as the "first ever professional golf tournament in the history of New York City", although Fresh Meadow Country Club, when it was in Queens had hosted two major championships in the 1930s, and Van Cortland Park Golf Course in The Bronx and the Fox Hills Golf Course on Staten Island had conducted professional events in the early 1900s. Horse racing Horse racing in the United States dates back to 1665, with the establishment of the New Market course in Salisbury, New York. Salisbury was a section of what is now known as Hempstead Plains, near Greater Westbury and East Garden City in Nassau County on Long Island. New Market was the first regulated form of horse racing in North America. The races were facilitated and supervised by New York's colonial governor, Richard Nicolls, and race winners were awarded with the first known sporting trophies in the country. In 1824, as regional rivalries in the country were growing, the Union Course in Woodhaven, Queens offered a $24,000 prize for a race between top thoroughbreds American Eclipse, from the North, and Sir Henry, from the South. It is believed that the race between Eclipse and Sir Henry was America's first national sporting event. Major New York metropolitan racetracks, listed by the year they were opened: Union Course in Woodhaven, Queens, New York (1821-1872) Centreville Course (Eclipse Course) in Woodhaven, Queens, New York (1825-1899) Freehold Raceway in Freehold, New Jersey (1830s) Jerome Park Racetrack in Westchester County, New York (1866-1894) Gravesend Race Track in Gravesend on Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York (1866-1910) Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, New Jersey (1870) Brighton Beach Race Course in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York (1879-1920s) Sheepshead Bay Race Track in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York (1880-1923) Aqueduct Racetrack (The Big A) in Ozone Park, Queens, New York (1894) Morris Park Racecourse in Westchester County, New York (1889-1904) Yonkers Raceway in Yonkers, New York (1899) Jamaica Race Course in Jamaica, New York (1903-1959) Belmont Park in Elmont, New York (1905) Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury, New York (1940-1988) Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey (1977) In 1908, the New York State Legislature approved the Hart–Agnew Law, which banned gambling at racetracks. Some tracks shut down permanently, but later a court ruled that oral betting was legal as the law only covered bookmakers, so activity continued. In 1955 the non-profit New York Racing Association (originally the Greater New York