At exactly 5:50 P.M. on a sunny, summer Sunday, the starting gate at Aqueduct sprung open for what would be the last live race run at the 132-year old facility, with the winner and the jockey within two minutes becoming an instant trivia answer in front of nearly 7,000 nostalgic fans. Assume Nothing and Jaimie Rodriquez provided the answer to that question.
The race, the 9th on the card, was a special $100,000 mile and an eighth Starter Allowance race for horses who have started for a claiming price of $16,000. This is racing secretary boiler plate for outlining the conditions for entry, a very low bar at $16,000 meant to attract a big field starting in front of the stands for the last time.
And the conditions of the race did just that. Ten horses were entered. Typically a race with this eligibility would in no way ever have a purse of $100,000. NYRA is not crazy. They give snow away in the winter, It was meant as a farewell gesture and was named in the program as "It Was a Good Run." If you were interested, you could buy a T-shirt with that on the front. I don't know the cost. I said my goodbyes the track a week ago Saturday and have more than enough T-shirts that say all sorts of things on the front. I kept some losing tickets as souvenirs. I cashed the winning ones and came out slightly ahead. Racing is the one sport you can attend and make it pay for itself.
Somehow X has figured out I follow horse racing. So, without my doing anything, when I log on I get all sorts of racing postings from all sorts of people.
The above photo is from a fan who is in front of the entrance on Sunday and commenting that NYRA looked out the window, saw a crowd gathering, and decided to double the admission fee. He wasn't completely wrong.
I teased him in a reply that he was showing up on the wrong giveaway day. Shirts were not involved. Only dirt. He replied with the "LIKED" heart.
NYRA had already announced—at least to those who got their emails, which I bet were not many of those who showed up—that admission would be a "Ticketed Event" and admission would be $5. A jar of dirt from the track would be given to the first 1,000 patrons. A souvenir program would also be given.
NYRA, being the pernicious, greedy bunch they are, after years—maybe as many of 15—decided to charge $5 admission where just the years before they weren't charging anything. $0. I have no idea if they managed to charge for parking, which also had been free. The admission money was going to the NYRA fund. (O boy.)
I'm hardly alone in complaining about NYRA. One comment astutely tells us NYRA would plant more trees at Saratoga so they could sell more picnic table seats in the shade. (They already do charge for picnic tables in the shade.) Another comment from a trainer, no less, tells us that NYRA missed an opportunity to create new fans by neglecting to hand out $5 vouchers for the "newly imagined" Belmont as their greedy little fingers collected the $5 admission fee on Sunday.
Reserved seats at Saratoga go empty, since admission is only to get in, not sit down, and the newly built 1862 Club is nearly empty. NYRA only caters to the betting whales and the CAW (computer assisted wagering) crowd who get comped for their bets.
As nostalgic as the fan interviews went held by the terrific team of Fox Sports broadcasters Maggie Wolfendale and Acacia Clement were, there didn't seem to be many people holding programs. Did NYRA run out?. And why only the first 1,000 to get dirt? Did NYRA low-ball the expected attendance count? They did get nearly 7,000 people, which will greatly exceed a "non marquee" day's attendance at what the broadcaster Greg Wolfe keeps referring to Belmont as the "newly imagined." Yeah, "newly imagined."
Most of the people interviewed talked of how many years they came out to the track. Yeah, but how many lately? Lots of the guys talked of being brought to the track by their fathers. Not me. My father had nothing to do with my first visit to what was Belmont Day in 1968. A friend's hard-core, horseplaying barber, Kelly, shepherded us. We weren't even 20 at the time. I hit the Double cold and have never looked back. I loved The Morning Telegraph, a true broadsheet that held the past performances. It cost an exorbitant 75¢, when most papers cost 10¢ at the time. Times change. A multi-track Daily Racing Form booklet these days can cost $7-$13. You pay for information.
Corey Kilgannon, a veteran reporter for the New York Times, wrote a fabulous piece, 'Hard to Say Goodbye': Aqueduct Racetrack to Close After 132 years' dated June 27. The piece is accompanied by equally fabulous photos, about the ending of live racing in New York City after a run of 132 years.
I never met Mr. Kilgannon, but have exchanged a few emails with him over the years. I know little about him, other than he cut his teeth at the Times writing Profile pieces and doesn't strike me as even anywhere near a hard-core horseplayer. But he does know how to write about people. And it shows.
