watched Gun Bow win the Metropolitan Mile. At the time, it was the largest crowd to ever attend a thoroughbred horse racing event in New York. Champion racehorse Secretariat was retired at Aqueduct before the public on November 6, 1973. He was paraded for the last time to the public and took his last steps on a racetrack there. He was then sent to stud at Claiborne Farm. Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in front of a crowd of 75,000 at Aqueduct on October 6, 1995. Every weekend including Tuesdays, a flea market containing 500 vendors was operated in the racetrack's north parking lot, located along Rockaway Boulevard. Aqueduct Flea Market offered a hodgepodge of goods, such as bedding, incense, pots and pans, and nearly everything imaginable. It was open on Tuesdays and weekends year-round for 33 years. The Aqueduct Flea Market closed in 2011. In May 2017, NYRA announced that they would resurface the 1⅛-mile main track with a limestone base, and convert the inner dirt track back into a turf course. The changes were completed in time for the start of the 2017 fall meet on November 3. With this change, the main track will now be used for winter racing. Proposal to close track In May 2007, reports indicated that then-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was considering closing Aqueduct and selling the track and its stables, which currently house 400 horses, to developers when the New York Racing Association lease expired at the end of 2007. According to the reports, Belmont Park, which is east in Elmont, New York, would have become a nearly year-round track and would get the video lottery machines authorized to operate at Aqueduct. Belmont Park would have been modified to handle winter requirements, which would have included heated stands and the construction of new stables. According to the plans that were discussed, the oldest and most historic track in the state, Saratoga Race Course, would have been operated by the New York Racing Association, and a new entity would have operated Belmont Park. Aqueduct traditionally has been considered a track frequented by blue collar fans while Belmont Park has a more upscale reputation. State Assembly Member Audrey I. Pheffer (D), whose district included Aqueduct, fought the closing of the track, which she felt was important to the local community. Any closure at Aqueduct, which is equipped for the cold winter months,