Belmont Stakes

Winner: Rags to Riches

Place: Curlin

Show: Tiago

Fourth: Hard Spun

With an intimidating 1 1/2 mile distance, the Belmont Stakes remains the true Test of Champions. The 139th running of the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes was Saturday, June 9 at New York's Belmont Park.

Rags to Riches is the first filly to win the Belmont in 102 years. Her father was Belmont Stakes winner, and her half-brother Jazil, from the same dam, won the Belmont Stakes last year.

2007 Belmont Stakes Results and More

With his swift closing style, Jazil closed in to share fourth place in the Kentucky Derby, and after skipping the Preakness he would win the 138th Belmont Stakes with the youngest winning jockey in Belmont history, 18-year-old Fernando Jara.

Video Replay and Story

On May 4, 1905 the original Belmont race park opened. In its first 15 years, Belmont followed the English tradition of racing clockwise -- allowing the upper-class members of the racing association and their guests to have the races finish in front of the clubhouse, just to the west of the grandstand. The original finish line was located at the top of the present-day homestretch.

The old clubhouse was torn down in the 1950s, along with the Manice Mansion -- the turreted 19th-century homestead that served as the headquarters of Belmont's Turf and Field Club.

A later innovation was the creation of Joseph E. Widener, who took over track leadership when August Belmont II died in 1924. It was the Widener Course, a straightaway of just under seven furlongs (1,408 m) that cut diagonally through Belmont's training and main tracks, hitting near the quarter-pole of the main track. It was removed in 1958.

The oldest of America's three Triple Crown races, the Belmont Stakes was first run on June 19, 1867, at the Jerome Park race course, an oddly shaped, English-style track that required its runners to negotiate three turns instead of two because of a dip in the middle of the backstretch. A filly, Ruthless, won the first Belmont's $1,850 winners purse, outlasting DeCourcey by a head. The race has been run every since, with the exception of 1911 and '12, and the Belmont has established itself as the ultimate test of championship stamina in this country. Its 1-1/2-mile distance now has become a rarity in American dirt races.

The Belmont was even longer in its early days, contested at 1-5/8 miles through 1873. But from 1890 through 1926, the race dropped down to distances varying between 1-1/8 and 1-3/8 miles. The 1926 Belmont was run at 1-1/2 miles and was won by Crusader, a son of the legendary Man o' War, in a time of 2:32-1/5. The race has been run at that distance ever since.

In 1973 Secretariat set a world record as he claimed the Triple Crown on the track, winning the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths.

Official Flower: White Carnation
The blanket of carnations worn by the Belmont Stakes winner takes 10 man hours to put together, as between 300-400 carnations are glued onto a green velveteen spread. The flowers are shipped in from either CA or Bogota, Colombia.

The Belmont Trophy
The trophy is a Tiffany-made silver bowl with a cover. It stands 18 inches high, 15 inches across, and 14 inches at the base. Atop the cover is a silver figure of Fenian, winner of the third running of the Belmont Stakes in 1869. The bowl is supported by three horses representing the three-foundation thoroughbreds: Eclipse, Herod, and Matchem.

Official Drink: Belmont Breeze
Created by Dale DeGroff, head bartender at Manhattan's Rainbow Room/Windows on the World, the cocktail is based on an old, Colonial recipe for whiskey punch: "One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak."

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