Labor Day 2012

 It's kind of become a tradition for us to spend Labor Day at the track. It's very fitting to spend the unofficial last day of Summer at our favorite summer place on closing day. Despite free admission, attendance is pretty sparse early on, so it was easy for us to get two picnic tables.

 M brought along some Bitter Americans, while I sipped seltzer.

 ...I need to remember to put makeup on when I know we'll be taking pictures, hahaha.

 Oy, some concealer would have made this picture a little prettier...

Always be prepared...

 ...aka making lemonade out of lemons. Our friend Kelly who moved to Brooklyn came up this past weekend and wanted to go to the track. We were happy to take her. We went on Sunday. It was a giveaway day. We arrived before the gates even opened in order to snag a picnic table. But once we were inside, we saw that there was literally not one single picnic table that hadn't already been "claimed" by someone else. We hadn't even brought folding chairs with us, just a cooler. We were pretty much screwed.

Until...we realized that the giveaway was for stadium blankets, and with our 3 admission tickets, we could each snag one. So M guarded our encampment and Kelly and I went to the top of the stretch to wait in line with the zealots and get some blankets to sit on.

 Kelly is obviously more psyched about this than M.

 Still needing to sleep off a long night, M decides to make use of our new blankets. 

 Once he woke up from his shot nap, he realized blankets and a cooler wouldn't cut it. So he called his Aunt who was going to meet us there and asked her to bring a folding table. We went back to the gate to wait for her, and rented a few folding chairs along the way.

With a table and chairs secured, the day immediately improved. Lesson learned: always have a table and chairs stashed in your trunk when you head to the track. Just in case.

A day at the track

 A couple of weekends back, M and I got up early and hit the track for the first time this summer. In case you missed the article I wrote for the local blog, All Over Albany, you can catch up here and read all about why it is key to get there early!

 We got our picnic table and got down to making our picks for the day.

 I based my picks on the top two jockeys and the trainer I like. These picks didn't let me down. I mostly bet Show bets, and every race I bet I walked away with something. Enough to keep be in the black all day and allow for one big bet on my pick of the day: a horse in the last race trained by my favorite trainer and ridden by one of the top two jockeys. My reasoning was this combination meant this horse couldn't lose. So I placed a $10 Win/Place/Show bet (which costs $30 to place).  I took my ticket to the rail and held my breath.

My pick won the race! His odds weren't spectacular, but he netted me a $45 profit. All in all a winning day in my book.

ghoul poon

 This weekend M's second band, Ghoul Poon played a show at King's Tavern. What's cool about this bar is that it is located directly across the street from the front gates to the Saratoga Race Track, which is our favorite place to be in the summer time. 

 It's filled with lots of cool racing memorabilia, we sat at the Secretariat table!

 What bar DOESN'T have a random lawn jockey just hanging out?

Oh yeah, and M's band played an awesome set! This is only their 3rd show as Ghoul Poon, and they keep getting better!

our labor day 2010

We spent this labor day the same way we spent it last year: at Saratoga Race Track for the closing day of the season.

We arrived before the second race and decided not to place any bets because it was a turf race, and we only like to bet races on the dirt. So we scanned our program for the third race.

I'm not an expert handicapper by any stretch of the imagination, but I keep up on the sport and what goes on during the meet. M is more of a stat studying handicapper who likes to chase the exotics.

I chose my horses for the third race because I knew their trainer is a former jockey who has had an outstanding record, and I put $1 to Win Place or Show on both of them, despite neither having favorable odds.

I went up to the fence to take photos, not even thinking of my bets until the horses ran past me.

Here they come!

THIS was my OMG moment....um....these are the two horses I picked...and they were running in first and second place as they approached the finish line! My heart jumped into my throat.

And that's how they finished. Number 4 came in first and was named Shahzadi, and he went off at 46 TO 1! The biggest long shot in the race, and I picked him! Number 10 placed and was named Above the Call. These two little ponies made my day!

We stayed for a few more races, and on the way back to the car I caught these beauties relaxing at the stables:

We could spend EVERY Labor Day here for the rest of our lives!

suggestions

1. Rider Up

2. The Straightaway

3. Saratoga Paddock Study

4. Final Turn

5. Horse and Goat

6. Anybody's Guess

the track

M's cigar

some bets were placed

Kelly took this awesome shot of M's reflection in my sunglasses!

Kelly waiting for the race to start.

M watching the race with is cigar.

M tries on my sunglasses as the day winds down.

a day at the races

M grabs a swig of his PBR before we head off to show Kelly how to bet.

After Kelly's quick lesson with the automated betting terminals, it was out to the track to take in the early afternoon sun.

No, you can't drag your lawn chairs up and plop them right in front of the fence, thanks.

And please, when you're watching the race...stay off the hydrant. As a favor. Please.

We had enough time before the first race to run over to the new Shake Shack location at the track and grab some lunch. This is M's burger...he finished his fries before we even got back to the table!

My burger. I decided to skip the traditional ketchup, and try it with just the shack sauce. It was delicious! But I was kicking myself because I didn't bring my purse to the track...only my camera bag. And....I forgot to pack my lactase pills in the camera bag. So no shake for me. Next time, for sure though!

M's aunt Jo showed up with some beer kozy's that he couldn't resist.

morning at the track

For M & me, the track is kind of "our thing." Since we've been together, we've gone to every opening day rain or shine. Except this year, because he was away on tour during opening day. So we were SUPER psyched when our friend Kelly said she wanted to experience a day at the track with us. She was warned that it was going to start super early. We picked her up at 8:30am, and got to the gates by 9:30. The gates didn't open until 10:30, so we had a solid hour of waiting, but we were second in line. Why is it so important to get there early? Because if you're spending the day at the picnic tables like we do, you need to get in and claim your spot before all the tables are snatched up. And they are, usually within a matter of minutes!

M snagged us a table under some trees, and we marked our territory with the gaudiest table cloth we could find at the dollar store.

Kelly shot this photo of M, returning to our table with the day's programs so that we could start the task of choosing our horses.

M studied the stats, while I decided to just pick names I liked. Kelly's strategy was to pick horses with the names she thought were stupidest.

Kelly and her breakfast bevy, firefly peach iced tea.

view from our table

Breakfast of champions! None of us had time for a proper breakfast, so we ended up snacking on M's dollar store Mike and Ikes to hold us over until lunch.