Week In Review: Who’ll Stop the Rain?

[Wandering Eyes]

The Saratoga meet has just gotten started and it's already appears that Mother Nature is ready for a nasty fight, one NYRA is going to have a hard time winning.

On paper, Saturday's card looked excellent with the GII Bowling Green S. and the GI Diana S., plus three maiden 2-year-old races that included a lot of horse with a lot of potential. But the card was wrecked before it started, thanks to a deluge of rain Saturday morning. It came down hard and heavy for about an hour. They took four races off the grass, choosing to run only the two stakes on a turf course that was listed as “good” by the time the Diana rolled around. The track was listed as yielding for the Bowling Green.

The damage to the bottom-line was huge. On the same Saturday in 2024, when it was 85 degrees out and the tracks were fast and firm, the 12-race care card handled $33,225,605. On this Saturday, five races were taken off the grass and there were 46 scratches. Two races, including the Bowling Green went with four-horse fields. The handle was $22,304,942.

Friday was also a rainy mess. This year they handed $13,762.784 on the card, a steep drop from the $22,648,941 handled the year before.

It was no better Sunday, when five more races came off the grass. There were 13 races taken off the grass during the traditional opening week.

There's no track in the world more affected by rain than Saratoga. They rely heavily on grass races, which, when they aren't taken off the turf, tend to be terrific betting races with large fields. They get hammered whenever they have to take races off the grass, which was also the case for the GI Belmont S. festival. Things got so bad on Belmont Day that they had to take every race off the grass. There were two Grade I grass races on the card, the GI Jaipur and the GI Manhattan. Both were postponed and run the following day. The difference between a good meet and a bad meet comes down to how much rain there was and how often they have to take the races off the grass.

There's nothing anybody can do about the weather, but that doesn't mean that NYRA can't take some measures that would help with problem.

How about:

• Are they too careful when it comes to shifting races to the dirt? That the Diana was run over a course listed as good, meaning the turf course wasn't in that bad of shape. Yes, they need to keep the courses in top shape to get through a meet where they are used heavily, but running, say, three more turf races on Saturday, would that really have presented such a problem?
• They have to be more cognizant of the impending weather. Yes, it's unpredictable in Saratoga but there are also plenty of times when you know in advance that rain is likely coming. How about only carding two or three races on the grass on those days?
• Entries are now taken far in advance of race days. The Saturday July 19 card was drawn Sunday, six days before the actual races. Why are they in such a hurry? If they drew, say, three days out, wouldn't they have more accurate, up-to-date weather forecasts?
• Install a Tapeta course. To do so would solve most of their problems.

But is it feasible? During his recent appearance on the TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland, NYRA President CEO David O'Rourke said that, with a main track and two turf courses, there isn't enough room to put in a fourth track. He said the subject has come up.

“We've looked at it,” he said on the podcast. “It's just difficult with the configuration. So in the near term (will they install a synthetic track), the answer is no.

But on the same podcast, O'Rourke threw out an interesting concept. Why not turn the dirt track at Oklahoma into a synthetic track and use that when races come off the turf?

“But in terms of the main surfaces now, there's even some ideas out there and you can think of them as sort of crazy as putting one over at Oklahoma and bringing off the turf races over there,” he said.

It would be difficult to do, but maybe not impossible. They'd have to do things like build a stewards stand, put in teletimers and erect replay towers. Probably not all the fans would be in love with the idea. They didn't pay good money to come to the races only to have to watch four or so races run across the street at Oklahoma on TV. But put in that track in and you'd no longer have to worry about a bunch of four-horse off-the-turf races.

Wagering on the Jockeys race

Would love to see NYRA take wagering on who will be the leading rider at Saratoga. It would be a particularly interesting and fun bet this year with Flavien Prat and Jose Ortiz emerging as major threats to topple Irad Ortiz Jr., who has won the last three titles. My money would be on Jose Ortiz. It would be a pari-mutuel wager and they could keep the bet open for the first half of the met.

Here's my morning line for the jockey title:

Irad Ortiz Jr. (6-5), Jose Ortiz (8-5), Flavien Prat (3-1), All others 12-1.

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