No Longer Allowed to Race at NYRA, 10-year-old Sent to Parx

Backsideofthemoon (Malibu Moon) has lived on the Belmont backstretch since 2015, but that changed Tuesday when a van picked him up to take him to Parx. It's not where owner Charlie Halas or trainer Pat Reynolds want him to be, but they didn't have much choice in the matter. Even though he finished third in a stakes race, the Queens County S., in his most recent start, Backsideofthemoon is no longer allowed to race or stable at the NYRA tracks because he has turned 10 years old.

“I was emotional having to walk that horse to the chute to get him on the van and I was pissed,” Reynolds said.

Halas claimed Backsideofthemoon for $62,500 out of a Feb. 8 optional claimer last year at Aqueduct. It was the second time he had claimed the horse. Though it is always risky to claim a 9-year-old, particularly one for $62,500, Halas had no reason to believe that his horse was 11 months removed from being ineligible to race at the NYRA tracks. In April, two months after the claim, NYRA announced a new rule that prohibited horses

10 or older from running at its tracks.

“[Halas] loves the horse but he never would have taken him for $62,500 if he knew he couldn't run him here,” Reynolds said. “They make stuff up as the go along here in New York. He claimed the horse and then they come up with the rule that a 10-year-old can't run here. He thought he might be grandfathered in because he had him before the rule was made.”

Backsidfeofthemoon was 0-for-10 in 2021, but still managed to earn $93,800. He finished in the money in three of his last four starts, all of them at the allowance or stakes level. He concluded his 8-year-old campaign with a win in the 2020 Queen's County.

Reynolds said he understands why NYRA put the rule in place, but says an exception should have been made for a horse who is still competitive at the stakes level.

“I understand their point,” he said. “They don't want to be scraping 10-year-olds off the racetrack and have PETA jumping up and down saying 'I told you so,'” the trainer said. “I understand the rule, but in the case of this horse we feel a little slighted. He just ran third in the Queen's County, which shows that he still has some life in him. He has run 94 and 95 Beyers in his last two starts.”

According to the rules, Backsideoftheoon should have vacated his stall at Belmont by Jan. 1, but Reynolds managed to milk out a few more days in New York for him. He's worked him twice this year, most recently on Tuesday prior to his ship when he went four furlongs in :51.90 over the Belmont training track.

Knowing that NYRA wasn't about to let the horse stay at Belmont much longer, Reynolds sent him to Parx where there are no rules that prohibit a 10-year-old from racing. Backsideofthemoon was entered in an allowance there next Tuesday. He will race one more time for Reynolds and then will be turned over to trainer Michael Aro.

“This is such a shame,” Reynolds said. “He's been consistent, is sound and is easy to train. The horse is doing really well right now.”

When asked for comment, NYRA spokesman Pat McKenna provided the following statement: “Horses 10 years of age or older are ineligible to be stabled or compete in races at Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course. This NYRA rule was implemented in April to enhance equine safety and remains in place today.”

The post No Longer Allowed to Race at NYRA, 10-year-old Sent to Parx appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

A Look Back: New York Racing and 9-11

For New York-based trainer Pat Reynolds, it was supposed to be a quiet day, as quiet as it gets at the New York racetracks. September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday, a dark day in New York, and Reynolds was hoping that he could cut his day short after working one of his better horses at the time, Peeping Tom, that morning at Belmont Park. Instead, he was soon heading head first into a nightmare.

Just a few minutes after the first plane had struck the World Trade Center, someone called Reynolds into his office and told him to turn on the news. He sensed immediately that the buildings were under attack, a terrible feeling and one that hit home. Reynolds's wife, Laura, worked in the North Tower, the first one struck by an airplane.

“I went nuts,” Reynolds said. “It's one thing when you read about something like this in the paper, something happening to somebody else. This was a personal disaster.”

The usually punctual Laura Reynolds was running a few minutes late to work that morning and never reached her office. It was not until about 3 p.m. that afternoon that she was able to find a working phone to call her husband and tell him that she was safe. Still later that afternoon, she finished the long walk from lower Manhattan to the couple's home in Flushing, Queens, and fell into her husband's arms.

It is just one of the stories that emerged that day from the New York racetracks and Belmont Park, which is about a dozen miles from what was the World Trade Center. The whole country, and New York in particular, was shaken to its core that awful day, and the New York tracks didn't escape the horror and heartache. Everyone has their story, where they were when the planes hit, who they knew that was killed, how they dealt with the shock and grief.

