Belmont Stakes Facts:

The Belmont Stakes was first run in 1867 for $2,500.00 at the Jerome Park Race Course in New York, and was originally a mile and five eights, but has also been run at a mile and one eighth and a mile and three eights before settling at a mile and a half in 1926
The first Belmont Stakes was won by a filly, Ruthless, who received $1,850.00; second place took $300.00 and an English racing saddle
The Belmont Stakes is known as the “Run for the Carnations” and was named after August Belmont Sr. who help finance Jerome Park
The first “post parade” in America was at the fifth running of the Belmont Stakes in 1871
The first Belmont Stakes to be run at Belmont Park was in May, 1905
Due to the passage of anti-betting legislation in New York State, Belmont Park was closed and there were no Belmont Stakes races in 1911 and 1912
Until 1921 the race was run clockwise in the tradition of English racing
From 1963 until 1967 the Belmont was run at Aqueduct while Belmont Park was undergoing reconstruction
Julie Crone became the first female jockey to ever win a Triple Crown race when she won the Belmont Stakes in 1993 aboard Colonial Affair
Two men have won the Belmont as both a jockey and as a trainer, James Rowe and George Martin Odom
Hall of Fame jockey Bob Ussery has the peculiar distinction in the Belmont, finishing dead last on Folk Dancer in 1962, Bonjour in 1963 and on Jade Amicol in 1968 though he did manage to interrupt the string by finishing next to last on Fleet Shoe in 1966
In 1973 Secretariat set the record for the Belmont and for the mile and a half on dirt that stills stands, his win by 31 lengths is the largest margin of victory in American Grade I Stakes history.
Source: www.americanchronicle.com