What Happens to My Bet if Belmont is Postponed Due to Smoke?

Smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to wreak havoc on MLB games and every day life.  Now there are questions as to whether this Saturday's Belmont Stakes race will go off as planned.

What Happens to My Bet if Belmont is Postponed?

In most cases, any race which is either abandoned, cancelled or postponed will see bets cancelled and stakes returned whether they were placed online, via phone or in person.  But check with your specific website and determine the rules pertaining to futures.

The Belmont Stakes race, now in its 155th year, is expected to draw 40-50,000 thousand fans.  Millions more will be tuning in to watch the race on Fox. 

Baseball games likely to be suspended Thursday include the White Sox-Yankees (again), Tigers-Phillies and the Diamondbacks-Nationals.

Apocalyptic

Smoky haze blanketing much of the Northeastern part of the US and Canada could last into the weekend.

On Wednesday, New York City had the worst air quality of any city on the planet.  That was expected to be the case in Washington, DC and Philadelphia on Thursday while NYC won't be getting much better.

The weather system that’s driving the great Canadian-American smoke out — a low-pressure system over Maine and Nova Scotia — “will probably be hanging around at least for the next few days,” U.S. National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Ramsey said.

“Conditions are likely to remain unhealthy, at least until the wind direction changes or the fires get put out,” Ramsey said. “Since the fires are raging — they’re really large — they’re probably going to continue for weeks. But it’s really just going be all about the wind shift.”

Officials are hopeful the 7:02 pm start time will not be affected by the wildfires.

"The worst of it is going to be in the next 48 hours," said Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. "We’re anticipating barring any change in weather conditions and wind it’ll dissipate by sometime Friday evening."

"We’re working with the state, county, health officials and have our own outside weather services and onsite air quality equipment," said David O’Rourke, President & CEO of NYRA.

Jockeys have been closely working with the horses and ensuring their safety continues to be a priority.

"I trained this morning," said Jockey derby winner Javier Castellano. "I got on a couple of horses, they came back breathing fine, everything seems under control."

- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com