Archive for November, 2009

(Click here for the Japanese chart and race information, which includes a link to the video of the Japan Cup.)

Already the richest filly or mare in Japanese racing history with career earnings over one billion yen, Vodka captured the mile and one-half Japan Cup in her third attempt, bettering her fourth-place finish in 2007 and a third-place effort in 2008. She covered the distance in 2:22.40, the third-fastest time in the 29 runnings of the Japan Cup. The victory was the 15th for a Japanese-trained horse, tipping the sales in the home team’s favor for the first time. Fourteen renewals have been won by international horses. Japanese horses have won the last four runnings and 10 of the last 12.

The win was the 10th in 25 starts for Vodka, a 5-year-old daughter of Tanino Gimlet out of Tanino Sister, by Rousillon. She was the 2008 Horse of the Year in Japan and stands a good chance to repeat this year. The Japan Cup win comes less than a month after unbeaten Zenyatta’s come-from- behind victory over males in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, which vaulted her into a contentious battle with the 3-year-old filly Rachel Alexandra for American Horse of the Year honors. It has been quite for fillies all around the globe.

Unfortunately, Vodka came out of the Japan Cup bleeding in the nostrils and will be unable to race for at least  30 days, according to Japan Racing Association regulations. That will preclude her from racing in the season-ending Arima Kinen, which could determine Horse of the Year. Her connections did not say whether or not she would be retired.

Christophe Lemaire rode Vodka for trainer Katsuhiko Sumii (pictured, left), replacing Yutaka Take, who had been the filly’s regular rider. In a rare display of displeasure with the Japanese racing legend,Take faced public criticism for his most recent rides aboard Vodka. Sumii said the decision to replace Take was his. Owner Yuzo Tanimizu said the stable wanted a jockey that had "no previous knowledge of her wanting to go early" in her races. She had been somewhat rank and eager under Take, but relaxed beautifully into fourth position in the early stages of the Japan Cup for Lemaire.

Take was aboard Reach the Crown, who set the fractions in this year’s Cup but faded in the stretch and wound up ninth. 

Oken Bruce Lee, fifth in last year’s Japan Cup, was flying on the outside at the finish, and it took several minutes for placing judges to post Vodka’s No. 5 as the winner. The margin was said to be only two centimeters.

"Oken Bruce Lee finished so fast and was in front after the winning post, so I had some doubts whether I’d won," Lemaire said. "I could hear the crowd shouting, and even when something is happening behind you, you feel when someone is coming."

Lemaire (pictured, right) said he was surprised when he got the call to replace Take. "The most important thing they wanted me to do was get her to relax," he said. "French jockeys may be used to riding keen horses due to the style of our racing. Maybe that’s why they wanted me.

"The filly was very quiet and calm. The pace of the race was good enough. She wanted to go in the last corner, but I tried to keep her energy for the last 200 meters." The tactic played out perfectly as Vodka had just enough left to get the nod.

Conduit’s jockey, Ryan Moore, said he did not get off to as good a start as he’d liked, but appeared to get a good trip thereafter, but may have had too much ground to make up from his bad early start. "There was not much time between his last race and today, so maybe he got a little tired," Moore said.

A trio of American horses was led by Just as Well, who finished seventh. Interpatation wound up in a dead-heat for 14th and Marsh Side 17th. No American-trained horse has won the Japan Cup since Golden Pheasant in  1991.

Summer Bird is owned and bred by Drs. K.K. and Vilasini Jayaraman.

Trainer Tim Ice, who has been at Hanshin in Osaka to oversee Summer Bird’s training, said the colt worked five furlongs in 1:02 1/5 without incident and walked back to the barn without any apparent lameness.

“It was a very good breeze, exactly what we wanted,” Ice told the Paulick Report Sunday afternoon. “He finished up strong. Once we got him off the track and unsaddled him he showed a slight limp and the further he went the more he started limping. We immediately put him in his stall, put him on ice, and took X rays an hour later.”

Ice described the fracture as going “straight up” the medial carpal bone (click here for a diagram) and speculated the fracture might require surgery and the implant of a screw into the bone.

