Posts tagged Belmont Stakes
Third Time is a Charm
Anna Osgoodby Life + Design :: American Pharaoh Makes History at Belmont

Some history was made this year at the Belmont Stakes and I was there to watch it all go down! We almost axed going this year after last year's transit disaster, but after they made some adjustments to the event we decided to give it another go and I'm so glad we did! Besides, I mean you need an excuse to wear a big floppy hat once a year right? 

Anna Osgoodby NYC Living :: American Pharaoh Makes History at Belmont

The main differences with the event this year was that tickets were sold in advance and the attendance was capped. It was still packed, but more manageable. They also made better use of the space by putting some food trucks in the front and other vendors in the back. Crowd control and train station renovations made the transportation MUCH more effective -- definitely an upgrade from the 3 hours it took us to leave least year. So bravo event/traffic/security coordinators -- the whole crew -- I'd say things were much improved.

Anna Osgoodby NYC Living :: American Pharaoh Makes History at Belmont
Anna Osgoodby NYC Living :: American Pharaoh Makes History at Belmont
Anna Osgoodby NYC Living :: American Pharoah Makes History at the Belmont Stakes

 Some of my lady partners in crime! :)

Anna Osgoodby NYC Living :: American Pharaoh Makes History at Belmont

Our crew was staked out near the finish line when it came down to the big race. I can't totallyyyy say I actually saw American Pharaoh cross the finish line (I needed to be like 3 feet taller to see over the crowd) but I can confirm that people were losing their minds when he won! 

Anna Osgoodby NYC Living :: American Pharaoh Makes History at Belmont
Anna Osgoodby NYC Living :: American Pharaoh Makes History at Belmont
Anna Osgoodby NYC Living :: American Pharaoh Makes History at Belmont

I did catch a shot of them on their way to the winner's circle though! I will say it was pretty awesome to be there for the first triple crown winner since 1978! I've been to 3 triple crown races now and I can now say that the third time was definitely a charm! Congrats to American Pharaoh! 

Anna Osgoodby NYC Living :: American Pharaoh Makes History at Belmont
Friday Favs :: 5.29.15
Anna Osgoodby NYC Living :: Friday Favs 5.29.15

It's Fri-yay! And my first Friday Favs with the new design :) Here we go!

  1. Anthropology hits the Upper East Side in Wednesday Martin's upcoming book Primates of Park Avenue. This book has been making waves through the media this week for it's smart look into the real lives of some of the Upper East Side's most elite women. I've never pre-ordered a book before but after hearing about this one on the radio with talk of 'housewife bonuses' and blow-outs just to drop the kids off at school, I have to say I'm curious.
  2.  Belmont Stakes is only a week away! I go every year but had to think long and hard if I wanted to go this year after last year's epic transportation issues on the way home. Alas, I'm sucking it up and praying that this year I won't have a 3 year commute back to the city... Anyways, Belmont is doing things a little differently this year to try and avoid a repeat and now you have to buy tickets ahead of time. They're capping attendance for the first time as well as including concerts post event to try and stagger when attendees leave. So if you want to go make sure to buy tickets ahead of time because they're planning that they will sell out before race day.
  3. $30 for a hot dog? Forget about it! Hotdog vendors have been in the news lately because a vendor was caught charging $30 for hot dogs, yep you heard that right. Have no fear though the city is cracking down on sketchy food-carts so that you can enjoy your dirty dogs on a friendlier budget.
  4. What really makes New York bagels, the 'best'? This video finally helps us get to the bottom of it, science and all. 
  5. Manhattanhedge is backkkk. The event that happens twice a year is hitting the city for it's Spring appearance TONIGHT! So if you're looking for some perfectly aligned sunset photos, tonight is the night.
Sunshine and Sun Hats

Okay, okay so California Chrome didn’t take the Triple Crown and there was no history to be watched, but I still need to tell you how Belmont went!

Being a Triple Crown and all this year I made sure to make plans accordingly. 1.) Check with my friends for a head count on who was heading to the Stakes, check. 2.) Plan on getting to the train station earlier than precious years to avoid some of the chaos, check. 3.) Set up a said meeting spot once we arrived so that if we branched off we had a spot to meet back at, check check. I did everything I thought was beat practice to make the event day go smoothly, and for the most part it worked out. Definitely some bumps in the road, but not totally terrible.

As expected, transit was pretty atrocious. We waited quite a while before making it to the front of the line, had to split up from a few groups of friends, the train was late, and then the train went apx. 5 mph the whole trip. Once we made it though things ran pretty smoothly. It was definitely a lot more crowded than usual {which is still pretty crowded}, but it wasn’t unbearable. It was a beautiful day and we all had a lot of fun! I’m not big at betting, but I did bet on two horses for the day 1.) FiftyShadesofGold — I never read the 50 Shades of Grey books butttt I sure do love gold ;-) and then 2.) California Chrome. I ended up being a big loser for the day, but it was fun regardless.

Some other cool things that happened were there were performances by LL Cool J and Frank Sinatra, Jr. leading up to the Belmont race. Can you say awesome? I loved LL Cool J as a kid, so that was definitely a treat and hearing Frank Sinatra, Jr. sing New York, New York, was pretty awesome to say the least. 

All and all I’d say it was a pretty solid day. Nice weather, great company, some yummy lemonade and kettle corn? Solid! Getting home was a 3 hour nightmare {NY Times did a decent write-up if you want to read}, but all and all a fun time! Definitely an event I recommend!