Racing Resumes at Belmont After Refreshing 11-Day Break

There's been a different kind of silence at New York Racing Association tracks since Labor Day.

One that does not involve protocols or lockdowns.

Instead it has been a planned timeout to unwind and recharge for the challenging months ahead after a draining meet at Saratoga Race Course.

As successful as the 40-day meet at the Spa may have been with an all-sources handle of $702.5 million, the strain of dealing with protocols related to the COVID-19 pandemic and smaller backstretch work crews made NYRA's decision to take an additional week off and extend the break from the Sept. 7 final day of racing at Saratoga until the Sept. 18 opening day at Belmont Park a welcomed respite for all involved.

"Hopefully, the time off helps everyone and gets the deck reshuffled after the Saratoga meet," said Martin Panza, NYRA's senior vice president for racing operations. "We feel it should benefit this meet. Things are looking OK at this point."

For trainers and backstretch workers, the shift back to Belmont means a return to the downstate home of the circuit's horse colony and the people who work at the historic venue.

"We had 11 days off, and it's comforting to be home again," said Linda Rice, the leading trainer at this year's Aqueduct Racetrack winter meet. "I hope we can start to put 2020 behind us in the rearview mirror and get back to racing as we know it at some point in the future."

The 27-day meet that starts Friday and runs through Nov. 1 will typically offer racing on Thursday through Sunday with 38 stakes, seven of them grade 1s, and seven of them Breeders' Cup Challenge qualifiers, worth a total of $5.58 million. The meet will be well supported on a daily basis by NYRA's popular "America's Day at the Races" television show on the Fox Sports and MSG networks, presenting coverage of each race at Belmont Park as well as Churchill Downs through the end of the Louisville track's current meet.

In a change from the spring/summer meet at Belmont Park, a limited number of licensed owners with horses running on that day's card can attend and view the races from designated areas with hospitality services provided on certain days. Following the protocols in place during previous meets, health screenings and face masks will be required and social distancing stressed. 

Another change involves the availability of on-track wagering through mutuel clerks and touch-screen self-service machines.

Owners can also visit the backstretch at this meet, provided they have a valid license and a negative COVID-19 test.

As a reminder of the ongoing pandemic, out-of-town jockeys will not be allowed at the meet, while NYRA regulars such as the Ortiz brothers who rode in different states after the Saratoga meet must provide two negative COVID-19 tests during a five-day window before being allowed to ride at Belmont Park. Those riders who remained in New York will only need one negative test within seven days of their first mount at Belmont Park.

As a result, on Friday's card, only 13 jockeys were listed on the 89 horses entered in 10 races.

According to Panza, purses will be down by a blended rate of 13.5% in comparison to last year's meet due to the combined financial pressure of tracks being closed for 80 days earlier in the year, no on-track wagering or fans since March, and the closing of the casino at Aqueduct for nearly six months. Revenue from the Resorts World New York City casino, which reopened Sept. 9 with 25% capacity, accounts for 38% of NYRA's purse account.

The purse cuts can be best seen in the meet's major grade 1 stakes, none of which will offer a purse above $250,000. Panza also said the final legs of NYRA's Turf Triple series for 3-year-olds, the Jockey Club Derby Invitational Stakes and the Jockey Club Oaks Invitational Stakes, will most likely be shelved until next year.

NYRA also had to push back the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) by a week to Oct. 10, positioning it four weeks before the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) as opposed to last year's five-week gap.

"From a stakes schedule standpoint, it has impacted us. The stakes schedules have been scrambled, and it has changed a lot of things in terms of our stakes. We'll work our way through it in 2020. It is what it is, and we'll hope we can make it back to normalcy in 2021," Panza said. "With Churchill Downs running on Labor Day and stakes in West Virginia (such as the Charles Town Classic Stakes, G2), we had to make some adjustments."

With the reopening of the casino, Panza is hopeful that NYRA can increase overnight purses as the meet progresses.

"We'll do the best we can to support the New York horsemen and New York owners and breeders," Panza said. "Having the casino back open, it will hopefully give us an opportunity to raise purses and bring back some stability."

