Archive for the ‘Jockeys’ Category

Our good friend Joy Rose Murphy who rolled out the red carpet for the Paulick Report when we swung through Oklahoma City for the Breeders’ Cup or Bust tour will be participating in the Mrs. Oklahoma pageant this April. True to herself, Joy has chosen the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund as her platform.

Below is the press release on her entry. Please feel free to write well wishes to Joy as she tries to bring national attention to an incredibly important issue to our industry.

Choctaw native to compete for title of Mrs. Oklahoma America
Joy Rose Murphy will represent the City of Choctaw at the official state preliminary for the Mrs. America Pageant
 

CHOCTAW, Okla. – Joy Rose Murphy, a committed volunteer and local horse racing personality, has been chosen to compete for the title of Mrs. Oklahoma America from a field of applicants received from throughout the area. Murphy is the promotions coordinator at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, where she hosts a televised race-day program.
 
The 2010 Mrs. Oklahoma Competition will take place April 16 and 17 at the historic Guthrie Scottish Rite Temple. Murphy will compete in three categories for the Mrs. Oklahoma title: personal interview, swimsuit and evening gown.
 
If selected as Mrs. Oklahoma America she will use her title to bring state and national attention to her platform, the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF), for which she recently raised $25,000. The organization works to provide financial assistance to former jockeys who have suffered catastrophic on-track injuries.
 
“Oklahoma has a thriving horse industry, and my husband and I are so proud live and work here,” says Murphy. “By supporting PDJF and bringing awareness to this cause, I hope to promote the welfare of all jockeys, who are pound-for-pound the best athletes in the world.”
 
In her free time, Murphy is devoted to community service. She is a Sunday School teacher at St. Philip Neri Parish organizing and directing the curriculum for second grade students. She has held the position for five years.
 
Her husband, Glen, is a top thoroughbred jockey in the Midwest region. The couple makes their home in Choctaw.
 
About the Mrs. Oklahoma Competition
Mrs. Oklahoma is the official state preliminary for Mrs. America, the only nationally televised pageant for married women in the country. Mrs. America celebrates the achievements, poise and personality of today’s married women. Mrs. Oklahoma delegates are judged on their communication skills, achievements, poise and appearance.

One of California’s top jockeys Joel Rosario fired jockey agent Vic Stauffer whose tenure with Rosario lasted only 16 months.

"I got him at the fall meet of Hollyood in 2008," Stauffer said. "At that time, he was 10th in the standings; he ended up second. The next meet was the main one at Santa Anita, he finished third.  The next meet was Hollywood spring; he was leading rider. Then was Del Mar; he was leading rider. Then came Oak Tree. He had a chance to tie for the title in the last race of the meet and finished second."

"Joel contacted me contacted me yesterday after the races…I was heartbroken."

Read it at Brisnet.com

Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think

- Bradford Cummings

It wasn’t exactly Katie Couric interrogating Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign when Southern California horseman and radio host Roger Stein invited embattled owner Michael Gill on his show Sunday morning. “Michael Gill has a heart,” Stein said during his introductory remarks, adding that it “bothered me to no end when it looked like they are trying to get rid of him.”

Gill, the center of controversy because of a high number of breakdowns at Penn National and a boycott by jockeys there, defended his stable’s safety record, criticized Penn National jockeys and their agents along with the track’s management and racing surface. He said he will file lawsuits against “jockeys and trainers and racetracks.” He also said there is widespread jealousy over his success which he said is attributable to the fact his horses are given throat surgeries and treated with EPM medication. “It’s like Kentucky Fried Chicken giving out their recipe to the competition,” he told Stein.

Despite that success, Gill said he is getting out of racing again—but this time for good. “Right now,” he said in response to a question from Stein about whether there comes a time when enough is enough. “You’re going to walk away?” Stein said. “Yeah,” said Gill, saying that his family has “slept in a hotel for two nights” out of fear that his critics are “going to send hit squads to my house. … I’ve got five children and two stepchildren and I’m not going to have them fear about being home,” he said. “Maybe I can replace (racing)  with some peace and quiet and deal with that.”

“You might be a tough guy, but you’re a good-hearted tough guy,” Stein said to Gill. “When you leave, they’ll never replace you, Michael…after looking at everything I feel for you.”

Said Gill: “Sometimes in this game you’ve got to fold to win.”

