North American Trainer - Fall 2010 - Issue 18

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North American Trainer ISSUE 18 (FALL 2010)

North American

ISSUE 18 (FALL 2010) $6.95

www.trainermagazine.com

THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE FOR THE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE THOROUGHBRED

AL STALL

“There is nothing that’s going to make a horse into a Grade 1 horse that’s not a Grade 1 horse”

STATE INCENTIVES

DRIVEN BY SLOTS Are we playing Russian Roulette with racing?

DANIELLE HODSDON Publishing Ltd

Giving the boys a run for their money

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE

INTERNATIONAL RACING

Should all preceding races be medication free?

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Introduction Giles Anderson

Nervous Optimistic Trepidation. Three words which can be used to sum up the feeling of many at the business end of the game at this time of year. Nervous Optimistic Trepidation for trainers and investors, pointing horses towards the Breeders’ Cup championships and of course those waiting to start their two-year-olds this fall who may have the potential to reap rewards at the highest level next year.

Nervous Optimistic Trepidation for vendors of foals and mares at the November sales hoping for a much needed upswing in returns for the producers now that both stud fees have fallen and slot revenue in parts of the nation are supplementing income.

So it’s easy to see why we could easily apply those three words to some of our main articles in this issue of the magazine. When you read our feature on Al Stall Jr., you’ll read how he nervously looks over his stable star Blame every day but you’ll also understand that Al is a man who takes the rigors of training horses on a day-to-day basis in his stride. He has been going about his business building on his experiences every year. But this fall, one gets the feeling that Al is like an Army general, quietly massing his foot soldiers for a major campaign.

With Blame pointing towards the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Apart heading to the Clark Handicap and the exciting juvenile J. B.’s Thunder having just won a Grade 1, exciting times lay ahead for the Stall camp. That’s on top of the exciting Louisiana division getting ready for the Fair Grounds meet which gets underway over Thanksgiving weekend. Set to feature here will be the Louisiana-bred Star Guitar, who is now only a few thousand dollars away from breaching the all important $1,000,000 earnings mark.

Star Guitar is a great example of a horse who has benefited from a strong set of purse incentives to enhance a state breeding program. With three races carded each racing day for Louisianabreds, trainers, owners and breeders have a strong conditions book and stakes program to shoot at. As our report on State Support and State Incentives shows, Louisiana is a great example of a state on an upward curve. But as an industry are we relying too heavily on purses now being funded from slots revenue?

That’s certainly a subject which our esteemed columnist Arnold Kirkpatrick has touched on in his column on previous occasions, but this time he looks at who makes the industry work and how it can engage with its fan base to make the sport even more exciting.

So with a dose of Nervous Optimistic Trepidation, good luck wherever your racing takes you this fall! I

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CONTENTS ISSUE 18

North American

For all editorial and advertising inquiries please contact Anderson & Co Publishing Ltd Tel: 1 888 218 4430 Fax: 1 888 218 4206 email: info@trainermagazine.com www.trainermagazine.com North American Trainer magazine is published quarterly by Anderson & Co Publishing Ltd, who are based in the United Kingdom with a representative address in Kentucky. This magazine is distributed for free to all CTT members. Editorial views expressed are not necessarily those of Anderson & Co Publishing Ltd. Additional copies can be purchased for $6.95 (ex P+P). No part of this publication may be reproduced in any format without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States

18

26 State support

8

36 Nutrition and transport

California Thoroughbred Trainers Time for racing to discover marketing.

16 Trainer of the quarter Charlie Lopresti, a trainer with two Breeders’ Cup horses in his small stable.

18 Al Stall Meet the top trainer who is a well-kept secret no more, by Frances J. Karon.

The role played by state governments has become increasingly influential in how well the racing industry is doing in each individual state, by K.T. Donovan.

Using nutrition as a tool to give horses a better travel experience, by Catherine Dunnett.

46 Medication-free races Geir Stabell asks whether the use of medication should be taken into account when filling fields for international races in countries that don’t allow race-day medication.

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CONTENTS ISSUE 18 50 Vibration therapy An innovative therapy that may help in injury prevention as well as healing present injuries by promoting better circulation and bone strength, by Katie Roebuck.

54 Danielle Hodsdon Daniela Snyder profiles successful steeplechase jockey Danielle Hodsdon.

60 Sex allowances Are current sex allowance weight systems fair to all? wonders Geir Stabell.

66 Recurrent Airway Obstruction Dr David Marlin gives us an introduction to Recurrent Airway Obstruction and to ways in which we may lessen the risk to our horses.

70 Cancer James Tate on the different types of equine cancer and what options there are for treatment.

76 Product Focus 78 Stakes Schedules Indexes of forthcoming major stakes races.

84 The Arnold Kirkpatrick column

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CONTRIBUTORS

Publisher & Editorial Director Giles Anderson Managing Editor Frances Karon Publishing Assistant Lucy Smith Design/Production Neil Randon Advertising Executive Charlotte Frampton Circulation Pippa Anderson & Gabby Morris Photo Credits Suzie Picou-Oldham, Tod Marks, Benoit & Associates, Coady Photography, Frances Karon, Horsephotos, James Tate Cover Photograph Frances Karon

Alan F. Balch was hired as Executive Director of California Thoroughbred Trainers in April 2010. His professional career in racing began at Santa Anita in 1971, where he advanced to the position of Sr. Vice PresidentMarketing and Assistant General Manager, and was in charge there of the Olympic Games Equestrian Events for Los Angeles in 1984. He retired in the early 90s to become volunteer president of the national equestrian federation of the USA, as well as of the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden. He remains volunteer president of USA Equestrian Trust, Inc. K. T. Donovan travels domestically and internationally to cover racing through writing, television, and video, and markets farms, stallions, and events, while regularly working sales to make sure she can still put her hands on the horse, the center of it all. As a freelancer, she has written for most of the major racing publications around the world, and contributed in various capacities to live shows and documentaries on several American television networks, as well as for Sky, and RTE (Irish television).

