Orthopaedic problems in young Thoroughbreds

Helping these future athletes achieve a protective conformation is vital with respect to their welfare, athletic career and sales potential: Orthopaedic conditions have the potential to blight a promising athletic career and prevent young horses reach their full potential. Early diagnosis and management are critical if horses are to be given the best chances of a successful and long career. And this, of course, depends on horsemen being able to pick up on problems as early as possible so they can be dealt with effectively. The Beaufort Cottage Educational Trust is a charity that aims to help disseminate knowledge in the Thoroughbred breeding and racing communities with the ultimate goal of improving horse welfare.

Each year, the charity organizes the Gerald Leigh Memorial lectures which are fantastic resources for horsemen. The lecture series is supported by the Gerald Leigh Trust in honor of Mr. Leigh's passion for the Thoroughbred horse and its health and welfare. Most years, the lectures are presented in person in an event at the UK’s National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket; but for 2021, an in-person gathering was not possible and instead, the lectures are available online. For 2021, the charity chose the theme of orthopaedic problems, which are such a common challenge in young Thoroughbreds.

Angular Limb Deformities: Evaluation and treatment in foals and yearlings

Recognizing, diagnosing and understanding angular limb deviations in young Thoroughbreds are critical skills for horsemen and an important part of both stud management and veterinary care. Angular limb deformities (ALD) refer to deviation of the limb in its frontal plane, or side to side when evaluating the individual from the front or back. A varus deformity is a medial deviation of the limb below the location of the problem (e.g., toeing in), whereas a valgus deformity is a lateral deviation of the limb below the location of the deformity (e.g., toeing out). Angular limb deformities must be distinguished from a flexural limb deformity, which is in the sagittal plane, i.e., from front to back when evaluating the individual from the side.  

How do ALD occur?

ALD can be both congenital and acquired. Congenital means the condition has been present from birth and causes include incomplete ossification or immaturity of the small cuboidal bones, which make up the hocks and knees as well as weakness of the ligaments supporting the joints and periarticular laxity. These issues tend to result in valgus knees and hocks. We also know that ALD can be inherited and that as a breed, Thoroughbreds tend to be varus (toe in). 

Acquired ALD develop after birth and come about through overloading of the physis (growth plate), which is usually caused either from hard ground, an over-conditioned foal or a combination of the two. The biomechanics of equine limb lead horses to bear more weight through the inside of the leg; therefore, the inside of the growth plate, which is inhibited more than the outside and when there is overloading the net effect is that the foal will toe in.

How do ALD impact a foal’s future career?

Carpal and fetlock injuries in racing Thoroughbreds account for a large majority of the reasons racehorses spend time out of training. Intervening while foals are growing and developing to help them achieve a protective conformation gives them the best chance of maximizing their potential and enjoying their racing career. 

Diagnosis of ALD

Evaluating young stock is certainly best achieved using a team approach involving owners/managers, farriers and veterinarians. Regular evaluation from a young age is key, as is examination of the foal while static and while walking. Severe deviations should also be evaluated radiographically.

Treatment of ALD

Conservative treatment options can include exercise restriction, corrective farriery and nutritional management. Hoof correction and toe extensions can be extremely helpful in managing foals and yearlings with minor deviations; and farriery can often correct such issues without needing to resort to surgical treatment options.

The surgical treatment of choice for correcting ALD is the transphyseal screw. In general, it achieves the most effective and cosmetic outcome of the surgical options. The procedure involves placing a screw across the growth plate on the side of the leg that is growing too fast. For example, for a foal that is toeing in, the screw is placed on the outside of the leg. This allows the inside of the growth plate to grow faster and so correct the deviation. The screws are placed under a short general anesthetic. The screw does need to be removed to avoid over-correction, but often they can be removed with the horse standing using a mild sedative once the desired correction is achieved.

Osteochondrosis – recent advances and diagnosis

Osteochondrosis is one of the most important developmental diseases in young athletic horses. It occurs in young, large-breed horses, including Thoroughbreds, and can cause a variety of clinical signs. The age at which the disease starts to cause clinical signs varies from a young foal to horses over 10 years old. This is because lesions can remain silent and only cause clinical signs later on in life. But even in the absence of any clinical signs, the pathological lesions will have been present since the horses reached skeletal maturity. 

How does osteochondrosis affect athletes?

Osteochondrosis often starts to cause problems when the horse is put into training—when they are athletically challenged. This age will differ for different populations, starting earlier in Thoroughbred racehorses than in Warmbloods destined for sports horse disciplines. Often the horse will be sound, or can experience different degrees of lameness and may present with joint effusion. This disease affects more than one joint in an individual in over 50% of cases, and it usually occurs in the same joint on the contralateral limb; but it can also affect multiple different joints. 

How does osteochondrosis develop?

In foals, areas of growth cartilage within the joints will continue to ossify (become bone) after birth. When this process is complete and the animal is skeletally mature, a thin layer of normal articular cartilage will remain supported by subchondral bone. Osteochondrosis is caused by a “failure of endochondral ossification,” which simply means the growth cartilage fails to become healthy bone. A defect, with or without a fragment, is then created in the articular surface of the bone. This dynamically changing area is susceptible to trauma or high biomechanical loads. Recent advances in research, carried out in Norway by Dr. Olstad, suggest that failure of endochondral ossification is likely caused by loss of blood supply to these areas of growth cartilage, which prevents it from ossifying. This has been linked to a heritable predisposition, among other factors such as rapid growth, dietary imbalance, exercise, environment and prior joint sepsis.

Diagnosis of osteochondrosis

Thorough clinical examination and radiography remain at the forefront of osteochondrosis diagnosis. This disease occurs at joint-specific predilection sites as a result of site-specific biomechanical forces and differences in the age at which that site becomes skeletally mature. For example, in the femoropatellar joint (pictured), the most common site of osteochondrosis is the lateral trochlear ridge of the femur. This is predilected by the thick cartilage surface, later age of maturation/ossification, and by the shear forces the patella exerts on the ridge as the stifle flexes and extends. Ultrasonography can also be very sensitive in detecting osteochondrosis in the stifle. Research performed by Dr. Martel in Canada suggests early detection of subclinical lesions in the stifle have been found in foals aged 27-166 days old.  

Management of osteochondrosis

Lesions can spontaneously resolve, and the majority will have done so by 12 months old. Otherwise, management recommendations to limit lesion development include keeping horses exclusively at pasture up to 1 year old, not using rough terrain, in large group sizes (>3 brood mares) or in a large pasture size (large pasture size > 1 hectare before 2 weeks old and > 6 hectare before 2 months old). Strict box rest is discouraged, and a convalescence paddock of 33ft x 56ft (10m x 17m) for 60-90 days may help stabilize lesions. 

Conclusion

Gerald Leigh was an incredibly successful Thoroughbred breeder and owner based in the UK. The 2021 lectures honoring his passion for the Thoroughbred provide a useful update for horsemen on two common conditions of the young Thoroughbred and add to the contribution the charitable trust established by Mr. Leigh’s family, which continues to make in supporting the Thoroughbred industry.

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Michael Cannon - Cannon Thoroughbreds

Michael Cannon (Cannon Thoroughbreds) - Smooth Like Strait

Michael Cannon, a multiple success in business, was in unfamiliar territory with his Thoroughbreds. “I was a failure,” he said. “I’m not lying. I was a complete failure. I took full responsibility. I bred Smooth Like Strait. Then he ran his first race and was a real disappointment. I told my wife he was our last chance of success. I was starting to undo Cannon Thoroughbreds. I spent a lot of money, and I got very little reward. You have to know in business when to pull the plug. I was looking to get out of the business.”

Fortunately for the Cannons, Smooth Like Strait didn’t take long to show his immense talent—taking Michael, Jennifer and their four children, Cole, Chloe, Camryn and Cooper on the ride of a lifetime. His last eight starts have been in graded stakes with four victories, two seconds, a third and a fourth against elite turf company. “He turned it around,” Cannon said. “We’re back and stronger than ever.”

Cannon has spent most of his adult life helping companies do exactly that: getting strong. The 52-year-old president and CEO of Cannon Nevada, a venture capital firm based in Henderson, has started or acquired 22 businesses. Zero have gone bankrupt. “I’m pretty good at cutting out the bull****, simplifying and getting down to making money,” he said. “So far, I’m always looking to share with others. I do like helping other people. It’s not all about the money. It’s really about success. I just keep trying new things. Some work, some don’t. I’m too dumb to quit. So I keep working. Fortunately, I’ve been more successful than not.”

His interest in horses came at an early age. “My dad loved racing, and my mom was from Nevada. I spent a lot of time in Nevada. I knew horses very well.”

His mother, however, didn’t let him pursue his interest in music or football. “I played trumpet, but she wouldn’t let me practice at home,” he said. “She also wouldn’t let me play football in high school. And I was fast.”

When he attended Alan Hancock Junior College in Santa Maria, Calif., he made the football team as a freshman and was a starter at wide receiver in his second season. “I was the only white receiver—a white kid with red hair—with really talented African Americans from inner cities,” he said. “They came from rough neighborhoods. I didn’t even know how to put the pads on. They taught me everything. These guys became good friends.”

Following junior college, Cannon received a bachelor of science degree from Boston University’s School of Management, an advanced certificate in negotiation from Harvard University and an advanced certificate in mergers and acquisition from UCLA.

He had an incredible experience in 1988 while doing an internship in London. He even had tea with Diana, Princess of Wales. “There was a new American Institute of Foreign Studies, and about six of us out of 300 were allowed to meet her,” he said. “I had to take two days of classes for protocol. They take that protocol very seriously. Just learning how to shake hands took an hour. You can’t squeeze her hand. When she finally showed up, she couldn’t have been any nicer. She was prettier in person than she was in pictures. She didn’t give a damn about all that protocol. She grabbed my hand and seized it.” 

While in college, he bought his first horse—a $1,000 weanling named Achillean Spirit. “He ran at Golden Gate and tracks in Utah and Nevada and was very successful on that small circuit: Beaver City, Utah, and Ely and Elko, Nevada,” Cannon said.

Then he began syndicating horses as Sport of Kings Syndication. He did that for three years and took a hiatus from horse racing to focus on his rapidly advancing business career. He founded and led Warehouse Las Vegas, Accurate Courier and 4Wall Entertainment before founding Cannon Nevada in 2018.

Eight years earlier, he had reconnected with Thoroughbreds, posting minimal success. He purchased Smooth Like Straight’s granddam, Beautiful Lil. She produced Smooth Like Straight’s dam, Smooth as Usual. He raced her, sold her and got her back after her racing career ended in a sale at Keeneland. She began Cannon’s small broodmare band, based at Columbiana Farm in Kentucky.

Early reports on Smooth Like Strait were incredibly positive from day one. He shared this story with Christine Oser in her October, 22, 2020, story in The Blood-Horse: “The minute he was born, Homer Rader at Columbiana said, `You know what? You’ve got a good one.’ And that’s literally within 24 hours of him being born. I sent him away to be trained at Bill Wofford’s Rimroc Farm in Kentucky. He breaks them and gets them prepped for training, and then he called me up and said, `Smooth Like Strait—this horse is going to win you a graded stakes race.’ I’d never heard that before.”

Then Smooth Like Strait, who is trained by Mike McCarthy, made a dreadful debut, finishing ninth by 20 lengths at Del Mar on August 17, 2019. That abysmal performance was on dirt, and once Smooth Like Strait switched to grass, he became a star—flashing seven victories, three seconds and a pair of thirds in 14 starts while earning more than $900,000.

He could have won a lot more, narrowly missing his first three starts in Gr. 1 stakes. He finished second by a head in the Hollywood Derby, second by a neck in the Francis Kilroe Stakes and third by a neck in the Turf Classic at Churchill Downs. “When you’re coming from nothing, and you’re losing Gr. 1’s by a neck, we were proud as hell. Just to be in a graded stakes was terrific,” Cannon said.

Then Smooth Like Strait broke through, winning the Gr. 1 Shoemaker Mile by a length and a half on May 31. That prompted Cannon to conclude, “I’ve come a long way since 1991 in Beaver City, Utah.”

Why are gastric ulcers still a significant concern for horses in training?

With the advances in scoping and increased awareness of gastric ulcers, along with the high prevalence found in horses in training, one may wonder, Why is this condition still such a problem? Do we not know enough to prevent this condition from recurring? 

The short answer is that much is known, and for certain, there are effective medications and many feeds and supplements designed to manage the condition. The underlying problem is that the factors leading to ulceration, at least the most significant ones, are fundamental to the routine and management of a horse in training. Quite simply, the environment and exercise required are conducive to development of ulcers. Horses in training will always be at risk from this condition, and it is important to manage our expectation of how much influence we can have on ulcers developing, and our ability to prevent recurrence. 

