Gravesend Racetrack, 1886 to 1910.

King's County was in the running for the country's horse-racing capital in the late 19th and early 20th century. Brooklyn had three horse racing tracks, one in Sheepshead Bay, one in Brighton Beach, and the Gravesend Race Track. Though not as grand as the Sheepshead Bay course, Gravesend was still known internationally.

The track was built by the Brooklyn Jockey Club and funded by the president of the club, Philip Dwyer. The Preakness Stakes, a flat thoroughbred horse race that now takes place in Baltimore, was held at the venue for fifteen years.

The venue stretched from McDonald Avenue to Ocean Parkway and from Kings Highway to Avenue U. The track was enclosed by a twelve foot-high wooden fence and surrounded by a yellow Georgia pine double-decker grandstand. A bar and restaurant were built into the lower level of the seating area. The south portion of the facilities included the offices of the Brooklyn Jockey Club and jockey's dressing rooms. To the north were the betting pavilions and carriage sheds. On the east, along tree-lined Ocean Parkway, was the clubhouse. To the west side, passengers of the Prospect Park and Coney Island rail line were able to disembark and proceed directly to the stadium through a covered walkway.

Though the track became incredibly popular, it was forced to close its doors by the end of the racing season of 1910. The Hart-Agnew law prompted the extinction of all horse-racing tracks in New York. The law banned gambling of all kinds, threatening heavy fines (or even jail time) if betting was found on the premises. Though this law was repealed in 1913, the Gravesend Racetrack would never be re-opened. The land was sold to real-estate developers in 1920. An annual race held at the Aqueduct Racetrack called the Gravesend Handicap honors the facility.