Archive for the ‘People’ Category

Stevens testified Nov. 19, for more than 30 minutes by his account. “I told the deputy DA prosecuting the case, ‘Sir, I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but I did not have a conversation with Joel prior to my testimony here. This is purely a retired jockey stepping up for a fellow rider being questioned for something he didn’t do.”

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
TOKYO, Japan–Mirco Demuro had just been punk’d by, of all people, Sir Michael Stoute, and he looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

By Ray Paulick
I took no glee in writing about bloodstock agent Jim Cullen’s legal and financial problems earlier this week. The trail of lawsuits, unpaid financial obligations and charges of alleged wrongdoing from some of his former clients and associates do not paint a pretty picture to outsiders interested in investing in the Thoroughbred industry.

For his part, Cullen has responded to my article at the website he maintains for his company, Cullen Bloodstock. Click here to read his response. Feel free to comment below on whether you feel he was wronged by the Paulick Report expose, or in subsequent, similar articles at bloodhorse.com and drf.com.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
Know and Trust is a 2-year-old filly owned by some former clients of bloodstock agent Jim Cullen and trained by Cullen’s childhood friend and college roommate William Denzik Jr.

Cullen was recently given a one-year banishment from participation at Keeneland Association auctions, based on violation of a Code of Conduct written by the Sales Integrity Task Force, an initiative of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. Fasig-Tipton is also enforcing the one-year suspension, which runs through 2010, and other sales companies around the country are considering taking the same action. The sanctions came earlier in November, nine months after Trumbulovich, Kevin Geiger of Colorado and Vincent Colbert of Massachusetts contacted the Task Force with complaints about their former bloodstock adviser. “We could easily have turned our back on this, walked away and say we got screwed,” Colbert said. “We talked it over and decided we didn’t want this to happen to somebody else.”

But that is just the beginning of Cullen’s troubles. He has been sued by several parties, including horse owner Cam Horton, the stallion season firm Early Season Income, National City Bank, and Wells Fargo Bank. The Internal Revenue Service says Cullen owes $233,143.72 in taxes from 2003-05. He agreed in 2007 to pay Cam Horton $333,000 for not reimbursing Horton for a season to A.P. Indy after Horton’s mare aborted, and has not met that obligation. A Fayette County judge has ordered him to pay National City Bank $348,181.65. Wells Fargo is in the process of foreclosing on Cullen’s home.

FROM JOURNALISM TO PINHOOKING

Cullen is a former journalist who worked for Thoroughbred Times as a news reporter, then served as editor of the Texas Thoroughbred magazine while contributing to the Blood-Horse as a free-lance correspondent. He also was employed for a short time by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association based in Lexington. As recently as August of this year, he was a guest speaker at a new owners’ seminar Blood-Horse Publications sponsored in conjunction with the Texas Thoroughbred Association prior to a Fasig-Tipton yearling sale.

‘I’M A GOOD HORSEMAN. I’M OBVIOUSLY NOT A GOOD BUSINESS PERSON’

A number of mares in the partnerships were bred, and the partners were billed for stud fees, which they subsequently paid for, according to Cullen’s sworn testimony in the March 2009 deposition involving the National City Bank lawsuit. Under questioning from attorney Emily Cowles of Morgan & Pottinger (representing National City) and Mike Meuser of Miller Griffin and Marks (representing Trumbulovic, Colbert and Geiger), Cullen admitted that on numerous occasions he did not use the money billed to clients for stud fees to pay those fees. Many of the fees were never paid to the farms.

Here is an excerpt regarding Cullen’s purchase of stallion seasons, the billing of clients and non-payment to farms:

MEUSER: Okay, and I can show you the other invoices. But on each occasion that you billed Mr. Colbert or Mr. Geiger or Mr. Trumbulovic for these stud feeds you labeled them specifically on your invoice that that’s what they were being billed for.

MEUSER: All right. And you had made the contractual arrangements with the farms to obtain those seasons?

