5. Ozone Park is Home to the Only Racetrack in NYC
While horses once ruled the streets of New York City as a means of getting around, there is another place horses can still be found in the city today besides Central Park. The Aqueduct Racetrack (known to horse racing aficionados as the Big A) is located in South Ozone Park and takes up an impressive 210 acres. While the original racetrack was opened in 1894, the track was given a grand reopening in 1959 after undergoing a $34.5 million renovation. The new version was decked out in every way imaginable including a new four-tier grandstand, 18 escalators, and even an elevator. The new track also featured 14,000 seats inside air-conditioned restaurants and lounges, all of which gave it the title of being “the world’s most modern and luxurious horse plant” as written by the Associated Press.
The racetrack is such a deeply rooted part of the city that in 1995 the former Pope John Paul II said mass before a monumental crowd of 75,000 onlookers. While the Aqueduct Racetrack may not be on par with Saratoga, the track still gets considerable attention and is considered Saratoga’s blue-collar counterpart. In 2013 the New York Racing Association invested over $18 million in improving the Big A, keeping the track’s long legacy alive in Ozone Park.