Posts Tagged ‘Barbaro’

By Ray Paulick
When Barbaro streaked to the wire 6 1/2 lengths in front to win the 2006 Kentucky Derby, there was tremendous buzz throughout the racing world over the contributions the unbeaten son of Dynaformer could make to the Thoroughbred breed as a future stallion.

Those hopes were dashed when Barbaro suffered a devastating hind leg injury shortly after the start of the Preakness Stakes, and lost a gallant battle for survival some 8 1/2 months later.

In a strange way, though, Roy and Gretchen Jackson’s homebred colt may yet have a greater impact on the breed than ever imagined. It was his injury—played out in the glaring spotlight of the mainstream news media—that provided the impetus for a two-day workshop in October 2006 to examine ways to improve safety and soundness for racehorses. One of the recommendations to come out of this Welfare and Safety Summit was the creation of a national on-track injury reporting system. A pilot program, collecting injury data from 30 racetracks, was launched the following spring and became the forerunner of the Equine Injury Database, one of the recommendations of the Jockey Club’s Thoroughbred Safety Committee, formed after another high-profile tragedy—the death of the filly Eight Belles at the 2008 Kentucky Derby.

The Equine Injury Database, funded entirely by the Jockey Club as a service to the industry, is North America’s first national injury reporting program and includes approximately 84% of all Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse, mule, Appaloosa, Arabian and National Steeplechase Association races. Click here for the list of tracks that participating. Tracks not participating include Oaklawn Park, River Downs, and Los Alamitos.

Veterinarian Mary Scollay, equine medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, has been an integral part of the data collection process from the beginning and serves as veterinary consultant to the Equine Injury Database. She provided an update on the work for the Paulick Report Forum brought to you by the Breeders’ Cup.

Can you provide an update on the Equine Injury Database after its formation nearly 18 months ago?
We implemented the quality control aspect of it in November 2008. What’s involved there is that the reporting veterinarians tick off a box for each live race date. That way we are able to know that we have complete reporting when no injuries may have occurred.

So Nov. 1, 2008, is the start of the quality controlled data period. We just sent 12 months of data to Dr. Tim Parkin, at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He has done quite a bit of injury epidemiology work for the Hong Kong Jockey Club and British Horseracing Authority.

Why are some tracks not participating?
No has told me why. The software development and all reporting are done at no cost to the tracks and very little time is involved—no more than a couple of minutes per incident. If they are unable to enter the reports into our password-secured database, they can fax in their reports or mail them and we’ll enter it.

What is the severity or type of injuries being collected?
The criteria for reporting to this point has been any situation where a regulatory veterinarian has to intervene—a scratch in the morning because of soundness, a post parade scratch, flipping in the starting gate, a horse who fails to finish and is injured or is injured or lame after the finish. The data base is set up to separate fatalities from non-fatalities.

Is it just for racing, or are training incidents included?
We are interested in getting training information, but at this point the participation is inconsistent. Part of that is whether there is a regulatory veterinarian present during training hours.

Have there been any adjustments in the type of data collected or the methodology?
Not really. Epidemiologists have looked at how we were collecting it and are coinfident it is usable. After they start working with it I suspect they will make some suggestions.

What are the benefits the industry may get from this?
First off, accountability. We will be able to compare apples to apples and have reliable data related to racing injuries. Everyone is using the same criteria, so a specific kind of fracture is reported the same in Washington as in Florida. And if you have turnover in regulatory veterinarians, you collect the data the same.

The next thing is that we have now established a database on a national scope and will be able to identify risk factors to injury related to exercise patterns. It can also be a tool for racing secretaries related to stall allotments. Tracks can look at scratch patterns. The more information you put in the more you can do with it. Injury prevention and understanding injuries is important. Tim (Parkin) is going to be looking initially at fatalities. Everyone wants the answer to the $64,000 question about the different surfaces. But we don’t have enough data to answer that. We don’t have the pre- versus post- data related to synthetic tracks. There is very little in the Equine Injury Database that is pre-synthetic.
 
Within the context of a single track, if you start seeing injuries occurring at the quarter pole, the horsemen will say there is something wrong with the track there. But if you see a trend nationally, regardless of track configurations, size or surface, if you see an injury distribution pattern that is consistent, you are not condemning the track or the surface.
 
