Garden City Hotel Celebrates 142nd Running of Belmont Stakes

The Garden City Hotel marks the 2010 Belmont Stakes by celebrating its 142nd running on Thursday, June 3, through race day on Saturday, June 5.

The Garden City Hotel has had a tradition of hosting a who's who from the horse racing world. Guests have included the Belmont family, who visited Long Island for such sporting occasions but also fashionable galas in the hotel's ballroom. Today, the race's horse owners, trainers, jockeys and spectators continue to make The Garden City Hotel their main gathering spot outside of Belmont Park.

In 2010, The Garden City Hotel will continue to sponsor the Belmont Festival, host an annual hat trunk show and serve as the hub for the racing community's comings and goings.

In the hotel gift shop, hat designer Christine A. Moore will present her annual trunk show for women seeking the customary hat to wear to the event. A full collection of styles, casual and extravagant, will be available on Thursday, June 3 and Friday, June 4 from 2:30-8 p.m.

Moore, owner and designer of Christine A. Moore Millinery, has been creating hats professionally for nearly 15 years. After studying costume design and fine arts in college, she worked as an assistant costume designer at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. There she fell in love with the craft of millinery. At the close of that season, Moore already had her first job in the theatrical millinery business apprenticing Barbara Taylor. That was all it took for Moore to find her passion.

After learning all she could with Taylor, she then traveled around the regional theater circuit as a freelance milliner. Finally she landed in New York City where she instantly got the job of assisting Rodney Gordon, one of the foremost theatrical milliners in New York City. Under Rodney's supervision, Moore created hats for many opera, ballet and Broadway productions including The Phantom of the Opera, Will Roger's Follies and Crazy for You.

The drive to own her own business however kept her from being totally satisfied, so in 1990 she began to sell her own creations to boutiques in New York and in her hometown of Philadelphia. Her hats were an instant hit, and in 1993 (when she was happily overwhelmed) she stopped making hats for the theater and devoted all her time to her new business. In 1998 Moore moved to her new studio and showroom at 110 W. 34th St., suite 1009. Christine A. Moore Millinery's timeless hats are now seen in boutiques, specialty and gift stores throughout the country.

In addition to hosting weekend festivities in a series of private events, Rein, the hotel's signature restaurant, will be a favorite gathering spot. Racing news will be broadcast on three large-format plasma television screens that may be viewed while sitting at the rear-lit onyx bar, or, more intimately, tableside. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night menus by award-winning executive chef Steven De Bruyn will be served as will Rein signature cocktails named after qualifying horses and the official drink of the Belmont Stakes, the Belmont Breeze.

For more information call The Garden City Hotel call  516-747-3000.