June 06--Want to see some sports history being made at the Belmont Stakes on Saturday? Don't want to waste a good portion of the afternoon watching an endless prerace show? Then the time you are looking for is 3:50 p.m. PDT (that's 6:50 p.m. if you're on the East Coast) to watch American Pharoah try to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.
YOU MISSED IT? American Pharoah won
The 3:50 time is the actual post time, although races usually don't start until a few minutes after that.
The television coverage is on NBC starting at 1:30 p.m. PDT. There should be the usual array of canned features and the breathless predictions by their stable of analysts.
If you are into tradition, some other times to remember: "Sidewalks of New York" is played at 2:30 p.m. and the singing of "New York, New York" along with the call for riders up happens about 3:35 p.m.
If you've been around long enough you might remember that "Sidewalks of New York" was the official song of the Belmont until 1996. Then from 1997-2009 it became a recording of Frank Sinatra's version of "New York, New York." In one of those don't-know-what-they-were-thinking moments, it was "Empire State of Mind" in 2010 before reverting to "New York, New York" the next year.
Thirsty? The current official drink (they keep changing it) of the Belmont is the Belmont Jewel, a combination of bourbon, lemonade and pomegranate juice.
