Additional racing may be coming to Saratoga Springs next year during a season that has already been extended once.
The Belmont Stakes was held at The Spa for the first time on June 8th, around a month before the start of the regular 40-day meet, and is returning in 2025.
The four-day festival drew upwards of 120,000 racing fans to the region and broke the all-sources handle record for a non-Triple Crown year at more than $125 million.
Now, spokesman Pat McKenna says the New York Racing Association is considering bringing an additional festival-style weekend of races upstate for the July 4th weekend in 2025.
“What we would be doing as a technical matter is concluding the Belmont at the Big A spring meet here at Saratoga. That’s partly a function of the fact that Labor Day is early as it possibly can be next year, so the idea would be, and again, this is under consideration and discussion, that we’re near a final decision but if you were to run few of these days here at Saratoga, they would then be followed by the opening of the 40-day summer meet on that following Thursday,” said McKenna.
The Test of the Champion was brought north while Belmont Park undergoes a half-a-billion-dollar renovation. McKenna emphasizes that the early start to the summer’s meet would be temporary and separate from the regular Saratoga meet.
“The 40-day summer meet has worked incredibly well. The five-day format, reducing from six days to five days has worked incredibly well from every perspective, all the metrics suggest that. And it seems as if the fan enthusiasm and energy throughout Saratoga is at an all-time high. So, we’re at a good spot. But, we are embarking on the most significant racetrack construction project in modern American history downstate. So, will some adjustments be made in the future, potentially. But we hope that these are things that would certainly be well-received,” said McKenna.
Saratoga Chamber of Commerce President Todd Shimkus says he’s open to the idea of some additional days of racing and is looking forward to fleshing plans out with NYRA in the near future.
“July 4th around here is not super huge in terms of attractions. We run the All-American Celebration on July 4th and we’ve got capacity to host a lot more people. So, that certainly is an intriguing possibility. They have made crystal clear to me that at most they’re talking about the Belmont Stakes Festival and then July 4th weekend. They are not talking about being here from the Belmont Stakes Festival all the way to the regular meet,” said Shimkus.
Shimkus says Saratoga Springs' sales tax collection through July is 8% higher than in 2023, and that he is confident the business community can adapt to another extra weekend.
“That’s what we do here. If we have an opportunity to have racing over two more weekends, I think we will figure that out and embrace it. I certainly was around in 2020 when we didn’t have it at all, so to be talking about a couple of extra weekends I think that will get people here pretty excited,” said Shimkus.
City Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi is on board with adding more racing days, but warns officials need to keep city residents in mind.
"I think as the Finance Commissioner it’s a great idea and especially for our businesses our sales tax revenues and all of that. This would be a very welcome opportunity. But I also understand if people have concerns about track rentals and having to lose more time in their homes over the summer,” said Sanghvi.
According to NYRA, the 2024 meet drew more than one million paid attendees and generated more than $800 million in all-sources wagering handle.
