Saratoga Is Ready for a "Jim Dandy" of a Weekend

One of the very cool aspects of living close to the historic Saratoga Race Course is you get to see the best race horses in the world compete live. They walk right through the crowd on their journey from their stables across the street, to starting gate. This weekend is an awesome example, with 2021 Belmont Stakes winner Essential Quality highlighting the entries in Saturday's 58th running of the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes. Essential Quality and Hot Rod Charlie battled it out for the 1 1/2 mile race only to see Essential Quality win by a length and a half.

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The weekend starts off with an awesome race card. Friday's feature race will be the Grade 2 Curlin' Stakes restricted for 3 year olds. First Captain, who earned 3 wins at Belmont this year will be the horse to watch. NYRA handicapper Andy Serling was on The Drive with Charlie & Dan today and mentioned Dynamic One, the runner up in the Wood Memorial as another horse to keep an eye on in that race. Don't forget to use your NYRA Bets App!

Saturday is chock full of awesome racing with the starting with Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap for 3 year olds. Then there is the Grade 2 Bowling Green Stakes at a mile and 3/8 on the turf featuring the favorite Channel Cat and finally the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes, featuring Belmont Stakes winner, Essential Quality. The Jim Dandy always garners a ton of horse racing interest in Saratoga, as it is often considered a prep race for the Runhappy Travers, which will be August 28th at the Spa.

Enjoy an awesome weekend of horse racing and if you are at the track tomorrow, stop by the Cutwater Stretch and say hi to The Drive with Charlie & Dan broadcasting live every Friday from 3pm to 7pm.

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.