OLD SPA OPENS TODAY
SARATOGA SPRINGS – NYRA Nation, itching for action after a transformer fire knocked out the electricity at Belmont Park and torched Sunday’s card, makes the long, annual pilgrimage upstate today, opening day of the 140th season at the Old Spa.
For the next six weeks through Labor Day, top-class thoroughbred racing will be conducted six days a week, Wednesday through Monday, before large crowds of actual, real people.
As always, the Saratoga racetrack experience revolves around the weather, especially with so many races being carded for the Old Spa’s two turf courses, including half of today’s 10-race card.
Last summer, there was so little rain only a sprinkling of races were moved off the grass to the main track. By the end of the meet, the turf was so dry horses running over the lawn were kicking up dirt like smoke from a prairie fire; some horsemen called it “durf.”
Unfortunately the early prognosis for this meet is all wet. It rained yesterday, thunderstorms are forecast for today (80-percent chance of precipitation), and scattered T-storms loom through Monday.
The traditional opening-day feature, the Grade 3, $100,000 Schuylerville at six furlongs for 2-year-old fillies, will almost certainly be run over an off-track. Not one of the 11 young ladies entered has run in the mud.
That alone makes it a wide-open betting affair. Furthermore, six of the fillies are coming off dominant victories over maidens: Ocean Colors, Mani Bhavan, Collegiate, Ouchy Night, Boom Town Sally and Jardin. Of those, Ocean Colors and Collegiate both earned high speed figures in their lone starts and are the ones to beat.
Renda, shipping up from Florida for trainer Juan Arias, could be the surprise package. She won first time out at Calder by five lengths, then rallied six-wide in the Grade 3 Debutante at Churchill Downs on June 28 to finish fifth, beaten less than three lengths.
Renda, along with Cameron Crazies, sixth in the Debutante after setting the pace, are the only two fillies in the Schuylerville to have raced at six furlongs. Renda is a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, who won the 2002 Travers in the Saratoga slop.
