My Last Belmont

[Linny]

Recent history indicates that when the TC is on the line the crowd will be around 100,000 and that number ought to be the baseline used in figuring transit, food supply, rest room needs and parking.

Steve, I agree with you with the exception of the first line of your last paragraph. It seems that (aside from the water failure) most of the problems of '08 were back this year. I know it was a different management team but one gets the impression that little or nothing was done differently, "crowdwise."

The crush of people standing on staircases in reserved sections was dangerous, ushers lost all control about 20 minutes before post time.

I understand that the Belmont's post time will never be returning to 5:20 but for many people unfamiliar with Belmont's parking lots, the dark expanse of parking after sundown was daunting. Many of the 100k were non regulars and most were probably not from Hempstead. Feeling stranded, at night, in an unfamiliar part of town seeing traffic snarled for miles, hoping to find a cab or car service going your way could make people ill at ease.