Clarifying Gastric Ulceration

Before considering how and why ulcers are a recurrent problem, it is helpful to understand the different types of gastric ulceration as the term most commonly used, Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome (EGUS), is an umbrella term which represents two distinct conditions. 

The term EGUS came into use in 1999 and represented ulceration of the two separate locations in the stomach where ulcers are found: the squamous and glandular regions. The two regions are functionally different, and ulceration in either location has different causative factors. This is important when considering what can be managed from a risk point of view at a racing yard. The term EGUS is now split into two categories: Equine Squamous Gastric Disease (ESGD) and Equine Glandular Gastric Disease (EGGD). 

ESGD is the most commonly occurring form and the focus of dietary and management interventions. The majority of horses in training have the primary form of ESGD where the stomach functions normally. There is a secondary form that relates to a physical abnormality which causes delayed emptying of the stomach.

The condition ESGD is influenced by the training environment and time spent in training as noted by researchers looking at prevalence of horses out of training compared to those within training. In this case, 37% of untrained thoroughbred racehorses had ESGD and this progressed to 80-100% of horses within two to three months of training. This effect is not unique to thoroughbreds and is seen in other breeds with an ‘active workload’; for example, standardbreds progress from an average of 44% ESGD in the population to 87% when in training. Such research is helpful in understanding two things: firstly, that ulcers in the squamous section can occur outside of training, and that the influence of exercise and dietary changes have a significant effect regardless of breed. Even horses in the leisure category, which are thought of as low risk or at almost no risk at all, can return surprising results in terms of prevalence.

There are multiple risk factors associated with development of ESGD, some of which are better evidenced than others, and some of which are more influential. These include:

• Pasture turnout

• Having a diet high in fibre/provision of ‘free choice’ fibre

• Choice of alfalfa over other forages

• Provision of straw as the only forage source

• Restricted access to water

• Exceeding 2g of starch per kilogram of body weight 

• Greater than 6 hours between meals (forage/feed)

• Frequency and intensity of exercise 

• Duration of time spent in a stabled environment combined with exercise

Of these factors, the stabled environment—which influences feeding behaviour—and exercise are the most significant factors. The influence of diet in the unexercised horse can be significant, however once removed from pasture, and a training program is entered into, ulceration will occur as these factors are more dominant. An Australian study of horses in training noted the effect of time spent in training, with an increase in risk factor of 1.7 fold for every week spent in training. 

Once in training, there is some debate as to whether provision of pasture, either alone or in company, has a significant effect. Some studies report a lower risk of ESGD when pasture in company is provided for horses in training, whereas others have found no significant effect. The duration of access and quality of pasture involved may be part of the differences in results found. There is a distinct difference between turnout in a paddock that offers a pick of grass and a leg stretch and a paddock rich in well managed pasture. Ultimately a period of turnout whilst in a training program is not enough of a counter-balance to the risks of frequent and intense exercise, coupled with a need for stabled periods and higher rates of compound feeding.

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What we learned at the track superintendents field day

There is no shortage of hard-working people in horse racing. The average 9-to-5 office worker probably cannot imagine the long hours put in by trainers with nary a day off or the sleepless nights breeders endure during foaling season. The work is not just long; it is hard and often requires a mixture of blood, sweat and tears. And there aren’t any days off for inclement weather. One group in racing, in particular, deals with these conditions on a daily basis—track superintendents and their crews. However, their arduous efforts at keeping horses and jockeys safe are sometimes overlooked. Track Superintendent Field Day, held June 14-15 at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino, puts a spotlight on the important work of those dedicated to track maintenance and serves as a way for them to share best practices and create connections.

More than 100 attendees representing 70 tracks, training centers and farms were at this year’s event, which was first held in 2002 when Roy Smith, now track superintendent at Indiana Grand, launched it at Philadelphia Park (now Parx Racing) after earlier gatherings, as part of the University of Arizona Race Track Industry’s Racing Symposium. The event had mostly Thoroughbred representation, but there was also a contingent from Standardbred tracks for the resumption of the conference, which was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19. 

“We could not be more pleased with the turnout we had for this,” said Smith about the near-record attendance despite the lack of international attendees who normally make the trip. “We had some of the industry’s leaders make presentations over the past two days, and you’d have to go far and wide to find the level of expertise and experience we had in that room. These people have their finger on the pulse of this complicated industry. We all have busy schedules, so I appreciate all who attended.”

Improving safety through technology

Technology has touched every aspect of racing in recent years with computerized betting, advanced veterinary scanning capabilities and GPS race timing to name just a few; and the niche world of track maintenance is no different. While track superintendents (a.k.a. “supers”) will always rely on their own experience and instincts on how to best maintain their racetracks, they increasingly rely on technology.

For the uninformed who might think track supers just push around dirt and add some sand here and there, the event’s first speaker, agronomist and soil scientist Michael DePew of Environmental Technical Services, made it clear just how complicated dirt and even synthetic surfaces can be to create and maintain. 

“For optimum soil cushion performance, we want a soil that has moderate stability when compacted but when fluffed into a loose cushion will have low resistance that during hoof compaction will gradually compact to form a firm footing for push off,” he said. 

That’s not an easy sentence to say, so the cliché “easier said than done” doesn’t even apply, but getting it done is certainly not easy. DePew covered the best size and shape of sand particles to achieve a suitable racing surface, and he talked about regional differences in what materials are available and how clay in one part of the country might be different than that in another area. He explained how testing the soil of a racetrack can generate a report with a wealth of data, such as the size of the sand particles; and then actions can be taken to get those numbers into recommended target ranges. 

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Reducing the pressure points - Scientists discover performance benefits of relieving five key pressure points under tack

Researchers detected peak pressures under commonly used tack that were of a magnitude high enough to cause pain and tissue damage. When horses have to manage this type of discomfort on a daily basis, they develop a locomotor compensatory strategy. Over time, this can lead to tension and restriction that inevitably affects performance. Physio interventions will usually ease the symptoms of tightness and soreness and, after a period of rest, performance may be restored and improved. However, this costly course of action only addresses the secondary problem. If the primary cause is still apparent—in this case pressure from badly designed or ill-fitting tack—the compensatory gait strategy will be adopted again, the tension will return, and the cycle will repeat.

Reducing the pressure that forces a horse to adopt a compensatory gait will not only improve performance, but it will also help prevent further issues which could have veterinary implications and reduce susceptibility to injury in the long term.

Saddle up 

When scientists tested the three most commonly used exercise saddles, they discovered every saddle in the test impinged on the area around the 10th-13th thoracic vertebrae (T10-T13)—a region at the base of the wither where there is concentrated muscle activity related to locomotion and posture. The longissimus dorsi muscle is directly involved in the control and stabilisation of dynamic spinal movement and it is most active at T12 (see fig 1).

Dynamic stability is the combination of strength and suppleness—not to be confused with stiffness—and is essential for the galloping thoroughbred. The horse’s back moves in three planes: flexion-extension, lateral bending and axial rotation—all of which can be compromised by high pressures under the saddle (see fig 7). 

Studies in sport horses have shown that saddles which restrict this zone around T13 restrict muscle development and negatively influence gait. This effect is amplified in a racehorse because they train at higher speeds, and faster speeds are associated with higher forces and pressures. In addition, gallop requires significant flexion and extension of the horse’s spine; and if this is compromised by saddle design, it seems logical there will be an effect on the locomotor apparatus.

Tree length

In addition, half-tree and full-tree saddles were shown to cause pressure where the end of the tree makes contact with the horse’s back during spinal extension at gallop. In the three-quarter-tree, high pressure peaks were seen every stride and either side of the spine, correlating with the horse’s gallop lead; this indicated that the saddle was unstable at speed (see fig 1).

Using a modified saddle design to achieve a more symmetrical pressure distribution, researchers saw a positive impact on spinal stability and back muscle activation. The hindlimb was shown to come under the galloping horse’s centre of mass, leading to increased hip flexion, stride length and power. A longer stride length means fewer strides are necessary to cover any given distance; and better stride efficiency brings benefits in terms of the horse’s training potential and susceptibility to injury (see compensatory strategy panel). 

Half-tree: High peak pressures consistent with the end of the tree

Three-quarter-tree: Peak pressure on one side of the back at a time, depending on the gallop lead  

Full-tree: Peak pressure was further back 

New design: The lowest peak pressures with a more uniform distribution

Improved hip flexion was recorded in the new saddle design (A) compared to a commonly used saddle (B)]

Pressure pad

The saddle pad acts as a dampening layer between the horse and the saddle, reducing pressures and absorbing forces. In a pilot study of thoroughbreds galloping at half speed over ground, a medical-grade foam saddle pad was shown to be superior at reducing pressure, significantly outperforming gel and polyfill pads. Preliminary findings show the forces were 75% lower, and peak pressures were 65% lower under the foam pad than those recorded under the gel pad. The polyfill pad reduced the forces and peak pressures by 25% and 44%, respectively, compared to the viscose gel pad. 

A pad with a midline ‘seam’ designed to follow the contour of the horse’s back and withers performed best, maintaining position and providing spinal clearance even at speed. Flat pads without any shaping or a central seam were observed to slip down against the spine as the horse moved, even when the pads were pulled up into the saddle channel before setting off. The pressure associated with a pad drawing down on the spine under the saddle will lead to increased muscle tension, reduce elasticity of the back and could potentially alter gait. Relieving pressure at this location improves posture, movement and propulsion.

It might be assumed that using multiple pads under an exercise saddle would improve spinal clearance or comfort. However, based on studies, this is not the case. In contrast, it can lead to saddle instability, which has the potential to encourage the jockey to overtighten the girth in an attempt to keep the saddle still. The added bulk puts a feeling of distance between the horse and rider, compromising the close-contact feel and balance all jockeys strive to achieve. 

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#Soundbites - Are there adequate protocols and security on the backstretch to prevent outsiders from tampering with horses? If not, what would you suggest?

Ralph Nicks

The answer is yes. The tracks have fences around all the way—all the tracks I’ve ever been at.

Tom Amoss

I believe that because of the changing environment and the stigma of getting a positive test, more needs to be done—not only increased penalties. Getting to a horse on the backstretch is very easy to do. Ninety-nine percent of the people back there would never bother a horse. What about the other one percent?

Charlie Baker

At Belmont and Aqueduct, we’ve got enough protocol coming into the track. Every now and then, someone can slip through the cracks. There’s no foolproof security. If someone is totally intent on doing something, if they want to come over the fence, they can. If they are intent on doing it, they will. At Saratoga, there’s parking on the backside, and it’s more wide open. Most of the people are fans, but it’s wide open. You have to make sure someone is around.

Simon Callaghan

I think there is. Tracks are different. At Santa Anita, security is tight. We’ve got a night watchman. I have people at my barn 24/7. We’ve been doing that for quite a while. It’s very important to have someone there at night. We want to make sure that there are no problems.

Kathleen O’Connell 

I think on the backside at Gulfstream Park, people are very protective. I think we have a good network including workers in the barn. Multiple times, security makes sure badges are worn. I don’t see any strangers on the backstretch, especially the last couple years. We don’t have owners coming in and out since the whole COVID thing started.

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Fred Hooper - The Extraordinary Life of a Thoroughbred Legend

This summer, author Bill Heller publishes his latest book, Fred Hooper, The Extraordinary Life of a Thoroughbred Legend. the rags-to-riches story of a true giant of the racing world.

Excerpts from the book are published below with the full book available to purchase exclusively via trainermagazine.com/hooper

Fred W. Hooper didn’t just survive 102 years—he lived them. Every single day until he died. As the keynote speaker at the 1981 Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductions in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on August 6, he shared part of a poem that he said reflected his philosophy of life. He was 83 years old at the time. 

“I want to be thoroughly used when I leave this earth,” he said. “The harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life. Life is no brief candle to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have hold of at the moment and want to make burn as bright as I can before passing it on to future generations.” 

On the morning of his last day in 2000, he called his trainer, former NFL cornerback Bill Cesare, to check about a filly they were going to race two days later. Fred’s third wife, Wanda, who was married to him for 30 years, called Bill back the next morning to tell him the sad news that Fred had passed. 

He left behind a legacy of success in so many different fields that it is hard to fathom one human being doing so much. He was: 

• An eighth-grade dropout who became a substitute teacher at his former grammar school, then, decades later, funded a school, Hooper Academy—still thriving 50 years later in Montgomery, Ala.

• A teenage horse swapper, a daredevil at the George State Fair, a barber, a boxer, a potato farmer, a carpenter, a steel worker, a timber trader, a county commissioner, a stockyard builder and an extremely successful cattle breeder.

• A construction worker who got his first job with no previous experience and, really, no knowledge of the business, who quickly opened his own company and built roads, bridges, dams, airports and buildings all over the southeast and courses at racetracks around the country.

