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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It felt more like a Thursday than an opening day at Saratoga.

In reality, it was both. Not only was opening day a Thursday, it was July 11, the earliest opening in at least recent memory for this historic track, once known as the “August place to be.”

The early opening and mid-day rains led to a downturn in business for the Spa opener compared to last year when opening day was held on Friday, July 20.

All-sources handle on Thursday’s 10-race card was $15,754,227, down 22 percent from last year’s figure of $20,247,319. Ontrack handle was $3,087,839, down 42.8 percent from last year’s figure of $5,403,833.

Paid attendance Thursday was 22,591, down 33 percent from last year’s opening-day crowd of 33,714.

NYRA opted to open on a Thursday this year because it wanted continuity to what is now a 40-day meet spread out over eight weeks. Six of those weeks, the track will be open Wednesdays through Sundays. Opening week is Thursday through Sunday and closing week is Wednesday through Monday, Labor Day.

The heavy rains that came in mid-afternoon Thursday forced management to take the last race off the turf after wagering had closed on all multiple-race wagers. The race ultimately scratched down to a three-horse field from a 12-horse field.

Total runners Thursday were 79, compared with 92 on the 2018 opener.

David O’Rourke, overseeing his first Saratoga meet as NYRA president and CEO, took an optimistic view of the opener. He said the focus was the opening of the 1863 Club, the new three-story structure built on the clubhouse turn that replaced the At the Rail Pavilion tent.

“I think it actually went really well,” O’Rourke said. “We opened 1863, a lot of the focus was on getting that opened, and that went smooth. The rain held out for most of the day, we got hit at the end.

“It was a successful day, people had a good time, I saw a lot of smiles on people’s faces,” O’Rourke added. ”It’s opening day at Saratoga, how bad can it be?”

It certainly wasn’t a bad day for trainer Gary Gullo and jockey Joel Rosario. Gullo went 2 for 2 on the card winning the opener with Armament ($11.40) and the fifth with the first-time starter Big Q ($30). Gullo only won two races at the 2018 Saratoga meet.

It was Gullo’s second win with a 2-year-old in nine days. On July 3, at Belmont, Gullo sent out debut winner Miss Peppina.

“I think we got some 2-year-olds that look pretty good this year,” Gullo said. “As soon as [Big Q] came in, she had the look and it looked like she could run a little bit. I never worked her fast, but I worked her with a few horses that were okay and she showed like she was good.”

It was also a good day for Rosario, who won three races on the card including the co-featured Quick Call Stakes with Listing.

“Everybody wants to win here,” Rosario said. “It’s a good way to start the meet.”

Listing, trained by Ben Cecil, was one of two California-based horses to win Thursday at Saratoga. Comical, a debut winner at Santa Anita for trainer Doug O’Neill, won the Grade 3, $150,000 Schuylerville Stakes for juvenile fillies. Comical was ridden by Javier Castellano, who won two races on the card.

Castellano’s other winner came for Chad Brown, last year’s leading trainer at Saratoga. The two teamed to win the second race with Sayyaaf ($3.40).

This story originally appeared on DRF.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – If he ran just one of the triumvirate of Sistercharlie, Rushing Fall, and Homerique, trainer Chad Brown would have an excellent chance to win his fourth straight $500,000 Diana Stakes and fifth overall.

As a team, Brown appears to be nearly unbeatable in the first Grade 1 of the Saratoga meet, to be held on Saturday.

That trio and the likely pacesetter Thais gives Brown four of the six runners in the Diana, scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the turf. Mitchell Road, trained by Bill Mott, and Secret Message, sent out by Graham Motion, complete the field.

Last year, Sistercharlie won the Diana by a nose over the Motion-trained longshot Ultra Brat. The Diana was one of four Grade 1 victories in 2018 recorded by Sistercharlie, capped by a neck victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. That résumé earned her an Eclipse Award as champion female turf horse.

Sistercharlie was being pointed to the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland in April, but she got sick during the winter at Gulfstream and was forced to miss that race. By the time Brown got Sistercharlie training to his satisfaction, he said it was too late to get a race into her before the Diana.

“She’s been ready to run for three weeks,” Brown said. “We didn’t have a suitable prep to give me enough time to recover to the Diana, so we made a decision just to train her up to the race.”

Sistercharlie was good enough to win last year’s Jenny Wiley off a nine-month layoff, leading a 1-2-3 Brown finish with runner-up Fourstar Crook and third-place finisher Off Limits.

