New Jersey - Beginning sports betting revolution

By Linda Dougherty

Flash back seven decades, to Thoroughbred racing’s “golden age,” when pari-mutuel wagering alone was able to sustain American racetracks. Huge crowds jammed grandstands, horses were heroes, and the sport had incredible popularity.

But as that “golden age” began to tarnish beginning in the 1980s, it became apparent that pari-mutuel wagering could not keep most racetracks afloat. And so, by the mid-1990s, a new revenue stream had emerged, and that came from expanded gaming from slot machines.

Racetracks in West Virginia were the first to reap the benefit of expanded gaming, and slowly but surely neighboring states in the mid-Atlantic region, like Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland, legalized slot machines for their racetracks, too. All of them saw once-paltry purses inflate like balloons -- all except those in New Jersey.

Saddled with the burden of coexisting with the Atlantic City casinos, with its importance to the state’s economy through both gaming and tourism, the horseracing industry in the Garden State has been unable to persuade the electorate to allow the installation of slot machines at racetracks. A casino industry purse subsidy to horseracing, which helped keep Monmouth Park and Meadowlands open, was terminated by Governor Chris Christie in 2011, leaving racing to try and survive while horsemen shopped elsewhere for richer races. But Christie, ironically, played a big role in what was to come for horseracing in his quest to legalize sports betting.

On May 14th, after hearing an oral argument in Christie v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Supreme Court struck down the 1992 federal law called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) that banned commercial sports betting in most states. It opened the door for not only the state of New Jersey to benefit handsomely, but the racing and breeding industries, too -- by tens of millions of dollars each year.

For Monmouth Park, the Supreme Court decision won’t bring back the sport’s wonderful “golden age,” but the revenue will help keep the elegant oval, just miles from the sea, alive for many years to come.

“The future is rosy for us because the sports betting revenue will certainly generate the money that we need to have higher purses, extend our season, have more opportunities for our horsemen, our breeders, and bring New Jersey back to its glory days,” said Dennis Drazin, a lawyer who is the chief executive officer of Darby Development, the company that runs Monmouth Park, and an avid Thoroughbred owner and breeder.

A long road to sports betting

Congress passed PASPA almost unanimously in 1992 to preserve what lawmakers at the time felt was the integrity of the games. PASPA was sponsored by then-senator Bill Bradley, a New Jersey Democrat who once played for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Four states were not included under PASPA: Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon.

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Over the years, New Jersey tried several times to implement sports betting at racetracks and casinos. In 2011, 63% of the state’s voters approved a ballot referendum that allowed the state constitution to be changed to permit sports betting at the sites of current and former horseracing tracks and casinos, with Christie signing enabling legislation the following January, which ultimately lost in court. But shortly thereafter, four professional sports leagues -- the National Football League, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, and the NBA, plus the National Collegiate Athletic Association -- sued Christie over the legislation, claiming that betting would “irreparably harm” sports in the United States, and successfully argued that the state was in violation of PASPA, igniting a fierce battle.

In 2014, the process repeated, with a new twist: Christie repealed an old state statute that banned sports betting at casinos and racetracks, leaving in place only some broad limits on the activity. After a federal appeals court ruled that the move failed to circumvent the law, it earned New Jersey the opportunity to argue before the Supreme Court, which led to the May 14th decision.

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Feeding for weaning success

By Dr. Emma Hardy, PhD

The first 12 months in the life of a foal are pivotal in building the foundations for overall long-term health and optimal development. It is also during this initial year that the foal will face its first major life event in being weaned from his dam, and he must cope with the nutritional challenges this may bring.

There are many approaches to weaning and every breeder strives to make the right choices for the best outcome. The reproductive status of the mare, the cost and time available, the plans for the foal, and the physical practicalities of the yard will often dictate which type of weaning strategy should be employed. They all come with their own benefits and drawbacks.  Choosing the correct feeding and nutrition programme is key to your success.

Early growth

The dam’s milk is nutritionally complete, providing all the energy and nutrients required for a foal. However, at around three months of age, milk yield peaks, then naturally starts to decline, along with suckling frequency. At the same time the foal increases its intake of non-milk feedstuff such as grass, forage, and some concentrates as the his nutritional needs begin to overtake the mare’s own supply. This period coincides with rapid weight gain, with foals reaching around 30% of their adult weight by this point.

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Genetics, breed, seasonal temperature differences, and nutrient availability will all contribute to the growth rate of the foal. Small fluctuations in growth rates are normal and nothing to worry about. However, continuing or significant deviations from the National Research Council (NRC) 2007 growth recommendations can predispose the foal to health issues, most notably orthopaedic problems.  The structures and tissues of the foal’s body do not grow at the same rate: bone matures earliest, followed by muscle and then fat. Indeed at 12 months of age the yearling will have attained 90% of his mature adult height, which emphasises the importance of correct diet in supporting this rapid early bone growth.

