A moment at an M14 stop on Avenue A

People still read the Daily Racing Form and wait for the bus ...






Meanwhile, there is a pretty good race in the third today at Aqueduct. Can Bourbon Empire outstay Bavaro on the stretch-out?

Horse sense

Every so often I'll treat myself to a Daily Racing Form at Aqueduct or Belmont... The newspaper, whose offices are downtown, has been around since 1894, and is one of the enduring image of racetracks for me... So I read with great interest a feature on Steven Crist, the paper's publisher and chairman, in Harvard Magazine. (He is a Harvard alum.)

An excerpt:

Gambling on Wall Street, or at games of pure chance like roulette, holds no interest for Crist. People sometimes remark that the one thing he hasn’t done in the sport is own a racehorse, but “I own the horse I’m betting on for one minute and 12 seconds, and that’s good enough for me,” he says. “There is a strong feeling of success for your ego when you make a winning bet. When their horse crosses the finish line in front, horseplayers never say, ‘What a good horse!’ They go, ‘That was me—me, me, me!’ That’s part of the pleasure of horse racing, and why it’s so much more fun to pick your own horses than to bet somebody else’s picks. With a Wall Street stock, I can’t imagine the same feeling of satisfaction.”

And Crist blogs here.

Thanksgiving at the Aqueduct (in random photos)

Per the Grieve family tradition, we spend Thanksgiving helping those more unfortunate than ourselves...in this case, the New York Racing Association, which inexplicably figures to have a $14 billion dollar deficit... So it was off to the Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens, this past Thanksgiving.

I never know how much longer this place will be around. Aqueduct officials have unveiled plans to turn the racetrack into a racino. Again. And again.

So, to some random photos from this past Thursday.

A Ferrari in the parking lot. Must belong to a NYRA official!



Inside, the track was already a winter wonderland...with a scary-looking Santa...




...and, as the sign helpfully notes, there are live plants...



...and up we go...




Despite the sign, the barber shop was NOT open on Thanksgiving.



And Thanksgiving hot dogs were here.



...the racetrack bugler came into the Aqueduct's Equestris Restaurant and played some songs for a family celebrating their daughter's engagement.



In the second race, a jittery Saumon Fume dumped jockey Alex Bisono at the gate and raced around the track in last...



In the 96th running of the Fall Highweight, the $2 trifecta paid $3,377. I did not have the winning combo. But the fellow in front of me did. He had to get his photo taken for the IRS.



In any event, there was a decent-size crowd here. Still, Aqueduct can be a lonely place. It's seemingly full of people who have spent their lives being told what to do by parents, teachers, girlfriends, boyfriends, bosses, husbands, wives...and now, alone, they simply do what they want to do...Or maybe they just like putting some money on horses.



As always, I wonder how much longer Aqueduct will remain the same...




Previously on EV Grieve:
Thanksgiving at Aqueduct

Thanksgiving at the Aqueduct, Part 2

On the bus to Belmont (and no one apparently likes to go the the racetrack anymore)

As I've mentioned, the MTA eliminated train service to Belmont Park race track. (You can take a shuttle bus now courtesy of the New York Racing Association.) Yesterday, the Times paid a visit to the park to see what was what as fans watched live races and the Kentucky Derby simulcast.

Here are a few passages:

For more than a century, the Belmont Special carried throngs of thoroughbred lovers, inveterate gamblers and people who just craved a festive day in the Belmont Park grandstand to the doorstep at one of the grand palaces of American horse racing.

and...

The Belmont Special has been losing ridership for years — a sign of a sharp decline in racing attendance across the nation. Railroad officials say that made it a logical choice to cut. “We’re talking about 100 customers a day, on average,” said Joe Calderone, a railroad spokesman.

and...

On weekdays, the train carried 30 to 35 people last year; so far this spring, the shuttle has carried 7 to 9 passengers a day, Mr. Cook said.

It is a far cry from when train service to Belmont began, on May 4, 1905, the day the park opened. Forty thousand people journeyed to see the inaugural running at the track, most traveling by train in a “pall of soft-coal smoke,” The New York Times said, adding that “when the trains were full the throng had to stand wherever it was when the gates closed until fresh trains could be run in.”

and some logic...

Racing association officials, who lobbied against the elimination of direct train service, estimate that the park will lose more than $5 million this year because of the cut, while the authority says it will save about $112,000.

[Photo: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times]

Belmont Park opens today

Oh, and now that the MTA has discontinued its train service to Belmont... here's one solution...

According to the New York Racing Association:

Beginning on Wednesday, April 29, The New York Racing Association, Inc. will provide free shuttle bus service between Belmont Park and the Queens Village station of the Long Island Rail Road for its patrons affected by the suspension of the “Belmont Special” by the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Bus service to Belmont Park remains unaffected by the cuts and fans may take either the Q2 or the Q110 from Jamaica directly into the track. Those using a Metrocard can get a free transfer from the subway to the bus or between buses.

The shuttles will depart the corner of Springfield Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue at 12:30 p.m., while return service will be provided 15 minutes after the last live race. There will be drop-off and pick-up points at both the clubhouse and grandstand entrances at Belmont Park.