The Return of Big Sandy

After six months racing at Aqueduct, a place despised by 100% of the scribes that cover the sport for the daily newspapers the racing operations move to Belmont. The meet opens up with a lot of interesting notes; reduced base wagers, the return of the train to the track, and the annual stakes shuffle.

Pick four? Can barely pick one!

The base wager for the pick four is now fifty cents with the start of the spring/summer meet. Anything that can bring more players into a lucrative wager is always a positive thing. The dime superfectas are a staple at the NYRA racetracks since its inception in 2007 and the Gulfstream dime pick six built up a pool of five million on the mandatory pay out day at its most recent meet. The low base wagers are a wonder for the bankroll for any horseplayer, they offer the chance for a big score for a low risk.

Offering the pick four wager at fifty cents gives one a chance to include more runners in one race as back up if a race is a skull buster. A pick four that is 4x4x4x4 would cost $256 a year ago will now be half of that. The downside to this is that a single longshot does not inflate the payoffs for the wager like it used to. The best strategy for this new base of the wager is playing some combinations more than other combinations, ensuring that you are paid a fair price for your opinion.

Use it or lose it

The LIRR is restoring daily service back to its Belmont branch; you’re welcome. More than likely this train will see an automatic increase in commuters due to the OTB branches not being open. Instead of the regulars going to the 38th & Broadway OTB parlor they will likely be walking four blocks to Penn Station to catch the early double.

Deeper than the fact that racing fans have their own rail service returning is the fact that getting the MTA to return defunct or abandoned service is really hard to do. The subway out to Aqueduct was at one point run by the Long Island Railroad. The NYC Transit Authority bought the whole line in 1955 and they only kept the trains in service from Aqueduct out to Rockaway as part of the A train. The line used to start at Rego Park and if they kept that around today there would be no need for the Air Train.

Pletcher will probably win those two races

The Matron and Belmont Futurity are back on the schedule in a new spot on the Independence Day weekend. It has been reduced to six furlongs and will go up against the Churchill juvenile races to be run on that same weekend. Both of the Belmont counterparts will probably draw five and Pletcher will have three in each race, one of which will probably be 1/10 and lose.

The Peter Pan is back as well and in its customary place on the weekend between the Derby and the Preakness. The stakes races on the NY circuit has been shifted around a lot in recent memory, the Withers was not run last weekend and in its place was the Jerome. The Bed O’Roses will be at Belmont for another year after spending decades at Aqueduct. The Gazelle was at Aqueduct last year after spending years at Belmont as a last run to the Breeders’ Cup. The changes to the stakes schedule reflects more on how little trainers and owners want to run their horses now as opposed to forty years ago when there was a big race every weekend on the NY circuit.

The Retro Files: Belmont LIRR Station, 2010

Only four days away from the opening of the spring/summer meet at Belmont highlighted by many important stakes races, including the Metropolitan Handicap and the Belmont Stakes. The MTA website has no posted regular LIRR train schedule for the meet, meaning that they will likely have only two days of commuter trains stopping at big sandy (the day before the Belmont Stakes and the day of). With the closure of NYC Off Track Betting, this will surely drive up the attendance of Belmont with people having to visit the track to bet the races if they do not have a NYRA rewards account.

When the MTA stopped service out to the racetrack it was due to low ridership and it being a money losing route due to the first reason. Now that the Off Track Betting locations are no longer open the ridership for this train branch would surely increase. The bus service NYRA offered from certain branch locations to Aqueduct and it looked like it did well in getting fans to the track. Aqueduct saw an increase of double the amount of fans that went through the turnstiles from the 2009-2010 winter meet.

Last Hope For The Belmont Train bailout

A state bailout plan is close to being approved for the MTA. My employer will have to pay an additional .3% payroll tax. For us overtaxed New Yorkers we can look forward to an Albany slew of taxes, surcharges and clips that will ensure that transit service will resume as normal. This bailout thing will cost my family a few thousand a year but thankfully I will get to ride the train to Belmont a half dozen times later this year. Talk about poor value. Hopefully Belmont service is restored ASAP as it is the only service in the whole system that is personally important to me. All of the service(Belmont Park was the only service cut so far)cuts are supposedly going to be reinstated according to the bailout press release. The total savings of cutting the one train that went to Belmont five days a week was $112K for the year. NYRA estimates that they were going to lose $5 million in handle for the year due to that one train.


In the mean time the thought of boarding a school bus from Queens Village to Belmont is just too much for me. I grew up riding public transit and never did I have to ride a school bus. Riding a school bus to a racetrack(sorry Funny Cide connections) is like pedaling a tricycle to a nightclub, it is the wrong vehicle for the job. I deeply resent that my taxes paid $91 million for a new Yankee train station while us horse racing fans have to ride a yellow school bus from the 1970s to complete our public transit mission. Imagine the horror of hanging on the simulcast monitors for a minute too long only to see your steed get clipped by a nose at the wire. Then with that disappointment slowing you down you sprint over to the school bus shuttle only to miss that by a nose too. Now you are tapped and stuck walking or waiting an hour for the next shuttle to Queens Village for their hourly service to New York. For the derby I considered taking the train to Belmont but drove instead to mitigate a worst case scenario. If they can fix this transit injustice all will be good in the land of the powercap transit special.

Holding Out Hope For The Belmont Train

Maybe the Belmont train service can be salvaged? For me and other race fans it is a vital link from Manhattan to Belmont Park. The service still appears on the on-line MTA LIRR schedule. What a shame that the grandest urban racetrack in the US will have its dedicated train station shuttered due to budget cuts. While the government shuts off Belmont Park fans from public transit the same government is spending $91 million of taxpayer money to build a new Metro North Station for the New York Yankee baseball team. The Yankees already have a subway station but the local government felt it needed to spend $91 million of the taxpayers money so that the Yankees can have two stations. Yet another example of how government corruption has harmed horse racing in New York. Perhaps something is being worked on up in Albany and the Belmont train can continue to serve Belmont like it has for over 100 years.

TRAIN SCHEDULE TO BELMONT STILL LISTED







Here Is The Same Schedule Circa 1905

Belmont Park Walking Directions

People asked so here is a power cap transit special. With the Belmont Special train only a memory people without cars need a way to get to the races. As someone that has lived a few blocks from Belmont I know the local area well. Out of all the local train stations Queens Village is the closest. Floral Park is too far east and Bellerose is inconvenient leaving you far from the front side entrance. Here are the walking directions to Belmont from Queens Village Station. There is a faster/shorter way but it involves walking on the Cross Island under the railroad underpass and that is only for the bravest of urban explorers, inquire within about that special route.

Walking Directions From Queens Village LIRR To Belmont

The End Of The Line For The Belmont Special

The MTA finalized plans to cancel service to the Belmont Park. This station was one of the first to be electrified in the early 1900's. My favorite station on the LIRR will sit idle for the foreseeable future. There will be nearby service to the Queens Village Station but there is still a half mile trek to the track. Perhaps NYRA will arrange for buses to shuttle riders from this train station to Belmont.

As a local taxpayer and dedicated horseplayer it is sad that $1.8 billion of my taxes have gone to construct a new Yankee Stadium and Mets Stadium yet they canceled the train to the best stadium of them all. I hope the ballfans enjoy spending $500 watching their favorite steroid fueled meathead chase balls and I hope they cheer really loud when the PA system tells them to.

Here is a few of my favorite photos of Belmont Train Station

From Power Cap

From Power Cap

From Power Cap