The official Belmont Stakes Charity Celebration will be held at chef Bobby Flay's highly acclaimed Bar Americain restaurant in New York City on Thursday, June 6, 2013.
The event, featuring "The Foods of Bobby Flay," will be jointly hosted by and will benefit two prominent charities in the equine industry: the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF). It will also feature an auction of select stallion seasons and unique experiences. Terence Collier, director of marketing for Fasig-Tipton Inc., will conduct the auction.
Flay, the owner and executive chef of several restaurants as well as a television personality and author, operates a major racing stable and won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with More Than Real in 2010. As an equine welfare advocate, he has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.
"We are delighted to host the Belmont Stakes Charity Celebration at Bar Americain," said Flay. "I think every horse deserves a safe retirement when their racing career comes to an end, and the industry has an obligation to help provide that to them. I am immensely pleased to help both the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation as they strive to make horses healthier and safer during their lives."
"Horse health should be a priority for anyone involved with the Thoroughbred industry, and this event brings well-deserved attention to our foundation as well as the third leg of the Triple Crown," said Dell Hancock, chairman of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. "While Grayson-Jockey Club is closely associated with the Thoroughbred industry and we receive almost all of our support from it, a great majority of the research projects we fund are as helpful to a child's pony or any other breed as they are to the Thoroughbred."
"We are thrilled to be working closely with Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation on this event," said TRF Chairman of the Board John Moore. "For 30 years now, TRF has been the industry leader in providing aftercare for retired Thoroughbreds, and this will be our first major event in New York City."
The TRF's annual fund raiser was traditionally held at Saratoga on the eve of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sales. The TRF will still hold a smaller fund raiser on that evening in a different format.
The 145th edition of the $1,000,000 Belmont Stakes, the oldest and longest of the Triple Crown events, will be held Saturday, June 8, and will be televised by NBC Sports (5 - 7 p.m. EDT).
Bar Americain is located at 152 W. 52nd Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in New York City.
Tickets for the charity celebration are priced at $400 per person.
Additional information about the event can be obtained by contacting Nancy Kelly of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation at (212) 521-5305 or nkelly@jockeyclub.com
or Sue Finley at (732) 747-8060 or suefinley@aol.com.
Founded in 1983, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation is the largest equine sanctuary in the world devoted to the rescue, retirement, rehabilitation and retraining of Thoroughbred horses no longer able to compete on the racetrack. More than 1,000 Thoroughbreds have been adopted out to loving homes. At eight correctional facilities, inmates build life skills while participating in a vocational training program as they provide supervised care to retired horses.
Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, a longtime beneficiary of the Belmont week charity event, is the nation's leading private source of equine research funding, having individually contributed more than $19 million to 40 universities since 1983 to underwrite 287 specific projects aimed at enhancing the health and safety of horses. Additional information is available at grayson-jockeyclub.org.
Founded in 1955 and franchised to run thoroughbred racing at New York's three major tracks (Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race Course) through 2033, NYRA boasts a lineage that actually stretches back almost 150 years. NYRA tracks are the cornerstone of the state's Thoroughbred business, which contributes more than $2 billion annually to New York State's urban, suburban and rural economy. In 2011, more than 1.8 million people attended the live races at NYRA tracks. Factoring in nationwide off-track wagering, the average daily betting handle on NYRA races totals more than $8.1 million. NYRA has a vast network of websites, including nyra.com, belmontstakes.com, and nyragroupsales.com. You can also follow NYRA on social media platforms Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and YouTube.
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