Posts Tagged ‘thoroughbred’

By Ray Paulick
The story of James E. Jones, the co-breeder with Randy Swanson of Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks winner Crisp, is one that is so unusual for the Thoroughbred business that it almost defies belief.

In decades and years past, Thoroughbred racing and breeding, especially at the highest levels, generally had been reserved for wealthy businessmen or titans of industry (in other words, old, rich, white men). Racing partnerships have made the game more accessible to people of more modest means, and the expansion of the commercial market brought more risk-takers and speculators into the breeding side of the business. Still, even with those changes, there has not been a great deal of diversity in the Thoroughbred industry, especially when it comes to race.

That’s what makes the story of the late James Jones, known as “J.J.” to his friends, so different.

Jones, the son of a Baptist minister named Joseph Jones, was one of 12 children raised in Jimtown, a small black community north of Lexington created in the 1880s to provide a home for freed slaves in the segregated south. Money was scarce, so Joseph Jones padded the income from his ministry by working as a groom at the famed Spendthrift Farm, then owned by Leslie Combs.

One day in the late 1960s, J.J. tagged along with his father, who was helping prep yearlings for an upcoming sale, and he was put to work, holding the yearlings while they were being shod. The blacksmith, a legend in the profession named John Madison who had worked with the likes of Man o’ War, saw something special in the way young J.J. handled the horses, and soon thereafter the younger Jones was working alongside Madison as he made his daily rounds.

He learned enough to go out on his own at the age of 18, and his clients included some of the biggest names in the industry, including Darby Dan Farm, managed for years by Olin Gentry, Spendthrift, Gainesway Farm, and many others.

Olin Gentry, grandson of the Darby Dan manager and co-owner of Gaines-Gentry Thoroughbreds, is the third generation from his family to have called on Jones for his expertise, his father, longtime breeder and consignor Tom Gentry, also having used him as a farrier and blacksmith. “He could spread a horse’s heels better than anyone,” the younger Gentry said.

John Hayes, who manages the farm for Gaines-Gentry, said Jones “had a technique that others tried but couldn’t do as well,” but added there was much more to the man than his knack with shoeing a horse. “He always, always, always had a smile,” said Hayes, “and he could never say ‘no’ to anyone. He was a gentleman, very generous, and I never heard him say a bad word about anyone and I never him use a swear word. Just one of the greatest guys I ever met in this game.”

Jones wanted to breed his own horses, and with the help of former Spendthrift owner Bruce Kline and yearling manager Randy Swanson in the late 1990s claimed a mare named Thorough Fair for $5,000 at Turfway Park. Bred to Mr. Greeley (then standing at Spendthrift), Thorough Fair produced eventual Grade 1 stakes winner Whywhywhy, who now stands alongside his sire at Gainesway Farm. Jones sold the bargain mare, in foal to Giant’s Causeway, for $825,000, at the 2005 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. The following year her son Spellbinder, also bred by Jones, won the Grade 2 San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita.

Jones liked that family enough to buy Thorough Fair’s half-sister Cat’s Fair, for $14,500 at the 2004 Keeneland September yearling sale. Though unraced, she went on to produce Crisp, the second Grade 1 winner bred by Jones.

Were it not for the nose defeat of Quiet Temper in the Grade 2 Silverbulletday Stakes at Fair Grounds, Jones would be one of only two breeders to have bred a pair of 2010 American Graded Stakes winners. The other breeder is Overbrook Farm, which has bred two individual AGS winners of 2010.

That’s pretty heady company for James Jones to be mentioned in, but he is a man who rose above his humble beginnings to excel in Thoroughbred breeding and in life. A little over a year ago, B. Wayne Hughes, the current owner of Spendthrift Farm, invited Jones to his office one day to talk horses with a special guest, George W. Bush, who had only recently left the White House after serving two terms as president.

A couple of weeks later, on March 17, Jones collapsed and died from an apparent heart attack while shoeing a yearling at Sparks View Farm near Lexington. He was only 56 years old.

