Belmont Park renovations feature upgraded facilities for backstretch workers

Horse racing returns to Belmont Park on Friday, and there’s plenty of anticipation for the reopening of the now-modernized, state-of-the art facility.

But the new-look racetrack isn’t the only improved area on the Elmont property.

The New York Racing Association on Monday afternoon provided a tour of the upgraded backstretch, which is aimed to improve the quality of life of the hundreds of workers living there, to the media and New York State officials.

The improvements are highlighted by new and upgraded barns and dormitories. A baseline of 800 backstretch workers live on the property year-round, and that number could bump up to 2,000 by April or May, said Glen Kozak, NYRA’s executive vice president of operations and capital projects.

“The upgrades that have been made for the quality of life, for the people that make the show go on, taking care of the horses, I mean, I think it's great,” Kozak told Newsday. “Nobody else in the industry is doing what NYRA is doing for its backstretch employees. The employees that work for the trainers are part of what makes this happen, so we can operate out there on the racetrack.”

Other upgrades include a new track kitchen, a new recreation hall, a blue-light security system, upgraded WiFi connectivity, stormwater mitigation, perimeter fencing, a gymnasium and bike storage.

NYRA provides housing for the trainers and their horses free of charge.

Belmont Park underwent a three-year development, with New York State committing $455 million to the project and NYRA an additional $100 million.

Friday’s live racing program will be anchored by the Jockey Club Gold Cup, a $1 million Grade 1 race that provides a Breeders’ Cup Classic berth for the winner. The new Belmont Park will have four racetracks: a traditional 1 1/2-mile dirt track, two turf courses and a one-mile Tapeta oval (a synthetic track that will be Belmont’s exclusive winter racing surface).

Brian O’Dwyer, chairman of the New York State Gaming Commission, was impressed with the backstretch upgrades after partaking in Monday’s tour.

“Well, I was delighted,” O’Dwyer told Newsday. “When I first came as commissioner a while ago, frankly, the housing for the workers was sub-normal, and I was shocked by it, when I first started. And I went to NYRA and said, we need to do something about that.

“They did, and there's now brand-new housing for almost 1,000 workers, and we're very, very pleased and very proud of that.”

The backstretch workers include people in a wide range of roles.

“It could be somebody that is a hot walker that after the horses exercise, will walk the horses to cool them down,” Kozak said. “One of the grooms that actually is assigned multiple horses or one horse to take care of, that's their priority to take care of everything with that horse. You've got the exercise riders that actually exercise the horses. You've got the foremen in the barn that take care of the individuals that muck out the stalls, that get the horses ready. Then you've got the assistant trainer that dictates and choreographs everything that takes place on a day-to-day basis, that reports to the actual trainer, him or herself.

“So there's a lot of steps to the pieces of the puzzle on what takes place back there.”

The tour included a few stops that one would see in a typical neighborhood.

Joanne Adams, the executive director of the Belmont Child Care Association, provided a look of the Anna House, a school primarily for children of backstretch workers that opened in 2002. Nancy Underwood, the executive director of the Backstretch Employee Service Team, spoke about the Northwell Health-partnered clinic on the property, which provides free walk-in services for mental health, physical health and addiction help.

The last stop on the tour was the most recent barn built at Belmont Park that is home to Chad Brown, NYRA’s leading trainer. Built in 2023, the barn is adjacent to the training track and features a blacksmith area with LED lights and higher ceilings than other barns.

Ahead of the Breeders’ Cup at Belmont Park in October 2027, NYRA is building two new isolation barns (which also will be used after the Breeders’ Cup).

O’Dwyer called the backstretch “the finest agricultural housing in the United States.”

“New York doesn't exist, the racing industry doesn't exist, unless they take care of the horses, and take care of the people who take care of the horses,” he said. “And that's what this is doing.”