If you are a fan of thoroughbred racing, this weekend is Christmas Day and your own birthday wrapped into one! Like the excitement of opening day at Yankee Stadium or Super Bowl Sunday, Saratoga Springs and the surrounding area today and tomorrow will be the “place to be” for our sports best. It’s been dubbed the “double dip” of thoroughbred excitement and NYRA with its premier racetrack has taken center stage.
The “Mid Summer’s Derby ”; the Travers Stakes and highlight of the 40 day Saratoga meet is on tap today. Even though the “leader” of the three year old division; Lookin’ For Lucky, will not be in attendance today, 11 other three year old colts have signed out for this mile and an quarter test. We couldn’t get the Belmont Stakes winner; Drosselmeyer do to a career ending injury, but we do have the 2010 Kentucky Derby winner; Super Saver. He is trained by the top horse conditioner in the country; Todd Pletcher and will be ridden by one of the most recognized jockey’s of the past five years; Calvin Borel. We have the fixture New York based trainer; Nick Zito here with three horses entered and a collection of eight other equally matched three year old runners all vying for a shot at a three year old Eclipse honors, if Lookin’ For Lucky should stub his toe the rest of the year. The weather couldn’t be more ideal today and the Travers day undercard, superb as usual. This just goes to show that the sport of thoroughbred racing is NOT dead and the crowds that will be filing in this morning to see the races will prove that.
Most year’s, it gets a little anti-climatic after the Travers Stakes and some say it’s all “down hill” after the meets biggest race. Well, that’s not so anymore. Last year on the closing Saturday of the meet, the Woodward Stakes had its most historic running when Rachel Alexandra defeated older colts in that handicap race. It was a scene that I’ll always remember and to hear the crowd roar after she returned to the winners circle, sent chills up and down my spine! Some thought it would be tough to ever duplicate such a scene like that one again at Saratoga . But, tomorrow the east coast “Queen” of our sport makes her return to the Spa and once again will try to make the Saratoga fans “electric” with her style and grace. Although she hasn’t been as sharp like last year when she won eight straight graded races and beat the “boys” on three different occasions, Rachel Alexandra will try to cap off a wonderful weekend at beautiful and historic Saratoga racecourse.
When the world today is troubled and most of the time seeming “out of wack” and the sport of thoroughbred racing sinks to new lows, weekends like the one we have now make ALL those problems disappear at least for 48 hours. We can sit back and relax in seeing some of the best three year old runners race in a contest that is about as historical as it gets. Just when you thought it couldn’t get better than that, we come back the next day and see a wonderful filly return to her biggest triumph and get back on track to greatness that garnered her “Horse of the Year” honors one year ago. I cannot think of a better weekend to enjoy and if you love horse racing like I do, you will look to the “racing gods” and say; thank you!
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