About the Saratoga Race Course Meet
Each summer, the horse-racing world descends upon Saratoga, New York, to be a part of the legendary Saratoga racetrack meet. The meet lasts 40 racing days spread out over eight weeks from July to September, with the exception of Mondays and Tuesdays. The Travers Stakes, which carries a $1,250,000 purse, is the oldest thoroughbred race in the nation, attracting three-year-old horses who have raced (and won) in Triple Crown events earlier in the season. The Whitney Stakes is open to horses age three and older, and is a "win and you're in" event, with the winner given an automatic berth in the Breeders' Cup Classic. There are three separate tracks at Saratoga, including the 1 1/8-mile main dirt track, the mile-long Mellon Turf Course and a 7-furlong inner turf track. Saratoga Race Course opened in 1863, making it the fourth-oldest racetrack in the United States.
History of the Saratoga Race Course Meet
Saratoga is commonly known as "The Spa," after the nearby springs which give the town of Saratoga Springs its name. While racing in Saratoga Springs first took place as far back as 1847, the first race on what would later be the site of the Oklahoma Training Track was held in 1863, with the main course opening across Union Avenue in 1864. Saratoga Race Course has operated almost every year since, building a reputation as one of the premier courses in all of racing.
For over 150 years, Saratoga has hosted some of the legends in thoroughbred racing, and has been the site of some of the greatest upsets of all time. In 1919, the aptly named Upset defeated Man O' War in the Sanford Memorial Stakes, in the horse's first and only loss, and in 1973, Secretariat lost to Onion in the Whitney Handicap. Saratoga achieved another form of immortality in the 1970s, when Carly Simon referenced the racecourse in her No. 1 single, "You're So Vain," and it's also been referred to in literature by the likes of Ian Fleming and Sherwood Anderson.