‘There’s nothing like it’: Opening day at Saratoga Race Course

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — It was all dresses, hats, and horse T-shirts at Saratoga Race Course’s opening day on Thursday.

“For Saratoga, this is the start of the summer,” said co-owner of Hatsational Haberdashery Roger Locks at the store’s pop-up tent. “There’s nothing like it.”

Though the gates opened at 11 a.m., visitors came in as early as 7 a.m. to stake out their picnic tables or stash their chairs and coolers in the shade. Tia and Kristine Chmura said the spot along the walkway beneath the trees was theirs, the same area they visited every year when they drove down from Syracuse for opening day.

Opening day is different from the Belmont Stakes or even Traver’s Day in August, Locks said. Where those energy levels are a 10.0 and a 9.95 respectively, opening day is a seven. But unlike the other two, Thursday belongs to Saratoga.

It’s for the regulars, said Locks and Karen Macielak, owner of Bumble B Boutique. They gear their merchandise toward the people they know will be there, no matter how far those “regulars” have traveled.

Maureen and Bruce Farrelly are from North Carolina and have spent the last 50 years visiting the Saratoga Race Course, making a pit stop on their way to visit family in Rochester. They prefer opening day to the crowd – and heat – of mid-August.

“It’s Saratoga,” Bruce said about why they keep coming back. “It’s just Saratoga.”

It’s the track’s history and scarcity that keeps people coming back, said New York Racing Association Vice President for Communications Pat McKenna. This year was different with the Belmont Stakes, but the limited 40 days of the “finest thoroughbred racing anywhere on the planet” make the magic.

More than just the red-striped umbrellas and Jim Dandy Bar, McKenna said that Saratoga Springs deserves credit for the community it built around the Saratoga Race Course. It’s a balance of modernity and tradition.

“The quality of the hospitality, bars, restaurants, hotels; this is a place that has been welcoming visitors (and) tourists for 150 years and Saratoga does it right,” he said. “You have to dig pretty deep to find a place that is as revered as a destination like Saratoga Race Course.”

Julie Radkovic, in a pop art horse dress, has had the track on her bucket list for years. From Indiana, she wasn’t interested in betting and had picked a picnic table with shade as the only must-have. All she wanted to see were the horses in the paddock.

It’s an atmosphere, said several guests. More than just a dirt track, Tia Chmura said they can pop over to see a few races if they want to.

For them, it’s about the four-day weekend with family and friends she said: a family picnic with horse racing on the side. Each year they invite more and more people, and, she added with a laugh, come earlier and earlier.

“What did dad say when we walked in?” she said, turning to her sister. “He loves that there’s all different types, walks of life. That’s what he said, that’s what he loves, that’s his favorite thing.”

Locks agreed; they know the clientele that will likely come by on opening day, but they still get to meet new people, talk to them (or teach them) about hats and their history in horse racing, and feel the energy visitors can only find in Saratoga. Locks, who also raises and races horses, said there is nothing like watching his horse leading the pack down the back stretch in Saratoga.

They’re able to bring in the best horses, jockeys and trainers in one condensed place and time, McKenna said, which makes it thrilling for fans and horseplayers. And they can offer that at one of, if not the best, horse track in the world.

“It’s the ambiance, the tradition that’s unmatched not just in horse racing but really in sports,” he said. “This is a community that has largely grown around the race track and that’s really special.”

“It’s really, really a lot of fun being here,” said Locks. “It’s the best place on the planet to be during (the season). I mean it is.”