Fortunately, Jones passed along much of his knowledge about horses and foot care to a son, Jerard, who is following in his footsteps as a blacksmith after working with his father for nearly 10 years. His widow, Linda Denise Jones, and a daughter, Lisa, are carrying on the breeding business that had such remarkable success and showed so much promise at the time of James Jones’ death.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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Pedigree consultant and author Edwin Anthony examines the bloodlines of Discreetly Mine, winner of the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds, in the second in a series of articles written exclusively for the Paulick Report. Click here to view last week’s article, looking at the pedigree of Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth winner Eskendereya.

DISCREETLY MINE (Mineshaft—Pretty Discreet, by Private Account)

By Edwin Anthony
There’s something to be said for the concept of sticking close to the most established and historically significant Thoroughbred families. The pedigree of Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra provides us with a good example of this, as her sire Medaglia d’Oro is a son of El Prado (closely related to the studs Drone and Notebook from the important Bend Or family), while Medaglia d’Oro is himself out of a mare by Bailjumper (Frizette family) and his second dam is inbred 3 x 4 to the important mare Sunday Evening (in direct female line and via champion Silent Screen) from the very productive Idle Fancy family (champions Cicada, Dark Mirage, First Landing, Hill Prince, Indian Skimmer, Speightstown, plus Dublin, Henrythenavigator, Java Gold, etc.).

On the dam side, Rachel Alexandra is out of a good racemare by Roar, who was not himself a particularly memorable racehorse (won the Grade 2 Jim Beam), but is out of a full sister to Hero’s Honor (damsire of Elusive Quality) and very closely related to Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero from a very strong branch of the La Troienne family. This mare by Roar also carries inbreeding to the important mare Pocahontas (dam of Chieftain and Tom Rolfe), while her dam concentrates the genes of the Imperatrice family via Cure the Blues and Sir Gaylord (half-brother to Secretariat). Further back in her dam side, we find that Rachel Alexandra not only traces to a mare by the notable stud War Relic (3 x 3 in the pedigree of In Reality) but traces directly to War Relic’s full-sister as well.  This is also the family of Belmont winners Sword Dancer (sire of Damascus) and Hail to All, as well as Handicap Triple Crown winner Fit to Fight.

Thus, you can see what I’m getting at—a working knowledge of the best Thoroughbred families can pay real dividends. These families not only produce top racehorses, but genetic connections (via Bailjumper, El Prado, Roar, etc.) that can send a pedigree spinning off in a whole new direction (a very good direction), especially in combination and through inbreeding, which serves to reinforce genetic dominance in a pedigree. These genetic connections don’t necessarily come via the best or most high-profile stallions from these families, although the best stallions from these families do very often combine successfully in pedigrees with their close relatives.

A skeptic can raise the legitimate point that the most resources (in stud fees and overall investment) are spent on mares from these very specific families. I can hardly argue with this point, as there is a great deal of truth to it. But that’s like saying that people spend the most money on houses in the best neighborhoods and that the most investment in remodeling and landscaping is spent on these same houses. These neighborhoods are the safest place to invest your money, as long as you are spending that money on real estate.

With bloodstock, you see a similar trend, and as long as these families continue to produce results on the racetrack and in the breeding shed, breeders will continue to concentrate their assets in them and in their descendants.

Instead of fighting this trend and lamenting the fact that you can’t afford to purchase a $1-million mare, use these families to your advantage. Buy fillies and mares from the edges of these families or buy fillies and mares sired by stallions from these families. Build your own family. I’m not saying that you’ll be able to accomplish this task overnight, but there are too many success stories using this kind of strategy to list here. It’s like buying the cheapest house in a good neighborhood and slowly adding value to it through improvements.

Of course, you’re not likely to stumble across a mare like the dam of Rachel Alexandra with your first mare purchase, but you don’t want to spend a mint’s worth of cash to discover that your mares simply don’t have the genetic wiring to produce stakes horses in the first place. You want to invest where gold and silver was mined successfully before, or at least operate in the same part of the world. There are no extra points in the horse business for finding treasure where no one has found it before (that’s an uphill battle), and stallions with the most connections to these superior families are generally worth the most as breeding stock. This is where breeders will steer their best mares.

So, this background in Thoroughbred families leads us to our subject pedigree, belonging to recent Risen Star Stakes (G2) winner Discreetly Mine. He traces to the mare Risque (1928, by Stimulus), and another branch of the Risque family leads to Broodmare of the Year Key Bridge, whose sons include champion 3-year-old colt Key to the Mint (a successful sire and broodmare sire), co-Horse of the Year/champion turf horse Fort Marcy (a gelding), and Grade 1 turf winner Key to Content.

