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It is an early Saturday or Sunday morning and the kids want to go somewhere. The parents are deciding what would keep the interest of the kids. Over at Belmont Park the thoroughbreds are training and it is a beautiful day.

“Breakfast at Belmont provides a wonderful opportunity for families to visit the racetrack during morning workout hours and see thoroughbreds up close as they train,” said Dan Silver, director of communications and media relations for NYRA. “This free program provides an exceptional introduction to Belmont Park and we hope many New Yorkers will take advantage of it this spring and summer.”

Mary Ryan a fixture at NYRA is in the Belmont Café hosting the Breakfast as she announces. Ryan points out trainers and jockeys who are on the track apron and gives information about the 2,000 thoroughbreds that are stabled at Belmont.

NYRA includes a tram tour that goes behind the scenes to show the stable area where the horses and their caretakers live. Fans get a look at the peaceful Belmont landscape.

After the tram tour, it is time for the starting gate demonstration where visitors see what it is like from a jockey and horse point of view, when the starting gate bell rings, they run out of their gate number just like a racehorse.

By the paddock in the beautiful backyard several NYRA employees and a retired racehorse show how a horse is dressed with all types of equipment.

What a way to start the day with breakfast by the track!

Interesting thing about the weather.

A year ago, during a winter only the owner of a ski lodge could love, spring was greeted like Willis Reed limping out for Game 7.

This year, we have about as mild a winter as anyone could ask, and at Aqueduct Racetrack spring still could not get here quickly enough.

Tuesday’s official arrival of spring came a day before the New York Racing Association opened the main track at Aqueduct, bringing on one level an end to racing on the winterized inner track two weeks earlier than scheduled, and on another, perhaps some normalcy back to the sport.

After a horrific winter in which there were 20 fatalities in less than four months of racing over the inner track, the opening of the main track and a full-court press to curtail the breakdowns has shifted the focus from breakdowns to scratches -- a trade any general manager would make in a heartbeat.

There were 18 scratches on Wednesday’s first card on the main track, followed by 14 on Thursday and a more reasonable eight on Friday. Since NYRA does not make scratches by its veterinary staff public, it’s difficult to ascertain how many were voluntary and how many were mandated.

The previous Wednesday and Thursday there had been a combined 21 scratches.

Yet, regardless of the circumstances, the impact was clear as the first three days of racing produced no fatalities, welcomed news after having seven during the period covering March 2-17.

The change in latitudes and attitudes also comes at a time when a task force was introduced Thursday by the New York Racing and Wagering Board to investigate the fatalities at the inner track meet and uncover answers as to why there was calamity at such an unprecedented rate.

The four-person task force, assembled in cooperation with New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association president Rick Violette, includes Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, Alan Foreman, chairman and CEO of Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Associations, Dr. Scott E. Palmer, the hospital director and staff surgeon at the New Jersey Equine Clinic, and Dr. Mary Scollay, the equine medical director of the Kentucky Horse racing Commission.

Together they will undertake an all-encompassing analysis that will focus on a review of NYRA’s policies on public disclosures, necropsies, track conditions and pre-race examinations of horses and its rules covering claims, veterinary procedures and equine drug use.

“We have assembled an outstanding panel of industry experts, who will conduct a fair and objective investigation to determine if there is a definitive cause for the increase in the number of catastrophic breakdowns at Aqueduct this winter,” Violette said. “We trust they will analyze all data meticulously, and New York 's horsemen will give our whole-hearted support to this initiative. No one has a more vested interest in protecting our horses and our jockeys to the very best of everyone's abilities than the 5,000 members of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association."

The task force’s findings will be made public, adding some transparency to the process and giving off more hope that something beneficial might ultimately arise from as dark a winter as NYRA has ever endured.

Spring, what took you so long to get here?

If a national poll was taken on the nation’s best racetracks, it’s unlikely that Aqueduct would rank in the top 10.

From an aesthetic viewpoint, if you put the three New York Racing Association venues in a beauty contest, the Big A is the one that would finish up the track behind Saratoga and Belmont.

Aqueduct, quite frankly, is little more than a highly functional home for New York racing during its slowest parts of the year.

Yet if New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gets his way and Aqueduct is eventually closed to make room for a massive Convention Center, racing fans will learn the hard way that they’ve been taking the Big A for granted.

As much as the sport could survive by racing purely at Belmont and Saratoga, it will not thrive while spending 46 out of the year’s 52 weeks at Belmont.

Removing logistics from the equation -- it would cost hundreds of millions to winterize Belmont, where the grandstand is not even positioned properly to draw heat from the sun -- Belmont’s lack of a subway stop would make it a ghost town, especially during the winter.

A 10-month Belmont meet would also make the racing season mundane. While it may not match the excitement of opening day at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, one of the cool things for fans in April is knowing the shifting of racing to Belmont, not to mention the arrival of spring and the Triple Crown that comes with it, is right around the corner.

OK, we’ll amend that. Looking over the Mets’ roster, there might be more of a buzz at Belmont Park than Citi Field this spring.

Yet, forgetting the Wilpons’ mess for a while, what’s more important than the way two tracks will impact the flow of the racing season, for its long-term good NYRA cannot afford to distance itself from the casino.

Cuomo’s interest in Aqueduct has nothing to do with racing or that Ozone Park is the ideal geographic spot to bring millions of visitors. At time when tax dollars are dwindling, his eyes are riveted on the dollar signs of the casino and the way it has become a magnet for visitors.

Right now, a king’s ransom of cash from the casino flows into NYRA’s coffers, but take away the umbilical cord that bonds Aqueduct and the Resorts World Casino New York City and one day another politician might start to question why so many dollars go to racing. With the obvious link between the track and casino erased, political leaders will no doubt point to the small crowds at Belmont and insist too much money goes to a sport that no one cares about.

