The third and final race of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes is aptly named the Test of the Champion as it is the longest and most grueling of the three jewels. Inaugurated in 1867, the Belmont Stakes takes place at the iconic Belmont Park also known as the fairest of racetracks.
The run for the carnations traditionally covers 1 1/2 miles (12 furlongs) on the dirt at Belmont Park, though for 2024 and 2025 it will cover 1 1/4 miles (10 furlongs) at Saratoga Race Course while Belmont is under construction. As usual, it is open to three-year-old Thoroughbred colts, geldings, and fillies. Whether a new Triple Crown winner is inaugurated or a longshot has his day, the Belmont Stakes is a thrill like no other.
Like the two races before it, the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs and the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, the Belmont Stakes is one of the best betting opportunities of the year.
Letâs look at the Belmont Stakes online betting overview, which contains:
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As the third and final leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes can become the most memorable of the three if not just for recency bias. It may trail the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in terms of popularity, but when a horse like American Pharoah or Secretariat is going for it, it can easily become the most electric.
Funds are at an all-time high flowing through Belmont Stakes betting sites with 2023 generating a record handle for a non-Triple Crown year at over $118 million.
With betting becoming even more popular, sports betting is a booming business, which means oddsmaking will become craftier. It wonât be easy to go against the bookies. But you can still profit if you know how to play your cards, so to speak.
Understanding the Belmont Stakes, its history, and how its betting odds work is half the battle. With horse racing, choosing the winner is a no-brainer. Sometimes it is a foregone conclusion and sometimes itâs a bit more wide open.
But there will always be favorites, Belmont Stakes betting sites believe have the best chance of winning, and underdogs, those who are less likely to win.
By converting betting odds to implied probability, you can find what the bookies think of each horseâs chance. But what do you think? At times there is a disparity between what bookmakers believe will happen and what will happen, hence upsets.
You can learn more about this by getting into the Belmont Stakes. Read up and do some research. And this includes comparing the top online sportsbooks that offer the odds.
With betting, there are only winners and losers. Although upon closer inspection, the difference between winning and losing can be as little as a fraction and may not be worth the risk.
In this case, letâs look at a betting scenario between a heavy favourite and a longshot. Letâs call these hypothetical horses King Rule and Black Dog.
King Rule is the significant favourite at odds of 0.50 meaning you will only see a $5 return on a $10 bet. On the flipside, Black Dog is one of the biggest underdogs at 50.00 meaning a $10 bet will yield a $500 return.
Our favorite is on the path to a Triple Crown and has won the last two races by at least four lengths. His odds have quickly dropped as chalk players looking for an âeasy paydayâ bet him heavily. Heâs the foregone winner and theyâre more than happy to make pennies out of a dollar. Meanwhile, Black Dog sits steadily at 50-1 odds making no headlines at all.
The race starts and while King Rule has a solid start, he starts to falter in the middle. Black Dog, who had a slow start is beginning to catch up. All of a sudden, with just a quarter of the race left, both King Rule and Black Dog are neck-and-neck.
The big money chalkers are all sweating bullets while the handful of casuals who bet Black Dog on a whim are ecstatic. This is a historic upset in the making.
Alas, King Rule manages to edge out Black Dog and win the race. He becomes a Triple Crown winner. Chalkers breathed a heavy sigh of relief while those who bet Black Dog still couldnât help but smile feeling theyâve won.
While itâs true that the favourite did win, the amount of stress it took to cash almost made that bet not worth it while the underdog gleefully teased their bettors. Not all winners (and losers) are made the same. Be smart when betting. There is no such thing as a âsure winner.â
The Belmont Stakes race betting outlook can look a bit different depending on the hype heading in. If there is a horse going for the Triple Crown, expect there to be a bit more betting markets available. But if there is no bid for a Triple Crown, this might look a bit different. Either way, the Belmont Stakes will always be a major attraction and will constantly offer plenty of betting.
For those horse racing fans that aim to bet on the Belmont Stakes online, we have a range of great betting markets to explore. We aim to highlight the various ways to enjoy betting on the Belmont Stakes online, as well as explore previous years’ races. Stay tuned for more in our Belmont Stakes betting guide.
Here it is, the betting odds that matters most: pick the outright winner of the Belmont Stakes. Itâs straightforward and most of the work for newbies is deciphering what odds mean. So this is what they mean:
Since the Belmont Stakes, like most horse races, award the top three finishers, betting odds are also widely available for these.
