Featured Leather case with notepad - souvenir from Saratoga Raceway

Just a little distance from me - it's a harness racing track. There's also a flat track in Saratoga, but it only operates from mid-July to Labor Day (early September). Can't recall exactly how this came into my possession, but it looks old. I can't find anything else like it on Google Lens.

 

Oh neat. I went to the harness track near you many years ago to see a horse race in the Stakes race. Just a thought, it was probably a giveaway or a souvenir one could purchase there. Can you take a close up photo of the horses and drivers, that might help dating it.

 

I think the picture is just a generic line drawing. BTW - the writing on the inside says BEST WISHES from SARATOGA RACEWAY. There's the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga, but looking on their website, I didn't see anyway to contact other than by phone. I don't have a smart phone to send a photo.

 

Maybe you can try this place instead and send them an email with your item photo and they could perhaps help My best guess is that it was a souvenir from the track.
Harness racing doesn't get the attention that standardbred horses get. Freehold raceway recently shut down after decades of racing and now they are putting up yet another mall. Good luck.

https://harnessmuseum.com/

 

Thanks for the link. I still don't see a way to send a photo. Their contact page only has categories for name, email address and a word message.

 

"Best Wishes" implies a gift.

Debora

 

Maybe try calling them and perhaps they can offer some thoughts on what you have.

 

Opened in 1941 so that's your earliest date.

Debora

 

The fact that it is leather, to me, implies it would not be from later than the 1960's
but that is just a guess.

I had to laugh, when I searched online to see if there was a match, the word harness triggered all sorts on naughty sex stuff. Oy vey.

 

This looks like the inspiration for your image or vice versa. I'd think a gift to racegoers, perhaps on opening night or opening season. I'd certainly start with an email to the Harness Museum.

https://harnessmuseum.com/contact

https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:6w924h417

 

When I was a kid my parents couldn't always take care of me so I had to be placed with other people. One of my favorite was an elderly woman who had a big farm and her sons lived nearby with their families. One of her sons boarded sulkey horses at her farm. Beautiful animals.

 

Bev they are beautiful. We had some trotters and pacers many years ago and some were so nice and calm. One we had was a horse that I stupidly got close to when he was in the paddock and he swung his head into my face and busted my lip as I flew thru the air onto the ground. He was always a wild animal and I did not use my common sense with him. He was all calm when he raced just biding his time at the back of the pack and then like an out of control express train he would surge and pass them all and won many times.

I think we went to a farm to see Niatross when he was put out to stud he was a beauty.