The day at Saratoga Race track where I felt the electricity run right through my body.

[Awsi Dooger]

32. The OP should have realized he was feeding a bunch of frothing simpletons

All they see is a raw number of short term injuries and deaths, and launch their simpleton outrages accordingly. They can't wait for the next spike so they can launch their simpleton outrages again. It is like a jack o lantern with the lid unlatched.

Anyway, I love Saratoga and the 15 year stretch I was a regular from 1995 through 2010. It is an incredible atmosphere. I always camped in Scotia then drove up to the races in early afternoon. Sometimes I'd play golf at SPAC or at Van Patten before making the afternoon trek to Saratoga. That's when I'd often experience the change of weather that the OP described. It could rain like heck at the track after being perfectly clear for golf, or the other way around. Some days were brutally hot and humid. It would vary even more year to year than day to day.

I remember that 2009 Woodward. I was supposed to be there. But I never made it to Saratoga that summer at all. A month earlier my father and I were involved in a major traffic accident in southern Georgia on I-95. We were fortunate to survive. We had to call off the trip to heal, physically and mentally. It was my dad's goal to make that trip the following year. We did and I'll always be grateful. It was my father's final big trip before his health declined to the point he couldn't do it. In 2010 we not only attended Saratoga but also we went to see Pimlico and Belmont. Granted, they were simulcast days not racing days but we were able to walk the grounds and get a feel for everything. Belmont is impressively expansive but hardly the atmosphere of wondrous Saratoga.

Hialeah during my youth is the only track that rivaled Saratoga along those lines. But I place Saratoga clearly on top. I always loved to watch the entertainment not far from the paddock at Saratoga, then get as close as I could to the walking ring as the jockeys were mounting, then after evaluating the horses from a physical standpoint I'd make my way back to the rail area maybe 100 yards shy of the finish line. It was fairly easy to move around in that area, except for huge days like Jim Dandy or obviously the Travers.

Best race I ever saw at Saratoga was the amazing finish from You and Carson Hollow in the Test Stakes. I felt so devastated for Carson Hollow. I remember eating at Ripe Tomato and not being able to taste the food at all. That race was another phenomenal call by Tom Durkin, in fact one of his best. The race is on YouTube.

I liked Rachel Alexandra but was never a huge fan. I think that aspect of Calvin Borel dumping the Derby winner Mine That Bird to ride Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness didn't sit right with me. It was obvious it would play out that way. Borel was the regular rider on Rachel Alexandra. I was hoping he would honor the historical nature of giving the Derby winner the best chance of maintaining opportunity for the Triple Crown. Instead Borel chose the more shortsighted route.

BTW, Billy Turner's wife is a member here. Or at least she was about a decade or so ago. Great Democrat. I used to reply back and forth to her in the sports forum. I always regretted that I didn't stop and visit them at Saratoga. But I had no way of knowing that my annual visits were coming to an end. Once my mom died in late 2008 then my dad was diagnosed with a terminal condition I was the only one in the family who could stay and help.