by Paul Post

Backstretch workers at Saratoga Race Course will have on-site dental care for the first time this year thanks to a $40,000 grant from the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust.

The gift was made to the Backstretch Employee Service Team (BEST), a health and human services agency that works on behalf of employees at all three New York Racing Association tracks—Aqueduct, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race Course.

Solomon, a wholesale distributor of high-fashion women's hats in Manhattan, was a wealthy philanthropist and Thoroughbred racing enthusiast who lived in Northumberland, near Saratoga Springs. He died several years ago at age 104.

The new dental clinic will be named in his honor.

BEST has operated a backstretch health clinic at Saratoga for the past three years to help meet employees’ medical needs. However, it has been difficult to find accessible dental service.

Workers typically start early in the morning and quite often work seven days per week, sometimes at two or three jobs, making it difficult to arrange and wait for medical and dental appointments. The on-track facility helps overcome such obstacles. Previously, employees have had to travel more than 20 miles during the Saratoga meet or wait until they return to their winter homes before getting proper dental treatment.

The grant will allow BEST to modify its health clinic to offer annual dental cleanings and checkups by professional, bilingual staff. The clinic also will schedule appointments with local dentists for those workers who need more extensive work, such as oral surgery.

Dental services will be recorded in workers’ files, enhancing each worker’s healthcare management.

BEST is undertaking several new initiatives to improve living conditions for Saratoga track workers, many of whom move upstate at the conclusion of the Belmont meet.

This year, for the first time, BEST has employed a part-time Saratoga-area resident to line up and coordinate volunteer help and projects. One effort involves building wooden bed frames for the dorms in which many backstretch workers live. Currently, most workers sleep on air mattresses right on the floor.

The frames will make for a cleaner, healthier environment and provide storage space under the beds. Local volunteers are building the bed frames thanks in part to donations from area building supply firms.

BEST also is trying to improve employees’ access to computers, which will allow them to communicate and stay in touch with family members and other loved ones who often are forced to live in other places.

Paul Post is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent