Suffolk Opens Saturday
Suffolk Downs opens this Saturday for the 2006 meet, and the opening day card actually boasts several full fields, even though only 600 horses are on the grounds so far. Racing secretary Jim Pambianchi hopes to have 1,000 on the backstretch after Tampa closes this weekend. Good news for this year’s meet: After being cancelled last year, the MassCap will return this year, on September 30. “With the race scheduled five weeks before the Breeders’ Cup, it will be a logical spot for some of the Classic Division contenders to make their final prep,” said Suffolk COO Robert O’Malley. Doors opens at 10 a.m. and a season pass will be given out with all paid admissions.
MassCap Revival Possible?
Here’s something for New England racing fans to look forward to (although, I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much): Suffolk Downs COO Robert O’Malley said the track is trying to revive the Grade II Massachusetts Handicap for this year’s meet. ”We’re hoping we can do it,” said O’Malley. “We still have a few things to do, but right now we’re looking at Sept. 30 for the MassCap.” Suffolk Downs opens for live racing this Saturday. The weather forecast isn’t encouraging (clouds, light rain), but I’ll be there for every race of the afternoon (and the Kentucky Derby, of course) …
Unforeseen Consequences
If Suffolk Downs were to close permanently, the losses would go beyond jobs and open space:
Suffolk’s open tradition is not limited to jockeys. There are more women trainers at Suffolk Downs than at any other track — about 40 according to an informal count done last summer. Many of the grooms are women. The track vet is a woman. The board chair is a woman — Patricia Moseley. There are only two women stewards in the country and one, Susan Walsh, is at Suffolk Downs. Beyond these are women who work as pony riders, walkers, tellers and in many other posts … Suffolk’s demise would destroy what has been a steady force for the equality of women in the workplace. Solely as a topic that concerns working women, and one with national implications, the survival of Suffolk Downs deserves care and attention.
Piermarini Wins 1,500th
Tammi Piermarini’s first season at Tampa Bay is shaping up as a memorable one for the rider, who was third in the Suffolk Downs jockey standings at the close of last year’s meet. Piermarini won her 1,500th race aboard Carson Unleashed in the second at Tampa Bay last Sunday and was named the track’s “Jockey of the Month” on Thursday.
Northampton Ends Racing
It’s the end of an era: The Massachusetts fair circuit is gone.
Citing competition from casinos and declining handle, Three County Fair president Alan Jacque said on Tuesday that racing is being eliminated from the fair’s program after 150 years. The Northampton fair was the last of six Massachusetts fairs to offer any sort of horseracing.
I came along too late to enjoy the fairs’ larcenous heyday, but Bill Finley remembers well the days when races were fixed and horses stiffed:
In 1983, I was on hand to witness how shamelessly crooked racing at the fairs could be. Right out of college and working my first job in racing, I was assigned to the fairs by the Daily Racing Form to work as a chart taker and was not too thrilled to learn that I would be making less than $200 a week. What I didn’t count on was that my stint at Marshfield was going to present me with the greatest betting opportunity of my life.
Because there was no press box there, we had to work from a card table behind a bay of mutuel windows. I sat in front of a mechanical board that showed how much had been bet on each exacta combination, information that was not made available to the public. By watching what exacta combinations were taking an inordinate amount of money, I was, essentially, in on the fix. I cleaned up, once cashing, I kid you not, after standing in the same line as a jockey.
More can be read about Massachusetts fair shenanigans in Andrew Beyer’s “My $50,000 Year at the Races.” Lured by the promise of grinding out $1,000 a day just by following the “smart money,” Beyer takes a break from playing the New York circuit to visit Great Barrington Fair, where he loses $1,500 and “the last vestiges of my innocence.”
What the Future Holds
“If slots haven’t made it to the track by this time next fall, said Christian Teja, spokesman for Suffolk Downs, it will likely close the doors on its 70-year history.”
Related: “[Suffolk Downs] has been here since the 1930s, and I would hate to see it go. I hope it’s not turned into more airport parking.”
Another Year Passes
Suffolk Downs’ 2005 meet ended on Wednesday before a small crowd and in cold, wet weather. Numbers on attendance and handle haven’t been released yet, but it’s a safe prediction that both will be down from last year’s modest increases, owing to the spring drizzle and chill that afflicted the meet’s opening weeks and the cancellation of the major stakes schedule. This year was certainly not the track’s best, what with the absence of the Massachusetts Handicap in June, the failed bid for slots, and the sad death of jockey Michel Lapensee in an accident in October. Despite the gloom that opened and closed the season, there were plenty of good moments during the past six months — I think of Stylish Sultana winning the African Prince Stakes in June by a neck on the outside after a strong late move mid-stretch, for instance, which was also the same day that jockey Winston Thompson won six races in an afternoon for the first time. The two-year-old races this July were also a high point. New York trainers Christophe Clement and Reynaldo Abreu shipped in several classy contenders, who were surprisingly well-matched by Suffolk’s own. Watching the baby races here was a nice prelude to watching them in Saratoga.
