".....Moving Like A Tremendous Machine!"

Post positions have been drawn and the serious handicapping has commenced for this Saturday's Belmont Stakes.  You can enjoy the 145th running of the Belmont Stakes from the sumptuous comfort of your lavish home theater by watching the NBC telecast between 5pm and 7 pm.

Daily Racing Form editor-in-chief Steven Crist has an interesting review of Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winners who have squared off in the Belmont over the past 40 years.  You can check it out here.

This Sunday, June 9th, marks the 40th anniversary of Secretariat's historic Triple Crown victory in the 1973 Belmont Stakes.  There is no finer exposition of this momentous achievement than ESPN's masterful "SportsCentury" feature from 1999.  You can watch the Belmont-specific segment here.

And a sentimental last look at Secretariat filmed just days before his ultimate demise on October 4, 1989, here.

Long-range Reconnaissance

 

We turn our lens this week to sights from Belmont Park 100 years ago (more or less).

 

 

 

Long Island swells mingle on the lawn behind the Belmont Park clubhouse (above), circa 1910-1915.

 

 

 

Speaking of swells from the Empire State, here you see Madeleine Astor enjoying The Sport of Kings during an afternoon excursion to Belmont Park on May 20th, 1915.  Madeleine was the wife of John Jacob Astor IV.  She survived the sinking of RMS Titanic on April 15th, 1912; he did not.  Astor was the son of William Backhouse Astor, Jr who owned the thoroughbred Vagrant, winner of the 2nd running of the Kentucky Derby (in 1876).

 

 

 

Here is a look at the inside of the Belmont Park grandstand, circa 1910-1915.