Opening Day at Saratoga a Cause for Celebration

For centuries, the town of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., has been revered as a place for healing, where the mineral water and cool mountain air can bring vitality back to the sickly.

For a considerably shorter time, say the last 40 years, Saratoga and its beloved Victorian racetrack has been the cure for the New York Racing Association's ills.

On an annual basis, the red ink of miserable winters and disappointing springs has been washed away by the euphoria and bustling business generated by the streams of fans who pour into Saratoga Race Course on a daily basis.

For 40 unparalleled days, racing once again becomes a highly popular spectator sport in New York with fans filling the backyard as well as the grandstand and clubhouse seating and dining areas in the afternoon, and even turning out in the morning to view workouts while enjoying breakfast.

This year, from the July 14 opening day until the curtain comes down Sept. 5, the 154th meet at the Spa has the potential to showcase the joys of live racing in front of 20,000 or more fans and provide NYRA with some much-needed relief from the small fields that turned out for many of the best races at the Belmont Park meet and made filling daily cards a challenge.

"What's important about Saratoga is that you provide great racing for the horsemen," said Frank Gabriel, NYRA's senior vice president of racing operations. "It's a key meet for the owners, trainers, and jockeys. It's their big meet and it's a big meet for NYRA as well. We want to be able to offer big days with the caliber of horses to fulfill the interest in them and offer the right field sizes every day, not just on weekends or in the graded stakes."

The timeless charm and allure of Saratoga with its 77 stakes worth $22.6 million will be matched against an alarming trend at the Belmont Park spring/summer meet. While a bevy of the sport's brightest stars turned out for the meet, including Flightline , Life Is Good , and five of the top seven horses in the National Thoroughbred Racing Association's most recent Top 10 poll, the field size for those high-quality stakes was anemic, especially on the main track.

A total of 12 grade 1 and 2 stakes were contested on dirt, with seven of them grade 2 affairs. Yet those 12 races attracted just 64 starters for an average of 5.3 horses per race. The seven grade 2 stakes had the lowest turnout with 36 runners for an average of 5.1 per race, with three of them contested with just four starters. The five grade 1 dirt races had 28 starters for a 5.6 average.

The grade 1 and 2 turf races were a mixed bag. Seven grade 1 turf races had 62 starters for an average field size of 8.8, while the five grade 2 turf stakes featured 30 horses for a 6.0 average.

Average field size at the meet dropped to 7.35 per race from 7.62 in 2021.

Clearly, Saratoga, and a full 1,800-horse backstretch, could not arrive fast enough this year.

"The stalls are filled and we have some good outfits on hand and we should get the positive response we always get from horsemen at Saratoga," said Gabriel, who worked at NYRA as director of racing in 1998-99 and a racing secretary in 2014 before taking over as the SVP of racing in February. "Some very nice horses competed in the graded races at Belmont. We got to see some great stars and we hope it will be stepping stone for them to be at Saratoga.

"I thought there was a lull after the Belmont Stakes (G1) and then it picked up. Entries weren't too bad. I thought it helped  to have the consistency of the same racing secretary (Keith Doleshel) for all the meets. We got the condition book out early so people knew what the races at Saratoga would be and how they could use a Belmont race to prep for it. We're hopeful for a very positive meet."

In the first season at Saratoga under Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority protocols, the early returns are at least promising with Thursday's 10-race card drawing 105 entries (10.5 average) and 95 horses turning out for 10 races (9.5 average) on July 15. The two Thursday stakes, the Wilton Stakes (contested on the rebuilt one-mile Wilson Chute) and the Schuylerville Stakes (G3), each attracted nine entrants, and Friday's stakes, the Forbidden Apple Stakes (G3T), closed with a field of 13, including one main track only entrant, and the Coronation Cup Stakes closed with a field of 11, also including one main track only entrant.

A paucity of 2-year-old races contributed to the racing office's struggle to fill cards at Belmont Park, which was reflected in none of the nine 2-year-old fillies entered in the Schuylerville having a race in New York. Yet that situation figures to make a 180-degree turn in a positive direction at the Spa.

"The 2-year-old program started slow this year and that hurt us, but we should get going at Saratoga and fill the stakes and allowance races," Gabriel said.

Reflective of 2-year-old racing's prominence at the Spa, aside from the juvenile stakes on Thursday, there will be a 2-year-old maiden race on both Thursday and Friday. The July 16 card generated some good and bad news on the juvenile front as a robust field of 12 was drawn for the $175,000 Sanford Stakes (G3), but, reflective of the woes at Belmont, a $105,000 maiden race for colts did not fill. In the past, 2-year-old maiden races had been a staple of Saturday cards.