She is based in Lexington, Kentucky.

North American

An Anderson & Co Publishing Ltd publication

Dr Catherine Dunnett BSc, PhD, R.Nutr. is an independent nutritionist registered with the British Nutrition Society. She has a background in equine research, in the field of nutrition and exercise physiology with many years spent at The Animal Health Trust in Newmarket. Prior to setting up her own consultancy business, she worked in the equine feed industry on product development and technical marketing.

Main Address – United Kingdom 3 Stibb Hill, West Lavington SN10 4LQ Representative Address – North America PO Box 13248, Lexington, KY 40583-3248 Contact details Tel: 1 888 218 4430 Fax: 1 888 218 4206 info@trainermagazine.com www.trainermagazine.com North American Trainer is the official magazine of the California Thoroughbred Trainers. It is distributed to all ‘Trainer’ members of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and all members of the Consignors and Commercial Breeders Association

Frances J. Karon, is a native of Puerto Rico and graduate of Maine’s Colby College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.

She operates Rough Shod LLC based in Lexington, Kentucky and specializes in sales, pedigree research and recommendations.

Arnold Kirkpatrick in more than 45 years of involvement in the thoroughbred industry, Arnold Kirkpatrick has accumulated a vast experience in most aspects of the business – from being executive vice president of a major breeding farm to president of a race track. He has won major industry awards both as a writer and as a breeder.

Dr David Marlin is a specialist in exercise physiology, thermoregulation, transport, and respiratory physiology. He has authored over 170 scientific papers and book chapters, and Equine Exercise Physiology. Marlin is International Board Chairman of the International Conference on Equine Exercise Physiology, editor of Comparative Exercise Physiology, and holds visiting Professor positions at the Universities of Bristol, Nottingham, and Oklahoma State. He works as a consultant to the racing industry, the British Equestrian Teams, the FEI, and the International League for the Protection of Horses.

Katie Roebuck is an NCTJ journalist who began her career at The Sporting Life in 1993. She then spent ten years working in television news – culminating at BBC News as a senior sports news producer. More recently Katie was south west correspondent for Farmers Guardian newspaper; she became a freelance journalist at the start of 2009 and is regularly writing for equestrian and farming publications.

Daniela Snyder was born and raised in Munich, Germany and currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is a visual artist who runs her own photography business and also works freelance as a writer. She is currently working on a screenplay about the American Revolution with a strong emphasis on the significant role of the Cavalry.

Daniela has been around horses all her life and enjoys dressage, history and classical horsemanship.

Ken Snyder is a Louisville, Kentucky based freelance writer.

He is a regular contributor to several other racing publications, a feature writer and essayist for some non-racing magazines, and an advertising marketing writer, as well.

Geir Stabell, founder and Editor of Globeform has worked with many leading publications which include; The Sporting Life, Paris-Turf, BloodHorse, Racing World, Ridsport and the Irish Field. He was also international handicapper to the Racing Post for seven years,where he introduced European style ratings in North America, Australia, Japan and Hong Kong. He has also worked as a TV presenter & expert guest in Scandinavia and USA.

James Tate BVMS MRCVS qualified as a veterinary surgeon from Glasgow University. He is from a family steeped in horseracing. His father, Tom Tate, is a dual purpose trainer, his father-in-law, Len Lungo, is a National Hunt trainer, and his Uncle, the legendary Michael Dickinson, has just retired from the training ranks.

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CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED TRAINERS

“Marketing racing is not easy, but it’s not any harder than marketing any other mature product category (and its mature brands) that has been increasingly besieged by competition over the last hundred years! ”

Back to the Future

By Alan F. Balch CTT Executive Director

I

N 1971, when I first joined the staff at Santa Anita right out of graduate school, the term “marketing” had never been applied to racing, anywhere in the world. I was handed the title of Director of Public Relations, and had been coming to the office for just a couple of weeks when Hollywood Park drew over 70,000 fans for its card on Memorial Day. The next day, my boss Ray Rogers asked me if I had seen the attendance number, and I said, “Sure, Santa Anita must get that all the time.” He literally took me by the shoulders and said, “Alan, nobody around here can remember the last time we had a crowd like that. Don’t you know why you were hired? We’ve got to make our turnstiles start spinning again.”

My employer, once the leading track in the nation in attendance, had fallen to a poor fourth, behind our Los Angeles rival and the two New York mainstays. And I, too stupid and educated to think of anything else to do, repaired to the library – they had those back then, complete with card catalogues – as any academic would do, to try to find a solution.

And so I discovered what “marketing” is; in the process, I also learned that’s what I was being asked to do.

Now, nearly 40 years later, I am finding out that many in racing either never took the time to find out enough about

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marketing in general before applying their opinions to what we’re facing or, worse, ignore or forget what we spent millions of dollars learning. (I used to enjoy kidding the big cheeses at Santa Anita about the expensive education they had provided me – it sure wasn’t business school, but trial and error with gigantic budgets and equally enormous errors teaches you things you never forget.) What we have here is a failure of institutional memory.

There’s something about human nature that leads us to reduce important complexities to either/or propositions: racing is either gaming or entertainment, it’s a sport or it’s not, tribal casinos or lotteries are competitive with tracks or they’re not, horseplayers will notice a takeout increase in exotics or they won’t, and all the rest.

Marketing racing is not easy, but it’s not any harder than marketing any other mature product category (and its mature brands) that has been increasingly besieged by competition over the last hundred years!

That’s saying a complicated mouthful, if you just stop to think about it. Every horseman, every management, every regulator, and every journalist, not to mention every horseplayer and breeder, might reflect seriously on what racing in general is up against, as well as its specific brands (which is to say the tracks themselves).

Forty years ago, “knowledgeable” people were saying racing was finished, when its business prospects were much brighter than they are now. My own opinion is that the prospects for racing vary according to when an accounting mentality is in charge (dismal and pessimistic) and when a true marketing

perspective is embraced (optimistic and investment oriented).

