nyra | Horse Racing Free Tips

Sharp Starr Gives Horacio DePaz First Graded Stakes Win In Go For Wand Handicap

Barry K. Schwartz's New York-homebred Sharp Starr, perfectly piloted by Jose Ortiz, outdueled Portal Creek to capture Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Go for Wand Handicap, a one-turn mile for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The Munnings sophomore, trained by Horacio DePaz, arrived at the Go for Wand from a commanding 15 3/4-length score in a state-bred allowance mile on November 7 at the Big A that garnered a career-best 101 Beyer Speed Figure.

Leading rider Kendrick Carmouche sent Portal Creek to the lead with Sharp Starr assuming a stalking position to her outside as slight 6-5 mutuel favorite Nonna Madeline hustled up the rail to gain third through an opening quarter-mile in 23.26 seconds on the sloppy and sealed main track.

Sharp Starr continued to press Portal Creek, who maintained a one-length lead into the turn, as Graceful Princess improved her position outside rivals through a half-mile in 46.72. Portal Creek opened up through the turn and attempted to kick clear of Sharp Starr, but Ortiz kept to task on the New York-bred filly as the duo locked up for the length of the stretch with Sharp Starr earning a hard-fought neck victory in a final time of 1:36.75. It was 12 lengths back to Nonna Madeline in third with Stand for the Flag, Graceful Princess and Overheated rounding out the order of finish.

The victory marked the first graded stakes score for DePaz, who is enjoying his first season of training full-time on the NYRA circuit. The 35-year-old conditioner said he was pleased to see Sharp Starr make amends last out at the Big A following an off-the-board effort in the nine-furlong Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan in October around two turns at Pimlico Race Course.

“She definitely likes the track, but I think she likes the one-turn mile a little bit better. It set up for her. I was happy she could repeat that last effort,” said DePaz.

Sharp Starr graduated in July at Belmont Park and hit the board in a pair of nine-furlong events going two turns over the summer at Saratoga Race Course, including a closing third in the restricted Fleet Indian. DePaz said Sharp Starr's improved efforts from the gate have made a significant impact on results.

“Even in her two-turn races, she wants to put herself there, but she has those bad starts and afterwards she can't get up there,” said DePaz. “She's breaking so much better and getting herself into the race. The way she breaks and gets herself close, she's able to finish up nicely.”

Ortiz, who captured the 2013 Go for Wand with Royal Lahaina, was aboard Sharp Starr for the maiden win and her two Saratoga efforts. He said he felt confident in the filly going a one-turn mile as he returned to the saddle.

“They were running her two turns and she was breaking a little slow,” said Ortiz. “Last time, when they brought her back to a one-turn mile, she broke well and that suited her better. They stuck with that racing style today. She broke sharp. She was there for me every time I asked her.”

Carmouche said Portal Creek, an eight-time winner invading from Parx for trainer Juan Carlos Guerrero, was valiant in defeat.

“The horse ran well,” said Carmouche. “Coming from Parx, running on this track, she ran awesome. She made every pole a winning one but the final jump.”

Bred in the Empire State by the owner's Stonewall Farm, Sharp Starr banked $55,000 in victory while improving her record to 9-3-2-2. She returned $4.50 for a $2 win bet.

Live racing resumes Sunday at the Big A, Closing Day of the 18-day fall meet, with a nine-race card offering a pair of rich New York Stallion Stakes Series races, including the Great White Way for 2-year-olds and the Fifth Avenue for juvenile fillies, with purses of $250,000 each. Also featured on Closing Day is the $100,000 Garland of Roses at six furlongs for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up. First post is 12:20 p.m. Eastern.

The post Sharp Starr Gives Horacio DePaz First Graded Stakes Win In Go For Wand Handicap appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

NYRA Announces New COVID-19 Protocols For Jockeys

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) has announced COVID-19 health and safety protocols for jockeys during the 2020/21 Aqueduct winter meet, which will open on Thursday, Dec. 10 and run through Sunday, March 28.

The 56-day Aqueduct winter meet will include 42 stakes races worth $4.57 million in purse money. In order to mitigate risk and reduce the spread of COVID-19, Aqueduct will be closed to riders that are not regular members of the NYRA jockey colony as of Dec. 31.

To account for NYRA's 10-day holiday break from December 21 through Dec. 30, jockeys interested in being included in the regular NYRA jockey colony must contact NYRA for consideration by Dec. 31.

Members of the regular NYRA jockey colony who travel to ride at any other racetrack during the Aqueduct winter meet will be required to provide two negative COVID-19 tests taken within a 5-day window in order to return to ride at Aqueduct. Jockeys traveling out of state who have completed the required testing will then be physically isolated in the jockey quarters for three additional calendar days. All COVID-19 testing must be performed in New York state.