Click here for the full audio of the Roger Stein Show

If you are having trouble hearing the audio, click here for a free download of iTunes 7

Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think

- Ray Paulick

Beginning with Wednesday night’s program, Penn National again began accepting entries of horses owned by Michael Gill, but at scratch time on Saturday morning, the majority of jockeys named in four races where Gill’s horses were entered opted not to be checked in on the overnight sheet.

Jockey Jose Baez, named on Gill’s horses, was the only jockey listed to ride in races three and four, with 10 and 12 horses in each field, respectively; Baez was named to ride for Gill in the fifth, with two other riders, Abel Mariano and L.B. Quinones, also accepting mounts in the 10-horse field; in the eighth, with Baez again riding for Gill, Stacey Zavala and David Cardoso were the only others named in 12-horse field.

According to sources, Penn National management urged jockeys to ride, at the risk of being fined. Chris McErlean, vice president of racing for Penn National Gaming, would not comment regarding any potential sanctions against jockeys refusing to ride.

The standoff began last Saturday night when jockeys refused to ride in future races that included horses owned by Gill after one of the New Hampshire-based owner’s horses broke down in the fifth race of the night. It was the second breakdown in three nights by horses owned by Gill. Penn National management has asked the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission to investigate.

Click here to see Penn National entries for Wednesday night.

 
            ARCADIA, Calif. (Jan. 15, 2010)—As news of the devastating 7.3 earthquake which struck the Caribbean island nation of Haiti on Tuesday continues to unfold, the Santa Anita jockeys’ colony and Santa Anita Park have joined forces to send aid via the American Red Cross beginning on Sunday.

            “We initiated plans to try and help with this on Wednesday,” said Santa Anita President Ron Charles.  “Alex Solis then contacted me on Thursday and said that a number of jockeys would be interested in donating mount fees or a percentage of their winnings from a designated race day, in order to try and help.  We of course welcomed their support and we contacted the Arcadia chapter of the American Red Cross and they have agreed to coordinate this effort for us.  This is a great gesture on the part of these jockeys and we are more than happy to partner with them in trying to help as many people as possible.  As we all know, the current situation in Haiti is desperate.”

            The public is invited to join in this effort as well and the Red Cross will be at Santa Anita on Sunday to assist in collecting aid. Red Cross volunteers, dressed in red coats, will be positioned at both of the track’s main admission gates and will have five gallon collection buckets available for donations.

            According to initial estimates, as many as three million people may have been affected by the quake, and it is feared there could be as many as 50,000 deaths.  Thousands of buildings and residences have been collapsed and many areas remain inaccessible as roads have been covered with debris and bridges have collapsed.

            In addition to on-track contributions this Sunday, people are encouraged to make donations to the American Red Cross International Response Fund at www.redcross.org, or by calling 1-800-REDCROSS (1-800-733-2767).

            The Red Cross is also receiving money through a third party mobile fundraising effort sponsored by Mobile Accord.  Mobile donors can text “Haiti” to 90999 to send a $10 donation to the Red Cross.

By Ray Paulick
Over 20 years ago, during a trip to Japan to ride Pay the Butler in the Japan Cup and participate in the World Super Jockeys competition, jockey Chris McCarron was asked to speak at the Japan Racing Association’s jockey school, where teenagers with professional riding aspirations are taught about the sport, about horses and about life. McCarron was impressed by what he saw, and returned home vowing to someday help start a similar school in the United States.

“We’ve got the best racing in the world,” he said. “Yet we’ve never had a place to formally train for a job in the industry as a jockey. There are riding schools around the world. Panama has the most famous one, but there are others, including one in Newmarket, and the oldest one in the world was established in South Africa.”

Following his retirement in 2002, Hall of Famer McCarron ramped up his efforts and sought support for the idea of a jockey school, something the late Hall of Fame Bill Shoemaker toyed with during the latter stages of his career. He met with a group that included Keeneland president Nick Nicholson, who had worked with Shoemaker on the concept, and with seed money provided by Keeneland found a home for the school within the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. McCarron called it a “match made in heaven.”

The North American Racing Academy was launched in the fall of 2006, with a first-year class of 11 students who would spend the next two years in the classroom, getting hands-on training from McCarron and be placed in an internship with a top trainer. The 11 students were selected from more than 50 applicants, and eight of them completed their studies, getting an associate degree. Subsequent classes included 10 students that enrolled in 2007 (six graduated), 17 in 2008 (16 are on target to graduate this spring), and 11 enrolled in the fall of 2009. In addition to those enrolled to learn how to become jockeys, the 2008 enrollment class included eight students on what McCarron calls the “horseman’s pathway.”