The Holy Grail is to combine the work Mick Peterson is doing with the Equine Injury Database (click here for information on the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory developed by Drs. Peterson and C. Wayne McIlwraith). He monitors different track surfaces, has a hydraulic foot to measure the surface response to compression, ground penetrating radar, measures weather, temperature of surface, and drainage. All that stuff has been an art, and he’s brought science to it.

Will results, interpretation or recommendations made as a result of the data be made public at some point?
Dr. Parkin is planning to release descriptive statistics on behalf of the Jockey Club. He is going to give stats that will talk about fatalities per 1,000 starts, will likely reference dirt, turf, synthetic, the distance of races. We have to understand that those numbers, whatever they are, are not the same as a risk assessment. Let’s say there is a higher rate of fatalities on one surface as compared to another. In and of itself that does not mean there is a higher risk because of the surface, because there may be other factors.

For example, when I was in Florida, I observed that we were getting double the rate of right hind pastern fractures on turf vs. dirt. It was consistent over four to five years at both Gulfstream and Calder. The assumption is that turf racing is associated with increased risk for right hind pastern injuries. What is it about grass that makes a horse more likely to fracture his right hind pastern vs. dirt. Finally, someone from France said, “But where are all your turf courses?” (On the inside of dirt tracks.) The turn radius is too tight. It was the turn radius, not the surface. 

The epidemiologist will need to find subsets of the whole population and narrow things down to single variables. You really need someone who is very proficient.

Will there be a version 2.0 of the database?
I’m at this point the proud mother. I’m not the one who is going to direct how the data is analyzed going forward. Parkin and Ashley Hill from Colorado State will do that first. We may come up with some questions that say to them, “Look at the data. Can you answer these questions or do you need something else?”

We are going to hear from people in the industry, questions they want asked, and we’ll hear from other researchers who will come forward with proposals. Ultimately it will become an academic resource. We’ve got some tracks that have been putting in data since January 2007—a lot of them have participated in good faith. We’ve got to follow up on that. We’ve provided the tracks with a good tool to use internally. Some tracks have several years worth of data, and they need to be able to use it.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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For all you Barbaro fans, we wanted to give you the opportunity to cheer on the next full brother of Barbaro after he broke his maiden at Gulfstream Park today. Under the guidance of John Velazquez, Lentenor won by an impressive 3 1/2 lengths.

Click here for the Blood-Horse story

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

- Bradford Cummings

By Ray Paulick
Eclipse Award voters can be unpredictable when it comes to the outstanding owner category. Since there is no definition for the awards, voters can choose between owners whose stables were deep in talent, winning major races throughout the year; those who piled up wins and purses in lower level races with massive operations; or endearing owners with one big horse.

Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Klein in the 1980s, Allen Paulson in the 1990s, and Juddmonte Farms in the current decade represent the stables that competed at the top level with multiple stakes horses. Dan Lasater in the 1970s, John Franks in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and Richard Englander and Mike Gill since 2000 were voted Eclipse Awards by winning a bundle of money and races. Mr. and Mrs. Bertram Firestone (Genuine Risk, 1980), Dotsam Stable (John Henry, 1981), Francis Genter (Unbridled, 1990), Carolyn Hine (Skip Away, 1997), and Lael Stables (Barbaro, 2006) picked up Eclipse Awards as outstanding owner by virtue of one big horse.

The finalists for outstanding owner of 2009 represent two of those three types of stables. Godolphin and Juddmonte were among the leaders in American Graded Stakes victories, while Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Moss raced Horse of the Year finalist Zenyatta (they also campaigned a Grade 2 and Grade 3 winner).

It’s interesting that the Mosses were finalists as the owners of Zenyatta, but not making the top three in balloting was Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stable, which owns Zenyatta’s chief rival in Horse of the Year voting, Rachel Alexandra, in partnership with Harold McCormick.

