Yonkers Raceway
Encyclopedia : Y : YO : YON : Yonkers Raceway
Yonkers Raceway is a harness racing track located at the intersection of Central Park Avenue and Yonkers Avenue (between exits 1 and 2 of the New York State Thruway) in Yonkers, New York near the New York City border. It is a half-mile oval dirt track for standardbred racing.
Yonkers Raceway, considered a city landmark, was first opened in 1899. At the time it was called Empire City Trotting Club. After its first year of operation, it remained closed for most of the next seven years except for special events, then reopened as a thoroughbred race track in 1907. It continued to host "the flats" until 1942, when it was converted back to being a harness track. In 1950 it was renamed Yonkers Raceway. Its popularity having greatly declined since the 1960s (when crowds would occasionally reach 50,000), the entire property, according to some, had become an eyesore due to its owners leaving it in a state of disrepair.
Yonkers Raceway is currently undergoing renovations to put in approximately 5,500 high-tech slot machines in order to become a NY state-approved "racino" (a video-lottery terminal casino located at a race track). The new Empire Gaming at Yonkers Raceway is scheduled to be opened in September, 2006. (Source: [Yonkers Raceway])
Yonkers previously was the site of the Cane Pace, one of the legs of the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers. It is now the host track for another leg, the Messenger Stakes. Yonkers is also home to the Yonkers Trot, one of the legs of the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Trotters. Due to the renovations at Yonkers, the Messenger and Yonkers Trot were moved to different racetracks for the 2004 and 2005 editions. The Messenger was moved to Harrington Raceway in Delaware in both years, and the Yonkers Trot was moved to Hawthorne Racecourse in Stickney, IL in 2004, and Freehold Raceway in New Jersey in 2005. Presently, Yonkers Raceway is scheduled to run both the Messenger and the Yonkers Trot on the same evening: November 25, 2006. (Source: [Hambletonian Society])
Yonkers is also the home to the Art Rooney Pace for three year olds. The 2006 edition, which will carry an estimated $750,000 purse, is scheduled to be run on November 11.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.