The North American Racing Academy has a staff of four. McCarron, the director, lectures in the classroom and offers hands-on lessons; there is a second full-time instructor; a barn manager; and a director of program facilities. The NARA is based at the Kentucky Horse Park and uses the Training Center on Paris Park classroom work.

Cost to students ranges from $132 per credit hour for Kentucky residents to $425 per credit hour for out of state students. Seventy hours are required for an associate’s degree.

The latter half of 2009 was a bittersweet time for McCarron, who was devastated to see one of NARA’s early graduates, Michael Straight, severely injured in a spill at Arlington Park. The final month of the year brought some good news when Ben Creed became the first NARA graduate to win a riding title, when he led all jockeys at the Turfway Park holiday meeting.

Creed is an example, McCarron said, of how students can really blossom during their on-track internships. “He surprised the heck out of me,” McCarron said. “He was not very far along when he was here, but he interned in California with John Sadler and came back a lot  more polished. He really came along in a short period of time. Ben is one of those guys like me who had no previous experience at all with horses. He would not have been one of my picks at this time last year to stand out.”

Trainers involved in the internships include Todd Pletcher, Jonathan Sheppard, Shug  McGaughey, Nick Zito, Wesley Ward, Doug O’Neill and Tom Proctor, among others. Interns are asked to gallop and breeze horses, clean tack and help around the barn. “I want them to know as much as possible about what it takes to get a horse ready to race in the afternoon,” McCarron said.

McCarron said he is “ecstatic” with the launch and early progress for the North American Racing Academy (which was not named a “riding” academy because he wants it to include programs for prospective grooms and trainers as well as jockeys).

He has even bigger plans for the school’s future, including a campus at the Kentucky Horse Park and possible expansion to a second division in the Ocala, Florida, area that would be part of the the Central Florida Community College System.

For more information, click here to visit the web site of the North American Racing Academy.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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Someone made a comment on the Paulick Report yesterday after reading an opinion piece by intern Natalie Voss on Horse of the Year lobbying that the "silly season" has begun. Perhaps it has. 

Horse of the Year voting is over and we’re a couple of weeks from knowing the verdict. The big races of 2010 are months away. We’ve turned 11 shades of purple holding our breath for the past eight years to find out who will operate the VLT parlor at Aqueduct. Zenyatta is "still retired," according to her connections, though she continues to train like a racehorse. And California horse owner David Milch, who turned the Wild West upset down with his HBO original series "Deadwood,"  is contemplating a similar take on horse racing. If that series debuts at the 2010 Jockey Club Round Table dinner, it will send Dinny Phipps and friends screaming into the Saratoga night

Today, after reading this morning’s online story from the San Diego Union-Tribune about the upcoming movie on the life of Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone, my mind started wandering. Who will play Krone in the film, which Julie herself said is appropriately titled "Freak."? I’ve thumbed through my backlog of US Weekly magazines, consulted with my teenaged, movie-going daughter, even went to TMZ.com to see what actresses are in the news these days.

I don’t have the answer, but Gravity Films president Katherine Brooks (she of "The Osbournes," Jessica Simpson and MTV’s "Real World" fame), who announced the project in November, apparently does. Quoting from the San Diego Union-Tribune article, the actress and Krone will have something in common. At some point in their career…both women endured ridicule and judgment. “The actress playing Julie is not what people will expect,” Brooks said. “People will go into the movie with their preconceived notions of who this actress is because of tabloid gossip, but they will come out respecting her, because they will be reminded of how strong of an actress she is.”

So here  is the article from the San Diego newspaper. Give it a read and then come back and let us know who you think will play Krone in "Freak." I don’t have a clue. We’ll put the best answers in an upcoming poll and put it up for a vote. – Ray Paulick

There has been much talk about how to widen racing’s audience in the United States. Quite frankly, there should be more discussion of it on these and other pages. To me, it’s the single most critical step after a state gets slot machines. As Ray has said in the past, slots are a necessary band-aid. How we heal the wound will determine the future of racing.

British racing seems to be wrestling with the idea and have come up with several programs to bring the sport closer to the masses. Offering jocks training in dealing with the media and appearance fees and a central PR campaign to promote racing more effectively to a wider audience.

