Archive for June, 2008

Jess Jackson, majority owner of reigning Horse of the Year Curlin, said he retains confidence in the 4-year-old colt’s trainer, Steve Asmussen, in the wake of a reported medication positive in Texas by another runner in Asmussen’s stable.

Asmussen has been notified by the Texas Racing Commission that the post-race drug test for Timber Trick, a 3-year-old Forestry filly owned by Graham Beck’s Gainesway Stable, detected the prohibited Class 2 medication lidocaine after a maiden victory at Lone Star Park May 10. Timber Trick won the six-furlong race by seven lengths as the even-money favorite while making her sixth lifetime start. According to published reports, the recommended penalty is a six-month suspension.

Asmussen’s attorney, Karen Murphy, told Daily Racing Form she will "vigorously defend" the trainer’s innocence. A hearing has been set for July 18.

"I trust Steve to be an honest trainer and he has my confidence," Jackson said in a statement to the Paulick Report. "Steve knows and supports my stance opposing any performance enhancing race day medications and I have never had cause to question his treatment or care of my horses. Steve Asmussen and his legal team have informed me that they are contesting the allegations by the Texas Racing Commission."

"I do believe this once again brings to the forefront our industry’s urgent need for a national horse owners’ organization that can bring uniformity, transparency and accountability to medication use and testing in thoroughbred racing," Jackson continued. "As I have stated previously, we need to immediately replace the existing patchwork of state standards with a centralized and independent medication testing program."

Jackson recently testified before a Congressional hearing that examined drugs in the Thoroughbred, among other issues. "Speaking bluntly," Jackson told the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection on June 19, "the horse industry has a drug problem. We must replace the existing patchwork of state standards with a uniform national standard that is in accord with international zero-tolerance rules."

Asmussen, the leading American trainer in 2008 by both earnings and winners, was forced to sit out six months in 2006 due to a suspension after one of his horses tested positive for mepivacaine. Both lidocaine and mepivacaine are anesthetic medications that have therapeutic use but can be used to block pain and enhance performance. A listing of previous rulings involving Asmussen from the database of the Association of Racing Commissioners International shows a number of other medication violations during his career as a trainer.

By Ray Paulick

Copyright ©2008, The Paulick Report

 

Copyright ©2008, The Paulick Report

Lidocaine and clenbuterol, the drugs associated with the latest positive tests for Steve Asmussen and Rick Dutrow, are commonly used therapeutic medications with specific uses. Both also have the potential for being abused and are prohibited substances.

The positive tests will be widely covered in the mainstream media because Dutrow and Asmussen are trainers of the two leading Thoroughbreds in America, Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown and 2007 Horse of the Year, Curlin, respectively.

Asmussen’s positive in Texas was for lidocaine, a short-acting anesthetic similar to procaine. Dr. Thomas Brokken, a racetrack practitioner in South Florida and past president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, said lidocaine is a lot like the numbing anesthetics used by human dentists.

“Usually it’s very short-acting, with a half-life in minutes,” he said. “Normally, I was use it to repair lacerations, suture fillies up behind, or to block horses that are lame and I need to find out where they are lame,” Brokken said. “That’s about all I use it for. Some may use it in an epidural for a horse sore in its back or pelvic area.” A Class 2 drug according to the Association of Racing Commissioners International classifications, lidocaine has a recommended withdrawal time in Texas of 96-120 hours.

Dr. Ron Genovese of the Cleveland Equine Clinic in Ohio, said he no longer uses lidocaine in his practice, preferring to use mepivacaine for lameness examinations and other procedures where an anesthetic is required. Both Dutrow and Asmussen, along with multiple Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher, have been penalized for past mepivacaine positives.

Dutrow’s Kentucky positive was for clenbuterol, a Class 3 drug with a recommended 72-hour withdrawal time in Kentucky (the recommended withdrawal time in New York, where Dutrow is based, is 96 hours). Clenbuterol, typically given to horses daily in the form of the Ventipulmin syrup, is used to help clean up mucus in a horse’s airways.

“A lot of horses have mucus,” Brokken said. “Clenbuterol doesn’t heal anything but it opens the airways to help the macrophages clean up debris in the throat. The macrophages work on oxygen, so if there’s no oxygen they don’t perform well. Clenbuterol opens the airways to oxygen.”

Stephen Reed, a veterinarian at Rood and Riddle Hospital in Lexington, Ky., estimates that 50% or more horses in training have some degree of mucus.

