Belmont Park

Belmont Park Race Track is a horse-racing facility located just outside New York City, in the adjacent Nassau County suburb of Elmont, Long Island. It first opened May 4, 1905. It is world-famous as the home of the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown.

Belmont Park and popular culture

A January 1975 episode of the ABC sitcom The Odd Couple -- entitled "Felix the Horse Player" -- was filmed partly at Belmont Park, though one of the race clips on the show features the shot of an Aqueduct starting gate.

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A few years later, Dick Cavett took the camera crew of his PBS talk show to Belmont for a look at horse racing.

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Because of Belmont's role hosting big, nationally-televised races on broadcast and cable TV, its track announcers have been among the best known in the sport. Among the famous race callers who've served as Belmont PA announcers are Fred Capossella, Dave Johnson, Chic Anderson, Marshall Cassidy and present voice Tom Durkin.

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Comedian Robert Klein made Capossella's race calls the subject of one of his routines, captured on his 1974 album Mind Over Matter.

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Contrary to popular belief, Johnson -- not Anderson -- was the Belmont's PA announcer during Secretariat's 1973 romp in the Belmont Stakes. Anderson, the TV "voice of horse racing" in the 1970s (as Johnson would be in the 1990s) and the announcer at Churchill Downs, called the '73 Belmont Stakes for CBS Television, where he famously described Big Red as "moving like a tremendous machine".

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Anderson would succeed Johnson as announcer at Belmont and the other NYRA tracks in May 1977, serving until his death on March 24, 1979. Anderson was followed by frequent backup voice Marshall Cassidy, who was the lead caller of NYRA races until Durkin replaced him in September 1990.

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Sources: New York Racing Association (NYRA), City of New York

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