Belmont day

[FrankD.]

Dale,

I too have been to many big sporting events and Saturday at Belmont had the buzz for sure. It was electric and the magical allure of a triple crown, seeing history or greatness perceived or otherwise was 1,000,000 volts.

It started on the bus trip down just listening to the novice\'s discuss their strategies, I learned the definition of a parlay and heard another explain the grand slam bet. I smiled and took it all in and was lucky enough to sit in front of a veterinarian who works for NY State and had a lengthy conversation about drugs, out of competition testing, PETA and other assorted issues that we discuss here daily as gamblers. One of her biggest concerns was the Spa meet and the pressure on vets up there with so many horses coming from everywhere and with hundreds stabled at the harness track the possible outbreak of many types of virus\'s. Can you imagine having to make the call to shut down the Spa money machine for even a day due to an outbreak of whatever?

We got to the track at 930, the bus was inspected by security via a bomb sniffing dog as helicopters hovered overhead. We parked in the blue lot along the back fence and before we hopped aboard school buses to shuttle us to the gate we were handed a list of what could or could not be brought in. All items had to be in clear plastic bags, the ladies purses were searched and all were scanned by the metal detecting wands. You have to give NYRA an A plus for security pertaining to entering the plant.

In lieu of the doom and gloom of previous big events NYRA has hosted we came prepared. I made sandwiches, snacks, brought water bottles and even a couple iced tea plastic bottles which somehow some tea spilled out and a bit vodka found its way in! We went to our seats upper 3rd level grandstand right at the 1/16 pole and would have a great view as they turned for home. OK time to play tourist as of course Laura wanted the give away CC and triple crown posters for \" when he won\" a Belmont Stakes T shirt for $ 30.00 and generally getting familiar with Belmont after an almost 20 years absence for me.

The day was very comfortable until about 2:30 ish as the crowd started to swell and swell, the many empty seats began to fill. The upper 3rd level had a nice cross breeze, we went to the paddock comfortably a few times until about the 5th race and betting was not a problem at all. Cell phone and wi fi worked sporadically at best. I was texting back and forth with Belmont3 trying to connect but at times it took several minutes and several tries to go through.

Wagering wise it was not a good day for yours truly at all! Leaving Kid Cruz off an early pick 5 ticket that was $180 cost me 11K and for $36 more he should have been included. If Strathnaver wins the bob in the 8th  my day is made even with blowing the stakes pick 4. We came back some with Real Solution in the 10th with a win bet but couldn\'t connect in the verticals. As the day progressed wagers for the next race were placed before the previous race became official and that was pretty easy. Obviously you could not wait to see the horses or pool watch but my wagering is usually pre determined most of the time and tweaked some throughout the day. No big issues here with lines or trouble betting. I did run into 2 Saratoga friends who came down to work as tellers and passed on a $450.00 pay day due to it being such a cluster F$%^ in the mutual department. They decided to just hang out in the park, bet and drink!  Apparently unknown to me there was a beer cart in the park selling $5.00 beers as opposed to the $15.00 I paid for a 16oz Heineken. Regular domestic 12 oz cans were $10.00 and they mostly were out of beer everywhere about an hour before the big race.  INEXCUSABLE but that is Center Plate the concessionaire not NYRA. They had several portable carts throughout the grand stand with beer, soda and water but most were closed an hour before the Belmont Stakes. Food lines were long most of the day but we had brought plenty of our own for a long day.

They ran the Belmont and the wonder horse simply wasn\'t good enough. Race spacing, 6 big efforts in a row, fresh shooters, being pinned down inside, a cut coming out of the gate, whatever. CC was within a half a length of the lead at the 1/16 and could not get it done. Winners find a way, losers have every excuse in the book. We can debate the weakened drug induced breed of the past 30 years, the spacing of the Triple Crown until the cows come home, changing the format is not out of the question but not dramatically. I would not be opposed to 3 weeks from Derby to Preakness then 3 more to Belmont but nothing more radical than that.

