The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) has committed to constructing new residential buildings at Belmont Park in Hempstead, Nassau County, and Saratoga Race Course designed to provide additional housing options for the backstretch workers’ community.
These projects are part of NYRA’s multi-year, $40 million campaign to modernize and improve backstretch housing and facilities at Belmont and Saratoga.
Following design review and approval from the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation, NYRA will construct a residence adjacent to the lowlands on the Oklahoma Training Track side of Saratoga Race Course. Use of the Oklahoma as a training center and base of operations has grown significantly in recent years, which necessitated the complete renovation of the facility in 2021.
In addition to the construction of this new residence new dormitory construction is planned for Saratoga in both 2024 and 2025. When complete, these new residences will represent the most significant upgrade to backstretch housing in the history of Saratoga Race Course, NYRA spokesperson Pat McKenna said.
At Belmont Park, NYRA is expected to construct a new residence to provide updated housing for the 1,000 people living and working at Belmont throughout the year. The NYRA backstretch improvement campaign has resulted in the construction of two new dormitories at Belmont since 2016 along with the renovation of the majority of the existing housing at Belmont.
Work on these two new residential buildings is expected to begin this fall and be completed in 2024.
Photo of members of the backstrech workers’ community by Walter Wlodarczyk, provided by NYRA.
How about changing the rules to prevent immature colts and fillies from racing until their legs break? These heartbreaking deaths are not a mystery. Breakdowns are the cost of doing business, less expensive than giving the horses another year or two to mature. I don’t want to hear anything more about racetracks until this is resolved.
It is interesting to learn of the new Backstretch Housing planned near the Oklahoma Training Track on the Saratoga Race Course. The entire Oklahoma Training Track was itself an improvement to the Saratoga Race Course in 1901 when 19 acres were purchased by William C. Whitney from Eugene F. O’ Connor of Brooklyn for $10,500 (Deeds Book 234 Page 120). Mr. Whitney had become President of the Saratoga Racing Association just the year before, and had a long-range vision in his development of the racing plant, much to the benefit of a grateful posterity, who continue years and generations of enjoyment. Prior to Mr. Whitney’s purchase, the property on East Avenue was used by the Saratoga Gun Club for trap shooting, with many Backstretch workers taking part in busting clay targets for relaxation when the seemingly never-ending tasks at the track were complete. When the training track was new, at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, people felt it was a long hike from the main track, “like walking all the way to Oklahoma” they grumbled, and the name stuck. Seeing and hearing horses work out over the Oklahoma Training Track, in the hours closest to dawn, is a special experience where you can appreciate the magnificence of the thoroughbred.