Tag: Maple Leaf Mel

O’Rourke Apologizes for Sunday’s Pick 5 Fiasco; Says “We Dropped the Ball”

With the field loading into the gate for Sunday's sixth race at Saratoga, the start of a Pick 5 sequence, it was announced that three subsequent races were being taken off of the turf. For purposes of the Pick 5, the three off-the-turf races were considered “all” races, meaning those races essentially were eliminated from the bet, turning the Pick 5 into a daily double. It paid $25.

That didn't sit well with numerous horseplayers, which didn't go unnoticed by NYRA executives.

That's why NYRA CEO and President Dave O'Rourke appeared Wednesday on the track's Talking Horses segment hosted by Andy Serling and admitted that mistakes were made.

“There is no excuse,” O'Rourke said. “We dropped the ball.”

O'Rourke described what led up to the decision, starting with a breakdown in the fourth race. In a mile-and-three-eighths allowance race on the grass, Ever Summer (Summer Front) broke down and had to be euthanized.

“After the fifth race, the jocks reached out to the racing office and said they wanted to discuss the turf course,” O'Rourke said. “Our initial reaction was to take everything off turf for the rest of the day. We had had an incredible amount of rain since we began the meet, which impacted the meet in several ways. We believe in safety first, so our instinct was to take those races off the turf.”

There was a time lag and the decision on taking the races off the grass was not announced to the betting public until the horses were being loaded into the gate for the sixth.

“They are loading into the gate for the sixth and there was a rush for time,” O'Rourke said. “So, now it's the worst case scenario. We had to make those other races 'all' races. There's no excuses for it.”

When asked why it took so long to get the information out to the public, O'Rourke said: “I can go through the time line over and over, but from the players' perspective, we dropped the ball. I can't make any other excuse for it.”

Prior to the announcement NYRA went to the stewards and asked that the entire Pick 5 pool be refunded and that there be a delay prior to the start of the sixth race so that customers could make decisions regarding other wagers involving the off-the-turf races. Both requests were denied.

“The intention was to refund everything,” O'Rourke said. “That's slightly out of the norm but we felt that it was the right thing to do. We were not able to refund the pools. The stewards ultimately make decisions in terms of what are in the rules and what are not. Once in a while you'll find gaps for strange situations, but we were not able to refund.”

While NYRA may have been well intentioned in its efforts to refund all monies wagered in the Pick 5 pool, as O'Rourke addressed, it was not their decision to make. Under New York racing rules, if a surface change is made after betting has started on a wager then the off-the-turf races are considered 'all races.' It would be up to the New York Gaming Commission to change that rule to allow for NYRA to cancel a wager.

O'Rourke said he will look into seeding some pools at a future date as a way of paying the bettors back.

“I can't fix it after the fact but I can mitigate it going forward,” he said.

O'Rourke also addressed the tragedy that took place in the GI Test S. on Saturday in which Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic), who had the race won, broke down just a few feet before the wire and had to be euthanized.

“What occurred on Saturday, there are hardly words for it,” he said. “There were 43,000 people here and in a moment they were going to see a triumph but it turned into a tragedy. It shook me. It shook the entire racing world. It's nothing that I ever experienced before and hopefully never will again. We will double down on our commitment toward safety. Everything we do is about safety. All our condolences go out to the connections. It's hard to to talk about it now and it's not even a week later. This was a tough weekend.”

The post O’Rourke Apologizes for Sunday’s Pick 5 Fiasco; Says “We Dropped the Ball” appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Rosario Off His Spa Mounts Wednesday; Camacho Set To Return Friday at Monmouth

Per agent Ron Anderson, Joel Rosario is off his mounts Wednesday at Saratoga as he still has soreness in his mouth after requiring stitches Saturday when Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) tragically broke down in the GI Test S., NYRA's Keith McCalmont said in a tweet Wednesday. Rosario will aim for a return to riding on Thursday, Anderson added.

