Encouraging Start for Tapeta Racing at Belmont

For all the time, effort, and money the New York Racing Association poured into a gold standard drainage system at the new Belmont Park, it was inevitable that heavy rain would wash races off the turf. That day came Sep. 20, the third day of racing on the track's rebuilt racing surfaces, when four races were moved off the turf, while the black-type Forever Together Stakes was contested on the main turf course which was labeled as good. The surface changes lifted the curtain on Belmont's new Tapeta surface with the four races switched to the all-weather surface for the debut of the track's fourth and innermost oval. At first glance, the launch of the Tapeta course was a positive for field retention, as the four races had fields of 8, 12, 12, and 9 for an average of 10.25 per race. Had the races been moved to the muddy main track, it's reasonable to believe the fields would have been half that size. The races also did not generate any major surprises or biases as two of the four winners went off at odds of 5-2 or less and the winners raced early in third, first, ninth, and fourth after the opening quarter mile of the races. Trainer Miguel Clement, who sent out four starters in the four all-weather surface races and won the last of them, was quite pleased with the first glimpse of all-weather racing. "I thought it was great," Clement said. "The horses we expected big performances from before the race delivered and I think that's a great sign that it's true to form. There are some Tapetas where the results have been inexplicable but, I think overall, from the stable's runners on Sunday, a lot of the races went in the sense that the results matched our expectations. That's very satisfying and encouraging for the future." The 35-year-old son of the late Hall of Famer Christophe Clement won the ninth race of the day and final Tapeta race with Oak Bluff Stable's Lyn's Legacy, a daughter of Medaglia d'Oro whose two previous starts were on turf. In the sixth race, a 6-furlong maiden race for 2-year-olds bred in New York on the all-weather course, Barry K. Schwartz's Fierce Hope, a homebred Honest Mischief gelding, closed strongly from 10th (a little more than 9 lengths behind) to finish second by a head for Clement. His other two starters were unplaced. Clement said he likely would have scratched three of his four starters if the races had been contested on the main track. He added that while he scratched Ozara (IRE) from the Forever Together because of the turf conditions, he would have run her if the race had been switched to the Tapeta course. "I was willing to run her on the Tapeta, but not the soft turf," Clement said. Clement also noted how there was not a highly discernible trend in the four races. "There were some speed horses doing well early, so everyone thought it was going to be speed-favoring. Then, in the 2-year-old race, my horse (Fierce Hope) came from (10th of 12) with a devastating turn of foot and missed by a head. It's very encouraging that the track is playing fair," he said. If he had to be critical, Clement said there was more kickback than expected, but the horses seemed to run through it without issue. "Flavien Prat rode the first race for us on it and he thought it was a touch speed-favoring, but then he came back and won from (ninth with trainer Jena Antonucci's first-time starter Soldier's Glory in the sixth race) so I am not sure if he still agrees with that. (Jockey Samiel Marin) spoke about it positively and (jockey) Manny Franco (who won from fourth on Lyn's Legacy) was the most vocal about the kickback." Like everything else at the new Belmont Park (which will not be entirely open until the spring), from the seating, to the dining, to the backyard, the surfaces are a work in progress. NYRA will have about three months to make adjustments to the all-weather surface until it becomes the full-time home to winter racing in December. "They have a few months to tweak everything before we're running over it every day in the winter and then the big question will be how it handles the winter conditions. But what I have heard so far about all four of the new surfaces are glowing reviews," Clement said.