Saratoga free picks will be posted here during live racing

Saratoga’s history is deep and rich, and highlights an age-old connection to the sport of horse racing. Thoroughbred horse racing saw its genesis when Saratoga Race Course opened in 1863, making it the oldest organized sports venue in the United States, and thus began one of the country’s most abiding traditions.

The Race Course’s main race, the Travers Stakes (10 furlongs, dirt, 3-year-olds), is a Grade 1 event with a purse of $1 million, the richest on a racing calendar with over 30 graded stakes between July and September.

Saratoga has also gained a slightly morbid reputation as an unlucky track – where some of the most formidable horses have been, mysteriously, felled by the competition despite the odds. The Race Course was dubbed the “The Graveyard of Champions” when Triple Crown Winner, Gallant Fox, was defeated by a horse with 100-1 odds.

Saratoga’s current layout features a 9furlong dirt oval, an inner turf track measuring just shy of 7.5 furlongs and an outer turf track known as the Mellon Turf Course that checks in at one mile and 98 feet.