Summer Begins
Saratoga opens today! Hooray! Don’t forget your mortality as you’re joining Tom Durkin in his final, traditional opening call, “And they’re off at Saratoga!” Because, “The Spa may be timeless, but we aren’t.” (I kid, Joe. That’s so true.)
John Pricci keeps up the cheer and mourns the lost: “I have no idea what opening day will be like this time; I am haunted by history.”
Today’s Schuylerville Stakes drew five 2-year-old fillies, which has Bill Finley pondering how to fix the broken juvenile racing calendar. “One solution is to simply give up,” he writes. “Do away with the earlier stakes, save money and replace with them with a couple of allowance races.” Maybe, but it sure seems like if there’s anything trainers want to do less than start 2-year-olds in early season stakes, it’s start them in allowance races, ever. (See: 1, 2.)
International superstar jockey Frankie Dettori makes his Saratoga debut this weekend, but he’ll miss his first couple of rides today due to travel troubles, tweets David Grening. He’ll have about 12 chances for a flying dismount in the winner’s circle before the end of Sunday’s card.
