Museum to open Livingston and Munnings exhibits at Belmont festival
Saratoga’s Belmont week will add a museum layer: Livingston’s racing photography, 29 Munnings paintings, and a slate of free and ticketed events.
The Belmont Stakes Racing Festival in Saratoga will not stop at the rail. The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame is turning the June 3-7 runup to the 158th Grade 1 Belmont Stakes into a full-scale public draw, using history, art and access points around the city to pull visitors deeper into the sport.
The museum will open two special exhibitions on June 3 at its 191 Union Avenue home. Capturing and Preserving Greatness: A Life’s Passion, in the McBean Gallery, will spotlight the photography and historic collections of Barbara D. Livingston, the chief photographer at Daily Racing Form and a six-time Eclipse Award winner. Livingston co-curated the exhibit with Annie Davis, the museum’s collections manager. In the von Stade Gallery, A Discerning Eye: The Art of Sir Alfred Munnings will feature 29 paintings from a private collection and remain on view through September 13, 2026.
That pairing is the point. Livingston’s work captures racing as it happens now, while Munnings, whom the museum describes as a master of British sporting art, represents the classic visual language that long shaped how the public saw horses and horsemen. Put together, the exhibits give Belmont week a story that goes beyond the betting menu and the main event on Saturday, June 6.
The museum’s event calendar is built to keep fans moving. Tom Durkin will host a book talk and signing on Wednesday, June 3, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the event is free. Belmont Bash follows on Thursday, June 4, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Canfield Casino, 1 E. Congress Street in Saratoga Springs, with tickets starting at $400 for general admission. The bash will honor Sovereignty’s connections, including Godolphin, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott and jockey Junior Alvarado.
The weekend keeps the pressure on in the right way. Saturday Morning Social on June 6 will include complimentary coffee and doughnuts courtesy of Stewart’s Shops, plus complimentary Saratoga Spring Water. On Sunday, June 7, the Belmont Family Fun Festival will be free and presented by The Will Smith Foundation. The museum also will run Oklahoma Training Track tours and a raffle for an ownership share in a West Point Thoroughbreds racehorse, giving visitors a tangible link to the business end of the game.
NYRA has framed the 2026 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival as five straight days of racing and entertainment in Saratoga Springs, and the museum’s satellite facility at the Saratoga Race Course Walk of Fame will be open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. That is how you widen a racing audience: not with one more card on the calendar, but with enough history, art and access to make people stay for the rest of the story.
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