• A Thoroughbred owner who won the rescheduled 1945 Kentucky Derby with the first Thoroughbred yearling he bought, Hoop Jr., named for his son. Later, he fired and rehired trainers as frequently as his friend, George Steinbrenner, went through managers of the New York Yankees. Fred’s favorite horse, three-time champion filly Susan’s Girl, went through seven trainers in her illustrious career: Jimmy Picou, John Russell, Charley “Chuck” Parke, Hall of Famer Tommy “TJ” Kelly, J.L. Newman, Robert Smith and Ross Fenstermaker. “He’d fire me, hire somebody else, then hire me back,” Ross said in 2020. Ross also trained Fred’s $3.4 million-earner, Champion Precisionist, for the bulk of his career.  

• A Thoroughbred innovator and pioneer—the first owner to successfully ship his horses cross-country on airplanes to contest stakes races, designing the stalls and manufacturing the adjustable ramp to load them on and off; the first to bring three jockeys from Panama to ride in the United States and all three became Hall of Famers: Braulio Baeza, Jorge Velasquez and Laffit Pincay Jr., who collectively won more than 20,000 races, and one of the first to buy horses in South America to race and breed in the U.S. Fred also weighed his horses regularly to monitor their health.

• A Thoroughbred breeder of 115 stakes winners, literally creating his own pedigrees with his home-breds.

• A Thoroughbred gambler whose speedy Olympia won a legendary match race with a Quarter Horse, earning the $50,000 winner-take-all pot and more than $90,000 he booked in side bets. Olympia was Fred’s first airplane shipper in 1949, returned to finish sixth as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby, then became an incredibly impactful sire.

• A Thoroughbred industry leader who formed the national Thoroughbred Owners’ and Breeders Association and the Florida Thoroughbred Owners’ and Breeders’ Association, serving as president in both organizations.

Along the way, he and his horses received seven Eclipse Awards, Thoroughbred racing’s highest honor.

In a beautiful Blood-Horse story after Fred passed, trainer John Russell, also a fine writer, said, “No one ever loved racing more than Mr. Hooper, and certainly no one loved his horses more than this man.”

Fred showed his love every time he drove his Cadillac around his farm’s pastures to distribute carrots to his horses. He’d hide the carrots behind his back, and each horse had to nuzzle him to get the treat.

Fred was the patriarch of a large loving family, all of whom called him Big Daddy. To this day, everybody in Thoroughbred racing still calls him Mr. Hooper—a measure of the immense respect he still generates. “He’s just one of those iconic names in our sport,” Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith said. “When you got an opportunity to ride for a man like Mr. Hooper, you knew you had made it. You knew he was such a giant in the sport.”
            How did one of 13 children born on a farm in Cleveland, Ga., accomplish all that? “One of his favorite lines was `Look ahead. Never look back,’” Wanda said. “He always looked forward.”

Sometimes he had no other choice. That made his journey even more remarkable.

“He was a very positive man,” his daughter, Betty Hooper Green, said. “He always said, `Look to the future. Don’t think about mistakes you made in the past. Look to the future and make things better.’”

Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day remembers being at trainer Bill Cesare’s barn the day after Fred’s two-year-old filly won a race at Arlington Park: “We were at the barn, and somebody came by and wanted to buy the filly. He said, `No, I want to keep her. I’m going to watch her babies run.’”

Pat said, “I was flabbergasted. He was maybe 92 or 93. Here’s a two-year-old filly who’s going to race as a three-year-old, then maybe as a four-year-old. Then she’s going to be bred and have a baby, who wouldn’t race for at least another two years. We’re talking six or seven years. I looked at him. He was such an optimist.”

Maybe it was because of his work ethic—one likely instilled by his father, struggling to keep food on the table for their ever-growing family. Regardless, Fred earned his success. Nothing was ever handed to him, so he relied on himself to pave his way through his long life. “The harder I work, the luckier I get,” Fred told Wanda.

He worked alone. He almost always owned his horses by himself, rarely in a partnership. In Jim Bolus’ book Remembering the Derby, Fred said, “I just feel that what I have I want to own myself. I just have always felt like that whatever I do; if it’s wrong, why then I’ll be to blame. I was in heavy construction, building roads and airports and dams over six of the southeastern states for 36 years, and I just didn’t want a partner, that’s all.”

His way with horses was to keep his barns meticulous. He paid attention to all the details, no matter how small. In a December 1, 1997 Sports Illustrated article celebrating Fred’s recent 100th birthday, Frank Lidz wrote of Fred and Wanda’s 912-acre spread in Ocala: “Throughout the estate, from breeding sheds to training gallops, all is immaculately groomed. Flowers abound. Grass is clipped. Stables are clean and freshly painted, masonry pointed and trim, tack in order, hay baled, manure invisible.”    

   That required attention to detail. “They would put up posts in the ground to build a fence on his farm,” Fred’s grandson, Buddy Green, said. “He would push against the post in a pick-up truck to make sure it didn’t move. He was that type of man. I respect that. He wanted it done right.”

Fred always felt right when he was with horses, especially his own. “Horses were his children,” Buddy’s mother, Betty Green said. “He would stop on his way into town at the vegetable stand, and he’d pick up carrots and take them to his horses. They would break the car antenna. They loved it, and they all would come.”

Fred’s impact on horse racing still resonates long after he passed.

When American Pharoah ended a 37-year Triple Crown drought by sweeping the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes in 2015, he carried bloodlines featuring five of Fred’s horses, Zetta Jet, Tri Jet, Crozier, Olympia and Hoop Jr. Justify, the 2018 undefeated Triple Crown Champion, and Ghostzapper, a superstar on the track and off as a stallion, both trace back to Tri Jet. 

When the coronavirus pandemic forced Churchill Downs to reschedule the 2020 Kentucky Derby from the first Saturday of May to the first Saturday of September, a story in the Montgomery Independent documented the first and only other time the Derby was postponed: in 1945 when Hoop Jr. won.

At Gulfstream Park on January 23, 2021, Phipps Stable and Claiborne Farm’s five-year-old horse Performer won the 35th running of the $125,000 Gr3 Fred W. Hooper Stakes at one-mile on turf. The race was formally named the Tropical Park Handicap.  

Later in 2021, another senior class graduated from Hooper Academy.

Not bad for an eighth-grade dropout in rural Georgia. Not bad at all. 

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

Many times, Fred would tell people his favorite horse was three-time Champion filly Susan’s Girl. And while Hoop Jr. and Precisionist also meant the world to him, Olympia may have been the most fascinating horse he ever owned.

A sub-headline on Anne Peters’ July 3rd, 2015, Blood-Horse pedigree analysis of Olympia quoted her story’s final sentence: 

Without Olympia our world would be a much slower place

Yet for all the blazing speed he showed in races and passed on to his progeny, Olympia was also the sire of 1970 Steeplechase Champion Top Bid, who won the three-mile Temple Gwathmey Stakes by four lengths at Belmont Park during his champion season at the age of six.

Fred’s trainer Ivan Parke bred Olympia, a son of Heliopolis out of Miss Dolphin by Stimulus. Parke had trained Miss Dolphin, a stakes winner who set four track records after selling for just $700 as a yearling at Saratoga in 1936.

American Classic Pedigrees described Olympia as a “small, lengthy bay horse with a Roman nose. Olympia was a blocky, powerful sprinter type who ran to his looks.”

Fred didn’t want his trainer owning horses, so he purchased Olympia when he was one month old while keeping Parke as his trainer. 

Olympia shined as a two-year-old immediately, winning his maiden debut at Keeneland April 16, 1948, by three lengths. He went on to win the Joliet Stakes at Washington Park by 3 ½ lengths, the Primer Stakes at Arlington Park by four lengths and the Breeders’ futurity at Keeneland by a neck. He finished second in the Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs, the Arlington Futurity, the George Woolf Memorial Stakes at Washington Park and in the Babylon Handicap and the Cowdin at Aqueduct. He finished his two-year-old season with four victories, six seconds and one third from 14 starts—almost all of them on the lead—earning $76,362.

As a three-year-old, he rocked the racing world.

Stella Moore, a Quarter Horse Champion owned by Quintas I. Roberts of Palatka, Fla., had beaten a speedy Thoroughbred named Fair Truckle in a California match race. 

Roberts asked Fred if he’d like to have his Olympia take on Stella Moore in a match race. Fred had been the king of match races with Prince/Royal Prince and he agreed, suggesting they each put up $50,000 in a winner-take-all quarter-mile match race at Tropical Park Racetrack in Coral Gables, five miles north of Miami. Roberts countered with an offer of each owner betting $25,000, and Fred agreed. The match race would be held in between races at Tropical Park on January 5, 1949, matching freshly-turned three-year-old Thoroughbred colt Olympia against the now four-year-old Quarter Horse mare Stella More.

According to Jim Bolus in “Remembering the Derby,” Calumet Farm’s trainer Ben Jones told Ivan Parke that he was foolish to think Olympia could win. “One day, just two or three days before the match race was run, a groom from Calumet Farm’s barn came up there with $1,000 and said to Ivan Parke, 'We want to bet on the Quarter Horse,’” Fred told Bolus. “I said, ‘Ivan, let me have that money. That’s Ben Jones’ money.’ I told the groom, ‘Go back and tell Ben to send some more money up. I have some more left.’”

Almost all accounts of the match race put the figure Fred handled that fateful afternoon in side bets at $93,000.

In Frank Lidz’s 1997 story about Fred in Sports Illustrated, Fred said, “People thought I was crazy to let Olympia race a Quarter Horse at two furlongs. I knew I was crazy, all right, but Olympia was awfully fast, and I thought he could beat anybody.”

But showing great attention to detail, Fred measured the course. “The finish line was 73 feet short of a quarter-mile when the gate was put in the chute,” Fred told Ed Bowen in Legacies of the Turf, Volume 2. “I changed the finish and made them run the full quarter. I wasn’t going to take any of the worst of it.”

 Pat Farrell, the Tropical Park Racing Secretary, was given the awesome responsibility of recording bets and making payoffs. “I never saw such action,” he told Chuck Tilley in his 1997 Florida Horse cover story on Fred.

Writing about Fred in his book Stories from Cot Campbell, Racing’s Most Interesting People, Cot Campbell said of Pat: “As he received money, he pushed it into the top right drawer of his desk and locked it. At post time, he then locked the door to the racing secretary’s office and rushed out to see the making of racing history.”  

According to Fred, “Olympia and Stella Moore broke nearly even. At the eighth pole, Stella Moore was about two lengths in front, but when they got to the finish line, Olympia was there first.” Olympia had won by a head in :22 4/5. 

“The finish was scary, but not nearly as scary as the settling of the bets,” Campbell continued in his book. “After pictures were taken and hands were shaken, a big crowd went back to Pat Farrell’s office for the settling-up ceremonies.

“With a big smile on his face, Pat withdrew his key from his pocket, held it up as a magician might have, and with a flourish inserted it into the lock on the drawer. He flung the drawer open for one and all to behold the absolute staggering cache of greenbacks, now belonging to Fred Hooper.

“The drawer was empty. Pat Farrell looked as if he would lose his lunch. His face was ashen, and he thrust his hand into the drawer as if he might be able to feel the money, even though he certainly could not see it! The atmosphere in the room was decidedly tense. Finally, Farrell jerked the drawer completely out of the desk. The bigger drawer beneath it was housing a truly splendid clump of greenbacks. There was the stash of cash. There was no back panel in the top drawer, so as Farrell hurriedly pushed the final batch of bills toward the back of the drawer, the dough had dropped out of sight into the bottom compartment.”

Fred collected, gave a $1,000 tip to Pat Farrell, and then, according to Lidz’s story in Sports Illustrated, came up with this classic: “I told Roberts that if he was game, I’d fetch another Thoroughbred from my stable.’ He said, `No thanks; I’ve got just enough money to get back home.’”

Hall of Fame trainer John Nerud, who would become close friends with Fred, shared this story with Chuck Tilley and Gene Plowden’s book This is Horse Racing: “After I looked at the match race, I went back to my barn and there was a fellow sitting on a bucket and crying; a big man he was, just sitting there crying. I went over and asked him what was the matter. He looked up at me and said, `I just lost an automobile agency today!’”

From then on, Olympia was the horse to beat in the Kentucky Derby. He wore the label of Derby favorite well, though the Daily Racing Form (then called the Morning Telegraph) didn’t include the match race in Olympia’s past performance lines, presumably because he had raced against a Quarter Horse.

Just two weeks after the match race, Olympia led most of the way before tiring to finish second by a half-length as the 2-5 favorite in the Hibiscus Stakes at Hialeah, January 19.

Fred then sent Olympia to California to continue his Derby preparation. In doing so, Fred pioneered what is commonplace today: flying Thoroughbreds cross-country to contest major stakes races around the country. 

