Posts Tagged ‘taylor made farm’

We are pleased to introduce a new weekly feature today, the Paulick Report Forum brought to you by Breeders’ Cup. Every Wednesday, we’ll talk with a Thoroughbred industry player about the game we all love, trying to get a better understanding of where we’ve been and where we may be headed. One thing I’ve learned throughout my years in this industry is that nothing comes easy. We are a sport and a business fraught with divisiveness, incoherence and confusion. But at the same time we are blessed to have many participants with great intelligence, insights and dedication. In short, we never know where the next good idea may come from.

We hope you will read each week’s Forum, offer your thoughts on the subject being discussed, and suggest to us other areas where we can advance the discussions that need to take place to get our industry moving in the right direction once again. Thanks to the Breeders’ Cup for their sponsorship of this process. 

It surprised me when Christophe Clement said that he has spent half of his 44 years in the United States. Maybe it’s the heavy French accent he still retains, or simply the blur of the years going by so quickly. But the third-generation horseman has made America his permanent home since 1991. He’d spent a couple of years here in the 1980s, working for Taylor Made Farm and trainer Shug McGaughey, before returning to Europe, where he served for four years as assistant to Luca Cumani in Newmarket, England. Earlier in his life, he had apprenticed for the master horseman Alec Head in Chantilly.

Clement, coming off an outstanding year when Gio Ponti won two Eclipse Awards for the Ryan family’s Castleton Lyons as turf male and older male champion, is preparing the 5-year-old son of Tale of the Cat for a possible run at the $10-million Dubai World Cup. He’s looking at a prep race at Tampa Bay Downs on turf in February prior to taking on the world’s best over the Tapeta Footings surface at the new Meydan racetrack in Dubai. Gio Ponti is coming off a second-place finish to Zenyatta in the Breeders’ Cup Classic over the Pro-Ride synthetic track at Santa Anita.

In this, our first Paulick Report Forum brought to you by Breeders’ Cup, Clement provided some insights about the sport of Thoroughbred racing and how it’s changed during his lifetime.

What is it about international racing that is important to you?
First of all, with the Dubai race I can give you 10 million reasons. If it was a million-dollar race, I wouldn’t be going. I would be going instead to the Santa Anita Handicap. In the case of the Dubai World Cup, the purse has a lot to do with it.
 
But international racing is important. I’m just a trainer, but if I was a breeder or an owner, I would say it is very important for the breed to know which horse is the best and which sires are better. I saw an article in the TDN that said, as recently as 20 years ago, 80% of the world’s leading stallions stood in the United States. Today that number is 50%. The United States does not permeate world breeding the way it was 20 years ago.

From a personal standpoint, I don’t get as many fillies or mares sent from Europe to race here and then be bred to American stallions. Their owners are keeping them in Europe.
 
Why the shift?
A couple of things. First there is medication. People refuse to talk about it, but a lot of people in Europe still don’t want to breed to U.S. sires because those horses raced on medication. A lot of Europeans do not understand why we continue to allow medication while the rest of the world is doing OK without it.

That’s one of the factors. It is an issue for some people. There are two things I would like to see changed. I am convinced Grade 1 races should not be handicaps. It’s not healthy to use weight to try and beat the best horses. Allowance conditions are fine. This is something Bobby Frankel and I talked about, and Bobby was against handicaps in Grade 1s. I also believe there should be no medication in Grade 1s because we use these races to improve the breed.

So why do we continue to permit it?
I don’t know. Every track is different. There is no federal authority. No racing commissioner. The Graded Stakes Committee took grades away from Pennsylvania because they failed to do the proper testing, but there is limited means to enforce national rules. I’m just a trainer. These are some of my thoughts. I’m trying to win a race tomorrow.

You said there were two major reasons for the shift in stallion power away from the U.S.
Right. Secondly, the two groups, the Maktoums and Coolmore, have given European breeders access to some very good stallions because they are retaining some of the best racehorses. Twenty or 30 years ago the world’s best horses came to Gainesway—horses like Lyphard, Riverman, and Blushing Groom. This year, apparently no American farms bid for Sea the Stars. 20 years ago an American farm would have. Aside from Giant’s Causeway and Kingmambo, it’s been quite a while since an exciting European horse came to the United States as a sire. The top milers in Europe are no longer coming here, either.

