The Belmont Derby is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred race horse run over a distance of 1+1⁄4 miles on the turf at Belmont Park in July.
The race was renamed from the Jamaica Handicap, moved from October to July, increased in distance from 1+1⁄8 miles to 1+1⁄4 miles, and had the purse increased from $500,000 to $1,250,000.
When the Jamaica track closed in 1959, the race was shifted to the Aqueduct Race Track in Queens where it was contested in 1960, 1975 to 1977, 1979 to 1981, and 1987.
The Jamaica Handicap was open to horses age three and older from 1929 to 1944, 1949 to 1953, and again in 1960.
The Jamaica wasn't run from 1933 to 1935, in 1955 and 1956, from 1961 to 1976, nor in 1995 (due to severe weather conditions).