SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Yet another era ended Monday at America's oldest racetrack. Though it lasted a mere three years, the Belmont-at-Saratoga stretch of summer seasons were distinctive, memorable, never-to-happen-again and now part of the storied history of the track.A decade ago, did anyone think that the GI Belmont Stakes would be staged even once, much less multiple times, at Saratoga? Or that there would be a total of 538 races over 50 days of racing in one season spread over four months?Nope.With the rebuild of Belmont Park moving from an objective to reality, New York Racing Association (NYRA) officials decided to move the final leg of the Triple Crown to its very popular summer upstate venue rather than a few miles away to Aqueduct Racetrack. What was initially projected to be a one-year visit of the Belmont Stakes in 2025 turned into a very successful three-year run, 2024-2026, of expanded racing, that drew to a relatively quiet close Monday with the 12-race Labor Day program. For the first time since NYRA began running at Saratoga on Labor Day in 1996, there were no graded stakes on the card. The Grade I Hopeful Stakes, contested on closing day since 2006, was run on Sunday this year.Attendance and handle figures are critical measures of success for racing seasons and the NYRA fared well this summer with a rejiggered Saratoga schedule that consisted of 45 days instead of the usual 40. The total handle was $905,425,541 for 464 races. The daily average handle of $20,120,568 was up slightly over the 2025 average of 19,778,237. The paid attendance of 1,045,373 was the 11th consecutive year of over one million patrons for the meet.Manny Franco won the leading rider title | Sarah AndrewIncluding the five-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, the 50 days of racing this summer netted $1,105,339,004 in handle with paid attendance of 1,149,677.After the Belmont Stakes festival at Saratoga and closing Aqueduct for good on June 28, NYRA opened the expanded Saratoga season with three days on the July 4th weekend. That was followed by three four-day weeks before switching to the typical five-day weeks. NYRA president David O'Rourke gave the experiment with shorter race weeks–eliminating Wednesdays and picking up another weekend–high marks.“I think it was great,” he said. “I think July was interesting because I get a lot of questions on the four days and stuff. I felt like usually there's like more of a transition when you go from July to August. You can almost feel it. That transition was smoothed out this year. I think the weather helped. It was a little hot in the beginning, but it was pretty dry this season and that's always good for our turf program.”Indeed, NYRA was extremely fortunate with the weather this summer. A mere 15 races were rained off the turf and run on the main track, less than half of the 33 that were moved in 2025. It lost 44 in 2024 and a whopping 65 in 2023. NYRA did cancel one scheduled day of racing on July 29, a Wednesday, due to heavy rain that led to flooding in the region.There was one reported death that was related to racing during the meet. After returning to the barn after finishing fifth in the Yaddo on Aug. 30, Marvelous Madison (Caravaggio) was found to have an injury to her left foreleg and was later euthanized.Chad Brown secured the trainer's title with 42 victories. It was the sixth consecutive season that Brown, 47, has won or tied for the crown and was his ninth overall. Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher owns a record 15 Saratoga titles. Linda Rice won three races Monday to end up with 40. During the meet Brown won four Grade I races, all with fillies and mares: the Alabama, Ballerina, Personal Ensign and Diana.Calling himself a conductor, Brown thanked his staff, the jockeys that rode for him and other owners who provided the horses for another big season at his hometown track.Chad Brown and Klaravich Stables won leading trainer and owner titles, respectively | Sarah Andrew“It's always meaningful,” he said. “We aim to this meet every year, and it's tough. It's very challenging. This is many of the top horsemen and women in the country, and a lot of the top horses, connections. High-pressure racing.”Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables, one of Brown's top clients, continued his run as Saratoga's leading owner.One of the surprises of the summer was Manny Franco winning the Angel Cordero, Jr. riding title. Franco, the leading jockey in New York four times in the last eight years, locked up his first Saratoga championship on Sunday with four victories. Franco, 31, had a summer to remember at the Spa with 73 wins, edging Flavien Prat (67) and Jose Ortiz (66). He won four Grade I races: the Travers, Alabama, Christophe Clement Turf and Hopeful, and a pair of Grade II contests.Seven-time Saratoga riding champ Irad Ortiz, Jr. was injured on Aug. 8 and has not competed since. He tied a Saratoga record on July 25 with six victories on a single card.Hall of Fame members trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey Javier Castellano reached the 6,000-victory milestones in their careers during the meet. Pletcher, 59, reached the plateau on Aug. 8, while Castellano, 48, became the 18th jockey to reach the number on Aug. 26. On the way to the milestone, Pletcher equaled the track record he already shared with Brown with five wins on the Aug. 1 program.Godolphin homebred Sovereignty (Into Mischief) completed an impressive run during the Belmont-at-Saratoga era with a 4 3/4 -length victory in the GI Whitney Stakes on Aug. 8. Sovereignty, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, followed his victory in the 2025 GI Kentucky Derby with wins at Saratoga in the GII Jim Dandy and the GI Travers and was the Horse of the Year and captured the 3-year-old title. The $1-million Whitney drew a standout field that included runner-up Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) and GI winners Baeza (McKinzie), Antiquarian (Preservationist) and White Abarrio (Race Day).'