Alan Balch - "Socialist impertinence?"

By Alan F. Balch

“On, no,” you’re saying to yourself, “not more politics!”

But stop and think: American racing is and has been since the 1930s essentially political, since it’s a state-regulated industry. It’s about to add another layer of government regulation, now that in their mutual wisdom The Jockey Club, United States Congress, and former President of the United States have just enacted new legislation to elaborate racing regulation still further. And complicate it?

The last time I wrote about subjects I’m going to raise again here, I was accused by one of our most prominent readers of being a “socialist,” and that sprang to mind when I was assailed the same way very recently by another prominent personage. I know that one of them is a strong supporter of the new “Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act,” or HISA.

My former students at Harvard College would get a serious jolt out of that accusation; they used to call the classes in Government I taught “Firing Line,” after William F. Buckley’s right-wing conservative television program of the day. I once read aloud to them paragraphs from a Lincoln Day speech delivered by a prominent politician, and largely written by one of my academic mentors who had been showered in infamy for his work with Barry Goldwater. I didn’t tell them that, of course. And then I asked them who they believed delivered those ringing sentiments.

“JFK,” came shouted back. “FDR. Justice [Hugo] Black. Justice Douglas.” Liberal lions all. Then I read another famous line from the same speech, about the “nattering nabobs of negativism,” and they all realized the parts of the speech they loved had also been delivered by one Spiro T. Agnew, former Vice President of the United States.

Labels, like stereotypes, are diversions from objective analysis. As we assess what ails our sport, and ideas to improve it, labeling a person or an idea “socialist” (or anything else) is just plain counterproductive. We have to confront objective reality and consider all possible corrective means.

A hundred years ago – when this really was the Sport of Kings -- it relied then as it still does now on all the commoners. Both kings and commoners love to bet, but there are way more of the latter than the former, and now a great many owners are commoners, too. Back then, virtually everyone recognized that a sport so afflicted with temptations to dishonesty and corruption needed serious governmental oversight if it was to survive and prosper. Yet our racing forefathers were hardly “socialists”!

So were born pari-mutuel wagering, the totalizator, and testing for forbidden substances, among countless rules across dozens of American states to build and retain public confidence in the integrity of our sport. Does such government intrusion and oversight smack of “socialism”? To some or many, yes. And they bring with them their own problems of potential misconduct and unfairness in administration. Whether king or commoner, whether citizen or government official, we all share one thing: human nature.

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John Sondereker

Sixty years ago, John Sondereker got a taste of the tantalizing possibilities racing can offer. He was 18 and in his third year working for trainer Jerry Caruso at Ascot Park, a small track in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Because Caruso knew Ohio-based Jack and Katherine Price—the trainer, owner and breeder of Carry Back—Sondereker was able to tag along with Caruso’s foreman to see the 1961 Kentucky Derby. “I went down in a pick-up truck,” Sondereker said. “That was my first Derby.”

When late-closing Carry Back rallied from far-back to edge Crozier by three-quarters of a length and won the Run for the Roses, Sondereker was moved. “I was 18 years old,” he said. “I was flabbergasted. I’m a small-town kid. We used to call our track a bull ring. $1,500 claimers. Lots of them. Seeing Bill Hartack, catching the whole Derby experience—horse racing was totally different down there. You could get lucky with the right horse and win it all.”

Just two years before Sondereker's first Derby experience, he had gotten a job mucking stalls and walking hots at Ascot Park. “I was a kid, and I needed the money,” he said. “So that was a job that was available. I think they’ll pick anybody.”

He quickly fell in love with horses and horse racing. “I loved the animals,” he said. “It was just a great experience. It was a thrill. Back then, horse racing was king. On Saturdays, at that little track, we had 20,000 fans. It was the only game in town.”

He’s now living in the city that has thousands of games in town—Las Vegas, where he wakes up at 4 or 4:30 a.m. and walks or half-jogs five miles every day. “I jogged for 50 years,” he said. “I live on a golf course, 15 miles west of the Strip. I’m out there walking with a little lamp on my head.”

In the city that never sleeps, Sondereker goes to bed at 9 p.m. “I sleep well,” he said.

Sondereker served in the Air Force, the last year in Iceland. “I was the only person in Iceland getting the Wall Street Journal and the Cleveland edition of the Daily Racing Form,” he said.

When he returned, he had an intriguing career working for Wells Fargo, serving in branches all over the United States and in South America, Latin America and Puerto Rico—working his way up to executive vice-president. “I spent five years in San Juan,” he said. “I went to the track there.”

He’d been introduced to racing in the early 1950s by his father and uncle at Waterford Park, which became Mountaineer Park, in West Virginia. When his family moved to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, he caught on at Ascot Park.

When he retired from Wells Fargo in 2003, he resumed his passion for horse racing. “I always was a big fan of racing,” he said. “I got involved. I decided I wanted to do it on my own. In my working career, I had a lot of authority. I’m the guy who makes decisions. I don’t look back. I want to look forward. I’m still learning. That’s a great thing when you’re 78—to still learn. It’s fantastic. 

“In my opinion, owners don’t get engaged the way I did—to find out how and why decisions are made. It’s a passive thing. Most of them don’t know a fetlock from a knee.”

Sondereker got involved with a small syndicate, Class Racing, meeting trainer Eric Kruljac. Then Sondereker went on his own, keeping Kruljac. “He went to the Keeneland Sales with me,” Kruljac said. “Then he started going in the wintertime. It was seven degrees below zero the day he bought Kiss Today Goodbye as a yearling at Keeneland.”

That was at the Keeneland January 2018 Sale. “The wind chill was brutal,” Sondereker said. “I couldn’t get my pen to write, standing outside.”

He landed Kiss Today Goodbye, a son of Cairo Prince out of Savvy Hester out of Heatseeker for $150,000. “There were a handful of fillies I liked, and they went from $20,000 to $25,000, so you know they weren’t good,” he said. “I started looking at colts.”

He liked what he saw in Kiss Today Goodbye—his name taken from the opening line of the song “What I Did For Love” from the musical Chorus Line. “I said, `Boy, this is a nice-looking colt,’” he said. “Looks so correct. I must have looked at 50, 60 horses. He was a great mover. Very graceful. He seemed like a pretty smart horse. He stood there looking at me. Calm and collected.”

So Sondereker collected Kiss Today Goodbye. The now four-year-old colt took five starts to break his maiden by a neck at Santa Anita last February, then finished 10th by 33 ½ lengths in his first start against winners.

Undeterred, Sondereker and Kruljac entered Kiss Today Goodbye in the $98,000 Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar, August 1. Sent off at 34-1, Kiss Today Goodbye finished a much-improved third by 4 ¼ lengths. Switched to turf, Kiss Today Goodbye finished fifth and fourth in a pair of Gr2 stakes—the first at Del Mar, the second at Santa Anita. Returned to dirt, Kiss Today Goodbye won an allowance race by 2 ¾ lengths.

Kiss Today Goodbye stepped back up to stakes company December 26 and captured the Gr2 San Antonio Stakes at Santa Anita by a half-length, becoming the first three-year-old to win the stakes dating back to 1925. That performance got Kiss Today Goodbye into the Gr1 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park, January 23. A victory would have given Sondereker his first Gr1 victory, but he finished seventh after racing last early in the field of 12.

Sondereker can only hope for similar success with Ruthless But Kind, a War Front filly he purchased for $625,000 at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Yearling Sale in September. “I was really looking for a filly who could long on turf,” he said.
“She was the best filly I could find. I figured maybe a half-million.” When he bid $625,000, he didn’t think he was going to get her. “I figured I was going to be the underbidder again,” he said. “That happens a lot to me.” Instead, he got his filly. 

Regardless of how she does, Sondereker is still enjoying racing. “It’s definitely enhanced my life—learning something and being able to apply your knowledge,” he said. “It’s always been a thrilling sport, from the $1,500 claimer going up. The bigger the race, the better.”

Anyone who knows Sondereker knows how much he has given back to racing. “He’s fabulous,” Kruljac said. “He’s just a wonderful man. He’s very, very generous.”

Sondereker supports retired racehorses and the California Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Foundation, which serves over 3,000 backstretch workers and their families throughout California. “You have to give back,” Sondereker said. “I’ve been so fortunate in my life. I’m happily supporting backside employees and retired racehorses, and I’m going to do more of it. It’s a passion for me.” 

Robert and Lawana Low

Long ago in business, Robert Low found that success is much more appreciated if it follows disappointment. That’s what happened with his now massive truck company, Prime Inc., in Springfield, Mo. The business he started by buying a single dump truck when he was a 19-year-old attending the University of Missouri, prospered, tanked and recovered three years later to the point that it now has a fleet of more than 21,000 vehicles, approximately 10,000 employees, a gross revenue of $2.2 billion, and in January 2020, was recognized as one of the Top 20 Best Fleets to Drive For by Carrier’s Edge/TCA for the fourth consecutive year.

“About 1980, we went flat broke,” he said. “We spent 3 ½ years in Chapter 11. We then built the business model that is successful today. I think if the success continued from the 1970s to now, I would have been spoiled, unappreciative and somewhat arrogant. I learned my lesson. I learned it well.”

With Thoroughbreds, he spent $1.2 million to purchase his gray, four-year-old colt Colonel Liam as a two-year-old-in-training in April 2019. “We thought we were buying a Derby horse,” Low said. 

Instead, Colonel Liam got a late start, finishing second in a maiden race last April 14, when he was placed first on a disqualification, then a distant third on a sloppy track in an allowance race. “He was an expensive two-year-old-in-training,” Low said. “You’re disappointed.”

His trainer, Todd Pletcher, said, “He has more than what he’s showing. We’re going to give him a shot on turf in an allowance race.”

Bingo. “He was like a different horse,” Low said. “He took off. He’s very comfortable on the turf surface—how he moves.”

On January 23 at Gulfstream Park, Colonel Liam moved into a new status, taking the $1 million Gr1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational by a neck over his stable-mate in the Pletcher barn, Largent. “This is just unreal,” Low said after the race. “It’s fantastic. It’s a wonderful feeling.”

It’s a feeling he shared with his wife of 48 years, Lawana—and sweethearts since the fifth grade in Urbana, Mo. Robert lived on a farm. “She lived in town,” he said. “When I rode my horse in the Christmas parade, we flirted.”

  She loved horses, too. “They’re wonderful owners,” Pletcher said. “They love the sport, and they love their horses.”

Robert not only grew up with horses on his family’s farm, but he’d accompany his parents—both racing fans—on trips to Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. He’d ride his horses against neighboring farms’ kids “on hard-gravel roads. Asked if he was a rider, he replied, “I was more of a cowboy.”

In college, he took a mighty risk buying a dump truck, which led to an open-road truck, then other trucks—lots of other trucks. “You have to do it when you’re young and dumb,” he said. “In my case, it was really a lot of luck involved, a lot of hard work involved.”

When the prime interest shot higher, he was suddenly in trouble. “I made a million dollars in 1979, and I went into bankruptcy in 1980,” he said.

He is so thankful that Lawana helped him through that rough period of his life. “God bless her,” he said. “My wife has stuck with me through thick and thin.”

When his business returned healthier than ever, Robert and Lawanda went after their dreams. “We bought just a couple of mares at first, because we always had a dream of having a breeding farm,” he said. Now, the Lows have a 330-acre farm, home to dozens of their horses. 

His first star was Capote Belle, an incredibly quick filly who won the Gr1 Test Stakes at Saratoga in 1996, for trainer Daniel Peitz and jockey John Velazquez. “We were over the moon,” Robert said. “An historic track. We’re country folks. We had our friends with us. We closed down a few places that night. I think it was Johnny V’s first Gr1 win at Saratoga.”

Capote Belle finished nine-for-22 with more than $600,000 in purses.

With Todd Pletcher as their trainer, the Lows had another highlight when their Magnum Moon won the Gr2 Rebel Stakes and the Gr1 Arkansas Derby in 2018, making him four-for-four in his career. “That was the thrill of our lives because Oaklawn has been a part of our lives for so long,” Robert said. “It’s not Saratoga, but it’s got a lot of ambiance.”

Magnum Moon’s next start was his last. He finished 19th in the Kentucky Derby, and he was retired after suffering an injury while training at Belmont Park in June 2018. The following October, he had to be euthanized after battling laminitis.

The Lows have another outstanding runner trained by Pletcher: Sweet Melania, a four-year-old filly who has won three of nine starts, including a Gr2 and a Gr3 stakes, with two seconds, three thirds and earnings topping $400,000. Just as Colonel Liam did, Sweet Melania made her first two starts on dirt, finishing third twice. On turf, she turned into a star. “We’re looking forward to her return,” Robert said.

