You might not know it, but the last racetrack Secretariat ever set foot on is Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park. Nine days after his last race in 1973, he made a special appearance just to parade before a crowd of about 30,000, who honored their hero with a fitting ovation. That racetrack is still in operation today, and it’s still making history.
Aqueduct has played host to some of Thoroughbred racing’s biggest heroes over the years. The likes of Smarty Jones; Ruffian, arguably the best filly to ever set foot on a track, who won ten out of ten completed races; Forego; Man O’War, who lost only once in a 21-race career; Fusaichi Pegasus; Beldame; Bold Ruler; and Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox all
raced at the famed track.
In fact, some famous horses set records at Aqueduct that still stand today. In 1989 Easy Goer set the record for the fastest mile ever run on dirt by a three-year-old in the history of racing, at 1:32-2/5. The only horse of any age to ever run a mile faster was Dr. Fager, back in 1968. Easy Goer won the Belmont in 1989, stealing the Triple Crown from Sunday Silence in a rout. Easy Goer finished eight lengths in the lead, putting in the second fastest Belmont Stakes in history.
Kelso set the record for the fastest two miles on dirt, at 3:19-1/5, back in the 1964 Jockey Club Gold Cup, run at Aqueduct. That world record still stands today.
Before the track was built, the Brooklyn Water Works had a conduit on the property that brought water from Long Island to the Ridgewood Reservoir. It was from this that the new racetrack, built on land leased from Dutch farmers, got its name.
On Sept. 27, 1894, the first horse race was run at the brand new Aqueduct Racetrack. In 1895 a man named Captain William Carter gave the club running the track a large amount of money, which allowed them to turn a bare-bones, fledgling track into a respectable racing attraction with the appeal to draw serious competitors. In return the Carter Handicap was introduced. The Stakes I race is run to this day, and currently carries a purse of $1 million.
In 1959 Aqueduct officially unveiled a serious face-lift, including a total renovation of all three tracks, a new grandstand and state-of-the-art stables. It was at this time the track acquired the nickname “The Big A,” because when it reopened it was so much grander and more impressive than it had been before. At the time, it was reviewed as the most up-to-date, modern facility of its kind.
The Belmont Stakes, the third race in the Triple Crown, was held at Aqueduct for six years when Belmont Park closed for renovations in the 1960s. Aqueduct also hosted the second ever Breeder’s Cup meet, in 1985.
Aqueduct is home to the first recorded instance of a three-way dead heat in a stakes race, which is the highest level of horse racing. On June 10, 1944, three horses, Brownie, Bossuet and Wait A Bit finished the Carter Handicap by thrusting their noses over the wire at the exact same moment–causing a three-way dead heat.
Oddly enough, Aqueduct is also on the record books for having a day in which three separate races finished in a dead heat, for the three money positions–first, second and third–on April 8, 2006. In the fifth race of the day, Saint Anddan and Criminal Mind tied in a dead heat for second; in the next race Naragansett and Emotrin tied for third in a dead heat; and in the tenth race of the day Karakorum Tuxedo and Megatrend tied for first, also in a dead heat.
The track is still vitally relevant to racing today. It allows horse racing to continue uninterrupted through the winter, thanks to an inner dirt track that’s heated. Several major Stakes races are held there annually, and many New York stables base their winter operations at the local track.
The $1 million Wood Memorial Stakes is still held at Aqueduct every spring, and is still considered to this day to be one of five premier preparation races leading up to the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May. Past winners of the Wood Memorial have gone on to great things–11 have gone on to win the Kentucky Derby, and four have kept right on going to capture the Triple Crown.
Aqueduct is still the only racetrack within the New York City limits. It hosts live horse racing from October through May. There are races every week from Wednesday through Sunday, and admission is still free. This year, the Wood Memorial is on Saturday, April 7.
By Liz Peterson
File Photos
