As someone from the area, I always thought that the most manageable weeks from a crowd perspective at the track were the first and last weeks; those traditionally have been mostly for "the locals," but there is still a lot going on downtown (after twilight racing cards on Friday), with the music festivals on and off Broadway each of those weekends. Labor Day weekend might be lighter than usual this year, with Labor Day falling as late as possible (September 7).

The second and third weekends will have a lot of people in town for the Whitney and the yearling sales, while there are usually big crowds for the Alabama and Travers weekends.