Introducing creep feed

Although the foal supplements his milk intake with small quantities of the dam’s feed and forage, the introduction of a creep feed prior to weaning can help sustain normal growth rates. Highly digestible creep feed is formulated from milk proteins and micronised grain, and it’s fortified with vitamins and minerals. In addition to encouraging growth, it promotes gastrointestinal adaptation to the post-weaning diet and is also described as a significant factor in the reduction of weaning-associated stress.

The appropriate age to introduce a creep feed depends on many factors. For the foal at pasture and doing well, there should be little need for any additional nutrition until two-to-three months of age, when milk supply begins to diminish. Earlier intervention may be necessary should the foal be orphaned or fail to thrive due to inadequate milk supply or other environmental influences.

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Massachusetts Revival

By Bill Heller

Is it coincidence or destiny that Suffolk Downs’ chief operating officer Chip Tuttle became a marathon runner? Because he’s been in for the long haul, trying to keep Thoroughbred racing alive in his native state of Massachusetts for decades.

While nagging injuries have put his marathon running on hold, Tuttle has been moving full-throttle forward to on the horseracing end of things by reviving the Great Barrington Fair, which has been dormant for 20 years.

Live racing at Suffolk Downs, the last Thoroughbred track still operating in what was once a vibrant racing state, has been on life support since 2014 when it lost a bid as a casino site. Instead, a casino was granted to Wynn Resorts’ Encore Boston Harbor in Everett, 15 minutes from Suffolk Downs. It’s scheduled to open in 2019.

Full racing seasons at Suffolk have been pared to a handful of weekend festivals with food trucks, live music, family activities, a weekend jockey challenge, horsemen’s shipping charges covered, and exorbitant purses averaging more than $50,000 per race daily. This year, $10,000 claimers raced for a purse of $41,000 on June 9th and June 10th.

Two of this year’s three festivals remain, on July 7-8 and August 4-5, and another may be added in the fall. The weekends were spaced out so that owners with Massachusetts-breds could compete in three different stakes during the year.

But that’s it, especially if Amazon decides to locate its second headquarters at the 161-acre Suffolk Downs property which Boston-based HYM Investment Group purchased for $155 million in May, 2017. A decision is expected by Amazon, whose headquarters are in Seattle, Washington, by October. If Amazon chooses another site, Suffolk could squeeze in one more year of festivals.

How long can a patient last on life support? There are only two possible conclusions: the patient recovers or the patient dies.

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Val Brinkerhoff - the former jockey turned trainer

By Ed Golden

The Santa Anita stable notes for April 14th (as written by Ed Golden) succinctly summarize that Val Brinkerhoff is one of the faceless trainers who drives the game.

He might be light years from being in a league with the Bafferts, Browns, and Pletchers but pound for pound, the 62-year-old Brinkerhoff has one of the most industrious operations in the land, flying beneath the radar while gaining respect from peers and bettors alike.

He’s an angular version of John Wayne, cowboy hat and all, but without the girth and swagger, Brinkerhoff is a hands-on horseman from dawn till dusk.

He is a former jockey who gallops his own horses, be they at Santa Anita, Del Mar, Turf Paradise in Arizona, or his training center in St. George, Utah, where he breaks babies and legs up older horses that have been turned out.

In short, Val Brinkerhoff is a man’s man, pilgrim.

It all began when he was 14 in a dot on the map called Fillmore, Utah, current population circa 2,500.

Named for the 13th President of the United States, Millard Fillmore, it was the capital of Utah from 1851 to 1856. The original Utah Territorial Statehouse building still stands in the central part of the state, 148 miles south of Salt Lake City and 162 miles north of St. George.

But enough of history.

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“My dad trained about 30 horses when we lived in Fillmore,” said Brinkerhoff, a third-generation horseman. “I would ride a pony up and down a dirt road outside our house every day, and that’s how I learned to gallop horses.

“There was no veterinarian in Fillmore, so you had to learn how to be a vet on your own, on top of everything else, because it was 300 miles round trip to a vet. So, if something was wrong, you had to figure it out for yourself without having to run to Salt Lake and back every five minutes.

“I was 5’ 10’’ and weighed 118 pounds and rode at the smaller venues, mainly in Utah but also Montana, where I was leading rider, and Wyoming and California (Fairplex Park in Pomona). I’ll never forget the day my dad took me to Pomona. I walked in the jocks’ room and immediately became aware of how tall I was.

“While in California, Bill Shoemaker gave me one of his whips, which I cherished. I rode many winners with it. Towards the end of my father’s life, my son, Ryan, asked him if he had any regrets. He said he had one.”