CULLEN: Correct.

MEUSER: And you knew that when you received those monies from my clients you were obligated to to use them to satisfy those obligations?

CULLEN: See, I didn’t know that. I thought like I, like I’ve made clear, I thought that the whole protection of an LLC was designated to give you license to use that to the best benefit of the company as provided you satisfied what this obligation was for.

CULLEN: I can understand. Yes, sir.

MEUSER: … that a client who received this bill and paid it would have the expectation that their agent who they trusted would use those monies properly?

CULLEN: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I, I agree to that. I mean.

MEUSER: That’s all I have.

CULLEN: Okay.

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By Ray Paulick
I had always been intimidated by trainer Bobby Frankel until I had the opportunity to spend some time with him in Tokyo in 2001 when he sent Amerman Racing Stable’s Lido Palace there for the second running of the Japan Cup Dirt.
 
With just that one horse to care for in Japan, he was more a tourist than a horseman that week. Unmarried at the time, he brought a former assistant trainer, Fred Cogan, as his guest (the Japan Racing Association allows each trainer to bring a spouse or guest at the JRA’s expense), and the three of us wound up palling around for much of the week, talking more about life than horses.

The lobby of the Keio Plaza Hotel was our gathering place, where it seemed there always was a wedding going on or one about to happen. Frankel was fascinated by the fact so many Japanese couples had Western-style weddings, and on the drive to the track one morning he opened a discussion about religion, wondering how a Buddhist society yielded so many weddings that looked like Christian ceremonies in America.

“What religion are you?” I asked, knowing that he was born Jewish.

“I’m one of those…what do you call them…they don’t really believe in anything.”

“Atheist?” Cogan asked.

“No, no,” he said. “I’m just not really sure….you know…aga…aga-something.”
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“Agnostic?” I said.

“Yeah, that’s it,” he said. “Aga-nostic. I really don’t know what to believe. How can anyone really know, you know what I mean?”

The discussion continued about religion and prayer, and Frankel volunteered that there was only one time in his career that he asked God for some help in winning a horse race, when Keeper Hill ran in the 1999 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland. The filly was owned by John and Alice Chandler of Mill Ridge Farm and trainer Shug McGaughey. “I made a deal with God,” he said, “that if Keeper Hill won that race I would donate all of my winnings to charity. He kept his end of the bargain and so did I.”

I didn’t ask Frankel why he chose that particular horse and race to pray to a God he wasn’t sure existed, but I had my suspicions. Shortly after Keeper Hill had won, there were rumors that the filly was given a milkshake before the race (a loading of bicarbonates), something that might not have gone over very well with Alice Chandler, who had been leading the fight to tighten Kentucky’s then-lax medication rules.

“Keeper Hill…wasn’t there some story about her getting a milkshake before the Spinster?” I asked Frankel. He didn’t say yes or no, but his answer told me all I needed to know. “It wasn’t illegal,” he said, stretching that last word out in a way that only a native New Yorker could.

He was right. Milkshakes weren’t prohibited by the Kentucky Racing Commission until 2001 (they were banned in every other state, except Louisiana), and there were many people, including a number of veterinarians, who felt they were good for horses, since it was a natural substance that prevented lactic acid buildup and kept a horse from tiring, which is when many injuries occur. Frankel, if he did have a milkshake administered to Keeper Hill, didn’t break any rules.

Frankel admitted during the course of another conversation that he would use every legal edge available to win a race, as long as it didn’t do any harm to the horse. While in Japan that year, he checked with JRA officials to see what type of racing plates could be used for Lido Palace. “If I lost by that much,” he said, holding his thumb and index finger an inch apart, “and didn’t take advantage of whatever was legal, I wouldn’t be able to sleep.”

Lido Palace ran a clunker in Japan, finishing far behind Kurofune in a mystifying performance. I don’t think Frankel slept very well that night, and it wasn’t because of jet lag. Over breakfast the next morning, he said he thinks he messed up when he tightened the girth on Lido Palace, cinching it so tight the horse might have had trouble breathing properly.

