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NYRA Announces Purse Increases Starting Oct. 18

The New York Racing Association, Inc. announced several purse increases which will take effect beginning Oct. 18 and continuing through the remainder of the Belmont Park fall meet.

Among purse increases: open maiden special weights will increase from $63,000 to $80,000 and New York-bred maiden special weights will rise from $52,000 to $70,000. Additionally,

purses for $25,000 open claiming company will see a $4,000 increase to $50,000, while the $40,000 maiden-claiming condition will now offer a purse of $43,000. For the complete list, click here.

“The myriad impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic–including the suspension of live racing and the closure of casinos across New York–forced NYRA to make significant adjustments to the purse structure to ensure operational continuity throughout the spring, summer and early part of the fall,” said NYRA Senior Vice President of Racing Operations Martin Panza. “NYRA made those strategic decisions early in the crisis so that we could restore our purses to near pre-pandemic levels as soon as possible to support New York’s horsemen and the 19,000 jobs connected to thoroughbred racing in New York.”

Panza continued, “Thanks to the incredibly strong wagering seen at Saratoga and into Belmont fall, coupled with the resumption of VLT revenues in early September, we are at this point even faster than expected. NYRA would like to thank Joe Appelbaum and the membership of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association for their hard work and collaboration in securing these increases.”

In addition to the purse increases, a retroactive purse payment for the first 16 days of the 27-day Belmont fall meet will be issued for 50% of the proposed purse increase. The retroactive adjustments are applicable to qualifying races starting on Sept. 18.

Following the Mar. 19 suspension of live racing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Belmont Park re-opened without spectators in attendance June 3 for an abbreviated 25-day spring/summer meet. Despite running 23 fewer days than in 2019, a 48% decrease, all sources handle during the spring/summer meet totaled $386,654,955. The spring/summer meet generated $15,466,198 in average daily handle from all sources, a 42% increase over the 2019 spring/summer meet.

All-sources handle for the 2020 Saratoga summer meet totaled $702,535,468 compared to $705,343,949 wagered from all sources on Saratoga in 2019.

For more additional information, please visit www.NYRA.com.

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The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Highs, Lows And Takeaways From 2020 Triple Crown

The Paulick Report editorial team – publisher Ray Paulick, editor-in-chief Natalie Voss, news editor Chelsea Hackbarth and bloodstock editor Joe Nevills – takes a look back at this strangest of Triple Crowns in this week's edition of the Friday Show.

From the minute Churchill Downs officials announced in mid-March that the Kentucky Derby would be postponed until Sept. 5 because of the coronavirus pandemic, we knew this year was going to be different. I don't think any of us knew how different.

Kicking off with a distance-shortened Belmont Stakes June 20 and ending with a Preakness on Oct. 3 that may be remembered as one of the most exciting renewals in recent history, the Triple Crown had its share of highs … and lows. We may have learned a few things – some takeaways – from this year as well.

Watch this week's Friday Show below and let us know what your favorite memories were from the 2020 Triple Crown.

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Pandemic Affects Visas, Limiting H-2B Workers

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — George Weaver feels it. So do Chad Brown, Todd Pletcher and Shug McGaughey. Among the many new issues that Thoroughbred trainers across the country must contend with during the 2020 pandemic is a shortage of skilled staff.

In recent years, it has become more difficult for horsemen to secure all the H-2B visas that they desire to legally bring foreign nationals into the country as guest workers. The arrival of COVID-19 in late winter closed U.S. consulates, compounding the problems, preventing visa holders from getting their entry documents from the State Department. On June 22, President Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending the visa program through December, a move designed to help the tens of millions of unemployed Americans find jobs.

“It is a problem,” said McGaughey, who is missing some of his hotwalkers and could use another exercise rider. “The bad part about it is that Trump, or the government, just does not realize that these are jobs that American people refuse.”

That’s the rub. One of the key provisions of the H-2B visa program is that the jobs must first be offered to Americans before foreign residents can be hired. Trainers say they are always interested in hiring U.S.-based employees for the positions, primarily grooms and hotwalkers.

“The people that are needed, nobody wants to do this work,” Weaver said. “It’s not even about the money, nobody wants to wake up at 3:30, 4:00 in the morning every single morning or even six mornings a week. They don’t want to do it.”