“Horses weren’t being flown around those days,” Fred told Ed Bowen in 1973. “Eastern Airlines leased me a DC-4, which was a nice plane, but I had fixed my own crates and everything and put the horse and the lead pony in. I fixed some canvas muzzles that had a screw in the bottom of them, so I could put two oxygen tanks in the plane, with about 30 feet of hose on each. The plane was not pressurized. Also, I fixed straps to go over their shoulders.

“I told Eastern that since I had to do everything to get the horses ready to fly, I should pick out my own pilot; so they said I could pick any pilot I wanted. I chose Dick Merrill, who was one of the greatest (and an ace pilot during World War II). We flew two horses out there, left them for 30 days for the races, then flew them back.”

There was a great picture accompanying Ed Bowen’s 1973 story in the Blood-Horse showing the interior of the plane with Fred standing next to Olympia while Dick Merrill was petting Olympia’s face and Ivan Parke looked on.

Soon Olympia and Colosal became frequent fliers. Eventually, other owners and trainers would catch up to the kid from Georgia who pioneered shipping horses by air, long before Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas was celebrated for flying horses coast-to-coast for stakes races. Joe Drape wrote in a January 6, 2013, story in the New York Times: “Back in the 1980s, when his stable was 250 strong and he flew horses all over to win the nation’s biggest races, Lukas earned the nickname `D. Wayne off the plane.’”

Fred did that three decades earlier. 

But in 1949, not everyone thought flying horses on planes was a good idea. “He was one of the first ones to fly horses,” Fred’s nephew, Harold Campbell said. “He built an adjustable ramp for horses to use to walk into an airplane. When he first used it, it was one of the biggest things that happened in Montgomery. It was unreal. There were TVs, newspapers. One thing I will never forget is that the article on the front page of the newspaper said:

“Fred W. Hooper – A man that has more dollars than cents, flying horses”

Fred’s reaction? “He didn’t take to that very well,” Harold said. “Damn right. He didn’t let them get away with it. He gave them hell. He did a lot of first-time things. He always ended coming out of it smelling like roses.”

Olympia did his part. Showing zero jet lag—actually airplane lag—Olympia made his first start at seven furlongs as Parke tried stretching out his speed. He captured the San Felipe Stakes by five lengths as the even-money favorite February 5. 

Exactly two weeks later, Olympia stretched out to a mile-and-an-eighth in the Santa Anita Derby. Sent off the 3-5 favorite, Olympia led most of the way, tiring late to finish second by a length and a half to Old Rockport.

John and Diane Fradkins

Timing is everything, right? Well, for John and Diane Fradkin, mistaken timing was everything. If not for a faulty timer at Del Mar, the Fradkins might have sold their debut winning, home-bred two-year-old colt, Rombauer, last year. Instead, they kept him. Rombauer rewarded them with his stunning victory in this year’s Preakness Stakes and then a distant, but certainly respectable, third in the Belmont Stakes.

The Fradkins breed to sell, not to race; and they figured they’d be offered a huge price after Rombauer won his one-mile, grass debut by a half-length by roaring home in :22 4/5 in his final quarter-mile. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a first-time two-year-old do that,” John said. 

Fradkin expected multiple offers. Instead, Rombauer was given a pedestrian Beyer Speed Figure of 48 for his victory in 1:38 1/5. “Something just didn’t feel right about that time,” Fradkin said. “The mistake was substantial. I think it was the equivalent to a full second. I think it was the difference between someone offering $250,000 and getting no offers after a maiden special weight at Del Mar in the summer. Two weeks later, there were substantial stories about the times being wrong at Del Mar. The Speed Figure was changed from 48 to 55. And I still think it should have been closer to 70.”

Regardless, Rombauer soon generated multiple offers. In his second start, Rombauer finished sixth in a grass stakes. Then, in his dirt debut in the Gr. 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita last September 24, Rombauer finished second by three-quarters of a length to Get Her Number, defeating highly regarded third-place finisher Spielberg by 4 ¾ lengths.

“We did take a gamble by not selling him, ever since he hit the board in the American Pharoah,” Fradkin said. “It was a gamble, and it paid off.”

Big time. And it was much appreciated. “There are a lot of ups and a lot of downs in racing,” he said. “We’ve been in the game since ’93 and breeding since ’97. You can go many years in a row losing money.”

This won’t be one of them. “The last month has been surreal,” Fradkin said.

Fradkin, who lives in California, got his first taste of horse racing in 1970 when he spent the summer in Cherry Hill, N.J. “I was 11 years old, and we went to Delaware Park,” he said. “I remember it was fun. I still remember a horse I bet on who won—a gray horse. He came from last and won.”

Could he have envisioned breeding and owning a Gr. 1 stakes winner? “Of course not,” he said.

Fast forward some 15 years. Fradkin was working as an institutional bond salesman, which meant keeping Wall Street hours and finishing your day at 2 p.m. A co-worker who grew up near Santa Anita convinced Fradkin to journey to the famed track. “He taught me how to read the Daily Racing Form,” Fradkin said. “He taught me how to handicap.”

Subsequently, Fradkin figured he’d be a better handicapper if he owned a horse. He claimed a seven-year-old gelding named Ruff Hombre for $25,000 on June 24t, 1993. Ruff Hombre finished 11th that afternoon. But given nearly two months to recover from new trainer Ron Ellis, Ruff Hombre won his first start for Fradkin by three lengths in a $20,000 claimer. Ruff Hombre, who won 18 of his 74 career starts and earned more than $230,000, never raced again; but he had kick-started his owner’s new career—breeding.

Using the money they earned from Ruff Hombre’s victory, the Fradkins went to the 1993 Keeneland September Sale, and with the help of a bloodstock agent they hired, purchased Ultrafleet for $10,500. “We gave her to Ron Ellis,” Fradkin said. Ultrafleet didn’t do well on the track, so the Fradkins decided to breed her. She turned into a broodmare superstar.

Her stars include Cambiocorsa, who won six straight races at Santa Anita and earned more than $520,000; California Flag, who won 11 of 27 starts, including the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, and earned nearly $1.3 million; and Cashmere, the dam of Rombauer.

Rombauer ended his two-year-old season by rallying from 11th to 5th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to Essential Quality, who would be named Two-Year-Old Champion. In his three-year-old debut on the synthetic track at Golden Gate Fields, Rombauer won by a neck, earning an all-expenses-paid entrance into the Preakness.

Trainer Mike McCarthy wanted to start Rombauer in the Kentucky Derby, but Fradkin convinced him to bring him back in the Preakness.

“When he started to range up around the turn and got into third, I felt pretty good about him hitting the board,” Fradkin said. “I told my wife, `He’s going to hit the board! He’s going to hit the board!’ Then I said, “He’s going to win! He’s going to win!”

He did, by 3 ½ lengths.

“It was a great feeling,” Fradkin said.

It still is.

“We don’t have kids,” Fradkin said. “In some ways, the horses we breed are like our kids. It's an emotional feeling, probably like the one parents get from watching their kids play Little League. We kind of feel the same way.”

Thank goodness for mistaken timing. 

Nick Cosato - Slam Dunk Racing

Nick Cosato’s unique journey through Thoroughbred racing has led him to two different partnerships with two different trainers who produced two Gr. 1 stakes victories. He earned those accomplishments.

“I’m pretty passionate about the game,” Cosato said. “You have to be. Owning horses is difficult. Running a partnership is difficult. I’ve got more than skin in the game. I’ve got bone marrow in it. I’m all in.”

Now 54, Cosato lives in Sierra Madre, Calif., two miles from Santa Anita. He was born in nearby San Gabriel. “I was pretty much born on the apron of Santa Anita,” he said. “Every Sunday, I was there with my father—like clockwork.”

He grew up idolizing Bill Shoemaker. “I was obsessed with Shoemaker,” he said. “I wanted to be a jockey, and he was the best. Everything he wanted to do, I wanted to do. My parents would have been all right with that.”

Unfortunately, growth re-routed his dream. He guesses he was 10 or 11 when he realized he was too big to become a jockey: “I said, `This isn’t going to happen.’” He would grow to be 5’7” and 170 pounds.

He went to college at California Poly Pomona, majoring in animal science, while he worked in a restaurant, umpired baseball games and officiated basketball games. “I’m a sports junkie,” he said.

The sport he loved the most was horse racing. “I would always watch jockey agents from my fascination with Shoemaker,” he said. “I thought it was a very interesting job—a pretty cool job. I was fascinated with it.”

After college, an opportunity came his way. “I knew a jockey agent, Tony Strangio, who represented an apprentice jockey, Christine Davenport,” Cosato said. “She was the first jockey he ever had. He was going to open a business. He asked me if I’d take her book. I thought it was a perfect opportunity.”

He entered his new profession with an unrealistic outlook. “I thought this was going to be easy,” he said. “I found out it wasn’t as easy as I thought. I didn’t expect to start with Eddie Arcaro, but it was difficult getting her mounts. She didn’t have a lot of business. She was struggling.”

Cosato struggled, too. “You pay your dues,” he said. “I paid, and then some.”

He survived those difficult early years to carve out a 21-year career as a jockey agent, handling Patrick Valenzuela three different times, Corey Nakatani, Garret Gomez, Victor Espinoza, Michael Baze and Aaron Gryder.

Then he walked away to invest in a medical research business in 2010. “I didn’t work on the racetrack, but it never left my heart,” he said. “About a year later, I thought I’d want to dabble owning some horses. I partnered up with a couple other people. I thought, I’m going to start this little partnership. I liked college basketball, so I named it Slam Dunk Racing. I’d make it a fun thing. Our trainer was Peter Eurton. It rapidly began growing. We currently have 18 partners for 75 horses.”

He hit a home run when he reached out to Ron Moquet, who was training Whitmore. “I knew Ron a bit from being a jockey agent,” Cosato said. “Whitmore won at first asking.”

Cosato wanted in. Moquet asked his partners, and they declined not to sell any interest in Whitmore—a wise decision considering he would win the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Sprint and be named Eclipse Champion Sprinter. But Cosato had another idea after he was turned down as a co-owner. “I called Ron back and I said, `I want to buy his mom.’ I called the owner. At first, he said no. Two weeks later, he called me back and sold her to me. That was my foray into buying mares.”

He’s prospered ever since. Asked if being a former jockey agent gives him an edge, Cosato said, “I think it does. My whole life has been around horse racing. I have a decent amount of knowledge from the game. I majored in animal science. I know about things like feeding. I think the most important thing is placing horses. Trainers often lean on jockey agents for upcoming races.”

Cosato said that Slam Dunk Racing owns all of its breeding stock itself. “I would say 35 to 40 percent of my race horses are owned by Slam Dunk solely,” he said.

The others are in partnerships. Slam Dunk Racing’s partners on Drain the Clock (trained by Saffie Joseph) are Sal Kumin, Marc Lore and Michael Nentwig. Slam Dunk Racing’s partners on Maxim Rate (trained by Simon Callaghan) are Doug Branham and Stable Currency.

In the span of six days, Maxim Rate won the Gr. 1 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita on May 31; and Drain the Clock captured the Gr. 1 Woody Stephens Stakes at Belmont Park on the Belmont Stakes undercard on June 6.

Two Gr. 1 winners in a week? Even Bill Shoemaker would have been impressed with that.

Claude ʻʻShugʼʼ McGaughey III, the legendary trainer of champions

Sustaining Excellence

By Bill Heller

Sustained excellence is a rare commodity in any endeavour, even more so in Thoroughbred racing when success is tied to 1,000-pound horses traveling 35 miles per hour, guided by jockeys making rapid strategic decisions one after another.

“For every good thing that happens, 20 bad things happen,” Hall of Fame trainer Frank Whiteley advised his young assistant, Shug McGaughey, decades ago.

McGaughey didn’t listen, made it into the Hall of Fame, and continues to succeed. He recently turned 70, and his horses have earned more than $2 million for 37 straight years, thanks to a win percentage of 21 at the highest level of racing.

Greatest Honour wins the Holy Bull Stakes, at Gulfstream Park, 2021.

• Greatest Honour

He won one Kentucky Derby with Orb in 2013—the best victory of all for a Lexington native. And he hoped to do it again this year with Courtlandt Farm’s Greatest Honour, who fired off consecutive victories in the Holy Bull Stakes and the Fountain of Youth Stakes before finishing third in the Florida Derby as the 4-5 favorite. Doing the right thing for your horse is easier when he’s doing well but much more difficult when he isn’t. McGaughey noticed something wrong with Greatest Honour and acted accordingly. “I wasn’t pleased with the way he galloped Saturday and Sunday,” Reported Shug on Thursday, April 8. “I said on Monday, ‘We have to get to the bottom of this.’” That meant X-rays, a bone scan and consulting with Dr. Larry Bramlage, who has always been close to Shug’s heart. Bramlage’s successful surgery on Personal Ensign when she suffered a broken pastern as a two-year-old allowed her to come back at three to resume her historic, unblemished career, culminating with her victory in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

McGaughey said Greatest Honour had a minor problem in his ankle which wouldn’t require surgery. So, just over 3 weeks out from the Kentucky Derby, McGaughey announced that Greatest Honour would get 30 days off at Courtlandt Farms and then be re-evaluated, hopefully in time for him to race in the midsummer Derby— the Travers at Saratoga. “We just need to give him a little time. I feel bad for Don Adam (the owner of Courtlandt Farms) and for the horse.” McGaughey had to make that difficult phone call to Adam to tell him the bad news. “It’s not easy, but I’ve made that call a lot of times,” As Shug put it. “It’s part of the game.”

