Posts Tagged ‘Triple Crown’

By Ray Paulick

Bob Evans, president and chief executive officer of Churchill Downs Inc., said during a Friday morning press conference at the company’s flagship track in Louisville, Ky., that the CDI board of directors discussed the possibility of reducing the field size of the Kentucky Derby during a regularly scheduled meeting in New Orleans last week.

The Derby’s maximum field size of 20 is under scrutiny in the wake of the death of the filly Eight Belles in last year’s Derby, even though her fatal injuries occurred after the finish and apparently were unrelated to the number of runners or trouble she may have encountered in the race. The Derby traditionally has the largest field of any race in the United States. No Derby starter has fallen during the running of the race since 1970, when Holy Land clipped heels and fell going into the far turn.

By contrast, Breeders’ Cup fields are limited to 14 starters.

Maximum field size of 14 horses and the prohibition of fillies running against males were considerations in an original discussion document circulated by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association to industry leaders who formed what ultimately came to be known as the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance.

Field size or sex limitations were not part of the final recommendations of the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance Pledge, which can be viewed by clicking here.

Evans said CDI has devoted a great deal of time and resources to examine a wide range of safety issues since the death of Eight Belles and has adopted all of the safety recommendations made by committees formed earlier this year by the Jockey Club and Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association.

The CDI board discussed the reduction of the field size, Evans said, though he gave no indication whether a change will be made. “For now, it’s the way it’s always been,” he said. Nominations to the Triple Crown races, including the Derby, state that the size of the Derby can be “up to 20 horses.”

A reduction in field size might not be greeted favorably by horse owners and trainers who throughout the winter and spring closely follow whether their 3-year-olds are in the leading 20 contenders, based on money earned in graded or group stakes races. Churchill recently announced a marketing agreement with Kempton racecourse in England that will guarantee one spot in the Derby field to the winner of the Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile race on Polytrack, on March 18.

Handle on the Derby would also decline in the event of a reduction in the field size. Evans said Churchill has researched Derby handle in relationship to field size but would not say how much handle might fall. A reduction from 20 to 14 starters would also cost Churchill Downs $300,000 in lost entry and starting fees ($25,000 to enter and $25,000 to start).

Evans discussed the Derby field size and other safety measures following a media briefing announcing that Oaks and Derby ticket prices, with a few exceptions, would be frozen in 2009. “Our slowing economy is having a pronounced effect, and many of our customers have been affected in various ways as well,” Evans said. “Although the Kentucky Derby occupies an elite spot in the world of sports and tickets are typically in high demand, we want to keep our price points at the same level to help our customers in this challenging economic climate.” Click here to read more about the ticket price freeze.

The only exceptions will be scheduled price increases in the 30-year personal seat license program, which are coming off a three-year price freeze; some luxury suites and Marquee Village accommodations; and reserved seats in the infield.

Churchill Downs is also offering the opportunity for on-track customers to buy Derby reserved seats in a sweepstakes running each day from tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 22) through Nov. 29. Individuals whose names are drawn will be eligible to buy two Derby tickets ranging in price from $88 to $207. (Derby tickets range in price from $88 for infield reserved seats to $693 on millionaire’s row.) One thousand of the tracks 55,000 seats are being offered in the sweepstakes. For more details, click here.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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In the nine hours of Breeders’ Cup telecasts last Friday and Saturday, the strangest segment by far came during a brief interview between comedic sportscaster Kenny Mayne and Michael Iavarone, president of the IEAH stable that owns a majority of Big Brown, when Iavarone said he and members of his family had been the subject of a death threat more than four months earlier on the morning of the Belmont Stakes.

Mayne opened the interview by saying Iavarone showed a lot of emotion after jockey Kent Desormeaux pulled Big Brown out of the race at the top of the stretch when the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner was hopelessly beaten.

Iavarone picked it up from there.

