TRM Trainer of the Quarter - Jim Bolger

The TRM Trainer of the Quarter goes to Jim Bolger. It is difficult to know if Jim Bolger will look back on spring 2007 with fondness or frustration, On the one hand, he broke a long drought, plundering the 1,000 Guineas 16 yrs after Jet Ski Lady had given him his only British Classic success. But that same evening Bolger must have Newmarket pondering what might have been, Teofilo's knee injury denying him the chance of a rare Guineas double.

James Crispe (European Trainer - Issue 18 / Summer 2007)

California Horse Racing Board explain their drug testing procedures

>The rules of racing are intended to maintain a level playing field; any drug testing program is meant to monitor compliance to those rules. In reality, drug testing is a deterrent. For truly illicit activity where the intent is to take an unfair advantage (cheat), the current program in California is working well. But we know it isn’t perfect. We are always looking for holes in the system and ways to improve the program.

The CHRB began conducting out-of-competition testing as a routine part of their drug regulation program in mid-February. Blood doping agents are the targets of this testing. Specifically, these are epoetin (Epogen®, Procrit®, “EPO”) and darbepoetin (Aranesp®). These drugs are synthetic forms of the natural hormone erythropoietin; they all stimulate red blood cell production. These drugs are administered several days in advance of racing and will not be detected in post-race testing. Out-of-competition testing is the only way these drugs can be identified. This is the reason out of competition is critical in human sports testing. Other prohibited peptide hormones will be included in the testing protocol as those tests are brought on line. We will not be testing for routine therapeutic medications, but we will be specifically testing for the synthetic hemoglobin Oxyglobin®.

Horses are selected for out-of-competition testing by both random and non-random methods. Non-random methods will have specific objective criteria to identify a group of horses. For example, last fall horses nominated to the Cal Cup was the selection criteria. Trainers will not be targeted by non-random methods without cause. We have tried to make the program as unobtrusive as possible. This is a new program; we welcome constructive recommendations to make the sampling process easier for everyone. A key element to this program is unpredictability so we will not be able to restrict testing to any specific day or days.

The CHRB will be expanding its program of freezing routine, cleared samples for retroactive testing. Retroactive testing will involve testing random samples with new tests or selecting specific samples based on specific information. If an illicit drug is being used for which we did not have a test at the time the sample was analyzed, we now have the ability to go back and re-examine the sample with a new test.


We are also in the process of developing the anabolic steroid testing program. Currently, nandrolone (Durabolin®), boldenone (Equipoise®), stanazolol (Winstrol-V®), and testosterone are Class IV drugs and will be handled as category D penalties (warnings) under the new penalty guidelines. All other anabolic steroids are at least Class III violations. We will be asking trainers and veterinarians to assist us in developing withdrawal time information to avoid future problems. Within the next 12 months, anabolic steroids are expected to be regulated in most states. Congressman Whitfield of Kentucky has introduced federal legislation requiring a total prohibition as opposed to the proposed regulation state by state.

A new website should be of use to trainers and veterinarians. The RMTC is hosting a site for withdrawal time information around the country for cooperative jurisdictions. The site is www.rmtcnet.com; go to the Withdrawal Times box and follow the instructions. These are the best available estimates at this time for California and many other states. Not all drug withdrawal times are available, but additional information will be added in the future as it becomes available.

Horsemen need to be aware several drugs remain problematic:

Fluephenazine is a long-acting tranquilizer. Two separate fluphenazine (Prolixin®) positives are working through the process where the administration periods were purported to be 14 days and 16 days prior to racing. These administration dates are supported by the veterinarians’ confidential reports. Unfortunately, fluephenazine has been shown to be pharmacologically active for over a month and is a Class II violation, a serious offense. This should raise concern for any trainer or veterinarian when fluephenazine is being administered anywhere close to a race. A 30-day withdrawal time is recommended as a minimum until more research information becomes available. Be aware this drug is confirmed in the blood rather than urine because of its unique elimination characteristics.

Hydroxyzine is a very useful medication for chronic allergies, including urticaia (hives) and respiratory allergies. Hydroxyzine metabolizes to ceterizine, which is also a pharmacologically active drug.  Hydroxizine is administered orally and the last two positives have been in powdered formulations prepared by a veterinary compounding pharmacy. As with all oral medications administered by barn personnel, mistakes are easy to make. A single oral dose of 250mg clears in 96 hours, but we have seen 8 times this dose on some prescriptions. The trainers have claimed they stopped the medication at 5 days in two of the cases. A seven-day withdrawal time may not be adequate at high doses or when using compounded preparations.

Methocarbamol continues to be a problem. We had suspected these violations were coming from compounded injectable methocarbamol with inconsistently formulated strengths. That may be a factor, but the most common finding is oral administration along with a methocarbamol injection at 48 hours. Again, oral administration increases the chance for management error and can be expected to extend the delectability of the drug in post-race samples.

TCO2 is still occasionally a problem, but we believe some violations may be inadvertent. We advise trainers to minimize and closely monitor their pre-race medication schemes, keep your horse well hydrated, and never administer an imbalanced or excessive electrolyte load. A significant number of horses have been administered one or another paste formulation of vitamins and/or electrolytes within 24 hours of the race. Many of these paste vitamin/electrolyte preparations contain bicarbonate or other alkalizing agents. Some certainly have high electrolyte concentrations. Be aware that these products are not permitted on race day. Oddly, there is a glaring disparity between northern and southern California. There has been about twice the rate of violations in northern California as in southern California, which was not case prior to last summer. We do know the pre-race medication protocols are different between the north and south. Regardless, the pre-race testing TCO2 program has worked well to deter the race day use of alkalizing agents. We have had only one trainer exceed 39 mmls/l since the CHRB took over the program and he received a 15-day suspension for the violations. The warnings letters for over 36mmls/l has also worked well. Prior to this program, the rate of samples 36.0mmls/l or higher was 1.4%; the rate is now at 0.2%.

Methamphetamine is a great concern to every regulator and should be to every trainer. This is our most common Class I violation. These are most likely from human derived contamination by someone in the barn having a “meth” drug abuse problem. This is a surprisingly common and cheap drug. We do not believe there has been intent to drug any of the horses, but amphetamines cannot be tolerated in horse racing for obvious reasons. The lightest penalty for the trainer to date has been a 120-day suspension.

There are several developments of importance to trainers in the enforcement and hearing process. The CHRB has been willing to settle cases administratively if a trainer so desires. Any settlement has to be mutually acceptable to both parties. Whether to settle a complaint or go to hearing is entirely up to the licensee. All settlement agreements must be approved by the Board of Stewards or the Board. As CHRB policy, all settlements are publicly announced. The other change we are seeking is in the hearing process where Class I, II, & III violations would be heard first in front of a hearing officer or the Board of Stewards rather than the Office of Administrative Hearings. This requires legislative changes currently under consideration in Sacramento. Lastly, the new penalty guidelines will soon be finalized. The penalties are significant for Class I, II, & III violations, but the hearing officer or Board of Stewards must take into account mitigating factors from the licensee and aggravating from the state. The intention is to allow a fairer process for the trainer or any other licensee charged in the complaint.

Lastly, under the new penalty guidelines with NSAID violations (phenylbutazone, flunixin, ketoprofen), the trainer can elect to deal directly to the Official Veterinarian with a set penalty schedule or to go to the Board of Stewards for a formal hearing. All penalties in this category call for higher fines than have typically been issued under the current process. Fines are significantly higher for multiple violations and especially high levels of the NSAID’s.

The CHRB’s hope is that the programs we have established will protect the integrity of our racing, be fair to all horsemen, and reduce violations over time. The goal is for California to have the cleanest, fairest racing in the United States.

Rick M. Arthur, DVM, - (01 July 2007 - Issue Number: 4)

THE FUTURE OF RACING IN CALIFORNIA - A NEW SAGA

California is racing into the future, or maybe not. As of writing, there is turmoil and uncertainty as to how racing will develop in the immediate future. A long-term prognosis is even more uncertain. The California Legislature has placed a stranglehold on funding for the California Horse Racing Board.

The confirmation of one CHRB Commissioner is being threatened, while three other Commissioners are considering resigning in protest. In Northern California, Bay Meadows racetrack is refusing to commit to racing but refusing to provide information on when they will quit racing. Similarly in Southern California, Hollywood Park racetrack continues to operate, but has let it be known that the guillotine is poised to drop. The picture is confused, and the confusion is complicated because of a prior mandate that all tracks racing more than four consecutive weeks install synthetic surfaces before 2008.

Whether or not this all gets straightened out in the near future, and I suspect it will, it makes a fascinating story about racing, money, land speculation, personalities, and politics. The underlying theme of all this is the use of vast amounts of pension fund cash to purchase assets that are valuable for both their land value and their speculative value. The properties in question are possible beneficiaries of “mitigation funds” that may come from California Indian tribes. Stockbridge Capital, the owner of both Hollywood Park and Bay Meadows, invested pension fund money to buy what it saw as undervalued real estate. The plan was to close the tracks and reap the rewards of putting the land to its best use. Somewhere along the way the investor discovered there was a way to make a fortune in easy money while still holding the land for its continuing appreciation. A circumstance like this one is probably the derivation of the expression, “have your cake and eat it, too.”

THE REAL ESTATE ANGLE: 

The law requires that Indian tribes pay “mitigation” to industries affected because of decreases in revenue due to Indian gaming. Horse racing is clearly one of those industries. Stockbridge claims it is entitled to $25 million per year for each property it owns. That amount, in addition to what they can make off of racing, makes it worth while for them to keep their properties as racetracks. It’s a nice situation to be in, $50 million a year, with no work and no expenditure of effort. The Indian tribes aren’t falling for the deal. The days of buying Manhattan for beads are long gone. At a recent convention of Indian Gaming Tribes, the mere mention of the word “mitigation” brought an angry reaction from the crowd. “No mitigation, hell no, no mitigation” was the response. With the exception of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, every other segment of the industry recognizes the pie-in-the-sky nature of the demands of Stockbridge.

THE POLITICS: 

The Commissioners of the California Horse Racing Board are caught in a trap. They mandated installation of synthetic surfaces and Bay Meadows wants permission to race for some unspecified period without installing the surface. Golden Gate Fields planned to have a synthetic surface in this summer. Golden Gate management believed it deserved extra dates for meeting the mandate, and the majority of CHRB Board members believe they ought to have those extra dates if they comply with the mandate and have a safer surface. When Bay Meadows asked to be allowed to run for two years without a synthetic surface, the CHRB Board members said “no.” Terry Fancher, who is the Managing Partner of Stockbridge Capital Group, has spent what he calls a fortune for political contributions in Sacramento trying to “help racing.” One must assume he has, therefore, been able to make friends in the Legislature. Along comes State Senator Leland Yee, who represents the district in which Bay Meadows is located.  He attacks the CHRB members who voted to deny Bay Meadows the right to run without a synthetic surface. He introduces SR 14,  a resolution calling for the State Senate to ask for the resignation of CHRB Chairman Richard Shapiro. He also threatens to derail the confirmation of Commissioner John Amerman.  And the most recent twist architected by Senator Yee was to have the CHRB budget zeroed out, which could lead to the cessation of racing throughout the State. This story has the aura of the 1971 Roman Polanski film, “Chinatown.”  Racing is in the middle of a real life screenplay.

In reality, all Richard Shapiro has done is to be the most effective and constructive leader of the CHRB in the past two decades. He has made his chairmanship a full-time job, without remuneration. He has been the activist the industry has long needed. And he has worked tirelessly for the benefit of horsemen, for the control of drugs and medication, and for the safety of horses. Commissioner Amerman has improved the Board by bringing his wisdom, long-time knowledge of the industry, experience, and success to the table and supported the same programs as Commissioner Shapiro.

Senator Yee has a different agenda. He wants to use his political power to keep racing alive at Bay Meadows. Apparently, he doesn’t care about the fact that the ownership of Bay Meadows won’t make any commitment or agreement to race. He doesn’t care about the fact that the Bay Meadows management is willing to leave horsemen without any ability to plan for the future or to create alternative racing sites. And he certainly doesn’t care about the safety of the horses and the riders.  He says he wants to prevent people from losing their jobs. There will be no lost jobs. The jobs will move to the new venues. He just wants to keep them in San Mateo for a short period of time at the expense of the entire racing industry.

No doubt all this political posturing will pass and it may well have passed by the time this magazine reaches the reader.  One suspects that common sense will outpace political decadence. Sacramento politics often seems to encourage people to start with the most outrageous position one can take and back-off throughout the political process. None the less, the Leland Yee anti-CHRB campaign makes a juicy story. Unfortunately, it leaves a lot of wasted energy and anxiety in its wake. Senator Yee is either naively listening to a string of misinformation or is exhibiting callous disregard for the welfare of the 40,000 to 50,000 thousand people whose families are supported by the racing industry. One wonders how his sole purpose could be to get a few more days of racing at Bay Meadows in 2008.

Horsemen can be assured of one thing. The industry has put together contingency plans. Should Bay Meadows fail to race in 2008, the racetrack at Pleasanton is ready to step in and fill the void probably with a new synthetic surface, an expanded barn area, and improved fan facilities. The fairs are willing to realign their schedules to improve the quality of summer racing. The proposed schedule also includes a continuing series of turf racing opportunities. That is a first for Northern California and would be a considerable improvement over the current situation. It may just turn out that the death of Bay Meadows breathes new life into what has been a slow lingering decline in Northern California racing. If readers want to express any thoughts on this issue, a good place to start would be with a letter to Senator Leland Yee at State Capitol, Room 4048, Sacramento, CA 95814.  His telephone number is (916) 651-4008.  A copy should go to Senator Don Perata, State Capitol, Room 205, Sacramento, CA 95814.  (916) 651-4009.

Edward I. Halpern, CTT Exec - (01 July 2007 - Issue Number: 4)

Gregson Foundation Honors Joe & Barbara Harper

Twin Palms in Pasadena was jammed with 400 guests on April 23 to honor Joe and Barbara Harper of Del Mar at the annual Edwin J. Gregson Foundation benefit hosted by California Thoroughbred Trainers.

About $100,000 was raised for the foundation, which since its inception seven years ago, has raised close to $1 million specifically for educational purposes for backstretch workers and their families.


Following a video tribute and an introduction by Peter Tunney, Del Mar Thoroughbred Club officials Craig Fravel, executive vice president, and Tom Robbins, vice president-racing, spoke glowingly of the track’s long-time president, CEO, and general manager and wife Barbara.


The Harpers have long been viewed as the unofficial hosts and ambassadors of goodwill of the seven-week summer meet at the San Diego County coastal track.


For those in the racing industry who view Del Mar as a sort of summer camp, Joe and Barbara are perceived as its counselors.


CTT honored the Harpers for their outstanding leadership and countless charitable efforts to benefit those in need and for their many achievements and contributions to the horse racing industry.


Joe has donated his time as chairman of Winners Foundation, director of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, chairman of the advisory board of the UC Davis Center for Equine Health and a member of the advisory board of the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program. Barbara has been busy with roles in numerous civic projects. 
Joe and Barbara have been married 43 years and are the parents of four daughters.

Joe, grandson of legendary Hollywood director Cecil B. de Mille, joined the track in 1977 and since taking over its leadership has orchestrated one of the biggest success stories in the sport.
“Joe is simply the best,” said Robbins. “His demeanor and style are perfect for the job.”
Fravel added, “Joe and Barbara both know the importance of putting on a good show.”


Harper took the microphone from his wife with his usual impeccable timing, deferring to her as the power behind the scenes and saying, “Thank you, Gracie.”
After several moments of roast-style humor, Harper turned serious and underscored the significance of the event and the late trainer after whom it was named.
“

Eddie Gregson was a guy I always went to, and he’d give it to me, right between the eyes,” said Harper appreciatively of the trainer’s no-holds-barred candor. “I wish there were more guys like him in the industry.”


One of the most fruitful programs in the foundation is a fund for scholarship grants that has enabled more than 60 individuals to attend college.
New grant recipients last year were Michael Ascanio, Bobby Ochoa, Lyssa Ortega, Francisco Rangel, Mayra Salmeron, Angel Solorzano, Luis Solorzano, and Daniel Valenzuela.


Noting the myriad problems plaguing the industry in recent years, Harper hoped the scholarship money would be well invested. “I hope some of you kids stick around to help us,” said Harper. “Our future is in your hands.”

Steve Schuelein (01 July 2007 - Issue Number: 4)  Posted 

Jockey School - we spend a day at the North American Racing Academy

​By Frances Karon

Standing in the classroom of the North American Racing Academy (NARA) at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky is a sensory thrill. The smell of leather, the sharp crack of reins slapping against outstretched necks as seven jockeys scrub hard on their mounts. If you close your eyes and listen to the strained breathing of the riders you can almost hear the cadence of the hooves. The only thing that isn’t real are the horses, but with names like John Henry, Alysheba and Sunday Silence, they are all but real.

Chris McCarron’s voice rises above the din, all at once coaxing, encouraging, taunting and unrelenting. Looking at the red-faced students you can pick out the ones who want it the most, their attention focused forward between their horses ears with intensity. Stopwatch in hand, McCarron counts down from ten and gets stuck on four amid a chorus of pained protests. “Four…four…four…three…two…one. To the victor go the spoils!” The riders nearly collapse from the exertion. “Yeaaah, look at the grimace in her face!” He’s given them quite a workout.
Welcome to a typical day at NARA, the first program of its kind in the United States and Canada, where McCarron, retired from the jockey colony but far from retired, is whittling his inaugural class of 11 aspiring students into the jockeys of tomorrow. After this particular drill, McCarron explains to them that they’ve just ridden their mechanical Equicizer horses for a minute and nine seconds, the equivalent of a six-furlong sprint. They can hardly believe it. They might have guessed they were competing in the 1½-mile Belmont Stakes.
NARA only opened its doors in 2006 but the concept is older than many of its students, dating back to the time McCarron spoke to young jockeys at a racing school in Japan in 1988. “I was very impressed with the program. That’s actually what planted the seed in my head about establishing a program here in this country.” He has since been to almost every riding school on offer and has put together a curriculum that borrows from his research. The end result is a combination of what he calls “the way I was taught to ride and the sort of European style, whereby the students have to take care of the horses as well as getting on them.” This way, he says, “they’re learning a respect for the animal, respect for the people who actually get the horses prepared for them to ride. It gives them a much greater appreciation of all the hard work that goes into getting a horse to the races.”