Greatest Honour would have been one of the top contenders in the Triple Crown series. By doing the right thing, McGaughey is allowing Greatest Honour to reach his potential, no matter how much McGaughey wanted to win another 3yo classic race.

Shug with current stable star Greatest Honour.

The challenge of getting Greatest Honour back to the winner’s circle is one McGaughey has enjoyed his whole career. “I enjoy the horses, the competition, the clients; I don’t enjoy the politics in racing today. It makes it hard to keep focused on training: the visas, the cost of workman’s comp, knowing how far out you can give horses medication. Certain states have certain rules. Other states are different. I will be happy when we get some kind of uniformity.”

Thanks to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, that is about to happen. “I think the Horseracing Integrity Act is a good thing; it’s definitely a good thing. We weren’t going to do it ourselves. We tried policing ourselves, and it didn’t work.” What has worked for McGaughey is letting his horses earn their way into major stakes by their performances. Greatest Honour would have been only McGaughey’s ninth starter in the Kentucky Derby. “He doesn’t put a horse in a race just to have a horse in a race,” his 34-year-old son Chip, an administrator at Keeneland, said.

“He wakes up every morning and goes to sleep every night thinking about his horses. He wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about his horses. He has dedication to getting everything he can out of his horses by developing them. His training philosophy has always been doing what’s best for his horses. He’s always had that. He is a very patient trainer, allowing a horse to tell him what the next step is.”

Shug with Storm Flag Flying, 2002.

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From the ground up - Preakness Stakes winning trainer Michael McCarthy worked his way into the training ranks, forming a solid foundation of success along the way.

By Annie Lambert

Trainer Michael McCarthy felt an immediate connection to the racing industry after attending the races with a few high school buddies. Following graduation, he found his way to the backside, working a variety of jobs while attending college at night. His most prominent employment was spending more than a decade as assistant to Todd Pletcher, a seven-time Eclipse Award winning Trainer of the Year.

McCarthy, now 50, attained his trainer’s license in 2006 and began training his own stable of horses in 2014. Since then, the Southern California-based horseman has saddled 1,063 starters with 174 wins, 138 seconds and 172 thirds, earning $18,083,294—including multiple graded stakes.

Pletcher once called his former protégé “reliable, confident and capable.” McCarthy has also proven himself to be responsible and patient with perseverance.

• Racing intrigue

At the age of six, McCarthy moved to Arcadia, Calif., with his family. The family home was near enough to Santa Anita to hear the races being called. Although McCarthy’s parents were not horse racing enthusiasts, he became smitten by the industry. His father, a high-end office furniture dealer (now semi- retired), was always a big sports fan—“a basketball, football kind of guy,” who was not initially into racing but now closely follows his son’s career. Young McCarthy’s first job at Santa Anita was working for trainer John O’Hara. He was at the track during the day and attending his freshman year at Cal Poly Pomona with night classes in animal husbandry. He also worked for veterinarian Dr. Wade Byrd and got handy with a stopwatch with help from Santa Anita clocker Gary Young.

Michael with Proud Accolade at Hollywood Park, 2004.

In about 1994, McCarthy had the opportunity to spend four months at a training center in Japan as well as several months at The National Stud in England. He worked as an intern in a variety of jobs, including breeding to training aspects of the racing business. While still in college, McCarthy soaked up experience working for trainer Doug Peterson and was an assistant at Santa Anita for Ben Cecil.

• Upward mobility

Working for Cecil was his final job prior to heading east to work for Todd Pletcher. Jockey agent Ron Anderson negotiated a meeting between McCarthy and Pletcher, who was looking for an assistant trainer to replace George Weaver who was leaving to start his own public stable. After some phone calls back and forth, McCarthy headed to Belmont Park in July of 2002 for an introduction of sorts. He began his new job on August 25, 2002—a date he has no trouble recalling.

Michael with Friendly Island after winning the Palos Verdes Handicap at Santa Anita Park, 2007.

“Moving east was certainly an adjustment period,” McCarthy admitted. “But when you’re young and single, it’s easy to do.” There was a learning curve going to work in an expansive stable like Pletcher’s—a fast-moving organization with many horses and a lot of moving parts. McCarthy quickly caught up to speed, and by November of that year, he found himself traveling to Hong Kong with Texas Glitter.

Texas Glitter was a six-year-old when he headed to Southeast Asia with McCarthy. Their first stop was at California’s Hollywood Park, where the son of Glitterman won the Gr3 Hollywood Turf Express Handicap. Sixteen days later, the multiple graded stakes winner found no luck in the Gp1 Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin— the final race of his career. …

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Can we use biomarkers to predict catastrophic racing injuries?

By Holly Wiemers

University of Kentucky study shows association between mRNA biomarkers and catastrophic injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses— a positive step forward in the development of a pre-race screening tool.

Catastrophic injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses is a top-of-mind concern for the global racing industry and its fans. That sentiment is shared by researchers at the University of Kentucky and their collaborators, who are working to learn more about changes happening at a cellular level that might indicate an injury is lurking before it becomes career or life ending. Could it be possible to identify an early marker or signal in horses at risk of catastrophic injury, allowing for intervention before those injuries happen? And, if so, might this type of detection system be one that could be implemented cost effectively on a large scale?

According to Allen Page, DVM, PhD, staff scientist and veterinarian at UK’s Gluck Equine Research Center, the short answer to both questions is that it looks promising.

Allen Page

To date, attempts to identify useful biomarkers for early injury detection have been largely unsuccessful. However, the use of a different biomarker technology, which quantifies messenger RNA (mRNA), was able to identify 76% of horses at risk for a catastrophic injury. An abstract of this research was recently presented at the American Association of Equine Practitioners’ annual meeting in December 2020 and the full study published January 12 in the Equine Veterinary Journal (www.beva.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/20423306).

In this initial research—which looked at 21 different mRNA markers selected for their roles in encoding proteins associated with inflammation, bone repair and remodeling, tissue repair and general response to injury— three markers showed a large difference in mRNA levels between injured and non-injured horses.

For almost four years, Page and his University of Kentucky colleagues have been analyzing blood samples from almost 700 Thoroughbred racehorses. These samples, collected by participating racing jurisdictions from across the United States, have come from both catastrophically injured and non-injured horses in a quest to better understand changes that might be happening at the mRNA level and if there are any red flags which consistently differentiate horses that suffer a catastrophic injury. …

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Small but mighty - the role of antioxidants for horses in training

By Catherine Rudenko

Antioxidants are substances that slow down damage to organisms created by the presence of oxygen. The need for antioxidants is always there, in all species, increasing as exercise intensity and duration increase. Is there merit in specifically supplementing antioxidants to enhance performance?

• The nature of antioxidants

There are many forms of antioxidants naturally present within the body and supplied through the diet. One key feature of antioxidants is that they are “team players.” No one antioxidant alone can maintain the system, and some will only function in the presence of another antioxidant. The role of an antioxidant is to keep reactive oxygen species (ROS) or free-radicals created in the presence of oxygen at an optimum level. Oxygen is required for life; it is always present, but as an element, it is highly reactive and so can also have an adverse effect on the body. The reactivity of oxygen in the body produces ROS which cause damage to cellular components such as DNA, proteins and lipids of cell membranes. Some ROS also have useful cellular functions, and so the purpose of antioxidants is not to eliminate ROS altogether but to maintain a healthy balance. In general, antioxidants operate in two ways: either preventing the formation of an ROS or removing it before it can cause damage to a cell component.

• Sources of antioxidants

There are multiple sources of antioxidants including vitamins, enzymes and nutrient derivatives. Other nutrients such as minerals, whilst not having antioxidant properties, are also involved as their presence is required for the functioning of antioxidant enzymes. Two key examples are zinc and selenium.

Oxidative stress

As with many body systems, the ideal healthy balance can often go awry. When the level of ROS present overwhelms the capacity of antioxidants present, the body experiences oxidative stress. There are three main reasons for a horse in training experiencing oxidative stress:

• Increased exposure to oxidants from the environment

• An imbalance or shortage in supply of antioxidants

• Increased production of ROS within the body from

increased oxygen metabolism during exercise Oxidative stress is of concern as it can exaggerate inflammatory response and may be detrimental to the normal healing of affected tissues. Oxidative stress during strenuous exercise, such as galloping or endurance, is typically associated with muscle membrane leakage and microtrauma to the muscle. Oxidative stress is now understood to play a role in previously unexplained poor performance. …

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Roadrunner Racing, Boat Racing and Bill Strauss, Jonathan and Leonard Green (D.J. Stable) and Mark, Stacy and Bob Krembil (Chiefswood Stables)

By Bill Heller

In this issue we profile the owners of three horses who have been major players in the key Triple Crown prep races.

Roadrunner Racing, Boat Racing and Bill Strauss – Hot Rod Charlie

Five football-playing fraternity brothers seeking a way to stay connected after graduating from Brown University in Providence, R.I., did just that by connecting with two veteran Thoroughbred owners in Southern California. Now all of them are having the ride of their lives with their Louisiana Derby winner Hot Rod Charlie.

“It’s astounding,” said Greg Helm, the managing partner of Roadrunner Racing, which owns 50% of Hot Rod Charlie after being convinced by bloodstock agent Dennis O’Neil to take a step away from claiming horses and take a shot with a yearling he liked. “Dennis has a good feel for the personnel groups that would fit together,” Greg said. “Thanks to him, we have a unique ownership.”

The world got a glimpse of this unique group immediately after Hot Rod Charlie won the Louisiana Derby. TVG’s Scott Hazelton was interviewing one of his owners, Bill Strauss, in the winner’s circle. Wildly enthusiastic and raspy after cheering his horse home, Bill fairly shouted, “This is what you get in the game for, to go to Kentucky on the first Saturday of May.” In the background, the brothers were jumping up and down on one another’s body as if they were, well, frat brothers playing boat racing—the beer chugging game they used to name their stable.

“We bring a youthful enthusiasm,” said Patrick O’Neil, the frat brother who is a nephew of Dennis and who bought Hot Rod Charlie as a yearling for $110,000, and his brother Doug, their trainer. 

What do the frat brothers get from their elder partners? “The best thing that happened from this is you get to meet a lot of great new people along the path,” Patrick said. “We are meeting so many amazing people in the world. We are attached to Greg and Bill, who have had very impressive careers. They became mentors to us.”

Working together? “We all have the same mindset about racing, about what’s important to us,” Greg said. “All the decisions that had to be made were unanimous and simple.”

Greg, a 73-year-old retired advertising agency owner, and his wife Glenna formed Roadrunner Racing with five other couples. At their golf club, they watched Hot Rod Charlie’s coming-out party in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, when he led late before finishing second by three-quarters to still unbeaten Essential Quality at 94-1. “They said they could hear the cheering miles away,” he said. “At 94-1, we were pretty pleased.”

His golf club, which had offered a special on its menu that afternoon—the Hot Rod Charlie (a spicy, crispy chicken sandwich)—made it a permanent lunch option. “They have a picture on the menu,” Greg said proudly.

He said of the partnership with Boat Racing, “We’re a pretty lively group ourselves. When you get around the Boat Racing people, it’s hard not to get further energized. We met all of them in New Orleans. That was fantastic. We all sat together, partied together and had lunch together.”

Now he has a horse that deserves a start in a Triple Crown race. “I can almost sleep,” he laughed. “It’s tough to get to sleep.”

Maybe a few beers would help. He could ask any of the brothers—all 28 and in successful careers in California, far removed from those New England winters in college. “I was born and raised in Hawaii,” Patrick said. “Providence was a huge cultural change. I had no boots or a jacket when I went to Brown.”

At Brown, all five brothers played football. Patrick was a cornerback; Eric Armagots a safety; Dan Giovaccini, a linebacker and a senior captain; Reilly Higgins a wide receiver and Alex Quoyeser a tight end. All five joined Theta Delta Chi, where they proved themselves as normal college students by playing boat racing. “Reilly was the best at it,” Patrick said. “Now, after a long and tiring day, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the great relationship we have over a beer or two.”

Patrick, who admitted watching TVG while he was in class, was drawn into racing by his uncles, especially after Doug won the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness with I’ll Have Another and the 2016 Derby with Nyquist. “We talk every day,” Patrick said. “My dad passed away when I was 22.”

