‘It Was a Good Run:’ Aqueduct Racetrack closes after 132 years

OZONE PARK, Queens — New York Metropolis’s final horse racing monitor, the place Seabiscuit, Man O’ Conflict, Secretariat and different legendary thoroughbreds graced the winner’s circle in the course of the sport’s heyday, is on its last stretch.

After greater than 130 years, the as soon as grand Aqueduct monitor ran its final race Sunday titled, “It Was a Good Run.”

The monitor, will stay open for betting on televised races – generally known as simulcasting – by Sept. 7.

“There’s a whole lot of historical past right here. Simply so many good horses,” stated David Donk, a veteran horse coach, in between afternoon races at Aqueduct earlier this month. “It is had its use. However, you realize, occasions change. All the pieces modifications in life.”

Racing is a contracting trade

The tip of the “Huge A” comes amid elevated competitors for playing {dollars}. Slot parlors, casinos, state lotteries and, extra lately, legalized on-line and sports activities betting have all steadily eroded the attract of what as soon as was dubbed the “sport of kings.”

There are roughly 75 thoroughbred tracks nationwide, in comparison with the greater than 300 services providing some type of horse racing in the course of the sport’s Gilded Age peak within the late 1800s, in keeping with the Nationwide Thoroughbred Racing Affiliation, an trade commerce group.

Among the many different main tracks which have closed lately are Arlington Park in Illinois, which was bought by NFL’s Chicago Bears for a possible new stadium, and Golden Gate Fields within the San Francisco Bay Space.

“For over 100 years, thoroughbred racing was one in all only a few sports activities shops you may legally guess on,” stated Tom Rooney, the affiliation’s president. “With the growth of sports activities playing, our sport will naturally condense and coalesce round a extra pragmatic variety of marquee tracks and areas, much like different sports activities.”

Certainly, a big chunk of Aqueduct’s hulking website, the place a crowd of 75,000 celebrated Mass with Pope John Paul II in 1995, has for years been house to a Resorts World on line casino. The playing corridor started providing dwell desk video games like blackjack, poker and craps earlier this yr after successful a profitable state license to function a Las Vegas-style resort, and has plans for a glitzy, multibillion greenback growth.

Some 9 miles (14 kilometers) east, simply over the town line on suburban Lengthy Island, the famed Belmont Park racetrack – house to the third leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes – is about to reopen in September after a roughly $550 million renovation. State funding for that venture was contingent on the New York Racing Affiliation, which operates the tracks, returning Aqueduct’s greater than 100 acres (40 hectares) to the state for future redevelopment and consolidating thoroughbred races at Belmont and Saratoga Race Course upstate.

“We could not have gotten the cash to rebuild Belmont and proceed to race at Aqueduct. It’s a must to make these selections,” stated Andy Serling, the monitor’s longtime tv analyst and race handicapper. “I do not suppose you will discover anyone right here that is not gonna inform you they’re gonna miss Aqueduct, however we’re additionally extremely excited to be opening this stunning new constructing at Belmont.”

Aqueduct had humble beginnings

Initially opened in 1894, Aqueduct took its identify from an previous aqueduct working by the property that introduced recent water from Lengthy Island to New York Metropolis.

It was a comparatively modest operation till a dramatic reinvestment in 1959, which introduced a devoted subway cease, air-conditioned eating places and lounges together with a roughly 35,000-seat grandstand full with escalators, elevators and different facilities. The Related Press, on the time, declared the reworked monitor “the world’s most trendy and opulent horse plant.”

Legendary Triple Crown winner Secretariat received the primary race of his storied profession on the monitor in 1972, then trotted out for a last farewell the next yr.

Seattle Slew’s large win at Aqueduct in 1977 served as the ultimate tuneup en path to sweeping the Triple Crown later that yr. And in 1994, Cigar launched his historic, 16-race successful streak at Aqueduct.

Prime jockey remembers monitor fondly

Taking a break between races on a current Friday afternoon, Corridor of Fame jockey John Velazquez recalled how his embellished profession started at Aqueduct.

The 54-year-old native of Puerto Rico stated it took weeks going up towards a few of the high horse riders of the time for him to win his first profession race. Velazquez has since notched greater than 6,700 victories and holds probably the most purse earnings of any jockey in North America.

“That is the place I developed my craft, the place I discovered all the things that I do know,” Velazquez stated after successful his first race of the day. “The years that I spent right here made me the jockey that I’m at the moment.”

Contained in the cavernous grandstand, longtime gambler Roy Brown reminisced how he tried moving into the enterprise himself after one large win on the monitor.

The 68-year-old retiree from Queens stated he hauled in round $60,000 on a “pick-six” within the late Nineteen Eighties – a tough guess wherein a gambler has to choose the successful horse for six straight races.

The native of Jamaica, who had no expertise within the trade exterior of playing, used a few of his income to purchase two horses. However he and the thoroughbreds ended up having transient racing careers.

“It is best to guess on them, not personal them,” Brown stated with amusing. “Should you’re actually captivated with it, it is your greatest two minutes. Nothing’s sweeter than seeing your horse coming down the stretch or coming from behind and on the wire, figuring out you bought it.”