I was skeptical of NYRA\'s big event diluting the rest of the meets stakes program but if you have it?  THEY WILL BET!  A 150 million dollar handle great races, run clean and the best of the best in our game. Breeders Cup in June and even without a TC on the line Belmont day should draw 60,000 plus going forward.

Leaving the plant:
They blew it!!! No other way to put it.

 The LIRR debacle made me thank God we didn\'t do the Amtrak-LIRR route. experienced Belmont Stakes fans like Belmont 3 had their exit plan; the rest of us smuck\'s were at the mercy of the Dunkin Donut patrol who soaked up their overtime and did nothing!

Mass transit to me means putting many people on a bus or a train and moving them efficiently and limiting the number of cars on the road or in a particular place all at once. Hence the hundreds of buses at Belmont on Saturday. We boarded the bus at 730ish, it was to leave 30 minutes after the Belmont. We moved 12 feet from 730-1000 sitting in the Blue Lot without any of the 50 or so cops in the area directing traffic or letting the buses out. The buses needed to make a 90 degree turn across 3 lanes of traffic exiting the lot; they had to wait until there were no more cars leaving that area of the track at 1000 PM.

COMPLETELY INSANE AND 100 % INEXCUSABLE,  it put a damper on a long day leaving at 630 AM and not getting back home until 130 AM.

If I ever attend another Belmont with a TC on the line it will only be one way. In a soup de nuts RV with a designated driver and a band of T-generates that wouldn\'t mind tailgating and swapping tough beat stories for 3 hours after the races!

Frank D.

[covelj70]

what a terrific recap and story

thanks for sharing

sounds awesome!

[FrankD.]

My day is made; I got a Covello  AWESOME!!!

Jim you\'re definitely on the A list for the Frank D. RV adventure  for the next triple crown attempt. I\'ll make sure you\'re right next to Richiebee.

[covelj70]

listen, sign me up for that trip

you want to hear me dish some \"Awesomes\", I\'ll you what, an RV trip with Richiebee will get it done for sure!!!!!!!

[miff]

\"Late 200K bet on Tonalist drops odds in last flash from 11-1 to 9-1 after horses leave gate.Nets winner $1,840,000 profit\"

.....interesting, if true!

[Boscar Obarra]

My records do show that drop, but strangely , no move of the other horses odds.  You\'d think some of the longer shots would have ticked up 1 or 2 points on a punch like that but no.

 Possible computer glitch.

 My realtime win calc of CC was showing closer to 1.00 than the .85 he went off, so maybe there was something weird there going on with the tote.

[belmont3]

OK.... My day at Belmont.
First time I travelled with this group of coal crackers from Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
Met at the Mohegan Sun at 7am Running on Dunkin. Coasted down I-80, the Whitestone and Cross Island. I suggested bluelotting, grabbing a space next to Cross Island entrance and shuttle bussing around the far turn and down the stretch to the general admission gates. Fortunately overruled due to a red lot parking pass. More on that later.

Crazy traffic pattern that forced us to U-Turn to get into the gate.

My first venture was to grab my customary 12 souvenir glasses. Clubhouse gift shop empty, 2nd stand tells me they sold out Friday.  I go to info booth. No help. Am stunned. Have all the glasses since 1976. I\'m thinking of settling for $60.00 for 4 White Carnations and dumping the drinks. As I negotiate with 2 young ladies who have taken sympathy on a despondent old fella with a Saratoga hat and California Chrome colored tie, I catch a break.
The girls accost a NYRA official. He pulls out his cell and declares he will find the glasses for this 44 year Belmont Stakes veteran.  After coming up empty, he decides I can buy 4 glasses from the White Carnation Girls for $12 each. I pull out the \"What\'s in Your Wallet\" credit card. They don\'t take a credit card. I pull out 3 twenties. They have no change. They give me the 4 glasses for $40 and I think I hit the lottery! I ask for a bag to place them in. NO paper or plastic on premises. Mr. NYRA official takes my seat and section and delivers a bag with wrapping paper within 5 minutes. Pretty Nice and I was impressed.  