Genovese, who sees horses mainly at Thistledown racetrack in Ohio, said he sees very little use of clenbuterol in his practice. “It’s expensive,” he said. “But mucus is a chronic, irritating factor in the racehorse business. You have to understand that when horses put in bad performances, people have to search for reasons, which is understandable. You can’t talk to the patient. We scope it and and you can see they breathe in a lot of dirt or Polytrack. Many trainers or owners see that and think one and one adds up to two.”

Some trainers racing on circuits with higher purses use the drug on a majority of their horses to help them train more vigorously, since it improves their breathing. “I use that medication on many of my horses and only once can ever remember having a problem with it,” Dutrow told the New York Times.

Clenbuterol is used illegally with other livestock, including sheep and cattle, to produce more defined muscles. “The drug does have a partitioning effect,” Reed said. “It selects for lean body mass. Some trainers use it for a minor anabolic effect. If used correctly for problems in the lungs, however, it can have a great benefit.

 “One of the things that worries me,” Reed continued, “is that some of the newer, more sophisticated testing is able to detect levels that couldn’t be therapeutic but would indicate the drug is on board. In the current day and age, regarding medications in any athlete, human or equine, having nothing on board is the way to go. As a bronchialdilator, it has the potential to help. It shouldn’t be given close to the time of racing.”

By Ray Paulick

Copyright ©2008, The Paulick Report

The wise guys are out in force: “Knock me over with a feather,” they are saying in response to the latest news about Rick “No Show” Dutrow, who will be handed a 15-day suspension from the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority, which also will redistribute the $20,000 second-place purse won by Salute the Count in the Aegon Turf Sprint Stakes at Churchill Downs May 2. The former claiming horse owned by Michael Dubb and Robert Joscelyn tested positive for an extremely high level of clenbuterol, a bronchial dilator that has come into vogue as a training aid among many horsemen over the last 10 years but is not permitted on raceday.

The violation came one day before Dutrow-trained Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby.

Why just 15 days for Dutrow, who according to the Association of Racing Commissioners International has at least 72 previous rulings against him for a variety of violations since 1976? The New York Times, which broke the story, quotes former trainer John Veitch, the chief state steward for the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority , as saying 15 days and forfeiture of the purse would be Dutrow’s penalty for a first offense, according to Kentucky rules. Veitch told the paper the level detected (and confirmed by an independent lab of Dutrow’s choosing) was two times that of the legal threshold and the highest he had seen in four years as Kentucky’s top racing official.

First offense?

If I get speeding tickets in 25 states and am then caught in Kentucky going 10 miles over the limit, I hope I can get the same kid-glove treatment and am looked upon as a first-time offender. Somehow, I doubt that will happen. Why, then, is Dutrow’s track record of rules violations in multiple states being ignored in Kentucky?

Larry Jones, the trainer of star-crossed Kentucky Derby runner-up Eight Belles, recently had a positive test for clenbuterol in Delaware on a horse owned by Jim Squires. By all accounts, if confirmed in a split sample, this would be Jones’ first medication violation in 25 years of training. According to Delaware Park stewards, the standard penalty for a first offense would be a $500 fine, forfeiture of purse and a seven-day suspension of the trainer. Not much different than the sanctions that will be imposed on Dutrow.

Considering the number of violations Dutrow has had during his career (including a 2004 case involving clenbuterol in New York), the Kentucky penalty given him would be the proverbial slap on the wrist.

This is the kind of problem that federal lawmakers looked into last week, when Dutrow was among a group of owners, trainers, veterinarians, regulators and racing officials asked to testify before a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on Thoroughbred racing and breeding. The trainer was the only no show, however, claiming to be ill. During the hearing, House members zeroed in on racing’s inability to enforce national standardized rules and penalties due to the structure that has 38 different state racing commissions regulating the sport and the absence of a league office that other major league sports have.

If the Congressional inquiry made racing industry leaders look impotent then, how do they look now, in the wake of the wrist slap against Dutrow?

This case is only going to further motivate Congress to take action, unless someone in the Thoroughbred industry moves beyond forming committees, making recommendations and pontificating about “consensus building” and the “power of persuasion.”

It is clear the Thoroughbred industry, as presently structured, is incapable of policing itself adequately.

By Ray Paulick

Copyright ©2008, The Paulick Report

After all the problems Santa Anita experienced with its Cushion Track synthetic surface this past season, why did track management decide not to go back to a conventional dirt track and instead commit to installing a synthetic surface manufactured by the Australian company Pro-Ride? Aside from the fact the California Horse Racing Board has mandated all major California racetracks use synthetics instead of dirt for their main surface, Santa Anita was merely following the wishes of horsemen who were asked which type of surface they preferred.

