The Floral Park Handicap, a $100,000 graded stakes race, will be run at Belmont Park on Saturday, Sept. 13 at about 5 p.m. Floral Park Mayor Ann Corbett will present the winner's prize immediately following the race. Local residents are invited to attend. General admission is $2 per person and parking is $2. Those wishing to have lunch at the track may make reservations for the fourth floor dining room by calling 488-1740.

The Floral Park Handicap is one of several major races scheduled that day. The Ruffian Handicap, in memory of a 3-year-old filly who electrified fans in becoming the champion of 1975, is also scheduled. She went to the post 11 times, winning 10 of those races. The Jerome Handicap, which is named after Leonard J. Jerome, the maternal grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill, for whom the former Jerome Racetrack in the Bronx is named, is also on the schedule for the day.

Another important race to be run is the Belmont Breeders Cup Handicap, which is part of the Breeders Cup National Stakes Program. Local residents can either drive to Belmont or walk in through the Plainfield and Mayfair Avenue gates and take the track bus to the grandstands or clubhouse.

According to Edith M. Purcell in Across the Years - The Story of Floral Park, New York, horse racing had its earliest beginnings locally in 1665 when the first English governor of New York inaugurated a race meet on the Great Hempstead Plain. Belmont was established by the Westchester Racing Association on the old Manice Farm - a century-old English estate - and opened in 1905 and named after August Belmont II, a member of the board of directors.

History was made at Belmont in 1918 when the first regular airplane mail service between New York, Philadelphia and Washington was inaugurated and believed to be the beginning of civil aviation.

Over the years many people associated with Belmont - trainers, jockeys, horse owners and staff - have lived and continue to live in the Floral Park-Bellerose area.