R.T. Wilson Here - Predicts Banner Saratoga Season
Thoroughbreds of East and West to Renew Annual Rivalry Here
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. , July 6, 1926 - Saratoga Springs, according to R. T. Wilson, president of the Saratoga Racing Association, will this year enjoy the most successful August season in its history. Mr. Wilson called attention to the wave of popularity which racing has gained in the south, east and west this season which he said points to the greatest meeting in the history of racing in this city this year.
“With virtually every stable controlled by the Association and private interests engaged, all boxes in the club house are reserved and there are many first calls upon the boxes and stables which may be cancelled. Mr. Wilson said the meeting here promises to bring not only the leaders of society but racing devotees from all parts of the country.
“Saratoga Springs this year,” Mr. Wilson said, “will enjoy the greatest year in the history of racing. Indications from all sections of the country are to the effect that we may expect all lovers of the thoroughbred within the beautiful racing enclosure this August. The east and west will again battle for honors upon this famous track during August and it is virtually certain horses such as Pompey, Crusader, Bubbling Over and Carlaris will settle once and for all the three-year-old empire here.
“Saratoga is always a drawing card for the racing throngs. It has an attractiveness that no other place in the east offers. Its climate is not only health-giving to individuals but its bracing atmosphere brings out the best in the thoroughbred. We expect the finest racing season here. The flat races will include the great feats of former years, while the Association’s program of jumping events is sure to please the patrons.
Mr. Wilson during his discussion placed great credit upon Thomas Clare, superintendent of the track and his assistants. He called attention to the successful efforts of Mr. Clare in clearing up the poor track conditions at the west end of the track and praised highly the landscape accomplished this year by Mr. Clare and Emil Bollinger.
The track grounds yesterday were the subject of admiration and thousands of visitors who drove about the many attractive roads and highways. The grounds assumed that early summer freshness that make the Saratoga Association’s the greatest and most beautiful racing park in the east.
Mars Cassidy, well known and popular barrier leader, also visited this city over the holiday. In addition to inspecting the track and grounds he spent Sunday at his camp in Saratoga Lake where he plans to make his home during August.
A Word about Our Sources
ChatGPT generated this narrative word-for-word from this Saratogian story published on July 6, 1926:
Introducing R.T. Wilson
A major figure in the history of Saratoga racing, R.T. Wilson was the financier, horseman, and president of the Saratoga Racing Association who did as much as any individual to rescue the Spa from its decline at the turn of the twentieth century and restore it as America's premier Thoroughbred racing destination. Under his leadership, the race course was enlarged and modernized, prestigious stakes races were strengthened, the annual Fasig-Tipton yearling sales flourished, and Saratoga emerged from the anti-racing crises of the early 1900s stronger than ever. Wilson's influence was so enduring that the famous Wilson Chute and the Wilson Stakes were named in his honor, lasting reminders of the man who helped shape the modern Saratoga Race Course.
Wilson will play a small but important role in Peter Finley’s Fight for the Rule of Law. In this episode, he sets the stage for the bombshell that will hit Saratoga racing in just two weeks when Peter Finley sends his open letter to Governor Al Smith to demand that Doc Leonard, the “Big Boss,” be investigated along with the Sheriff and District Attorney for their “dereliction of duty” in allowing organized crime to so brazenly operate that even school kids knew where the gambling joints were.
“This will be the greatest year in the history of racing,” Wilson tells the young Saratogian reporter we’ve asked Smartacus to imagine.
As horsemen, owners, and thousands of racing enthusiasts streamed into Saratoga anticipating another glorious season, a parallel drama was unfolding beyond the grandstand. Peter Finley was quietly assembling the evidence for what would become one of the most consequential public corruption investigations in the city’s history. The focus would not be racing itself, but the political machine that had allowed illegal gambling, vice, and official indifference to flourish in the very community that welcomed America’s sporting elite.
Wilson’s confidence in Saratoga’s future was genuine, and in many respects justified. Yet the headlines that would soon dominate newspapers across New York would have little to do with stakes races or yearling sales. Instead, they would ask whether Saratoga’s government had become captive to organized crime—and whether Governor Al Smith would finally intervene.
The hammer was about to fall.
Dan Forbush