“The morning of the (June 7) Belmont Stakes, I had been woken up around 10 a.m.,” he told Mayne. "There was a knock on my door and there were several New York City Police Department detectives. They asked me to come outside because they didn’t want to talk to me in front of my family. They told me there had been a serious death threat lodged against me, basically from Tallahassee, Florida, from an extremist saying that if anything should happen to Big Brown in the race, myself and my family were not safe. Basically I was followed by eight to nine New York detectives all day, everywhere I went. Obviously after the horse was pulled up the rest is obvious.”

Mayne said ESPN/ABC learned of Iavarone’s story the day before the live interview aired and suggested that Iavarone’s emotional reaction to Big Brown’s defeat was “painted by that threat, not what the shortfall was of not winning the Triple Crown.”

“My immediate reaction was split in half,” Iavarone told Mayne. “Obviously there was concern for the horse and concern for my family. I was headed in both directions and both of them were catastrophic at the time. The first thing I did was grab my daughters and make sure we were out of the way and safe and tears were falling. It was just a terrible day for us.”

With 24 hours lead time before the interview, Mayne said ESPN/ABC “tried to contact the detective you said investigated the case and were unable to reach him.” He then asked Iavarone, “Did they ever follow up with you and say the case was closed? Do you feel comfortable now?”

“Obviously the horse is sound and is retired so I would not believe they would have any reason to harm myself or my family,” Iavarone said. “They have not told me the case is closed.”

The strange timing of Iavarone’s revelations notwithstanding, there are some details about his story that just don’t add up. I was seated directly behind Iavarone in the box section of Belmont during the running of the Belmont Stakes, and saw just one person who was clearly serving in a security capacity – a burly African-American man wearing a dark suit, an open collared white shirt and a “Big Brown” button on his lapel. It appears to be the same individual who has traveled with Iavarone to other races, including last weekend’s Breeders’ Cup.

Immediately after the race, while Big Brown was being unsaddled, I stood directly below the IEAH box and took a series of photographs of a shocked Iavarone, who was surrounded by his family members and fellow IEAH executive Richard Schiavo. There appeared to be no additional security around Iavarone and his family, only the same bodyguard described above. Certainly, I didn’t see “eight or nine New York detectives” in the immediate area.

I’m not accusing Iavarone of making up a story about a death threat. There were a series of incidents and revelations that made Iavarone something of a lightning rod with individuals within and outside of the racing community, some of which inflamed animal rights activities. There was the revelation that Big Brown raced legally on anabolic steroids when he won the Derby, the disclosure that Iavarone had lied about his past life as a “high profile banker on Wall Street,” the fact he had been fined and suspended by the National Association of Security Dealers, and the determination to run Big Brown in the Belmont despite suffering a quarter crack and missing training before the race.

Attempts by the Paulick Report to contact New York Racing Association officials to determine their knowledge of the alleged death threat and increased New York Police Department security detail were not successful.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

No horse has ever done what Exceller did 30 years ago when he defeated two Triple Crown winners, Seattle Slew and Affirmed, in the 1978 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. Given the unlikelihood that the sport will ever see two Triple Crown winners racing at the same time again, it’s hard to see how Exceller’s accomplishment will ever be matched. The son of Vaguely Noble may be the greatest horse never to win a year-end championship in the United States. He was an accomplished runner in Europe and in the U.S., winning 15 of 33 starts for Nelson Bunker Hunt (including seven of 10 starts in 1978), and earning in excess of $1.6 million — when million-dollar winners were rare.

Take a few minutes and enjoy this video of the 1978 Jockey Club Gold Cup.  It was a fascinating contest. Seattle Slew broke through the gate before the start. Then, Affirmed’s saddled slipped, compromising his chances. Seattle Slew was pushed to unbelievably fast fractions for a mile and a half race, yet he fought as gamely as any horse has ever fought, right to the finish. And Exceller, under Bill Shoemaker, rallied from 22 lengths off that rapid pace to get the win.

Sadly, neither the Jockey Club Gold Cup nor the many other outstanding victories are why Exceller is known to a generation of racing fans who never had the good fortune to see him run. This grand Thoroughbred, who gave so much for our pleasure, wound up in a slaughterhouse in Sweden in April 1997, less than 20 years after his greatest racing achievement.

