Off to the Races: Celebrating Mother's Day at Belmont Park

Who doesn't love to receive gifts of appreciation from loved ones? Presents are nice to receive during holidays but I'm definitely the type who would prefer to experience something new with my favorite people. Anyone who knows me well enough knows i'm not very materialistic, a homemade card from my two lil' monsters and venturing off to see somewhere new is the best gift you can ever give me, and maybe a digital photo-book that has all the memories from the day in a book, opposed to living on my phone or on Facebook. Yepp, I'm super cheesy that way.

For Mother's Day America's Best Racing invited a few local mom bloggers and their families out to Belmont Park for a VIP experience at the park, cheering on horses and firing up the grill. I'd never been, so it sounded like the perfect way to spend the Sunday with my 3 guys and my blogger babes. Naturally, conversation among the moms focused of course on what we were going to wear. Whenever I think of horse racing I remember Julia Roberts in her polka-dot dress in the classic film Pretty Woman. I definitely chimed in and hoped everyone else was planning to wear gorgeous hats and fascinators. I mean, how often were we going to get to dress up like that, so why not?

My hubby made my favorite pasta salad to add to the potluck and we ended up renting from Zipcar so we didn't have to worry about the commute on public transportation. By now he knows my sissy and I end up a bit cranky after a long day out.  It's a quick ride to Belmont Park (in Elmont) from where we are in Queens but we definitely experienced a bit of traffic because it was a holiday. At least folks were out and about celebrating their mama's! 

Belmont's backyard was filled with fans who were enjoying their picnics as kids rode ponies and jumped around in the bouncy house. Visitors are also able to see the horses up close before their race in the paddock.

 As we toured the area with Dan Tordjman and Victoria Garofalo who are Brand Ambassadors  for Team ABR Live we watched each jockey ride around on their horse and some of the kids asked for pics. Meanwhile my animal obsessed four year old's inevitable meltdown ensued. If you could only see his face when we gently burst his bubble  when he asked to ride one of the horses. After explaining to him that they were too fast and he wasn't quite big enough he refused to meet the jockey who was standing nearby because he could race on the horse and Tristan couldn't. I felt so bad and tried not to laugh. 

We only placed one bet and didn't win, but we did learn 2 great tips from Dan and Victoria: Look for a horse with your birthday to bet on and that you can bet on the all places a horse may come in, 2nd, 3rd etc not just the winning horse. 

The afternoon was fantastic! Everyone looked so poised and polished, the food was yummy and the moms truly had a great time! Thank You America's Best Racing for having us.
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Note: Opinions expressed are 100% my own and no compensation was received for this post.