Met Mile Continues to Add to Belmont Stakes Day

It's safe to say that the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) has become as much of a Belmont Stakes day tradition as the "New York, New York" singalong and the Belmont Breeze cocktail. This year will mark the ninth time in the past 10 years that the one-turn mile test for 3-year-olds and older is contested on the Belmont undercard; the one exception being 2020, when COVID-19 forced changes to the schedule. Once a fixture on Memorial Day, the Met Mile has settled nicely into its new slot, serving as a big attraction—especially in years in which there is no Triple Crown on the line. Since the Met Mile moved to Belmont Day in 2014, there's been a Triple Crown on the line three times: California Chrome finished fourth in 2014, before American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018 completed the sweep. The Met Mile certainly has continued to thrive. Just some of the memorable performances since 2014 include Flightline's six-length romp last year on his way to Horse of the Year honors; eventual champion male sprinter Mitole holding off McKinzie in 2019, and Frosted returning to Belmont one year after running second to American Pharoah in the Belmont Stakes to roll to a 14 1/4-length victory in stakes-record time of 1:32.73. NYRA and its former senior vice president for racing operations, Martin Panza, ushered in the big-day approach to the Belmont Stakes card in 2014. It has become one of the most important days of racing in North America, and Frank Gabriel Jr., who took over from Panza in January 2022, has kept it going. "The reasoning behind the past decision is that there was always a situation where there's that anticipation of maybe having a Triple Crown contender at the Belmont and it doesn't happen and it kind of depletes everyone's enthusiasm," Gabriel said. "It's a great opportunity to have a good program on the day, which it's not as easy as it used to be. I mean, quality horses are limited and everyone's trying to do the same thing." Gabriel credited the racing office, especially stakes coordinator Andrew Byrnes, with putting the big day together. "The horsemen have been supportive," Gabriel said. "It's all about timing, dates, and spacing to make it work. It's been successful and the Met Mile has been a big attraction to that day." With the large on-track crowd and national television audience provided by the Belmont Stakes, the Met Mile—and the older horse division—has received added attention in its new calendar home. "There was a great history with the Met Mile on Memorial Day but people want to see the best horses run on these big days, the Triple Crown days," Gabriel said. "I think that there's a positive for everyone's benefit racing on that day." NYRA continues to try new things with its Belmont weekend cards. This year the Acorn Stakes (G1) has been removed from the Belmont undercard and added to the Friday card the day before the Belmont. The Acorn will be one of three grade 1 races on Friday, along with a pair of turf races for fillies and mares in the one-mile Just a Game Stakes and the 1 1/4-mile New York Stakes. Beyond the date change for the Acorn, the race's distance has been lengthened from one mile to 1 1/16 miles. Gabriel noted that change was made to entice fillies who had competed in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) five weeks earlier. That aim seems to be on target, as this year's Acorn field includes Kentucky Oaks winner Pretty Mischievous as well as Dorth Vader, who finished fifth in that 1 1/8-mile test at Churchill Downs. "Things have changed when you look at the history of the 3-year-old filly division," Gabriel said. "We had to do some maneuvering. We saw that we weren't getting the Kentucky Oaks horses, so we made that decision (to lengthen the distance) and we got the winner. Hopefully that can continue throughout the years. It's a good race. "We moved the Just a Game to Friday with the New York. The (two-mile) Belmont Gold Cup Stakes (G2T) is attractive because of the distance on the grass. Overall, it's made Friday a really strong program to lead into Saturday."