Quick shoutout to some folks for the trip to Saratoga.
Trackjohn: Grand Slam performance with the Rachel Alexandra suite in the 1863 Club Building on Whitney Day! Terrific atmosphere and treatment by everyone. Food, drinks, paddock passes to the Test and Whitney Stakes. Thanks for including me as this was an awesome way to arrive to Sar on a Saturday around race 3 and walk in the door!
Donny Nelson, NYRA: I hope someone will pass this along to him. There couldn\'t have been a kinder, nicer person to be in the room with all the folks on Whitney Saturday. He treated everyone so well and was so kind. He assisted John with tickets for the Picnic Paddock area for Wed through Sunday of FourStarDave week and made it happen! There was one hiccup and it turned out he had car trouble and hand delivered the tickets to the folks that needed them on Wednesday for the whole week. I\'ve had 5 encounters personally with Donny and he has always been FIRST CLASS despite the fact I\'m a resident of a state that can\'t even sign up for NYRA Bets. It doesn\'t hurt my friends are NYRA Bets folks but a sincere and gracious \"Thank You\" to him for his help. I was only able to use the picnic tickets on Wednesday but others made use of them on Sat/Sun (Fri canceled and Thurs rain set in early and late pushing us to Cover).
Mathcapper: Randomly ran into him on Saturday when the backyard area was as packed as I\'ve ever seen except for one Travers. Good seeing him and told him to tell Uncle Bill \"Hello\" as he has been awol on the phone with me for a bit! Probably enjoying the Florida sun. After a great talk with Mathcapper, he told me to bet the 3 horse in the 9th at Woodbine. Great handicapping Rock. 5-2 winner without even looking at a thing and two of my friends from STL at my table where we sat Saturday up near the rail listened also as I said he is handicapper, not a tout. One bet to win LARGE and the other Singled in a LONG Horizontal wager. The horizontal was alive to two HUGE Scores but neither came in. There might be a gambling lesson or two to be gleaned from this little story ...
Sharilyn Gasaway (co-owner of Mystic Dan): Ran into her in the paddock prior to the Test Stakes. I met her the day after Preakness as I recounted here. She recalled our conversation and meeting and was full of information and insight. I encouraged her to be a bright light for racing these days and she said she never turns down requests for interviews and such for those that are out there reading and looking for someone to have on their radio shows, podcasts, etc etc. Ran into her again in the 1863 Club later that day for another excellent conversation where we talked about some details of racing that involve handicapping, ownership, trainers, etc.
FrankD: Took excellent care of me (and shanahan) for 4 plus days until my crew from STL and Baltimore arrived. Looking forward to Labor Day weekend for more of us to make it for one last hurrah for the summer up there. Can\'t thank you enough for all the hospitality in and around upstate NY! Boardwalk Restaurant and Bar at Lake George is a MUST for anyone that makes it up there. I\'ll see ya soon.
Richiebee: Lucky enough to have heard from him during the week up there. Always a terrific wit and clever jokes. If not for him, I likely never meet any of you guys as a result of a trip he made to Fairmount Park more than a decade ago that long story made short later led to us meeting at Saratoga.
Paul Matties: Who was kind enough to spend about 10-15 minutes discussing topics of the day in racing, HISA, gambling, etc. He was curious if and when Jerry (TGJB) would make it up this year. I told him I\'d make sure he (you) receives the message.
Nameless Vendor in the backyard: One of the owners of a food spot in the backyard was sitting near us on Sunday (the day after Whitney) behind his location. We discussed business and how it is going. He explained that his business and at least 3 others were all down at least 30% this year. That while it is consistent and he wasn\'t upset, it wasn\'t as busy as years past although everyone up there agrees Belmont Day itself was out of this world good for business. Everyone thought Belmont hangover was why the meet started slow but after several weeks even the waitress in our area on Saturday (the 10th) said things are slow. When I discussed with the vendor that the economy is not as great now and people are drawing back, he pushed back on me. I stood my ground and said \"I really believe that\'s what is going on.\" At that point, he said, \"Look, I wasn\'t going to say it but NYRA\'s Cashless Rule is hurting us.\" NYRA\'s agreement with vendors is they get XX% (intentionally not stated here) of every dollar spent and NYRA thought that vendors were not sharing everything with them, namely from Cash Transactions. So, to curtail this \"stealing\" is where the cashless rule came from. He wasn\'t upset about it but he was convinced this was an issue in large part why places there are all down. (I\'m not saying I agree but sharing what I heard). He went on to say that TIPS for waiters and waitresses and folks at the various places are down even more than 30% and that there is ZERO doubt that the cashless rule was why. It was clear that he knows almost all of the folks on site in the food/bev business and had discussed all of this during the meet so far. I asked our waitress on Saturday about it and she agreed 1000% on the TIPS issue. So, for what it is worth, that\'s why NYRA went cashless for those that were curious.