The decision by Santa Anita management took on added significance because the Breeders’ Cup world championships will be contested there in both 2008 and 2009, marking the first time the former dirt races will be held over a synthetic racetrack.

In March of this year, Ed Halpern, the executive director of the California Thoroughbred Trainers, sent a letter to Magna executive Frank Stronach and Ron Charles detailing the results of a survey conducted among Santa Anita-based trainers. The Paulick Report obtained a copy of that letter.

The letter begins: “The board of directors of the California Thoroughbred Trainers has asked that I write to request that you take whatever action may be necessary to retain a synthetic surface at Santa Anita. One only needs to look at the facts to support this conclusion. Since the introduction of synthetic surfaces in California, barn areas are now filled, trainers have moved to California from across the country, field size has grown dramatically, injuries are down, and horses are racing more often. Those facts speak loudly and are irrefutable.”

Halpern then outlined the survey, which asked trainers to rate their surface preference five different ways:
-Strongly favor dirt
-Favor dirt
-Neutral
-Favor synthetics
-Strongly favor synthetics

Trainers were contacted personally and could sign their name or respond anonymously. Ninety-two of 115 trainers with horses in training at Santa Anita responded.

To quote further from Halpern’s letter:

“Of all those responding who strongly favored dirt or strongly favored synthetics, 70% strongly favored synthetics.

“Of all those responding who indicated that they either strong favored or just favored dirt or synthetics, 70% favored synthetics.”

Eleven trainers were neutral.

Trainers representing 90% of the horses in training at Santa Anita favor synthetics, according to Halpern. “Hence, there is is overwhelming support for synthetics from trainers who have trained at Santa Anita,” Halpern wrote. “That support exists in spite of the problems that were encountered due to the failure of the Cushion Track product. Trainers favoring synthetics cited numerous reasons for their support. They indicated that their support was based on a significant decrease in injuries, the ability to continue to train and run on a safe and non-sealed surface, even during periods of rain, and the ability to train horses through minor injuries. The latter benefit means significant and substantial savings for owners who no longer need to turn out horses for months before resuming training.”

One month later, the CTT sent a second letter to Stronach and Charles with the results of a survey of trainers based at the Northern California racetrack, Golden Gate Fields, also owned by Magna Entertainment. Golden Gate has a Tapeta Footings synthetic surface.

Here is how those 53 trainers responded:
-Strongly prefer dirt…2
-Prefer dirt…3
-No preference…3
-Favor synthetic…17
-Strongly favor synthetic…28

The opinions of California trainers seem to be supported by statistics obtained by the Paulick Report. At every California track where synthetic surfaces have been installed, the number of fatalities per 1,000 has declined, as follows:

Hollywood Park
Before synthetics, 2.87 per 1,000; after synthetics, 0.97 per 1,000
Del Mar
Before synthetics, 2.47 per 1,000; after synthetics, 0.81
Santa Anita
Before synthetics, 2.81; after synthetics, 1.71
Golden Gate Fields
Before synthetics, 3.90; after synthetics, 2.50
Bay Meadows (did not convert to synthetics)
Conventional dirt, 3.19

Aggregate
Before synthetics, 3.19; after synthetics, 1.37

A national survey of races charting horses that did not finish (DNF) a race due to various factors shows the following percentages on different surfaces:

-Dirt DNFs, 1.10%
-Turf DNFs, 0.94%
-Synthetic DNFs, 0.61%

Numerous training centers have now added synthetic surfaces, as has the OBS sale company in Ocala, Fla.

By Ray Paulick

Copyright ©2008, The Paulick Report

Brant Latta, a veteran racetrack executive who has been with Magna Entertainment for nearly 10 years, most recently as senior vice president of operations, has left the company, he told the Paulick Report on Monday.

Prior to his last position, to which he was promoted in October 2006, Latta was the senior manager of Magna’s “continuous improvement team,” from August 2003 to March 2006, and before that was general manager of Santa Anita Park. Before joining Magna, Latta had worked at several racetracks, including Turf Paradise, Longacres, and Rillito Park. He is a graduate of the University of Arizona’s Racetrack Industry Program.

Latta called it a “mutual parting” that was prompted by efforts to reduce corporate overhead. Magna is currently run by its chairman, Frank Stronach, who has been acting chief executive officer since Michael Neuman was sacked a year ago after less than six months on the job.