“Dr. J. will decide whether we’ll need the surgery,” he said. “The plans were to bring him back as a 4-year-old as long as he was sound. We just need to sit down and figure out what to do. The one thing we don’t want to do is put him through everything and waste a year of racing if he’s not 100%.”

Ice said it hasn’t been determined how soon Summer Bird will travel back to the U.S. and where he will go for evaluation, though he mentioned Kentucky and Colorado (where renowned orthopedic surgeon Wayne McIlwraith is based) as the most likely possibilities. Ice said Summer Bird will need to spend a couple of days in quarantine at Hollywood Park.

“I’m feeling very, very disappointed,” said Ice, “not because we didn’t make this race but because this had to happen to this horse. He’s been a very good horse all summer long and into the fall and for something like this to happen is devastating.

An Australian journalist wanted to introduce Demuro to the legendary British trainer during the cocktail hour of Friday night’s Welcome Party to the 29th annual Japan Cup. Demuro, Italy’s top jockey and last year’s Japan Cup winner aboard Screen Hero for Teruya Yoshida, said he’d never had the opportunity to meet Stoute, who will be saddling two-time Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Conduit in Sunday’s big event at Tokyo race course.

“Actually you rode for me once at Royal Ascot,” Stoute reminded Demuro (both pictured, left). “Finished second.” Then, with a perfectly timed pause, added, “Moved too soon.” No one enjoyed the good-natured ribbing better than Stoute himself, who let out a big belly laugh at his own joke. Demuro didn’t know what to say. But perhaps he’ll have the last laugh on Sunday as he tries to defend his Japan Cup title aboard Screen Hero.

Stoute is relaxed and confident as he bids for his third Japan Cup victory, having won back-to-back runnings with Singspiel and Pilsudski in 1996 and ’97.  The native of Barbados, who has been among the world’s foremost horsemen for more than three decades, has won major races in 10 countries, including five Breeders’ Cups.

I asked which of his international triumphs meant the most to him. “The Dubai World Cup,” Stoute said, without hesitation. “And for that I give a great deal of credit to Jerry Bailey.”

Stoute recalled how the Hall of Fame jockey worked Singspiel before the scheduled running of the 1997 World Cup but returned to the United States when the race was postponed after a deluge flooded the Nad al Sheba racetrack. “He came all the way back a few days later when the race was rescheduled,” Stoute said. “I think that breeze really gave him confidence in the horse.”

Another international visitor to Tokyo commented that Stoute has perfected the art of shipping horses around the world to win big races. “No, no, no,” he said. “No one’s perfected this. But you learn from the mistakes you make and from the things that go right. And no two horses react the same way to travel.”

Among other things, Stoute sends his own horse feed to Japan, well in advance of his horse, allowing the Japan Racing Association plenty of time to test its contents for any prohibited substances. Many other trainers are content to use the feed provided by the JRA. It’s a small detail perhaps, but it’s the kind of thing that adds up and pays off in the end.

I MADE THE MISTAKE OF ASKING PATRICK LAWLEY-WAKELIN whether he’d been to the Japan Cup previously. “Last year,” he said, sadly, “but this is as far as we got.” Lawley-Wakelin, who is representing 2008 Canadian International winner Marsh Side on behalf of owner Robert Evans, was referring to last year’s Welcome Party, which he attended with trainer Neil Drysdale (pictured, left, with Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida). The next day, Marsh Side was scratched from the Japan Cup due to a fever, and Drysdale and Lawley-Wakelin departed immediately for the Tattersalls December sale. Let’s hope they get a chance to stick around and see Marsh Side compete this year.

Drysdale was stunned to hear no American-trained horse had won the Japan Cup since Golden Pheasant captured the 1991 renewal for trainer Charlie Whittingham and jockey Gary Stevens.

“I should have won it in 2002,” said Drysdale, recalling the running held at Nakayama racecourse while the Tokyo track’s grandstand was being rebuilt. Italian-based Falbrav and jockey Frankie Dettori edged the Drysdale-trained Sarafan and survived an inquiry after Falbrav drifted in and brushed Sarafan several times in deep stretch. “He really slammed us,” Drysdale recalled, “but the stewards let the result stand. There was no point in an appeal, since the same officials who looked at the original inquiry would hear the case.”

