Aqueduct card cut short; Turfway, Charles Town cancel

Management at the New York Racing Association cancelled the final seven races

at Aqueduct on Friday after two horses broke down around the three-eighths pole

in the second race.

Apex fell after breaking down and was subsequently euthanized. Italian Rules,

who trailed the field of seven through the opening three furlongs, was pulled up

and vanned off after taking a bad step. NYRA later reported Italian Rules tore

his right front suspensory, but the injury was not considered life-threatening.

Concerns with the condition of the track and strong wind gusts necessitated

scrapping the remainder of the card.

Earlier in the day, officials at Turfway Park called off the track's Friday

evening program due to very cold weather.

Later on Friday, Charles Town officials were forced to

cancel the evening racing program due to a malfunction of the batteries

powering the backup lighting system.

The batteries in question are responsible

for keeping the lights around the track functional following a power outage and

before a generator restores power -- a time period of typically less than 30

seconds. The decision was reached by both track management and the Charles Town

board of stewards after conferring prior to the start of the first race.

Following a routine daily walkthrough on Friday, it was

discovered an issue with the batteries had caused them to lose the ability to

supply power enabling the backup lighting to work.

"After we discovered the completely unforeseen issue with

the batteries, our vendor indicated they thought they'd be able to create a

temporary workaround and we wanted to give them a chance to do so," Charles

Town's Vice President of Racing Erich Zimny explained. "But, ultimately, neither us nor

the board of stewards had the level of assurance we'd want that the workaround

would work with certainty.

"Regardless of how infrequently power outages occur,

for the safety of everyone involved, we weren't as comfortable as we'd need to

be to proceed."

Live racing at Aqueduct, Turfway Park and Charles Town is scheduled to resume Saturday.

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