'We dropped the ball': O'Rourke addresses Pick 5 snafu

That’s how New York Racing Association president David O’Rourke characterized the announcement Sunday that the last three turf races on the card would be moved to the main track.

The announcement outraged bettors because it was made just before the start of the sixth race, first leg of the late Pick 5. The decision came after Ever Summer was euthanized after falling during the fourth race, which was on the inner turf. Also during that race, another filly, Frivole, was pulled up on the second turn and vanned off.

O’Rourke appeared on the Talking Horses program Wednesday with TV analyst and NYRA handicapper Andy Serling.

“After the fifth race, the jocks reached out to the racing office,” O’Rourke said. “They wanted to discuss the turf course. And the initial reaction is, take everything off the turf for the rest of the day. We've had an incredible amount of rain since we've begun the meet, it's impacted the meet in several ways. And safety first, instinct was to take it off the turf. There are protocols internally. So the discussion with the jocks did occur.

“We pulled the races off the turf, and the intention was to refund everything, which is slightly out of the norm, but it felt like the right thing to do,” O’Rourke continued. “We were not able to refund the pools. The stewards ultimately make decisions in terms of what are in the rules on one or not. And once in a while you'll find gaps for strange situations. So we were not able to refund but we had made the decision to take them off the turf. Now, they're loading into the gate, essentially, for the sixth. There was a request for time we weren't able to get time. So now we're in the worst-case scenario where they're becoming alls, and there's no excuse for it.”

Noting that if the discussion with the jockeys happened after the fifth race, there were 35 minutes until the sixth, Serling asked why there was a delay.

O’Rourke replied, “I can go through the timeline over and over, but it comes down to the fact that from the player's perspective, in that certain situation, we dropped the ball. I can't make any other excuse for it. … I can apologize and I am apologizing to the betting community. We will work on protocols to streamline this. The initial decision for coming off the turf was the right decision. How we handle it internally and get the information out, we need to get better. There's no other way I can put this. I can't back off from it."