Frankel was as competitive as anyone in the sport, celebrating the wins in style but also suffering through the losses. He was always looking for an edge, but drew the line if the result could be harmful to his horses. During his record-setting year in 2003 when he won 25 Grade 1 races and set a new earnings mark for trainers, rumors ran rampant that he was “juicing” his horses with a blood-doping agent called Epogen.

I called him, told him about the rumors I’d been hearing, and asked if it was true. “How stupid do you think I am?” he said. “I’ve got the best training job in this business with Juddmonte. You think I would do something to risk that?

“That shit kills horses,” he said. “I don’t use any of that stuff–anabolic steroids–anything that’s harmful to a horse.”

The loss of Frankel leaves a big void in our sport. He was as colorful as anyone I’ve ever known. His record of accomplishment speaks for itself and brought him fame around the world, gaining him entry into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame.

But his love for the horses he trained will punch Frankel’s ticket to heaven—if there is such a place. After all, who really knows?

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
On a flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg during my August visit to South Africa, I struck up a conversation with a pleasant young man from Zimbabwe (the country known as Rhodesia some years back) who was on his way home from, of all things, a team break-dancing competition

I knew Zimbabwe had serious problems, but when I asked him what the biggest challenge was for young people in his homeland, his answer absolutely stunned me. “We have an unemployment rate of 80 percent, and an average life expectancy of 37 years,” he said. When I returned home, I went online to see if those numbers he quoted me were accurate. Sadly, they were. (Actually, the life expectancy for Zimbabwean women is 34 years, three fewer than for men.)

HIV/AIDS and other diseases have ravaged Zimbabwe and many other African countries, including neighboring Botswana, where in the early 1980s a young Johnathan Miller served as a director for the Peace Corps. Miller went on to successful careers in both the private and public sector, working in the State Department during the Reagan Administration and later as a political director to President George H.W. Bush. He is currently president of Bluemont International, an advisory firm based in Washington, D.C.

A Louisville, Ky., native who now lives on a farm in Paeonian Springs, Va., with his wife Elizabeth (Lisa) Thompson, Miller is also a Thoroughbred owner and breeder committed to providing retirement homes to ex-racehorses—both personally and industry wide. It’s in the latter capacity that I came to know Miller while he served as president of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation over a three-year period. He loves racing, particularly in Europe, but even more so loves the horses who make the sport go. He and Lisa are high on a 3-year-old filly named Southafrican Queen, a daughter of the South African champion Horse Chestnut, who won a graded stakes in the United States but then suffered a career-ending injury. Horse Chestnut started his stud career at Claiborne Farm, then returned to his homeland.

Miller stepped down as TRF president recently to devote more time to two of his other passions—aircraft and Africa—and they’ve reunited him with Botswana.

In 2006, Miller and his wife established a 501(c)3 charity called Airborne Lifeline Foundation, which uses small aircraft to transport health care professionals and medication to remote areaas of Botswana. He came up with the concept while consulting on a commercial project for a client who wanted to find a use for turbo-prop aircraft. “I saw a scarcity of medical resources and an inability to move it efficiently to where it could do the most good,” Miller said. He approached some people in the United States who panned the idea, saying it would be more efficient to use ground transportation. But Miller persisted, getting an enthusiastic endorsement from Botswana’s Ministry of Health and from then U.S. Ambassador to Botswana, Joseph Huggins.

“Since it was a brand new idea and it had never been tried, we had trouble funding it,” said Miller. “We basically mortgaged our farm and went ahead. It was like the ‘field of dreams’–build it and they will come. We borrowed several hundred thousand dollars and started flying the flights in 2007.”

Gradually, those Westerners who thought Miller’s idea was foolish came onboard. In 2008, $350,000 in funding came from PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), and additional money has been contributed from Merck and Co. pharmaceuticals and private donors including former Secretary of the Treasury James Baker and his wife, Susan. The total annual cost of the program is about $600,000, Miller said. It goes to lease the planes, purchase fuel and pay for the pilots.

