Saratoga 2023: Opening-day handle falls 6.2% with accelerated post times
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Thursday’s opening-day card began very much like the recently concluded Belmont Park meet with Linda Rice and Jose Ortiz teaming up to win the first race.
By day’s end, Saratoga very much resembled Saratoga with a ferocious storm, complete with thunder, lightning, and a National Weather Service alert blaring on cell phones.
Thankfully, those storms and alerts came about 30 minutes after Saratoga’s opening-day program was completed. The New York Racing Association sped up post times to get the card in under dry conditions, but that may have cost them some business. The final race went off at 5:50 p.m., about 28 minutes earlier than scheduled.
Thus, all-sources handle was $20,417,055, down 6.2 percent from the opening-day figure of $21,764,923 in 2022. Attendance was announced as 29,102, up 2 percent from last year’s figure of 28,466. Thursday’s crowd seemed lighter than the announced figure, perhaps due to an unsettled forecast.
“Great day, 29,000 people showed up, we had an upset in the stake, which is very Saratoga,” NYRA president and CEO Dave O’Rourke texted. “We sped up [post times] a little, which cost us some handle, but we were able to get the card in. All in all, a nice way to kick off the meet.”
Rice and Ortiz were the leading trainer and jockey, respectively, at the Belmont meet. They teamed up to win Thursday’s opener with Bustin Bay, who ran down Virtual Reality to take the opener by 1 1/2 lengths.
“Nice to carry it over,” Rice said. “Look, we had success at Belmont and everything and I’m hoping we have a good Saratoga.”
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Said Ortiz: “It’s very nice to win the first one, get it out of the way and hopefully get the ball rolling and don’t stop.”
Irad Ortiz Jr., the reigning Saratoga leading rider, won two races on the card, including one for Chad Brown, who looks to win his third straight Saratoga training title. Ten trainers won races on Thursday.
Flavien Prat and Javier Castellano each won two races on the opening-day card, with Castellano pulling off a 21-1 upset aboard Becky’s Joker in the Grade 3, $175,000 Schuylerville Stakes for trainer Gary Contessa.
“Opening day, win two, especially the stake, you can’t beat it,” said Castellano, Saratoga’s leading rider in 2013 and 2014. “I just need the opportunity, that’s all.”
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