These odds manifest per horse: you get to choose which position the horse will finish in. It may appear like this:
Picking âtop 2â or “Place” indicates the horse will finish second place or first place and âtop 3â or “Show” is a third place or better finish. The payout is adjusted on the proximity of the bets. Since finishing in the top 3 is a less risky bet than a top 2 or outright win bet, it pays less. But the odds of cashing the bet is also higher.
Depending on the Belmont Stakes betting sites and situations, you can also bet on the horse to finish in a specific position within the top 3 or not at all. The payout will be significantly higher as predicting an exact finish (other than first place) is incredibly difficult outside of heavy favorites.
Belmont Stakes betting sites also offer several prop bets. These are wagers made on a specific condition happening or not happening. Think of it as the sports betting manifestation of this question: âbet you this will happenâ or âbet you this wonât happen.â
This is when you can let loose and have a bit of fun as many of these can be arbitrary or unconventional in nature.
Here are some examples of popular prop bets at the Belmont Stakes:
Usually, these prop bets are simply a selection between either/or although odds are not always 50/50 (such as breaking Secretariatâs record).
In terms of the over/under, one of the more popular prop bets, you bet whether the winning time will go over (higher) or under (lower) than the bookieâs predicted time. If the oddsmaker sets the winning time at 2:21:33, you bet whether the winner will have a shorter (under) or longer (over) time.
When it comes to betting props, take it slower and donât bet as much. The betting limits tend to not be that high anyway.
While they appear trivial, you can still make a tidy profit here by doing some deep digging. Find past betting results on some frequently opened props or look into the history of the Belmont Stakes to find any trends the oddsmakers may have missed or miscalculated.
You never know what youâll find when you look hard enough.
Itâs never more apparent that bettors are either lottery gunning for a major upset or chalking, betting heavily on favourites, than the Belmont Stakes. As the third and final leg of the Triple Crown, itâs fairly common â once every four year average â that there is a horse gunning for the legendary title.
When it is one of those cases, you can either side with this future Hall of Famer or go against it. Do some research first. Start with what the success rate of horses going for a Triple Crown are? Do they usually succeed or not?
The oddsmakers have that calculated already. The key is to determine if they calculated correctly or they may have miscalculated a bit. Wait a while as the betting public will tend to lean on one side.
Also, depending on what side youâre taking, itâs better to either wait or bet immediately. For favorites, it may be better to bet as early as you can before the public bet a line to the point it becomes unprofitable. But for underdogs, especially big longshots, there shouldnât be any rush betting.
In the event there will be no Triple Crown and itâs almost an even playing field, it can be a crapshoot. Look at the odds and see if itâs viable to bet on more than one horse. Set a betting budget and shop around for the best betting odds.
Like its two counterparts, Belmont Stakes odds are available all year round and is usually reliant on both the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Derby in terms of how it is lined. Naturally, Belmont Stakes betting sites use both of these races as a barometer for the contestants.
Odds are traditionally released early, even right after the most recent Belmont Stakes has just finished. Though these odds would be vague and may be taken off the board or changed within a few days or weeks. Betting on these odds, known as âfuturesâ, would mean tying up your money for a while and only has small limits.
The Belmont Stakes is usually a place where history happens: we may see a Triple Crown winner or a monumental upset. As such, there have been more big money winners here than its two predecessors.
Belmont Stakes odds take clearer shape closer to the race, once connections make their decisions about which horses will be headed to the final leg of the Triple Crown. On Tuesday, June 6, when the race is drawn, the post time, post positions, trainers, jockeys, and morning line odds for the Belmont Stakes will be finalized.
Until then, you can get a head start by making sure you know the horses who are heading toward the Belmont Stakes. Some of the live contenders come out of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs or the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. Other times, top Kentucky Derby contenders will be new faces who are coming out of other Derby prep races or even another stakes race like the Peter Pan. Following news about Belmont Stakes probables will make handicapping the race easier, and may help you find a live longshot!
 |  |  |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Sierra Leone | +175 | +180 | +180 |
| Mindframe | +250 | +350 | +325 |
| Seize the Grey | +500 | +800 | +750 |
| Mystik Dan | +650 | +500 | +750 |
| Resilience | +1000 | +1000 | +1100 |
Even though the race does not draw until June 3, it is not too early to meet some of the contenders and start thinking about the Belmont Stakes winner. Some of the horses worth watching will come out of other Triple Crown races like the Kentucky Derby or Preakness. Some will be new faces. As the race takes its early shape, here are some who might just end up being the best horse in the 2023 Belmont Stakes.
