Belmont opens a shorter fall meet, packed with changes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Change is happening all around Belmont Park, with a hockey arena nearing completion for a November opening in the backyard and a parking garage for said arena being built in warp-like speed across the street in what racing fans know as the South parking lot. Change is expected to come in due time to Belmont itself, though what that looks like remains to be determined.

Will there be a new building or will the current one be renovated? “That’s still being debated,” New York Racing Association president and CEO Dave O’Rourke said recently.

While that decision is being made, O’Rourke said NYRA is already planning renovations and refurbishment of Belmont’s two turf courses and main track while contemplating the addition of a synthetic surface. Toward that end, NYRA has received approval to build a headwall that will ultimately lead to construction of a tunnel to the infield that will allow construction vehicles to reach those courses.

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That headwall required the removal of more than 150 trees on the backside – from behind the seven-eighths pole to the five-eighths pole – something fans ontrack or watching on television will certainly notice when racing begins at Belmont Thursday for a seven-week season that lasts through Oct. 31.

With the expansion of Saratoga to eight weeks, a 10-day break between meets and the desire to race four days a week means the Belmont fall meet is just 28 days long, with seven four-day weeks (Thursdays through Sundays).

Billed for a long time as the fall championship meet, Belmont’s fall season has been impacted more and more by the Breeders’ Cup, an ever-decreasing foal crop and number of top-quality horses, and the expansion of fall racing in Kentucky with the rich Kentucky Downs turf meet flowing into the Churchill Downs September meet, which coincidentally begins Thursday.

This year, NYRA moved two of its premier fall Grade 1 stakes – the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Flower Bowl – from Belmont to Saratoga, replacing them at Belmont with the Grade 1 Woodward and Grade 3 Waya. In total, 47 stakes worth $11.2 million will be offered through the meet. Five stakes, starting with Saturday’s $1 million Jockey Club Derby for 3-year-olds, offer fees-paid berths into their respective Breeders’ Cup races at Del Mar on Nov. 5-6.

The first two weekends of October are when 13 of the 20 graded stakes will be offered at the meet. The Oct. 2 card is topped by the Grade 1 Woodward and Grade 1 Champagne while the Oct. 3 program has the Grade 1 Frizette, Grade 3 Waya, and Grade 2 Pilgrim. The Oct. 9 card is topped by the Grade 1, $500,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic and Grade 2 Vosburgh. The Oct. 10 card has the Grade 2 Beldame, Grade 3 Futurity, and Grade 3 Matron.

This meet will be the last for Martin Panza, NYRA’s senior director of racing operations since Nov. 2013, who is leaving the company at the end of October. His replacement has yet to be named.

Post times will be revolving throughout the meet. For the first three weeks, first post will be 2:05 p.m. on Thursdays and 1 p.m. on Fridays through Sundays. Beginning Oct. 7, post times will revert to 12:35 p.m. daily. On closing weekend (Oct. 30-31), first post will be noon.

Belmont’s full cards will continue to be shown on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2.