Author: Saratoga TODAY

The Saratoga Race Course Gates open at 11 a.m. each day, including weekends, with the exception of Runhappy Travers Day, Saturday, August 28.
The 2021 Saratoga summer meet will include the following events and happenings:

WEEK 3 RACE SCHEDULE

Tune in to Talking Horses for in-depth analysis from handicapper Andy Serling and other guests.

FRIDAY,  JULY 30
The day’s feature is the $120,000 Curlin for 3-year-olds on the dirt at nine furlongs and a potential prep for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers. 

SATURDAY, JULY 31 
Jim Dandy Day: A trio of graded stakes headlines the final Saturday in July as Belmont Stakes winner Essential Quality is expected to lead a field of 3-year-olds in the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga Race Course, the traditional prep for the Runhappy Travers. The star-studded card will also feature the Grade 1, $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap and reigning champion sprinter Whitmore, the 8-year-old gelding who won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in November. The Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green will be highlighted by multiple Grade 1-winning turf veteran Channel Maker.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 1
Sunday’s card will feature the Grade 2, $200,000 Amsterdam for 3-year-old sprinters going six and half furlongs. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4
Features the NYSSS Statue of Liberty Division and the Shine Again. 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 5
Thursday’s card features the Birdstone. 

FRIDAY, JULY 30

Volcan Tequila Summer Music Stage
The Volcan Tequila Summer Music Stage will host live music from Big Fez and the Surfmatics.

Piazza Italia: The Piazza Italia, located in the Saratoga Events Pavilion, near Gate A, will host live music featuring Nick Collucio. 
Fans may enjoy authentic Italian food and beverages at the Piazza Italia every day of the Saratoga meet, including sandwiches on Focaccia with Italian meats and cheeses, Fratelli Beretta cold cuts, Monti Trentini cheeses, Italian Bindi Gelato, Tiramisu and Peroni Beer.

SATURDAY, JULY 31

PDJF Awareness Day
Saratoga Race Course will unite with racetracks across the country with autograph signings and photo opportunities as part of PDJF Day Across America. Riders from the Saratoga jockey colony will sign autographs on the Jockey Silks Room Porch from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. with a suggested donation to PDJF.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Display
Fans will have the opportunity to check out the new all-electric 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E, which will be on display near the Clubhouse escalator throughout the afternoon, courtesy of Upstate Ford Dealer Group.

Cooperstown Distillery, Chandon Garden Spritz and Ketel One Tastings 
Fans will be invited to enjoy a trio of complimentary tasting events: the first tasting features the Saratoga Revolutionary Rum Runner from Cooperstown Distillery, the award-winning producer of distinguished whiskeys and other handcrafted spirits, at the Jim Dandy Bar from noon to 4 p.m. The second tasting will feature samples of the Chandon Garden Spritz at the Travers Bar from 1 to 3 p.m. And rounding out the afternoon will be samples of the Ketel One Botanicals Grapefruit & Rose Botanical Spritz cocktail from award-winning Ketel One family made vodka at the Ketel One Clubhouse Bar from 3 to 5 p.m. Must be at least 21 years old; while supplies last.

Volcan Tequila Tasting and Summer Music Stage 
The Volcan Tequila Summer Music Stage will host live music from Nite Train with Thomasina Winslow. 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 1

Brunch at The Rail at the 1863 Club 
Fans are invited to enjoy a brunch buffet while experiencing The Rail at the 1863 Club, the first-floor banquet space at the 1863 Club. Tickets are $85 and include the buffet, soft drinks and Post Parade program book. Reservations are available by calling the NYRA Box Office at 844-NYRA-TIX or online at NYRA.com/1863Club.

Berkshire Bank Family Sundays
The popular kid-oriented weekly event will feature a wide variety of free family-friendly activities, games, attractions and educational activities each Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Berkshire Bank Family Zone, located inside Gate A near the Saratoga Race Course Box Office. 

Volcan Tequila Summer Music Stage
The Volcan Tequila Summer Music Stage will host live music from The Rodeo Barons.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 5

FABULOUS FILLIES DAY
Saratoga Race Course will honor local breast cancer survivors while supporting To Life!, a Capital Region non-profit organization which provides personalized breast cancer education and support services.

