1,719 ... That's All (The) Folks!

Beautiful Belmont Park ... which can comfrotably manage a throng of 60,000 ... but which gets kind of close when 80,000 show up ... and is absolutely cramped when 100,000 squeeze in ...

... played host yesterday to 1,719 breathing souls ... on a drizzly day ... and about 1,000 more than that on the prior glorious late-summer day.


Yes ... we all know ... most of the betting these days is done away from the track ... but ... how can this game survive when attendance at the huge Belmont plant ... America's biggest thoroughbred showcase ... is no higher than that of a dog track?

And what is the NYRA trying to do about it?