Gravesend Race Track
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Gravesend Race Track at Gravesend on Coney Island, New York was a Thoroughbred horse racing facility built in 1887 by the Brooklyn Jockey Club as a result of the backing of the wealthy racing stable owners, the Dwyer Brothers. The facility covered an area which extended from roughly Ave. X to Ave. Z and from Ocean Ave. to a few blocks east of Nostrand Ave.
During its time, the racetrack executive included superintendent Ben Brush in whose honor the future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame horse Ben Brush was named. Among the major graded stakes races launched at the track were the Brooklyn Handicap, Brooklyn Derby, Tremont Stakes, and the Gazelle Handicap. For the fifteen years from 1894 through 1908, Gravesend Race Track hosted one of the American Classic Races, the Preakness Stakes.
In 1910 the administration of New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes outlawed all racetrack betting which resulted in the closing of every horse racing facility in New York after the end of the 1910 season. Although the law was repealed in time to resume racing in 1913, the Gravesend Race Track never reopened and the land was eventually sold to real-estate developers.
Today, the annual Gravesend Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack honors the former racing facility.
