On a rainy, chilly Saturday afternoon inside the enclosed grandstand at Turfway Park, Jim Chambers sat enjoying the races with his buddy Gary Cooper and very little in the way of anyone else.
"Like everything," said Chambers, a Thoroughbred owner from Baltimore, "it's a whole new experience for everybody."
Welcome to the new normal. There's no college basketball, or pro basketball, or golf, or soccer, or hockey, or baseball, or tennis. Thanks to the threat of the coronavirus, the entire sports world has practically shut down. With one exception. Horse racing.
"We're fortunate I think to still be racing," Chambers said.
For now anyway. From Aqueduct in New York to Gulfstream Park in Florida to Santa Anita in California, horses are still running, but without fans in the stands cheering them on. And so it was Saturday at Turfway for its biggest day of the year, Jeff Ruby Steaks Day, featuring the 49th running of the Grade 3 prep race for the Kentucky Derby. There were horses, jockeys, trainers, photographers, media, a few owners and essential track personnel. And that's it.
"It's kind of eerie, to be honest," jockey Rodney Prescott admitted after riding Nun the Less to victory in the Kentucky Cup Classic.
After the NBA suspended its season Wednesday night and the NCAA basketball tournaments were canceled Thursday, most horse racing jurisdictions announced their intentions to continue racing without the general public in attendance.
"Jeff Ruby Steaks Day is a huge day here," Turfway Park general manager Chip Bach said on Saturday. "The social distancing recommendations to keep the coronavirus from spreading, we didn't feel we could see that. We felt like we were going to have too dense a group of guests here, so we thought it was best to unfortunately eliminate the guest component this year."
Bach said the reaction was mostly positive. There were a few ticket-holders who pushed back, but he also heard appreciative voices. "I think everybody is seeing what's going on right now in the country," he said. "Postponing the Masters, canceling the NCAA Tournament. I think everybody has been very willing to work with us and gracious and understanding of what we're trying to do."
Keeneland announced Friday it will take the same approach when its Spring Meet opens next month. Racing will be held without fans April 2 through April 11. The track will then re-evaluate the situation and decide whether spectators can return to the track April 15.
And horse racing is in a unique position that (a) humans are not the main participants and (b) its fans can still participate through wagering online or watching on television.
"Absolutely," Chambers said. "That can be a real advantage for the game because it could draw more people in with TVG and online betting, because people are looking for some entertainment."
So it is this a unique opportunity for racing?
"Hopefully people get bored, flip around the channels and find horse racing," said trainer Mike Maker, whose 3-year-old Field Pass won the Jeff Ruby. "Maybe they'll like it."
"I think horse racing needs to take advantage of any opportunity they can get right now," Chambers said. "I think the public will probably get anxious about sports in general, sooner rather than later."
How long the current setup will last is another question. Trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the Kentucky Derby five times, said he was hearing Churchill Downs will postpone the race until June or September. On Sunday, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan issued an emergency order closing all Maryland casinos, race tracks and betting parlors indefinitely.
As for Turfway, it was scheduled to close at the end of the meet, March 28, anyway. After that, new owners Churchill Downs will construct a new facility that is not scheduled to be finished until the summer of 2021.
In the meantime, Turfway was expected to return to racing, just without fans.
"So it's kind of a weird way to end an era," Bach said. "But we've been here for 20 years and every day at Turfway sometimes there turns out to be something weird."
