NYRA to no longer accept entries from horses who ran <14 days ago
 

NYRA issuing reforms to address the recent string of fatalities at AQU..

Per Matt Hegarty on Twitter:

1) NYRA will maintain "poor performance" list, effective today, of horses that will need to work 4F in :53 seconds or list after a bad race. A "poor performance" will be any start in which a horse is beaten 25 lengths or more, NYRA said.

2) NYRA will reduce all weekday (Wed-Fri) race cards to 8 races per day, effective Jan. 22.

3) NYRA will raise the bottom level for claimers from $12,500 to $16,000, effective Jan. 22.

4) Effective Jan. 22, NYRA will no longer accept entries on horses that have started within the last 14 days.

The last one is obviously the most significant of the steps and will be hotly debated.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - This afternoon, the New York Racing Association (NYRA), in consultation with the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA), announced additional steps to further enhance stringent safety protocols for thoroughbred racing already in place at Aqueduct Racetrack.

"The safety of our equine athletes and jockeys at Aqueduct Racetrack is a high priority," stated Christopher Kay, Chief Executive Officer and President. "In that spirit, the New York Racing Association continues to work together with the NYTHA leadership and the New York State Gaming Commission in these important endeavors."

The New York Racing Association will be implementing the following protocols:

• Effective today, the New York Racing Association steward will keep a "poor performance" list. Horses will be placed on this list after performing in a race at Aqueduct and losing by a margin of 25 lengths or greater. Once on the poor performance list, said horse must complete a half-mile workout in 53 seconds or less to be permitted to enter in a future race. This list will be available to the public on NYRA.com.

• Effective Thursday, January 22, the New York Racing Association will reduce weekday race cards (Wednesday through Friday) to eight races. First scheduled post time will be moved from 12:20 p.m. to 1:20 p.m. on weekdays, and 12:45 p.m. on weekends.

• Effective Thursday, January 22, the bottom level for maiden claimers will be raised from maiden $12,500 to maiden $16,000.

• Effective for entries beginning with the race card for Thursday, January 22, and until further notice, entries will no longer be accepted at Aqueduct on any horse that has participated in a recognized race within 14 days of that start. Horses will be permitted to start on the 15th day following said race.
"The measures announced by NYRA today constitute an important step toward addressing the troubling situation at Aqueduct. We continue to thoroughly investigate the circumstances of each fatality and work closely with NYRA management in order to determine if additional actions need to be taken to protect horses and riders," said New York State Gaming Commission Executive Director Robert Williams.

"New York horsemen continue to work with the New York Racing Association to make adjustments and raise the bar to protect our equine athletes and their riders on their backs," said Rick Violette, Jr., President of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.

These four steps complement additional measures implemented during the current Aqueduct winter meet. During this time, the New York Racing Association has:

• Requested and secured approval from the State of New York to implement two lengthy breaks in Aqueduct's winter schedule. One break was completed prior to Christmas, with a second scheduled during March. Both are designed to provide additional rest opportunities for our equine athletes.

• Instituted stringent workout requirements at Aqueduct, mirroring strict requirements previously implemented on the Southern California circuit. These new requirements mandate a minimum number of official, recorded workouts, as well as minimum distances, for various types of horses.

• Implemented stricter processes, procedures and standards at Aqueduct for shockwave therapy, a non-invasive treatment which can speed the healing of orthopedic and soft tissue injuries.

• Reviewed, and continues to review, our racing inventory to eliminate non-competitive horses from participating in racing.

• Implemented State Equine Medical Director Dr. Scott Palmer's direction that necropsies be ordered for all equine fatalities taking place on the grounds of Aqueduct, including off-track, non-racing and training.
Over the course of the past two years, the New York Racing Association has implemented a series of reforms which has resulted in a decrease in the number of catastrophic injuries since the State's 2012 task force report.

So if a horse runs in the Carter and is beaten by 25 lengths, they end up on the poor performance list?

If a talented maiden blows the doors off a field by 15 and the second finisher is 10 ahead of the rest of the field, the rest of the field is on the poor performance list?

How does reducing weekday cards to 8 races help curb breakdowns?

Is there any evidence of increased breakdowns of horses running a race within 14 days of their last race?

On the one hand it is nice to see that there is not a complete assumption that every breakdown is due to the surface of the track and that some focus is being placed on horseman who may be running horses that are lame leading to breakdowns, on the other hand, I am having a bit of a hard time finding how these changes correlate to reducing breakdowns.

3 and 4 are pointless.

There is no difference between the two levels, its silly to even suggest that any horse running for maiden 12500 wont be entered for 16000.

Not allowing horses to run back on less than 14 days should be up to the discretion of the racing secretary, not some steadfast rule.

I understand that they need to "do something" but those changes are not helpful in anyway except in the most egregious cases which should be dealt with through the new maintaining of a non-competitive list. I have always maintained that ridiculous entries should be refused by the racing sec.

They still have to yet to work up the courage to tackle other issues that are causing NYRA cards to be far weaker than they might otherwise be. Hopefully they will get a period of safe racing, just hope they dont chalk it up to these changes and not consider other grander changes.

This is really comical as if those being entered for $12,500 will not be entered for $16,000. When you really think about it now they will be running for even more purse money arguably placing the lower level horses against slightly harder competition which makes them even more hopeless and theoretically subject to increased chance of breakdowns. :zz:

Where they will wind up with issues with the poor performance rule is when turf races get rained off (obviously not an issue now) and some blowout winner spread eagles the field against a bunch of turf horses running on the dirt. It isnt a huge issue but it can be a disincentive to stay in.

I rarely am a proponent of fewer races however in the case of NY winter racing I think that there is a point that might be valid that few have publicly stated. That is that because turf racing is so much more important that it was in years past and a far greater % of races are written on the grass in the spring-fall it makes sense that the pool of horses in NY to compete successfully on the dirt in the winter is smaller. Trainers likely have a greater % of turf only or preferred horses in their barns as compared to years past. Most regular trainers arent able to fill those stalls of the turf only horses in the winter with horses of equal ability so they take lessor/cheaper horses or just cut back. With Parx purses still pretty strong and Maryland racing on the upswing there arent that many out of town horses to attract either.

Its just "doing something". It wont help or hurt

Not being able to enter within 14 days is absurd.

Great point on the off the turf races. I can also envision jocks who would otherwise wrap a hopelessly beaten horse up to come back and play another day now pushing the horse to try to make sure they are beaten by less than 25 lengths to avoid getting on the dreaded list.

As far as setting the rule of 8 races per day during the week, I agree that there are certain races that they should not be carding at Aqueduct and considering the variables you have stated there should be less racing. What I don't get is setting an arbitrary number of the amount of races run as opposed to instructing the racing secretary to stop carding some of the lower end races altogether in their discretion and having some cards with less races.

I am just having a hard time finding how these changes actually helps reduce overall breakdowns, the correlations appear to be lacking to me.

I had a turf horse a long time ago at Tampa that was entered in an allowance race on the grass. He was all turf but when the races came off the turf in tampa not many scratched and they all got "super dates" meaning that you had little chance to get back in if you didnt run. So Zito had a really nice horse (cant remember name) in MTO and when the race came off he was 1-9!. Well his horse wins by something like 18-19. My horse runs 4th beaten 25 1/2. We beat more than 1/2 the field.
A day later the security guards drop off a envelope saying my horse was on the vets list. So I call the state vet and ask why I was on vets list, my horse came back fine. They said you got beat more than 25. I said that makes my horse unsound? They said house rule and had to breeze 1/2 faster than 52 to get off. Well there are no turf works there and I wasnt sure that the horse could actually break 52 on the dirt in the morning.
I wound up just passing on the rest of the meet and waiting for KY.

Restriction on short run backs isn't so much to guard on that immediate next start, but the possibility of 3-4 starts, etc., in too intense a burst.

PR and that's it.

Like Martin Brody yelling shark only in NYRA's waters nothing is there.

Squeaky wheel always gets the grease!

Will they have exceptions to the rule? For instance, if a horse du.ps his jock at the break of a race and doesnt run..be cant enter for two weeks?
i get why they made the rule, but we have all seen horses run back fine immediately after. The frankel mare who won 2 stakes a week apart comes to mind.
trainers are supposed to be pros...if you have a trainer not being professional, and being too hard on his horses, i would expect him to be ruled off, rather than a rule like this.

Effective Jan 22, David Jacobson will be relocating his stock.

Hmmm the 14 day rule would have put Oscar out of business in his day, heck he would win 4 races in 14 days with same horse.

