In a meet that has seen rain slickers become part of fashionable wardrobes, the impact of extended days of wet weather took its toll on another day of racing at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 10 as five scheduled turf races were moved to the main track.
Those changes brought the total of races taken off the turf courses and moved to the main track to 35 through 21 days of racing at the 40-day meet. That figure does not include a turf stakes that was postponed and two cancelled turf races as well as a cancelled steeplechase race.
Last year, only five races came off the turf in the first 21 days of the meet.
Dampening the situation even more, weather forecasts for Thursday evening are calling for thunderstorms. That could have a major impact on the Aug. 11 card which features five turf races, including the $500,000 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (G2T), the aforementioned 3-year-old turf stakes which was cancelled due to heavy rain Aug. 4 and moved to Friday's card.
The final four races on Aug. 4 were not contested, three of them scheduled for turf.
While mostly sunny conditions are expected for Friday, forecasts for Aug. 12 include the possibility of afternoon or evening thunderstorms. The featured race on Saturday is the $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap (G1T), a mile turf race.
Thursday's loss of turf racing marks the fifth straight racing day some or all of the grass races were moved or cancelled.
