The Belmont ... at what price?

The New York Racing Association issued a press release after the Preakness announcing the availability of tickets for the June 7 Belmont Stakes, in which Big Brown will attempt to sweep the Triple Crown, an accomplishment that had evaded 10 other Kentucky Derby and Preakness winners since 1978.

Before that release was transmitted, however, the tickets were sold.

The largest crowd ever assembled for sporting event in New York, 120,139, stood in stunned silence while Birdstone thwarted Smarty Jones’ bid in 2004, the last time a the Triple Crown was at stake in the Belmont. War Emblem’s failed bid in 2002 drew 103,222 and 101,864 braved an all-day downpour in 2003, when Funny Cide was denied by Empire Maker.

The Belmont, when a Triple Crown is possible, is always a hot ticket and distinct possibility that Big Brown will become the 12th horse successful in that quest is almost certain to result in a new record crowd on June 7. For those currently without tickets, however, admission will not be inexpensive.

Already, more than two weeks from the event, gotickets.com has set the price on a table for 10 in the Garden Terrance, lunch included, at $16,000 and the best-located clubhouse seats are priced at more than $3,000. Grandstand preferred seating is being sold at $1,830 a copy. The bidding for tickets on e-bay is also robust. As of Thursday morning, clubhouse seating offered at auction was bid up to $2,000 and grandstand preferred seats near the sixteenth pole were offered at a buy-it-now price of $1,000.

The difference between a Triple Crown being on the line and virtually any other Belmont scenario is stark. The Kentucky Derby is run independent of circumstance, as is the Preakness. But the Belmont is dependent entirely upon the first two to create the high drama that draws a six-figure crown in Elmont.

A year ago, with the Derby winner, Street Sense, absent, 46,870 – the smallest Belmont-day crowd in a decade -- saw Rags to Riches upset Curlin. This time, after two powerful performances in the Derby and Preakness, Big Brown on his own, assures a crowd that will rival if not surpass that drawn by Smarty Jones. The addition of the unbeaten, Japan-based Casino Drive raises the Belmont’s profile exponentially within the Asian community. More than 100 credentials have been issued to Japanese media outlets, which makes this the first truly international Belmont.

The size of the crowd, ultimately, is dependent upon weather, which determines the sale of walk-in general admission and it is difficult to estimate exactly how many people can be shoehorned into Belmont Park. There is a point at which the NYRA would be forced to lock the gates. That has never happened. So, there is more than one bit of history at stake on June 7.