...rounding the club house turn for the first time, it was opening day at historic Saratoga Race Course yesterday, of the 2008 Summer meet.
Here's what a local reporter had to say:
Running in the rain
Wet weather helped usher in the start of the racing season
By THOMAS DIMOPOULOS
tdimopoulos@poststar.com
Thursday, July 24, 2008 1:54 AM EDT
SARATOGA SPRINGS - In a summer when experts have sounded ominous warning bells for the American economy, at the Saratoga Race Course they played the "Call to the Post."
"There's no cutting back when it comes to the horses," said Cy Collins, one of a group of four men who are renting a cabin in Corinth for the week. The men made the 800-mile trip from Cincinnati at a cost of $150 in gas to upstate New York for the opening day of the 2008 season at the Saratoga Race Course.
Despite the cost of everything in New York being one-and-a-half times more than it is in Ohio, the men said they plan to spend at least two nights visiting downtown Saratoga Springs and the balance of their time split between the racecourse and staying close to the cabin in the northern part of the county.
"I've been coming here for 15 years and you just can't miss opening day," said Dan Lewek, a former area resident who paid a few hundred dollars for an East Coast flight to come to opening day from South Carolina, where Lewek currently makes his home.
Any ominous tones related to the potential of a downturn in the economy had no effect on his coming to Saratoga, he said.
A crowd of several hundred racing fans braved the steady morning rain that greeted the opening of the 140th season at the racecourse.
Shortly after they had entered the gates at 11 a.m., New York Racing Association President Charles Hayward mused about the first-day attendance.
"Last year, we had about 30,000, which is a strong crowd. Today I would be happy with 20,000," he said, casting his gaze at an endless gray cloud covering that stretched as far as the eye could see.
The largest opening day crowd record was set in July 2002 when 32,913 attended.
The official opening day attendance count was 18,127.
Gavin Landry spent 12 years as president of the Saratoga Convention and Tourism Bureau prior to accepting a management position with NYRA in 2007.
"Even if gas was 29 cents a gallon, a lot still depends on Mother Nature," said Landry, as he re-iterated a phrase often used by Hayward.
Landry added that he was hopeful for the summer season because unlike other destination locations like Las Vegas, Saratoga Springs has access to tens of million of people who are within three to five hours of drive-time away.
For much of the crowd who were not sheltered by the cover of the grandstand, it was an afternoon spent clutching an umbrella with one hand and a tip sheet with the other. Women decked in stylish hats and fashionable dresses used rain gear as a wardrobe accessory and many high-heel shoes were replaced by more practical flip-flops.
Many said the rain was not going to stand in the way of the tradition of attending opening day at the racecourse.
"I have never missed an opening day in 26 years, rain, shine, or whatever," said 69-year-old Jim Cleland, who headed a group of dozens of friends and family from Amsterdam, in Montgomery County, who gather at "JC's Tree."
The group first began assembling more than a quarter-century ago near a then-small tree that is surrounded by picnic tables in an area that leads to the paddock.
Now the tree climbs more than 20 feet and is festooned with a sign that reads "JC's Tree."
"Everyone knows this tree," said Cleland. "We put up the sign and it stays there. And if for some reason it comes down, well, we got another 10 signs in the bag with us."
Don Rougia has been coming to opening day since his grandfather first brought him to the event 40 years ago. Rougia, his wife and their two sons set up a tent near the paddock on Wednesday. The family from Mechanicville said higher gas prices are not much of an issue to them specifically, given the short distance to Saratoga. As for any worry about a downturn in the economy, Rougia said the family makes sure to put away money throughout the year specifically for the summer season.
The city of Mechanicville was also represented on the track on opening day.
In the first race of the first day, Mechanicville native Chad Brown emerged victorious in his hometown debut, when the horse he trained, Star Player, took first place and returned $12.20 on a $2 wager.
"I've been waiting a long time to run here," said the somewhat stunned Brown as he appeared in the winner's circle with his wife Terrill, who is expecting the couple's first child in mid-August.
"It feels good. It feels unbelievable," said Brown, who added that he had many friends in attendance at the racecourse where he had spent many of his childhood days growing up.
Standing nearby, Mary Ann Rotella was fulfilling her own opening day memories in a way that she said was a remembrance of her late father.
"My father used to bring me here when I was a little girl," recalled Rotella, who lives in New Jersey and is renting a home near the track.
"My father was everything to me. And this place is like a church to me. I come here every year in his name so that the legacy can live on."
Racing silks of winning stables
An on-site mineral spring, named after the great horse, Man O' War
