(Edited NYRA report)
Saratoga Race Course employees arrived at work Monday morning to find a cow moose wandering on the sidewalk outside track property, New York Racing Association officials said. After NYRA security worked in support of the Saratoga Springs police department to bring the moose to safety inside the gates to Saratoga Race Course, Environmental Conservation officials tranquilized the moose with the intention of delivering it unharmed back to its natural environment.
The moose was first spotted around 6 a.m. by Saratoga city police officers along Nelson Avenue. It eventually wandered onto Frank Sullivan Place, strolling along the outside of the track fence. City police requested that NYRA security open the Lincoln Avenue entrance to the track to lure it inside in order to keep it out of harm’s way, as well as to ensure the safety of pedestrians and drivers, until workers from the Department of Environmental Conservation could arrive on the scene.
NYRA employees say while Saratoga Race Course is a 350-acre urban park, they do not recall ever before seeing a moose on the property.