The Belmont Stakes at Saratoga was by all accounts very successful and adds another tier to the storied history of The Spa.
In S.P.A.C. speak that means the warm-up act is over, it’s time for the headliner to take the stage.
The 40-day racing season, the 156th since the first meet was staged in 1863, commences Thursday with an 11-race program at Saratoga Race Course, America’s oldest sporting venue.
The listed six-furlong $175,000 Schuylerville Stakes (G3) for 2-year-old fillies, is the traditional opening-day feature. Post Time for the first race is 1:10.
When the meet concludes on Labor Day, September 2nd, more than 400 races will have been contested on dirt and turf.
The New York Racing Association has scheduled 71 Stakes worth $20.75 million in purses. There are 41 Graded Stakes spread across the season, 18 of them at the top-level, Grade I.
Last year Linda Rice Won the last race of the meet to tie Chad Brown for the trainer’s title with 35 Victories. It was Brown’s third-straight meet title, sixth overall and Rice’s second.
In recent years, Brown and 14-time meet Champion Todd Pletcher have vied for the top spot. Pletcher enters this year’s meet with 698 Victories at Saratoga with a record 44 Grade I scores.
Five-time Eclipse Award-Winning jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. Won his fifth Saratoga riding title last summer with 62 Victories, 25 more than his brother Jose.
As usual, weather conditions will have a huge role in the meet’s business success.
In 2023 rainy weather forced NYRA to move 65 races off the turf, leading to dozens of scratches, and handle fell 9.9% from the 2022 figure when only 16 races were switched to the dirt.
While there is at least one Grade I race on each of the eight Saturdays, the $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes on August 24th and the $1-million GI Whitney Stakes on August 3rd are the marquee events of the season and anchor huge Stakes programs.
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, 70, has been a Saratoga regular since 1987 and has been the leading trainer nine times.
Last year, with a powerful roster of stars, he Won five stakes at Saratoga which helped him lock up the Eclipse Award.
Mott, based in Saratoga throughout the April-November training season, said the race meet is the high point of the year for him:
“All the best racing is up here,” Mott said. “They’ve got good racing at different points along the way, Keeneland, Churchill, but it really all kind of comes together here. For the Midwest, and in the East Coast, I think this is the championship meet.”
“Doesn’t mean that’s where all the good races are, but they have stakes almost every day here. You see a lot of good racing. A lot of good horses show up and are ready to go this time of year. And you see a lot of good 2-year-old racing, so the people that like to look into the future, you can get an indication of what might show up next year.”
Amen Bill. Best of luck to everyone.
RIDERS UP !