When Patrick took his frat brothers to Santa Anita and Del Mar, they were hooked. “Doug won a couple of races, and he allowed us to go to the winner’s circle,” Patrick said. “They were like, `Wow!’”

Patrick said of their college football days, “We were very, very competitive. We missed it a lot. We got into this game as an excuse to get together. We missed the competition. Horse racing has given that to us.”

Bill, a 62-year-old native of the Bronx who was raised in New Jersey, attended Syracuse University, which allowed him to frequent Vernon Downs, a harness track a half-hour drive away. “I was a trotter guy long before I did Thoroughbreds,” he said. “I’ve always been attracted to the animals. And I love the action. It’s over in two minutes, not three hours. And you can get money back. I loved handicapping. I really loved the puzzle. Am I smart or not?”

He was smart enough to have a successful career, doing high-tech software in California. He did well enough that he helped his brother Jeffrey, now a master chef who has cooked for five Presidents, to pursue his dream. He now runs The Pamplemousse Grille. “It’s one of the highest-rated restaurants in San Diego,” Bill said. “I’m a silent partner. I write the checks. It was a pleasure writing a check so he could chase his dream.”

At the Pamplemousse Grille, Bill met a frequent diner, bloodstock agent Alex Solis II. “He was always there with friends and owners celebrating,” Bill said. “I became friends with him. I approached him about getting my first Thoroughbred, and I was with him for years.”

   Bill and his wife Margie won back-to-back Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprints with Mizdirection in 2012 and 2013 with trainer Mike Puype.

Now he’s chasing victory in a Triple Crown race, with a lot of partners. “It’s an amazing experience,” he said. “In the beginning, you’re alone and get excited. Then you’re with these guys all the way. We discuss what to do—the next race. Patrick recommended the Louisiana Derby. We were completely on board with that because we have so much respect for each other—mutual respect—and we care about each other. Who’d have thought at 62, you’d make lifetime friends?”

    Jonathan and Leonard Green (D.J. Stable) – Helium

Jonathan Green’s priorities crystalized for him at an early age. “I was probably eight or nine years old,” he said. “Our neighbor had a $5,000 claimer. He was racing at Monmouth Park, just minutes from our home. My dad took me. The horse won. I cashed a $5 ticket, ate a hot dog and got to go to the winner’s circle.”

Hooked for life.

Fast forward to college. “I went to Lehigh because Comcast showed Philadelphia Park,” he said. “I’d set up my classes to see the races. I took night classes.”

Now, at the age of 51, he is living his dream as the general manager of his and his father’s D.J. Stable—one of the largest racing and breeding operations in the entire country with more than 100 racing stock, foals and broodmares in five states. “As a family, we’ve really enjoyed it,” Jonathan said. “You have to treat it as a business, but it’s such a thrill to win a big race or sell a big yearling and enjoy it with your family. We’ve won more than 2,400 races and over 150 stakes.”

There is one race they covet winning. They’ve had one starter in the Kentucky Derby—a horse they owned in partnership with former Duke University basketball star Bobby Hurley, Songandaprayer, who set the fastest pace in the Derby’s long history: a half-mile in :44 86 and three-quarters in 1:09.25 before tiring to finish 13th in 2001. But the race they want to win most is the Haskell at Monmouth Park July 17th. “Our Kentucky Derby is the Haskell,” Jonathan said. “We’ve always wanted to run a good horse in the Haskell. We’ve never started a horse in it. The Haskell is a million-dollar race in our backyard…. We’ve done unorthodox things before.”

If Helium were to win a Triple Crown race, that would be tough to resist. That’s what’s classified as a good problem to have. And Lenny and Johnny are good at solving problems. They both succeeded in financing. “My father is 84, and he still works 70-hour weeks and loves every minute of it,” Jonathan said. “My grandfather, Abe, lived to be in his late 90s. He said, `Your mind is a muscle, and you must exercise it daily.’

Lenny is an accountant and CPA who explored the business side of horse racing before getting involved. “He wanted to explore the tax laws to see if there was a benefit for owning horses,” Jonathan said. “He remembered something about the tax codes. He studied it for eight, nine months. Doing that was about as exciting as it sounds.”

Lenny survived and dived in. “He found an industry that he enjoyed that he wanted to be a part of—one that had tax benefits,” Jonathan continued. “He was an athlete. He was a tennis player. He loved competition. In the late 70s, he was a minority owner of the New Jersey Nets.”

The Nets, in the American Basketball Association before it merged with the National Basketball Association, had an outstanding guard named Super John Williamson, who helped the Nets wins two ABA titles. “He was the first actual star I met,” Jonathan said. “He was very gracious. We named a horse Super John.”

Jonathan & Leonard Green with jockey Joel Rosario after Jaywalk wins the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filies

Super John was not a superstar, but an allowance winner who is still racing. The Greens have had many major stakes winners and one champion, Jaywalk, as partners with Cash is King Stable. Jaywalk won the 2018 Gr1 Frizette and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly on the way to the Two-Year-Old Filly Championship. 

In 1989, Jonathan went to his first sale by himself to check out the New Sire Showcase section of the Fasig-Tipton July Sale in Lexington. “I couldn’t take my eyes off a beautiful, steel gray filly across the walking ring,” he said. “She walked with a certain confidence, an aura around her, and had a long stride and peaceful walk. I spent 15 minutes watching her walk, graze and stand in the summer sun. Needless to say, I was in love.”

He got the filly, hip No. 11, a daughter of freshman sire Pancho Villa, for $23,000. “I ran back to the phone bank, made a collect call to my parents and excitedly reported the stunning news of our purchase,” he said. “I was almost 19.”

That filly, Do It With Style, broke a track record at Philadelphia Park in her first start, ran second to Meadow Star in the Comely and won the Gr1 Ashland as a three-year-old.”

Thank goodness for night classes at Lehigh. Actually, Jonathan did benefit from his college education, becoming a certified financial planner. “I started my own company and sold it,” he said. “My primary occupation is managing D.J. Stable.”

He is deeply involved in racing, regularly co-hosting the weekly Thoroughbred Daily News Writers’ Room Podcast, and is on the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association Board of Directors. He has been the guest lecturer at the University of Louisville Equine Studies Program.

Now Helium, who has made just three career starts, has them thinking about the Triple Crown races and the Haskell. When pinhooker Bo Hunt touted Helium, he told Jonathan he travels so well that his feet don’t hit the ground, that he floats over it. “I looked at the periodic table,” Jonathan said. “I wanted a name of gas to convey that, and helium was the one I picked.”

Helium had won two sprint starts on synthetic at Woodbine in his lone starts at two for trainer Mark Casse, then showed up for the mile-and-an-eighth Gr2 Tampa Bay Derby on March 6th to make both his distance and dirt debut off a 4 ½ month layoff.

Helium won the Tampa Bay Derby impressively. “It was a sensation I’ve only had a couple times,” Jonathan said. “My father called me after the race and said, `The only times I was this excited was when I got married and when your two sisters were born.’” Of course, Lenny could have told him when his three children were born. Jonathan laughed. “My father and I have formed a tremendous friendship over the horses,” Jonathan said.

The team decided not to give Helium another start before the Triple Crown series of races. “We don’t want to wear him out,” Johnathan said. 

Yeah, there’s the Haskell coming up.

 Mark, Stacy and Bob Krembil (Chiefswood Stables) – Weyburn

Weyburn (inside) fends off Crowded Trade to win the 2021 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct

Some people talk about doing the right thing. The Krembil family, who breeds and races as Chiefswood Stables, has been doing the right thing for humans and horses for decades from their base in Schomberg, Ontario. Along the way, they have emerged as one of Canada’s most powerful stables, winning multiple owner titles at Woodbine and receiving two consecutive Sovereign Awards as Canada’s Outstand Owner in 2018 and 2019. 

Now their colt, Weyburn—named for a small town in Saskatchewan—has emerged as the early favorite for this year’s Queen’s Plate, (Woodbine on Saturday, August 22) following his extremely game victory in the Gr3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct March 6th for trainer Jimmy Jerkens.

Before his intended start in Ontario, Weyburn will likely make his next starts in the Gr3 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park on May 8th and then onto the Gr1 Belmont Stakes in early June.

Bob Krembil, the 78-year-old patriarch of the family, founded a mutual-fund company and sold it in 2000. In 2001, he launched the Krembil Foundation. “It focuses on neurosciences,” his 54-year-old son Mark said. “One of my interests is biology. We’re trying to make a difference helping people solve their problems. We’re hoping to help people with Alzheimer’s.” The Foundation also deals with the immune system and arthritis. 

Mark is in charge of the stable’s 125 horses with the help of general manager Rob Landy, a Hall of Fame jockey who rode the stable’s lone Queen’s Plate winner in 2004. “Rob makes the wheel go round,” Mark said. “He does the daily things. My dad really likes the breeding part of it, determining matches. I really enjoy the animal, and I’m competitive. There is nothing like winning a race. Stacy [Mark’s wife] works on after-care, and she follows up on them. My mom, Linda, keeps my dad going. She tolerates all of us, and she loves the animals. Everyone plays a role.” 

The family’s fascination with Thoroughbred racing stretches back to Mark’s grandfather, Jake. “He was an avid fan,” Mark said. “My grandfather would go every day if he could have. I’d go with him and my dad to the Queen’s Plate every year. Later in life, when my father was in a position to enter the business, we started in the mid-90s. Things changed for us when we sold the business, and we started escalating this hobby, and it grew. We have a broodmare farm, a yearling farm and a 7-8ths dirt track. Our goal has been to race at the top of this game.”

They have won at the top of the game, taking their cherished Queen’s Plate with Niigon, who was ridden by Landry in 2004. Niigon’s more than $1.1 million in earnings is Chiefswood Stables’ second-leading earner. Tiz a Slam, who captured the Gr2 Nijinsky Stakes, earned over $1.26 million. Chiefswood Stables now has 344 victories and more than $20.5 million in earnings.

In a February 25, 2020 story in the Canadian Thoroughbred, Bob talked about recreating a new brand for the sport he loves: “We need to build a brand that features honesty, integrity and fair competition so that we can grow the fan base. We need to create an atmosphere where people want to bring their families and groups can be part of the horse racing lifestyle. Part of building that brand is doing a better job showing our love for horses. In a good year, Chiefswood will breed 20 babies, and we will also transition 20 of our racehorses away from the track.”

Mark’s high school sweetheart, Stacy, administers the unique and highly effective Chiefswood Aftercare Program. “I started attending the Queen’s Plate when I was 16 with Mark,” she said. “That’s our Kentucky Derby.”

Asked why having a program transitioning racehorses after their career, she made it sound simple: “They race for our pleasure. We have to take care of them.”

On its website, Chiefswood Stables tells visitors, “Chiefswood Stables is a family owned and operated Thoroughbred racing farm. Our goal is to breed quality Thoroughbred horses to compete in the classic races. It is our belief that the responsibility of care for our horses extends beyond the finish line of their last career races. It is with this belief that we have developed the Chiefswood Aftercare Program (CAP). Our goal is to find lifelong adoptive homes for our horses. We do this by trying to match the right horse with the appropriate adapter.”

What sets the Chiefswood program apart is its follow-up. For the past 10 years, it has had eight to 12 horses adopted annually. “We only had six last year because of the pandemic,” Stacy said. “About five years ago, they finally built me a barn nearby. It works well because the horses can transition slowly. We list them on FaceBook. We follow the horses for a couple of years after their adoption. Then, people voluntarily keep in touch. We get lots of pictures.”

Mark is justifiably proud of his wife’s program. “For two years, the adopted horses can’t be sold,” he said. “They’re happy, and they have a home. Stacy is a fan just like I am.”

The entire Krembil family wants to see the sport they love prosper. “From an outsider’s perspective, the industry appears fragmented with many vested interests,” Bob told Canadian Thoroughbred. “The industry players need to be open minded and work together for the betterment of racing.”

Unraced since December 5th when he won a maiden race, Weyburn fought every step of the way to win the Gotham Stakes under Trevor McCarthy three months later. After the race, Landry said, “We’ve had high hopes for Weyburn all along. We thought he was the real deal, but until they meet those kind of horses you just never know. He ran a fantastic race. He looked like he really dug in hard in the stretch when it counted. He had every reason to give up.”

In return, whether he wins the Queen’s Plate or Belmont Stakes, or never wins another race, Chiefswood won’t give up on him, making sure he—as all of the Chiefswood horses—has a good home, long after his last race.

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A safer Santa Anita - How the Santa Anita vets & trainers made a positive difference in 2020

By Ken Snyder

Some media observers have opined that bad journalism is not just reporting inaccuracies or things made up to suit a narrative, but also what isn't reported. From the perspective of many people in the racing industry, especially in Southern California, the absence of even the slightest acknowledgment of the safety turnaround at Santa Anita in 2020 is an example of the latter.  

