Attendance?

[jk3521]

I'm not watching on t v . Any announcement of attendance at Belmont today?

[Longshot6977]

I heard someone on channel 4 say at least 120,000 are expected. But nothing mentioned as of 6:20pm.

[tanner12oz]

It was awfully crowded...i dont mind it being busy but I was having tote issues already @ 11am...infrastructure without a doubt can't handle it

[Some_One]

Now the crowds aren't able to leave:

http://deadspin.com/leaving-the-belmont-is-a-disaster-1587682934

[Mystic]

Now the crowds aren't able to leave:

http://deadspin.com/leaving-the-belmont-is-a-disaster-1587682934

What a nightmare.. Those poor people.

[JustRalph]

Saw this on twitter........ :lol:

[PaceAdvantage]

Man, I couldn't believe how EASY it was to get out of the parking lot and I stayed until the horses crossed the finish line of the LAST race.

Now, I was heading south on the Cross Island...maybe all this trouble was with those heading north? Either way, I parked in the Yellow lot (at pretty much the FURTHEST POINT away from the track, where all the car dealerships were previously storing their inventory), and I've had MUCH TOUGHER times with past Belmont Stakes crowds that weren't anywhere near as big as this one was.

THIS CROWD WAS HUGE. The BIGGEST I think I've seen for the Belmont Stakes.

But again, I was absolutely SHOCKED that I was able to drive right out of the track WITHOUT STOPPING once I pulled out of my parking spot...so not sure where all this parking lot nightmare was happening.

I did see on the news that the Long Island Railroad was having a very difficult time handling the large crowds and was experiencing hour-long+ delays...

[wiffleball whizz]

Man, I couldn't believe how EASY it was to get out of the parking lot and I stayed until the horses crossed the finish line of the LAST race.

Now, I was heading south on the Cross Island...maybe all this trouble was with those heading north? Either way, I parked in the Yellow lot (at pretty much the FURTHEST POINT away from the track, where all the car dealerships were previously storing their inventory), and I've had MUCH TOUGHER times with past Belmont Stakes crowds that weren't anywhere near as big as this one was.

THIS CROWD WAS HUGE. The BIGGEST I think I've seen for the Belmont Stakes.

But again, I was absolutely SHOCKED that I was able to drive right out of the track WITHOUT STOPPING once I pulled out of my parking spot...so not sure where all this parking lot nightmare was happening.

I did see on the news that the Long Island Railroad was having a very difficult time handling the large crowds and was experiencing hour-long+ delays...

Glad you got out ok and wow that you stayed till the nightcap

Nice meeting you today :ThmbUp: :ThmbUp:

[salty]

How my day went with this enormous crowd........

I left my house at 5am in RI, picked up my cousin in CT and left there around 7, then pulled into the backstretch parking lot around 9:30.

So we ride in on the bus that was not even full which was great.

It takes maybe 5-10 minutes to get through the security wanders and two seconds through the turn style and we were in.

Right away we found an empty bench, the reason why it was empty being that it was completely covered in dirt. It completely surprised me that they did not wipe it down. I also saw a row of chairs by the escalators that were ridiculously dirty while on my way to the bathroom to empty out a paper towel machine.

So there we were about 10:30 just hanging out on the bench that we wiped down ourselves and showed up nice and early to grab. When the worst day of dealing with strangers commenced. First up is this big 70 something year old lady, she comes up to me and asks if she could sit on that bench because she cant walk any further. So I said no because I saw her intent on sitting there for the whole day. This lady tells me to **** ***. Yes for real i got cussed out by a 70 year old lady. She then wandered over to the next bench and pushed her way in and stayed there for the whole day. I KNEW IT!!! Then every minute for the next hour someone would bother to ask if they could sit down, NO! why should you sit down with your group of 4 and crowd my personal bubble before the first race has even gone off, its not even close to busy yet. I got a piece of cardboard and wrote NO! to hold up. Nope still had the taps on the shoulder, like i'm not busy reading the form. I let people sit down for a good reason, older couple needed to take their medicine, big guy was dieing in the sun, couple other people came over to get out of the sun and they were actually into having a conversation about the races. I mean if you want a seat at least contribute an idea on whatever crazy way of handicapping you have. As the day wore on and the people got drunker they wouldn't take no for an answer and would just plop down. Like I want to be sitting there with some dude that probably puked on himself next to me. Every once in awhile a good looking girl would take a seat for a bit, the only thing that held my sanity together............. kinda getting lost in my own rant......

