From a distance, it appears as though a five-story spacecraft has landed to usher New York racing into the twenty-first century. The reimagined Belmont Park has finally arrived.
“People are getting amped up for it,” New York Racing Association chairman Marc Holliday said. “The entire industry is excited. To be a part of this new stage of history is incredibly thrilling.”
Naysayers Question the Design
However, not everyone is thrilled. One social media user, known as Jiffy, lamented, “I thought the old Belmont was beautiful, but I don’t like the design of the new one. I look at it and think the Martians have landed.” Another user, Arlingtonfan, echoed the sentiment, noting, “It reminds me of ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’.”
Preserve your memories, traditionalists, because the future is now and there is no going back. On Friday, the new Belmont Park will open for the fall meeting, featuring the 108th running of the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1). This event serves as a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the Oct. 31 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), which was won last year by Japan’s Forever Young, the marquee attraction for the 1¼-mile Gold Cup.
Belmont Park Attendance Limited to 6,000
The absence of 2025 Horse of the Year Sovereignty, sidelined by a foot abscess, canceled a duel of superstars. However, for once, a new venue rather than a million-dollar race will draw the crowds.
Attendance on opening day will be capped at 6,000 because the $455 million facility remains a work in progress, with hundreds of construction workers on site daily. Only the first two floors will be accessible to the public, meaning fans will likely spend more time admiring the unfamiliar sights than studying the Racing Form. These sights include a glass-enclosed grandstand, an expanded “Backyard” paddock and walking ring, and four newly constructed racing surfaces—a dirt track, two widened grass courses, and a mile synthetic oval situated within all three.
Holdovers from the old paddock include the statue of Secretariat and the ancient Japanese white pine tree. Gone are the red brick walls adorned with arches and climbing ivy, which longtime patrons will certainly miss.
The structure is so visually imposing that it is hard to realize it spans 275,000 square feet—roughly one-third the size of its predecessor, which stretched nearly a quarter of a mile. A six-story videoboard in the 45-acre infield will accommodate thousands, greatly increasing crowds for the Belmont Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup, which will return to New York next year for the first time since 2005. Although the main track is 12 feet narrower—featuring a limestone base instead of clay—the stretch is 130 feet longer.
The facility also boasts the amenities contemporary fans demand. On the first floor, where most visitors will congregate, there is a food court, a simulcast center, and a sports bar themed around Secretariat. The second floor features outdoor box seats, the third floor houses luxury boxes, and the fourth floor contains 32 Champion suites. At the very top sits the Sky Terrace indoor dining room. It sounds like everything a racegoer could want, minus the ivy and brick walls.
With Aqueduct gone forever, New York racing will be conducted at Belmont, except for the Saratoga meeting from late June or early July through Labor Day. The all-weather Tapeta surface will be used exclusively from December through late March or early April.
Let the New Era of Belmont Park Begin
Change is often difficult, especially for those who remember the past. Yet transformation was overdue for a cavernous building that long ago outlived its usefulness. Aside from Belmont Stakes Day, most seats sat empty. Crowds of 20,000 or more no longer attended a venue that had been remodeled between 1963 and 1968. It was said that if you fired a cannon from one end of the first floor to the other, you wouldn’t hit anybody.
As NYRA president and CEO David O’Rourke stated, “The old facility was built for a different era.” He added that back in the Sixties, no cigar-chomping horseplayer could have envisioned a racetrack like this one.
As NYRA chairman Holliday noted, “The new Belmont Park will be a thoroughly modern racing and entertainment facility that will take its place on the global stage among iconic venues like Ascot, Longchamp, and the Curragh. It will appeal to horse racing enthusiasts and attract a new generation of fans.”
Big dreams, and let’s hope he’s right.
Ed McNamara is an award-winning racing writer who has covered the sport since 1981 for The Bergen (N.J.) Record, Newsday, ESPN, Thorocap, and USRacing. He is the author of Cajun Racing: From the Bush Tracks to the Triple Crown and Racing Around the World, and a contributor to The Most Glorious Crown and The Racetracks of America. He has also written for racing publications in France and Italy.