THE WELCOME PARTY TOOK PLACE at the glitzy Ritz Carlton Hotel in the new midtown development adjacent to Roppongi. The JRA upgraded its host hotel this year to provide owners, trainers and jockeys a better experience during their visit to Tokyo (the international press remains at the Keio Plaza, a fine business hotel but not in the same class as the Ritz). It’s a smart move by the JRA, which has to compete with the Hong Kong Jockey Club for top horses and has lagged a step or two behind the HKJC as a host association and in providing a world-class experience for owners. Connections of Japan Cup Dirt horses will be staying at the Ritz Carlton in Osaka, near Hanshin race course, prior to next Sunday’s race.

The entertainment at this year’s party was quite different than anything I’ve seen in my previous 15 journeys to Tokyo for the Japan Cup. A group of Yabusame (yah-bu-sahmee) archers gave a demonstration of their martial arts skills, which entail riding on horseback at full speed and shooting a bow and arrow and several small targets. It’s a Japanese tradition going back nearly a thousand years to the days of Samurai warriors when the targets were more than wooden squares, and the skill was required to help protect the empire.

Of course, the originators of Yabusame never envisioned riding their horse into the Ritz Carlton ballroom, so some accommodations had to be made. The “horses” were decorated wooden mounts spun in a circle by an assistant, and the targets were only a few steps away on stage. But I think we got the point: don’t mess around with these fellows.

IT’S BECOME SOMETHING OF A PAULICK REPORT TRADITION to comment on the food we enjoy at various industry gatherings, and the Japan Cup Welcome Party certainly offered a veritable feast, beginning with something called amuse bouche, contuing with a second course of ravioli style shogoin turnip, marinated seafood, crispy pasta, shiso and citrus fruit vinaigrette; followed by pan-friend sea bream, leak, taraba crab, clam sauce, braised savoy cabbage and green vegetable; and then a main course of pot-au-feu style beef fillet, chicken leg, autumn vegetables, truffle flavor white wasabi and seaweed salt. My favorite, though, was the “seasonal dessert sampler” of chestnut, sweet potato, Mont blanc, autumn fruits, apricot sorbet, wasonbon, and green tea sauce. I couldn’t really identify any of it, but it was all good!

We have a shortage of Thoroughbred owners, and in some ways the industry has itself to blame. Organizations have failed to adequately look out for and protect the best interests of many newcomers to racing who, quite frankly, have been fleeced and unfortunately participate in what has historically been a three-step program: 1) get in; 2) get screwed; 3) get out.

There has been some progress. The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s Sales Integrity Task Force has been formed, and it took some very modest steps to protect horse owners from unscrupulous agents, including a long-overdue Code of Conduct for participants. It’s better than what was in place before—nothing.

But let’s be honest. Much, much more can and should be done to inspire confidence in people who enter the Thoroughbred industry with the expectation of getting a fair shake. The decision by Keeneland to sanction Cullen—banning him from auction participation until 2011 at the earliest—was the first time the Sales Integrity Task Force’s Code of Conduct has been openly cited for enforcement since its adoption in 2007. I would suggest its enforcement has been less than aggressively pursued by some auction companies.

There has been no small amount of throat-clearing and back-patting about how well “the system worked” in bringing about the Code of Conduct-cited sanctions against Cullen. In this instance, the “system” did very little. If not for the tireless efforts of the individuals who felt they were wronged by Cullen, I doubt any action would have been taken.

By the way, the charges are just that—allegations—and Cullen deserves his day in court to respond to any of the lawsuits or accusations against him. For his part, he calls the conduct of his former clients “harassment” and said they have made “slanderous” and “defamatory” statements about him. Cullen said he has filed “charges” against them with the Lexington (Ky.) police for “harassing communications.” The Paulick Report checked with both the Lexington Police Department and Fayette County court system to see if such charges were filed, but was unable to confirm that any charges have indeed been filed as Cullen indicated.

