Saratoga Photos , Whitney Week 2021.

[alhattab]

Originally Posted by westernmassbob

I noticed in one of the pics was Five Points Market. Didn’t they permanently close last year ? There are definitely articles online that confirmed this. Glad to see they were able to stay open ?

Pretty sure they reopened under new management. Website is live and has what I’d say are some chi chi sandwich choices the old place wouldn’t have had.

[cj]

Though I couldn't make it this year, suff sent me some very nice things from Saratoga. Much appreciated!

[Suff]

Originally Posted by cj

Though I couldn't make it this year, suff sent me some very nice things from Saratoga. Much appreciated!

I bumped Into Bob Baffert outside the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. Him and 2 others were holding signs calling for Baffert to be removed from the hall of Fame.

[Suff]

Originally Posted by cj

Though I couldn't make it this year, suff sent me some very nice things from Saratoga. Much appreciated!

I'll use story time to tell you why it was probably ok you didn't go.

Airlines are on Tilt. You can't book any flight and assume it's going to go smoothly, if at all.

My flight to Albany was delayed, causing me to miss the Wed. card. People were sleeping 2 nights in Fort Lauderdale airport. I saw people laying everywhere as if Florida had had a hurricane.

My flight back canceled by email, while offering me no options, rebooking in the jet blue app was disabled, 3 hour wait for phone support.

Given your situation, you need a smooth travel experience and it's likely that wouldn't have happened.


2nd story:

I was wallet raped by the Brentwood.

$1997.50 for 4 nights. I come back from the track Thursday .....my room is still dirty. Office is locked, but someone willing to talk to me through the glass.

It went like this:

Sorry no guest are allowed in the office.

Sorry, no in-stay maid service due to Covid!

Me:

What!! Wtf 500 a night you aren't cleaning my room???

Them:
No.

What about towels?

I can hand you clean towels through the window.



Me:
What about a
the bicycles? I wanted to bike around town but I see them covered and chained up?

Them:

No bicycles due to Covid.

Fast forward Saturday morning.

Peter Fornatale is doing his podcast in the office! And his guests says, great to be here I just flew in on the red eye from LA.

Me to myself:. What a mf'n minute! I have to ask for towels through a window like I'm staying at a YMCA and theyre in there for an hour doing a podcast and one of them just got off a plane?

The reasoning they conjured up was illogical so I won't even type it.


I don't believe any hotel had their pools open and it was 85° all week. We got beautiful stunning weather.

In summary. Don't travel unless you absolutely have to.



I'm going back to Saratoga Aug 31 until September 6th for closing week. Given the current environment, I'm going to book an Airbnb at last minute because I'm speculating cancelations might happen this and next week.

On Friday , the festival Tent was empty and the track was packed. I asked and was told a big group from Clifton Park made a deposit, but never paid the balance and didn't show up. I expect more of that.

[Suff]

Suddenly image urls are not working on pace advantage?.. Getting a site security error.

[Suff]

More dumping on the Brentwood.

I took a large NY Yankee. The 🚽 need some after care. I look around, no toilet brush.

Why ? They removed all HIGH-TOUCH items from the room. No pens, no notepad, no toilet brush, no cleaning supplies.... Due to Covid.

[Suff]

Brentwood blow me.

No restock mini bar. Meaning, u have a ☕ and 🥨, you have to go to the window to get next day snacks.

Imagine you restock your own mini-bar and they charge you to use it😂.

[Suff]

Airlines f'off.

They've added to the pre-flight instruction, where they stand there and show you how to buckle a seat belt...now they say: Blah, blah " don't speak or behave inappropriately towards the flight crew".

Hard to hear that after they twisted me both ways.

[46zilzal]

A good friend of racing and Saratoga recently finished a good history of the oval and it is available here. https://www.amazon.com/Summit-Champi.../dp/0976396505

The author works for the Saratogian newspaper and is cousin to Alydar's trainer John Veitch.

He arranged for my presenting a blanket to the winner of a race (from the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame) on Alabama Day 2011 and showed us all around the town. He is a voting member at both the US and Canadian Halls of Fame and a very knowledgeable fellow

[Suff]

Originally Posted by 46zilzal

A good friend of racing and Saratoga

Do me a favor. Call your friend and tell him the Brentwood sucks.

[Suff]

This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to leave it here.

I'm taking one for the team.. I'm not leaving a 1 star review on 5 review sites. I'm not tracking down the owner's, who live in Brooklyn and are known.

The whole world is f'd up. I'm chalking it up to my contribution to the local economy. I enjoyed the trip. Actually I had a great time. Great little town.


Onward and upward.

[westernmassbob]

Originally Posted by Suff

This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to leave it here.

I'm taking one for the team.. I'm not leaving a 1 star review on 5 review sites. I'm not tracking down the owner's, who live in Brooklyn and are known.

The whole world is f'd up. I'm chalking it up to my contribution to the local economy. I enjoyed the trip. Actually I had a great time. Great little town.


Onward and upward.

Suff it’s great you have a positive attitude after how your trip was in regards to plane and motel.

I’m a bit confused though. When you booked the rooms were you aware of the cost of 500 a night or did that spontaneously change ? Based on pictures alone I don’t think I would have paid half that. Was there nothing else available ? I feel the Airbnb route will be a much better experience . I’m shocked by the strict guidelines and amenities challenges. All of that should have been made transparent when booking.

Hope your next stay goes much smoother.

[Suff]

I booked it in May, knew it was 2k. Come August my expectations were they'd be doing more.

Whitney week, embassy suites were $640. It's the going rate. Airbnb near track are more than hotels.






That's my room there, #2. , From the parking lot entrance.




When I turn around , the horseshoe on the left, the track on my right.









It's 100% location... It's amenity light, I knew that.

But at this point in the Covid game, you gotta do maid service. Crazy to not rent the bikes. Over the top imho.


Basically they wanted no contact with guests.

Reason given:. Small staff & if one gets it and gives it to the other staff, they'd have to shut down.

My view.. you're in the hospitality business, if you can't be hospitable, get a work from home job.

[Suff]

1st evening , Wednesday, I'm sitting alone at a small fire pit, 11pm. The office door opens, a women walks out holding a bucket.

She walks up to the fire and dumps 2 gallons of water on it. Without saying a single word!😜. Just dumps the bucket of water and turns around to go back in the office. Not a word! 😂.

I say..why you put that out..?

We don't leave it going after 11.

Walks inside, comes out 2 minutes later with the bucket full again...and does the same thing. Dumps the water and goes back into the office... While not saying a word .. 😂. F'n people , not hospitable.

[westernmassbob]

Poor customer service is running rampant these days and it all stems from the covid outbreaks. The problem is that it doesn’t have to be that way. I’ve found many businesses who are understaffed take customers coming in for granted and basically use covid as an excuse for poor service. On the flip side of that there are a lot of consumers who don’t have patience and don’t take the severe understaffing into consideration. In my opinion if your a business and you can’t run it properly because of staff shortage then temporarily shut it down or consolidate until you can manage the business properly. Saratoga racetrack is somehow getting it done but some of the businesses around them are not.