Discreetly Mine’s branch of the Risque family leads to the Northern Dancer mare Christmas Wishes, who had a full-sister named Cool Mood. Cool Mood had a Buckpasser daughter named Passing Mood, who produced Belmont (G1)/Haskell (G1) winner Touch Gold (a useful sire) and With Approval (Horse of the Year in Canada).

Christmas Wishes produced a Tom Rolfe daughter named Bury the Hatchet, who in turned produced the full-sisters Buryyourbelief (G1 Kentucky Oaks winner) and Pretty Persuasive. Pretty Persuasive is the dam of Pretty Discreet (G1 Alabama winner), she being the dam of Discreetly Mine.

A closer inspection of Pretty Discreet’s pedigree reveals that her sire, Private Account, carries inbreeding to La Troienne (2 crosses) and War Admiral (3 crosses) via his dam—champion 2-year-old filly Numbered Account (by Buckpasser). Buckpasser is also the damsire of Believe It (sire of Pretty Discreet’s dam), meaning that Pretty Discreet carries the tremendous broodmare sire Buckpasser 3 x 4 in her pedigree.

If all of this sounds vaguely familiar, it is because Pretty Discreet has been around for quite some time and has been a very good producer. Although her first three foals by Boundary (inbred closely to Damascus) were a combined 1 for 24, Pretty Discreet’s fourth foal, Pretty Wild (by Wild Again), was second in both the Hopeful (G1) and Futurity (G1) at 2. An unraced daughter of Awesome Again named Discreetly Awesome followed two foals later, and her daughter Awesome Maria (by Maria’s Mon) won the G2 Matron and placed second in the Frizette (G1) in 2009. Discreet Cat (by Forestry) was Pretty Discreet’s next foal, and his record is well documented, as he won his first six starts, including the Grade 1 Cigar Mile, in which he equaled Easy Goer’s one-mile track record at Aqueduct.

One might point to Discreet Cat’s brilliant speed over one mile and doubt the stamina of Discreetly Mine. But keep in mind that Discreet Cat is a son of Forestry (by Storm Cat) and although Forestry is out of a daughter of the stamina influence Pleasant Colony, he was a King’s Bishop (G1) winner over seven furlongs and his progeny seem to favor more of the Storm Cat prototype, prospering more in the sprinter/miler realm than in classic distance events. Pretty Discreet did win the Alabama (10 furlongs), so we are starting with a foundation of stamina in the dam.

Private Account (sire of Pretty Discreet) did sire his share of horses that enjoyed a distance of ground—the full-siblings Personal Ensign and Personal Flag (by Private Account) were certainly up to the classic distance standard, and Personal Ensign’s son Miner’s Mark (by Mr. Prospector) won the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1), while Our Emblem (a full-brother to Miner’s Mark) sired Kentucky Derby (G1)/Preakness (G1) winner and champion 3-year-old colt War Emblem.

Although Pretty Discreet’s damsire Believe It is a son of In Reality (not known as a classic line), he did win the Wood Memorial (G1) going two turns and was a respectable third in the Kentucky Derby to Affirmed and Alydar. The fact that Believe It was also the damsire of near-Triple Crown winner Real Quiet (lost the Belmont by a nose after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness) shows that Believe It passes forward a great deal more stamina than the typical son of In Reality.

This takes us to Discreetly Mine’s sire, Mineshaft, who was American Horse of the Year at age 4 after spending the majority of his 3-year-old season racing on the turf in England and France with limited success. At 4, Mineshaft accounted for classic distance prestige events like the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1, 10 furlongs) and Suburban (G1, 10 furlongs), while also racking up wins in the Pimlico Special (G1, 9 1/2 furlongs) and Woodward (G1, 9 furlongs).

Considering that he started his career with a $100,000 stud fee and now stands for $20,000, one could rate Mineshaft a disappointment but not a flop (especially considering the wide-spread drop in stud fees the past two seasons). He is genetically loaded (by A.P. Indy/his Mr. Prospector dam was a G1 winner and all five of her foals were stakes winners), and his full sister Tomisue’s Delight was not only a multiple G1 winner in New York but is a G1 producer herself (dam of Mr. Sidney).

