I don’t recall the exact moment I saw the field at Shea Stadium for the first time. I was too young for any vivid memories. But I still recall that wow factor of walking through the tunnel and seeing the field. Shea Stadium is long gone, of course, and by now I’m old enough and have attended enough baseball games that the initial thrill has faded.

I was thinking back to that youthful excitement last Friday when, for the first time, I walked into Belmont Park, the grand race track in Elmont that has been home to horse racing for more than a century. I’ve watched many of the big races for the Belmont Stakes over the past 20 years or so, but had never been to the race track in person.

It was an experience long overdue, and something I’ve talked about doing for years.

So when a letter arrived in my mailbox at work from Ed Goldstein of the Riverhead Rotary inviting me to attend an event called “A Day at the Races,” I jumped at the opportunity. Mr. Goldstein noted that he had read an earlier column of mine on sports betting and thought I might be interested in checking out horse racing…

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