Project #2 was buying 100 $2 Chrome tickets for some ebay speculators in the Mohegan Poker room. After the 1st race, I head to a teller. Machine breaks mid-punch. I had already given the teller $200. (my bad) and I have only 50 good tickets, a couple of torn ones and the rest probably jammed in the machine. Repair guys show up. Machine won\'t work. I\'m telling the line behind me to disperse but they are agitated and I am called names far more colorful than my tie. They call for supervisor. He says they need to take all the tickets below and run each code to figure out which ones are missing.....ETA for my tix:  One hour.(All this for $8) I say cancel the whole batch and return my $200. They look at each other....DUH!!...Small conference and I win. Go right to the next teller and have tix in hand in 3 minutes.

My Samsung Galaxy 5 was the only phone getting service in Section 2b so I effortlessly bet all the races via Twinspire. I texted back and forth with Frank D and thanked him for pointing out Strath on the forum. I didn\'t max that one but did play some verticals. Missed the feature by ignoring those who had saw the virtues of the Commish. Considering, I had MC, Tonalist, WS and CC underneath, I still have not figured out how I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Such is racing.

Also screwed up the late pik 4 (have had much past success on this wager.) Considering, I had the 10th race winner, Tonalist and singled the 8 in the 13th, how do you do this?  While I calling myself Dummy, Moron etc.
my Coal Crackering buddies are explaining that Eddie Stanky and his Polka Band would have been an upgrade to Frank Sinatra Jr.
 We head to what we think will be a 1 hour parking lot departure. Little did we know Officer Moses was on duty parting the Red Sea Parking Lot. We literally started the car and drove right on to the Cross Island. Home by midnight after a dinner stop. Still had cash in the account, four souvenir glasses and a bunch of @2 worthless tickets that we will laugh about for years to come.

I give NYRA a passing grade. Just to note to some rookie attendees, I am a big fan of overcrowded ladies rooms....especially if you spend some time in the men\'s room. . Think about it.

Bob

[FrankD.]

Bob,

I forgot to mention the overcrowded ladies rooms in my post. There were herds of women in the men\'s room 15-20 at a time as the day progressed. I saw one 60 something with the most obnoxious, flamboyant, BIGGEST 1st Saturday in May hat that you ever saw. I tapped her on the shoulder and informed her that her hat was far and away the finest I had ever seen in a men\'s room. Her blushing reply was thank you honey but I really had to pee!!!!

The equipment change was noted, ladies exiting past the urinals; one cup blinkers on as they held there urinal side hand to there eyes on the fly.

[moosepalm]

FrankD. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bob,
>
> I forgot to mention the overcrowded ladies rooms
> in my post. There were herds of women in the men\'s
> room 15-20 at a time as the day progressed. I saw
> one 60 something with the most obnoxious,
> flamboyant, BIGGEST 1st Saturday in May hat that
> you ever saw. I tapped her on the shoulder and
> informed her that her hat was far and away the
> finest I had ever seen in a men\'s room. Her
> blushing reply was thank you honey but I really
> had to pee!!!!
>
> The equipment change was noted, ladies exiting
> past the urinals; one cup blinkers on as they held
> there urinal side hand to there eyes on the fly.

I\'m taking my 17 yr. old daughter around to a number of those hoity and toity (nod to Artie on the \"Larry Sanders Show\") liberal arts colleges, and all of them nonchalantly mention their coed bathrooms in the dorms.  What strikes me as something that would have been a novel and pleasing idea for myself is viewed differently when I think about it for my \"little girl.\"  However, as far as that ever being a concern for her among sixty year old track denizens and degenerates, not so much.  The biggest concern would probably be her slipping on the floor.

[Edgorman]

Moose,

Take into account tuition, room and board and the cost of alcohol.  Multiply it by 4 years and you will come up with a staggering number.
Now think about the men\'s and women\'s rooms behind section E in the clubhouse at Saratoga. A family business, passed down from generation to generation. Great publicity every year due to negative performance of Belmont restrooms.  Possibility now of changing the business into a unisex operation.
Just saying, could be a better investment than college.

[magicnight]

A belated thank you, Silver. You are too kind.