What training methods have you adapted from your European background?
I am more American than European. I’m 44 and have spent more time in this country than anywhere else. But I’ll say this. When Sir Michael Stoute or Andre Fabre wake up in the morning they have a choice of tracks on which to train their horses. Here it’s the main track or the training track. Those guys have a much wider choice for their horses.

We should have access to all surfaces: dirt, turf and Polytrack.  If you have a good dirt track, like in New York, a good turf course, and a good Polytrack surface to race or train over on days when it’s very wet, it would be very popular. But the problem is who pays? It would be very expensive. In an ideal world, that’s the way it would be. A dirt track should be safe if maintained the right way. Turf is safe, and off the turf races could be run on a Polytrack.

You recently cut back on the number of horses you have in California. Is it because of the problems with Santa Anita’s surface?
It’s Mother Nature. I’m not against Santa Anita. They did everything they could. Wherever you are, you have to deal with Mother Nature. It’s been very wet out there. One reason Gio Ponti came back East is I found that the flight to Dubai will be easier from Florida than California.

In the United States all trainers think they are track superintendents, but the track superintendents know their job. There is no ideal surface 365 days a year. Bob Baffert was really negative on Polytrack, but he’s such a smart guy and a good trainer he’s really adapted. He’s doing great on that surface.

What can American trainers learn from others around the world?
When you work for the people I’ve worked for, you learn that change is not always negative. People in racing don’t like change. Change is not always a bad thing. We should be more open minded about change. A typical thing is the synthetic tracks: trainers should be more open minded. Of course it will not be perfect from day one, but it is ridiculous to be so against it, just as it is ridiculous to be against dirt racing. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. The Kentucky Derby is on dirt and should remain on dirt, and the Belmont Stakes is on dirt and should remain on dirt. But we shouldn’t exclude Polytrack from our racing because it represents change.

Finally, how do you feel about Rachel Alexandra’s owner Jess Jackson’s recent comments that the field for the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic was not nearly as good as the 2008 race when his Curlin was defeated?
I think it’s just another reason that he should have participated in the race.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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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
Her name is Mary Lee-Butte, but many who have benefited from her work with the Blue Grass Farms Chaplaincy call her “Mary Christmas.” Whether it’s helping organize the chaplaincy’s annual “Festival of Christmas,” an event that brings joy to hundreds of children from needy, horse industry families, or stopping by a nursing home to visit and drop off the latest copies of Blood-Horse and Thoroughbred Times magazines to former horse industry workers, Lee-Butte has a heart, as track announcer Trevor Denman likes to say, as big as the racetrack.

But the Blue Grass Farms Chaplaincy, as the name implies, serves a community much larger than the track. “When we started this organization,” said industry consultant Lonny Powell, the chaplaincy’s founding president, “we saw that it was an enormous challenge. With a racetrack chaplaincy, you draw a square and define the stable area as your community. With the Blue Grass Farms Chaplaincy, we’re serving several counties in Central Kentucky. But it’s worked, and it’s given me great satisfaction and pride to see how many people have benefited.”

The chaplaincy was formed in 2003 by a group of individuals in Central Kentucky that included Powell, David Foley of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the Jockey Club’s  Dan Fick, Tom Thornbury of Keeneland, Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association CEO Remi Bellocq, breeder Ben Walden, Bobby Maxwell of Sallee Horse Vans and Bethlehem Farms’ Sandra White. (Click here to learn more about the Blue Grass Farms Chaplaincy.)

“Back in the early days, we’d hired a part-time administrator and a part-time chaplain to get this kicked off,” recalled David Foley, a past president and current treasurer of the chaplaincy. “We used to meet several times a month the first few years trying to get the ministry going. Both of these positions ended up going full-time and we were covering a lot of ground; however, fundraising was always a challenge. Then, along came Mary–as the song goes. She came to us initially as a volunteer a few years back, began participating and then inquired about setting up a Ladies Guild to assist the chaplaincy with additional needs and to help with fundraising. She was ‘on fire’ for this ministry, back then and remains so today.”