By Ray Paulick

Copyright ©2008, The Paulick Report

He is our Felix Unger, almost compulsive in his quest to clean things up in an industry that has more than a few problems. He is Mr. Clean without the earring, standing proudly with arms crossed, a slight smile on his face showing his sense of accomplishment. He is a friend of politicians, a mover and shaker in the Thoroughbred industry, serving on numerous committees and boards on multiple organizations across the alphabetical landscape that is the Thoroughbred industry.

He is Robert Clay, the owner of Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky.

Clay has been in the news a great deal this spring. Along with Serengeti Stable, Clay was co-breeder of Eight Belles, the filly who ran a game second in the Kentucky Derby but broke down after the finish and was euthanized. He was blamed by some, including the acting chairman of a Congressional committee that looked into the welfare of the Thoroughbred in a June 19 hearing, for producing “a genetic disaster waiting to happen” in the case of Eight Belles.

Knowledgeable people inside the industry are not questioning his part in producing Eight Belles, who was an exceptionally fast and sound filly before her demise. But some are wondering why Robert Clay (along with son Case, who is president of the farm) was so quick to embrace and recruit Big Brown to his Three Chimneys stallion barn, considering the baggage the son of Boundary brings with him.

Big Brown is trained by Rick Dutrow, a sleazy racetrack character whose list of regulatory violations, stretching from California to New York, is prodigious by any measure. Before Big Brown’s victory in the Kentucky Derby, Dutrow freely admitted that all of his horses, including Big Brown, get regular injections of the anabolic steroid Winstrol. Controversial veterinarian Steve Allday said he stopped working for Dutrow a couple of years ago because Dutrow asked him to do things Allday refused to do.

Then there is the IEAH Stable, the ownership group that bought majority interest in Big Brown last September from Paul Pompa Jr. One of IEAH’s first trainers, Greg Martin, is a confessed cheater who was convicted of a felony for juicing an IEAH runner in 2003. IEAH co-president, Michael Iavarone, is a former penny stock trader who worked at four now-closed “bucket shops,” including one firm shut down by regulators. Iavarone was fined, censured and suspended for making unauthorized trades. Yet IEAH portrayed Iavarone as a “high profile investment banker on Wall Street.” IEAH also stiffed Keeneland on the purchase of several pricey yearlings in 2003.

Clay and the Big Brown team truly are the “odd couple,” with either Dutrow or Iavarone capable of playing the part of Oscar Madison, the sloppy, corner-cutting counterpart to Clay’s pristine Felix Unger, who has the reputation for doing everything by the book.

Perhaps, however, Dutrow and Iavarone are angels with dirty faces. Before the Triple Crown’s final leg, Iavarone and IEAH pledged to give a substantial portion of the Belmont purse Big Brown was expected to win to support a scholarship fund for the son of a stricken police officer on Long Island (I’m not sure where that stands, since Big Brown earned nothing in the Belmont after being eased). In addition, Dutrow said he’d stopped giving Big Brown anabolic steroids before the Preakness. Then, in a surprise announcement on June 22, Iavarone said he was swearing off drugs for his entire stable because of his concerns for the “integrity” of the sport.

So, how did Robert Clay, whose mantra has been personal integrity in the horse business, wind up doing this deal?

“My mother taught me to take people as they come,” Clay told me. “They (Big Brown’s owners) have done nothing but what they said they would do and more, and have been totally straightforward in their business dealings with me.”

Clay wouldn’t comment on the reports about Iavarone’s embellished resume and prior problems, which were published May 28, the same day Case Clay helped Big Brown’s owners ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

Rick Dutrow, however, seems to be another story.

“The trainer and owners are two kettles of fish,” Clay said. “I don’t have a relationship with Dutrow, and Dutrow speaks for himself, obviously. I guess it would be fair to say we don’t have the same styles. I have no control over the trainer, nor his scheduling.”

Published reports valued the Three Chimneys-Big Brown stallion deal at around $50 million, with sources saying Three Chimneys bought just 10% of the horse. That type of valuation would typically command an initial-year stud fee north $100,000, even for a horse like Big Brown who doesn’t have a top stallion pedigree (and no other stakes winners in the female family until the third dam). Big Brown’s puzzling display in the Belmont will make that difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

“Those days of $100,000 are over,” said one bloodstock agent who specializes in the stallion market. “Of course, how he does in the Haskell and other races could help.” Another bloodstock agent suggested something closer to $50,000 as a realistic first-year fee.