SEASON-LONG DAILY EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES:

LOW ROLLER HANDICAPPING CONTESTS

Thursdays & Sundays

Thursday and Sundays at Saratoga pit yourself against your Saratoga peers on-track with the Low Roller Handicapping Contests. Buy-In: $40 ($30 bankroll/$10 prize pool) Contest ends with second to last race at Saratoga. How to Enter: Visit the Low Roller booth outside Fourstardave before the first race.

BERKSHIRE BANK FAMILY ZONE
Fans will enjoy 40 days of the Berkshire Bank Family Zone, an interactive play area for children located near Gate A, which will be complemented by the return of Berkshire Bank Family Sundays. The popular weekly festival will include free games, attractions and educational activities each Sunday of the season inside the Berkshire Bank Family Zone.

BREAKFAST AT SARATOGA
Tram tour of our famous and historic stable area (weather permitting). The first tram leaves the main Clubhouse entrance at approximately 7:30 a.m. with additional trams leaving approximately every 15 minutes. The last tour departs at around 9 a.m. The Tour is available every race day (there is no breakfast on Runhappy Travers Day, Saturday, August 28). Driven by the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA). Enjoy a morning buffet on The Clubhouse Porch while the thoroughbreds train on the main track. Breakfast is held daily from 7 to 9:30 a.m. and is available on a first-come, first-served basis.  No reservations are accepted for breakfast dining. $20 for adults and $12 for kids under 12. 

SARATOGA FASHION DAYS
Fashion Saturdays, which was previously held once each week, will expand to a 40-day series of pop-up boutiques featuring stylish clothing, accessories and jewelry for women and men. The Saratoga Fashion Days’ boutiques will be located in the following areas: Lifestyles of Saratoga across from the Jockey Silks Room Porch; Miss Scarlett, Saratoga Rocks and the Winning Silks Collection near The Stretch; and Bumble B Boutique near the paddock mutuels building (weekends only).

VOLCAN TEQUILA SUMMER MUSIC STAGE
Fans will enjoy live music performances each afternoon of the season from popular local and regional bands at the Volcan Tequila Summer Music Stage. Strolling entertainment from Saratoga mainstays Reggie’s Red Hot Feetwarmers and the Red Hot Dancers, amongst other acts, will also be a regular feature.

SARATOGA WALKING TOURS
History, highlights, unique architecture, and landscapes at Saratoga Race Course. Approximately 45 minutes. Daily Walking Tours bring the more than 150 years of history within Saratoga Race Course to life. Ever wonder why we ring a bell at 17 minutes to post or why there is a canoe in the lake in the infield? Take a guided tour to get to know The Spa! Tours are scheduled at 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. each racing day and costs $3 per person or $10 for a family. For more information on our tours, please contact our Guest Services Department at 518-584-6200 ext. 4433.

SARATOGA WALK OF FAME
In 2013, NYRA began recognizing prominent thoroughbred industry owners, trainers and jockeys who have left a significant mark on Saratoga with a commemorative plaque and iconic red Saratoga jacket presented on the eve of the Travers Stakes, Saratoga’s signature race and the nation’s oldest major stakes race for 3-year-olds.

BETS SQUAD: LEARN. BET. WIN.
The Bets Squad is your one-stop-shop to learn how to bet! Learn the different types of bets, how to place a bet, how to read a program, how to use a self-service betting terminal, and how to sign up to bet from your phone on and off-track with NYRA Bets. NYRA Bets allows you to securely deposit electronically and play great racing from Saratoga to Del Mar and across the world online and from anywhere, anytime. The Bets Squad is open daily and can be found at the following locations:

• Outside Clubhouse Exchange
• Under Clubhouse after entering Clubhouse exchange
• Grandstand
• Backyard, close to the Red Spring
• The Stretch (for ticketed guests)
• 1863 Club Lobby (for ticketed guests)

Fans will not be required to provide proof of vaccination for admission to Saratoga Race Course. Non-vaccinated individuals will be required to wear a facial covering during their day at Saratoga Race Course, in accordance with federal CDC guidance. NYRA reserves the right to amend admission protocols based on updates and adjustments by New York State. 

