Aqueduct cancels remainder of Sunday card

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The final five races of Sunday’s Aqueduct card were canceled when the jockeys refused to ride, citing icy conditions.

There was a combination of rain and wind and the temperatures were in the low 30s during the running of the first four races.

Kendrick Carmouche, who won the first race, said the jockeys were concerned about the “ice getting worse and worse throughout the day.

“Getting the horses to the paddock was icy and more ice was getting on the racetrack,” Carmouche, who won the first race on the card, said. “I don’t know what it would be in an hour with the ice and the rain in it, but it was going to get pretty bad.”

Jockey Dylan Davis, who rode only the fourth, said it was a unanimous decision among the riders not to continue.

Ironically, 20 minutes after the cancellation it was neither raining nor snowing at Aqueduct.

The cancellation did not sit well with Martin Panza, NYRA’s vice-president and senior director of racing operations.

“I’m not sure how we’re going to race this winter,” Panza said. “These conditions today are nothing compared to what our jockeys go through January, February, and March.”

This was the second cancellation of the week. Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day card was canceled due to high winds. The Fall Highweight Handicap, rescheduled from Thursday, was one of the five races lost on Sunday. It has been rescheduled for Sunday, Dec. 8.

Racing is scheduled to resume, weather permitting, on Thursday.