The most intriguing battle at the recently concluded Saratoga meet was not Velazquez-versus-Bailey for the riding title, the Travers Stakes showdown, the budding rivalry between the loaded Frankel and Pletcher barns or anything of that sort. It was the tradition of Saratoga and its high-quality thoroughbred meet versus the wild popularity of those insidious slot machines sitting right across the street at Saratoga Gaming and Raceway. The result: it was a draw, surprisingly good news for the historic thoroughbred track on the south side of Nelson Avenue.

No one knew quite what to expect when the meet open. For the first time in decades gamblers had another betting option in Saratoga Springs, and one that almost always proves to be more popular than betting on horse racing. Back in the dead of winter, Saratoga Raceway became Saratoga Gaming and Raceway, and the results were predictable. The money started flowing in as fans flocked to the track, almost primarily to play the slots. The harness track, raking in the money, had no intention of closing the slots operation for the thoroughbred meet. The two would go head to head.

"We knew any impact they would have would be negative," NYRA Senior Vice President Bill Nader said. "We only hoped it would be minimal."

It seemed like an overly optimistic prediction. Wouldn't the gambling public chose slots over horses? They always do, especially at the tracks that offer both. The typical racino is jammed with slots players while a handful of bored looking horseplayers mill around in the empty half of the building devoted to horse race betting.

That was never the scenario in Saratoga. Business was off a bit at the thoroughbred meet, but the dips were so minimal they can almost be considered insignificant. On-track handle was down .054 percent or just $638,696 for the whole meet. Had they not had to cancel the race run after the Travers handle would have actually been up a smidgen.

On-track attendance took the worst hit. They were down 8.21 percent or 86,177 total fans. But the new policy that banned NYRA from giving out free passes is the primary reason attendance was down.

"I don't think we hurt them," said Saratoga Gaming and Racing Vice President of Racing Skip Carlson. "I agree with a lot of what they've said, that the late start on the calendar and the weather hurt them most. I wish NYRA had 35,000 people every day. The better they do, the better we do."

Carlson said the gaming business at his track during the thoroughbred meet was up about 15 percent, which is to be expected when so many extra people are in town. August has always been the harness track's busiest month.

In hindsight, it's rather easy to see what happened. Fortunately, there are still tens of thousands of racing purists out there who love the sport and love the cerebral aspects of handicapping. They flock to Saratoga because it offers everything that is special about thoroughbred racing–a great sport, a beautiful place to see the races from, history, a great gambling product. They are not about to be lured away by whatever attraction there may be in pulling a lever and hoping blind, dumb luck is on your side.

"We survived them," Nader said.

Yet, Nader remains concerned about the future competition between the two tracks. There was a puzzling and troubling trend to the numbers during the NYRA meet.

The thoroughbred track got off to a great start. During the first half of the meet, Saratoga enjoyed 13 consecutive days in which on-track handle was up. Thinking they would crush last year's betting figures, NYRA executives instead watched in disbelief as the second half of the meet sputtered toward the finish. During the second half, there were 14 consecutive days during which on-track handle was down. The reasons remain a mystery, but Nader fears it may have had something to do with the slots across the street.

"Maybe it just took a while for their marketing to get people to cross over," Nader said of the harness track. "Yes, I'll be more worried next year. They were very aggressive in how they targeted our audience with their marketing. In many ways, the numbers will always be good here. That's because of how special this place is. People will always come out and support it with large attendance and handle. I hate to be greedy, but when we were so far up after the first two weeks, we're not happy to say we merely survived their competition."

It was, though, a case of no harm, no foul. The slots players went to the harness track and probably wouldn't have spent much time at the thoroughbred track, anyway. The horseplayers and racing fans spent just about as much time and gambling dollars at the thoroughbred track as they always do. Horse racing faced the mighty challenge of slot machines and didn't back down. It could have only happened at Saratoga.