By Ray Paulick Please click here to donate to Breeders’ Cup Charities benefiting the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and V Foundation for Cancer Research. Give a minimum of one penny per mile and you will be eligible for a drawing to win one of 10 Breeders’ Cup caps to be signed by the winning jockeys of all 14 Breeders’ Cup races this Friday and Saturday.
Saturday was supposed to be strictly a driving day for the BREEDERS’ CUP OR BUST fundraising drive, but Brad Cummings and I never met a racetrack we didn’t like, so when we saw that Will Rogers Downs was just a couple miles from the Claremore, Okla., exit on I-64, we felt compelled to stop.
The fundraising drive, done in partnership with Breeders’ Cup Charities, will benefit the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and the V Foundation for Cancer Research.
There was no live racing going on at WRD, but plenty of slot machines, simulcasting and a friendly staff. We even saw a patron arriving on horseback—not something you see every day.
The simulcast room was relatively full, and we talked with one of the regulars, a fellow who looked like a love child of Yosemite Sam and ZZ Top. He was a serious player, bringing a briefcase full of trip notes on tracks around the country, but said he was looking forward to the live meeting that begins at WRD in February. “The racing’s gotten pretty good here,” he said. “Some of the horses from the Fair Grounds and Oaklawn Park will show up.”
This is one of those racetracks that probably wouldn’t be in business were it not for slot machines, or in this case Indian gaming. Will Rogers Downs is owned by the Cherokee Nation, one of three Indian tribes that own racetracks in Oklahoma. The Choctaw Nation owns Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw. That’s the track where jockey Mark Pace died earlier this month. Since that tragedy, the Choctaws announced they will be closing the track because of economic reasons related to the track’s location.
Tomorrow, we’ll be visiting Remington Park, which recently was purchased by Global Gaming Solutions, a subsidiary of the Chickasaw Nation. No track has taken ahold of the bit on raising funds for the BREEDERS’ CUP OR BUST drive like Remington Park has, and I think we’ve got an exciting and gratifying day ahead of us tomorrow. Scott Wells and his staff have gone above and beyond any of our wildest expectations, and we owe a special thanks to Joy Rose Murphy, the track’s promotions coordinator.
I’m not sure I’ll feel the same way after tomorrow’s “Hippity Hop” race, when Brad and I mount giant rubber balls and bounce our way down the track against members of the local jockey colony. But if you’re going to be humiliated, you might as well do it for a good cause.
On a serious note: If our experiences with Remington Park under its new ownership are any indication, horse racing is going to benefit from the Chickasaws’ involvement in the industry. It appears they understand the value of good corporate citizenship.
The visit with Michael Straight and his family at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago will be with us for a long time. Sadly, just in the last 24 hours we’ve learned of more spills and mishaps involving jockeys, beginning with an accident at Keeneland involving Julia Brimo, a Sovereign Award winner as leading apprentice in Canada. She was listed in critical condition at a Lexington hospital. Apprentice Amanda Casey, who earlier on Friday at Aqueduct celebrated her first win of the meeting, ended up at a New York hospital with a bruised liver after getting kicked in a paddock mishap. Earlier today, we learned that Omar Moreno was involved in a spill at Woodbine in Canada.
The beat goes on, and so does the industry’s need to help provide for jockeys who are permanently disabled from riding accidents. If you haven’t made a donation to Breeders’ Cup Charities to benefit the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and the V Foundation for Cancer Research, please do so by clicking here.
After Friday’s visit with the Straight family, we headed south and encountered heavy rainfall alongo the way. We thought we’d stop in and catch some racing at Fairmount Park’s simulcast room late in the afternoon, but didn’t bring our waders to walk through the parking lot to the front door. Apparently we’d just missed a heavy storm that flooded the parking lot and other businesses in the St. Louis area.
Our Saturday began with a tasty breakfast at a Waffle House in Springfield, Mo., in the Ozarks. I thought I’d walked into a bizarre rehearsal for the Rocky Horror Picture Show, but Brad reminded me that it was Halloween morning, and the crew was just having a little fun. Too bad. I think the Rocky Horror Waffle House could be the next big thing in the franchise world.
Sponsors for the Chicago to Oklahoma City portion of this fundraising drive are: Global Gaming Solutions and Remington Park; Terry Finley and his West Point Thoroughbreds partners; Tommy Simon’s Vinery; and Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farm.
Sponsors for our previous segments were
TVG; Bill Casner and WinStar Farm; Barry Irwin of Team Valor International; Kate Lantaff of Tahoma Stud; the William S. Farish’s Lane’s End, Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley, Brereton C. Jones’ Airdrie Stud and the Young family’s Overbrook Farm.
A special thanks to our media partner TVG and the TVG’s online community for playing such a big part in promoting the drive and raising awareness and money for these charities. All sponsorship dollars go directly to Breeders’ Cup Charities, to be divided evenly between the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and the V Foundation for Cancer Research.
By Ray Paulick
When a jockey goes down in a race, there’s no one that shows more concern than a fellow rider, even if it’s been 45 years since that fellow rider has been on a horse’s back. I witnessed that concern Thursday afternoon at Hawthorne, when a horse named Loose Lips got cut off a few strides out of the gate in the seventh race and jockey Angel Stanley tumbled to the ground.
