Who ever saidflorals were just for spring? Broadway’s Yellow Boutique is riding that flower power all the way into the summer season with two looks that scream “happy hour on a patio.” Our first floral ’fit was made for Saratoga’s soft summer days, with its tropical hues and flowy, flirty cut. I dressed it up with a gold necklace, chunky earrings and a pair of sensible shoes—sometimes summer in the Spa City means a lot of walking!
Next up is a look that’s at once chic and fun, and easily transitions from a daytime stroll on Broadway to an evening bar crawl on Caroline Street. Here, the plain ivory jeans (straight or flair leg pants are perfect for summer!) let the bold top shine, its gold accents adding a slightly edgy vibe. Complete the look with a pop-of-color purse, and you’re all geared up for the perfect Saratoga summer day.
It’s not every day that you see a professional athlete retire from one sport and find success in an entirely different one. But former bull rider Carl Nafzger did just that. After transitioning from the rodeo circuit to the Thoroughbred racetrack, the trainer would go on to develop three Eclipse Award winners, win the Kentucky Derby twice, and eventually be inducted into the horse racing Hall of Fame. But one of his greatest achievement happened 25 years ago right here in the Spa City, when he entered the talented filly Banshee Breeze in the 1998 Alabama Stakes.
“I was really confident in her going into the Alabama,” Nafzger says of Banshee Breeze, who would go on to become the 1998 Eclipse Award winner for Champion 3-Year-Old Filly. “She was a good and consistent filly and she was in top form at the time.”
In the Alabama, Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey rode Banshee Breeze to a six-length romp over Lu Ravi, with favored Manistique finishing third. Banshee Breeze returned to Saratoga as a 4 year old in 1999 to win the Grade 1 Go for Wand. She carried high weight in that race—11 pounds more than runner-up Beautiful Pleasure. Overall, Banshee Breeze won or placed in 17 of her 18 starts and earned more than $2.7 million.
“I had been coming to Saratoga for a while, but that was my first really big win there,” Nafzger says of the 1998 Alabama. “Banshee Breeze is a horse that deserves more credit than she receives. I’ve been fortunate to train some good ones and she’s right there with the best of them.”
Nafzger himself went on to win a second Alabama in 2007 with Lady Joanne and two editions of the Grade 1 Travers Stakes with Unshaded (2001) and Street Sense (2007). Voted the Eclipse Award winner for Outstanding Trainer in 1990, he retired with 1,130 wins. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2008. Now retired and living in Kentucky, Nafzger regularly returns to Saratoga for the annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
“I’ve been fortunate to win some of the biggest races at Saratoga and I’ve had some great times there,” Nafzger says. “The town really loves racing and the sport’s culture and I can’t think of too many places that can match its history.”
The students of Skidmore College in the late 1990s certainly weren’t thinking about it when they went out for drinks at One Caroline Bistro or watched Belizbeha perform on the campus green, but their presence in Saratoga was, essentially, the city’s sole year-round economic driver. Other than the college, which had been bringing students and their parents to spend money in Saratoga for nearly 100 years, the city’s economy mostly depended on the profits made during the summer months, when tourists came to town for SPAC and the track. That, of course, is no longer the case.
“The challenge was attracting businesses outside the summer season to Saratoga,” says Adirondack Trust Company Chair Charles V. Wait, who served as the chairman of the Plan of Action, a downtown Saratoga revitalization effort that began in the early 1970s. Through that effort, trees were planted on Broadway, a law was passed allowing sidewalk cafes, and eventually, in 1984, the Saratoga Springs City Center, a community effort Wait considers among his proudest achievements, opened.
But in 1998—the year Saratoga Living was born—Saratoga still wasn’t the year-round destination it is today. “I remember the town as being more local most of the year,” says Sarah Craig, who’s served as executive director of Caffè Lena since 1995. “Tourists were here in the summer, but in the off-season we tended to see a crowd of local regulars with deep ties to the venue. Now, we get a steady stream of out-of-town visitors year round.”
The fundamental shift came about in 2009, but the city had been laying the groundwork for it to happen since decades prior. “All of those years of trying to develop first SPAC, and then renovate downtown, get the City Center—all of those things were incremental improvements that led to the ability to attract a major industry like Global Foundries,” Wait says. “They’ve been here maybe 15 years, but it took 10 years of effort to get them. You should never say a community or economy is on automatic pilot, but now the development has just mushroomed because of all that effort.”
The result? Students who attend Skidmore College today no longer graduate and have to look for work elsewhere—there are jobs here. They can stay in Saratoga, go to the races in the summer, galas in the spring, festivals in the fall and museums in the winter. A year-round community, indeed.
