O'Rourke to horseplayers: NYRA dropped the ball
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Dave O’Rourke, president and CEO of the New York Racing Association, said Wednesday his organization “dropped the ball” when it came to its handling of the timing of the announcement to take three races off the turf on Sunday at Saratoga and apologized to horseplayers for not being able to refund money wagered in multiple-race pools such as the late pick five.
As horses were loading into the gate for Sunday’s sixth race – a dirt race – and the first leg of the late pick five, the announcement was made that races 7, 9, and 10 – all scheduled for the turf – would be transferred to the dirt. Horseplayers were given virtually no time to cancel or change their pick five tickets as race 6 went off at its scheduled time.
O’Rourke, appearing Wednesday with television host/analyst Andy Serling on NYRA’s simulcast before the start of “Talking Horses,” said it was NYRA’s intention to refund the late pick five pool, but the rules of racing state that races that change surfaces after a betting pool has closed are considered all-win races. Thus, the late pick five returned a paltry $25 for a 50-cent bet.
“Our intention was to refund everything, which is slightly out of the norm, but it felt like the right thing to do,” O’Rourke said. “We were not able to refund the pool. The stewards ultimately make decisions in terms of what are in the rules and what are not; once in a while you’ll find gaps for strange situations. We were not able to refund.”
O’Rourke said the timeline included management talking with the jockeys, who expressed concerns about the turf course after race 4, when a horse, Ever Summer, suffered fatal injuries at the top of the stretch.
It wasn’t until after race 5, however, that the decision was made to move the remaining three turf races to the dirt.
O’Rourke said a request to delay the start of race 6 was made to the stewards, but that request was denied.
O’Rourke indicated NYRA would look to try and make amends by seeding certain pools at some point during the second half of the meet. He did not offer specifics, and those requests must be approved by the New York Gaming Commission.
NYRA announced late Wednesday afternoonthat it will seed this Saturday's late pick-5 pool with $100,000.
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“I can apologize and I am apologizing to the betting community,” O’Rourke said. “We will work on protocols to streamline this; the initial decision to come off the turf was the right decision. How we handle it internally and get the information out we need to get better. There’s no other way I can put this.”
Wet weather and the fact NYRA ran two races last week on turf courses that were soft to yielding, caused damage to the turf courses to the point where NYRA on Tuesday announced that Wednesday’s races would be off the turf.
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