 rjonas, Wed, July 9th, 2008 I was just asked by one of my editors if I was going to take the media tour of Saratoga Race Course Thursday. Let me think about that for a second ... ummm, no. I'm not interested in the least. See, the media tour is really to show the improvements that the New York Racing Association made to the 140-year-old facility on Union Avenue. By improvements, I mean replacing two vinyl tents with glass tents to allow for the addition of air conditioning, adding a new luxury box and showing off the row of booths set up for Saratoga Springs restaurants to sell their food to hungry patrons not wanting to spend their money on all the other concession stands in the grandstand. Yawn. Not that I don't welcome having an air conditioned tent to escape to or getting a chance to have a piece of Hattie's fried chicken for lunch, but those kind of minor changes aren't exciting to a sports writer. Those changes might be exciting to well-heeled patrons who can afford to have lunch at the revamped At The Rail pavillion (with its air conditioning), but for the rest of us, it's not a big deal. Now if NYRA made some dramatic changes to Saratoga's grandstand in general, that would be a whole other story. If it replaced a section of $2 bleachers with luxury boxes, that would be newsworthy. If it built a larger press box capable of seating 300 media members and included a private elevator, that would be worth seeing. If it changed the whole appearance of the facility, that would be a major story. But NYRA knows better than to mess with a place that has as much history as Saratoga Race Course. You can't radically change the grandstand because it's the most instantly recognizable feature the facility has. If NYRA ever tried to do an extreme makeover like the one that took place several years ago at Churchill Downs in Kentucky (where a whole new section of skyboxes now augment its famous grandstand), it wouldn't be able to get the construction vehicles to the track. The roads would be blocked by a large contingent of horse racing purists who love Saratoga the way it is. Unfortunately, small changes are hardly newsworthy. I'll be glad that the changes were made when I get to experience them during the 36-day Saratoga meet, but I don't need to make a special trip three weeks in advance to see them now. Thanks for asking, though. CATEGORY: Horse Racing
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