Saratoga takes racing’s center stage with Belmont

June 1, 2024 at 2:23 a.m.

by SPENCER RIPCHIK Associated Press

FILE — A fog burns off as the sun rises over the Oklahoma Training Track, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Aug. 26, 2005. Venerable Saratoga Race Course adds to its mystique and tradition by hosting the Belmont Stakes for the next two years. The track that predates the end of the U.S. Civil War has never before hosted a Triple Crown race. (AP Photo/Rick Gargiulo, File)
FILE — A fog burns off as the sun rises over the Oklahoma Training Track, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Aug. 26, 2005. Venerable Saratoga Race Course adds to its mystique and tradition by hosting the Belmont Stakes for the next two years. The track that predates the end of the U.S. Civil War has never before hosted a Triple Crown race. (AP Photo/Rick Gargiulo, File)

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Health, history and horses are the three H's carved into the welcome sign when travelers venturing into New York's Adirondack Mountains reach Saratoga Springs.

Horses have always been the main event here, where the oldest active sporting venue in the country, the Saratoga Race Course, stands at the heart of the town of 30,000.

Saratoga has seen upsets since opening before the end of the Civil War, including Upset defeating decorated Man o' War and Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh slipping up against Keen Ice in the Travers.

For the first time, the Saratoga Race Course will have the best 3-year-olds in the world duke it out in a Triple Crown race when the venerable track hosts the Belmont Stakes on June 8.

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