Since the board is a little quiet, now that all the dust has settled, I thought I would pull a \"Throwback Thursday\" and link to a post that includes my first ever bit of writing on the races. It is from all the way back in 1998 and would not have been possible without a friend of mine who used to write for the Observer, and, our estimable host here on the Thorograph board.

http://around2turns.com/2014/06/12/throwing-it-back-1998-belmont-stakes/

[moosepalm]

Edgorman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Moose,
>
> Take into account tuition, room and board and the
> cost of alcohol.  Multiply it by 4 years and you
> will come up with a staggering number.
> Now think about the men\'s and women\'s rooms behind
> section E in the clubhouse at Saratoga. A family
> business, passed down from generation to
> generation. Great publicity every year due to
> negative performance of Belmont restrooms.
> Possibility now of changing the business into a
> unisex operation.
> Just saying, could be a better investment than
> college.


Thanks for the savvy financial suggestion, Edgo.  Since four years of premium grade education will set me back about two hundred large for a degree in Elizabethan Poetry, which will fast track her into a barista position, I\'m thinking the ROI here will be worse than my past eighteen months at the track, which heretofore had been deemed impossible.  I\'ve always felt that I was bred for marketing, and I can already sniff out, so to speak, a campaign for upscale accoutrements, suitable for the Spa\'s high end back yard clientele.  Borrowing a page from my old Italian uncles\' vocabulary book, we\'d build on the idea of a backyard \"backauza\" (definitely sp?), unisex of course, and maybe even partner up with a cappuccino/espresso outfit, for a natural symbiotic pairing.  Plus, it would provide good barista experience for my daughter.  Win, win.  

Sorry.  It\'s going to be slow between now and Saratoga/Del Mar, and Magic has only so many great columns to fill in the dead time.

[Edgorman]

moosepalm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Edgorman Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Moose,
> >
> > Take into account tuition, room and board and
> the
> > cost of alcohol.  Multiply it by 4 years and
> you
> > will come up with a staggering number.
> > Now think about the men\'s and women\'s rooms
> behind
> > section E in the clubhouse at Saratoga. A
> family
> > business, passed down from generation to
> > generation. Great publicity every year due to
> > negative performance of Belmont restrooms.
> > Possibility now of changing the business into a
> > unisex operation.
> > Just saying, could be a better investment than
> > college.
>
>
> Thanks for the savvy financial suggestion, Edgo.
> Since four years of premium grade education will
> set me back about two hundred large for a degree
> in Elizabethan Poetry, which will fast track her
> into a barista position, I\'m thinking the ROI here
> will be worse than my past eighteen months at the
> track, which heretofore had been deemed
> impossible.  I\'ve always felt that I was bred for
> marketing, and I can already sniff out, so to
> speak, a campaign for upscale accoutrements,
> suitable for the Spa\'s high end back yard
> clientele.  Borrowing a page from my old Italian
> uncles\' vocabulary book, we\'d build on the idea of
> a backyard \"backauza\" (definitely sp?), unisex of
> course, and maybe even partner up with a
> cappuccino/espresso outfit, for a natural
> symbiotic pairing.  Plus, it would provide good
> barista experience for my daughter.  Win, win.  
>
> Sorry.  It\'s going to be slow between now and
> Saratoga/Del Mar, and Magic has only so many great
> columns to fill in the dead time.

I can\'t compete with your eloquence nor your olfactory sense. But would love to get us invited to a NYRA marketing think tank.

[magicnight]

\'Hoping to read a more tranquil dispatch from \"over there\".\'

Your wait is over, Richie. By the time you get through this one it will almost be time for Alan to give us his \"bomb of the day\" for the Jim Dandy card.

http://around2turns.com/2014/06/24/paris-chantilly-new-york/

[richiebee]

Magic:

Hard to believe that is only 31 days from now.

Read with some satisfaction that Martin Panza\'s first stint at Saratoga will feature
fewer flat races. I have not studied on it closely enough, but it seems like Mr.
Panza has cut back on the number of NY Bred races and turf sprints at the Spring
Belmont meet, a trend which will hopefully be continued upstate.

Bill Mott\'s birthday falls on a dark day at the Spa this year, so we have all been
robbed of a powerful wagering angle this Summer.