Prior to earning multiple Eclipse Awards and a Hall of Fame induction, McCarron was fortunate enough to find a mentor in trainer Odie Clelland, who had helped launch a fledgling Eddie Arcaro into his successful career. He recalls his first time on a Thoroughbred, working as a 16-year-old hotwalker for Clelland. “I was scared to death. I’d just been riding the pony around, so knowing what a Thoroughbred is capable of doing I was terrified. When he saw the fear in my face he told me to jump off and I just froze. He reached up and pulled me off. It was a good while before I was back on a Thoroughbred.” But eventually he conquered his “fear of the unknown” and tried again. One of his goals at NARA is to take away that fear and give his students all the tools they need to be confident, conscientious riders with an ingrained understanding of horsemanship.
McCarron says the jockey system in place in this country is like putting “somebody behind the wheel of a NASCAR automobile without having been formally trained. It’s crazy, considering the amount of investment that is in this thing called the Thoroughbred horse. You’ve got the breeders, the owners, the trainers, all the stable help, the farm help, and then when you involve the betting public, you have thousands of people that have an interest in this horse. And, a jockey walks into a paddock having received no formal training whatsoever, gets a leg up from a trainer and is expected to go out there and perform like a professional. It’s wacko, it’s wacko.”

The picture he paints of the uneducated young jockey in the driver’s seat for the Indy 500 brings the lack of training many of today’s riders receive into frightening perspective. It is almost inconceivable that NARA is the first of its kind in these parts, where the Thoroughbred industry is a lucrative business. Steve Cauthen, like fellow retired Hall of Famers Laffit Pincay Jr. and Eddie Delahoussaye, is on the academy’s board. “It’s a great thing,” says Cauthen, “something that has been needed here for a long time. It’s amazing that there’s never been a jockey school in America.” Everyone seems to agree that the racing school is long overdue and that McCarron is the perfect fit at the helm. He is patient, intelligent, articulate, and totally committed to the endeavor. Spend some time with Chris McCarron and you quickly understand that he does not accept failure lightly.

NARA is intertwined with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), meaning that the students, all of whom have obtained either a high school diploma or a GED equivalent and who pay a tuition to the college based on the number of credit hours they take, can opt to take additional courses in English, math and science to graduate with an Associate’s Degree in Equine Science. NARA’s organizational framework under the KCTCS banner reveals a futuristic blueprint extending beyond the Professional Jockey Certificate. Soon, individuals who are interested in other careers in the horse industry will be able to go after a Professional Horsemen’s Certificate or a Racing Office Professional’s Certificate.

NARA has some other exciting plans, including a top-notch facility with its own track and dorm at the Horse Park. Besides what it has attracted from donors, the program received sizeable state funding in 2006 but has a long way to go before it raises the $15-million required to convert an artist’s rendering into their actual campus. In the meantime, students and instructors split time between their headquarters at the Horse Park and The Thoroughbred Center. McCarron hopes to go before the General Assembly to request financial assistance for NARA, and, if all else fails, “get on my knees and beg.”

NARA is providing a win-win situation for its students and consequently, in a few years’ time, for racing. McCarron cites the specialized coaching and instruction other professional athletes receive. “What that demonstrates is there’s a greater need for that teaching, that tutoring, in order to help a person reach his or her full potential as an athlete.” With jockeys, “not only do we not have someone formally teaching us ahead of time, after we begin our careers we have to learn our trade from our competitors. How much is someone going to help me when I go out there and beat him three times in an afternoon? When you first start out, it’s easy to go to a veteran and say, can you teach me how to switch my sticks faster, can you teach me how to make a horse change leads better, how to break out of the gate more quickly, how to talk to a trainer about his horse being sore – those kinds of things. And the veterans will help you only to a degree, and then when you go out there and start winning races on a daily basis, those good lessons start slowing down and so it creates a pretty steep learning curve. I just think it really stunts someone’s growth when they don’t have someone mentoring them, telling them when they’ve done something right and when they’ve done something wrong.” McCarron does not hesitate on either count.

Recruiting last year was a bit rushed and applicants chiefly found their way to the racing academy through word of mouth. Before accepting students for classes beginning in the fall of 2007, NARA “will be sending a letter along with a flyer to all the jocks rooms around the country, every racecourse around the country and have it posted in the jocks room and try to do something that way. But eventually, long term, what I plan to do is use the resources at KCTCS and be able to get into the high schools and get word to them and start actively recruiting potential students that way,” McCarron says. He anticipates having more applicants to the program this year and refers to the initial interest from freshmen, sophomores and juniors in high school who requested information packets last year.

During the screening process, the students have to demonstrate that they are “serious about pursuing a career as a rider.” They must have the natural physique to keep light without putting their bodies at risk. In addition, NARA is “looking for someone who is at least going to express some passion about being a jockey. Not someone that is like, well, you know, maybe I’ll try this, and if it works, fine, if not…”
Chris McCarron is all about the passion. When he says that the apprentices “can expect a lot of hard work from me, a lot of dedication from me to help them become the best riders they can be under my watch,” he means it. He also means it when he says, “what they can expect is to be involved in a very tough program. It’s a lot of hard work, takes a lot of discipline. I’m a taskmaster. Very fair, but by the same token, if you’re not carrying your load you’re not going to go as far in this program as you would compared to someone who goes even further than carrying their load.” Passion, it seems, is a prerequisite for his pupils. This is a seven-day-a-week labor of love for the jockey-turned-mentor and it goes beyond the horse-and-rider relationships he’s nurturing.
There have been some surprises along the way for McCarron. “What I didn’t know was that I was going to have to be somewhat of a psychologist, psychiatrist and have to deal with different types of personalities and different work ethics and so forth. I’ve always been a hard worker and I try to instill that same type of work ethic in those that I’m surrounded by. Especially with the students. I’m going to try to work hard at developing an interview process that will expose the ones that have THE best work ethics and the most dedication.”

Ideally, McCarron is looking for people “with a certain degree of talent to communicate with horses. Also, a certain amount of athletic talent. You have to be born with those two things first, and then I think you can certainly hone those skills. I think that there are some that have to work harder at becoming a better athlete.” McCarron himself has had to “really work hard at honing my style and figuring out exactly what was going to make me less of a hindrance on a horse. You hear the term, oh yeah, that rider moved that horse up. Well, we don’t move horses up so to speak, we slow them down less. The best riders have the greatest ability to stay out of a horse’s way.” Not to say that a good rider doesn’t help his horse, which is what “separates the better riders from the rest of them, figuring out exactly what that little quality is, what that talent is. Not all the riders ever figure out exactly what theirs is. The best riders are the ones that first of all have the skill, have the talent and then figure out what buttons to push, how to use that talent.” McCarron is here to help them find and fine-tune both types of talent.

Back on the Equicizers – the horse simulators developed by jockey Frank Lovato Jr. – McCarron notices that some of the riders ease up as he takes a phone call. He interrupts his conversation. “Hold on one second, my students are cheating on me. Come on, pump, let’s go! Pump! Quick!” He has an extraordinary ability to focus on everyone at the same time as though there are just the two of them in the room; he is fully aware of what they’re all doing, at all times. It’s not difficult to image how natural it must have been for him to weave his way through a tight throng of galloping horses, anticipating all the right openings before they happened. He could probably have done it while reciting the alphabet – backwards.

One of the boys gets a leg cramp during the grueling calf raises they are required to do in the stirrups before they get into riding stance. “We’ve got a Charley horse going on over here.” McCarron continues to call out directions, barely breaking his rhythm with the other six as the rider gets down from the horse. “Push up…somebody call an ambulance…down…up…down.”

As they settle down to race ride again, two of them stage an impromptu recreation of the 1933 Kentucky Derby, taking on the roles of Don Meade on Brokers Tip and Herb Fisher on Head Play, playfully grabbing at each other’s legs. The girl on Flawlessly manages to pull Alysheba’s rider out of his saddle. McCarron: “Another one bites the dust! What chance do they have of riding a real horse if they can’t stay on an Equicizer?” He is only partially teasing.

There is a lot of good-natured ribbing, but underneath it all you sense McCarron’s frustration that some of them aren’t a little more serious, that they don’t have a keener awareness of the opportunity they’re getting. “I’ve got a few students that kind of just go through the motions. I don’t want to do that with them, because that’s not what I’m paid to do. I’m paid to give them my best, which I continue to do. There are times when I say to myself, ah, he’s just going through the motions, so maybe I’ll go through the motions. You know, with everybody else, I’ll give them their due. But that’s not fair. I can’t slight anybody even though they’re slighting themselves.”

Jessica Oldham, whose parents are retired jockeys – Robbie Davis’ daughter Jackie is also enrolled in the program – is the veteran of the group, with roughly ten years of riding time. Still, she says, “this is different because learning how to ride is actually structured here, whereas when I went to gallop on the track for the first time I just kind of got thrown up on a horse and basically hung on.” As a high school student, she got some tips mock-exercising the pony sandwiched between two exercise riders. Outside of that, she picked up “bits and pieces” of advice along the way.

The majority of the students – seven of them – had little or no horse experience before enrolling at NARA. Jason Truett is so small in stature that “everybody used to always tell me I should be a jock.” He informs McCarron that he has “hit triple digits today,” meaning that he now weighs 100 pounds. Before being allowed on the Thoroughbreds, all of whom are retired racehorses that have been donated, Truett and the other novices had to get their balance on mustangs, or “Thoroughbred simulators,” until the instructors felt they could handle the more hot-blooded racehorses. This is one of many steps to prepare students for safe learning in a comfortable, controlled environment.

They have a rigorous daily routine, meeting up for 7.30am classes. Students spend three hours a day in class; one hour riding the horses and three hours taking care of them; and one hour on the Equicizer. They look after their horses six or seven days a week, depending on the rotation for their on-duty Sunday. Before they complete the two-year, six-semester program, of which the last two semesters will be spent as interns for trainers, the NARA trainees will have had extensive and invaluable hands-on studies on racehorse care, equine physiology, commercial breeding, the racing industry, lameness, racing stable operations, riding principles, finance and life skills. A nutritionist has been teaching them how to eat so that they can be healthy and still maintain their weight and a proper diet. In this environment, they’re not only learning the basics of riding; they’re learning the fundamentals of how to live.

Although McCarron’s name is the one most publicly associated with NARA, the academy draws on the support of a strong team. Jennifer Voss-Franco, who is the project facilitator, shares an office with McCarron. Dr. Reid “Doc” McLellan is the instructional specialist who, among other things, oversees their racehorse care lessons. Barn manager Aimee Knarr, the Horse Park’s director of education Margi Stickney and even McCarron’s daughter Stephanie – they have all, says one of the students, “pitched in to help everyone excel really quickly.”

As of January, the students are up to galloping at The Thoroughbred Center. Of the program’s 12 horses, Oldham says, “they’re all working out great and it’s nice because there’s one for every level of rider, and you do have to get used to galloping the tough horses as well as the easy horses.” It doesn’t take much for these ex-racehorses to remember their racing days. They get out on the track after training hours, and the outriders stick close to round up the horses when they run off with or throw the jocks. “They’ve caught a few of them,” says Oldham. “Us,” she corrects herself. McCarron has come off Toots, whose reputation for running off while he was in active training remains has followed him to his second career. In May, they will be ready to learn how to breeze their horses. It remains to be seen who will be on Toots that first day.

McCarron is no stranger to accidents of varying severity, and because racing is by nature tinged with danger he does not envision that having suitably educated jockeys will provide a needed boost to the insurance issues. “I would love to be able to sit here and tell you, oh yeah, my students are going to be so knowledgeable, so skilled and such great athletes when they leave my program it’s really going to make racing a lot safer. I think that’s a pipe dream. I think that’s a bit of a reach.” In 1986 he was involved in a five-horse pileup, eight lengths behind Encolure when that horse fell at Santa Anita. At first he was “livid” with himself, until he worked out that he had had merely one and three-fifths seconds to react and steer a 1,000 pound cannonball running at 40 miles per hour out of harm’s way. Still, he says, “I blame myself to the point where I try to figure out a way I could do it better next time.” His students are the beneficiaries of the mental edge that greater knowledge can give them. Every memory, good and bad, from 28 years in the saddle has its purpose.

This afternoon they are working their Equicizers alongside gate-to-wire replays of some of John Henry’s famed duels. As McCarron presses “play” on the VCR to start a third race, one of the girls grumbles, “oh no, not another one!” Though she may not think so at the moment, it is her good luck that McCarron was a regular rider of the great gelding who won 39 times, leaving them with plenty more to watch. And when those run out, McCarron has an abundance of wins – 7,141 of them, in fact – to refer to in guiding his students along.
“This,” says Truett, “is my dream, by far. Even riding right now, if I have a good day it’s so emotionally rewarding.” Oldham is quick to point out that “when you have a bad day it’s so emotionally toiling.” Truett smiles and says simply, “but, if it wasn’t for those days, the good days wouldn’t be as good.” Listening to them, you have no doubt that what McCarron is doing is a very, very good thing, even more so with the realization that for so many jockeys, this opportunity never existed.

Chris McCarron is hopeful that NARA will be a life-changing event for the industry, as it is proving to be for him. “It’s like the old saying. You get out of it what you put into it. I’m putting a lot into it as far as I’m concerned and consequently I’m getting a lot out of it. It’s been a great learning experience for me.”

Is no matter more pressing than international rules on medication?

By Geir Stabell

There is a need for several changes and improvements in international racing. None can be more pressing that the issue on international regulations on the use of medication. Both on and off the tracks."

Last year, we experienced a Japanese champion being disqualified after finishing third in the Prix de l’Arc. In Hong Kong, the sprinter Takeover Target caused some embarrassment when withdrawn from the Hong Kong Sprint, having failed pre race tests. In Dubai, the result of the Dubai World Cup had to be revised when runner-up Brass Hat was disqualified weeks later. Like Deep Impact, he had failed a post race test.
When discussing medication in horseracing, it would be unwise not to take the publicity aspect to the table. Last December, the Hong Kong international meeting was overshadowed by the debacle surrounding the absence of top sprinter Takeover Target. Leading up to the event, there was almost as much written on this horse alone, as on all the other contenders preparing for the big day.

Bad news sell newspapers and draws attention to web sites. Racing is no different. Horseracing folks around the world try hard to get more coverage in the media, often fighting a losing battle. When a horse breaks down, a jockey is injured or killed, or the words ”illegal substance” pop up in the press releases, there is no need to lobby the editors. They will print their take on the matter. And they will not do it in a kind way.  In stories regarding medication, you can call it a side effect, but make no mistake about it; this is a seriously detrimental side effect. The ”quest for excellence” – in international racing is beginning to get a high price.


Enhancing the breed?

How excellent is the horse that needs to be administered the painkiller “Bute” to win a championship race? How well suited to breeding is the horse that needs the anti-bleeding medication “Lasix” to race? Yes, these drugs are illegal when racing in Europe, but it is not illegal for a European trainer to administer these drugs to a horse when he is training it.

Is this a case of the racing authorities turning a blind eye to what goes on outside their own racecourses? Is it a case of the racing authorities not caring at all about how these animals are being prepared for appearances on their stage? Or is it a case of absolute naivety, in all corners of the racing communities, including the normally ever so sharp breeding industry? Either way, it is a recipe for more scandals, and perhaps also for more confusion among the horsemen.

Regulations on medication are very different around the world, giving trainers quite a headache when campaigning horses internationally. Brass Hat’s trainer, William Bradley, was convinced that he was within the rules when the horse ran second in the Dubai World Cup. Similarly, Yasuo Ikee, who trains Deep Impact, ran his star in the ’Arc’ feeling certain that any post race sample would not cause a problem. Both horses were subsequently disqualified from a valuable placing in each race. Both races have clear medication regulations, both trainers felt that they had followed the regulations surely disqualifications could have been avoided.

Medication qualifies for a run

Medication or no medication does not only play a part on the actual race day. At international meetings, a certain quota of the pre entered horses are ranked by a panel of handicappers. So, if the use of legal medications in the jurisdiction where a horse is based are performance enhancing, they also become a tool to help qualifying a horse for big races. Use of medication can help a trainer to get his horse qualified for a race, even for a race staged under rules not permitting medication. One strong stand to take, for organisers where medication is not allowed, would be to give preference in big races to horses that have not raced on medication. Perhaps the fact that a US based horse has been campaigned on medication, does not give him an edge when he runs free of medication elsewhere. Then again, if this is so, why would a European trainer administer medication when working their horses?


Hong Kong and USA

When Takeover Target tested positive before the Hong Kong Sprint , it was bad news for racing. It was truly creating a slandering effect when the press hammered home the fact that a favourite chasing a million dollar bonus was ruled out due to an illegal substance (in Hong Kong) in his system.
The race was eventually won by Absolute Champion, who had originally not been found good enough to take his place in the field. The handicappers placed him on the reserve list. He had never been raced on medication. Fast Parade, who made it into the selected field as one of the top names, had never run a race without medication. Some reports suggested that he had also failed a medication test on arrival. He was therefore never entered, officially as ”he was not doing well” after his trip to Hong Kong. He was shipped back home where, four weeks later, he produced his career best performance at Santa Anita. If Takeover Target and Fast Parade had taken their places in the Hong Kong Sprint, Absolute Champion would not have been a participant. He is currently officially the world’s highest ranked sprinter.


Is there a will to make a change?

Yes there is. At the Asian Racing Conference one report stated: "A growing need for uniform medication rules around the world was underlined by officials representing both racing jurisdictions and the International Racing Bureau."

Adrian Beaumont, of the IRB, pointed out that the explosion of international meetings had raced ahead of government protocols. Beaumont said that one of his main wishes for horseracing is ”a level playing field in terms of medication”. Mark Player, Hong Kong Jockey Club manager of international races, stated that medication rules should be made globally uniform if international series were to succeed and make the sport grow.  
 
Medication is also an issue for sellers and buyers of racehorses. February 8 this year may have been day one in groundbreaking work. On that day, a bill was filed in the Kentucky House of Representatives, that would allow buyers of horses to return the horse and demand a full refund, if veterinary records are falsified or information is omitted. Any administration of drugs would have to be disclosed. This bill is pushed by the Jackson’s Horse Owner’s Protective Association, formed by horseman Jess Jackson and lawyer Kevin McGee, who said:”The actual buyers and sellers of horses would like to see this in Kentucky because it would strengthen the integrity of the business. This would be an excellent way to encourage new owners to come into the business because it reduces the mystery of buying a horse.” 


