Thoroughbred racing returns to beautiful Belmont Park this Friday, September 11, with free grandstand admission Friday, Saturday and Sunday as the action-packed Fall Championship Meet begins. First race post time is 1 p.m.

Friday’s featured race is the Grade 3, $150,000 Bowling Green Handicap at 1?-miles on the turf, while a pair of Grade 1’s for fillies and mares highlight Saturday’s card: the $300,000 Ruffian Handicap at 1 1/16-miles on the main track and the $300,000 Garden City for 3-year-old fillies going nine furlongs on the turf.

Live in Belmont’s backyard Saturday will be the Mark Newman Band, with guitar rock and cover songs.

Sunday, the best of two sporting worlds meet with the 1?-mile, $100,000 Ashley T. Cole for New York-breds on the turf, and kickoff for the popular “Pick the Pros and Ponies” contest, which runs all 17 weeks of the regular season at Belmont and Aqueduct.

It’s a free contest, in which contestants must correctly pick the winners of four designated National Football League games as well as the winners of races 3 and 5 on the day’s card for the chance to win a $1,000 weekly prize.

The Fall Championship meet runs 33 days through Sunday, October 25. With the exception of Columbus Day week, live racing is conducted Wednesday through Sunday with a first race post time of 1 p.m. There will be live racing on Columbus Day, Monday, October 12, with no racing on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 13 and 14. Racing will resume Thursday, October 15.