Today is the last day of racing for me.  No news to post.

Some pictures I took yesterday (Click to enlarge)

Friends seen update:

The Shamrock Pub crowd from South Boston

Mike and Rosemary Shea (Mike is Alice’s sister)

Jeff Beck from Chicago

Jeff Plummer from Connecticut

Mike ‘Mut’ Mutansky, the Red Sox pre/post game show host

(Mut, Jeff, & Jeff are close friends who I have known for years.  They in turn are close friend with Mike and Rosemary’s son Stephen who is a professor at St Anslem’s and father of three, soon to be four.  Stephen also does highly respected basketball analytics studies)

Saturday was a very good (almost great) day at the track.  I had a $25 winner in the second followed by a 5-2 winner in the third.  Then I hit the two big races:  Cavorting in the Test Stakes ($7.60) and Honor Code in the Whitney Stakes ($9.50).  All that made it very good.  Great would have been my 15-1 shot leading for one more step in the 11th race, but he got beat on the wire.  The winnings for the day guaranteed I will come out ahead for my stay in Saratoga.

It’s Sunday morning now.  Just today and tomorrow left for races and I head home Tuesday via Boston.  I fly out of Logan on Jet Blue Tuesday late afternoon.  It’s always tough to leave Saratoga, but I’m tired and ready to go home.  Maybe one more report with pictures; maybe not.  Keep checking.

Pictures (Click to Enlarge)

Gambling highlights and lowlights:

• Have hit two of three jump races which is weird because I never hit jump races
• Bad news: not cashing in many races; lots of seconds (no, i don’t bet to place)
• Good news: have hit some very good long shots
• Net: I am well ahead for the seven days so far; five days to go
• Best hit:  liked both an 11-1 shot and a 13-1 shot; bet them both to win and boxed the exacta.  It came in, the winner paying $25.80 and the exacta paying $319.
• Longest shot: had a 21-1 shot come from last at the top of the stretch to win and pay $44.20.

But the weirdest win came on day three when I hit the big exacta.  Late in the day I thought I bet $25 on a horse in the 10th race.  That horse lost.  But when I came back the next day, my account (I bet using a NYRA account card) had $425 more than when I left the day before.  So I reviewed my bets from the previous day on the terminal.  See, when you bet on the self service machines, the first thing you do is select the track.  There are lots of tracks as NYRA takes simulcast bets on tracks all over the country and even in Australia.  Right below Saratoga, which is naturally on the top of the list, is Australia.  When I bet the last race at Saratoga, I must have accidentally hit the “Australia” button.  And weirdly enough the horse that I thought I bet at Saratoga won in Australia and returned $425 for my $25 bet.  Talk about blind luck!  I am good at those “down under” races!

Tuesday is a dark day at Saratoga – no racing.  Bob from Arlington was staying with me through Wednesday, so we considered our options for the day.  A movie at Saratoga’s new Criterion movie house?  Bob doesn’t go to the movies.  A trip to the harness track and casino to bet other tracks?  Only the worst race tracks run on Tuesday.  A 2.5 hour (one way) trip to Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame?  I’ve been there, and Bob is not a big baseball fan.  A 2.0 hour trip to Hyde Park to visit the home and library of FDR?  Not a bad option, but four hours in the car was not appealing.

Instead we hung around, took a ride to Lake George (boring), skipped the numerous outlet stores there, drove up Prospect Mountain Veteran’s Parkway, took the slow route back to Saratoga, and visited the Saratoga National Historical Park that I stopped at on the way into town on day one.  We had an ice cream for lunch.  It killed the day.

On Monday Bob and I ate at Pennell’s, a Saratoga institution for 93 years.  It was as good as ever although Bob wasn’t overly happy with his steak.  On Tuesday we ate at the Wishing Well.  Everything was excellent as usual.  Bob loved his steak and I had the triple cut lamb chops.  The corn on the cob was superb.

No pictures this post.  I promise some next time.

The new King’s Tavern is terrific.  It’s being run by three brothers in their 30’s.  They also own the five-floor Saratoga City Tavern with a rooftop deck downtown.  They keep King’s open all year.  I met Adam, one of the brothers, and we talked about the history of King’s.  Heh, he learned a lot from me.  They leased King’s for three years with an option to buy (this is their second year), so I asked him if they planned to buy.  He said they certaimly did.  Patty is asking $2.0 million for the bar, so it’s a steep price.  She says the price is firm, but I’m sure they will try to haggle the price down.  The terms of the lease sate that any improvements they make stay with the bar if they choose not to buy.  They have made a lot of improvements.

I have seen lots of friends at the track and in Saratoga so far:

• Patty Bendon and daughter Misty and son Jimmy
• Bob Paroyan (retired Boston Garden usher, retired Arlington Fireman, & my old barber)
• John and Linda Toomey (from Boston)
• Michael Alshuk (from NYC) – He’ll be back next weekend with wife Nicole
• Carole Reardon and her lovely daughters Chrissie (14) and Michaela (12)
• Anthony and Rose (from Ballston Spa) – they own horses now
• Miles (an ex-track maintenance man) better known as “Zoom” or “ZoomZoom”
• Bill, John, and Neil (locals from Saratoga)  Neil is now the track mailman.
• Joanne from Saratoga with her delicious chocolate chip cookies
• Milton with his mother (96!), granddaughter, and brother Jerry (from Auburn, NY)
• Milton’s daughter Nikki with her family entourtage
• John and Frank (from Montreal) – saw them with wives at the Brook Tavern
• Dennis (An old Suffolk Downs reprobate)
• Michael Geraghty, an artist who sells his stuff at the track
• Poughkeepsie Joe Brenner, roofer and former crazy drinker & gambler – dry 13 years
• Ron and Pam Evans, fellow Derby goers
• Ed the Pharmacist from Connecticut, also an occasional Derby attendee
• The Three Old Boys from Baltimore, annual weekend attendees at the Spa
• Museum “Stinky” Steve, former maintenance man from the Racing Hall of Fame
• Jean Cruguet, retired jockey, now staying at my hotel
• A collection of folks from Marshfield visiting the Toomeys

Too many of the people I have known here over the years are dead.

• Dick Bendon (King’s Owner and Proprietor)
• Bill Carrig from Connecticut
• Jim Ellsion from Connecticut
• Tommy Pascuma (an old Saratoga trainer and King’s habitué)
• Oliver Cutshaw (an old jockey and King’s habitué)
• Mike Geoghegan (really!) from Ireland and Staten Island

Unseen so far:

• John from North Adams
• Captain Mike, lobsterman from the Cape
• Mike and Steve, alcoholic gamblers from Hartford
• Jamaica Man, a street musician who started his Saratoga run in King’s
• Mut Mutansky, the red Sox pre-game host & Jeff Plummer.  Jeff got married here last week before I arrived.
• Mike and Rosemary – Mike is Alice’s brother.  Alice’s legacy lives on in Saratoga.

Dinners (in order):

• The Wishing Well with Patty and Misty was as good as ever.  Great steak.
• Hattie’s take out friend chicken for eating in the room was grand
• Home cooked spaghetti in the room – hey, one can’t always eat out
• The Brook Tavern (owned by the Wishing Well) with John & Lino – great veal chop
• Take out pizza with Bob from the new Gennaro’s to eat in the room – delicious – good pizza in Saratoga has been hard to find