Colonel Liam’s improvement on grass was striking. He won his grass debut—a maiden race at Saratoga—by 2 ¾ lengths. His next start was in the $500,000 Saratoga Derby Invitational last August 15. He had a brutal trip, getting “bumped hard at the break and pinched,” according to his comment line in the Daily Racing Form, then rallied strongly to finish fourth, losing by just three-quarters of a length. 

“He had trouble,” Robert said. “He got bumped very hard at the start. Then he was behind a lot of horses. But he only got beat by three-quarters of a length. With a little luck, he would have won that race.”

Pletcher decided to give Colonel Liam a break and point to the Pegasus Turf. In his four-year-old debut at Gulfstream Park in the $75,000 Tropical Park Derby on December 30, he won going away by 2 ¼ lengths. In the Pegasus, he went off the favorite, and he delivered.

He is the star of the Lows’ stable, which numbers about 60 including 16 broodmares, 14 yearlings, 19 juveniles and 12 horses with Pletcher, Peitz and Steve Margolis.

”I am living the dream,” Robert said. “For a small-farm kid, it’s been quite a ride. I’ve been very fortunate.”

MyRacehorse Stable with Spendthrift Farm, Starlight Racing and Madaket Stables

Partnerships have been flourishing in recent years, but there’s never been a partnership like this one: matching three well-known, long-tenured Thoroughbred groups with the upstart MyRacehorse Stable, and it’s 5,314 shareholders on Authentic. When Authentic turned back Tiz the Law to win the Kentucky Derby, MyRacehorse literally jumped from curiosity to game changer—a vision of founder and CEO Michael Behrens when MyRacehorse debuted in California only on Belmont Stakes Day in 2018.

MyRacehorse went national in June, 2019. Now? “We had just under 1,000 people that signed up on Derby Day before the Derby,” Behrens said. “We never had that many in one day before. It was breathtaking actually.”

That it happened with Wayne B. Hughes of Spendthirft Farm, who has backed MyRacehorse, made it even more meaningful. “They joined us in 2019,” MyRacehorse’s West Coast Manager Joe Moran said. “Mr. Hughes has been such a supporter of racing. It’s quite amazing.” Spendthrift was able to partner with MyRacehorse after buying a majority interest in Authentic. “It was a huge stepping stone for us,” Moran said. “It brought us credibility.”

Behrens, 44, was the chief marketing officer for Casper, a start-up online mattress company with offices in Manhattan. Behrens lives in California. He’d always been a racing fan. “I spent a lot of time looking at reports, and I came to the conclusion that we needed a simple way to itch people’s curiosity about horse racing,” he said. “It’s very difficult to get people to try that. I figured if I could sell mattresses, why couldn’t I sell horses? There were racing clubs in Japan and Australia. Ownership was the way to go. I forced it. We’re all in on social media. You’ve got to give people information they want to share with their friends. That’s how you grow the product.

“We had 5,314 winners, and almost all of them have been posting on Facebook, sharing their stories of winning the Kentucky Derby. That was always the vision. We did that with Casper. I just thought that those attributes would work here.”

Shares in Authentic ranged from $206 for a one-thousandth of one percent to $70,000. That interest includes Authentic’s breeding career.

“We had teachers, business leaders and big-time owners,” Moran said. “We had a gentleman in Ireland. On the morning of the Derby, he bought a share for $206. He got it off our website, and he shut out 10 other people when the horses loaded in the gate. Very cool.”

And that was before the Derby.

MyRacehorse’s website says “With micro-shares, you compete at the highest level for a fraction of the cost.” Perks for this one-time investment include “race-day privileges, winner’s circle access, meeting the trainer and jockey, updated entries and recaps, visits with your horse and race winnings paid directly to your on-line account.”

Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, Staton Flurry, Autry Lowry Jr.

Staton Flurry and Shedaresthedevil connections celebrate winning the 2020 Longines Kentucky Oaks.

How does a sheikh from Qatar, a parking lot owner in Hot Springs, Ark., and a fire captain from Benton, La., wind up partners on Shedaresthedevil—the Brad Cox-trained stakes-record winner of the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks?

They all bought in.

“At the end of the day, I’m happy to partner with anyone,” Sheikh Fahad said September 24th. “I haven’t met them, but they seem like nice people.”

Lowry said, “It’s definitely a unique relationship.”

Sheikh Fahad’s love of horses began as a child. “I’ve grown up with horses—a lot of Arabians,” he said. “I’ve always loved the horses. Not the Arabians that much. I dreamed of Thoroughbreds.”

He made that dream real after studying in England. He tuned in to watch a steeplechase race on television in 2008, and liked it so much he watched it every week. In 2010, he saw his first live race. “I said, `I better try that,’’’ Sheikh Fahad said. “When I started, it was just myself. Then my brothers joined me. I had my first win in 2011—a great thrill. I definitely caught the bug.”

Dunaden was why. He captured the 2011 Gp1 Melbourne Cup, Australia’s premier race, and the Gp1 Hong Kong Vase. The following year, he won the Gp1 Caulfield Cup, completing his career with 10 victories from 46 starts.

In 2014, Sheik Fahad’s QIPCO Holding became the first commercial partner of Royal Ascot by special royal permission.

Now, Sheik Fahad’s horses race in England, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and in the United States with Fergus Galvin as his U.S. racing advisor. “I’ve had a lot of partnerships in California with Simon Callaghan as trainer,” Sheikh Fahad said. “I was out at Del Mar. I usually go to Del Mar.”

Sheikh Fahad saw Shedaresthedevil finish third last year in the Gr2 Sorrento Stakes, a nose off second to the six-length winner Amalfi Sunrise. He was pleased with his filly’s third. “I thought she was a big filly,” he said. “I thought she’d do better as a three-year-old.”

He had no idea. 

Staton Flurry didn’t grow up around Arabians, rather cars. His family has operated 10 to 11 parking lots around Oaklawn Park for more than 30 years. He estimates he was 12 or 13 when he began parking cars. “From the time I had sense enough to not run in front of cars,” he said. “You meet a lot of cool people.”

Now 30, he graduated from Henderson State University with a degree in business administration. He used that education to claim his first horse, a five-year-old mare named Let’s Get Fiscal, with a few friends. “She won her second race for us,” he said. “She got claimed and I’ve been enjoying racing ever since.”

He races as Flurry Racing Stables. “I got tired of my first name being mispronounced,” he said.

Blue Heaven Farm – Starship Jubilee

Starship Jubilee, a seven-year-old mare, was the 2019 Canadian Horse of the Year, and she just may repeat this year after winning five of her six starts, including the Gr1 Woodbine Mile. 

“She’s taken us to new heights,” Adam Corndorf, Blue Heaven Farm’s vice president and general manager, said. “And she’s brought four generations of our family together.”

That’s quite an accomplishment for the former $6,500 yearling and $16,000 claimer, who was sold in the 2018 Keeneland November Sale after finishing fourth in the Gr1 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine. When she failed to reach her $425,000 RNA, Adam and his family scooped her up in a private deal.

This family tale begins with Corndorf’s grandfather, 99-year-old Sy Baskin; Corndorf’s mother, Bonnie Baskin; Corndorf; and now Corndorf’s very enthusiastic children, seven-year-old Henry and five-year-old Emma.

Their story and their lives sure seemed headed in other directions. Sy, who had dabbled in partnerships in the Chicago area, had retired and moved to Florida.

Bonnie, who splits her year between Minnesota and Texas, is an accomplished microbiologist who founded, served as CEO, and ultimately sold two science law companies. Then, in Johnson City, Texas, she founded the Science Mill, a science museum. “It’s a rural area, and it’s for kids who don’t normally have access to labs and museums,” she said.

Adam was working for a law firm in New York City, specializing in mergers and acquisitions. He was there for four years before he redirected his life to horses.

Bonnie picked up their story: “When my father turned 80, he calls me up and says, ‘I have an idea. What if I create a partnership with two other guys, and you and me buy a little higher-end horses?’ I had two young kids. I was divorced. I felt it could be my father’s last hurrah. I said, `Count me in.’”

Two weeks later, he called back. The other two guys dropped out. He told her, “It would be just the two of us.” She replied, “Okay, let’s do it.”

  They created Sybon Racing Stables and used Taylor Made as their farm. The game plan was to buy three fillies at a 2001 Keeneland Sale. All three won. The best was multiple graded-stakes winner Ocean Drive for Todd Pletcher. “Todd was just starting out,” Bonnie said. “It was beginner’s luck. So we all got hooked. Adam got hooked.”

Adam gave up his practice. “The legal profession in New York City was a grind,” he said. “It’s a wonderful city, and I met my wife Cynthia on the job at the same firm, but I didn’t see myself living there my whole life.”

Adam worked for Pletcher for four months, then with Taylor Made.

In 2004, Bonnie founded her own racing and breeding entity, Blue Heaven Farm, named after the 1928 Gene Austin song “My Blue Heaven.” Her father used to sing it to her as a little girl. 

They had been boarding their mares at Taylor Made, but decided to buy their own farm in central Kentucky in 2010. “I had sold my second company in 2008,” Bonnie said. “We had started growing our stable. It got to the point where we had critical mass. It made sense to have our own farm. Adam made the decision he was going to move to Kentucky.” 

Adam has never regretted that decision. “It’s been wonderful—for the quality of life, the experiences we’ve had and the friends we’ve made,” he said. “Zero regret and zero complaints.” 

Having Starship Jubilee hasn’t hurt. The Woodbine Mile was Blue Heaven’s first Gr1 stakes. “We felt confident going in,” Adam said. “She’s tough as nails. It was a great moment. It was amazing.”   

Alan Balch - “The trainers"

By Alan F. Balch

Over the last 65 years, since I first was a horse-crazy kid, doing anything I could to be with these animals, I’ve spent an inordinate time around horse trainers.

To begin with, it was simple hero worship.  Why, why, why . . . it seemed like every time I opened my mouth, that was the first word out.  Why does a horse do this or that?  Why do you do this or that?  Since most of my time was spent mucking, feeding, watering, cleaning, raking, brushing – and relatively little time doing what I wanted to do much more, riding – I had plenty of time to observe and wonder.

Looking back now on those earliest days of my equine consciousness, I guess it should be said that the best trainers are patient.  With children (and fools) like I was (and am).  And with their horses, which one famous horseman described to me as like “the dumbest child you might ever be around.”  And he meant that in a positive way.  

The first horses I knew were not even what I might have later called park hacks.  But I was in awe of them.  I remember their names, just as you would:  Joe, Maude, Sugar, Ginger, Marine, Banjo, Elvis, Sunburst, and a dozen more, including my favorite, Sox, who was a refugee from some race track, somewhere.  They were rented by the hour, to sailors on the shore in San Diego, for birthday party rides, and matrons who had grown up in high society and their children.  In those days, the 1950s, “horseback riding” was a thing to do, and rent stables abounded . . . to the professional trainers who owned and ran them, they were a gateway to the show ring, to competitive riding, and to clients with money.

By the early 60s, I had also discovered the race track at Del Mar, earlier at the horse show during our county fair, then the races and summer sale, which brought layups and yearlings to be broke to the stable I worked at in La Jolla.  Race horses that were too slow but still sound were the primary source of hunters and jumpers and dressage horses in those days.  Horses from the major California tracks that had ultimately been relegated to Caliente, across the border, or to the many auctions conducted in those days, found their way to the show ring.   Including my first competitive horse, a gray gelding by Mahmoud, bred by Mervyn LeRoy, who had topped the Keeneland sale as a yearling.  As I learned on my first day working at Santa Anita much later – when I discovered chart books and the American Racing Manual -- he also once had held the course record there for about a mile and three-quarters on turf, in 1954. 

Until a little over ten years ago, in racing or otherwise, I was always a suit – I never had worked for a trainers’ organization, although I had been in plenty of intense negotiations with horsemen’s groups from time to time, and had owned any number of horses to ride and compete myself, but not to race.

So, I now know about horse trainers, nationally and internationally, from almost every perspective, through many decades of experiences.  And if there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s that those individuals in politics, management, or the media, or as regulators, or administrators, who speak of “the trainers,” just don’t know what in hell they’re talking about.

Stereotypes of any category of people (or horses) may be entertaining or malicious, but are likely dubious in the most important respects.  That word comes from the Greek – and literally means a “solid impression.”  Those who traffic in stereotypes often use and enhance them viciously, as we have come to learn.  Sadly.  Repeating such stereotypes endlessly only makes their “impression” more solid.  Just ask a lawyer.  Preferably one with a sense of humor.