Deaths, breakdowns and medication

How definable is the connection between use of medication and injuries? Taking a global view makes it almost impossible to come to any hard conclusions, as too many other factors play their part. Nevertheless, one should take not of the recent media focus on ratios of fatalities around the racing world.

According to professor David Nunamaker, at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, studies conducted at around ten American racecourses show that the rate of fatal accident in the US is 1,5 in 1,000 starts. This may seem small but even a high profile track suffered from much worse stats last year: 21 horses died during the three-month meeting at Arlington Park outside Chicago. The track had a total of 7,013 starters, producing the grim figure of 3 fatalities in 1,000 starts.

Yes, this was well covered by the non-racing media in Illinois.How this affected business, is hard to say but the on-track wagering at the meeting fell by 14.5% compared to 2005. The average attendance figure was down from 7,607 in 2005 to 6,903 in 2006.

How do these figures of fatalities compare to the rest of the world? Many point out how much better the situation is in Hong Kong, where no form of medication is accepted. They have a fatality rate of 0,58 in 1,000 starts. In England the figure is reportedly 0,65 deaths per 1,000 starts.

Medication alone is not to blame for breakdowns and fatalities in American racing. Other factors are racing on dirt tracks, juvenile racing, and the fact that the country’s vast horse population means that there is a much higher proportion of very moderate horses in action. Furthermore, comparing US racing to racing in Hong Kong make little, if any, sense at. Not least since the HKJC does not stage juvenile racing and the fact that they race exclusively on turf.


’Cheaters’ not so clever on turf?

Gary Dutch, Racing Secretary at Hawthorne Racecourse, Arlington’s little brother on the other side of Chicago, has some interesting comments: “I don't believe medication affects the breakdown rate”, he says, “I believe that it is caused by too many sprint races under six furlongs and two-year-olds racing over two furlongs too early in their careers. What these horses are learning is speed, speed, speed! ”

“I am sure that there are so called 'wonder drugs' some trainers are using as are professional athletes to enhance performance doing. These 'cheaters' are always a step ahead of testing and have an edge. You can't test for something that you don't know exists.”

Dutch goes on to make an interesting point about dirt racing compared to turf racing:

“The only difference is that some high percentage dirt trainers have a poor win percentage on turf. Why I don't know. Turf racing is more formful as turf horses will win the turf races. Dirt horses or horses that are not bred for turf usually are automatic throw-outs.”


Lasix and Bute ’overrated’?

European trainers shipping to North America can run horses on medication. Many European trainers sending a horse to a big race in USA, runs the horse on Lasix. ”First time Lasix” is a well-known phrase among American horsemen and horseplayers. It can often explain a horse’s improvement in a race. Many believe it will always improve a horse’s performance.

If so, one would think that running a horse without the help of medication at the Breeders’ Cup, was a sure fire recipe for defeat. After all, with the top trainers in USA taking their best horses, and many of the finest horsemen in Europe doing the same – and adding Lasix – he or she who decides to go without would stand no chance whatsoever. Not so. In fact, the one trainer who has refused to run his horses on medication, Andre Fabre, has a Breeders’ Cup record pretty close to the best of the Americans. And his record is way better than those achieved by some of the numerically strongest operations in the US. Even those who have been sailing so close to the wind in the medication game, that they have paid the price through fines and suspensions.


 
Over the years, the French trainer Andre Fabre has run 39 horses at the Breeders’ Cup, and won with four of them. 10.2% of Fabre’s runners were winners. None of them ran on medication. The most successful trainer in the history of the Breeders’ Cup, D. Wayne Lukas, has saddled 146 runners at the meeting, with 18 winners to date. This gives a strike rate of 12.32%.

The simple truth is that Fabre has been as good as the best Americans at the Breeders’ Cup, despite the meeting falling after the ’Arc’ weekend and is thus not his main priority, despite the fact that he is at a disadvantage geographically, and despite the fact that he has never run a horse on medication. While several horsemen in the US believe that Lasix is virtually the most important factor in their quest for success, one man alone, training racehorses in Chantilly, seems to have proven them totally wrong. Other Europeans have run big races at the Breeders’ Cup when racing on medication. Perhaps they would have run just as well without?

People are quick to point at one odd result, or a few winning ex-Europeans in the US, and claim that there in lies the proof that racing on Lasix improves horses’ performances. Much was made of Miss Alleged’s win in the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Turf, when the French filly was racing on both Lasix and Bute. Based on previous form, she was an absolutely shocking winner. She had raced once in the US previously, when fifth in the Washington D.C. International two weeks earlier. Her win over Itsallgreektome at Churchill Downs was lengths better than her performance at Laurel, and also much better than what she had achieved in France, where she had been placed in Group races but could manage only 11th when running in the ’Arc’. It was reported that she burst a blood vessel at Longchamp that day. Was the anti-bleeding medication Lasix added for the first time on Breeders’ Cup day? No, it was not. The filly had also raced on Lasix when well beaten at Laurel Park.

This is not at all the only example of a European horse that has produced contrasting performances on consecutive starts when aided by medication in North America. Sometimes horses run up to form when they are supposed to, sometimes they don’t. Strangely enough, this is the case also for horses racing on medication. Can you think of a better ”selling point” - for those who are working towards a medication free horseracing world?


The importance of worming - keeping parasites under control

The use of homespun and herbal remedies may have been superseded by wormers formulated after lengthy research programmes, but the control of worms in the horse remains as important for horsemen today as it was when the significance of these unwanted passengers was first understood.

The main internal parasites of the horse are small red worms (Cyathstomins), large red worms (Strongyles), round worms and tapeworms. The worms undergo similar lifecycles: Larvae and eggs are ingested by a grazing horse and they mature within the gastrointestinal tract. The adults pass out eggs and immature stages in the dung which reinfect the pasture, allowing the cycle to be completed. Infestations with Bot Fly larvae may also be seen.
The development of all these parasites within the equine gut has the potential to cause clinical problems, including colic and ill thrift. However, the lifecycle of the cyathastomins can be particularly destructive.  Cyathostomin larvae actually grow and develop within the wall of the horse’s intestine, causing disruption to the highly specialised intestinal cells. In addition, the larvae have the ability to arrest their own development, entering an encysted or hibernatory phase within the gut wall. Importantly, during this encysted phase the larvae are relatively impervious to a number of common antheImintics (wormers) and over time the parasite burden on the horse may accumulate, with large numbers of larvae entering the encysted phase.
Following the encysted phase, the larvae continue their development by growing and literally bursting out through the gut wall to mature into adults within the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract. However, a cruel twist to the cyathastomin lifecycle is that thousands of encysted worms appear to coordinate their emergence from hibernation, usually in the spring. Large numbers of larvae emerging at once can give rise to a variety of clinical signs from slight lethargy, anaemia and weight loss through to spasmodic or obstructive colic.  Large areas of damaged gut may be replaced by scar tissue instead of the specialised, absorptive cells of the intestine, potentially resulting in weight loss and diarrhoea. Our equine athletes must be able to utilise the high quality (and expensive!) feeds we offer them, and this necessitates a healthy gastrointestinal tract. Thankfully, it is unusual to hear of parasite-associated mortality in racehorses but it would be interesting to know the contribution  made by infestations to sub-optimal performance or training days lost.
It has been accepted for many years that the routine worming of horses is important for their health. This is especially true in establishments with a young and constantly changing population of horses, or pastures which are heavily stocked or grazed by multiple horses. Although all of these conditions are likely to prevail in racing yards, parasite-associated problems could formerly have been dismissed as irrelevant to the well-organised yard with a sound worming policy. Unfortunately, things are now not so simple and it appears that the worms are fighting back. Keen to ensure the survival of their own  kind, they are evolving new strains that are resistant to some anthelmintics. It is not scaremongering to say that some horsemen may soon have no effective means for controlling the internal parasites affecting their charges.
Resistance can occur when any chemical is regularly used to control an infective organism, hence the problem of bacteria resistant to several types of antibiotic found in hospitals e.g. MRSA. In some cases ‘operator error’ may be to blame for encouraging the development of resistance. Incorrect dosing (particularly under-dosing) with anthelmintics may promote the evolution of resistant worms.
Only three classes of anthelmintic are licensed for use in the horse and red worms resistant to the benzimidazole group are common in thoroughbreds. Pyrantel forms the second class. Strongyles resistant to pyrantel developed in the USA where it was used as a feed additive. They are increasingly recognised as a problem in Europe. More worryingly, resistance is developing to the third and final class of wormer, the macrocyclic lactones (ivermectin/moxidectin). Round worm control in foals is not guaranteed by their use and cyathostomins resistant to them are now present on a donkey sanctuary in the UK. Evidence for  cyathstomin resistance has also emerged from Brazil and Germany. It may be the case that resistance has not been detected in more countries due to lack of testing, rather than no resistant parasites being present.
Clearly, planning the worming regime is of the utmost importance and requires detailed knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of different worming products. However, in a telephone survey of English racehorse trainers in 2002, only 42% stated that their choice of anthelmintic was based on veterinary advice. Furthermore, the same study suggested that strategies used for the treatment of new arrivals were unlikely to prevent the introduction of resistant worms or the development of encysted red worms in the majority of cases.
It is also known that the parasite burden of horses in a yard is not distributed evenly. Most horses will be relatively worm-free. However, one or two ‘wormy’ individuals will be contributing the majority of eggs to the pasture. Identifying these individuals is done by performing faecal worm egg counts (FECs) regularly on all horses within the yard. This could also facilitate a change in the way wormers are used on training yards, moving away from pre-planned blanket dosing of the whole yard to treating only those individuals which require it. Current thinking would suggest that only horses with FECs in excess of 200 eggs per gram (epg) should be treated. An important point to make regarding FECs is that they do not detect encysted/immature red worms.
It is also possible to establish the resistance status of the worms in the horses on the yard. FECs are performed at the time of treatment and repeated afterwards to ensure that the wormers have worked, the faecal egg counts have been reduced and that the horses don’t harbour resistant populations of worms. In the case of pyrantel, the FEC should be repeated seven days later and resistance should be suspected if the FEC is reduced by less than 90%. For benzimidazoles, the count is taken 14 days later and the FEC should be reduced by over 95%. The interval for ivermectin is 21 days and FECs should be less than 1% of the previous level if resistance is not to be suspected. The persistence of Moxidectin makes it unsuitable for this type of test.
Tapeworms have been implicated as a factor in cases of colic. Work at Liverpool University has lead to the development of a test for the presence of tapeworm which can be performed on a blood sample. This indicates if treatment is necessary and can be repeated to check that anthelmintic treatment has been successful.
Although this monitoring may appear to be time-consuming, it would allow a very accurate picture of control programme efficacy to be established. The use of expensive anthelmintics is curtailed and selection pressure for resistance on the parasites is reduced.
As previously mentioned, a protocol for new horses on the yard is extremely important. Recent arrivals should be confined to their box, or allowed access only to a quarantine paddock. An FEC should be performed. It is best to assume that the animal is carrying encysted red worm larvae and to treat for these with moxidectin or five daily doses of fenbendazole. If later FECs suggest the presence of resistant worms, the horse should be assigned its own paddock, or returned to where it came from.
When worming any horse, it is important to follow some basic guidelines to ensure the correct dose is administered. Anthelmintics, or any other drugs, should only ever be given by the route prescribed on the data sheet. An accurate weight should be obtained for each horse to be treated and the full dose for that weight given. If there is any doubt about the accuracy of the weight i.e. obtained by measuring tape, then it is best to slightly overestimate the dose. Ensure that each horse ingests their full dose of paste by holding the head up until it is swallowed. Giving inadequate doses of wormer may hasten the selection of resistant parasites. Animals identified as requiring an anthelmintic treatment which share grazing should receive synchronised treatments. This will help to prevent an immediate major reinfection. It is now advised that, where more than one class of wormer is still effective, they should only be rotated on an annual basis.
Worm control is not all about the use of anthelmintics and these alternative strategies assume an even greater importance with the advance of resistant parasites. They mainly involve reducing the level of contamination on the pasture and so preventing the worms from completing their lifecycle in the gut of the horse. The most direct method is to remove faeces from the grazing, ideally twice weekly during the summer and once per week over the winter. This can be done manually or by machine.  Sheep and cattle will ingest the equine parasites, but are not themselves affected and so clean the grass for horses. Simply lowering the stocking density on the pasture will also help.
Thoroughbred breeders may also have a role to play in worm control. Faecal egg counts may not be the first thing that comes to mind when planning matings, but that may have to change. Resistance is developing to our third and final class of anthelmintic and no new wormers licensed for equines are likely to be on the market in the near future. We know the debilitating effects of an untreated, or possibly untreatable, worm infestation. A horse carrying a heavy infection would never be able to realise its full potential. So, without a major re-evaluation of anthelmintic use, it may be that the classic winners of tomorrow are descended from the innately parasite-resistant individuals of today.  

Dr Philip K Dyson BVMS Cert. EM and Barry Sangster BVMS MRCVS
 (19 May 2007)

Shockwave Therapy - uncovering new treatments

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Neil Drysdale - Hall of Fame racehorse trainer

By Margaret Ransom

He has seen the sport of Thoroughbred racing change drastically in the past few decades. Here, he discusses some of the important issues facing his fellow trainers both in his home state and across the country.
In Thoroughbred racing, the name Neil Drysdale is first and foremost synonymous with the concepts of integrity, honor and patience. Secondly, and only a shade shy of those personal standards, are his accolades as being a member of the sport’s elite Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2000, and his guidance of such superstars of the game as Horse of the Year A.P. Indy, champions Princess Rooney, Hollywood Wildcat, Fusaichi Pegasus, and dozens of other standout stakes winners. He’s tightened the girths on the winners of million-dollar races in countries around the world, but has called California his home since taking out his own trainer’s license in 1975.

Drysdale, who began his own storied 32-year training career under the tutelage of the legendary Charlie Whittingham in 1970, is recognized among his peers as a true lover of horses and someone who always puts the well-being of the animal first.

You’ve been training Thoroughbreds for the better part of three decades. How do you think the game has changed most between when you started and now?

Well, off-track wagering and simulcast wagering has certainly increased. But there seems to be a change in marketing the sport correctly. It appears to me that on huge days, there’s big handle, bug crowds and the people come out. It’s what’s in between those days that seem to be the problem.
It doesn’t help that year-round racing has diluted the situation and effectively decreased the fan base. I’m not sure how best to go about reducing racing, but it is a diluted system today.

What are the biggest hurdles facing trainers today?

I don’t know whether there are significant hurdles, but I sincerely believe that synthetic surfaces are a huge leap forward. Now we just need marketing to complete the puzzle. If it’s not addressed there won’t be a whole lot of racing for trainers at all.

What do you think of the “supertrainer” concept? Can a trainer effectively maintain a stable of a couple hundred horses spread out over the U.S.?

In the old days it was impossible because you were limited by the number of stalls you received from the tracks. Now many trainers have different ways of approaching the sport and I don’t think any way is the wrong way. What I enjoy myself is having the horses with me and watching them personally, the old-fashioned way. At one stage I did have divisions and finished, I think, fourth in the country. But despite the outcome I didn’t enjoy it much.

What do you think of the current “bicarbonate” controversy and the testing procedures many states have adopted, including your home state of California?

The one major problem I see is dollars and sense. Is it necessary to test every horse in every race? The answer is no. It’s just not cost-effective the way things are done at this moment. There are more important things that money can be used for.
Obviously we all want a level-playing field and it’s my feeling that we, in this country, need to adopt international standards and we can start with no Lasix. I’ve raced in places where there’s no Lasix and it wasn’t a problem. But everything needs to be equal regardless of what’s eliminated.
And presumably the tests (for any illegal substances) would be more sophisticated which is a big issue that also needs to be addressed.

Do you believe that all racing jurisdictions in the U.S. should adopt uniform medication rules and regulations?

I don’t think it’s all that difficult, it’s just a matter of wanting to do it. So yes, I think so.

Do find steroids are acceptable therapeutic medications?

Yes, but it’s not necessary to race on them. They do have therapeutic value and do treat some horses with anemia or horses that have some weaknesses, but they’re not to be abused. And now we’re going back to international standards and uniform rules. In order to keep up in today’s climate where athletes in other sports are prohibited from using steroids, racing needs to catch up and that means also to abolish any racing on steroids.
All abolishing steroids will do is improve the sport’s perception in the public and the public’s acceptance of the game (as being fair.)

In your opinion, then, has medication clouded the public’s perception of the game?

I do believe all these medication issues and the fact they’re repeatedly brought up in the press are completely meaningless and does nothing but give racing a black eye. It all circles back around. It’s a simple concept; adopt uniform medication rules and international standards.

You’re at Hollywood Park where they’ve installed the state’s first synthetic surface, Cushion Track. Have your horses benefited from the new surface? And are new surfaces a positive step toward the long-term well-being and soundness of horse sin general?

Yes and in California it took a new racing commissioner, Richard Shapiro, to step up and say if tracks didn’t do it then they’d lose their license. I believe (synthetic surfaces) only increase and lengthen horses’ racing careers and in the long term it helps the sport. It may sound trite, but it’s about protecting the beauty and noblesse of the Thoroughbred. Because when you work with these animals every day you realize how unique the Thoroughbred racehorse, protecting them is obviously a very good thing.

Do you think the “Powers That Be” are doing enough to promote the sport and expand interest? Where do you see things in 10 years if things don’t improve? Will racing survive?

Obviously the sport is marketed much better in Australasia and Asia. There they market racing the way they market everything else – in a big way. If things aren’t improved here, the sport will be reduced to just a gambling vehicle and we’ll lose the pageantry and glory of Thoroughbred racing. I have no way of predicting the future, but if we can learn from tracks like Del Mar then that would be a good thing. That track is well-marketed and you’ve seen how it is there – it’s always packed with people. Keeneland is another one that does an exceptional job of marketing and has an excellent marketing team. The people go there as well. So something’s being done right there.
Both facilities run short meetings. Del Mar is seven weeks and Keeneland is six (three in the spring and three in the fall.) So you would think that following their example and reducing racing dates then interest in the sport could only increase.
Also the social aspects of the sport need to be reintroduced, which leads me back to the attendance problem. It’s a very social game and that needs to be promoted as well.


Do you have any advice for up-and-coming trainers? Will racing survive?

Racing has survived for more than four centuries. I believe that there will always be Thoroughbred racing in some context or another around the world. I don’t have any advice, but I will say I thoroughly enjoy what I do and I enjoy getting up in the mornings knowing that I get to do what I enjoy the most. And as long as I’m doing it I feel that I’m a very fortunate man.


