The New York Racing Association has dealt with a myriad of reasons for cancellations over the years.
Inclement weather, sub-freezing temperatures, smoke from wildfires, and a pandemic, in particular, stand out among the list.
But what happened March 30 was indeed a first.
An 8-race card at Aqueduct Racetrack was cancelled while horses were in the paddock for the first race due to loud and boisterous noise from a car and motorcycle show tied to the Resorts World Casino, located in what used to be the Big A’s grandstand.
With the show located adjacent to the final turn at Aqueduct, racing was called off out of concern that sudden loud noises could spook horses and create unsafe racing conditions.
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“It was a really tough situation,” said trainer Ed Barker, who has a stable of fewer than 10 horses and had three of them scheduled to race. “Each of them were 3-1 or less and I had a good shot to win at least two of them. It’s very disappointing.”
Barker, who had a horse entered in the first race, said the noise from the vehicles and a DJ was so loud that the ground in the paddock was shaking. NYRA reached out to casino officials about the problem, but nothing was done to quell the noise or move the event.
“You could feel the vibration in the ground,” Barker said. “It was really loud.”
Resorts World Casino
For trainers and owners, the cancellation created a double-edged problem. Aside from the lost racing opportunities, horsemen also incurred the cost of medical treatments and staffing for the day.
NYRA said it will add Sunday’s races as extras for upcoming cards and will petition the New York State Gaming Commission for an extra day of racing in April. An additional race was added to the April 5 card, with eight of the nine horses scheduled to run in Sunday’s sixth race entered in Saturday’s first race.
“Races are on the overnight, but who knows if they will go. It’s difficult to get races for horses,” Barker said. “The horse in the first race was entered the previous three or four days and the race didn’t go. You finally get three in one day and then the card doesn’t go. It’s so darn frustrating, and I feel sorry for my owners. It’s so costly.”
Barker estimates that the cancellation cost him and his owners about $700 in out-of-pocket payments.
“I only have three grooms, but because the races were so close apart, I had to hire an extra groom and two extra hotwalkers,” Barker said. “Plus pay overtime for the other guys.”
Tina Bond, president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, said she has been discussing with NYRA senior vice president of racing and operations Andrew Offerman the possibilities of payments from the Casino to offset the lost revenue of affected horsemen
“We are working through some numbers to do what we can. We want to come up with something for the 53 horses on that card in terms of what’s fair and what will make the owners and trainers whole,” Bond said about reimbursements.
NYRA is also seeking reimbursements for the operational costs of losing a day of racing
In addition to the costs of salaries for workers, the Sunday card was expected to handle $5-7 million, and that figure could have been substantially higher as Gulfstream Park cancelled its Sunday card after five races due to adverse weather conditions.
“Resorts World scheduled an event in a parking lot immediately adjacent to the top of the stretch without providing NYRA with advance notice or an opportunity to discuss its potential impact on our racing operations. We were then faced with wildly unpredictable sound levels and other concerns causing potentially unsafe circumstances for horses and riders,” Offerman said. “We were left with no choice but to cancel racing due to these concerns. NYRA will work with NYTHA and the NYSGC to determine appropriate next steps and how we can make up these lost racing opportunities for our participants.”
Sunday’s incident marked the second time since October that actions by the Casino led to the cancellation of a racing card. On Oct. 11, NYRA called off racing due to the casino’s maintenance work on the roof that caused air quality issues. Resorts World must notify NYRA five days in advance of anything that could disrupt racing, but failed to do so in both cases.
“I hope we can put something in place so this doesn’t happen again. We need to have better communication with the Casino,” Bond said. “The Casino has to realize we’re here and we’re their neighbor and we need to conduct our business just as they do. This came out of the blue. It created a ruckus for us and probably the neighborhood.”