“Get a group of ten horse trainers to discuss any subject and you’ll get at least a hundred opinions.”  There’s more than a germ of truth in that, and I console myself with it when I hear management or regulators or journalists pontificate about what “the trainers” will do or say or believe in any instance.

Early in my days representing California trainers, I remember vividly the reaction I got when I spoke of the “intellectual capital” the professional horsemen might bring to a problem we were facing.  An outburst of laughter and head-shaking greeted that!  One prominent owner we were meeting was even more shocked at my reaction.  I told him it might not be the same kind of firepower he was used to dealing with in his boardroom of fellow millionaires, but it was just as valuable and even more so when applied to horse racing.  After all, I lectured, didn’t he spend a literal fortune on horses?  Didn’t he then place them under the care, custody, and control, of a “mere” horse trainer?

To those of us who know and really like horses, trainers deserve and receive our undying respect and appreciation.  And I’m not mainly talking about the exceptionally rare individuals who have achieved fame and riches . . . because, just as with horses, Mother Nature only makes a relative few with that kind of talent (whether in horsemanship or otherwise).  Fortunately, She makes relatively few scoundrels, too, whether equine or human.

No, it’s the overwhelmingly large number of trainers you’ve never heard of that I’m talking about.  The people that commit themselves and their help to their horses 52 weeks a year, at all hours day and night, every day.  They run small, unique, difficult businesses that never close.  They deal with all the human problems the rest of us do, and an unfathomably large number of equine risks, issues, and behavior – and that of their owners -- mostly without complaint.  

Why do they make this commitment?  Why is this the life they’ve chosen?  

The next time you hear someone bash “the trainers,” please tell them the answer.

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Barbara Banke - cover profile - Strength, stamina & class - three attributes that describe not just Stonestreet Farm’s vibrant owner but also her farm’s mission to produce winning racehorses

By Denise Steffanus

Stonestreet Farm's mission is to produce winning racehorses with "strength, stamina, and class"—three attributes that also describe Barbara Banke, Stonestreet’s vibrant owner. 

In 2011, Banke took over Stonestreet's reins when her husband, Jess Stonestreet Jackson, died at age 81 from cancer. A worthy successor, Banke had worked shoulder to shoulder with Jackson as the two built their empire of fine wines and fast horses, including Horses of the Year Curlin (twice) and Rachel Alexandra, who together earned a combined six Eclipse Awards.

Barbara with husband Jess (with trophy) celebrating after Rachel Alexandra won the Woodward Stakes in 2009.

Under her leadership, Stonestreet has won 35 graded stakes as Stonestreet Stables and has shared 15 graded stakes wins with 45 partnerships through the end of September. Stonestreet has been the leading breeder of yearlings at auction for the past five years.

Banke also became chairman and proprietor of Kendall-Jackson Wines (now Jackson Family Wines)—an international domain of wineries based largely in California and extending to Oregon, Chile, Australia, France, Italy, and South Africa. Jackson wines graced tables in the White House during the Reagan administration when Nancy Reagan offered her favorite wine, Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay, to distinguished guests from around the world.

Banke wasn't the typical horse-crazy girl while growing up. She remembers going on a few trail rides, but her involvement with horses began in 2005 when she suggested Jackson find something to absorb his boundless energy.

"I just felt that he needed some hobby because he was sort of driving us all crazy around the winery from being a micromanager. (Banke laughs.) He had been in the horse business with his uncle a while before that. He really wanted to get back into it," she said.

The two founded Stonestreet and purchased an Unbridled's Song filly, Forest Music, in the summer of 2005 and turned her over to trainer Steve Asmussen. In her first start for Stonestreet, she went gate to wire in the Gr2 Honorable Miss Handicap at Saratoga, giving Stonestreet its first graded stakes winner. After the race, Asmussen prophetically told the media that it was "a sign of things to come.

Asmussen certainly was right about that. 

Plunging head first into the racing industry, Stonestreet purchased Buckram Oaks Farm—450 acres of prime bluegrass land outside of Lexington—for $17.5 million that same year and renamed it Stonestreet Farm. Months later, Stonestreet purchased 650 acres in Versailles, Ky., and established a yearling division there.

When asked why the Buckram Oaks parcel appealed to her, Banke, who litigated land-use cases before the United States Supreme Court and Court of Appeals in her former profession, did not give the expected answer citing investment strategies, the spring-fed limestone ponds coveted for raising horses with good bone, and other legal points. 

"It’s a beautiful, beautiful place," she said. "And it’s really convenient because it’s close to Keeneland (Racecourse and Sales) and close to town; and it’s very scenic. The barns were beautiful. The ponds were beautiful. So it had a lot of improvements, and it was something that we thought would be a good home in Kentucky. I’m really glad now that we went there."

Broodmare Band

Stonestreet started to populate its broodmare band, with an eye to transition its fine racemares into outstanding breeding stock of future Stonestreet runners and sale prospects. Banke called her strategy "mare-centric" and said, "That’s our focus, and that’s really fun. It’s fun to raise fillies for me because I know that they have a great career when they’re finished. It’s a nice thing to do." 

Retired from racing at the end of 2005, Forest Music became the cornerstone of Stonestreet's breeding operation, producing graded stakes winners Kentuckian, Electric Forest, and Uncle Chuck, plus winner Maclean's Music—who sired 2017 Gr1 Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing in his first crop—plus three other graded stakes winners. 

Banke called Stonestreet's broodmare band "unparalleled," and the names on the roster are a stellar list: homebreds My Miss Aurelia, 2011 champion two-year-old filly; Lady Aurelia, 2016 Cartier Two-Year-Old Filly of the Year in Europe; and Gr1 winners Dreaming of Julia, Tara's Tango, and Rachel's Valentina (daughter of now-pensioned Rachel Alexandra). 

Among the other broodmares: Bounding (Aus), New Zealand’s champion sprinter and champion three-year-old filly in 2013; D' Wildcat Speed, Puerto Rican Horse of the Year and champion imported three-year-old filly in 2003 and the dam of Lady Aurelia; Dayatthespa, 2014 champion female turf horse; Hillaby, 2014 Canadian champion female sprinter; and eight other Gr1 or Gp1 winners. 

Seventeen of Stonestreet's broodmares have produced graded-stakes winners. The latest starlet is Gamine, the three-year-old Into Mischief filly out of Banke's mare Peggy Jane. Conditioned by two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer Bob Baffert, Gamine won the Gr1 Acorn Stakes by an incredible 18-3/4 lengths in 1:32.55, slashing the stakes record time of 1:33.58 and just a fifth of a second slower than the track record of 1:32.24 for the mile. Next she took the Gr1 Test Stakes by seven lengths, installing her as the 7-to-10 favorite going into the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks, where she finished third after a tough stretch duel with winner Shedaresthedevil. The Oaks was Gamine's first two-turn race.

Ready to Repeat, a More Than Ready gelding produced by Stonestreet's Christine Daae, placed in the Gr1 Summer Stakes over the turf at Woodbine in Canada on September 20. After maintaining a comfortable lead all the way to the stretch, eventual winner Gretsky the Great cut in front of Ready to Repeat, causing the gelding to change course. Stewards disallowed a claim of foul. Banke sold Ready to Repeat for $60,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling sale.

Undefeated Campanelle ridden by Frankie Dettori wins The Queen Mary Stakes on day five of Royal Ascot 2020.

Banke is excited about Stonestreet's Irish filly, Campanelle, who is expected to join the band at the end of her racing career. Banke gave $243,773 for the Kodiac (GB) filly at the 2019 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. 

"[Barbara Banke] loves coming to Royal Ascot every year, and she wanted to buy two or three fillies who could run there," said Ben McElroy (who purchased the filly). "Campanelle looked like she'd fit the bill, and she did."

Undefeated in three starts, Campanelle earned a Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" berth when in August she won the Gr1 Darley Prix Morny—Finale des Darley Series in France. She is expected to start in the Gr1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on November 6 at Keeneland, her home track.

"We bought her as a yearling, and she’s now a Gp1 winner in Europe," Banke said. "And she’s going to be a great broodmare in her future, hopefully a long way from now."

Banke's philosophy is simple: "We try to get the best mares, or if we don’t buy the best mares, we try to buy the best fillies and race them and go from there. And, of course, then we breed them to great stallions,"

Although Stonestreet does not maintain a stallion division, it holds interests in eight stallions: leading sire Curlin and his sons Jess's Dream, out of Rachel Alexandra, Union Jackson, out of Hot Dixie Chic, and 2017 champion two-year-old Good Magic, out of Glinda the Good; Racing Hall of Fame member Ghostzapper, 2004's Horse of the Year and champion older horse; Gr1 winners Carpe Diem (2015 Blue Grass Stakes) and The Factor (2011 Malibu Stakes); and multiple-graded stakes winner Kantharos.

Banke said that, at present, she has no interest in standing stallions. But she added, "Maybe. Never say never." … 

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Outlook for stem cell therapy - its role in tendon regeneration - different treatments for horse tendon injuries

By Dr Debbie Guest

Tendon injuries occur very commonly in racing thoroughbreds and account for 46% of all limb injuries. The superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) is the most at risk of injury due to the large strains that are placed upon it at the gallop. Studies have reported that the SDFT experiences strains of up to 11-16% in a galloping a thoroughbred, which is very close to the 12-21% strain that causes the SDFT to completely rupture in a laboratory setting.  

An acute tendon injury leads to rupture of the collagen fibres and total disruption of the well organised tendon tissue (Figure 1). There are three phases to tendon healing: an inflammatory phase that lasts for around one week, where new blood vessels bring in large numbers of inflammatory blood cells to the damaged site—a proliferative phase that lasts for a few weeks, where the tendon cells rapidly multiply and start making new collagen to replace the damaged tissue; and a remodelling phase that can last for many months, where the new collagen fibres are arranged into the correct alignment and the newly made structural components are re-organised.

Figure 1. A) The healthy tendon consists predominantly of collagen fibres (light pink), which are uniformly arranged with tendon cells (blue) evenly interspersed and relatively few blood vessels (arrows). B) After an injury the collagen fibres rupture, the tissue becomes much more vascular, promoting the arrival of inflammatory blood cells. The tendon cells themselves also multiply to start the process of rebuilding the damaged structure.

After a tendon injury occurs, horses need time off work with a period of box rest. Controlled exercise is then introduced, which is built up slowly to allow a very gradual return to work. This controlled exercise is an important element of the rehabilitation process, as evidence suggests that exposing the tendon to small amounts of strain has positive effects on the remodelling phase of tendon healing. However, depending on the severity of the initial injury, it can take up to a year before a horse can return to racing. Furthermore, when tendon injuries heal, they repair by forming scar tissue instead of regenerating the normal tendon tissue. Scar tissue does not have the same strength and elasticity as the original tendon tissue, and this makes the tendon susceptible to re-injury when the horse returns to work. The rate of re-injury depends on the extent of the initial injury and the competition level that the horse returns to, but re-injury rates of up to 67% have been reported in racing thoroughbreds. The long periods of rest and the high chance of re-injury therefore combine to make tendon injuries the most common veterinary reason for retirement in racehorses. New treatments for tendon injuries aim to reduce scar tissue formation and increase healthy tissue regeneration, thereby lowering the risk of horses having a re-injury and improving their chance of successfully returning to racing.

Over the past 15 years, the use of stem cells to improve tendon regeneration has been investigated. Stem cells are cells which have the remarkable ability to replicate themselves and turn into other cell types. Stem cells exist from the early stages of development all the way through to adulthood. In some tissues (e.g., skin), where cells are lost during regular turnover, stem cells have crucial roles in normal tissue maintenance. However, in most adult tissues, including the tendon, adult stem cells and the tendon cells themselves are not able to fully regenerate the tissue in response to an injury. In contrast, experimental studies have shown that injuries to fetal tissues including the tendon, are capable of undergoing total regeneration in the absence of any scarring. At the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, we have an ongoing research project to identify the differences between adult and fetal tendon cells and this is beginning to shed light on why adult cells lead to tendon repair through scarring, but fetal cells can produce tendon regeneration. Understanding the processes involved in fetal tendon regeneration and adult tendon repair might enable new cell based and/or therapeutic treatments to be developed to improve tendon regeneration in adult horses.