Immigration attorney Will Velie of Norman, Oklahoma, is an expert whose Horseman Labor Solutions company has been helping trainers staff their stables with guest workers for 15 years. Velie estimated that approximately 1,500 people come into U.S., primarily from Mexico and Central American countries to work in the Thoroughbred racing industry. He said it costs trainers between $1,500 and $2,000 per worker in fees and legal expenses. In addition, trainers must pay for travel back and forth to the employees’s home countries and other costs.

“They would not do this if they didn’t have to,” Velie said. “The only reason they are doing this is because they don’t have the people to do the work anymore.”

Velie said the pandemic, which led to border closings and the pause on the admission of people who do already had been approved for visas, has made a tough situation worse.

“It’s particularly bad this year,” he said. “It’s always bad. It’s been bad for a long time. So you’ve got this confluence of factors that make it to where it is very difficult to find enough workers on the backside of the track, even with 25 million unemployed people.”

Weaver said none of the dozen or so internationals he had planned for are with him this summer at Saratoga Race Course. His exercise riders are helping out with hotwalking and he said that some of his grooms have to deal with six or seven horses every day, rather than the norm of four or five.

Like the other trainers, Weaver said his stable is getting by, but he is frustrated by how the situation played out despite doing the proper planning.

“It cost a lot of money, and when you pay the lawyer and you pay the stuff and you don’t get your people, it’s like you just [wasted] a bunch of money and you don’t have your help,” he said.

Pletcher’s stable has been hit hard. He said that none of his 35 guest workers was able to come into the country before the program was closed.

“It has affected everyone,” he said. “We have a large number of visa employees that were approved but have not been allowed to come over. We’ve had to have our staff pull off some overtime, put in extra hours and extra work. Yeah, it has been a hardship for a lot of people. This would be our peak time of the year, so we would have over 100 employees. We have similar numbers, in some cases less-experienced.”

Pletcher nodded at the suggestion that some of his staff is receiving on-the-job training.

“Pretty much,” he said. “At the same time you want new people coming into the business and learning. A lot of our visa workers have been with us for a long time, know the system and are skilled professionals.”

Eric Hamelback, the CEO of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said that the jobs Pletcher and the other trainers must fill might seem to the casual observer to be low-level duties easy for most people to handle.

“It is a skilled labor. Yes, it’s hard work. It is agricultural,” he said. “But it’s skilled when you are dealing with animals, whether they are a multi-million dollar horse or one that is a $5,000 claimer. They can kill you in a heartbeat and it takes a certain strength and skill to work in this field. You can’t just grab someone off the street and expect them to be able to hotwalk, much less groom.”

Hamelback said that his organization, which represents nearly 30,000 trainers and owners, is working with the National Horse Council and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association to build congressional insight and support for changes to help the industry with the visa program.

Every year, the Thoroughbred industry is vying for a share of the 66,000 H-2B visas that are allotted. During the year, the White House may add more visas to the pool. The demand is intense: 100,000 applications for the 33,000 H-2B visas available in the first round for 2020.

“This is a big topic and it is a lot of work,” Hamelback said.

Much like Pletcher, Brown has a very large operation and relies on foreign workers to fill some of his staff positions.

“It’s been challenging,” he said. “Thankfully, we have some of our workers who have been able to successfully come in before some stuff got shut down. Not all of them. I know some other trainers that are not in a good spot. It has really affected us. It has caused us to really change the management of our stable, such as how many we are able to have in New York.”

Brown continued, “Thankfully, our team has all pulled together and everyone has picked up the slack. Our business is no different than a lot of other businesses, probably, just trying to get through this pandemic, knowing that there is probably light at the end of the tunnel, that it’s not going to be this way forever. Keeping that mindset. Getting through each day the best we can.”

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Belmont Stakes Kicks Off Upside Down 2020 Triple Crown

ELMONT, NY — Shortened to 1 1/8 miles and to be contested free of spectators, the reshuffled Triple Crown gets underway with the 152nd renewal of the GI Belmont S. Saturday.

The winner will have to wait until the first Saturday in September for the GI Kentucky Derby, however, to continue a bid for what would have to go down as the most unique of sweeps if able to join the legendary previous 13 to do so. The series concludes with the GI Preakness S. at Pimlico Oct. 3.

Welcome to horse racing amidst a global pandemic in 2020.

