Saratoga Race Course set for another blockbuster stakes schedule | The Daily Gazette SECTIONS Shares0 SARATOGA SPRINGS — Post time for the first race of the day at Saratoga Race Course on Thursday will be 7 a.m. That’s when the gates open to the public, who surely will be showing a good turn of foot scrambling to reserve picnic tables in the back yard. The real running starts at 1:05 p.m., though, post time for the first race of the 153rd Saratoga meet. The meet will kick off with a low-priced claiming race, and fans, locked out of the track by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, probably won’t mind any kind of live action they can get at this point. But they won’t have to wait long for the serious racing fireworks to blast off.