The last day of racing at Aqueduct will be June 28. The first day of racing at the new Belmont Park will, tentatively, be Sept. 18. In between, there will be 46 days of racing at Saratoga.  Those are among the highlights of the 2026 racing schedule the New York Racing Association announced Thursday after reaching an agreement with the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and the New York Thoroughbred Breeders. The 2026 calendar will consist of 196 scheduled dates. The three entities agreed on a two-year dates schedule and announced there will be 203 days of racing scheduled for 2027.  The racing calendar for both years still requires approval from the New York State Gaming Commission - considered a formality - before becoming official.  :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “The two-year plan reflects NYRA’s investment in a revitalized winter racing product at the new Belmont Park, where the availability of a Tapeta surface will improve field size and increase the quality of racing year-round,” Andrew Offerman, NYRA’s senior vice president of racing operations, said in a release. “We will soon be entering a new era for racing downstate, and this agreement allows NYRA to focus its efforts on planning and implementing these racing calendars, continuing to improve the quality of racing opportunities for all participants in New York, and successfully reopening Belmont Park.”  The new Tapeta surface, installed as part of a complete renovation of Belmont Park’s racing surfaces, will be available in September at Belmont to be used for off-the-turf races and then will be the sole racing surface during the winter.  Undeniably, 2026 will mark the final year of racing at Aqueduct in Queens, N.Y. The storied track, which dates back to 1894, will conduct racing through June 28 before closing for good.  Before it closes, Aqueduct will hold three meets in 2026. There will be a 45-day winter meet from Jan. 1-March 29, according to a schedule that was announced Wednesday.   There will be a 15-day Aqueduct spring meet (April 2-26) before the final meet, the 28-day Belmont at the Big A spring season, which runs from April 30-June 28.  In the middle of that meet, there will be five days of racing at Saratoga (June 3-7) called the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. For the third straight year, the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of racing’s Triple Crown, will be held at Saratoga. The race is scheduled for June 6.  Following the June 7 card, racing will return to Aqueduct for the final three weeks of the Belmont at the Big A meet (June 11-28).   There will be a 46-day Saratoga summer meet from July 3-Sept. 7. The meet -- the longest in Saratoga history -- will look different from years past with the first week (July 3-5) consisting of three days of racing followed by a trio of four-day race weeks (Thursdays through Sundays). Wednesdays will be added to the schedule beginning July 29 with the meet running through Labor Day (Sept. 7).  Racing at the new Belmont Park is tentatively scheduled to begin Sept. 18, which is a Friday. For now, the 46-day fall meet will run through Dec. 6. When Belmont Park opens, it will limit the number of fans who can attend as not all floors of the grandstand will be ready for use.  Belmont Park will host its first winter meet starting Dec. 10. As of Thursday, it was unclear if Tapeta would solely be used starting Dec. 10 or perhaps not until Jan.1, 2027.  Racing has not taken place at Belmont Park since July 9, 2023. Since early December of that year, when training on the main track ended, Belmont Park has undergone a complete renovation. The 1.2 million square-foot grandstand was knocked down and is in the process of being replaced with an approximately 275,000-square foot building.  In addition to the installation of a new synthetic surface, Belmont’s 1 1/2-mile main track and its two turf courses have been completely renovated and, in the case of the turf courses, widened.  The only detail of the 2027 schedule that was announced is the plan for NYRA to return to a 40-day racing schedule at the Saratoga meet.  It was also announced Thursday that NYRA will accelerate the implementation of the purse parity program. Originally slated to start Jan. 1, 2027, it will now begin in September 2026 to coincide with the opening of the new Belmont Park. The purse parity program means New York-bred overnight races will offer the same purse money as their open-company counterparts. Part of the purse parity program will actually start earlier than September as it goes into effect with the 2-year-old races run in the spring of 2026.  :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.