Generally speaking (and in my personal experience), accountants and earnings-pershare-this-quarter executives do not see marketing budgets as investments. They are prone to reduce these expenses by large amounts, pointing to an increase in the bottom line at the end of that race meeting by saying, “You see, discontinuing promotion didn’t make any difference except as a positive benefit to our profitability.”

However, these same short-term people are likely to say five years later, “We would love to be able to increase our marketing spend, but we just can’t afford it.” In truth, they can’t afford not to... unless, unfortunately, they don’t intend to be in the racing business in the future.

Marketing is like the engine of a business train – investing in that engine is like stoking the fire, powering the generators.

Disconnect the engine, and the train behind doesn’t stop immediately. But a ways down the track, after the train has slowed and slowed and then faces an uphill climb, the amount of energy – the marketing budget – needs to be a monumental investment to reconnect the engine and overcome the inertia! And the word “investment” implies a future return. That’s why horsemen (trainers and owners alike) need to be committed to marketing, and need to be insistent that tracks invest and invest smartly in correct marketing.

Most of racing’s leaders I hear on these subjects these days might be well advised to I continued on page 14

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CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED TRAINERS

Kinsale King raises O’Callaghan to global prominence

By Steve Schuelein

W

HEN trainer Carl O’Callaghan returned to Hollywood Park from England with sprinter Kinsale King in July, a surprise gift awaited them.

Three six-packs of Guinness ale and a cooler sat in O’Callaghan’s stable office in Barn 53 North with a note from Joshua Christian, racing program manager for Breeders’ Cup Limited: “Hope all is well. I thought the King would appreciate a welcome-home drink.

Look forward to seeing you both in November.”

Kinsale King, a globe-trotting five-yearold gelding who drinks the Irish-brewed beverage on a daily basis, and O’Callaghan hope to accept that invitation to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs on November 6.

“He gets one pint in the morning and two at night every day,” said O’Callaghan, a 34-year-old native of Ireland. “It’s an old myth from back home. It’s sweet with a lot of molasses, and it has yeast that is good for the coat.”

The Guinness diet has helped transform Kinsale King into one of the best as well as happiest sprinters in the world during the past year and elevated O’Callaghan from virtual obscurity to international prominence.

“It’s been a whirlwind experience,” said the personable O’Callaghan recently of the past year that could be called “The King and I.” O’Callaghan orchestrated a campaign that took him around the world with Kinsale King. Given a horse with bad feet and a maiden victory in four starts in the summer of 2009, O’Callaghan envisioned a Grade 1 stakes winner.

The Kentucky-bred son of Yankee Victor

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vindicated his trainer’s faith by reeling off consecutive victories in his next four starts: from an allowance race last October at Santa Anita to the Grade 3 Vernon Underwood Stakes at Hollywood Park in December to the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Handicap at Santa Anita in January to the Group 1 Golden Shaheen Stakes in Dubai in March.

O’Callaghan added to Kinsale King’s frequent flyer mileage by shipping to England to test turf for the first time, in Group 1 company. The horse acquitted himself favorably with a game third-place finish in the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, then faltered and finished 12th in the July Cup at Newmarket, his most recent start.

Photos, posters, clippings and mementos in O’Callaghan’s stable office document his meteoric rise to fame in the two years since

he took out his trainer’s license and has seen his stable grow to 30 head.

The Clare Chorus, his hometown newspaper in Ireland, called the local boy “Star of the Underwood” after Kinsale King won the graded stake and reduced the emotional O’Callaghan to tears one day before his birthday.

A photo from the United Arab Emirates captured him jubilantly hoisting the trophy overhead after Kinsale King conquered international company in Dubai. The winning number 7 saddlecloth remains a souvenir in the office.

Waggon and Horses, a pub in Newmarket, sent the stable a large poster with the greeting: Good Luck and Best Wishes for Kinsale King.

During the past year, Kinsale King has I continued on page 12

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CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED TRAINERS I from page 10

earned more than $1.4 million for owner Patrick Sheehy – an oncologist from Newport Beach who named him for his hometown in Ireland – and enabled O’Callaghan to buy a house in Sierra Madre.

“When I got him last summer, I told Dr. Sheehy about this crazy plan for Dubai,” said O’Callaghan with a chuckle as he began to review the dream year. “I hired a good blacksmith from England, Robert Guest, and shipped him to Del Mar to train on the grass because of his bad feet.

“I had to struggle for 10 stalls here,” continued the then neophyte, who works and gallops many of his horses. “I got the allowance race for him at Oak Tree, and none of the jockey agents wanted to ride him.

“I finally got a call from Alonso Quinonez, but he got sick the morning of the race and booked off. I had trouble finding a replacement but finally got Martin Garcia (before his star also rose this year). He came out to the paddock and I just told him to put the irons up two holes on each side, tap him on the shoulder and he’ll win.”

Spectators blinked as Kinsale King led wire to wire at 61.60-to-1 odds and won by three lengths in a torrid 1:08.52 for six

furlongs, earning a 101 Beyer speed figure.

Kinsale King garnered only lukewarm respect against more experienced foes in his first graded stakes outing in the Underwood.

O’Callaghan said he relished the role as “Underwood Underdog” before he won at 7.20-to-1.

The underdogs struck again at 9.10-to-1 odds in the Palos Verdes seven weeks later, outfinishing the likes of Ventana and Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Dancing in Silks.

O’Callaghan applied some of his training brilliance to ready the horse for Dubai. “I had this brainwave to train him at Golden Gate Fields because the surface was Tapeta, the same as Dubai,” explained O’Callaghan.

“I got permission to send him there and worked him with a ‘rabbit’ that I trained, and he just skipped over it,” said O’Callaghan, his confidence increasing. “I got permission from the stewards to work him between races to get his blood pumping.”

O’Callaghan had been to Dubai once before, as an exercise rider for Todd Pletcher in 2006. “But this was different as a trainer,” said O’Callaghan. “I was living in a hotel and eating fancier food.”

Kinsale King flew in somewhat under the radar, with Rocket Man and Gayego gaining the lion’s share of media attention for the

Golden Shaheen, but O’Callaghan’s confidence never wavered.