Does that suggest Zenyatta is favored to win Horse of the Year over Rachel Alexandra? I don’t think so. In my opinion, the Mosses are more popular among voters than Jackson, who thumbed his nose at the Breeders’ Cup because it was run on a synthetic track at Santa Anita Park. Zenyatta not only ran in the Breeders’ Cup (admittedly it was at her home track), but took on colts in the Classic and became the first filly or mare to win that race. Earlier in the year, however, Jackson took some calculated risks with his star 3-year-old filly, running her against colts on three occasions, including the Woodward against older horses in her eighth and final start of the year.

Voters failed to make Jackson a finalist in 2007 or 2008, either, when Curlin was voted Horse of the Year. Do I see a trend here?
 
Interestingly, Dolphus Morrison, the breeder of Rachel Alexandra, is a finalist in the outstanding breeder category (along with Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs and Juddmonte Farms), despite her being the only American Graded Stakes winner of 2009 that he bred.

I make Rachel Alexandra a slight favorite to win Horse of the Year over Zenyatta.

Based on numbers, Godolphin should be favored to win the outstanding owner Eclipse. Sheikh Mohammed has won one previous outstanding owner award in 2006, sharing it with Lael Stables after they each received 110 votes.

Of course, I would have made IEAH the favorite to win the 2008 outstanding owner Eclipse Award, but Stronach Stable won by a single vote even though IEAH far outpaced Stronach in American Graded Stakes wins.

Godolphin was represented by nine American Graded Stakes winners of 2009, including six Grade 1 winners. Juddmonte had four American Graded Stakes winners, three of which won Grade 1 events. Juddmonte far outpaced Godolphin by money won ($6,525,818 to $3,768,896), finishing second in the money standings behind Mike Gill, who operates a large claiming stable. Juddmonte had 116 starters in 2009 compared with 67 for Godolphin. Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stable earned $4,977,513 in purses from 343 starts, so the combination of Godolphin and Darley won $8.7 million.

There is a scenario for the Mosses to win as outstanding owner. Perhaps the voters who cast their ballot for the owner who had the best year winning big races will be divided between Godolphin and Juddmonte. Those who in the past have supported the owners of one big horse may align themselves behind the Mosses.

Stranger things have happened.

New York Times sports writer Joe Drape takes a look at the highlights and low-lights of racing during the ‘aughts’. From the successes of Azeri, Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta to the lows of Barbaro’s breakdown and Big Brown’s chemical enhancements, to some of the Triple Crown near misses, it was a mixed bag of a decade for racing.

Read what Joe has to say here and then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think.

- Bradford Cummings

Do you know an individual or organization who you think we should consider for an upcoming “Good News Friday” feature? Then please e-mail info@paulickreport.com with the name of the individual or organization and a brief description of why you think they should be featured. Additionally, we’d like to thank Rob Whiteley and Liberation Farm for encouraging us to bring to light some of the industry’s positive stories and for sponsoring this exclusive Paulick Report feature.

By Ray Paulick
Good news doesn’t always make us feel good. To me, that’s the story of the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, a 501(c)3 charity that has the thankless task of providing financial assistance to help former jockeys cope with the realities of lives too often spent in wheelchairs. It’s an organization doing exceptionally important work, and like many other worthy causes it struggles to get the funding it needs.

That there is even a Fund for permanently disabled riders is almost a miracle, given the turmoil the Jockeys’ Guild went through under the disastrous leadership of Wayne Gertmenian, whose 2001-2005 reign of terror left the organization teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, and its Disabled Jockeys Fund depleted. Gertmenian was removed as president in November 2005, just a month after a Congressional hearing on the Guild uncovered massive problems. The Guild eventually was forced into bankruptcy.

Racing executives like Steve Sexton of Churchill Downs Inc. and Don Amos, then with Magna Entertainment, helped lead the charge to start a new Fund, and in May 2006 the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund was created as part of NTRA Charities. One month later, with seed money from Churchill Downs Inc., Magna and other tracks, it was able to begin offering financial assistance to permanently disabled riders in need.

LaSala said many racetracks have really stepped up to help raise money for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. Horsemen’s organizations have not been as supportive, though individuals in the ownership ranks, including Richard Santulli, chairman of NetJets, Bill Casner of WinStar Farm, Barbaro owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson, and Michael Bello, a California-based owner, have made significant contributions. In 2008, thanks to Santulli and Casner, the Fund raised $500,000 during the Triple Crown, which amounts to more than half of the Fund’s $800,000 annual operating budget. Santulli and Casner again kicked in major contributions to the Fund at this year’s Kentucky Derby.

