The Mystique of Belmont Park

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The Mystique of Belmont Park

By Hong Cheong
The Daily Dash
November 13, 2019

Belmont Park is a major Thoroughbred horse-racing facility located in Elmont in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, on Long Island adjoining New York City. It first opened on May 4, 1905. It is typically open for racing throughout May and June and into late July, and again from late September through late October. It is world famous as the home of the Belmont Stakes, known as the "Test of the Champion", the third leg of the Triple Crown.

Belmont is known as "The Championship Track" because almost every major champion in racing history since the early 20th century has competed on the racecourse — including each of the 11 Triple Crown winners. Along with Saratoga Race Course, in Upstate New York, Keeneland Race Course, in Lexington, Kentucky, Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky, and Del Mar and Santa Anita racecourses, in Southern California, Belmont is considered one of the elite racetracks in the sport. Belmont saw its largest crowd in 2004, when 120,139 witnessed the Belmont Stakes as Smarty Jones was seeking the Triple Crown but was upset by Birdstone.

Belmont Park is operated by the non-profit New York Racing Association, as are Aqueduct and Saratoga Race Course. The group was formed in 1955 as the Greater New York Association to assume the assets of the individual associations that ran Belmont, Aqueduct, Saratoga Race Course, and the now-defunct Jamaica Racetrack (which site is now occupied by the Rochdale Village housing development).

In May 2007, reports surfaced suggesting that then New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was considering closing Aqueduct Racetrack, which is ten miles west of Belmont in Ozone Park, New York, and turning Belmont into a nearly year 'round race track when the New York Racing Association lease for all three of New York State's tracks expired at the end of 2007. According to the plans being discussed, Belmont's stands would be heated, additional barns built for Aqueduct's 400 horses, and the track modified to accommodate winter racing. In addition, video lottery machines would be introduced. A new entity would operate Belmont from fall to spring while the New York Racing Association would operate Saratoga Race Course in the summer. Any plans the former governor might have had for the track alignment likely left office with him when Spitzer was forced to resign amid a prostitution scandal in March 2008.

The Belmont Stakes was named after financier and sportsman August Belmont, Sr., who helped fund the race, and most sources say the racetrack itself was also named for him. Other sources say Belmont Park was named in honor of his son — August Belmont II, a key member of the Westchester Racing Association, which established the racecourse.

The race was first run in 1867 at Jerome Park Racetrack in the Bronx. In 1937, the wrought iron gates that bore an illustration of that first Belmont Stakes were donated to the track by August Belmont II's sole surviving son, Perry Belmont. The gates are now on the fourth floor of Belmont Park's clubhouse. The Belmont Stakes races have been run at Belmont Park since 1905, with the exceptions of 1911-12, when racing was outlawed in New York State; and the 1963-67 editions, held at Aqueduct while the grandstands at Belmont Park were reconstructed. The first post parade in the United States was at the 14th Belmont, in 1880.

Secretariat's finishing time in his 1973 Belmont victory (2 minutes, 24 seconds) set a world record for 1 1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) on dirt, a world record which still stands. The 31-length victory clinched the first Triple Crown in 25 years, dating back to Citation in 1948. A statue of Secretariat is in the center of the Belmont paddock. Another Belmont Stakes achievement is recognized by the "Woody's Corner" display in the first-floor clubhouse lobby, commemorating the five consecutive Belmont Stakes winners trained by Woody Stephens from 1982-86.

Other memorable performances in Belmont Park history include the opening of the track in 1905 with the famous dead heat between Sysonby and Race King in the Met Cap. In 1923, Belmont Park was host to an international duel between the American and English champions: Zev, winner of the Kentucky Derby, against Papyrus, winner of the Epsom Derby. Zev won by five lengths in front of the biggest crowd for a match race in a hundred years.

Belmont Park was the site of the tragedy-marred victory of Foolish Pleasure over champion filly Ruffian in a 1975 match race. Ruffian broke down during the race and had to be euthanized; she is buried near the finish line in the infield at Belmont Park, her nose pointed towards the finish pole.

The racetrack was also the site of Affirmed's epic stretch duel with Alydar in the 1978 Belmont Stakes, a victory that gave Affirmed the Triple Crown; and Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew's defeat of Affirmed in the Marlboro Cup in September of that same year. The Marlboro, a key event of the Fall Championship meets in the 1970s and 1980s, included a dramatic come-from-behind win by Forego in the 1976 installment.