|
Oklahoma is not a nickname for Horse Haven.
Horse Haven is more than the original 1863 thoroughbred track, as it is actually an area of the grounds that includes the original track. (which was actually an old trotting course).
The Oklahoma training track is next to Horse Haven. The land was purchased and the training track established in the early 1900’s .
I have never seen or heard a documented reason why it came known as Oklahoma. The most common one is it refers to the distance from the main track. I’m skeptical of that reason. For one thing, since I usually park over there on my annual visit to Saratoga, it is really not that far to the main track. (And it’s certainly was/is not very far away for the Horse Haven horses.) Additionally, at that time period horses were privately stabled as far away as the current location of the harness track. That is a much greater distance to the main track than the training track. Since the track is not that far out the way to most of the people associated with the track, I doubt a nickname based on the remoteness of the track would catch on.
I do have my own two-bit theory of why it became known as Oklahoma. Assuming the Oklahoma training track area looks today (i.e no trees in the infield) as it did a hundred plus years ago, I could see people referring to as Oklahoma because of how big and open the space is, especially compare to the rest of the grounds. As for why Oklahoma vs. any of the other “western” states/territories, Oklahoma (1907) was on the way to statehood around the training track was established.
|
