To commemorate it, a bronze plaque was unveiled in Garden City on the site of the racecourse laid out in 1665 by Colonel Richard Nicolls, the first British provincial governor of New York.
About 100,000 people are expected to flood the historic racecourse, many decked out in traditional race-day outfits that include increasingly ornate head dressings and sun hats for women and colorful pocket handkerchiefs or floral buttonholes for men.
It also brought havoc to the Spring racing carnival at Flemington racecourse where punters out in their thousands for Oaks Day were forced to shelter from the afternoon downpour.
As usual in such instances, their trainer was unfazed; he tends to let the racecourse sort out the stable hierarchy.
Racecourses are laid out to be run clockwise, counterclockwise or in a straight line, often over rolling terrain.
The 2-1 favourite Douvan got the ball rolling, greeted by a crescendo of noise which drowned out the racecourse commentator, winning by four and a half lengths from stablemate Shaneshill.
First it marked out a racecourse, in a sort of circle, ("the exact shape doesn't matter," it said,) and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there.
York chief executive William Derby, a guest at the racecourse on Saturday, fancied a stroll out on to the track several hours before racing, but was informed firmly that he did not have permission to access the turf.
He has spent his life running away from his family, hanging out at racecourses, doing odd jobs, developing his theory of things but not in fact doing those things.
The fancy new racecourse is 40km out of town with two swish grandstands and a floodlit track for night racing during Ramadan.
