ELMONT, N.Y. -- After an unprecedented three-day break in the racing schedule, New York's best non-striking athletes returned to Belmont Park today for the 40-day fall meet and its slew of stakes races that lead to the Nov. 5 Breeders' Cup.

Until football season starts in earnest, thoroughred racing remains the only game in town. So for baseball-starved fans, NYRA has added an incentive to come to the track for the first three days. Anyone wearing a Mets or Yankees cap was to be admitted free today through Sunday.

The action starts slowly, with an ungraded $60,000 race for 3-year-old grass fillies kicking off the rich stakes program, but heats up from there. After they get today's Pebbles Stakes out of the way, the holiday weekend continues with tomorrow's Belmont Budweiser Breeders' Cup, Sunday's Gazelle Handicap and Labor Day's Jerome Handicap.

Afer the holiday weekend, the meet, which closes Oct. 16, pretty much focuses on two days, the Sept. 17 Super Saturday card and the Oct. 8 Breeders' Cup Preview Day.