“I told Gomez if you turn for home a neck in front, he’ll win for you,” said O’Callaghan of his instructions to Garrett Gomez before his first ride on the horse. Kinsale King made a believer of Gomez, winning by a half-length over Rocket Man. After returning to Hollywood Park for the spring, Kinsale King tested new waters in England in the Golden Jubilee with Kieren Fallon. Trying turf and a straight line for the first time in a field of 24, the horse tracked most of the way and finished a creditable third, beaten by 1¾ lengths.

At Newmarket, however, he was unable to replicate his form and faded from third to 12th in a field of 14.

“He was stepping out of his territory on grass and a straight line, and he ran a great race the first time,” said O’Callaghan. “But the second time, the ground was extremely firm and stung his feet, and he only had three weeks between races.

“That morning at 7:30, there was a nice cut in the ground, but by 11 it had gotten firm and by the time of the race at 4, the ground was like the road,” said O’Callaghan of the unusual dry spell at Newmarket. “After three-eighths of a mile, his action was getting choppy and (Fallon) wrapped up on him.”

Kinsale King and jockey Garrett Gomez with connections after winning the Group 1 Golden Shaheen Stakes in Dubai in March

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CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED TRAINERS

Carl O’Callaghan I from page 12

Kinsale King allowed O’Callaghan to visit England for the first time since he was a boy. His parents, Seamus and Patricia, and his brother Clinton visited him from Ireland for the big race.

“The owner flew in, and we saw Big Ben and did a lot of sightseeing,” said O’Callaghan. “We had a lot of media coverage because of what Kinsale King had done. It was another step out of our boundaries. I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

Kinsale King returned to Hollywood Park after the trip to England and began rattling off a series of bullet works in August in preparation for the Breeders’ Cup. He will be one of the freshest horses in the Breeders’ Cup by design.

“We learned he can’t run back in three weeks,” said O’Callaghan, optimistic that he will fire better off a layoff. “He’s a 7-8-9week type of horse, and I elected not to prep him before the Breeders’ Cup. “He runs better fresh,” added O’Callaghan. “He ran 1:08 and two off a (nine-month) layoff at Oak Tree last year. If he can do that in the Breeders’ Cup, he should do well. That’s why I opted for this plan.”

Kinsale King has never raced on dirt but after victories on three different synthetic surfaces and an encouraging outing on turf, O’Callaghan is not worried.

“I don’t think surface will be a problem

because he has so much heart,” said O’Callaghan. “He worked a half at Belmont in 48 on the dirt with Fallon before he shipped to England.”

O’Callaghan’s main concern is keeping the horse’s feet sound. He hired American blacksmith Judd Fisher to replace Guest after the horse returned from Dubai.

Kinsale King has dealt with more foot issues than Dr. Scholl and worn more shoes than Imelda Marcos. “He’s got full shoes for the first time,” said O’Callaghan. “He had glue-ons the last few months.” Before that, the lineup included spider and two-plate shoes.

O’Callaghan, a six-foot one-inch 120pound stringbean, dropped out of school as a teenager in 1990, took a plane ticket to New York and later learned the basics working seven years each for trainers John Kimmel and Pletcher.

He moved to California in 2007 and never returned, freelancing for Lisa Lewis, Howard Zucker, and Matthew Chew before starting on his own.

The multi-talented trainer also has a flair for music, inherited in part from his father, who plays and sings in a band in Ireland. “I still play the guitar and sing for old folks and veterans in Sierra Madre,” said O’Callaghan of his favorite hobby. “Mostly country and Irish American songs. I enjoy it. It gets me away from the horses.

“What got me to this pinnacle is love of horses and love of music,” said O’Callaghan.

“Happy people make happy horses.”

Irish expatriate Sheehy, who was born in County Cork, is one of the most fervent supporters of O’Callaghan, who hails from County Clare. He owns about 20 of the horses in his stable.

“I met him at the pub at the Pomona sale,” recalled Sheehy of the fateful encounter two years ago. “He said he had worked for some big-time trainers like Pletcher and Kimmel and I thought he was BS’ing me.

“He asked if I would send him a horse,” continued Sheehy. “I later got a call from

Hidden Springs Farm, where I keep horses in Arizona, and was told about this bitchy filly. I called Carl and asked if he would take her.

“She was an ugly malformed filly, but Carl never said a word,” added Sheehy of Village Lady, who to the owner’s surprise won a race at Hollywood Park in May, 2009.

“He got her to win two races and sold her, and I said, ‘My God, you can have the rest of my horses,’” said the impressed Sheehy, an owner for 40 years.

“When he got Kinsale King, I told him if he could win a $40,000 claimer with him, I would give him a bonus,” continued Sheehy.

“But he recognized what he had right away.

He said, ‘I’ll take this horse to Dubai next year.’

“He’s a very astute horseman,” added Sheehy. “He can recognize talent quickly.

He’s a natural. And he makes it fun. He’s cheerful and optimistic. We need more like him in the sport.”

O’Callaghan, emphasizing that he could not succeed without a strong supporting cast, praised assistant Felipe Rivera, exercise riders David “Chalky” Greaves, Miguel Hernandez and Annabelle Weller-Poley and accountant Rebecca Van Burger, among others. He also thanked his owners and stable veterinarian Keith Latson, co-founder of Syner GI, a paste that protects a horse’s intestinal tract.

O’Callaghan does not plan to be a onehorse wonder. “It took a horse like Kinsale King to prove that hard work pays off,” said O’Callaghan. “People just know me as the guy who won in Dubai, but my time is coming.

“I’ve got a lot of nice 2-year-olds, and for the next five years I’ve set my goals pretty high,” continued the trainer. “I’m a big dreamer. I want to be a top 10 trainer in California.”

Kinsale King has never been favored in any of his 10 starts, a role he may again inherit in the Breeders’ Cup and one that will not intimidate O’Callaghan, champion of the underdog. I

or influential, can speak for the whole market.

