Saratoga's Whitney Gala comes to end

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- The party's over for the Whitney Gala, a mainstay on the Saratoga racing season's black-tie circuit for decades.

John Hendrickson, husband of socialite Marylou Whitney, tells local media outlets that the couple has decided to end the annual Whitney Gala, held every summer the night before the Whitney Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.

The event was called off last year for just the third time since Whitney started hosting the lavish affairs in the 1960s with her then-husband, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney.

Hendrickson said last summer that he and his wife wanted to focus their fundraising efforts on the racetrack's backstretch workers. He gave the same reason this week.

Hendrickson says his 86-year-old wife is in excellent health after suffering a stroke in 2006.

The gala was held at a Victorian-era casino in downtown Saratoga Springs. -- AP