When you think of some of the most notable horse racecourses around the country, Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, Belmont Park in Queens, New York, and Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, Maryland come to mind. But did you know that from 1889 to 1904 the Bronx was home to its very own racecourse?

The Morris Park Racecourse was one of the first racecourses built in New York City, preceded by the Jerome Park and Coney Island racecourses that stood during the 1800s. Initially, developers looked at City Island and Castle Hill before deciding on the Morris Park real estate as the optimal site for the racecourse. The boundaries were designated at modern-day Pelham Parkway, Williamsbridge Road, and Bronxdale Avenue. 

Ladies in fine gowns and hats, men placing bets, jockeys riding around on their steeds before a big competition… all scenes from a pastime in Morris Park where racegoers made their way to the 1 ½-mile racecourse that stood on 307 acres of land and boasted a quarter-mile turn, an 850-foot radius, and 1,000 stalls. But most impressive was the five-story clubhouse that fans flocked to. 

John A. Morris, an American businessman and major investor in the Louisiana State Lottery Company, agreed to build the track and maintain it. Morris purchased the 307 acres for $300,000 when the Bronx was still part of Westchester County, and leased the course to the American Jockey Club for $25,000 per year.

According to Nicholas Di Brino’s book, The History of the Morris Park Racecourse and the Morris Family, (available on the 4th floor at the Bronx Library Center), race horses were brought into the Bronx by way of Throgs Neck from Coney Island and Sheepshead Bay. The horses were "unloaded and walked by grooms three-and-a-half miles to Morris Park, which was located on Williamsbridge Road."

According to an article featuring the racecourse in the New York Times "there is no more delightful a drive in this state than the road to Morris Park." And racegoers flocked to the course in droves by hopping on the Tally Ho coach that left from Hotel Brunswick in Madison Square, Manhattan, headed for Hotel Arcularius in Pelham Manor. Racegoers also used the New Haven Railroad as an alternative travel method, and the railroad company cashed in on the course’s popularity by constructing an extra two-track spur to transport people directly to the racecourse, charging an additional thirty cents per rider.

Before Morris’ death in 1895 due to stroke, the course owner had been saddled with financial troubles caused by the Panic of 1893 and the Louisiana Lottery’s own monetary difficulties. The racecourse was held by the Westchester Racing Association until 1904 and eventually sold to an entrepreneur that utilized the track for aeroplane demonstrations.

By 1905, the infamous Belmont Park opened its gates and became the prime destination for New York racegoers. Today, the property on which the racecourse once stood belongs to Con Edison, inaccessible to the public.