“Jockeys have the most hazardous occupation of any professional athlete, and I feel are greatly unappreciated,” said Casner, the former chairman of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and a self-described “ex-gallop boy that got on about 25,000 of those beasts over 16 years as a young racetracker,” one who “had my share of hitting the ground and having several flip over on me …but for the grace of God."

“There are around 1,500 licensed professional jockeys,” Casner added, “with most of them struggling with weight and making a living. They put their lives and bodies at risk every time they get on one of our horses and most will deal with a plethora of injuries over a career. If they are lucky they will walk away and not have to deal with paralysis. Exercise riders and backstretch help should also be included in this group. While they do not experience the injury opportunities that race riders do, they are still subject to the same events. It is only right that we as an industry work with the jockeys to help them help themselves as well as other backside employees. I comment Richard Santulli, as well as the riders, for taking the leadership on this important charitable endeavor over the last two Triple Crowns.”

Riders have been directly involved in some of the creative fundraising that’s been done for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. At Keeneland this spring, “Riders Up!” a karaoke competition involving many current and past jockeys, was the highlight of a very popular dinner that raised $50,000 for the Fund.

Earlier, in Hot Springs, Ark., restaurateur Mike Loy provided free dinners at his popular KJ’s Grill and racing fans paid $100 each to dine and meet some of their favorite jockeys, raising another $17,000 for the Fund. A similar event, “Dining With the Dynasties,” will be held at Arlington Park Aug. 7, the day before the Arlington Million, thanks to Arlington boss Richard Duchossois and track president Roy Arnold, who is now a member of the Fund’s board of directors. Retired Hall of Fame jockeys like Pat Day and Gary Stevens, along with other current and former riders, including some of those who benefit from the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, are expected to participate at the Arlington event.

Speaking of Pat Day, there is good news about him and Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey, two former Jockeys’ Guild presidents who resigned from the organization when the former manager, John Giovanni, was forced out and Gertmenian was brought in. Now that the Guild has regained its credibility and is on the road to financial recovery under the leadership of Terry Meyocks and a newly configured board, Bailey and Day have rejoined the organization in a show of support. Meyocks said a number of other current riders who had quit the Guild during the Gertmenian era have also come back into the fold.

Earlier this year, the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund became a standalone 501(c)3 charity, and it is no longer part of NTRA Charities. It continues to struggle for its funding. “We need the support of the entire industry and all of its partners,” LaSala said.

Please contact the Fund if you would like to help. Its web site will have an online donation link in the near future. In the meantime, you can send donations to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, P.O. Box 803, Elmhurst, IL 60126. The telephone number is: (630) 595-7660 and fax is (630) 595-7655.

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.

Previous Good News Friday subjects: Father Chris Clay, The Race for Education, Military Appreciation Day at Keeneland, Kentucky Oaks Pink Out for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Mary Lee-Butte and the Blue Grass Farms Chaplaincy, Mary Jo Pons and the Radio Reading Network, TV Ratings Are Up.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
Spring is in the air, with temperatures topping 70 in Kentucky, and visions of Roses in the minds of many horse owners around the country. Today’s Triple Crown preps start in New York with Aqueduct’s Gotham Stakes and continue in California with last year’s 2-year-old champion, Stardom Bound, the heavy favorite in the Santa Anita Oaks. But the capper for today’s outstanding racing is the Santa Anita Handicap — the Big ‘Cap — the race the great Seabiscuit won in 1940, the fixture that attracted an all-time record crowd to the Great Race Place in 1985 when Lord At War won in front of 85,527 fans.

Perhaps the Big ‘Cap hasn’t been quite as prominent since the Dubai World Cup took the spotlight away from winter racing for the handicap horses when it was inaugurated in 1996. It still carries a $1-million purse and carries Grade 1 status, along with a whole lot of prestige.

