Aqueduct Racetrack ends live racing after more than 130 years

Aqueduct Racetrack ran its final live race Sunday, ending 132 years of live horse racing at New York City’s only racetrack. The last event, “It Was a Good Run,” went off at 5:44 p.m. as fans packed into a venue in South Ozone Park, Queens.

The closure severed a direct link to a track that opened on Sept. 27, 1894, on land once part of the Brooklyn Water Works. The original structure was torn down in 1955, and the modern Aqueduct reopened on Sept. 14, 1959. The track sits on 210 acres next to John F. Kennedy International Airport and became known as the Big A.

Aqueduct will remain open for simulcasting, or betting on televised races, through Sept. 7, 2026. Live racing is moving to Belmont Park in Nassau County, where the New York Racing Association has rebuilt the track in a $455 million project designed to support year-round racing and major events such as the Belmont Stakes. Belmont Park is expected to open in the fall of 2026.

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association puts the number of thoroughbred tracks nationwide at roughly 75, down from more than 300 facilities offering some form of horse racing at the sport’s Gilded Age peak in the late 1800s. Casinos, state lotteries, legalized online betting and sports betting have all chipped away at racing’s place in the gambling market.

Veteran horse trainer David Donk said, “There’s a lot of history here. Just so many good horses,” and added, “times change. Everything changes in life.” NTRA president Tom Rooney said the sport is likely to “condense and coalesce” around fewer major tracks as sports gambling expands.