Just One of the Crowd

A studious vibe at Saratoga, the way it should be (zpousman)

Things get crowded at Saratoga. On our last day we were sitting in front of a row of yammerers. You know the type, they’re not their for the races so they’re gonna chit chat all the live long day.

One woman, with voice so piercing I thought my eyes might pop out of my head every time she spoke, prattled on about the Today Show (multiple segments no less), how one of her craft projects got messed up, gossiped (“he was the best thing that ever happened to her”, “for someone with no money she sure does buy a lot of new things”), and so on. All day. I think she also went on a long soliloquy about some cookies.

In a perfect world, ticketing at Saratoga might work something like this: On the lottery form there is a simple questionnaire. For each ticket requested you must indicate if the potential ticket holder is a racing fan or a tag along such as a spouse, your best pal who’s really not into the ponies and/or any children i.e., anyone likely to chat all day and not pay attention to the races. If anyone in your party is a potential chatter, you all get seated in sections W-Z (sorry, you shouldn’t have brought them or better yet, let them enjoy the picnic area in the paddock).

This would leave the better sections free extraneous blither blather about god knows what and when Jason Blewitt and Jan Rushton give their report from the paddock, those of us who are interested could actually hear it. Another upside is that if all the chatters are sitting together, they might actually end up having more to chat about which could make it a nicer day for them too… see, everyone wins!