Thanksgiving at the Aqueduct (in random photos)

Per the Grieve family tradition, we spend Thanksgiving helping those more unfortunate than ourselves...in this case, the New York Racing Association, which inexplicably figures to have a $14 billion dollar deficit... So it was off to the Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens, this past Thanksgiving.

I never know how much longer this place will be around. Aqueduct officials have unveiled plans to turn the racetrack into a racino. Again. And again.

So, to some random photos from this past Thursday.

A Ferrari in the parking lot. Must belong to a NYRA official!



Inside, the track was already a winter wonderland...with a scary-looking Santa...




...and, as the sign helpfully notes, there are live plants...



...and up we go...




Despite the sign, the barber shop was NOT open on Thanksgiving.



And Thanksgiving hot dogs were here.



...the racetrack bugler came into the Aqueduct's Equestris Restaurant and played some songs for a family celebrating their daughter's engagement.



In the second race, a jittery Saumon Fume dumped jockey Alex Bisono at the gate and raced around the track in last...



In the 96th running of the Fall Highweight, the $2 trifecta paid $3,377. I did not have the winning combo. But the fellow in front of me did. He had to get his photo taken for the IRS.



In any event, there was a decent-size crowd here. Still, Aqueduct can be a lonely place. It's seemingly full of people who have spent their lives being told what to do by parents, teachers, girlfriends, boyfriends, bosses, husbands, wives...and now, alone, they simply do what they want to do...Or maybe they just like putting some money on horses.



As always, I wonder how much longer Aqueduct will remain the same...




Previously on EV Grieve:
Thanksgiving at Aqueduct

Thanksgiving at the Aqueduct, Part 2

Then after the Aqueduct

After the races, you may want to sample the local bar scene across the street in the South Ozone Park neighborhood...

Unfortunately, all of our favorites are gone. Was dismayed to see on Thanksgiving that Guy's of Vinegar Hill (on the left below)...



...is now this charmless-looking spot. And it wasn't open on Thanksgiving afternoon...



The worst, though. Several years ago, the Winners Circle on Rockaway Boulevard and 112th Street...



...became a custom-made kitchen counter shop...



...further along Rockaway Boulevard is the Tropical Nights, where you can watch live cricket matches. The Trop was also closed on Thanksgiving afternoon...

Thanksgiving at the Aqueduct, Part 2

On Thanksgiving, we headed out to South Ozone Park, Queens, home to the Aqueduct Racetrack, conveniently located by the long-term parking at JFK. Just a short 2-3 hour A train ride away! Actually, I think it's just 21 stops away from where we live in the neighborhood. So, fuck yeah — we called Delancey Car Service to get us there. High rollers! Post time was 11:25 a.m., an hour earlier than usual for the fall meet, which ends on Dec. 31.

Oh, the real fun begins in January with winter racing. You'll know who the diehards are then. As Mark Jacobson wrote in a Feb. 22, 1999, Aqueduct feature for New York magazine:

It is unlikely that the seventeenth-century English aristocracy had Aqueduct winter racing in mind when they imported those three Arabian, Turk, and Barb stallions -- stock from which all Thoroughbreds are said to be descended. Begun in the mid-1970s to keep gambling tax dollars pumping year-round, winter racing has long provided a handy metaphor for the 50-odd-year decline of the erstwhile Sport of Kings. Indeed, with its slew of six-furlong races, its bowls of clamless clam chowder ladled out from steaming steel vats, and the same daily "faces" -- Rastas, Chinese waiters, Korean War vets on disability, etc. -- serial plunging at the $2-exacta windows, Aqueduct seems a perfect spot to divest one last grubstake before tottering off this mortal coil.

Yeah, well, that's the thing that has always struck me about Aqueduct: So many of the regulars there do seem to be merely killing time before dying. It's like a well of loneliness, even among like-minded individuals there intent on betting and drinking.





According to the Aqueduct Web site: "Aqueduct opened on Sept. 27, 1894. In 1941, a new clubhouse and track offices were built. The track was torn down in 1956 and the new "Big A" opened in 1959. In 1975 the inner track was constructed to facilitate winter racing."

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving. It was suitably depressing, made even more so by the presence of holiday decorations that brought no warmth to the cavernous space. At least they're trying.



There was actually a fair number of families at the track. That's part of the idea of an early post on the holiday. Come out, watch some races, and leave by 3 p.m. for home and turkey and stuff. And get everyone out of the house while the real work gets done.

For food at the track, there's a Nathan's Famous and Sbarro. Not to mention the Hello Deli. There's a cafetria in the Man 'O War Room. And the Big A grill in the second floor clubhouse.



But! For some old-school charm, you have to visit the Equestris, the white-tablecloth restaurant that offers panoramic views of the track. You can buy six beers at a time. They'll put them in a bucket with ice. The betting windows aren't too far away. (But don't stay up here too long — the real action is downstairs alongside the track.)