For New York racing, it was a time to mourn and to hit the pause button, but it was also a time to look ahead. In less than seven weeks, the Breeders' Cup was set to be run at Belmont and no one wanted to give in and cancel or postpone the event. Everywhere, there was a sense that the proper response was to put your head down and get through this.

It didn't exactly start out that way.

With no racing scheduled for that afternoon, jockey Richard Migliore thought he was going to have an easy day. He started off the morning working a few horses at the track and then got in his car to head home. As he was pulling into his driveway, he got a call from a friend telling him what was going on. He went inside his home and began watching the coverage and then decided he wanted to take a look for himself. Along with trainer Dennis Brida, he drove back to Belmont and went up on the roof to get a clear view of what was happening. Migliore and Brida had the entire roof to themselves.

“You could see the smoke and everything else that was going on,” he said. “It appeared to me that one of the towers fell. I said to Dennis that the tower just fell. He said, 'No, I think something just blew up.' As the smoke and dust started to settle, you knew that a tower had fallen. It was surreal. It was madness. I'll never forget being on the roof at Belmont when the first tower fell.”

Among the handful of tracks scheduled to run that Tuesday, all canceled. Belmont was scheduled to resume racing on Wednesday, Sept. 12. Migliore heard rumors that NYRA was going to rush back into action. In what now seems like a tone-deaf move, four U.S. racetracks actually ran on Sept. 12 and 26 were in operation on the Friday after the attacks.

“There was talk there was going to be racing immediately because people thought we had to get back to some sense of normalcy,” said Migliore, whose wife, Carmela, lost a cousin, Charles Lucania, in the attacks. “Then, of course, smarter heads prevailed. It was decided that we had to take a step back.”

In the executive offices, NYRA President Terry Meyocks knew that some important decisions had to be made and made quickly.

“We discussed with the trustees and with our management team what was the right thing to do,” he said. “We knew we needed to take some time off. At the same time, we knew that the Breeders' Cup was coming up and that we had to move forward.”

Belmont resumed racing on Sept. 19, eight days after the attacks. The day began with a moment of silence before Sam Grossman played a rendition of “America” on his bugle. There were 5,436 fans in the massive stands and many seemed to have their minds elsewhere.

“I remember having mixed emotions that day,” said Migliore, who won the day's third race. “The jockey's room has always been my comfort zone. Everything else could be going wrong in my life and I could walk into the jockey's room and just escape. I could have a huge argument with my wife and when I walk into that room, it's the furthest thing from my mind. There was a sense of relief that I was going to get back to what I do. Yet, it still didn't quite feel right. It almost seemed trivial. Big deal. I got to ride in a few horse races. There was something a hell of a lot more important going on, and only a few miles away from where we lived.”

Two nights later, the Mets entertained the Atlanta Braves and the sporting world as a whole began to return to normal. But the Breeders' Cup remained a concern. With horse coming in from all over the country and the world, there were so many moving parts and so many concerns.

“We had a good rapport with local, New York City and state police,” Meyocks said. “We worked with them as to how to proceed and whether or not we could have a Breeders' Cup. We felt it was prudent to go ahead and run the Breeders' Cup. We felt confident we could do it. Basically at the end of day, we felt it was the right thing to do.”

Forty-six days had elapsed since the attacks on the World Trade Center, but reminders were everywhere when horsemen, jockeys, track management and fans started to file into the track.

“I remember going into the infield before the races,” said Jerry Bailey, who would win the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint that day aboard Squirtle Squirt. “All the jockeys gathered and they took pictures of us holding American flags. I looked up at top of the grandstand at Belmont and remember seeing snipers up there with their rifles. I thought to myself, is this the way it is going to be from now on? It struck me how different things had become.”

“The Breeders' Cup was crazy because of all the security,” Migliore recalled. “You look up on the roof and there's snipers everywhere. Everywhere you went, there were bomb sniffing dogs. They put up those big cinder block buffers so someone couldn't drive a car into the lobby.”

The day went off without a problem and it finished up with a win by the American-based Tiznow by a nose in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic over European shipper Sakhee. As he so often did, announcer Tom Durkin captured the moment perfectly, calling out “Tiznow wins it for America!”