“It’s a tall order but she’s a champion horse,” Brown said. “She’s run very well fresh before, but she’s going to face some very good fillies for sure.”

Peter Brant owns Sistercharlie. He also owns Homerique and Thais. In two starts this year, Homerique won the Grade 3 Beaugay and Grade 2 New York at distances of 1 1/16 miles and 1 1/4 miles, respectively. Brown said there are not enough Grade 1 stakes for female turf horses to keep these two separated. Following the Diana, both will likely be pointed to the Grade 1 Beverly D. at Arlington on Aug. 10.

Brown said “her amazing turn of foot” is what has stood out to him about Homerique. “She’s a very versatile horse. She’s another one that ran at many different distances and, like I said, she charges hard for home,” Brown said. “She’s a very, very good horse.”

Rushing Fall might be a great horse. The 4-year-old daughter of More Than Ready has won eight of nine career starts with a neck loss in the 2018 Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs her only blemish. She is 2 for 2 at 1 1/8 miles, though Brown said that’s about as far as she wants to run.

“As she’s gotten older she’s gotten bigger and stronger and better. She’s nearly undefeated,” Brown said. “She’s in that group of turf horses that we’ve trained that are the best, and her record shows it.”

Rushing Fall typically does her best running on the lead, but Brown said he wants Thais on the lead Saturday. Thais was the pacemaker in the Beverly D., and while she did her job aiding Sistercharlie by going to the front, Thais did hold on for third.

Thais will break from the rail under Manny Franco with Rushing Fall in post 2 under Javier Castellano.

“I think her best chance to get a piece in this race is if she’s up front,” Brown said of Thais.

Like Brown, Bill Mott has won the Diana four times. He sends out Mitchell Road, who has won four consecutive races, including the Grade 3 Gallorette, which Mott said was her best race, at Pimlico on May 18.

Mitchell Road has not yet run 1 1/8 miles, but Mott notes she is a half-sister to Kentucky Derby winner Country House.

“You’d think she’d have enough stamina in her pedigree,” Mott. “She seems to keep trying.”

Secret Message is 2 for 2 this year, with both wins coming at a mile. Motion is seeking his first victory in the Diana after having run second in it five times in 11 tries.

“I don’t think she’s a miler. She strikes me as a filly that probably doesn’t mind going a little farther,” Motion said. “She’s changed a lot this year – she’s really grown up.”

The Diana will go as race 9 on an 11-race card that begins at 1 p.m. and includes the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes for 2-year-olds.

This story originally appeared on DRF.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Sanford Stakes for 2-year-olds drew a field of only five. It wasn’t supposed to be that way.

Several would-be starters were sidelined for a variety of reasons.

Trainer Gary Contessa was planning to run the maiden Theitalianamerican, but Contessa said he didn’t like the results of the colt’s bloodwork. Theitalianamerican finished second in a New York-bred maiden race and the Tremont.

“I was going to go in the Sanford, and I thought he looked a little down, and sure enough, his bloodwork was a little off,” Contessa said. “It could turn around in a week, and he could make the New York-bred stakes, but if it doesn’t, so be it.”

Contessa was referring to the $100,000 Rick Violette Stakes here next Wednesday.

Took Charge, a sharp debut winner at Belmont on June 14, has a yet-to-be-diagnosed injury, according to trainer Chris Englehart.

Englehart said initial X-rays on Took Charge’s lower limbs did not reveal any problems. Englehart said Took Charge is at Saratoga’s Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital getting a bone scan.

“It’s probably something up high, like a shoulder,” Englehart said.

Trainer Larry Rivelli said that Vincent William, a debut winner at Arlington Park in June, was intended for the Sanford but got sick. Depending on how quickly he recovers, Vincent William could ship in for the Grade 2, $200,000 Saratoga Special on Aug. 10.

Lastly, Gin and Platonic was pointing to the Sanford following a debut win at Monmouth, but trainer Kelly Breen said “it was just not the right spot for us.”

Beau Recall was being considered for Saturday’s Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga, but trainer Brad Cox felt the race came up too tough, so he has opted to point her to the Grade 2, $200,000 Yellow Ribbon at Del Mar on Aug. 3.

Beau Recall won the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Distaff Turf Mile and finished second to Rushing Fall in the Grade 1 Just a Game at Belmont, also at a mile. The Diana is at 1 1/8 miles and the Yellow Ribbon at 1 1/16 miles.

“At the Grade 1, Grade 2 level, she might be a little better at a mile to a mile and a sixteenth,” Cox said.

This story originally appeared on DRF.com.