EXCLUSIVE | Go inside the reconstruction of Belmont Park as historic track reinvents itself as a racing mecca | amNewYork

Belmont Park saw Secretariat move “like a tremendous machine” around its massive oval more than five decades ago when “Big Red” won the 1973 Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown in record-setting glory before tens of thousands of fans who packed the massive, quarter-mile grandstand.

Fast forward to today, and different tremendous machines are now moving through Belmont Park — tearing that massive grandstand down piece by piece as part of the biggest thoroughbred racetrack construction project in the United States in more than 40 years. Even the oval upon which Secretariat and four other Triple Crown winners made their runs for glory is undergoing a huge transformation in the name of progress, and stability in a sport in great need of it.

New York state provided some $455 million toward the endeavor, which the New York Racing Association (NYRA) sees as a transformative moment to rebuild Belmont Park to meet 21st century standards while again making it a major destination beyond the Belmont Stakes. The new Belmont Park will also become the sole downstate base for NYRA’s racing operations, featuring amenities to allow for year-round racing — and spelling the eventual end of Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens.

That vision won’t be fulfilled, however, until the new Belmont Park is reopened on or about 2026. The centerpiece of that effort will be a smaller, yet state-of-the-art grandstand — but for the new facility to rise, the massive current grandstand built nearly 60 years ago at the height of horse racing’s popularity must come down.

‘Building it from the ground up’

Playing a central role in the effort is Glen Kozak, NYRA executive vice president of operations and capital projects, who took amNewYork Metro on an exclusive tour of the Belmont site along with Patrick McKenna, the racing organization’s vice president for communications. 

The Belmont rebuild is unprecedented in the American thoroughbred racing industry — something which Kozak says the entire NYRA team takes great pride in advancing. Not since Arlington Park in Illinois was rebuilt in 1984 following a fire has there been anything as ambitious as the Belmont Park rebuild. 

“It’s an incredible opportunity for me and my crew. We take a lot of pride in what’s going on here,” Kozak said. “We’re building it from the ground up. There’s nobody else in the industry that’s doing what we’re doing … between the grandstand, the surfaces, the work that’s taking place in the barn area, for the quality of life for the backstretch workers.”

When amNewYork Metro visited Belmont Park on April 12, the demolition effort was in its early stages, having only begun in earnest a week prior.

On the backside near the famous paddock and its historic Japanese white pine, crews dug in to remove utility infrastructure. But the more dramatic effort took place on the front side, where giant, dinosaur-like machinery had only begun picking apart the grandstand and clubhouse tiers from which fans had witnessed five Triple Crown winners and four Breeders’ Cup World Championships since 1973.

The machines, equipped with iron jaws, tore through the concrete and steel with ease, bringing down one row of seats and the floor beneath them at a time with loud thuds and crashes. 

A matter of courses

For a long-time horse racing fan who had been to Belmont Park more than a few times in their lives, the surreal picture was made all the more so by the simultaneous effort underway to rebuild Belmont Park’s racing surfaces.

During our visit, there were few reminders of the old courses, which were now mostly covered in graded dirt with the outlines of the new tracks to be installed, and mounds of dirt and recycled material.

But in the months to come, as the old Belmont grandstand fades into history, the new racing surfaces will take shape. The huge main track known as Big Sandy — a 1 ½ mile dirt oval that is the largest in American racing — will return surrounding two rebuilt turf courses of 1 ¼ miles and 1 ⅛ miles (slightly smaller than before).

Those turf courses will then surround a fourth and perhaps most important new racing feature at Belmont: a 1 mile synthetic course which will be lined with Tapeta — an amalgam of sand, wax, carpet fibers and other material which can withstand all weather, any time of year, and is designed to better absorb the shock of running for horses, adding to their safety.

Tapeta lines one of the two training tracks on the massive Belmont Park campus: a quarter-mile pony track that became the testing ground for the synthetic surface. It has proven popular among horsemen, jockeys and trainers, according to Kozak; some 300 horses galloped around the pony track during the morning workouts on April 12.

And within the racing surfaces is a particular point of pride for Kozak and NYRA — a revamped, park-like infield with community spaces with trees, a pond and green fields that will be open and accessible to the public year-round. That will be made possible by a network of tunnels built under the track to connect outside areas of the track to the interior. 

“It’s not only for New York; this changes the industry with what NYRA is doing with the work out here, and the community as well,” Kozak said. “We’re having Floral Park, Elmont, South Floral Park [regaining] community space that’s available and we’re bringing greenspace back to Belmont.” 

The infield space will also be used by NYRA to accommodate more fans during big racing days such as the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival — the lucrative, four-day celebration anchored by the Belmont Stakes, the third jewel of racing’s Triple Crown. The next two runnings of the Belmont Stakes will be held at Saratoga Race Course, but NYRA plans on returning the race to Belmont Park as early as June 2026 — even though the new grandstand likely won’t be ready to open until that September.

The synthetic oval will open for training later this year, with the other courses set to open thereafter. Meanwhile, demolition of the old Belmont grandstand will be complete within 4 to 6 months from the early April start date, and right after, work will begin on the new modern grandstand to come. 

What the future holds

When complete in 2026, the new 250,000 square foot grandstand will be a fraction of the size of its 1.25 million square foot predecessor, but have all the modern amenities to attract not only tens of thousands of fans to the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival but also other big racing events such as the Breeders’ Cup, which Belmont Park last hosted in 2005. 

Upon releasing the renderings of the new grandstand in March, NYRA Board of Directors Chair Marc Holliday expressed hope that the new Belmont Park takes a place “on the global stage among iconic venues” of thoroughbred racing around the world, such as Ascot in England, Longchamp in France, and The Curragh in Ireland.

More than that, the new Belmont Park, once opened, is expected to generate $155 million in annual economic output, and $10 million in new state and local tax revenue each year. Bringing the Breeders Cup back to Belmont Park could add another $100 million in economic activity in a given year, according to previous studies.

But the improvements at Belmont Park go beyond the new grandstand and racing surfaces. NYRA is also in the process of building three new dormitories for backstretch workers — laborers who help provide day-to-day care for the horses — by 2026. The outfit is also making other investments to boost the backstretch workers’ quality of life, from upgrading the recreational, medical and kitchen facilities to expanding wi-fi.

NYRA is also building new barns for the equines, including one recently opened for trainer Chad Brown. The new barns are equipped with measures to provide greater ventilation and safeguards to prevent horses in the stalls from suffering injury.

Along with building for the future, NYRA has also taken liberties to preserve much of Belmont Park’s past. The iconic Japanese white pine that has towered over the paddock for decades is being preserved and protected while the new Belmont Park rises around it; various artwork and other fixtures within the facility has also been recovered and put in storage for later use.

And the bronze statue of Secretariat, that tremendous machine of long ago who still thrills fans today, has been temporarily relocated from the Belmont Park to Saratoga. Once the new Belmont Park opens, the statue will be returned to its rightful place in the new paddock.

“NYRA is the steward of this historic New York State property, and our goal as an organization is to create an open and accessible space that balances history while moving Belmont Park into the future,” said David O’Rourke, NYRA President and CEO, in a March announcement. “The transformation of Belmont is incredibly important to the future of racing downstate, and NYRA will deliver a facility that existing fans and the next generation will be proud to have in New York.”