That’s the way it goes with politicians. Give them the opportunity to divert revenue so it can suit their own needs, and they’ll take it.

Not helping matters is that as time goes on, Genting, which operates the casino, figures to have far more clout than NYRA because of the $10 million or more per week in profit it generates.

To prevent that imbalance of power from growing at a faster rate, the casino and the racetrack must remain a coupled entry. Even if the racetrack is dark for half the year, NYRA needs the crowds and activity that the casino brings, plus the revenue, and it cannot let its life preserver out of its sight.

Barely three months into the life of the casino, Gov. Cuomo has already showed casino cash means more to him than the racing industry by presenting a plan that would ultimately evict Aqueduct from the grounds.

Now just imagine the situation 10 years from now and the political pressures on the sport with the nearest track some 25 miles away from the casino. Believe it or not, you’ll miss Aqueduct.

As colorful and exciting as racing may be, there are times when it can turn dark and disturbing, with only a thin line separating life from death.

On a bitterly cold weekend at Aqueduct, the many dangers faced in every race by horse and rider were put on display through a harrowing pair of grotesque spills that claimed the life of two horses and sent three jockeys to the hospital.

Fortunately, none of the riders suffered serious injuries, but the next time anyone gets peeved at what they perceive to be an ill-advised ride, visions of what happened this weekend should put the challenges a jockey faces into a sharper perspective.

The first incident occurred in Saturday’s fourth race, when Scorper, while racing in about the four path, went down with jockey Alan Garcia. Quickly coming up behind them, Hardshell could not avoid Scorper, tripping over him and hurling jockey Junior Alvarado to the ground.

While Hardshell ran off after the spill, Scorper suffered a fractured left ankle and had to be put down.

Garcia and Alvarado were taken to North Shore University Hospital, where scans and x-rays came back negative. Alvarado managed to ride on Sunday’s card, while Garcia elected to sit out on Sunday and Monday with a sore back. He is tentatively scheduled to return Thursday.

The following day, after the field crossed the finish line in the ninth race, Raw Moon suffered a fatal heart attack and collapsed to the ground with jockey Ryan Curatolo.
Fundsalo Jones, ridden by Jackie Davis, crashed into the stricken Raw Moon, unseating Davis.

Curatolo was able to walk away from the spill, while Davis underwent x-rays and scans at North Shore that also came back negative.

Davis missed Monday’s card but she is also expected back Thursday.

"Her initial X-rays were negative, but she told the doctors she was still in pain, so they did a CT scan, and that was also negative,” said Davis' agent Roger Sutton. “She was hurting, but she’s tough.”

As sad as the two accidents were, there could have been an even worse catastrophe because of the size of the two fields. There were 10 horses in Saturday’s race and 11 in Sunday’s, creating the possibility for much larger spills.

On afternoons that cast a somber pall over a day at the races, that might be the lone silver lining.

If you follow New York racing on a regular basis, then you had to get a charge out of Saturday’s $65,000 Gravesend Handicap.

Frazil is hardly a well-known horse among those whose involvement in the sport is limited to weekends and graded stakes fare. But for those regulars who spend Wednesdays, Thursdays and every other racing day scanning the NYRA entries, Frazil should be a familiar and popular old friend.

While the Gravesend marked Frazil’s eighth victory in 13 starts this year -- all in New York -- none of the other seven wins had black type associated with them.

His last two wins, which, coincidentally were his last two starts, came in starter allowance contests, the type of races made famous recently by Rapid Redux, Mr. 21-straight wins himself.

In fact, 10 of Frazil’s previous 12 races came in either starter allowance or starter handicap races, which are restricted to horses that started for a specific claiming price -- or lower.

For Frazil, these have been $16,000, $12,500, and $10,000 starter races, all the result of running for a lowly $10,000 claiming tag in 2010. They’re usually filler for weekday cards as reflected in Frazil’s 2011 dance card of three races on a Thursday and Sunday, two on a Friday and Wednesday and one on Monday.

He didn’t grace a Saturday card until his last start, when he captured a $10,000 starter handicap on Nov. 5 while carrying 126 pounds.

Now with a victory in his stakes debut to his credit, it looks like the popular weekday warrior, who never paid more than $5.70 to win in 2011 before his $7 mutuel in the Gravesend, may finally be a Saturday regular.

“I was really proud of him,” said Linda Rice who owns and trains Frazil. “Obviously, he’d been carrying so much weight for so long, the 115 [pounds] helped him. Today, everything went perfectly. I’ve trained him since he was a 2-year-old. He was a big, clumsy young horse. He’s a very big horse, about 17 hands, and we gave him a chance to find his way. He’s something -- he pins his ears back, his head’s down, you can see the expression in his eyes -- he’s a barn favorite.”

Judging by all those odds-on payoffs in Frazil’s past performances, Rice’s barn isn’t the only place he has been a big favorite.

As the money-making machine better known as the Resorts World Casino New York City continues to generate revenue at a dizzying pace, there’s a natural tendency to ponder a rather expensive what if.

What if the Aqueduct casino, which received legislative approval late in 2001, had not run into one ridiculous roadblock after another? What if the casino had opened in, say, 2003 and had been providing tens of millions of dollars per month for both the New York racing industry and the state’s tax coffers for the last eight years?

What if, indeed.

Yet the way trainer Rick Violette, president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, sees it, right now that’s just “water under the bridge.”