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Deterministic (Liam's Map), trained by Miguel Clement, did Sovereignty one better by winning four Grade I turf races this summer and last, doubling in the Manhattan and the Fourstardave.Wathnan Racing's Leading Change (Gun Runner), also a 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard', pulled off a stunner at 10-1 in the GI Travers, edging GI Preakness winner Napoleon Solo (Liam's Map). Kentucky Derby winner and fellow 'TDN Rising Star' Golden Tempo (Curlin) was third.Saratoga maintained its reputation as the Graveyard of Favorites during 2024-26 as favorites failed to win the Belmont, the Whitney and the Alabama. Sovereignty's 10-length score in the 2025 Travers came as the betting choice, but favorites were beaten in the other two runnings.Saratoga's Wilson Chute | Sarah AndrewThe changing and expanding schedule of the last three seasons was in sharp contrast to what Saratoga typically offered since it reopened in 1946 after World War II and produced different reactions. In 2024, NYRA returned to Aqueduct after Belmont week and re-opened Saratoga as usual in mid-July. Last year, the July 4th weekend dates were moved upstate ahead of the Saratoga 40-day meet. This year, Aqueduct was closed as planned at the end of the June and the 46-day Saratoga season began on Friday, July 3 and continued for parts of 11 consecutive weeks.“Business, it was fantastic,” said Jason Fitch, who co-owns with his brothers Kings Tavern across Union Ave. from the track. “The vibe was fantastic, very positive. But talking to the friends that are horse people, the people that come every year, every single one I talked to said there wasn't that Saratoga buzz.”Fitch said that his takeaway from talking to customers was that some would welcome the more compact schedule they were used to before the Belmont Stakes began its Saratoga run.“I think it was stretched out,” he said, “and some guys were saying the Fourth of July schedule and the extra dark day, and then going back to the two dark days, there was a mixed feeling.”Mott has been a Saratoga regular for 40 years and his stable is primarily based at the Oklahoma training track from the time it opens in the spring until late October. He said a longer meet can hurt enthusiasm and might hurt the golden goose that is Saratoga.“It was good for me,” he said. “It's convenient for me, but I think as far as the buzz around the meet, I think it kind of takes a little edge off of it.”Pletcher favors a less-is-more approach.“I look forward to getting back to the 40-day meet,” he said. “Something seems just a little bit different. I love it up here, but having racing here from June to September just has a little different feel to it than the traditional meet.”Belmont Park will re-open on Sept. 18 with the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup as the marquee race on the program. The Belmont Stakes, the Test of the Champion, will again be run there in June of 2027. The following month, Saratoga will be simply Saratoga again.Sarah AndrewO'Rourke said that Saratoga very nicely handled the assignment of the past three seasons.“Hats off to both our ops team and the community for supporting that. Those were fun,” he said. “It was a very unique thing to do. It was perfect while we needed to rebuild downstate. And where else would you want to spend that festival? If not at Belmont, might as well be at Saratoga.”O'Rourke said that Aqueduct was never considered as the place to host the Belmont Stakes, even if it meant cutting the distance from 1 1/2 to 1 1/4 miles at Saratoga.“You look at everything, but was anyone really pounding the table that that was the right idea? No,” he said. “Did we watch the old film of when they started on the turn (at Aqueduct in previous Belmonts) and everything? Sure. But, really, it just seemed like the natural move to come up here.”O'Rourke said he expects NYRA will ask for 40 days of racing at Saratoga next summer. A few four-day weeks, which he said were well-received by fans, might return in the future.“Probably not next year,” he said. “We'll finalize our dates towards the end of the fall, before the end of the year. That's definitely something we're going to look at, play with in terms of internal discussions. But right now, I wouldn't put a high probability for next year.“I think it's going to be 40 days flat, right? I don't think we're going to play around with the number of race dates. Could you look at different iterations of it? Sure. But right now, that's not top of mind.”The post ‘It was Great’: NYRA Wraps Up Three Years of Extended Saratoga Meets appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.