SARATOGA LIVINGThe City. The Culture. The Life.

Move over, Adirondack Thunder stars. For one night only, Glens Falls’ Cool Insuring Arena is hosting motorcyclists on ice—some of whom light themselves on fire before they rev up (see video below). On Saturday, January 26 at 7pm, the World Championship ICE Racing Series will present its “2019 Fire on ICE Evolution Tour,” featuring some of the biggest names in professional motorcycle ICE racing (yes, that’s a thing).

The Glens Falls tour stop will be the championship’s fourth round out of six, with professional ice-racing motorcyclists duking it out for a chance to take home the coveted 2019 World Championship ICE Racing title later in March (the motorcyclists can go from 0-60 mph in less than three seconds).

ICE, or International Championship Events, was formed in 1977 by speedway rider Gary Densford, who wanted to organize and promote indoor speedway ice racing. Today, ICE is owned by former ICE racing competitor Ken Remer and his wife, Kristi. “The tour is storming through the East Coast,” says Kristi. “The fastest and most insane racers on two and four wheels from coast to coast are battling for the 2019 world championship title, and [its stop in Glens Falls] is sure to be one heart-pounding, bar-banging night of action!”

Tickets are $20-$25 for adults and $10 for kids, plus fees prior to the day of the race, and $3 more on Saturday the 26th. To get tickets, click here, call 855-432-2849 or go to the Upstate Chevy Dealers Box Office at Cool Insuring Arena. For an additional $5, Evolution Tour spectators are also welcome to attend the Pre-Race Pit Party from 5:30-6pm, where they’ll be able to take photos with the riders, get autographs and cheer them on before they stop onto the ice.

One of New York’s most prominent horse-racing executives is out. As of today (January 23), Chris Kay, who was the CEO and President of the New York Racing Association (NYRA), has resigned, effective immediately.

NYRA did not immediately respond to a request for further information by saratoga living.

Per DRF, who cited multiple sources, NYRA’s board “asked for Kay’s resignation after it learned that Kay had used NYRA employees to do private work for him at the house he owns in Saratoga, considered a breach of company policy.”

Per a release posted on NYRA’s website, David O’Rourke, NYRA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer, has been named interim CEO. O’Rourke was hired by NYRA in 2008, first as Director of Financial Planning. Since 2011, O’Rourke has been responsible for NYRA’s business development strategy, which includes areas such as industry relations, simulcast markets and contracts, television and advance-deposit wagering (ADW) operations.

Kay first took on the role of President and CEO in 2013, and under his direction, helped NYRA improve the quality and safety of racing operations, enhanced the overall guest experience and was returned to private control.

Kay also played an integral role in the development and modernization of Saratoga Race Course. Kay told saratoga living in 2018 that “Saratoga is the jewel of horse racing in America. This is hallowed ground—those are not just words. We’ve dedicated a great deal of investment to enhance the experience [at the track].”

It was especially painful being a Boston Red Sox fan in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I can trace that feeling back to my senior year of high school in Saratoga Springs and the four years I spent at college in New London, CT. There was the whole we-hadn’t-won-a-World-Series-since-1918 thing hanging over our heads. There was the indubitable fact that our arch-rivals, the New York Yankees, were next to unstoppable, playing some of the best baseball in the history of the game. And there was the seemingly patchwork group of random, twilight-of-their-career players that the Yankees’ management would sign in the offseason, who’d end up doing superhuman things (example: David Cone’s perfect game).

The worst part of that stretch, though? Having to watch many of my favorite players face Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. He would stride out to the mound to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” maybe the most epic walk-on song of all time, and then simply decimate anything with a bat and a heartbeat. He’d do it like it was just another day in the office, with no fanfare or angry stare-downs or limp arms hanging (à la the Sox’s current closer, Craig Kimbrel). He made it all look so easy.

Maybe the single greatest day in this Red Sox fan’s career, between the years 1997 and 2004, when the Sox finally won their first World Series in 86 years, was the 2001 championship, when the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Luis Gonzalez hit a walk-off, bases-loaded single off of Rivera to hand the closer and his team a rare loss. I remember being in college at the time, in a second-floor single, and opening my window up and cheering loudly out of it. Others followed. (After all, we were in Connecticut, deep in Sox Country). That moment, at least for a split second, it felt like Rivera was fallible.

But those instances were few and far between, and when Rivera finally retired in 2013, I’m pretty sure Red Sox Nation—and the rest of the batters in baseball—breathed a collective sigh of relief. The hell was finally over.

Now, as of January 22, that hell Rivera unleashed has punched him a one-way ticket to baseball heaven and history books. Yesterday, Rivera became the first-ever player to be unanimously elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Or, to those keeping track, that means he appeared on all 425 ballots cast by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America members who can vote Hall of Famers in. Rivera will be inducted during this July’s induction weekend festivities, which take over Downtown Cooperstown and take place July 19-22. He’ll be enshrined along with fellow pitcher Mike Mussina, a Yankee teammate of Rivera’s at one point, who also starred for the Baltimore Orioles; Seattle Mariners’ designated-hitter/third baseman, Edgar Martinez; and the late Roy Halladay, who was one of the modern-era’s most dominant starting pitchers, who split a career between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Philadelphia Phillies (Halladay was killed in a plane crash in 2017).

The quartet of newly inducted Hall of Famers will join the two elected this past December, relief pitcher Lee Smith, who starred for the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, among a panoply of other teams; and designated-hitter/outfielder Harold Baines, who starred for a number of teams throughout his career, including the Chicago White Sox and Orioles.

Additionally, Al Helfer, who called early World Series and All-Star games in the ’30s and ’40s, will be posthumously awarded the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting; and journalist Jayson Stark, who currently writes about baseball for The Athletic, will be awarded the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for writing (you might also recognize him from his turn on ESPN, where he worked until 2017).

For those baseball fans crying the blues that their guy didn’t make it in, here’s a short list of those that got the most votes but fell short: Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Larry Walker and Fred McGriff—basically, your entire baseball card collection from the mid ’80s/early ’90s. McGriff, who was in his last year of eligibility on the ballot, will have to wait until 2021 to even be considered for enshrinement again.

For those already chomping at the bit for more summer fun at Saratoga Race Course, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) has announced that tickets for the 2019 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival will go on sale at 10am this Thursday, January 24.

Celebrating its fifth year as a three-day event, the Belmont Stakes festival will take place at Belmont Park in Elmont, NY, on Long Island, and run from Thursday, June 6 through Saturday, June 8, culminating with the 151st running of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes that day. The event marks the official kickoff to the summer horse racing season in New York State and features a full weekend of entertainment, hospitality, food/drink, as well as, of course, Thoroughbred racing. This year’s festival will feature 18 stakes races across three days.

Known as the “Test of the Champion,” the Belmont Stakes is the third leg of the Triple Crown. At a length of 1 1/2 miles, the Belmont is the longest of the three Triple Crown races (the other two being the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes), and a true endurance test for even horse racing’s most powerful Thoroughbreds. The 2018 Belmont Stakes saw the coronation of yet another Triple Crown winner, Justify.

“Last year, a sold-out crowd [at Belmont Park] celebrated as Justify raced into the history books by winning the Belmont Stakes to become just the 13th Triple Crown winner in history,” said NYRA CEO and President Chris Kay. “This is a must-see event and we encourage fans to secure their tickets now for three of the best, most exciting days on the sports calendar.”

NYRA began offering exclusive pre-sale opportunities for the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival today (January 22). For access to tickets before the general public, or to get more information about the 2019 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, go to belmontstakes.com.

For the full Belmont stakes schedule, stay tuned to saratogaliving.com.