Why bet on a winning racehorse when you can raise one? Those in the market for a high-end horse farm should look no further than 76 Medbury Road in Porter Corners. This 60-plus-acre equine training facility is packed with creature comfort amenities for horses and humans alike. It comes with two barns, 50 stalls, a 5/8-mile training track with a starting gate, covered training/schooling arenas, 10 pastures with safe fencing and run-in sheds, and, oh yeah—four residences. It could all be yours for a cool $3.6 mil.
“The 4,700-square-foot main house is centered on the farm, and every room has an incredible view of the farm and any activity going on,” says Kelly Quinn Zanella, the Howard Hanna licensed real estate salesperson representing the property. “The owners especially love the unobstructed view of each sunrise and sunset.”
The main residence is a four-bed, 2.5-bath contemporary farmhouse, complete with a sprawling open floorplan, a wood-burning fireplace, stainless appliances and a master en suite with a spa-like bath. The other three residences—a gatehouse (the original, historic home on the property), a four-bedroom log home, and a one-bedroom apartment attached to the log home—are great accommodations for farm employees, trainers or guests.
And the land! It’s like something out of a pastoral poem. The property comprises rolling hills (great for developing young horses) with sandy loam soil that never gets muddy so it’s easy on horses’ feet. Several natural streams flow through the property, providing plentiful, fresh water to the pastures, paddocks, equitation rings and racetrack.
“The farm has been laid out with an experienced eye towards horse training,” says Zanella, who, over the years has listed and sold some of the region’s most beautiful equine properties. “It is, of course, ideal for horse owners—especially those who have Thoroughbreds. The facility, however, is incredibly versatile and can be used for a wide range of different equine disciplines and as an income-producing property.”
A horse farm near the Spa City? Now that’s a sure bet.
When Lee Owens met with future clients Steve Soucy and Tom Becktold over Zoom and saw their Palm Springs home in the background, her gears started turning. “I could immediately see that they held an appreciation for midcentury modern pieces and dark, moody wall colors,” the Saratoga-based interior designer says. “From our early discussions with the clients, we knew that deep greens and blues were a natural color palette [for them], and we just ran with it.”
While there’s a long-held belief that dark walls and ceilings make a room feel small, Owens believes they can create an enveloping, finished space. If done correctly, of course. “It’s all about layering—fabrics, patterns, colors,” Owens says. “For this home, we countered the dark paint colors with white/light window treatments and textiles.” In the dining room, for example, a dark green coffered ceiling is complemented by a neutral floral wallpaper, white window treatments and an arabescato marble–topped Saarinen tulip table.
Other rooms in the craftsman-style Oak Ridge home (Capital Region native and documentary filmmaker Soucy and Californian Becktold relocated to the Saratoga neighborhood during the pandemic) are light and bright, including the living room and upstairs landing, where 14 paintings by the late French artist Vernet Bonfort are on display. “When grouped together as a full collection, the ensemble feels so fresh and current,” Owens says. “With the client’s existing chaise lounge that we reupholstered in a contemporary geometric patterned fabric, it’s one of my favorite spaces in the finished design.”
Given Soucy’s profession, there was just one thing missing: A movie room. The décor in said room, which is located in the home’s completely renovated basement? Well, dark and moody, of course.
What’s the secret to running a successful business for 25 years?
Without a doubt, it’s having great people on our team. We are fortunate to have staff members who have an innate sense of service and hospitality.
How have you had to change the way you operate to cater to a changing Saratoga?
As there is now visitor appetite to come to Saratoga during all 12 months of the year, we have cultivated a year-round staff to meet the needs of travelers and provide our level of service 365 days a year.
What has changed most in the last 25 years?
Technology. I remember using a paper calendar to store reservations, and hand-writing confirmation letters and popping them in the mail. We’ve really leaned into technology to help us grow and future-proof the business, but the boutique and concierge nature of Saratoga Arms Hotel will never change.
What’s your favorite memory from running your business?
Seeing our long-time guests come back year after year. Many of our guests have been staying with us since the beginning, and it is so special to us that they choose to come back for their events and milestones.
Chianti Il Ristorante
David Zecchini
President, DZ Restaurants (which owns Chianti)
What has been your number-one goal over these past 25 years in business?
To have every guest leave the restaurant with a smile. To not just provide an exceptional dining experience but to create memories.
How have you had to change the way you operate to cater to a changing Saratoga?
You have to be able to adapt and change with the temperature of the industry. However, Saratoga hasn’t really changed. We have been lucky to be part of a vibrant city for so many years, and we always try to stay fresh and relevant and provide our guests with a superior dining experience.
What has changed most in the last 25 years?
While the industry has gone through many changes, Chianti has always remained diligent and consistent in everything that we do.
