Fairmount1 Wrote:
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> Maybe the greatest of experiences are the early
> times you were fortunate enough to enjoy them
> without even thinking about it and analyzing as
> you do when you age and reflect. I'm sure
> everyone on here can make more than a few
> metaphors or similies to other facets of their
> life they experienced early on.......and after
> having "that experience" a few or several times,
> it just isn't as overwhelming. That's when you go
> looking for Fort Erie and Kentucky Downs to
> replace that first love when maybe that first love
> is still right there.
>
> I was born 5 days after Seattle Slew's Belmont and
> Triple Crown sweep. Despite not seeing Slew or
> Affirmed, I mark time early in my life by racing
> learned long after it happened. When I started
> following racing and traveling to see various
> venues, Saratoga was like Mecca and it was out of
> reach. It wasn't real. It was so far away on
> that simulcast feed and there was no way I could
> get there. One summer (2008) I thought of driving
> the 15 hours by myself. But it was just too far
> away....
>
> I was lucky enough despite the high prices to make
> it to the backyard to meet our author, to meet
> Frank D., and even TGJB this past summer as I
> described on the board. My first Saratoga
> experience. It was an utterly spectacular
> experience. I saw people on the sidewalk with
> American Pharoah signs lobbying for him to come to
> Saratoga. In what other town in America would
> anything like this happen? Not even Louisville or
> Lexington. I heard them chanting "We want
> Pharoah," dressed in Zayat colors, holding up
> their signs, etc. People were on the sidewalk
> selling tip sheets, waters for a cheaper price
> than inside, horses literally crossing the street
> on raceday. I went back in time even if the
> prices weren't the same as described in this
> thread.
>
> Scenes inside the track made it impossible to stay
> in one spot more than a few minutes from the
> sudden onslaught everywhere that causes ADD
> excitement to people with the discipline of a
> Buddhist Monk. The people, the sounds, the
> colors. There are HD Televisions for up close
> shots of Maggie explaining which horses look most
> intriguing in the paddock. JB hushing everyone
> around him to watch and to listen to every word.
> How on Earth is this not still every bit a part of
> the Escape experience that doesn't happen anywhere
> else? If chills didn't roll through you when
> Liam's Map opened up by 4 lengths in the stretch
> and Honor Code ran him down, then you should
> retreat to Living Rooms Down. That feeling only
> happens in person. I could go on and on about the
> town, the track, the scenes. But you all know it
> so well because you have been there and you keep
> going back.
>
> If your complaint is that everyone else has
> discovered the greatest of "escapes" in the world
> and that everyone else is flocking there and
> profiting on the experience, all I can say is
> Welcome to America. That's why people continue to
> flock to our country for the same exact reasons.
> I think you are tilting at windmills a bit
> richiebee.
>
> See, the more things change, the more they stay
> the same. Saratoga is the same to me as it was to
> you back in the heydey of Triple Crown winners at
> the Spa. Now that his run is over, I have really
> taken appreciation of Pharoah. And while he lost
> in the Travers, his sporting gesture to run there
> helped put him down in the Pantheon of Greats and
> Triple Crown winners to race there. 20 years from
> now I might be saying due to age that Saratoga
> just isn't the same as it was back in '15. But
> hopefully I will realize that it will still be the
> same escape as it was my first time.
>
> I will tell all of you when I FOUND Saratoga. I
> was in the backyard with our author richiebee and
> he asked me a few questions that led to me saying,
> "I have been through so much that I am just
> enjoying my life and I love racing." And he
> replied to me, "This is THE place to just get
> away. This is IT!!" That was in 2015, not 40
> years ago. Saratoga LOST??? ....no way, I say
> "Saratoga FOUND!!!" I know that as you age,human
> nature tends to accentuate the changes that have
> happened as we yearn for previous memory enhanced
> experiences. But maybe it is just our aging that
> causes the current experience to seem not as
> romantic or nostalgic as we relive it each year.
>
> I bet when I head to Saratoga again next summer,
> richiebee will be there for Whitney weekend in the
> backyard, amongst the trees, tasting the spring
> water to feel that exuberant youth when he didn't
> take on the role of 21st century John Milton. And
> he along with all of you might not have Summer
> Nights ringing in your mind as the latest pop hit
> like when Alydar was placed first via DQ of
> Affirmed but you will all be drawn in to be there
> again. I will agree though that there are other
> escapes out there. I have a pretty strong feeling
> that Franklin, Kentucky will be where I meet the
> 'bee a 2nd time in 2016 to whet his appetite for
> him to wax poetic again. And after cheating on
> Saratoga, he will recapturetheglory of back in day
> of the Triple Crown era and likely post to the
> board that while he tried a love affair with Fort
> Erie and some Kentucky Downs' lovin', that
> Saratoga is what he will be returning to in 2017
> as Old Faithful.
>
> Richiebee, I am real curious to ask: Despite your
> attempt to find new loves, is it possible that the
> real Timeless Magic** of your life will always be
> under the trees in the backyard near Union and
> East Avenues?
>
> __________________
>
> **Bonus Points to anyone besides the original
> author of this string who can identify the
> allusion in the final paragraph and it's
> connection to richiebee. If no one answers it by
> Monday richiebee, you have to explain to the
> board.


Have multiple friends in this business who morn the passing of the 'way-back Good Old Days of the Spa (60s), when they were drawing 5/6K (maybe) weekdays, and that's just the way they liked it -- with zippo crowds. Problem is, had it stayed that way, not at all certain it would be here, now.

The mind boggles.

My first trip was in '77, when the cat was already well out of the bag. The popularity of the attraction makes it better. One simply hopes that those largely motivated by blind greed and self-gratification don't make it worse -- in large part because they simply don't know any better.