After being sidelined more than five weeks due to an injury suffered in a spill on July 2 at Monmouth Park, jockey Samy Camacho will resume riding on Friday, the track said in a release Wednesday.

Camacho will ease into his return with three mounts on the eight-race card. The jockey, who remains tied for second (with Jairo Rendon) in the Oceanport standings, suffered a right shoulder injury in the mishap.

Samy Camacho | Monmouth Park Web

“I'm ready to come back,” said Camacho. “I feel good. I'm ready to go again. I'm not 100 percent, but I am close to being completely healed.”

Camacho said he intends to ride through the end of the Monmouth Park meet on Sept. 11 before heading to Florida to ride for the winter.

“His first day back we didn't want to overdo it,” said Mike Moran, Camacho's agent. “But he says he is feeling great and I'm looking forward to seeing him ride again.”

The post Rosario Off His Spa Mounts Wednesday; Camacho Set To Return Friday at Monmouth appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Antonucci: ‘It Just Brings You Back To It’

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — Trainer Jena Antonucci could have easily stepped aside Sunday morning and passed on a question about Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic)'s catastrophic injury in Saturday's GI Test S. That's now how she handled it.

After commenting on how pleased she was with the way her GI Belmont S. winner Arcangelo (Arrogate) worked five furlongs in 1:00.21 Sunday morning, Antonucci turned to how trainer Melanie Giddings has to deal with the loss of her star filly.

“I get chills,” Antonucci said, then paused to compose herself.

“Any trainer that has had it happen, it just brings you back to it,” she said. “To say no one deserves it, the horse does not deserve it, we are doing everything we can to steward the best possible lives and outcomes for every horse that is in our barns. I know that that filly meant a great deal to Melanie and the team, but it is so much bigger than that. I can't imagine the amount of prayers and support and I pray that she knows that there are so many people that will rally with her. I was glad to see her at the barn this morning and how you pull yourself out of bed in the morning after that.”

Antonucci, the first woman trainer to win a Triple Crown race, said that everyone in racing feels the pain from the tragic accident that happened near the wire of the Test.

“This is what is real,” she said. “You can villainize us and villainize this industry and everything else, but you cannot fathom the failure you feel as a human that we are doing everything we can to steward the best for our horses and then something freaky happens.

“I know personally–I am not going to speak for Melanie–you feel you failed them,” she continued. “I am very aware that the general public views this sport with a terrible light and they are entitled to their opinion, but I feel strongly that they're not entitled to label everybody in the way that they do. There is not a single human that puts a horse on a race track with the intent to harm, ever. Even nefarious people. To have it happen in that situation, with all the extra layers (of safety inspections), at the end of the day, we are going to do what is absolutely right in the stewardship for that horse.”

Antonucci said it is wrong and irresponsible for critics of racing to push the narrative that the sport exists and profits from something that leads to the deaths of horses.

“The enrichment these horses bring to us and everybody else is way beyond racing,” she said. “It is a relationship that we have with no other animal, since the beginning of time. They brought us through war. It is an amazing relationship that we have with this animal. I understand it is not their cup of tea and it doesn't need to be, but it's our cup of tea. And us continuing to educate everybody and explain to everybody everything we go through and do. These horses have more health care and more exams than 98% of the human population. Shitty things are going to happen. Just like someone can walk out their front door and get hit by a car.”

Antonucci said that racing needs to keep talking about the care race horses receive. She praised the way that the New York Racing Association and the connections of the winner, trainer Brendan Walsh, jockey Tyler Gaffalione and owner Godolphin, handled the incident.

“Everyone knows that that filly was the winner of the race and it just sucks,” she said.

“This is the cruelest of sports,” she said. “I have always said the 2-by-4 that hits you doesn't care where it hits you. The sport doesn't care about how you feel. It will make you check your mettle and check your constitution time after time. That is why I continue to say that my commitment is to doing the best that I can to steward the best possible situation for every horse that is in my barn. I don't think it's much different than that with almost every other trainer on this backside. The details and the depths that we go through to foster the best possible outcomes is like no other industry.”

