Belmont Day at Belmont Park is the ‘most New York’ annunal event there is.
So what if the St. Patrick’s Day parade and the Westminster Kennel Club, i.e. the dog show, are older. Is there another major annual even as big? Does anyone protest The Belmont? No. NYers will protest any parade: my personal favorites are the radical Jews protesting the existence of Israel tucked away over on 61st Street and you had to love Anne McGuire and ILGO back in the Dinkins days.
Then there are the “other sports”: sure, about 30-35% of the State of NY wants to see the Yankees lose the World Series (Mets fans + get up there are there are many Boston Red Sox fans + get out there, and you come across people that root for Cleveland and, dare I say, Pittsburgh!) and as for the Knicks, like the Mets, they only have nostalgia. Need I see Willis Reed limp onto the court on MSG any time soon? I need to see that as about as much as my need to actually listen to ‘Stairway to Heaven”. What I am trying to get at here is this: Belmont day is the one sports opportunity where everyone in NY is on the same team (Gang Green-Big Blue-Knicks-Nets-Devils-Blue Shirts-Icelanders-Yankees-Metropolitans). “Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s day” is bullshit. The only other time all NYers were on “the same team” was after the horrific, murderous attacks by a group of Satanists on 11 September 2001. Belmont Day is special. The single most important race in America in terms of viewership is the Kentucky Derby (a national event) BUT if someone wins the first two legs of the Triple Crown, the “test of a champion” becomes a global race. As Cindy Adams in the New York Post says “only in New York kids”
Having been to big races at various other tracks, the Kentucky Derby and The Travers Stakes among them, nothing really compares to the G1 Belmont. One, it’s cheap. So what if they raise their prices that day–parking was $10 as was admission to the grandstand. Where was I seated? I grabbed a bench in the fourth row of the apron right at the finish line. Really, the best seat in the house. How much would that cost you at a Knicks game (and unlike a Knicks game, the Belmont produces a winner).
Next, you can walk around wearing whatever the hell you want and nobody looks at you twice. Yes there were numerous ladies in lovely dresses and big hats, as well gentlemen in seersucker suits, straw hats, and bow ties but as usual, however, Belmont had the highest quality “degenerate” element. Saw a tank topped guy wearing a groovy gold ohm on a chain that matched his gold teeth. NICE!
Another thing the Belmont has over so many other events in NYC is history and tradition. Sports wise, the only thing in NYC that can even attempt to compare itself would be the history of the NY Yankees. Mets fans only have nostalgia as that third rate organization, yes, the BP of MLB, that hasn’t won a title in 24 years yet they’ve had the money to “buy a championship” as Mets fans have accused the Yankees of doing. This race has been running in New York for 142 years (first in the Bronx–Jerome Park and then Morris Park and then to the Queens/Nassau border). When the first Belmont was run, the Yankees did not exist and the Baltimore Orioles would not move to NYC for about another 40 years. Just think of the greats who ran there and there’s more great names than even the Yankees can muster. Affirmed, Seattle Slew, Jaipur, Riva Ridge, Damascus, Nashua, Native Dancer, Sword Dancer, Citation, Assault, Count Fleet, War Admiral, Omaha, Gallant Fox, and the two names that just define champions: Man O’War and Secretariat. Just even think of who they beat out and the greats become legends!
What would nice things to say about NYC be without complaining? Ok, so I took my digs at the Knicks and Mets, but still, a few observations.
Now, replacing “Sidewalks of New York” with “New York” that Frank Sinatra made so famous was one thing. At least, when the old tune was clearly from a well bygone era, it was replaced with a song that everyone knew and would sing along with as well. Everyone could associate it with something in life. In 2010, it was changed again to the Jay Z/Alicia Keys “Empire State of Mind”. What in heaven’s name were they thinking? It’s not that it’s even a bad song either but, it’s just a bad choice. Before the big race it was sung by Jasmine Villegas from the Disney Channel who was all dolled up, looked great, and I am sure did her best. Problem: it was a dumb idea. Nobody even paid any attention to the kid and I sort of felt bad for her (I even heard that ABC cut to an ED drug commercial while she was singing). Look, if you’re going to get someone from the Disney Channel to sing at The Belmont, get Miley Cyrus of Selena Gomez and drum up sales to the race. I bet I wouldn’t have got my “choice spot” had either been singing. You can be damned sure of that.
Maybe they should get a few new sponsors too. There isn’t a damned thing “New York” about Emirates airlines and Woodford Reserve. Maybe they should try to get some New York companies as the sponsors. Instead of the Fly Emirates Just A Game Stakes, why not the Goldman Sachs Just a Game Stakes? The name seems a bit more fitting, yes? How about the JP Morgan Chase Manhattan Handicap? Now there’s one that certainly has a historical ring to it. If Citigroup can give the Mets oodles of dough for their garden variety new stadium in Flushing, there’s no reason Vikram Pandit can’t cough up the green to sponsor a stakes race on the green, no? Of course, maybe Sandy Weill would have him killed as he is probably still pissed off that in 1978 he had Alydar in all three races and ‘tripled down’ on the Belmont (I just made this up mind you however, I could see something like that actually happening)
In the end, it all just comes down to: as great as many sports memories New York as had, there’s only one we can rely on year in and year out and it’s The Belmont (though I must admit, I do like those 6 furlong sprints on the inner track on a weekday at Aqueduct in February).
