Saturday and Sunday cards canceled due to racing surface concerns

Laurel Park in Maryland has canceled its Saturday and Sunday race cards in the wake of jockeys expressing concern over the condition of the main track prior to Friday’s card.

The decision to cancel the entire weekend came several hours after management canceled Friday’s nine-race card. Just minutes before post time on Friday, riders and management had met to discuss the riders’ concerns, which were precipitated by a catastrophic injury during training hours earlier in the day, according to Herbie Rivera Jr., the Jockeys’ Guild representative for Laurel’s riders.

Although track officials did not immediately return phone calls after the weekend cancellation was announced, Mike Rogers, the general manager of Laurel, had said earlier on Friday afternoon that he intended to consult with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority over the possibility of an independent evaluation of the track.

Rogers had said that his own track superintendents believed that the main track was safe.

“Right now I have trackmen with 40 years of experience saying that the track is fine, but I have to reconcile that opinion with my riders, because obviously there is a difference,” Rogers said. “So the idea is to bring in HISA and hope they can do something quick.”

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HISA, a private company that enforces safety regulations and administers a drug-testing program for most major racing jurisdictions, often provides tracks under its jurisdiction with evaluations of their racing surfaces. The authority maintains a Racetrack Safety Committee.

A brief notice distributed by the track late on Friday afternoon said that the Saturday and Sunday cards were canceled “as we continue to evaluate our racing surface.”

According to Maryland officials, a horse trained by Brittany Russell, a leading trainer on the Maryland circuit, broke down on Friday morning while working over the main track. Russell is married to Sheldon Russell, a leading rider in Maryland.

Later in the day, a handful of jockeys walked the course and called for a meeting with management.

“The riders came to us with some concerns that the track might have been a contributing factor [in the incident],” said Rogers.

Laurel was scheduled to run three $100,000 stakes races on the nine-race Saturday card. The Sunday card included eight races. Laurel has already drawn its Thanksgiving Day card for next week, with nine races scheduled.

In 2023, 13 horses died while racing or training on the Laurel main track from Jan. 14 to April 20, which led to a brief cessation of racing while Laurel examined the surface and its maintenance protocols. Following the break, after some minor surface repairs and changes to maintenance procedures, no horses suffered fatal breakdowns on the main track for the remainder of the spring meet.

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