TechnoTourist’s Engineering Expeditions

Have you visited the oldest organized sporting venue in the U.S.? I'll give you a hint - it's not a baseball stadium! The facility I'm talking about has over 200 buildings on 350 acres. Have you guessed it yet? I'm talking about Saratoga Race Course, located in Saratoga Springs, New York. It's a thoroughbred horse racing facility that opened on August 3, 1863. Over the years the meet has expanded from four to 40 days long.

Racing originally took place at what is now known as the Oklahoma Training Track. It's located across the street from the current track, which opened in 1892 after the building of a grandstand that is still used today. The main track is 1 1/8 miles and features a dirt track and two turf courses.

A Grand Old Grandstand

Saratoga's grandstand was built of wood with a slate roof. A look up and down the stand shows the wooden construction that has survived the radical reconstruction that has fallen on older venues.

Over the years many things have been added to the grandstand. The clubhouse portion was added on some years after the grandstand was built. Some box seats have been held by the same families for nearly 100 years. Architectural white railings with the outlines of horses and flowers were added on to the back of the building. Some modernizing upgrades were completed throughout the years including many bathrooms and an escalator.

The grandstand is open to the air and old wooden fans help keep things cool on humid summer days. During a big race in the afternoon you can feel the floor bounce as fans jump up and down, rooting on their picks. The building features three restaurants and various food stands. My personal favorite is the Turf Terrace restaurant on the third and fourth floors of the clubhouse.

Stabling Area

Sitting in an old grandstand may seem quaint but some do not feel the same about the stabling area, constructed largely of wood. There are about 1,800 stalls adjacent to the main and training tracks; in addition, some horses are stabled at the harness track across the street.

The storing of hay and straw in a wooden structure is dangerous; add in the value of the horses housed there, and some consider it downright stupid. Interestingly, "used" straw from the horses' stable bedding is shipped off to mushroom farms to be used as fertilizer.

A structure called the stakes barn sits just behind Saratoga's saddling paddock. Horses that run in the track's biggest races are stabled there. Another interesting structure at the facility is the Big Red Spring, a small area housing one of the area's famous mineral springs. Try the water - I'll give you my opinion after you taste it for yourself!

Features and Facts

Saratoga has a lot of unique history and traditions that set it apart from other race tracks and sporting venues.

• Home of the Travers, the nation's oldest stakes race for three-year-old horses.
• A canoe floats on a pond in the infield and is painted in the Travers winner's colors each year.
• You can get close to the horses in many places - as they walk over from the stabling areas, around the paddock as they are saddled, and of course, at the track. The facility also offers backstretch tours in the mornings.
• The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame is located across the street from the track.
• A street in Saratoga Springs is named for Fourstardave, a horse who won at least one race in eight consecutive seasons at Saratoga.
• Saratoga is nicknamed "the spa" due to its close proximity to mineral springs. It's also been called "the graveyard of favorites" or "the graveyard of champions" due to the losses suffered by great horses Man O'War (to Upset) and Secretariat (to Onion).

The Albany Times Union put together a great collection of Historical photos: Saratoga Springs throughout the years that includes many photos from the track.

This blog entry was posted from Saratoga on its 149th anniversary. The track will celebrate its sesquicentennial in 2013 and plans are already underway!

Resources:

Hello Race Fans! - Track Guide: Saratoga

Essortment - Saratoga Racetrack

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame

New York Times: The Rail - At Saratoga, a Step Back in Time

The Record - Consultant: 'Saratoga Track doesn't do history well'

Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation - Beyond the Grandstand: Historic Architecture and Landscape of the Saratoga Race Course Backstretch

Wikipedia - Saratoga Race Course