The meet title for leading jockey went to Thompson, who ended the season with 158 wins, and John Rigattieri, with 93 wins, was the leading trainer. Michael Gill was the leading owner, with 54 wins. Live racing is scheduled to return in May 2006.
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The meet may be over, but Suffolk horses retiring from racing still need help finding new homes.
Suffolk Saturday
Another Suffolk Downs racing season is coming to an end. Originally scheduled to close next Saturday, November 19, Suffolk’s last day will be Wednesday, November 23, to make up for three racing days cancelled earlier this fall. Despite the short fields and tiny pools that particularly plague the track this time of year, there were several good plays on Saturday’s card and even a couple of long-priced winners. In the ninth, Dan’s Soldier, a three-year-old gelding by the same sire as Lost in the Fog, was sent off at 9-1 despite his improving form and a switch from route to sprint. Dan’s Soldier paid $20.60 to win. In the seventh, a three-year-filly named Starship Elaine paid $17.40 to win. I didn’t have Starship Elaine, but my friend Sage, making her very first trip to the track and her very first wager, did. Sage bet the filly because it shared her late grandmother’s name; I should have known not to play against beginner’s luck.
Michel Lapensee, 1947-2005
Talk to a jockey about the dangers of riding and they’ll point out that they’re the only athletes followed by an ambulance. The statement is both fatalistic joke and stark acknowledgment of fact. No jockey gets through a career without injuries; an unfortunate few are permanently disabled or killed riding. Such was the fate of Michel Lapensee, who died last Friday from injuries he suffered in an accident at Suffolk Downs on October 24.
Hundreds of mourners gathered in a Providence church this morning to remember and honor the 58-year-old rider as a husband, father, colleague, and friend. The ceremony was simple and emotional, a burial mass followed by two eulogists. Lapensee’s niece read from a piece she wrote while her uncle lay in intensive care, in which she touched on the question that must have crossed the minds of many others when they heard the news of Lapensee’s death — “Was feeling at one with an animal … worth this?” She was followed by an old friend of Lapensee, who recalled his humor and graciousness, his love of fishing, and his passion for racing. “I can still hear his voice, from when he broke his maiden at Green Mountain. He was in front of me, yelling, ‘I’m going to win, I’m going to win!'” It was that thrill and joy that kept Lapensee at the track long after most jockeys have retired. Walking away from the sport was “never an option,” Lapensee’s son, Michel Jr., told the Boston Globe.
In his 38-year career, Lapensee won 2,678 races from more than 20,000 starts. “When my dad was working,” said Michel Jr., “he was one with the horse.” Lapensee is best known for riding Playing Politics, who in 1998, at the age of 16, became the oldest horse to ever win a race at Suffolk Downs. “He was the oldest racehorse of his generation and would not have achieved the honor without the help and companionship of one Michel Lapensee,” writes Paul Daley in his remembrance of the jockey.
“Mike got on the horse and gave his best,” said trainer Mario DeStefano. On October 24, Lapensee climbed aboard Mecke’s Money for that afternoon’s ninth race. On the far turn, the six-year-old gelding broke his left front cannon bone and fell, throwing Lapensee. It was a $4,000 claiming race. There was no glory to be had but that inherent in riding a thoroughbred at top speed, in doing his best on the racetrack. Lapensee’s dedication to riding kept him coming back, doing the only work he knew and loved, and in the end, it killed him. Was feeling at one with an animal worth a man’s death? That’s impossible to answer. But the presence of so many this morning testified that a life spent riding was not a life spent in vain.
Lapensee Dies From Injuries
Jockey Michel Lapensee died at Massachusetts General Hospital late Friday night from injuries he sustained in an accident during last Monday’s ninth race at Suffolk Downs, in which the six-year-old gelding Mecke’s Money broke down on the far turn, throwing the rider. The 58-year-old Lapensee was a regular on the New England circuit for 30 years, winning 2,678 races out of more than 20,000 starts. He was honored with a moment of silence at the beginning of Suffolk’s Saturday card. In response to the accident, the racetrack has upgraded the track ambulance crew to include a paramedic, a move that won praise from Jockeys’ Guild representative Darrell Haire: “Suffolk Downs is doing the right thing.”
A funeral mass for Lapensee will be held at St. Edward’s Church in Providence on November 3 at 11 a.m. More information can be found on the Suffolk Downs news page.
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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