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PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM! Sam the Bugler: Back at Belmont. Once more, with Feeling
from Equicurean 2023
WRITTEN BY MARION E. ALTIERI
Fans of horse racing who attended this year’s Belmont Stakes found many things familiar and comforting. At Beautiful Belmont Park, Canada geese still soar the skies, landing on their Infield Pond with ballet-like beauty and grace. The neighing of thousands of horses in the barns greet fans as they arrive, soothing with their ancient song.
Race fans, especially New Yorkers, are particularly proud of Big Sandy, Belmont’s magnificent dirt track. The Infield Pond is enormous: large enough to land a 747. The track itself is deeper than most tracks, due to NYRA’s proprietary recipe: more sand in its mix (with clay and silt) than other tracks = more of a challenge to runners. That recipe makes Big Sandy deep-enough to unnerve horses and jockeys who’ve never experienced it before.
Big Sandy is the quicksand over which Secretariat flew with otherworldly speed, 50 years ago. Big Red, stared Big Sandy in the eye and didn’t blink.
At this year’s Belmont Stakes, held on June 10th, the legendary Sam Grossman – Sam the Bugler – graced the Belmont winner’s circle once again.
In 2022, he stepped back a bit to tend to personal matters. These days, he’s channeling his tremendous talents and energies into teaching music in a public school, north of Miami – sharing his wealth of knowledge and passion with a new generation of young musicians. (Sam’s fans won’t be surprised by this information; he has a long reputation for generosity of spirit.)
Grossman doesn’t dismiss the idea of playing occasionally at Saratoga, of course, and he'll play other NYRA special occasions.
On June 10th, race fans witnessed the master’s joyous return to his home turf, playing his song to those ontrack, and to the millions worldwide who viewed the race on their TVs, computers and smartphones. And – bonus! – this year, Sam played First Call (Call to the Post) with his twin brother, Irv Grossman and his close friend, Bethann Dixon. The dynamic trio brings special magic to those 34 notes, notes that have set hearts and imaginations afire at tracks all over the world.
