The Jockey Club Gold Cup and Flower Bowl Stakes – two Grade 1 staples of the Belmont Park fall meet – have been moved to Saratoga and will be run on the closing Saturday of the 2021 meet, the New York Racing Association announced Friday as it released the stakes schedule for the 40-day Saratoga meet. To accommodate this change, the Grade 1 Woodward will return to Belmont Park – it had been run at Saratoga since 2006 – and the Waya, a Grade 3 marathon turf stakes for fillies and mares, will move from Saratoga to Belmont’s fall meet. That schedule change – plus the anointment of the Saratoga Derby to a Grade 1 – brings to 20 the total of Grade 1 stakes to be run at Saratoga. This year’s 40-day meet runs from July 15 through Sept. 6. The Jockey Club Gold, run at 1 1/4 miles on dirt, and Flower Bowl, a turf race that will be lengthened to 1 3/8 miles from 1 1/4 miles, will be run Sept. 4 and are now positioned eight weeks out from the Breeders’ Cup, on Nov. 5-6 at Del Mar. Martin Panza, NYRA’s senior vice president of racing operations, believes these races are a better fit eight weeks out from the Breeders’ Cup than four or five weeks out. :: Want to get your Past Performances for free? Click to learn more. “More and more, trainers are choosing not to run their better horses that close to the Breeders’ Cup,” Panza said. “These have been very strong and very traditional races in New York. We want to keep the Grade 1 on those races, and moving them to Saratoga and positioning them eight weeks before the Breeders’ Cup seems to be the new trend. It was a good move for Saratoga and a good move for the races, and it will hopefully help their Grade 1 status.” Over the last six years, average field size for the Jockey Club Gold Cup has been six, with three runnings having gone with five horses. Over that same period, the average field size for the Woodward has been 8.16. Panza said the Woodward will be run at 1 1/8 miles in late September or early October. Also, the Grade 3 Waya, a 1 1/2-mile turf race that had been run in early August, will now move to where the Flower Bowl was run at Belmont. The Jockey Club Gold Cup purse will be $1 million, up from $750,000 in 2019. The Flower Bowl will be worth $600,000, up from $500,000 in 2019. Last year, both were $250,000 because of the coronavirus pandemic. In total, Saratoga will host 76 stakes worth $21.5 million, $650,000 more than offered in 2019. From a dates standpoint, the schedule will virtually mirror the 2019 calendar with the Grade 1 Travers, the marquee event of the summer, being run Aug. 28 and highlighting a card with seven stakes. Purse levels for most stakes have been restored to 2019 levels, with the Travers being worth $1.25 million and the Grade 1 Whitney, run on Aug. 7, back to $1 million. NYRA cut the purses of six stakes from 2019 levels. The Sword Dancer (now $750,000) and Personal Ensign (now $600,000) – Grade 1 stakes offered on the Travers Day card – were each lowered by $100,000. The Spinaway and Hopeful – Grade 1 stakes for 2-year-olds at the end of the meet – were each cut $50,000 and are now worth $300,000. The now Grade 3 Saratoga Oaks ($700,000) and the Grade 2, $250,000 Bernard Baruch also were cut by $50,000. The purses of 20 listed or restricted stakes previously worth $100,000 will now be worth $120,000. NYRA also brought back six stakes that it scrapped in 2020, including the Rick Violette for New York-bred 2-year-olds, the Evan Shipman for older New York-breds, and the Curlin, an open race for 3-year-olds. While NYRA has not yet addressed if fans will be able to attend the races at Saratoga, all signs point to that happening at some level. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced that beginning Feb. 23 arenas such as Madison Square Garden could begin allowing as much as 10 percent capacity under certain protocols. On Wednesday, Cuomo announced that beginning in April outdoor amusement parks could begin hosting up to 33 percent capacity.