“There was a lot of money left on the table, no doubt about it,” Violette said. “But you can’t focus on that. It certainly took a long time to get here, but in the end maybe the delay got us the perfect partner. Genting [the parent company of Resorts World] has built a casino that has been impressive in a lot of ways. In the gambling business you hear a lot of talk about one casino wanting to build a better mousetrap than the other casinos. Well, it’s hard to imagine a better mousetrap than this one.”

As much as the bustling casino has congested traffic in the neighborhood, it’s been a small price for horsemen like Violette to pay. With the casino’s 2,486 Video Lottery Terminals (a.k.a. video slots and games) averaging a weekly profit of about $9.4 million the last two weeks, New York racing is less than a month away from finally reaping the full benefits of a casino that, for so long, seemed as real as talk of pirate’s gold in Flushing Bay.

According to Violette, the New York Racing Association will use its share of the casino revenue to boost purses by 35-40 percent on Jan. 1. There’s even a possibility that the final four cards of 2011 following a Holiday break (Dec. 28-31) will be supplemented to prevent horsemen from keeping horses in their stalls until the new year brings higher purses.

As an example of the new structure, maiden special weight races are expected to jump from a $50,000 purse to $60,000 and maiden races from $40,000 to $50,000. Stakes will also grow in value.

To no one’s surprise, the lure of higher purses has spawned prospects for the best winter racing in recent memory. The horse colony promises to be bigger and better than in past years with numerous NY trainers electing to keep more horses than usual in the Big Apple and others like Eddie Kenneally, Ken McPeek and Dale Romans, who usually ship out of New York in the fall, stabling a few of their runners in chilly New York rather than sunny and warm Florida.

“A year ago, [racing secretary] P.J. Campo used smoke and mirrors to fill cards,” Violette said. “But this year, with the higher purses, there should be larger fields. It makes more economic sense to race your horses here in New York rather than ship them south.”

Down the road, Violette expects additional hikes for the 2012 Belmont Park and Saratoga meets, all thanks to a river of loot flowing into the casino’s VLT’s that, if anything, promises to grow larger in the coming months.

Additional floors of the casino, with high-end wagering areas, are expected to open in mid-December, which should nearly double the number of VLT’s at a facility that’s already packed, even without an aggressive marketing campaign. The nearby Yonkers casino may have its television ads with a talking horse to lure customers, but the Resorts World Casino has decided to work out the early kinks and open its new floors before telling the world why it should come out to Ozone Park.

One can only imagine the financial figures once that happens.

“It’s exciting to think about the future when you consider this was only a partial opening,” Violette said.

Aside from the ka-ching of the new-found cash rolling in, Violette has also found much to like in the way racing has not been pushed into the background by its new neighbor that occupies the old grandstand at Aqueduct.

At some tracks that house a casino, it sometimes takes a simple phone call to find out who calls the shots in the marriage of horses and slot machines. A recorded phone message that says “Dial 1 for the casino; Dial 2 for the racetrack” pretty much says it all about the batting order.

At Aqueduct, while the Resorts World Casino is certainly attracting more people than the racetrack, it has not obscured the racing product.

“The casino and racetrack are separate entities. They have different owners and phone numbers,” Violette said. “But they are not isolated. There’s a walkway from the racetrack to the casino. They have balconies to watch the races. They even have windows, which you will not find in most casinos, so you can see the track.”

While slot players and horse players are generally two different types of gamblers, the casino, which opened Oct. 28, has no doubt played a role in larger than usual crowds at the racetrack. On Saturday, Nov. 26, when Aqueduct’s final two Grade 1 stakes of the year -- the Cigar Mile and Gazelle -- were contested, attendance was listed at 7,762, an increase of 15.5 percent over the previous year’s figure. The on-track handle on Aqueduct races was $1,498,680, jumping 35.2 percent from the 2010 figure of $1,108,170.

“There’s no real way to measure whether the casino is bringing new fans to the racetrack or old ones out to the track, but on the day of the Cigar Mile there was not a empty table at [Aqueduct’s] Equestris dining room, and I haven’t seen that in quite a while,” Violette said.

And so, as the millions continue to roll in and new floors will soon open, for Violette and New York horsemen there is finally a golden life saver after an insufferable wait for financial salvation.

“Now with the casino here, farms in New York are re-opening and new stallions will be coming to the state,” Violette said. “There’s more life here at Aqueduct. The crowds are bigger. The food is better. And all of this is leading to jobs, jobs and more jobs. What we’re seeing from the casino has already exceeded our expectations.”

Somehow, it seems safe to say that view of prosperity does not figure to change anytime soon.

As much as the $250,000 Cigar Mile Handicap helped bring down a curtain on the Grade 1 portion of the 2011 NYRA stakes schedule, it also enhanced the possibility that some great racing might be waiting for us right around the corner in 2012.

As much as we won’t have Uncle Mo to kick around next year, we might have the winners of all three Triple Crown races -- Animal Kingdom, Shackleford and the gelding Ruler On Ice -- plus Stay Thirsty, the Travers winner, meaning there’s an excellent chance that for the first time since 2008 a 3-year-old champion colt might race at four.

Now you can add the enigmatic To Honor and Serve to that list of soon-to-turn 4-year-old males who might finally steal the spotlight away from the sport’s leading ladies.

After tiring and fading to seventh earlier this month in the mile-and-a-quarter Breeders’ Cup Classic, trainer Bill Mott gave Live Oak Plantation’s To Honor and Serve a chance for redemption in the shorter Cigar Mile and was rewarded with a 1 3/4-length victory Saturday in a swift 1:33.89 for the eight furlongs.

As much as a victory in a one-turn mile does not always equate to success in nine- or 10-furlong Grade 1 stakes, To Honor and Serve was already a proven commodity at two turns prior to the Cigar. At two, he won the Nashua and then the Remsen to become a top Kentucky Derby candidate. After third-place finishes in the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby tarnished his Triple Crown luster, he suffered a strained suspensory ligament of his left foreleg which kept him sidelined until the summer.

