Breeders' Cup coming to Belmont Park in 2027
A rendering of what the renovated Belmont Park will look like when construction is completed. Credit: New York Racing Association
New York State and the New York Racing Association are building it, so the Breeders’ Cup is finally heading back to a reconstructed Belmont Park.
“This is a great day for our city and our state,” New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Wednesday morning in announcing the Breeders’ Cup will be run at Belmont Park on Oct. 29-30, 2027.
Hochul spoke at a joint news conference at The Vandy Club in Manhattan along with officials from NYRA, the Breeders’ Cup and Keeneland Race Course to mark the two-day Grade I stakes showcase’s first return to New York and Belmont Park since 2005. It also was announced the 2026 Breeders’ Cup will be run at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky.
In 2022, Breeders’ Cup Limited chairman of the board Barbara Banke and president/CEO Drew Fleming co-signed a letter sent to NYRA pledging to return to Belmont Park if it was modernized, writing, “If you build it, we will come.”
“We’re excited to honor that promise and put on an exceptional Breeders’ Cup for New York City,” Fleming said on Wednesday. “I think our fans have been wanting this for a long time.”
Belmont Park also hosted the Breeders’ Cup in 1990, 1995 and 2001 before falling out of the rotation as the facility aged further.
“It’s big for New Yorkers,” NYRA CEO/president David O’Rourke said on Wednesday. “It was one of the foundational goals, really, when we were getting the buildings was to bring the Breeders’ Cup back from a sports perspective. Now, we’ve got to execute.”
O’Rourke added Belmont Park remains on schedule to reopen in September 2026.
Its vast reconstruction has included tearing down the cavernous 1.25 million-square foot grandstand. In its place will be a state-of-the-art 300,000-square foot, five-story facility that allows for an increase from six acres to 35 acres of open space for fans around the track. Also built were tunnels that will allow both vehicles and fans to access the infield. The state loaned NYRA $455 million for that project.
Officials said they’re figuring on an attendance of around 50,000 fans for the Breeders’ Cup in the new venue. In 2015, attendance for the Belmont Stakes was capped at 90,000 fans to make it easier for fans to both attend and to leave the venue under its former construction. After UBS Arena was opened in November 2021, attendance was capped at 50,000. (The highest attendance ever at Belmont Park was 120,139 when Smarty Jones was attempting to win the Triple Crown in 2004.)
An aerial rendering of what the renovated Belmont Park will look like when construction is completed. Credit: New York Racing Association
A rendering of what the renovated West Entry at Belmont Park will look like when construction is completed. Credit: New York Racing Association
A rendering of what the renovated Belmont Park approaching from the east will look like when construction is completed. Credit: New York Racing Association
Additionally, NYRA committed $100 million to improve the existing three tracks and build a fourth, all-weather track.
“It’s created this amazing contrast in our state to have, up in Saratoga, where we’ll be for the Belmont [Stakes] for the second year in a row, the quintessential, turn-of-the-last-century, this feel of days long past,” Hochul said. “And then, at the other end of the state, we have the future unfolding.”
The Belmont Stakes is being run at Saratoga Race Course on June 7 for the second time since Belmont Park closed to undergo its reconstruction.
Bringing the Breeders’ Cup to Belmont Park has been done in coordination with other sporting events. Though it’s often run in November, the October dates at Belmont allow it to avoid any overlap with the 2027 New York City Marathon, which is set for Nov. 7 that year.
NYRA and the Breeders’ Cup also have been in communication with the NHL and the Islanders regarding scheduling at UBS Arena.
“We’ve been working with the city,” Fleming said. “We’ve been working with the hotels. I think it’s going to be a great Breeders’ Cup. Our fans are going to get to see New York City at its finest. We’ve been working with NYRA for many years on this.
“Any time you put on a world-class event with horses coming in from all over the world, there’s a lot of coordination. We have a ton of confidence in the NYRA team. They’ve been working hard with hotels, with accommodations, transportation, and working, of course, with the Islanders.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