And maybe that is how they have finally gotten rid of Jacobson, with these new rules.

Shorter Cards, Shorter Fields, Better Vet's List
 

If the bottom claiming level is upped from $10,000 for Open Claimers and $12,500 for Maiden Claimers, my understanding is that NYRA has estimated that this will cost them fields for at least three races per week which explains the shortening of the weekday race cards to eight races. As these levels only appear at Aqueduct's winter meet, my guess is that nine race cards will return with either the main track opening or surely at the Belmont meeting.

If Steve's view is correct that the 14-day rule is designed to prevent triple or quadruple runs during a fortnight, the rule really should be written that way. Since several horses have been running on a seven or ten day cycle and helping to fill cards, this will lead to shorter fields.

I do however like the idea of a vet's list for non-competitive runners although basing those nominations on losing distance seems wrong. As one reader has pointed out, what happens is you lose the Carter by 25 lengths? The idea of qualifying races, a more stringent version of mandatory gate works or workouts, might have finally found their place in thoroughbred racing.

Short of qualifiers, perhaps any horse that is eased in the final quarter mile of races 5.5 furlongs or less, final 3/16s of 6 furlongs, or final eighth at a mile or more should be placed on the vet's list. In other words, try to make it a combination of the jockey's interpretation of the horses competitive level and performance on the track.

To me this is purely PR and will have little or no truly measurable result. Fatalities often happen seemingly in bunches, then average out over the long term. It's like a slot machine that hits a lot one day and then goes dead for a few days. Often it's just randomness.

To me this seems like an attempt to shift any responsibility to the trainers, vets and stewards.

In concept, I am not a fan of the 14-day rule. I would rather the racing office exercise its reasonable discretion to accept or reject entries. Having said that, based upon discussions with racing department officials about other rules, my sense is that they went with a bright-line rule on entry dates rather than having to be put in the position of having to explain why Horse A was allowed to run back in less than 14 days while Horse B was not allowed to run back in such a time frame.

I'm not sure that this rule will necessarily lead to shorter fields. It may make certain races harder to fill, but those races that do fill may end up with larger fields (as each condition tends to come up every three weeks in the condition book, and if you pass one book race, you may not run for six weeks).

It looks like we have the last three horses to beat the 14 day rule in today at Aqueduct.

I think this will cause more breakdowns as the trainer
will tell the jock make sure you don't lose by 25.
Many times you see the jock give up when the horse doesn't have it

could you imagine if Pimlico had the 14-day rule?

Ky Derby horses couldn't run in the Preakness.

Good thing the Belmont is 3-weeks after the Preakness.

D:tro:ING!DING!DING!

Today's (Friday, January 23rd's) first race is a $12,500 claimer. Was this rule for only maiden claimers or was it extended to open claimers? Pretty clearly, the open claimers are carded which has me asking the question. (The alternative is that NYRA needed this race in order to fill out today's eight race card.)

They have two $10,000 claiming races on the card for Sunday.

52.

The very best thing that happened to NYRA today is that everyone involved in playing the horses was focused on Las Vegas.

There were only 52 horses today in nine races at NYRA. Two 3-horse fields, two 4-horse fields. Five races that might have been playable on the card. Andy Serling must have been tearing his remaining hair out today.

Back in 1986, Paul Moran was relegated to covering the opening at Suffolk Meadows in May in addition to his usual NYRA responsibilities. His column started with the observation that only 55 quarter-horses passed the entry box and proceeded to slaughter the re-opened track.

What would Paul think about the impact of today's 14-day rule and the fact that management at NYRA believes that the problem with breakdowns is in the difference between x > 14 and x >= 14?

Upstart is trained by Rick Violette and ridden by Jose Ortiz. He broke his maiden at Saratoga winning going away by 5 1/4 lengths. He then raced 9 days later and won the Funny Cide stakes for NY Breds. In that race Upstart stalked the favorite Bustin It and trailed his counterpart by 2 1/2 lengths at the top of the stretch before closing to the finish line for a one-length victory.

I agree that the "final" product that NYRA put out yesterday was embarrassing. That said, you do realize that many of the scratches on Sunday were the result of confusion on the application on the 14-day rule.