The 40-day summer meet at historic Saratoga Race Course will feature 76 stakes worth $21.5 million in total purses highlighted by the 152nd renewal of the Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers on Aug. 28 and the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney on Aug. 7, as the anchors of two of the most prestigious racing days in North America. Racing will be conducted five days a week, Wednesdays through Sundays, with the exception of the final week, when the meet will conclude on Labor Day.

For more information about Saratoga Race Course, visit www.NYRA.com/Saratoga. 

With the Whitney Stakes fast approaching, let’s look at two cousins from the long line of Whitneys who made Saratoga their August playground. 

Along the way we will meet many of their family members that also left a lasting imprint on historic Saratoga Springs. Their names were John Hay Whitney, known to his friends as Jock, and Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney who was called Sonny. They were scions of the Whitney dynasty in an era when the cousins were among the wealthiest individuals in the entire country. Jock and Sonny were entrepreneurs, political figures, collectors of art, and philanthropists of the highest order. The cousins were sportsman, superb polo players, and stewards of their favorite past time, “The Sport of Kings.”

THE LINEAGE

The Patriarch of the Whitney family was John Whitney. He came to America from England in 1635.

His descendant William Collins Whitney was the first Whitney to leave his mark on Saratoga. An immensely successful businessman and political figure of the late nineteenth century, his true passion was horse racing. He owned and operated Westbury Stable, taking the name from Old Westbury, New York, a town known for its Who’s Who of American Aristocracy. He resided there along with the Phipps, DuPonts, and Vanderbilts. With Whitney’s guidance, Westbury became one of the leading racing stables in the country.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Saratoga Racetrack was in a downhill spiral. Whitney saw an opportunity to purchase the track. He and a group of investors set on a path to modernize the stands, lengthen the oval and beautify the grounds. It can be said that without the intervention of William Whitney, enthusiasts of the sport would be relegated to reading about horse racing at the Spa as a casualty of a bygone era.

Among William’s offspring were two sons whose love of the sport were on a par with their esteemed father. Harry Payne Whitney answered to his given name Harry. William Payne Whitney was known by his middle name Payne. 

In 1904, Harry inherited his father’s racing stable, taking it to greater fame. His stock won an astounding ten Triple Crown events. Of note, in 1915 his filly Regret became the first of the fairer sex to win the Kentucky Derby. 

His brother Payne established Greentree Stable in 1914. The name derived from the family estate in Old Westbury. The Greentree brand would become synonymous with horse racing on a grand scale.

ENTER SONNY AND JOCK

The name Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney is as regal as it sounds. His breeding was as impeccable as that of the racehorses he would own. He was born in 1899 to Harry Payne Whitney and his wife Gertrude Vanderbilt. The melding of the families gave Sonny claim to two of the most highly regarded dynasties on this hemisphere.

Five years later Payne Whitney and his wife Helen Hay gave birth to a son, John Hay Whitney. Not to be overshadowed by his cousin, Jock Whitney’s lineage on the maternal side included his grandfather, a great American statesman, John Hay.

Hay counted among his successes the privilege of being Abraham Lincoln’s Private Secretary, as well

as serving as Secretary of State under both William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. The union of the two families created the ideal marriage of the business and political worlds.

The Whitney cousins took the same educational journey. They both completed their pre-college studies at Groton, one of America’s foremost private prep schools. Then it was on to a family tradition of graduating from Yale University, an Ivy League Institution dating back to 1701.

FORTUNES AND “THE SPORT OF KINGS”

Payne Whitney passed away in 1927. He was only 51 years old. With that, his wealth passed into the hands of Jock and his sister Joan. The estate, valued at nearly 200 million dollars, was at the time the largest fortune entered into probate in the history of the United States.

Upon their mother Helen’s death, Greentree Stable became a joint venture of the siblings that would last until Jock’s death four decades later. The property that housed the Greentree stock during the Saratoga racing season sits adjacent to Clair Court on Nelson Avenue. It also served as Jock’s Summer residence.

