The nearly four-year rebuild of the new Belmont Park is scheduled to hit a significant milestone by the end of February, when training on the innermost Tapeta track is set to open.
Glen Kozak, the New York Racing Association (NYRA)'s senior vice president of operations and capital projects, delivered that news nugget Friday as part of a broader overview of the track's $455-million reimagining during a meeting of the New York State Franchise Oversight Board (FOB).
Before delving into details, Kozak underscored an overall message of “on schedule [and] on budget.”
The projected timeline still calls for Belmont to open in September 2026 after the Saratoga Race Course meet ends. After this year's spring/early summer season at Aqueduct Racetrack, racing will cease there, leaving Belmont and Saratoga as the only two tracks on the NYRA circuit as of this coming autumn.
David O'Rourke, NYRA's chief executive officer and president, explained during the Jan.16 meeting that, “When Belmont opens in the fall, the first two floors will be open. The grounds will be open. There will be a 'preview party' for lack of a better term.”
But the entire venue won't be completely accessible to the public until about half a year later.
“We'll be working our way into full utilization of the building for the [GII] Wood [Memorial Stakes in April 2027],” O'Rourke said.
NYRA and its contractors have been laying down Belmont's four redesigned racing surfaces from the inside out. Once completed, in that concentric order, will be a one-mile Tapeta track, two grass courses at nine and 10 furlongs, and the iconic 1 1/2-miles main dirt track.
“The synthetic is complete, in place,” Kozak said. “Horse tunnel is complete with the synthetic on it.”
Kozak said the Tapeta track is pretty much ready to handle horses right now, but the wrapping-up of infield construction and massive piles of earth dominating the view are what's keeping training from being greenlighted.
“The infield video board is now in place. But leading up to that was the concrete, the structural steel, the crane that was directly adjacent to the inside rail of the synthetic track,” Kozak said.
“We still have 30,000 yards of material for the base of the track. We've got probably close to 30,000 to 35,000 yards of topsoil for the infield that needs to get spread, so that's what we're currently working on,” Kozak said.
“We're able to start spreading topsoil out in the infield right now. Once the piles are down in the infield, we'll be able to see across the track, and that was the biggest concern. Because we could train-we're able to put horses on the [synthetic] track for galloping and jogging right now. But in order to have the outriders and the exercise riders [see clearly] if they need help, visually there's impairment across the track,” Kozak said.
“The clay base for the main track is in the infield. It's screened, it's ready to go. Now we're waiting for the weather this spring to be able to install that, have the temperatures to be able to get that thing down and rolled and [give it] the compaction that's required. That'll take place sometime in March, early April,” Kozak said.
NYRA recently gave some 40-plus horsemen a tour of the infield and the under-construction tracks with the aim of getting their input as to how the earliest stages of training might roll out.
“We had that communication with the trainers, and their feedback has been, 'Let's get this right and make sure all parties have the proper [safety] coverage and we have everything in place,'” Kozak said.
“It gives us the opportunity to continue to push some of the construction components that we have to work around, some of the start times, with training taking place from 5:30 a.m. to whatever time we designate,” Kozak said.
“We will continue to work with the horsemen as far as the video board installation, and we're currently working six to seven days a week as far as what we're responsible for for moving that material around, so it's coming together very, very quickly,” Kozak said.
“The synthetic harrow yard building is complete. The outrider stands are complete. And the end of February we're expecting all the light poles in for it, so there will be training lighting on the synthetic as well,” Kozak said.
“And then the main track, the sub-base is down, meaning the stone dust is set to grade. Inside rail, outside rail are all complete. We're currently in the process now of just putting up marker poles on the inside,” Kozak said.
NYRA's target date for the opening of main-track training is late April, Kozak said.
“Just to get the horsemen who are coming back from Florida the ability to get on the main track,” Kozak said.
“And then we'll coordinate with the construction team whether it is modified training hours or what we need in place,” Kozak added.
As for the two grass courses, “[the inner] course was down since July, the [outer] course was down in October,” Kozak said. “Full irrigation is installed. All the rails are installed. We currently have three-quarters of both turf courses blanketed and covered, similar to what we do at Aqueduct.”
Moving on to general construction of the grandstand, clubhouse and backyard saddling area, Kozak gave the following update to the FOB, which is the governor-appointed committee that represents the interests of New York State in the real estate at Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga.
“Steel superstructure and canopy is complete. The concrete superstructure is also complete. Paddock site work is roughly 40% done. Saddling stalls, with the steel work for that, is about 75% complete. Waterproofing on the main roof has started. That will take place for probably another two months, aiming to be watertight by mid- to early-April is what we're projecting. Purchase of all the electrical, mechanical, plumbing, sprinkler [systems are] either on-site or installed [and] the first-floor interiors are 40% complete,” Kozak said.
“There's roughly 250 trades personnel on site roughly six days a week. There's been a couple of cases where it's been seven days a week, anywhere from an eight- to a 10-hour day. All the procurement and contracts are now fully executed. The last was the landscape that was just done a couple weeks ago,” Kozak said.
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