Today marks the mid way point in the 2013 historic 150th Saratoga Racecourse meet. The first 20 days have seemed like forever for me since the meet started the earliest in recent memory. The July 19th opening day Friday was a hot one, much like our summer has been most of this season. Though there was much fanfare about the "heat" and how it would effect the horses by the masses who know little about the sport, all the equine athletes who raced on the ninety degree open day card......survived! Once again the general public (and some media outlets) don't give enough credit to the horseman and people in charge of the thoroughbred product that runs racing in New York and throughout the country. NOBODY wants to see these thoroughbreds endangered in any way.
The one thing that did bother me though as I made the rounds throughout the Spa facility was, the many new food vendor trucks around the outside of the clubhouse and grandstand area. In recent years, NYRA was made a point of giving the racing public a wide variety of different food items. This is all well and good, but the number of mobile canteen food trucks is a little ridiculous. In the area around the carousel, where the handicapping seminars are and the NYRA pre-race show is taped, there are a half a dozen different food trucks lined up along the walk area behind the grandstand. It's a little overkill and space is taken away from the picnic area. What bothers me the most is with this influx of available food vendors, the possibly that in the future, NYRA may limit what items can be brought into the track. I hope I'm wrong, but the "flavor" of historic Saratoga has had a bit of it taken away with all these new vendors.
The one thing that Saratoga has always presented over Belmont and Aqueduct has been it's old time historic flavor. It has been even more apparent this year with the 150th celebration of the track. The entire calendar of events since this spring has been wonderful. We owe a big thank you of gratitude to Marylou Whitney and her husband John Hendrickson for all they have done for this historic birthday celebration. Last Saturday, the events on track before, during and after the races were what a day at the races should be like all the time. Showing the rich history, pageantry and beauty of thoroughbred racing and how it relates to the people involved. It was like going back in a time machine. THIS is how the sport should be promoted.
As far as the equine athletes on-track, we've seen a lot of talented two year old runners. I knew we would because of the lack of "baby" races downstate at Belmont Park . The three year old runners in both sexes are gearing up for the Alabama and Travers Stakes in two and three weeks from now. We'll see the Kentucky Oaks winner; Princess of Sylmar, Kentucky Derby winner ; Orb and Belmont Stakes winner; Palace Malice plus the very talented; Verrazano who won the Haskell Stakes. Newcomer superstar; Cross Traffic has leaped onto the scene with his Whitney Stakes victory and how many times to you see the reigning Horse of the Year at Saratoga? Today Wise Dan meets his foes in the Fourstardave Handicap and totes the assigned high weight of 129 lbs. It may have seem like an eternity the first 20 days with the heat, but it was well worth it!
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