Joan Whitney Payson later became well known in the baseball world as the original owner of the New York Mets. Under her direction “The Amazings” went from the worst team in the history of the sport to a World Championship a mere seven years later. Mrs. Payson, as she was fondly known, made Saratoga her August home for much of her adult life. The residence at the end of Phila Street intersecting Nelson Avenue is a marvel of Queen Anne Victorian Architecture.

1927 was also an important year for Sonny Whitney. Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic Ocean, landing his aircraft at Le Bourget Airport outside of Paris. Aviation was entering a new phase and Sonny, always ahead of the curve, envisioned the future of it. Later that year along with Juan Trippe, an aviation pioneer and fellow Yale alumni, he formed Pan American Airlines. The investment proved to be a grand slam home run. Pan Am led the way in almost every aspect of air travel for the next half century.

Harry Payne Whitney’s life came to an end in 1930. With that Sonny took ownership of his late father’s stable. Sonny would race the horses under his own name, C. V. Whitney. He was an immediate success as a racehorse owner. His colt Equipoise became one of the all-time greats. He was considered the best horse in training for both 1932 and 1933.

The Whitney Stakes was inaugurated in 1928 to memorialize the Whitney family’s contributions to the sport. The 1932 version here at the Spa was a special event for Sonny. His great champion Equipoise took the race wire to wire. With it came the first of his four coveted Whitney Stakes trophies.

Jock and his sister Joan were also off to the races. Although Greentree was still owned by their mother, the two were heavily involved with the operation. The Greentree response to Equipose was a colt named Twenty Grand. He had a remarkable career. Separated from the 1931 Triple Crown by just a length and a half loss in the Preakness Stakes, he went on to take the coveted Travers here at Saratoga. The year 1931 belonged to Twenty Grand. In 1957 both Equipoise and Twenty Grand were inducted into the Horse Racing Hall of Fame here on Union Avenue.

The cousins were riding high in the horse racing world. Next, they headed for Hollywood.

GONE WITH THE WIND

The movie industry was in its infancy. Both Jock and Sonny were quick to grab a piece of the action. Motion pictures in the early 1930s were filmed in black and white. The cousins bought into a new technology known as technicolor. They invested what amounted to a fifteen percent stake in an invention that would change the face of the movie industry.

Then they set their eyes on the making of motion pictures. Gone With the Wind, to this day considered the greatest movie of all time, had the Whitney name written all over it. The cousins financed the production of the masterpiece. Jock in fact, held the title of Chairman of the Board of Selznick International when the movie was filmed in 1939.

The decade also saw the first of two marriages for Jock. In 1930 he wed one of the notable socialites of the era, Elizabeth Altemus. She was tough, brassy, and beautiful. Although they divorced after ten years, Liz branched out and raced quality horses of her own until her death in 1988. She owned the champion Porterhouse, along with many major stake winners. Liz also kept a residence here. Her horse farm located on Fitch Road is now the site of McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds.

The thirties were over. A new decade was about to begin. A World War was on the Horizon.

Next week we will look at the cousins’ contributions to the war effort and their leap into government service. Then we will see how they brought their brand of horse racing to an even higher level. We will follow Sonny and his bride Mary Lou as they lead the way in the Renaissance of Saratoga, “The Summer Place to Be.” Stay tuned.

Joan Lawrence has always loved working with horses, but she never thought of making a career in horse racing.

After more than 40 years of working on the backstretch and administration offices that include the New York Racing Association, Thoroughbred Racing Communications and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Lawrence is spending part of her retirement by going back to her roots: the backstretch.

Since July 11, Lawrence has been assisting James Ryerson in maintaining his stable by walking and grooming horses, as well as raking around the shed row and walking area, though, she does have a different perspective on the experience.

“I’ve known Jimmy Ryerson for several years,” she said. “We are old friends and socialize here and there, but he needed help. I haven’t walked horses in years. So, it was eye-opening and very humbling to say the least. It has given me a renewed appreciation to what he does here. The team has been terrific.”

The Ryerson team has already won two races within the first five days into the Saratoga meet: Mommie’s Jewel and Dancing Kiki. While there may be a little luck involving those wins, Lawrence sees the team functioning more like an orchestra to help the horses perform well.

