Saratoga reschedules Lure, Waya stakes due to heavy rain

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Saturday’s 11-race Whitney card at Saratoga took a big hit from Mother Nature, and the New York Racing Association elected to cancel the final two races on the card – both stakes scheduled for the turf.

The $100,000 Lure Stakes (race 11) will be brought back next Saturday. The Grade 3, $200,000 Waya (race 10) will be brought back Aug. 12. Thus, today’s card will consist of nine races, ending with the Grade 1 Whitney. First post remains 1 p.m. Eastern.

More than two inches of rain fell overnight at Saratoga. On top of what fell Friday, the turf courses were basically rendered unusable. Three other scheduled turf races on Saturday – races 1, 2, and 4 – were transferred to the main track. The $100,000 De La Rose (race 5) will be run on the inner turf course with the rails out 18 feet. The turf will be labeled “soft.”

With 27 days of racing left in the meet, Martin Panza, NYRA’s senior vice president of racing operations, did not feel it prudent to run on the turf Saturday and damage the turf courses.

“We got 2 1/3 inches of rain last night; a lot of it came down quickly,” Panza said. “This is Day 14 of the meet – there’s no reason to destroy our turf courses.”

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Panza said the rails on the inner turf course were moved out 18 feet off the hedge following the races on Thursday. Since the inner course wasn’t used on Friday, this will be relatively fresh ground for the De La Rose.

“The ground will be soft, but it will be safe,” Panza said.

There is a 65 percent chance of isolated thunderstorms between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday.

The decision to cancel races 10 and 11 also prompted the loss of several multirace wagers, including the late pick five, scheduled to start on race 7; the late pick four, scheduled to start on race 8; and the final pick three, which would have started on race 9. The cancellation of these wagers is per New York State Gaming Commission rules that state if any leg of those wagers is canceled prior to the start of wagering, then the bet type is canceled.

The Grand Slam, which was to start on race 7, is also canceled. There will not be a daily double starting on race 9.

There is a pick-four wager that starts with race 6 and ends with the Whitney.

The pick six will still be conducted as NYRA had scheduled that wager to be held on races 4-9, ending with the Whitney.

On Aug. 13, 2016, the final six races of a Saturday card that included the Grade 1 Fourstardave and the Grade 2 Adirondack were canceled due to severe storms. Those stakes were run at a later date.