An abbreviated Belmont meet will have a shorter Classic

ELMONT, N.Y. – New York becomes the last major circuit to resume live racing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic when Belmont Park opens Wednesday for the first program of an abbreviated 25-day meet.

Wednesday’s 10-race program comes 80 days after the last card of racing was held in New York, at Aqueduct, and none too soon for trainers and owners who struggled to keep their stables afloat, unable to make money.

Trainer Robert Falcone Jr. said had the shutdown gone on another two or three weeks, “I think it would have been bad. I mean, it’s bad now, but it would have been really bad. Just looking forward to getting back on track.”

Falcone was appreciative to his owners and staff “for sticking it out with me.”

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“It was getting to a point where it was getting hard to keep going,” trainer Michelle Nevin said. “Now that we’re back racing we have a chance to get back on our feet if we can.”

Since March 15, a total of 43 racing programs – 19 at Aqueduct, 24 at Belmont – have been lost. Belmont was scheduled for a 51-day meet starting April 24. Now, there will be 25 cards through July 12 before Saratoga is scheduled to open July 16.

Racing will be conducted under strict health and safety protocols, the most impactful being no owners or fans will be allowed to attend during the meet. Jockeys will be spread out in multiple areas in the basement at Belmont. The main jockeys’ room will house just 12 jockeys. Also, jockeys (and jockey agents) will not be permitted on the backstretch at Belmont. Should a jockey be asked to work a horse in the morning, arrangements must be made for the horse to be brought to the paddock.

NYRA also is significantly limiting the number of its personnel to about 60 on a live race day. There are between 800 to 1,000 backstretch workers on a given morning.

New York City has been the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with about 371,000 cases and 23,959 deaths, according to statistics reported through Sunday. In Nassau County, where Belmont Park is located, there have been more than 40,396 cases with 2,122 deaths. Since mid-March, there were 81 positive cases reported at Belmont Park; 74 of whom have recovered and been released from quarantine. There was one death, a groom named Martin Zapata.

Training continued at Belmont Park virtually uninterrupted since racing was shut down in March. Training was reduced to six days a week for about two months before being restored to seven days last weekend.

“The backstretch is a family, they all took care of business, so we’re glad to finally be back racing again but certainly we’re not done with the virus yet and we need to be careful moving forward,” said Martin Panza, NYRA’s senior vice president of racing operations.

Though racing returns, purses have been significantly cut due to lack of revenue generated from handle as well as the shutdown of the casino at Aqueduct, which helps fund 38 percent of the purses. Panza was cognizant to cut less from the lower-level races while making more dramatic trims to high-level allowance conditions and stakes.

There will be 40 stakes races – at least one every day – worth a total of $7 million. The original schedule had 58 stakes worth $18.65 million.

“We tried to put as much money in the overnights as we could,” Panza said. “Overnights are going to take priority till that casino opens back up.”

Naturally, field size was huge with an average of 124 horses carded each of the first three days. First post each day throughout the meet will be 1:15 p.m., and all races will be shown on Fox Sports 1 or 2 and a variety of regional cable networks.

The Belmont Stakes will take on a new look in 2020. Instead of being the last and longest leg of the Triple Crown at the end of a five-week run, it will be the first and shortest leg of a series that will take 15 weeks to complete. The Belmont will be run June 20 at 1 1/8 miles around one turn. The Kentucky Derby was moved from May 2 to Sept. 5 and the Preakness from May 16 to Oct. 3.

The June 20 card will have six stakes, including Grade 1 events as the Acorn, Jaipur, and Woody Stephens. The Metropolitan Handicap and Manhattan will highlight the July 4 program that includes five stakes.

NYRA president and CEO Dave O’Rourke said that following the announcement of the new date for the Kentucky Derby, and keeping in mind the Nov. 7 running of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, it didn’t make sense to run the Belmont in the fall.