Belmont Stakes TV Coverage - 2012 Belmont

The Belmont Stakes is the final leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown and is held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It comes five weeks after the first race of the Triple Crown – the Kentucky Derby – and three weeks after the Preakness Stakes. Belmont Stakes TV Coverage will be live of course.

NBC will have live Belmont Stakes TV Coverage beginning at 5:00 PM on June 9th. DISH customers can watch the 2012 Belmont on NBC HD. New DISH Network customers can subscribe to DISH Online here, now.  


This is the schedule of live TV and internet coverage:

Friday

4 p.m. to 5 p.m. (Versus) — Belmont Stakes Classics

5 p.m. to 6 p.m. (Versus) — Live coverage of the Poker Handicap and the Brooklyn Handicap

Saturday
3 p.m. to 5 p.m. (Versus) — Live coverage of the Just a Game, the True North Handicap and the Woody Stephens
5 p.m. to 7 p.m. (NBC) — Live coverage of the Belmont Stakes and the Woodford Reserve Manhattan Handicap
7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. (Versus) — Postrace Belmont Stakes coverage

First held in 1866, the Belmont is the oldest of the Triple Crown races besting the venerable Kentucky Derby (first held in 1875) by nearly a decade. The race is named for 19th century stock market magnate August Belmont, Sr. and was originally run at the Jerome Park Racetrack in the Bronx. The Jerome Park track was built by a Wall Street colleague of Belmont’s, Leonard Jerome. August Belmont died in 1890 and Jerome in 1891 and following their passing the event was moved to the nearby Morris Park Race Course until the opening of Belmont Park. The race has been held annually since then with the exception of 1911 and 1912 when the park was ‘dark’ due to hysterical anti-gambling legislation that had been passed in New York State. Between 1963 and 1967 the race was held at nearby Aqueduct Racetrack due to a major renovation project at Belmont Park.

While the Kentucky Derby is known as ‘the run for the roses’, the Belmont winner traditionally receives a blanket of carnations though the moniker “the run for the carnations” hasn’t exactly become part of the American lexicon. Ironically, while the Kentucky Derby is known for its many time honored traditions the Belmont doesn’t have the same iconography and has changed things up on a number of occasions throughout its history. The Kentucky Derby’s ‘traditional cocktail’ is known by even non-horse racing fans as the Mint Julep. In contrast, the Belmont has had two ‘traditional cocktails’. The original was the ‘White Carnation’, a dubious mixture of vodka, peach schnapps, orange juice and cream that somehow tastes worse than it sounds. The current ‘traditional cocktail’ is the ‘Belmont Breeze’, a bourbon based mishmash of ingredients that includes several different fruit juices and has been described as a ‘refined trashcan punch’ by the New York Times.