Belmont Post Apocalyptic Nightmare

I had to pick up a V.I.P. from La Guardia airport Saturday afternoon, that opened up an opportunity to make one last trip to Belmont before the meet ended. I show up at the Belmont grandstand gate at three PM and was confronted with the most bizarre scene. Every monitor was dark, every light was out, every window/booth was unmanned and the only noise was when the horses ran by. I looked left and there was nobody and I looked right and there was not a sign of life while the Grandstand was completely empty. Had the day arrived when every old geezer horseplayer tapped out for eternity?


Then I thought that maybe it was me who died and ended up in heaven. When I was in second grade I used to have this recurring fantasy that I survived an airliner disaster somewhere in the Northern tundra and the only person that survived was the girl that I had an intense crush on from class. The highlights of this dream was that all of the annoying morons from school were silenced and I got to take care of and love the girl I was obsessed with free from outside interference. This completely empty Belmont experience was about as close to that dream as I ever had since I sort of fixate on racing the same way I fixated on that girl when I was a kid. What I found out on Saturday is that I would not mind spending eternity at North Belmont Park, however I would not want to do it alone. While it may of been okay to be alone with the girl of my dreams I would not want to be alone with the DRF in a cavernous grandstand. The joy of racing is in the crowd and in the cheer of the crowd when they turn for home. Someone needs to be there to help fill the exacta pool.

After wandering around all alone for a while I noticed that I was not in some post parimutuel nuclear holocaust but in some sort of other situation. The crowd that I initially missed was packed into the clubhouse. At the time I was not aware of a fire, I thought that packing the entire crowd was a cost cutting measure since it was the last few days of Belmont before they move the carnival up north. The Clubhouse was hot and smelly with the A/C out and all of the the Grandstand crowd packed in there. It was a still a good idea to go down there as it ended up being a unique experience I will not forget. To top it off I ran into one of my favorite capper compatriots and it turned out to be just another fun day at the track and not some post apocalyptic nightmare.