What’s your favorite memory from running your business?
I have so many favorite memories from over the years that it’s impossible to pick just one. From our local community to guests who visit while on vacation, I feel blessed that Chianti has become part of their story.
1998 Jockey John Velazquez (above) and trainer Todd Pletcher each win their first Saratoga titles with 31 and 20 wins, respectively.
2000 City Zip becomes the first horse since Campfire in 1916 to sweep the prestigious juvenile series of the Sanford, Saratoga Special and Hopeful.
Birdstone winning the Travers. Illustration by Greg Montgomery.
2004 In near darkness with a powerful thunderstorm hitting the track, Birdstone follows up his Belmont victory with a memorable Travers win for owner Marylou Whitney.
2008 Commentator becomes the first horse since Kelso in the 1960s to win multiple editions of the Whitney Handicap.
2009 Rachel Alexandra becomes the first filly to win the Woodward Stakes.
2009 With 20 wins, Linda Rice wins the Saratoga training title to become the first woman to lead the standings at the Spa.
2012 Golden Ticket, at odds of 33-1, and favored Alpha finished in the first dead heat in the Travers since 1874.
2012 Trainer Allen “The Chief” Jerkens wins the final Grade 1 of his storied career when Emma’s Encore prevails in the Prioress.
2012 Jockey Ramon Dominguez wins a record 68 races at Saratoga, surpassing the previous standard of 65 set by John Velazquez.
2013 The 150th anniversary of the Saratoga meeting of 1863 is celebrated all summer long.
2014 After overcoming colic surgery, Wise Dan sets a track record in winning the Bernard Baruch.
2014 After a quarter-century as the voice for NYRA, race caller Tom Durkin puts down his microphone and binoculars.
2015 With only one win in 10 starts, Keen Ice adds to Saratoga’s reputation as the “graveyard of favorites” by defeating Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the Travers.
2015 Now-dominant jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. wins his first Saratoga riding title with 57 wins.
2016 Arrogate breaks the nearly 40-year-old stakes and track record in the Travers.
2017 Trainer D. Wayne Lukas wins his record eighth Hopeful Stakes.
2018 Jockey Javier Castellano wins his record sixth Travers Stakes aboard Catholic Boy.
2018 Trainer Chad Brown wins a record 46 races at Saratoga, breaking the previous mark of 40 that he shared with Todd Pletcher.
2019 Code of Honor wins the 150th running of the Travers, the oldest stakes race for 3 year olds in America.
2020 With the track closed to the public because of Covid, New York–bred Tiz the Law wins the Travers for Saratoga-based partnership Sackatoga Stable.
2021 For the second time in three years, Got Stormy defeats an accomplished field of males in the Grade 1 Fourstardave.
2021 The Mean Queen becomes the first mare in 14 years (and only the sixth overall) to win the Jonathan Sheppard Handicap.
Steve Asmussen with NYRA analyst Acacia Clement. (Brien Bouyea)
2021 Steve Asmussen becomes the all-time winningest trainer in North American history with 9,446 victories when Stellar Tap breaks her maiden.
2022 Jackie’s Warrior becomes the first horse to win a Grade 1 race at Saratoga in three consecutive years with her victory in the Vanderbilt.
2022 John Velazquez becomes the first jockey to win 1,000 races at Saratoga.
Mary Birnbaum has been busy. Opera Saratoga’s new general and artistic director could have coasted for a bit after starting her role in March—after all, the season’s programming was mostly decided before she got here, a normal occurrence during a performing arts leadership turnover. The show, as they say, must go on—even while the country is scoured for that perfect new director. Instead, the tireless producer (she also serves as dramatic advisor to the Masters of Music and Graduate Diploma Program at NYC’s prestigious The Julliard School) hit the ground running.
Birnbaum’s mission: Bring her beloved opera to a whole new swath of art lovers, adventure seekers and well, anyone in Saratoga with a sense of humor or a certain joie de vivre.
“This season is about humanity and people’s foibles,” she says. “The characters are boisterous and funny. It’s necessary that there be people in the audience who are open to new experiences—the same crowd that would go out to an escape room on a Friday night or to a nightclub. Those are the people who we want to teach us what it means to enjoy something real versus being on your screen at home.”
It’s all so perfectly fitting for experience-driven Saratoga. To entice these folks to the theater, Birnbaum is turning every show into an event, via partnerships with beloved local businesses such as Saratoga Tea & Honey and First Fill Spirits—with the pre-party often serving as a hint as to what that evening’s opera is about. (For example: Before the July 7 showing of Don Pasquale, which Birnbaum lovingly calls a “rom-com” with a dose of old-fashioned catfishing,Saratoga Living will be doing a pre-show cocktail hour for singles.)