I’ll be providing commentary for the next few hours, beginning with the Gotham Stakes, won with a huge performance by California invader  I Want Revenge, who pressed Mr. Fantasy on the lead for the opening seven furlongs, then kicked away at the top of the stretch to score by a wide margin–my guess in nine lengths. Imperial Council got up for second, just edging Mr. Fantasy at the wire, with  Masala fourth. Final time on a fast track was 1:42.65 for the 1 1/16 miles after fractions of :23.76, :48.45, 1:12.69 and 1:36.46. 

This was the first "off synthetic" race for the Jeff Mullins-trained  son of Stephen Got Even, who was coming off a third-place finish behind Pioneerof the Nile in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Santa Anita’s Pro-Ride surface. Joe Talamo has been in the saddle for the last five starts of I Want Revenge (pictured, left), who races for David Lanzman.  It was I Want Revenge’s second win in seven starts, but he’s never been worse than third, after beginning his career at Hollywood Park last July and breaking his maiden in his fourth start in October at Hollywood Park, his first race around two turns.

Back to the Big ‘Cap for a second. If you haven’t seen the YouTube video of Seabiscuit’s victory, check this out by clicking here.

4:46 p.m. (Eastern) …. Jeff Mullins is hot. His first-timer Leavenworth just aired in the fourth race at Santa Anita, a 6 1/2-furlong maiden event for 3-year-olds. Son of Forest Wildcast was ridden by Tyler Baze and drew down the stretch impressively. On to Nicarnor’s second race…

4:51 p.m. … Well, that was more like it. Nicanor (Barbaro’s full brother if you didn’t know) finished a game second at 8-1 behind 4-5 favorite Custom for Carlos in a seven-furlong maiden race at Gulfstream Park. Under Jose Lezcano, Nicanor broke well from the nine post, took the lead while setting fractions of :22.83 and :46.57 for the half, then yielded at the top of the stretch to Custon for Carlos , who was just off Nicanor’s outside flank from the beginning. It looked as though Nicanor might fade back as he did in his Jan. 31 debut (when he grabbed a quarter coming out of the gate) but he kept to his task, and was actually cutting back into Custom for Carlos’ lead when they hit the wire. Custom for Carlos (a More Than Ready colt trained by Eddie Kenneally and ridden by Kent Desormeaux) won by about a length, getting the distance in 1:23.55 after a six-furlong split of 1:10.55. 

All in all, a good race for Nicanor. I’d like to see him stretch out next time, though I’m certainly not going to second guess trainer Michael Matz. Chart.

4:58 p.m. … Here are the quotes from the New York Racing Association from the connections of Gotham Stakes runners. I particularly enjoyed Kiaran McLaughlin’s comments wondering why Jeff Mullins and I Want Revenge didn’t stay on the West Coast.

5:30 p.m. … A lot of early money on another Brian Koriner runner, Hannahs Classy Boy, in the sixth race, a downhill turf allowance. He is 15-1 on morning line and 9-2 early. 

5:35 p.m.  …. Regarding Edgar Prado not riding Nicanor at Gulfstream. As much as I’m sure he’d like to have been on the colt, when any jockey has a chance to win a $1-million race, money trumps maiden races. Prado is at Santa Anita riding that terrific card, including Monba for Todd Pletcher in the Big ‘Cap.

5:40 p.m. … Here’s the answer about why HRTV and TVG both showed the Gotham Stakes on tape delay. Fran LaBelle of the New York Racing Association tells us that "the rights to the Gotham are part of the Belmont Stakes agreement with ESPN/ABC. Although they chose not to broadcast the race, we did not get their OK for anyone else to show it live, so we asked both HRTV and TVG to show the race on a delay." How’s that for arrogance — not on the part of NYRA but by ESPN/ABC? They have the rights to televise a race live, but elect not to show it and don’t want anyone else to, either. Who gets the shaft? You tell me.

5:42 p.m. … Jeannie, you are correct  in your comment about Gomez picking up those mounts. My mistake. Prado was named to ride. Will have to see what happened.

5:45 p.m. … How’s this for back-to-back Big ‘Cap winners? Affirmed in 1979 (the first Santa Anita Handicap I saw in person), followed by Spectacular Bid, the best horse I’ve seen in my lifetime. Video of 1979 and 1980.