Jack Knowlton and trainer Barclay Tagg have been here before. Well, sort of. In 2003, the folks at Sackatoga Stable famously packed a school bus and made winning stops in Louisville and Baltimore with the popular gelding Funny Cide (Distorted Humor) before coming up short in Elmont.

Tiz the Law (Constitution), a dominating winner in his two starts at three, led by the GI Curlin Florida Derby at Gulfstream Mar. 28, can provide some redemption for the group at 5:42 p.m. ET Saturday. He is the 6-5 morning-line favorite.

Both New York-breds, Funny Cide and Tiz the Law were produced by first-year WinStar stallions.

“We’re excited to have an opportunity to be in the Belmont again,” Knowlton said. “The pressure isn’t quite as great this time given the fact that we were trying to end a Triple Crown run at Belmont the last time and win a $5-million bonus from Visa, so there was a lot more at stake in that sense going into that race.

Knowlton continued, “But this is exciting. It’s historical and we’re hoping that we can win the first leg of the Triple Crown at Belmont and complete Sackatoga Stable’s Triple Crown, albeit with two different horses, and be the only horse that has a chance in this crazy upside down year to make a Triple Crown run.”

They won’t be able to gather at the races this weekend due to the COVID-19 epidemic, but that won’t stop a good portion of the 35 partners in Tiz the Law-representing 13 states across the country–from getting together, following proper social distancing guidelines, of course, Governor Cuomo.

“About half of the partners are going to descend upon Saratoga Springs,” Knowlton said. “One of our partners, Bruce Cerone, owns a restaurant named Pennell’s and he has an outdoor patio. Current plans are to get the group together and enjoy three hours of the NBC telecast.”

Knowlton added, “This group has a number of people that have been in Sackatoga for many years and some other people that are very fortunate and it’s their first horse. It’s a good group. We’ve expanded-a lot of people from all over have joined Sackatoga.”

Tiz the Law was picked up for $110,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling, Sackatoga’s only purchase at public auction in 2018. Out of the graded stakes-winning Tiznow mare Tizfiz, Tiz the Law hails from the extended female family of Horse of the Year Favorite Trick. He was bred in the Empire State by Twin Creeks Farm.

“It’s all Barclay Tagg and Robin Smullen,” Knowlton said. “They’re our trainer and assistant trainer, and our bloodstock advisors. They’re very good at what they do and we’ve now had two very serious horses. We buy typically one, maybe two horses a year, and always New York-breds. The most we’ve ever spent on a horse was $180,000.”

Tiz the Law’s resume also includes a visually impressive win at two in the GI Champagne S. going a one-turn mile at Belmont last fall. Shortened from its traditional 1 1/2-mile distance, the Belmont will also be contested around just one turn this year.

The lone hiccup from the bay so far in five career starts was a close third with a less-than-ideal trip over a sloppy track in last November’s GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. beneath the Twin Spires.

Manny Franco will be aboard for the fifth straight time Saturday.

“It’s going to be a long time before we get to go to Churchill [for the Derby], but we’d love the opportunity to go there as the winner of the first leg,” Knowlton concluded.

“If we’re fortunate enough to be healthy and sound by that time, we will be back in maybe a couple of school buses for social distancing purposes.”

Saturday’s forecast on Long Island calls for a mix of sunshine and clouds and temperatures in the low 80s. A stray afternoon thunderstorm is possible, per weather.com.

Potential Belmont Upsetter?

With Grade I winners like Cuvee (Carson City), Pyro (Pulpit) and Olympio (Naskra) sprinkled all over his catalogue page, and the product of a stakes-placed Tapit mare to boot, the Winchell family will be very well-represented by blue-blooded homebred and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Pneumatic (Uncle Mo) in Saturday’s Belmont.

Pneumatic’s fourth dam is foundation mare Carols Christmas (Whitesburg), who was claimed for just $25,000 by the late Verne Winchell in 1981.

This is the family of graded winners such as War Echo (Tapit), Wild Wonder (Wild Again), Fun House (Prized), Early Flyer (Gilded Time), Will He Shine (Silver Deputy) and Bien Nicole (Bien Bien).

The aforementioned Fun House went on to produce champion Untapable (Tapit) as well as GISW and GI Kentucky Derby third Paddy O’Prado (El Prado {Ire}).

