The Kelso Stakes, previously held as the Forbidden Apple Stakes, is a Grade III American Thoroughbred horse race for horses aged four years old and older held over a distance of one mile (8 furlongs) on the turf held annually in mid-July at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York.
The event's inaugural running was on Independence Day in 2014 at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York as the seventh race on the ten race holiday card and was won by Shadwell Stable's Sayaad who defeated the favorite Kharafa in a five horse field by 2+1⁄4 lengths in a time of 1:38.27 on a soft yielding turf track.
[3] That same year the event was classified as Grade III by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.
[4] In 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, NYRA did not schedule the event in their Saratoga summer meeting.
Kelso won the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park five times (1960–1964) consecutively at the then distance of 2 miles on the dirt.