One year ago this week, Preakness week, the question was whether horse racing was going to be shut down, maybe for good.
Now, after seven weeks without racing in Kentucky, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Talk of last year's equine fatalities at Santa Anita, of PETA demonstrations and calls for safety and drug reforms have been replaced by the sight of horse trailers finally pulling into the previously empty backside at Churchill Downs, of California tracks possibly re-opening this weekend, of Keeneland perhaps securing race dates this summer.
"Today, it was starting to feel like a normal day on the backside of Churchill Downs," Kevin Flanery, Churchill Downs president, said Tuesday. "And that was really refreshing."
Horsemen are ecstatic. Saturday's card for opening day of Churchill's spring meet drew 162 entries, if you count also-eligibles. The confirmed fields for the 11 races averaged 11.3 horses per field. Sixteen different jockeys are scheduled for one mount each. Star jocks Joel Rosario and John Velazquez are both scheduled to ride Saturday.
Everyone agrees it's a strong card. Monomoy Girl, winner of the 2018 Kentucky Oaks, will make her first start since winning the Breeders' Cup Distaff that same year. Having missed 2019 because of colic and a pulled hamstring, the Brad Cox-trained filly was all revved up with nobody to race this year until Gov. Andy Beshear agreed to a resumption of in-state racing. Monomoy Girl will run in Saturday's fourth race, an Allowance Optional Claiming, at 2:32 p.m.
This will be without spectators, much the same way Turfway Park in Florence held races up to March 25, the final day of live racing inside the state before track owner Churchill Downs halted it to comply with new CDC and state guidelines in this coronavirus pandemic.
Saturday's safety protocols will be much stricter than the ones used at Turfway back in March. Attendance will be restricted to essential personnel. Anyone coming on to the track will be subjected to temperature checks and a bevy of basic medical questions. Anyone showing any suspicious signs of possible symptoms will not be allowed on the grounds. Masks are required. Color-coded bands will be dispensed good for the day.
Those precautions were among the proposals Churchill submitted to Beshear last month. After some back and forth between the track and the governor, Beshear endorsed the return, much to the joy of the racing community frustrated by the fact tracks in Florida (Gulfstream) and Arkansas (Oaklawn) were allowed to race without spectators while Churchill Downs was not.
Horses from the Churchill-owned Fair Grounds in Louisiana arrived on Monday _ "We're so glad to be coming home," said Louisville-based trainer Greg Foley. Horses from Florida are to begin arriving Thursday. Horses from Arkansas can enter through the new stable gate on Sunday.
Once Churchill's 26-day meet ends on June 27, might Keeneland be awarded some July dates to help make up for the cancellation of its spring meet? The track has been involved in talks with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and other state tracks about possibilities. And when Churchill Downs announced its expanded list of races that will earn qualifying points toward the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, the Blue Grass Stakes was included. That lends hope to the belief Keeneland's top Derby prep, originally scheduled for April 4, may be run this summer, after all.
Meanwhile, Santa Anita and Golden Gate in California hope to resume racing on Friday, without spectators. Woodbine Race Track in Toronto, thought to be closed for the summer, might be allowed to re-open in June. And there is still hope that the Belmont Stakes and Preakness will both be run, though probably not in their traditional order. The Belmont might be run first and at a mile and a quarter instead of the traditional mile-and-a-half.
As for Kentucky racing, Saturday will be a happy day at Churchill Downs.
"It's been tough on us all," trainer Michelle Lovell told the track's public relations department, "but we are so thankful racing is back at Churchill Downs."
