Racing at both Aqueduct and Monmouth at Meadlowlands has been cancelled Friday and Saturday due to heavy rains across the northeast. Aqueduct's Saturday card, which included four graded-stakes races, will be run in its entirety Sunday. Aqueduct has pushed its whole Sunday card out to Wednesday.
The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for the area around Aqueduct, in effect until 12:45 p.m. EDT Friday. A flood watch is in effect until 6:00 a.m. EDT Saturday. Their forecast predicts between two and three inches of rain at Aqueduct during the day, with another one to two inches possible overnight.
Rain remains in the forecast for Saturday, though it will be far less heavy. The National Weather Service calls for a 60 percent chance of rain Saturday, but only an accumulation of a tenth to a quarter of an inch of new precipitation.
Aqueduct was scheduled to run an 11-race card Friday, including the $150,000 Noble Damsel (G3) for fillies and mares at a mile on turf and the $125,000 Ashley T. Cole for New York-breds at 1 1/8 miles on the grass. NYRA has not finalized new dates for these races.
The track will remain open for simulcast Friday. These are the second and third cancellations in the last eight days at Aqueduct, which also cancelled racing last Saturday due to heavy rain and winds from the remnants of tropical storm Ophelia.
Aqueduct has moved its entire 11-race Saturday card to Sunday, with first post scheduled for 12:05 p.m. EDT. The card features the $500,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (G1), the $400,000 Woodward (G2), the $250,000 Gallant Bloom (G2) and the $250,000 Vosburgh (G1). The Vosburgh offers its winner an automatic bid to the Breeders' Cup Sprint.
Races originally scheduled for Sunday at Aqueduct will be run Wednesday with a first post of 1:05 p.m. EDT. That card features a pair of automatic Breeders' Cup qualifiers for 2-year-olds. They include the $200,000 Pilgrim (G2), a Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf prep, and the $200,000 Miss Grillo (G2), whose winner earns a bid to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Wednesday had originally been a dark day.
A flood watch is also in effect until Saturday morning at 6:00 a.m. EDT for East Rutherford, NJ, where Meadowlands is located. The National Weather Service predicts one to two inches of rain during the day Friday, with between 1/2 and 3/4 inch more rain to accrue overnight.