In many tissues, including fat and bone marrow, there is a population of stem cells known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). These cells can turn into cells such as bone, cartilage and tendon in the laboratory, suggesting that they might improve tendon tissue regeneration after an injury. MSC-based therapies are now widely available for the treatment of horse tendon injuries. However, research has demonstrated that after injection into the injured tendon, MSCs do not turn into tendon cells. Instead, MSCs produce factors to reduce inflammation and encourage better repair by the tissue’s own cells. So rather than being the builders of new tendon tissue, MSCs act as the foreman to direct tissue repair by other cell types. Although there is some positive data to support the clinical application of MSCs to treat tendon injuries in horses, placebo controlled clinical trial data is lacking. Currently, every horse is treated with its own MSCs. This involves taking a tissue biopsy (most often bone marrow or adipose tissue), growing the cells for 2-4 weeks in the laboratory and then injecting them into the site of injury. This means the horse must undergo an extra clinical procedure. There is inherent variation in the product, and the cells cannot be injected immediately after an injury when they may be the most beneficial. 

To allow the prompt treatment of a tendon injury and to improve the ability to standardise the product, allogeneic cells must be used. This means isolating the cells from donor horses and using them to treat unrelated horses. Experimental and clinical studies in horses, mice and humans suggest that this is safe to do with MSCs, and recently an allogeneic MSC product was approved for use in the EU for the treatment of joint inflammation in horses. These cells are isolated from the circulating blood of disease-screened donor horses and are partially turned into cartilage cells in the laboratory. They are then available “off the shelf” to treat unrelated animals. Allogeneic MSC products for tendon injuries are not yet available, but this would provide a significant step forward as it would allow horses to be treated immediately following an injury. However, MSCs exhibit poor survival and retention in the injured tendon and improvements to their persistence in the injury site, and with a better understanding of how they aid tissue regeneration, they are required to enable better optimised therapies in the future.

Our research has previously derived stem cells from very early horse embryos (termed embryonic stem cells, ESCs. Figure 2). ESCs can grow in the laboratory indefinitely and turn into any cell type of the body. These properties make them exciting candidates to provide unlimited numbers of cells to treat a wide range of tissue injuries and diseases. Our experimental work in horses has shown that, in contrast to MSCs, ESCs demonstrate high survival rates in the injured tendon and successfully turn into tendon cells. This suggests that ESCs can directly contribute to tissue regeneration.

Figure 2. A) A day 7 horse embryo used for the isolation of ESCs. Embryos at this stage of development have reached the mare’s uterus and can be flushed out non-invasively. B) “Colonies” of ESCs can grow forever in the laboratory.

To understand if ESCs can be used to aid tendon regeneration, they must be shown to be both safe and effective. In a clinical setting, ESC-derived tendon cells would be implanted into horses that were unrelated to the original horse embryo from which the ESCs were derived. The recipient horse may therefore recognise the cells as “foreign” and raise an immune response against them. Using laboratory models, we have shown that ESCs which have been turned into tendon cells do not appear recognisable by the immune cells of unrelated horses. This may be due to the very early developmental stage that ESCs originate from, and it suggests that they would be safe to transplant into unrelated horses. 

To determine if ESCs would be effective and improve tendon regeneration, without the use of experimental animals, we have established a laboratory system to make “artificial” 3D tendons (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Artificial 3D tendons grown in the laboratory are used to study different sources of tendon cells and help us work out how safe and effective an ESC-based therapy will be. A) Artificial 3D tendons are 1.5 cm in length. B) a highly magnified view of a section through an artificial tendon showing well-organised collagen fibres in green and tendon cells in blue.

ESC-tendon cells can produce artificial 3D tendons just as efficiently as adult and fetal cells, and this system allows us to make detailed comparisons between the different cell types. …

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Is the casino “band-aid” falling off? - Casinos at racetracks were always seen as a temporary fix to racing’s massive problem of not doing enough business to survive.

By Bill Heller

The danger signs are everywhere. 

Casinos at racetracks were always seen as a band-aid—a temporary fix to horse racing’s massive problem of not doing enough business to survive, let alone prosper.

What happens when the band-aid falls off?

In Illinois, where horsemen battled for nearly 10 years to finally get casinos approved at its racetracks, Churchill Downs’ decision not to pursue a casino at Arlington Park has left the future of this international-caliber, iconic Chicago racetrack in dire doubt.

In Florida, another Churchill Downs’ racetrack—Calder Raceway—which has operated as Gulfstream Park West on a lease agreement with Gulfstream Park, sought and received legislative approval to keep its casino open with jai alai replacing horse racing. This year’s Gulfstream Park West meeting is its last, with horsemen having to remove their horses by April 15. In the interim, horsemen are hopeful that an appeal and two lawsuits will change that reality.

The governor in Pennsylvania in February called for revenue from casinos legislatively targeted to racetracks be used instead to offer free college education. And that was before the coronavirus pandemic made every state in America revenue strapped. Pennsylvania horsemen are hoping they’ll be protected under existing legislation. 

The sky is falling.

“Frankly, not everyone is going to survive,” trainer John Servis, a board member of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen Association, said. “We all knew this was going to come. We need to be able to stand on our own two feet. We have to stop relying on the casinos.”

Can they?

The plight of Illinois horsemen is downright depressing. “The thing that strikes me is that Illinois never had the band-aid of the racino,” said Dave McCaffrey, a long-time harness racing trainer who was president of the Illinois Harness Horsemen for eight years and is now the executive director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. “At least Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania had this nice run of 10 or 15 or 20 years of dramatically increased purses and increased racing dates because of casino revenue.”

A native of Iowa who went to college in Minnesota and fell in love with Quad City Downs—a harness track in Illinois—chronicled the decade-long battle to get slots approved at racetracks. It began while McCaffrey was the head of harness horsemen. It began with a typical, historic cooperation between the state’s Thoroughbred and harness horsemen. “The harness and Thoroughbred horsemen, typically in the country, do not agree on much,” McCaffrey said. 

McCaffrey and Thoroughbred trainer Mike Campbell, who was president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen Association, had met at the University of Arizona Racing Symposium in 2009. The following year, they decided to work together. “Both breeds were in such dire straits we figured we were stronger together,” McCaffrey said. “What’s good for us is good for you. We hooked up in a great alliance, and in three months we crafted a bill that I think is the best racino deal in the country. It would have produced 15 percent of adjusted gross revenue to purses. In other states, the casino revenue goes from the racetrack to the state to the purses. In Illinois, it would go straight from the track to purses—a huge difference. When other states are strapped, they don’t want to pay that money for purses. In Illinois, they never get their hands on it.”

Neither have Illinois horsemen because there are still no racinos at Illinois racetracks a decade later. What wet wrong? McCaffrey provided the two-word answer: “Illinois politics.”

In various stages, the racino bill was a victim of the city of Chicago wanting its own casino; the governor vetoing the bill; one house passing the bill but the other house declining to do so; a governor who couldn’t get anything through because both houses were of the other party. “They fought like cats and dogs for four years,” McCaffrey said. “The bill didn’t even get to the floor.”

Right before the election of a new governor, Jay “J.B.” Pritzker, who supported the gaming bill, in 2018, Churchill Downs, bought a 60 percent interest in the Rivers casino, 13 miles from Arlington. “I remember it being Halloween when that deal was announced,” McCaffrey said. “There was all this optimism that the damn gaming bill might finally be passed in 2019.”

Prtizker took office in January 2019. The gaming bill passed both houses and was indeed signed into law on June 27, 2019, authorizing Illinois’ three remaining racetracks: Arlington Park, Fairmount Park and Hawthorne to build racinos. But Churchill Downs didn’t even apply for a racino license. “Churchill Downs decided this gaming bill doesn’t work for them and were not going to apply for the racino license at Arlington despite the fact that they were screaming for the bill to get passed for 10 years,” McCaffrey said.

It got worse. The coronavirus pandemic struck this spring, and Arlington’s already reduced meeting of 70 days were slashed to 30 minus Arlington’s signature races including the Arlington Million.

On July 31, according to a story in Chicago’s Daily Herald, Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen, on a quarterly earnings call with investors, said, “The long-term solution is not Arlington Park. That land will have a higher and better purpose for something else at some point. But we want to work constructively with all of the constituencies in the market to see if there’s an opportunity to move the license or otherwise change the circumstances so that racing can continue to Illinois. For us, we’ve been patient and thoughtful and constructive with the parties up in that jurisdiction, but long term, that land gets sold.”

Mike Campbell is buying none of that. “I’ve repeatedly said I’ve had conversations with several gaming companies to buy Arlington Park—three gaming companies and a very wealthy horse owner all made inquiries to Churchill Downs. Churchill Downs said, `Not interested.’ They’re just not interested. Carstanjen said, `a higher use than a racetrack. Who the hell is he to say it’s suited for a better purpose? There are thousands of jobs involved. I think that what’s going to happen at Arlington is that in the middle of the night they’re going to come in and excavate that track in a manner that it can’t be fixed. Just do it and don’t ask questions.”

“It’s exasperating,” Campbell said. “I’ve been president of the horsemen for 10 years. I’m all in for my horsemen. I told my board I’ll do everything I can to step in front of the train to slow it down. But money always wins. I’m the first to recognize it.”

Phone calls to Churchill Downs, Inc. requesting a comment were not returned. …

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Hydrotherapy for performance - the use of water for therapeutic benefit in the equine industry - hydrotherapy as a mechanism for enhancing performance in the racehorse

By Georgie White

What is hydrotherapy?

The historic use of water for therapeutic benefit in the equine industry has taken a leap in development in recent decades, from the humble use of cold hosing a swollen limb through to the development of water treadmills and water walkers for injury rehabilitation and performance development. 

Cold hosing and other forms of cooling localized areas of the body is more correctly termed cryotherapy—meaning, it aims to harness the benefits of reduction in temperature to treat mainly acute and edemic injuries. By reducing temperature of the local area, for example, a distal portion of a limb, several key functional changes occur. First, local blood flow is reduced. This is especially useful if an open wound is involved; the precapillary sphincters constrict and direct blood away from the area. Secondly, there is evidence that nociceptors, involved in the perception of pain and sensory receptors located at the end of peripheral nerve endings can be temporarily suppressed with local application of cryotherapy. Following a brief summary of cryotherapy, this article is going to focus on hydrotherapy as a mechanism for enhancing performance in the racehorse, focusing on the specific parameters of fitness that can be targeted and thus improved. 

Fundamental properties of water

There are several fundamental principles of water that can be used as a recovery tool to facilitate optimum rehabilitation and ongoing performance improvement. When immersed in water, or made to move through water, the horse’s body, like the human, encounters a medium for which it is not designed, and locomotion is of limited efficiency. It is in fact the imposed limited efficiency that is useful in different training contexts—it forces the body to work harder than on dry ground, thus improving fitness and better preparing the horse’s body for future athletic tests. Similarly, the method of human altitude, or hypoxic training, is where the body will learn to produce the same amount of energy with a significantly lower available amount of oxygen and thus benefit at a later date in a competitive environment. 

First, and most important in an equine fitness protocol, is the viscosity of the water creating resistance; the resistance offered by water is greater than that experienced in locomotion on dry ground, therefore requiring greater overall effort to move through it. Exercising in water has shown to provide up to 15 times the resistance of exercising on land. This factor alone means that the trainer can achieve a far more challenging training environment without the horse experiencing the concussive forces on the limbs associated with high-end aerobic or anaerobic land based exercise, such as works on a gallops. Resistance also works indirectly at lower water levels whereby horses will choose to step over the water in a bid to avoid resistance. Therapists then utilize this to gain increased flexion at limb joints (further discussion of this throughout the article). 

Hydrostatic pressure is the pressure exerted on an object when immersed in water. Depth of immersion is an influential factor with greater depth correlating with greater pressure. Depending on the type of hydrotherapy system used, the benefits of hydrostatic pressure will vary. For example, greater hydrostatic pressure will be exerted when using a swimming lane with depths of up to two meters, as opposed to depths of 30-60cm of water on a treadmill. Application of hydrostatic pressure greatly benefits the recovery processes, acting in a similar way as compression bandages. The pressure reduces the formation of edema, or swelling, and improves the elimination of muscular by-products such as lactic acid and carbon dioxide. 

Buoyancy is not utilized in the same way as it is in humans and small animal hydrotherapy, except in the use of swimming lanes; this is partly due to the obvious size difference and limitations associated with submerging a horse almost completely in water. Buoyancy is achieved when the weight of the fluid displaced by the body is equal, also accounting for the force of gravity on the body. To remain buoyant, the two forces must counterbalance one another. Once this balance occurs, the body is essentially weightless, allowing exercise without the impact of joint load experienced in land-based exercise. These properties act together during water-based exercise to produce the increased benefits to the horse’s fitness discussed in this article. 

