Belmont Stakes Odds & Picks
The Belmont Stakes is the traditional third and final jewel of the Triple Crown, though there will be some shake-ups to that tradition in 2024 and 2025. For the first time ever, the race will be held at historic Saratoga Race Course, since Belmont Park is under construction. In 2026, the race will return to its newly rebuilt home in Elmont, New York.
The 2024 Belmont Stakes happens June 8, 2024 at Saratoga Race Course. Due to the track configuration at Saratoga, the race will cover 1 1/4 miles instead of the traditional 1 1/2 miles at Belmont Park. Though the distance is slightly shorter, it is still a demanding test of the stamina of the modern American Thoroughbred, and will draw the interest of fans and bettors around the world.
With some of the best three-year-olds in training lining up for the Belmont Stakes, it is one of the most exciting betting races of the year. As you plan your betting the Belmont Stakes online, these are early odds at the top of the market at top online racebooks, featuring possible contenders for the final jewel of the Triple Crown.
Belmont Stakes Online Betting
Being a part of the Belmont Stakes betting action is as easy as signing up for an online sportsbook. Though there are many options for online betting, our experts are here to help you find the top racebooks quickly and easily. All of them offer great user interfaces, market-leading odds, and trusted payouts.
They also offer great racebook bonuses like deposit bonuses, referral incentives, and horse racing rebates that pay you back in cash or wagering credit for every bet you make. Not only is the Belmont Stakes an exciting betting race every year, but with these benefits, betting the Belmont Stakes online is a great way to build your bankroll faster than ever!
These are the best places for Belmont Stakes online wagering:
Belmont Stakes Favorites
In the history of the Belmont Stakes, 66 of the 155 favorites have won, for a strike rate of 42.6%. In the last ten years, favorites have tended to run extremely well in the Belmont Stakes. Five of the last 10 editions of the Belmont Stakes have been won by the betting favorite, with another three favorites finishing second in the race over that time.
These are the last 1o winners of the Belmont Stakes, along with where the favorite finished if the Belmont Stakes betting favorite did not win the race.
- 2023: Arcangelo - $17.80 (Forte second)
- 2022: Mo Donegal - $7.20 (Favored)
- 2021: Essential Quality - $8.60 (Favored)
- 2020: Tiz The Law - $5.50 (Favored)
- 2019: Sir Winston - $22.40 (Tacitus second)
- 2018: Justify - $3.60 (Favored)
- 2017: Tapwrit - $12.60 (Irish War Cry second)
- 2016: Creator - $34.80 (Exaggerator eleventh)
- 2015: American Pharoah - $3.50 (Favored)
- 2014: Tonalist - $20.40 (California Chrome fourth)
The average winning payout over the last ten years is $13.64.
Belmont Stakes Information
The Belmont Stakes is traditionally the final leg of the Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby is run on the first Saturday in May, with the Preakness the third Saturday in May and then the Belmont Stakes three weeks after that.
The Belmont Stakes began in 1868. It has been run at four different tracks over the years, but all were in New York. It will be run at a fifth, Saratoga, for the first time in 2024.
The Belmont Stakes card has a host of other major stakes, and the days before and after the race are filled with stakes action. The entire Belmont Stakes Racing Festival will be held at Saratoga Race Course from June 6-9, 2024. 24 stakes races will be run over the course of those four days.
The Triple Crown
There have been 13 Triple Crown winners to date: Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), American Pharoah (2015), and Justify (2018). Trainer Bob Baffert won the last two Triple Crowns, but after Muth was ruled out and Imagination ran poorly in the Preakness, does not have a horse among the early possibles for the 2024 Belmont Stakes.
Belmont Stakes History Patterns
Favorites have run well in recent editions of the Belmont, with favorites finishing first or second in eight of the last ten years. That bodes well for Sierra Leone, the second-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby. Only two noses away from a perfect career record, he is the consensus early betting favorite for the Belmont Stakes.
Three fillies have won the race, most recently Rags to Riches did it in 2007. Nest came in second in 2022, in an attempt to become the fourth filly to win it. Thorpedo Anna, the 2024 Kentucky Oaks winner, is expected to try to become the fifth.
Trainer Todd Pletcher has four wins to date in the Belmont Stakes, most recently with Mo Donegal in 2022. He will probably run Fierceness and Antiquarian in the 2024 edition, and impressive allowance winner Mindframe will be an interesting entrant if he goes.
The stallion Tapit has sired four Belmont Stakes winners. One horse in early conversations for the 2024 Preakness Stakes is by Tapit: Batten Down, an impressive maiden winner for Bill Mott. He is a son of Tapit out of the champion mare Close Hatches.
Though both Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan and Preakness Stakes winner Seize the Grey are expected to contest the 2024 Belmont Stakes, recent history has not been kind to winners of other Triple Crown races who were not on Triple Crown quests. Although American Pharoah and Justify completed sweeps within the last decade, the last time a Belmont winner was a horse who won just one of the other Triple Crown races was 2005, when Afleet Alex won both the Preakness and Belmont.
