The Aqueduct Racetrack, also referred to as the Big A, is a thoroughbred horse racing track situated in the Queens borough of New York City’s Ozone Park neighborhood. Racing usually takes place there from November to April.

Aqueduct Racetrack History

Aqueduct Racetrack, which is situated close to the location of a former Brooklyn Water Works conduit that supplied water to the Ridgewood Reservoir from Long Island, was established on September 27, 1894 by the Queens County Jockey Club. Before the summer meet began in 1941, the facility was enlarged and a new clubhouse built. After acquiring control of Aqueduct, Belmont Park, Jamaica Racetrack, and Saratoga Race Course in 1955, the Greater New York Association chose to renovate Aqueduct extensively.

Following this, Jamaica Racetrack was sold for use as a housing development. After closing in 1956, the racetrack reopened on September 14, 1959, following $33 million in improvements built by renowned racetrack architect Arthur Froehlich of Beverly Hills, California’s Arthur Froehlich & Associates architecture business. When the clubhouse’s Equestris Restaurant first opened in 1981, it was the biggest eatery in New York City. In 2001, 2006, and 2007, additional improvements were carried out.

Prior to 1976, the Inner Dirt Track was a turf course that was called the Main Turf Course. The only turf course that remains today is called the Inner Turf Course. After racing ended in 1975, the Main Turf Course’s grass was removed to make room for the Inner Dirt Track, which allowed for year-round racing.

In the initial years following Aqueduct’s reconstruction in 1959, the track was closed from early November to April 1; by 1971, this window had been shrunk to from just before Christmas to March 1; in the latter year, off-track betting started in New York City, generating demand for year-round horse racing in the area.

These days, Aqueduct hosts a single conference once a year, which usually starts on the final Wednesday of October and ends on the first Sunday of May. In recent years, races have been held on the Inner Dirt Track between the Wednesday after Thanksgiving and the day before the Wood Memorial.

A summer meeting was held at Aqueduct from mid-June to the end of July prior to 1977. While Belmont’s grandstand was being renovated, races that would typically be held at Belmont Park, including the Belmont Stakes, were held at Aqueduct from 1963 to 1967.

Right now, the main event that caps up the winter meet is the Wood Memorial. The winter meet starts with two big races right after Thanksgiving: the Remsen and the Cigar Mile. The marathon 21/4 miles (3.6 km) Display Handicap, maybe the most unique race on the track, was last held in 1990. The prestigious Jockey Club Gold Cup was typically held there from 1958 to 1974. On November 2, 1985, the track hosted the Breeders’ Cup for the second time ever.

The first and currently only triple dead heat for first place in a stakes race occurred at Aqueduct. Brownie, Bossuet, and Wait A Bit crossed the finish line simultaneously in the 1944 Carter Handicap. Dead heats for the three “money” positions (Win, Place, and Show) occurred in three different races on April 8, 2006, at Aqueduct during an eleven-race program that included the Wood Memorial Stakes.

This was an uncommon occurrence. In Race 5, Saint Anddan and Criminal Mind dead-heated for Place; in Race 6, Naragansett and Emotrin dead-heated for Show; and in Race 10, Karakorum Tuxedo and Megatrend dead-heated for Win.

The first two races of Hall of Fame horse Cigar’s sixteen-race winning streak at Aqueduct were victories. Following the transition from grass to dirt, Cigar’s first victory came on October 28, 1994, by an eighth of a length in an allowance race.

On November 26, 1994, he won by seven lengths in the NYRA Mile, a Grade 1 race that was renamed in the horse’s honor in 1997. Aqueduct hosted 73,375 fans on May 31, 1965, to watch Gun Bow win the Metropolitan Mile.

It was the biggest attendance in a thoroughbred horse racing event in New York history at the time. On November 6, 1973, Champion racehorse Secretariat was retired here in front of the public. This was where he made his final appearance on a racetrack and was paraded to the public for the last time. Next, he was moved to Claiborne Farm for stud duty.

On October 6, 1995, Pope John Paul II celebrated mass at Aqueduct in front of a throng of 75,000 people. The racetrack’s north parking lot, on Rockaway Boulevard, has a flea market every weekend.