As always, a strong collection of the sport's brightest stars will be on display with eight of the top 10 horses in the NTRA poll targeting one of the grade 1 stakes during the 40 days. Life Is Good, Olympiad , Hot Rod Charlie , Jackie's Warrior , Clairiere , Letruska , Malathaat , Regal Glory , Bleecker Street , Jack Christopher , Early Voting , Rich Strike , Zandon , Epicenter , Charge It , Secret Oath , and Nest  are the standouts among the runners who will make races such as the Aug. 6 Whitney Stakes (G1), Aug. 20 Alabama Stakes (G1), and Aug. 27 Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) must-see events.

On the trainers' side, the New York regulars will be joined by an increased presence from the main string of Steve Asmussen, who broke the sport's all-time wins record and had five grade 1 wins at the 2021 meet, and Brad Cox, the Eclipse Award winner the last two years.

Other Midwesterners stabled for the meet include D. Wayne Lukas, Brendan Walsh, Tom Amoss, Rusty Arnold, Eddie Kenneally, and Al Stall Jr., and everyone figures to be hard-pressed to keep pace with perennial Spa champs Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher.

Brown is coming off a record-breaking Belmont Park spring/summer meet with 47 wins (12 in graded stakes) which may cost him some conditions for his horses early in the meet. But as Labor Day approaches, the four-time Spa champ should be quite prominent in the trainers' standings.

"We're having a great year and you want to keep it going," said Brown, who grew up about 15 miles from Saratoga in Mechanicville, N.Y. "Obviously we ran a lot of horses at Belmont so we might be a bit light for book one at Saratoga, but don't get me wrong. We still have some nice horses to run."

Pletcher, a 14-time Spa champ, may have finished third at the Belmont meet with 25 wins but he was a powerful force in the stakes races during the final month of the meet. Topped by a 1-2 finish in the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) with the sidelined Mo Donegal  and the filly Nest, the Hall of Famer won eight stakes (six of them graded) from June 4 through July 10.

Pletcher could also have either the favorite or a top contender in the meet's five premier dirt races for older horses with Life Is Good in the Whitney, Nest in the Alabama, Charge It in the Travers, Malathaat in the Aug. 27 Personal Ensign Stakes (G1), and Dynamic One  in the Sept. 3 Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1)—not to mention a top 2-year-old or two who will likely emerge during the meet.

European-based trainer Joseph O'Brien, the 29-year-old son of the legendary Aidan O'Brien, will have a string of about six horses that could send a loud message to his fellow conditioners overseas. While most Euro trainers ship in for specific races, should O'Brien thrive at the Spa, it could entice other outfits from across the Atlantic Ocean to send over horses for New York's maiden and allowance races that are much richer than the purses for similar European races.

"This time of year is a down period for Europeans," Gabriel said. "Joseph has a vision to do things outside of the box. He's raced in America and tried to branch out. He's run in the Melbourne Cup (G1) in Australia. He has some partnerships with some Americans and they want to run at Saratoga. We wish him the best. It's a great venture for him. It's not something Europeans are going to do all the time, but it can be very beneficial for them."

Luis Saez will face a wave of challengers while defending his 2021 riding title against a collection of the sport's best jockeys that also includes Irad Ortiz Jr., Jose Ortiz, Joel Rosario, Flavien Prat, John Velazquez, Javier Castellano, and Dylan Davis, who had a breakthrough meet at Belmont, finishing one win behind Ortiz Jr. for the riding crown.

The meet, which can be seen on a daily basis through more than 225 hours of coverage on FOX Sports networks, will also feature the continuation of the Caesars Turf Triple with the Aug. 6 Caesars Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T) and the filly Triple Crown with the Aug. 7 Saratoga Oaks Invitational Stakes (G3T).

As for changes, aside from the Wilson Chute, on the hospitality end, the meet will mark the debut of the two-story renovated Paddock Bar and new Paddock Suite in the backyard. New wagers will include a two-day double linking the Saratoga Derby and Oaks; a two-day Pick 6 on Aug. 26-27 and Sept. 4-5; the addition of the Cross Country Pick 5 on some Sundays, and a $3 Pick 3 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Fans can also purchase tickets for a Breakfast and Breeding Farm Tour that takes patrons to the nearby Old Tavern Farm for a 90-minute walking tour.

In the end, everything will be rolled up into a sensational package that will have a high bar to match. Wagering was a record-breaking $815.5 million in 2021, which could be difficult to match if field size remains an issue.

Attendance checked in at 1,046,478  last year, marking the sixth-straight time (excluding the 2020 meet without fans) that the total topped 1 million. As unpredictable as the future may be, barring prolonged stretches of miserable weather or a resurgence of COVID-19, adding a seventh year to the attendance streak seems one of the best bets of the meet. 

As much as horses may not show up for races as often as they used to, 2022 promises to once again illustrate why Saratoga remains a nirvana for fans and NYRA's financial health.

"It's important that we have the teamwork of NYRA and the horsemen so that we can present to the world how great racing at Saratoga can be," Gabriel said. "Saratoga is truly important to the sport and NYRA."