“It’s such a beautiful thing that Jim does,” she said. “He’s the conductor and everyone else is the orchestra. They all work and pull together into a crescendo. Then all of a sudden, there is the horse.” “There isn’t a lot of staff here. The grooms help each other. They have been great with me. I can feel the positivity around here. We are feeling good right now and we hope everything continues to go well,” she said.

Lawrence’s experience in horse racing is slightly atypical than others who have worked around the track. Living in Massapequa in 1975, Lawrence and her mother watched the horse racing replay show featuring Frank Wright and Charlsie Cantey.

Around the same time, her mother also played on bowling team in Huntington that featured trainer John Sheringham, who was part of a core New York horsemen’s group that included Hall of Famers Bill Boland and H. Allen Jerkens. That piqued Lawrence’s interest of going to the backstretch and working with horses for Sheringham on the weekends while attending Farmingdale State.

“My family had nothing to do with horse racing, but I have always liked the horses,” she said. “I would drive to his house. He put me in his tiny red car. When I got there, I thought I was in heaven. I never knew horses had the right-of-way. When we were done, he put me back in the car and took me back. I couldn’t get enough of it after a while.”

For the next five years, Lawrence worked for trainers that included Leonard Imperio, P.G. Johnson and John Hertler, as well as learning how to break yearlings, ride horses, and handle stallions for her father-in-law John C. Lawrence, who owned one of the first stallion farms in Long Island.

The non-stop schedule and breaking her right shoulder impacted Lawrence. Instead of continuing with college and working on the backstretch, she became interested on the front side of racing.

“One day, I realized that college wasn’t for me,” Lawrence said. “I also wasn’t cut out to do this seven days a week, as much as I wanted to be trainer. So, I started to get familiar with people on the front side.”

One of her first jobs working for NYRA was horseman relations and customer service with eventual long-time friend Mary Hauswald, then she moved into marketing and communications. That communications position led her into a niche in horse racing for nearly 27 years.

Lawrence worked for TRC for about seven years before the NTRA merger. During her tenure, with mentoring from Bob Curran, Lawrence tackled a variety of jobs that included providing soundbites from a bulky over-the-shoulder SONY recorder for sports radio networks, conducting weekly polls, producing media packages, and coordinating teleconferences.

Through her job at TRC and NTRA, Lawrence covered every major racing event from Triple Crown to the Breeders’ Cup with her first assignment being Easy Goer in 1989.

Using her skills of thinking ahead, Lawrence also played an integral part of coordinating information and the teleconferences at the New Bolton Center for Dr. Dean Richardso, who was the equine surgeon for Barbaro, and she coordinated media events at Parx Racing where Smarty Jones was training during his Triple Crown bid in 2004.

“Whenever there was an opportunity, I jumped on it,” she said. “It was quite a time, especially when not everyone had the internet yet. I loved being part of that service. The writers appreciated it. I always thought ahead of what they needed. That’s how we operated.”

With about three years before retirement from the NTRA in 2015, Lawrence decided to leave the commute from Long Island to Manhattan and move to Ballston Spa. While she enjoyed working downstate, Lawrence felt she had more of a connection to Saratoga County, especially with the horses.

“I thought I would get more involved in the horses,” she said. “It’s the love of horses and the quality of life and lifestyle. I have always loved coming up here. I’ve always been an upstater. This is more me. I love Long Island and growing up there, but I was never really a beach person. I am more into the mountains. When I am here, I always identify with the area more than the beach.”

Outside of racing, Lawrence spends time doing outdoor activities that includes hiking and cross-country skiing, as well as spending time with other friends retired from racing.

It has been over 45 years since Lawrence and her mother watched horse racing replays on television. Over that time, Lawrence’s mother was impressed with her journey around horse racing.

“My mother thought I was a rock star,” she said “If she was here today, she would have been proud. I ended up having a nice career. I learned and everybody was good to me, but I worked hard around a lot of good people. It has been incredible journey when I think about it.”

Week four of the 2021 racing season at Saratoga Race Course beginning August 4 will contain a baker’s dozen of stakes races, 8 of which are graded.