His father said, “I should have taken Val to the big tracks in California and given him the chance to make it there. He had the desire and the talent.”

Brinkerhoff also rode in Utah at outposts with names that sound contrived, like Beaver, Richfield, Marysvale, Kanab, Parowan, Ferron, Payson, and Panguitch.

“But ultimately,” he said, “I couldn’t make the weight. I was already skinny and at 5-10 and 118 pounds, didn’t have an ounce to lose.

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European Research on Injuries in Flat Racing: Nature versus Nurture

By Kristien Verheyen and Sarah Rosanowski

Note: This research for this article, reprinted from European Trainer, was performed over a 14-year period in Great Britain and therefore only takes into account racing over turf and all-weather surfaces, but we feel that despite not including dirt statistics, the information is thought-provoking and of interest to our North American readers, especially with the increase in turf racing particularly in the U.S.

Musculoskeletal injuries are an inherent risk of horseracing, and they are the primary cause of Thoroughbreds failing to train and race, or even retiring altogether. In addition to the evident equine welfare concerns, racehorse injuries also have economic consequences and impact on jockey safety. The industry remains committed to investigating causes of injury and associated risk factors, which can inform strategies aimed at minimizing their occurrence. Advancements in methods of identification, management, and prevention of musculoskeletal disease and injury in Thoroughbreds and improved training and racing environments to enhance the safety, health, and wellbeing of racehorses have long been strategic priorities of the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB)’s veterinary research funding program in Great Britain.

In 2014, the HBLB funded a research team at the Royal Veterinary College in London to undertake a detailed study of injuries and other veterinary events occurring in flat racehorses on race day. The purpose of the project was to establish causes of fatal and non-fatal injuries occurring in British flat racing and to examine associated risk factors. The research also set out to measure heritability of common injury types and conditions, and to investigate genetic and environmental correlations between injury and race performance.

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The study team had access to detailed race and performance data from all Thoroughbreds racing on the flat in Great Britain over a 14-year study period from 2000 – 2013. These were then linked to veterinary reports of injury or conditions attended to by a veterinary surgeon on race day over the same time period, provided by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). Finally, extensive pedigree data were added to enable investigation of heritability of race day injury and genetic correlations between injury types, and between injury and performance.

Descriptive findings

The final 14-year dataset included nearly 68,000 horses making over 800,000 starts in around 77,000 flat races. The majority of races -- 67% of them -- were run on the turf, with 33% of races taking place on all-weather tracks.

Just under 8,000 veterinary events were recorded over the study period, from which an incidence of nine events per 1000 starts was calculated. The most common incidents requiring veterinary attention on the racecourse were soft tissue injuries other than tendon and ligament injuries, e.g. wounds, lacerations, or muscle strains. Unspecified lameness and respiratory conditions were also common, accounting for around a fifth of veterinary reports each. Less than 10% of veterinary events had a fatal outcome, and the overall incidence of fatality was 0.8 per 1000 starts. Although bone injury was cited in only 14% of the veterinary reports overall, they accounted for the vast majority (77%) of the fatalities.

All-weather racing...

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Sid Fernando - The thought-provoking

By Giles Anderson

I can’t quite believe that it’s just over six years since Sid Fernando first wrote his quarterly column for North American Trainer. The Triple Crown 2018 issue (number 49) was his last with us, and his regular thoughts can now be found in a bi-monthly column in the excellent Thoroughbred Daily News.

But, before we unveil our new columnist in our “Breeders’ Cup” / Fall issue later this year, I thought it would be interesting to read through the Sid’s old columns here and pick out two to revisit. With 25 to choose from, narrowing the list down has certainly proven to be a tough choice!

Sid’s first column was published in our Triple Crown 2012 issue (24) under the headline of “Scratching beneath the surface of the injury debate.” This was at the time when the New York Times and writer Joe Drape were at their most vociferous about racing, drug issues, and a correlation between breakdowns on track. In the column, The Jockey Club’s president and CEO James L. Gagliano was quoted (New York Times) as saying that “The Jockey Club continues to believe that horses should run only when they are free from the influence of medication and that there should be no place in this sport for those who repeatedly violate medication rules.”

I’m sure that the powers that be will continue to beat the same drum, and they are right to do so. But six years on, it would be fair to say that we’ve become far more aware of those who violate rules on multiple occasions, and perhaps the industry as a whole isn’t as tolerant as it was six years ago towards the minority of trainers who do flout the rules.

But in all this time, have we made up enough ground to educate the wider public on what is acceptable for the purpose of medicating animals as opposed to drugs with the intent of enhancing performance?

