Were you among the nearly 50,000 visitors who spent the day out at the Saratoga Race Course on Saturday, August 24 for the 150th running of the Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers? If you were, you helped make the milestone Travers Day one for the record books.
In 2018, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) broke its Travers Day record for all-sources handle, with $52,086,597 wagered. On Saturday, the 2019 Travers Day broke last year’s record, with a total of $52,129,344 wagered across platforms.
48,213 visitors paid admission for the biggest day of Saratoga’s summer meet, betting a total of $11,657,493, which was also a record-breaking number for the on-track handle.
Although Saturday featured seven graded stakes, the Runhappy Travers was the highlight of the afternoon. Code of Honor took first place in the 150th running of the Travers Stakes with a time of 2:01.05. This marked the second Travers victory for Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez and the fourth Travers win for trainer Shug McGaughey, also a Hall of Famer. Code of Honor is owned by William S. Farrish and Lane’s End Farm.
The tens of thousands of attendees weren’t the only ones to watch the historic race — for first time ever, FOX broadcasted the race nationally during a live, hour-long show.
Travers is the largest event of summer meet and a sign that the racing season is almost over, but there’s still one week of fun happenings going on at the Saratoga Race Course!