The filly’s name is something of an inside joke: “know and trust” is an expression Cullen often used when communicating with his clients. Today, many of those clients and a variety of others in the Thoroughbred industry feel they have been betrayed or misled by the man who operates Cullen Bloodstock, the Oakland Group advertising and marketing firm, and the now-defunct Four Board Stables. Cullen is currently licensed as a trainer by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. He trains a string of horses for his wife under the name Florence Racing Stable and recently claimed a horse on behalf of Margaux Farm’s Steve Johnson. He also sells horse insurance for Old Colony Insurance Company of Lexington.

“We named the filly as an homage to Cullen,” said John Trumbulovich of Chicago, who first got involved with the Kentucky native in 2006. “Obviously we didn’t know him and certainly shouldn’t have trusted him.”

Cullen has acknowledged under oath that he hasn’t paid stud fees to a number of farms with which he’s done business, that he may have misstated his ownership or equity in horses used as collateral for a line of credit, and that, at the time of the deposition in March 2009, he couldn’t even examine his own books because “I owe my accountant $1,800.”

Several other parties claim Cullen owes them money, but they’ve given up trying to collect. “I lost quite a bit of money but I just had to get away from him, said Banshee Farm’s Scott Mallory, who “inherited” Cullen as a business partner following the 2006 crash of the Comair flight in Lexington that killed his father, Dan Mallory. “You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip, so I just decided to leave it alone. He’s always promised ‘I’ll get you paid one of these days,’ but it gets to the point that you want to get as far away from him as you can. That’s what most people have done”

Cullen calls the ban by Keeneland the result of “a banking situation…I understand that two of my clients did not receive my proceeds (from sales of horses),” he told the Paulick Report. “The difficulty is that at least one of the people who filed complaints against me (with the Sales Integrity Task Force) owes me money. This has nothing to do with unscrupulous behavior on my part.”

“Everyone’s always gotten what they paid for,” Cullen continued. “I have not held stud fees. I have had trouble with ESI (Early Season Income)—two separate situations that are not applicable to this decision by Keeneland. I have been working in good faith with ESI and everything, for all intents and purposes, is satisfied.”

A number of people would dispute that statement, including an official at Early Season Income. Cullen’s deposition in the National City lawsuit contradicts what he told the Paulick Report about holding stud fees and everyone he’s done business “always” getting what they paid for.

He went to work for Terry Finley’s West Point Thoroughbreds in 2001, operating out of a Lexington office until parting ways in 2003. (Finley opted not to comment on Cullen to the Paulick Report, saying only that he strongly urged Cullen not use Finley as a reference in future job applications.) He also worked briefly selling stallion seasons for Adena Springs in 2006. That ended, according to Jack Brothers, a longtime bloodstock adviser to farm owner Frank Stronach, because of “misappropriated funds.” Cullen claims that Adena owes him money.

A $40,000 purchase of an El Prado yearling in 2003 that turned into a $360,000 pinhooking success the following year put Cullen on the map as a bloodstock agent, and he was able to establish a significant line of credit with National City Bank.

Cullen bought horses at public auction and formed syndicates to race or breed and charged administrative or management fees. Among the partners were Trumbulovich, Geiger and Colbert. Geiger first started asking questions of Cullen about some of the financial aspects of the partnership, among them: how were purse earnings or sales proceeds being distributed? When he didn’t get satisfactory answers Geiger started networking with some of the other partners, including Trumbulovich and Colbert. “It opened a floodgate,” Trumbulovich said.

“Nobody that dealt with him knew who owned what,” said Mallory.

CULLEN: Correct. Yes, sir.

MEUSER: Well, you can certainly understand…

Meuser and Cowles coaxed out of Cullen admissions that sale proceeds from horses had not been distributed to partners, that stud fees to stallions had not been paid, and that farms often attached liens to the horses being sold, at times without the knowledge of the partners who had paid the stud fees to Cullen. He called the incidents inadvertent errors, and at one point said, “I’m a good horseman. I’m obviously not a good business perso.”

Cullen also admitted that he had not paid Fasig-Tipton for at least two horses he had purchased from the company, including a $100,000 yearling by Yankee Gentleman out of Silver Spool, later named Patsy Ann. Cullen said in his deposition that he has a signed agreement with Fasig-Tipton to pay for the horses because, as he told Fasig-Tipton executive Boyd Browning, “I don’t have it,” when asked for the money to pay for them. He had made no payments on the agreement as of March 2009. “There isn’t a hard schedule…basically it’s open-ended,” he told Cowles under questioning.

