Summer season on the Spa — a ritual almost 200 years sturdy — began early in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, being held on Saturday for the primary time at Saratoga Race Course, a revered relic the place the elite and in any other case mingle, however the horses rule.

Broadway, the town’s central thoroughfare, bustled. Strains for picnic tables on the monitor fashioned earlier than daybreak. A brand new coloration — Belmont inexperienced — blended with the monitor’s signature red-and-white trimmings. Homeowners, trainers, horseplayers and the cooler-toting devoted all hailed the break from custom for the race’s 156th operating.

A roar rose from the previous picket grandstand because the horses entered the beginning gate for the principle occasion. It didn’t disappoint. The 17-1 longshot Dornoch, ridden by Luis Saez and educated by Danny Gargan, held off Mindframe and Sierra Leone for a shocking victory.

Jockeys line the fountain exterior the Marylou Whitney entrance.