Will be staged at the following facility:

http://youtu.be/102Cq1Jpppg

Sad what has become of it

Ditto, how sad indeed.

I watched that video a few months ago. It might be hard to believe but
Aqueduct was the place to be in the early part of the 1960's. My father use to
go out there on Saturdays and said there were always crowds of 50,000.

Well, maybe 30,000 on a weekend with a lot of people along the rail and tons of action with the bartenders.

Harry M. Stevens kept track of the beer sales back then by how many cups were used. A great good tip just before the first had you slopping beer all day if you kept coming back with the same cup.

One day as a new civilian I get off the bus at Aqueduct from the Jamaica subway stop at Parsons Boulevard. I'm with the old man and we waltz up the ramp and do a 180 to get by Al's bar. My father knows Al since 1934.

Horse action before the first race? There was more action going with sports and out-of-town horses at Al's bar than could ever happen anyplace else.

Yup - sellers in the front, cashiers in the back. But maybe better gambling action at the bars.