JC / Railbird

Suffolk Downs

Closing Day

Bo Badger and Taylor Hole gallop back after winning the last race at Suffolk Downs on October 4, 2014. More photos from closing day at the track.

“They should have been here two years ago,” said trainer Kevin McCarthy, looking over the Suffolk Downs paddock fence at a crowd that pressed three deep despite the rain that began minutes before the final race on Saturday. Twelve starters were entered, including McCarthy’s horse, Indy’s Illusion, a 4-year-old A.P. Indy colt who finished ninth in the 2013 Florida Derby.

The crowd began to clap as the field left the paddock. The sound rose and fell as the post parade first passed the clubhouse rail, then turned back toward the grandstand side. What was very likely the last card ever run at the 79-year-old track was about to end. But for McCarthy, newly elected to the NEHBPA board, the day’s last race was only the last race of 2014 meet. “We’ll be here next year,” he said. “I don’t know in what form, but we’ll be here.”

“We’ll be here,” “next year” — the phrases kept coming up in conversation. Paul Umbrello of Charles River Racing, an owner and another new NEHBPA board member, wore an electric blue t-shirt with the injunction, “Keep Calm and Save Suffolk Downs / Vote NO on Question 3,” a reference to the casino repeal measure on this November’s ballot. “We’ll be here,” he said, and talked about the NEHBPA’s effort to put together a plan for leasing the track.

A few of the starting gate crew passed through the scale house on their way to load the ninth race. “See you next year,” they said as they hugged Suffolk’s communications director Jessica Paquette goodbye. “If we’re here next year,” she joked, “I’ll do opening day in a bikini.”

Next year is a longshot, and the mood in the winner’s circle darkened with the sky as the field neared the gate. So much of the afternoon had felt like any other closing day, with familiar faces and familiar horses, presentations honoring the year’s leading trainer and leading rider, and chatter about moving on for winter. But it was impossible to forget that closing day meant something else this year, that it was almost certainly the last day of live racing held in East Boston, and that people were there to witness its conclusion. Lines trailed from every teller window as the 9,153 in attendance (more than had been seen since opening day) placed their bets (wagering $305,814) on races so full there were horses on the backstretch who couldn’t get in. Local reporters prowled the apron. “You’ve got to get the last jockey coming off his horse,” said one news photographer to another. “That’s the story.”

The last race was a mile and 70 yards, and the horses went into the gate in front of the grandstand. The bell rang, and the crowd cheered, and a minute later, the field was in the stretch, Bo Badger and Indy’s Illusion in front, dueling to the wire, trading head bobs to the end. The photo sign was lit. They galloped back and circled near the finish line, waiting.

Glowing bright in the gloom, the “OFFICIAL” light of the toteboard switched on: #2 was first, #12 was second, and there was a dead heat for third. Bo Badger, owned by Eighth Note Stable and trained by John and Kathy Botty, would be the last winner at Suffolk Downs. He paid $21.80, and the crowd applauded as the winner’s circle photo was taken. When it was done and the horse unsaddled, Kathy rushed toward Taylor Hole, the last winning jockey, with a teary face and clasped him to her. “Thank you, thank you,” she said.

Results: Suffolk Downs charts for 10/4/14 (PDF)

Posted in Racing on October 7, 2014 / Tagged Suffolk Downs

Winning Bets, Losing Fans

Michael Gee went to the track with newbies on Saturday:

Cornelius, a Bruins fan of note, was the third member of our party. He’s roughly my son’s age. He had never been to a horse race. He didn’t know how to read a program or the Daily Racing Form, at first anyway. But before the nine-race card was half over, Cornelius cashed a big ticket, hitting an exacta that paid $97.20 for a two dollar bet. And he was hooked. By the seventh race, Cornelius had hit another exacta, was deep into exotic wagering, and observed, “maybe it’s a good thing for me this place is closing. I can see how this could get serious.”

Cornelius was a lost opportunity for Suffolk Downs.

This is another way in which Suffolk’s closing will reverberate through the industry. A region without a racetrack is a region that isn’t feeding a lot of new racing fans and bettors into the game. That’s a hit, especially when the city without a track is as young and populous as the Boston metro area.

Posted in Racing on October 6, 2014 / Tagged Suffolk Downs

The Massachusetts Experiment

One year’s decline isn’t a trend, but the fatality rate reduction at Suffolk Downs reported by racing director Jennifer Durenberger is still impressive:

Let’s look first at the catastrophic injury rate for the meet: 1.24 per thousand starts. This is down from 1.73 in 2013 — a nearly 30 percent reduction …

Thanks to the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database (EID), which captures data from an amazing 93 percent of all flat racing days, we know that the average catastrophic injury rate in 2013 was 1.9 per thousand starts. That includes all horses — young and old, graded stakes competitors and seasoned claimers, sprinters and routers, turf specialists and mudders. When we separate that by surface, we see a nationwide average of 1.63 catastrophic injuries per thousand turf starters and 2.08 per thousand dirt starters. At Suffolk Downs in 2014, the turf rate was 1.44 and the dirt rate was 1.20 — less than 60 percent of the national average.

Among the losses incurred by Suffolk Downs’ demise, count the reform work done by state regulators in partnership with track management since 2012, work that included adopting uniform medication rules and a horse-first welfare policy, making racing safer for vulnerable (older, cheaper) horses.

Posted in Racing on October 6, 2014 / Tagged Equine Safety, Fatalities, Horse Welfare, Massachusetts, Reforms, Regulations, Statistics, Suffolk Downs