When turf racing makes its 2022 debut at Aqueduct Racetrack on April 7—provided Mother Nature cooperates—it will generate an enthusiastic round of applause from those New York fans eager to once again see lush green courses and competitive races with large fields and great betting opportunities.
For the most part, those cheers should be directed at the dedicated track maintenance crew working for New York Racing Association senior vice president of operations and capital projects Glen Kozak, which deserves a bow or two for their exhausting efforts in preparing Aqueduct's two turf courses for Thursday's races as well as the April 9 initial turf stakes of the year, the $100,000 Danger's Hour Stakes.
While the grounds crew at Yankee Stadium is cheered amidst the playing of "YMCA" as they merrily manicure the infield, for much of the last week Kozak's team has been diligently working without any fanfare or adulation to get both the inner and outer courses at the Big A ready at a time when the temperatures in the still-chilly Northeast are hardly conducive for generating a verdant turf course.
Fans attending the races at Aqueduct this past weekend had a bird's-eye view of the process that allows for about a two-week jump start on turf racing as a crew of workers ranging in size from 12-18 started to remove the blankets that covered the mile and 7/8ths of a mile circumferences of both turf courses.
All told, a total of about 17 miles of the polyurethane covering will be removed once the process is repeated at Belmont Park.
Yes, 17 miles. Just think about it. If each of the strips were put down end-to-end in one long line it would stretch from Aqueduct to the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale.
Beyond that, once a turf blanket is picked up, great care and firm hands are needed so that, even as the wind does its best to blow it away, the tarp can be neatly folded into a three-inch by two-inch, six-inch tall square and stored away until December.
Take all of that time, effort and financial cost into consideration and it's a luminant sign of the importance and value NYRA places on turf racing.
"It's a very labor-intensive job with a lot of hands-on work that is a great help to us," Kozak said. "We started doing small portions of the track about 12 years ago and after seeing the results now we cover all of the four courses at Aqueduct and Belmont. It's a daunting task. Imagine going to work knowing you have to put down or pick up six miles of blankets. But it helps us race on the turf about two weeks earlier than we would without them and that makes it worthwhile."
Because of the way the blankets are loosely woven to allow water and air to come in while providing some heat to keep the grass from dying, the blankets produce a virtually ready-to-go surface when they are removed.
This past weekend, for example, underneath the blankets at Aqueduct was about 5 1/2 inches of green, healthy grass that actually needed some trimming to meet the standard 4 1/2 to 5-inch length of NYRA turf courses. In contrast, the patches of dormant, uncovered grass alongside the two courses were about an inch-and-an-half tall and will need a few weeks to reach that length.
"We would not be racing on turf Thursday without the blankets," Kozak said.
While a rainy forecast for this week may delay the actual running of that first turf race, the ability to add grass races to Aqueduct's daily cards is a welcomed addition for senior vice president of racing operations Frank Gabriel.
"We still have to deal with the weather that's coming and the climate and the April showers, but it's a plus to have the covers so we can start turf racing as soon as we can and that's a benefit to the horsemen, the owners and the betting public," Gabriel said. "Turf racing is a big part of the NYRA program and if we can start it early that's a great advantage for horses who are stabled with us and those who are coming here after racing in the south. There's a lot of fantastic work by Glen's team that goes into it, but in the end it pays off."
To no one's surprise, the launch of turf racing had a profound and immediate impact on the cards at Aqueduct. While rain could lead to switching the races to the main track, Thursday's card includes three turf races that drew 34 starters (8 of them main track only entries) on a day when 72 horses were entered for the eight races.
The following day's card also has three turf races with 33 entrants (6 MTOs) on an eight-race card with a total of 69 starters.
The two-fold process of putting down and picking up all of those blankets starts in December with an even more time-consuming routine than the spring.
Though it may appear that the tarps are curved, it is actually a result of straight strips overlapping. A variety of sizes are used with each ranging in size from 100-300 feet long and 20-30 feet wide. They are nailed into the ground with turf staples that are six inches long and two inches wide and are florescent pink so they can be easily spotted.
"It takes about a week to cover each course in the winter and our ability to work depends on the weather," Kozak said. "We need to get done before the ground freezes so we can get the staples in the ground."
Led by Brian Jabelmann, Jermaine Dyer, and Mike Haneman, the spring removal of the blankets takes about two days with another two days for fertilizing and grooming the courses and using magnets to make sure none of the staples are left behind.
"I give the guys a ton of credit for all the painstaking work they do." Kozak said. "People can't appreciate what we are doing until they look at the course and here we are, one of the most northern tracks and we're on the turf before a lot of other places. Our guys get their gratification from that."
Who knows? Perhaps some musical accompaniment could provide even more recognition for a job well done.
"I'll think about it. Maybe we can play 'YMCA' on the sound system when we take off the blankets at Belmont," Kozak said with a laugh.
