Will Saratoga scratch today ?
 

They only had about a weeks notice that severe rain and flooding would come to the area today. I guess if they race today 75% of the entries will scratch.

What do you mean by "they only had a week's notice?"

What were they supposed to do a week ago?

Weather reports aren't so accurate 3 days out, never mind 7.

I feel bad for all the handicappers who have to advance-handicap without knowing that today would bring rain from Tropical Storm Fred

See what they end up doing today

https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/sa...orecast/339762

I agree in most situations but the rain from these hurricanes are always forecasted correctly and the rain showed hitting today into tomorrow several days ago. I just wish NYRA implemented incentives to keep horses on the off track. What little bonus they could give would be far more made up in parimutel take out.

The thing is the top of the stretch has a problem of washing out when it’s raining buckets. That takes a while to fix. There been at least one instance where the Jocks looked at it and didn’t want to ride. This is the foothills of the Adirondack mountains. Year round opportunity’s for severe weather. I don’t see how a forecast or anything else can change that. Just the way it is. They improved the drainage so there’s that .

He's working overtime to be the worst poster here.

That field is competitive. :lol:

Does anyone really want to bet a horse that had to be bribed not to scratch?

No, but I'd love to bet against that horse.

I buy my DRF along with the Farmers Almanac, duh.

Not quite understanding your complaint.
WHat would you have NYRA do in this situation? Have the Racing Secretary write two condition books? One for rainy weather and one for dry weather?
Lets not be ridiculous here.
Bad weather is part of horse racing.
Now, please don't come back with "every summer Saratoga cards get decimated by bad weather"...That is neither true nor accurate.
This meeting has had more rainy days than usual. It is what it is.
BTW, 2019 had an inordinate number of sunny or dry days. Saratoga lost very few turf races in 2019.

Thanks for asking. What would I have NYRA do in this situation? Well I know they tried some things in the past with incentives to keep from scratching with off tracks. It seemed successful as it rolled from Saratoga to Belmont but then we heard nothing about it. The major point here is that whenever a horse scratches the track loses thousands of dollars in revenue. Now of course there are justifiable reasons horses scratch but simply because a track gets wet should be preventable. Maybe they can have make up cards for any races taken off turf but of course no guarantee those days stay dry either. I just feel that since a lot of profit is lost when races are taken off the turf there is no sense of urgency for any type of solution. BTW the wet weather at TOGA was mostly before the meet started. I don’t seem to remember many rainy days this meet so far. I am very interested in getting the attendance figures because they started off very strong but word from the inside is that they are slightly down from 2019. If that ends up being the case then that is still a win for Toga because they have been running with 20% less employees then 2019.

This has to be an act.

For those that are interested, through yesterday, day 28, we have lost 39 turf races in 2021. During that same period in 2020 we had lost 9.

This is so accurate and a great post. I’ve lived and gone to the track here for the better part of 50 years. The weather is up and down. Some summers are extremely dry, some are wet. This summer was one of the wettest ever. July actually rained more days than August. What’s even worse in a month summer will be over . Shortly after it’s time to brace for 5 months of BS. So, I gotta hit the track rain or shine before it’s over. It’s part of the game. They’re not playing freaking Rummy out there.

As for the forecast, you can’t count on that crap until it actually happens. The so called hurricane Henri…… we got maybe a quarter inch of rain so far. What a joke this has been . It may rain a little more this afternoon but that forecast was a joke. Plus, first concert at SPAC for me in two years . King Crimson tonight! The summer is a big reason I live up here….. the last two have been pandemic and rain .

$42