Summer season on the Spa — a ritual practically 200 years sturdy — began early in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, being held on Saturday for the primary time at Saratoga Race Course, a revered relic the place the elite and in any other case mingle, however the horses rule.
Broadway, town’s central thoroughfare, bustled. Traces for picnic tables on the observe shaped earlier than daybreak. A brand new coloration — Belmont inexperienced — blended with the observe’s signature red-and-white trimmings. House owners, trainers, horseplayers and the cooler-toting devoted all hailed the break from custom for the race’s 156th operating.
