So, the historic, the incomparable and the sensational Saratoga meet kicked off for its 153rd racing season last Thursday. Whether you think about it as the August place to be – running August through Labor Day back in the day or as your Thoroughbred version of Disneyland, there simply is no meet like it.
Maybe it’s the carefree, lazy summer days filled with humidity and the constant threat of rain. Maybe it’s racing’s biggest stars parading for gamblers and fans. Maybe it’s the ancient clubhouse and grandstand with fans slowly whirling, pretending to cool patrons off. And just maybe, it’s the thrill of turning two dollars into much more at a track gleefully called, “The Graveyard of Champions.”
Saratoga is simply different, better. An escape from reality where it doesn’t matter where you’re from as long as you have an opinion about a horse and a few bucks to back it.
Something Cool
This year’s top three-year-olds will be ready to roll including the possibility of all three winners of 2022 Triple Crown series butting heads in the Travers Stakes – Saratoga’s signature race. The winning connections of the Kentucky Derby, Rich Strike; Preakness, Early Voting and Belmont Stakes, Mo Donegal have all indicated that the Travers is on their horse’s summer dance card. Even though it’s a little more common than Halley’s Comet sightings, three winners of Triple Crown races lining up in the Travers does not happen often.
The three-year-old fillies will be represented as well with Kentucky Oaks winner, Secret Oath trained by D. Wayne Lukas, who all of a sudden has a barn of stars again and Belmont Stakes runner up Nest possibly hooking up as soon as the second Saturday of the meet in the Country Club American Oaks.
One of the fastest horses on the planet, Life is Good, will be stretching out in the Whitney. It remains to be seen if the undefeated and equally, if not faster, older horse, Flightline will join him on the first Saturday in August possibly setting up the race of the season.
Something New
The paddock bar has undergone a renovation with a new paddock suite that will sit atop the bar and overlook the horses’ paths to the track. The new digs won’t come cheap at $500 for a table of four during the early racing dates and then upwards of $10,000 to rent the entire suite in August.
Sundays, longtime give away days, will now become “Stars at the Spa.” Depending on what you consider a star, this may or may not be for you. Charles Oakley, a trash-talking, one-time NBA All-Star; Teresa Giudice, a reality show housewife and a legit, albeit baseball, star Bernie Williams, who finished with a career batting average just a few ticks under .300 are your stars.
A Bold Prediction
Todd Pletcher will challenge Chad Brown for the training title. Brown is loaded, especially if all races stay on the turf, and he gets multiple entries in multiple times, but something tells me Pletcher is going to rebound off average stake’s performances the last few years and threaten, if not beat Brown for the title. I’ll call it 38-37 in Brown’s favor winning the final feature of the meet for the victory.
Unpopular opinion
Hattie’s fried chicken is just OK. It’s not my go-to eating destination on track. I usually hit Pies on Wheels or the Mac Truck.
Pick 5s a plenty
Anyone who knows me, knows I love playing the Pick 5. I’ll post two Late Pick 5 tickets each week and recap on how I did in the following week’s column. Since I’ve started this blog after opening week, I’ll start with how I did, first. Not good.
Last week I played three unsuccessful Pick 5s. Winners in each leg are in bold. I really thought I was going to win on Saturday, which started well and was blown up in leg three. And the plays were:
7/15
Played: 4,7,8,11/1,3/4,6,7,8,10/1,8,10/2,7 cost $120
Results: 4/3/11/10/3
Return: $0
7/16/
Played: 2,9/2,3/2,3,9/4,5,6/3,4,6 cost $54
9/6/6/6/13 -OOF!
Return: $0
7/17
Played: 2,3,9,10/2,5/2,8/1,3,5,6/4,5 cost $64
6/4/8/6/5
Return: $0
Week 1: $238 bet and $0 back.
Well before weather, scratches and how the track is playing, here are my two suggested plays for this coming week.
7/21
2,3,4/5,6/1,6,7/4/1,3,6,9, cost $36
7/22
1,7,8/1,6/1,5,6/3,4,5,6,8/5,6 cost $90
*These are initial thoughts I will update Pick 5s on day of races in comments.
Not really fond of any of the Late Pick 5 sequences this week (Wednesday-Friday) so I bet a small P5 on Wednesday because I liked a single in the third leg:
2,5/2,6,9/9/3,4/1A,7,9 for $18
Knocked out in first leg, I'll wait for the weekend for any further Pick 5 plays.
