Final session of Fasig-Tipton Midlantic under-tack show to be gallop-only
Fasig-Tipton has announced that Sunday's final session of the under-tack preview show for its Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale will be gallop-only, with no timed breezes.
The under-tack preview show at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, Md., has been beleaguered by poor weather and controversy. Three days of works were originally scheduled for this Tuesday through Thursday. Heavy rain in Baltimore on Tuesday pushed the Midlantic breeze show back a day, with the new schedule being Wednesday to Friday.
After an uneventful Wednesday session on a sloppy, sealed track, the breeze show began its second session on Thursday. A bit less than halfway through that session, a Practical Joke filly suffered catastrophic forelimb injuries entering the turn past the wire of her one-furlong breeze.
Another heavy burst of rain almost immediately moved into the area, and Fasig-Tipton representatives met with the Maryland State Fairgrounds racetrack superintendent. The rest of the day’s works were postponed, and all the horses who had yet to breeze were then scheduled to work in a single session on Sunday.
Another severe storm moved through Baltimore on Friday evening, leading to Fasig-Tipton's Saturday announcement that juveniles will only be permitted to gallop in the final session.
“The severe thunderstorms that moved through here last night dropped torrential rains in a very short amount of time,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr., said in a company release. “In light of these conditions, we feel that the responsible course of action is for horses to gallop only in tomorrow’s final under-tack show session. Today and tomorrow’s forecasts call for good weather and we expect favorable conditions under which to conduct the under tack show. ... We have received an unprecedented amount of rainfall over the last two weeks, including these past several days. The track crew here at the Maryland State Fairgrounds has done an admirable job keeping the racetrack in excellent condition to this point in time, however with this additional rain last night, we feel it is best to change our format for the remainder of the under tack show.”
The entire auction will be held on Tuesday, May 20. This is a change from the previously scheduled two-day format on May 19-20, allowing for a day of inspections after training and prior to the sale.
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