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A Little Worse For the Wear, But With A Lot Of Memories, the Big A Says Goodbye Sunday

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The Aqueduct of the modern era became a place for the diehard. It wasn’t luxurious and didn’t have the class of Saratoga or everything that made Belmont Park the electrifying place to be when a horse was going for the Triple Crown or simply a pleasant, nice place to be on an early summer afternoon.

Everything changed in 1971 when year-round racing was ushered into New York and found a home at Aqueduct. The Big A became a place for racing to function and not thrive. During a season that lasted too long, the sport became a grind. With Aqueduct taking a back seat to Saratoga and Belmont, Aqueduct became the third wheel in NYRA’s racing operation and little money was spent on renovations and upkeep.

But that wasn’t always the case. The same track that today could use a fresh coat of paint and where a few hundred people huddle around the grandstand on a frigid winter day wasn’t always this way.

Aqueduct first opened in 1894, and took its name from a nearby aqueduct that carried water from Queens to Brooklyn. But this incarnation of the track began on Sept. 14, 1959. A crowd of 42,473 attended the first day of racing at a track that people were breathlessly calling the “dream track.” The New York Times called it “New York’s Circus Maximus” and “the most modern and comfortable of all racing plants.” The cost to build the new Aqueduct was $34.5 million.

“Through the two or three hours preceding the first race the patrons were almost hushed and solemn as they made their way through the cavernous plant,” the Times wrote in its coverage of opening day. “They spoke softly and stepped slowly, as if they were in a sanctum instead of in a place that anybody could enter for the sum of $5 in the clubhouse and $2 in the grandstand.”

Most racetracks operating at the time were built before World War II and the sport was awaiting its first track that fit the modern era, where cars and a subway line made the Big A the most accessible track in the U.S. Big crowds were so expected that Aqueduct was built to accommodate 80,000 people. There were seats for 24,000.

The new plant was designed by Arthur Froehlich, a Beverly Hills architect who constructed racetracks in various parts of the world, among them Roosevelt Raceway and a track in Caracas, Venezuela.

It was said that the new Aqueduct would have a “useful life” of 50 years. When the final race is run Sunday, it will have exceeded expectations by 17 years.

But, for most of its history, expectations were met on the racetrack.

It is where Secretariat broke his maiden and broke hearts in the 1973 Wood Memorial. It is where Kelso ran 27 times and won the Jockey Club Gold Cup five times. It is where there was the first and only triple dead heat in a stakes race, with history being made in 1944 when Bossuet, Brownie and Wait a Bit hit the wire in tandem. It has hosted legends, Dr. Fager, Buckpasser, Seabiscuit, Forego, John Henry, Cigar. It has been the long-time home to the Wood Memorial, won by 15 Hall of Famers.

From 1963 through 1967, it was the home to the Belmont Stakes. Quadrangle upset Northern Dancer with a Triple Crown on the line in 1964. Amberoid did the same to Kauai King two years later. It is where an estimated 48,000 fans paid tribute to legendary trainer “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons in 1963. Pope John Paul II hosted Mass at Aqueduct in 1995 before an estimated crowd of 75,000.

The dream track is no longer.

There are no more Grade I races at Aqueduct. Even the historic Wood has become a Grade II race and annually takes its lumps for being one of the weakest preps for the GI Kentucky Derby. The Cigar and the Carter also recently lost their Grade I status.

Aqueduct is no longer the place to bring your family or to enjoy the beauty of the sport. You don’t get dressed up to go there. A few days of stubble and you’ll fit in fine. Even the subway station, which dropped millions of New Yorkers at the Big A’s doorstep, was closed down for a time. It didn’t get a second wind until the casino at Aqueduct opened. Crowds became so small that NYRA stopped counting a long time ago.

But there will be something to celebrate Sunday, and not just because a track whose time has come to close will be closing. A new era in New York racing will begin Sept. 18 when the new Belmont Park opens and downstate racing will be consolidated to just one track. The new Belmont will be everything that Aqueduct is not. It will be modern, comfortable, luxurious, state-of-the-art and able to handle big crowds and small crowds.

Over the years, Aqueduct had became a drab place. It was all about the betting and getting through the grind that lasted seven-plus months. But it had its fans and supporters. There was something to like about a hardscrabble track that had no frills. You didn’t come here for a $15 cocktail. You didn’t come here unless you thoroughly enjoyed the game. You didn’t come here unless you liked to bet.

