NYRA Issues Warning Letter To Trainers

NYRA’s Stall Tactics

By: Mark Palmere

With Parx Racing’s Fall Festival-a two month stretch during which the suburban Philadelphia track will offer purses averaging a whopping $500,000 per day-set to begin on August 29, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) is becoming acutely aware that many horsemen intend to ditch one of the most historic tracks in the country in favor of a racino that does not know how to spell the word “Parks,” (Capitalism, am I right?). And, it’s not just Parx. Tracks in nearby states, such as Maryland, Delaware and and New Jersey, are also attempting to lure horses away from Saratoga races, like the Lure Stakes and more.

Not content to sit on their laurels and let New York horses ship to tracks like Laurel, NYRA revealed their plan to keep their horses racing locally. But they’re not similarly raising their purses? Ha! No, that would cost money, and NYRA is subscribing to the policy of not spending money when you can get the same result for free, which is why it is only a matter of time until they also require that any trainer stabling horses in New York must give their DRF login information, so every NYRA board member can access DRF+ without paying! Their free solution, via DRF’s David Grening, is to ban horses from hooking up with other tracks for one-afternoon stands:

Wow! NYRA seems to be getting their policy advice from cliched motivational posters:

(You just know their next statement will be entitled “Nothing Gained Without Cost is Valued” in an attempt to get owners to bid higher at the next Saratoga yearling sale!) And what’s worse is that they’re becoming That Guy in the bar who takes your seat the second you go to the bathroom, even though you’re only going to be gone for, like, three minutes, tops! Nobody likes That Guy. Of course, this means the trainers’ best counter would be to leave their jacket on their horse’s stall for the duration of their trip to an out-of-state track. Then everyone will know the stall is still occupied! Sadly, the odds of that strategy working are slim-to-none, meaning if NYRA is serious, horses who leave the state will be banned from re-entering like they’re Miami Heat fans!

And while horses like Shared Belief hope this policy gets expanded to other tracks so they can have an excuse for never again leaving their home state, the larger problem with this policy is that while it may be fair to prevent trainers from racing for bigger purses at Parx (even though it’s not), the policy is so broad it appears to be preventing ANY horse from leaving New York for ANY race! You hear that, Honor Code, Tonalist, Private Zone, etc…? If you ship to Keeneland for the Breeders’ Cup, you are like Boston Red Sox fans, laid-back people and good weather—not welcome in New York!

Yet it is quite unlikely that this policy will be effective, given most trainers will likely see it as an empty threat. Can you imagine Aqueduct turning down a stall application for a horse needed to enter if they want to offer show wagering? That would be like Jabba the Hutt rejecting, well, literally any woman because she had previously dated other men. If the NYRA really wanted to scare trainers away from racing at Parx, all they would have to do is issue a slightly different statement:

(I kid, Philadelphia. Some great folks have come out of your city, like Rocky and … probably some people that I just can’t think of right now).

But while you may not agree with NYRA’s message, you must at least admire their consistency: They believe that horses should only race at the tracks where they are stabled, and if you don’t mind, they would like the negative responses to this memo to cease, so they can focus on their main goal of the month—getting American Pharoah to ship in from Del Mar to race in the Travers!

Follow Mark on Twitter @ShamIAmNot