There is a racetrack post standing on a street corner in Garden City again. On Saturday morning, November 7, the New York Racing Association and the Village of Garden City installed a commemorative quarter-pole marker at the northeast corner of Stewart Avenue and Hilton Avenue, on ground that was once the Newmarket Course, the place where organized horse racing in North America got its start more than 350 years ago.

The marker replaces one that went missing. According to NYRA, a quarter pole taken from nearby Belmont Park was set at the site in 1999, and over the years it was lost to erosion and to the way the surrounding area changed. The new one puts the reference point back.

What the Newmarket Course was

The course dates to 1665, when Richard Nicolls, the first English governor of the colony of New York, established it on the open grassland of the Hempstead Plains. He named it after Newmarket, the English racing town that King Charles II favored. It was a two-mile course run on grass.

NYRA describes Newmarket as the site of North America's first recorded race meeting, and as one of the earliest organized racing venues in what became the United States. Races were held there for more than a century, first as a yearly competition and later at spring and fall meetings.

Long Island's racing history has run through the same stretch of Nassau County ever since. Belmont Park sits a few miles to the west in Elmont, and the Hempstead Plains that once held the Newmarket Course are now Garden City, the Cradle of Aviation and Nassau Community College.

A post with a job

On a racetrack, a quarter pole marks the point a quarter mile from the finish line. Jockeys and trainers use it as a landmark for the final run to the wire, which is why it became the symbol chosen to stand at the old course.

The 1999 post was not the first marker on the corner. In 1966, Garden City officials and NYRA dedicated a plaque at the site to commemorate the Newmarket Course and the 300th anniversary of horse racing in the United States. The new quarter pole joins that history and gives the corner something a passerby can see from the road.

Who came out on Saturday

Local officials, community leaders and NYRA representatives spoke at the ceremony. Garden City Mayor Edward Finneran noted that the village is home to many people who work in racing, including jockeys, owners, trainers and backstretch workers. Robert Hines, NYRA's community affairs manager, described the marker as a way to reconnect residents with the region's place in racing history and as a teaching tool for the community.

Two Garden City residents with a direct line to the sport's present also attended: Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano and Junior Alvarado, who rode the winner of the 2025 Belmont Stakes.

Racing is back on Long Island

The ceremony comes two months after thoroughbred racing returned to Long Island. Belmont Park reopened in September following a three-year rebuild that added four new racetracks and a 300,000-square-foot grandstand with year-round hospitality space, according to NYRA.

The fall meet is underway now. NYRA says general admission starts at $7 when bought in advance through NewBelmont.com/Tickets.

If you go

The marker stands at the northeast corner of Stewart Avenue and Hilton Avenue in Garden City and can be seen from the sidewalk at any time. Belmont Park's fall meet runs a few miles west in Elmont.

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