When he returned, he looked like anything but one of the year’s top 3-year-olds, turning in a no-show in the form of a sixth-place finish in the 6 1/2 furlong Amsterdam at Saratoga. But when Mott put the son of Bernardini back in two-turn races, he promptly posted a lopsided win in an allowance race followed by a 2 1/4-length victory in the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby over Ruler On Ice and Travers runner-up Rattlesnake Bridge.

To Honor and Serve’s plans for next year are uncertain, but with a little luck he could be part of one of the most exciting collections of older colts in recent memory, a possibility that can help warm the cold, winter days ahead.

“I thought he was professional before this race, but this certainly puts the right markings on his calendar,” said To Honor and Serve’s owner, Charlotte Weber. “He’s going to go home to Live Oak [in Florida] and rest for a little bit. After his rest he will go back to [Mott] and we will figure out his campaign for next year. I can’t see any reason not to race him next year. [Having fun] is what this game is all about. I don’t think it’s about retiring them as soon as you can to get your maximum dollars. That’s nice too, don’t get me wrong, but it also is about racing and continuing on and having good older horses show what they’re made of.”

Indeed it is, and, after what may very well be three straight years with a filly or mare earning Horse of the Year honors, it will be quite refreshing to finally see older colts strut their stuff.

Holidays are usually festive times, but at Aqueduct there will be a general sense of melancholy as another week of racing reaches an end.

By weekend’s end, at about the same time as the last remnants of Thanksgiving dinner are finished off, New York racing will begin its long march into winter. Saturday’s card will sadly feature the final showcase for championship-caliber racing in New York for a little more than four months, the farewell coming in the form of the final two Grade 1 stakes races of the year.

The $250, 000 Gazelle and $250,000 Cigar Mile will join a pair of nine-furlong Grade 2 stakes for 2-year-olds -- the Remsen for colts and the Demoiselle for fillies -- on Saturday’s Holiday Fest card that should give fans sufficient reasons to spend an afternoon at the racetrack instead of the adjacent casino.

While The Cigar Mile will not have Eclipse Award implications, it promises to be highly entertaining with a field that is expected to include 2010 winner Jersey Town, Haynesfield, who captured the 2010 Jockey Club Gold Cup, and Pennsylvania Derby winner To Honor And Serve, last seen finishing seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Other possible starters include Sangaree and Mike Repole’s duo of Calibrochoa and Caixa Eletronica.

The Gazelle, at a mile and an eighth for 3-year-old fillies, is topped by the unbeaten Awesome Feather, last year’s champion 2-year-old filly who captured her 2011 debut in an overnight stakes at Belmont Park.

While Hansen and Union Rags are currently the most noteworthy contenders for the Kentucky Derby, the Remsen has historically been a proving ground for a new wave of 2-year-old prospects. In Saturday’s edition of the Remsen, a race won by To Honor And Serve last year, the likely starters include Done Talking, El Padrino, O’Prado Again, Our Entourage, Souper Speedy, Speightcity, Stephanoatsee. Cyber Secret, Managed Account and Tiger Walk.

The field for the Demoiselle is expected to include Bourbonstreetgirl, Brown Eyed Nance, Captivating Lass, Disposable Pleasure, Dreaming of Cara, Indyniable, and Wildcat’s Smile.

Prior to Saturday, there are a couple of other stakes on the NYRA menu: the $100,000 Grade 3 Fall Highweight Handicap on Thursday and the $150,000 Grade 2 Go For Wand Handicap on Friday.

So, with Grade 1 racing going on hiatus until next April’s Wood Memorial, do yourself a favor and take a break from the mall or the Thanksgiving leftovers with a day at the races. Who knows? You might even leave with some cash that you can pump into a slot machine.

Dutrow’s still hot

As a follow up to the last post about Rick Dutrow Jr.’s hot streak, the infamous trainer keeps piling up the wins. He closed out last week by going a combined 5-for-5 on Saturday and Sunday at the Big A. That means while awaiting an appeal of a 10-year suspension, he has racked up 13 wins out of 25 starters.

Suffice it to say, we’ve yet to see the last of Mr. Dutrow.

A few months back it looked like racing had seen the last of trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. for at least the next 10 years.

Instead, a scene out of a Monty Python movie is now playing out at Aqueduct with Dutrow filling the role of the old man who protested, “I’m not dead.”

Not only is Dutrow’s career as a trainer alive, but his barn has been as hot as it has ever been.

On a legal front, the Kentucky Derby-winning trainer received word Wednesday that the New York State Supreme Court had granted him a stay of a 10-year suspension handed down by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board until his appeals are exhausted.

The most recent charges against Dutrow, whose career is checkered with suspensions for putting banned performance-enhancing substances in his horses, involve the discovery of butorphanol, a painkiller, in a post-race sample from one of his horses in Nov. 2010. A subsequent search of Dutrow’s barn also uncovered three syringes filled with illegal painkillers and muscle relaxers

Meanwhile, on the race track, Dutrow’s legal woes have not stopped his horses from landing in the winner’s circle at an uncanny rate. Since the opening of Aqueduct on Nov. 4 through Wednesday, the 52-year-old trainer has been winning at a head-shaking rate of 57 percent, far beyond the typical average for a Big Apple trainer. Dutrow, who has been winning at 26 percent clip for the entire year, has won with 8 of his first 14 starters at the Big A, with 12 of them finishing in the money.

Even more startling is the manner in which some of Dutrow’s horses have crushed their opposition.

