What's Coming Up for Saratoga

Here's what you will NOT find on this blog about Saratoga:

(1) Tales of woe regarding bets gone wrong and times that so-and-so screwed you out of a twin trifecta because of a lightning storm that struck the canoe and set fire to the starter's knickers. Or some other tale of hyperbole and windbaggedness, a la Plagarizing Andy Beyer.

(2) Yet another tale about the beauty and history and charm of Saratoga. Here, I'll just say it now---Saratoga's pretty awesome to be at in August. Case closed. I refuse to turn into Steve Rushin.

(3) Tales of times in Saratoga with my buddies. It's boring enough when Bill Simmons does it, the last thing you need is stories of my friends, who are even less interesting than J-Bug.

(4) A recap of every race. Steve Crist does such a tremendous job in his Saratoga Journal that I'm not even going to fathom emulating or duplicating it.

(5) A look into the scenes and news surrounding the track. Again, Alan's so good at it, why duplicate something that's tough to build on?

(6) Discussing TVG. If you want to hear incessant negativity, there's about 5000 racing writers I can put you in touch with.

Okay, so is anything left? Yes! What I'd like to discuss about Saratoga here:

(1) Previews and analysis of the interesting races each day. These may be the stakes races, these may not be. For example, Wednesday's card has a fine stakes race, but the 3rd and 5th races are vastly more intriguing and will get a full treatment here.

(2) Recaps of important races. Again, this could be stakes racing, it could not be.

(3) Attempting to spot trends, myths, and angles, both from a handicapping and betting perspective.

(4) Identifying horses to watch in the future, then actually following up on what happens with them, both during Saratoga and afterwards. The great thing about the Spa is trying to see who becomes the next star; a particular weekend in 2003 yielded wins by Purge, Read the Footnotes, Roses in May and Clock Stopper before anyone had heard of them. There's something immensely entertaining and gratifying about seeing a future star breakout.

Real analysis coming tomorrow. Promise.