Racing 101: First-Timers' Guide to the Races

Like most experiences in life, if you try something once and it isn't pleasant--you're not eager to try it again.  A day at the races is a wonderful, magical experience--if you have a little heads-up about activities and events.  It can be very confusing to step foot onto the grounds of a Thoroughbred racetrack for the first time--and we want to alleviate some of that angst, right out of the gate.

Now, the first thing you should understand is that, in the world of Thoroughbred racing--every single day of a race meet is a Major Sporting Event.

Unlike other major sports--say, football or baseball--the meet at a racetrack is a daily event (or nearly daily) for an extended period of time.  A football team may have a game once a week during their season.  Not so with Thoroughbred racing!  Consider this:  racing happens somewhere in the United States 364 days a year.  To my knowledge, there's no Christmas racing.

Let's use the Saratoga Race Course as our example:  the Saratoga meet takes place for six glorious weeks every year.  Six days a week--only Tuesdays are "dark"--the New York Racing Association puts on a show that features the world's most beautiful and gifted equine athletes.  If you spread out just the Saratoga meet by the schedule of a football team, the 36-day meet would take 36 weeks!  (And, lest you mistakenly think that the hard-working folks at NYRA only work that hard for only six weeks a year--uh, no.  Opening Day at Saratoga every year happens only a few days after the close of Belmont Park.  And after Labor Day, when the Saratoga meet ends--they go back to Belmont, and do it all over again.  Then Aqueduct.  Then Belmont.  Then Saratoga again.  NYRA puts on this show year-round, an amazing feat, indeed.)

Well.  Like football--or perhaps more so--racing is a very complicated sport.  It's not an endeavour for the frail-of-heart.   And I mean being a fan!  There's a lot to learn about handicapping and pedigree, for example.  (And don't worry--we intend to help you learn all those things here in Racing 101 over the next several weeks.)

But the first thing you need to learn--the thing that will help you have a blast on your first day, and inspire you to return day after day--the key element to enjoying a day at the races is--calm down...