re: Last Gasp

arlingtonfan — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 18:46:15 GMT

Love the reference to the Black Stallion novels. Thanks for that, and for bringing a little taste of Saratoga to those of us who can't attend.

re: Last Gasp

JIMF552 — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 03:16:22 GMT

Vic,

Loved the daily updates and thank you for covering the Saratoga scene aside from the race track.

re: Last Gasp

Stephie Clare — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 20:28:53 GMT

Come back next year Vic! I love to read your Diary.

re: Last Gasp

Profileman — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 15:13:24 GMT

Thanks for the memories Vic, and thanks for posting Saratoga Diary every race day. Good job.

re: Last Gasp

Walt Gekko — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 14:23:50 GMT

At the time the decision was made to move everything to the main track on Monday, the turf at Saratoga looked waterlogged from photos I saw AND there was 100% chance of rain according to Weather.com around the time the Glens Falls was scheduled (around 4:15 PM ET). While The Weather Channel site only had .07" of rain listed (and at the end, officially .45" of rain as the final number for Monday), it looked like Saratoga had more like 2-3" of rain during Sunday night into Monday morning based on what was said previously and what I saw on the radar early Monday. Some of the trainers I believe had to ship from Fair Hill for the Glens Falls, and I'm sure the last thing NYRA wanted was a trainer shipping a horse from Maryland all the way up to Saratoga (a six-hour+ drive) only to have the race taken off the turf half an hour or so before the race was scheduled to be run because the jockeys refuse to ride over the turf OR the rain that WAS FORECAST hit and made the turf unsafe.

What happens if say NYRA "caves in" to those who feel NYRA has to run on the turf no matter what on closing day and a horse or two break down or worse happens? How would that have looked.

In the end, what NYRA should have done in my view would have been to have carded an extra race on dirt that only would have been used to be substituted for the Glens Falls in the eighth race spot (as I believe due to the tote upgrade, NYRA could only run 10 on Monday as I believe they had to finish the card by 5:30 PM ET so there was a half-hour before everything was shut down at 6:00 PM for people to cash tickets), with it as soon as it was realized the Glens Falls would have to be taken off the turf, the substitute race inserted into that spot. If that could not have been done, I would have simply cancelled the race (that I also would have carded as the 6th, between the two pick-fours) and declared that event an ALL race for Pick Six and other multi-race purposes and re-scheduled the Glens Falls for this coming Sunday at Belmont Park (and if I were at NYRA, I would ask the Graded Stakes Committee to consider the Saratoga race an overnight stakes and NOT the actual running with the race run again this coming Sunday at Belmont and THAT considered the official running of the race so trainers who had to scratch because of off-the-turf being able to run in the race, even if it is a week late).

That to me would have been the best way of handling a bad situation like what happened Monday at Saratoga.