It’s official: Saratoga Race Course will host the Belmont Stakes - the third leg of the Triple Crown – in June for the first time ever. The announcement, made Wednesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul, is expected to result in tens of thousands of racing fans coming to the Spa City, where business leaders are already eying a significant economic impact.

Christmas may be a couple of weeks away, but as the winter season approaches, racing fans and Saratogians are flipping through their calendars, circling that first weekend of June, when the historic track on Union Avenue in Saratoga Springs hits the world stage to play a role in the Triple Crown.

Hochul said the upcoming running of the Belmont Stakes will move from Belmont Park "to allow for the uninterrupted construction of a new and re-imagined Belmont Park."

The race is scheduled in Saratoga for Saturday, June 8.

The oldest of the three Triple Crown events — the others being the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, held in Maryland — the Belmont Stakes was first run in 1867, three years after the first Travers Stakes at Saratoga. This is the first time the race has been moved from its Long Island home, the 117-year-old Belmont Park, since the race was run at Aqueduct from 1963-67.

Due to the configuration of the Saratoga track, the 2024 Belmont Stakes — traditionally the longest of the Triple Crown races at 1 1/2 miles — will be a 1 1/4-mile race, the same distance as the Kentucky Derby. The length is pending approval of the North American Graded Stakes Committee.

The Belmont Stakes Racing Festival will start Thursday, June 6. The four-day event will offer 23 stakes races, featuring some of the highest-valued thoroughbreds in the world, and purses totaling $9.7 million.

“We’ve been planning for this for awhile,” Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce President Todd Shimkus said. “The reality is, this is going to have an economic impact across the region,” Shimkus said.

With extensive renovations taking place at Belmont Park, horse racing will arrive at Saratoga Race Course about a month early in 2024.

“Just very, very excited for this opportunity. We can't wait,” said Marianne Barker of Impressions of Saratoga.

Business leaders around the city said preparations are already underway, and their phones are ringing off the hook.

“We’ve been fielding interest about these dates for quite some time, had a list of some guests who’ve been ready and waiting in the wings for the official announcement,” said Rachel Boggan of the Saratoga Arms Hotel.

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) reported attendance of more than 48,000 people at this year’s Belmont Stakes. The average daily attendance at Saratoga this year was about 27,600.

“We don’t have the hotel space here in the city, and so people are going to be staying from Albany to Clifton Park to Malta to Moreau to Glens Falls, Lake George and everywhere in between,” Shimkus said. “And where people stay is where they spend money.”

NYRA’s Patrick McKenna estimated the economic impact of the racing festival will be in the tens of millions.

“It should be the best summer of all time for businesses in Saratoga Springs,” he said.

Business owners looking to tap into the action are already looking ahead, making sure their products and staff are in line, as many rely on seasonal help.

“We have college kids, which we’ll be pulling in, but I think since it’s such a short window of time, early we’ll probably be drawing in some people who have worked for us in the past and begging them to help us out for those four or five days,” Barker said.

The city is accustomed to hosting large crowds. During February, 30,000-40,000 people check out Chowderfest.

“We’ll have to dust of those racing cobwebs early, and we’ll be ready to go,” Boggan said.

After the four-day Belmont festival at Saratoga, Belmont Park's usual season will return to Aqueduct before the 40-day 2024 Saratoga meet begins Thursday, July 11.