“Aqueduct is more hardcore, passionate racing fans–there’s no tourists, really, and it’s just people who follow the game, understand it, and they’ll yell at you when you lose and cheer for you when you win,” trainer Linda Rice said. “It’s a hardcore crowd, but we enjoy it.”

Since 1959 and for 67 years, so did millions.

The post A Little Worse For the Wear, But With A Lot Of Memories, the Big A Says Goodbye Sunday appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Flightline Gets First North American Winner, First ‘Rising Star’ With Flight Command

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Showing some resemblance to his much-heralded sire, FLIGHT COMMAND (c, 2, Flightline–Stonetonic, by Candy Ride {Arg}) never looked anything but a winner in Thursday’s fifth race at Aqueduct, becoming the second winner for his freshman sire (by Tapit), the first in North American, and his first ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’.

The 6-5 favorite never gave this field a chance, rocketing out from his rail draw under a confident Manny Franco to set the fractions in this 5 1/2-furlong sprint.

Unpressured with only Hurricane Mo (Mo Donegal) in the same zip code off the turn, Flight Command was shaken up to switch leads and opened up at will as Franco took a knowing look over his shoulder at the furlong pole.

Geared down into the final sixteenth, the winning margin only continued to grow as Flight Command led in Hurricane Mo by as much as he pleased for the debut win. The final time for the 5 1/2 furlongs was 1:04.11. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0.

O-LSU Stables; B-Machmer Hall, Carrie Brogden & Craig Brogden; T-Rudy R. Rodriguez. Sales History: $275,000 2yo ’26 OBSMAR.

Flightline gets his 1st USA winner with the speedy @MachmerHall Flight Command looking like his Dad out there today

This colt was bred like a dream, had great mechanics and the type of colt that had lots of room to grow into himself. Flightline is off to a red hot start https://t.co/YAfxiayESx pic.twitter.com/USuLInoWvg

— Save Horse Racing (@SaveHorseRacing) June 25, 2026

The post Flightline Gets First North American Winner, First ‘Rising Star’ With Flight Command appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

A Little Worse For the Wear, But With A Lot Of Memories, the Big A Says Goodbye Sunday

---

The Aqueduct of the modern era became a place for the diehard. It wasn’t luxurious and didn’t have the class of Saratoga or everything that made Belmont Park the electrifying place to be when a horse was going for the Triple Crown or simply a pleasant, nice place to be on an early summer afternoon.

Everything changed in 1971 when year-round racing was ushered into New York and found a home at Aqueduct. The Big A became a place for racing to function and not thrive. During a season that lasted too long, the sport became a grind. With Aqueduct taking a back seat to Saratoga and Belmont, Aqueduct became the third wheel in NYRA’s racing operation and little money was spent on renovations and upkeep.

But that wasn’t always the case. The same track that today could use a fresh coat of paint and where a few hundred people huddle around the grandstand on a frigid winter day wasn’t always this way.

Aqueduct first opened in 1894, and took its name from a nearby aqueduct that carried water from Queens to Brooklyn. But this incarnation of the track began on Sept. 14, 1959. A crowd of 42,473 attended the first day of racing at a track that people were breathlessly calling the “dream track.” The New York Times called it “New York’s Circus Maximus” and “the most modern and comfortable of all racing plants.” The cost to build the new Aqueduct was $34.5 million.

“Through the two or three hours preceding the first race the patrons were almost hushed and solemn as they made their way through the cavernous plant,” the Times wrote in its coverage of opening day. “They spoke softly and stepped slowly, as if they were in a sanctum instead of in a place that anybody could enter for the sum of $5 in the clubhouse and $2 in the grandstand.”

Most racetracks operating at the time were built before World War II and the sport was awaiting its first track that fit the modern era, where cars and a subway line made the Big A the most accessible track in the U.S. Big crowds were so expected that Aqueduct was built to accommodate 80,000 people. There were seats for 24,000.

The new plant was designed by Arthur Froehlich, a Beverly Hills architect who constructed racetracks in various parts of the world, among them Roosevelt Raceway and a track in Caracas, Venezuela.

It was said that the new Aqueduct would have a “useful life” of 50 years. When the final race is run Sunday, it will have exceeded expectations by 17 years.