Very often it takes a crafty mating to unlock the potential of a stallion, and we could very well have a breakthrough runner for Mineshaft in the form of Discreetly Mine. I mentioned the Grade 1-winning full siblings Personal Ensign (undefeated champion) and Personal Flag (Suburban). They were out of a mare by Hoist the Flag, and Personal Ensign produced three top runners (Miner’s Mark, Our Emblem, and Traditionally) by Mr. Prospector. Mineshaft’s first two dams are by none other than Mr. Prospector and Hoist the Flag.

Given the fact that A.P. Indy (sire of Mineshaft) brings in the reinforcing genes of War Admiral, La Troienne, and Buckpasser, and the fact that Hoist the Flag is out of a mare by War Admiral, you can see that Discreetly Mine’s lineage replicates many of the Phipps/Claiborne pedigrees of the 1970s and ‘80s, stacking the genes of La Troienne, War Admiral, and their house stallions like Mr. Prospector, Hoist the Flag, Bold Ruler, Secretariat, and Believe It with remarkable success.

Discreetly Mine picks up balanced inbreeding to Tom Rolfe (through a son and a daughter) in the bargain, while Mineshaft also gets reinforcement of his inbreeding to the full sisters Glamour and So Chic (from the Baby League branch of the La Troienne family) via Private Account (a great-grandson of Glamour).

A mare like Pretty Discreet seems to have the genetic ability to make virtually any stallion look good, although this propensity for quality all begins with a good foundation in family and inbreeding to two daughters of Buckpasser, which reinforces the La Troienne/War Admiral inbreeding already found in the pedigrees of Private Account and Mineshaft.

Thus, we’ll continue to follow Discreetly Mine’s development as a racehorse and stallion prospect this spring with great interest. The genetic potential for achievement in distance events is obviously there, and a classic win or placing is within the realm of possibility.

Edwin Anthony was the staff pedigree consultant at Three Chimneys Farm for six years and has penned dozens of articles on pedigree research.  He also published The American Thoroughbred (Volume I) in 2008 which can be ordered via the ad link on this web page or through his website at www.thoroughbredadvisor.com.

By Bradford Cummings
“Sometimes I think this is a PETA site.” These words written two days ago about the Paulick Report by a commenter known as Johnny Mack was perhaps the lowest moment I’ve had since June 16, 2008, when Ray and I launched this Thoroughbred industry news and commentary website. While my tongue is somewhat planted in my cheek, those who know me also feel my pain. I am no fan of this animal rights organization that does more harm than good. They continually show their ignorance, most recently by calling the $5-million Apple Blossom Invitational—intended to attract Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta but open to other fillies and mares–a “match race”. Anyone armed with a sixth-grade education would understand a purse that large will draw many more than two horses.

And this is sad as their overall philosophy I tend to agree with. Animals cannot protect themselves by-and-large and so it is our duty to take care of them…until of course we eat them. But I digress.

To Johnny Mack’s point, it seems with increasing veracity, the animal rights activists and horse industry haters are coming to our site in droves to turn any subject into a commentary on the horrors of horse slaughter, allegedly abusive whipping of some of our sport’s biggest stars, and a perceived (by them) cruelty to all Thoroughbreds. In an ideal world, every horse would live out his retirement years in a pastoral setting, munching contentedly on plush bluegrass. The adrenaline of racing down a track at 35 mph would not cause our athletes, both human and equine, to get carried away. Additionally, I’d like to live on a rainbow made of gummy bears and marshmallows and buy a 10,000 square foot mansion with hugs and pixie sticks. But we can’t have everything.

And this gets to my point. I know those of you completely sold out to the fight against real or perceived cruelty against animals mean well, but ultimately you hurt your message with this Johnny One-Note approach to advocacy. Ray and I are not alone in getting tired of the constant barrage of negativity. The real world tunes you out and therefore you weaken your voice.

I would hope everyone who frequents this site—many of you owners, breeders, or hands-on horsemen–abhor the mistreatment of horses. There are other industries to make much more money in than breeding or racing Thoroughbreds. Ultimately, the vast majority of horsemen do what they do because they have an absolute love affair with horses. They live and breathe the industry 24 hours a day and would never even think about becoming the next Ernie Paragallo. But the wingnuts who try to steer every conversation to fit their agenda treat everyone in the industry as if they have a death wish for these magnificent creatures.
 
