NYRA and Chester Racecourse Unite in Transatlantic Partnership Linking Two Racing Festivals

The winner of a 13-furlong race at the world's oldest racecourse will now have a direct, expenses-covered path to one of America's most internationally contested staying events. NYRA and Chester Racecourse announced a formal transatlantic partnership connecting Chester's Boodles May Festival to the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course, with the mechanics built around a specific incentive: win the Group 3 Ladbrokes Ormonde Stakes on May 7, and you receive an automatic berth in the Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup on June 4, with entry and starting fees covered and travel incentives included.

The financial stakes on each end of this arrangement are not symmetrical. The Ormonde, run at 13 furlongs over Chester's famously tight circuit, carries a £140,000 purse. The Belmont Gold Cup, staged at Saratoga Race Course while the new Belmont Park is being redeveloped, offers $250,000 over two miles. The roughly four-week window between the two races, May 7 to June 4, is tight but not without precedent for European shippers targeting American summer prizes.

That European appetite for the Belmont Gold Cup is well established. The race has been won by European shippers in six of the past eight editions, and it has served as a Golden Ticket qualifier for the Melbourne Cup in each of the past two years, giving the race a gravitational pull that extends well beyond Saratoga's backstretch.

"This is an exciting partnership connecting two of the sport's most revered and historic venues, which can only expand interest in these important races," said Andrew Offerman, NYRA Senior Vice President of Racing and Operations. "We thank our friends at Chester Racecourse and look forward to a fantastic summer at Saratoga."

Patrick Chesters, Racing Director for Chester Racecourse, framed the deal as an opportunity to put Chester's racing program on a larger stage. "Bringing together two of the most historic venues in racing creates a fantastic opportunity to strengthen international connections within racing and showcase the quality of our racing programme at Chester," Chesters said.

The historical contrast between the two institutions anchors much of the partnership's public framing. Chester Racecourse was established in 1539 during the reign of King Henry VIII, making it the oldest operational racing venue in the world. The course welcomes more than 330,000 racegoers annually across 15 days of live racing, and its Boodles May Festival serves as its flagship meeting, sharing the calendar with the Ladbrokes Chester Cup, Boodles Chester Vase, and Weatherbys Cheshire Oaks.

The Belmont Stakes Racing Festival runs June 3 through 7 at Saratoga, with the Belmont Gold Cup anchoring the Thursday card on June 4. Saratoga has hosted the race since 2024 while Belmont Park undergoes redevelopment.

The Racing Post also reported that a similar agreement is in place connecting Chester's Huxley Stakes to the $1 million Grade 1 Manhattan Stakes, also run during the Belmont festival at Saratoga. That linkage was not independently confirmed in NYRA's press materials or other outlets at the time of announcement, and NYRA has not yet publicly detailed the full terms of any Huxley-to-Manhattan pathway. If confirmed, it would significantly expand the scope of what is already the most structured transatlantic racing corridor between Britain and New York in recent memory.