SARATOGA 9/6/10

The good news is: The 2010 Saratoga meet is over. The bad news is: The 2010 Saratoga meet is over.

As much as I love Saratoga and being there during the meet, I'm always glad when it's over as it is a grueling schedule to keep up for six and a half weeks. So, the fact that Monday was closing day is a good thing.

On the other hand, Saratoga's ending always means the end to regularly seeing some friends until next year while also signifying the end to Summer. So for that reason, I always hate to see it end.

But Fall is a great time of year to be a horse player as the racing is great. N.Y.R.A. will now take a four day break until Belmont Park opens it's Fall meet this Saturday, September 11th.

Belmont's Fall meet will run through Sunday, October 31st before Aqueduct opens on Friday, November 5th which will also be Breeders' Cup Friday at Churchill Downs. So while to many, the racing season ends with Saratoga, to us true horse players, the end of the Saratoga meet marks the beginning of another great stretch of racing that begins this Saturday at Belmont Park.

John Velazquez dethroned Ramon Dominguez as leading rider of Saratoga as he held off Javier Castellano to win the riding title by a win count of 57-54. For Dominguez, he not only lost the Saratoga title, but it was also the first N.Y.R.A. meet that he wasn't leading rider at since the Aqueduct Fall meet of 2008.

Todd Pletcher saddled 36 winners to easily win the training title over last years winner Linda Rice who once again had a tremendous Saratoga meet by winning 20 races. 

As for my meet, it could have been better. I had a nice first six days, which were followed by an awful one week stretch from July 31st through August 7th.

Once I weathered the one week storm, the rest of the meet went pretty good. So, it was a good start, followed by a bad week and then solid from there.

But ultimately, when the meet was all said and done, the horrible one week stretch was responsible for me finishing slightly in red numbers for the meet.

I'll now take a day or two away from racing before diving into Belmont's opening day card on Wednesday or Thursday.

Starting with the Belmont meet on Saturday, I will not be posting my plays until after the scratches and changes are announced. That means that my plays will not be posted until between 11:00AM and 11:45AM each N.Y.R.A. racing day.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to my subscribers but this will enable me to help make what is already a good handicapping service, an even better one.

See you back on Saturday for the opening of the Belmont Fall meet. 

Any comments, questions or if you would like to receive one free day of plays on the N.Y.R.A. card, send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Thank You.

There were no claims reported on Monday's card

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