SARATOGA SPRINGS - Gas prices are way beyond ridiculous, the Dow still staggers and mortgage foreclosures are off the charts. But for those who live on Planet Horseplayer, all that will be blocked out Wednesday at 1 p.m. That's when race-caller Tom Durkin will lead a capacity crowd in roaring “And they're off at Saratoga!” as the Spa's 140th season begins.

The scene and the action are irresistible at the world's best extended race meeting, so never mind the sad, bad real world. Pari-mutuel pilgrims will flock from all over to endure obscene motel prices and endless betting lines. In the mobbed backyard, many will sample the Big Red Spring's mineral water, even though it's rust colored and stinky. Don't mess with tradition.

There's something about Saratoga that instills optimism in even the most hardened gambler. Maybe this will be the year when all the photos go your way, and that for once you won't talk yourself out of playing that 18-1 shot who keys a $2,100 pick 3. One time, one time! There's no place where it feels better to be on a roll or where losing stings more.

Total purses of $1.75 million and a $500,000-guaranteed all-stakes pick 4 highlight Saturday's card, topped by the Whitney, the Diana and the Go for Wand, the first three of the meet's 15 Grade I events. In Sunday's Jim Dandy, Da' Tara will make his first start since knocking off Triple Crown hopeful Big Brown in the Belmont Stakes.

Saratoga's 2007 on-track handle was a record $123 million, and the total from all sources was $583 million, not far from an all-time high. The megabucks and incalculable prestige draw the top stables, trainers and jockeys. IEAH Stables, No. 1 in the nation with more than $7.2 million in earnings, will rake in more. Trainer Bill Mott and jockey Cornelio Velasquez will try to defend their 2007 crowns. Velasquez held off Kent Desormeaux by one victory, and Mott's go-to rider is after his first Spa title and his 5,000th win. (Desormeaux has been stuck on 4,998 since July 7, an 0-for-29 slump with an excruciating 12 seconds.)

Besides Ramon Dominguez, Edgar Prado, John Velazquez, Eibar Coa and Javier Castellano, Robby Albarado, who is based in Kentucky, and Richard Migliore will compete with Velasquez and Desormeaux. Migliore, a longtime New York fixture and a Long Island native, will be based at Saratoga for the first time since shifting to Southern California in the fall of 2006.