Belmont Graded Stakes Rescheduled

The weekend's races at Belmont Park were postponed due to rain. (AP Image)"]

The decision the NYRA made to cancel Friday’s nine-race card at Belmont Park was based on a potential four-plus inches of rain expected in New York over the weekend.

The cancellation affected two important scheduled graded stakes races which were advancements to October’s Breeders’ Cup races at Santa Anita. The Pilgrim Grade III, for juvenile colts and the Miss Grillo Grade III, for juvenile fillies 1 1/16 miles on turf for $150,000 are now scheduled for Wednesday.

These two races are part of the "win and you’re in" races. However; as the races were carded for turf, if for some reason the races moved to dirt, they would not longer qualify.

NYRA's director of racing/racing secretary P.J. Campo reported two inches of rainfall Thursday night and early Friday morning. More rain was forecast for Friday and Saturday, though, no rain fell during the four-hours which Friday's Belmont races would have been run.

Campo said he felt comfortable carding one race each on Belmont's two turf courses Sunday, but was leery of doing more than that. The Grade 2 Kelso will be run on the Widener Turf, and a New York-bred maiden will go on the inner turf as the nightcap.

"We just don't think we can get the Kelso and the two baby races in," Campo said. "It's hard to get at least three in with that much rain.

"A lot of guys are counting on these baby races, especially for the Breeders' Cup, being 'win and you're in' ... We thought moving it to Wednesday would probably be the smart thing to do. Everybody's been notified, everyone's pretty happy with the decision."

Trainer, Todd Pletcher, of likely Pilgrim favorite Bittel Road, has expressed his desire to run his horse on the Belmont track, he is keeping his options open such as next Saturday’s Summer Stakes at Woodbine or Sunday’s Woodford Reserve Bourbon at Keeneland.

"We're not committed to staying on firm ground," Pletcher said. "Obviously, when you know a horse handles something you don't want to change anything, but it just depends on what the conditions are like here. If it's a bog, it might sway us to go elsewhere."