Despite coronavirus outbreak, weekend racing goes smoothly

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – For the most part, horsemen seemed pretty content with how racing operations went over the weekend at Aqueduct as racing continued even as the rest of the sports and entertainment world was shutting down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Though no fans were permitted ontrack and owners and their guests were prohibited from being in the paddock and winner’s circle, Aqueduct completed three nine-race programs Friday through Sunday. On Friday and Saturday, a few fans who apparently went through the casino were seen watching the proceedings outside the paddock, but by Sunday security had prohibited even that.

The paddock was mostly empty, as just trainers, hotwalkers and valets, jockeys, and certain NYRA officials were allowed in.

“I believe it went very, very well,” trainer Rudy Rodriguez said. “The owners stayed in the lounge. It seems like everybody is working together good and we just got to hope we keep running.”

Jockeys at Aqueduct were kept mostly isolated. Horsemen who were delivering silks had to do it outside the jockeys’ room. Media was not permitted in the jockeys’ room.

The jockeys had the option of turning the sauna off in the jockeys’ room or being allowed to ride with three extra pounds (the weight of equipment). Ultimately, they decided to leave the sauna operating, so jockeys could lose the necessary pounds to make riding weight.

NYRA brought in an outside company to sanitize the sauna on Saturday night and had plans to continue doing that if racing continued.

Jockey Junior Alvarado said he would have preferred to ride with the additional three pounds.

“There were a couple of jockeys that felt three pounds wasn’t going to help them,” Alvarado said. “I guess they had to lose more than that. For me, at this point, I’d rather have the overweight than take any risk. [Saturday], I didn’t go to the sauna at all, I rode how I was. I was good with the weight.”

Alvarado said he took as many precautions as possible to avoid unnecessary contact.

“I have three kids, I’m not taking any kind of risk,” Alvarado said. “I try to avoid everything I can, even wearing gloves to the jocks’ room. Try not touch anything and just try to avoid things as of right now.”

All-sources handle for the three days was $17,403,067. That was an 8.5 percent decrease from a similar three-day period (March 15-17) last year. In addition to a worldwide pandemic impacting business this year, last year’s handle was likely aided by Santa Anita not conducting live racing.

Racing is scheduled to resume Friday. However, on Monday, the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut jointly announced those states would limit gatherings to 50 people or fewer. Beginning Monday at 8 p.m. those states ordered the closures of casinos, gyms, and movie theaters. Resorts World New York City, adjacent to Aqueduct, announced it had closed its doors at 9 a.m. Monday and would remain closed for an initial period of two weeks.

As of early Monday afternoon, the New York Racing Association had not announced what it planned to do moving forward.