The creation of James G. K. Lawrence, president of the Sheepshead Bay Race Track, the Futurity was originally run with the two-year-old offspring of mares which had been nominated before their birth.
It was added to the Breeders' Cup Challenge series for 2018 as a "Win and You're In" qualifier for the Juvenile Turf Sprint.
The richest race ever run in the United States to that time, the owners of winner Proctor Knott collected $41,675.
The New York Times reported that attendance for the day of the inaugural running was at least the equal of the largest crowd to ever attend a race at the Sheepshead Bay facility and that the caterer sold the following food:[3] The Futurity Stakes was hosted by the Sheepshead Bay Race Track until the track's closure following a statewide ban on parimutuel betting through enactment of the Hart–Agnew Law by the New York Legislature.
Prior to the advent of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, the Belmont Futurity was one of the United States' most important dirt races for two-year-olds.