The Asian Racing Conference – from a trainer’s perspective

By Howard Wright

Attending industry conferences and seminars, especially those staged overseas, as a media reporter can be hard work – honestly! – but when you come across speakers at the top of their game, who can put over concise points in layman’s language, the tedium of long days, and sometimes even longer nights, wafts away on a breeze of simple understanding.

 Derrmot Weld was invited to address the Asian Racing Conference, held in Dubai in January, in order to bring a horseman’s perspective to the session headed ‘Global series – what have we learnt and where to now?’ In ten minutes, he did far more than that. He gave an audience of 400-plus delegates – only a single handful who were or had been trainers - a master class in travelling horses around the world, and how to be successful along the way.

 No better presenter could have been found. From his base at the heart of Irish racing on The Curragh, Weld has created a unique record. He is the first overseas trainer to have annexed two Melbourne Cups, which alone would make the description fit, but he is also the only European trainer to have logged a winning run in a leg of the US Triple Crown.

What lies behind the success of this thoughtful, serious man, whose few words make more sense than some who have written whole chapters on their specialist subject? There is no single factor, he said. Rather there are nine aspects that he considers when assessing whether, and how, to travel a horse abroad. They are:

* Horse – “He has to have the ability to compete at the top level; he must be adaptable to ground and have the right temperament, and he has to be sound. It’s no good if you take an unsound horse, hoping it comes right on the day. In my experience, it rarely does.”

*Jockey – “Bring your own if he’s top class, or get the best locally.”

*Food – “Bring your own if at all possible.”

*Water – “Dehydration is the single biggest negative factor in travelling. Make sure you get it right.”

*Staff – “You need trained, experienced travellers, good work riders, and staff with the confidence and knowledge to report to you accurately.”

*Farrier – “Very important. Around the world there are some good farriers, but one false move can undo everything.”

*Veterinarian – “This is where dehydration will be reported, and he will watch all the tests and look at the blood picture. Make a mistake, and you pay for it.”

*Medication – “I agree with strict rules, but it’s important for the trainer to be aware of the rules from country to country, even from state to state in the US.”

*Quarantine – “Dubai has an excellent facility and is more straightforward than most. Australia has improved, but effectively it still takes nearly a month and could be brought forward. The US is a worry, and facilities at many tracks need to be improved.”

There, in handy-sized bites, is the check-list of a qualified equine vet who has climbed to top of the trainers’ ladder. There was, however, a bonus to the presentation, a bone of contention dug up when Weld was asked to nominate the single biggest improvement that would foster greater international competition.

“We’ve got to standardise the quarantine rules, which differ between Europe, the US, Asia and Australia,” he said. “With modern technology, it can be done, because blood testing for infectious diseases is far more efficient than in the past.”

In a moment, the theme was set, at least from the perspective of the go-ahead trainer with aspirations on the world stage.

The conference wended its fascinating way, discussing a myriad of topics of general concern to racing and betting administrators, from co-mingling bets in overseas pools and designing new racecourses, to standardising rules on stewarding and identifying the main threats to the success of horseracing in the future.

Virtually all impinged on the business of training to some degree, but none seemed to have the immediate significance of the quarantine issue, which came up again, and again.

Adrian Beaumont, director of racecourse services for the Newmarket-based International Racing Bureau, named “a shortening of the quarantine period for racing in Australia” among his three wishes to make life easier for horsemen tackling the global calendar.

Other areas came under Beaumont’s scrutiny – Dubai being one, with the impact of its Carnival on the length of time that horses are likely to be away from European stables – but Australia came in for special attention with regard to two new, high-value series, the Global Sprint and Asian Mile Challenges, which include legs in Australia.

Beaumont explained: “The quarantine rules pertaining to Australia are stricter than any other. For example, European runners have to do 14 days’ pre-export quarantine, and 14 days’ on arrival. That meant runners in the first leg of the Global Sprint Challenge on 3 February would have needed to be in quarantine no later than 28 December to allow for flight schedules. Thus, unless race clubs can persuade the Australian authorities to shorten the length of the quarantine period, it is difficult for their races to come anywhere other than at the start of a series, as quarantine could conflict with previous legs.”

The consequence, Beaumont explained, was that including Australian races from January to March in a series could mean trainers in the Northern Hemisphere considering them as being at the end of a campaign for their top horses, who may have started their racing season from the previous April to June. Not ideal, was his unequivocal message.

Beaumont, whose job involves helping trainers through and over the various problems thrown up by international travelling, turned his focus on to “governmental and racetrack attempts to thwart the spread of diseases,” pointing out that one of the methods was to ban the import of horses from affected countries.

“This is certainly true of countries with African horse sickness,” he said, “and restrictions were also put in place by countries affected by swamp fever and foot and mouth, even though the latter cannot be transmitted by horses. More recently, there have been problems with West Nile virus, which had implications in 2006 for horses with a multi-country itinerary. In particular it affected horses that ran at the Breeders’ Cup in Kentucky. Any horse who ran there before going on to Japan, such as Ouija Board, needed to be vaccinated twice, at an interval of three to six weeks. Similarly, horses that were due to run in Hong Kong after the Breeders’ Cup had to return to their home stables for 15 days, before a blood sample could be taken and sent to America to test for West Nile virus. Only when that was clear could they travel to Hong Kong.”

Weld’s reservations were becoming clearer by the minute. However, as any balanced reporter knows, there are two sides to a coin, and it was not long before the heads of Weld and Beaumont were being addressed by the tail-side of the argument from Dr Patricia Ellis, animal health advisor to the Australian Racing Board, a director of the racing analytical laboratory in Victoria and secretary of the international movement of horses committee, a body set up by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.

A formidable array of appointments for an equine veterinarian with nearly four decades of experience, ranging from government to private sector, from racetrack to teaching. She does not mince words.

Dr Ellis, who was involved in the work that overcome obstacles enabling Weld’s pioneering Melbourne Cup winner, Vintage Crop in 1993, to set a new pattern, told delegates: “Yes, illogical, unscientific and inconsistent import conditions are causing problems that need to be resolved. But so do unrealistic expectations and perceptions.”

On the specific charges that had been thrown her country’s way, she countered: “Australia’s quarantine arrangements have attracted unfavourable criticism, but Australia is free from equine influenza, and its import controls reflect this. I make no apology for them.

“The Australian government and its racing authorities don’t want a flu outbreak that would shut down racing and other equestrian events for several months. They have understandable concerns for racing and non-racing stakeholders outside the international racecourse fence.”

On the broader issue, referring to the Dubai conference’s headline slogan, she said: “It’s time for a reality check. In the context of ‘Racing Without Borders’ what do you really mean, what do you want? As racing authorities, do you want to import foreign horses directly from their home stables without vaccinations, tests or official health certificates, and allow them to mix freely with local horses? Or do you want to ‘race across borders’ with science-based risk management, according to international standards, applied consistently, and which respects differences in country health status?”

There seemed to be only one answer from Dr Ellis’s tone, as she added: “Measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases have to be a compromise between the need to conduct a successful event, with as wide a number of competing nations as possible, and the need to provide adequate safeguards to protect the health status of the animal and human populations of the importing country. In some countries, racing is not the only game in town. The safety and status of competition horses, and the need to prevent economic loss and unfavourable reflection on a country’s health standing and veterinary services, are as important factors as caring for the indigenous racehorse population”.

“Harmonisation of international issues such as handicapping, stewards’ decisions, rules of racing and race planning are directly under the control of racing authorities,” Dr Ellis explained. “Import conditions are not. They have to be negotiated government to government. Perhaps this is why the issue of ‘quarantine’ – thought I would prefer to speak about ‘import controls’ and ‘health safeguards’ – causes such angst.”

The target for change is clear, according to Dr Ellis. “For success in expanding international borders, co-operation with government is critical.”

However, she went on to warn: “Sometimes success has a very long lead time.” And using an even more stunning one-liner, “Success has a thousand fathers, and failure is an orphan,” as a preface, she added: “Persistent and polite requests from international trading partners engage the attention of governments, and assist local racing authorities to negotiate safe international exchanges of racehorses. The World Animal Health Organisation sets the minimum international standards for trade. If we want standardisation or harmonisation of quarantine procedures, we must engage in the development of these standards.”

Perhaps Dr Ellis should invite Dermot Weld to join her when she next tackles the World Animal Health Organisation.

Are purses restraining growth?

By Caton Bredar

In 1953, the average cost of a Cola drink at a U.S. racetrack was around ten cents; the minimum bet on a race, two dollars. In 2007 the average cost of a Cola drink at a U.S. racetrack is around a dollar seventy-five; the cost of a bet, in most places, still two dollars.

In 1953 John Ward, Sr., a respected Midwest horse trainer charged $13 a day to train a racehorse.  That thirteen bucks covered labor, feed and daily care of your horse…costs which ran Ward around $11.34 a day. 

Flash forward to 2007.  Trainers based on major racing circuits in the Midwest or East will charge between $85 and $100 a day to train your racehorse.  Even at one hundred dollars a day, most trainers say their actual costs run significantly higher.  The cost of just about everything is up, with the exception of the minimum wager.  And while wagering in the US, the vehicle which drives purses, is up over-all, purses have, with a few exceptions, remained stagnate. 

For most trainers in the United States winning may not be everything.  But it is pretty much the only thing keeping them economically viable.  And in order to survive, regardless of what level they compete at, trainers almost have to win every time.

Ward’s son, John, Jr., reached the pinnacle of American racing in 2001 with a win from John Oxley’s Monarchos in the Kentucky Derby.  Today, Ward and Oxley, one of the more dynamic stables in the Midwest and East, continue to pare down that stable, from, at one point, as many as 200 horses to the 40 they now have either in Kentucky, Florida or New York.

“It’s a purging process,” Ward explains, “We’re trying to be cost effective while not lowering the quality of the stable…or of the care they receive.”  The fifth-generation horseman says the goal is a “leaner, meaner” racing operation, where the average earnings potential of each runner is realistically taken into consideration, in relationship to the costs that runner will incur.  According to Ward, it’s a business plan most trainers have failed to develop.  And even if they have, it’s a plan very difficult to put into practice given the economics of today’s game.
“It’s tough,” he offers.  “Most trainers train below their actual costs, in the hopes of getting better horses.” 

Ward lists rises in employment taxes—major adjustments in workman’s compensation insurance post September 11th as just one cost, often absorbed by the trainer, that has gone up significantly, particularly in the last five years. Ward’s annual workman’s compensation bill runs approximately $250,000 a year.  That, for a trainer who modestly describes himself as “middle of the road”, at least as far as the size of the stable goes.   For the newly ordained “Mega Trainers” trainers like Todd Pletcher or Doug O’Neil, who deal in high numbers of horses, Ward says those costs are even greater.

Some obvious costs, according to Ward, have gone up.  Over the past two years, with rising gas prices, feed and van companies have to pass their added costs on to their customers.  While shipping is often paid directly by the owners, trainers generally pay for feed directly then recoup some of that cost through their daily rates.  With higher prices due to fuel surcharges, they recoup less.

And trainers aren’t immune to higher gas prices.  “If you spend $25 to $30 a day in gas,” Ward explains, “and you train 30 horses, that’s $1 a horse,” or one less dollar a trainer actually makes on that horse, or puts toward his out of pocket costs.

Those costs--gas bills, cell phone bills, even rental rates, both in terms of housing the human help as well as housing horses—have all gone up over the past few years and are all costs Ward considers “hidden”, and most of the time, for trainers, unrecoverable.  While labor costs (with the exception of workman’s compensation insurance) have remained fairly consistent over the past few years, it’s those “little” things that have actually driven up the costs of training.

“It’s really hard on the trainer himself, and the organization he runs,” says Ward.  “It forces him to be taking away from the available cash flow.  On the other side of it, we haven’t had purses go up to be commensurate with the costs.  Purses have been stagnate for the last five to six years.  Trainers are caught in a squeeze.”

A slow, steady squeeze, it would appear.  To the point about purses, an NTRA Wagering Systems Task Force report, released in 2004, titles Chapter 2 “Handle Up, Revenue and Purses Down” and goes on to state, in part, “Handle Up, Purses Down is not a new occurrence specific to 2003.  In general, purses have not grown as fast as handle for more than a decade…”

The lack of parity, between purses and handle, can be attributed, in part, to the boom in off-track wagering.  Tracks receive a significantly lower percentage of revenue toward purses, from dollars wagered off-track than they do from live, on-track wagers.  The effect on purses, and therefore, trainers, is profound.
The report goes on to say that, from 1995 to 2003, total Thoroughbred handle grew by 45 percent, while total purses paid to horsemen grew only 38 percent.  In some particular cases, the statistics are even more dramatic.  According to statistics released by the Jockey Club, in 1995, the average available money per race for 63 days of racing at Gulfstream Park in South Florida, was $27,941.  Ten years later, in 2005, for 86 days of racing, that number went up less than $2,000, to $29,561. 

Gulfstream Park may be an extreme example; many tracks, such as Keeneland, Churchill Downs, or Saratoga in New York, posted gains over the ten-year period of at least $20,000 more available in average purse money per race.  Still, over the course of ten years, that’s just a gain of $2,000 per race per year—and that’s the best-case scenario, and not the case for every category of race.

It’s actually at the lower end of the scale, that Ward, the nephew of a Hall of Famer, believes it’s possible to remain economically viable. “The guys who are making the most,” states the 61-year-old, “are the claiming horse trainers.  They don’t have the big investment in the horses, they can drop horses in for a cheaper price, they can keep churning out starts, to keep commissions coming in.”  And in theory, adds Ward, “there may be fewer expenses connected to running a claiming horse operation, because generally, although not in every case, the size of the labor force is smaller”. 
 
Purses, of course, are smaller, too, but it’s the differential, Ward claims, you have to consider.  The difference in a trainer’s ten percent commission on a win in a $15,000 claiming race at most tracks is only a few hundred dollars at the most, less than his stake for a win in a $7,500 claiming race.  A claiming trainer, therefore, has more flexibility, and stands to make almost as much for a win in either case, as opposed to a trainer of higher caliber horses running almost exclusively in allowance races or stakes.

“The quality guys, the trainers who deal primarily in better-bred, or higher priced horses…” says Ward, “The trainers who take their time, give their horses a lot of time in between races, those trainers either have gone out or are going out of business, because it’s such an investment, and they’re losing money every day.”
Regardless of locale, Ward says the economics are the same.  “In Eastern circuits, you make more money, but it costs more to operate and live there.  The squeeze is there.  Midwest, California, it’s all the same.  The same hidden, overhead costs have been driven up everywhere.”

And the same applies to the Mega-trainers.  While the trend is to blame at least a portion of the racing industry’s woes, on trainer’s who appear to have the lion’s share of the horses…and the majority of the purses, Ward doesn’t believe they are immune to the economic disasters striking so many in these difficult times.
“While Mega Trainers, to some extent, can do what claiming trainers can do,” says Ward, “but they operate on a much larger scale, which, in turn, costs a lot more.  Think what Todd Pletcher’s workman’s comp runs.  Mega trainers will feel it, too.”

Ward, like many in racing, believes casino wagering could be at least be a help to the present financial plight of the trainer, and the sport itself.  Case in point, Mountaineer Park, who was on the brink of closing in 1994, when the state passed video lottery legislation.  In 1995, according to the Jockey Club statistics, Mountaineer was down to an average $2,886 available per race.  Average daily purse distribution at Mountaineer was 22,000 dollars and at nearby Charlestown, thirty-six thousand dollars a day.  By 2005, both tracks were giving out more than $100,000 a day.  At Mountaineer, in 2005, the average daily purse was up to $15,728, and that number is sure to be even higher for 2006.  Still, Ward believes casino wagering is not necessarily a pancea.

“The slots have helped Gulfstream so far, somewhat,” he reports, “But it’s been an interesting phenomenon.  They had a tremendous opening.  Now they’re starting to lose those crowds.  More and more people are going to the dog track, or the other facilities with casinos.  So it can only help so much, unless it’s controlled completely by the tracks and there’s no competition.  It’s looking like slots and racing have to go hand in hand.”   
A few fundamental problems, according to Ward, remain and, if not addressed, may jeproadize everyone’s stake in the game…not just trainers. 

“In 1945, a coke was a nickel and the game revolved around the $2 bettor.  It’s 2007, and everything costs at least twenty times more.  But racing is still chasing that two-dollar bettor.  By today’s standards, the minimum bet should be forty dollars.”

“Racetracks are taking more and more of the things they used to give in the past.  Instead of a fifty-fifty partnership, it’s at the very best, forty-sixty.”

If it costs $50,000 a year to train an allowance horse, that horse should have to earn a minimum of $65,000 in that year to pay his way.  Even at a day rate of fifty dollars a day, for a claiming horse, a $20,000 horse according to Ward has to win around $26,000 a year.  Given the current purse structure of tracks across the nation, Ward sees the situation as bleak.

“You’re seeing people go out of business, and I think you’re going to see more and more leave, as the cost breakdowns go up every month.  If trainers don’t charge according to what it costs, they’re going to go out of business.  If money is lost, you’ll lose owners.  As there are fewer owners, you’re going to lose trainers.  It’s a free-fall inside the business over the next few years.”

“If you don’t win a five million dollar race, you’re out in the cold.  And there’s a whole lot of people who don’t even ever run in a million dollar race.  My father made a dollar fifty a horse per day in 1953.  Today, most trainers are losing twice that every day just in costs.  It all goes back to the purses.”

What’s happening at Hialeah?

By Bill Heller

There is action on Hialeah in 2007. On e-bay. You can buy a Hialeah glass graced by a pink flamingo for $6.99. Flamingos are also depicted on Hialeah Park linen offered at $7.99. Or maybe you’d prefer three Hialeah post cards for $3.99.

Just when you think the situation could not get worse for this majestic racetrack deemed a National Historic Landmark before closing in 2001, it does. Last December, Hialeah stopped booking weddings and private parties, its principal business since racing ended, and began demolishing its 60-year-old barns, which were ravaged by Hurricane Wilma 16 months earlier.

Yet John Brunetti, who has owned Hialeah Park since 1977, hasn’t completely pulled the plug. “It’s not over yet, but I’m not going to spend an inordinate amount of time on it if it doesn’t work,” Brunetti said in mid-January. “We’ll just try to keep pursuing a plan for development, mixed use, commercial and residential.”