Are there bad apples in the bunch? Of course. The aforementioned Paragallo and the much-maligned Michael Gill are the low hanging abuse fruit of the moment. But to even attempt to paint a broad brush on all horsemen or even something close to a majority is equally as sickening as the things that both Gill and Paragallo are accused of committing. I also heard about a schoolteacher who molested one of his students. Does that mean we should dedicate time to trashing all teachers? Of course not.

Okay, I feel better now. But before I’m through, I do want to give an explanation as to why we let so much vitriol on a site that quite frankly exists for the industry insider first and foremost. Outside of the obvious First Amendment reasoning (we do reserve the right to edit or delete comments we deem inappropriate—hey, it’s our site, not yours), it is important that horsemen and women of all stripes understand the image problems our industry faces. Those nasty comments don’t just come from one person who changes name to keep it fresh. They represent many people from all across the country and even the world who see this as a barbaric sport that preys on innocent animals. One of the hallmarks of the Paulick Report is taking on the 800-pound gorillas of this industry. We must do all that we can to make sure those who look for holes can find very few to poke.
 
Now I know I’m setting this up to be the all time greatest backlash in “horse hugger” commentary in the history of the internet and that’s fine by me. For once, I have a feeling your comments will be interesting. But I certainly hope we can all learn from each other. We welcome your presence on this site. We want your point of view. But please, just broaden your horizons a bit. Pick your battles and we can all work for a better industry.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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Alex Brown is among those in the anti-horse slaughter community who pointed out to the Paulick Report recent changes in Canadian regulations regarding drugs not permitted in horses intended for slaughter in Canada. In this following article, Brown says an extremely high percentage of American-trained Thoroughbreds are prescribed one of the newly prohibited drugs, phenylbutazone, otherwise known as Butazolidin or Bute. What isn’t known is how this new ban will affect the transportation and slaughter of horses from the United States into Canada. – Ray Paulick
 

By Alex Brown
Bute is banned for food animals, our horses are not food animals.
 
The United States Food and Drug Administration released a document in 2003 establishing that phenylbutazone (Butazolidin, or Bute) is not fit for horses intended for the food chain.  According to the document, Bute is a carcinogen, as determined by the National Toxicology Program.  The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recently released a document establishing revised guidelines or horses intended to be slaughtered in slaughter houses in Canada.  In that document there is a list of substances that are not permitted for horses intended for the human foodchain, regardless of when the substance is ingested.  No quarantine period for these substances.  They are simply banned.  Bute is on that list.
 
Data compiled by the Daily Racing Form indicates that in 2009 99% of horses that ran in California pre-raced on Bute (7391 out of 7443).  In a similar study of Suffolk Downs runners, 92% of horses pre-raced on Bute (1062 out of 1158).  As I ask trainers about their use of Bute for pre-racing, trainers tell me they pre-race on Bute regardless of the condition of the horse.  It is not because the horse is unsound, it is because we can and it does not slow the horse down for the race itself.
 
As horsemen we know that pre-racing on Bute is only one example of when Bute is administered to our racehorses.  Many horses train on Bute as part of their daily regimen. 
 
Is it not time now to ask our racing leaders to publicly support an end to slaughter, or at least ban racehorses from the food chain.  It is clear that racehorses are not fit for human consumption from a food safety standpoint and knowingly allowing this practice to continue cannot be justified.  

We should perhaps also ask the same question of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). A vet, more than anyone, knows that our racehorses are administered Bute, and they now must undersrtand that Bute is prohibited for food animals.
 

Veterinarian Dr. Jerry Bilinski testified that nearly all Thoroughbreds on Ernie Paragallo’s farm were malnourished to emaciation and were living in an environment infested with parasites.

Read it at The Daily Mail

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

- Bradford Cummings

As Thoroughbred racing and breeding sails through stormy waters without either a captain or a rudder on the ship, I am reminded that calls for a commissioner, a league office, a central authority—call it what you will—are not particularly new. Arthur B. Hancock III, the owner of Stone Farm in Paris, Ky., has long advocated federal legislation that would create a structure for the sport of racing and address many of the problems that have plagued us for decades.

Following is the complete text of a speech Hancock gave nearly 20 years ago at the University of Arizona’s Symposium on Racing in December 1991. What was true then is true today.—Ray Paulick
 

 
When uncertainty and troubling times swirled about him, Winston Churchill quoted a profound poem, “The Clattering Train”
 
          Who is in charge of the clattering train,
          The carriages creak and couplets strain.
          And the pace is fast and points are near,
          But sleep has deadened the driver’s ear.
          And the whistle shrieks through the night in vain,
          For death is in charge of the clattering train.
 
          We are all gathered together here in Arizona to speak out and do what we can to help our sport, Thoroughbred racing.  I refer to our industry as a sport because in essence that is exactly what it is, just as football, baseball, and basketball are sports.  We must never forget that the essence of racing is the competition of the horses and the romance, enthusiasm, and wagering that permeates that competition.  A track that I love, Keeneland, has a slogan, “Racing as it was meant to be”.  Ladies and Gentlemen, envision the first race long ago when several farmers or businessmen got together and bragged on the horses and to settle the issue, everyone lined up on Main Street for the big race on a Saturday afternoon and cheered for and bet on the horse of their choice. There was something deep within the people that was stirred by those horses roaring down Main Street, straining every nerve.  Well, this was racing as it was meant to be, and if we neglect and forget the essence of our sport, we lose sight of what it is that enables us to survive as an industry and to compete with other forms of entertainment.
 
There was a time when we were the only game in town and if you didn’t go fishing, you’d go to the races.  Today, there are many games in town.  We have riverboat gambling, jai alai, dog racing, baseball, casino gambling, Indian gaming, football, soccer, tennis, golf, basketball and lotteries.  How are we going to compete with these if we are not in control of our own destiny and if we are perceived by the masses of fans and potential fans as being dishonest and riddled by drugs and thugs? The answer is, we cannot compete.  Something has to be done and done quickly or racing as it was meant to be and life as we have known it is over.  We are riding a runaway train.
 
There are many important entities in our industry, but all of them put together are not as important to us as our fans, the bettors.  Without them, we have nothing.  With them we have everything.  It is imperative that we present to them an image of absolute integrity.  The question is how do we do this?  In order to have a fair game, we have to have a level playing field.  And we must be able to enforce the rules of the game with penalties.  Also, the rules of the game must be the same everywhere, be it in Kentucky, California, New York or Texas.  Since ours is a gambling game, it is absolutely necessary that everything about our game be completely above-board and strictly enforced.  Perception counts as much as reality.  Some may say, oh, a few drugs in minor doses is O.K. Well, by example, shall we make Little Johnny president of the Boy Scouts of America if he only snorts cocaine once or twice a year?  No, we can’t because Johnny’s image is already tainted.  By the same token, any kind of drug use on horses will convey the same perception and it will stop the people from wanting to watch the game as well as play the game.  There is nothing glamorous or romantic about drugging horses, and when you lose the romance of racing, you lose the essence of racing, racing as it was meant to be.
 
So far, the integrity of racing has been dealt a lot of smaller blows but a life-threatening death blow has yet to occur.  What do you think would have happened if Go For Wand had been running on Butazolidin or Lasix?  I shudder to contemplate it, but someday the same thing will happen again and the horse will be on drugs.  When the press and animal rights activists finish with us, there won’t be much left.  This nightmare hangs above us every day in every race we run.

 
We might still say, even in the face of stories about drugging helpless horses, who have no say in the matter, that it is inhumane to race horses without drugs if they “need” them.  Would you give your child drugs to make him perform better?  Is it humane to send him out to perform when he is in pain?  And what about the on-going deterioration of public opinion?  Oh, but drugs are necessary so that races can be filled and so that the little man can stay in the business!  Well, here is the answer to that question in black and white:
 
 
          In 1960 horses made over 11 starts a year
          In 1970 they made 10.2 starts per year
          In 1980 horses made 9.2 starts per year
          In 1990 horses made 7.9 starts per year
 
 
This is a drop of 28% in only thirty years.  By the year 2000, horses will make 6.3 starts a year if this continues – a remarkable drop of 43% from 1960 when drugs were not allowed.
 
