Belmont Park reopens after $555M rehab as Hochul vows to give fans a Triple Crown

At the grand opening of a top-to-bottom renovation of Belmont Park on Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to preserve the track's Triple Crown contest, the last in the three-race test for thoroughbreds that traditionally ends with the Belmont Stakes at the Elmont course.

Hochul appeared with Assemb. Michaelle Solages (D-Valley Stream), touting the future of horse racing at the rehabbed track that took three years to renovate at a cost of $555 million.

The reopening of the oval comes as Churchill Downs and the New York Racing Association, which operates Belmont Park, have teamed up to present a six-race Thoroughbred Championship Series that could threaten the Triple Crown.

The races include the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes, but the conspicuous absence of the Preakness Stakes, traditionally the second leg of the series for 3-year-olds, has horse racing fans talking about a possible end of the Triple Crown, a 150-year-old tradition.

The governor tried to put an end to some of the talk on Friday.

"The Triple Crown stays," Hochul told Newsday after the ribbon-cutting. She said that the Championship Series will be a supplement to the Triple Crown.

Hochul has limited power to dictate what racing authorities in Kentucky and Maryland, where the Preakness is run, do with their respective stakes races.

"I don't know who's deciding to make that, but we're keeping the Triple Crown," she said, of the questions surrounding whether the Preakness would remain part of the Triple Crown.

The Kentucky Derby is by far the most popular of the three races, and many horse owners and trainers have opted to skip the Preakness because it typically followed 14 days later. Maryland authorities, who are in the midst of rehabilitating their 155-year-old racetrack, Pimlico, announced in August that the Preakness would be moving to Sunday for the first time, three weeks and a day after the Derby. Now, the question is whether owners will run their horses in the Belmont Stakes less than two weeks later on Saturday, June 5, with such a tight turnaround.

So far, New York officials have said they will not move the date of the Belmont to later in the spring. The Belmont Stakes was run in Saratoga Springs during the last three years due to the Belmont construction.

Meanwhile, New York's half-billion-dollar racing bet rides on whether enough people will come out to support it. Next October, the new Elmont racetrack will host the Breeders' Cup, horse racing's other major series of races, for the first time since 2005.

The new gleaming white grandstand, which is reminiscent of the federal courthouse in Central Islip, is a pared-down version of the old venue, with plenty of green space surrounding the building and a sports bar to attract fans who want to tune into other professional sports.

A temporary outdoor concert bandstand has been added to the facility on the west side of the building, and UBS Arena is a five-minute walk away.

State Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr., who also showed up for the opening day ceremony, said New York horse racing has to change to stay relevant.

"Everybody's on their phone these days. How do you bring them here?" he said. "I still think this is a great spectator sport. I still think of the thunder of the hoof beats; nothing beats that."

He said that it makes sense to team up with the Kentucky horse racing industry instead of being at odds with it.

"Churchill is recognizing that what we have here, instead of fighting us, what happens if we can partner on certain occasions? I think you should never remain stagnant. Always look to evolve."