No major changes as Finger Lakes meet kicks off

The live racing season is starting two weeks later than usual, but otherwise it’s business as usual at Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack.

The western New York state track will launch its 155-day season that runs through Dec. 9 on Friday, coinciding with simulcasts of the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby on opening weekend.

The stakes schedule and purse structure closely resemble 2014. Finger Lakes will offer 14 stakes – one fewer than last year. As usual, the season’s biggest race is the New York Breeders’ Futurity, with an estimated purse of $200,000. After a one-year experiment of bulking up the program by including two smaller stakes, the Futurity will be a standalone feature Oct. 17, two weeks earlier on the calendar than a year ago.

The $150,000 New York Derby and $75,000 New York Oaks will share a card July 3. The track will have $100,000 co-features for 2-year-olds, the Aspirant and Lady Fingers, on Sept. 18.

The remaining nine stakes, all for New York-breds, will be worth $50,000 apiece.

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Purses will be comparable to 2014 levels. An open, first-level allowance got a 6 percent bump from $19,300 to $20,600, but purses for maiden special weight events dropped from $20,000 to $19,000. Bottom-level $5,000 claimers will continue to run for a $9,000 purse.

Although he won 46 fewer races than in 2013, Chris Englehart’s 97 victories last year were still good enough for him to claim his 12th consecutive training title, and he figures to be formidable again.

Eight new trainers, most of whom previously were based at Suffolk Downs, are now stabled at Finger Lakes. The group is headed by Robert Raymond, who was fourth in last year's trainer standings at Suffolk with 19 wins from 207 starters.

Jaime Rodriguez will be vying for his third consecutive jockey title in 2015 after rididng 160 winners last year. Rodriguez is listed to ride in five races on Friday.

Friday’s feature, which goes as race 3, is a first-level allowance for New York-bred fillies and mares going 4 1/2 furlongs. It drew eight horses, including a pair of coupled entries. Jeremiah Englehart, second in the 2014 trainer standings to his father, will saddle Kicken Livi, who went 3 for 7 at Finger Lakes last year. Trainer Michael LeCesse will counter with B K Deliah, who was 3 for 7 locally in 2014.

Live racing will be held Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays early in the meet, with Thursday added to the schedule beginning May 21. There will be special Wednesday cards Sept. 9 and Oct. 14. First post time is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.

In November, racing shifts to a Monday-through-Friday schedule, with the first race at 12:15 p.m.