“The best $25,000 claim ever,” David Fiske, racing and bloodstock manager for Winchell Thoroughbreds, said of Carols Christmas.

“Mr. Winchell was sitting at his desk one day looking at the Racing Form and just decided, ‘I’m gonna go claim this mare.’ She had some of the worst confirmation, she hooked in at her ankles in front, both knees were offset, and she was horribly swayback. But she was a good-sized mare and she had a pretty head. She was actually pretty fast, though, and that’s what kind of attracted her to him.”

He continued, “She produced Olympio, who could’ve been 3-year-old champion in his year and [graded winner] Call Now (Wild Again), who was the third best 2-year-old in her crop behind Flanders and Serena’s Song. But where she really made her mark was four of her daughters who never earned any black-type went on to produce and produce and produce. Four of them were graded stakes producers and it just exploded from there.”

Pneumatic earned his Rising Star badge with a visually impressive late run going a mile at Oaklawn Apr. 11, then battled throughout after drawing the rail en route to a solid third-place showing in the GIII Matt Winn S. at Churchill Downs May 23.

Also under consideration for the GIII Ohio Derby June 27, Pneumatic punched his ticket to New York with a five-furlong bullet in :59 4/5 (1/14) at Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen’s Churchill Downs base June 8.

What would it mean to add a Classic win to this storied family from Pneumatic?

“It would be like the cherry on the sundae,” Fiske replied.

Pletcher Takes Two Swings at Number Four

Seven-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher will have a pair of chances to capture his fourth win in the Belmont.

Dr Post (Quality Road), fourth in his Belmont unveiling behind subsequent GSW & GISP Green Light Go (Hard Spun) going 5 1/2 furlongs last summer, has been perfect in two attempts at three, led by a tenacious score while making his route debut in the Unbridled S. in Hallandale Apr. 25. Dr Post, a $400,000 KEESEP yearling purchase by Vinnie Viola’s St. Elias Stable, is listed as the third choice at 5-1 on the morning line.

“In Dr Post’s case, he’s really a beneficiary of the change in schedule and I think under a traditional Triple Crown calendar, he would’ve probably been just behind schedule a little bit,” Pletcher said. “We were unsure like everyone else of exactly when New York would be able to reopen, but we also had an idea that should it reopen, that they might have to cut the distance of the Belmont. So after Dr Post won the Unbridled, this became our target. We’ve been very happy with the way he’s trained and progressed. This is a big class test against some really high-quality horses, but he’s been indicating to us in his training that he’s that kind of horse as well.”

The stretch-running Farmington Road (Quality Road) sprinkled in a second-place finish in the Oaklawn S. Apr. 11 between a pair of fours in split divisions of both the GII Risen Star S. Feb. 15 and GI Arkansas Derby May 2, respectively.

In addition to winners Rags to Riches (2007), Palace Malice (2013) and Tapwrit (2017), Pletcher has also saddled five second-place finishers and three third-place finishers in the Belmont.

“Belmont is home for us and the Belmont S. always takes on special meaning,” Pletcher said. “It’s traditionally the third leg of the Triple Crown and such a prestigious race, and to be able to participate in it a number of times and be fortunate enough to win it three times, it’s one of our stable’s favorite races and list it up there very high on the races you hope that you could possibly win.”

Two Return on Quick Notice

Woody Stephens may be smiling somewhere if either Tap It to Win (Tapit) or Sole Volante (Karakontie {Jpn}) are covered in white carnations Saturday evening.

The legendary late horseman won the 1982 GI Metropolitan H. with Conquistador Cielo, then added the Belmont just five days later. Woody’s Corner, a tribute to Stephens and his five straight Belmont winners, greets fans at the Belmont clubhouse entrance.

Live Oak homebred Tap It to Win, two for two this term for newly minted Hall of Famer Mark Casse, couldn’t have been more impressive running a salty group of allowance runners off their feet going 1 1/16 miles at Belmont June 4. He earned a 97 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort.

Sole Volante, winner of the GIII Sam F. Davis S. Feb. 8 and runner-up in the GII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby Mar. 7, returned from a break with a well-timed, come-from-behind tally going a one-turn mile in a Gulfstream optional claimer June 10. Patrick Biancone trains the 9-2 morning-line second choice.

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