Belmont is back: Forever Young headlines Jockey Club Gold Cup as Long Island track reopens
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For the first time in nearly 1,200 days, horse racing is returning to Long Island's Belmont Park, and one of the sport's biggest stars is the headline attraction.
After three years and $455 million worth of renovations, the rebuilt, ultramodern Belmont Park will reopen to the public Friday. The highlight of the first card since July 9, 2023 at the Elmont facility is the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup, featuring the New York debut of Japanese star Forever Young.
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With more than $31 million in career earnings, Forever Young is the richest racehorse in the history of the sport. Last year's Breeders' Cup Classic winner is using Friday's 1 ¼-mile race for older horses as a tune-up for his bid to go back-to-back in the Breeders' Cup in late October at Keeneland.
"I am delighted to be able to compete in the United States again with Forever Young, following our participation over the past two years," Forever Young's trainer, Yoshito Yahagi, told the New York Racing Association. "It is also a great honor to run in New York at this very memorable time, coinciding with the reopening of the historic Belmont Park racetrack. Through these two races, the Jockey Gold Cup and the Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland, I hope to contribute to the further development of American horse racing."
Forever Young, who will be ridden by his regular jockey Ryusei Sakai for Yahagi and owner Susumu Fujita, will break from the far outside post in what now sets up as a five-horse field.
Seven horses were initially entered, but the connections of Banishing and Chunk of Gold announced their intentions to scratch earlier this week, leaving just four rivals for Forever Young. The 5-year-old Japanese star will be making his first start since finishing second to Magnitude at the Dubai World Cup in late March.
"Obviously he's had a big spell [of time off] since the Dubai World Cup, and he came back training at Hakodate Racecourse in Hokkaido in early August in the cooler weather," Hiroshi Ando, Fujita's racing manager, told NYRA. "On the mainland, it's really hot, so we tried to skip the hot weather to prepare for here. The condition is really good, and he knows how to travel with a long flight, and he's good at it."
The presence of Forever Young in the Gold Cup, which has a post time of 4:14 p.m., adds significant hype to Belmont's reopening. So too will a performance from country music star Dierks Bentley, who will be part of the festivities for the grand reopening of the new facility during the "Return to Racing" special that will air on Fox from 3 to 4:30 p.m.
Belmont's three-year renovation, which led to the last three editions of the Belmont Stakes being moved to Saratoga Race Course, resulted in a complete facelift for a facility that's hosted racing for more than a century.
The project centers on a brand-new, five-story grandstand with a capacity of 10,000 when fully completed. Only the first two floors of the grandstand will be open during the fall meet, with NYRA targeting the first quarter of 2027 for the facility's full completion.
Capacity has been limited to 6,000 for Belmont's reopening weekend, and Friday's nine-race card is already sold out.
Those 6,000 fans will see four horses step up to challenge 3-5 morning-line favorite Forever Young. Leading the way in that group is Phileas Fogg, the winner of the last two editions of the Grade 2 Suburban at Saratoga. His trainer, Gustavo Rodriguez, told NYRA that Forever Young will be tough to beat.
"That horse is a very, very nice horse," Rodriguez said. "He can run anywhere. He doesn't need one track. He's been traveling all around the world, and every time he runs, he runs good. He's a nice horse, but we are going to run and hope for the best."
While Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott did not enter Sovereignty, who was targeting the Gold Cup following his impressive win in the Whitney this past month at Saratoga before the 2025 Horse of the Year developed a foot abscess, he does have two other entrants in the field. Grade 1 winner Baeza is a consistent contender who has often been hamstrung by troubled starts, while Stars and Stripes is coming into the Gold Cup off a win in the marathon 1 ¾-mile Birdstone at Saratoga.
Rounding out the field is trainer Kenny McPeek's longshot Render Judgment, who will be ridden by 2026 Saratoga champion jockeyManny Franco.
McPeek admitted to NYRA that going up against Forever Young is "an ambitious spot," but the trainer does have a win over Forever Young on his resume with Mystik Dan, who beat Forever Young and Sierra Leone in a three-horse photo finish in the 2024 Kentucky Derby.
"I've beaten him before, right?" McPeek said.
Jockey Club Gold Cup field
Trainer, jockey, morning-line odds in parentheses
Baeza (Bill Mott, Junior Alvarado, 9-2)
- Stars and Stripes (Bill Mott, John Velazquez, 15-1)
- Chunk of Gold (SCRATCHED)
- Phileas Fogg (Gustavo Rodriguez, Kendrick Carmouche, 4-1)
- Banishing (SCRATCHED)
- Render Judgment (Kenny McPeek, Manny Franco, 20-1)
- Forever Young (Yoshito Yahagi, Ryusei Sakai, 3-5)
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