Let’s start with Associate. Dutrow claimed him on July 24 from trainer Linda Rice for $35,000 out of a turf race in which the 3-year-old colt finished eighth. After a two-month layoff, Associate made his debut for Dutrow on Sept. 23 at Belmont in a $35,000 claimer that was washed off the turf course and run on a sloppy main track. Associate won by 10 ¾ lengths with a Beyer Speed Figure 33 points higher than his career best.

While some horses are mud freaks, the difference in the Rice-trained Associate and the Dutrow-trained Associate was more powerfully illustrated when Associate was entered in a Nov. 11 allowance race on a fast track and won by eight lengths in an equally dazzling final time.

Another transformation came from Zip Quik. On Oct. 8, Dutrow claimed Zip Quik from trainer Carlos Martin for $10,000 out of a race in which he finished 7th, more than 12 lengths behind the winner. Zip Quick made his debut for Dutrow on Nov. 12 in a $15,000 claimer and won by a head at 6-1.

To a lesser degree there was the case of I Know You Know. The 2-year-old had been second in a stakes at Delaware Park for Tony Dutrow, Rick’s brother. Running in a maiden race for Rick on Nov. 13, I Know You Know figured to win for his new trainer, except she did it by 7 ¾ lengths in a time significantly faster than her effort in the stakes.

Right now, it seems as if everything Dutrow touches turns to gold, except, of course, his legal issues which will need more than a stroke of a magic wand to go away. The stay has no bearing on the appeal, which could go down in flames and put Dutrow in the penalty box for a decade.

But until a final verdict is rendered on the appeal -- and that could be months from now -- it seems as if it will be business as usual this winter for Dutrow, which can be best described as making a mockery of the system. In a controversial career that has seen him survive more than 60 violations, he’s once again getting a laugh that may or not be his last by winning races at an astonishing rate while the game’s regulators try to banish him.

Like a Monty Python movie, it would be funny, if only it wasn’t so sad.

Whoever said there’s a weak economy apparently has yet to pay a visit to the Resorts World Casino New York City at Aqueduct.

Two weeks after introducing the terms Video Lottery Terminals (VLT) and Electronic Table Games (ETG) to the Big Apple lexicon, the casino’s row after row of video slot machines continue to draw more traffic than the Long Expressway at rush hour and turn the kind of profit that would make Bill Gates proud.

A walk around the casino last Sunday verified the glowing reports about the way New Yorkers have welcomed the nearly 2,500 VTLs and ETGs with open arms -- not to mention open pocketbooks and wallets.

Luck could be measured in two ways that evening. One involved how well you fared with the slots.

The other consisted of trying to a find an open seat at a machine without walking a couple laps around the gaming floor. Good luck doing that.

And forget playing virtual roulette, craps or sic bo, unless you had a lot of time to kill waiting to play. Those games had far fewer machines and much deeper lines of people waiting to play.

Financial figures from the casino’s first full week of operation (Oct. 30 -- Nov. 5) indicate there’s clearly no reason to believe the casino will be anything but a huge success. The weekly win, or profit, from the 2,485 machines was listed at $10,186,336 by the New York State Lottery, which oversees all casinos in the state. Prior to the opening, a weekly take of about $7 or $8 million was projected.

To put that figure in context, the existing Empire City casino had a win of $10,798,193 during the same week with more than double the machines (5,390). Looking closer at those numbers, the win at Empire City was off by about $2 million that week, a drop of about 16 percent.

Given the limited competition for the Resorts World casino and the novelty of it, the new gambling palace promises to attract new people day after day and month after month.

And why not? People should like what they find there.

As casinos go, Resorts World NYC does not break new ground. It offers all of the glitz and glamour that you’ll find at Atlantic City, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, and even the Empire City Casino at Yonkers Raceway, though the newness of the facility gives it more sparkle.

Let’s face it, if you’ve seen and heard the bells, buzzers and tunes from one slot machine, you’ve seen and heard them all.

Still, Resorts World NYC already offers a pleasing blend of gambling and amenities, and there’s much more to come in the months ahead. There’s a food court and a first-class buffet, though visitors have yet to pick up on the difference between the two. On a Sunday evening, there were 15 people on line at the Popeye’s stand while there was no wait at the buffet.

Now, I know that you can’t beat Popeye’s biscuits, but all the shrimp, crab, steak, cake, beverages (need I continue?) you can eat for $20 is a great deal, folks.

There’s also a lounge area called the Bar 360, which is, think 360 degrees, circular. In the middle of it is a gargantuan 16' x 28' HD television screen, which was showing football at the time. Though the big screens at Yankee Stadium and MetLife Stadium had crisper displays, the crowds watching the game didn’t seem to mind. Prices for alcoholic beverages were quite reasonable, giving neighborhood people a reason to visit the casino even if they do not want to pour their hard-earned cash in the slot machines.

Before the year is over, additional levels will be opened, offering more areas for high-end gambling and dining as well as entertainment and adding to the reasons why people should visit the facility.

Access from the racetrack to the casino, which is located in the area that used to be Aqueduct’s grandstand, was recently opened, enhancing the bond between the racetrack and casino. Patrons who frequent a casino on a regular basis might be surprised to find out there actually parts of the casino where you can look outside and view the racetrack. Seeing the outside world may be a no-no at most casinos where operators want customers to forget about the time of day, but at Resorts World NYC it’s a part of the landscape.

You can even walk outside to a long deck that extends for the length of the stretch and offers a nice view of the races and toteboard. There’s nowhere in the casino to bet on the races right now, but in time that will change as there are plans to add a sports bar that will house an area for simulcasting.