In addition to race day safety protocols which include standard health screening and temperature checks, the jockey quarters at Aqueduct have been substantially altered to provide maximum social distancing and reduce density. All areas accessed by jockeys during the regular course of a race day are closed to outside personnel, including credentialed media, and are cleaned and disinfected throughout the day. Jockeys are not permitted access to the barn area at Belmont Park.

Jockey agents must produce a negative COVID-19 test in order to gain access to the barn area. Races will continue to be drawn via Zoom. Valets working in in the jockey quarters are not permitted in the barn area.

Live racing during the Aqueduct winter meet will generally be conducted Thursday through Sunday until the end of February and the addition of special Monday cards on Jan. 18 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Feb. 15 for Presidents' Day. Live racing in March will be offered Friday through Sunday through the conclusion of the winter meet on March 28.

For additional information, and the complete winter meet stakes schedule, please visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/stakes-schedule.

The post NYRA Announces New COVID-19 Protocols For Jockeys appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

NYRA’s Expanded TV Coverage Seen as Reason for Healthy Handle Numbers

Because of the coronavirus and the resulting cancellations, comparing 2020 handle numbers to 2019 numbers is an inexact science. But something clearly has gone right for NYRA this year. Entering December, the daily average all-sources handle number for NYRA races was $11,829,355, a 19.6% increase from this time last year when an average of $9,894,226 had been pushed through the windows.

For the year overall, NYRA’s all-sources handle is down 14.2%, a modest decrease when considering that the amount of races offered has dropped by 25.1%.

That the increase in daily average handle has coincided with a significant increase in the number of hours devoted to NYRA race coverage on the Fox Sports networks is probably not a coincidence.

“It would not be an overstatement to say we have no idea where we would have been without television this year,” said NYRA’s chief revenue officer and the president of NYRA Bets Tony Allevato. “Television played an important part in NYRA’s strategy long before I got here. They had always looked at the future as being television and distributing the content to a mass audience. But nobody could have foreseen (the pandemic) coming. Thank goodness we had in place what we had in place. Otherwise, I’m not sure what would have happened.”

NYRA first teamed with Fox Sports in 2016 when the network televised 80 hours of racing from Saratoga. The total hours Fox Sports devoted to racing continue to climb, with the network broadcasting 385 hours in 2019. Another major expansion was ushered in for 2020. A total of 775 hours of coverage will be shown. For much of the year, virtually every race run at the New York tracks could be seen on a Fox Sports network.

The show, America’s Day at the Races, will air for the final time in 2020 Saturday when the Aqueduct card is topped by the GI Cigar Mile The broadcasts are expected to resume in the spring of 2021.

“We were really able to get our programming out and in front of, in our opinion, a new audience,” Allevato said.

The 2020 Fox-NYRA agreement called for NYRA to pull its races off of TVG, a calculated risk considering how many people watch that network and make their wagers through its ADW platform.

“We did worry about that,” Allevato said. “TVG had been a great partner with the New York Racing Association for almost 20 years and, obviously, they do a lot to drive handle. We didn’t take that decision lightly. We just looked at the difference in the type of coverage we could get for New York racing on Fox and compared it to what we were getting on TVG and we thought this gave us the best opportunity to really push our content.”

It was not just the increase in the total number of hours. Last year, the extent of NYRA racing coverage on Fox Sports 1 was all of one hour, with the remaining coverage airing on Fox Sports 2. This year, Fox Sports 1 picked up 206 hours of NYRA coverage. According to Allevato, Fox Sports 1 is available in 80 million homes, while Fox Sports 2 is available in just 55 million homes.

“The viewership difference between the two channels is pretty big,” Allevato said. “We will see three to five times the viewership when we are on Fox Sports 1 versus Fox Sports 2. Our hardcore audience is still watching when we are FS2. but we are seeing that we are getting that causal sports fan to watch when we are on Fox Sports 1. There were days during the summer that our show on Fox Sports 1 drew more viewers than a major league baseball game on the same day. Right now, our ratings on Fox Sports 1 are comparable, or higher than, college basketball and major league soccer. That’s a pretty big accomplishment for horse racing, in my opinion.”

In an attempt to track whether or not the shows were creating new racing fans, NYRA offered Fox viewers incentives to sign up with the NYRA Bets ADW, including a free $20 bet when someone signed up for a new account. Allevato said that the number of people who made additional deposits and became at least semi-regular bettors after opening up an account to take advantage of the free offer exceeded expectations.