What happens during a hydrotherapy session?

Horses are typically introduced to the hydrotherapy equipment to acclimate them and ensure they will be relaxed while exercising. It is important for the horse to establish a relaxed frame when working on the treadmill or in the hydrotherapy pool to prevent any stress-related or compensatory posture during the workout. As we know from land-based exercise, if a horse is stressed, they are likely to tire more quickly; so in order to utilize this workout, acclimation is beneficial. 

When using a treadmill, it is typical that the horse warms up on a dry treadmill prior to adding water. As with land-based exercise, a thorough warmup ensures adequate preparation of the horse’s muscles to be ready for harder work during the session. 

The bodily systems during exercise

During a hydrotherapy session, the horse’s different bodily systems will be affected in several ways. But essentially, the efficiency and smooth-running of these systems all contribute to overall performance quality, and any deficiencies will act as an overall limitation.  

The cardiovascular system is often considered to be the horse’s engine during locomotion, working with the respiratory system in concert to provide the horse with the oxygen needed for exercise as well as dispelling by-products. Working as a muscular pump, the heart delivers oxygen and nutrient-rich blood across the body via a network of blood vessels that develops further with long-term consistent exercise. Supplying this oxygen are the nasal structures; as obligate nasal breathers, horses must breathe through their noses. Flaring of nostrils and dilation of the horse’s larynx work to provide a greater cross-sectional area of space for oxygen uptake. When exercise begins, the previously oxygenated muscles begin to work and enter temporary oxygen debt. The cardiovascular and respiratory system combat this by working harder to produce a continual supply of oxygenated blood by increasing the number of breaths taken per minute, thus increasing oxygen intake. During hydrotherapy exercise, the respiratory system will be required to deliver elevated levels of oxygen and removal of increased quantities of carbon dioxide. This is because the horse begins to work towards the higher levels of aerobic exercise. At rest, the horse will be taking in approximately 60 liters of air per minute; when moving towards moderately strenuous exercise, this can increase to as much as 2,250 liters of air per minute. 

From here the heart increases in beats per minute to keep up with this demand. …

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Justice on track - Real world lessons from a Thoroughbred court case

By Peter J. Sacopulos

Morning training of Thoroughbreds at tracks is standard to the industry. So too are exercise riders losing their mounts and loose horses. Less standard is a collision between horses resulting in civil litigation. This article examines such a case and several issues important to Thoroughbred trainers including the Sports Activity Doctrine.

From Routine to Unforeseen

Monday, May 7, 2018, dawned clear and cool at the Indiana Grand racetrack in Shelbyville, Ind. Jeremy Staley, who worked as an assistant groom for Michael E. Lauer Racing Stables, prepped a chestnut mare named Accessorizing for a routine morning training session. Accessorizing is owned by the trainer’s wife. The four-year-old had chalked up an impressive three first-place finishes in just under two years, and the Lauers were confident she had a bright future ahead.

As expected, Mr. Staley met with a licensed jockey named Marcelle Martins. Martins had offered to exercise horses free of charge. Several trainers had taken her up on it, including Mike Lauer. Lauer had four decades of experience as a trainer and knew that Martins was a skilled horsewoman with a valid jockey license.

Each received something of value from the transaction. For Lauer, it was the chance to test a potential hire while saving the expense of an exercise rider. For Martins, it was the chance to showcase her skills for a successful trainer and a shot at mounts in future races. Neither Martins nor Lauer presented or signed any paperwork. It was the kind of easy, informal agreement that happens all the time in professional horse racing. 

Martins mounted Accessorizing and began the workout. Of course, she was not the only rider on the track that day. A number of other exercise riders were putting horses through their paces, and the track’s outriders were on duty. Everything went as expected until Martins and Accessorizing rounded a turn. The mare began ignoring Martins’ commands. Martins was unable to gain control of the reins. Martins lost her balance and mount, and Accessorizing was loose and headed toward a group of horses that included Glitter Cat. Glitter Cat was owned by Civiol Cruz, who was taking his horse through its own morning exercise routine. 

Accessorizing collided with Glitter Cat. Cruz was thrown to the ground and injured. The clocker had sounded the loose horse alert. Cruz was loaded into an ambulance and taken to a local hospital. Martins was roughed up but did not require a trip to the ER. Remarkably, neither Accessorizing nor Glitter Cat sustained serious injuries. 

The Lawsuit

On July 2, 2018, Civilo Cruz filed a civil lawsuit. The suit named the track, the training business, the owner/trainer, and Marcelle Martins as defendants. Cruz alleged in his complaint that the owner of the track failed to provide adequate safety precautions and protections. He also alleged that the existing safety systems, including the loose horse siren, failed to function properly. Cruz further alleged that, as owner/trainers, the Lauers knowingly allowed an unqualified employee to ride a dangerous horse, consciously putting others at risk. Finally, Cruz claimed Marcelle Martins was an unqualified exercise rider who had acted recklessly by losing control of her mount. …

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The benefit of using ‘yearling rollers - Dr. Russell Mackechnie-Guire asks if a roller is a harmless piece of equipment? -scientists discover performance inhibiting spinal pressure under roller

By Dr. Russell Mackechnie-Guire

Reducing pressure under the saddle, bridle and girth has been found to significantly improve performance, and now the roller has been scientifically tested.

Lost training days, treatment and medication for back problems are time consuming and costly, so optimising equine spinal health from early on is an essential consideration in improving equine health and welfare. When a young horse is started, one of its first experiences is to have tack on its back, initially a lungeing roller. The roller, a seemingly harmless piece of equipment and its effect on the horse, has previously been overlooked. However, it has now come under scientific scrutiny by the same research team that investigated the impact of pressure distribution under the saddle, bridle and girth on equine health and performance.

Their recent study used high-tech pressure mapping to examine the pressures exerted on the horse’s back during lungeing (see technology panel). Localised areas of high pressures were consistently recorded under the roller on the midline of the horse’s back directly over the spinous processes in the region of the 10th and 12th thoracic vertebrae (T10-T12, see anatomy panel).  

High pressure directly in this region, as seen under a conventional roller, is likely to cause the horse to seek a compensatory locomotor strategy and adopt a posture where the back is stiffened and hollowed, resulting in an extended spine. Previous research has shown that back function and gallop kinematics are compromised by a stiffened spine.

Studies have demonstrated that pressure-relieving modifications in a saddle result in increased stride length and hip flexion, along with a greater femur-to-vertical angle (indicating that the hindleg is being brought forward more as the horse gallops). Reducing saddle pressures leads to a marked improvement in the horse’s locomotion, allowing it to gallop more efficiently. 

A modified roller that removes pressure will allow the back to function without restriction.

The roller is positioned over the part of the back where the front half of the saddle sits; by applying these principles, modifying the roller to remove pressure would allow unhindered back function. 

The equine back is an essential component of the locomotor apparatus, transferring biomechanical forces from the hindlimb. So, a modified roller will not only result in improved locomotion and performance but will also have long-term spinal health benefits.

Strong start

In racing, where lungeing is primarily used prior to backing, what we do to and the equipment we use on the young horses in the preparatory stages are likely to have a significant impact on the development of the horse’s posture, back health and locomotion. 

If a young horse begins the training process of being lunged with a roller that exerts pressure directly on the spine at T10-T12, it will develop a strategy to compensate for the discomfort. Then, as the horse progresses to a saddle—which similarly exerts high pressure in the same area—it is inevitable that this will have an effect on the locomotor system. The horse’s athletic performance will be significantly compromised before it even gets on the track. 

Innovative pressure-relieving modifications in tack design have demonstrated improved locomotion when pressure is reduced. Identifying and replacing any equipment that has limiting effects on locomotion or development could have long-term benefits for the longevity and performance of the horse. This applies particularly to the lungeing roller as it is the first piece of tack a youngster has on its back. It is essential that the horse does not develop a locomotor strategy to compensate at this stage.

Under pressure

Pressure mapping during lungeing

Conventional roller - 35kPa pressure directly on the spine at T10

Conventional roller & side reins - pressure consistent at T10 but increases at T11 and T12 to 45kPa

New roller design, even with side reins - all pressure is removed from the spine

In a recent study, horses were lunged on a 20-metre circle on both reins in trot and canter wearing a roller fitted with pads. In canter, peak pressures were seen each time the inside forelimb was in stance (on the ground). In trot, pressure peaks occurred each time a forelimb was in stance phase. 

Given that the horse is experiencing high pressures under the roller directly on the spine in the region of T10-T12 in every repeated motion cycle (stride), it is inevitable that a compensation strategy will develop.

When trotting and cantering with no attachments, such as side reins or training aids, peak pressures under the centre of the roller were found to be similar to those seen under the saddle with a rider on board. Studies have shown pressures over 30kPa can cause back discomfort. In this study, researchers measured pressures up to 35kPa directly on the midline of the horse’s spine, in every stride, with just a roller and pad.

With side reins attached, the location of the peak pressure was brought further towards the front edge of the roller. Essentially, the pull of the side reins caused a ridge of pressure under the front half of the roller, and the readings increased to 45kPa.

Compensation costs

Compensatory gait strategies lead to asymmetric forces which have a negative effect on limb kinematics (movement). The consideration here is that the horse is experiencing these locomotor compromises before the back has been conditioned to manage the increased forces, and before a jockey has even sat on its back. 

It remains to be shown whether the compensatory gait and asymmetric forces caused by early roller pressure manifest as lameness or loss of performance later on. There is a coexisting relationship between back problems and limb lameness, but evidence is still being gathered as to which one comes first. Researchers are investigating to what extent loss of performance and lameness issues might be traced back to these ‘training and backing’ experiences. It is therefore essential that young horses are started with correctly fitting equipment to limit any long-term effect.

Lungeing for rehab

In addition to the backing process, lungeing also occurs during other influential periods of a horse’s life, including rehabilitation after surgery. Post-operative recommendations for kissing spines can often include lunge work with training aids to induce spinal flexion and opening up of dorsal spinous processes. …

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Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, Staton Flurry, Autry Lowry Jr. AND MyRacehorse Stable

By Bill Heller

Not even a pandemic could prevent Thoroughbred racing from bringing people together.

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Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, Staton Flurry, Autry Lowry Jr.- Shedaresthedevil

How does a sheikh from Qatar, a parking lot owner in Hot Springs, Ark., and a fire captain from Benton, La., wind up partners on Shedaresthedevil—the Brad Cox-trained stakes-record winner of the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks?

They all bought in.

“At the end of the day, I’m happy to partner with anyone,” Sheikh Fahad said September 24th. “I haven’t met them, but they seem like nice people.”

Lowry said, “It’s definitely a unique relationship.”

Sheikh Fahad’s love of horses began as a child. “I’ve grown up with horses—a lot of Arabians,” he said. “I’ve always loved the horses. Not the Arabians that much. I dreamed of Thoroughbreds.”

He made that dream real after studying in England. He tuned in to watch a steeplechase race on television in 2008, and liked it so much he watched it every week. In 2010, he saw his first live race. “I said, `I better try that,’’’ Sheikh Fahad said. “When I started, it was just myself. Then my brothers joined me. I had my first win in 2011—a great thrill. I definitely caught the bug.”

Dunaden was why. He captured the 2011 Gp1 Melbourne Cup, Australia’s premier race, and the Gp1 Hong Kong Vase. The following year, he won the Gp1 Caulfield Cup, completing his career with 10 victories from 46 starts.

In 2014, Sheik Fahad’s QIPCO Holding became the first commercial partner of Royal Ascot by special royal permission.

Now, Sheik Fahad’s horses race in England, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and in the United States with Fergus Galvin as his U.S. racing advisor. “I’ve had a lot of partnerships in California with Simon Callaghan as trainer,” Sheikh Fahad said. “I was out at Del Mar. I usually go to Del Mar.”

Sheikh Fahad saw Shedaresthedevil finish third last year in the Gr2 Sorrento Stakes, a nose off second to the six-length winner Amalfi Sunrise. He was pleased with his filly’s third. “I thought she was a big filly,” he said. “I thought she’d do better as a three-year-old.”

He had no idea. 

Staton Flurry didn’t grow up around Arabians, rather cars. His family has operated 10 to 11 parking lots around Oaklawn Park for more than 30 years. He estimates he was 12 or 13 when he began parking cars. “From the time I had sense enough to not run in front of cars,” he said. “You meet a lot of cool people.”

Now 30, he graduated from Henderson State University with a degree in business administration. He used that education to claim his first horse, a five-year-old mare named Let’s Get Fiscal, with a few friends. “She won her second race for us,” he said. “She got claimed and I’ve been enjoying racing ever since.”

