At the moment, the New York Racing Association has the June 28 final day of racing at Aqueduct Racetrack on the horizon.
After that, from July 3 through Sept. 7, the attention switches to Saratoga Race Course for the annual euphoria of a record 46-day meet.
And then comes what looms as the important moment in NYRA's 71-year history.
On Sept. 18, Belmont Park will open its doors for the first time since 2023 and bring downstate racing into the 21st century. On display for all to see will be the fruits of a $455 million loan from New York State to reimagine the campus and construct a significantly smaller but ultra-modern grandstand/clubhouse building and an additional $100 million NYRA spent on revamping the two turf courses and the main track and adding a fourth all-weather Tapeta surface.
"The experience at Belmont Park we will be able to deliver to fans is one that generations haven't seen," said Andrew Offerman, NYRA's senior vice president of racing and operations. "I feel a real excitement at seeing how everything is coalescing into a rebirth of downstate racing in New York."
This will mark the second time Belmont Park has been rebuilt since it was originally constructed in 1905 on more than 400 acres in Elmont, N.Y., adjacent to the New York City border.
The first rebuild took place from 1963-68 and it came at a time when racing was thriving with little to no gaming competition, and daily crowds of 25,000 were commonplace.
Back then, NYRA merely needed to open the doors of Aqueduct and Belmont and the masses would stream in.
Now, with downstate racing struggling to fill fields and cards, and attendance a small fraction of what it was in the 1960s, the dawn of the newest Belmont Park is a crucial moment in rejuvenating the sport, justifying the ritzy price tag for the reconstruction, and giving racing a modern home to complement the UBS Arena on the grounds.
Of course, that comes with inherent pressure that needs to be focused properly.
"I don't see this as pressure. I see it as an opportunity," Offerman said. "When I talk to my racing team and the people around it, they are all racing fans at heart. So, to be a part of something that's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I think there's more of a feeling of privilege and excitement. Pressure comes with it. But when it's fun, it's much easier to focus on the excitement than it is to dwell on the pressure."
While the new building that can house about 15,000 patrons will not be fully opened until the spring (only the first two of five floors will be accessible on opening day), racing will resume in earnest Sept. 18 and NYRA has implemented several incentives to make racing at Belmont Park more lucrative and attractive than ever.
Purses on overnight races will be boosted by an average of 15% at Belmont, with maiden special weight races jumping from $80,000 to $100,000. Allowance races will be worth $105,000 and $108,000.
In addition, the purses for New York-bred races will be the same as open races, beginning at the meet.
To boost the historic Sept. 18 card, overnight purses on that day will be increased by 50%, and the highlight of the day will be the running of the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1), a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In race for the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) that has been shifted back to Belmont from Saratoga.
"Bringing it back to Belmont made a lot of sense, especially with the Breeders' Cup coming to New York in 2027," Offerman said about the Jockey Club Gold Cup. "Logistically the Gold Cup should be at Belmont as a final prep for the Breeders' Cup Classic. There's at least short-term logic to having it at Belmont and we'll see what type of interest it drives."
As an additional way to create a strong horse population, NYRA will be launching its "Big Apple Bonus" in September that can provide up to $8,500 for owners and trainers moving horses from different circuits to New York.
According to the rules, horses that relocate from less than 400 miles away will receive a $3,000 bonus for the horse's first start at the Belmont fall meet. The money will be divided with $2,000 for the owner and $1,000 for the trainer. The distance basically covers as far south as Colonial Downs.
Horses from more than 400 miles away, which includes Kentucky and Canada and all other parts of the country, will receive $6,000 for their first start, with $4,000 for the owner and $2,000 for the trainer.
In addition, qualifying horses who make three consecutive starts at the Belmont fall meet will earn an extra $2,500 for the owner.
"When you combine that Big Apple Bonus with a 15% overnight purse increase with a brand new building and the excitement it can bring, we hope that it transforms the experience for everyone, the owners, trainers, jockeys, and fans," Offerman said.
To get the word out on what will be available, the NYRA racing office has been diligently discussing the incentives with horsemen and Offerman said he is pleased with the initial feedback.
"Based on the early conversations that our team has had, I expect a good response from horsemen," Offerman said. "We made a conscious effort the past year to get our racing office on the road, having these conversations with horsemen across the country. We tried to hit all the major Derby preps and sales to get in front of more trainers. The feedback we've gotten from people who come for the summer meets or go to Florida for the winter has given us positive indications about what the interest will look like."
New Tracks, courses at Belmont Park
Offerman also believes the four new courses at Belmont will be embraced by horsemen.
"I think there's an obvious excitement in going to four new, state-of-the-art surfaces, with significant turf courses that give us more turf course than we've ever had available to us at Belmont," he said. "Plus a main track that matches the composition of Saratoga. Then obviously Tapeta is a whole new world as an option for off-the-turf races in the fall and then the excitement of what it can bring for a new winter racing season. I believe the Tapeta course can keep some horses in training who might be turned out and enable us to attract new participants, whether that be with trainers that are currently on the circuit or maybe trainers that want to try New York for the first time."
Offerman said while full-time Tapeta racing is likely to begin in December, there will be occasional Tapeta races carded to help introduce the surface to everyone.
"We will likely run a handful of Tapeta races prior to the winter to get a better sense and feel of the surface to help us with the timing it will take to get the horses on there and how to run the race cards. You will not see it on a regular basis, but as we get into October and November you'll start to see some, maybe a couple a week to give ourselves a little bit of practice as we get closer to winter," he said.
"You're seeing programs that were designed to create the influx that will give us a strong horse population that can sustain good winter racing. The decision to go to Tapeta is first and foremost for horse safety, but secondarily everyone knows it transfers a greater percentage of the horse population to it from a turf and dirt perspective. So it keeps more horses running and training in the winter which should allow us to deliver a winter racing product that will be substantially better than last year."
The fall meet also will feature a late fall turf festival Nov. 27-29 that features nine turf stakes, four of them graded. The slate Nov. 28 includes the Man o' War Stakes (G2T), and the Jockey Club Derby (G2T) and Jockey Club Oaks (G3T) for 3-year-olds, each worth $500,000.
Having the Tapeta course as a backup in case of inclement weather makes that kind of scheduling possible.
"Moving the Jockey Club Oaks and Derby and Man o' War to the end of November gave us an opportunity to create a signature final turf championship," Offerman said. "The Man o' War is not a grade 1 stakes, but it has the lineage that it could be a grade 1 again and that gives us an opportunity to go out and recruit for a big, end-of-year turf event which is something Belmont has not had before. It also seems like a logical place to attract international horses. From a timing perspective it's as easy to attract a horse from Europe as it is from California."
And in three months, all of that will be put to a test when the future becomes reality for New York racing.
