Jaipur, Manhattan moved to Sunday due to rain
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Manhattan and Jaipur, both Grade 1 turf stakes scheduled to be run Saturday at Saratoga, have been postponed until Sunday, the New York Racing Association announced late Saturday morning.
The two races will be run after the first 11 races on the card have been run – the Jaipur will be race 12, the Manhattan race 13 – and they will be the only two turf races run on Sunday. The other four scheduled turf races Sunday, including the Grade 3 Soaring Softly Stakes, will be moved to the dirt. Races 4 and 8, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles, will be run at one mile. The Soaring Softly (race 7) and race 11 will remain at 5 1/2 furlongs.
Additionally, the Manhattan, scheduled for 1 3/16 miles on the Mellon Turf course, has been shortened to 1 1/8 miles and will be run on the inner turf. The Jaipur, at 5 1/2 furlongs, will remain on the Mellon course.
Andrew Offerman, NYRA’s senior vice-president racing and operations, said it had been decided that after the Saratoga area received 2.24 inches of rain Friday into Saturday, that only one race could be run on each turf course Sunday and the two Grade 1 events took priority. The Jaipur is a Win and You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in November at Del Mar.
“Ultimately, looking at the Grade 1 was kind of the biggest priority, what we could do with those based on who’s participating and we kind of figured out that only having two [turf] races tomorrow was going to be the maximum based on the amount of rain we took,” Offerman said.
Two of the four scheduled turf races transferred to the dirt Saturday were the Grade 2 Wonder Again and Grade 3 Pennine Ridge, stakes for 3-year-old fillies and males, respectively. The Wonder Again scratched from an eight-horse field to a three-horse field while the Pennine Ridge scratched down from 10 horses to six.
Offerman said going into Friday night and early Saturday morning, NYRA was hopeful of being able to run all four stakes on the turf Saturday before the storm shifted south.
“We sat on the border of that storm cell for two hours more than they forecasted,” Offerman said. “A quarter of an inch of rain turned into more than an inch of rain this morning.”
All multi-race wagers that involved the Jaipur (race 9) and Manhattan (race 12) were canceled on Saturday. In the two-day all-turf pick 5, the Jaipur and Manhattan along with the Pennine Ridge, which was moved off the turf to the dirt, were considered all-wins if the bettor correctly selected the winner of Friday’s New York and Just a Game.
Post times for Saturday races from Races 3-11 were adjusted. The updated post times for Saturday's stakes are as follows:
Race 6 - Wonder Again Stakes: 2:35 p.m. ET.
Race 7 - True North Stakes: 3:25 p.m.
Race 8 - Metropolitan Mile Handicap: 4:13 p.m.
Race 10 - Pennine Ridge Stakes: 5:16 p.m.
Race 11 - Woody Stephen Stakes: 6:09 p.m.
Post times for Race 13 and 14 were unchanged.
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