Sid’s article also included analysis from studies conducted by the now defunct Thoroughbred Times, which clearly showed how the risk to injury / “incident” rate was greatly reduced when horses ran on a synthetic surface compared to a conventional dirt surface.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen an updated variation of the same analysis, and indeed the trend is still there. It’s just a shame that synthetic surfaces seem to have fallen somewhat out of fashion.

Fast forward to the August -- October 2015 issue (37), where Sid came up with what, for me, was one of his most thought provoking columns. It first appeared in 2015, just after we had our first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. In his column, Sid compared the state of the wagering industry in Affirmed’s Triple Crown-winning year of 1978 against 2015, American Pharoah’s year.

The key points of the column are succinctly covered in the following four paragraphs:

If 1978 was a watershed year until American Pharoah in 2015, consider this about the 1970s: It was also a time when racetrack handle funded purses and the pari-mutuel tax was the major gambling revenue generator for state governments. In stark contrast, this isn't the case today.

Truth be told, under the nostalgic gold-plating of the 1970s, there were chinks in its armor that are gaping holes now. It was, for instance, the era when Lasix was legally introduced, and what a lightning rod for controversy that's become now. More significantly, though, it was the era of the Interstate Horse Racing Act (IHA) of 1978, a piece of federal legislation enacted to address on-track pari-mutuel declines -- big signs of future trouble -- as technology spawned the growing phenomenon of simulcast wagering and the growth of Advance Deposit Wagering (ADW) platforms across state lines.

Between 1978 and 2015, a Trojan horse -- the racino -- entered the game as state governments looked for other opportunities to boost coffers. And like a "pusher" in a 1970s playground, the racino hooked racing, already weakened through years of neglect and relegated to the fringe from the mainstream as a "niche" game, by giving it a taste of huge purses from gaming monies. Horsemen got sky high, but at what price? The deal was done in party with state governments in exchange for expanded gaming that competes with racing's core product, gambling. And that gaming money is now funding purses at racinos, and racing is as dependent on it as a junkie on dope.

Ultimately, the only way to organically grow the game is through an increase in pari-mutuel wagering, and one way to do that is to make betting on horses as attractive as other forms of gaming. At present, the takeout is too high to compete, and this is an issue that racing's leaders must address with the same zeal they address Lasix and other matters. There's still some $10 billion bet on racing per year, but this game doesn't have the legs to last another 37 years in its current state.

With the coming of age for sports betting in 2018, the sentiment of this piece perhaps rings more true today than it did three years ago.

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A jockey's life: The true tall tales of gatebreakin' Ray Adair

By Peter J. Sacopulos

Like many baby boomers who entered their teens in the mid-1960s, Raymond Adair Jr. had an issue with his father. But it wasn’t a disagreement over long hair, rock music, or his choice of friends. The problem, in young Ray Adair’s eyes, was his father’s appalling ability to stretch the truth.

Ray Sr. claimed he began life as a foundling, left under a pinion tree by a band of Crow Indians before being adopted by a couple who ran a ranch in New Mexico. That was bad enough, but it was Ray Adair’s endless exaggerations about his horseracing career that really embarrassed his son.

In the elder Adair’s accounts, he won his first Thoroughbred race at age six. He lost a match race against the legendary Seabiscuit by a nose. He won the Bluegrass Stakes, finished second in the Preakness, and rode in the Kentucky Derby twice. He stood down gangsters and befriended greats like Eddie Arcaro. It was all too much.

“Growing up, I thought Dad was just a bullshitter. Or a horseshitter, anyway,” Ray Jr. says with a soft chuckle. “Imagine how I felt when I figured out all those horseracing stories were true.”

Throughout his childhood, Ray Jr. had been aware that his father was a jockey and horse trainer. His family, including his mother Evelyn and his older sister Rayette, had tagged along on the racing circuit for years. But Ray Sr.’s racing days and the Adair family’s nomadic ways came to an end in 1961. Evelyn had been diagnosed with cancer and could no longer travel. The family settled in Phoenix, and Ray Sr. hung up his silks and worked for a fruit distributor. Evelyn died in 1963, and Ray moved the family to Window Rock to work for his brother-in-law, who taught him how to operate construction equipment.

In Colorado for an unrelated job interview in 1964, Ray decided to call Thoroughbred breeder Conyer (“Connie”) Stewart. Connie Stewart had first seen Ray ride at the Jamaica Race Course in New York around 1950 (Ray Sr. sometimes said he first met Conyer Stewart in 1943. However, the Centennial Track did not open until 1950, making the late 1940s more likely). Deeply impressed, Stewart offered Adair a job as his jockey at the newly built Centennial Track near Littleton, Colorado. Adair and Stewart hit it off, but Ray, a top rider on the prestigious east coast circuit, passed on the offer. After he left the east coast in the mid-1950s, Ray did do some riding for Stewart at Centennial.

