Monmouth Park halts racing due to heat; Haskell Invitational will still run

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Monmouth Park officials abruptly halted Saturday's Haskell Day racing card after the first two races. Racing is scheduled to resume at 6 p.m., with only the day's six stakes races to be run.

The $1 million TVG.com Haskell Invitational is scheduled to be run at 8 p.m.

With the heat index expected to climb to 106 degrees, the first sign of trouble came when the day's opening race was delayed 38 minutes while track officials huddled to discuss conditions as temperatures soared. 

The first race was delayed in part  because Governor Phil Murphy reached out to Dennis Drazin, the chairman and CEO of Darby Development, which operates the racetrack, to express his concerns about the conditions the races were to be run under, with the National Weather Service having issued an excessive heat warning for the entire East Coast.

Earlier this year, Murphy signed legislation that provided the state's race tracks with $100 million for purse subsidies over the next five years, with $50 million earmarked for Monmouth Park.

The National Weather Service forecast calls for a high temperature of 95 degrees, with a heat index of 106 on Saturday in Oceanport.

The seven horses that were scheduled to run in the first race were already in the paddock. The jockeys for the first race had not gotten aboard their mounts when they were taken out of the walking ring and put back into paddock area.

Shortly after the horses were taken back to the paddock, the field of seven for the first race was reduced to five, with two horses scratching. Originally, there were nine horses entered for the race.      

Monmouth Park is the only track in the region to be running its races on Saturday. Saratoga, Parx, Laurel Park, Delaware Park and Finger Lakes opted on Thursday not to race, with the forecast calling for heat indexes well over the 100-degree mark.

The track and government regulators was also facing pressure from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), which on Thursday released a statement that said, in part, that "Monmouth officials should be held criminally liable for cruelty." A group of protesters were stationed outside the main entrance to the track as patrons walked in to the grandstand.

Monmouth Park did cancel racing due to intense heat on back-to-back days in 2011. On the second of those days, July 23, the temperature was 98 degrees, with a heat index of 107 degrees.

Track officials have protocols in place designed to keep both horses and patrons safe if it ran races in hot, humid conditions, including extra emergency medical technicians to assist those impacted by the heat.

For horses, post parades will be shortened and water trucks will be equipped to hose down any runners impacted by the heat on the track. There will be ice and a misting system available in the paddock for horses prior to races.