Antonucci said she does not know Giddings well, but that one of her former assistants is a very good friend. She noted that Giddings has been able to return to the sport after a difficult struggle with cancer.

“I know her story,” Antonucci said. “She is a very good horsewoman and I know she will get through it. She has dealt with much bigger things and more important things in life than winning horse races. This was about a relationship she had with a horse and that is the story.”

Antonucci said that it is important to tell about the equine-human connections.

“It sounds so cliche to say she lost a family member yesterday, people are going to scoff at that,” she said. “But when your life revolves around another being–whether it's an animal or whatever–and that part is then gone, I can't give you words because the feeling that you have, gutted doesn't even do it. It stays for life. I can tell you every horse that I have lost.”

Antonucci said she worries about every horse she saddles.

“I always say a prayer,” she said. “Every race. Every time. Be blessed and be safe.”

Antonucci said what she does know about Giddings is that she doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for her.

“She wants the filly to be honored, and rightly so,” Antonucci said. “She is a strong woman. I know she will find another path.”

The post Antonucci: ‘It Just Brings You Back To It’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

The Week in Review: Will Maple Leaf Mel Rest Alongside Go For Wand?

Sunday dawned emotionally overcast for a racing world still trying to process Saturday's stunning, life-ending injury to the unbeaten New York-bred filly Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic), who was steps from victory in the GI Test S. at Saratoga when she crashed to the track with a catastrophic injury to her right foreleg. She was euthanized on the spot, while jockey Joel Rosario escaped serious injury (three lip stitches) and was off his Sunday mounts.

The very public, deep-stretch tragedy on a huge day of racing is comparable to the fatal fall of Go For Wand, who shattered her right front ankle while holding a slim lead and battling at the sixteenth pole in the 1990 GI Breeders' Cup Distaff at Belmont Park.

The next evening, in an unannounced ceremony that was closed to the public, Go For Wand was buried in the infield at Saratoga. Her connections had declined a New York Racing Association offer to inter the two-time champion filly in the Belmont infield, wishing instead to have her final resting place be the site of her two greatest triumphs, nine days apart in August 1990, in the Test S. and GI Alabama S.

Thirty-three summers later, the way this sort of heart-wrenching racetrack news spreads is vastly different.

In 1990, Sunday newspapers provided the bulk of next-day coverage nationwide, with racing's two weeklies and a long-form piece in Sports Illustrated anchoring the follow-up coverage.

In 2023, both the news of Maple Leaf Mel's demise–and public commentary on it–were available via social media within seconds of the tragedy.

Although that particular medium in this day and age is notorious for amplifying the most cruel and callous aspects of any subject it touches, acts of compassion and class have managed to shine through, and Maple Leaf Mel's owner (retired football coach Bill Parcells's August Dawn Farm) and namesake trainer (Melanie Giddings) were flooded with online condolences.

One poignant show of kindness and respect involved the connections of 'TDN Rising Star' Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief), who inherited the Test win when Maple Leaf Mel fell, opting not to enter the winner's circle after the race and pose for celebratory photos.

The next morning, those same connections–owner/breeder Godolphin and trainer Brendan Walsh–honored the fallen filly by placing the unworn Test floral wreath in front of Maple Leaf Mel's empty stall in Giddings's barn 69 on the Saratoga backstretch.

“Thank you everyone for your messages. I can't even pull myself together right now or know when I will ever be able to,” Giddings wrote Sunday morning on Twitter, punctuating her gratitude and mourning with a broken-heart emoji. “Maple Leaf Mel's health and happiness took priority over my own for the last two years and now I'm lost without her. She was a true Grade I champion.”

Maple Leaf Mel won her first two races at the Spa last summer before breaking through the New York-bred ranks and beating Grade III company in back-to-back starts at Pimlico and Belmont. She won every single one of her first five starts on the lead, and died trying the same way in her first attempt against Grade I company.

