Hello, Saratoga

It’s always a highlight when Saratoga comes around because it’s by far the year’s best meeting. Unfortunately, ever since NYRA extended it from the original four weeks to five and then finally to six, the quality of the racing inevitably has been diluted. Wednesday’s opening card is a typical example.

Now they could card 10 races of mules, goats and pigs on the Spa’s first day and people would still fill the place and bet tons. Wednesday’s card doesn’t look much different than a typical Belmont program in late June. It features five grass races that are in serious jeopardy of being moved to the main track by the 60-percent chance of rain, which jumps up to an 80-percent of thundershowers by mid-afternoon. Two maiden events, one for New York-breds and one for babies, are uninspiring and inscrutable. Then there’s an optional claimer that looks playable, a $20,000 claimer that serves as the finale, and the stakes, the Schuylerville for lightly raced 2-year-old fillies.

I’ve always found that the fewer races I play at the Spa, the better I do, and I might not bother to log on to my Internet account today. If the track is wet, I might take a stab in the Schuylerville with Monmouth shipper Boom Town Sally, who’s bred to love slop. She’s by Is It True (beat Easy Goer in the mud at Churchill in the 1988 Juvenile) out of a mare by Java Gold (won the 1987 Travers in the slop). If I do bet Boom Town Sally, I’ll key her in exacta boxes with likely favorite Ocean Colors and Mine All Mine.