So what have drugs done for racing?  Have they helped the little man or any man for that matter?  I’ll tell you one thing that medication has done, is doing, and will continue to do.  It is polluting the gene pool because horses are running on chemically induced ability instead of their natural ability.  In another twenty years our children probably won’t be able to breed a sound horse in America and buyers will be going to Newmarket or Sydney to purchase their yearlings.  Remember, we are the only nation on the planet to allow permissive medication.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, the way to help the little man or any owner is for breeders to breed them good, rugged, healthy, sound horses, and to do that we have to assess the true merit of horses without their performance having been enhanced by drugs.  When we breeders sell someone something, we had better try our best to make sure that they have a chance to make money or they’ll be gone forever.
 
In my opinion, we have a crisis in integrity and a crisis in an ailing industry.  We are dying of a disease, corruption, and the high fever is caused by greed.  Again, our game must be totally above-board before anyone can be truly interested in watching it or playing in it.  To quote another statistic of the 91 horses running in the Breeders Cup this year, 76 of them were running on drugs.  If it’s allowed to be used, it will be abused.  Perception counts more than reality.
 
So what do we do?  How do we get together to solve our problems, Ladies and Gentlemen, because Thoroughbred racing and wagering now is involved in interstate commerce through simulcasting?  Congress not only has a right but a duty to regulate it.  This will happen!  We must act now in a concentrated, cooperative effort to get a benign bill passed which will regulate horse racing in the way we want it regulated.  Let’s face it; it is already regulated, so let’s get it regulated right, with no half measures.  We must regulate ourselves before the Federal Government sees fit to do it for us.
 
Today, I propose that we join together in a united front and go to our congressmen and senators with an idea, and that idea is:
 
The Racing Act of 1992
 
The points in this bill would be as follows:
 
I.       All foals born in 1992 will run drug-free in 1994 as well as older horses.  No           medication will be administered to a horse within 48 hours of a race, and trace levels will be determined by the commissioner.
 
II.      Anyone caught drugging a horse or fixing a race will be subject to specified       penalties for specified offenses, and there will be rigid enforcement of racing’s rules and regulations with certain knowledge of swift and sure punishment to be administered by the commissioner.
 
III.     No convicted felon may hold a racing license.
 
IV.     Uniform licensing will be implemented.
 
V.      A racing commissioner or czar will be appointed by The Jockey Club, The        TRA, The RCI, The TOBA, The HBPA, The Breeders’ Cup, The American Horse Council, The National Turf Writers, and The Jockey’s Guild.  Each organization will have one vote and may nominate a candidate if they so choose.
 
Drug testing will be done according to the RCI’s quality assurance program with the Commissioner assigning certain areas to certain labs as to efficiency and cost control.  This bill will include regulation of other segments of the entire horse industry, such as Quarter horses and Standardbreds, with those segments electing their own respective commissioners, if they wish.
 
In closing, I am reminded of a parable.  There was once a large fine house wherein lived a number of mice.  There were plenty of scraps of fine cheeses, breads and cakes, and the mice flourished.  Then the owner decided to get a cat and this cat wreaked havoc on the mice and their comfortable lifestyle.  All of the mice convened in an effort to find a solution to this life-threatening problem, and they decided to put a bell on the cat. This was considered to be a wonderful idea and was hailed throughout mousedom.  Then one of the mice said, “But who will be the one to put the bell on the cat?”
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, we need to give someone the authority to put the bell on the cat.  We need a Commissioner of Racing.  At the moment, we are all passengers on the clattering train.  Let’s get ourselves an engineer.  We need desperately to create the perception of credibility, honesty and absolute integrity, and we need to rid ourselves once and for all of drugs and thugs.  Once we do this, our future can be as bright and unlimited as that of any sport in this world, and our light will shine for all to see.  Let’s do it because it’s right.
 
Thank you for listening, thank you for your consideration, good luck, good racing, and good day.
 
Arthur B. Hancock III, University of Arizona Symposium on Racing, 1991

In reaction to a piece we ran yesterday on the Paulick Report from Brent Schrotenboer in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Bill Finley’s ESPN.com article points out the inaccuracies and misperceptions promoted by the article.

Finley spends a great deal of time highlighting the dirt surface at Los Alamitos and making the case that this predominantly Quarter Horse track is the likely culprit for the inflated numbers of racing fatalities.

