2 minute read
FYI: Track Changes
The Young and the Restless
hen you’re a kid, you don’t really have much of a say where your parents drag you. And when your parents are racing fans in Saratoga, you’re pretty much guaranteed to spend a handful of late summer days at Saratoga Race Course. That’s certainly true of Brody Santiago, who turns 10 on Opening Day. “I don’t really like seeing people race with horses,” he says. “Nothing really happens, and it’s mostly just grownups.” But there is one redeeming quality about the track for him: spending time with his friend Jovi, whose parents also bring her along with them to the track’s backyard area.
Brody’s 5-year-old brother, Gavin, on the other hand, though he was only 3 the last time he set foot on the track’s grounds, remembers the experience fondly. His favorite thing to do? “Watch horses.”
So the track might not be as much fun for a kid as, say, the Congress Park carousel or East Side Rec splash pad. But someone ought to tell these two towheads: spending time with friends while watching horses? That’s not a halfbad way to spend a day in Saratoga.
Brothers BRODY (at left) and GAVIN SANTIAGO, whose parents bring them to the track’s backyard every summer.
Christine Nappi and her dad, Christopher Nappi
Emery Geiger with the track’s nowretired mascot
Amber Walley, Tessa Kordrupal and Alissa Narode Bowe Victoria Schlansker
let’s hear it for the fans THESE SARATOGA SUPERFANS SURE DO LOVE A DAY AT THE RACES.
