one of the oldest in the country, and the upstate New York setting in early June is a meaningfully different experience than a day trip from Manhattan to Belmont Park. For a side-by-side on how Belmont compares with the Kentucky Derby and Preakness as a travel weekend, the Saratoga setting is most of what makes the current run of races feel distinct.

How Do You Plan a Last-Minute Trip to the 2026 Belmont Stakes?

With Belmont Stakes Day eleven days out from this writing, a last-minute trip is still very much possible if you move quickly and stay flexible on the room category. The two pieces that go first every year are premium grandstand and clubhouse seating, and the best in-town Saratoga Springs hotels along Broadway. As of late May, many seating categories on NYRA’s own ticketing platform are already sold out, but secondary inventory, hospitality packages, and infield general admission are still moving.

The hotel block is the bigger constraint. Saratoga Springs has a few hundred in-town rooms, and most of them are owned by the same handful of operators who pre-block their inventory for the festival a year in advance. When the in-town blocks fill, the practical search radius expands first to Wilton and the Northway exits 13 through 17, then south toward Albany. From Albany Airport, you are looking at about a 35 to 45 minute drive to the track depending on Saturday traffic. From Glens Falls, you are 20 to 30 minutes north. Both are workable if you build the trip around a Friday-night arrival.

  • Lock the room first. Tickets can still be found through hospitality and secondary channels right up to race day; the room cannot.
  • Plan for Friday-night arrival. Belmont Stakes Day starts early. Trying to fly in Saturday morning leaves no buffer if any leg slips.
  • Decide on a seating tier honestly. Infield general admission, picnic table, grandstand reserved, and clubhouse hospitality are radically different experiences with very different price points.
  • Build in Sunday morning. Saratoga Sunday brunch is an event in itself, and flying out late Sunday avoids the post-race Saturday-night gridlock.
  • Confirm transportation. Rideshare exists in Saratoga but is thinner than in a major metro. A pre-arranged car or a walking-distance hotel makes Saturday night much easier.

If you want the room, the seats, and the transportation handled as one trip rather than five separate bookings, Belmont Stakes travel packages at Saratoga Race Course bundle hotel, ticketed seating, and ground transfers around the Saturday card. For travelers who want to add the Friday card, the Sunday closing card, or a side trip into the Adirondacks, the package can be tailored from there.

Frequently Asked Questions

What time does the 2026 Belmont Stakes start?

NYRA had not finalized the official post time at the time of writing. Based on the broadcast windows used for the 2024 and 2025 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga, the 158th Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 6, 2026 is expected to go off in the early-evening window between roughly 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. Eastern. The full undercard runs all afternoon, so the gates open many hours before the headline race itself.

How long is the 2026 Belmont Stakes race?

The 2026 Belmont Stakes will run at 1 1/4 miles, or 10 furlongs, the same distance as the Kentucky Derby. The traditional 1 1/2 mile Belmont distance is only used at Belmont Park, and the race has been shortened to 1 1/4 miles for each of the three years it has been temporarily relocated to Saratoga.

Where can I watch the 2026 Belmont Stakes on TV?

FOX Sports has wall-to-wall coverage of all five days of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, with the Saturday Belmont Stakes Day broadcast block running through the afternoon and into the early evening. FOX One carries the same coverage as a streaming option, which is the most flexible way to watch if you are traveling and want the broadcast on a phone, tablet, or hotel-room TV.

How many days is the 2026 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival?

Five days. The 2026 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival opens Wednesday, June 3 and closes Sunday, June 7. Belmont Stakes Day on Saturday, June 6 is the heaviest card of the five and features seven graded stakes races including the Belmont Stakes itself.

Will the Belmont Stakes return to Belmont Park in 2027?

Yes. NYRA has confirmed the new Belmont Park will reopen in the fall of 2026, which means the 2027 Belmont Stakes will return to its traditional Long Island home and resume its 1 1/2 mile distance. The 2026 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga is the final year of the temporary relocation.

How early should you arrive at Saratoga on Belmont Stakes Day?

Plan for a long day. Most travelers who have done it before recommend arriving when the gates open, eating an early lunch trackside, and pacing the day around the seven-race undercard. If you only arrive an hour or two before the Belmont Stakes post, you will spend most of that window navigating parking, gate lines, and the late-afternoon crowd surge, which is when traffic into Saratoga peaks.

Are 2026 Belmont Stakes tickets still available?

As of late May, several premium seating categories on NYRA’s own platform were already sold out, but hospitality packages, infield general admission, and secondary-market reserved seating were still available. Inventory tightens quickly the closer race day gets. If a specific seating tier matters to you, lock it in this week rather than next.

Ready to Lock In Your 2026 Belmont Stakes Weekend?

If the date, the post time, and the festival structure all line up with your weekend, the next step is matching the trip itself to the seating tier and travel style you actually want. We can build a custom Sportcation built around your Belmont Stakes weekend with the hotel, the seats, ground transfers, and any Friday-card or Sunday add-ons handled as one booking instead of five. Call us, send a short note about who is coming and what kind of experience you want, and we can have a real proposal back to you the same day.