Unsettled weather leaves Aqueduct stakes in limbo

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – A forecast that calls for more frigid temperatures later this week and through the weekend is making it complicated for New York Racing Association officials to reschedule five stakes races lost due to the cancellation of more than three racing programs last week.

The most significant stakes race canceled due to brutally cold temperatures was the $150,000 Jerome Stakes, the first of four races at Aqueduct that offers qualifying points to the May 5 Kentucky Derby. That race was scheduled for Monday, one of three full cards NYRA was forced to cancel in a five-day span due to the cold.

The Jerome will not be brought back until Jan. 11 at the earliest, said Martin Panza, senior vice president for racing operations for NYRA. Panza said he does not want to reschedule that race or the other stakes on days when it is possible there will be a cancellation.

“We’re going to get to them,” Panza said Monday. “Right now, the forecast for [this] week does not look good. I don’t want to card them back and cancel them again. We ask the horsemen to be patient. When we get a weather pattern where we think we’re okay, we’ll put them in place. We’ll give the horsemen a week’s notice or as much notice as we can.”

Last week, Dale Romans shipped Seven Trumpets from south Florida to Aqueduct to run in the Jerome. Romans said he intends to leave the horse in New York for the time being.

“They’ll run it one of these days,” he said. “We’ll wait and see what happens.”

Saturday’s card includes the $100,000 La Verdad Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares at seven furlongs. If Saturday’s card is canceled, that would be a sixth stakes NYRA would have to reschedule. Other stakes races lost last week were the East View, Damon Runyon, Alex M. Robb, and Bay Ridge, all $100,000 races restricted to New York-breds. It had been previously announced that the East View is being brought back for Sunday, entries for which will be taken Thursday.

NYRA is hopeful of resuming racing on Thursday – entries for which were taken Saturday – and while temperatures are expected to moderate that day there is the potential for snow and high winds Thereafter, the New York City area is back in the deep freeze with temperatures forecast in the teens Friday and single digits Saturday with subzero wind-chills.

Last Saturday, NYRA was forced to cancel the final five races after the jockeys refused to ride due to concerns over uneven spots on the main track. This is the first time in 40 years the main track is being used for winter racing. The main track has a chute that joins up with the main track at the 6 1/2-furlong marker.

“There’s going to be a transition spot,” Panza said. “There are tractors coming out of that chute. We have to harrow the chute when it’s freezing otherwise the chute’s going to freeze. Those tractors have to turn somewhere. At that transition point you have a little bit of fluff there and they could feel that hump or fluff. With snow in the surface that day and it being cold, the track swells up a little bit more and it’s a little bit more pronounced. That’s what they were probably feeling.”

Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. has already announced his intention to move his tack to Gulfstream Park this winter following Thursday’s card.