Saratoga

[Pumpkinpie]

I wonder if they will take a hard long look over the past meet.  A lot of horses were carried off.  Feel bad for Coach Parcells.  What is your take now that the meet is over?

[Generation XYZ]

As I said in other threads. I think 2023 was an awful meet. Although you can't predict weather. You can prepare the track for in climate weather.  Unfortunately I think the track surface was absurd this year and the amount of turf races that had to go off on dirt was a big factor in the large number of injuries and scratched this year.

[luker2453]

Or maybe you mean "inclement weather"?  Def., unpleasant, cold and or stormy, I think that is where you might have been heading.

[Jackie Mo]

they scheduled 410 grass races and only ran 140

they raced on grass on a day they shouldnt have and chopped up the course, forcing no grass for 12 days

they had a power failure cancelling one race

they switched from grass to sloppy track when the jockeys had to call the stewards-causing the late pick 4 and pick 5 to be considered "all" races one day

one day it rained so much they cancelled the last four races

they had two catastrophic breakdowns on national TV on their two biggest days as New York Thunder and Maple Leaf Mel were clear winners home free-one on Whitney Day the other on Travers Day

handle was down somewhere near 9%

[luker2453]

Sucks to be Saratoga.

[Generation XYZ]

Or maybe you mean "inclement weather"?  Def., unpleasant, cold and or stormy, I think that is where you might have been heading.

I was heading int that general direction.

[BoKnows]

they scheduled 410 grass races and only ran 140

they raced on grass on a day they shouldnt have and chopped up the course, forcing no grass for 12 days

they had a power failure cancelling one race

they switched from grass to sloppy track when the jockeys had to call the stewards-causing the late pick 4 and pick 5 to be considered "all" races one day

one day it rained so much they cancelled the last four races

they had two catastrophic breakdowns on national TV on their two biggest days as New York Thunder and Maple Leaf Mel were clear winners home free-one on Whitney Day the other on Travers Day

handle was down somewhere near 9%

I do have to dispute some of your "facts".  There is no way they scheduled 410 grass races in a 40 day meet. I am pretty sure that the number of races taken off the grass was somewhere in the area of 75. There was also no 12 day period with no grass racing during the meet, even if you include dark days in the count.

That being said, I do agree that it was an awful meet. I am surprised that the handle was only down 9%. There were plenty of unbettable races.

NYTHA is having a webinar on Friday with some of the NYRA brass to review the meet. It will be interesting to see how they try and spin this.

[theokodjak26]

It’s becoming harder and harder to be an on track Saratoga fan. The weather has definitely changed over the most recent 10 years. Too much rain and humidity for me to hang out in the picnic area. The condition book is chock full of 2 year olds with no real info available or even exists. So the betting typically lands on the biggest owners, trainers and Ortiz Jr. Incredibly it comes too often for me. But it’s the turf racing, or lack there of due to weather, that really puts a damper on things. How many 3,4 or 5 horse fields were there in 2023? In the approximately 400 races run the top 10 trainers accounted for 190 wins. This only left 110 wins split among the other 28 trainers that had at least 2 wins. So I am not surprised the handle was down 6-7%. I would really like to know what the on-site handle and attendance comparisons were vs 2022. I used to fly up from South Florida to attend some of the Saratoga meet. For me it has lost some of the excitement for all my above listed reasons. I leave this to the newer generations who know no better but hope they enjoy it all as I did for a lot of years.

[dougie]

For many Saratoga is more than just "racing". It was an "event". The place to be seen for the very rich and famous. For bettors like me, i was disappointed with the small fields due to terrible weather.  The feel of it seems different than in past years. I can't really put my finger on it. It's in the books now. And we are off to the "Big A". Good luck to all!