Saratoga Race Course opens for its regular summer meet in four weeks.

Thoroughbred racing has no finer setting than Saratoga, named one of the world’s greatest sporting venues by Sports Illustrated.

At the Spa, the past comes alive in the historic grandstand as fans experience not only the best in racing, but the unmatched ambience and charm of historic Saratoga Springs.
 
Already famous for its mineral baths, Saratoga held its first thoroughbred meet just a month after the Battle of Gettysburg.

Staged by gambler, casino owner, ex-boxing champion and future Congressman John Old Smoke Morrissey and beginning on August 3rd, 1863, the four-day meet drew thousands of locals and tourists.  

Encouraged by the success of that first meet, Morrissey promptly enlisted his friends John R. Hunter, William Travers and Leonard Jerome to form the Saratoga Association.

The Association’s first order of business was the construction of a new, permanent grandstand on the current site of Saratoga Race Course.

Today, when one looks out over the jam-packed backyard and grandstand on any sunny summer afternoon, it’s hard to imagine that racing at Saratoga was nearly eradicated.

In the early 1960’s, there was a movement to conduct summer racing exclusively at the new and modern Aqueduct Racetrack.

But in 1962, New York State Governor W. Averill Harriman signed The Harriman Law, which mandated a minimum of 24 race days at Saratoga every year.

These days, the population of Saratoga Springs triples in size when the thoroughbreds return each summer, and those who come for the races soon discover the area’s amazing breadth of history and culture.

Saratoga Springs is home to the National Museum of Racing, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), the National Museum of the Dance, and many art galleries.

Resplendent in Victorian architecture, it also boasts Yaddo Rose Gardens, the Little Theatre at SPAC, the Saratoga Music Hall and the Foundation for Baroque Music.

Saratoga Springs is truly The Summer Place To Be.