As another record-breaking 40-day Saratoga Race Course meet came to an end Sept. 5, many of the more than one million visitors to the Victorian-era oasis no doubt had one pertinent question to ask.
Will the construction at Belmont Park encourage the New York Racing Association to expand the 2023 season at Saratoga?
"We're looking at the same schedule for 2023. There's no conversation from our side about changing the structure of the meet," NYRA CEO and president Dave O'Rourke said. "Is it tempting? I'd say no. Forty days has worked well. Five days a week has worked well. Traditionally over the last several years we have met with the Chamber of Commerce up here to get some feedback, and we'll do that again in the fall. There's always talk about the dark days and you hear rumors about more days, but it's an annual rumor."
While the rumors may not be accurate, they bespeak the boundless love fans have for spending all or parts of 40 days from mid-July through Labor Day at the Spa, watching racing at its very best in its most vibrant of settings.
As Bill Parcells, who now enjoys life as a horse owner while spending his summers in Saratoga, said during his years as a Hall of Fame NFL coach, "You are what your record says you are," and Saratoga's record in 2022 speaks incredibly well for itself.
The 2022 all-sources handle soared to $878,211,963, shattering the record of $815,508,063 set in 2021 when it seemed an aberration compared to figures of $702.5 million in the pandemic/no fans on-track year of 2020 and $705.3 million in 2019. As evidenced by this year's 7.7% jump, the 2021 total was quite legit and reflective of the meet's soaring popularity with the betting public.
The final attendance figure of 1,075,586 marked the seventh straight year the total has topped one million (excluding the 2020 meet).
While field size was a concern heading into the meet, it basically remained level at 7.7 per race after averaging 7.65 last year.
"Statistically, it's been a safe meet and we tried new things like the Post Bar and Paddock Suite and it worked out very well," O'Rourke said. "There's a feel that we're back to normal and that we made it through the pandemic. We are seeing that people are focused on experiences now, and we have an offering here for the summer that is unequaled on the East Coast."
The stars also came out. Eight of the horses in the most recent National Thoroughbred Racing Association's Top 10 poll ran once or twice at the meet, a group that includes Life Is Good , Epicenter , Nest, Jackie's Warrior , Malathaat, Olympiad , Jack Christopher , and Clairiere.
Yet even the Spa was not spared the effects of a national trend involving small fields for stakes, as 23 of the 73 stakes (not including steeplechases) had five or less starters. Two dirt stakes were canceled due to a lack of entries.
"You hope to get the best horses and we have been able to do that, but the quantity part is the part everyone is struggling with. Quality is very important, but we need to work on how we can maximize the races," said Frank Gabriel Jr., NYRA's senior vice president of racing operations. "It's hard to get people to compete against the four or five best horses in the division. It's a concern all across North America, and we'll continue to work on it."
Weather often holds the key to a successful stay at the Spa, and Mother Nature was quite cooperative in 2022. Though the Labor Day finale unfolded under rainy conditions, only 16 races came off the turf during the meet. Forty-five races were moved to the main track last year.
"When you limit the number of races coming off the turf it gives you good continuity and maintains the flow of the 40 days of the meet," Gabriel said. "We were happy with the races we carded. We had good allowance races and filled in the best we could with the stakes. We had a good program with the claiming races. There was a lot of interest in claiming. It was not unusual to have a seven-horse field with most of the horses claimed."
Perhaps the most crucial element in the unbridled success of the meet in the last few years was the 2016 launch of the Saratoga Live television show. From part-time coverage of the meet on regional networks, the show has become must-see TV for racing fans and now provides wall-to-wall coverage of the meet, showing each race on the national FOX Sports networks (FS1 and FS2).
It certainly is no coincidence that in 2014 Saratoga's all-sources handle was just $571.1 million and as television coverage has boomed, the figure has grown by more than $300 million, an increase of more than 50%.
"A lot of credit for our success at Saratoga goes to the TV crew and our partner at FOX Sports," O'Rourke said. "Now that we have been doing the show for several years, it has cemented us into the sports landscape on a national level and put us on more of a broad level for national sports fans."
Tony Allevato, NYRA's chief revenue officer and president of NYRA Bets, said the television ratings on the FOX networks are up by about 12% and the Aug. 27 presentation of the Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) reached a substantial audience of more than one million viewers on FOX's broadcast channel.
"The Travers on FOX had 1.2 million viewers, the highest TV number in three years for horse racing except for the Triple Crown races and one Breeders' Cup day," Allevato said. "It shows how people are gravitating to the sport."
NYRA made a huge financial investment in producing its own television show, but the surging wagering numbers reflect the wisdom of that decision.
"From a TV standpoint, we're very happy with the relationship we have with FOX. It was a difficult decision to move away from TVG and sign an exclusive deal with FOX, but FOX does a terrific job of promoting horse racing and, in particular, Saratoga. We're starting to see the effects of that commitment they have made to horse racing," Allevato said. "Eric Donovan, who runs our TV side, does a terrific job with the talent and the production crew. They are committed to doing a great job and it pays off with a great show. We made a shift this year to show more of Saratoga as a town and as a destination and Saratoga the racetrack as a bucket list item, and it seemed to pay off."
While Travers Day produced a near-sellout crowd of 49,672 (with a Travers-record all-sources handle of $55.5 million), overall, the attendance figures were boosted by increased mid-week numbers.
"Early in the meet, attendance was very strong," O'Rourke said. "We've seen more of an equalization across the board in terms of mid-week attendance, though Saturday is always going to be the big day. Even this final week, when you historically see a drop off after the Travers, we were busy. The city and downtown were also busy and that's great to see because we are an entertainment product and we are in tune with how we are impacting the business downtown. So far, every indication I've seen is that the town has done extremely well this year."
The new additions for this meet included a renovated Post Bar and the new Paddock Suite, with a refurbished ground-level bar and an upstairs area for group events, and the construction of the Wilson Chute for one-mile dirt races.
Looking ahead, more change is indeed on the horizon. With the Spa Verandas on the final turn proving to be one of the track's most popular new areas, the concept will expand to the clubhouse turn near the 1863 Club and the Wilson Chute.
"The customers seem to enjoy the additions and we've gotten a lot of positive feedback. The Spa Verandas are probably one of our most successful items we've added to our inventory, and we're going add verandas near the chute," O'Rourke said. "Over the next three-to-five years we will go through the concessions areas in the grandstand and improve them, like we did with the addition of the Carnegie Deli, which has been quite popular. We'll tackle the Jim Dandy bar in the clubhouse and shine up the building."
The changes, however, will not include more dates, which, considering the proverb of killing the golden goose, might be the best choice of all for NYRA and Saratoga during an era of phenomenal growth.