The day Ray called him, Connie Stewart answered the phone at his new Stewart Thoroughbred Farm. He immediately offered Ray the job of manager. Adair and his children came to live at the ranch, and Rayette and Ray Jr. attended school in Rye and helped out with the chores. Ray Jr. worked alongside his dad for four years, seeing firsthand how good his father was with horses. Ray Sr. seemed to have found the ideal life after racing—until he and Connie Stewart abruptly fell out.

Ray Adair after winning the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on Mameluke

“I never really knew why,” Ray Jr. says, but he believes it was likely due to a quirk of his dad’s personality. Raymond Adair Sr. could be as sweet as soda pop or as stubborn as a mule. “The same thing had happened with my uncle in Window Rock. Dad was a little guy, only five feet three,” his oldest son recalls. “He was sensitive about it, and I think it made him quick to jump to the conclusion that someone was trying to push him around.”

Ray Sr. left and took a job maintaining roads for the county. Not wanting to change high schools, Ray Jr. stayed on. It was while working for Connie Stewart that Ray Jr. began to realize his father’s fantastic racing tales were true. Ray Jr. would bring one of them up as an example of his dad’s penchant for telling whoppers, only to have Stewart say, “Actually, your dad did do that.” It would take many years and some research to get the full picture, but eventually, Ray Jr. and his relatives would marvel at the true adventures of the jockey known as Gatebreakin’ Ray Adair.

Those adventures began in the summer of 1928, when a Texan named Louie Kirk arrived in the town of Blanco, New Mexico, and entered a Thoroughbred stallion named Static in a match race at the San Juan County Fair. Kirk stabled the horse at the track, and found an eager, if unlikely, caretaker in six-year-old Raymond Adair. Small for his age but full of energy, Ray was growing up on a nearby ranch and had a remarkable knack with horses. The boy not only loved them, he seemed to understand and communicate with them in that special way that only a few people can. Little Ray Adair earned a half-dollar a day feeding Static, cleaning his stall and riding the horse to the river for water.

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Castrating Racehorses: A routine procedure not without its pitfalls

By Tom O'Keeffe

A recent study published in the Equine Veterinary Journal assessed the routine procedure of gelding and the complications associated with this procedure.  The research was a retrospective study of horses castrated at the Sha Tin training complex in Hong Kong, between July 2007 and July 2012.

Hong Kong is a unique training and racing environment, and all horses training and racing there are imported, as there is no breeding in the region. Fillies are rarely imported. The majority of colts are castrated at some stage in their career, and open standing castration (OSC) is the method of choice by the vets of the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC). Until now, nobody has looked at the prevalence of complications following castration of horses at the HKJC. This recently published study aimed to describe the prevalence and severity of complications in the 30 days following castration.

Reasons for gelding a racehorse in training

Most trainers perceive geldings as easier to train than colts, and if the horse has not shown enough ability for a stud career to beckon, there is little to lose by gelding.  In Hong Kong, due to the unique environment the horses live in, there is an added incentive to geld these horses sooner rather than later. Once gelded, their management becomes significantly more straightforward.

Castration Method Options

Three surgical techniques are commonly used for equine castration: 1) open, in which the parietal tunic surrounding the testicle is incised and, usually, retained; 2) closed, where the portion of the parietal tunic surrounding the testis and distal spermatic cord is removed, and 3) half closed, where an incision is made through the exposed parietal tunic at the cranial end of the testis or distal end of the spermatic cord allowing the testis and part of the spermatic vasculature to be prolapsed through the incision prior to removal.

In most cases, racehorse castration is done standing via the open technique under local anesthetic, with sedation and pain relief as necessary. The testicles and spermatic cords are first injected with local anesthetic to numb the region. Once the tissues are totally desensitized, a slash incision is made into the scrotum. The testicle is exteriorized, and it is removed with a surgical instrument called an emasculator. The emasculator has a set of interlocking crushing blades with a cutting blade placed at the bottom of the array. Once the testicular cord is clamped in the emasculator the testicle will usually fall off, but the cord is retained within the interlocking crushing blades for approximately one to two minutes. This creates trauma to the tissues, which causes them to swell once the crush is released, reducing blood flow. The second effect of the emasculators is for the blood to be held in position long enough to begin the clotting process, which carries on once the clamp is removed.

An alternative method of castration is to anesthetize the horse and carry out the procedure with the horse on its back, as a completely sterile operation in an operating room. This has the advantage of minimal post-castration swelling as there is no infection in the area, which can be a common problem with standing open castrations.  In horses who are cryptorchids (ridglings), which is when there is only one descended testicle in the scrotum, standard open standing castration is contraindicated. These horses require either castration under general anesthetic or testicle removal under standing surgery via laparoscopy (inserting a camera and instruments into the abdomen to remove testicle via a surgical incision).