Millions and millions of dollars of precious resources in North America alone have been almost entirely wasted in the last 15 years or so as the market for entertainment, gaming, sporting events, recreation, and leisure has changed so much and so rapidly as to become almost unrecognizable in comparison to what existed before the internet and gaming revolution began. As investments in marketing were reduced, paltry budgets for

market research – the essential activity upon which any sensible marketing spend must be based, absent well-informed and lucky guesswork – were themselves cut to zero in most places. If they ever even existed beforehand.

So we in racing should stop arguing about what racing is among ourselves. Instead, we need to invest now and invest heavily in the best, most informed research possible as to how our market views us, and then invest in re-marketing our sport as we’ve never done before. I

Alan F. Balch I from page 8

think more about what marketing is, as firm as their opinions appear to be on what racing is. Essentially, marketing is the process of selling something according to what the market thinks it is, from the market’s point of view, not the product management’s point of view. In short, racing is what the market thinks it is – nothing else – nobody else’s opinion matters about what it is or what it should be.

Not one of us, no matter how experienced

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Charlie Lopresti (right) with Successful Dan after victory on the opening day of Keeneland’s fall meeting

The TRM Trainer of the Quarter award has been won by Charlie Lopresti. Lopresti and his team will receive a selection of products from the internationally-acclaimed range of TRM supplements, as well as a bottle of fine Irish whiskey.

TRM Trainer of the Quarter

CHARLIE LOPRESTI 16 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 18

By Ken Snyder

F

OR having won with his first Grade I starter as well as compiling a highly impressive win percentage for the year, Charlie Lopresti is TRM Trainer of the Quarter.

Here Comes Ben won the $250,000 Forego Handicap at Saratoga on September 4th for Lopresti, who is based at Keeneland and owns Forest Lane Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. He has trained the son of Street Cry (Ire) to be undefeated in four starts this year heading into the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs.

The four-year-old is not the only runner out of Lopresti’s 16-horse stable.

On opening day of Keeneland’s fall meet, the 52-year-old trainer’s Wise Dan,

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a three-year-old gelding, won the Grade 3, $175,000 Phoenix Stakes. It was this horse’s stakes debut and third straight victory this year. Wise Dan is headed to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on the dirt, according to Lopresti.

His recent success as a trainer is part of the best year he has experienced.

Through mid-October 60 starters had won 19 times for a 32% win percentage.

He is third in win percentage currently among trainers with at least $750,000 in earnings. (Lopresti runners had earned $758,746 through October 12.) He also enjoys a whopping 55% of starters finishing in the money for the year.

In the first three days of this meet at Keeneland, Lopresti got off to a scorching start, sending four horses to post and escorting three to the winner’s circle to collect over $168,000 in purses.

The small number of starts for the year indicates selectivity in placing horses that span a highly diverse stable. “It’s kind of funny, we won that Grade One Forego and the day before we won a maiden,

seven-thousand-five-hundred dollar race at Ellis Park,” he said with a laugh. His stable includes $10,000 claiming horses up to what he calls top-notch allowance horses and, of course, winners of graded stakes like Here Comes Ben and Wise Dan. He credits patient owners who, perhaps, complement an equally patient training style. “I don’t like to look in a stall and say, ‘Well, it’s day seven, I’m going to breeze tomorrow.’ I tailor-make every work for them.”

His specialty is starting young horses and he has been associated with Derby and Breeders’ Cup starters in the past. He is also experienced in breaking young horses for the racetrack. Charismatic, 1999 Horse of the Year, is the most notable graduate of Forest Lane Farm, which he operates with wife Amy. Lopresti’s Bluegrass drawl is acquired, as his roots are in Long Island where he first worked with hunter-jumpers. His initial attempt at working with Thoroughbreds on the racetrack was rebuffed by a Virginia

Thoroughbred farm that rejected his application. Strangely, they recommended him to trainer Joe Cantey at Belmont Park for whom he worked two years. From there he came to Lexington to work at Domino Stud in 1978 and worked under renowned horseman Ted Carr. He served as an assistant to Carr at Allen Paulson’s Brookside Farm in Lexington. He left to develop Forest Lane and served as Calumet Farm’s trainer, winning four stakes races for the farm over six years.

He obtained his trainer’s license in 1993.

He appreciates the advantage that his own farm affords him as a trainer. “After Here Comes Ben won the Kelly’s Landing overnight stake [at Churchill Downs in June], I brought him home for two weeks.

“I can manage what happens with the horses and the owners know that.”

Lopresti is also managing, obviously, to achieve more with less, perhaps, than any trainer conditioning premier Thoroughbreds. After all, who has two Breeders’ Cup starters in a 16-horse stable?

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AL STALL These days, Al Stall Jr.’s barn is awash with the sweet smell of success. Blame it on Blame. If you want to get literal about it, the scent is coming from the bale-sized hay steamer by the office, where the warm mist creeping out the sides of the box indicates that it’s removing dust and allergens from the hay that is specifically fed to Grade 1 winner Blame. But you wouldn’t be wrong to look down this shedrow accentuated by the bright, historic colors of Claiborne Farm, broken by the occasional head poking over the webbing, and think there’s something more magical in the air than the effects of a hay steamer at work. By Frances J Karon

A

NY trainer will tell you that it’s hard work, and not magic, that yields success in the business. But surely there’s a touch of magic in a good

horse.

“I make my first stop here, just for – whatever, right? For obvious reasons,” Stall says as he arrives in the early morning and ducks in to see Blame. The admiration in his voice when he talks about his handicap star is clear, and yet you’re drawn to the sense of dread in every racehorse trainer’s life as he sweeps his eyes and hands over Blame’s shiny coat to satisfy himself that every hair is in its place. Stall fusses over a spot high on the horse’s neck, stepping in closer and scraping his finger over it.

“He’d get hives every once in a while.

He’s cold now, his hair’s standing up and it almost looks like hives,” he explains. “We’re freaks about it with him. It’s the only thing we’ve ever had to worry about with him” – the trainer taps twice on wood – “so we can live with that. His last bout was months ago.”