5:50 p.m. … From Gulfstream Park publicity department, here are comments on Nicanor’s second-place finish from connections of the winner and Nicanor.

6:30 p.m. .. The much-awaited interview with Michael Iavarone of IEAH, who has backed off a little bit on his ambition of running Stardom Bound against colts in the Kentucky, "My exuberance after the Las Virgenes might have been a little accelerated," he says during an interview on HRTV. After that victory, Iavarone said the Kentucky Derby was the absolute goal. A good win will probably get her a chance against colts in the Santa Anita Derby, Iavarone says, but he’s taking it one race at a time. Gary Stevens says the daughter of Tapit has been tough to gallop all week, and he hopes jockey Mike Smith can get her off the rail and relaxed in the race.

They are approaching the gate, with Stardom Bound 1-5 and no one else in single digits. Miss Silver Brook is second choice at 10-1.

6:38 p.m. … Wow….what a wild stretch run, with four noses on the line. Not sure if Stardom Bound got her nose up. Stardom Bound was last early and rallied about eight wide into the stretch. 

Stardom Bound gets the head-bob photo. Third Dawn, a longshot by Sky Mesa who had just broken her maiden last out for John Sadler, was narrowly beaten…probably by a nose.  There’s a good chance Third Dawn would have been taken down, however, as she shifted out into the path of Stardom Bound with about a sixteenth of a mile to run. Also in the photo was Hooh Why, another nose back, with Nan about a head behind her on the rail in fourth.

There was a stewards inquiry but no change was made in the order of finish.

Burg Berg set the slow early fractions of :23.78, :47.54, and 1:12.12 for the first six furlongs, with Hooh Why and Robbie Albarado not far behind. Hooh Why moved to the front at the top of the stretch, but several fillies were on her heels. One of them, Miss Silver Brook, had to check sharply about 70 yards from the wire. Final time was 1:43.62 after a mile split of 1:37.17.

"Extremely wide, jockey error on my part," Mike Smith said after the race when asked  on HRTV how wide he went. "I was anywhere from 15 to 20 at one point," he said. "I’m just so grateful that she’s so talented." 

"I need a defibrillator right now," Iavarone told HRTV a few minutes after the race was declared official. "I think she worked pretty hard today against the girls. She’s going to really have to improve herself to be able to handle horses like Pioneerof the Nile. But I’m going to talk it over with the guys and see what they think. If they think that they want to go forward, then I’m willing to go forward. But she worked pretty hard against the girls today."

This was Stardom Bound’s fifth consecutive victory in a Grade 1 stakes. She lost her career debut sprinting by a nose at Del Mar, then was second in the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar. She broke her maiden in the Del Mar Debutante, then reeled off wins in the Oak Leaf Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Las Virgines, the latter her first start of 2009. She raced for Charles Cono and trainer Chris Paasch through the Breeders’ Cup and was sold for $5.7 million to IEAH at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky in November and transferred to Robert Frankel.

Oaks Chart.

7:05 p.m. …. Santa Anita publicity department quotes…

MIKE SMITH, STARDOM BOUND, WINNER: “It seemed like she got lost out there early. We had a terrible trip. When I moved out with her turning for home, everybody else went out at the same time and we got caught really wide. From the sixteenth pole home, I thought we could grind ‘em down, but I was worried. At the wire though, she put her ears up and she was playing with the pony coming back. Maybe this is the kind of race she needed. I guess you could say it was a not-so-heady ride.”   

7:06 p.m. … Line of the day from Jeff Siegel of HRTV. "Not a bad warm-up race," he said of the Oaks.

7:30 p.m. … While I quickly down a dinner before the Kilroe and Big ‘Cap, thought I’d link to one of the best Big ‘Caps I ever attended. Here’s the video.

7:35 p.m. …. To answer an earlier question: Would Stardom Bound have won by more if not forced to alter course late? Yes, I think so, but she wouldn’t have won by more than a neck. As Frankel said, she ran 10 lengths farther than anyone else.

What a nice tribute HRTV has put together in honor of the late Frank E. (Jimmy) Kilroe, the longtime director of racing at Santa Anita. He was from another era, when racing secretaries were opinionated in assigning weights to horses and stuck by their opinions. Times have changed, and with so many other opportunities handicaps are no longer relevant.