I appreciate the air of sophistication put on by the tux-clad, well-coiffed maître d' and bell captain. They make you feel as if you're at 21. Given the rather seedy clientele downstairs, the desciption of the Equestris on the Aqueduct Web site is particularly hilarious:

Elegant Attire has long been a Tradition at Aqueduct Racetrack. Ladies and Gentlemen who honor this tradition are always appreciated.
Recommended Attire: Elegant
Gentlemen should wear suits or sport jackets (no shorts or abbreviated wear); Ladies should wear dresses, skirts or pantsuits.
Acceptable Attire: Business Casual
Management reserves the right to use its discretion to determine acceptable attire. Gentlemen: Collared shirts required. Suits or sports jackets optional. No shorts or abbreviated wear.

The track holds 40,000 specators. On Thanksgiving, they drew 3,200. So there were definitely places where it seemed like it was a little full.



I love the barber shop at the track. Wasn't a lot going on Thanksgiving, though. In fact, I stopped by three different times. The door was open, but the barber wasn't around. Not that I really wanted a haircut. I just like the idea of it. I got my hair cut there once. It's $7. Despite his grandfatherly appearance, the barber was rather miserable and in no mood for track history chitchat. He scolded me a few times. And he smelled like talcum powder. My hair is simple to cut. Yet he still made me look like Fred Gwynne. Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster.



Topeka John always says to bet on horses with Cat in their name. (I forget why — I just do it.)



As I noted yesterday, Aqueduct is becoming a racino, a racetrack that will include a casino (slots only), conference center and big hotel. It promises to be fancy — a business destination for yuk-yuk doofsters in pleated khakis in town for business. This place will never be the same. I understand the need to generate revenue, etc., etc. — just don't have to be happy about it.

Sorry, but I have to quote that Joe Bob Briggs article one more time:

Aqueduct is the kind of urban race track that doesn't really exist anymore in the rest of the country.

I love this place.

Thanksgiving at Aqueduct

As you probably know, the Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens, will become a racino, an entertainment megaplex that will include a casino (slots only), conference center and huge-ass hotel. It's one of those phased-in projects that should take forever to complete. Groundbreaking is expected in early 2009.

Well, as you can see from the Aqueduct parking lot Thanksgiving morning, there's plenty of room for such things.




So all that will become this:



I imagine the junky, three-times-weekly flea market held in this space will have to find a new home.





By the way, if you find youself at the rather lonely front gate on Rockaway Boulevard, treat yourself and take the free shuttle bus to the racetrack entrance.





Nothing like reliving painful memories from elementary school before drinking and gambling!







I hope to get back out there before the construction begins, closing a seedy era that I so enjoyed.



NY politicos have been kicking around the idea of adding slots here for years. In the fall of 2001, Joe Bob Briggs wrote a column on the Aqueduct and remarked on the potential for slots:

It's hard to believe that the New York tracks haunted by the Vanderbilts and Whitneys and Morrises and Du Ponts would resort to slot machines to keep up with the times. Aqueduct, after all, is where Man o' War ran his most famous race, defeating John P. Grier in the Dwyer Stakes in 1920. When the new track opened in 1959, Bill Shoemaker rode both winners of the first Daily Double, and Eddie Arcaro won the first turf race. It's the track of Kelso, the only five-time Horse of the Year, from 1960 to 1964. And Aqueduct is steeped in lore that would only be known to horse people--for example, the race in 1944 that was the first, last and only triple dead heat in a stakes race (Brownie, Bossuet and Wait a Bit in the Carter Handicap). Buckpasser won 12 of his 17 races at Aqueduct. It was the track where Steve Cauthen won 23 races in a single week and where Angel Cordero won two straight Eclipse Awards.

Previous attempts at turning racetracks into gambling/entertainment meccas haven't go so well. As Ray Kerrison noted in the Post Saturday:

Magna Entertainment Corp., Frank Stronach's public racing arm, which bought a flock of tracks and set out to transform the game with bold new ideas, only to stumble into an ocean of red ink.

Stronach bought Gulfstream Park for $95 million, spent $130 million to renovate it - and essentially ruined it as a horse venue. Magna has lost $400 million in the past four years through similar erratic, scatter-shot planning and management. It is now fighting for survival.

I'll spare you the boohooing about the end of this track as we know it. I'll end with another graph from Briggs:

The winter season at Aqueduct is not really for tourists or day-trippers. Of the three great New York tracks -- Belmont, Saratoga and Aqueduct --Aqueduct is the least glamorous. It's a working man's track, the only track in America that has its own subway stop. In fact, you can stand on the subway side of the clubhouse and see the skyscrapers of Wall Street in the distance. Aqueduct is the kind of urban race track that doesn't really exist anymore in the rest of the country.

I love this place.

I'll write more later on the rest of Thanksgiving Day at the racetrack.