Playing the odds at Belmont

Daily Point

Belmont blues

When apparent Kentucky Derby winner Maximum Security was knocked out of the winner’s circle by a shocking disqualification, it became the jockey’s objection heard round the world. Five weeks from now, there’s a pretty good chance the move that named Country House the 62-1 winner will diminish the chances of a potential Triple Crown winner at the Belmont Stakes.

Country House seems unlikely even to win the Preakness Stakes. However, had Maximum Security’s Derby win held up, it would have been his fifth in five tries, encouraging talk of another legend in the making.

The possibility of a Triple Crown matters very much for Belmont Stakes attendance, which has been capped at 90,000 since 2014. In 2015 and 2018, with history on the line for American Pharoah and Justify, 90,000 showed. But in 2016 (60,194) and 2017 (57,729), with no potential Triple Crown winner, attendance suffered.

But even if Belmont doesn’t get Triple Crown-level attention in the horse-racing world come June 8, odds are that local eyes will still be on the racetrack and surrounding areas. After all, the final environmental impact statement for the redevelopment of Belmont Park is expected by the end of June. And some observers seem willing to bet that an announcement regarding public transit plans at the site – potentially including a new train station on the Main Line – could come before the final EIS is released.

That would be good news not only for nearby residents, fans of the New York Islanders, and supporters of economic development at Belmont, but also for horse racing fans, too, who finally could have a new, improved rail route to the Triple Crown.

Let’s just hope there’s no interference in the weeks and months ahead.

- Lane Filler and Randi F. Marshall @lanefiller  @RandiMarshall

Pointing Out

Oh, the humanity!

What can you say about a day that has seen the births of Sigmund Freud (1856), Orson Welles (1915) and Willie Mays (1931)?

May 6 has been a day for auspicious debuts.

In 1889, the Eiffel Tower was formally opened in Paris, Babe Ruth said hello in 1915 with his first major-league home run (as a member of the Boston Red Sox, before one of the most infamous hello-goodbye trades in sports history), medical student Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile on a track in Oxford in 1954, and Britain and France opened the Chunnel under the English Channel in 1994.

But May 6 has not been entirely welcoming.

In 1887, Sioux war chief Crazy Horse surrendered to U.S. forces, and was killed by a guard four months later; the German airship Hindenburg caught fire and crashed in New Jersey, killing 35 people and prompting the famed radio cry, “Oh, the humanity”; Russian despot Josef Stalin, who had killed hundreds of thousands of Russians in purges, became the nation’s premier in 1941; and thousands of American students in 1970 shut down hundreds of colleges and universities across the nation in campus protests against the Vietnam War, two days after four student protesters were killed at Kent State University.

One of the day’s most poignant farewell’s played out in living rooms across the country as more than 52 million Americans said goodbye to Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Phoebe and Joey. Yes, “Friends” aired its final episode on May 6, 2004.

I’ll be there for you.

- Michael Dobie @mwdobie

Pencil Point

A new wall

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Quick Points

• Think the disqualification of apparent Kentucky Derby winner Maximum Security was a black eye for horse racing? After a winter racing season in which 23 horses died at Santa Anita in California, at least none were put down.
• President Donald Trump says special counsel Robert Mueller should not testify before the House Judiciary Committee, changing the definition of Congressional oversight to Democratic “redo.” Perhaps Trump should send Attorney General William Barr instead.
• What’s more heartbreaking — that Ebola has killed more than 1,000 people in Congo, or that Congolese suspicious of aid workers trying to help them have killed or wounded 85 of them in attacks this year?
• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, asked why President Donald Trump did not mention Russia’s election meddling in his hour-long phone call with Vladimir Putin, said there often is not enough time in such conversations to bring up every issue. Fair enough, but that issue? Especially since Putin warned Trump against “outside interference” in Venezuela?
• A new survey from Temple University found that 45 percent of students from more than 100 colleges has been food insecure in the past 30 days. It’s hard to be hungry for knowledge when you’re just plain hungry.

- Michael Dobie @mwdobie