NYRA jockeys to stay put
Spa to be closed to those who ride elsewhere; no outsiders to be allowed
Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith had planned on spending time at Saratoga Race Course this summer.
Not anymore.
The New York Racing Association announced Tuesday that Saratoga Race Course, which opens its 40-day season on Thursday, will be closed to riders coming from tracks around the country until further notice. Also, any jockey who rides regularly at Saratoga, will not be allowed to return to Saratoga if he travels to ride at another racetrack.
This comes after several high profile jockeys — including Victor Espinoza, Luis Saez, Martin Garcia, Flavien Prat, and, most recently, Florent Geroux — tested positive for the coronavirus in the last week.
Saez finished fifth in last year’s Saratoga riding standings with 36 wins. He tested positive after riding at four different tracks — Los Alamitos, Belmont, Indiana Grand and Keeneland — in six days.
“To mitigate risk, we thought this was the right move,” NYRA president and CEO Dave O’rourke said by phone Tuesday afternoon. “Our primary objective is to keep racing going up here. In tough times like this, you have to make tough decisions. Whatever risks we can remove from the equation ... and one of them is traveling.”
Also on Tuesday, Gulfstream
Park in Florida announced it will have the same protocols for its riders that Saratoga now has.
The 2020 Saratoga condition book lists 22 active jockeys and three apprentice riders. Riders who are not competing at another track can compete at Saratoga provided he or she does not ride at another track starting on Thursday.
All personnel working at Saratoga Race Course in any capacity are required by NYRA to produce a negative COVID-19 test in order to access the property. That includes jockeys, valets, NYRA employees, trainers and their staff, outside vendors and credentialed media.
Smith, who is currently riding at Del Mar, had a trip planned to Saratoga on Aug. 1, where he would have ridden Midnight Bisou in the Grade I, $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes. Last year, Smith rode in four races at Saratoga, three of them Grade Is. He won the Whitney with Mckinzie and the Personal Ensign with Midnight Bisou.
“It’s a blow to me,” Smith said by phone from California. “Graded stakes races are kind of my gig. There are a lot of big races at Saratoga. No telling what I could have had.”
Smith was not going to argue about the decision. He understands, especially with the spikes in COVID-19 cases throughout many states, including his own. He is planning on traveling this weekend, to Monmouth Park in New Jersey, where he will ride the Bob Baffert-trained Authentic in the $1 million Haskell. Monmouth does not have the jockey restrictions.
Upon arriving at Monmouth, Smith said he will have to test negative for the coronavirus; when he heads back to California, he will also have to test negative before being allowed to resume riding at Del Mar.
“It’s different everywhere,” Smith said. “We just have to do what is best for the sport. Even though this might not work out for one guy, it will work out for somebody else. I am hoping that with some of these horses I will have to miss that I can get them back.”
Javier Castellano, another Hall of Fame jockey, was the first rider to test positive for coronavirus, that coming in March. He is a mainstay in the Saratoga jockey colony and won the riding title in 2013-14. He also has won the Travers Stakes more times than anyone else. He has six Travers wins.
“Everyone wants to be at Saratoga, everyone wants to ride at Saratoga,” Castellano said by phone from Long Island. “Everyone is not going to be happy about this, but safety is the most important thing. I can tell you that. I went through it.”
Castellano said he did not have any plans to ride out of town once the Saratoga meet starts. He did spend last Friday and Saturday at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., and competed in five races, all of them graded stakes. He won two of them, both Grade I races. He was the rider of Rushing Fall in the Jenny Wiley and Speech in the Ashland. He just finished riding the bulk of the Belmont spring/ summer meet and finished tied for fifth with 18 wins.
“We have to control this (coronavirus) and follow the rules,” Castellano said. “You want to be part of the jockey colony in Saratoga, you stay all summer. If you want to go back and forth, well, you can’t play that way.”