{"id":482,"date":"2012-08-23T18:21:02","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T22:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/?p=482"},"modified":"2012-08-24T16:34:21","modified_gmt":"2012-08-24T20:34:21","slug":"482","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/?p=482","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The only significant barrier one faces when making the trip to magical Saratoga Racecourse in upstate New York is the prohibitive cost of decent lodging near the track.\u00a0 I\u2019ve tried every which way around this hurdle.\u00a0 I\u2019ve stayed in fleabag motels.\u00a0 I\u2019ve crashed in Albany.\u00a0 I\u2019ve split rooms with pals.\u00a0 I\u2019ve gone late in the meet when rates drop a notch below peak.\u00a0 There were even a few times I paid through the nose and hoped a few winning bet slips would mitigate the damage.<\/p>\n

This year, I found a new way to beat the $300 per night room rate.\u00a0 I did the one-day round-trip.\u00a0 The mode of transport:\u00a0 a bus.<\/p>\n

It was a long day.\u00a0 It\u2019s a serious buzz kill to walk out of the track and get on a bus for a long ride down the Thruway in the dark.\u00a0 But it wasn\u2019t as bad as I imagined it might be.\u00a0 I was able to see all but the first two races on Wednesday\u2019s card and got pretty comfortable on the bus.<\/p>\n

I took Megabus, a popular low-fare motor coach service that serves two-dozen\u00a0 cities in the Northeast from New York City.\u00a0 My round-trip fare was just $8.50.\u00a0 If you book early, you can land a $1 one-way fare.\u00a0 Seats that sell early are the cheapest.\u00a0 They slide up the scale as you approach the departure date.\u00a0 The service was non-stop between New York and Saratoga and continued on to Burlington, Vermont.\u00a0 A majority of those on the bus were traveling to Burlington.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t appear anybody on the bus was going to the races despite the schedule\u2019s perfect timing coordination with the start and end of the Saratoga card.<\/p>\n

I left my apartment in Queens at 7 AM Wednesday.\u00a0 I took the F to 34th<\/sup> Street and grabbed a large coffee and an egg sandwich at a deli on 35th<\/sup>.\u00a0 I then walked west five long avenue blocks to 34th<\/sup> just east of the river.\u00a0 Megabus picks up at a stop across from the Javits Convention Center.\u00a0 My bus was scheduled to leave at 8:30 AM but didn\u2019t push off until about 9:15 AM.\u00a0 There was lots of confusion about which lines were associated with which bus and the customer service agents working for Megabus seemed overwhelmed.\u00a0 As we boarded the bus to Saratoga\/Burlington, there were several arguments about the baggage allowance.\u00a0 Customers are allowed one piece of checked luggage with a max weight of 50 pounds.\u00a0 Several customers packed what appeared to be their entire existence.\u00a0 Some were denied boarding and the driver of my bus (Richard) was forced to intervene and invoke his final authority to leave customers behind.\u00a0 Once we left, Rich took an unusual route out of the city.\u00a0 He drove east on 34th<\/sup> all the way to Madison and then north all the way up to 138th<\/sup> Street where he caught the Deegan.\u00a0 We hit a construction-related traffic snarl about 45 miles south of Albany and lost probably 45 minutes sitting in stop-and-go before it opened up.<\/p>\n

The bus drops off at the Saratoga harness track\/racino.\u00a0 From there, it\u2019s a mile and a half walk along Nelson to the thoroughbred track.\u00a0 There\u2019s no sidewalk for much of the trek.\u00a0 You wouldn\u2019t want to do the walk if it was raining because the shoulder along Nelson would be a sloshy mess.<\/p>\n

I arrived on track at about a quarter to two.\u00a0 I paid the $3 general admission charge and made it to the window just in time to lose a win bet on the three-year-old New York-bred filly Ibid.<\/p>\n

The Travers is run Saturday so lots of people are visiting for the week.\u00a0 The on-track crowd was announced at 16,902.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My pick four play was looking OK when Colony Strike (pictured above) won the second leg at 14.3 to 1.\u00a0 But then the potential payoff on the play took a hit when Richard Dutrow\u2019s Willy Beamin won the feature at even money.<\/p>\n

Dutrow horses will drive you nuts if you assess them purely on the data available.\u00a0 Willy Beamin is exhibit A in the long, tawdry timeline of examples that force the gambler to raise serious suspicion about Dutrow\u2019s training methods.\u00a0 Beamin\u2019s sudden and dramatic increase in performance level can\u2019t be explained simply by tender loving care. Snatched up by Dutrow in a 25K claiming race in late March, Beamin had made five pedestrian runs with final times that were mediocre at best.\u00a0 Two races and three months later, Dutrow had the Beemer flying with Beyer speed figures that jumped 35 points.\u00a0 This is a pattern Dutrow is famous for as he\u2019s piled up repeated infractions for juicing his horses.\u00a0 He\u2019s currently fighting a ten-year suspension from the sport and one can only hope his banishment comes sooner rather than later.\u00a0 Dutrow made further mockery of conventional equine health by entering Beamin in Saturday\u2019s King\u2019s Bishop stakes race, a contest that will be run just three days after the horse was in high-gear for\u00a0Wednesday\u2019s open-lengths win.<\/p>\n

As Dutrow\u2019s bloated due process efforts unfold in a way that belittle efforts to inject integrity into New York racing, the organizational oversight of the sport also faces an uncertain future.<\/p>\n

Governor Cuomo\u2019s bold dismantling of the state racing\u2019s oversight body is in the early stages.\u00a0 The structure of his new bureaucracy invites trouble given the slew of new political appointees who will be asked to usher in the next phase of the sport\u2019s reform and rebuilding efforts.\u00a0 Flush with new slots cash, horse racing in New York needs a narrow if not singular non-political force to patch up once-great infrastructure and reverse declining fan interest in the game and the art of the wager.\u00a0 The new revenue stream from the gaming machines sets the stage for momentum in that regard but then Cuomo elbowed his way in.\u00a0 It\u2019s like going back to square one.\u00a0 It likely won\u2019t go well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Among those who will pick appointees to Cuomo\u2019s racing board is Senate Majority leader Dean Skelos.\u00a0 The Nassau County republican (pictured above) was at the track Wednesday.\u00a0 Skelos is on record in support of expanded gaming at Belmont Park.<\/p>\n

Saratoga appeared to be in fine shape with few significant changes since I was last up there two summers ago.\u00a0 There\u00a0is a wide range of\u00a0craft beer options.\u00a0 Among those I enjoyed was the Blueberry Blonde Ale made in Utica, NY by the Saranac Brewery.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t taste like blueberries.\u00a0 It just smells like it as you tip for a sip.\u00a0 It\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

I had the $9.50 chicken sandwich from Hattie\u2019s.\u00a0 It was ok.\u00a0 Too much French-fried crunchies and not enough chicken.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After the races, I walked back to the harness track to make the 7:00 PM (scheduled) return bus.\u00a0 It arrived 45 minutes late.\u00a0 I had time for a cocktail at the harness track bar and watched the trotters warm up.\u00a0 They ran clockwise during practice runs.\u00a0 A broken-down player who would have fit in nice with the cast of Luck iced his ankle at a seat near me.\u00a0 He smiled a bit when he told me about finding a $20 bill earlier that day on the floor at the thoroughbred track.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a total pot-luck, man,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Megabus promises free Wi-Fi on the bus.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t working.\u00a0 The return journey ended with a drop-off at 23rd<\/sup> and 7th<\/sup> at about 11:30 PM.\u00a0 I took the 1 to the 7 back home.\u00a0 All in all, a fun day at one of the more beautiful sporting facilities you\u2019ll ever see.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t been, you gotta go.\u00a0 I\u2019d even recommend the bus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The only significant barrier one faces when making the trip to magical Saratoga Racecourse in upstate New York is the prohibitive cost of decent lodging near the track.\u00a0 I\u2019ve tried every which way around this hurdle.\u00a0 I\u2019ve stayed in fleabag … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[92,91],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s28tEv-482","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":485,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions\/485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}