Even with attendance restrictions in place, business at the Aqueduct casino has been quite brisk. According to New York State Gaming Commission figures, for the week ending Sept. 12, $89.8 million was wagered with a win for the casino of $7,055,619. During the week ending Sept. 14 in 2019, the casino's video games handled $252.1 million with a win of $12.6 million.

The resumption of revenue from the casino will also allow NYRA to remain open throughout the year in some shape, a point stressed this month by NYRA president and CEO Dave O'Rourke and welcomed by trainers such as Rice who are based in New York year-round.

"I never thought there would not be winter racing," she said, "but I'm glad to hear NYRA say it will happen."

Coming on the heels of the Saratoga meet, field size is an inherent problem with the Belmont Park fall meet, but with the added time off, Panza has been pleased with the initial days of entries. The Sept. 19 card attracted 98 potential starters for 10 races.

"So far, things have gone reasonably well. The horsemen have been cooperating and running their horses, and (field size) doesn't seem to be a problem," Panza said. "Pat Pope is writing the condition book, and he feels pretty comfortable with the horse inventory and the races he can run. We're trying to run the same program as we did in the past. After an 11-day break, you hope entries will be good. We finished good at Saratoga, and hopefully that will carry into Belmont.

"We learned some important lessons back in May and June that when you don't have a lot of opportunities, you'll have big field sizes and will handle a lot of money. Now we're back to having everyone running and there's probably too many opportunities out there, and you will see field size suffer and probably handle will suffer, but that's the reality of the game right now."

In a strange sense, the pandemic could help fields at the meet since the cancellation of sales and a lack of racing slowed trainers' ability to bring their 2-year-olds to the races at Saratoga and the Belmont spring/summer meets and should result in increased juvenile racing in the fall.

"A lot of people seemed to be behind with their 2-year-olds at Saratoga, and we're hoping that in September and October we will see a lot more 2-year-old racing, which will help the cards," Panza said.

Statistics reflect the drop-off in juvenile races at the Spa, which is normally a hallmark of the meet.

In 2019, there were 88 2-year-old races at Saratoga, which accounted for 21.8% of all races, with 720 starters for an average field size of 8.2 per race. Purses averaged $96,657.

This year, the totals dropped to 62 juvenile races at the Spa, accounting for just 15.2% of all races with 471 starters for an average of 7.6 per race. Purses also dipped to an average of $80,689.

As a baseline, last year's fall meet at Belmont produced 76 2-year-old races for 23.5% of the races at the meet with 587 starters (7.7 per race) and an average purse of $86,624.

"Because of COVID-19 and so many things being up in the air in the spring, it backed up the 2-year-old crop, and I think 2-year-old racing will really begin in the fall," Rice said. "It's a function of the sales being delayed and racing in general."

New to the 2-year-old racing scene at NYRA is a ban on the anti-bleeding medication Lasix, and Panza said there have only been "one or two" cases of juveniles bleeding during races.

"It wasn't a problem," he said about the Lasix restrictions that went into effect this year.

Rice said she supports running juvenile races without the controversial medication.

"I am a fan of the new Lasix rules," she said. "I believe 2-year-olds are so young that I don't want to run them on Lasix. I want them to get older and more mature before they put in a peak performance, so I am fine with that rule. I think if you have a 2-year-old who looks like he needs Lasix that early on, you can hold off and run him at 3."

The most optimistic note of all about the meet is that through the help of groups such as the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, NYRA and the backstretch community will head into it without any recent positive tests or coronavirus quarantines.

"We've done an excellent job of following our protocols since we opened in June, and the horsemen have been very cooperative. We went through Saratoga without a COVID-19 positive, which was a big thing because we wanted to prove to the city of Saratoga that we're a responsible partner, and I believe we did that because of everyone's help," Panza said. "We have COVID-19 protocols we will continue to follow, and that's the world we live in. We can't have fans on track now, but hopefully at some point the governor's office will feel comfortable about allowing that to happen. We're getting there, but the virus is still around and we want to be safe. We don't want to get shut down again.

"It's a new world, but we've been doing this since March and we've learned a lot since then when we had our backs against the wall. We feel comfortable that we can handle a situation if it comes about, and that's the most important thing. It's better to be safe than sorry."