SARATOGA – The edges of the leaves have turned and a distinct chill in the air is trickling into Saratoga off the Adirondack Mountains: August is past, and all around you can feel it is time for the horseplayers to go home. You can feel it at the track, where the lines at the windows are suddenly nonexistent. You can feel it on Caroline Street, where the bars don’t throb as they did a week ago.

So it’s time for a look back at this memorable season at the Spa. It seems appropriate to start with Todd Pletcher, who got pretty comfortable in the winner’s circle this summer.

As of Wednesday’s race card, Pletcher had the trainer title sewed up tight. He sent 106 classy mounts to the gate, and 32 of them came home in front of the field. And 59% of Pletcher’s horses finished in the money. He’s earned over $2 million heading into a final weekend full of racing.

Bobby Frankel and Bill Mott are next in line with 11 and 9 wins, respectively. Frankel, Richard Dutrow, Patrick Biancone, James Jerkins, and Pat Reynolds have all been in the money upwards of 60% of the time.

Also as of Wednesday, John Velazquez was in the irons for 58 wins out of his 195 starts. Edgar Prado has him beat in earnings; his score in the Travers helped push his winnings up to $3,547,099. Not a bad summer’s work.

The unavoidable pattern of the year is the Pletcher-Velazquez team. They came off a hot season at Belmont, drove upstate, and the Spa seemed to have a pile of money reserved just for them. Monday alone, Johnny V. pushed five horses under the wire for Pletcher’s barn.

Pletcher told Sean Clancy of the “Saratoga Special” that it was “one of those days when everything clicked.” Velazquez added: “It was awesome, that’s the only thing I can say, awesome.”

The only trick they could not pull off was the Travers. Velazquez was up on Pletcher’s Purge, the morning-line favorite. While the storm clouds rolled in over the grandstand, the 48,894 in attendance decided that the rain would help Lion Heart. They bet him down to favorite and you could feel the buzz: “Speed stays in the wet.”

Lion Heart and Purge took to the front of that race, but you could hardly call what they launched a speed duel. Purge held on until the 1/8th pole, and sank to fourth. Lion Heart held on through the stretch turn, then gave way at the top of the stretch. He had broken a bone in his right front foot. The gutsy front-runner who placed in the Derby behind Smarty Jones has been retired.

The Travers ended with a gallant late charge from Birdstone, a horse that has now beaten every top 3-year-old. Owner Marylou Whitney said, “It’s like a dream come true. I always wanted to see my colors on that canoe out there. It was so wonderful to see my colors at the Belmont on the jockey, but now, the canoe.” Said trainer Nick Zito, “Believe me, he’s a gift from God.”

The spine-tingling race of the meet was the stretch duel between Shug McGaughey’s Storm Flag Flying and Azeri in the Grade I Personal Ensign (a race named, coincidentally, for Storm Flag Flying’s grandmother, also trained by Shug and owned by Ogden Mills Phipps).

“Two Champions, neck and neck!” hollered Tom Durkin as the two pushed down to the wire. Azeri tried to hold on, but Storm Flag Flying, the Eclipse winner for 2-year-old filly, surged to the lead in front of the Horse of the Year.

Every time Azeri goes to the gate, another line of history is written, and you’ve got to wonder how many more times we’ll see her run. I hate to see her lose, but the blow was softened by the fact that I had in my pocket a winning ticket for the trifecta, having been the only punter who thought that Nevermore was a good-looking horse. The two favorites pushed the price down to $50.50, but I’ll take it.

The highest attendance of the meet was the killer combo of Funny Cide’s first race around his hometown track coupled with the pint glass giveaway. The official attendance figure, 70,175, was the second-highest in the history of the race course, but I’m sure it was skewed by people who entered multiple times to get more pint glasses.

No denying it was crowded, and they shook the rafters when Funny Cide hit the stretch out front. It was not to be; Evening Attire finally fired and got past him to win. A bettor standing next to me said, “I thought my losing streak was bad. Barclay Tagg, now there’s a losing streak.”

Yesterday was the 63rd running of the one of the coolest races of the year, the New York Turf Writers Cup, a Grade I steeplechase run over 10 jumps at 2 3/8 miles. A steeplechase race can be a ponderous thing for fans of the flat (on Wednesday, I saw a field of horses canter around without even changing the running order for two miles before kicking it into gear and racing). But yesterday’s race was another story.

Last year’s winner, one of the greats of the jump races, Praise the Prince, was back in town to defend his title, but it was not to be. The overwhelming favorite sat steady midpack, and failed to gain any ground even after a sweet inside trip that should have delivered the race on a platter.

Tres Touche owned the race from start to finish. He got out front and kept control, jumping smoothly, carrying 152 pounds of David Bentley for over 2 miles and then finding enough left in the tank to hold off the late challenge from Cherokeeinthehills. One horse fell: Party Airs flopped like a fish over the last jump, then continued without jockey Cyril Murphy, and loped along the course, jumping the jumps. The swells in the boxes laughed and applauded.

The last bit of excitement left in the old wooden grandstand will be this weekend’s running of the Grade I Forego, the Grade III Glens Falls Handicap, and the Grade III Saranac, as well as something called an all-American Barbecue to celebrate Labor Day.

Then it’s back to Belmont for the fall meet. There will be a snap in the air and some championships on the line.