When the chaplaincy’s original executive director left Central Kentucky and resigned her position, Lee-Butte was working virtually full-time as a volunteer. The executive director job was offered to her, and she stepped in to help the organization through a transition without missing a step. It’s grown under her leadership and expanded its outreach to the community in many ways. Lee-Butte is one of three employees, along with the chaplain Claudio Toro and executive assistant Deanna Widaman.

“On a day to day basis, we are able to take care of any emergency needs the workers have,” Lee-Butte said, “whether it’s physical, spiritual, financial or medical. It’s a one-stop resource center.”

The chaplaincy, which was previously affiliated with the Racetrack Chaplaincy of America but ended its ties with that national organization earlier this year, opened an Enrichment Center at its Lexington office in the last year.  The center is used as a classroom, where courses on safety and English as a second language are taught. The center will be used this summer for a new children’s reading program, and it also hosts a mentoring program for mothers who either have husbands working on horse farms or themselves are farm employees. A computer lab is being created, thanks to a gift of eight computers from Darley Farm. Classes will be taught to help farm workers develop word processing and basic computer skills that will help them on the job. Lee-Butte hopes to arrange for regularly scheduled medical and dental services to also be available for those in need.

“Our greatest achievement last year by far was opening the Enrichment Center,” said Fritz Widaman of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the chaplaincy’s current president. Its development, Widaman said, would not have been possible without the generosity of many people in the industry.

Lee-Butte echoed Widaman’s sentiments about the widespread support, saying funding comes from all levels of the industry, from wealthy farm owners who make substantial donations to individuals who send in $5 or $10.

“Taylor Made Farm has been phenomenal in their support,” she said, “Beau Lane of the Lane Foundation has supported the chaplaincy for a long time and has been one of our major donors. Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton have been supportive, and so has the Blood-Horse family, especially at Christmastime. Darley has been very supportive, both with funding and with the recent donation of computers.”

The heart and soul of the chaplaincy’s fundraising, however, comes from the Ladies Guild that Lee-Butte helped start.

“The Ladies Guild is a very cohesive, supportive group of women who are cheerleaders for the industry and for each other,” Lee-Butte said. “It raises money, but it’s also an outreach for people who want to be involved in doing something. That’s what drives me; volunteer work is very rewarding.

“We needed a group of ladies to raise funds to do the legwork,” she added. “We all know that women are the ones who will go out there and do the work and set up the fundraisers. I can do a lot, but if I can get a group of women together we can do anything.”

Readers have an opportunity help the Blue Grass Farms Chaplaincy continue its good work. Click here to make a donation.

By Ray Paulick

Lane’s End Farm is expected to announce that reigning Horse of the Year Curlin will enter stud at the Versailles, Ky., farm in 2009 for a live foal stud fee of $75,000, the Paulick Report has learned. Lane’s End is owned by William S. Farish, vice chairman of the Jockey Club and former ambassador to Great Britain for President George W. Bush.

“Curlin has proven himself across two continents with 16 starts, the honor of 2007 Horse of the Year and the greatest North American money-earner in racing history,” Jackson said in the Nov. 15 announcement that Curlin would enter stud in 2009. “He always gave it his all and has done everything we have asked of him. I am proud to announce that he will start a new career in 2009 and contribute his soundness, stamina, durability and athleticism to the breed. I am looking forward to seeing his foals compete and possibly exceed his unequaled racing record.”

Curlin, who began his career under the care of Helen Pitts and was transferred to trainer Steve Asmussen after breaking his maiden at Gulfstream Park early in 2007, retires with record earnings of $10,501,800. He won 11 of 16 starts, with two seconds and two thirds. He won seven Grade 1 races: the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Dubai World Cup, consecutive runnings of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Woodward, Preakness and Stephen Foster Handicap. Bred in Kentucky by Fares Farm, he sold for $57,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale. Jackson, Satish Sanan and George Bolton bought at 80% interest in Curlin through bloodstock agent John Moynihan for about $3 million after the colt’s maiden win. Jackson eventually bought Sanan and Bolton’s interests.

Curlin’s sire, Smart Strike, stands at Lane’s End for $150,000. Also joining the 2009 roster at Lane’s End is War Pass, the 2007 2-year-old male champion and winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile who will stand for $30,000 live foal.

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