But the flamingoes will stay, as well they should. Hialeah, the Seminole word for pretty prairie, was officially designated a sanctuary for the American flamingo by the Audubon Society as the only reproducing colony in North America. “We still have 300 or 400,” Brunetti said. “They don’t want to leave, and if we develop the property we’ll still keep a flock here to preserve the history and the wonderful memories of this great facility.”

And it was a great facility, the winter capital of racing, for decades. 
“There was nothing better than Hialeah in the winter,” Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens said. “You felt like you were in the best possible place for racing. It was a beautiful track.”

Few, if any, would argue that. The tree-lined entrance to the track; the 16th Century French Mediterranean architecture with vines of purple bougainvillea crawling on giant trellises all across the cream-colored walls; the Renaissance Revival Clubhouse; the grand staircases; two sensational fountains; the first turf course in the United States and the unique snapshot of Thoroughbreds racing against a backdrop of palm trees and flamingos combined to create a magnificent setting. “There was a great jockeys room and race secretary’s office, too,” Jerkens said. “And it was convenient. It was fun to stable there. It was fun to race there.”

Brunetti knows. “Certainly the magnificent turf course and main track we had really captivated horsemen,” he said. “The architecture, the layout of the facilities, the paddock, the box area and the expansive structures capped off by the flamingo colony made it a spectacular place to be at and to enjoy the sport of kings.”

Hialeah’s kingdom was predicated on exclusive winter or spring racing in South Florida from January through March or March through May depending on dates assigned by the Florida Legislature. When that changed in mid-2001, when the Florida Legislature decided to let Hialeah and its two nearby South Florida competitors, Gulfstream Park and Calder Race Course, set their own dates, Hialeah’s fate was sealed. Gulfstream Park and Calder both extended their meets and Hialeah was left with one single day of exclusivity for the entire year.

Hialeah could not compete with either of its two sister tracks head-to-head. “I think everyone knows we tried desperately,” Brunetti said. “There was nothing we could do about it.” Except close.

What a monumental loss. Hialeah not only was a gorgeous track to view, but one that was used by trainers for decades to unveil their most promising and precocious two-year-olds in three-furlong races as early as January. 
Seabiscuit, Round Table, Sword Dancer, Carry Back and Cicada all debuted in three-furlong baby races at Hialeah. 
Foolish Pleasure, Forego and Gold Beauty also made career debuts there in longer sprints. Seattle Slew, Conquistador Cielo and Alydar won their three-year-old debuts at Hialeah, and Kelso and Spectacular Bid won stakes there, Kelso taking the Seminole Handicap and Spectacular Bid winning the Grade 1 Flamingo Stakes by 12 lengths. Citation captured his first four starts as a three-year-old at Hialeah, an allowance race, the Seminole and Everglades Handicaps and the Flamingo Stakes, before winning the 1948 Triple Crown. He is honored at Hialeah with a statue behind the clubhouse. “That was the whole story from a historic point, what it meant for the development of horses,” Brunetti said.

Now Hialeah will develop condos, unless the possibility of adding slot machines induces a revival of Hialeah. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with slots, but we were not included because we had not run for several years,” Brunetti said. It wouldn’t have mattered. Voters in Broward County passed a referendum allowing slots at its racetrack, Gulfstream, where they are up and running this year. Voters in Dade County voted against slots for its two tracks, Calder and Hialeah.

Brunetti, though, won’t give up. “Because I love racing and I love Hialeah,” Brunetti said. “I’m not going to say it’s over until it’s over.”

It began in the early 1920s. Hialeah’s development from a swampland of 220 acres to a signature racetrack mirrored that of the City of Hialeah, which now numbers more than 220,000 citizens.Hialeah Park Racetrack was developed by James Bright, a cattleman from Missouri, and Glenn Curtiss, an aviation pioneer, in 1921. Bright and Curtiss donated the land for community use and helped acquire land and building funds for the construction of public buildings and facilities, including a racetrack. Thanks to Owen Smith, the inventor of the “Inanimate Hare Conveyor” known as the mechanical rabbit, the Miami Kennel Club opened the first greyhound pari-mutuel track in America at Hialeah in February, 1922.

Two years later, Joseph Smoot, Bright and Curtiss established the Miami Jockey Club and constructed a racetrack and grandstand adjacent to the greyhound track. Hialeah Racetrack opened on January 15th, 1925, boasting a clubhouse, administrative building, a paddock and 21 stables. Nearby, the first Miami fronton for jai alai opened. An amusement park featuring a roller coaster and a dance hall was also developed, creating a great destination for tourists. But the Great Hurricane of September, 1926, cost the racetrack complex its roller coaster, jai-alai fronton and dog kennels.

In 1930, the racetrack was purchased by Joseph Widener, who undertook a mammoth renovation. Working with architect Lester Geisler, Widener replaced the wooden grandstand and clubhouse with concrete and steel structures. The stables, paddock area, walking ring were redone, and hundreds of royal palms and coconut trees were planted. A lake was created within the track infield and hundreds of pink flamingoes were imported from Cuba. The first flock of flamingoes flew back to Cuba the very next night, but another flock was imported and their wings were clipped. They thrived at Hialeah on a diet of shrimp, rice, ground dog biscuits and carotene oil which kept their bodies pink - they are born a grayish white and turn pink as they mature.

The renovated Hialeah Racetrack re-opened on January 14th, 1932, just 19 days after Tropical Park, a renovated dog track, opened its doors.

Tropical Park competed with Hialeah head-to-head for years until after World War II when Tropical Park switched its dates to November through Hialeah’s annual opening in early January. When Calder Race Course opened in 1971, Tropical Park switched its dates to that track.

In 1933, Hialeah opened the first turf course in America. Special trains from Palm Beach brought in fans who debarked at a special station built by Seaboard Airline Railway, and Hialeah began carving its identity as “The Track That Made Miami Famous.” Its visitors included John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, General Omar Bradley, George Raft, Count Basie, Jimmy Durante and Joe Louis. James Bassett, the president and board chairman of Keeneland Race Course, called Hialeah “the jewel of Southern racing.”

Brunetti purchased Hialeah in 1977 from Eugene Mori, who had acquired the track from Widener’s family following his death in 1943. Brunetti will never forget the thrill of opening day that March 8th. “It was pandemonium, but it was so uplifting,” he said. “The excitement, the thrill, the people.”

Hialeah was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 2nd, 1979, and on January 12th, 1988, designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

But as the 1980s wove into the ‘90s, less and less people were coming to Hialeah, and Hialeah, Gulfstream and Calder engaged in what seemed to be an annual battle over dates, which were regulated by the Florida Legislature.

Hialeah couldn’t match Gulfstream Park’s figures when they raced on simultaneous dates from 1978 through 1987. In 1989, Hialeah went head-to-head for 27 days with Calder, which had a more accessible location just 10 miles from Hialeah. Hialeah averaged 2,447 fans and $208,490 in handle while Calder averaged 7,240 fans and a daily handle of $941,260.

Brunetti told reporters he was losing an estimated $68,000 a day competing with Calder.Yet Hialeah kept going. In 2000, Hialeah was allowed to hold its meeting at Gulfstream Park because of Hialeah’s poor track condition. When it was over, Gulfstream claimed Brunetti shortchanged the track.
Hialeah re-opened in 2001, and conducted racing through May 22nd, when a crowd of 3,280 watched the final day of racing there. Bugler Mike Ferrios played “Taps” to announce the arrival of horses on the track for the 10th and final race that day, captured by Cheeky Miss. “It was like going to a funeral,” Brunetti said.

Ironically, handle for the 2001 meet was a 17 percent increase from 1999, the last meet actually held at Hialeah. Track officials called the 2001 meet the best in Hialeah’s history.
Representative Rene Garcia, a Republican from Hialeah, tried unsuccessfully to pass an amendment which would have delayed the date of deregulation of the racetracks, which kicked in on July 1st, 2001. “I grew up around this track, and it not only means a lot to me, it means a lot to the people back home,” he said at the time. “This track is the gem of Dade County.”

It was until it closed. Hialeah’s ability to remain open for simulcasting was stripped because it had no live racing. Hialeah was finished. “Since that happened, everyone is saying, `What a shame,’” Brunetti said. “I keep telling people, `Where were you when we needed help?’ That goes to the horsemen, the patrons, the media. Everyone remembers how important Hialeah was.”

Jerkens does. He remembers how thrilled he was to be granted stalls for the prestigious Hialeah meet in 1952. “Most of the time before that we were stabled at Tropical Park,” he said. “Hialeah was all the big stables.”

Now Hialeah teeters on oblivion. Working in the track’s favor is that the zoning which would allow thousands of residential housing units to be built on the Hialeah site is not in place. Nor are the requisite regional approvals for large-scale retail development. And both the City of Hialeah and the state’s historic preservation boards have gone on record opposing massive retail development of the site.

So maybe there’s a faint chance of racing returning to the flamingoes.

“There’s always hope,” Brunetti said.

The Asian Racing Conference – from a trainer’s perspective

ATTENDING industry conferences and seminars, especially those staged overseas, as a media reporter can be hard work – honestly! – but when you come across speakers at the top of their game, who can put over concise points in layman’s language, the tedium of long days, and sometimes even longer nights, wafts away on a breeze of simple understanding.

Dermot Weld was invited to address the Asian Racing Conference, held in Dubai in January, in order to bring a horseman’s perspective to the session headed ‘Global series – what have we learnt and where to now?’ In ten minutes, he did far more than that. He gave an audience of 400-plus delegates – only a single handful who were or had been trainers - a master class in travelling horses around the world, and how to be successful along the way. No better presenter could have been found.

From his base at the heart of Irish racing on The Curragh, Weld has created a unique record. He is the first overseas trainer to have annexed two Melbourne Cups, which alone would make the description fit, but he is also the only European trainer to have logged a winning run in a leg of the US Triple Crown. What lies behind the success of this thoughtful, serious man, whose few words make more sense than some who have written whole chapters on their specialist subject?

There is no single factor, he said. Rather there are nine aspects that he considers when assessing whether, and how, to travel a horse abroad. They are: * Horse – “He has to have the ability to compete at the top level; he must be adaptable to ground and have the right temperament, and he has to be sound. It’s no good if you take an unsound horse, hoping it comes right on the day. In my experience, it rarely does.” *Jockey – “Bring your own if he’s top class, or get the best locally.” *Food – “Bring your own if at all possible.” *Water – “Dehydration is the single biggest negative factor in travelling. Make sure you get it right.” *Staff – “You need trained, experienced travellers, good work riders, and staff with the confidence and knowledge to report to you accurately.” *Farrier – “Very important. Around the world there are some good farriers, but one false move can undo everything.” *Veterinarian – “This is where dehydration will be reported, and he will watch all the tests and look at the blood picture. Make a mistake, and you pay for it.” *Medication – “I agree with strict rules, but it’s important for the trainer to be aware of the rules from country to country, even from state to state in the US.” *Quarantine – “Dubai has an excellent facility and is more straightforward than most. Australia has improved, but effectively it still takes nearly a month and could be brought forward. The US is a worry, and facilities at many tracks need to be improved.” There, in handy-sized bites, is the check-list of a qualified equine vet who has climbed to top of the trainers’ ladder.

There was, however, a bonus to the presentation, a bone of contention dug up when Weld was asked to nominate the single biggest improvement that would foster greater international competition. “We’ve got to standardise the quarantine rules, which differ between Europe, the US, Asia and Australia,” he said. “With modern technology, it can be done, because blood testing for infectious diseases is far more efficient than in the past.”

In a moment, the theme was set, at least from the perspective of the go-ahead trainer with aspirations on the world stage. The conference wended its fascinating way, discussing a myriad of topics of general concern to racing and betting administrators, from co-mingling bets in overseas pools and designing new racecourses, to standardising rules on stewarding and identifying the main threats to the success of horseracing in the future. Virtually all impinged on the business of training to some degree, but none seemed to have the immediate significance of the quarantine issue, which came up again, and again. Adrian Beaumont, director of racecourse services for the Newmarket-based International Racing Bureau, named “a shortening of the quarantine period for racing in Australia” among his three wishes to make life easier for horsemen tackling the global calendar. Other areas came under Beaumont’s scrutiny – Dubai being one, with the impact of its Carnival on the length of time that horses are likely to be away from European stables – but Australia came in for special attention with regard to two new, high-value series, the Global Sprint and Asian Mile Challenges, which include legs in Australia. Beaumont explained: “The quarantine rules pertaining to Australia are stricter than any other. For example, European runners have to do 14 days’ pre-export quarantine, and 14 days’ on arrival. That meant runners in the first leg of the Global Sprint Challenge on 3 February would have needed to be in quarantine no later than 28 December to allow for flight schedules. Thus, unless race clubs can persuade the Australian authorities to shorten the length of the quarantine period, it is difficult for their races to come anywhere other than at the start of a series, as quarantine could conflict with previous legs.”

The consequence, Beaumont explained, was that including Australian races from January to March in a series could mean trainers in the Northern Hemisphere considering them as being at the end of a campaign for their top horses, who may have started their racing season from the previous April to June. Not ideal, was his unequivocal message. Beaumont, whose job involves helping trainers through and over the various problems thrown up by international travelling, turned his focus on to “governmental and racetrack attempts to thwart the spread of diseases,” pointing out that one of the methods was to ban the import of horses from affected countries. “This is certainly true of countries with African horse sickness,” he said, “and restrictions were also put in place by countries affected by swamp fever and foot and mouth, even though the latter cannot be transmitted by horses.

More recently, there have been problems with West Nile virus, which had implications in 2006 for horses with a multi-country itinerary. In particular it affected horses that ran at the Breeders’ Cup in Kentucky. Any horse who ran there before going on to Japan, such as Ouija Board, needed to be vaccinated twice, at an interval of three to six weeks. Similarly, horses that were due to run in Hong Kong after the Breeders’ Cup had to return to their home stables for 15 days, before a blood sample could be taken and sent to America to test for West Nile virus. Only when that was clear could they travel to Hong Kong.” Weld’s reservations were becoming clearer by the minute.

However, as any balanced reporter knows, there are two sides to a coin, and it was not long before the heads of Weld and Beaumont were being addressed by the tail-side of the argument from Dr Patricia Ellis, animal health advisor to the Australian Racing Board, a director of the racing analytical laboratory in Victoria and secretary of the international movement of horses committee, a body set up by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.

A formidable array of appointments for an equine veterinarian with nearly four decades of experience, ranging from government to private sector, from racetrack to teaching. She does not mince words. Dr Ellis, who was involved in the work that overcome obstacles enabling Weld’s pioneering Melbourne Cup winner, Vintage Crop in 1993, to set a new pattern, told delegates: “Yes, illogical, unscientific and inconsistent import conditions are causing problems that need to be resolved. But so do unrealistic expectations and perceptions.” On the specific charges that had been thrown her country’s way, she countered: “Australia’s quarantine arrangements have attracted unfavourable criticism, but Australia is free from equine influenza, and its import controls reflect this.

I make no apology for them. “The Australian government and its racing authorities don’t want a flu outbreak that would shut down racing and other equestrian events for several months. They have understandable concerns for racing and non-racing stakeholders outside the international racecourse fence.” On the broader issue, referring to the Dubai conference’s headline slogan, she said: “It’s time for a reality check. In the context of ‘Racing Without Borders’ what do you really mean, what do you want? As racing authorities, do you want to import foreign horses directly from their home stables without vaccinations, tests or official health certificates, and allow them to mix freely with local horses? Or do you want to ‘race across borders’ with science-based risk management, according to international standards, applied consistently, and which respects differences in country health status?”

There seemed to be only one answer from Dr Ellis’s tone, as she added: “Measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases have to be a compromise between the need to conduct a successful event, with as wide a number of competing nations as possible, and the need to provide adequate safeguards to protect the health status of the animal and human populations of the importing country.

In some countries, racing is not the only game in town. The safety and status of competition horses, and the need to prevent economic loss and unfavourable reflection on a country’s health standing and veterinary services, are as important factors as caring for the indigenous racehorse population”. “Harmonisation of international issues such as handicapping, stewards’ decisions, rules of racing and race planning are directly under the control of racing authorities,” Dr Ellis explained. “Import conditions are not. They have to be negotiated government to government. Perhaps this is why the issue of ‘quarantine’ – thought I would prefer to speak about ‘import controls’ and ‘health safeguards’ – causes such angst.” The target for change is clear, according to Dr Ellis. “For success in expanding international borders, co-operation with government is critical.” However, she went on to warn: “Sometimes success has a very long lead time.” And using an even more stunning one-liner, “Success has a thousand fathers, and failure is an orphan,” as a preface, she added: “Persistent and polite requests from international trading partners engage the attention of governments, and assist local racing authorities to negotiate safe international exchanges of racehorses.

The World Animal Health Organisation sets the minimum international standards for trade. If we want standardisation or harmonisation of quarantine procedures, we must engage in the development of these standards.” Perhaps Dr Ellis should invite Dermot Weld to join her when she next tackles the World Animal Health Organisation.

Shockwave Therapy - uncovering new treatments

Doctors originally used shockwave therapy more than 20 years ago to disintegrate kidney stones in their patients, then learned that the therapy can also treat tendonitis, tennis elbow, heel spurs and other ailments. Equine researchers are still uncovering everything shockwave therapy can do for horses after it was initially and successfully used in Germany in 1996 to treat lameness. Shockwaves are high-pressure, low-frequency sound waves generated by a device outside the body and focused on a specific body site. When the shockwaves meet tissue interfaces of different densities, the energy contained in the shockwaves is released and interacts with the tissue, triggering natural repair mechanisms and stimulating bone formation and blood flow.

The shockwaves can lessen or eliminate pain and accelerate healing. New York trainer Rick Schosberg has a unique perspective on shockwave therapy. He’s used it on himself and his horses. “I’ve used it for myself for tennis elbow; it helped my elbow for 90 days,” Schosberg said. “With my horses I’ve used it a couple times on injuries and it did okay for minor injuries, soft tissue and saucer fractures. It probably knocked a third off the healing time but it’s expensive. You use it for at least three treatments over a month and a half, usually every two or three weeks. As long as it‘s not abused it’s okay. You can‘t run a horse within 10 days after you use it and you have to report it every time you use it (in New York) because it has an analgesic effect.” Shockwave therapy’s impact on horse racing could not have happened if it wasn’t developed for human patients first. And that happened by accident. During experiments with high-velocity projectiles, which were being used to smash ceramic plates, an employee at a company in Germany touched the plate at the very moment the projectile hit the plate. He felt something in his body akin to an electric shock, though measurements showed that there was no electricity present. That prompted German scientists to begin researching the possible effects of shockwaves on humans in the late 1960s. The first successful disintegration of a kidney stone in a patient by shockwaves was done in 1971. Fourteen years later, experiments were conducted regarding the effect of shockwaves on bones, leading to experiments on other parts of the human anatomy.

