The Poker Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually in mid June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. A Grade III event open to horses age three and older, it is raced on turf at a distance of one mile (8 furlongs). The inaugural running of the 1985 Poker Handicap was contested at a distance of a mile and a sixteenth and at a mile and a quarter the following year.