home to the day-long Breeders' Cup championship in 1990, 1995, 2001 (the first major sports event to be held after the September 11 Attacks in the metropolitan area) and most recently in 2005. Belmont's backyard is well known as a gathering place for racing fans to see their horses saddled before they hit the track. The center of the paddock is dominated by a white pine that pre-dated the track itself—it turned 180 years old in 2006. A stylized version of the pine has been the centerpiece of Belmont Park's corporate logo since 1968. The paddock area also serves as a picnic area for the increasing numbers of fans who make Belmont Stakes Day—the Saturday that falls within the range of June 5 through June 11—a tourist attraction. Physical attributes The racing, training and barn complex is located on the western edge of the Nassau County region known as the Hempstead Plains. Just a few miles (kilometers) east on the same plains, the first racing meet in North America was held in 1665, supervised by colonial governor Richard Nicolls. The dirt racecourse, known officially as the Main Track and nicknamed "Big Sandy" by racing followers, has a circumference of , the longest dirt thoroughbred racetrack in North America. Immediately inside of this is the Widener Turf Course (named after the Widener family that has a long and prestigious history in American horse racing) spanning plus , which in turn encircles an Inner Turf Course with a circumference of plus . On the Main Track, it is from the top of the stretch to the finish line, and the segment between the wire and the start of the first (clubhouse) turn covers ; this latter segment is shorter by approximately on both of the turf courses, in order to accommodate the two chutes that exist on the Widener Turf Course, from which turf races of and are started; an additional chute exists for races of on the Inner Turf Course. A straightaway chute leads on to the backstretch of the Main Track and permits races on the dirt up to long to be run with one turn. The chute used to extend further back across the training track, permitting races of up to a mile and a quarter but was shortened because a crossover is now infeasible given the clay base of the Main Track and stone-dust base of the training