Clay acknowledges that Big Brown will enter stud with question marks. “He’s got feet problems,” Clay said. “Dynaformer’s got feet problem, too; the worst feet of any horse on the farm. Do we not take a horse to stud because of feet problems? Dynaformer does not pass bad feet along. It doesn’t mean that won’t happen (with Big Brown).”

Clay said the publicity over Dutrow’s use of anabolic steroids with Big Brown is “concerning,” though he pointed out that countless other horses have been retired to stud after racing on steroids.

“Steroids is like Lasix,” he said. “You can’t find a trainer who doesn’t use it. It’s the industry’s responsibilities to make the rules that we want to live by, and not the trainer’s responsibility to not abide by the rules. If I were to speculate, I’d say (steroids) don’t have anything to do with their genes. If we are being fooled, then we are taking the wrong genes to the breeding shed. I’m not smart enough to know the answer to that. I think we ought to take any performance enhancing drugs out of the sport…period. But the resistance to that is broad.”

Clay said Three Chimneys doesn’t give its yearlings steroids. “Never have, never will,” he said. “I am a big advocate of what Keeneland is doing, taking steroids out of the sales. I’m not sure taking steroids out of racing is as simple as it sounds.

“Big Brown is the most famous horse that raced on steroids,” he said, “and it concerns me that I’ve got a poster child horse.”

By Ray Paulick

Copyright ©2008, The Paulick Report

It was, to say the least, an interesting week to launch the Paulick Report.

First, we had the opportunity to take a close look at the Breeders’ Cup election for its board of members and trustees in a two-part series that looked first at the history of the organization’s governance. The current battle for control — the old guard vs. the new guard — was the focus of the second part of that series. The Breeders’ Cup election is now in full swing. A newly seated board of members and trustees will then be responsible for electing half of the 14-member board of directors, which has operational oversight of the Breeders’ Cup program and its championship event. The vote for the board of directors takes place in Lexington July 11.

The Paulick Report promises to keep a close eye on the Breeders’ Cup election process.

Then came the news uncovered here that Curlin might not be able to race in New York this year because of problems involving the owner’s license of Shirley Cunningham, a jailed attorney who is part of the Midnight Cry Stable that owns 20% of the reigning North American Horse of the Year. Cunningham, along with two other attorneys involved in a class-action lawsuit settlement, has been charged with a crime but not convicted of anything. Shortly after PaulickReport.com exposed the problem with Cunningham’s license, a mouthpiece for the New York State Racing and Wagering Board attempted to spike the issue through the Thoroughbred industry’s trade press by saying there would be no problems with Curlin racing in New York. If that was the case, then, why was Midnight Cry Stable’s Einstein not allowed to race in New York on Belmont Day in the Manhattan Handicap?

I can think of at least one person who was happy to keep Einstein out of New York: Dinny Phipps, the former boss of New York racing, whose family stable’s Dancing Forever won the $400,000 Manhattan. Einstein defeated Dancing Forever earlier this year in Florida, where the owner’s license was not an issue. It was not an issue in Kentucky, either, where Einstein ran second to Curlin in the Stephen Foster Handicap June 14. Even stranger: Curlin raced in New York last fall, winning the Jockey Club Gold Cup, one month after Cunningham’s license had expired. By week’s end, attorneys for Curlin’s majority owner, Jess Jackson, said they are confident the issue will be resolved.

Mid-week brought our focus to Washington, D.C., for a preview of a Congressional hearing on Thoroughbred racing by the House of Representatives subcommittee on commerce, trade and consumer protection. The hearings came in the wake of a series of high-profile events that seemed to begin two years ago with the tragic breakdown of Barbaro, then continued in this year’s Triple Crown with the death of Kentucky Derby runner-up Eight Belles.

The Paulick Report was the only racing publication to provide live-blogging of the hearing from Capitol Hill on Thursday, followed by an analysis of what could be a watershed day for the industry if Kentucky Rep. Ed Whitfield can push through legislation setting national guidelines on medication and other issues for the 38 state racing commissions to follow.

Finally, a glimmer of hope from an unexpected source. Emily Patton, an 18-year-old horse crazy girl, writes with passion about what attracted her to Thoroughbred racing at the tender age of 12. It was a wonderful reminder to us all about what is so appealing about this great game.

Thanks to the many of you who already have indicated your support for what we are doing by making a financial donation or contacting us about advertising at info@paulickreport.com.

Stay tuned, the Paulick Report is just getting started.

By Ray Paulick

Copyright ©2008, The Paulick Report