7:45 p.m. … Is Ventura really that good? The Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner is even-money in her second try against colts in North America, her first try resulting in a second-place finish behind Rahy’s Attorney in the Woodbine Mile last fall on yielding turf.

7:50 p.m. … Ventura’s trainer, Robert Frankel, said he wants her to be up close to the pace, in the first flight, behind Hewitts, in the Kilroe Mile. He told HRTV he was very proud of Stardom Bound, but I wonder what he might have said if asked about Mike Smith’s ride. Probably something not fit for the family hour on television….which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from a trainer about a jockey. Charlie Whittingham, when he trained Gato del Sol (in his later years), was stunned when jockey Sandy Hawley took the late-running Kentucky Derby winner to the lead early in a mile and one-half turf race. "If I had a rifle, I would have shot him out of the saddle," Whittingham joked.

7:57 p.m. … It just doesn’t get any better. Ventura looked like a sure winner of the Grade 1 Kilroe Mile at the eighth pole, opened what looked like a safe lead, but got nipped right on the money by the fast-finishing Gio Ponti, to lose by a nose…the photo makes it look like about two inches. Ramon Dominguez rode the winner for trainer Christophe Clement. Gio Ponti is a 4-year-old colt by Tale of the Cat whose biggest previous win came in the  Virginia Derby when he beat Court Vision by a nose.

Jockey Garrett Gomez said Ventura "took a couple of steps in (at the sixteenth pole), and I had to straighten her back up." Gomez took Ventura back to fifth off the early pace set by Hewitts, who laid down fractions of :23.26, :46.31 and 1:09.86 on firm turf. Hewitts was under pressure from Wise River down the backstretch. Dixie Chatter made the first run at the lead at the top of the stretch, but Ventura edged passed him inside the eighth pole and appeared to be en route to the win. But Gio Ponti (pictured, left) came flying down the outside to just get up, completing the distance in 1:33.65 after a seven-furlong split of 1:21.69.

Ramon Dominguez said he talked with Clemente earlier in the day for instructions on how to ride Gio Ponti, who was coming off a fifth-place finish in the Strub Stakes behind Cowboy Cal on Feb. 7. "He told me to try and save ground and wait as long as I could," Dominguez said. "I was trying to follow Ventura, who seemed like she was getting a great trip, and from then on it was going to really be a horse race."

The Kilroe was the sixth win in 11 starts for Gio Ponti, who races for Castleton Lyons. Chart.

8:10 p.m. … A couple more memories of the Santa Anita Handicap. The Bid ‘Cap was always the biggest day of the Santa Anita meeting when I lived in Southern California, and it still attracts crowds of between 40,000 and 50,000 on-track. But I don’t think anyone was prepared for the crowd that showed up in 1985, the year Lord At War won the race for Peter Perkins, trainer Charlie Whittingham and jockey Bill Shoemaker. That day, a total of 85,527 turned out, an all-time Santa Anita record. The atmosphere was incredible.

There were "only" 72,752 at Santa Anita three years earlier when John Henry went for his second consecutive Big "Cap win, and that was another truly exciting day. John Henry won easily the previous year (with good old Flying Paster among those chasing him home), but he was in for the stretch duel of his life (except, perhaps the Arlington Million against The Bart) against the Whittingham trained Perrault in the 1982 Santa Anita Handicap. Laffit Pincay Jr. used all of his strength to get Perrault to the wire first, but his left-handed whipping caused the horse to drift out significantly, impeding John Henry, who got the victory via disqualification. It’s something you hate to see in a Grade 1 race, but the stewards made the only call they could.

Here’s a recap of John Henry’s two wins in the Big ‘Cap, including the head-on of the stretch run between John Henry and Perrault. Video.  Honestly, watching the replays and just thinking about the excitement of Santa Anita that afternoon sends shivers up and down my spine. 

8:25 p.m. …. OK, Christine, because you mentioned Broad Brush’s sire, Ack Ack, here’s the video of his Big ‘Cap win. Another win for Charlie Whittingham, the second of his eight Santa Anita Handicap wins. There was nobody that could train an older horse like the Bald Eagle could, and later in life he showed he could even win the Kentucky Derby a time or two! Video of Ack Ack.