Stall, who has a distinctively straight posture and walks with small steps, goes into his office and sits behind the desk, keeping an eye on the television switched to ESPN’s SportsCenter in the corner while talking to his assistant Glenn Brookfield

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Al Stall’s shedrow at Keeneland

and veteran jockey Casey Chavez, who exercises horses for the stable at Keeneland.

Even in his blue jeans and bundled up in layers, surrounded by cinder-block walls, bridles and shanks, win photos, a bulletin board with newspaper clippings and sticky notes, and a full basket of peppermints, the trainer looks as though he would be equally

in his element in a big corporate office as he is in a barn.

The men discuss details from the weather in New York to packing sheet cotton for Blame’s upcoming journey to Belmont for the Jockey Club Gold Cup-G1. But soon he gravitates toward Blame’s stall again to run his hands down the colt’s legs. Only then

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Stall with jockey Garrett Gomez after Blame’s victory in the Whitney Handicap

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does he step back and allow himself to look at the horse with a small, relaxed smile.

“He’s got a big, wide butt, doesn’t he?”

Blame yawns, and Stall shakes his head.

“It’s just amazing. We fret over everything, horsemen in general, especially with a good horse. But he couldn’t care less about anything. ‘Where’s my food, let’s go train,’ and that’s it. It’s beautiful. It’s a great thing.

Some horses worry about a lot of stuff, but not him.”

Around here, worrying is the trainer’s job.

Albert M. Stall Jr. is a third-generation horseman from a prominent family in his home state of Louisiana. His father, Albert M. Stall Sr., and grandfather, Albert H. Stall, won the 1970 Kentucky Oaks with Lady ViE. when “Little Al” was eight. Among their other good horses was Combat Ready, who won the New Orleans Handicap-G3 in 1973. His family is so ingrained in racing that the Stall-Wilson outer turf course at Fair Grounds – the first turf course in the state – is so named in honor of Albert H. and business partner Roger Wilson. Stall’s father, “Big Al,” was the chairman of the Louisiana Racing Commission for 28 years and is in the Fair Grounds Hall of Fame. It was Al Stall Sr. who introduced Sunday racing and exotic wagering to Louisiana.

But Stall is also a third-generation oilman; Albert H. was one of three founders of J. Ray McDermott, a company that specialized in oil development and exploration and is now known as McDermott International. Al Sr. also had his own oil company, and despite spending his school holidays from the 8th Grade onwards working for Jack Van Berg’s Louisiana assistant Frankie Brothers, Al Jr. sought a Bachelor of Science in geology from Louisiana State University, where his roommate was longtime friend Tom Amoss.

After graduation and with the help of Al Sr., Amoss turned to the racetrack; Stall took a job studying core samples for an oil company in Louisiana. His career was shortlived, however, as the company was sold and the New Orleans office was phased out.

This was a major turning point for Stall.

“I’ve thought about it, what could have happened. I was working with another guy my age, and if we had broken out on our own, made a little oil company, well, you never know. But I don’t fret about it.”

Instead, with an uncertain future, Stall showed up where he knew he’d be welcome: on Brothers’ doorstep. With the encouragement of Stall’s father, Brothers had gone out on his own in 1980 and was enjoying some success. Stall stuck around with his mentor long enough to see Brothers win the 1991 Preakness and Belmont Stakes with Lazy Lane’s Hansel.

That summer, when Brothers shipped his stable south from Arlington Park, Stall took

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Blame strides out to win at Saratoga last year

Blame “couldn’t care less about anything”

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Stall had developed a reputation as the go-to guy for operations to send their second-tier horses, and after the 2001 season he went through a drought, not winning another graded stakes race until 2008. He understands the trainer’s cardinal rule: “There will be tough times.”

“Tough times,” while never far from a trainer’s mind, are fading into the past.

Three years ago this fall, Claiborne’s Seth Hancock asked Stall to meet him at Panera Bread in Frankfort, Kentucky – halfway between Stall’s base of Louisville and Paris, where Claiborne is located. Hancock was

“These last few months have just been great. I guess that’s what you work for, that’s why you do this, to try and get good horses and get to these type of races”

Frank Brothers, Stall’s mentor

out his trainer’s license and stayed in Chicago, where he won his first race from his second starter – three-year-old Scottish Fantasy – on August 15, 1991. The filly was part-owned by his father and had been transferred from the care of Amoss.

Stall’s first stakes win, a 9¾ length runaway by his father and Albert Sklar’s Irish Gray in the Fair Grounds Sales Futurity, followed in December, ending the year with eight winners from 27 starters.

Over the next few years, things progressed slowly. He developed a small stable comprised mostly of horses owned by

his father and partners, and Brothers sent him horses he felt better suited on a less competitive circuit. One of these, Sheikh Mohammed’s Noble Savage (Ire), was Stall’s second stakes winner. He had a good year in 1995, training seven individual stakes winners, including a pair for Texas oilman Mike Rutherford, and winning 75 races. The following season, Stall had a graded stakes winner when Francis Foret et al’s Juliannus won the Razorback HandicapG2, followed by Joyeux Danseur, owned by B. Wayne Hughes, two years later. The son of Nureyev was sent to Stall in 1997 as a four-year-old maiden, unplaced in two starts at three in France. He won four races at four and four stakes races, including the Grade 1 Early Times Turf Classic and the Grade 3 Explosive Bid Handicap, at five.

But not even that big success and backto-back training titles at Fair Grounds in 1998 and 1999 translated to much more than a few “pats on the back”; top caliber horses were few and far between. He trained Michael Rainier and David Hulkiewicz’s Formal Tango to win the Grade 3 Eatontown Stakes in 1999, Lazy Lane’s Bright Valour to win the 2000 and 2001 Hanshin Cup Handicap-G3, and Discreet Hero, another for Hughes, won the Grade 3 Round Table S. in 2001.

impressed with Stall’s handling of the few horses Claiborne had sent him, and the trainer came highly recommended by Brothers, who trained Arch and Pulpit for the farm. Over lunch, Hancock offered him the position of sole trainer of Claiborne’s racing stable.