“Wow,” was all Cowles could say in response.

“Again,” said Cullen, “I think he’s (Browning)—given the economic climate and the fact he knows I’m a good pay I think he’s—well there’s been one payment made of $4,000….”

“So do you still owe Fasig-Tipton a hundred grand for Patsy Ann,” Cowles asked.

“I do,” said Cullen. “I, I owe them. Technically when we discussed it, and I hope, I don’t think Boyd would mind me sharing, he was willing to basically write it off. And I’m the one that said no. I bought it. I owe you. I will pay you. Just give me the time to pay it off. Anybody that I, I again, I haven’t declared bankruptcy. I’m not running. Any of the accounts I’ve made I’ve been—I will acknowledge and be responsible for. And Boyd knows me and knows that my word is good and I think that’s why he’s allowing me to pay this off.”

When I called Browning at Fasig-Tipton and asked if Cullen owes money to the company, he said, “I’m not going to answer that question. I’m uncomfortable answering that question. It wouldn’t be prudent. His banning (from participation in sales) is not related for any failure to pay money.”

I then told Browning that Cullen said in the deposition that Browning thought Cullen was “good pay.” If put under oath, I asked, would Browning agree with that statement?

There was a pause, followed by a long, slow chuckle. “If I was under oath I would have to answer that question, but I’m not under oath,” Browning said. “I would rather not have Mr. Cullen speak for me.”

Cullen’s relationship with homebuilder Cam Horton began in Dec. 2005 when Horton agreed to buy a season to A.P. Indy through Cullen Bloodstock for $318,000 to use to breed to his mare, Private Pursuit. Cullen would receive a $15,000 fee. The agreement called for the fee to be refunded if the mare did not get in foal or lost her pregnancy. On Oct. 12, 2006, after being pregnant to the cover of A.P. Indy, Private Pursuit aborted, but Horton didn’t get his money back from Cullen.  Cullen wrote a letter to Horton in February 2007, saying he was owed $105,000 from Adena Springs for his commissions in “selling $21 million in stud fees,” would sell some horses. In addition, he wrote, he was owed $42,000 in stallion fees and $34,000 was “owed to me by a multi-millionaire who just refuses to pay me even though he acknowledges the debt.”

Horton never got paid and took him to court. In July 2007, Cullen agreed to pay $333,000, with $25,000 payable at the time of the agreement, $75,000 due on or before Aug. 1, 2007, $100,000 due on or before Oct. 1, 2007 andd the balance due by Dec. 31, 2007. Horton’s attorney, Phillip Scott, said Cullen didn’t meet the obligation. “The agreement wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on,” Scott said.

‘YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH A LOT IN THIS BUSINESS’

Of all those who have dealt with Cullen in recent years, no one knows him better than trainer Denzik, who went to grade school, middle school and high school with Cullen, then roomed with him in college. He trained several horses for Cullen’s Four Board Stable partnership until their relationship went sour a couple of years ago.

“We were best friends,” Denzik told the Paulick Report, “but I haven’t talked to him for a year and a half. He wasn’t paying his bills. He was collecting the money from the people in the partnerships and kept it. I know most of the clients and they were a bunch of good people. He owes me over $20,000. We spent about $10,000 on an attorney, but once I got that bill I said this is ridiculous. We probably lost $30,000, but it may be the best $30,000 I ever lost, just to get him out of my life.”

Denzik, like many of the others who have been involved with Cullen, said he has an engaging personality and is a smooth talker.

“He did some acting when he was younger, and he can pull a different personality out when he needs too,” said Denzik. “When I look at him now and look back I can see he was well prepared to do what he’s been doing. People love him at first. He uses his acting ability, his writing ability and he’s personable…but it’s a bunch of b.s. He steals from people. The big questions we’ve all got is where the money went.

“There was always a little bit of a shady side to him,” Denzik said. “As we’ve gotten older it brought out the crook in him that probably has been in him a long time. He figured out you can get away with a lot in this business. I hope he gets put in jail."