For all the bashing of Aqueduct, my impression is that the maiden, allowance and stakes racing so far at the meet has been pretty good. The upper level claiming races have also been competitive. The "problem area," if you will, has been the bottom-level claimers; that's where the vast majority of the break-downs have occurred. I don't understand why NYRA was unwilling to acknowledge this fact (rather, stating that there was no factor linking a majority of the breakdowns). Had the decision been mine, I would have raised the bottom claiming level to $20,000 and then do the best you can in terms of filling races (and this would be partially contrary to self-interest, as our partnership owns one horse that my proposed rule would likely result in us having to ship out of town to run). If you only run six or seven races a day, or cut back the number of race days per week, that's the price you have to pay in this political environment.

Like most tracks, the majority of stock is cheap claimers and maidens. by raising the minimal claiming price to 20K, you would not be eliminating the cheap claimers-the 10K horse would just run, virtually protected, for 20k instead.

No track can possibly do what they are trying here and expect to live.

Particularly when you are competing with Gulfstream, Tampa, FG, Oaklawn, etc. this time of year.
In my opinion, the only way to work this (and this will be an extremely unpopular opinion) is to run a 3 day week, running two of those days on industry dark days to limit the exposure to competition. That way you will get attention to 5 horse fields when it's the only game going.

Save the best fields/stake races for Saturday, and run live with what you can fill on Monday and Tuesday. And pray like a bandit for the Main Track to open early.

I understand your point, and that's why the decision to raise the bottom from $12,500 to $16,000 for maiden claimers was a distinction without a difference.

As for "open" claimers, I think raising the bottom would have a significant effect. A few years ago, when the first rash of inner track fatalities occurred, the bottom claiming level for the winter meet was $7500, and there were many Finger Lakes horses wintering here. NYRA raised the bottom to $12,500 last winter, and few of those horses were here last winter. If NYRA were to raise the bottom to $20,000, will there be some horsemen running their horses over their heads? Sure. But the difference in New York between $20,000 and $10,000 is far greater than the difference between, for example, $5,000 and $8,000 at a track like Tampa.

Looking at this weekend's action, if the bottom level was set at $20,000, Sunday's card would have only presented five races unless some of those in the $10,000 and $16,000 claiming levels (from the remaining 52) agreed to "play up" ... and if that were the case, what would have been the difference? NYRA is not putting $10,000 claimers on the oval and holding back an eight-horse $20-$25,000 claimer.

Remember that the original task force report capped claimers to run for a purse at twice their claiming price. Taking a true $10,000 claimer and putting that horse into a $20,000 claimer to run for a $40,000 purse was a secondary problem that originally existed; perhaps a clause is required at your $20,000 baseline that says "only horses that finished in the top four at $16,000 may enter"?

Putting in a claiming floor as suggested will have a huge impact on Winter Racing in that you might not only lose the three races already sacrificed on Wednesdays through Friday, but you might lose another six to eight races per week in their entirety.

I see your point Brian, but it is a scarcity of these types that is at issue.

I'm not willing to concede that it's cheap horses that are the main cause/source of breakdowns and by eliminating the venue for them you eliminate the breakdowns happening. And really don't want to rehash the argument of what is the cause.

I've definitely noticed an increase in Finger Lakes horses this meet (@ Tampa) - and just like their Fort Eire compatriots, they aren't winning here either.

The fact is, it's a horse shortage situation and the quality of product here has fallen as a result of having to write races for what you have available to run.

If NYRA is to continue down this path, they HAVE to cut race days. They aren't going to open anytime mid week to run a 6 race card. Players are not going to invest full price for handicapping material for 6 six horse field races (pre-scratch). Furthermore, chasing 60% of the barn off the property by removing their races would devastate and already exacerbated situation

The purse "problem" from the task force isn't what you are citing. The issue was that you had $7500 claimers, in some instances, running for a $30,000 purse. Running a horse over its head, whether sound or not, is not going to result in significant earnings for the owner/trainer if the horses can't compete at the level.

I understand completely what the impact of raising the bottom claiming price to $20,000 might be. The issue is, in this political environment, how many races can NYRA, for want of a better word, "safely" conduct. If that number is only 25 or thirty per week, so be it. That is a lot better than having the political opportunists, feigning outrage over equine fatalities, shutting racing down altogether should more bottom level horses break down.

