Just back from the famous place that Red Smith said if you make a turn on Union Avenue and go in, you go back 100 years. Well, for me it's not quite a 100 years, but it is several decades I've been showing up at The Spa, only once interrupted by the lockdown of 2020.
The great writer Thomas Wolfe once said you can't go home again. But he probably never kept going to Saratoga. In the Frank Loesser musical Guys and Dolls, in the 'Adelaide's Lament' number, Adelaide, the very long-term engaged Hot Club performer, is bemoaning her continued state of non-matrimony to Nathan Detroit by recalling that they head for Niagara Falls for what she hopes will be her nuptials, only to "get off at Saratoga, for the 14th time!" The train keeps going, but she and Nathan keep getting off. Still not married.
I always remember this part of the show when arriving at Saratoga via the Northway, where the exit number is 14. Frank Loesser couldn't have known this when the lyrics were written, because the Northway wasn't around in 1950. But maybe someone else did.
This year it has rained often at Saratoga. The whole region has gotten a liberal dousing nearly every day in July, and now August. For our five day stand this past week we had all turf races taken off the turf on Thursday—a day of heavy rain—and on the other days only a few of the carded turf races remained on the turf. There were a lot of scratches.
The effects of the pandemic are hardly over, despite the mask-free environment. Restaurants are short staffed, and are closed extra days during the week. As usual, we got to eat at the venerable fried chicken place Hatties on Wednesday, but found it closed on Sunday when we doubled back. Frustrating.
A favorite post-meal haunt, The Northshire bookstore closed at 7 P.M., before we finished eating. The Lyric bookstore already has been closing before we get there, and now the Northshire. No bookstore browsing.
One gem did emerge when the town was strolled through—the Crafter's Gallery, where there is always an assortment of photos, posters, and other trinkets. I always go through the photo bin and this year I came up with the absolute gem pictured above.
I've never seen this photo from Secretariat's 1973 Belmont. It's mind blowing to me, notably because I was there that fateful day, and when I look up from the computer I see the famous photo I have of Ron Turcotte looking at the board and noting the telemeter time. You have to be of a certain age and well into your Medicare benefits to remember the Secretariat era. Most people have no connection to it.
The photo is at first a bit confusing. Are we looking at a workout at the Oklahoma training track? That can't actually be a race, can it? Yes.
Note the marking on the quarter pole, ¼, The pole doesn't look like that anymore, and is not marked with the ¼ marking. I don't know who took the photo. The photo is unsigned. So, despite a bit of a deserted, partially closed up town, I walked away with a gem.
And with four more days in attendance—lengthened by the downstate hurricane that forced us to stay an extra day— the week's worth of wagering was highly successful.
On getting home, I caught up on the papers and saw that Joe Drape of the NYT had a short piece on the Saratoga loyalists who show up at ridiculously early hours to claim a picnic table of battered wood. On Wednesday, I happened to spot Joe at a table in the Fourstardave area, seated with friends and relatives.
I introduced myself since Joe and I were expecting to run to each other at the track. I had just hit my first winner, and therefore was in a sociable mood. I teased Joe about his being on a "busman's holiday" and he replied he generally is not in the press box for the races. We discussed favorite betting formats (I don't love multi-led wagering; Joe will allow himself to take an interest in the last Pick-4).
With betting on our minds, we didn't get a chance for a long conversation. Spotting Joe again after the 9th race he boasted, "we're alive!" I didn't see Joe after that, but the Pick-4 did pay a decent $108. I hope he had it.
Joe's 'Postcard from Saratoga' piece in Tuesday's paper nicely captures the spirit of the Saratoga patrons who make securing a picnic table an accomplishment as good as hitting a Pick-Six. The upstate patron doesn't travel lightly to the races. They always look they're going camping. They are always carrying coolers, pulling wagons with folding chairs, and erecting four-posted awnings when it rains. They are land rush people on a mission.
I didn't know the gates opened as early as 7 A.M., but that helps explain the billboard sign that Dunkin' Donuts is open at 7 A.M. We wondered who was at the track eating donuts 5 hours before post time?
I think I'm reading the betting handle is up this year, which is not surprising given all the wagering platforms that bets can be placed through and that last year was a pandemic anomaly. Personal on-track wagering is probably not a great percentage of the handle, since from the seats at the Fourstardave sports bar you can see the parade of people who pass by with nary a program, Racing Form, tip sheet or newspaper in sight. But they do have food. These people eat.
It is nice to see so many people at the races, even if it appears that they're more interested in showing off their summer dresses, hats and fascinators. It is certainly a different crowd from us downstate denizens. It's an upstate beach without swimsuits.
As for the this year's wagering, even with the off-the-turfers and multiple scratches, we bet of 49 of 51 races and never had to reload the initial voucher, and only dipped ever-so slightly below the initial outlay. Less than the price of lunch.
Best race viewed? There were several. Any of the ones with a winning ticket.
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