Saratoga Backstretch Clinic Brings Community Together

Two days before the start of the 2023 racing season at Saratoga Race Course, another important opening is slated to occur just across Union Avenue from the racetrack. There, the official ribbon-cutting will take place for the Saratoga Backstretch Clinic Tuesday, July 11. The 3,500-square-foot-facility, located adjacent to the barn area of the Oklahoma Training Track, actually has been open since May on a limited schedule. During the race meeting, that will expand to five days a week, assisting the population of backstretch workers crucial to the Thoroughbred industry. Like so many other projects, installations, and cultural centers in and around Saratoga, the Backstretch Clinic exists due to the largesse of Marylou Whitney and her widower, John Hendrickson. The couple started the Backstretch Appreciation Program 16 years ago, which serves top-shelf dinners from Saratoga-area restaurants free to workers every night of the race meet. In addition, the program offers nightly entertainment programs, including off-campus trips for rodeos or boat cruises. Whitney and Hendrickson built a recreation hall on the backstretch, and are now adding a vital medical clinic. After Whitney died in 2019, Hendrickson decided to auction off her clothing and jewelry to fund the clinic. "Marylou was disappointed that the medical center for the workers back there was an inadequate, raunchy trailer, and she believed that people deserved better," Hendrickson noted. With help from Saratoga Hospital and staff members of Whitney's Saratoga residence, Cady Hill, the online auction raised $400,000, approximately one-third of the seed money necessary to build the clinic. Its architecture mirrors that of the recreation center and Faith's House, a childcare and childhood education facility for the families of workers on the backstretch. Hendrickson then provided the remainder of the funding for the clinic, which will remain open for workers through mid-October when the Oklahoma training track is closed for the season. The clinic features 19 rooms, including six examination rooms and space set aside for staff, education, and on-site insurance specialists. There will always be a physician in attendance, buttressed by medical students from either Saratoga Hospital or Albany Medical Center. Patients will receive primary-care attention and then, if necessary, referrals to a specialist. Saratoga Hospital is a partner in the Saratoga Backstretch Clinic, along with the Backstretch Employees Service Team (BEST) of New York, which oversees the medical, mental health, social services, and addiction programs for the backstretch population at all three New York Racing Association racetracks—Saratoga, Aqueduct Racetrack, and Belmont Park. Nancy Underwood, the Saratoga program director for BEST, noted, "The clinic is a free, walk-in facility. But if a patient needs to see a specialist, we have insurance people onsite to handle referrals before the patient leaves the building. If the patient is not insured, we work with Saratoga Hospital through its financial assistant program. Staying within the system, the patient can get up to 75% or 100% financial assistance." Dr. Alexander Cardiel has served as the medical director of the backstretch clinic for 15 years, and finds the work there satisfying; the new clinic, gratifying. "I jumped at the chance to run the clinic in 2008, and I've been here ever since," he said. "For a lot of these people, I am the first physician they've seen in this country. They do hard manual labor, and there are a lot of associated chronic issues because of the accumulation of trauma. These can be life-threatening if you don't get them early." Cardiel, who works in the Saratoga Hospital system, said he receives tremendous cooperation from specialists when a patient requires advanced procedures. He said that backstretch workers have received procedures such as knee replacements and hernia repairs, "much of which has been done free of cost by the surgeons without questioning or batting an eye." BEST also provides a driver for the passenger van that shuttles patients to referrals with specialists, or for dental or vision examinations. Last year, some 800 patients were seen on the Saratoga backstretch. Now, with greater space, service should be even better, with an improved flow for patients. Underwood said that the basic group of doctors working at the clinic has stayed the same for a decade because "they love what they do. I tell my staff here to always feel good every day about the work they are doing, because they do an amazing job. And because Marylou and John started these great programs, we offer the most comprehensive services of anywhere in the country for our backstretch population." Hendrickson, who also oversaw the fund-raising campaign that modernized the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame just down Union Avenue from the clinic, added, "It's phenomenal now to have a first-class medical facility. Of all the things Marylou and I have tried to do for the backstretch workers, I think this is the one she would be most proud of. Without health care, you don't have a community. Now, it is right here, and people aren't afraid to go."