The Belmont Park property originally totaled some . Because the property stretched slightly into Queens, bookmakers in the track's early days — when bookmaking was illegal — could escape arrest from one county's authorities by jumping over the border. It was once even believed that horses rounding the far turn crossed into Queens and then came back to Nassau for the stretch run. After the 1956 season, the construction of a wider bus road beyond the main course's final turn forced the turn to be shortened. According to the Belmont publication commemorating the track's 1968 reopening, that move cut off its circumference. The current layout has the entire racing course inside Nassau County.