Bottom line:

- I hate people

-The crowd was ridiculous

-The betting lines were way too long

-I hate people

-The bathroom was disgusting

-The card was awesome

-I probably talked to 2,000 people all day and only had an actual conversation with 2 of them.

As for the parking lot. Had to cash some friends tickets so we waited at the window for the official. Right after cashing i remember being in a solid herd of people. I swore we were all following each other into a dead end then somebody said, "Go to the crack!" Where I followed this sea of people and squeezed through a 3 foot gap between the glass wall and a stone pilar, straddled a floodlight or a generator, out a gap in a chain link fence to be stuck in a crowd caused by a truck being parked right in the middle of the walkway. Booked it to the car, jumped in, hit the gas, and was on the highway in less then 5 minutes.

I do not feel bad for all those morons that got stuck. I hope they were all the people that drove me 100% crazy all day!


Never going again unless i win free grandstand tickets.

:faint:

[breezing]

I had no problem entering or exiting however I also went south. Part of the issue was no one was directing traffic out of the lot nor was there any signage. I sat for 5 minutes in a line of cars and didn't move then decided to just go out the way I came it and breezed out of there. Mass of humanity there, many, many, many issues with venue but still managed to have a good time.

[breezing]

Official attendance 102,199. "on-track handle of $19,105,877 and all-sources handle of $150,249,399 easily setting all-time NYRA records.".

http://www.nyra.com/belmont/mobile/2014-belmont-stakes-day-sets-nyra-on-track-total-handle-record-attendance-third-highest-in-belmont-stakes-history/

[098poi]

How my day went with this enormous crowd........

I left my house at 5am in RI, picked up my cousin in CT and left there around 7, then pulled into the backstretch parking lot around 9:30.

So we ride in on the bus that was not even full which was great.

It takes maybe 5-10 minutes to get through the security wanders and two seconds through the turn style and we were in.

Right away we found an empty bench, the reason why it was empty being that it was completely covered in dirt. It completely surprised me that they did not wipe it down. I also saw a row of chairs by the escalators that were ridiculously dirty while on my way to the bathroom to empty out a paper towel machine.

So there we were about 10:30 just hanging out on the bench that we wiped down ourselves and showed up nice and early to grab. When the worst day of dealing with strangers commenced. First up is this big 70 something year old lady, she comes up to me and asks if she could sit on that bench because she cant walk any further. So I said no because I saw her intent on sitting there for the whole day. This lady tells me to **** ***. Yes for real i got cussed out by a 70 year old lady. She then wandered over to the next bench and pushed her way in and stayed there for the whole day. I KNEW IT!!! Then every minute for the next hour someone would bother to ask if they could sit down, NO! why should you sit down with your group of 4 and crowd my personal bubble before the first race has even gone off, its not even close to busy yet. I got a piece of cardboard and wrote NO! to hold up. Nope still had the taps on the shoulder, like i'm not busy reading the form. I let people sit down for a good reason, older couple needed to take their medicine, big guy was dieing in the sun, couple other people came over to get out of the sun and they were actually into having a conversation about the races. I mean if you want a seat at least contribute an idea on whatever crazy way of handicapping you have. As the day wore on and the people got drunker they wouldn't take no for an answer and would just plop down. Like I want to be sitting there with some dude that probably puked on himself next to me. Every once in awhile a good looking girl would take a seat for a bit, the only thing that held my sanity together............. kinda getting lost in my own rant......

Bottom line:

- I hate people

-The crowd was ridiculous

-The betting lines were way too long

-I hate people

-The bathroom was disgusting

-The card was awesome

-I probably talked to 2,000 people all day and only had an actual conversation with 2 of them.

As for the parking lot. Had to cash some friends tickets so we waited at the window for the official. Right after cashing i remember being in a solid herd of people. I swore we were all following each other into a dead end then somebody said, "Go to the crack!" Where I followed this sea of people and squeezed through a 3 foot gap between the glass wall and a stone pilar, straddled a floodlight or a generator, out a gap in a chain link fence to be stuck in a crowd caused by a truck being parked right in the middle of the walkway. Booked it to the car, jumped in, hit the gas, and was on the highway in less then 5 minutes.

I do not feel bad for all those morons that got stuck. I hope they were all the people that drove me 100% crazy all day!


Never going again unless i win free grandstand tickets.