Today, shockwaves are the first choice of treatment for kidney and ureteral stones and has morphed into treatment for other medical conditions. Will equine medicine’s use of shockwaves follow a similar pattern? The first equine disease to be treated with shockwaves was proximal suspensory desmitis, an injury to the suspensory ligament which is a major cause of lameness. A year later, shockwaves were used on a horse with Navicular Syndrome, an ailment affecting the small navicular bone in a horse’s foot and the connecting ligament. The first use of shockwaves in the United States happened in 1998 with a horse with a distal hock joint and navicular pain. All the results were encouraging. “When we first started using it, it worked okay on lameness,” Iowa State University’s Dr. Scott McClure, DVM, a leading researcher of equine shockwave therapy, said. “At this point in time, it’s been well documented for tendon and ligaments.

A lot of people think it works for stress fractures. I think there are some joint applications which we’re learning more about. Soft tissue, too. It’s been shown to increase permeability of cell walls.” He believes that increased cell wall permeability could lead to drugs which are more effective attacking tumors. “There’s potential for a lot of applications,” McClure said. “I clearly don’t think we understand all of its uses.” There are two types of equine shockwave therapy: extracorporeal generated outside the body and focused on a specific area of a horse’s body, and radial pressure waves when an applicator is pressed on the horse’s body. “The two of them get lumped together, but they shouldn’t be,” McClure said. “They’re very different. Radial pressure waves have lower pressure and more shallow penetration.” According to Dr. Stephen Adams of Purdue University‘s Veterinary Teaching Hospital in a 2002 article, studies have shown that shockwave therapy is effective treating suspensory ligament disease, bowed tendons, ringbone, bone spavin, splints, fractured splint bones, sore backs, navicular syndrome and fractures not healing properly. “Initial studies show that about 75 percent of horses treated for these conditions show marked improvement following shockwave therapy,” Adams wrote, while noting that many conditions require a second treatment to produce optimum results. “Advantages of this treatment are that no drugs are used, and horses with chronic conditions such as bone spavin, chronic suspensory ligament disease and navicular syndrome can continue to exercise.

Frequently, improvement in lameness is achieved in horses where conventional treatments have failed. Shockwave therapy is used as an adjunct treatment for fresh injuries such as recent bowed tendons with the goal of reducing convalescent time and improving the outcome.” On its website, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital suggests using shockwave therapy on horses suffering from: suspensory ligament injury, tissue calcification, fractures or joint ankyloses, fatigue injury to bone, back pain, navicular disease and bone exostosis.

McClure documented the effect of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) on horses with unilateral forelimb lameness in a study he co-authored with Jessica Dahlberg, Richard Evans and Eric Reinertson which was published in the July 1st, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The study focused on five geldings and four fillies and mares with lameness.

Treatment by ESWT resulted “in a period of acute improvement in lameness severity that typically persists for two days. Thus, in horses undergoing ESWT, exercise should be controlled for a minimum of two days after treatment to prevent further injury.” The reason is that ESWT has an undeniable analgesic effect. “This has raised concerns that use of ESWT to treat musculoskeletal injuries in horses may, because of the analgesic effects, result in overuse of the injured limb, causing further injury to the affected part and posing a risk to treated horses and their riders,” the study said. “For this reason, racing jurisdictions in the United States and the Federation Equestre International have adopted regulations that require a 5-to-7 day period after treatment before the horse is allowed to perform.”

Regardless, the horseracing industry, one never known to embrace change and new products, has quickly come on board in using this non-invasive treatment on their horses. “Over the last five years, it’s dramatically increased,” McClure said. “The market is starting to saturate. There’s a lot of equipment out there. In 1988, I had the second machine in the country. I think the owners and trainers have taken the bit and run with it. They’ve been very aggressive with that.” Trainer Sanna Hendricks used shockwave therapy on her multiple stakes winning steeplechaser Praise the Prince after he suffered a soft tissue injury below the pastern while winning the 2003 Grade 1 New York Turf Writers’ Cup at Saratoga Race Course. “We used shockwave therapy on him, and he responded to it,” Hendricks said in an August 30th, 2004 story in the Blood-Horse. “I took the conservative approach with him. I gave him plenty of time to rest and recover and didn’t bring him back to training until February 5th with an eye on these races at Saratoga.” Praise the Prince not only made it back to the races at Saratoga, he won the 2004 Grade 2 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase there as a nine-year-old. If that isn’t an endorsement for shockwave therapy, what is? But shockwaves should not be construed as a panacea.

Complications can occur with incorrect use, and McClure wrote, “The release of kinetic energy at interfaces of different acoustic impedances is crucial in planning ESWT. Shock waves must never be focused on gas-filled cavities like the lung or intestine.” Meanwhile, he’s back at work, doing new studies to see just what else shockwave therapy may help.

Guillaume Macaire - champion jumps trainer in France for many years

Guillaume Macaire is the current champion jumps trainer in France, a title he has held since 2003. He is based in the Charente Maritime region of France at La Palmyre racecourse. In 2006 he ran 231 different horses and regularly campaigns horses across Europe.

In 2006 he wrote a regular column in Paris-Turf in which he provided insight into his runners, discussed current issues in the racing world and would provide his opinion on sensitive subjects.

Guillaume, tell us how you came into racing?

I was born in Compiègne in 1956, I frequented the racecourse at an early age. My family wasn’t involved in racing but when I went, I fell in love with it. The pictorial, timeless side of Compiègne’s racecourse certainly had a big impression on me. After a short career as an amateur rider, I started training a few horses in Compiègne, exercising my horses on the forest’s sand gallops. I then moved in Maisons-Laffitte for 2 years, then fate drove me to the south-west of France, where races were well-attended,  I went to La Roche Chalais (Dordogne), I won races regularly, improved my results every year and discovered La Palmyre where I moved to12 years ago.

What are the advantages of training at Royan-la-Palmyre?

The variety of the region attracted me, as well as the track on the racecourse, there’s the nearness of the sea with big beaches, a pine forest and its paths in sand.
When I arrived, the racecourse’s sand track wasn’t really exploited; some trainers had worked on it, one of them Martial Boisseuil (well-known in Arabian racing) had had a certain amount of success from 1975 to 1990 without however leaving the borders of the Southwest of France. The facility has several jump tracks, hurdles, steeple-chase fences and cross-country jumps, and now English fences and hurdles, also the addition of sand in order to have a testing gallop reminds me of the English up-hill gallops. Here, horses must maintain their rhythm and use their back. This allows me to work in good conditions and to make really good jumpers.
I’ve trained in different places and always used the same basics, I adapt to the facilities offered by each place. Here, in La Palmyre, I use the quality of the sand as natural ground and make the best of it. But what is positive here would not be anywhere else, all the methods are good but it’s necessary to adapt oneself. Good horses make the difference.

Could you explain to me your training methods, what do you consider very important?

All the horses intended to work here are pre-selected on their pedigree, on their appearance and on their movement, as only these criteria will allow them to improve their technique in order to be more fluent and more successful. Due to this selection I quickly have an opinion about each horse, if it has “attached legs and a welded kidney” it’s not worth working any more.
I’m talking here about the horses I choose, those for which I assure an “after-sale service”; there are exceptions, other horses I wouldn’t have chosen are brought to me and they are still able to win races. According to the proverb “the good horses make the good trainers”.
I like some of my horses to come to training several times and go back to the fields to recover or simply to grow if needed. They arrive for the first time in the winter as 2 or 3 year olds. Before that, they are broken in and pre-trained by people I know, who know the way I want my horses to be worked. I like to do interval training, as I mostly train jumpers, it allows to build the horse’s fitness without killing it (it’s used a lot with humans anyway); I put bandages on all of them, they help the horse’s back to carry a rider in the right way and they help for the animal’s submission and relaxation.  In their first month of training, I school them 3 or 4 times a week in a closed arena with 4 hurdles and deep sand. Indeed my inspirational mentor Baron Finot, (a leading jumping trainer in the 1880’s) whose methods I adopted and adapted to our time and whom rich painting (gouaches and watercolours) I admire had said: “the good jumpers are those who are used to jumping when they’re young”.

The arena is compulsory to me, I say it’s like a pianist is nothing without his scales, he has to practice, so the jumping technique is the main point for a jumper’s career and we have to practice. Then, depending on the horse’s behaviour and its physical ability to bear the training it will either run in the spring of its 3rd year or it will go back to the field to take advantage of the spring grass and will return in the autumn stronger.

Just as each person is unique amongst the universe’s inhabitants, my jumpers are individuals. I train each one of them regarding how it responds in order to get a certain standard, the horse’s quality will do the rest. My work is to form them as studious pupils. The trainer’s art is to find good horses and to find quickly enough if they’re worth it or not. 
Feeding is of prime importance in a racehorse’s life; it’s important to respect nature. For this I have all my horses on shavings and the racks are always full of hay (from the area of Crau) which avoids them to be bored in their stable and is a great help for proper digestion. They also eat oats and in the morning and bran mash in the evening (they have it even when they’re away racing, as I own several pressure-cookers).
Another essential thing to me is the horse walker, it replaces the lunging work that was formerly used a lot when people had time. I was the first trainer in France to buy one. It is surely not an economy of staff, but allows the horse to work muscularly and mentally freely without a direct constraint from the rider’s weight and hand.
The walker is used daily for different purposes, a horse that needs to let off steam before concentrating on the work for the track, a horse with a back problem or a horse that needs to recover after the races.
 I use a scale, horses are regularly weighed, especially before and after a race in order to know their exact condition. The optimum weight is a precious indicator of the state and health of the horse.
The work list is my puzzle for every day, adapting every horse with his/her rider then adapt them to each string according to the work required. I have as well to adapt to the new horses, their progress whilst keeping their objectives in mind.
No one can imagine how much the quality of a regular and constant work made in the morning is related - and improves - the final result.

Tell me about your staff?

My team consists of about 30 people; it’s a pyramid system whereby each person has their place and their function from the bottom to the top. In the summer we attract English, Irish and now Swiss riders who combine their holiday with a French racing experience. Noel Williams, Alan King’s assistant, spent some time with us last year and seemed pleased by what he discovered here and by the French racing customs, it complemented what he already knew. It is interesting for everybody to exchange different points of view as each country has its own habits.

You like to run horses in England, why?

I consider the level of competition is very high in Great-Britain, our best horses are sold and cross the channel when they’ve shown really good things there. There’s a conquering side in winning races abroad! It is the circumstances that brought me to England with Jair du Cochet, who won a Group 1 race (the Welsh Finale Junior Hurdle at Chepstow) first time out there. He didn’t pass the vet twice, so, pricked in my pride I wanted to show he was a good horse in order to prove my honesty. He adapted very well in England and ran only there, with a certain success. It is impossible for a horse to run everywhere all year through - except for The Fellow who was an extraterrestrial as he had won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand Steeple Chase de Paris. I take an outstanding pleasure running in England as this for me is the homeland of the jumping races, a consecration for every trainer to win over there. But I want to go there only with a first class chance or if an English owner of mine wants to see his horse run over there. If I have good entries for a horse who knows Auteuil I’ll stick there.

What are your hopes for 2007?

I hope we can continue where 2006 left off and to find more time for my favourite hobby – painting horses. 

Bendik Bø - the Swedish trainer and inventor

When he rode his first race, the horse was a year older than him. They did not win. ”I never was a very talented jockey”, he says. He has many other talents though. The Norwegian Bendik Bø (39) is a successful racehorse trainer and inventor, based in Sweden. 

He was never afraid to try his hand at new tasks. He was shoeing his first pony when he was only 14 years old. ”I had been watching the farrier at work and helping a bit”, he remembers, ”one day he did not turn up – so I did it myself, secretly of course, but it was fine.” Some thirteen years later he was a full time farrier himself. ”I had around 200 horses on my list”, he recalls, ”just shuttling between the stables on a three wheel moped. My business was going well, one year my turnover was 1.7 million kronor. It was hard work, but the fine whisky was too easy to come by. Drink nearly ruined my life”. 

 
”So, five years ago I sought professional help, got rid of the drink, began developing my main invention, and went into training”. He now handles one of the biggest strings in Scandinavian racing, training nearly 80 horses at Täby Galopp. At the beginning of last year, he had eight.
 
Bendik Bø’s main invention – it is not the only one – is a vibrating floor for horseboxes, to give the horse massage from the ground. He first got the idea when working for a trainer in Italy in 1992. They had the very useful sprinter Prairie on the team. ”Though he had tendon problems”, Bø recalls, ”and the vets told us his career was over. I felt we could give him a chance, and even had a bet with one of the vets that we would get him back on the track and win a certain amount of prize money with him. We did get him back on the track, and he won five races for us in Sweden the following season. We then took him to Italy, but his problems came back. After some improvement, we could train him though, and entered him in a Listed race in Milan. I was driving the horsebox, doing a trip of 350 kilometres. It was an old horsebox, very stiff, and not a very smooth drive at all. We could feel a lot of vibration on our way to Milan. On arrival, I noticed that the horse was moving, and clearly feeling, so much better than I had ever seen him. He won the race, running 1200 metres in 1:07.and beating a good ex-English horse called Reference Light, who was second in a Group Two the same year.”  
 
”When driving back from winning that Listed event, I remember thinking how convinced I was that the ”vibrating” box ride had something to do with Prairie’s performance that day. And I said to myself, ’I must find a way to get this box into the stable...” he says. Prairie, who had been a champion in Sweden, also ran fourth to Special Power in the Premio Certosa (Gp 3) at San Siro. Bø won the bet with the vet.
 
The idea of a vibrating floor was to be experimented with, and pondered on, for nine years before Bø and members of his family back home in Norway started working seriously on the project five years ago. ”During those years, my life took some twist and turns”, he explains openly, ”I was heading in the wrong direction. I always wanted to return to a life working closely with horses. Alcohol is a very, very dangerous friend, however, and could easily have ended all my ambitions. Admitting himself to a clinic in Norway for seven weeks, he came out a tea-total, and very determined young man. ”Some may have said I was not going to get away from the drink”, he says, ”but I did, and I decided to put my life to better use. The same year we decided to give the vibrating floor a real crack too. My house was tidy and it was time get the drawing board out.”  
 
From starting out as an amateur rider, to be just a run of the mill jockey, then an inventor and very good trainer, Bø strikes us as a man whose strong will has pushed him through storms where many would have turned back and gone back to more conventional life than working with racehorses in Scandinavia. After all, making a decent living from thoroughbreds in Norway, is not much easier than making a living from skiing in England. That was also why he turned his back on the sport when he was 16 years old. He was young but had been involved for years and already saw how tough it would be, financially, to make it.
 
A career in the saddle was always going to be a ride against all odds. Bø is 1.78m tall, and his lowest riding weight was 57 kilograms. ”You just can’t live like that for very long”, he says, ”and after riding about 20 races, and no winners, I left the sport and took an agricultural education instead. When that was completed I was riding out from time to time, and did some farrier work to make extra money – but eventually I left racing to work on a cow farm in Norway. It lasted just a couple of years. I was soon drawn back to the horses, and to racing”.  
 
His ticket back into horseracing came when he was offered an apprenticeship with trainer Trond Hansen, one of the leading trainers in Norway - now based in Germany. ”It was a good time to join his yard”, he says, ”as we had some classy horses, like Salient, who had been bought out of Dick Hern’s team for 110,000 guineas – then a record price - at the 1985 Tattersalls Horses in Training Sales in Newmarket. He was previously owned by the Queen, by the way, and was a top horse in Scandinavia. We also had a 2000 Guineas winner and a champion sprinter the same year.”  The inspiration was back, although it meant riding out in 20 degrees below at wintertime, hardly eating at all, and sometimes travelling about ten hours by horsebox to race meetings in Sweden and Denmark. ”My interest was back, though my race riding was still not going all that well...”
 
A winner, at long last
 
Some two years later, a Swedish jockey, of the opposite sex, persuaded Bø to come with her to work at Täby Galopp outside the Swedish capital Stockholm, where racing is considerably bigger than in Norway. ”At long last”, he recalls, ”soon after moving, I rode my first winner. I was 20 years old, my stubborness got be to the winners’ circle – but it had taken some time!” 
 
A few more winners followed, and Bø also began riding over jumps. Working for Olle Stenstrøm, who trained quite a few good hurdlers and chasers, the young Norwegian was now partnering winners on a more regular basis. He moved on to work for Claes Bjørling, who took horses from Sweden to Italy. Bjørling also bought horses out of sellers in England and campaigned them successfully in Italy. Bø rode at many of the Italian courses. He enjoyed success at Capannelle, Pisa and Treviso, and also rode at Cagnes-sur-Mer in France. 
 
”One of our best jumpers was a horse called Obeliski”, Bø tells us, ”Mr Bjørling got him out of a claiming chase at Southwell, when his official hurdle rating in England was just 128. I rode him to be fifth in the Italian Champion Hurdle. I remember being very proud of having beaten the high class English hurdler Staunch Friend and Steve Smith Eccles in the race. Not bad you know, on a cheap claimer. My boss also claimed a horse called Bighayir, who had won ten races for Martin Pipe, but he did not jump well enough when we took him to Cagnes-sur-Mer.”  
 
The French course does, like Bendik’s boyhood city, sit by the seaside. Though that is the only thing Cagnes-sur-Mer and the city Larvik in Norway has in common. 
 
Bø grew up in Larvik. He is by no means the only man with a thinking cap fostered in the small seaside city. Larvik’s most famous son is Thor Heyerdahl, the anthropologist who sailed the raft ”Kon-Tiki”, made of Balsa wood, from Peru across the Pacific Ocean to Tamoto Islands, to prove that ancient Peruvians could have reached Polynesia in this manner. In 1947, Heyerdahl and his five companions made the 8000-kilometre crossing in the primitive vessel, taking 101 days.
 
Growing up in Norway, let alone Larvik, without knowledge of Heyerdahl’s name and work is virtually impossible – but Bendik was not interested in anthropology. He liked horses better. He turned up at Hovland Ridestall, the local riding school, when he was ”seven or eight years old”. He had no money in his pocket for riding lessons of course, so instead he struck up a deal with the owner of the place. Bendik mucked out boxes without being paid, and was given sporadic riding lessons in return. After a few years of this, he and his schoolmates were given responsibilities in the stable, owned by Knut Rimstad, who combined running a riding school with racing a small string of his own horses at Øvrevoll racecourse outside Oslo. The boys also travelled with the horses to the races. ”Some of Rimstad’s racehorses were even used for lessons at the riding school”, Bendik recalls. 
 