Brad Cummings and I were sitting with former jockey Dennis Keehan in the box area when the incident occurred, and the look in his eyes when Stanley went down was a picture I’ll remember for some time. Fortunately, Stanley jumped up and apparently was uninjured.
Keehan wasn’t so lucky the last time he fell onto a racetrack. It was 45 years ago at Sportsman’s Park when a horse he was riding was shut off, stumbled and went down in a four-horse spill. A trailing horse tripped and fell right on top of his chest, paralyzing him from the waist down. Keehan was 21 years old, and needless to say, he’s been through a lot since then. Claire Novak tells his story in a poignant ESPN.com article here.
Today, Keehan is a witty and engaging man who now and then enjoys coming out to the track, handicapping the races and betting a couple of bucks. Life isn’t easy when you’re in a wheelchair and on your own, but the monthly check he gets from the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund helps Keehan get out from under the medical bills that can pile up when you have special needs.
To see the Dennis Keehan interview, click below.
We were at Hawthorne on day two of the BREEDERS’ CUP OR BUST fundraising drive from Kentucky to California, and as I said in our sendoff from Keeneland yesterday, where we were blanked at the betting windows, Chicago is our kind of town.
We’d like to thank TVG, Bill Casner and WinStar Farm, Barry Irwin of Team Valor International, and Kate Lantaff of Tahoma Stud for sponsoring this segment of the trip. Their sponsorship dollars go directly through Breeders’ Cup Charities and will be divided equally between the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Lane’s End, Darley, Airdrie Stud and Overbrook Farm sponsored the first segment.
Hawthorne’s management and staff provided the same great hospitality we were treated to at Keeneland, but the horses here were much more accommodating. The wagering bankroll provided to us by Breeders’ Cup more than doubled (thanks largely to a 7-1 winner, Watch Pat, in the fifth race) making up for a tough start in Kentucky. Our guest handicapper from the TVG online community, Steve Hunsberger, also had a good day at Hawthorne, hitting an exacta in the sixth along with a sizable place bet on the second-place finisher, Napoleon’s Retreat, whose Waterloo came in the final sixteenth of a mile. Had Napoleon’s Retreat held on for the win, Steve would have cashed an even bigger ticket. on behalf of the charities. Thanks to TVG for their partnership on this fundraising effort and to all the members of the TVG community who participated.
Hawthorne got into the spirit, too, bankrolling Katie Mikolay, the track’s personable simulcast hostess and handicapper, and assistant general manager Jim Miller. If they went bust (like I did at Keeneland on Wednesday), Hawthorne was going to make a generous donation to Breeders’ Cup charities. A special thanks to Hawthorne president and general manager Tim Carey.
All proceeds from the winnings go to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and the V Foundation for Cancer Research.
Whether you are an owner, breeder, trainer, racing fan/horseplayer or someone like me who has had the good fortune to make his living in this industry, I hope you’ll consider making a donation to support these two worthy organizations.
Please click here to go to the Breeders’ Cup Charities page and make a donation.
Hawthorne was where I became a racing fan and horseplayer when I lived in Chicago in the mid-1970s, and it’s always fun coming back to the track where I “cut my teeth” in racing. Like any racetrack in Illinois that has to compete with casinos in the Chicago suburbs or in neighboring Indiana, there have been some struggles, but the Carey family that’s owned Hawthorne for 100 years is committed to racing, and it shows.
While here, we had the opportunity to meet several members of the jockey colony, including Jerry LaSala, a board member and treasurer of the Jockeys’ Guild, and the unique father and son riding duo of Randy and Brandon Meier. Randy Meier’s broken 50 bones during his career, and he wasn’t crazy about his son following in his footsteps, but racing has a way of getting into your blood. In talking with him about 21-year-old Brandon, though, you can sense the pride he has in him and can tell how much fun he’s having riding with and against his son.
See interviews with Jerry LaSala and the Meiers by clicking below.
We’re meeting PDJF executive director Nancy LaSala Friday and hope to have a chance to talk with Michael Straight, who suffered a devastating injury this summer as a young apprentice rider at Arlington Park and is undergoing rehabilitation. Then it will be back on the road for the drive to Remington Park in Oklahoma City for some fun and fundraising activities on Sunday.
We’ve got a long road ahead of us between here and California for the Nov. 6-7 Breeders’ Cup, but it’s nothing compared to what these disabled riders face when their passion and their world comes crashing down on them.
If I haven’t asked you already, and I know I have, I’ll ask you again: please give.
There was no live racing going on at WRD, but plenty of slot machines, simulcasting and a friendly staff. We even saw a patron arriving on horseback—not something you see every day.
After Friday’s visit with the Straight family, we headed south and encountered heavy rainfall alongo the way. We thought we’d stop in and catch some racing at Fairmount Park’s simulcast room late in the afternoon, but didn’t bring our waders to walk through the parking lot to the front door. Apparently we’d just missed a heavy storm that flooded the parking lot and other businesses in the St. Louis area.