Severe Heat Among Issues, But Monmouth Holds Haskell Card

OCEANPORT, N.J.–At the end of the day, which came a lot later than anyone had planned on, the story Saturday at Monmouth Park was a lot more than Maximum Security (New Year's Day) winning the GI Haskell Invitational. In fact, the Haskell almost seemed like an afterthought to what was undoubtedly among the stranger days in the history of the sport.

With a massive heat wave blasting the eastern portion of the country, several tracks decided to cancel. But for Monmouth, with its signature race as part of the card and NBC in town to televise the Haskell, this was no ordinary day at the races. Dennis Drazin, who heads the management team that runs the track, decided to hold the card.

For most of the day, the temperature was about 96 degrees with a heat index of 107.

“When some of the other racetracks closed, in particular Saratoga, that put more pressure on the situation,” Drazin said. “That put more focus nationally on the heat and the issues facing racing. People were saying, 'All the other tracks had closed, why are you guys staying open?' That led to  a conversation about venues. Saratoga, Delaware, Laurel (three tracks that did not race Saturday), those tracks are in-land. Here we have an ocean breeze. To me, it was different circumstances. All the vets, every state vet and every private vet, we consulted with, along with weather people, they all use the same formula to judge the weather. It basically consists of temperature plus humidity, minus wind. They come up with a number, and it's either safe or unsafe to race. We were told it was safe to race.”

When it came to safety, it turned out to be the right decision. No horses broke down during the card and there were no reports of any horses in distress after they had raced.

“I don't think it is too bad,” said jockey Paco Lopez. “There's a little breeze. I come from Florida and ride in the hot weather all the time. I don't think today is a big deal. I've ridden on hotter days than today. Yes, definitely, they made the right decision to race today. None of my horses had any problems. Nothing happened to them.”

So the card went on, but there were some bumps in the road. Plenty of them, in fact.

The first race was delayed by 38 minutes. During that time Drazin was on the phone first with someone who was in direct contact with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and then with Murphy himself. Drazin said Murphy wanted reassurances that racing under such conditions was not dangerous.

As Drazin and Murphy spoke, about 14 PETA protestors stood outside the track expressing their outrage that Monmouth was running.

“Ultimately, I spoke to Governor Murphy and he was very kind about the whole thing,” Drazin said. “He's supportive of racing and always has been. He quite frankly said that I have the expertise to make the decisions and that he doesn't. He relied upon my judgment and the state regulators, the racing commission and the state vets to try to do what's right. He just wanted to make sure that I was evaluating everything with the understanding that even if it's got nothing to do with the heat, if there was a problem we are under the national spotlight and would have had a big problem on our hands.

“Had the governor picked up the phone and said, 'I don't want you to race,' I would have done exactly what the governor said. And I told him so.”

The first two races went off without incident, but then the card was abruptly stopped. Drazin, with hopes that it would cool off later in the day, decided to halt all racing until 6 p.m. and run only the remaining stakes races on the card. Six races were cancelled. The Haskell did not go off until 8:11 p.m.

The scene during the delay was an eery one. The atmosphere at the Haskell is usually festive and the track is jammed. Instead, the few people who were willing to stick out the heat delay huddled in the few air conditioned rooms at the track. For a few hours, it almost appeared that the track was closed. There was barely a human in plain sight.

“We always had a backup plan and that was waiting until six and just running the stakes,” he said. “All the vets thought that it would cool off by then and we'd be well below the point where the heat index meant dangerous conditions.”

The races resumed at 6:03 p.m. with the GIII Oceanport S., which was originally scheduled for 1:14 p.m. The Haskell went off at 8:11, two hours and 42 minutes after its regularly scheduled time. That meant that NBC's scheduled broadcast of the race turned into a Haskell “preview show.”

The craziness didn't stop after Maximum Security crossed the wire in front as the stewards posted the inquiry sign. He did appear to come over on King For a Day (Uncle Mo) on the far turn. Could he possibly be taken down in both the GI Kentucky Derby and the Haskell? There was contact, but, the stewards decided it was not enough for there to be a change in the order of finish.

The race was still run under difficult conditions. It was 93 with a heat index of 104 when the field left the gate.

And thus ended a difficult day for Monmouth Park. It lost the NBC spotlight, wound up with a much smaller than normal crowd, many of whom went home after the delay was announced, and lost millions in handle.

“We would have been the only one in the Northeast running,” Drazin said. “With New York being closed, and several other tracks closed, we would have been the only signal out there with an outstanding card. Conservatively, we would have done record numbers; we would have exceeded $20 million in handle. (The all-sources handle was $8,566,664). With the takeout, how much we would have handled on the track, and with the food and admission, we probably took a $4 million, $5-million hit. At the end of day, even though it's my responsibility to fiscally manage this place, if it comes to whether we're going to lose money, but in doing so are going to protect the horses and jockeys, I'm going to chose to protect the horses and jockeys. That's why we pushed back the races.”

Sunday's forecast is for another scorcher on the Jersey Shore. Monmouth Park has already canceled the card. That was the only easy decision anyone at Monmouth had to make all day.