Agreed that the task force report issue is not *exactly* the situation at hand, but given how slippery this entire subject has been, I chose to go one step ahead; to wit, how long is it until you have a $10,000 plater running for a $20,000 tag and a $40,000 purse where that intermediate class aspect is lost in the discussion? At the end of the day, the report discussed claimers running for three, four, and five times their own price. This is precisely why I suggested a performance parameter before accepting lower grade claimers into your $20,000 basement price.

Which brings us all the way back to one of my very first posts in this entire thread (exchanged with Steve Byk). Explain again why NYRA should continue winter racing? Would anyone really miss January and February? Why not close from December 15th through March 15th?

While I realize that the problem is multi-faceted, and that bottom-level claimers are not inherently sore, here are the types of races in which the horses that suffered fatal musculoskeletal injuries competed: $25,000 NW2L; NY-bred $25,000 maiden claiming; $12,500 NW3L; NY-bred $25,000 maiden claiming; $12,500 NW2L; NY-bred MSW; $12,500 maiden claiming; $16,000 starter allowance (two fatalities); $12,500 maiden claiming; and $25,000 NW2L.

It's not as if NYRA won't be able to card good races; they may just have to run less of them. Yesterday, we ran in a state-bred NW2x allowance/optional claiming event that was split into two competitive divisions after 18 horses passed the entry box. The meet's maiden races have been particularly strong, to the point where several Pletcher shippers from Florida have been defeated (even in the state-bred ranks). Whether you think he can ultimately get a classic distance, the first inner track Derby prep was won by a very nice horse in El Kabier.

One thing that might be missed is that the owner cashes down to 5th place. The trainer and jockey only cash to 3rd. I've always had issues with jockeys that quit on me when they were out of the top 3. Sure it's only a couple hundred dollars, but it helps.

Anyone remember Shifty Sheik ?

A number of turf writers like to wax poetically about the way things were in racing 40 years ago, but racing today is a far different sport than it was forty years ago. The landed gentry no longer operate the only stables, and economics does play a significant role for many participants in the game. With respect to New York racing, about half the participants during the winter meet are NY-breds (if I heard Martin Panza correctly during a pre-Saratoga appearance on Andy Serling's At the Post show). These are obviously not the same NY-breds that competed in the days of Fio Rito and Fratello Ed. If you shut down racing in New York for the period you are suggesting, it would have a very negative impact on the New York breeding industry - both in terms of declining values for New York-bred foals and diminished payments to breeders from breeder awards earned during the winter months.

Ill-informed journalists such as Joe Drape like to throw around numbers that make Aqueduct look like a financial loser for NYRA, but as I always heard Charlie Hayward explain it, the fact is that, because Aqueduct pays lower purses, it actually supplements significantly the purse account for Belmont (where the incremental increase in handle over Aqueduct on non-Belmont Stakes days would not otherwise support its purse structure). Aqueduct's signal is still the third highest handle producing track in the nation during the winter (behind only Gulfstream and Santa Anita). For those who don't like the product, there are plenty of other tracks on which wagers can be placed.

NYRA operates a year-round circuit. Several horsemen live year-round in New York. What would you have them and their families do during the period that Aqueduct is shuttered? If you force them to relocate (Florida and Maryland are improving their products these days and aggressively courting horsemen), you may never get them back. While the horsemen that live in New York on a year-round basis may not be supplying the majority of the stakes horses for the Belmont and Saratoga meets, they are supplying a vast majority of the horses that fill four or five races a day at those venues. Marin Panza recently stated that it is a problem that a small number of the horsemen earn very large percentages of the total purse money; shutting down Aqueduct would only exacerbate that problem. Overall, an Aqueduct-less NYRA probably results in weaker Saratoga and Belmont meets which, in turn, presents a whole host of other regional economic implications.

And this does not speak at all to the negative impact that closing Aqueduct for three months would have upon the OTBs and their governmental beneficiaries....

You really just need to cut back on dates. I agree with you that it's foolhardy to try to run nine races a day, five days a week all throughout the winter, but I don't understand why anyone would think winter racing has to be eliminated altogether. There are still ample owners, trainers, jockeys and horses to run a winter program in NY. NYRA just can't plan to draw the cards as if it's spring or fall at Belmont. 3-4 days instead of 5 would accomplish much of what we're talking about in this thread: expanding field size and strengthening the product, while still allowing the horsemen to put food on their families.

That was quick