The race at Belmont Park was canceled and the Washington Nationals’ home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday was postponed poor air quality due to forest fires in Canada.
It’s the second straight day that the ongoing fires north of the border have impacted sports in the northeastern United States. Several Major League Baseball games were canceled on Wednesday. A National Women’s Soccer League game in New Jersey and a WNBA indoor game in Brooklyn were also canceled Wednesday as conditions were hazy, prompting alerts from health officials.
With weather conditions unlikely to change, the smoky blanket of wildfires in Quebec and Nova Scotia is blowing emission of particulate matter clouds As far away as North Carolina and northern Europe, it could last through Thursday and possibly the weekend.
The New York Racing Association has canceled live racing at Belmont Park two days before the Belmont Stakes is scheduled to host the final leg of the Triple Crown.
As previously announced, Thursday morning practice has been canceled at both Saratoga Race Course and Belmont Park. Conditions necessitating the cancellation of practice are expected to continue this afternoon and into the evening, according to the NYRA, and a twilight racing program that would open the opener of the 2023 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival has been cancelled.
“Based on current forecast models and consultation with our external weather services, we remain optimistic that we will see an improvement in air quality on Friday,” NYRA President and CEO David O’Rourke said in a statement.
A statement from Major League Baseball said the Diamondbacks Nationals postponement came after discussions with medical and weather experts and the two teams “in light of clearly hazardous air quality conditions in Washington, DC.”
A makeup game is scheduled for June 22 at 1:05 p.m. at Nationals Park.
The postponement comes a day after the New York and Philadelphia games were postponed due to bad air. The Diamondbacks defeated the Nationals 6-2 on Wednesday when smoky conditions were felt, but not as severely as Thursday.
About 20 minutes before the game was called off, Washington manager Dave Martinez said he walked his dog that morning.
“Not good,” Martinez said. “It was fast. … It’s pretty bad out there.”
The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) has postponed its closed-door baseball state championship games from Thursday to Friday.
The NFL’s New York Giants also canceled practice on Thursday.
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