Belmont Stakes to be run at Saratoga Race Course again in 2026, a third time in a row

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) — The Belmont Stakes is set to be run at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York for a third consecutive year in 2026.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York Racing Association announced Friday that it will be the third and last time the Triple Crown finale is held there before returning to Belmont Park on Long Island in 2027.

“Saratoga has served our fans and stakeholders extremely well as the temporary home of the Belmont Stakes during the construction of a new Belmont Park on Long Island,” NYRA president and CEO David O'Rourke said. "Belmont Park will always be the home of the Belmont Stakes and we look forward to its return to the newly reimagined Belmont in 2027.”

It was confirmation of an expected extension of the race’s stay at Saratoga while Belmont Park undergoes nearly a half-billion dollar renovation project. It is on track to reopen in September 2026, with the Breeders' Cup returning to New York at Belmont Park in the fall of 2027.

The Belmont will again be run at 1 1/4 miles instead of its traditional 1-1/2 mile distance that has been known as the “test of the champion." That has been the case the past two years, as well, because of the configuration of the main dirt track.

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Jockey Lanfranco Dettori jumps off Raging Torrent after winning the 132nd running of the Metropolitan Handicap horse race, Saturday, June 7, 2025, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Horse racing fans stop to watch as a thoroughbred is led to the paddock before the 157th running of the Belmont Stakes horse race, Saturday, June 7, 2025, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Horse racing fans lounge on the grounds of Saratoga Race Course before the 157th running of the Belmont Stakes horse race, Saturday, June 7, 2025, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Spectators watch as thoroughbreds parade on the track before 41st running of the Woody Stephens horse race, Saturday, June 7, 2025, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Sovereignty (2), with jockey Junior Alvarado up, crosses the finish line ahead of Journalism (7), with jockey Umberto Rispoli up, and Baeza (6), with jockey Flavien Prat up, to win the 157th running of the Belmont Stakes horse race, Saturday, June 7, 2025, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that at Trump’s direction she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program.

“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.

Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.

Neves Valente obtained legal permanent residence status in 2017, U.S. attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley said.

The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the United States, many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.

Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.

Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.

Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.

While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.

Law enforcement officers search the area for the Brown University shooting suspect, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Salem, N.H. (AP Photo/Reba Saldanha)