He races as Flurry Racing Stables. “I got tired of my first name being mispronounced,” he said.

Staton Flurry and Shedaresthedevil connections celebrate winning the 2020 Longines Kentucky Oaks.

Flurry was contacted by his bloodstock agent Clay Scherer to check out Shedaresthedevil, who had one win from four starts for Simon Callaghan and was entered as part of a package of two-year-olds offered at the 2019 Keeneland November Sale. The sheikh’s partners wanted out, but the sheikh felt differently. “I thought I’d give her a chance,” Sheikh Fahad said. “I believed in the filly.”

Flurry said, “Before the sale, we were contacted by a representative from the sheikh. They were interested in keeping part of the filly, and they offered to go 50-50 on her.”

Flurry said yes, giving a piece of his percentage to his buddy Lowry, who in turn, gave a piece to his father. 

The new partnership bought Shedaresthedevil for $280,000.

Flurry and Lowry had become close friends after sharing a suite at Louisiana Downs. Lowry, who started going to that track when he was 14, races under Big Aut Farms. “We started off with a couple of broodmares,” he said. “Then another. I love the adrenaline—for the animal to give 110 percent and put out their maximum effort. They give everything they’ve got, and I appreciate it. They’re doing what they want to do.” 

Sheikh Fahad is having quite a year. His horse, Kameko, won the 2000 Guineas in Newmarket on June 6. Three months later, Shedaresthedevil won the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks. “He was just ecstatic to win a Classic in Europe and in the U.S.,” Galvin said.

A couple weeks before the Kentucky Oaks, Sheikh Fahad got a call from Brad Cox. “He said, `I’ve got good news and bad news,’” Sheikh Fahad said. The good news was that Shedaresthedevil was training “as good as Monomoy Girl did heading into the Kentucky Oaks.” The bad news was that Shedaresthedevil would have to face two terrific fillies, Swiss Skydiver and Gamine. “I thought if we finish third or fourth, it would be a good result,” Sheikh Fahad said.

Flurry said he was also realistic heading into the Oaks. “I told everybody that asked, I said, `Anything better than fourth was a bonus, and anything worse than fourth was a disappointment.”

He got the bonus—a big bonus: his first Gr1 stakes. “I started jumping up and down, screaming, `We’re going to win the Oaks!”

Lowry said “It was surreal. I was hugging people. I was crying. People were calling me on the phone to congratulate us. I was happy my dad was with me. That’s priceless. He lives in North Carolina. We don’t get to see each other that often. For us to be able to share that together was a very special moment.”

**********************************

MyRacehorse Stable (with Spendthrift Farm, Starlight Racing and Madaket Stables) – Authentic

Partnerships have been flourishing in recent years, but there’s never been a partnership like this one: matching three well-known, long-tenured Thoroughbred groups with the upstart MyRacehorse Stable, and it’s 5,314 shareholders on Authentic. When Authentic turned back Tiz the Law to win the Kentucky Derby, MyRacehorse literally jumped from curiosity to game changer—a vision of founder and CEO Michael Behrens when MyRacehorse debuted in California only on Belmont Stakes Day in 2018.

MyRacehorse went national in June, 2019. Now? “We had just under 1,000 people that signed up on Derby Day before the Derby,” Behrens said. “We never had that many in one day before. It was breathtaking actually.”

That it happened with Wayne B. Hughes of Spendthirft Farm, who has backed MyRacehorse, made it even more meaningful. “They joined us in 2019,” MyRacehorse’s West Coast Manager Joe Moran said. “Mr. Hughes has been such a supporter of racing. It’s quite amazing.” Spendthrift was able to partner with MyRacehorse after buying a majority interest in Authentic. “It was a huge stepping stone for us,” Moran said. “It brought us credibility.”

Behrens, 44, was the chief marketing officer for Casper, a start-up online mattress company with offices in Manhattan. Behrens lives in California. He’d always been a racing fan. “I spent a lot of time looking at reports, and I came to the conclusion that we needed a simple way to itch people’s curiosity about horse racing,” he said. “It’s very difficult to get people to try that. I figured if I could sell mattresses, why couldn’t I sell horses? There were racing clubs in Japan and Australia. Ownership was the way to go. I forced it. We’re all in on social media. You’ve got to give people information they want to share with their friends. That’s how you grow the product.

“We had 5,314 winners, and almost all of them have been posting on Facebook, sharing their stories of winning the Kentucky Derby. That was always the vision. We did that with Casper. I just thought that those attributes would work here.”

Shares in Authentic ranged from $206 for a one-thousandth of one percent to $70,000. That interest includes Authentic’s breeding career.

“We had teachers, business leaders and big-time owners,” Moran said. “We had a gentleman in Ireland. On the morning of the Derby, he bought a share for $206. He got it off our website, and he shut out 10 other people when the horses loaded in the gate. Very cool.”

And that was before the Derby.

MyRacehorse’s website says “With micro-shares, you compete at the highest level for a fraction of the cost.” Perks for this one-time investment include “race-day privileges, winner’s circle access, meeting the trainer and jockey, updated entries and recaps, visits with your horse and race winnings paid directly to your on-line account.” …

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Can nutrition influence EIPH? - alternative and supportive therapies as trainers seek to find other means of reducing the risk or severity of EIPH

By Catherine Rudenko

EIPH (exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage) was first identified in racehorses in the 16th century. Since this time, the focus has been on mitigating the haemorrhage. Management of EIPH largely revolves around the use of furosemide, dependent of jurisdiction, may or may not be used on the day of racing. Alternative and supportive therapies are becoming increasingly popular as trainers seek to find other means of reducing the risk or severity of EIPH.

Nutrition and plant-based approaches are part of an alternative management program. Whilst research is somewhat limited, the studies available are promising, and no doubt more work will be done as using furosemide becomes more restricted. There are several directions in which nutrition can influence risk for EIPH, including inflammatory response, blood coagulation, cell membrane structure, hypotension and reducing known lung irritants.

The various approaches are all supportive, working on altering an element of risk associated with the condition. Some are more direct than others, focusing on the effect on red blood cells, whilst others work on some of the broader lung health issues such as reducing mucus or environmental irritants. 

None are competitive with each other, and there may be an advantage to a ‘cocktail’ approach where more than one mode of action is employed. This is a common practice with herbal-based supplements where the interactive effects between herbs are known to improve efficacy. 

Cell membrane

The red blood cell membrane—the semipermeable layer surrounding the cell—is made up of lipids and proteins. The makeup of this membrane, particularly the lipid fraction, appears to be modifiable in response to dietary fatty acids. Researchers feeding 50mls of fish oil found a significant increase in the percentage of omega-3’s in the cell membrane.

Essential fatty acids (EFA’s), omega 3 and omega 6, are important cell membrane components and determine cellular membrane fluidity. Fluidity of a cell membrane is important, particularly when pressure increases, as a cell membrane lacking in fluidity is more likely to break. A cell that can deform, effectively changing rather than breaking, has an advantage and is linked with improved exercise performance in human studies. Inclusion of fish oil in the diet increases the ability of red blood cells to deform.

Kansas State University investigated the effect of omega supplementation on 10 thoroughbreds over a five-month period. The diet was supplemented with either EPA and DHA combined, or DHA on its own. EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) are specific forms of omega-3 fatty acids commonly found in oily fish. When supplementing the diet with both EPA and DHA, a reduction in EIPH was seen at 83 days and again at 145 days. Feeding DHA on its own did not produce an effect.

Fish oil contains both EPA and DHA and is readily available, although the smell can be off-putting to both horse and human. There are flavoured fish oils specifically designed for use in horses that overcome the aroma challenge and have good palatability. 

Inflammatory response and oxidative stress

Kentucky Equine research results

Airway inflammation and the management of this inflammatory process is believed to be another pathway in which EIPH can be reduced. Omega-3 fatty acids are well evidenced for their effect in regulation of inflammation, and this mode of action along with effect on cell membrane fluidity is likely part of the positive result found by Kansas State University. 

Kentucky Equine Research has investigated the effect of a specific fish oil on inflammatory response with horses in training. The study supplemented test horses with 60mls per day and found a significant effect on level of inflammation and GGT (serum gamma-glutamyl transferase). GGT is an enzyme that breaks down glutathione, an important antioxidant. As GGT rises, less glutathione is available to neutralise damaging free radicals, creating an environment for oxidative stress.

A horse’s red blood cells are more susceptible to oxidative stress than humans, and maintaining a healthy antioxidant status is important for function and maintenance of cell integrity.

Rosehip

Supplements for bleeders will often contain relatively high doses of antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E to support antioxidant status in the horse and reduce risk of damage to cell membranes. Vitamin C has also been shown to benefit horses with recurrent airway obstruction and increase antibody response. Dose rates required for an effect range from 15-20g per day. If including high doses of vitamin C in the diet, it is important to note that any sudden withdrawal can have negative effects. Gradual withdrawal is needed to allow the body’s own mechanisms for vitamin C production to recognise and respond to the change in status.

Rosehips are natural potent antioxidants containing many active substances. Research into the effect of rosehips specifically on red blood cells has shown they have a high efficacy when assessing their ability to ameliorate cell damage.

Hypotensive herbs

Caucus carota – wild carrott

The essential oil of caucus carota species is a well-documented oil having a hypotensive, lowering of blood pressure effect along with antifungal properties. Its antifungal effects are noted against aspergillus species, a common cause of poor respiratory health. Allium sativum is also well known for its ability to lower blood pressure. An initial study (data unpublished) into the effects of these two plants along with herbs reported to alleviate mucus in the lungs has shown promising results in a group of horses in training. 

Prolonged blood coagulation

As prolonged blood coagulation is cited as a possible factor for EIPH, herbal products that are noted for their ability to enhance coagulation are in certain parts of the world widely used as part of managing EIPH. …

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Remembering Hollywood Park - Edward “Kip” Hannan and the Hollywood Park archive

By Ed Golden

In an age of “Races Without Faces,” Edward Kip Hannan is a renaissance man.

Kip Hannan outside of UCLA’s Royce Hall

Not to be confused with an anarchist bent on destroying history’s truths, Hannan is an archivist, with an ethos dedicated to preserving timeless treasures and ensconcing them in pantheons for future generations.

With the artistic and obdurate passion of a Michelangelo, when Hollywood Park closed forever on Dec. 22, 2013, like a man possessed with an oblation, Hannan knew there was “gold in them thar hills” and dug in like he was assaulting the Sistine Chapel.

Far from a fool and capitalizing on today’s applied sciences, Hannan has successfully transitioned through more than four decades, surviving—yea, overcoming—a concern once epitomized by Albert Einstein who said: “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”

Hannan made it his mission to rescue archives from the Inglewood, Calif. track that opened 75 years earlier on June 10, 1938. The Hollywood Turf Club was formed under the chairmanship of Jack L. Warner of the Warner Brothers film corporation.

Hollywood Park Opening Day and Closing Day programs.

Among the 600 original shareholders were many stars, directors and producers of yesteryear from movieland’s mainstream, including Al Jolson, Raoul Walsh, Joan Blondell, Ronald Colman, Walt Disney, Bing Crosby, Sam Goldwyn, Darryl Zanuck, George Jessel, Ralph Bellamy, Hal Wallis, Wallace Beery, Irene Dunne and Mervyn LeRoy.

They pale, however, compared to the equine stalwarts that raced at Hollywood Park, which include 22 that were Horse of the Year: Seabiscuit (1938), Challedon (1940), Busher (1945), Citation (1951), Swaps (1956), Round Table (1957), Fort Marcy (1970), Ack Ack (1971), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1979), Spectacular Bid (1980), John Henry (1981 and 1984), Ferdinand (1987), Sunday Silence (1989), Criminal Type (1990), A.P. Indy (1992), Cigar (1995), Skip Away (1998), Tiznow (2000), Point Given (2001), Ghostzapper (2004) and Zenyatta (2010).

Hannan obviously had his hands full, but thrust ahead undeterred as he soldiered on to digitize Hollywood Park’s entire film/video history of nearly 4,000 stakes races for eventual public access.

It seemed a mission mandated by a higher power.

Hannan, who turns 57 on Jan. 29, was born in Phoenix, Ariz., where his mother and father had come from Brooklyn. Moving to California when he was just two, they lived on the Arcadia/Monrovia border within a couple miles of storied Santa Anita, and left in 1972 for nearby Temple City where Kip has lived ever since.

