People have been taking the train to Saratoga Springs for horse racing since 1864. While the 2018 Saratoga Racing Season was only 40 days (July 20 – September 3), it was 40 days of premier racing. Attendance this year exceeded 1.1 million people and almost $700 million dollars was wagered which is a testament to the quality of the racing.
We (Woodford Racing) had three starters during this year’s racing Meet, all in graded stakes races. Engage ran second in the Grade 3, $200,000 Amsterdam Stakes and fourth in the Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes while Hot Springs ran fourth in the Grade 3, $300,000 Saranac Stakes.
Hot Springs
Engage
In addition to the world class racing, it was fun to expose friends and family to what goes on “behind the scenes”. Far more time goes into preparing horses to race than the races themselves. Each morning we would make the rounds in the backstretch, visiting the barns of our four trainers and watching the horses work out. It was enjoyable to listen to both the Woodford Racing trainers (Chad Brown and Steve Asmussen) as well as spending time with Christophe Clement and Jeremiah Englehart who train four of our 2 year old horses.
Jeremiah Englehart and Bill Parcells
When the horses were not the focus, it’s always interesting to explore the various activities going on throughout the grounds of the race track. Bands representing every music genre, artists and various New York State vintners/hard cider producers/craft beer brewers were anxious to entertain you and share their story!
While 40 days of racing is significant, it seems like this year’s racing was over shortly after it started. I guess that’s why we are already looking forward to when racing returns to Saratoga in 2019!
UPDATE: Last week’s blog highlighted Campaign’s win at Kentucky Downs on September 1. He came out of the race in great shape so we (Woodford Racing) rolled the dice and ran him again at Kentucky Downs on Saturday (September 8) for a purse of $140,000.