New York Racing Association has set the stakes schedule for the 2026 fall meet at the re-imagined Belmont Park, and the rebuilt venue will open for live racing on September 18 with a card anchored by the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup.
The fall meet will run through December 6 and include 72 stakes races worth $17.7 million in total purses, with 32 graded events spread across the calendar. Belmont Park will open with four newly constructed racetracks, including the main dirt track, two turf courses and a 1-mile synthetic oval, giving the track a markedly different setup after a multi-year redevelopment project.
The Gold Cup return carries the biggest headline of the opening day. The race, first run in 1919, was held at Saratoga Race Course from 2021 through 2025 while Belmont was being rebuilt. Its move back to Belmont restores one of the sport’s most recognizable older prizes to the track that gave it a home for decades, and it still offers a Win and You’re In berth to the Breeders’ Cup Classic. FOX will carry live coverage of the race on its broadcast network.
Andrew Offerman, speaking for NYRA, said the new Belmont Park will provide the stage to showcase the best racing in North America. He said the schedule was built to reflect the importance of the fall season, emphasize major weekends throughout the meet and establish a foundation ahead of the 2027 Breeders’ Cup World Championships. He added that NYRA is looking ahead to September 18 and the next chapter in its history.
The first half of the meet is built around two consecutive blockbuster Saturdays, with 10 graded stakes and six Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In chances. On September 26, the Grade 1, $500,000 Joe Hirsch Classic will headline a card that also includes the Grade 2, $500,000 Flower Bowl, the Grade 3, $250,000 Vosburgh and the Grade 2, $250,000 Gallant Bloom.
Four more Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In races are scheduled for October 3, led by the Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne. That same card also features the Grade 1, $500,000 Frizette, the Grade 2, $250,000 Pilgrim, the Grade 2, $250,000 Miss Grillo and the Grade 3, $200,000 Futurity, giving the meet an early stretch of high-value races aimed squarely at 2-year-olds and their path toward the championship trail.
One of the clearest signs of how NYRA is reshaping the calendar comes later in the fall, when the Grade 2, $500,000 Man o’ War shifts to November 28. That card will also include the Grade 2, $500,000 Jockey Club Derby, the Grade 3, $500,000 Jockey Club Oaks, the Grade 3, $250,000 Long Island and two $300,000 New York Stallion Stakes Series races, placing several late-season stakes on one of the meet’s most loaded days.
The schedule is more than a list of races. It is NYRA’s first full test of a rebuilt Belmont Park, a five-story grandstand, modernized racing and training infrastructure and expanded infield green space. The expansion comes as NYRA consolidates its downstate racing operations at Belmont, making the fall meet both a racing calendar and a statement about where the organization intends to concentrate its future.
For horsemen, owners and fans, the next milestone is fixed: September 18, when Belmont Park opens again with its most important race of the year on day one. After that, the schedule builds toward a meet designed to carry the track from its reopening into the sport’s biggest international stage the following year.
