Horse Racing Hits High at Belmont-Saratoga, Hits Low at Golden Gate Fields

One track flourishes, the other bids farewell

by John Furgele (The Galloping 228)

For horse racing lovers, we learned a lot over last weekend. We learned that fans will come to Saratoga whenever opportunity presents itself. That opportunity came in the 156^th Belmont Stakes, forced north due to a massive refurbishment of Belmont Park.

Sure, they could have run this race at Aqueduct—they have before—and there, they could have run in at 1 ½ miles (they have before), but Aqueduct is not the Spa, with its quaint Main Street, nice places to eat, shop and party. And, does anybody want to dress up and go to Aqueduct?

The decision to move this race and the 2025 edition was a no-brainer and if you watched on TV, you saw why. The New York Racing Association (NYRA) capped admission at 50,000, but those that have been going there for decades, believe that there were at least 60,000 in the house.

We also learned that running horses three times in five weeks is hard as it should be. For some reason, the sports pundits want a Triple Crown on the line at every Belmont. They think the best way to do this is to spread out the races. Most have the Derby on the first Saturday in May with the Preakness moving to the first Saturday in June followed by a first Saturday in July for the Belmont.

Mystik Dan won the Derby, ran a very nice race in the Preakness (finishing second) and then really didn’t show in the Belmont. Seize The Gray won the Pat Day Mile on the Derby undercard, won the Preakness and then, after getting off to a strong start in the Belmont, faded badly, finishing seventh. Had these horses skipped one of those race days, do they win the Belmont?

I’ve never been one who believes that it’s Triple Crown or bust when it comes to these races. To me, they are three separate entities that if won, puts you in rarified air. It’s okay to have three different winners and it is okay if horses race in one, two, or all three of them.  As soon as fans accept this, the better off things will be.  

That’s a key word—rarified. Winning the Triple Crown is hard—only 13 have done it—and guess what? It’s supposed to be hard. That said, I won’t scream and cry if they eventually spread these races out; in fact, I think that within ten years it will happen. But it doesn’t have to happen now and the 60,000 that watched the 2024 Belmont don’t seem to care if it happens at all.

The good thing about horse racing is that we are done with one stanza and are on to the next. There is good stakes racing in June, and before you know it, we’ll be back in Saratoga in July for their regular 40-day meet beginning on the 11^th and nine days later, Del Mar begins their summer meet.

The casual fan may be done with racing in 2024, but like the weather, the schedule will really heat up from now through the Breeder’s Cup in early November.

There was some sad news over the weekend. Golden Gate Fields in Northern California shut its doors after 83 years of racing. The track, which served as a storage center for weapons during World War II, just couldn’t keep up with the changing times and last July, their owners, the Stronach Group, announced that the 2023-24 season would be its last.

There are concerns about the future of California racing. Golden Gate Fields now joins Hollywood Park (2013) as ‘defunct,’ and as of today, there is no racing to be had in Northern California.

We still have Santa Anita and Del Mar, but California does not have legalized gambling and slots like tracks in New York and Kentucky do. As a result, the purses are lower, which is troublesome because California is one of the most expensive states to do business in. Real estate is valuable and tough to get and there are fears that Santa Anita could eventually be sold, then demolished, and replaced by luxury condos and shopping or something more lucrative than horse racing.

That won’t happen in the near future, but it is something to keep an eye on. Horse racing is in a peculiar spot. Churchill Downs has seen massive renovations, the winter meet at Oaklawn continues to flourish, and in New York, you wouldn’t do a $600 million renovation to Belmont Park if you thought the sport was dying. Pimlico is slated to undergo a massive rebuild. Once that’s complete, Laurel Park will close with year-round racing back at Old Hilltop. Obviously, there are many that are betting on horse racing’s future.

On the other hand, Golden Gate Fields and Arlington Park have been jettisoned, and other tracks are struggling. How many more will close? Is that a good thing or bad thing for the sport? It might be good because we all think there are only so many gambling dollars to go round and perhaps when it comes to horse racing, less (tracks) may be more.

As for gambling, it is more than obvious that people can’t bet enough. The four-day Belmont at Saratoga meet generated $197 million in handle. Clearly, there is enough money to bet on football, basketball, and horse racing and there appears to be no end in sight.

As with all sports, you have to evolve or you’ll die. For horse racing to have remained at Golden Gate Fields, a reimagining needed to happen and that can cost $1 billion or more, so in the end, closing makes the most sense and cents.

The tracks that have that vision have to know that there is enough interest to get that payback. People will always follow New York and Kentucky racing, so Saratoga, Belmont, Churchill, and Keeneland will always have the money and resources to use their vision to keep up.

Last weekend, we saw the high end and low end—one track open and basking, the other closing and downtrodden.

Such is life.