. Belmont Park, Racetracks (Horse racing). War and renamed it Ascot Heath. This was a bizarre carnival-type track. It had women jockeys and sideline attractions which in- cluded bull-baiting. There was a resurgence in Long Island thoroughbred racing with the coming of the 19th Century, and the Island has maintained its top ranking among the nation's turf cen- ters until the present day—now loftier than ever with the opening of new Belmont Park. Only Jerome Park in what is now the Bronx and Morris Park in Westchester County, both noted for elegance, outshone the Long Island tracks f
. Belmont Park, Racetracks (Horse racing). War and renamed it Ascot Heath. This was a bizarre carnival-type track. It had women jockeys and sideline attractions which in- cluded bull-baiting. There was a resurgence in Long Island thoroughbred racing with the coming of the 19th Century, and the Island has maintained its top ranking among the nation's turf cen- ters until the present day—now loftier than ever with the opening of new Belmont Park. Only Jerome Park in what is now the Bronx and Morris Park in Westchester County, both noted for elegance, outshone the Long Island tracks for a while. Long Island's first major 19th Century track was Union Course, opened in 1921. Its main gate was at the intersection of Atlantic Ave. and Rockaway Blvd., little more than a mile from the present Aqueduct track's main entrance on Rockaway Blvd. The Union Course grounds extended North to Jamaica Ave. from Rockaway, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile: the entire property was along the present border between Wood- haven and Ozone Park. Union Course was probably the first track to lay stress on grassless footing with an eye toward faster race time. A historian of the era noted that the same horses took three to five seconds longer to run a mile over the New Market (Virginia) turf than over the "naked soil" of Union Course. Banked turns were also introduced at Union Course. A series of famous match races fixed the Long Island track for all time in racing his- tory. The first was the race between American Eclipse and Henry, representing the North and the South respectively, at Union Course on May 27. 1823. The match was at three four- mile heats around the mile track, winner to be determined by two heat wins. The purse was $20,000. With the journalistic license of the era, it was reported that 60,000 enthusiasts crowded into Union Course for the event, a rather wild estimate for a sporting event in a city of 150,- 13. Please note that these images are
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