Even more importantly, about $30 million or perhaps even $40 million of the profit from the casino is expected to be handed over to NYRA for purses and improvements, and that much cash will have a profound impact on the quality of racing.

Whether the casino will boost the racetrack’s fan base is debatable. Walking into the track that day there were about 3 or 4 people heading into the Big A while a couple of hundred yards away 30 or 40 people were walking into the casino.

As the casino grows, and it reaches its full allotment of nearly 5,000 slots, that ratio will probably grow more disproportionate. That may not be the most optimistic of thoughts for the racing industry, but as long as a large chunk of the casino’s take winds up in NYRA’s coffers, all will be well.

In this economy, any source of revenue, be it from sic bo or a superfecta, is good news indeed.

For more than a year, Mike Repole has been on a wild amusement park ride, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s been a long rollercoaster ride, that’s for sure,” the Queens native said. “But that’s me. I live on a rollercoaster. That’s the way I like it. [I’d] rather be on a rollercoaster with all the ups and downs than on a merry-go-round where all you do is slowly go around in circles and wind up where you started.”

For Repole, a year’s worth of euphoric highs and depressing lows came to an end Monday in the aftermath of the bitter disappointment of watching his two 3-year-old stars -- Uncle Mo and Stay Thirsty -- finish 10th and 11th in a field of 12 in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.

Stay Thirsty is expected to race next year, yet the BC Classic served as the final chapter in the celebrated yet controversial career of Uncle Mo. A brilliant, undefeated 2-year-old champion a year ago, Uncle Mo seemed destined for Triple Crown greatness. Instead he was denied by a liver ailment that knocked him out of the Kentucky Derby and reduced his 3-year-old highlight reel to that one single magical moment when he ran a hole in the wind and dominated older horses in the Kelso Handicap.

“Retiring Uncle Mo was a sad decision but it was an easy one to make,” Repole said. “Uncle Mo was the horse I dreamed about for 30 years. He was a once in a generation horse and to only see glimpses of how good he could be was tough. But the condition he has is chronic. The training for the Classic and the race he ran in the Kelso were too hard for him. We could give him off until May and the problem with his liver could flare up again, so retiring him was the only way to do right by the horse.”

Uncle Mo had been diagnosed in the spring with cholangiohepatitis, and when a medical examination after the BC Classic found a troubling elevated enzyme level in the colt, retirement was the only sensible option.

That decision brought down the curtain on a career that saw Uncle Mo capture all three of his starts at two, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Champagne, but this year he won only two of his five starts.

“Perhaps Uncle Mo will be remembered as the Gale Sayers of horse racing. He did a lot in a short amount of time, just like Sayers did with the Bears,” Repole said. “It was a longshot to get him back to the races after he came down with cholangiohepatitis and as you look back, seeing how he came out of the Classic, it just makes the Kelso even more of a ‘wow’ race.

“His 2-year-old season was brilliant and you can’t say that about a lot of 2-year-olds. His win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile was so impressive that it will be talked about 10 years from now. He was a horse who generated so much hope and yet so many what ifs, and that’s what keeps you coming back to this sport.”

Uncle Mo will stand at Ashford Stud in Kentucky as part of a deal in which Repole retained a share of the horse. Needless to say, in a few years’ time there will be no shortage of Uncle Mo offspring carrying Repole’s blue and orange colors.

“I will be owner of Uncle Mo for the next 20 years. I think he’s going to be a fantastic sire and I’m looking forward to buying a lot of his babies,” Repole said. “And if for some unexpected reason he does not turn out to be good at stud, I’ll bring him to a farm where he can live out his life in peace. He’s like a family member to me.”

Stay Thirsty’s breeding career will have to wait a while as the 3-year-old is slated to return to the races next year, with Grade 1 stakes like the Whitney, Woodward, Jockey Club Gold Cup and Breeders’ Cup Classic serving as his ultimate goals.

One place Stay Thirsty will not be seen again is Churchill Downs, a track that ill suits the son of Bernardini. Stay Thirsty was unplaced in three Chuchill starts throughout his career: this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic and Kentucky Derby and the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

“Stay Thirsty will never race at Churchill Downs again, that’s for sure,” Repole said.

Like Uncle Mo did last year, Stay Thirsty could earn an Eclipse Award for Repole, but the Long Islander said Stay Thirsty has probably “a 20 percent” chance of being named the champion 3-year-old male, even though he owns wins in the Travers, Jim Dandy and Gotham, a runner-up finish in the Belmont Stakes and a third-place finish behind Flat Out and BC Classic winner Drosselmeyer in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

“If anybody else owned Stay Thirsty, he’d be the champion 3-year-old,” Repole said. “But Stay Thirsty gets overshadowed by Uncle Mo.”

Meanwhile, Repole will enter 2012 with a different type of 1-2 punch from his top 3-year-olds.

A day before Uncle Mo and Stay Thirsty went down to defeat in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Repole’s Stopshoppingmaria nearly pulled off an upset victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. In making her turf debut, the 2-year-old daughter of More Than Ready grabbed the lead at the start and was still in front at the eighth pole. But just as visions of a second Breeders’ Cup win started dancing through Repole’s mind, Stopshoppingmaria was collared and passed in the final yards by the victorious Stephanie’s Kitten.

A runner-up in the Frizette to My Miss Aurelia, who is a cinch to be named the champion 2-year-old filly, Stopshoppingmaria has shown unusual versatility in her career and could wind up running either short or long on grass or dirt next year.

Repole also said his stakes-winning 2-year-old colt Overdriven, who was taken out of training after a couple of sub-par works in August, is doing well and is expected to resume training in December with a February target date for his 3-year-old debut.

