A 132-year-old curtain falls on New York City horse racing and Aqueduct Racetrack - BERITAJA

New York City equine racing rumbled to the decorativeness statement Sunday, arsenic Aqueduct Racetrack — successful each its paint-peeling, dilapidated glory — staged the venue’s past unrecorded races, transporting aging fans to a bygone era.

Trumpeters played “Auld Lang Syne” and “Call to the Post” up of the ninth title of the time and last 1 ever astatine the 132-year-old racecourse in the South Ozone Park vicinity of Queens.

Minutes later, jockey Jaime Rodriguez guided Kentucky-bred gelding Assume Nothing crossed the decorativeness statement astatine 5:50 p.m. ET, capturing the 1 ⅛-mile title and bringing a curtain connected the venerable track.

Rodriguez and his chap riders past waded into a crowd of 6,886 to observe this bittersweet moment.

“This is wherever everything started for me, and winning the past title present coming connected the past time [of unrecorded racing], it’s going to beryllium a representation I’ll ne'er forget,” Rodriguez said.

Aqueduct will stay unfastened for simulcast wagering until Sept. 7 and past wholly unopen its doors.

Fall, wintertime and outpouring equine racing successful metro New York will past beryllium staged exclusively astatine the renovated Belmont Park, conscionable connected the different broadside of the Queens-Nassau County line, starting Sept. 18.

Retired librarian and Queens autochthonal Ursula Nupp wiped distant tears arsenic horses loaded into the gross for the ninth.

“This is my childhood,” Nupp said of the way known locally arsenic the Big A.

“It’s conscionable everything. It’s for illustration each the decades conscionable passed successful beforehand of me,” Nupp said.

Even arsenic he was smiling, 79-year-old instrumentality Antoine de Bar said the thought of horses nary longer moving astatine Aqueduct was excessively sad to grasp.

“This is simply a horrible day,” the French migrant and Westchester County resident said Sunday.

“Oh, my God, I can’t judge that 2 hours from now, location will beryllium nary racing here,” de Bar said.

While lamenting the extremity of unrecorded racing astatine Aqueduct, de Bar recalled that his about fond representation of the Big A came erstwhile utilizing Aqueduct’s simulcast wagering work of the Breeders’ Cup Classic successful 2018, and his $250 spot and $250 show bets connected 30-1 Gunnevera netted him much than $4,000 that time earlier tipping the pari-mutuel teller $100.

That way worker told him a week later that he utilized the gratuity to return his woman to a good dinner, and de Bar said that representation was much valuable than the four-grand payout.

“Everybody from New York City comes here. Everyone is mixed together,” he said. “Nobody is supra anyone else.”

Aqueduct joined a agelong database of onetime awesome American racetracks that person faded into history successful and adjacent immoderate of the nation’s largest cities.

• Hollywood Park, successful Inglewood, California, utilized to beryllium a personage haven successful the aureate property of Tinseltown earlier closing its doors successful 2013. It’s now the tract of SoFi Stadium, location of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers.
• Arlington Park successful the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights closed down successful 2021.
• The San Francisco Bay Area nary longer has unrecorded racing aft Golden Gate Fields went acheronian successful 2024 and Bay Meadows ended racing successful 2008.
• Suffolk Downs, adjacent Boston, past staged unrecorded racing successful 2019.

Joanne Bedard, 70, said she fears the athletics could beryllium dying because its about devoted fans are quickly aging. She recalled coming to Aqueduct earlier this period and being struck by the fans she saw.

“People were each bringing their grandfathers present and half of them were successful walkers,” the Long Island autochthonal said Sunday, adding that young, imaginable equine racing fans don’t person the patience to hold much than 20 minutes betwixt races. “They’re excessively engaged betting [rapidly] connected their phones.”

The 100-acre-plus racetrack is owned by the authorities of New York, and equine racing instrumentality Jay Alvarez, 64, hopes Albany could support the tract sports-oriented.

His dream would beryllium to bring the New York shot Giants and Jets backmost to the Empire State from New Jersey.

“Could you ideate having the World Cup present [like astatine SoFi Stadium], getting disconnected the road aliases disconnected the level and, boom, you’re correct here?” said Alvarez, who grew up and still lives successful Connecticut.

“I don’t understand why you person to spell to New Jersey for New York football?” he said.

Frank Berhardini, a 62-year-old backhoe usability from Staten Island, said he’s been coming to Aqueduct since property 7 and will ne'er hide watching greats for illustration Secretariat and Holy Bull run astatine this track.

“I’ve seen them all, the awesome jockeys, the awesome horses, the awesome trainers,” the Brooklyn autochthonal said Sunday. “So this is simply a sad, really sad time for me. It’s a heartbreaking thing.”