“We all took a lot of pride in how well the Breeders' Cup worked,” Meyocks said.

As for Reynolds, he's been training ever since that fateful day. The first trainer of Big Brown, he's had some good years, but also some slow years. He's learned to deal with it.

“This is a wonderful sport and something I've spent my whole life doing,” he said. “But when it comes down to human life, everything else is secondary. That day, it put everything else into perspective.”

The post A Look Back: New York Racing and 9-11 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Nevin Sends Our Last Buck, My Boy Tate In John Morrissey

Trainer Michelle Nevin will send out stakes-winning veterans Our Last Buck and My Boy Tate in Thursday's $100,000 John Morrissey, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for New York-breds 3-years-old and up, at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

My Boy Tate, bred, trained, and co-owned by Nevin with Little Red Feather Racing boasts a ledger of 24-9-5-2 with purse earnings of $584,988. The Boys At Tosconova gelding is a five-time stakes winner at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y., including scores in the Hollie Hughes and Haynesfield earlier this year.

The hard-knocking 7-year-old has also enjoyed success at Saratoga, posting a perfect in-the-money record of 4-1-2-1, including a third-place finish in last year's Morrissey.

Last seen finishing fourth in an open allowance sprint at Parx in May, My Boy Tate has reeled off six weekly works dating to June 13, including a five-eighths effort in 1:01.54 on July 20 on the Saratoga main track.

“He's doing good. He had a little bit of a freshening and he's right on track,” Nevin said. “I would say Aqueduct is his favorite track, but Saratoga is a track he's shown an affinity for, too.”

Nevin said that My Boy Tate, who has finished no worse than fourth in his last nine starts dating back to running third in last year's Morrissey, continues to thrive.

“He seems like he's still the same old fella,” Nevin said. “He's definitely a barn favorite. He always tries. We've had him since he was two and he's seven now and is just a great horse to have.”

J and N Stables' Our Last Buck, a 7-year-old Courageous Cat gelding bred by Gerardus S. Jameson, enjoyed a productive 2020 campaign with a record of 8-4-2-0. The success continued into January with a first stakes score in the seven-furlong Say Florida Sandy last out at the Big A.

Our Last Buck has breezed weekly at Belmont dating back to June 3, including a five-eighths effort in 1:02.23 on the dirt training track on July 20.

Nevin said the lengthy freshening was by design.

“He had plenty of races last year and we were looking to give him a little break,” Nevin said. “After his big win, we decided to give him some time and he's been back on the track getting ready and we finally feel like we're ready to go.

“He got very good last year and was running very consistently,” Nevin continued. “He was showing up every time. He's definitely improved as he's gotten older.”

Manny Franco will guide My Boy Tate from post 3, while Our Last Buck will emerge from post 4 under Luis Saez.

[Story Continues Below]

Charles Hallas' Morning Breez sports a ledger of 42-5-12-11 with purse earnings of $569,929, but has yet to secure an elusive first stakes win.

The 6-year-old Morning Line gelding, bred by Hart Farm and Rhapsody Farm, has flourished in his last three starts sprinting six furlongs in open allowance company, including a last-out half-length score on May 13 at Belmont that garnered an 87 Beyer.

Transferred to the care of trainer Pat Reynolds, Morning Breez will be piloted by returning rider Jose Lezcano from post 6.

Team Hanley's multiple stakes-winner Captain Bombastic, bred by Chester and Mary Broman, won a pair of stakes last season, including the seven-furlong Mike Lee at Belmont and the 6 1/2-furlong NYSSS Times Square in August at Saratoga for former conditioner Jeremiah Englehart.

Transferred to Chad Brown to launch his 4-year-old campaign, the Forty Tales chestnut finished off-the-board in a pair of state-bred stakes at Belmont and will now race for Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen from post 2 under Ricardo Santana, Jr.

Rounding out a competitive field are Wow Brown [post 1, Michael Davila, Jr.], Wudda U Think Now [post 5, Irad Ortiz, Jr.], Foolish Ghost [post 7, Joel Rosario], Jemography [post 8, Dylan Davis] and Runningwscissors [post 9, Tyler Gaffalione].

The John Morrissey is slated as Race 9 on Thursday's 10-race card. First post is 1:05 p.m. Eastern. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

The post Nevin Sends Our Last Buck, My Boy Tate In John Morrissey appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights