How do Saratogians beat the heat?
They don’t do anything.
They don’t shop; they don’t line the sidewalks of Broadway like they would on cooler days; and, for the first time in as long as anyone can remember, they don’t go to the races.
On Wednesday, faced with a triple-digit heat index, officials cancelled the nine-race card at the Saratoga Race Course. In a morning meeting with trainers, jockeys, the track veterinarian, stewards, the track superintendent and senior management, a unanimous decision was reached to call off the races.
The consensus in the room was to take the ultimate precaution and cancel the entire card for the safety of all participants, said Bill Nader, New York Racing Association’s senior vice president, in a prepared statement Wednesday morning. `Racing will resume tomorrow and Friday’s card will be expanded to a 10-race program.`
The cancellation of Wednesday’s entire card was the first in Saratoga’s recorded history, according to NYRA spokesman Mark Bardack. On Aug. 7, 1986, the last four races of the card had to be cancelled due to thunder and lightning. Two years later, the last two races of the Aug. 28 card had to be cancelled because lightning struck a tree which then fell on the main track. On Sept. 2, 1998, the last two races of the meet were cancelled due to excessive wind and rain. This is the first time a race, let alone an entire card, has been cancelled due to excessive heat, Bardack said.
NYRA wasn’t the only business in Saratoga that suffered due to the heat. Justin Mclagen is a clerk at the forebodingly named Hot Stuff condiment store on Phila Street.
`The heat never helps business,` he said. The store’s hottest sauce, The Source, coming in at a whopping 7.1 million Scoville units (your standard Tabasco sauce is only 2,140 Scoville units), sits on the shelf collecting dust. But Mclagen says even the store’s less incendiary products, like barbecue sauces and honey mustard, haven’t been touched.
`It’s too hot for people to even go outside and barbecue,` he said.
Or to go outside and shop. Marjorie Corrow drove from Niskayuna to Saratoga Springs at 5 a.m. Tuesday to set up for a craft show in Congress Park. She had 10 customers the entire day, and other vendors didn’t fare any better.
`The weathermen killed us,` she says. `If you heard there was a 114-degree heat index, would you leave the house?`
Even though there were decidedly fewer people on Broadway Tuesday than the day before, some businesses got a little boost from the heat. You would expect an ice cream store to thrive in the heat, but Ben and Jerry’s assistant manager Amanda Owens said she wasn’t prepared for the constant influx of customers she received Tuesday. At 3 p.m. there were over 20 people in line at the Putnam Street store, with still more coming in.
`Usually, if it gets too hot, people tend to stay away. And I thought with it being as hot as it is today, we’d lose business, but apparently I was wrong,` Owens said.
In triple digit heat, you can even stay cool inside a coffee shop. Uncommon Grounds’ manager Greg Mankes said he served more iced coffees on Tuesday than he has so far this summer.
`We’re all out of ice right now,` Mankes said in between customers in the early afternoon. `Generally, our machine is abundant with ice, but we’re going to have to get more.`
Looking up and down Broadway Tuesday afternoon, it was feasible to think the heat had beaten everyone into submission and driven them inside. But then two joggers barreled their way down the sidewalk. Justin Arasin and Jordan Fruchter have just gotten off work at AYCO and hadn’t let the high temperature deter them from their daily jog.
`We sit at a desk in the air conditioning all day,` says Arasin, `so it’s great to get out and get some fresh air. Even if you’re sucking for it.`
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