Saratoga Derby, Troy rescheduled due to heavy rain; other races taken off turf
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Due to heavy rains that fell overnight, the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby and the Grade 3 Troy Stakes scheduled for Saturday at Saratoga have been canceled and will be rescheduled for Aug. 10, the New York Racing Association announced just before post time of Saturday’s 13-race card.
Four other races scheduled for the turf – races 1, 4, 9 (the Lure Stakes), and 13 – were moved to the main track.
The cancellation of races 7 and 10 meant that all multi-race wagers involving races 7 and 10 – including the late pick 5 and pick 6 – have been canceled and were refunded.
In the NYRA two-day all-turf pick 5 wager, those tickets alive after the first two legs on Friday, were given ALLs for the last three legs – the Saratoga Derby, Lure, and Troy.
A total of .73 inches of rain fell Wednesday night, according to NYRA. There were six turf races scheduled for Saturday’s 13-race card and initially NYRA announced it would take races 1, 4, and 13 off the turf and run all three stakes on turf courses that were labeled good on the NYRA website.
After consultation with Dr. Scott Palmer, the equine medical director of the New York State Gaming Commission, it was decided that no turf racing would take place Saturday due to the high percentage of moisture content in both turf courses. NYRA then received permission from the Gaming Commission to cancel and reschedule both graded turf stakes for Aug. 10.
Earlier this week, the Gaming Commission put out a 107-page report on the 13 equine fatalities that occurred last year during the Saratoga meet. According to Palmer, the report’s author, the musculoskeletal-related fatalities on the turf course all occurred when the moisture content was above 26 percent. According to Palmer, the moisture content for both turf courses on Saturday was over 26 percent.
“In my mind, I can’t send horses out there with the moisture content as high or higher than they were Whitney and Travers weekend last year,” Palmer said in a phone interview.
Palmer said that an evaluation of the moisture content on the main track Saturday, while high, showed consistency all the way around, so it was deemed safe to run on. Last year, on at least one of the days when a racing fatality occurred on the main track, there was a 62 percent variation of the moisture content on the main track. Saturday, Palmer said the variation was seven percent.
“Given the consistency of the racetrack, given all the evidence we have, we have no evidence to show the dirt track is unsafe,” Palmer said.
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