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The Week in Review: The Met Mile Belongs on Memorial Day

A New York racing tradition began in 1971, the first time that Memorial Day was officially celebrated each year on the last Monday in May. A crowd of 61,147 showed up that Monday at Belmont Park to watch Tunex win the $121,600 Metropolitan Mile for trainer Allen Jerkens and owner Hobeau Farm. For the next 42 years, New York racing fans circled Memorial Day on their calendars, knowing that it would be one of the biggest days of the year, thanks to the GI Metropolitan H.

In 1976 and 1977, they saw the mighty Forego win the race. In 1982, the 3-year-old Conquistador Cielo won by 7 1/4 lengths, five days before he would return to win the GI Belmont S. In 1990, Criminal Type beat Easy Goer and Housebuster. In 1994, Holy Bull won the Met, rebounding from his lackluster performance in the GI Kentucky Derby. Ghostzapper won in 2005. The winner in 2010 was Quality Road.

Fast forward to Memorial Day 2022 and the Belmont card not only won't include the Met Mile, but there are no graded stakes on the program. The highlight on this afternoon will be five stakes races for New York-breds. There were supposed to be six, but one, the Commentator H., did not fill. It will be just another day at the track.

During the three-day holiday weekend, Belmont offered just one graded stakes, Saturday's GIII Soaring Softly S. The weekend was crying out for a big race, and there is no better way to fill the void than returning the Met Mile to its traditional place on the calendar.

The Met Mile was last run on Memorial Day in 2013. The following year, it was moved to Belmont Day and it has remained there ever since. The idea was to create a blockbuster card that went beyond just the Belmont Stakes. This year, there will be nine graded stakes on the card, eight of them Grade I's. It's working. With the exception of the Saturday Breeders' Cup program, the Belmont Stakes card might be the best in the sport. Last year's handle for the card was $112 million, a record for a non-Triple Crown year.

But there's been a price to pay. The weekend racing leading up to and following the Belmont has absolutely no sizzle. That might be fine for some of the weeks, but it shouldn't be ok for Memorial Day.

You can make a case that the Met is the third most important, most prestigious race run each year in New York, behind only the GI Travers S. and the Belmont. Put it along side eight claiming races if you have to and it can carry a day. But on Belmont Day it tends to get lost.

The solution is to go back to Memorial Day. To do so wouldn't affect Belmont Day one bit. A Met Mile-less card that still had eight stakes, seven of them Grade I's, and a Triple Crown event would get by just fine without the Met. And moving the Met back to Memorial Day would instantly make the Monday holiday program the special type of occasion that it was for 42 years but is no longer.

Repole-Viola Partnership Off To Good Start

It comes as no surprise that the first two-year-old to earn 'TDN Rising Star' status this year in New York is owned by the partnership of Mike Repole and Vinnie Viola. The feat was accomplished Friday at Belmont when Forte (Violence) romped by 7 3/4 lengths, paying $2.40 to win. Forte was purchased for $110,000 last year at Keeneland September.

On the same day, Repole and Viola finished third in a 2-year-old maiden at Churchill Downs with Summonyourcourage (Practical Joke). Summonyourcourage and Forte were their first two 2-year-old starters on the year.

Viola and Repole have assembled a stable of 2-year-olds that is so large and so potent that it is unlike anything ever seen in racing before. They bought 43 yearlings last year at Keeneland September, paying a combined $16.045 million. They also bought three yearlings at Fasig-Tipton sales for an aggregate cost of $1.725 million. The vast majority of the horses are colts.

“Vinnie and I have at least 50 2-year-olds together,” Repole said via text. “Plus, we probably have at least 25 each alone. I'm extremely excited about these 2-year-olds. Forte looked great in his debut, winning by almost eight lengths and getting an 81 Beyer. Vinnie and I are excited about unleashing some potential future stars at Saratoga. Building this stable has been 15 years in the making for me and the great team I have managing the stable.”

While awaiting the debut of more 2-year-olds, Repole can turn his attention to the GI Belmont S. He has a confirmed starter in Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) and says that he is “leaning heavily” toward running the filly Nest (Curlin) in the race.

“If we run her, it will be because she deserves to be in this race,” Repole said. “She is just as fast as the 3-year-old colts. She is a daughter of Curlin and will relish the distance.”

Piggott in the North America

Equibase stats on Lestor Piggott's rides in North America go back only to 1976. Starting with that time, Piggott, who passed away Sunday at age 86, had seven winners in North America from 68 mounts. That includes two stakes wins, with Royal Academy in the 1990 GI Breeders' Cup Mile, and with Argument (Fr) in the 1980 GI Washington D.C. International.

Piggott's last-ever mount in the U.S. was one he probably would have liked to forget. He rode Mr. Brooks (GB) in the 1992 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, where the horse broke down and had to be euthanized.

In 1979, the Meadowlands brought him over to take part in an international jockey challenge pitting U.S. versus European riders. Steve Cauthen captained the victorious U.S. team. Piggott did not win a race that night.

