After a tough weekend of racing at Saratoga which saw two fatalities and a last-minute blunder for horseplayers, David O'Rourke, CEO and president of the New York Racing Association, appeared on NYRA's Talking Horses broadcast Wednesday to address the controversial events.
O'Rourke extended his condolences to the connections of Maple Leaf Mel, who suffered a gruesome catastrophic injury in the stretch of the Grade 1 Test Stakes and acknowledged that the accident was unsettling for him.
“Forty-three thousand people were here and in a moment we were about to see triumph and it turned to tragedy,” said O'Rourke. “It shook me, it shook the entire racing world. It's nothing I've ever experienced before and hopefully never will again.
“It doubles down on our commitment to safety and everything we do is about safety.”
O'Rourke also addressed a last-minute surface change that upset horseplayers during Sunday's card. The track saw another fatal breakdown, this time of Ever Summer on the inner turf course in Race 4. After Race 5, O'Rourke said the jockeys requested a meeting with the racing secretary to discuss the conditions of the turf course and expressed concerns about the course's safety. Out of an abundance of caution, Races 7, 9, and 10 were moved off the turf, which had a significant impact on bettors who had already placed multi-race wagers including those turf races.
O'Rourke indicated that the original intention for NYRA had been to refund multi-race tickets but for some reason, it was unable to do so.
“The stewards ultimately make decisions about what are in the rules and what are not and sometimes you'll find gaps for strange situations, so we were not able to refund but we had made the decision to take them off the turf,” he said. “Now they're loading into the gate for the sixth. There was a request for time, we weren't able to get time, so now we're in the worst-case scenario where they're [the tickets] are becoming 'alls.' And there's no excuse for it.”
Andy Serling, who hosts Talking Horses ahead of each Saratoga race card, said horseplayers felt like “they got robbed” due to this last-minute change. O'Rourke apologized to bettors and indicated NYRA plans to reassess its communication protocols and to seed some pools in future to try to make up for what Serling called a “debacle.”
Watch the full appearance by O'Rourke below.
The post O’Rourke: ‘There Is No Excuse’ For Impacts Of Last-Minute Surface Change On Horseplayers Aug. 6 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