In 1979, at the tender age of 15, he began working as a marketing aide at Santa Anita under the aegis of worldly racing guru Alan Balch and his fastidious publicity sidekick, Jane Goldstein.

Hollywood Park, 1939.

He was the last employee at Hollywood Park in order to organize archives for digitization and eventual transfer to the UCLA Library, where he began working in late 2014 as videographer and editor. He is still employed there, maintaining the integrity of Hollywood Park film, video, photo and book archives.

Hannan sums up his career in one word: “Fascinating.”

“I had already started collecting music at age 11, in 1975,” Hannan said, “and probably because of this, I associate many life events with the music of the time. I’m sure many people can relate.

“It was at Santa Anita where and when I first met Lou Villasenor, who was already working there and would go on to become a staple of its TV broadcast team—a job he held for nearly 35 years before his death in 2018.

“Lou became one of my best friends and eventually was the one who brought me to Hollywood Park where I was hired to work in its television department in 1986.”

As marketing aides, their tasks were menial and labor intensive, such as removing duplicates from mailing lists, organizing contest entry cards filled out by fans, and other simple office-related duties. After a few years, Hannan was promoted to supervisor.

At Santa Anita in 1982, Hannan met another new hire who became an instant best friend: Kurt Hoover, current TVG anchor whose relaxed and ingratiating on-camera presence is the stuff of network standards. He also is a devoted and skilled handicapper and a successful horse owner.

“We hit it off immediately,” Hannan says.

A couple years later, Hannan left Santa Anita briefly to study television production at Pasadena City College, while also finding time to work at Moby Disc Records in town.

Burt Bacharach and wife Angie Dickinson admire their race horse Apex II in his Hollywood Park stall, 1969.

“I had always been a movie buff, with the original 1933 ‘King Kong’ my inspiration, along with ‘One Million Years B.C., and not just because of Fay Wray and Raquel Welch—although I had crushes on both. It was the dinosaurs and the stop-motion filmmaking and special effects.

“I wanted to get into film somehow but couldn’t afford USC, so the gateway was video/television production, first in high school and then at Pasadena City College.

“It was around this time, summer of 1985, that Santa Anita contacted me out of the blue,” he said. “Knowing I had radio operation training in college, they told me of a radio station in the planning stages that would be an on-site source for racing fans and handicappers broadcasting information throughout the day.

“Nearly doubling my hourly wage from the record store, I jumped at the chance. It was designed and organized by the same company that created the low-power AM radio station that can be picked up near the LAX Airport for flight information; and soon, KWIN Radio AM was created.

“I was the operator/engineer with countless marketing people and handicappers available for on-air hosts and guests. It was at this time I met Mike Willman, the ‘roving reporter’ and program manager of sorts, who gathered interviews on his cassette recorder for us to air. 

“On April 23, 1986, Villasenor took me to Hollywood Park where he was program director and graphics operator in its TV department.

“I was fortunate to be there and was in the right place at the right time. They were short of cameramen that day, and word came from Hollywood Park President Marje Everett that many of her personal friends would be attending, including popular celebrities of music, film, television and politics.

“The TV department was to capture ‘Opening Day Greetings’ from them on their arrival. The TV director asked if I could handle the professional portable camera, portable tape deck and tripod. I said yes, gathered up everything, and headed to the Gold Cup Room, avoiding crowded elevators with all that gear.

“It was then I realized my career was moving up, for at that moment, not three steps behind me on the escalator were Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson. As we continued to climb, all I could think of was getting to a phone to tell my folks how my first day went, before it had even started!

Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor, 1986.

“There is one particular snapshot taken in the Gold Cup Room that I cherish. I’m not in the photo but was about six feet ahead of them, walking with my gear like I was on top of the world at age 22.

“I did get Michael Jackson’s autograph later, as miraculously he only had one bodyguard with him that day. At the time, there was not a bigger pop music star on the planet, and it was surreal to see him right before me.

“Even though they both declined to appear on camera for a greeting, it was Elizabeth Taylor who got to me. As I set up my camera gear not 25 feet from where she was sitting (and momentarily alone), she glanced up from the table and looked directly at me with this big smile.

“I literally melted! As I continued to fumble getting the camera onto the tripod, I kept thinking, ‘Dear God, those eyes!’ and I was ready to sign on for husband number seven, as suddenly it had all made sense to me. …

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Trainer Robert Tiller and Canadian sprint legend Pink Lloyd both reached momentous milestones this year - Alex Campbell shares all.

By Alex Campbell

By now, you’ve likely heard of Pink Lloyd, one of the greatest Canadian sprinters of all time. He has won 26 of his 31 starts—23 of which have come in stakes events. He was named Canadian Horse of the Year for his 2017 campaign that saw him win all eight of his starts. In addition, he’s been the Canadian champion male sprinter the last three years from 2017 to 2019, and appears to be well on his way to earning that honor for a fourth time in 2020. This year, Pink Lloyd also hit a major earnings milestone, crossing C$2 million in career earnings with his victory in the Gr3 Vigil Stakes on September 5. Pink Lloyd’s trainer, 2008 Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Robert Tiller, also recorded a personal milestone of his own back on June 19, when he captured his 2,000th career training victory.

Tiller didn’t come from a horse racing background but has devoted his life to the sport. Born in Amsterdam, Holland, 70-year-old Tiller immigrated to Canada with his family in 1960 when he was 11 years old. At 16, he found his way to the racetrack, responding to an ad in a newspaper from the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association of Ontario looking for grooms and hot walkers at Woodbine. Tiller took a summer job with John Calhoun walking hots in 1966, and never left the racetrack.

“I went straight from grade school to the University of Woodbine,” Tiller said. “I stuck after the summer was over. I basically got the upbringing on the racetrack, living in tack rooms. I always had a desire to be a horse trainer and started very young.” After a couple of years working for Calhoun, Tiller then went on to become a groom for trainer Glenn Magnusson. While working for Magnusson, Tiller had the opportunity to travel with horses to Blue Bonnets Raceway in Montreal, and while he was not officially a trainer at that time, Tiller said he was doing most of the training himself. He returned to Toronto at 21 to obtain his trainer’s license and quickly found success. He recorded 21 wins in his first year as a trainer in 1972, and 48 wins during the 1974 season after just a few years of being out on his own. In 1975, Tiller had his first Queen’s Plate starter, sending out long-shot Near the High Sea to a runner-up finish behind future Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee L’Enjoleur.

Tiller has been Woodbine’s leading trainer four times (1994, 1997, 2001, and 2003), and has won three Sovereign Awards as Canada’s outstanding trainer in 2001, 2003, and 2004. Tiller has trained a number of Canadian champions over the years. Along with Pink Lloyd, Tiller also trained 2001 Canadian Horse of the Year and Canadian champion three-year-old, Win City, who won the Prince of Wales Stakes and finished second in the Queen’s Plate. Rare Friends was also named Canadian champion two-year-old male in 2001, and Simply Lovely was named Canadian champion two-year-old filly in 2004. Tiller has also trained a pair of Canadian champion female sprinters, including Indian Apple Is in 2010 and River Maid in 2016.

“I went through all of the stages that trainers go through,” Tiller said. “I was ‘wonder boy’ for a while. We got into the claiming game with some clients. I was leading trainer a few times or close to it. We’ve won a lot of races.

You’re only as good as your horses in this game. It’s like a good hockey coach if they have a bunch of bad players. I don’t care what anyone says: without talented horses, we have nothing.”

If a trainer is only as good as his or her horses, as Tiller says, then it must take a good eye to select those good horses. Tiller has done that, not only at the sales but in the claiming game as well. Tiller said his experience with different horses throughout his career has helped refine his horse selection process. “You learn from your mistakes,” he said. “I’ve bought a lot of good horses over the years. I enjoy going to the sales. I like to think of myself as an all-around horseman.”

Pink Lloyd was a $30,000 purchase at the 2013 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society’s Canadian Premier Yearling Sale. Tiller said he and his clients, including Frank Di Giulio, Jr., went into the sale with a short list of horses and ended up purchasing six horses out of the sale. “We had a list of horses that year, as every other horseman does,” he said. “We liked the way [Pink Lloyd] walked and we liked the sire, Old Forester. We took a shot on him, and it’s all turned out great. Three of them ended up winning races, and two of them never made the races. This happens all of the time.” Tiller said there’s one piece of advice he learned early on in his career that he’s always remembered, and that advice has played a key role in Pink Lloyd’s achievements.

“There was a trainer, Lou Cavalaris Jr., who was well-respected,” he said. “He said to me ‘everybody trains horses son, but it’s a game of details.’

I never forgot that. It is a real game of details. Everything from shoes to feed, to how you train a horse. That to me is the most important thing—trying to figure out how to get that horse to that race happy and fit and wanting to run.”

Tiller’s attention to the details has helped the eight-year-old son of Old Forester stay at the top of his game over multiple campaigns. Pink Lloyd’s career even got off to a late start, as he didn’t make it to the races until his four-year-old year due to a number of issues along the way. Pink Lloyd won the first three starts of his career in 2016, but Tiller noticed that he seemed to be over-exerting himself in the mornings.

“In the early years, we used to take him out on the track when there were a lot of horses, and he just kept getting tougher and tougher,” he said. “He got to the point where he was in a very strong gallop all of the time. He was just burning himself out in the morning.” To help Pink Lloyd relax, Tiller decided that he would take the horse to the track very close to the end of training hours, around 10:30 a.m., when almost every other horse on the grounds had completed their training for the day. “In my past experience, it’s worked with a few horses, so I said ‘let’s take this guy out there when there’s nobody out there,’” he said. “Every day, he got more relaxed; and then we got to the point where we could actually hack him and do a slow, slow gallop. It was just a shot I took with him, and it worked with him.” Shortly after Tiller made that adjustment, Pink Lloyd went on to reel off a streak of 11 consecutive wins over a 13-month span between April 2017 and June 2018. He also went on another double-digit win streak between May 2019 and October 2020, and Tiller is hoping to run him twice more before the end of the 2020 season. In between, Tiller said Pink Lloyd has had his share of close calls.

“It’s amazing he’s still running as good as he is now as he was as a four-year-old,” he said. “He had incidents at the starting gate where he broke through the gate a few times. He had one major bleeding incident at the end of his 2018. …

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Rising from the ashes - Will racing at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Arizona resume?

By Annie Lambert

Turf Paradise, in Phoenix, Ariz., normally runs one of the longest race meets in the country—late October through early May. The COVID-19 pandemic, among other suspected culprits, has closed the track. Sadly, there is a chance the Phoenix icon may never mythically rise from the ashes.

Turf Paradise horsemen were notably shell-shocked by the abrupt shutdown of the year-around training and racing facility. Owned by Jerry Simms for the past 20 years, Turf Paradise has been in operation since 1956 and was the first organized professional sport franchise in the state. Trainers, track workers, jockeys and even horse owners and breeders have established residences in the area, with children in schools and year-around businesses associated with the racing life.

Skeptics immediately challenged the notion that COVID-19 was the only, or even the main, reason for shutting down Turf Paradise and turning so many lives toward an uncertain future. Some horsemen have called the track home for decades, and pandemic restrictions along with no clear answers coming from track management have their lives in limbo.

Joyce Long, 82, trained a small stable at Turf Paradise for 30 years, relishing the people and the lifestyle there. Track management shutting down the track, she implied, was devastating for everyone.

“Turf Paradise was such a wonderful place,” Long explained, speaking in the past tense. “There were so many people that depended on it; they would come in here from all over. Sure, the purses weren’t as big as some places, but you could make a living here.”

The desert track, which opened in 1956 as the first organized professional sports franchise in Arizona, has since added a turf course.

But wait, the Arizona desert sands are shifting between racing and no racing nearly daily as Turf Paradise, Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, Arizona Downs and other racing entities wrangle to reach sophisticated agreements that ensure live racing in 2021 and hopefully beyond. 

Pack Up, Get Out

On March 15,2020, Turf Paradise management suddenly canceled the remainder of their 2020-2021 race meet. There was no approval to do so by Arizona’s racing regulators, nor were horsemen consulted regarding the issue.

Horses were not allowed to train as of March 16, with the stable area completely shut down on March 28. Trainers were told to remove all their belongings including corrals and hot walkers. The abrupt closure by Turf Paradise’s ownership and management left horsemen with no place to go. Due to pandemic regulations, trainers had no options to move their stables to other tracks. And, the track’s large Canadian contingency, which is about 30 percent of the horses, could not return to Canada due to border closures.

The Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, led by President Robert Hutton, opposed the shutdown. Without trivializing the seriousness of COVID-19, the AHBPA pointed out how major tracks across the country were able to safely allow horses to train and run meets, albeit without spectators.

