The remarkable attendance figures that have been attributed
to this meet were enhanced further on Sunday by the third of four giveaway
promotions. Free to all paying patrons
was a long-sleeved white tee-shirt with the Saratoga logo on the front and the trademark
Carousel restaurant rooftop design on the back.
Whoever selected the promotion items this year has done a Vogue-ish job.
Lines to redeem the coupons for which people paid $3 upon
entering the track extended from the top of the stretch to the finish line for
at least the first half dozen races.
Hundreds of fans were seen leaving with six, ten, even 20 shirts under
their arms. NYRA pegged the attendance at 57,114 people.
Compared to Saturday's races, Sunday's were a cut below Saratoga's standard. The fields were small, diminished in size by the
muddy track and because three races were displaced from the turf course. In all there were 38 scratches and just 76
starters in 10 races. There was no rain
to speak of, except for a slight drizzle after the feature. There was no Tom Durkin to hear from.
In addition, the feature was a $100,000 stakes race for New
York-bred fillies and mares called the Yaddo. Chestoria, the recent winner of
the Lake Luzerne Stakes on the Jim Dandy/Diana undercard, went forth as the
favorite but finished fourth. Statehouse Stable's
Nehantic Kat, ridden by Rajiv Maragh, rallied four-wide down the stretch and
pulled away to a 1½ -length victory over Vivi's Book.
Ironically, the next best race was
the eighth, the only other run on turf.
Elegant Bess topped a $54.50 exacta with Hold the Cruiser in a 5 ½
furlong sprint. Maragh rode this winner,
too. The seventh race produced first
time winner Heavenly Landing, as Shadwell's well-regarded Muhaawara failed to
measure up to the hype over his Unbridled's Song pedigree.
Before the races, the Jockey Club
held its annual Round Table on Matters Pertaining to Racing at the Gideon
Putnam Resort. Louis Romanet, the
chairman of the International Federation of Racing Authorities, criticized the
use of Lasix on racing days in the USA
and said there could be no worldwide drug policy unless the USA changed its
practices. The case in point, there were
but four horses all day - trained by Allen Jerkens, Merrill Scherer, Bruce
Levine and Glen Disanto - that raced without the diuretic.
With all the Round Table participants in town, tables in the
racecourse's dining rooms were hard to get.
This didn't bother Ed Abramowitz, a regular in the backyard on
weekends. The Wilton, Connecticut
resident brought his own lunch of chicken wings, pepperoni, knishes and Jello-shots.
Having his Saratoga
long-sleeved tee-shirt to use as a napkin if needed, he didn't care that there
weren't table cloths.