Before the advent of the Breeders' Cup, the Washington D.C. International at Laurel led the way when it came to attracting star horses and riders from Europe. With three wins in the International, Piggott is tied with Manny Ycaza for most wins in the race by a jockey. Piggott also won the International in 1968 with Sir Ivor and in 1969 with Karabas. He also won the 1974 Canadian International aboard Dahlia.

After riding in the 1967 D.C. International, Piggott stayed in the U.S and tried to break in at Aqueduct during a time of year when flat racing is shutdown in the U.K. According to a New York Times report, he was 2-for-his-first-18 over the course of seven days. He said his intention was to finish the Aqueduct meet, which ended Dec. 15. When asked why he had made a detour at Aqueduct before returning to the U.K., Piggott said: “because I enjoy riding. Why not ride here?” He admitted he wasn't getting on the best mounts. “I wouldn't be riding these bad ones in England,” he said. “But I guess there's nothing else I can do here.”

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NYRA to Sponsor Saratoga Horse Show Featuring Women In Business

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) will sponsor the Saratoga Women In Business (WIB) Spectacular, the first-ever horse show created by women and operated by women to benefit women's health and showcase women in business. Open to all competitors, spectators, and vendors, the show will be held July 13-17 at White Hollow Farm in Stillwater, New York.

“NYRA is pleased to support this spectacular new event designed to highlight women in business and raise critical funds for organizations supporting women's health and wellbeing,” said Joi Garner, NYRA Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “Beyond this sponsorship, we look forward to participating in the event by highlighting the important role women play at the highest levels of NYRA.”

Proceeds from the show will help fund Wellspring, which provides domestic violence and sexual assault services for Saratoga County residents, and Endeavor Therapeutic Horsemanship Veteran and Active-Duty Military Program, as well as other women's health organizations.

For more information, including sponsorship, advertising, and marketing opportunities, contact Joanne Yepsen, joanne@yepsenandpikulski.com or 518-526-5272; Diana Pikulski, diana@yepsenandpikulski.com or 802-233-5377; or Adele Einhorn, saratogahorseshows@gmail.com or 518-441-3959.

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The Week in Review: Industry Needs to Embrace Fixed-Odds Wagering

Monmouth Park announced last week that it will begin to offer fixed odds wagering starting May 7, opening day of the meet. That was the good news. The bad news was that fixed odds betting will begin with a cautious rollout and without the major players in the sport on board.

Starting Saturday, bettors on-track at Monmouth will have the choice of making traditional pari-mutuel bets or placing fixed odds wagers. Two areas of the track will be designated for fixed odds and the bets can only be made through tellers. The minimum bet will be $1. Any wager calculated to return a profit of $5,000 or more on a win bet or $2,000 or more on a place or show bet will be subject to approval. At the start, the only track available to patrons will be Monmouth Park.

It's a bit disappointing that the bets will be limited to on-track patrons at first. Without having an on-line outlet, the handle will likely be very small at first. According to Dallas Baker, who is the head of international operations for BetMakers, the Australian firm that will deliver and manage fixed odds wagering at Monmouth Park, it won't be long until New Jersey residents can bet on-line. Some regulatory hurdles need to be cleared and when they are, the on-line bookmakers in the state licensed to accept sports bets will begin to take fixed odds racing bets. There are no current plans to have traditional ADWs like TVG, Twin Spires and Xpressbet accept fixed odds bets.

Saturday, will mark an exciting development. For years, the sport has been debating the importance of fixed odds bets and whether or not it should be part of racing's future. Now, finally, it will be offered by a U.S. track on U.S. wagers and we can start to see how it all plays out and whether or not players will gravitate to the new form of wagering. Fixed odds betting has been particularly successful in Australia, where it has led to a sizeable increase in total handle, which has boosted purses, and has been the most popular form of wagering in the U.K. for decades.

Should fixed-odds betting catch on, it will go a long way toward solving what is a huge and growing problem for the sport. With the computer-assisted players dominating the pari-mutuel pools, the everyday bettor has no idea what price his or her horse is going to go off at. You might bet a horse who is 4-1 going into the gate and it gets pounded down to 2-1 at the last second. Win or lose, that leaves a very bad taste in the bettors' mouths.

Recognizing that, Monmouth had adopted a marketing slogan for the fixed odds bets, “the odds that you bet are the odds that you get.”

While fixed odds can help with the massive problem of shifting odds, that's only one small part of the picture. Will it help to grow the sport? That's the great unknown.

To work, fixed odds wagering will have to lure some sports bettors over to racing. As things stand now, the pari-mutuel form of wagering doesn't fit into the model of on-line sports betting, but fixed odds do. If a sports bettor could place a fixed-odds wager on Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) at +900 in the GI Kentucky Derby, that might be something they'd be inclined to do. The sports bettor is always looking for action and even obscure sports such as ping pong have attracted a surprisingly large amount of handle. Sports betting is a huge business and if racing could tap into just a sliver of the market that would mean significant gains.