Here are the facts with one apples-to-apples comparison of statistics between 2019—when Santa Anita suffered a horrific spate of fatalities—and last year. According to The Jockey Club's Equine Injury Database, there were 13 racing fatalities on the dirt track in 2019 at Santa Anita.  In 2020, there were zero racing fatalities—zip, nada, none—on the dirt track. Pick your adjective to describe that: incredible, astonishing, miraculous? The public is still waiting, by and large, on adjectives, or anything else for that matter, from the media.

Looking at all statistics, the dirt stat is no anomaly. With training fatalities, there were 17 in 2019 and 10 in 2020. Only with turf racing are the numbers close; in fact, they're even—six turf fatalities in both 2019 and 2020.  

Hall of Fame Trainer Richard Mandella is perhaps charitable when he says the absence of reporting is "suspicious."  

The one indisputable fact is that animal rights activists want racing shut down, he said. Why the governor and the politicians "jumped on board last year," as Mandella states it, is anybody's guess.  

He speculates that a decline in marketing spending by the California racing industry—advertising in media outlets—may be at the root of not reporting the turnaround.  Perhaps People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA, the principal anti-racing activist group) exert powerful political pressure (and funding to political campaigns). Maybe public perception crafted by media reporting (and "not reporting") impacts things at the ballot box far more than those in racing can imagine.

There is no question that a cluster of fatalities like those that occurred in 2019 at Santa Anita will produce an outcry from the public, and deservedly so. "We were warned that if we didn't get it straight," referring to 2019, "that they were going to 'cut our cord' and stop racing," said Mandella.

Bullet dodged. Mission accomplished. Racing continues. So, what was the story-behind-the-story of the success at Santa Anita in 2020?  

Mandella expresses the principle behind the solution: "Two heads are better than one." In actuality, a training inspection program established by The Stronach Group (TSG) brought to bear not just two heads but four veterinarians led by TSG Equine Medical Director Dr. Dionne Benson. 

As many as three vets hired by Santa Anita and reporting to Benson space themselves around the track every morning, watching workouts and coordinating with another vet in the barn area.  They will observe all the horses but particularly those on a daily list of horses deemed at "elevated risk," as Benson terms it, who will breeze that day. A horse exhibiting lameness, whether it is on the list for close observation or another horse merely out for a gallop, will be examined by the vet serving backside duty that day once it leaves the track. Often that vet will meet a horse and exercise rider at the barn and examine the horse while still under saddle.

An on-track vet will sometimes radio an outrider to get a horse off the track immediately if it appears to be in distress. The vet will then call the trainer to alert them to a possible injury and have the barn-area vet waiting as well. On-track vets have even followed a distressed horse and rider from the track to the barn.  

The program began informally in 2019 when the state shut down Santa Anita because of the fatalities. Benson came onto the Santa Anita racetrack in May 2019 and had the foresight to assign Santa Anita vets with downtime to watch training.  

"Prior to that time, the responsibilities of the track and training were the track surface, making sure that it was well taken care of, setting the training hours, and providing outriders to catch loose horses.  We really felt we could do a lot by adding some oversight and supervision to training.  

"We really refined it as we proceeded, and it progressed to a more active role for the veterinarians." 

The refinements and staffing meant an unprecedented degree of inspection and effort in terms of time and money. "When you're watching horses one day a week or one day a month, it's not the same as watching five days a week for five hours," said Benson. Santa Anita veterinarians rotate days off to make certain of training coverage daily. "You start to know the horses, and because we also do physical inspections on horses in training, we have a really good idea of which ones we're most concerned about."

Benson said her vets develop "a good sense of the horses. They'll say, 'Oh, that's so and so. He looks great today.' They not only have the ability to pick out unusual movement patterns for the horses, but they also know enough about the horses that each one has a profile in their mind."  

Inspection is not a matter of random selection. A requirement for Santa Anita trainers mandates they must register any horse they intend to breeze 48 hours before that workout. A horse working Wednesday, for example, requires registration with the racing office on Monday. The office will compile expanded past performance data that includes races and workout times plus injury and vet's list history. The office passes these on—usually 70 to 80 pages—for Benson or a member of her team to review. The reviewer will apply as many as eight criteria to determine horses that may be at higher risk for injury and fatality. Things looked for include inactivity for more than 90 days, unusual work patterns, horses coming into California from another state, and, as one might expect, horses that have a history of being on the state veterinarian's list for unsoundness. 

Also, a horse scratched from a race, who flipped in the gate or that finished 20 lengths behind in a race are additional things noted in reviewing past performance and history, said Dr. Jay Deluhery, a Santa Anita inspector.

Of, say, 200 horses scheduled for workouts, an average of 50 makes the "watch list" for close observation while on the track, according to Deluhery. The team will then divide and examine each horse on the following day. Vets will flex and palpate the limbs and have the horse jog in the shedrow or just outside it. "From there, they can make the decision of, 'Do I want this horse to breeze or not?'" he added.  

"In some cases, we'll say, 'Yeah, this horse is good,' or we want more information about this horse. 'It's had a long layoff. Why?' Or, 'I want to talk to your vet about this horse, or you need this diagnostic before you can breeze.'"

"We maybe see a couple to five horses a week that we actually turn down for works.  

"In some cases, we'll say, 'Come and jog in front of the vet on the track under tack.' Sometimes you see different information there."

If the workout registration and subsequent inspections sound extreme, it has gained acceptance by Santa Anita trainers, by and large. "I think learning is setting in that maybe mistakes were being made, and we're learning to correct them," Mandella said.

Benson estimates that since the program's inception, the team has performed 3,700 to 3,800 examinations of horses both routinely and before breezes at Santa Anita.  

An unexpected result of the program beyond reduced fatalities is what Benson calls a "culture change" among the racing community at Santa Anita. "We have trainers who are more willing to go directly to diagnostics instead of saying, 'Let's see if we can medicate the horse through this problem.'" 

Deluhery added, "They are seeing the value of having more MRIs [magnetic resonance imaging] and increasing PET scans [also for tissue and organ functioning], and even more nuclear scintigraphy [essentially a bone scan] on the horse."

"Some of them have taken the initiative, and we don't have to tell them; they just do it. Horses with bone scans? It's unprecedented. They're doing it on their own."

Benson added, "There are always going to be outliers, but the majority of the trainers that we have at Santa Anita, San Luis Rey and Golden Gate Fields [all California TSG facilities] really want their horses to be healthy and safe; and they don't want to be the person who has a horse that's injured."

Important to the inspection is not only the cooperation of trainers but private vets employed by trainers. Whether intended directly or not, the TSG inspection program has "instituted private vets doing exams prior to works and prior to entry," said Benson. "We've actually involved the veterinarians to do things that they had not been doing, but they're reaping the benefits. 

"It's a very collegial atmosphere for the most part. I mean, no one wants to have their horse scratched. No one wants to be told, ‘Your horse has to go and have this diagnostic,’ but instead of the pushback that we might have gotten two years ago, people now are like 'Absolutely, we'll do the right thing,'" said Benson.

Deluhery believes acceptance by trainers was the key factor in the success of the program. "I expected them to either accept this or the inspection program would die," he said. "Now that they've seen the results, they're wanting to cooperate, and they're happy to show me any horse in the barn."

He believes trainers have seen the value in replacing guessing, hunches and risk-taking with "putting a little science into things" where horse health is concerned. Too, he believes they see "the economics of it on a big scale." A healthy horse will be a more productive horse with a potentially maximized racing career.   

The inspection program has drawn the interest of others in racing. "I've had a few calls with different regulators, different individuals, different jurisdictions; and I think there is a desire to do it," said Benson. Currently, TSG has veterinarians watching training at all of its California tracks and is working to expand the full program elsewhere.

"It is costly. Hiring three to four vets per track to cover your days is not inexpensive, but I think it is an investment that is well worth it. The more interventions, the more eyes we have on these horses, the better we can see something before it happens."

Whether covered or ignored by those professing to be journalists, one thing is inescapable and captured by Mandella in an overview of the inspection program: "The facts are there. It's worked."

Dr. Benson and her team are, without question, pleased with the success of the inspection program and look for continuing improvement statistically. One unrecorded statistic, however, means more to them than anything: horses that, because of the workout inspections and examinations, have been retired.

She recounted just one story among many: "I had a vet come up to me and say, 'You know, there was a horse that was on the track that your vets kept flagging. They just kept saying, 'We don't like the way it moves.' I could never really see it as that lame. You guys kept at it so I finally sent the horse for a bone scan and sure enough, it had a humeral stress fracture brewing.'"

Horses with stress fractures, with time and therapy, can come back. In this case, the owners and trainer elected to retire the horse.

"Those kinds of things have certainly happened more than once, but that was one that really stuck out to me because humeral stress fractures are really hard to identify by a private vet.  This guy trusted our vets," said Benson. "If they're saying there is something wrong, then there's probably something wrong. Let's do something that probably saved that horse's life."

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The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act: Review, analysis and concern

By Peter J. Sacopulos

For nearly a decade there has been an effort to have national legislation that governs Thoroughbred horse racing. The first major effort began in 2011, when the Interstate Horseracing Improvement Act of 2011—an attempt to amend the Interstate Horseracing Improvement Act of 1978—was introduced by Senator Tom Udall (D-NM). This bill was not successful. Another effort was advanced when, in 2015, Representative Andy Barr (R-KY) and Representative Paul Tonko (D-NY) introduced the Thoroughbred Horseracing Integrity Act. That same year, Representative Joe Pitt (R-PA) introduced the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (the first HISA). It too failed to pass.

Fast forward to 2020: the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act is introduced by Representatives Barr and Tonko and passes in the U.S. House of Representatives on September 29, 2020. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) then introduced corresponding legislation in the Senate that was approved.

Senator Mitch McConnell and member groups representing the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act meet at Keeneland, August 2020.

On December 28, 2020, President Trump signed into law a government funding bill and COVID-relief package. Tucked away into this massive omnibus bill was the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA). Since that time, there has been considerable reporting on HISA. Several issues have dominated the discussion of this new legislation. Those include the elimination of furosemide (also known as Lasix) on race day in two-year-olds and Stakes Thoroughbreds for the first three (3) years and, ultimately, in all Thoroughbreds after that.

President Donald J. Trump signs the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 which included the incorporation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, December 2020.

A second issue receiving attention is how the new federal bill that places the United States Anti-Doping Association (USADA) at the head of the recently established Horse Racing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority will be funded. Additionally, there has been and continues to be discussion of whether the HISA, which presently only governs Thoroughbred racing, will ultimately include both Standardbred and Quarter Horse racing, as well. However, there is a section of the HISA that is critically important to those in the Thoroughbred industry that has received limited discussion. That is Section 1209 of the HISA. For three primary reasons, Section 1209 of HISA is of particular concern for horsemen. First, it truncates the horsemen’s constitutionally protected right to due process. Second, instead of replacing the state system(s) of regulatory enforcement, the HISA creates a second system of review and enforcement for alleged medication and track safety violations that results in both additional expense and redundancy. Finally, the HISA, as presented, guarantees a multitude of constitutional challenges. Section 1209 of HISA entitled “Review of Final Decisions of the Authority” outlines the disciplinary process. Under the current systems, when a licensee elects to contest an alleged medication or safety violation, the dispute proceeds through an administrative law process followed by a judicial process. ….

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Scientific research quantifies the impact different pads have on the horse's performance

By Dr. Russell Mackechnie-Guire

The use of pads under the saddle has been common for years, but now scientists are using dynamic

testing technology to discover how well they really work.

In everyday yard situations where multiple horses use the same saddle, putting one or more pads under the saddle has been seen as a way of providing cushioning and comfort for the horse, or even relieving pain.

However, there has never been any research in racehorses to demonstrate whether this reduces saddle pressures or provides comfort. Furthermore, there is limited scientific evidence to suggest which type of pad is most effective. A recent study suggests that, depending on the material and design, using a pad beneath the saddle might not always achieve the desired pressure-relieving effect. And using multiple ineffective pads under the saddle might not only be a waste of time and money, but it could potentially cause areas of high pressures, compromising the horse’s locomotor apparatus and affecting race performance.

