Hugo Carts

What is Hugo Carts?

The redesigned complex features four distinct racing surfaces: a 1½-mile dirt track, two turf courses, and a one-mile Tapeta synthetic track.

The Tapeta surface will be used exclusively for winter racing, allowing Belmont to take over Aqueduct’s former winter schedule as NYRA consolidates its operations at Belmont and Saratoga.

The Belmont Stakes, which was staged at Saratoga during construction, will return to its traditional Long Island home in 2027. Belmont will also host the Breeders’ Cup World Championships in October 2027, bringing the event back to New York for the first time since 2005.

How to play Hugo Carts

These six additions sit on top of the effects that have been running since opening day on Aug. 28, 2025: tornado winds, swirling debris, fog, haptic seats, fire bursts, falling apples, and the flying monkeys version 1.0.

This is the marquee upgrade. In 2025, it was enough for physical monkeys to appear to fly off the screen and over your head. But more than 3.6 million people have already seen that stupid pet trick. The first-gen monkeys were 16-foot helium inflatables steered by drone operators. Their only motion, besides drifting forward, was wing-flapping. They floated more than they performed.

The new monkeys are animatronic. As shown in the video, they’re capable of moving their faces and bodies in menacing ways as they pass overhead during the witch’s attack. They also seem to be hanging from an overhead line, though the Sphere has not officially described the new flight system.

What is Hugo Carts?

“People look primarily at the instances where things go wrong for players; of course, every single one of those is one too many. But they don’t tend to look at the large number of people enjoying gambling.”

Holland Casino was one of the first operators out of the gate when the newly-minted market opened in 2021, and while they don’t have the position they occupied in those early days, the company’s online offering is healthy. When they launched online, Petra says “we were very well known for – and are very well known for – responsible gaming.

“That was the reason why we joined [online as well as land-based]. But we were a full brick-and-mortar company so it took us some time to prepare for that market. In the beginning, the market share was of course higher because you only had 10 operators and we had a very well-known brand name, but now the market is much bigger and you have operators more specialised in sports betting and things like that. We have dropped down a bit.”