“There are opportunities in front of us, specifically in sports betting, that offer us what I would term probably a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” NYRA CEO and President David O'Rourke said at last year's University of Arizona's Race Track Industry Program's Global Symposium on Racing. “Our content isn't on those platforms yet and we have the opportunity to actually do that. There's a lot of hurdles to get there. I know there's a panel on fixed odds and that's a debate, but in the end I believe, and I think our company believes, you have to give the customers what they want. We do have a great product–pari-mutuel is excellent, it's great specifically in the exotics, but there is room, I believe, for proposition bets and for this content to live side by side. And I think as these sportsbooks grow and acquire customers, that's just a huge distribution channel for us.”

O'Rourke isn't wrong, but this won't work if the product is not a good one. A different form of fixed odds betting was already tried in New Jersey, and it was a bust. Betfair, which offers exchange wagering and is wildly popular in the U.K., began in 2016. Four years later, the plug was pulled. Betfair was handling so little money that it no longer made economic sense to keep the platform operating. Betfair failed for a number of reasons, but the main problem may have been the content it offered. All of the top tracks, including the Stronach and Churchill tracks and NYRA, did not offer their signals to Betfair. What was left were tracks like Turf Paradise and Penn National. There just wasn't an appetite to bet on those smaller tracks.

So far, fixed-odds betting is saddled with the same issues. Baker said that about 15 tracks have signed up and that within a few weeks on-track players at Monmouth can also make fixed-odds bets on those signals. But BetMakers has not signed up any of the same premier tracks that Betfair never landed. That is a problem.

Baker is hoping that fixed odds will eventually prove to be so successful that tracks will come to the realization that it is something they need to be a part of.

“I'd like to think that once we start to show the model, we will prove that the sky isn't going to fall down because of fixed-odds wagering,” Baker said. “We're not expecting a miracle solution day one, to flip the switch and everything has changed. This is something that is going to take at least six to 12 months before it starts capturing the attention to the extent it needs to do before we see any great results. We hope this will speak for itself, that this is a really good solution for the racing industry. We hope the results speak for themselves and make it a no-brainer for other tracks to become involved once we can get rid of the fear factor. Once it starts speaking for itself, it will become an obvious decision for other tracks to be involved.”

Baker said that NYRA has expressed interest in selling its signal to BetMakers for fixed odds betting.

That would help, but it's going to take a lot more than that. It's understandable that tracks want to proceed slowly and let a place like Monmouth be the guinea pig. There is a possibility that fixed odds will do nothing more than siphon money out of the pari-mutuel pools and not grow the pie. That wouldn't do anyone any good.

A future sport without fixed odds and ties with on-line bookmakers is not a pretty picture, not with the way sports betting is dominating the landscape. This needs to be given a chance. And that means the top tier tracks coming on board. It means working behind the scenes to legalize fixed-odds bets throughout the country. It means looking at ways to involve the ADWs. It means taking these steps sooner rather than later.

Yes, it's still early in the game and, yes, having fixed odds betting at Monmouth is one small step in the right direction. But it's just one racetrack in one state taking bets on only one track and offering them only to those who are at the track. One would have hoped this could have hit the groung running. That hasn't happened. Hopefully, the best is yet to come.

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NYRA Hearing Officer Recommends Two-Year Suspension for Baffert

Judge O. Peter Sherwood, the retired New York Supreme Court justice who served as the hearing officer in NYRA's dispute with Bob Baffert, issued his report Wednesday, recommending that Baffert receive a two-year suspension.

The report has been sent to a three-person panel that has been convened to consider whether or not Baffert should be penalized by NYRA. Each side will have seven days to respond to the report. After the seven days, the panel will have 10 days to make a final decision.

The panel consists of attorney John Carusone Jr., New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association Executive Director Will Alempijevic and Humberto Chavez, who heads the New York Racetrack Chaplaincy of America program.

On May 17, NYRA suspended Baffert, but had to drop the ban when a federal judge ruled that NYRA could not take such steps without first holding a hearing for Baffert or for anyone else the racing organization sought to suspend. Because of its affiliation with the state of New York, NYRA, unlike privately owned tracks like Churchill Downs, does not necessarily have the right to ban someone without due process. Churchill's two-year ban of Baffert is currently in place.

The hearing commenced in January with NYRA attorney Henry Greenberg stating that Baffert had taken a “wrecking ball” to the sport's integrity because of his record of repeated drug violations. NYRA charged that during a 14-month span, Baffert-trained horses tested positive for prohibited medications seven times. The most high-profile offense occurred in the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby in which Medina Spirit (Protonico) tested positive for betamethasone.

In asking the hearing officer to recommend a suspension for Baffert, NYRA said that his conduct was detrimental to the best interests of racing, the health and safety of the horses and NYRA business operations.

NYRA released Sherwood's 54-page report Tuesday.

This story will be updated.

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