On June 19 and 20, Belmont Park will host a certificate program for the Racing Officials Accreditation Program. Consisting of one day of general education and one day of job-specific modules, the event offers education and certification for seven racing official positions: clerk of scales, horse identifier, paddock judge, patrol judge, outrider, and starter/assistant starter.…
When racing returned to New York State after nearly three years, shuttered due to stringent anti-gambling restrictions, the Brooklyn Handicap, first run in 1887, came with it. With survival, though, came transplantation, as the race was moved out of its eponymous borough, from the Gravesend track to Belmont Park. And with transplantation came a whiff…
…the owners of the race tracks in this vicinity are calling back the banished steeds of speed and bidding the admirers of the same to prepare for a Summer made joyous in the old way… —New York Times, March 1, 1913 Thoroughbred horse racing was back. It was May 30, 1913, when Belmont Park re-opened…
On Sunday afternoon, a bouquet of roses lay outside barn 20 on the Belmont backstretch, their colors nearly matching the red paint on the sign identifying the barn as the home of the Phipps Stable. The bouquet wasn’t quite as imposing as the blanket of roses that had been presented the day before, its meaning…
On May 8, 1907, August Belmont gave a dance and cotillion in the Turf and Field Club at Belmont Park prior to that season’s racing. Supper was served at midnight; trains to bring guests home departed at 3 a.m. Belmont’s guests, I think it’s safe to say, enjoyed themselves, entertained as they were by a…
On May 30, 1913, Belmont Park threw open its doors for the first time in three years. Racing had been suspended in New York due to the state’s anti-gambling laws, and racing-starved patrons flocked to Belmont in what was reportedly the second-biggest crowd in the track’s history. The featured race that day was the Metropolitan…
“…Belmont Park was built for the future as well as for the present…” Those words were written in May of 1905, on opening day of Belmont Park. The new racetrack garnered a staggering number of column inches by today’s standards; while commentary on the new track was somewhat mixed – concerns were raised about the…
One hundred and four years ago this week, Belmont Park opened. Hailed as a track that would appeal to the general public and not simply to bettors, Belmont occasioned a week of coverage leading up its opening, the day after which the Times declared, “There has never been a more brilliant assemblage at any race…
After thirty-eight racing days, twenty-three stakes races, ten Grade I’s, and a repeat winner in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, on Sunday Belmont closed its doors, as New York racing shifts to Aqueduct for six months. I’m looking forward to the opening of the Big A—no more LIE for me, back to the A train—but…
What, exactly, is it that makes a racing meet “boutique”? We hear the term all the time, usually referring to Saratoga, Del Mar, and Keeneland, meets known for their brevity, the quality of the racing, and their popularity. Recently, bettors have come out in full voice decrying the diminished quality of racing at Saratoga (too…
Brooklyn Backstretch 