But, for most of its history, expectations were met on the racetrack.

It is where Secretariat broke his maiden and broke hearts in the 1973 Wood Memorial. It is where Kelso ran 27 times and won the Jockey Club Gold Cup five times. It is where there was the first and only triple dead heat in a stakes race, with history being made in 1944 when Bossuet, Brownie and Wait a Bit hit the wire in tandem. It has hosted legends, Dr. Fager, Buckpasser, Seabiscuit, Forego, John Henry, Cigar. It has been the long-time home to the Wood Memorial, won by 15 Hall of Famers.

From 1963 through 1967, it was the home to the Belmont Stakes. Quadrangle upset Northern Dancer with a Triple Crown on the line in 1964. Amberoid did the same to Kauai King two years later. It is where an estimated 48,000 fans paid tribute to legendary trainer “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons in 1963. Pope John Paul II hosted Mass at Aqueduct in 1995 before an estimated crowd of 75,000.

The dream track is no longer.

There are no more Grade I races at Aqueduct. Even the historic Wood has become a Grade II race and annually takes its lumps for being one of the weakest preps for the GI Kentucky Derby. The Cigar and the Carter also recently lost their Grade I status.

Aqueduct is no longer the place to bring your family or to enjoy the beauty of the sport. You don’t get dressed up to go there. A few days of stubble and you’ll fit in fine. Even the subway station, which dropped millions of New Yorkers at the Big A’s doorstep, was closed down for a time. It didn’t get a second wind until the casino at Aqueduct opened. Crowds became so small that NYRA stopped counting a long time ago.

But there will be something to celebrate Sunday, and not just because a track whose time has come to close will be closing. A new era in New York racing will begin Sept. 18 when the new Belmont Park opens and downstate racing will be consolidated to just one track. The new Belmont will be everything that Aqueduct is not. It will be modern, comfortable, luxurious, state-of-the-art and able to handle big crowds and small crowds.

Over the years, Aqueduct had became a drab place. It was all about the betting and getting through the grind that lasted seven-plus months. But it had its fans and supporters. There was something to like about a hardscrabble track that had no frills. You didn’t come here for a $15 cocktail. You didn’t come here unless you thoroughly enjoyed the game. You didn’t come here unless you liked to bet.

“Aqueduct is more hardcore, passionate racing fans–there’s no tourists, really, and it’s just people who follow the game, understand it, and they’ll yell at you when you lose and cheer for you when you win,” trainer Linda Rice said. “It’s a hardcore crowd, but we enjoy it.”

Since 1959 and for 67 years, so did millions.

The post A Little Worse For the Wear, But With A Lot Of Memories, the Big A Says Goodbye Sunday appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Flightline Gets First North American Winner, First ‘Rising Star’ With Flight Command

---

Showing some resemblance to his much-heralded sire, FLIGHT COMMAND (c, 2, Flightline–Stonetonic, by Candy Ride {Arg}) never looked anything but a winner in Thursday’s fifth race at Aqueduct, becoming the second winner for his freshman sire (by Tapit), the first in North American, and his first ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’.

The 6-5 favorite never gave this field a chance, rocketing out from his rail draw under a confident Manny Franco to set the fractions in this 5 1/2-furlong sprint.

Unpressured with only Hurricane Mo (Mo Donegal) in the same zip code off the turn, Flight Command was shaken up to switch leads and opened up at will as Franco took a knowing look over his shoulder at the furlong pole.

Geared down into the final sixteenth, the winning margin only continued to grow as Flight Command led in Hurricane Mo by as much as he pleased for the debut win. The final time for the 5 1/2 furlongs was 1:04.11. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0.

O-LSU Stables; B-Machmer Hall, Carrie Brogden & Craig Brogden; T-Rudy R. Rodriguez. Sales History: $275,000 2yo ’26 OBSMAR.

Flightline gets his 1st USA winner with the speedy @MachmerHall Flight Command looking like his Dad out there today

This colt was bred like a dream, had great mechanics and the type of colt that had lots of room to grow into himself. Flightline is off to a red hot start https://t.co/YAfxiayESx pic.twitter.com/USuLInoWvg

— Save Horse Racing (@SaveHorseRacing) June 25, 2026

The post Flightline Gets First North American Winner, First ‘Rising Star’ With Flight Command appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.