In African bush country, people walk for hours upon hours to go to a town or village, often not knowing what they’ll find when they get to their destination. Health care professionals and medication are in scarce supply in many parts of the country, but Airborne Lifeline flights allow doctors to visit specific towns on the same day of the month on a regular basis. Thus, those Africans who have long treks through the bush know they’ll have a chance to get help when they arrive.

Flights go to six remote regions of the country every month, with the doctors flying in and out on the same day. “Rather than have them spend three days in a Land Rover, they can do three days of treatment,” said Miller. Eight  doctors were on a recent flight–including three from Baylor University and three from the University of Pennsylvania–that brought them to clinics in a remote desert. They see patients, bring medication and take back blood samples that can be refrigerated on the flights and then tested in fully staffed hospitals. The program has expanded beyond exclusively treating HIV/AIDS patients and now does preventative care and deals with other health issues.

(Click here to see a news feature on the Airline Lifeline flights.)

Miller chose Botswana because, he said, though it has a high HIV/AIDS rate, it has done more to address the disease than most other African countries. In addition, he said, Botswana is a multi-party democracy without corruption, something that makes it easier to get things done.

He is anxious, however, to expand the program to other countries, which had been suggested by American HIV/AIDS specialist Dr. Thomas Kenyon. “We are beginning discussions with Namibia, Tanzania, Ghana, Liberia and Ethiopia, but we can only go in bite sizes,” Miller said. “Whoever expresses the most interest first is where we’ll likely go. If Mugabe steps down in Zimbabwe (Robert Mugabe has been head of that country since 1980, with disastrous results), we’d go there.

“We’d like to roll out one country next year, but I still have to run a business and take care of my horses,” he said.

For more information or to make a donation to this 501(c)3 organization, write to: Airborne Lifeline Foundation, Box 49, 1700 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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Liberation Farm celebrates the many horsemen and horsewomen who strive each day to make things better for horses and those who work with them.  To learn more about Liberation Farm, click here.

By Ray Paulick
I awoke to the sad news Wednesday morning that Bruce Hundley had passed away at the age of 67. Hundley fulfilled a dream he had as a young boy when he left his native Louisiana and moved to Kentucky after college and service in the United States Marines to establish Saxony Farm near Versailles, where he raised champion Thoroughbreds and cattle.

Hundley was always a gentleman in my dealings with him, whether at the horse sales or other industry events, or while a member of the Kentucky Racing Commission during the administration of Gov. Brereton C. Jones.

Some years ago he was featured in a brief segment of the public television broadcast "Kentucky Life" on KET. He talked about Saxony Farm, his passion for the industry, for the animals and the land on which they are raised, and for the people who dedicate their lives to horses. He was the kind of person who made you proud to be in the horse industry and his loss is shared by many who share his passion.

Bloodhorse.com has further details here on his life and the champion horses he raised, but there is no better way to understand Bruce Hundley than to hear, in his own words, why he loved this industry, Click here to view the brief "Kentucky Life" segment about Hundley broadcast on KET.

In the latest of a series of editorials between Kentucky’s horsemen and Senate President David Williams, Bill Farish of Lane’s End Farm writes a scathing indictment of the constitutional amendment. He claims it is a cop-out by Senate Republicans and that by David Williams’ own admission, an amendment is an unnecessary step.

While we both agree that slots are essential to the survival of Kentucky racing, how we get there is where the Paulick Report splits. Ray has been against a constitutional amendment, believing it will only stall the process and ultimately lead to nothing. I understand the current make up of the Senate and believe the only way to have this signed into law by 2011 is through the people. If 70% of Kentuckians want this, then it should be a slam dunk, right? And there is no guarantee the Senate will flip in 2010 as it is shaping up to be a Republican year nationally.