MATERIAL MATTERS

Peak pressure of >35 kPa can cause compression of the capillaries, leading to soft tissue and follicle damage (ischemia) which, in extreme or prolonged cases, results in white hairs, muscle atrophy, skin ulcerations and discomfort. A recent published study evaluated saddle pressure distribution in sports horses using pads made from sheepskin, viscose gel and a medical-grade closed-cell foam. When using a gel pad, the peak and mean pressures increased in the front region of the saddle in trot and canter. This is possibly due to the gel’s lack of ability to dissipate shear forces compared to wool or foam. Similar findings were seen in a pilot study of Thoroughbreds galloping at half speed over ground. The same dynamic testing was used (see Technology & Anatomy section) to compare the forces and peak pressures under polyfill pads, as well as viscose gel and medical-grade closed-cell foam. From the initial trials, the overall forces recorded were significantly higher than those seen in the sports horse study. This seems reasonable, given the difference in locomotion and speed (see Speed & Force section). Preliminary findings show the forces were 75% lower, and peak pressures were 65% lower under the medical- grade closed-cell foam pad than those recorded under the gel pad. Interestingly the polyfill pad, which deforms to the touch, reduced the forces and peak pressures by 25% and 44% respectively compared to the viscose gel pad. The role of the pad is to act as a dampening layer between the horse and the saddle, reducing pressures and absorbing the dynamic forces which occur during locomotion. Based on findings from the sports horse study, and initial findings from the racehorse study, it appears that the medical-grade closed-cell foam pad is superior in its effectiveness at acting as a pressure-reducing layer between the saddle and the horse.

PRESSURE TO PERFORM

Reducing saddle pressures improves gallop locomotion. Horses will still perform when asked, despite areas of high pressures induced by the saddle and pad; but they develop a compensatory locomotor strategy in an attempt to alleviate any discomfort. To increase speed, a galloping horse will either increase stride frequency or increase stride length. Both mechanisms can be used, but the horse will have a natural preference. Published pressure studies have shown that stride length is increased when saddle pressures are reduced. Now, new research is underway quantifying whether a stride frequency approach, which has higher peak forces, could be a compensatory strategy in response to discomfort caused by pressure. Forces are influenced by speed and weight and are produced when the hoof comes in contact with the ground. At racing speeds of 38 mph, the hoof hits the ground approximately 150 times a minute. Stride frequency is an important consideration because a study has suggested that horses have around 100,000 gallop strides before the soft tissues fail. Therefore, any reduction in loading cycles (number of strides) could potentially help reduce injury risk.

• Harder, faster, longer

Every stride impacts the horse’s joints, causing wear and tear (see Speed & Force section), so fewer longer strides is the preference for optimum training efficiency. Although horses have a naturally imprinted option, the pressure studies demonstrate that they switch between the two in response to certain extrinsic factors, such as high saddle pressure.

Our task as trainers is to optimize the horse’s locomotor efficiency by removing any impediment that might force it to adopt the shorter-stride compensatory gait. We speculate that equipment which increases pressure (such as an unsuitable design of saddle, bridle, girth or saddle pad) will be counterproductive because it may encourage an increase in stride frequency and compromise natural locomotor efficiency.

CONTOURING IS KEY

In both studies, the saddle pads that were designed to follow the contour of the horse’s back and withers performed better than those that were flat with no shaping. …

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Roarers - surgery for recurrent laryngeal neuropathy -impact and outcomes

By Safia Barakzai

Recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN), more commonly known as “roaring”, “laryngeal paralysis” and “laryngeal hemiplegia” is a disorder affecting primarily the left recurrent laryngeal nerve in horses >15hh. This nerve supplies the muscles that open and close the left side of the larynx. The right recurrent laryngeal nerve is also now proven to be affected, but only very mildly, thus affected horses very rarely show signs of right-sided dysfunction. Horses with RLN become unable to fully open (abduct) the left side of their larynx. During exercise they then make abnormal inspiratory noise due to collapse of both the vocal fold(s) and the left arytenoid cartilage (Fig. 1), and airflow to the lungs can become severely obstructed in advanced cases. There is a proven genetic component to RLN, but in many cases the disease progresses over months or years. The age at which clinical signs become apparent is highly variable. Foals can show endoscopic and pathologic evidence of RLN, but some horses do not develop clinical disease until >10 years old. Severity of disease can be reasonably estimated using endoscopy in the resting horse (grades 1-4), but the gold standard for assessing this disease is endoscopy during exercise, when the high negative pressure—generated when breathing—test the affected laryngeal muscle, which is trying its best to resist the “suctio”’ effect of inspiration (Fig. 1).

Horse undergoing exercising endoscopy to ascertain how the left arytenoid performs when the airway is under pressure. Inset photos show resting (top) and then exercising endoscopy (bottom) of a larynx with grade D arytenoid collapse (green arrow) with additional deformation of the arytenoid cartilage shape and bilateral vocal fold collapse (red arrows).

During exercise, RLN is graded from A to D, depending on how much the left side of the larynx can open (Table 1).

• Treatment of RLN

TABLE 1: Grades A-D of laryngeal abduction during exercise. Figures c/o F. Rossignol.

Traditionally, left-sided ventriculocordectomy (“Hobday”/ ventriculectomy plus vocal-cordectomy surgery) and laryngoplasty (“tie-back”) surgeries have been used to treat the disorder, depending on which structures are collapsing and how severely. The intended use of the horse, the budget available and other concerns of the owner/trainer also come into play. New techniques of providing a new nerve supply (“re-innervating”) to the affected muscle are now being trialled in clinical cases. Pacing the muscle with an implanted electronic device has also been attempted in research cases.

• Ventriculocordectomy

Ventriculocordectomy is commonly now referred to as a “Hobday” operation; however, the “Hobday” actually only refers to removal of the blind ending sac that constitutes the laryngeal ventricle. Currently, surgeons tend to remove the vocal cord as well as the ventricle, because it is vocal cord collapse that creates the “whistling” noise. It is a relatively straightforward surgery to perform with minimal risks and complications for the patient. In the last 15 years, there has been a shift to performing it in a minimally invasive way, using a diode laser under endoscopic guidance in the standing sedated horse rather than with the conventional method, via an open laryngotomy incision on the underside of the neck with the horse under a general anesthetic. However, transendoscopic laser surgery is technically difficult with a very steep learning curve for the surgeon. All ventriculocordectomies are not equal (Fig. 2) and for both laser and ‘open surgery’ methods, incomplete resection of the fold can leave behind enough tissue to cause ongoing respiratory noise and/or airway obstruction after surgery.

Two horses after ventriculocordectomy surgery. The horse on the left has an excellent left-sided ventriculocordectomy, with complete excision of the vocal fold tissue (black arrow). The right cord is intact, but the right ventricle has been removed (‘Hobday’). The horse on the right has bilaterally incomplete vocalcordectomies, with much of the vocal fold tissue left behind (green arrows).

Sports horses, hunters and other non-racehorses were often previously recommended to have a ventriculocordectomy performed rather than a laryngoplasty, even if they had severe RLN. This decision was often made on the grounds of cost, but also due to fear of complications associated with laryngoplasty (‘tie-back’ surgery). A new study has shown that for horses with severe RLN, a unilateral ventriculocordectomy is actually extremely unlikely to eliminate abnormal noise in severely affected horses, because the left arytenoid cartilage continues to collapse.3 The authors recommended that laryngoplasty plus ventriculocordectomy is a better option than ventriculocordectomy alone for all grade C and D horses if resolution of abnormal respiratory noise and significant improvement of the cross sectional area of the larynx are the aims of surgery.3

Advancements in laryngoplasty (‘tie-back’) surgery

Laryngoplasty is indeed one of the most difficult procedures that equine surgeons perform, and suffice to say that with such an advanced surgery, using a registered specialist veterinary surgeon that has considerable experience in airway surgery will likely minimise the chances of a negative outcome. Laryngoplasty surgery has an unjustified poor reputation in my opinion, …

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Recruiting runners - the lengths racing secretaries are going to to field runners for their races

By Bill Heller

From New York to California, racing secretaries are working diligently to recruit horses, a task made significantly more difficult by the ongoing pandemic.

“Everybody is struggling to get horses,” New York Racing Association Senior Vice-President of Racing Operations Martin Panza said. “Everybody has empty stalls. Tracks that were running five days a week, now are running three or four.” Del Mar Racing Secretary David Jerkens put it this way: “It’s always a challenge. Any racing secretary in the country will tell you it’s hard to land new inventory.” Panza and Jerkens are veteran executives who have seen good times and bad.

Santa Anita’s Chris Merz began his first job as race secretary in February 2020. His timing couldn’t have been worse. “I think it was just before the pandemic,” Merz said. “You’re trying to come up with these ideas to get horses out here, and then you have the pandemic. Any plans get thrown out the window. Recruiting went out the window. You’re just trying to survive.” Thankfully, the New York Racing Association’s three tracks: Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga did survive, as did Santa Anita and Del Mar, which is the site of this year’s Breeders’ Cup. Yet the racing industry has shriveled considerably following the closing of Hollywood Park, the recent loss of Calder Raceway and, unless a miracle happens, Arlington Park.

“If tracks such as Arlington go away, if you lose a city like Chicago and take a big track out of the picture, it hurts the industry,” Panza said. “They’re not going to build new tracks to replace Calder, Hollywood, Arlington Park. It’s sad what you lose, but it’s a sign of the times. The industry is changing so quickly. What maybe worked 15 years ago might not work today.”

For smaller tracks, survival may depend on finding a niche. At Indiana Grand, Chris Polzin, who had been working at Arlington Park before moving to Indiana at the end of last October, was asked how his track competes with larger ones. “We race Monday through Thursday,” He said. “So we don’t really run against them. The big tracks gather all the attention. Who’s going to pay attention to us if we run on weekends?”

In mid-March, a month before Indiana Grand opened its 2021 Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse meeting, Polzin said, “Our stalls are jam packed. We have 900 stabled. I’ve got a list of 140 stalls people want and there are none.”

In mid-March, a month before Indiana Grand opened its 2021 Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse meeting, Polzin said, “Our stalls are jam packed. We have 900 stabled. I’ve got a list of 140 stalls people want and there are none.” Mike Anifantis, the racing secretary at Prairie Meadows in Iowa, hopes his Thoroughbred/Quarter Horse meet, which runs from April 30 to September 26, will be smoother than 2020. “This year, obviously, is a little bit easier than last year,” he said. “We didn’t know when we were opening. This year, we’ve got 15 to 18 new trainers coming in and eight or nine people who couldn’t come last year. We start out with Thoroughbreds, then mixed breeds; both run on the same card.”Asked if it’s a challenge to survive, Anifantis replied, “It’s a challenge for sure.”

Lone Star, which has both a Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse meeting, relies on its neighboring tracks. “We have a good circuit,” Lone Star Assistant Race Secretary Matt Crawford, a former trainer, said. “Sam Houston runs from January to April, then we start and run through July. Remington Park runs from August through December. We primarily get 75 to 80 percent of our horses from here. We get some horses from Oaklawn Park. We get some interest from Louisiana Downs, and it’s only a three-hour drive from Turf Paradise.” Asked about his hopes for this year’s meet, Crawford said, “We hope to be okay. It might be a little light the first couple of weeks. Around the first of May, we’ll start rolling pretty good.”…

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#Soundbites - The Jockey Club just proposed limiting a stallion to 140 breedings a year. We asked breeders, owners and bloodstock agents: Is this a good idea?

By Bill Heller

According to The Jockey Club, the number of mares bred in 2020 were down 12.5% in California, 7.6% in Florida, 5.3% in New York and 4.3% in Kentucky; while the number was up 7.0% in Pennsylvania, 3.4% in Louisiana and 3.3% in Maryland. The Jockey Club just proposed limiting a stallion to 140 breedings a year. 

We asked breeders, owners and bloodstock agents: Is this a good idea or bad? If it’s bad, then what’s the alternative? 

# John Harris - Harris Farms, California 

I think it’s a good idea, but it’s kind of academic in California. We rarely have stallions in California who breed over 140 mares. Some are over 100, but none over 140. 140 is quite a few. We breed horses here to race. The declining mares— that’s the tip of the iceberg. The problem in California is a lot of people aren’t making a lot of money racing here, and their interest starts to wane. 

# Rob Whiteley – Liberation Farm, Califon, N.J. 

Rob Whiteley

I’m very happy that the Jockey Club is taking action. 140 is a lot of mares. In 2020, there were nine stallions that bred over 200 in Kentucky, averaging 232 mares. That’s 2,088 top mares going to just nine stallions. I don’t think that’s good for the mare owners or for the long-term wellness of the industry to have huge books for a number of reasons. Mares need to be bred when they’re ready to breed. Spreading them out is important so that other stallions have enough runners to be competitive in the marketplace. Finally, whatever the number, stallion owners should be transparent in the number of mares their stallions breed. 

# Brent Fernung - Journeyman Stallions, Ocala, Fla. 

Brent Fernung

It would be beneficial to regional breeders like me and everybody else. The industry’s changed considerably over the years. If one stallion breeds 250 mares, they’re taking out other people’s pools. I don’t know if you can legislate that. I guess we’ll find out because there are lawsuits about it.

# Ken Ramsey – Breeder and owner, Kentucky 

I have mixed feelings on it. I don’t believe in a lot of government control— the government telling a man what to do—but at the same token, I do think the breed needs more diversity. …

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