Preakness Stakes winner Seize the Grey is being unambiguously pointed to the Belmont Stakes by trainer D. Wayne Lukas. He has good tactical speed: he wired the Preakness easily, but was able to win the Pat Day Mile (G2) two weeks before in stalk and pounce fashion. He still has to prove himself over the extra half furlong past the Preakness distance, and he may have to deal with more competition on the front end. However, he is in the best form of his life and on paper his pedigree is all distance.
Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan has not yet been committed to the Belmont Stakes for sure. He did run a credible second behind a pace-advantaged Seize the Grey in the Preakness, though. So, if Kenny McPeek does run him in the Belmont, he deserves respect. He should get a better pace setup than he did in the Preakness, and his Kentucky Derby win proved he could stay a mile and a quarter.
The likely favorite in the Belmont Stakes is Sierra Leone, who missed by a nose in the Kentucky Derby. He is two noses shy of a perfect career record, meaning he has fired and run a good race in every career start. His massive rally and the way he stayed on afterwards in the Blue Grass shows his stamina and grit, and with several speed horses in discussions for the Belmont, there is a good chance that he will get a good trip setup.
Others from the first two jewels of the Triple Crown who may resurface in the Belmont include Fierceness, the beaten Kentucky Derby favorite; Honor Marie, who was troubled early in the Kentucky Derby; Tuscan Gold, who did not handle the wet Preakness going well; and Dornoch, who should be part of the early pace in the Belmont if he can run his race.
The discussion of new faces in the Belmont Stakes begins with Thorpedo Anna, the impressive winner of the Kentucky Oaks. She is getting better as the distances get longer. And, trainer Kenny McPeek already knows how to topple the boys with a good filly in the Triple Crown race: he did so in the 2020 Preakness when Swiss Skydiver beat Kentucky Derby favorite Authentic. McPeek will likely send either Mystik Dan or Thorpedo Anna, not both, but whoever he sends will be live.
Antiquarian got the best of The Wine Steward in the Peter Pan (G3), the traditional local prep for the Belmont, and the race that produced 2023 winner Arcangelo. Antiquarian, who has a strong distance pedigree for excellent Belmont Stakes trainer Todd Pletcher, probably needed the experience he got in the Louisiana Derby (G2) and should be better than he was when he faced this caliber of horse before. The Wine Steward always shows up, but at this level tends to find someone too good and will make more sense for exotics.
Others who may turn up in the Belmont as new faces include Batten Down, a stoutly-bred maiden winner for Bill Mott. as well as Mindframe and Protective, a pair of other up-and-comers for trainer Todd Pletcher.
Since its inception in 1867, over 150 years ago, the Belmont Stakes has seen its fair share of records and record breaking. It is notable among the three jewels as having seen the biggest and most frequent upsets by betting odds.
This may be due to Belmont Park having the longest track and being the third race where favourites may be worn down. Belmont Park is 1 mile and 1/2 long (12 furlongs or 2,414 meters) on a dirt track. It is traditionally the longest of the three Triple Crown races. (However, keep in mind that in 2024 and 2025, the race will instead be run at 1 1/4 miles at Saratoga.) Qualified colts and geldings weigh 126 lbs (57.2 kilos) while fillies are 121 lbs (55 kilos).
The total purse was raised to $2 million in 2024 with $1.2 million going to the first-placed winner.
Here are some notable records for the Belmont Stakes:
Keep these things in mind to get the best advantage for your Belmont Stakes betting online.
Use multiple sportsbooks and bet the best betting odds
Opening accounts in multiple sportsbooks and racebooks has a bevy of benefits. Firstly, you can take advantage of multiple sign-up offers. Next, youâll be able to shop for better betting odds. Different sportsbooks have different odds and some have props that others donât. When it comes to the Belmont Stakes, some racebooks are better and youâll only know by comparing each one.
