12:15 pm: is this thing on? Blogging by cellphone...what a concept. The first Belmont I covered, I batted out on a manual typewriter and then dictated to a telephone transcriptionist in the NY Times "recording room." Almost 30 years later, I'm still on a phone.
After one race, it's clear we have a much different and much quicker main track than we've had all week. Desert Key ($4.30) won the opener from box to wire, getting a mild half in 45.12 en route to a final time of 1:08.80.
Too soon to tell about the crowd and whether the scratch of Casino Drive will keep anyone away. At the moment the apron is full but navigable and the box area a sparse but it's still six hours to the big one. No line at all to get my first Furlong Frank of the afternoon.
Going to put in early pick-4's. Back in a while.
1:30 p.m.: Sorry, servers and wireless access are not cooperating. I'll be back much later on or tomorrow with a full report on the day.