What say you? - Bradford Cummings

While our signature industry continues to exit the Commonwealth, our Republican leaders in the Senate continue to insist on playing politics with the future of the Thoroughbred business in Kentucky. For the last few years, Senate Republicans led by Senate President David Williams have steadfastly opposed a constitutional amendment to allow expanded gaming opportunities at Kentucky’s racetracks. Their longstanding opposition has allowed our competitor states to establish racing and breeding programs subsidized by expanded gaming, and those states have put us at an enormous competitive disadvantage. We are losing race horses, stallions, mares and a significant number of jobs to those states, and we are in danger of seeing major farms shutter their operations and move to friendlier jurisdictions.
 
As a final insult to our signature industry, Sen. Williams did not even bother to bring legislation that would have allowed VLTs at Kentucky race tracks for a full vote of the Senate. After the bill passed the House it was promised a fair hearing in the Senate, but was instead sent to a committee where the chairman declared it dead before testimony was even heard.
 
So after years of outright neglect and hostility toward an industry that employs 100,000 Kentuckians, it appears that Senate Republicans are beginning to feel the heat from their constituents. As almost 70 percent of Kentuckians support putting VLTs at racetracks, and as their Senate majority has shrunk with the loss of two straight special elections, one would hope that Senate Republicans would finally listen to the majority of Kentuckians by supporting legislation to put our industry on a level competitive playing field. But sadly, it appears that Senate Republicans will continue to play political games with the livelihoods of so many hard working Kentuckians.
 
The word around Frankfort is that Senate leadership is preparing to offer up the old idea of putting forth a constitutional amendment to permit gaming at Kentucky race tracks. This sounds great on the surface but, as usual in politics, there is more to it than meets the eye. First, a constitutional amendment is unnecessary, and Sen. Williams has already conceded this point. Allowing VLTs at racetracks is already constitutional, as affirmed by two recent Attorney General Opinions. Sen. Williams agreed that a constitutional amendment is not required to put VLTs at racetracks. So why then are they preparing to support a constitutional amendment? Politics.
 
Senate Republicans are struggling to retain their majority, and several of their members are facing tough re-election fights next November. It seems that Senate leadership has made the cynical decision to try and put expanded gaming on the ballot in an effort to drive up social conservative turnout in the next election cycle, hoping that the increased turnout will help their Senate candidates, in much the same manner that the gay marriage amendment helped Republican candidates a few years ago.
 
Never mind that a constitutional amendment is not necessary. Never mind that it could not be voted on until November 2010, and then if it passed, could not be implemented until late 2011—costing Kentucky jobs and doing further damage to our industry in the mean time. Never mind that out-of-state casinos will pour in tens of millions of dollars to defeat an amendment, and will once again make Senate Republicans the biggest defenders of out-of-state casinos. Never mind that the time for an amendment has come and gone, and that the industry desperately needs immediate statutory action.
 
None of these things matter, because it is clear that Senate Republican leadership is not really interested in helping the horse industry. Rather, they are only interested in helping themselves, by trying to hold onto whatever power they can in Frankfort. Senate Republicans seem determined to play political games with thousands of Kentuckians’ livelihoods, and their retention of power and privilege has trumped all else. It is truly disheartening that a handful of Senators have decided that retaining their political power is more important than helping our entire state, helping our signature industry and protecting the jobs of 100,000 Kentuckians.
 
As a lifelong Republican, I am hopeful that rank and file members of the Senate caucus will rise up against their cynical leadership, and act in the best interest of Kentucky by supporting an immediate statutory solution that will enable our signature industry to fairly compete with our out of state competition.
 
Bill Farish
General Manager, Lane’s End Farm

It could happen, judging from the results of Monday’s two Grade 1 races for 2-year-old colts, the Three Chimneys Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga won by the Lukas-trained Dublin, and the Del Mar Futurity won by the Baffert-trained Lookin at Lucky. Both colts turned in strong performances to win their respective races, and they each have the pedigree to continue as the races get longer. It’s a long, long way, however, from the first Monday in September to the first Saturday in May, and a lot can happen. But Lukas and Baffert each are well stocked with well-bred and talented 2-year-olds, and history shows they know what it takes to win the Kentucky Derby.