Weigh the risks of betting favorites or underdogs
When it comes to the Belmont Stakes, sometimes you either side with the majority betting on the favourite or you go rogue and stick up for an underdog. Your odds of winning may be higher by betting the favourite but the risk and the payout may not even worth it. Betting on underdogs is always risky, but it can set you good for the next ten horse races if you nail it.
The most difficult of the three jewels
Itâs named âTest of the Championâ for a reason. The Belmont Stakes is the longest of the three races and many horses, including the favourites, can be worn down from all of the training from the previous five weeks. Even with it being the joint-longest with the Kentucky Derby in 2024 and 2025, the distance is still a test of stamina unlike what horses see in almost all of their other races. When the favourite falters, itâs anyoneâs race to win making it a rich day for underdogs.
About the Author
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The 2024 Belmont Stakes will be run Saturday, June 8.
The Belmont Stakes is run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.
Yes! NBC will televise the Belmont Stakes, and it will be live on television, on the NBC Sports app, and on the Peacock streaming service.
Up-and-coming Arcangelo, who came out of a stakes debut in the Peter Pan, proved his excellent stamina with a 1 1/2-length victory for trainer Jena Antonucci and jockey Javier Castellano. Forte, the betting favorite for trainer Todd Pletcher, finished second ahead of his stablemate Tapit Trice.
Up to fourteen of the best three-year-olds in the country run in the Belmont Stakes. The race is always an excellent betting opportunity because of the quality of the field, and because all of the horses are trying a mile and a half for the first time ever.
In normal years, up to 120,000 people attend the Belmont Stakes. However, with the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival moved to Saratoga for 2024 and 2025, attendance will be capped at 50,000.
The winner of the Belmont Stakes is awarded $1.2 million of the $2 million purse.
The Belmont Stakes is traditionally the last of the three Triple Crown races. The Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes are the other two Triple Crown races.
The Belmont Stakes is traditionally 1 1/2 miles long, but shortened to 1 1/4 miles in 2024 and 2025. This is because the race was moved to Saratoga Race Course while Belmont Park is under construction, and Saratoga would have to start a 1 1/2-mile race with the gate on a turn.
The 2024 Belmont Stakes favorite will not be known for sure until closer to the date. However, Sierra Leone is the favorite in all major futures markets, and his consistent race record and excellent Kentucky Derby performance make him an extremely likely candidate for favoritism on Belmont Stakes day.
Yes! Online Belmont Stakes betting is possible from the comfort and safety of your own home on any internet-connected device such as a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet, or smartphone.
Depending on what your favorite online sportsbook offers, you can bet the race from the sportsbook’s website, or you can download a Belmont Stakes betting app to play the races on Android or iPhone.
Choosing the right sportsbook for betting the Belmont Stakes can be difficult, since there are so many different ones out there that offer so many different interfaces, bonuses, and features.
Our expert sportsbook reviews take the guesswork out of finding the best place to bet the Belmont Stakes. Our experts have reviewed the best online sportsbooks. Their reviews can help you find a trusted sportsbook that has the best offers, payouts, free bets, deposit incentives, and sign-up bonuses for the bets you like to make.
Yes! Sportsbooks offer a range of incentives and promos including deposit bonuses and horse racing rebates for betting the Belmont Stakes.
Rebates vary by website, but typically range between 7% and 15% of daily betting volume, paid out every day whether you win or lose your wagers.
Unfortunately, most sportsbooks do not yet offer live streaming of the Belmont Stakes, even though bettors are requesting it. It is worth checking with your preferred sportsbook closer to the day of the race to find out whether they have arranged a streaming agreement.
Fortunately, you can still watch the Belmont Stakes live on NBC, the NBCSports app, or Peacock no matter what, using either your television, computer, or smartphone.
Sportsbooks offer a full range of wagers on Belmont Stakes horses including simple win wagers, exotic wagers, prop bets, and head-to-head bets. Take the time to explore what wagers are available, and choose one that you can play confidently, and that balances risk and reward well based on how you see the race.
Common horse racing wagers include the following:
Win
Place
Show
Exacta
Trifecta
Superfecta
Double
Pick 3
Pick 4
Different sportsbooks offer different odds on the Belmont Stakes, based on how their customers are betting the race and based on other important betting markets.
This is why it is important to read betting guides, expert analysis and news, as well as compare the odds on multiple sportsbooks. This can help you find the best Belmont Stakes odds.
