John Hunter's Great Lament

Rebecca, in Saratoga Springs, NY

On August 3, 1863, John Hunter and William R. Travers opened the Saratoga Race Course. In the weeks leading up to their cherished opening day, they debated the timing of their schedule.

“William R.?”

“Yes, John?”

John Hunter furrowed his brow. “I feel like something might distract people from coming to the track and betting on horses.”

“Distract them?” William R. Travers replied. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you know, don’t you get the sense that the rest of the town is thinking about something other than leisure as defined by gambling on the outcome of thoroughbred horse races?”

William R. Travers thought for a moment. “No, I don’t think that. I’d say that the country is in the perfect space to receive the opening of venues that host activities of a culturally peripheral nature.”

“Oh,” John Hunter said, “maybe you’re right. It’s just that men in blue uniforms bearing arms keep walking through town in a synchronized fashion.”

“I’ve been in lots of towns that have men in blue uniforms bearing arms while walking in a synchronized fashion. But you know what those towns also have?”

“What?” John Hunter said.

“Race tracks.” William R. Travers replied.

“Oh,” John Hunter said again. “You are right. Saratoga Springs really should have a race track.”

And, since William R. Travers had the vision to follow through on the race track while John Hunter squirmed, Travers got to be the namesake of the Travers Stakes, the most important major stakes race of the track’s continued 145-year history, and John Hunter doesn’t even get his own article on Wikipedia. So there.