It would be great for this sport if these two Hall of Famers and now-fast friends do show up at Churchill Downs with the leading Derby contenders next spring. Lukas and Baffert have been the two most recognizable faces and best spokesmen for the game when the media and general public are paying attention—during the Triple Crown.

Seven Derbies have passed since Baffert last stood in the infield winner’s circle and it’s been 10 years for Lukas. They were synonymous with the race in the 1990s, when the sport and the industry at its foundation were going through better times. Neither Lukas nor Baffert is big enough or strong enough to save the sport on their own, but their success can help move it back into the spotlight.

It was hard to believe when reading David Grening’s Daily Racing Form recap of the Hopeful that Lukas has gone nearly four years without a Grade 1 victory—his last one coming with Folklore in the 2005 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Belmont Park. That’s a huge drop from the 1980s and early ‘90s when “D. Wayne off the plane” was winning Grade 1 races in bunches, from coast to coast. There were the 10 consecutive North American training titles by money won, from 1983-92, and four more from 1994-97. In 2008, Lukas finished 93rd by money won. Lukas also started a horse in 20 consecutive Kentucky Derbies, from 1981-2000, a total of 38 in all (and, yes, I know, and Wayne probably would admit that some of those horses didn’t belong). But he’s been without a starter in five of the last nine Derbies, a race he won four times between 1988 and 1999.

Some of Lukas’ most important owners, like Bob Lewis and W.T. Young, died, and some others moved on to different trainers.

Baffert hasn’t experienced quite as severe a drought, but he, too, has weathered some storms in recent years. Prince Ahmed Salman and Bob Lewis were important patrons of Baffert, and his stable suffered from their deaths. Like Lukas, Baffert also lost some owners to other trainers, but he’s had some loyal ones, too, like Lookin for Lucky’s owner Mike Pegram, who convinced Baffert to make the transition to Thoroughbreds. 

Baffert won the North American money title four consecutive years, from 1998-2001, but in three of the last four years (2005-08), he slipped out of the top 10. In six years, from 1996 (when Cavonnier fell a nose short of the Lukas-trained Grindstone, almost giving Baffert a Derby win as a rookie) to 2001, Baffert started 11 horses in the Derby. In the eight years since, he’s had just seven Derby starters. He’s won the Derby three times, with two seconds and two thirds.

While both came from the Quarter horse ranks, they were more rivals than friends in the 1990s when Baffert appeared on the Thoroughbred scene and threatened Lukas’ dominance over the sport. But as the years have passed and both men have mellowed, they’ve become good friends. Baffert even asked Lukas to introduce him at this year’s Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, something Lukas did with his usual flair.

Both are enjoying a revival in 2009. Baffert surged to third in the trainer money-won standings following an unforgettable Labor Day weekend at Del Mar that included three Grade 1 victories (Zensational in the Pat O’Brien, Richard’s Kid in the Pacific Classic, and Lookin at Lucky in the Del Mar Futurity—all for different owners). Lukas, though ranked 42nd by money won, is just getting his 2-year-olds going, and he has said he’s loaded, thanks to some new owners, including Legends Racing (which also has horses with Baffert and Nick Zito) and Scott Ford of Westrock Stable, along with some mainstays, including Dublin’s owners, William Mack and Robert Baker.

“This was my No. 1 pick in the sales,” Lukas said of Dublin (who was one of two Grade 1 winners at Saratoga over the weekend sold as yearlings by Gerry Dilger’s Dromoland, the other being Spinaway winner Hot Dixie Chick). “I still haven’t lost my eye in that part. I like to play in the main arena – these 2-year-olds, when they turn 3, that’s the name of the game.”

The boys—Lukas and Baffert–are back, and I think the game is better off because of it.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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