Before that, Repole, one of New York’s leading owners, expects to send out the duo of Calibrachoa and Caixa Eletronica in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Nov. 26.

An unforgettable rollercoaster ride may have come to an end, but with Mike Repole rest assured it won’t be long before he hops on board for the next one.

In the end, it was the star-studded Super Saturday at Belmont Park that produced the winner of the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, the race preordained to anoint Horse of the Year.

It wasn’t, though, the horse most people expected.

In a race that saw Havre de Grace, Uncle Mo and Flat Out all go down to defeat it was Drosselmeyer, who closed fastest of all at the end and gave jockey Mike Smith a victory that eluded him a year ago with Zenyatta.

In a sense, the BC Classic was Battle of the Exes II as the first two jockeys to cross the finish line where Smith and his former fiancé, Chantal Sutherland. Back in August, in a gimmick event better suited for the WWE than a world-class racetrack, Smith beat Sutherland at Del Mar in a match race between the former pair.

Smith got the better of Sutherland again on Saturday, though few people expected to see a rematch in such a high profile setting. Saturday was supposed to belong to Havre de Grace, Uncle Mo or Flat Out, but the show was stolen by Drosselmeyer, who has become an equine version of an athlete whose level of play rises or sinks based on the level of competition.

Drosselmeyer has won only 5 of his 16 career starts, but those wins include the 2010 Belmont Stakes and now the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Classic, while he’s been unplaced in races like the Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs and the Skip Away at Gulfstream Park.

When last seen before Saturday, Drosselmeyer was rising to the occasion in the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont, finishing a solid second to Flat Out. Five weeks later, as darkness gripped Churchill Downs for the $5 million BC Classic, it was Drosselmeyer and New York-based Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott who glistened under the track’s bright flood lighting in the demanding mile-and-a-quarter test.

Of the 43 horses who last raced in New York and ran in the Breeders’ Cup, only three won -- and Mott trained two of them. Following a win by Frizette winner My Miss Aurelia in the BC Juvenile Fillies, Mott sent out Royal Delta to take the Ladies’ Classic and then turned the Ladies’ Classic-BC Classic double wager into an $84 payoff for a Mott-Mott finish capped by Drosselmeyer.

“He ran a super race. He was mowing them down the last eighth of a mile,” Mott said of Drosselmeyer. “I guess his biggest attribute is his stamina, and he showed it today. When they were wearing down, he was coming. It’s great. Maybe they’ll want to run him another year.”

Havre de Grace is expected to run next year, and even after a fourth-place finish in the BC Classic she looms the most likely choice as Horse of the Year. New Yorkers saw her at her best, wining the Beldame by more than eight lengths and beating males in the Woodward at Saratoga.

“We didn’t get the trip we wanted. The 11-horse [Headache] leaned on us pretty good from the start, but she ran well. [Owner] Rick [Porter] likes to run where the gusto is. No regrets about running here. She didn’t do anything to tarnish herself. She has another year ahead of her,” trainer Larry Jones said.

Flat Out was the buzz horse in the days leading up to the Classic and was sent off as the 7-2 favorite, but he could do no better than fifth.

Long Island’s Mike Repole came into the Breeders’ Cup Classic with two hopefuls, Uncle Mo and Travers winner Stay Thirsty.

Stay Thirsty was the weak link, largely because he had flopped in two previous starts at Churchill Downs. In Saturday’s race, Stay Thirsty struggled more than ever at the historic track, beating just one horse.

Right ahead of Stay Thirsty, came Uncle Mo, who had the most to gain and came away with nothing more than bonus points for trying to beat the odds that were stacked against him.

As Uncle Mo weakened in the stretch and fell back to 10th in a field of 12, the thoughts that he might emerge from the Breeders’ Cup as a mega-star for the ages disappeared. In a year that saw him miss four months of training due to a liver ailment, he came into the BC Classic lacking the conditioning to handle a 10-furlong ordeal against the best horses in training.

Ninety-nine percent of horses can’t handle that kind of challenge, but there was at least some hope that based on his spectacular 2-year-old season he could be part of the 1 percent. Now we know better. No one can ever take away what happened in his Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old championship season, but fate has brought him back to earth.

“You’re always disappointed when they don’t run as good as you expect them to,” jockey John Velazquez said. “He was pretty strong going to the first turn. When he went up the backstretch, the track started breaking underneath him a little bit and he kind of lost it. He was struggling with the track for whatever reason. I tried to give him his head where he would feel comfortable, but he never really got into a good rhythm to get a good grip of the track. I didn’t want to beat him up in the stretch when everybody started going by me.”

Perhaps Repole will decide to bring Uncle Mo back next year and give him a chance to reach his potential, but if not, no one can deny that Uncle Mo gave the sport reasons to dream.

Unfortunately, dreams and reality exist in different realms.

After weaving through a wagering minefield in the form of 14 Breeders’ Cup races, when all the marbles are finally on the line Saturday evening in race No. 15, I don’t think I’ll be reaching for my wallet.

True, it might be empty by then, but even if there’s a Benjamin or two in it, it will stay put. For all of its importance, the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic has taken shape as a look but don’t touch race for me. What I’d like to see happen -- a victory by Uncle Mo -- is something that’s a very bad bet.

For all of the money that will be deposited on the withers of Uncle Mo, the risk versus the reward is way out of whack. For bettors anyway. You’ll find much safer 5-2 shots at Aqueduct on Saturday than you will in Uncle Mo in the 11th race of the day at Churchill Downs.

What he’s trying to do should be worth at least 10-1 at the betting windows, not $7 for a $2 wager.

