Thursday’s card at Aqueduct was not drawn until 3 p.m. Saturday, some 24 hours after the deadline for trainers to enter their horses had come and gone. At least they put together a card, something that looked to be in jeopardy a few hours earlier. But it’s not much of a card. There will be only eight races with 49 total horses entered, or an average of 6.125 horses per race.

It has never been easy to fill races in New York during the winter, but the last few weeks have been particularly difficult for the NYRA racing office. With the racing week that concluded yesterday, there were 34 races run at Aqueduct and 18 of them had six starters or fewer.

“The last two weekends we held the entry box open to Sunday [for the Thursday programs] to try to bolster the card a little bit,” said NYRA Senior Vice President of Racing Operations Martin Panza. “This week, however, it was a particular struggle, for whatever reason. We’ve struggled the last week, week and a half.”

Due to severe weather, NYRA did not complete a full card from Dec. 29 to Jan. 13. Had there not been that gap in the racing schedule, the current problem of filling races could be that much worse.

Like all racing organizations, NYRA is having to deal with what has become the modern theory on training a race horse–run them as little as possible–which makes it hard to fill races everywhere. But Panza says NYRA has problems that are unique to its circuit, in particular the high cost of workmen’s compensation in New York.

“We were over at Oaklawn trying to hustle some guys to come from Oaklawn for the Belmont meet,” Panza said. “We need dirt horses. So we went down there and that seemed to be the universal theme when you go from barn to barn, people say that they’d love to come to New York, but with workmen’s comp the expenses are just too high. The purses are what they are here but that only helps you if you win. The costs are set. A guy looks at the costs, thinks I have to pay this much for workmen’s comp and this much for my housing, I can find some place cheaper to race. [New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association President] Joe Applebaum is a good guy. If he can get the governor’s office to cooperate with us, hopefully, we can get some things done this year.”

Panza said another problem is the way purses are structured at NYRA, particularly for the lower level races. When there was a rash of breakdowns during the winter of 2012, a panel put in new rules that forbid NYRA from having a purse that is more than double the claiming price. The theory was that if the purses were too big for cheap horses, trainers might run an unsound animal in hopes that it would hold together and get a part of the pot.

“Our $10,000 claimer runs for $20,000 and the $10,000 claimer at Parx runs for $28,000,” Panza said. “Our day rate is $100-a-day and the day rate down there is $65. We’re at a disadvantage on the cheaper end of our claiming races. That’s another thing we have to get the state to allow us to change.”

Panza would also like to see NYRA based horsemen more loyal to the NYRA product. With Laurel and Parx also having big purses, it’s not uncommon to see New York horses head down the highway to run at the competing racetracks. On Saturday, there were six NYRA-based horses that ran at Parx and two at Laurel. One in particular stands out. Trained by Gary Sciacca, the New York-bred Hit It Once More (Hard Spun) has made three straight starts at Parx and ran there in four of his last five starts.

“It certainly doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Panza said of seeing New York horse race out of town. “On one hand they say NYRA is trying to kill winter racing and on the other hand they’re all running some place else. It is very frustrating, especially when we have to run five- and six-horse fields.”

Panza is frustrated to the point that he isn’t afraid to say that NYRA might need to further cut back on its winter dates.

“We probably need to run just three days a week in the winter, like they do at Laurel and Parx,” he said.

After the Keeneland spring meet ends, NYRA has a much easier time filling races as the major outfits have made it back to New York by then. In the meantime, it looks like it’s going to be a rough winter.

The Keeneland Library is paying tribute to Pierre Bellocq, the internationally celebrated artist better known as “Peb,” with the exhibit “Artistry of Peb: Fifty Years of Features” that opens Monday, Feb. 5, and a virtual exhibit now available on Keeneland.com titled “The Artistry of Peb.”

“Artistry of Peb” showcases 18 of Bellocq’s features from The Morning Telegraph and Daily Racing Form spanning the mid-1950s to the mid-2000s. Peb’s work also appeared in this publication on several occasions, including his cover page ahead of American Pharoah’s Triple Crown bid in 2015 (see picture right).