The Grade I Whitney with a purse of $1,000,000 is the highlight of the week and will be run Saturday, August 7.  Friday, August 6 will see the inductions of the Class of 2020 and 2021 in the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame at a ceremony that will be live streamed to the public at 10:30 a.m. A Grade II race honoring the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame will be contested later Friday afternoon on the grass at a mile for three-year-olds. 

The biggest race card of the season so far will be Saturday, August 7. Five stakes will be contested that day with three Grade I contests – the Whitney; The Test; and the Saratoga Derby -anchoring the extended program. The Whitney at a mile and an eighth traditionally draws some of the best older horses in the country and this year is no exception. Expected starters include Maxfield who is generally considered the best horse in training; the very speedy Knicks Go; prolific winners Silver State and By My Standards and filly champion Swiss Skydiver who will take on males after missing her race last week due to quarantine restrictions. The Whitney, named in honor of the entire Whitney family, is always a matchup of speed horses and stayers and has seen some memorable performances. Having been won by some of the best horses in history, it is ironic that the Whitney is best known for Secretariat’s loss in 1973 to the Allen Jerkens-trained Onion. Secretariat’s loss in the Whitney solidified Saratoga’s reputation as the Graveyard of Champions and Allen Jerkens’ nickname – “The Giant Killer.” 

Also on the Saturday card is the Test for three-year-old fillies at seven furlongs. The Test attracts the fastest members of the class and again is a blend of horses with pure speed and those that can stay an extra furlong. Originally run in 1922, the Test for decades was used as a prep for the much longer Alabama Stakes but in recent years has acted more as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. The $500,000 purse makes the Test among the most lucrative sprints for three-year-old fillies.

The Saturday card is further bolstered by the relatively new and blandly named Saratoga Derby for three-year-olds contested at a mile and three-sixteenths. It offers an outsized purse of $1 million. This series typically attracts European entrants, and a possible entrant is European trainer Aiden O’Brien’s recent impressive winner of the Belmont Derby – Bolshoi Ballet.

The Friday, August 6 card is the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame stakes for three-year-olds at a mile on the grass. The race celebrates the induction of the newest members of the Hall of Fame earlier that day across Union Avenue. This year’s induction includes both the classes of 2020 and 2021 since last year’s ceremony was cancelled. Inductee Trainer Mark Casse told me “I have been very thankful for the success I have had in horse racing and this recognition is the pinnacle of my career.” On waiting an extra year for the actual ceremony, he added “it has allowed me to enjoy it that much longer.” He further added he was “looking to win” the stakes race that afternoon.

Among the other inductees is Trainer Todd Pletcher who is also expected to have an entrant in the race. On his induction into the Hall of Fame, the seven-time Eclipse Award winner for Outstanding Trainer told me “It’s a great honor. I’m very happy to be able to share it with my parents, family and coworkers.”

In addition to Pletcher, the 2021 class includes Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 13-time champion steeplechase trainer Jack Fisher. The 2020 inductees in addition to trainer Mark Casse, are jockey Darrel McHargue, horses Tom Bowling and Wise Dan, and Pillars of the Turf Alice Headley Chandler, J. Keene Daingerfield, Jr., and George D. Widener, Jr.

The Troy Stakes for older horses at 5 ½ furlongs on the grass and the Alydar at a mile and a furlong also are featured on the strong Friday card. Blue Grass stakes winner Art Collector is expected to head the Alydar.

Wednesday has three-year-old New York Bred fillies going a mile on the grass in the New York Sire Stakes Series – Statue of Liberty Division. A restricted stake- the Shine Again for older fillies at seven furlongs will also be run on Wednesday. 

Thursday highlight is the Birdstone, named after Mary Lou Whitney’s 2004 Belmont Stakes winner. Run at the unusual marathon distance of a mile and three quarters; it offers a purse of $120,000 for older horses. 

Sunday completes week with the filly counterpart to the Saratoga Derby – The Saratoga Oaks.  At the same distance of a mile and three-sixteenths but this time for three-year-old fillies a large purse of $700,000 is expected to draw a competitive field. Also on Sunday, two-year-old fillies stretch out a bit in the 6 and 1/2 furlong Adirondack – a grade II offering a purse of $200,000.