I am back. Handicapping for the Saratoga Special again this year. Thanks to Joe and Sean Clancy. I had only two winners on the opener but both keyed cold exactas and I did have the $75 winner listed third  on my picks. It is a beautiful day at the Spa and looks like a big crowd.

As usual opening day was full of problems. As usual the infield screen showing the probable payoffs malfunctioned but was working by the third race. There was no loudspeakers and the tv sound was not working. In addition, the highly touted wifi was down the entire day. On a more serious note, the FD was minutes away from cancelling the entire card because of low water pressure in the sprinkler system. So NYRA response was apparently to divert water pressure from the rest rooms to the sprinkler system. It appears that NYRA chose money over the comfort of the fans.

This is the kind of thing that happens when noone is in charge. And the state's answer is to put the control of NYRA into the hands of those whose job was to oversee it in the first place and totally failed at that task. God help racing when they are in charge.