‘Tough’ Saratoga Meet Ends With Increased Attendance

Turf racing was decimated by 10.61 inches of rainfall that led to 65 races being moved to the main track, which in several cases created havoc with the wagering when surface changes took place during or just before the start of sequence bets. A year ago, there were only 16 off-the-turf races and the last two years saw a combined 61.

“For obvious reasons, this was a tough meet,” New York Racing Association president and CEO David O’Rourke said. “Looking for bright spots, attendance is up. We were down in wagering because we were off the turf more this year than the last two years combined. But in terms of television and fan engagement, it was positive.”

Attendance at the meet was 1,105,683 (up 2.8%), topping 1.1 million for the first time since 2018 and marking the eighth straight years attendance has topped 1 million (excluding 2020 when the track was closed to the public). The average daily attendance was 27,642. While all-sources wagering was down approximately 9% to $799,229,288 after a record-shattering handle of $878 million last year, it was still the track’s third-highest handle figure.

“Saratoga has an economic impact of $371 million which accounts for 60% of the tourism economy in the area. It’s an incredible driver for 40 days. We had one of the worst summers in terms of rain and still, our attendance is up and that figure does not include kids,” O’Rourke said.

As filled as the 160-year-old track may have been during the 40 days, there were problems that could not be ignored and to their credit, O’Rourke and his management team did not shirk from them. There were new protocols, meetings with trainers and jockeys, and a vigilance in dealing with the dirt and turf courses that were at the mercy of Mother Nature.

“When you go through a meet like this you double down on efforts in terms of safety and possibly the cadence of implementation should increase,” O’Rourke said. “Obviously, we’re leaning more into technology whether it’s synthetic tracks, imaging, trackers. Many of these studies and projects have been on-going but when you have a meet like this you want to see the rate of progress and implementation increase.”

In addressing safety for the equine athletes and jockeys, NYRA plans to invest in PET scans in the near future and has already been involved in the testing and use of equine biometric tracking tools. In addition, on Aug. 30 NYRA implemented a new protocol requiring private attending veterinarians to perform a physical exam and attest to a horse’s soundness and fitness to run before it can enter one of its races.

Last week, O’Rourke told BloodHorse that NYRA is considering replacing a turf course at Saratoga with a synthetic surface.

“We’re on the record of taking a hard look at synthetics. Our board is actively engaged and we’re on the record making that investment with a synthetic surface at Belmont Park,” O’Rourke said. “There were a lot of responses and a lot of opinions (to comments about adding a synthetic track), none of them new. We’re studying the data rather than opinions in the media and the data and is pretty straightforward for us. We’re looking at the last two years of Tapeta at Gulfstream Park, and Woodbine is also helpful. We are going to make a decision that’s in the best interest of the horses.”

As part of a new outreach program, O’Rourke took a page out of trainer D. Wayne Lukas’ playbook. While Lukas brings a child into the winner’s circle after one of his wins, O’Rourke personally brought families into the paddock and winner’s circle for each race. By meet’s end, he had given more than 1,000 patrons up-close access to the horses and jockeys before, during, and after races.

“The response was phenomenal to getting people close to the action. Especially with kids, getting them closer to the action and letting them see with their own eyes how incredible these athletes are,” O’Rourke said.

While O’Rourke will not be spending his afternoons at Aqueduct Racetrack reprising the program, he believes in its virtues and intends to incorporate what he has learned from it into planning the redevelopment of Belmont Park.

“It’s important to market toward millennials and other demographics, but it’s also important to lean into family demographics and that’s something we’ll look to do as we build the park area at Belmont Park,” O’Rourke said. “This was a personal program I did myself because I wanted to see for myself what would work in terms of interacting. It’s something we can do next year at Saratoga and can also bring to Belmont in terms of how we can design the actual facility in terms of viewing the action. At Saratoga jockeys walk through the crowd. You would not build that into a facility but maybe have a low fence line where kids can see the jockeys better. We want to do a good job of interacting like tracks such as Keeneland do.”