Williamsburg, Va.
At the end of a long drive from Kentucky to Virginia cameone of those phone alerts to provide a nerve-racking yelp before a violentstorm. It screamed like an amber alert in red letters.
Tornado warning.
I should take these things more seriously, but like so manyothers, it came, it went, and it was just very, very wet.
DeRosa: Fair odds for Arlington Million.
No, we should not screw around with tornado warnings, and weshould not be as cavalier about incoming hurricanes and tropical storms andsuch. There was a deadly tornado one state away, and it was spawned by Debby,which itself killed at least six people.
Pardon my inconvenience with unloading luggage in a downpouroutside my hotel. Yeah, woe is me, right? But it says here Colonial Downs, ahalf-hour back up the road, really got it right reacting to the storm andpostponing the Grade 1 Arlington Million from Saturday to Sunday. And it alsosays here the New York Racing Association might pick up a few pointers abouthow to react to the ever-capricious weather at Saratoga.
Yes, they could have been shown up if the storm had been adud, but Dan Cuic and Frank Hopf and their team at Colonial were not. When theyheard those black-and-red square flags could be flying in the mid-Atlantic,they pounced early this week. By quickly and decisively moving a couplegarden-variety cards from Thursday and Friday to Monday and Tuesday, it wasclear they were leaving themselves a day of wiggle room to move the Million to fromSaturday to Sunday. Less than a day later, that was precisely what they did.
When Colonial declared Wednesday that the Million card wouldbe pushed back 24 hours, it was common sense applied with a deft touch. Yes, Churchill Downs Inc., which owns the joint, may take that as a compliment. Horsem*n and racing fans were inconvenienced by the storm but not by thereaction to it. And handicappers had to love the extra day to ponder what wouldbe more predictable conditions this weekend.
This is where one might expect the pile-on to begin forSaratoga. Sorry to disappoint, but that is not the goal here, especially sinceupstate New York got unluckily wet the past couple weekends. There is a certainamount of asking what else were they supposed to do when the turf was soakingwet for consecutive Saturdays of scheduled Grade 1 stakes.
Therein lies the bigger challenge at Saratoga. UnlikeColonial, the races are more stacked on a week-to-week and even a day-to-daybasis. Maybe not in field size anymore but certainly with purses.
The two cards Colonial postponed to Monday and Tuesdayincluded only one stakes with added money. Total purses are about $1 million. AtSaratoga, the card that will not be run Friday had two stakes yet to berescheduled and a total value of $1 million just on its own.
NYRA just does not have as much room for error. Not when itraces five days a week every week contrasted to Colonial’s three. And not whenso many thousands of people are flocking to the Spa every day. And not when itis hosting Grade 1 cards at least once and sometimes twice every weekend.
This is not to give NYRA a free pass on these weatherepisodes. In essence it followed Colonial’s lead, but it waited an extra day tomake similar moves. Whether it should have done so sooner has been the stuff ofarguments on social media, which are not necessarily built on concretefoundations.
Saratoga does, however, vex players with some of itsgame-time decisions. There was another case of making a middle-of-the-card changeThursday afternoon to move the remaining turf races to the main track. NYRA hasturned this read-and-react approach to the weather into an exercise in pre-snapaudibles on third and long, and they ain’t exactly yelling “Omaha.” No wonder horseplayersunderstandably are growing gun-shy in playing Saratoga on potentially wet days.
It was exactly one year ago this very day when NYRA bossDavid O’Rourke showed up on “Talking Horses” to tell Andy Serling “we droppedthe ball” three days after bettors were told everything would be moved off theturf just as horses were about to load for the first leg of a Pick 5.
That should not be forgotten, nor should the 14 racehorseswho died during last summer’s meet at Saratoga. They are valid reasons forthe hackneyed phrase abundance of caution. Still, using that and theever-changing weather as crutches for waiting rather than deciding on movingraces can be dubious. It is convenient to blame Mother Nature when Pick 5players are getting ripped off, but it is curious when the track bosses arealways at the scene of the crime.
Hindsight aside, it is impossible to make everyone happyeven with the best of decisions on race day. Just ask Coolmore trainer Aidan O’Brien.His fuming could be felt an ocean away when he called morning-line favorite DiegoVelázquez home after the Saratoga Derby (G1) was postponed last weekend with 24minutes’ notice before the scheduled first post.
When there is sufficient notice, horseplayers justifiably askwhy the late Pick 5 cannot be remapped. No doubt archaic technology will beblamed, but one would think if the Fourstardave (G1) and Saratoga Derby can bepushed to the back of Sunday’s card with nearly a three-day heads-up, theystill could be included in multi-race exotics.
“To allow for increased flexibility, those races will falloutside of all horizontal wagers,” a NYRA statement said. I am still working onhow excluding them qualifies as increased flexibility.
Then again, racing has developed an alarming amount of spokes-speaklately. When the water tower got drained after a thunderstorm at Ellis Park, thatwas branded an “unscheduled grandstand maintenance issue.” Thursday night atEvangeline Downs, the head-on camera was broken, so races were canceled becauseof “unforeseen circ*mstances.” Why not just say the water supply was low andthe camera crapped out?
Let the double talk cascade over us all like a summer storm.Speaking of that, Virginia’s governor is going to be at Colonial on Sunday forthe announcement of an expanded 2025 racing calendar. That is barring unforeseencirc*mstances, an unscheduled grandstand maintenance issue or a lack ofincreased flexibility.
Is it still raining?
Ron Flatter’s column appears Friday mornings atHorseRacing Nation. Comments below are welcomed, encouraged and may be used inthe feedback segment of the Ron Flatter Racing Pod, which also is posted everyFriday.