His piece, as good as it is, is buried in the online edition. Well, maybe this doesn't bury a piece these days, but what leads someone to read it? I only came across it by following Joe Drape on X. Joe has described himself as the last racing reporter for the NYT. There are currently 132 comments to Corey's piece. I wrote mine on Sunday, and it just got approved for publication early on Monday. I'm chuffed.
It's an example of typical NYT disregard for local sports reporting these days. Although Mr. Kilgannon is not a sports reporter, the Times can't even see its way to include the piece in its print edition. They don't send best reporters to Knick, Ranger, Met or Yankee games, and they've outsourced their sports department to The Athletic, staffed with people who couldn't find the track if they tried.
The Times seems to have adopted a policy of abandoning reporting on things New York. Since outsourcing their sports department to The Athletic, they don't send beat reporters to local professional games. It seems anything that goes on in sports within the city limits is ignored. And racing is certainly ignored. A few years ago, Joe Drape introduced himself at a book signing of his in a Saratoga bookstore that he's the last racing journalist for the Times. No one really understood at the time why that would be.
I don't know what day Mr. Kilgannon visited the track, but it was recent. I recognize some of the people in the photos since I was there on Saturday, June 20 saying my goodbyes.
He accurately describes the Jamaicans who congregate in one area, smoking their weed and playing their own portable music. They are the loudest bunch there. Signs that say NO SMOKING are only signs.
But the racing. Did anything happen that was noteworthy?
Yes, the 8th race provided a track record that was likely only noticed by a few in the crowd of nostalgic sightseers. The record will of course now stand forever, and will be its own trivia answer.
Lately, the turf course has been playing fast, as they say. Horses run faster on turf than dirt, which might seem counter intuitive, but is true. A dry turf course hardens, and produces fast times. And none no faster than when Highway Harmony went wire-to-wire with Edgar Zayas, setting a fraction I've never seen at the track.
The race, a non-graded, New York state-bred stakes named the John Hettinger, was run on the outer turf course for fillies, three years old and up, at 6f. The purse was $150,000, a decent sum for a state-bred race
NYRA will name such races after those who were notable in New York racing. The names are not usually household names, and I had to look up who John Hettinger was.
Google, please:
John Hettinger (1933–2008) was a Hall of Fame owner, breeder, and philanthropist. He is celebrated for saving the Fasig-Tipton auction house, pioneering the thoroughbred aftercare movement, founding Blue Horse Charities, and leading critical equine medical research as chairman of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation.
Highway Harmony is trained by Amelia Green, one of the emerging female trainers who was an assistant to Todd Pletcher for years before going out on her own. Linda Rice, the all-time leading trainer at Aqueduct, regardless of gender, is the first of those dynamic female trainers with 1,222 wins at the track.
So, how fast was Highway Harmony? Fast. Very fast. The final time was 1.06.44, beating the record of 1.06.73 held by Outlaw Kid in 2024. The record will now stand for all time, since Aqueduct will no longer be holding live racing. The scene now shifts to Saratoga, then to the "newly imagined " Belmont.
Racing is about fractional times as much as final times, and Highway Harmony's 21 1/5 quarter, 42 4/5 half, and final 1:06 2/5 were the story.
I have NEVER seen a :42 anything half. My eyes were popping watching the race on TV. That is faster than Dr. Fager's 43 4/5 half in his historic Vosburgh victory in 1968. Of course, Dr. Fager was running on dirt in that race, carrying the astonishing 139 pounds and it was 7 furlongs. His record 1:20 1/5 stood until Artax did it in 1:20.04 in 1999, but only carrying a feather at 120 pounds.
Andy Serling at the broadcast desk said he has never seen a :42 half. Maggie Wolfendale interviewed Amelia Green, a slight woman with what sounds a bit like a faint English accent after the race, and asked if she was expecting such a fast time.
No, absolutely not. But Amelia expressed huge thanks to the owners, Lucky Hat Racing with whom she had her first winner.
Consistent with giving names to NY-Bred Stake races is the one named Mike Lee. Mike Lee I'm sure is a complete unknown unless you grew up in Queens and had the Long Island Star Journal and the Long Island Press delivered by a boy on bike throwing papers from a canvas bag attached to the handle bars.
Samuel Newhouse as Advance Publications were the owners of the papers. The printing plant and offices were in Long Island City, visible from the Flushing IRT. These were great papers to grow up with. They had comics, sports and news of the borough as if it wasn't part of New York City, which it wasn't until the late 19th century.
Newborn photos of babies in their bassinets were a feature of the paper. I'm guessing mine might have appeared in1949 from Flushing Hospital. If it did, my folks didn't save the copy.