“It’s the power of the arts, and the power of the opera’s unique combination of music and theater, that allows us to create community,” she says. “We want to bring unique events to Saratoga—events that make you feel like you belong.”
The season officially kicks off June 3 with its Stars of Tomorrow concert at the Spa Little Theater, which was the opera’s home until Covid. Opening night of its new UPH run is June 30, when the company will perform the musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. (For the full season schedule, see page 90.)
“We are thrilled to be moving downtown,” Birnbaum says. “We love the vibe of the space.” Of her innovative streak that is breathing new life into Opera Saratoga, she says, “There’s no way to survive if you’re not thinking, ‘How can we expand? How can we make something that really speaks to our moment now?’”
When Mario Cardenas took over West Ave Pizza in 2021, he already had a rabid following, thanks to two decades at Schenectady’s Prima Pizzeria and Mario’s Restaurant in Niskayuna. But it took moving to Saratoga—and adding West Ave Chicken next door—to level up to a certain celeb clientele.
Yup, he’s fed Live Nation headliners (and their crews) such as Dave Matthews, Chris Stapleton and Wiz Khalifa, who love his mobile “Van Halen” pizza oven that churns out delicious pies such as his signature pepperoni with ghost pepper honey from Saratoga Tea & Honey. “That oven is iconic,” Cardenas says. “Everybody recognizes it, and it’s autographed by Wiz and 24kGoldn. When people at SPAC see it, they know it’s West Ave. We don’t bring signs or banners—just the oven.” And by “we,” Cardenas means his tight-knit family (think two sisters and his teenage son, for starters) who help run the actual restaurant as well as tirelessly run around town with him for their thriving catering business. Khalifa even danced with Cardenas’ precocious 6-year-old nephew, Dylan: “People come here just for that kid.”
There’s no telling what this summer will bring. Cardenas is already set to bring his rock ‘n’ roll oven to the Auto Museum and SPAC to serve his award-winning favorites such as fried chicken sandwiches, wings and of course, that pizza. “I didn’t want to do it like everybody else does it—that’s what it comes down to,” he says. “I use local ingredients, such as my pepperoni. It’s local and exclusive to me. It’s very, very special.”
In a world of too much screen time and dwindling fine and performing arts programs within schools, children will have access to an enchanting free show by Opera Saratoga this summer, an imaginative story about friendship that will be performed at venues across town.
The Selfish Giant—sung in English with beautiful, modern music and great for kids as young as 5—brings Oscar Wilde’s beloved short story to life, with its themes of kindness and inclusion via a garden that needs children to blossom.
“This family show is a really special take on an Oscar Wilde children’s book, which stars a giant shutting out children from inhabiting his garden,” says Mary Birnbaum, Opera Saratoga’s new general and artistic director. “As soon as he closes the gate on these children, his beautiful spaces are cast into eternal winter. The giant decides that he will let one of the children back in, and spring returns. So, under duress from a magical tree and a child who refuses to take no for an answer, he eventually decides to share his green space.”
The idea for this new children’s opera grew like one of the giant’s beautiful flowers after the show’s librettist and producer Lila Palmer recognized the jailed beauty of meticulously cared for private gardens in London. “As a young woman working as a secretary, I often took the bus past Hyde Park and through Chelsea on a stunning route past the lovely green spaces of London and its most elegant Georgian neighborhoods,” she says. “With my bird’s-eye view from the double-decker bus, I could stare down into the many private gardens—green oases of beauty behind imposing wrought-iron fences, to which only the homeowners possess keys.”
The story of the isolated giant in his stark garden stuck with her, and years later she wrote the opera during the pandemic. “What we were all craving was each other, even as we increasingly fled from human contact,” she says. “The great horror of the pandemic was the darkness of selfishness and mutual mistrust, just as the lights in that time were acts of courage and connection.”
The Opera Saratoga performances of The Selfish Giant star professional artists who find great joy in sharing their love of music and theater with children, and they do question-and-answer sessions after each show. Performances include outdoor showings at the Saratoga Farmers Market and Pitney Meadows, an 11am show at Saratoga Library, and two Universal Preservation Hall options with a preshow tea party with Saratoga Tea and Honey.
“This little opera is as much a prayer as entertainment,” Palmer says, “it is a belief that across our differences we can choose to share, to live together, and thrive.”
The Selfish Giant’s June 3-July 8 performances are free to the public, but registration is required. Visit operasaratoga.org to register for free tickets and for virtual curriculums organized by grade.
Commissioned by American Lyric Theater | Lawrence Edelson, Artistic and General Director | The Selfish Giant was developed under the auspices of the Composer Librettist Development Program at American Lyric Theater in New York City, which is made possible through lead funding from the Mellon Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