So, with wagering value residing in starters like Flat Out, Uncle Mo’s stablemate Stay Thirsty or Rattlesnake Bridge, my big investment in the race will involve my emotions. Sure, Goldikova winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile for a fourth straight time would be a kick, but for a real buzz rising out of the Breeders’ Cup, it’s Uncle Mo or bust.

Havre de Grace certainly will receive -- and deserve -- a world of acclaim if she can win the BC Classic and wrap up Horse of the Year honors. Yet even in victory she will be viewed by many in the years to come as nothing more than a pretty good filly that was overshadowed by Zenyatta.

Yet if Uncle Mo can outrun his pedigree and capture the mile and a quarter Classic without the benefit of a winning race beyond a mile and a sixteenth, it would legitimize all of the accolades he garnered at two and stamp him as a colt as good as any we’ve seen in the last 10 years or more.

It would also remind us of how fabulous it can be to have a rock star colt as the sport’s biggest and brightest performer. That memory is getting rather faded thanks to Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta and now Havre de Grace.

Surely there are plenty of reasons why Uncle Mo can win. His morning line price is not based solely on the possibility of his billionaire owner, Queens native Mike Repole, pumping a king’s ransom through the betting windows. We know Uncle Mo can handle the track at Churchill Downs. He won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile there last year to cap his unbeaten, Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old season. He has enough speed to be on or near the lead, which will keep him out of trouble in a bulky field. On his best day he’s as fast -- if not faster -- than anyone else in the field.

It’s just his stamina and conditioning that are concerns. Is he ready for 10 furlongs after battling a liver ailment for a large chunk of the year and being sidelined for more than four months?

His last race -- in the Kelso -- was outstanding, but he was not pushed or tested as strenuously in that mile-long stakes as he will be in the longer and far more demanding Classic.

Looking ahead to Saturday, there’s a strong possibility that Uncle Mo will be in front turning for home in the Classic, and in that final furlong either greatness will be affirmed or we’ll be teased once again.

Personally, I’m on aboard with the greatness.

Just don’t ask me to take 5-2 on it.

When the New York racing season resumes on Friday, longtime patrons of Aqueduct Racetrack will meet their much-ballyhooed new neighbors.

The Resort World Casino New York City opened this past Friday at Aqueduct, and judging by the early returns all of the lofty expectations about the revenue it will generate were not exaggerated.

You can write it down in ink. The days of the Big A being a quiet, cozy place are officially over.

Well, perhaps the racetrack side of the complex will not have to sweat out visits by the fire marshals, but the traffic, the parking and the flow of people in and out of the grounds is going to be a shock to the system of longtime visitors who used to have the place to themselves.

According to a New York Daily News report, the opening afternoon of business at the casino saw a crowd of 15,000 inside the sparkling new gambling palace with another 5,000 waiting -- some in vain -- to get in.

There was such a crush of people that the casino operators, Genting Group, sent out an advisory that the slot lovers in the Big Apple should wait until next week to drop their change into machines that some folks know as one-armed bandits.

Imagine that. A business telling you they are doing so well that you should stop by next week, if you’re in the area. Not even Wal-Mart does that.

The flip side of all this for racing fans is that in time -- probably at the first of the year – a portion of that cash will filter into purses and racing should be richer, bigger and better than ever. That’s the plan, anyway.

How it works out remains to be seen, but for starters, the new kids on the blocks at Aqueduct are delivering on what they promised -- and then some.

Get ready for an interesting winter at the Big A.

The New York State breeding program has come a long way since the days of Fio Rito.

Long gone is the shock that surrounded the breakthrough victory by the aforementioned gelding when he beat Winter’s Tale and captured the 1981 Whitney. New York State-breds have won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Travers, just to name a few, and have become a staple of the daily racing cards at Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga.

There’s still a touch of Rodney Dangerfield associated with New York State-breds, but when you take a close look at an event like Saturday’s New York Showcase Day at Belmont respect becomes easier to bestow on the breed.

As much as none of the seven stakes on Saturday’s card were graded, the entire day featured some quality runners and as good an overall betting card as the circuit will see for quite a while.

Heading the list of performers was Haynesfield, whose victory in the featured $200,000 Empire Classic means he now owns the distinction of being a two-time winner of the race and the 2010 winner of a fairly well known N.Y. race known as the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Yes, the same Haynesfield that cost Blame Horse of the Year honors by beating him in the Grade 1 JCGC (or enabled Zenyatta be named HOY -- take your pick) is indeed a New York State-bred, a fact that often gets overlooked when he wins races like the JCGC or Suburban or finishes second in a Grade 1 stakes such as the Cigar Mile.

It looks like Haynesfield might not be the same horse he was a year ago, but his resume shows why at least some of the criticism heaped on New York State-breds is unfair. Kentucky may be the capital of the breeding industry but New York State-breds are not 98-pound weaklings, as Showcase Day proved. Aside from Haynesfield, another winner on the card was Hessonite, whose victory in the Ticonderoga followed up a second in an open stakes in her previous start. Finishing second in the Ticonderoga was Gitchee Goomie, a filly who lost by a neck in the Grade 3 Beaugay earlier in the year.

It’s not the Breeders’ Cup in any way, shape or form, but Saturday’s 10-race card was entertaining from start to finish and that’s a term that you cannot associate with every race you’ll see at famed tracks like Churchill Downs and Santa Anita.

The card, which consisted strictly of races for New York State-breds, attracted 124 horses (before scratches), which breaks down to 12.4 horses per race. That adds up to plenty of value for handicappers and the kind of field size for a card that might not be seen again in New York until Saratoga opens its gates.

The results were also balanced, with four winning favorites -- three of them paying $4.60 or less -- and three that paid $20 or more.

It was a fun day of racing, and, above all, it was a day that would have made Fio Rito proud.