It wasn’t the hardcore player or the existing fan that already was betting a lot that we were getting,” he said. “We were getting new people. Those types of customers are how we can grow this sport.”

To acquire 800 hours of air time on a national network and to put together the shows is not inexpensive, especially when you consider that NYRA produced the shows. Allevato said that when it comes to “America’s Day at the Races,” NYRA looks at more than the bottom line.

“One of the great things about NYRA is that NYRA is a not-for-profit,” he said. “So, when you look at what the team is trying to do here it’s not a short play, it’s a long game for us., It’s really about making sure that horse racing in New York succeeds and we also believe that for horse racing to be successful in New York we need horse racing to be strong across the country. Sometimes some of the decisions we make short term probably don’t pencil. But we are not about the short term, we are all about the long term. While we have not lost money on the shows–and we owe a huge debt of gratitude to our sponsors, America’s Best Racing, Claiborne and Runhappy–it is certainly not a lucrative short-term proposition for us. It is something we do because we feel it is right thing for NYRA and right thing for the sport.”

The post NYRA’s Expanded TV Coverage Seen as Reason for Healthy Handle Numbers appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

America’s Day At The Races Wraps Up 2020 Coverage With Cigar Mile Broadcast

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) announced Friday that America's Day at the Races will broadcast its final edition of 2020 with coverage and analysis of Saturday's Grade 1, $250,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Presented by America's Best Racing and Claiborne Farm, America's Day at the Races will air Saturday from 3-4:30 p.m., ET on MSG+ and 3:30-4:30 p.m., ET on FS2. The Cigar Mile is slated as the finale of Saturday's 10-race program, with an approximate post time of 4:13 p.m.

Expanded coverage of America's Day at the Races and Saratoga Live, both of which are produced by NYRA, provided nearly 800 hours of live racing broadcast on FOX Sports in 2020, more than double the 385 hours that aired in 2019. The expansion was most dramatic on FS1, which showed 206 hours of horse racing in 2020, compared to one hour in 2019.

“Despite the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, we regularly presented our viewers with the best racing and analysis in the country,” said Eric Donovan, NYRA Director of Broadcast Operations. “Our sincere thanks go to our viewers, sponsors, the NYRA TV production team, talent, and racing stakeholders for their extraordinary dedication, and to FOX Sports and MSG for their continued partnership and commitment to airing more thoroughbred racing than ever before.”

Following the suspension of live racing in New York on March 19, America's Day at the Races continued to feature racing from tracks around the country and provided horseplayers unable to attend the races with the opportunity to watch and wager from home.

Live racing in New York resumed at Belmont Park on June 3 with Opening Day of the spring/summer meet generating all-sources handle of $10,972,254, breaking the previous Opening Day record of $10.7 million set in 2010 – while marking the welcome return of professional sports in New York.

During a racing season conducted without spectators, fans turned to Saratoga Live, NYRA's highly-acclaimed and award-winning television program, in greater numbers than ever before. Average viewership of Saratoga Live on FS1 totaled approximately 120,000, while just under 1.3 million viewers watched the Runhappy Travers on FOX. Overall time spent viewing Saratoga Live increased by 300 percent, with more than 210 hours of live programming broadcast on FOX Sports throughout the meet.

For the second consecutive year, the Grade 1, $1 million Runhappy Travers was televised live on the FOX broadcast network as part of an expanded Runhappy Travers Day edition of Saratoga Live. For the first time at Saratoga, the broadcast included the introduction of the “WinStar Cam” which provided viewers with in-race aerial coverage throughout the day.

Strong viewership continued through the 27-day Belmont Park fall meet and was instrumental in helping to generate a 33.6-percent increase in average daily handle from last year. As at Saratoga and this fall at Aqueduct, the Belmont fall meet was conducted without spectators and with only a limited number of essential personnel, horsemen and owners on-site due to the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

America's Day at the Races was also broadcast throughout the year on NYRA's YouTube channel, which boasts more than 61,000 subscribers. NYRA's YouTube channel host race replays, special features, America's Day at the Races replays and more.

NYRA Bets is the official online wagering platform of Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course. Available to horseplayers nationwide, NYRA Bets is currently offering a $200 new member bonus in addition to a host of special weekly offers. The NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

The 2020 fall meet at Aqueduct Racetrack continues through Sunday, Dec. 6. The 56-day winter meet kicks off on Thursday, December 10 and will continue through Sunday, March 21.

For additional information, visit NYRA.com.

The post America’s Day At The Races Wraps Up 2020 Coverage With Cigar Mile Broadcast appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post