The ambition was clear enough; to become a jockey. And the teenage boy was never short on imagination. When a replacement rider was needed for a horse in an amateur race that very evening, at short notice, he got his friend Roy Arne Kvisla out of the classroom at school. Kvisla, who is now a trainer in Lambourn, had never ridden in a race but he was old enough to do so. Bendik was not, so he knocked on his mate’s classroom door. It was a daring move, as behind that door they were having an important test in chemistry. Bendik told the teacher that Roy’s mother was ill, and that he had better come along with him. The teacher agreed. The boys headed off to the stables, from there to the races at Øvrevoll, where Kvisla rode the horse – and won the race. Fortunately, the teacher never bothered with the racing results when browsing the morning papers!
 
Bø himself rode his first race at 15, the minimum age for race riding, partnering a veteran called Federation. The horse was a year older than the rider. ”We finished fifth”, Bø tells us, ”I kept on riding, and over the years I have partnered over 80 winners on the flat and over jumps. But to be honest, I never was very good as a jockey”. 
 
He rode his last race in 1994, when experiencing a bad fall on a hurdler that broke both front legs during a race – on the flat. ”I just heard a solid bang when we went down”, Bendik recalls, ”I took a heavy, heavy fall and that was it. No more race riding for me. I decided to quit while still in one piece.” His riding career, which had began on a 16-year-old plodder at Øvrevoll when he was 15, thus ended with an incredible and nasty fall on a jumper at Täby Galopp when he was 27.
 
To this day, Øvrevoll is the only thoroughbred venue in Norway. Harness racing is dominant, and the country has no more than 380 active thoroughbreds. This season, Bendik Bø has taken over the stable of retiring Michael Kahn, many times champion trainer in Sweden. This move puts him in charge of close to 80 horses, more than a fifth of the racehorse population in his native Norway. And he is still mucking out boxes – ”we’ve got to work”, he smiles. 
 
There is an active exchange of horses, trainers, jockeys and staff in general, between the Scandinavian racing communities. In particular between Norway and Sweden, and Bø has been back and forth between the Oslo region and the Stockholm region a few times. In 1986, when he travelled east to pursue his career in the saddle, it led to a life as a farrier, making good money, but also to a lifestyle that led to too much partying and drinking. The tall, slim and happy Norwegian was never violent when drunk, just having a good time and often playing his violin to entertain the party. 15 years later he was heading back home, to get rid of ”a dangerous friend” as he calls it, to cure his alcoholism. ”I woke up one morning feeling really fed up with my life”, he reflects, ”it was time to take a turn”. 
 
Harness racing
 
After travelling back to Norway to sort out his problems with drinking, which his motivation helped him do in less than two months, Bendik took out a license to train horses there. He was based back in his hometown Larvik, training a small string. ”I wanted to work on the vibrating floor and do more research with active horses”, he says, ”and with other family members I set up the company Vitafloor. My idea was to get horses with problems, treat them, use the floor to give them effective massage, and train them for racing. In order to get enough such horses, and get enough experience with racing horses that had been using the floor, I had to turn to trotting. With only five to six thoroughbreds, I had over 20 trotters in my stable. I had trotters racing at all the big tracks in Norway. It all went relatively well and we even shipped a horse to win a valuable race in Sweden. I am convinced that my years working with trotters is very valuable today.” 
 
Bø trained thoroughbreds side by side with warm blooded trotters, and trotters of Nordic race, often described as ”cold blood horses”. He says that getting as much experience as possible, with a variety of individuals, is how to become a good horseman. As long as you pay attention of course. After five years in Norway, he moved back to Sweden for the 2006 season, to train at Täby Galopp. His initial team there was even smaller. ”I took over from Roy Arne Kvisla as he left for England”, he explains, and I had eight horses to train.” At the turn of the year he had 42. He saddled 26 winners from 118 runners, for a healthy 22% strike rate.
 
It helped him tremendously of course, that he revitalised the 10-year-old sprinter Waquaas to such an extent that the gelding won three races on the bounce early in the season, including a pair of Listed contests; the Taby Vårsprint and the Norsk Jockeyclub Sprint. Bø was off to a good start on his return to Sweden. 
 
Today, he is in charge of the biggest string in the land. There is no spare time, ”We employ ten full time, plus use some freelance work riders”, he explains, ”but I work seven days a week myself, as does my partner Mette Kjelsli. What spare time I get is often dedicated to my inventions. But you know, I can also think through those ideas when on an eight-hour drive to the Danish or Norwegian Derby meeting!” 
 
”We race year round here”, he explains, ”on turf and dirt, and I divide my horses in two groups, the best horses are active through the spring, summer and early autumn, while the lesser lights will be racing mainly at wintertime. Taby Galopp owns a farm close to the track, where I rent some boxes. This is where we send the horses for breaks, though some also go back to their owners’ farms for rests”, he says. His string consists approximately of 60 per cent imports, mainly bought in England, and 40 per cent Scandinavian breds.
 
Simple solution the beginning
 
Returning to the inventions, Bø tells the fascinating story about how he took the first small steps towards what today is the highly sophisticated Vitafloor. 
 
”I took a big board, attached an engine under the board, placed the whole thing of four blocks of wood shavings, and switched the engine on”, he tells us, ”I tried walking on it, lying on it and feeling the massaging effect. This was just my first prototype of course, but other jockeys used this vibrating board too, just to get a relaxing massage after riding. It was obvious that it would not be quite that simple but at least I had discovered that my theory was working, to a certain extent. So, I kept on thinking about solutions for many years.” Today, Bø has sold the Vitafloor to various trainers, both of thoroughbreds and harness horses, and veterinarian clinics in Scandinavia, and recently his company exported the first floor to Dubai.  
 
Bø has also invented elastic reins. ”When the horse breaks into a gallop”, he explains, ”he will always stretch his neck out, and pull for a bit more rein. No rider has a hand quick enough to accomodate the horse during these few strides, to give the horse a smooth communication through the reins. I had noticed how, at the start of many a race, horses and riders were not in full harmony and perfect rhythm – they were not working as a team, and the horse was often tugging sharply against the bit when trying to find his balance. Therefore I made elastic reins. It is very simple, the rein runs in an s-shape, with elastic bands attached straight across. This means that the horse gets a bit more leeway and freedom when gaining his balance as he picks up speed – but when he pulls harder, the reins go to full stretch and take over. The elastic band is only a matter of a four to five centimetres but that is enough to make quite a difference.”
 
He has sold ”a couple of hundred” of these reins, ”I produce them myself”, Bø says. And when he got his first cat, he soon became fed up cleaning the cat case, so he invented a cat case that could be cleaned in 15 seconds. ”I have patented that too”, he explains, ”but it has never been commercially marketed. I am working on more important prototypes for the equestrian industry right now, the cat case was just for fun, really”. 
 
At a track like Täby Galopp everyone knows everyone. ”There are about 20 trainers based here”, Bø tells us, ”and the number of horses stabled at the track is always around 400. The country has about 1400 racehorses. Swedish racing has been struggling, that is no big secret, but there is a positive will to move forward here, and people work well together”, he says. 
 
On the racetrack committee
 
The racecourse management has formed a track committee, with meetings every two weeks. Bø is a member of this committee and he explains; 
 
”I represent the trainers, there is also a jockey on the committee, as well as the general manager, the head groundsman and a veterinarian present. We meet for lunch twice a month, exchange ideas and discuss how best to improve the racecourse – both for training and racing. I enjoy this, we are all learning and it is important to take part”. 
 
Racing takes place on an American style track at Täby, with a turf and dirt course, where they manage to keep racing going in the winter, by adding salt to the dirt track and by harrowing the track 24 hours a day through the winter months. The dirt track is 1742 metres, while the turf course is 1595 metres round. There is also an inner, figure of eight, steeplechase course.
 
”This may not be Newmarket or Chantilly”, Bendik says, ”but the training facilities are good, and remarkably consistent. I rarely feel the need to go to inspect the track in the morning before working my horses. And you know, small as this team is, we have a hard working and dedicated group of people here. But it’s also costly to keep racing going 12 months a year. I know one of the guys working night shifts on the harrowing, and he just told me that he burns around 500 litres of diesel every night. That’s a lot of money you know!” Racing goes ahead in freezing temperatures, as low as 10 to 15 degrees Celcius below zero, when riding weights are put up by a couple of kilograms to allow more clothing for the riders. 
 
When asked about racing horses on dirt and turf, Bø is quick to point out that ”you get surprises all the time, but there are dirt type runners and there are turf type runners. I do not think any horse can be equally effective on both surfaces. I prefer turf, but when I have a horse winning a nice race on dirt, I love the sand”, he smiles, ”and without it – where would we be?” 
 
He took two runners to Lingfield Park in England last November, when his domestic Listed winner Maybach finished tenth in the Churchill Stakes. ”It was an experiment”, he reflects, ”but Maybach ran better than his finishing position may suggest, beaten just 6 lengths behind Nayyir, when carrying just two pounds less. After all, Nayyir used to be a Group One horse. My other horse, the Argentinean bred King Nov, was unplaced in a competitive sprint handicap. We felt that he was given a tough weight bgut he was not disgraced, and I went home believing that we can take horses to England and win. I was very impressed by the Polytrack, it is far less demanding than our conventional dirt track. We will be back but, mind you, taking these two horses from Stockholm to Lingfield did cost 70.000 kronor all told (approximately £5000)”.  
 
When Maybach won the Listed Nicke Memorial at Täby two months earlier, the reward was nearly £11,000, which is half of what Nayyir earned in the Churchill Stakes but more than the runner-up’s share in the Lingfield contest. And for the Nicke Memorial, Maybach was simply walked for about three minutes from his trainer’s stable to the paddock. 
 
”The best races in Scandinavia have good purses”, Bendik explains, ”so it makes little sense for us to ship our best horses abroad during periods when we have opportunities for them at home.”
 
As an example, the Stockholm Cup International and Täby Open Sprint – both Group Three status – were both worth €88,398 to the winner last year. On the same Sunday, Longchamp staged their ”Arc” trails, including the Group Two events Prix Niel and Prix Foy, both worth only €68,400 to the winner. 
 

Still, Bendik Bø hopes to be able to campaign more horses internationally, from his base at Täby Galopp. ”We have the knowledge, we have the horses, and we have the ambition, also among the owners, to do just that”, he says, ”and I certainly have the will”.  We knew that. 

Feeding during early training - how to minimise problems

Most of the current crop of 2yo’s will now have been broken and are in the early stages of training proper in readiness for the forthcoming flat racing season. This period brings with it numerous problems for trainers and their staff, such as horses with high muscle enzymes, episodes of tying up, respiratory infections, various lamenesses and other skeletal problems or simply over exuberance.

Whilst such issues have many contributory factors, a good basal diet, with carefully selected extras can help to minimise some of these niggling problems. Overfed horses can become fat or too excitable During breaking, and pre- and early training the emphasis from a nutritional perspective should be on adequate but not excessive energy intake, whilst ensuring that a balanced diet is provided in terms of vitamins, minerals and quality protein. An overfed horse becomes either fat and so difficult to slim down for racing, or badly behaved and excitable, and thus more prone to injure itself or its rider. To avoid excitability, good quality hay or haylage fed in increased amounts will not only help to reduce the reliance on concentrate feeds, but may also reduce ulceration, especially in horses in their first season of race training. There are several concentrate feeds manufactured specifically for horses in early training or during a ‘lay off’ period. These are generally lower in energy than racing feeds, but still ensure an adequate intake of quality protein for young horses and provide a more concentrated source of vitamins and minerals, given that the intake of feed can be quite low at this time. Sometimes a more economical alternative to these tailored feeds would be a good quality low energy mix or cube, manufactured for the mainstream horse market.

However, reassurance should always be sought from the manufacturer concerned on the suitability of the main ingredients, including the protein and fibre sources and vitamin and mineral level for a horse in pre or early training. An further advantage of these two concentrate feed types for this stage of training, is that the energy provided is derived largely from digestible fibre and sometimes oil, with less emphasis on cereal starch. This is potentially beneficial for behaviour, and also for horses with a predisposition for tying-up or ‘set fast’. Not every raised muscle enzyme is a ‘set fast’ Raised blood levels of the muscle enzymes AST (aspartate aminotransferase) and CPK or CK (creatine kinase) are common place during early training. These enzymes are present at much higher levels in muscle cells than other tissues and therefore their leakage into the blood is considered indicative of muscle damage. The complication is that although muscle damage can result from an ongoing metabolic issue such as tying up, it may also occur as the result of transient over exertion. High AST and CK’s in blood are not always an indication of a horse having tied up and some horses that exhibit these blood results in the early stages of training will often work through it as training progresses.

Care should obviously be taken with horses, who show clinical signs of having tied up on one or more occasion. For such horses, diagnosis early in the season is beneficial, as their diets can be scrutinised more closely and key changes implemented that can in many instances reduce the severity or frequency of such attacks. These horses will often benefit from being fed a basal ration that is very low in starch (typically less than 15%) and so equally will need to be high in digestible fibre and oil to ensure adequate energy intake during training. Current research into tying up cannot yet explain why this dietary change helps, but widespread experience suggests that in many instances it does. Stephanie Valberg from the University of Minnesota suggests that it may be due to an effect on stress and the change in diet results in these horses becoming less ‘anxious’. However, trainers have in the past highlighted practical problems with this approach.

Some have reported that long-term palatability may be a problem with this type of diet, as horses seem to instinctively like the sweet, cereal rich coarse mixes and cubes, typical of traditional racing feeds. Measures that can be taken to avoid such problems include: 1. Identify problem horses as early as possible and adjust their ration to prevent them becoming accustomed to traditional racing feeds. 2. Feed 4 or 5 smaller meals per day rather than 3 larger ones. 3. Mixes are often more palatable than cubes 4. Some unmolassed sugar beet can improve palatability Most racing diets need supplementing with salt Electrolyte provision, including sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium and magnesium is an important dietary aspect to evaluate for all horses in the yard, not just those that tie up.

Racing diets generally meet and exceed the requirements of potassium and chloride, which are two of three the main electrolytes lost in sweat. The third, sodium, is in my experience never present in sufficient quantities in proprietary feeds for horses doing more than light work. This may be largely due to manufacturing constraints. However, sodium is easily supplemented by adding ordinary table salt daily to feeds (typically between 25-75g per day depending on work load). Whilst calcium and magnesium intake is usually adequate, the calcium to phosphorus ratio of the diet may not be optimal, especially if feeds are top dressed with oats.

It should also be recognised that, there exists quite marked differences between horses in their ability to absorb electrolytes and for this reason a creatinine clearance test can be useful in the further investigation of problem horses. This test (which involves taking paired blood and urine samples for analysis of the major electrolytes) helps the vet and nutritionist to take account of individual variation in electrolyte absorption and excretion and to modify the diet accordingly. Vitamin E intake can be low in some pre-training diets Vitamin E and selenium content of the diet should also be studied carefully. Racehorses that repeatedly tie up are not necessarily deficient in these two micronutrients, but may have a higher requirement due to increased free radical production. In my experience, selenium is usually present at appropriate levels in most racing rations, however the level of vitamin E provided can often be lacking.

A higher daily intake of 1600-2400iu per day for a typical horse in training has been recommended in the scientific press. The range in vitamin E content of racing feeds is quite wide, typically between 250iu to nearly 500iu per kilogram of feed. So a horse in full work may receive anything between 1500 to 3000iu per day, excluding forage and supplements. However, many trainers rely on the use of non-specialist low energy feeds during early training and these are obviously fed at a much lower level of intake compared to racing feeds for horses in full work. This could therefore result in vitamin E intake during this period being nearer to 1000iu per day. Poor hoof condition is a common gripe for trainers and farriers Poor hoof condition is another common problem that develops in early training and which can often deteriorate as training progresses.

Whilst there are many conformational and biomechanical factors that contribute to poor hoof condition in Thoroughbreds, nutrition is an area that should not be ignored. It is true to say that most of the relevant nutrients such as quality protein, calcium, zinc, methionine and fatty acids are supplied in a typical racing diet. However, the micronutrient that has received most attention in the scientific literature with respect to improving hoof horn quality is biotin. Biotin, a B-group vitamin, is generally provided at a level of intake in most racing feeds that easily meets a horse’s basal requirement. However, the daily intake reported to improve horn quality is typically 10-20 times higher than this.

Biotin has been reported to improve hoof horn quality when fed daily at levels between 10 and 20mg per day. Patience however, is required with biotin supplementation, as benefits are unlikely to become apparent for 6-9 months. But remember that biotin is worth feeding for 12 months of the year – as the horn grown in the early winter will be raced on in the spring and summer. Getting the basics right for respiratory health Development of respiratory disease during early training is also a commonly encountered problem. I always compare a yearling’s first venture into a training or pre training yard to a toddler starting nursery for the first time, which can often involve consecutive colds and associated bugs for the first year or more.

Indeed, the adaptive part the mammalian immune system is strengthened through exposure to different infectious challenges. It is not surprising therefore, that avoiding some form of respiratory disease during pre or early training is an uphill struggle. Numerous nutrients that may support the immune system have been investigated by scientists in man and other species, such as glutamine, antioxidants including vitamin C and E, probiotics, prebiotics, omega 3 fatty acids, adaptogenic herbs, whey protein and others.

The vitamin C level in the fluid surrounding the lungs is reportedly decreased in horses suffering with Recurrent Airway Obstruction and other types of airway inflammation (e.g. bacterial infection), and some vitamin C supplementation can be warranted where a problem is identified. Glutamine is a major fuel source for cells of the immune system and whilst the merits of supplementation in horses have not been proven, a fairly recent study indicated that horses infected with the equine influenza virus exhibited a significant decline in blood glutamine 41 days after exposure. There may well be other nutrients amongst those cited above that could prove useful, however there are few if any products (or ingredients) that have extensive and unequivocal scientific evidence to support claims that they ‘enhance or boost’ the equine immune system. Before turning to nutraceuticals for all the answers, some fundamentals can be addressed.