:faint:

Thus the name "salty" :D
I spoke with my friend who lives on Long Island and his wife had gone with another couple. She is addicted to the lottery not horse racing but she went because it is such a big day. It was around 4:00 and he says to me, "Tonight we are going out to dinner with some friends". I said I don't think so because she is high maintenance and I knew by the time she got home she would be fried and it would be too late. He goes, "No she said it's over at 4:30". I told him the race was scheduled to be at 6:52 and it would be a long time before she got home after that. He said gotta go I have to text her. I am sure I will hear about some argument or drama that transpired the next time we talk.

[tanner12oz]

I was also in the 20 dollar yellow lot and was on the road in minutes...far better then the yearly preakness debacle of leaving. The bathrooms next to the playground were the cleanest and crowd free all day...inside second floor mens room was oozing liquids by mid day. Bathroom line wasn't bad but the whole idea of lines to be strikes me as a violation of human rights...womens line was horrible with most women giving up and squatting with the boys became the way to go...food lines were horrid..lines for beer horrid..uncle of mine waited in line for a beer only to find that they ran out of beer.

I waited no lie 40 mins for an eaten tote ticket at 11am..machines not setup to read cards...not setup for cash which dumps everyone into the teller lines to deal with the temp tellers simply there for a day....have an adw account to avoid all this but the cell signal collapsed for everyone in the party mid day...trouble getting in and out if seats because of the hordes of ga tickets...teller lines were an easy 30-40 min wait

awesome card though but its hard to enjoy when it turns into mad max beyond thunderdome...i would go back but I would seriously have my doubts about going on a tc bid year

[camourous]

I took the Train to Penn Station then the LIRR to Belmont. Tried to leave after the 12th race, stood in line from whenever that ended until 9:15. LIRR had stated previously that they added 18 more trains for the day, and would run trains until 9'oclock. At 9:15 i was still nowhere near the train and actually just got past the turnstiles in the grandstand, when Police came and told everyone there were no more trains.

So you know had to walk a mile to the Floral Park train station, wait about 45 minutes for a train and take that to Penn Station. Then i took that train back to Trenton. I heard later that the issue was the platform at Belmont PArk became unstable and started to buckle from all the people, who knows what actually happened, but i didn't get home until 1:45am.

At least most of the $10 beers i had their were cold. most...

[classhandicapper]

I left right after the Belmont. I was out of the lot 3 minutes after I walked to my car. No traffic out of the lot or on the road. The track itself was as crowded as I have ever seen it.

[EMD4ME]

Man, I couldn't believe how EASY it was to get out of the parking lot and I stayed until the horses crossed the finish line of the LAST race.

Now, I was heading south on the Cross Island...maybe all this trouble was with those heading north? Either way, I parked in the Yellow lot (at pretty much the FURTHEST POINT away from the track, where all the car dealerships were previously storing their inventory), and I've had MUCH TOUGHER times with past Belmont Stakes crowds that weren't anywhere near as big as this one was.

THIS CROWD WAS HUGE. The BIGGEST I think I've seen for the Belmont Stakes.

But again, I was absolutely SHOCKED that I was able to drive right out of the track WITHOUT STOPPING once I pulled out of my parking spot...so not sure where all this parking lot nightmare was happening.

I did see on the news that the Long Island Railroad was having a very difficult time handling the large crowds and was experiencing hour-long+ delays...


I left right after the last race and got out in 3 minutes. Drove 16 miles home in 19 minutes.

Hate to say it but those of you that waited are either unfamiliar with the Belmont layout or followed the masses into a serious bottleneck. (like the people who followed chrome to a bottleneck) lol....

Sorry couldn't resist the last note :)

[PaceAdvantage]

Only 102,000? Wow...no way did it seem less crowded than 2004...then again, could I really tell the difference between 102,000 and 120,000? :lol: :lol:

[PaceAdvantage]

Right away we found an empty bench, the reason why it was empty being that it was completely covered in dirt.After reading your entire post, I am left with a nagging question. Did you actually try and commandeer an ENTIRE BENCH for just yourself and expect to be left alone all day?

Maybe I missed the part where you were with another person or two...

If you indeed tried to keep an entire bench for yourself, especially on Belmont Stakes day...ballsy move...

[Billnewman]

[QUOTE=PaceAdvantage]Man, I couldn't believe how EASY it was to get out of the parking lot and I stayed until the horses crossed the finish line of the LAST race.