"The CHRB may have a lot to worry about and look at, but synthetic surfaces are not one of its primary problems," said Finley. "At least when it comes to safety, they’re getting the job done — no matter what you may have read."

Read it at ESPN.com

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

- Bradford Cummings

Brad,

Just FYI — Please keep in mind that writers don’t write the headlines to their stories. I didn’t write the headline that Bill Finley based his column on.

While that headline is not false, it wasn’t totally fair either, because the issue is much more nuanced, as the story reflects.

The print version had a different headline: "Latest fatality statistics fuel more debate."

The headline on the online story since has been changed to match this.

Thanks.

Brent Schrotenboer

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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By Ray Paulick
The good news at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales company’s February select sale of 2-year-olds in training is that Thoroughbred racing continues to hold a fascination with people who have worked hard, enjoyed a certain measure of success, and want to live out a longtime dream to have their own racing stable.

That was the case with Chuck and Maribeth Sandford, who stepped up in a big way with their first auction purchase, a $475,000 colt by Tiznow who topped the one-day OBS sale in Ocala on Tuesday. The Sandfords come from Marengo, Ill., a small farming community in the northern Illinois cornbelt; they built a business from scratch that has been highly successful (click here to learn about their business), and in the last year have made the transition from horse racing fans to owners.

That’s welcome news for anyone in the Thoroughbred trade, especially at a time when many existing owners are cutting back on their stables. There has always been turnover in the ranks of owners, or among buyers at public auction, but for the industry’s future health it has to continue to have a magnetic appeal that attracts individuals like Chuck and Maribeth Sandford who have a dream.

How much turnover in buyers was there at this year’s one-day sale? In 2009, there were 19 individual buyers who spent $150,000 or more at the OBS February auction. Of those 19, only two spent at that level in 2010, and both made considerable cutbacks—West Point Thoroughbreds, through agent Buzz Chace going from six purchases for $1,260,000 in 2009 to three for $340,000 in 2010; and Dogwood Stables, going from five for $545,000 in 2009 to five for $355,000 in 2010.

Last year’s second-leading buyer behind West Point was Westrock Stable, which spent $595,000 for four horses. Westrock was not listed as a buyer this year. A number of other buyers who bought at least one horse in 2009 were not among 2010 buyers, including Coolmore associate Demi O’Byrne, Sheikh Mohammed’s chief bloodstock adviser John Ferguson, the Sanan family’s Padua Stables, and trainers Ken McPeek and Gary Contessa.

Fortunately, in the absence of so many 2009 buyers, there were purchases totaling $150,000 or more from 11 entities in 2010  that were not among the leading buyers last year, including Amy Tarrant’s Hardacre Farm, the sale’s leading buyer with two purchases for $675,000; the Sandfords, second leading buyer with their one purchase; California-based agent Hubert Guy, third-leading buyers with four purchases for $465,000; Let’s Go Stable, fourth-leading buyer with one purchase for $400,000; and the Steinbrenner family’s Kinsman Farm, seventh-leading buyer with two purchases for $300,000.

A boutique sale with only 160 horses catalogued cannot be used as a reliable barometer for the health of the Thoroughbred marketplace. But the results of Tuesday’s sale followed the forecast of Leprechaun Racing’s Mike Mulligan, a major pinhooker who also serves as president of the National Association of Two-Year-Old Consignors. Mulligan told the Paulick Report last week that buyers in past years who might spend $60,000 to $80,000 apiece for eight or nine horses at a 2-year-old sale are more likely now to cut back on the number purchased but focus more on higher quality, thus spending more per horse. That’s why this year’s sale saw a much steeper decline in the median price, dropping 25.6% from $90,000 to $66,000, than in the average price, which fell by 8.2%, from $106,115 to $97,182 (click here for the full results). And with more people focusing on the high-end horses and creating more competition at that level, there are going to be shoppers who were turned away without getting what they wanted. That may bode well for consignors who have the goods in upcoming auctions.

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The much-maligned Thoroughbred owner Michael Gill continues to contend he was dealt a bad hand by those who were jealous of his success in the industry.

"I’m an owner that lives 600 miles away. Why am I ruled off? Shouldn’t everybody be asking these questions?", blaming a local bias for his ouster from the sport. "It’s the locals that run these places."

Read it at the Blood-Horse

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

- Bradford Cummings