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Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse-racing facility located in the hamlet of Elmont, New York in Nassau County, Long Island in the Town of Hempstead. Its mile-and-a-half (2.4 km) main track is the largest dirt course in Thoroughbred racing. It first opened May 4, 1905.It is world-famous as the home of the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown.
Belmont is known as The Championship Track because most every major champion in racing history since the early 20th century has competed on the racecourse -- including each of the 11 Triple Crown winners.
In addition to its importance to racing, "Beautiful Belmont Park" is often called one of the best-landscaped venues in American sports -- especially because of the stately backyard park behind the grandstand, which includes the paddock in which the horses are saddled before each race. The backyard and backstretch are notable for their huge, attractive trees and landscaping, and the infield is dominated by two picturesque lakes.
With some of the elegant aura of its sister track, Saratoga Race Course, in a suburban setting, Belmont is known as one of the most gorgeous and accommodating racecourses in the world. Along with Saratoga, Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Churchill Downs in Louisville, and Del Mar and Santa Anita racecourses in California, Belmont is considered one of the elite racetracks in the sport.
Belmont Park is operated by the non-profit New York Racing Association, as are Aqueduct and Saratoga Race Course. The group was formed in 1955 as the Greater New York Association to assume the assets of the individual associations that ran Belmont, Aqueduct, Saratoga and the now-defunct old Jamaica Racetrack (The Rochdale Village housing development now occupies the site of Jamaica).
Secretariat's statue greets racing fans and jockeys in the paddock of Belmont Park. The Long Island racetrack was the site of Secretariat's greatest performance -- a 31-length romp in the 1973 Belmont Stakes to win the US Thoroughbred Triple Crown.Expansion plansIn May 2007, reports surfaced indicating that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was considering closing Aqueduct Racetrack which is four miles west of Belmont in Ozone Park, New York and turning Belmont into a nearly year round race track when the New York Racing Association lease for all three of New York State's tracks expires at the end of 2007.
According to the plans being discussed, Belmont's stands would be heated, additional barns built for Aqueduct's 400 horses, and the track being modified to accommodate winter racing. In addition, video lottery machines would be introduced. A new entity would operate Belmont from fall to spring while the New York Racing Association would operate Saratoga Race Course in the summer