Im not from NYC. My brother in law told me how easy it was to use public transportation. My 13 year old daughter said "Dad we should take the car". Who did i listen to. You got it and it was an enormous mistake. Started in brooklyn. Took 40 Min to make it with walking and the G trian to Atlantic terminal. Transfer in Jamaica. 15 min to slowly walk with the masses into the track. Not bad, dealt with it, now lets have a good time. The trip back was another story. It took 2 1/2 hrs to make it from the grandstand to the train 200 yards away. Squeezed together like a pack of sardines. Another 40 min sitting on the train. Then reverse my trip there. Got back to Brooklyn at Midnight. the whole time listening to my daughter say "i told you so"

[EMD4ME]

[QUOTE=PaceAdvantage]Man, I couldn't believe how EASY it was to get out of the parking lot and I stayed until the horses crossed the finish line of the LAST race.

Im not from NYC. My brother in law told me how easy it was to use public transportation. My 13 year old daughter said "Dad we should take the car". Who did i listen to. You got it and it was an enormous mistake. Started in brooklyn. Took 40 Min to make it with walking and the G trian to Atlantic terminal. Transfer in Jamaica. 15 min to slowly walk with the masses into the track. Not bad, dealt with it, now lets have a good time. The trip back was another story. It took 2 1/2 hrs to make it from the grandstand to the train 200 yards away. Squeezed together like a pack of sardines. Another 40 min sitting on the train. Then reverse my trip there. Got back to Brooklyn at Midnight. the whole time listening to my daughter say "i told you so"

Bill I wish you would've called me buddy. I got out of the lot in 3 minutes (most people don't know the exits). Drove 16 miles home in 19 minutes. I feel terrible you had to go through that.

[tanner12oz]

[QUOTE=PaceAdvantage]Man, I couldn't believe how EASY it was to get out of the parking lot and I stayed until the horses crossed the finish line of the LAST race.

Im not from NYC. My brother in law told me how easy it was to use public transportation. My 13 year old daughter said "Dad we should take the car". Who did i listen to. You got it and it was an enormous mistake. Started in brooklyn. Took 40 Min to make it with walking and the G trian to Atlantic terminal. Transfer in Jamaica. 15 min to slowly walk with the masses into the track. Not bad, dealt with it, now lets have a good time. The trip back was another story. It took 2 1/2 hrs to make it from the grandstand to the train 200 yards away. Squeezed together like a pack of sardines. Another 40 min sitting on the train. Then reverse my trip there. Got back to Brooklyn at Midnight. the whole time listening to my daughter say "i told you so"

the thing that blows my mind is that the morning of and day before they were telling everyone to take public transportation instead of driving in...you would think they would direct people to a system that can handle the workload....total stupidity was on display this weekend at Belmont park

[PaceAdvantage]

It took 2 1/2 hrs to make it from the grandstand to the train 200 yards away. Squeezed together like a pack of sardines.Man, that is terrible...I wonder where the fault lies though....NYRA or the LIRR?

Obviously, there weren't enough trains to handle the crowd...or you wouldn't have been waiting so long, correct?

But I agree...should not have been like that...

Of course, it's never easy to get out of any MAJOR event in NY...it's not like you can breeze in and out of Nikon @ Jones Beach...or whiz back and forth from Yankee Stadium after a sold out game...

But a 2.5 hour wait is inexcusable when this event was a known "packed house" for three weeks in advance.

[dilanesp]

We had 30,000 paid at Santa Anita (plus some number of people who came to the infield for free), which was 4 times what Hollywood Park would have drawn. If anyone here wonders why BHP closed, that provides a hint.

[affirmedny]

Man, that is terrible...I wonder where the fault lies though....NYRA or the LIRR?

Obviously, there weren't enough trains to handle the crowd...or you wouldn't have been waiting so long, correct?

But I agree...should not have been like that...

Of course, it's never easy to get out of any MAJOR event in NY...it's not like you can breeze in and out of Nikon @ Jones Beach...or whiz back and forth from Yankee Stadium after a sold out game...

But a 2.5 hour wait is inexcusable when this event was a known "packed house" for three weeks in advance.

Same thing happened at the super bowl at the meadowlands

[dilanesp]

Man, that is terrible...I wonder where the fault lies though....NYRA or the LIRR?

Obviously, there weren't enough trains to handle the crowd...or you wouldn't have been waiting so long, correct?

But I agree...should not have been like that...

Of course, it's never easy to get out of any MAJOR event in NY...it's not like you can breeze in and out of Nikon @ Jones Beach...or whiz back and forth from Yankee Stadium after a sold out game...

