-I wonder if any of my loyal 5 readers bet the Summer Bird/Hold me Back Exacta I gave out on Friday.
-Very glad I was at the track Saturday and not at home betting on my NYRA Rewards Account-Many commenter's on Steve Crists' Cristblog complained about slow service and getting locked out of the site when trying to place an online bet.
-I was a little perplexed at the low crowd figure on Saturday of 34,221 (the lowest since 1979). I realize the dropout of Rachel Alexandra and Mine That Bird hurt, but you still had the Belmont winner, plus Quality Road and a competitive field of seven. Yeah the forecast was bad, but it was not raining all that hard once the races started. I would have thought 40,000 or so fans would have still showed up, with rain gear in hand. Maybe everyone is just coming next Saturday to see Rachel Alexandra. Everyone says they are showing up, but my guess is less than you think will actually be there.(more about that later this week).
-Here are a few photos I took on Travers Day:
Quality Road unseats Velasquez while trying to load in the Gate
Summer Bird looking relaxed and ready going into the Gate
and they're off in the 140th running of the Travers Stakes!
4 comments:
Awesome job on that exacta pick. The hell with the loyal readers, hope you made some money on it.
I was also surprised that the crowd figure was so low despite the weather forecast....Saratoga fans are usually a heartier breed than that. A reader commented on my blog that he thought the attendance was actually overstated! Would you agree with that?
Alan- I never blindly trust NYRA's reported attendance figures-I am still skeptical of the Belmont reported attendance for the Mother Goose Stakes day when RA ran-but just judging by the size of the lines at the betting windows on Travers day the reported # seems about right.
Looks like you took the pics from the seat next to mine in section N. I had 4 guests in town so we lined up at the ticket office at 3:30 Friday and at 5:00 were able to get 4 "sun seats" in N. If only there had been sun.
Think the attendance figs sound about right. It was pretty crowded under the grandstand.
I haven't seen a trainer have a day like Saeed bin Suroor had since Mandella won 4 BC races in 2003. Music Note made my day a winning one...
LJK-took the photos from Section P.
Saeed knows how to pick his spots-7 wins and 3 seconds out of 13 starters.
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