Exceller’s crime? Failure to succeed as a stallion?

(Read more about Exceller’s racing career and his death in a Swedish slaughterhouse. Elected to the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1999, two years after his death, Exceller’s biographical information and Hall of Fame plaque fail to state his cause of death.)

Whether you believe that slaughter is a viable alternative for unwanted horses or are sickened by the thought that thousands of Thoroughbreds are led to slaughter for human consumption every year, the story of Exceller is a tragic one. No horse who did for the sport what Exceller did should have such an undignified death.

The same is true of the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner, Ferdinand, who is believed to have died in a Japanese slaughterhouse in 2002 after not living up to expectations as a stallion.

Exceller became a cause célèbre for some racing fans who were frustrated that the Thoroughbred industry and its leaders were doing next to nothing for so many former racehorses who failed to generate revenue for their owners and ended up being slaughtered. A group of them decided they would do something about it, forming the Exceller Fund, pooling their own resources and raising additional funds, and volunteering their time to save horses from slaughter and help them transition to a second career off the racetrack. The Exceller Fund is one of many such organizations struggling to make a difference on behalf of the horses and the Thoroughbred industry.

This Saturday, to honor Exceller’s Jockey Club Gold Cup victory, a number of racetracks across the U.S. will host a “Toast to Exceller Day,” in order to raise awareness and donations for the Exceller Fund and many other equine charity groups. A special cocktail, “The Exceller,”  is being sold at several tracks, including Mountaineer, Finger Lakes, Laurel Park and Presque Isle Downs, with proceeds benefting the Exceller Fund.

“I cannot thank our partner tracks enough for their support with this and I wish to especially thank the New York Racing Association for their commitment to the Exceller Fund that will be a lasting relationship for many years to come,” said leading New York trainer Gary Contessa, who in August was named president of the Exceller Fund.

Exceller did a great deal for Thoroughbred racing — then and now.

Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

Visit the Paulick Report for all the latest news throughout the racing world. 

By Ray Paulick

Big Brown went to the lead at the start and never looked back in winning Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile Monmouth Stakes, a $500,000 turf race designed by Monmouth Park for the two-time classic winner. The Rick Dutrow-trained colt, sent off the 3-5 favorite, opened a clear lead down the backstretch, then held off a determined stretch run from second choice Proudinsky to win by a neck in 1:47.41 on a turf course rated good. Shakis circled the field to be a fast-closing third, another half-length back.

(VIDEO, EQUIBASE CHART)

The Monmouth was Big Brown’s first race agaist older horses, and he was the only 3-year-old in the nine-horse field, carrying 120 pounds, one more than the 5-year-old German-bred Proudinsky.

"Couldn’t have been better," said Michael Iavarone, who manages the IEAH Stables that owns Big Brown in partnership with Paul Pompa Jr. Big Brown used the Monmouth race as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Kent Desormeaux rode Big Brown confidently, rating him on the lead and in the clear down the backstretch and around the far turn after getting a modest early challenge from longshot Get Serious, who was hustled up to engage Big Brown in the run to the first turn. Proudinsky tracked Big Brown into the stretch and moved up to engage him inside the furlong pole, but was never able to seriously challenge the winner, who was under a hand ride down the stretch and got only a few under-handed taps on the right shoulder from Desormeaux’s whip, Fractions of the race were : :23.46, :46.83, 1:11.21, and 1:35.39. The final time of 1:47.41 gave Big Brown a final eighth in a snappy 12.02 seconds.

Big Brown was making his first start on grass since breaking his maiden by 12 ¾ lengths going 1 1/16 miles on the Saratoga turf in his career debut Sept. 3, which turned out to be his only start as a 2-year-old. He was trained then by Pat Reynolds, who picked him out of the Keeneland April 2-year-olds in training sale, where he was purchased by Paul Pompa Jr. for $190,000.

After Big Brown’s maiden win, IEAH Stables purchased a 75% interest in the colt and turned him over to Dutrow, who handles most of IEAH’s runners. It was expected he would run in the Pilgrim Stakes on grass, followed by the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, but a quarter crack sidelined him for several months.

