The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds (57 kg); fillies carry 121 pounds (55 kg). The race, nicknamed The Test of the Champion and The Run for the Carnations, is the traditional third and final leg of the Triple Crown. It is usually held on the first or second Saturday in June, five weeks after the Kentucky Derby and three weeks after the Preakness Stakes. The 1973 Belmont Stakes and Triple Crown winner Secretariat holds the mile and a half stakes record of 2:24.
Robert A. ‘Bob’ Baffert is an American racehorse trainer who trained the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. Baffert's horses have won a record seven Kentucky Derbies, seven Preakness Stakes, three Belmont Stakes, and three Kentucky Oaks.
Triple Crown Productions was an ad hoc production company that produced the series of Triple Crown races for thoroughbred horses.
Charles David "Chic" Anderson was an American sportscaster and public address announcer specializing in Thoroughbred horse racing. He was one of American sports' most famous PA voices, and remains among its most revered race callers. Anderson's narration of the 1973 Belmont Stakes, where he described Secretariat as "moving like a tremendous machine", remains one of horse racing's most memorable calls.
Dave Johnson is an American announcer and sportscaster, best known for his work in horse racing with ABC and NBC Sports and at various race tracks in New York and New Jersey. His signature line — "And down the stretch they come!" — is instantly recognizable throughout the sport, and is often imitated by comedians, notably David Letterman.
Thoroughbred Racing on NBC is the de facto title for a series of horse races events whose broadcasts are produced by NBC Sports, the sports division of the NBC television network in the United States. Race coverage is currently helmed by, among others, host Mike Tirico, along with analysts Randy Moss and Jerry Bailey, handicappers Eddie Olczyk and Britney Eurton, reporters Kenny Rice, Donna Barton Brothers, Laffit Pincay III and Carolyn Manno and track announcer Larry Collmus.
Sports USA Media is the largest independent sports broadcasting radio network in the United States, specializing in live broadcasts of American football, specifically of the NCAA football Division I-A and National Football League. In 2018, more than 450 radio stations across the United States carried NFL and NCAA football games from Sports USA.
In the United States, the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, commonly known as the Triple Crown, is a series of horse races for three-year-old Thoroughbreds, consisting of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. The three races were inaugurated in different years, the last being the Kentucky Derby in 1875. The Triple Crown Trophy, commissioned in 1950 but awarded to all previous winners as well as those after 1950, is awarded to a horse who wins all three races, and is thereafter designated as a Triple Crown winner. The races are traditionally run in May and early June of each year, although global events have resulted in schedule adjustments, such as in 1945 and 2020.
In the United States, sports are televised on various broadcast networks, national and specialty sports cable channels, and regional sports networks. U.S. sports rights are estimated to be worth a total of $22.42 billion in 2019, about 44 percent of the total worldwide sports media market. U.S. networks are willing to pay a significant amount of money for television sports contracts because it attracts large amounts of viewership; live sport broadcasts accounted for 44 of the 50 list of most watched television broadcasts in the United States in 2016.
ESPN and ESPN2's coverage of Thoroughbred racing consisted of NTRA Racing to the Kentucky Derby., Road To The World Thoroughbred Championships/NTRA Racing to the Breeders' Cup, a series of prep races for the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, the post position draw for the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes undercard races, the Kentucky Oaks and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, NTRA 2Day At the Races, Racing Across America, the Preakness undercard races, the Eclipse Awards show, and Long John Silver's Wire to Wire, a weekly thoroughbred racing magazine show. They also had Triple Crown morning shows such as Breakfast at Churchill Downs and Breakfast at Pimlico. ESPN also broadcast NTRA Super Saturdays as well.
ABC's coverage of Thoroughbred racing currently consists of a portion of the Breeders Cup. Previously, ABC's coverage also included the Kentucky Derby (1975–2000), the Preakness Stakes (1977–2000), and the Belmont Stakes.
The 2013 Preakness Stakes was the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes thoroughbred horse race. The race was held on May 18, 2013, and was televised on NBC. The race was won by Oxbow. The post time of the race was 6:18 p.m. EDT. The race was the 12th race on a card of 13 races. The Maryland Jockey Club reported total attendance of 117,203, the second highest attendance for American thoroughbred racing events in North America during 2013.
The 2015 Preakness Stakes,, was the 140th running of the Preakness Stakes, promoted as the "middle jewel" of thoroughbred horse racing's traditional Triple Crown, held two weeks after the Kentucky Derby and three weeks before the Belmont Stakes. The race was held at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 16, 2015, and was televised on NBC.
The 2015 Belmont Stakes was the 147th in the Belmont Stakes series. The 1+1⁄2-mile (2,400 m) race, known as the "test of the champion" and sometimes called the "final jewel" in thoroughbred horse racing's traditional Triple Crown series, was held on June 6, 2015, three weeks after the Preakness Stakes and five weeks after the Kentucky Derby. The Belmont Stakes was the 11th race of a 13 race card which included 10 stakes races. Post time for race 11 was 6:52 pm EDT.
Thoroughbred Racing on CBS is the de facto title for a series of horse races events whose broadcasts are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States.
The Grand Slam of Thoroughbred racing is an informal name for the winning of four major Thoroughbred horse races in one season in the United States. The term has been applied to at least two different configurations of races, both of which include all three races in the Triple Crown: the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. The fourth race is either the Travers Stakes or the Breeders' Cup Classic.
The 2018 Preakness Stakes was the 143rd running of the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the American Triple Crown. It was a Grade I stakes race with a purse of $1.5 million for three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of 1+3⁄16 miles (1.9 km). It was held on May 19, 2018, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland and was broadcast on NBC from 5:00 pm to 7:15 pm EDT with coverage of the undercard on NBCSN starting at 2:30 pm.