Good clean bedding is essential, as are well-ventilated stables and clean forage. Whilst American hay has a good reputation for being clean, with very low mould and yeast counts on analysis, many trainers prefer to use English hay for early training and some will use it through the season. Unfortunately, our variable climate means that producing consistently clean hay can be difficult. Whilst haylage is a viable alternative to hay, as the process of fermentation keeps the level of mould and yeast to a minimum, it is not infallible and haylage that has been produced badly, or which has become contaminated is a serious issue.

I would recommend that before committing to a batch of hay or haylage, some basic analysis of moulds and yeasts is money well spent to ensure that potential respiratory challenges from forage are minimised. Total mould and yeast analysis cfu/g from forage sampled from racing stables Total Moulds Total yeasts Thermophilic spores Hay – English Timothy 270 150,000 150,000 150,000 <10 Haylage – English Rye 10 <10 30 * No visible spoilage was seen in any of these forage samples Retention of calcium is reduced in early training Finally a discussion of the problems of pre and early training would not be complete without reference to bone. Many of the problems encountered at this time relate to changes in bone strength and density during training. When a racehorse enters training for the first time their cannon bones have been shown to go through an initial period of demineralisation, which reaches its greatest severity at about 60 days into training (US based study). Remineralisation then occurs as training progresses.

The initial demineralisation phase results partly as part of the remodelling process but also as a result of a change in the nature of the diet (less forage and more cereal), as the horse moves from stud to training or pre training yard. Current thinking follows that adequate calcium content in the diet is especially important during the initial demineralisation phase, as the horse’s ability to retain calcium in the body seems to be reduced. Attention to the calcium to phosphorus ratio of the diet is also vital, especially if top-dressing with cereals. The dietary magnesium content should also be evaluated in this respect as it is sometimes overlooked. Silicon supplementation shows some evidence of efficacy in reducing some injuries in racehorses but its powder form as sodium zeolite has limited its use. A liquid form is now available and although promising, as the intake per day is very low, it does not as yet have a scientifically proven track record.

TRM Trainer of the Quarter - Alduino and Guiseppe Botti

The TRM Trainer of the Quarter goes to Alduino and Guiseppe Botti either separately or as in recent years in partnership  have dominated the trainers' list in Italy for more than a quarter of a century.

Editorial Writer (European Trainer - Issue 17 / Spring 2007)

The European gambling scene – which way for horseracing?

The war is over: so said France Galop director general Louis Romanet a year ago, after he had put his name to a ground-breaking deal with British bookmakers Ladbrokes. For the first time, live pictures of all French races – Flat, jumps and trotting – were being made available to show in UK betting shops, via a new broadcasting service known as Ladbrokes Xtra. A unique, dedicated channel, Xtra is now in all Ladbrokes’ 2,140 shops in Britain and Ireland, and is there to provide extra – hence the name – opportunities for punters, over and above the traditional daily mix of horse and greyhound racing, virtual reality racing and numbers’ betting. Xtra needed product to make up its programme, and French racing was an obvious target, provided the old enmity between the parties could be overcome. The French racing and betting authorities have generally abhorred fixed-odds bookmakers for a century, ever since their like were driven out of the country by legislation that strengthened the national pool-betting monopoly. For their turn, Ladbrokes, which has a well established business in neighbouring Belgium, had engaged in court battles against the French for at least the past 20 years, seeking to break the mould so that it could take its product into fresh areas. Suddenly, peace had broken out between the two old adversaries. More specifically, pragmatism had prevailed. Ladbrokes needed betting opportunities to fill the gaps in its new service, and the French had them in abundance, even if the idea of putting money on the outcome of a trotting race still seemed slightly alien to UK viewers. On the other side of the counter, the French could see an opportunity to enhance its betting take, because as well as allowing for the delivery of live pictures, the deal enabled Ladbrokes to put bets straight into the PMU pools, for a fee, of course, which generally works out at three per cent of turnover to the host provider. One year on, the two sides are more than happy with the arrangement. Ladbrokes has a guaranteed product to put before its customers, and the French PMU has another source of income, as well as a useful driver for increased pools. Romanet says: “The arrangement is progressing well, better than we expected, and we have very good relations with Ladbrokes, which will grow. The more people that are part of the pool, the more interesting it becomes. “French racing is benefiting, and it is good for Ladbrokes, because with pool betting the bookmaker doesn’t mind which horse wins.This is a proper deal, worked out between the racing authority and the bookmaker on proper terms, which is very different from what other betting operators, such as the exchanges, have suggested. They came to us and said they would give us 0.25 per cent of turnover. We said No. We are not beggars.” So there we have it; the new enemy is revealed. The betting exchanges, with their low-margin operation that cuts into the traditional market, have taken the place of the British bookmaker as the bad guys. But the exchanges are not the only target, and nor is France – the Ladbrokes deal aside – the only European country taking a stand, though its policy towards private betting and gambling operators is considered among the most restrictive in Europe. The real storm has been whipped up by the pervasive phenomenon of the internet, which has turned the European gambling scene into a maelstrom. On one side are the state-controlled monopolies, generally making their money from lotteries and hanging on to their status for dear life under national law. On the other is the European Commission, steeling itself to intervene under EU legislation. And in the middle are the private betting operators, prodding governments into short-term legal action with the long-term aim of getting to the European Court of Justice, where they anticipate a wider, more liberal ruling. For betting operators, it may prove to be a case of taking two or more steps back before they can make a half-step forward, but if the mood among European Commissioners is any guide, they will get there, some day. In September, the internal market minister Charlie McCreevy took to nine – Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy and Sweden - the number of national governments against which the EC is opening infringement proceedings for restricting the provision of sports betting (including horseracing) and gambling services. The EC is following the line that under EU law countries can curb private gambling operators but only on grounds that are “non-discriminatory, proportionate and consistent”. A country cannot justify restrictions simply to protect its gambling or lottery monopoly, it says. Fellow commissioner Malcolm Harbour, who represents Britain, adds: “Member states cannot, on the one hand, incite and encourage people to participate in national lotteries, while at the same time invoking customer protection as a reason to suppress sports (and horserace) betting.” The testing ground for these views is being laid out even as some national governments continue to bear down on unwelcome betting operators, and as is the way with such issues, the workings of the law will grind away slowly, and expensively. Meanwhile, and perhaps ironically, two countries on McCreevy’s hit list – Germany and Italy – are moving towards deregulating their betting landscape from inside. Spain, too, is gently opening its arms to fresh possibilities, and emerging areas of eastern Europe will not be far behind. Major British-based bookmakers have worked out the angles, and, inevitably in view of their vast experience at putting on a fixed-odds show for their customers, they have made strategic alliances or are looking for individual representation. Stanley International, based in Liverpool, has been operating through agents in Italy for around five years. Its legal challenges have been an irritant for much of that time, but they have produced important legal decisions. Now Stanley is looking to advance through being awarded some of the 17,000 licences – 7,000 for sports betting shops and 10,000 for horserace betting – that are being opened up to commercial competition in Italy. In September, Ladbrokes paid €1.3m for a joint venture with local betting company Pianeta Scommesse and is promising to spend €100m over the next five years on a betting-shop project. “There is clearly unsatisfied demand in Italy,” says Ladbrokes chief executive Chris Bell. Gala Coral already operates in Italy through Eurobet and is bidding to expand, while William Hill can hardly afford to be left out, though its main thrust into Europe will be through Spain, which is moving towards a degree of sports-betting deregulation, and then Greece once it treads softly into liberalisation. Spain, which has new legislation on the stocks in three of the country’s 17 autonomous regions, is also the target for Betbull, a polyglot of an organisation, since it grew out of Austria, is based in Gibraltar and run by Simon Bold, who first made his name as a bookmaker in Liverpool. Bold says: “The Spanish retail market is immense, and will embrace the concept of sports betting in comfortable outlets that combine high-level technology with leisure and catering facilities”. So, where does all this to-and-fro activity leave horseracing? That’s the million-euro question for authorities running the business and individuals practicising within the pursuit, who see their rewards diminishing and wonder if, or how, they can hang on to the tail feathers of the golden goose of betting. Steve Fisher, British co-founder and director of Stan James Bookmakers, is as close as anyone to the central attractions. He was among the first to spot the potential of online betting, and has known days when his firm will offer nearly 400 separate markets on a multitude of sports, but he also supports horseracing to the hilt, including sponsoring both the Guineas on the Flat and the King George VI Chase over jumps. “Aside from lotteries, the gambling market in Europe is dominated by gaming – casinos and slot machines – and fixed odds can never compete for profitably per square metre,” he explains. “Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy may be the dominant horseracing countries, but betting has to compete strongly with other sports, and horseracing is a minority activity even in such as Germany and Italy. Spain is a worry for any operator because it does not have a history of betting. Its gambling is based on lotteries, numbers, bingo and slot machines, so expansion will not happen overnight. In central and eastern Europe they predominantly bet on football and other sports, from basketball and cycling to darts and ice hockey, so these are also markets that do not instantly lend themselves to horserace betting. The point about sports betting is that most European countries bet on events in other countries, as well as their own. Taking horseracing into another country is not easy. It would be no good the UK, or anyone else for that matter, simply saying, ‘Here is our wonderful horseracing, you must have it.’ To betting people in most other countries it’s just another horserace, and there is a huge barrier if the commentary is in a foreign language and the odds are not up to date.” Gloomy for horseracing, or what? Fisher sees the picture as it is. “I have a betting shop in Moscow, using the latest Finsoft software to provide a Russian translation, and we show virtual horse and greyhound racing every five minutes,” he says. “No live racing, because I cannot get the pictures. But even if I could get live racing, I’m not sure how much interest there would be. If I was marketing a betting product to eastern Europe, for example, I would have more success with a virtual greyhound race than a live horse race. It’s easier for customers to understand. Of course, I want to be enterprising, and am keen to promote horseracing. But you would need a lot of co-operation from everybody, and that includes pricing. Horseracing should not think there is lots of money to be made out of its product, because that is not the case. And that’s not pessimism. It’s realism.”

Nutritional Support for bone - maintaining a strong skeleton

The expression ‘no foot no horse’ should perhaps be extended to cover all the bones of the skeleton, for as far as racehorses are concerned, without strength and durability in this area a trainer’s job is fraught with difficulties. The number of training days lost to lameness in a season is testament to this. A racehorse’s diet should help to maintain the skeletal system during rigorous training. This task is no doubt easier when the skeletal foundations have been firmly laid in utero and during the rapid growing phase.

The formation of cartilage and its subsequent conversion to bone ‘proper’ is one of the key processes to highlight. Long bones develop in the foetus from early bone templates that are composed entirely of cartilage. Conversion of cartilage to bone occurs initially within a central area of ossification (bone formation) within the long bones, known as the diaphysis and then also at each end of the bone (epiphysis). There are various abnormalities that can occur during the development of bones and joints that may involve problems during the localised conversion of cartilage to bone, or with bone lengthening, or changes within the bone after it has formed, once a horse has commenced training. Nutrition is only one of many factors involved in DOD Osteochondrosis (OCD) involves disruption to the normal conversion of cartilage to bone within the areas of ossification. For many years, researchers viewed nutrition as the key to OCD, however, it is now recognised that genetic predisposition, body size and mechanical stress, as well as trauma are all additional factors that must be considered.

Whilst diets that simply oversupply energy have been demonstrated to increase the incidence of OCD, the previously hypothesised causal link with excessive protein intake has not been proven. This suggests that the source of the energy in feed is an important issue. Recent research supports this, as it has been reported that diets with a high glycemic nature, i.e. those with a high starch and sugar content (typical of the more traditional stud and youngstock rations), appear to be more likely to trigger OCD. However, one would suspect that this would be more apparent in genetically susceptible animals. Many mineral imbalances in the diet have also been implicated as causative factors in OCD, but few have any strong evidence to support their role. For example, OCD lesions have been reproduced experimentally in foals maintained on a very high phosphorus intake.

This type of diet could arise inadvertently by feeding straight cereals such as oats, without a suitable balancer or complementary feed such as alfalfa to redress the low calcium to phosphorus ratio in the grain. Less extreme versions of this diet could occur through excessive top dressing of ‘balanced’ coarse mix or cubes with additional cereals such as oats or barley, as is common practice in many yards. A low copper intake, especially during the last trimester of pregnancy, has also been implicated in OCD. Copper has received particular focus due to its functional role in the activity of a key enzyme involved in formation of the collagen cross-links. However, other trace minerals including manganese and zinc may be equally important during this key stage in a foal’s development in utero, as they are necessary co-factors for important enzymes involved in regulating cartilage metabolism. Blood tests that challenge the premise that horses are unaffected by molybdenum levels in grazing In grazing youngsters, a secondary copper deficiency can be caused by excessive molybdenum levels in pasture. In cattle, bacteria in the rumen form complexes between molybdenum and sulphur.

These thiomolybdate complexes will bind copper within the gut and when absorbed will then search out further copper to bind, either circulating in the blood or in association with copper dependent enzymes. This can severely impair the activity of some key enzymes involved in growth processes and cartilage turnover. However, as a horses gut is somewhat different from a cow’s, in that the hindgut (the equivalent of the rumen) is positioned after the small intestine and not before, there is theoretically less opportunity for these thiomolybdates to be absorbed and ‘cause trouble’. At least this is what has been largely accepted from previous studies in horses that focussed on plasma copper levels and copper absorption. However, new blood tests that can be used to measure the activities of key copper dependent enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), in conjunction with traditional measurements of plasma copper status and the presence of thiomolybdate complexes suggest that this may not always be the case.

Dr Stewart Telfer of Telsol Ltd, routinely carries out such tests in cattle and has to date analysed about 100 samples in horses suspected of having an issue with molybdenum interactions. He says, “From our work, it is clear that horses do suffer from molybdenum (thiomolybdate) toxicity. The interactions between copper, iron, molybdenum and sulphur will take place in the horse’s gut and in certain situations, not always linked to a high molybdenum intake, will result in the horse suffering from molybdenum (thiomolybdate) toxicity. Dr Telfer however, acknowledges that only relatively small numbers of samples in horses have been tested and the laboratory does not currently have a definitive reference range for horses. Calcium and phosphorus may be mobilized from bone to compensate for ‘acidic diets’ When yearlings first move into training yards, they usually experience a significant change in their diet that has consequences for bone metabolism during this period in their lives when some continued growth occurs and the skeletal system is put under considerable strain. In general terms, a ‘stud diet’ has what’s called a high dietary anion to cation ratio (DCAB).

This is largely due to the high inclusion of ingredients like soya and forages. A ‘full race training diet’ on the other hand tends to have a much lower DCAB (is more acidic) due to the reduction in forage intake and higher inclusion of cereals such as oats. The significance of a low DCAB is that it reduces the efficiency of calcium absorption and retention within the body and may contribute to the reduction in bone density seen in horses in early training. This surely is an argument for limiting the intake of cereals and maximising forage intake during the early stages of training when a high cereal intake is largely unnecessary. Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the horse's body, with the majority being present in the skeletal system. Phosphorus is also found in large amounts in bone in close association with calcium.

A racehorse’s diet should provide an adequate intake of both minerals but also needs to provide a balanced calcium to phosphorus ratio of near to 2:1. Although exercise demands a slight increase in calcium intake above the requirements for maintenance, this is usually satisfied by the generalised increase in feed intake. However, the efficiency with which individual horses absorb calcium varies and should certainly be investigated when a calcium-related issue arises. This can be achieved by examining an individual horse’s calcium and phosphorus status, by looking at the diet and also within the body using a creatinine clearance test. Topdressing – a national pastime When using straight feeds, or when topdressing ‘straights’ onto a ‘balanced’ racing mix or cubes, be aware that certain types of feed are much higher in calcium relative to phosphorus and vice versa (see table). Alfalfa, with its high calcium to phosphorus ratio, makes an ideal partner for cereals, which are low in calcium relative to phosphorus. Conversely, the traditional combination of oats and bran is not ideal, as it combines two feeds, which are low in calcium.

Remember that you can use a supplement or feed balancer to carefully correct any deficiencies or imbalances when feeding straights. Equally excessive addition of oats to a balanced mix or cube can decrease the calcium to phosphorus ratio sufficiently to cause problems. Most commercial mixes or cubes have sufficiently high calcium to phosphorus ratios to practically be able to withstand the addition of 1-2kg of oats daily, however any increase beyond this is unwise without further corrective measures. Feeds High in Calcium &Low in Phosphorus Feeds Low in Calcium & High Phosphorus Alfalfa Oats Sugar Beet Barley Seaweed Maize Wheat Bran Horses have a complex regulatory system, involving certain hormones, for ensuring that the proportion of calcium in the body, relative to that of phosphorus, remains stable and that the level of active or ‘ionised’ calcium in the blood remains within tight limits. If for one reason or another the level of calcium relative to phosphorus in the blood drops, a number of safety systems will be triggered to redress the balance. Bone acts as a reservoir of both calcium and phosphorus, which can be drawn on when necessary. The body's balance of calcium and phosphorus is continually 'corrected' by either conservation or loss of calcium or phosphorus in the urine, via the kidneys or through the skeletal system. Sustained calcium and phosphorus imbalance can, however, contribute to developmental orthopaedic diseases (DOD) in young horses, or lameness and sometimes bone fractures in mature horses. Research shows silicon is a trace mineral worth a second look.

Moving on to a less well-recognised trace mineral as far as bone is concerned, there has been some interesting research carried out into the effects of supplemental silicon in the racehorse’s diet. Silicon is a natural constituent of plants and provides structure and rigidity to some of their cell walls. It therefore forms a natural part of the horse’s diet, however, the availability in horse feed is apparently limited. Silicon plays a role in the development of new bone and is also important for the calcification process. It is therefore a relevant micronutrient for horses in training, as bone is dynamic and is constantly undergoing change, in response to forces placed upon it during the training process.

Research carried out by Dr Brian Nielsen at Michigan State University in the early nineties reported a dramatic decrease in injury rates in quarter horses fed a bioavaiable form of silicon as sodium zeolite A. This program of research has also established that the silicon is available to foals via the milk of supplemented mares. However, thus far the group have not uncovered the mechanism by which the beneficial effects of silicon are brought about. However, the form in which sodium zeolite A is fed (a chalk like powder) and the level of intake used in these studies (about 200g per day for a 500kg horse) makes it impractical to use as a feed supplement unless it can be incorporated within a feed pellet. In conclusion, attention to those factors within the diet that support bone turnover is likely to contribute to a reduction in injuries observed, however, the implementation of appropriate training techniques and use of suitable training surfaces also has a huge impact on the durability of horses in training in comparative terms.