Complications of Castration

As with all intrusive surgical procedures, there is the potential for things to go wrong. While the castration procedure is relatively straightforward, post-operative complications including excessive edema of the scrotum and surrounding tissues, infection and fever, hemorrhage, lameness, hydrocele formation, peritonitis, eventration, penile paralysis, scirrhous cord formation, and death have been recognized.

With castrations done under general anesthetic, there are all the attendant risks of putting a 1000lb animal on its back and up again. All anesthesia carries a risk of death in the horse. This has been calculated as approximately 1% in equine practice, and can be as low as 0.5% in the major well-equipped equine hospitals. In addition to this, occasional cases show prolonged bleeding after the surgery, which results in significant swelling that sometimes has to be resolved by opening the scrotal sac.

For standing castrations, some of the problems encountered include prolonged bleeding, which can occur irrespective of the length of time the cord has been clamped for. This can become serious enough to require a further surgery to identify the bleeding vessels and tie them off, but thankfully this is rare. Another rare complication is herniation of intestines through the potential space left in the inguinal canal with removal of the testicle. The intestines can either get trapped under the skin producing severe colic, or worse still, dangle out of the abdomen and become contaminated. This presents a very serious risk to the horse’s survival and requires immediate surgery to attempt to clean the exposed bowel and return it to the abdomen. Fortunately this is extremely rare in the Thoroughbred.

However, the most common complication is infection at the site of the castration. This procedure leaves an open wound and obviously the horse can lie down in bedding full of urine and feces on the same day it has been castrated, therefore potentially contaminating the open surgical site. Unfortunately many racehorses’ ability to be turned out in a paddock is often controlled by the training environment they reside in. Infection post-castration, and the added expense and lost training days associated with it, is a bugbear for trainers and vets, and this study reviews a common problem encountered worldwide.

Hong Kong Study....

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Noah Abramson

By Linda Dougherty

In an era during which the Sport of Kings is often criticized for its aging fan base and lack of appeal to younger people, there is a youthful presence in Maryland racing who has made himself known as a trainer in a very short period of time.

Noah Abramson, a 26-year-old native of Woodbine, Maryland, turned heads when he won with the first two horses he saddled, both at Laurel Park in June of 2017. And who knows, had it not been for an unfortunate starting gate incident, he might have won with his first three.

Abramson was not new to horses when he decided to take the trainer’s test, but he was new to the Thoroughbred world. Thanks to hard work and an inquisitive nature, he was able to glean information from seasoned horsemen, gain the confidence of an owner/breeder, and start down the path to early success in a game that is not often kind to newcomers. With the help and support of his family, Abramson has embarked on a journey that he realizes will be filled with as much disappointment as glory.

Take a stroll down Abramson’s shedrow on the Pimlico backstretch and you’ll see 15 or so Thoroughbreds in thickly bedded stalls behind custom webbings, emblazoned with the stable’s logo. It is not a slap-dash operation but one that appears well-tended and professional, one that you might think is run by a veteran conditioner. Yet at its helm is a young man who has taken what he’s learned from a very successful equestrian career, much in the mold of equestrians-turned-trainers Rodney Jenkins and Michael Matz, and parlayed it into a burgeoning Thoroughbred business.

As a young boy, Abramson grew up with many pets, but there was one animal he really wanted -- a horse.

“I said to my parents when I was about seven, ‘I want to own a horse,’ and they said, ‘Well, you’ll have to learn to ride if you want one,’” recalled Abramson. “So I said I’d give it a try. I went for a lesson and the instructor had an apple tree in her arena. I’m little, and the horse is big, and the horse starts trotting away under the apple tree, and then the branch cut me straight out of the saddle. I fell off, scared to death, and I quit.”

He didn’t start riding again until four years later, this time with much better results. He had a knack for riding, a natural affinity with horses, and pushed himself to see what he could become in the equestrian world. He gave up hanging out with friends to be in a barn every day, sometimes walking there as soon as school dismissed. By the time he was 16, he was competing in shows all across the United States.

“I got my first horse and then my parents (Alan and Holly Abramson) bought me another, a big jumper that they imported from Germany, so I had two horses,” said Abramson, whose instructor for many years was Kim Rachuba Williams, also from Woodbine. “I took them to the McClay finals in New York, and to Devon and Kentucky, going over 4-foot-6 fences.”

It was through his uncle, Darrel Davidson, that Abramson was introduced to Thoroughbred racing.