But a 2.5 hour wait is inexcusable when this event was a known "packed house" for three weeks in advance.

The one time I attended the Belmont was in 1997, and I recall it taking a long time to get out to the LIRR platform after the races. And that was only 65,000 people.

I suspect this is an infrastructure problem. That bridge is only so wide, and the train platform is only so long. And the trains only hold so many people. It's probably not cost-effective to expand it for one race day a year. (Even if NYRA ever gets the Breeders' Cup back, they will only draw 45,000 for it.)

[Tom]

I drove down to Pimlico for Spectacular Bid's Preakness.
After the long hassle trying to get out of the track on FRIDAY, I watched the race from my motel in Grantville, across the street from Penn National.

Never regretted it.
Especially when he lost the Belmont! ;)

[Billnewman]

[QUOTE=Billnewman]

Bill I wish you would've called me buddy. I got out of the lot in 3 minutes (most people don't know the exits). Drove 16 miles home in 19 minutes. I feel terrible you had to go through that.

I didn't think of calling you. I probably should've though you must of been in a good mood when totalist got up at the wire. I got lucky I saw the probables for the Met and couldn't pass up the $29 with Palace malice on top of goldencents. Maybe these infrastructure issues or why they don't have the Breeders' Cup at Belmont anymore. I was a donkey that day went with the crowd on the Belmont and went with the crowd on the subway. But I had a lot of fun anyway thanks for the tickets went to Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art the next day.

[SandyW]

I attended every Belmont from 1958 to 1972 and never had a problem getting in or out of the track. If I went by train or car it did not matter.

In those days Belmont had plenty of staff to handle and direct parking.

I can never remember food venders running out of anything.

No self betting machines, but we never got shut out, plenty of sellers.

The main thing the place was spotless and only 2 bucks to get in.

As in the song:

"Those were the days my friends, we thought they would never end."

[dilanesp]

I attended every Belmont from 1958 to 1972 and never had a problem getting in or out of the track. If I went by train or car it did not matter.

In those days Belmont had plenty of staff to handle and direct parking.

I can never remember food venders running out of anything.

No self betting machines, but we never got shut out, plenty of sellers.

The main thing the place was spotless and only 2 bucks to get in.

As in the song:

"Those were the days my friends, we thought they would never end."

Big difference is that in those days, the Belmont wasn't the only day of the year when NYRA got a big crowd. (And the Belmont crowds themselves were not 100,000. More like 55,000.)

[Redboard]

I’ve been to Belmont once, for the 2005 Breeders Cup (Saint Liam ). Had a very good time. All services, including seat police, concessionaires, betting windows, were top notch. Took the LIRR with no problem. Attendance was around 55k. I hope they have another BC there soon, but I wouldn’t go for a TC attempt if you paid me.

[thespaah]

I was also in the 20 dollar yellow lot and was on the road in minutes...far better then the yearly preakness debacle of leaving. The bathrooms next to the playground were the cleanest and crowd free all day...inside second floor mens room was oozing liquids by mid day. Bathroom line wasn't bad but the whole idea of lines to be strikes me as a violation of human rights...womens line was horrible with most women giving up and squatting with the boys became the way to go...food lines were horrid..lines for beer horrid..uncle of mine waited in line for a beer only to find that they ran out of beer.

I waited no lie 40 mins for an eaten tote ticket at 11am..machines not setup to read cards...not setup for cash which dumps everyone into the teller lines to deal with the temp tellers simply there for a day....have an adw account to avoid all this but the cell signal collapsed for everyone in the party mid day...trouble getting in and out if seats because of the hordes of ga tickets...teller lines were an easy 30-40 min wait

awesome card though but its hard to enjoy when it turns into mad max beyond thunderdome...i would go back but I would seriously have my doubts about going on a tc bid year
One of the major issues at Belmont is the ushers NEVER enforce the no standing in the aisles rule.
Every time attendance was large, those with reserved seats had to contend with these inconsiderate morons who not only insisted on standing in the aisles, but acted as though this position was birthright.
I can remember one incident where this idiot decided the armrest on mt seat was a good place for him to plant his Iowa sized ass....Without going into great detail, the offender was on the business end of not one but two of those little foil packs of Gulden's.

[thespaah]

I left right after the last race and got out in 3 minutes. Drove 16 miles home in 19 minutes.

Hate to say it but those of you that waited are either unfamiliar with the Belmont layout or followed the masses into a serious bottleneck. (like the people who followed chrome to a bottleneck) lol....

