The remnants of Tropical Storm Debby canceled a full day of racing at Saratoga Race Course on Friday.

Those who would have gone to the track needed something else to do. Many of them flocked to downtown Saratoga Springs.

Bars and restaurants were bustling.

“It’s been really good for us, you know. We just brought a lot of people in a lot of large groups,” said Ty Ruane of Wheatfield’s Restaurant & Bar. “We normally are pretty busy for lunch, but we’ve noticed a lot of increase in larger parties. People just sitting at the bar wanting to watch TV – a lot of people from out of town as well. I know there are a lot of people here today that are normally not here.”

Even though they were not able to bet on horses, some people still wanted to get their gambling fix.

“I know that at this time, we would normally have maybe 300 machines in play, so I looked on the computer before I came over, we have almost 450 machines in play,” said Skip Carlson of Saratoga Casino Hotel.

Tim and Linda Crump, of Manchester, New Hampshire were disappointed about not being able to see the track, but made the best of it.

“Obviously, it’s a great place to be. Thank goodness they have the downtown area because that gives you a good plan B,” he said.

Lou Cassale of Greenhouse Salad was spending his unexpected day off of racing by preparing for Saturday’s crowds.

“I mean, I think it’s a slight inconvenience, but no more of an inconvenience than right if we were open today and the weather was disastrous,” he said. “I mean, that would have been far more of an inconvenience for everybody,” he said.