The weather didn\'t help whatsoever while I was there for turf racing. So, I\'ll run it back on Labor Day Weekend, Fri to Sunday to try to find some excellent days.
Not my greatest post but accomplished my goals here. More soon I hope on a handicapping front although I\'m back to work again to pay for these adventures!!
Richie:
Very much appreciate the kind words... Was great seeing you again!
John
Always a great read - thanks for sharing.
Anything that restricts choice is bad, the cashless thing is annoying, and it\'s un-American not to take cash (!!). And at a racetrack of all places? I couldn\'t believe it.
At the track you should only be allowed to use cash, and you carry it wrapped up with a rubber band.
HP
I went on 7/27 & I thought they would have machines that one could buy a debit card like they do at Met-Life stadium in NJ. They didn\'t. I went to a small building that took a while to find & they had $25 gift cards. I bought 2, but the problem was that after you buy something there\'s not enough left on a $25 card to buy anything else other than a soda. I used one for lunch, another to buy a friend some food and later I had a Coke. The cards each had too little left to get anything else.
I’m glad you mentioned the Vendor Cash theft whatever it is. I’m an annual since 78 sans 2020. It was more upsetting to me this here than when they started with the forms ~2022 or 23 .Some kid with a flashlight looking for the hand stamp coming from the window or bar or paddock back to the Porch table. Other than Ziggie, the employees are ininterested, confused and hard to find. The rake on 80mm or so a week isn’t enough. They have to shake down a pizza salesman. Also add in, they now get every last dime in cash from player who would buy food, beer DRF with his cash. Now at the end of the month, the weekend attendee owes Citi $3-400.00. Figure something out. Give a 10-20% discount for cash, so you don’t make $2 a whatever and it instead goes through the window. The digitization doesn’t stop. Chris Kay maybe started but it’s spiraled out of control. Whitney day, We had four of us at a table for 10, the only one left.we had two beers each, and cheese and cracker appetizers. It was close to a grand after everything. The competition gives, NYRA takes. I live near MTH but would get in 12-15 Sar cards for the meet. I did the opening 4 and Whitney 4 days, I might just call it. I had a FTS with me, couldn’t find the waitress, went to the new Jim Bar, good job on that, 2 Dbl vodkas and a Coors light $86. Before Ticketmaster, Manny, Duncan took care of the porch and turf club. Then Hans, Wolfie and his sisters took care of the terrace and carousel and it all worked. I sound like DeNiro at the end of Casino, but ….. I feel much better now. The TG product on the other hand, has been very accurate.
Wow. That was pretty good. Next time break up the paragraphs.
True, and my mother was an English major at Marymount.
I believe it was you who said during the Kay years. Paraphrasing , they have to identify who the customers are. It’s the player, not the diner.
One can only eat or drink so much, and they can make more % vig on the liquor. But why not clear all of that out of the equation, and attempt to keep the players feel welcome.
Let\'s not forget the concerted effort to get rid of actual tellers to drive you to \"vouchers.\" An annual thinning of the herd to reduce labor costs.
It\'s a beautiful place but hard not to notice the progressively uglier underpinnings, which are so unnecessary as albatross points out.
And as another \"Casino\" guy said, \"there\'s plenty for everybody.\" But it seems to be the nature of things for the powers that be to grab all they can instead of thinking about long term mutually beneficial partnerships and working arrangements to keep it going well for all.
HP
That’s what I was trying to say! I’m sure the conversations will take place within NYRA re next summer. Maybe not come back to AQU, go up there from early June to Labor Day. Hopefully they don’t opt to squeeze the lemon dry over 25 or 26, but I’d imagine it’ll be discussed. Short term thinking is what they do. You only need 500 paying customers a day to outdraw AQU.
Actually that was one of the things I enjoyed at the Spa
The teller windows I went to they all had personality and definitely contributed to my experience!