Plenty of Action to Start Saratoga Meet

There is no period of warming up, no easing into the 40-day Saratoga Race Course meet that begins July 21.

The opening weekend of the all-important race meet begins Friday with five graded stakes, including opening day co-features of the $150,000 Schuylerville Stakes (G3) for 2-year-old fillies and $150,000 Lake George Stakes (G3T) for 3-year-old fillies on turf, as Saratoga starts to award a record $18.775 million from 69 stakes this meet.

Opening Saturday will feature the $500,000 Diana Stakes (G1T) for fillies and mares and the $150,000 Sanford Stakes (G3) for juveniles, and opening Sunday will offer the $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) for 3-year-old fillies.

Once started, Saratoga will race every day of the week but Tuesday through Labor Day, Sept. 4.

Horsemen are ready to target those lucrative purses as 103 horses (including also-eligibles) were entered in Friday's 10 races. Last year's meet averaged 8.09 starters per race, down slightly from 8.36 in 2015.

Last year's 40-day meet saw more than $1 million in purses awarded each day, with an average of $100,467 per race. Total purses reached $40,990,640, which was down 2.4% from the $42,017,320 awarded in 2015, according to Jockey Club Information Systems reports.

Besides interest from horsemen, the meet enjoys strong interest from horseplayers. In 2015 the New York Racing Association reported record Saratoga handle of $648,272,805, a number nearly matched last year at $647,322,503.

Travers Stakes (G1) day is set for Aug. 26 and that card will feature five other grade 1 races. Last year champion Arrogate began his incredible victory streak with a record-setting run in the "Midsummer Derby."

Chad Brown will try to repeat as the top conditioner after a meet-record 40 wins last year, which helped him land his first Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer. The competition for top jockey could again be a brothers' duel after Jose Ortiz took honors in 2016 with 65 wins, eight more than his brother, 2015 Saratoga leader Irad Ortiz Jr.

For on-track fans, a number of infrastructure upgrades will be evident, including a series of enhancements to the historic paddock mutuel building designed to ensure the continued preservation of the historically significant building, which was built in 1902.

A revitalized playground area offers families a smoke- and alcohol-free interactive play area near the reserved seats box office. New features of the Saratoga Family Zone include an oval multi-lane running track surrounding the playscape, a miniature replica starting gate, a "selfie" photo station, spring horses, and educational panels designed to teach children about the life of a race horse.

A new elevator in the grandstand will provide guests easy access to the facility's upper level. The elevator will complement the clubhouse escalator introduced last season.

This year's enhancements to the facility bring the total amount of capital improvements at Saratoga Race Course to $29 million since 2013.

"Saratoga Race Course is a special place and we are pleased to continue to invest in this historic property to provide an enhanced experience for the greatest fans in racing," said NYRA CEO and president Chris Kay. "These continued improvements reflect NYRA's commitment to cultivate and grow new generations of fans, and we look forward to another tremendous season at Saratoga."

The 2017 season will be marked by the Saratoga debut of NYRA XP, a new app that will enable fans to personalize and navigate their on-track experience through their mobile device. Fans who download NYRA XP will be able to learn about upcoming events, purchase tickets, find their seat location, bet through NYRA Bets, live stream races, and customize their viewing experience from various camera locations.