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The new year promises to be a monumental one for horse racing in New York — with the opening of a reimagined Belmont Park and the closing of Aqueduct Racetrack scheduled for this summer.
The work is ongoing at the new Belmont Park, the New York Racing Association-led (NYRA) $450 million transformation of the massive racetrack on the Queens/Long Island border where legendary horses such as Secretariat, Seattle Slew and American Pharoah achieved glory in winning the Belmont Stakes, the third and final leg of thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown.
Expected to open this September, the new Belmont will look dramatically different from its predecessor. The hulking, quarter-mile-long grandstand was demolished in 2024 to make way for a much smaller, yet modern 250,000-square-foot grandstand and clubhouse that can host racing and events year-round. More green space was added around the track, and tunnels were built on the infield to allow the public access to the interior of the course for the first time.
Back in October, NYRA held a topping-out ceremony for the new grandstand, attended by Gov. Kathy Hochul, who had supported NYRA’s $450 million loan to finance the rebuild, and NYRA President Dave O’Rourke.
Photos that NYRA provided to amNewYork show the new Belmont Park grandstand rounding into form, and looking very much like the modern building depicted in renderings provided several years ago.
O’Rourke told amNewYork in a phone interview on Jan. 7 that everything is on track for a “soft opening” in September of this year. The first two floors should be complete to welcome fans, but the upper three floors will be ready for business by the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival in June 2027.
“They’re wrapping the third floor in glass and should have it sealed in by the end of this month,” O’Rourke said. “The tracks are pretty much done, all of them are in.”
Along with rebuilding the massive 1 1/2-mile-long main track, known as “Big Sandy,” and two turf courses within it, NYRA has also constructed a one-mile synthetic course for training and racing, especially during the winter months.
The new Belmont was a long time in coming for NYRA. The massive old grandstand lacked the modern amenities and was sparsely attended on days outside of the annual Belmont Stakes Racing Festival.
The new modern grandstand will better accommodate the average race day crowds, and NYRA will build temporary stands on either side for not only the Belmont Stakes but also the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, which it will host in 2027. It will be the first time in 22 years that NYRA will hold the prestigious year-end international racing event.
O’Rourke said the biggest difference fans will experience at the new Belmont Park, when it opens, will be in the hospitality options.
“The last Belmont Park, when you looked at the building, it was a huge, impressive structure — but empty on the inside. The new building is much smaller, roughly a third of the size,” O’Rourke said. “The first two floors will be for general admission, and as you move up, the hospitality experience will be different and more modern.”
At least 31 luxury suites will be on the upper floors of the new Belmont Park; the old grandstand had none. The smaller facility also provides more open space for fans to enjoy and “optionality” for NYRA to provide temporary stands and other improved amenities, he added.
‘The Big A’ in its final furlong
However, beyond improving the quality of Belmont Park itself, the reconstruction project will also enable NYRA to consolidate its downstate racing operations — relocating all of its race dates outside of the Saratoga summer meet to the new Belmont Park, and closing the door for good on Aqueduct Racetrack.
Indeed, NYRA announced in December that Aqueduct will host its final races on June 28 of this year after holding all NYRA races outside of Saratoga since the fall of 2023 during the Belmont Park reconstruction. The aging facility in South Ozone Park has hosted all of NYRA’s racing (except the Saratoga summer meet and the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival) since the old Belmont closed for renovations.
Known to racing enthusiasts as “The Big A,” Aqueduct has plenty of history of its own. It is one of the oldest thoroughbred racing facilities in the country, having hosted racing on the site for 130 years. The current grandstand and clubhouse, built in the 1950s during horse racing’s heyday, was the largest in America and regularly brought in crowds of more than 50,000 people.
For the past three decades, rumors of Aqueduct’s demise had circulated intermittently as thoroughbred racing’s popularity waned and on-track attendance declined due to off-track betting, simulcasting, and the expansion of gaming in other states. Yet as Aqueduct enters the home stretch of its existence, its place in local horse racing history is not lost on NYRA, which plans to offer a grand send-off to “the players’ track” in June, according to O’Rourke.
“If you look back at NYRA’s history, when you get into contemporary times, more racing has happened at Aqueduct than anywhere else,” O’Rourke said. “It’s the city track in a lot of ways. In some ways, Aqueduct is a nod to a past era in racing.”
The modern Aqueduct saw special moments of its own in the past 50 years. Secretariat made his final appearance there in November 1973 at a retirement ceremony. Five years later, the Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew won his final race at The Big A before retirement. The track also hosted the second Breeders’ Cup in 1985.
In 1995, the track also hosted a Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II during his visit to New York, drawing tens of thousands of worshippers.
Today, the “players’ track,” as O’Rourke called it, sees hundreds of die-hard horse racing fans visit every racing day to watch the horses run. Aqueduct has grown “a very strong local fan base” especially in the local West Indian community, something which NYRA plans to celebrate at the closing ceremony in June.
Once the final race is run at Aqueduct on June 28, NYRA will “turn they keys “over to New York state, which owns the property. Resorts World New York City Casino, which operates in the former Aqueduct grandstnd and provides gaming subsidies to support the thoroughbred racing industry, received one of three lucrative full gaming licenses in the New York City area, and has plans to expand its presence on The Big A footprint — including a larger gaming facility along with an entertainment venue, affordable housing, and a 25-acre park situated over part of the racing surface.
But for now, the horses are still running at Aqueduct through June as work on the new Belmont Park continues. The BigA will host the state’s slate of Kentucky Derby prep races, culminating with the Wood Memorial in April.
Later that month, Aqueduct will launch its final “Belmont at the Big A” meet that will conclude on June 28. During the meet, racing will briefly shift upstate to Saratoga Race Course for the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, taking place from June 4-8. The Belmont Stakes will be held for the final time at Saratoga on June 7, and will be run at 1 1/4 miles once again — two furlongs shorter than the 1 1/2 miles normally contested at Belmont Park.
Saratoga’s elite summer meet will be expanded to 46 days in 2026, with a special July 4 racing festival launching on July 3. Saratoga will then host all NYRA races through Labor Day, Sept. 7.
The new Belmont Park is scheduled to open for business on Friday, Sept. 18, and stick around for quite a long time.
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Robert Pozarycki
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