2015 Belmont Stakes
| Belmont Stakes | |
"The Test of the Champion"
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| Location |
Belmont Park Elmont, New York, U.S. |
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| Date | June 6, 2015 |
| Winning horse | American Pharoah |
| Jockey | Victor Espinoza |
| Trainer | Bob Baffert |
| Owner | Zayat Stables, LLC |
| Conditions | Fast |
| Surface | Dirt |
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The 2015 Belmont Stakes (known as the 147th Belmont Stakes presented by DraftKings for sponsorship reasons) 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.
After winning both the 2015 Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, American Pharoah won the Belmont and became the first horse to win the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978. As the 12th Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah ran the race in 2:26.65 which was the sixth-fastest of all time and the second-fastest (following only Secretariat in 1973) amongst Triple Crown winners. Post time was 6:52 pm EDT.
The New York Racing Association, which runs Belmont Park, located in Elmont, New York, announced that attendance for the event would be limited to 90,000. By Friday, June 5, all tickets had been sold out. To ease congestion at Belmont Station from racing fans leaving the venue, which led to hours-long waits the previous year, the Long Island Rail Road invested $4 million to improve mass transit in the area, and the New York Racing Association put in another $1 million. The LIRR added platforms to accommodate 10-car trains, positioned additional empty trains along the branch line to allow more trains to move out of the station, and upgraded staircases and signs. They also altered the schedule at other stations along the branch line to move more trains through Belmont Station. To slow down the flow of people leaving at the same time, the NYRA also brought in the Goo Goo Dolls to perform a post-race concert. On May 29, 2015, the NYRA announced that the daily fantasy sports service DraftKings had acquired presenting sponsorship rights to the race. The deal, whose financial terms were undisclosed, included branding across the event site, the awarding of VIP tickets to a league winner through a promotion, and advertising exclusivity during NBC's telecast of the event.
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