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The Biome of the Lung

By Dr. Emmanuelle van Erck-Westergren, DVM, PhD, ECEIM

Of bugs and horses

A couple of weeks ago, I was on an emergency call to a training stable. Half of the horses had started coughing overnight, some had fever, and, as you’d expect when bad karma decides to make a point, the two stars of the premises, due to face their greatest challenge to date the following week, were dull and depressed. A thick and yellow discharge was oozing from their noses. It was not long before the barn became the typical scene of a bad strangles nightmare. The bacteria involved in strangles outbreaks are Streptococcus equi equi, highly aggressive and contagious germs that spread fast and cause disruption in days of training and mayhem in tight racing schedules.

So what inevitably comes to mind when you hear the words “germs” or “bacteria”? Certainly no nice and friendly terms. As veterinarians, we have been taught that microorganisms are responsible for an endless list of gruesome diseases and conditions: abscesses, pneumonia, septicemia ... you name it. All of these need to be identified and eradicated. Thank heavens we still have an arsenal of antibiotics to get rid of the damn bugs. But recent research in human “microbiome” is making us think twice, especially as we aim to hit hard and large with antibiotics.

Never alone

Your healthy and thriving self, and likewise your horse, hosts millions and trillions of bacteria. The “microbiota” is that incredibly large collection of microorganisms that have elected you and your horse as their permanent home. The microbiota is constituted not only by an extremely diverse variety of resident bacteria, but also by viruses, fungi, and yeasts that multiply in every part of your external and internal anatomy. The discovery of this prosperous microbial community has triggered fascinating new research. It has unveiled the unsuspected links that exist between health, disease, and the microbiota. In simple words, these microorganisms are vital to your strength and healthiness.

The microbes that compose the microbiota outnumber our own cells by 10 to one to the extent that the genetic information (or “genome”) you carry is over 99% microbial! And that is what researchers call the “microbiome” or “biome”: the collection of genetic information carried by your microbiota. Fortunately, the very large majority of bacteria is either beneficial or harmless, with only a very tiny fringe represented by potentially pathogenic strains. These microorganisms have evolved with us over thousands of years and the stability of this symbiotic ecosystem has important implications on our health status.

A gut feeling for biome

Research on the biome started with the study of the digestive ecosystem of mice. Researchers from Washington University showed that when they transplanted feces of obese mice in the gut of lean mice, these became obese, and vice versa. In other words, the composition of the gut biome could be said to influence morbid weight gain. Similar studies recently conducted in humans in the Netherlands came to the same conclusions.

We do not yet have all the keys to understanding the underlying processes, but we definitely know that gut microbes influence, amongst many other things, our metabolism, which is to say our capacity to process energy. This opened up tremendous possibilities to improving fitness and treating diseases. The research on the biome has since grown at an exponential rate, covering much larger areas. It was further discovered that problems in the gut biome leading to the proliferation of the wrong microorganisms were responsible for a very wide range of disorders or even chronic conditions that were far from the gut, such as arthritis, depression, and asthma.  The biome also seems to be critical in regulating our immune system to raise the alarm when enemies are identified and to modulate its response. The dramatic rise in autoimmune diseases could be a consequence of dietary changes that have disrupted our healthy microbiota.

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Trainer of the Quarter - Kellyn Gorder

The EQUITHRIVE Trainer of the Quarter has been won by Kellyn Gorder.

Kellyn and his team will receive a selection of EQUITHRIVE's clinically proven supplements for the barn.

Words - Bill Heller

When trainer Kellyn Gorder fell head-over-heels in love with horseracing as a kid growing up in Worthington, Minnesota, he had an idol. “I wanted to be a rider,” Gorder said. “Steve Cauthen was my hero. I wanted to be just like Steve. I read The Kid (Pete Axthelm’s brilliant biography of Cauthen) 10 times. I wore it out.”

Not only would Gorder go on work for Cauthen’s brother, Doug, at WinStar Farm, but he would meet Steve and train a couple of his horses. And that was before Gorder would train his first superstar, Sandra Sexton and Brandi Nicholson’s brilliant three-year-old filly Red Ruby.

Of course, Gorder had no idea that he’d make it as a Thoroughbred trainer, but he knew one thing at a very early age: he loved horses. And he didn’t get it from his father, a schoolteacher, nor his mother, an office worker. “I didn’t know where I got it, but I had the horse bug,” he said. “In grade school, I signed all my papers Cowboy Kell.”

Gorder was 10 when his parents bought him a pony and converted their garage into a stall. Two years later, he went to work with horses. His neighbor, Dale Peters, was the sheriff of the county and a Thoroughbred owner. “I told him when I was old enough, I wanted to start working for him,” Gorder said. “I did, when I was 12.”

Quickly, he got a break. When the young man galloping horses for Peters tore his ACL playing football, Peters asked Gorder, “Do you want to get up?” Gorder continued, “I remember it like it was yesterday,” he said. “I said, ‘Heck, yeah, put me on.’”