Claiborne and Stall’s family go way back, and there’s even a family connection with Blame: the Stalls raced the stakes-winning Damascus mare Regal Rumor, trained by Van Berg, in the 1970s. Her second dam Aphonia was bred by Claiborne and traced to the same foundation mare, *Rough Shod II, as Blame. One of the stakes winners Regal Rumor produced for Stall Sr. was Bayou Hebert, who turned into a useful sire in Louisiana.

Al Stall hasn’t stopped to look back since accepting the Claiborne post. The next year, Claiborne and Adele Dilschneider’s Lattice and Dilschneider’s Terrain were Grade 3 winners, and Hughes’ My Pal Charlie won the Super Derby-G2. Terrain was a member of the first batch of two-year-olds Stall received from his association with Claiborne and partners; the gelding earned over $500,000 before his fatal breakdown in the 2009 Iowa Derby.

Another of the first two-year-olds from Claiborne was a fifth-generation Claiborne-

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yellow version and identifies him as Columbine Stable’s Saratoga maiden winner J. B.’s Thunder. “He’ll be running in the [Dixiana] Breeders’ Futurity” – Keeneland’s Grade 1 race for two-year-olds on opening weekend of the fall meet, an entry which is not to be taken lightly coming from this conservative trainer.

The radio in his SUV is tuned to a New Orleans radio station, to which he listens until the sun comes up and the signal disappears. “I get caught up on what’s happening,” he says. A caller on this morning’s show is complaining about the Saints’ first loss of the season. “They’re going crazy over this poor kicker who missed that kick in overtime. That guy just

“It’s very simple. I guess there might be a thing or two you learn along the way but nothing that’s going to make a horse into a Grade 1 horse that’s not a Grade 1 horse”

J. B.’s Thunder, seen here at Saratoga, won the Grade 1 Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity in October

bred (with Dilschneider, in whose silks he runs), a bay son of Arch and Liable from the female family of Nureyev and Sadler’s Wells. As a three-year-old in 2009, Blame won the Curlin Stakes at Saratoga, the Fayette Stakes-G2 at Keeneland and the Clark Handicap-G2 at Churchill. The contender for 2010 divisional honors heads into the Breeders’ Cup Classic in Louisville with victories in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster and Whitney Handicaps and a second in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Brittlyn Stable’s Star Guitar has not gained national recognition like Blame, but the popular five-year-old Louisiana-bred has won twelve stakes races, 14-of-19 starts, and is currently $30,000 shy of the milliondollar mark. Dilschneider’s Apart won the $500,000, Grade 2 Super Derby at the end of September and could be a serious handicap horse in 2011.

“This is all very good and exciting. These last few months have just been great,” Stall says in his quiet way. “I guess that’s what you work for, that’s why you do this, to try and get good horses and get to these type of races, so here we are.” He says he can’t

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pinpoint his most exciting moment. “I don’t classify – they’re all exciting. I was so excited last Saturday down at Louisiana Downs (when Apart won the Super Derby, a race in which Blame ran second last year), the Whitney was great, the Foster was great, Joyeux Danseur’s race in the Early Times (Turf Classic), a long time ago, was great.”

Other than the upgrade in the overall quality of his livestock, not much has changed in the Stall shedrow. He practices the trade just as he learned it from Brothers – It’s all Frankie,” he says. “I’m doing the same thing I’ve been doing since Day One as far as feeding them, my schedule’s the same, my hours of work are the same, it’s just literally better horses to take care of,” he says. “It’s very simple. I guess there might be a thing or two you learn along the way but nothing that’s going to make a horse into a Grade 1 horse that’s not a Grade 1 horse.”

On their way to the track for their morning work, the horses are stopped in front of Stall, and he feels their forelegs before giving the riders a leg up. In one set, he points out a bay colt wearing a blue saddlecloth instead of Claiborne’s golden

said you’ve got to keep your eye on the goalpost and the ball at the same time. How does that happen?” He laughs.

In the grandstand to watch his three horses, and over the noise of an airplane roaring across the street at Blue Grass Airport, Stall calls in the name of a worker to the clocker upstairs. “T-o-l-l,” he spells out. The other two are just galloping.

A good trainer is charged with keeping his eye on more than the goalpost and the ball at the same time. Even on this calm, almost deserted morning at Keeneland, the limitless potential dangers associated with his profession are never far from a trainer’s reality. After Toll breezes a half mile, Stall’s attention zeroes in on three horses standing perilously in a line across the track coming off the turn. “What have we got going on here in the middle of the track, with J. B. getting ready to come right behind?” Stall asks no one in particular. “Is that horse stuck?” But before J. B.’s Thunder reaches them, the group disperses and he gallops by uneventfully, a week and a half before running home a gateto-wire winner of the Breeders’ Futurity,

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Stall and assistant Glenn Brookfield in the barn office at Keeneland

giving his conditioner a 99th career blacktype stakes victory – his fourth in a Grade 1 – the day before his 49th birthday.

Dell Hancock is at the barn with friends when Stall returns from the second set: Blame will be going out next. Hancock knows every Claiborne horse in the barn by sight, and as she gives a rundown of their pedigrees and family details, it is clear how sharp a trainer must be to flourish for an owner who personally knows the ins and outs of generation upon generation of each horse’s family – sires, dams, broodmare sires and female families, in most cases.

But Stall is not one to be thrown off his game. Underneath his polished demeanor is a man quietly confident in himself, his decisions, and his routine. He speaks highly of his assistants – Pam Fitzgerald at Fair Grounds and Louisiana Downs; Randi

Melton at Churchill and Saratoga; and Brookfield at Keeneland – and describes each as being “meticulous.”

While waiting for Blame to appear under tack, Stall picks up his phone and stares at it.

“Nobody’s calling me today. That’s very unusual,” he laughs. “Which is fine. No news is good news, right? Usually I get a call from Shreveport by now, and Churchill.”