Perhaps NYRA will consider extending an invitation to Maple Leaf Mel's connections to have this special filly, too, grace Saratoga in perpetuity with a burial spot alongside Go For Wand in the track's infield.

Classic next for White Abarrio

Cody's Wish (Curlin), sent off at .45-1 in the wagering while seeking his first win beyond a mile, had the look of an overbet favorite in Saturday's GI Whitney S. at Saratoga.

Trouble was, it was difficult to discern which of his five rivals was going to step up and produce the triple-digit Beyer Speed Figure that seemed required to halt the middle-distance specialist's six-race win streak that extended back 15 months.

Bettors who landed on White Abarrio (Race Day) got rewarded at 10-1 for figuring out he was going to uncork the race of his life (110 Beyer).

At his best when prominently paced, White Abarrio sat just off the pacemaker under Irad Ortiz, Jr., stalking opening splits of :24.21, :23.86 and :23.54 before seizing the lead just before the quarter pole.

Cody's Wish was winding up for another one of his patented loop-the-group moves from last, but jockey Junior Alvarado would later concede he was “very worried” on the far turn that the favorite wasn't travelling as confidently as he usually did.

White Abarrio surged in the stretch, extending his margin to 6 1/4 lengths at the wire for a 1:48.45 finish. He was ridden out through a :24.48 fourth quarter and a :12.16 final furlong.

With the Whitney carrying “Win and You're In” berth to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, White Abarrio's connections are now mulling training him up to 10 furlongs on the first Saturday in November.

White Abarrio, who hammered for relatively affordable prices at auction ($7,500 OBSWIN; $40,000 OBSMAR), was an underdog Triple Crown prospect last season. His pros have always been efficiency, athleticism, and a knack for finding ways to win even when overmatched on paper. A chief con, though, was that up until Saturday, he was strictly a horse-for-course at Gulfstream, where he was 5-for-6 lifetime while going 0-for-7 at all other tracks.

White Abarrio now owns two Grade I victories over nine furlongs (the other was the 2022 Florida Derby).

Skeptics might question his ability to get 10 furlongs in the Classic based on his only other try at that distance, a 16th-place finish in last year's GI Kentucky Derby.

But that Derby effort wasn't as poor as it appears on paper.  White Abarrio got lost in the shuffle early on when a couple of bigger horses outmuscled him for position, then journeyed five- and seven-wide through both turns before getting hooked 10 wide for the drive. He kept plugging away until the eighth pole, but got wrapped up for safekeeping when it was apparent he wouldn't attain a significant placing.

Months Morph into Years

Jockey Juan Hernandez, currently topping the Del Mar standings in both wins and purse earnings going into Sunday's racing, made the most of his one and only riding opportunity there on Saturday when he guided Adare Manor (Uncle Mo) to an easy win in the GI Clement L. Hirsch S.

Hernandez would have been in demand for additional mounts, but he was serving the first of a three-day riding suspension on Saturday for altering course without sufficient clearance that resulted in a disqualification earlier in the Del Mar meet. California rules, however, allow suspended riders to participate in “designated” stakes races.

The informative Twitter site Racing Stats & Info (@GaryDougherty) comes up with the occasional esoteric data nugget that you won't find anywhere else, and a posting from last week highlighted the longest current streaks by jockeys in terms of consecutive months in which they've won a graded stakes.

Updating Dougherty's list through Saturday's races, Irad Ortiz now leads with 26 straight months winning at least one graded stakes. Hernandez is second with 23. Flavien Prat ranks third with 12. Luis Saez is fourth with 10.

Those are remarkable numbers considering it takes not only horsepower, but the good fortune to remain injury-free for such an extended period of time in such a dangerous profession.

The post The Week in Review: Will Maple Leaf Mel Rest Alongside Go For Wand? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights