Post-Belmont Stakes 2012 Thoughts

 In a sentence great day, great time. The Gang of Four I was part of arrived well before race #1 and once again Beautiful Belmont Park did not disappoint.

Belmont is one of the few tracks where even on big stakes days you can feel comfortable and not overwhelmed by the crowds. After 100,000 or so the place starts to feel tight, but Belmont comfortably handles a crowd of 85,000 plus.

Emperor Cuomo, you missed a good time.  

Here are some photographs taken by yours truly with my Blackberry cell phone camera:

Loved seeing John Ortiz (back to the camera) aka Turo Escalante of the prematurely cancelled series Luck, throughout the day bounding through the Belmont Park like a kid on Christmas Day.

The vastness of this track never ceases to amaze me. Here is a photo of the final turn taken before the 1st race of the day.

                       Union Rags warming up on the track before the Belmont Stakes Start

                                            Atigun looked real good pre race

                                         Mike Smith up on Paynter approaching the starting gate

                   And down the stretch the come with Union Rags coming up on the rail.

All this access with no seats and simply paying Clubhouse Admission pricing and walking around. What a game.