8:30 p.m. … HRTV’s ace handicapper Jeff Siegal picks longshot Monba in the Big ‘Cap. I’m going with Court Vision, who hasn’t been on a synthetic track since breaking his maiden at Keeneland. They are loading into the starting gate….

8:35 p.m. … Einstein wins the Big ‘Cap under Julien Leparoux, getting a perfect trip from just off a very slow pace, winning easily under high weight of 121 pounds. Champs Elysees finished well to get second ahead of Matto Mondo, who set the pace, with Monba fourth. According to HRTV, the Helen Pitts-Blase runner was the first East Coast based horse to win the Santa Anita Handicap since Broad Brush beat Ferdinand. 

Blue Exit was pulled up approaching the far turn with a fractured cannon bone, was vanned off and later euthanized, according to Santa Anita’s publicity department.

"We got a good pace, not too fast, not too slow," said Leparoux. "When you are behind horses like this it is very easy to relax, and he’s a good horse." "It’s an unbelievable feeling," said Pitts-Blase. "He means the world to me and it’s my biggest win."

Matto Mondo, who was co-favored with Court Vision at 9-2, set fractions of :24.52, :48.31, 1:12.93, and 1:35.59 under Rafael Bejarano. Einstein was never far behind and moved to the lead at the top of the stretch, gaining command at the eighth pole and drawing off to win by about a length. Final time was 2:01.93 for the 10 furlongs on the synthetic Pro-Ride surface. Colonel John, the morning line favorite, was scratched by trainer Eoin Harty when he spiked a temperature on Saturday morning.

Einstein was winning for the 10th time in 24 starts (his first time on synthetics). He races for the Midnight Cry Stable, which also owned two-time Horse of the Year Curlin when he broke his maiden and retained a minority interest in the horse for the remainder of his career. Pitts was Curlin’s trainer when he broke his maiden.

Santa Anita Handicap chart. Will try to get an update on Blue Exit. But otherwise, that’s it for Big ‘Cap day.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced a series of sweeping safety and integrity reforms and the hiring of a former governor and Bush administration official during a press conference in New York this morning.

The reforms, organized under the banner of the newly created NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance, touch on a wide range of issues that have been bubbling under the surface for years but came to a head this spring in the wake of the death of the filly Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby, the revelation that Derby winner Big Brown won while racing legally on anabolic steroids, and a damning Congressional hearing that left industry leaders red-faced and fearful of federal action. The reforms and the creation of the Safety and Integrity Alliance evolved over the last several months from a series of closed-door meetings and a confidential discussion document circulated throughout the industry and published in the Paulick Report in July.

The Alliance, to be funded by the financially challenged NTRA, consists of racetracks, owners, breeders, horsemen, jockeys, auction companies, veterinarians, fans, regulators and breed registries. The NTRA has retained the services of former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, who also served as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for President George W. Bush and made a brief run for the 2008 presidential nomination of the Republican Party. Thompson will be charged with independently monitoring the program and annually providing public reports on the progress the Alliance has made in meeting its goals.

Thompson, incidentally, attended the 2005 Kentucky Derby and later joined a West Point Thoroughbred partnership that owned Flashy Bull, who was unplaced in the 2006 Derby but subsequently won the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs. According to West Point president Terry Finley, Thompson "loves the racing game" and is in a partnership that currently owns a West Point 2-year-old named Tapit’s Brew.

Click here to read the complete text of the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance and Pledge.

For a list of tracks and racing organizations that have agreed to the pledge, click here.

Following is the NTRA’s press release on the formation of the Safety and Integrity Alliance and the hiring of Thompson as an independent monitor.

• uniform medication rules for each racing state
• ban of steroids from racing competition
• out-of-competition testing for blood and gene doping agents and pre-race testing
• uniform penalties for all medication infractions
• mandatory on-track and non-racing injury reporting
• mandatory installation of protective inner safety rail
• mandatory pre- and post-race security
• adoption of a placement program for Thoroughbreds no longer competing