New York City’s Aqueduct Racetrack, the site for countless classic moments in thoroughbred racing, closed on Sunday after 132 years in operation.
According to combined media reports, the Queens-based venue is being shuttered as part of the New York Racing Association’s (NYRA) plan to consolidate its downstate operations. Aqueduct’s racing slate will be moved to a new modernized Belmont Park in Long Island’s Nassau County. New York State will reclaim the roughly 210-acre Aqueduct venue for new developments that have yet to be determined.
NYRA chairman Marc Holliday, the CEO of SL Green Realty (NYSE: SLG), the largest commercial landlord in New York City, announced the closure by stating, “This was the home of my youth. I’ll miss it quite a bit, but I am also looking forward to Belmont. So, it’s a little bittersweet. On the one hand, I’m a developer. I’m a real estate guy, so I respect the history. I do a lot of adaptive reuse and historical renovations, but I’m always about the future and progress.”
Holliday added that Aqueduct “was first constructed in the late 1890s, so I think it’s time for a new chapter of racing in New York. It’s not going to be a mourning process. It’s going to be celebrating a track that gave us 130 years of thrills with some of the greatest races and horses of all time.”
Aqueduct – known to its fans as “The Big A” – opened in 1894 and welcomed Triple Crown winners and champion equine athletes to its track. Aqueduct also hosted non-racing events including the massive the Aqueduct Flea Market, with more than 500 vendors making sales from 1978 to 2011. Pope John Paul II celebrated an open-air Mass for 75,000 congregants at the venue in 1995. In 2011, Resorts World New York City opened at the Aqueduct complex, becoming the city’s first legal casino.
State officials plan to conduct public meetings to discuss the future of the Aqueduct property. A master plan is expected to be released early next year.
Photo via NYRA
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