Jerome Park Racetrack
Jerome Park Racetrack was an American
thoroughbred horse racing facility from 1866 until 1894. It was located in a part of Westchester County, New York that was annexed into the Bronx in 1874. Jerome Park Racetrack was the home of the Belmont Stakes from 1867 until 1889. Today, Jerome Park is the name of a neighborhood adjoining the Jerome Park Reservoir, Bedford Park and Norwood
in the northern Bronx.
History
The racetrack opened in 1866 in the northwest part of
August Belmont, Sr.
A luxurious clubhouse was built near a rise that looked over the race course on what was known as "The Bluff".
In those days, many would come to the racing park by horse, coach and carriage, or by railroad at
Bedford Park Station
.
The first
mares
.
In the spring of 1876, a group of polo enthusiasts founded the Westchester Polo Club at Jerome Park Racetrack. On May 13 of that year, the track was the site of the first outdoor polo match ever held in the United States.[1][2]
It is alleged that
Jennie Jerome, later to be courted and married, at the race park, but this allegation is false. As attested by Sir Winston Churchill in his biography of his father, Lord Randolph Churchill was never in America before his marriage, and the couple actually met in August 1873 at a ball on board the Imperial Russian cruiser "Ariadne" while it was moored at Cowes on the Isle of Wight.[3]
The track closed on October 4, 1894 to make way for the Jerome Park Reservoir that was needed for the metropolitan New York City water supply system.[4][5]
Thoroughbred stakes races at Jerome Park
- Belmont Stakes
- Champagne Stakes
- Juvenile Stakes
- Ladies Handicap
Later land usage
The land that formed the western half of the Jerome Park Racetrack was turned into the Jerome Park Reservoir. The eastern half of the land was later used for:
- Kingsbridge Armory
- Walton High School
- Lehman College
- The Bronx High School of Science
- Jerome Park - a park of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
- DeWitt Clinton High School
- High School of American Studies
- Jerome Yard
- Concourse Yard
- High Pumping Station
- Harris Field - a park of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
- Tracey Towers, and Scott Tower- residential buildings built over the Jerome Yard.
During the 1920s, the eastern half of the land was considered as a possible site for the Museum of the Peaceful Arts.
Other defunct New York race tracks
- Brighton Beach Race Course
- Gravesend Race Track
- Jamaica Race Course
- Morris Park Racecourse
- Roosevelt Raceway
- Sheepshead Bay Race Track
- Union Course
References
- ^ "Playing Polo; The Games of the Polo Club, the Players and the Manner of Playing". The New York Times. May 14, 1876. p. 2. Retrieved 2010-01-16.
- ^ "History of the Equestrian Sport of Polo". sportpolo.com. Archived from the original on 2011-02-19. Retrieved 2010-01-16.
- ^ "Lord Randolph Churchill". 1906.
- ^ "The Racing for the Week; Close at Jerome and Opening at Morris Park". The New York Times. October 1, 1894. p. 8. Retrieved 2010-01-16.
- ^ "The End of Jerome Park; A Famous Race Course to be Turned into a City Reservoir". The New York Times. December 30, 1894. p. 20. Retrieved 2010-01-16.
- McNamara, John "History in Asphalt: The Origin of Bronx Street and Place Names" (1993) Bronx County Historical Society ISBN 978-0-941980-16-6
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