Will this effort work or is it a misguided if not well-intentioned attempt to put racing back on top?

Click here for the Reuters article in the New York Times

Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think.

- Bradford Cummings

By Ray Paulick
What do jockey Martin Pedroza and quarterback Brett Favre have in common? Critics in horse racing and the National Football League say they both did a little favor to help a couple of friends set records in their respective sports.

Favre was lambasted in 2002 when it appeared he “took a dive” late in the final game of the season between the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants, allowing defensive end Michael Strahan of the Giants to set an NFL record for the most sacks in a single season. The move took some of the shine off Strahan’s accomplishment, but the sack and the record are in the books.

Favre was ripped by, among others, Mike Freeman in the New York Times for “handing” Strahan the record as if he were “throwing change into a Salvation Army bucket.” Freeman said it was the “kind of mistake Favre may never live down.”

Pedroza helped Garrett Gomez win his fourth consecutive money title by reportedly telling Santa Anita Park stewards he was not feeling well and took off Cenizo, his mount in the final race of the year at the Southern California track. Gomez got the pick-up mount, won the race, and earned more than enough money to surpass Julien Leparoux, who had been well in front when he stopped riding in early December to visit family in France.

Earlier on Dec. 31, after Gomez’s first of two scheduled mounts of the day finished sixth (he won with his second mount), it looked as though Leparoux would win his first money title by a $194 margin. All Gomez needed to do aboard Cenizo was break from the gate, and the horse would have earned an appearance fee of $400, enough to pass Leparoux, but Cenizo won, giving Gomez year-end mount earnings of $18,571,171, compared to Leparoux’s $18,560,371.

Unlike Favre, who was widely criticized, Pedroza only had to put up with a snarky blog post from the Daily Racing Form’s Jay Privman on Jan. 1. Under the headline “PEDROZA MAKES MIRACULOUS RECOVERY,” Privman wrote, “Garrett Gomez won the national money title in the last race on Thursday when jockey Martin Pedroza fortuitously took off what turned out to be a winning mount. Yet Pedroza was back in action Friday, looking just fine.”

Privman or one of the Form’s other Southern California-based writers could have done some legitimate reporting on the circumstances and ethics of the issue, but apparently chose not to, despite the fact more than a few people are crying foul over how Gomez won the title.
 
Ron Anderson, the agent for Gomez, says it’s much ado about nothing. (UPDATE: The original version of this article, which read "much adieu about nothing," has been changed because my French pun did not go over well with readers.)

“This is certainly not the first time this kind of thing has happened, and it won’t be the last,” said Anderson, who steered Hall of Famers Gary Stevens and Jerry Bailey to multiple money titles during their careers. “At least four jockeys came into the room and offered to give up a mount so Garrett could get the title. We didn’t fix a race, and it’s not like they opened up the rail to let him win. So there’s a guy who offered to take off his horse, and he took off.”

Anderson wasn’t sure, but assumed Gomez would pay Pedroza his share of the $10,800 winner’s purse in the race in question.

“I talked to Mike Smith about how some people are upset over this, and Mike started laughing,” Anderson continued. “He said, ‘Do you know how many times we took off for Angel Cordero? I probably took off 10 horses in two days so he could win the Saratoga title.’”

Anderson said Hall of Famers like Angel Cordero Jr. and Pat Day would get pick-up mounts at night tracks on New Year’s Eve to go after a money title.

“Julien (Leparoux) and his agent the last two days of the year went around and tried to get on horses at Calder and couldn’t do it,” Anderson said (something the Paulick Report was unable to confirm). “I don’t get how some people don’t understand this. I don’t even know what to say to them. This has been done numerous times, and it’s been done numerous times with more manipulation than just one race.”

Anderson takes pride in the title, especially when comparing the number of mounts and wins by Gomez, Leparoux and third-place finisher Ramon Dominguez.

“Julien won almost forty more races than we did (247 by Leparoux from 1,284 mounts, compared with 210 of 967 for Gomez), and Ramon, who rides all year in New York—arguably our biggest circuit—he won 180 more races than Garrett (a total of 391 wins from 1,651 mounts). It looks like a misprint, but he’s still behind us in money.”

“I get out of bed 365 days a year to try and get leading rider,” said Anderson. “This is what motivates me.”

To win the title, a jockey needs a tireless, sharp agent, and plenty of live mounts in big races. And when all else fails, it doesn’t hurt to get a little help from your friends.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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