The Keeneland Library, founded in 1939, is the caretaker of priceless materials related to Thoroughbred racing. In 2009, Peb placed his collection of approximately 2,500 original works of art, including sketches, drawings, comic strips, cartoon and caricatures of the equine industry, at the Library. The collection includes work in pen and ink, watercolor, chalk, acrylic and pencil on paper or board stock. A number of Peb’s original signed pieces adorn the walls of the Sports Bar on the second floor of the Keeneland Grandstand.

“The Keeneland Library is delighted to feature Peb’s work, which so cleverly portrays notable personalities and racing events within broader cultural contexts,” Keeneland Library Director Becky Ryder said.

Curated by Head Librarian Roda Ferraro, the exhibit in the Library features high-quality facsimiles of the somewhat fragile original drawings to ensure they are not damaged by long-term exposure to light. Visitors also will be able to watch a video about Peb produced by Keeneland’s Broadcast Services Department. The exhibit is to run through the summer.

The Keeneland Library is open to the public Mondays through Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET.

The online exhibit, “The Artistry of Peb,” highlights more than 120 of Peb’s digitized works. It joins the Library’s other online features at http://keenelandlibrary.omeka.net/exhibits, “Man o’ War: In Others’ Words” and “Photo Treasures of the Keeneland Library.”

On its social media channels in February and March, Keeneland will feature Peb’s work of major stakes in conjunction with the 2018 renewals of those races.

An intriguing group of 3-year-olds take their respective first steps along the Triple Crown trail in Saturday’s GII Holy Bull S. at Gulfstream Park. Well-bred Godolphin colorbearer Enticed (Medaglia d’Oro–It’s Tricky) breaks from the fence in the field of 11 as he looks to pick up where he left off. A debut winner in the Saratoga slop in early September, he was third behind Firenze Fire (Poseidon’s Warrior) and subsequent GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and Eclipse champion Good Magic (Curlin) in Belmont’s GI Champagne S. Oct. 7. The dark bay resurfaced in Churchill’s GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. Nov. 25, and held off Tiz Mischief (Into Mischief) by a head as the narrow favorite.

“This is a key race for us to see how they stack up,” said Enticed’s conditioner Kiaran McLaughlin, who has saddled two of the last four winners of this event (Cairo Prince in 2014 and Mohaymen in 2016) as well as Closing Argument in 2005. “He’s done everything right and he won a nice race last time out. The colt that he beat a nose at Churchill is probably the horse to beat for us, one of the ones to beat. He’s doing great and we’re happy, but it’s hard to compare him to Cairo Prince and Mohaymen and other horses to him.”

Tiz Mischief’s trainer Dale Romans has entered four in the Holy Bull. He’s also got two for Albaugh Family Stables in GI Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity winner Free Drop Billy (Union Rags) and two-time graded stakes-placed Hollywood Star (Malibu Moon), as well as Calumet’s likely longshot Bandito (Creative Cause). Of the Albaugh duo, it’s likely that only one will race.

“It’s to get them all started, but it also fits for all the horses,” Romans said. “If I run three, it’ll be for three different owners. I might be better for me to keep them all separated, but I think this is the best race for all these horses to start back this year.”

The meet’s perennial leading trainer Todd Pletcher only has one Holy Bull trophy on his mantle, but has two live chances to add to his collection. Audible (Into Mischief), a $500,000 Fasig-Tipton buy at the Gulfstream 2-year-old sale last season, defeated a pair of next-out graduates while stretching out in New York-bred company in November. He then dusted open optional claimers in a rained off affair back at the Big A Dec. 6. Pony Up (Aikenite) just missed first up over this strip back in July, but has competed exclusively on turf since then. He was second in both the Dec. 9 Pulpit S. and Jan. 6 Kitten’s Joy S.

Mississippi (Pioneerof the Nile), a $700,000 pick-up out of the same Fasig sale as Audible, gave that one’s stablemate Noble Indy (Take Charge Indy) a hard fight when a close second in a track-and-trip optional claimer Jan. 11. Noble Indy garnered the ‘TDN Rising Star’ distinction for the win, while Mississippi received a field’s best Beyer Speed Figure of 88.