Saratoga: One trip isn’t enough
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Driving up Union Avenue, you’re reminded this is where Secretariat lost to Onion, Gallant Fox to Jim Dandy and Man o’War was upset by Upset — earning Saratoga the moniker as the Graveyard of Champions.
Step inside the gates and watch horses walk right through the crowd, on a white-fenced path, to get to the paddock. If you can still breathe, you might feel like Jon Voight crashing the Andy Warhol-themed party in “Midnight Cowboy” and asking Dustin Hoffman, “Do you think we should let them know that we’re here?”
Visiting Saratoga Race Course is a must-see experience for any racing fan or student of history. It’s everything it’s said to be and then some. One trip is not enough.
It was here that, according to legend, Art Rooney made enough money betting horses one summer to bankroll the Pittsburgh Steelers for years. “The Chief,” as he was called, won four Super Bowls and lived until age 87. In less certain times, “The biggest thrill wasn’t in winning on Sunday,” he said, “but in meeting the payroll on Monday.”
He attributed his success in part to the company he kept. “Sportswriters. They were all my friends,” he said. “They were racetrack guys and so was I.”
It was also at Saratoga in the summer of 1919 that talk was in the air about fixing that year’s World Series. Before and after the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Chicago White Sox five games to three, New York gambler Arnold Rothstein’s name was much in the news. F. Scott Fitzgerald referred to Rothstein as “Meyer Wolfsheim” in “The Great Gatsby,” about whom narrator Nick Carraway asked the title character, one of Wolfsheim’s associates, over lunch one day why the fixer wasn’t in jail.
“They can’t touch him, old sport,” said the ill-fated Jay Gatsby, explaining to his naive friend that Wolfsheim (Rothstein) pulled it off “because he saw the opportunity.”
Speaking of duplicity, which way would you have bet in the Battle of Saratoga (1777) knowing that the American forces were led by Gen. Benedict Arnold? Before his name became linked with Judas Iscariot in the annals of deception, Arnold was wounded at Saratoga and later assumed command at West Point, which he planned to surrender to the British forces.
Saratoga racing, relatively honest by comparison, dates to the Civil War. A four-day racing season was held in 1863, the year of Gettysburg, and a year later, one William R. Travers, president of the old Saratoga Racing Association, campaigned the first winner (Kentucky) of what would become the Travers Stakes, the track’s premier race.
Nicknamed the “Mid-Summer Derby,” the 148th running of the Travers Aug. 26 carries a $1,250,000 purse. The 2015 renewal, worth $1.6 million, produced one of the greatest upsets in Saratoga history when Keen Ice defeated Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, the latter’s speed softened by Frosted going a mile and a quarter.
Getting to Saratoga is relatively easy — Little Rock to Charlotte to Albany by air, then 20-something miles north on Interstate 87 by rental car. One can also take a scenic train ride up the Hudson River from Grand Central Station. Almost equidistant between New York and Montreal, this lakeside resort was truly the “August place to be” when the track raced only four weeks. One of the few major tracks that races six days a week (dark on Tuesday), the first August card this
year begins Week 3, Day 11 of 40.
To many, Saratoga is simply “The Spa,” immortalized in song by Carly Simon in “You’re So Vain.” Life imitates art this year with the Aug. 21 total eclipse of the sun, mentioned in Simon’s song as the reason her ex-lover — be it Warren Beatty, James Taylor, Mick Jagger or a composite thereof — flew by Lear Jet to Nova Scotia after a Saratoga race that “your horse naturally won.”
Cleverly, Oaklawn Park has advertised itself over the years as “the Saratoga of the South.” Long before that, Hot Springs was seen as a winter-spring getaway to take the baths, play the horses or evade a grand jury — or all three.
Native New Yorker Robert H. Boyle captured the scene in the March 19, 1962, issue of Sports Illustrated: “The hottest spring in Hot Springs: That’s the forecast for this jumping Arkansas town where gambling is wide open, the track is fast and the fishing is fine.”
Hot Springs and Saratoga Springs have adjusted to the times, legalizing the off-track gambling that once flourished illegally under the noses of city officials. An Oaklawn visitor can linger after the races some nights until 6 a.m. to play what track management prefers you call electronic games of skill. That is, if the inveterate blackjack, poker or roulette player ever sees a live race or one of the simulcast variety.
Oaklawn no longer announces a true head count on race days, yet Hot Springs, like Saratoga Springs, is a tourism-driven community and track attendance still matters. It was encouraging then to see so many younger faces in the crowd at Saratoga this past weekend, keeping alive a tradition perhaps started by their parents or their grandparents, or starting one.
Both tracks aggressively promote their advanced-deposit-wagering programs — OaklawnAnywhere.com locally — allowing patrons to make legal bets on races across the country. Oaklawn bettors thus have a financial stake in horses after they leave Hot Springs and new ones to watch in the coming season. Horse racing constantly needs to replenish its ever-aging, demographically unfriendly fan base, and this is one way to help.
If horse racing needs anything more than younger fans, it’s an infusion of money from new owners. To that end, the new Oaklawn Racing Club is greeted with frantic hellos. The subject came up when, mingling through the crowd Saturday, I came upon Oaklawn general manager Wayne Smith, also on his first visit to Saratoga.
Limiting the initial venture to 200 shareholders at $500 each, Smith wonders if “thousands” won’t respond. We agreed that Ron Moquett is an ideal choice to train the stable’s first horse. The Greenwood native loves Oaklawn passionately and is A-1 at social media, an important tool in cultivating new fans.
Horse racing still has a multitude of problems — some will never see it as anything but a work of the devil, an attitude that at times has pervaded the Arkansas governor’s office. Sometimes in spite of itself, the sport endures.
Locally, one can see the advantages of Oaklawn having a turf course or a fall season or even an overhead walkway on Central Avenue. But imagine Hot Springs without racing, if you can. Because if that ever happens, you’d better hope the fishing is fine.