Gorder got his jockey’s license when he was 16. When he grew too big to continue riding, after graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Gorder turned his attention to training. He spent one year with Harris Farms in California, then had the great fortune of being hired by Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg, which allowed him to return to the Midwest. Gorder survived a humiliating first day for Van Berg when his saddle slipped on the first horse he galloped, but stayed on with Van Berg for five years. “He was my racetrack dad,” Gorder said.

Gorder worked at the 505 Training Center (now Victory Haven) for five years in Lexington, Kentucky, then struck out on his own in 2001. He won his first race with his first starter, Grammarian, who won his maiden debut at odds of 55-1 at Kentucky Downs before going on to win the Grade 2 Sunset Handicap at Hollywood Park in 2002 at 29-1, providing the trainer with his first graded stakes win.

In 2003, Doug Cauthen called with an offer to work at WinStar Farm, which meant Gorder had to give up training on his own. “I had two young daughters at the time and it seemed like a good thing to do,” Gorder said. So he did.

But in 2007, Gorder decided to go back to training. “I was about to turn 40, and I was telling myself I didn’t want to wind up saying, ‘You should have tried it.’ If I was going to do it, I needed to get going,” he said.

He began with four Thoroughbreds. But with the support of WinStar, his stable grew to 60 horses at one point. He’s based at Keeneland now with 25 to 30 horses, led by star Red Ruby, who followed a 4¾ length victory in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan with a jaw-dropping 13-length romp in the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks on July 7th.

“It was kind of shocking to see her that far in front,” Gorder said. “It was a great day, that’s for sure.”

Cowboy Kell has made it.

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Trainer Profile: Brad Cox

By Joe Nevills

Between the first of April and the first of July, Brad Cox saw the kind of career progression most trainers spend a lifetime trying in vain to achieve.

April started with Cox picking up his first Grade 1 win after Monomoy Girl conquered the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. He finished the prestigious meet tied with Wesley Ward as the leading trainer by wins.

May saw the trainer and Monomoy Girl grab global headlines with a game victory in the Kentucky Oaks. In June, Cox found a new gear, adding another Grade 1 win with Monomoy Girl in the Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park, and another Grade 1 winner when Long On Value took the Highlander Stakes at Woodbine. Cox finished the month as the leading trainer of the Churchill Downs spring meet by earnings.

At age 38, with a stable of about 100 horses spread across four tracks, Cox has laid the groundwork to entrench himself among North America’s leading trainers for a long time to come. What will keep him there is his commitment to training like he’s still got 15 horses in his barn.

“We’re grinding every day,” Cox said. “We have a very good team assembled.”

Louisville upbringing

In the aftermath of Monomoy Girl’s Kentucky Oaks win, much was made of Cox’s local ties to Louisville, Kentucky. The story has become almost boilerplate when writing about the trainer at length: Cox grew up just two blocks from the Churchill Downs property, in a white house at 903 Evelyn Avenue in Louisville’s Wyandotte neighborhood. His father, Jerry Cox, a forklift driver at a local factory, took his son to the track as a child and the younger Cox caught the racing bug so severely, it became a career path.

The trainer admitted he does not often drive by to check on the house, just a stone’s throw off of Longfield Avenue, even though he is at the track nearly every day. His parents moved out a half-decade ago. Jerry died in 2016, and Mary resides in another part of town. However, the trainer’s reasons are less about sentiment and more about logistics.

“It’s kind of by Gate 10 (an entrance to the track’s parking lot]) and I go in and out of Gate 5 (the backstretch entrance),” he said.

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What makes Cox’s success somewhat unique is that he is not a generational horseman. His father was noted in many stories for his affinity toward betting on Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day, but no one in the family had hands-on experience with horses to pass on to Brad. When he made his way on to the Churchill backstretch for the first time as a teenager, Cox started with a built-in handicap.

Cox made up for the lost time in spades by paying attention and being punctual. He hotwalked and worked as a groom for a handful of trainers on the Louisville backside, including Frank Brothers and William “Jinks” Fires. He relished the grunt work, slowly gaining the trust of his bosses and working his way up their ranks.

“It’s a tough business,” Cox said. “As far as coming to work every day, I enjoyed it. I had no problem getting up in the mornings. It wasn’t a job for me, and it’s still not a job for me. It’s something I love to do. I’ve always said getting up seven days a week is half the battle.”

Years later, Cox is now an equal to the trainers that gave him his start. Fires said he speaks with Cox regularly and considers him a friend.

“He’s gone on and become successful,” Fires said. “He pretty much did it himself. He had that work ethic to go on, and that’s what people do. When they want to, they go on, and he did it.”

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