SARATOGA SPRINGS —The National Museum nd Hall of Fame is open 7 days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with updated galleries, a brand new Hall of Fame and Race Day Gallery experience, a new Gift Shop, and more.
Hall of Fame Ceremony
The National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony, scheduled for Friday, Aug. 6 at Fasig-Tipton, will be open to the public and free to attend. The ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. and will also be streamed live on the Museum’s website at racingmuseum.org.
Public seating is limited and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. The doors will open at 9:30 a.m. This year’s induction ceremony will honor the Hall of Fame classes of 2020 and 2021. Legendary track announcer Tom Durkin will serve as the master of ceremonies. The 2020 inductees include racehorses Tom Bowling and Wise Dan; jockey Darrel McHargue; trainer Mark Casse; and Pillars of the Turf Alice Headley Chandler, J. Keene Daingerfield, Jr., and George D. Widener, Jr. The 2021 class is comprised of racehorse American Pharoah (a 2013 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale graduate) and trainers Jack Fisher and Todd Pletcher.
Tom Durkin Leads Guided Tours at Racing Museum
Retired racecaller Tom Durkin will lead personalized tours of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame throughout the Saratoga Race Course meeting this summer from July 20 through Sept. 3.
Tours will be from 11 a.m. to noon Wednesday through Sunday with a cost of $20 for Museum members and $25 for non-members (includes Museum admission). Tours will be limited to 15 people and reservations are required. This is the third year Durkin will lead tours of the Museum. Durkin will be highlighting various aspects of the Museum and its collection, including the new The Test of the Champion exhibit celebrating 150 years of the Belmont Stakes, and relating personal anecdotes from his distinguished career in racing.
Tour reservations can be made by calling the Museum at 518-584-0400 ext. 107. There will be no Durkin-led tours on Mondays or Tuesdays or Aug. 3 and Aug. 15. The tour price includes the special tour, admission to the Museum, and a showing of the new signature film, What It Takes: Journey to the Hall of Fame. Tours will meet in the Museum lobby and will begin promptly at 11 a.m.
Oklahoma Training Track Tours: Find out why this beautiful and historic site, located across the street from the main track at Saratoga Race Course, is a favorite base for Hall of Fame trainers. The Museum’s behind-the-scenes tours, offered in cooperation with the NYRA, are available now through September. This walking tour covers approximately 1½ miles and lasts for 90 minutes. Adult: $15; Student/Senior: $10.
For insurance reasons, tour participants must be at least 10 years old. Oklahoma Training Track Tours are by reservation only. The tour begins promptly at 9 a.m. and leaves from the Museum parking lot. You will meet your tour guide by the back Museum entrance. Reservations are required and space is limited. Sturdy walking shoes are suggested for this tour.
Two exciting new exhibits: Muybridge and Motion: Selections from the Tang Teaching Museum Collection (On display in the Link Gallery through Jan. 2, 2022), and ’Chasing Summer: The Art of Steeplechase (On display in the von Stade Gallery through Sept. 30).
Muybridge and Motion features a series of groundbreaking animal locomotion photographic studies by English photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830 – 1904) from the Tang Teaching Museum collection and paintings by American artist Henry Stull (1851 – 1913) from the National Museum of Racing collection.
This year’s fine art exhibition, ‘Chasing Summer celebrates the Steeplechase Hall of Fame induction year with 31 works of steeplechasing art by British and American sporting artists from the 19th and 20th centuries. ’Chasing Summer also celebrates the return of 13 works from the collection that were previously on loan and have not been exhibited at the Museum in decades.
For more information about the Museum, go to: www.racingmuseum.org.
