BELMONT: Andrew Champagne ‘Toga tips

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Besides betting tips, horse racing expert Andrew Champagne offered advice to those experiencing Saratoga or the Belmont Stakes racing festival for the first time.

He also provided thoughts on the Triple Crown and the horse racing game.

“A lot of excitement. The sportswriter Red Smith had the quote of, “To get to Saratoga Race Course from New York City, you go up 87, you turn left on Union Avenue and you go back 100 years,” Champagne commented on what people can anticipate.

“It’s an old-fashioned experience that does not exist at a lot of race tracks and for that matter, sporting venues that you’re ever going to go to. It’s a day where you can bring the family, set up shop at a picnic table in the backyard. You can get whatever premium seating assignments you want, with the options that NYRA has. You can really make your own experience as far as what you’re looking for. There’s a lot of things at Saratoga that aren’t around at other race tracks that you can potentially go to,” Champagne continued.

“I mean, the access to jockeys isn’t quite what it once was, but you’ll see jockeys having to walk through the crowd in order to get back to the jockeys’ room after each race. So you’ll be able to rub shoulders with a lot of important people in the racing business,” Champagne noted.

“You’ll be able to walk around, you’ll be able to get a sense of the history of the place, you’ll be able to try some water from the big red spring, which I wholeheartedly endorse if you’ve never done that for very sadistic reasons. It’s an experience that isn’t easily replicated at a lot of other race tracks that you could otherwise go to. At its best, the Saratoga Race Course is a cathedral and there are not many places in the game that you can say that about,” Champagne explained.

He also commented on how the racing festival should offer a boon to Saratoga County, stretching beyond the backstretch.

“It’s one of those things that it’s a great idea on paper. It’s one of those things that if you need to move the Belmont, move it to Saratoga, where you know it’s going to be supported and you know it’s going to be a great day of racing in front of passionate people,” Champagne said.

“But there’s a lot of logistics that need to get handled in order to do that. In a lot of cases, it’s stuff that nobody thought about. We sort of knew that hotel space was going to be an issue. I think hotels might’ve gotten tipped off on this before anybody else because you saw the rates skyrocket in the middle of last year. All of this falls under, by the way, good problems to have, because if we’re investing in the infrastructure of Saratoga, that can only be a good thing for Saratoga County businesses and tourism not just for this weekend but going forward. It’s just one of those things that a lot of people need to tackle and in some cases, there were pretty drastic things that need to get done,” Champagne noted on the benefits.

As far as those attending the Belmont Stakes, Champagne emphasized the importance of reading up on the rules and getting a good head start.

“The biggest thing that I can stress anybody to do if you’re going to the Belmont, read the rules on what you can and cannot bring in. There are changes to the cooler policy that aren’t in place during the normal Saratoga meet because of the nature of the Belmont Stakes. So, just be mindful of what you can and cannot bring in according to the New York Racing Association. That’s the big thing that I can stress,” Champagne explained.

“The other thing is people that go to races at Saratoga already know this but get there early. That’s going to mean very early on Belmont Stakes day if you have tickets for that because that card usually has 12, 13, 14 races on it and it’s gotta start really early in the morning in order to accommodate all of those races. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes cards started at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time, that’s 7:30 a.m. for those suffering fools out on the West Coast, aka me! So, just be forewarned if you want a good spot, you’ve gotta get there early,” Champagne added.

Furthermore, for the series itself, Champagne offered his thoughts on how to grow the sport without tarnishing what makes the Triple Crown so special.

“In a lot of instances, there’s a lot of parallels between horse racing and baseball. What with horses not running as much, being bred for whatever the heck brilliance is, and being in a situation where once you’ve shown where you have that kind of talent, you’re protected, you’re, I don’t wanna say, babied or coddled, but you’re not run as much, and in the case of horses, you’re whisked off to stud because that’s where the money is. That’s not beneficial to the horse racing product long term because how do you create stars when your best horses don’t run?” Champagne remarked.

“To paraphrase the great American John F. Kennedy, we do things not because they are easy but because they are hard. Don’t change the Triple Crown. Don’t change the spacing. Don’t change the distances. If you’re doing that to make it easier, you’re messing with arguably the one thing in horse racing that still resonates with the casual viewer. You’re fixing something that’s not broken,” Champagne explained.

“The idea that I would put forth, which has me vilified by some breeders that are on horse racing Twitter (now known as X) is instead of changing the races, change the horses. Right now, some of the most important races that a horse will run are as a two-year-old against a clock going one furlong at a two-year-old sale. Isn’t that backwards? Change the horses, don’t change the races,” Champagne noted.

“That’s one of the cool things about Seize the Grey winning the Preakness because, in addition to Seize the Grey winning the Preakness, the top three finishers from the Preakness Stakes all ran on Kentucky Derby day. They all wheeled back in two weeks. That deals a significant blow to people that aren’t running their horses nearly as much. If you have horses that are in form, run your horses!” Champagne added.