Turf Paradise’s stable area completely shut down on March 28. Trainers were told to remove all their belongings including corrals and hot walkers. The abrupt closure left horsemen with no place to go.

Turf Paradise might have been strictly adhering to CDC guidelines when stopping racing and training, yet management opted to keep OTBs open for simulcasting. This did not sit well with horsemen who quietly suspected Simms was planning to sell the property to developers.

Negotiations & Arbitrations

There is a whole lot more to the Arizona racing story than a bad flu bug pandemic, however. …

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#Soundbites - The Racing Integrity Act - which will create uniform national medication rules and testing - seemingly on its way to becoming law - is that good or bad?

By Bill Heller

With the Racing Integrity Act, which will create uniform national medication rules and testing, passing the House of Representatives and seemingly on its way to becoming law, is that good or bad?

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Jimmy Toner

Jimmy Toner

I think it’s good in some respects. We need it. You go from state to state with medication protocol and licenses, and it drives you nuts. We need a national authority to oversee the sport. Same medication rules. Same whip rules. To get that all under one roof will be helpful in that aspect. The other side of the coin is the feds are involved. That might be a bad thing. If it’s an offense, then it's a federal offense. 

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Bruce Brown

I think it’s very good. I am all for uniform rules at every track. It’s a little ridiculous now, always having to know what’s allowed and not allowed with protocols. Not just having a blanket that says this is how it is, this is what you can do, and this is what you can’t. Now, when I ship, I say what can we do here?  What’s the difference? So we don’t do something that’s legal in one place and not legal in the other.

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Pat Kelly

I’m a little skeptical myself. Here in New York, our mid-Atlantic group has been very forward regarding medication standards, trying to get everyone on the same page. We’ve made a lot of progress trying to get the rest of the country to jump aboard with us. I’m not a big fan of big government. 

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Eddie Kenneally

Eddie Kenneally

It’s very good. If it’s passed, the medication guidelines will be the same in every state, and the penalties will be the same in every state, and the testing will be done by the same lab. There are three reasons alone why it’s a good thing. I hope penalties will stick with no loopholes under this new law. 

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Linda Rice

Linda Rice

I think there’s a lot to be done on the bill. It’s the beginning of the process and it’s going to take time. But I think it’s a beginning, a start. I think it’s a good thing for racing.

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Tim Hills

I think there is one exception we need. We need to study the Lasix question before we ban Lasix. Everything else, we’re all on board. I think anybody who is not for it has a guilty conscience.

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Mike Stidham

Mike Stidham

I think that we need some uniformity in our industry. Whatever it takes to get that, to get everyone going in the same direction is a move forward. We need something to make this happen. It’s good for racing.

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Thomas Drury Jr. looking forward to the 2020 Preakness Stakes

By Bill Heller

Nudged into the Kentucky Derby spotlight by Art Collector’s commanding 3 ½-length victory in the Gr2 Blue Grass Stakes July 11 at Keeneland, Tommy Drury is an overnight sensation—30 years after he began training Thoroughbreds. Art Collector gave Drury his first graded stakes victory in the Blue Grass Stakes, earning enough points to start in the Kentucky Derby for owner/breeder Bruce Lunsford. 

On September 1 Churchill Downs reported that Art Collector, the son of Bernardini, nicked the bulb of his left front heel with a hind hoof while galloping Monday. Because of horse racing strict medication rules, the horse could not be treated with an anti-inflammatory this close to the race. 

“He grabbed himself yesterday morning training,” trainer Tommy Drury said. “It was still very sensitive this morning. When I took my thumbs to palpate the bulbs of his heels, you could still tell it was pinching him. I had to make a choice. Your horse has to always come first. To run in a race of this caliber and trying to compete against the best 3-year-olds in this country, you’ve got to be 110 percent.”

Art Collector was widely considered the biggest threat to Belmont (GI) and Travers Stakes (GI) winner Tiz the Law heading into Saturday’s 1 ¼-miles classic, coming into the race off a 3 ¼-length victory in the Ellis Park Derby on Aug. 9.

“We didn’t want to take any chances with a horse potentially this good,” Lunsford said. “The Derby means an awful lot to me so it’s been kind of a tough day and night. But the horse is always the most important thing in all these things. We’ll get another chance to have another day. We’ll try and make it to the Preakness and maybe from there, the Breeders’ Cup.”

“When you’re 28, you’re thinking about winning the Derby and Breeders’ Cup races,” said Drury, who took over Art Collector’s training at the beginning of his three-year-old season. “At 48, I didn’t even know I’d win a graded stakes. To win the Blue Grass is pretty special. I’m still trying to find the words.”

This success immediately went to his head. He celebrated his greatest victory with a cold beer and a frozen pizza when he finally got home after the Blue Grass. “I didn’t finish either,” he confessed.

Why? To be back at the barn at 5:30 a.m. the next day, a Sunday. His work ethic is just one of the elements of his highly successful, yet quiet, career. His career winning percentage is an outstanding 21 percent. He won at least 20 percent of his starts in 11 of his last 14 seasons heading into this year, including seven years when his victory clip was 25 percent or higher.

No wonder top horsemen, including Al Stall, Bill Mott, Steve Asmussen, Frankie Brothers and Seth Hancock, have sent many of their horses needing a layup after surgery or time off to Drury’s barn at the Skylight Training Center, 27 miles northeast of Churchill Downs.

Tom Drury's horses on track for morning exercise at Skylight Training Center

“As far as top horsemen, he’s been a top one for years, but he just hasn’t had the opportunity to win at the highest level,” Stall said. “I send him rehab cases. We’ve had a good working relationship for more than 10 years. I might have sent him, oh gosh, over 20 a year—a couple hundred for sure. Ninety-nine percent of the time, he’s spot on about their fitness level.”

Tom Drury inspects horses as they go out for morning exercise at Skylight Training Center

Brothers said of his time knowing Drury, “It started with Tommy galloping some horses for me at Churchill Downs. He’s a smart, conscientious young man—an excellent horseman.” 

So how did Drury amass just 55 victories in his first six years of training after getting his license at the age of 18? He had to gallop horses on the side to pay his bills. “It didn’t come easy, and it didn’t come quickly,” he said. “There were days I said, `This isn’t going the way it should be going.’ But I always had at least one horse I was training.”

There was another reason he persevered. “I didn’t know how to do anything else,” Drury said.

His biggest fan, his mother Patty, said, “He started with one horse, and to have a horse like this [Art Collector] is unbelievable. I’m so happy and proud of him because he worked so hard to get to this point.”

Drury’s father, Jerry, who galloped horses, passed away two years ago. “We were close,” Drury said. “I never had the privilege to work with him a lot because he had a lot of horses. He pushed me: if you work, you have to do it at the top level. He always pushed me to do that.”

Drury began hot-walking on weekends as a kid.

“I can remember walking horses when I was 10 or 11,” he said. “It’s all I wanted to do. On weekends, I’d go to the track. It’s just been in my blood. I could never see myself doing anything else.”

He wanted to be a jockey but grew too big to do that. So he focused on training. “I had a friend, a little older, who got his license at 19,” Drury said. “Once I saw he was able to do it, I felt comfortable in my horsemanship.” He passed the trainer test and applied for a license at the age of 18.

Racing steward Bernie Hettel didn’t believe he was 18. “I looked like I was 12,” Drury said. “I think I weighed 110 pounds. I showed him my driver’s license.”

In his first six years, his win totals were five, seven, nine, eighteen, eight and eight. “I was working a second job, always galloping to help pay the bills,” he said. “Eventually, it started going the way I wanted. So I stopped galloping a few years ago. When I was riding, I worried about too many details. I think better when my feet are on the ground rather than in the air.”

One of his most successful horses was Timeless Fashion, who won 11 of 34 starts, including six stakes, and earned more than $400,000. Unfortunately, Timeless Fashion’s first jockey, Justin Vitek, wound up with leukemia.

Vitek rode Timeless Fashion in his first two starts, finishing second by a neck in a maiden race at Turfway Park, December 7, 2007, then winning an allowance race there February 2, 2008, by 4 ¼ lengths.

“Justin had told me that whole day he was feeling bad,” Drury said. “He went to the hospital that night and was later diagnosed with leukemia. It went into remission and he worked for me and rode in races. Unfortunately, his leukemia came back, and he passed away. Justin was one of my closest friends. I flew to Texas and was with him the night before he passed. It was terrible.”

Vitek, a native of Wallace, Texas, died on January 28, 2010 at the age of 36. Vitek’s biggest victory came on Miss Pickums, who captured the 2000 Gr2 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs. He had won 763 races with earnings topping $9.8 million. 

Six weeks after Vitek died, Turfway Park held a night to celebrate Vitek’s life, with his mother to present the trophy to the winner of the Tejano Run Stakes. Drury, who entered Timeless Fashion in the stakes, wore one of Vitek’s University of Texas caps which Vitek’s sister had sent to him. “Justin was a big Texan football fan,” Drury explained. Drury wore the cap that night and never again.

Timeless Fashion hadn’t raced since the previous December 12th when he took the first of two consecutive runnings of the Prairie Bayou Stakes. Timeless Fashion won the Tejano Run Stakes by a half-length. “Justin’s mom presented the trophy to Judy Miller, the winning owner, and she gave it back to her,” Drury said. “Right before we went upstairs, we sprinkled some of Justin’s ashes in the winner’s circle. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. It was insane. It was brutal, but we were fortunate to have had him in our lives. It was so special to win that race with his family there.”

Drury resumed his career, which may have already been redirected by his Blue Grass victory. “This is going to change Tommy’s life,” Lunsford said. If it does, he’ll share it with 15-year-old daughter Emma, who rides show horses, and his 19-year-old son Matt, who’s in the restaurant business. They live just outside Louisville. 

Art Collector, a home-bred colt by Bernardini out of Distorted Legacy by Distorted Humor, has special meaning for Lunsford—an attorney, businessman and politician who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 2008, losing to incumbent Mitch McConnell. 

Bruce Lundsford

Lunsford’s Bunting was the dam of his Vision and Verse, who finished second to Lemon Drop Kid in both the 1999 Gr1 Belmont Stakes and Gr1 Travers. Vision and Verse won four of 21 starts and earned a tad more than $1 million. “Bunting was one of the first two horses we bought,” he said. “She had several useful horses, including Distorted Legacy, who finished fourth in the 2011 Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. “We kept her as a broodmare. Her first foal was a filly that didn’t race. Art Collector is her second foal.”

Lunsford routinely sends 10 of his yearlings to be broken and trained at Travis and Ashley Durr’s Webb Carroll Training Center in St. Matthews,S.C. Durr does the breaking and training, and Ashley is the Center’s business manager.

Travis’ family raced and trained Quarter Horses, and Travis rode them at bush tracks in Georgia, S.C. and N.C., starting at the age of 12. When both his grandfather and father began working with Thoroughbreds, Travis started breaking and training them. Travis was 15 when his father passed in 1995, and he took over the business. Travis joined Webb Carroll in 2007, and in 2016, he and his wife purchased the Center.

“We are known for our large sets—15 to 17 horses in the winter,” Travis said. “All we do is breaking, training and layups. We don’t have to have things being done by a specific time. We have a lot of turnouts. We individualize the horse’s training. We just try to produce racehorses.”

Art Collector is just the latest top horse the Training Center has developed, following Havre De Grace, Country House, Abel Tasman, Firenze Fire, Goldencents, Runhappy, Irish War Cry and Shackleford.

Art Collector arrived at the Training Center in July 2018. “He showed ability from day one,” Travis said. “He stood out. He handled the breaking very well, always did his job—an easy horse to be around. He started breezing in February. He was breezing a lot easier than others. As we went on with the horse, he kept progressing the right way. He was the best of Bruce’s bunch. He sends us around 10 yearlings a year.”

On May 9, Art Collector was sent home and then to trainer Joe Sharp to begin his career at Saratoga in July. Art Collector’s first three starts were on turf. He finished second in a maiden race at Saratoga August 15, first in a maiden at Kentucky Downs and then seventh in the Gr3 Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland.

Switched to dirt on November 30, he lost his action in a 6 ½ furlong allowance race under Brian Hernandez Jr., who has ridden Art Collector ever since. Hernandez was about to pull Art Collector up, but Art Collector wasn’t done, getting back in the race and finishing sixth by 8 ½ lengths in the first of four consecutive races at Churchill Downs.

Art Collector’s final start as a two-year-old last November 30 was a breakthrough 7 ½-length victory on a sloppy track.

That victory would be taken away months later. …

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