Photo: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Thoroughbred racing in Saratoga Springs dates to 1863, which makes Saratoga Race Course one of the oldest sporting venues in the country. The New York Racing Association runs the track, and its summer meet, roughly from mid-July to Labor Day, is the busiest stretch of the year for the city.
The Travers Stakes, first run in 1864, is the meet’s biggest race. In 2024 and 2025 the track also hosted the Belmont Stakes while Belmont Park on Long Island was being rebuilt.
Who benefits
Hotels in Saratoga Springs and nearby towns charge peak rates during the meet, and many homeowners rent out their houses for weeks at a time. Restaurants on Broadway and Caroline Street staff up for the season.
Behind the scenes, the backstretch is a small town of its own, with grooms, hot walkers, exercise riders and trainers living and working on site through the summer. Feed suppliers, farriers and veterinarians from across the region work the meet.
Off the track
The Oklahoma Training Track opens earlier in the spring, and nearby horse farms in Saratoga and Washington counties raise and board horses year round. The sales company Fasig-Tipton holds a well-known yearling sale in Saratoga each August.
The meet is short, but for many local businesses it covers a large share of the year’s revenue.
.jpg){kind=link}