Sorry couldn't resist the last note :)
Yeah...It is probably safe to say those that got stuck in the parking lots were not familiar with the layout of the parking lots.
For those who could not find their cars. Shame on them. All they had to do is when they parked, mark their location by using the location some kind of fixed object. And use their key fob to activate their alarm.

[thespaah]

How my day went with this enormous crowd........

I left my house at 5am in RI, picked up my cousin in CT and left there around 7, then pulled into the backstretch parking lot around 9:30.

So we ride in on the bus that was not even full which was great.

It takes maybe 5-10 minutes to get through the security wanders and two seconds through the turn style and we were in.

Right away we found an empty bench, the reason why it was empty being that it was completely covered in dirt. It completely surprised me that they did not wipe it down. I also saw a row of chairs by the escalators that were ridiculously dirty while on my way to the bathroom to empty out a paper towel machine.

So there we were about 10:30 just hanging out on the bench that we wiped down ourselves and showed up nice and early to grab. When the worst day of dealing with strangers commenced. First up is this big 70 something year old lady, she comes up to me and asks if she could sit on that bench because she cant walk any further. So I said no because I saw her intent on sitting there for the whole day. This lady tells me to **** ***. Yes for real i got cussed out by a 70 year old lady. She then wandered over to the next bench and pushed her way in and stayed there for the whole day. I KNEW IT!!! Then every minute for the next hour someone would bother to ask if they could sit down, NO! why should you sit down with your group of 4 and crowd my personal bubble before the first race has even gone off, its not even close to busy yet. I got a piece of cardboard and wrote NO! to hold up. Nope still had the taps on the shoulder, like i'm not busy reading the form. I let people sit down for a good reason, older couple needed to take their medicine, big guy was dieing in the sun, couple other people came over to get out of the sun and they were actually into having a conversation about the races. I mean if you want a seat at least contribute an idea on whatever crazy way of handicapping you have. As the day wore on and the people got drunker they wouldn't take no for an answer and would just plop down. Like I want to be sitting there with some dude that probably puked on himself next to me. Every once in awhile a good looking girl would take a seat for a bit, the only thing that held my sanity together............. kinda getting lost in my own rant......

Bottom line:

- I hate people

-The crowd was ridiculous

-The betting lines were way too long

-I hate people

-The bathroom was disgusting

-The card was awesome

-I probably talked to 2,000 people all day and only had an actual conversation with 2 of them.

As for the parking lot. Had to cash some friends tickets so we waited at the window for the official. Right after cashing i remember being in a solid herd of people. I swore we were all following each other into a dead end then somebody said, "Go to the crack!" Where I followed this sea of people and squeezed through a 3 foot gap between the glass wall and a stone pilar, straddled a floodlight or a generator, out a gap in a chain link fence to be stuck in a crowd caused by a truck being parked right in the middle of the walkway. Booked it to the car, jumped in, hit the gas, and was on the highway in less then 5 minutes.

I do not feel bad for all those morons that got stuck. I hope they were all the people that drove me 100% crazy all day!


Never going again unless i win free grandstand tickets.

:faint:
The bench thing at Belmont is a PITA. One time this woman just came up and stood on my racing form. So I told her of my displeasure. She asked me if was going to push her off. I said no, and called her a few colorful metaphors. She became infuriated and screamed that she was going to get security. Problem solved.
People can be such a holes. Especially in these types of situations.
The idea is not to put up with their crap.
Most people that pull that nonsense are banking on the idea that you'll just meekly accept the jerk's presence. It when you don't back down, they get the hint. Of course alcohol changes everything. I won't get into a fight or anything like that. But I will make the offender as uncomfortable as possible in a few short seconds.

[thespaah]

After reading your entire post, I am left with a nagging question. Did you actually try and commandeer an ENTIRE BENCH for just yourself and expect to be left alone all day?

Maybe I missed the part where you were with another person or two...

If you indeed tried to keep an entire bench for yourself, especially on Belmont Stakes day...ballsy move...
The benches are large enough to hold three people comfortably.
As much as I believe bench squatters where the bench is taken by two or three people in a group are jerks, those that fly solo and hog up a bench for themselves are just as bad.

[salty]

I believe I clearly covered this base in the beginning of the story.It was me and my cousin, we both are not small people either. Its not that we didn't let some people sit there its just that we didn't want any of the people asking to sit next to us to sit for very normal reasons such as body odor, lack of interest in the actual racing, size concern, drunk, weird, groups etc......