Horse Racing: Saratoga opens for the 142nd time
The 142nd season of the Saratoga race meet kicked off and was greeted by rain on opening day. Horse racing enthusiasts would be disappointed with the first day weather but the rain wasn’t quite able to dampen Saratoga’s spirit. The opening day saw an expected drop in attendance and handles but first day’s bad luck shouldn’t be considered a sign of things to come. This is Saratoga after all.
The rain didn’t stop all day and the deluge caused a number of cancellations. Five turf races scheduled for the day had to be moved to dirt. The opening day of the 2009 Saratoga meet also saw intermittent rain, but the fact that rain last year resulted in only one turf race having to be moved in contrast to this year’s five, serves as a benchmark to gauge the severity of the rain.
The attendance this year was also down by almost 9% but given the conditions, even that drop might actually mean that there is more interest this year than last. 23 thousand people came out on opening day as opposed to 25 last year.
There was, however, a disproportionate drop in handle. Compared to last year’s $3.6 million, the on-track handle dropped 14.3 percent to $3.1 million this year. All-sources handle was still larger in comparison and the drop registered from last year was just 6.1 percent. Charles Hayward of the New York Racing Association was somehow still quite optimistic. He said that the even with the decreasing handles Saratoga had ‘far surpassed’ Belmont Park and reassured everyone that this year would see an excellent Saratoga meet as soon as the weather becomes more accommodating.
This is a day for horseracing and all the financial and political wriggling takes a back seat to make room for genuine sport. 40 days of racing except for Tuesdays. This year’s meet would be the longest Saratoga season since 1982. The meet was stretched an additional 4 days to get as much racing and betting out of this season as possible. Saratoga is NYRA’s cash cow, and if this season doesn’t work out for them, there would be little hope for Horse Racing in New York unless racetracks are converted into ‘racinos.’
Stretching the number of days by four was a decision that was met with much criticism, considering the shortage of horses. Hayward was convinced that the 40 day meet wouldn’t dilute the quality of racing. Saratoga will continue to receive 20 thousand people each day and 4 added days means millions of dollar in additional revenue. Hayward did, however, make it clear that 40 days would be the limit and the meet would not be stretched any further. First day of racing showed no signs of diluted quality. The races that ran despite the rain supported reasonable fields.
New York Racing Association Director of Racing, P.J. Campo, said that weather is always an important factor for any racing meet. “We’ve got two turf courses and we’ve got 40 racing days to use them — to spread everything out is huge,” he said. Campo believed that proper planning of race cards could make Mother Nature’s fury manageable. That, however, depends on how merciful Mother Nature feels like being.
Saratoga came extremely close to cancelling the entire meet. The season can take off only because a $25 million dollars injection of cash the NYRA received from the state. It’s a reasonable bet now that Saratoga administration would do all it can to give fans a worthy season.
More than 30 graded races are scheduled for this season, including 15 Grade I races. The most notable among them are G1 Whitney Handicap, Alabama Stakes, Woodward Stakes and the Travers Stakes with a purse of $1 million.
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