SARATOGA SPRINGS — Michael and Greg Veitch are a father son duo that has spent their lives living in Saratoga Springs. Several generations of their family, since at least the 1890s, has been involved in horse racing. Michael Veitch has been a writer for The Saratogian and The Pink Sheet since 1979, his specialty on the New York Racing Association (NYRA), so it only made sense that he would write two books on the history of the Saratoga Race Course.
He has never owned racing horses and always felt that as long as he was writing about them, “whether it was innocent or not, I didn’t think it was proper for me to own a racehorse. I think that I need to stay on the sideline and be free to write what I wish to write and I’ve had that privilege.”
Foundation of Fame covers the track from its inception in 1863 up until 1900.
“I decided to start at the beginning, which is 1863, and I was rather surprised to find out that as far as I know, no one had ever covered those first 37 years, in particular, recording all of the major stakes winners and things like that. I broke it off at 1900 because that was the year that William C. Whitney purchased Saratoga and in my view, saved the race track,” Michael said.
His second book, “Summit of Champions,” covers the track from 1901 up until 1955.
“I selected 1905 as a natural break point because that was the year that the Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed, the real true private owners of the race track, went out of business, having been in business for 90 years. 1955 is the creation legislatively of NYRA,” Michael clarified.
Michael plans to write a third and final book in his trilogy which will cover the years 1955 up until 2008 because that is the year the track surrendered its’ properties to the state of New York.
Michael talked about both books in great length at the museum’s event Monday night. He has served in a lot of capacities at the National Museum and Racing Hall of Fame for nearly 25 years. He was a trustee of the museum and remains a chairman on the historical review committee.
“I have been happy to have something for Saratogians to put their hands on that is fairly well researched history of the track. It’s the joy of having Saratogians say, ‘I really enjoyed your book,’” Michael said.
Greg Veitch is the Saratoga Springs Chief of Police and has been for the last four years. On Monday night, he discussed his first book, “All the Law in the World Won’t Stop Them,” a book that is a retelling of a whole history of Saratoga Springs that a lot of people “may not remember. It paints a vastly different picture of Saratoga,” Greg stated.
This book focuses on the crime, corruption, and gambling in Saratoga Springs up until 1921, right before prohibition.
“As a kid, one of the earliest memories I have is going to a family reunion at the Olde Bryan Inn where my family used to live. So one of my earliest memories is having the older men at the reunion tell me all about my great-grandfather who may have possibly been involved in a gangland murder in the 1930s in Saratoga Springs. Well, I had this story in my head for my whole life, I’ve become a police officer and 10 years after that I found myself down in the archives and on a whim, I picked up the oldest case file that we have and it’s the same story that my great-grandfather was allegedly involved in. Except, my great-grandfather is nowhere near this murder. I did a presentation for the history museum for that murder and when I was done, someone walked up and said, ‘hey you should write a book,’” Greg said.
Researching that murder led to the discovery of other murders during that timeframe in Saratoga Springs that he found interesting. Nothing in the books comes from any old case files the Saratoga Police Department has. It took Greg about five years to find a narrative and flow that he considered fitting and interesting for his book. His book is based on previous stories that have been mentioned in local gangster autobiographies and he has expanded on them.
“I hope people enjoy and appreciate the book. One of the motivations for doing this was to kind of have a central resource for people who wanted to understand this part of Saratoga history. If nothing else, it’s a record of what happened then, to the best of my abilities to tell it,” Greg said.
“As far as our talk went, I was thrilled to be doing something like this with my father. I think that’s pretty unique,” Greg concluded.
“I’m very proud of Greg,” Michael added.
Greg’s book can be purchased at Northshire Bookstore on Broadway and Michael’s can be found on Amazon.