There was a small town feel to its news, with Queens the only borough identified by the names of the villages (still is) that were once part of it before the consolidation into New York City.
I remember seeing Mike Lee's name in the paper. He was a handicapper and the sports editor. The Star Journal would cover racing from the tracks, Aqueduct, Belmont and Jamaica, a track I remember seeing the entries and results for, but one that was torn down in 1959, for a housing project, with the unfathomable name of Rochdale Village. Rochdale Village is a mammoth set of apartment houses, all patterned after the cooperative spaces of Rochdale England. Who knew?
Bobby G. of The Assembled, is old enough to have gone to the races at Jamaica. In fact, he's the only living person I know who's been to Jamaica. The track closed in 1959, in operation since 1904 run by the Metropolitan Jockey Club. The one-mile oval was closed the year a newly rebuilt Aqueduct opened in 1959, the iteration that closed on Sunday.
Another takeaway is an incomplete one. Mention is made that when the prior Belmont was being rebuilt, the one that reopened in 1968, the Belmont Stakes was held at Aqueduct, subbing for Belmont just as now Saratoga has subbed for "the newly imagined" Belmont.
Does that mean the Belmonts held then at Aqueduct from 1963-1967 were run at 1 1/4 miles like they have done at Saratoga for the last three years, because the track can't accommodate a 1 1/2 mile race around two turns like Belmont?
No. Apparently the race was still at 1 1/2 miles, with the starting gate placed at the far turn at an angle to the track. Thus, they had to pass the finish line twice. An outside post must have spelled doom.
No mention was made of this by any commentator, likely because it predated any direct knowledge they had of Aqueduct, even the Jockey Richard Migliore who wasn't born until the mid 60s.
When I first started watching races at Belmont, a 1 1/4 race was run on a massive straightaway, starting on the training track, and almost in JFK airport. Our mentor Les, "Mr. Pace," would tell of the Widener turf chute where 7 furlong races started on a straightaway on the backstretch and ran directly toward the stands in a straight line.
I'm sure at the "newly imagined" Belmont, they will continue to run 1 1/4 races with the starting gate at an angle somewhat on the clubhouse turn, as tangential as possible, to create as even a start as they can. Who knows, maybe the "newly imagined" place will have a chute.
Another takeaway was that Saratoga, back-in-day, was awarded 40 days of racing, smack in the summer months, allowing the bluebloods to scoot upstate to the Adirondacks where it wasn't as stifling hot.
What happened was that 40 days of a weak handle wasn't going to fly financially. Saratoga then wasn't the vacation destination it is today. It was a somewhat backwater upstate town that just raised its prices when the racing started. My friend Dave (Fourstardave), who worked with a older racing journalist, Howard Rowe at Racing Star Weekly, was brainwashed by Howie into believing that Saratoga was not a worthy place to make a trip to.
Thus, for as long as I knew Dave, I could never convince him to come to Saratoga with me, which as the town grew, got to be a nice place to be: "The Summer Place to Be."
I've written about it before, but Dave, by virtue of his first name, came to provide the name Fourstardave when Dave's boss, Richard Bomze and owner of Racing Star Weekly, named the horse he bred, Fourstardave.
The horse became a racing legend. The Sultan of Saratoga. The sports bar at Saratoga was named after Fourstardave, and my now deceased friend, who had never set foot in Saratoga, certainly can't go now. This is called irony.
Sixteen of the 40 dates awarded to Saratoga were transferred to Jamaica and Aqueduct racing dates to keep the handle and the purses up. In 1968 Saratoga, had 24 days of racing, and now I know why. Downstaters, like myself, hated the interruption in racing.
Saratoga now sports some of the best handles and purses, and helps keep the purses up for the downstate races. Times change.
Before winterized racing at Aqueduct, the season would start March 8 at Aqueduct, move to Belmont in time for the Belmont Stakes, stay there until August, when Saratoga then stuck its upstate nose in the schedule for 4 weeks of 6 races a week. From there, it was back to Belmont for the fall meet, then Aqueduct closing in early December. I used to average 33 days of racing attendance a year, without ever going to Saratoga.
The were many X postings, but perhaps none more poignant than that posted by a racing journalist, Teresa Genaro (@BklynBckstretch).
"A nearly full moon as I board the A train from the Big A for the last time. And yep, I’m crying."
Teresa had to be hanging out, because sunset was at about 8:30 on Sunday.
Personally, I'll miss what Aqueduct was, not what it became. I also miss being 20.
http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com