Big Brown returned to win a March 5 allowance race at a mile on the Gulfstream Park dirt after the race was taken off turf, and, with the exception of a series of grass workouts, it’s been dirt ever since for the son of Boundary out of Mien, by Nureyev. He won the Florida Derby, Kentucky Derby and Preakness before losing his bid for the Triple Crown while being eased in the Belmont Stakes. He came back to win the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park Aug. 3 and is using the Monmouth race as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on the new Pro-Ride synthetic track at Santa Anita Oct. 25.

The win at Monmouth was Big Brown’s seventh in eight starts. He was bred in Kentucky by Gary Knapp’s Monticule Farm. Big Brown paid $3.20 to win. Big Brown will retire at the end of the year to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Clay’s Three Chimneys Farm to stand the 2009 breeding season. Three Chimneys reportedly purchased a 10% interest in the colt midway through the Triple Crown. At that time, the colt’s value was estimated at $50 million.

“Been there, done that,” Jackson said to reporters the other day in a teleconference to announce future plans for the reigning Horse of the Year.

Instead, Jackson seems bent on some exotic mission that he hopes will prove more satisfying, like the Hong Kong Cup or Japan Cup in Asia.

So that’s how far the Breeders’ Cup Classic has fallen. The majority owner of the best horse America has seen, perhaps since Cigar more than a decade ago, is seeking new worlds to conquer rather than go for a repeat in the richest and what should be the most important race run on American soil – the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Did I say run on American “soil”? Right now, no one is sure exactly what the Classic will be run on when the Breeders’ Cup comes to Santa Anita Park for its two-day race meeting on Oct. 24-25. As I write this, 80 days before the self-proclaimed “world championships,” an Australian company is sifting a variety of materials onto the oval that that has hosted some of the greatest races this sport has seen. The company, Pro-Ride, has some experience in installing and maintaining training tracks and materials for lunging rings et al, but Santa Anita will be the first major meeting that uses Pro-Ride for racing.

Instead of world championships, perhaps this year’s Breeders’ Cup (and next year’s since Breeders’ Cup management and its board decided to go back-to-back at Santa Anita in 2009) should be called the grand experiment. Jackson (and who can really blame him?) doesn’t feel he should use Curlin as a guinea pig on such a surface.

Once Breeders’ Cup (and the industry) determines whether or not these man-made tracks are better for the horses and for the sport, there will remain the serious question of how to keep a Breeders’ Cup champion like Curlin interested in going for a repeat.

Tiznow is the only horse to have won the Classic twice (2000 and ’01), and only a handful have even tried it.  For many winners, it’s been the final stop on the road to the breeding shed. Jess Jackson decided to keep Curlin in training for another year, and you can select from one of the following reasons: a) he’s a sportsman who doesn’t need the money; b) there were legal entanglements involving his ownership that might have made a stud deal difficult; c) all of the above.

Say, for example, trainer Rick Dutrow is able to hold Big Brown together through the end of the year and win the Classic with the same verve with which the colt won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. He’ll go from there to Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky to get ready for the 2009 breeding season. The economic reality is that a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner can earn more money by breeding than he can by racing.

 Does it have to be that way?

Has Breeders’ Cup looked into the possibility of offering a bonus for a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner that repeats the following year? Has it considered enhancing the Classic purse for winners of Triple Crown races to keep them in training for another year? Even if Big Brown lost this year’s Breeders’ Cup, dangling an extra few million dollars in his direction for the 2009 Classic might be enough of an incentive to keep him in training. Well, perhaps not Big Brown, but you get the idea.

The international competition to attract the world’s best horses is getting tougher. Many of these international events pay all shipping fees for horses and expenses for their connections, something the Breeders’ Cup has not done. Organizations like the Japan Racing Association have included bonuses in the already-rich purses for their international races to attract good horses.

The Breeders’ Cup is in competition with those international organizations. If it wants to keep America’s best horses here and attract others from around the globe, it’s going to have start thinking like a business and offer incentives that will help justify its claim to be a true world championship. Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report