Belmont Park is a thoroughbred horse racetrack in Elmont, New York, just east of New York City limits best known for hosting the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the American Triple Crown. It was opened on May 4, 1905, and is one of the best well known racetracks in the United States. The original structure was demolished in 1963, and a second facility opened in 1968. The second structure was demolished in 2023, and a third version of Belmont Park is expected to open in 2026.
Alan Richard Michaels is an American television play-by-play sportscaster for Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on network sports television since 1971, with his most recent work being with NBC Sports after nearly three decades (1976–2006) with ABC Sports. Michaels is known for his many years calling play-by-play of National Football League (NFL) games, including ABC Monday Night Football from 1986 to 2005 and NBC Sunday Night Football from 2006 to 2021. He is also known for famous calls in other sports, including the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Winter Olympics and the earthquake-interrupted Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.
Ruffian was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won ten consecutive races, including the Acorn, Mother Goose and Coaching Club American Oaks, then known as the American Triple Tiara. She was in the lead at every point of call in every race she ever ran and set new stakes records in each of the eight stakes races she won. Her dominating wins caused her to be named the American Champion filly at both ages two and three. In July 1975, she entered a highly anticipated match race with Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure, in which she broke down. Surgery was attempted but Ruffian reacted poorly and exacerbated the injuries while coming out of anesthesia. As a result, she was euthanized.
Francis Healey Albertson was an American actor who had supporting roles in films such as It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Psycho (1960).
Jerry D. Bailey is an NBC Sports thoroughbred racing analyst and a retired American Hall of Fame jockey. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest jockeys of all time.
Dave Johnson is an American announcer and sportscaster, best known for his work in horse racing with ABC and NBC Sports and at various race tracks in New York and New Jersey. He also called races in California. His signature line — "And down the stretch they come!" — is instantly recognizable throughout the sport, and is often imitated by comedians, notably David Letterman.
Thoroughbred Racing on NBC is the de facto title for a series of horse races events whose broadcasts are produced by NBC Sports, the sports division of the NBC television network in the United States. NBC's relationship with the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing dates back to 1949 when the NBC Red Network carried the first radio broadcast of the Kentucky Derby.
William I. "Bill" Mott is an American horse trainer, most notable for his work with Cigar. Mott earned the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer in 1995 and 1996. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1998 at the age of 45, becoming the youngest thoroughbred trainer ever inducted. Mott started training thoroughbreds at age 15 and won the South Dakota Futurity with Kosmic Tour before he was out of high school. He worked his way up the ranks by becoming first an exercise rider, then an assistant trainer for Hall of Fame Trainer Jack Van Berg. In 1976, Mott, trainer Frank Brothers, and a stable crew guided Van Berg's horses through the wins at Sportsman's, Hawthorne and Arlington Park race tracks in Chicago. They were so successful that Van Berg was named leading trainer at Arlington Park and leading trainer in the Nation with 496 wins in 1976, a record that stood until Steve Asmussen broke it in 2003 with 555 wins. Asmussen broke his own record in 2008 and 2009. Mott worked as an assistant trainer for Van Berg for three years before striking out on his own in 1978.
Damascus was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who was the 1967 Horse of the Year after winning the Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes, Travers Stakes, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Woodward Stakes, and Dwyer Stakes. Damascus also came third in the Kentucky Derby that year.
Ogden Phipps was an American stockbroker, court tennis champion and Hall of Fame member, thoroughbred horse racing executive and owner/breeder, and an art collector and philanthropist. In 2001, he was inducted into the International Court Tennis Hall of Fame.
Joseph William Tessitore is an American sportscaster for ABC, ESPN, and WWE. He leads ESPN's world championship fight broadcasts as the blow-by-blow broadcaster for Top Rank Boxing on ESPN, serves as a play-by-play announcer for Holey Moley on ABC alongside comedian Rob Riggle and NBA star Stephen Curry and announces college football on ESPN and ABC. In 2018 and 2019, Tessitore was also the play-by-play broadcaster of Monday Night Football, alongside former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten in 2018 and analyst Booger McFarland in 2018 and 2019.
Frank Yewell Whiteley Jr. was a Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse trainer.
Barbaro, Smarty Jones and Ruffian: The People's Horses (ISBN 978-09705804-5-0) is a 2008 book written by Linda Hanna about thoroughbred racing.
Bernard Philip Ofner, better known by his stage name Barney Phillips, was an American film, television, and radio actor. His roles include that of Sgt. Ed Jacobs on the 1950s Dragnet television series, appearances in the 1960s on The Twilight Zone, in which he played a Venusian living under cover on Earth in "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?", and a supporting role as actor Fletcher Huff in the 1970s CBS series The Betty White Show.
In the United States, the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, commonly known as the Triple Crown, is a series of horse races for three-year-old Thoroughbreds, consisting of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. The three races were inaugurated in different years, the last being the Kentucky Derby in 1875. The Triple Crown Trophy, commissioned in 1950 but awarded to all previous winners as well as those after 1950, is awarded to a horse who wins all three races and is thereafter designated as a Triple Crown winner. The races are traditionally run in May and early June of each year, although global events have resulted in schedule adjustments, such as in 1945 and 2020.
Charlsie Cantey, one of broadcasting's veteran thoroughbred horse racing analysts, is an American sportscaster who worked for ESPN (1985–2002), ABC Sports (1986–2000), WOR-TV (1975–1977), CBS Sports (1977–1986), USA Network (2002–2005) and NBC Sports (2000–2005).
ESPN SpeedWorld is a former television series broadcast on ESPN from 1979 to 2006. The program that was based primarily based around NASCAR, CART, IMSA, Formula One, NHRA, and IHRA. The theme music is based on the piano interlude from "18th Avenue " by Cat Stevens.
ESPN and ESPN2's coverage of Thoroughbred racing consisted of NTRA Racing to the Kentucky Derby., Road To The World Thoroughbred Championships/NTRA Racing to the Breeders' Cup, a series of prep races for the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, the post position draw for the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes undercard races, the Kentucky Oaks and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, NTRA 2Day At the Races, Racing Across America, the Preakness undercard races, the Eclipse Awards show, and Long John Silver's Wire to Wire, a weekly thoroughbred racing magazine show. They also had Triple Crown morning shows such as Breakfast at Churchill Downs and Breakfast at Pimlico. ESPN also broadcast NTRA Super Saturdays as well.
Lane Bradford was an American actor. He appeared in more than 250 films and television series between 1940 and 1973, specializing in supporting "tough-guy" roles predominantly in Westerns but also in more contemporary crime dramas such as Dragnet, The Fugitive, and Hawaii Five-O.