And from the press? “Oh my gosh!” Yes, there’s been an increasing amount of that.

“Some guy asked me yesterday, ‘What about Zenyatta?’ I guess they wanted a little smack talk or something. I’m like, ‘we’re healthy, she’s healthy, it’s all good.’ I honestly don’t think about things like that at all. That doesn’t cross my mind.”

That he doesn’t call out that kind of attention to himself or his horses has undoubtedly contributed to him staying

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under the radar until recently, when first Blame, and now Apart and J. B.’s Thunder, have forced the public to take notice of him.

His style is a throwback to another era; he frequently uses phrases like “old school” and refers to the “old-time guys.” He successfully balances ‘old school’ with the occasional modern touch, such as Blame’s hay steamer or pulling up a YouTube video of Blame’s most recent breeze.

Stall and his wife Nicole are parents to Albert III, five, and Greta, 2½. “They’re starting to understand,” he says. “Little Albert’s learning where the wire is, that’s for sure. He knows all the names. He doesn’t know the difference between the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the fifth race at the Fair Grounds but that’s alright. That’s why I only keep a small, or medium, amount of horses,” he says of being able to spend time with his family, who travels with him wherever he goes.

Stall, Brookfield, and Hancock and her friends walk across Rice Road to the backside of the main track to watch Chavez canter Blame once around. The big horse zigzags beside the pony and bucks a few times. “He’s just playing, see that? Coming home after a light morning of exercise he just gets a little…salty,” he says. Win or lose, everything falls into place when a horse looks and feels this well going into a race.

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As the last set of horses is being readied to head out, the trainer stays in his office, changing the TV channel from ESPN to the news and calling John Terranova, in whose barn Blame will stay while at Belmont, to work out more details for the trip to New York. He fields phone calls about the piroplasmosis outbreak in the south that’s wreaking havoc with shipping arrangements

for the horses earmarked to go to New Orleans in the next few days. These minutiae occupy most of his morning; there’s good reason that Stall appreciates meticulousness in his assistants: in this shedrow, the trainer sets the example that there’s no point in doing anything if it’s not going to be done thoroughly and done well.

When training hours are over, Stall goes

in to see Blame again. He picks up the colt’s feet, pressing on them with his fingers before going over him from head to tail, which he takes in his hands. “Look at his tail, look at that.” The trainer swings it to the side and lets go; it moves loosely, like a pendulum. “That’s just pure freedom.”

Much like the life of a big-time horse trainer who has, finally, hit the big-time. I

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State incentives: giving racing a ray of hope

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STATE INCENTIVES

Racing loves to denigrate its own status, crying impotently about its woes by calling itself a dying industry and thus fulfilling a self-induced antipopularity campaign. While its popularity will never rival football, the industry is far from dying. It is, however, the only business that exists at the mercy of government, and this relationship is more often antagonistic than supportive. By K.T. Donovan

B

REEDERS and owners find some relief from stagnant or shrinking purses in statesponsored breeders’ incentive programs, with varying results.

What makes a successful incentive program also makes for a successful racing state. And what makes that program most successful is often a healthy slots bill that serves racing interests well.

Trainer Steve Asmussen races across the country and finds that state-bred programs not only attract him to horses he buys, but hugely influences where he races.

“It’s as important as whether the horse is a girl or a boy,” he said. “It’s a condition for a race, so it’s a determining factor on where to place them. It’s hard to say where I prefer because they are changing so quickly.

Indiana and Pennsylvania are really coming on here lately. Louisiana is more established, and I like New Mexico, too.”

Government supporting racing at the state level means not grabbing as much of the gambling revenue stream for itself as possible and sharing with breeders. Most governments seem to object to racetracks being profitable enterprises and consider owners wealthy enough to not deserve to make any money off a recreational sport.

When it appears that someone in racing might prosper, governments act quickly to insert their hand in the till, as if they are entitled to a share of this business unlike any other. Much of this sense of entitlement is fueled by ignorance of racing’s economic impact and hostility toward any form of gambling. The onus is on racing to correct this relationship to build support.

In Kentucky, the surrounding states of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana all have some form of gaming while Kentucky legislators refuse to allow slots.

While 2,000 broodmares have left Kentucky in the last year – taking jobs and families with them – the legislators have heard Kentucky horsemen whine and complain and threaten doom until they believe the industry is dying and not worth saving if it can’t stand on its own. To the government, slots would merely be a handout to prop up a fading sport for rich

people, so they would rather support their anti-gambling constituents than revitalize the racing industry by leveling playing field with its neighbors.

Former Kentucky governor Brereton Jones, owner of Airdrie Stud, started the Kentucky Equine Education Program in 2004 to enlighten those in the state who take the horse industry for granted. He keeps in his pocket figures from a year and a half ago that list the six top job-producing companies in Kentucky: Humana with 9,300; Toyota with 8,900;

“At the end of the year, we had three-tofive stallions in the top 100 stallions, more from outside of Kentucky than any other state” Doug Burge – CTBA

UPS with 7,700; GE with 6,900; Ford with 6,800; and Delta with 4,300. Combined that’s 43,000 jobs, while the horse industry provides 100,000 jobs throughout the state.

“If those six companies got together and went to Frankfort (Kentucky’s capital) and said that they didn’t have a level playing field and were going to leave Kentucky for a state that offered them a better place to do business, the legislators would go berserk,” he declared. “They’d promise them the dome off the capital to get them to stay!

And yet, with 100,000 jobs in Kentucky, the horses are taken for granted. These aren’t just lower-paying jobs, either, from lawyers to veterinarians, to trainers. There’s some rich people, but there is a small percentage of rich people in any business.

The CEOs of companies are wealthy, too.

You’ve got to support the entire group of people, and the horse industry does that better than any business.”

While state governments happily create more lotteries, they do not see that investing in racing’s future by returning the revenue flow back to its own racing and breeding industry creates jobs and improves the economy.

“Slots are not propping up the horse industry,” Jones declares. “You need to have a good product, and lots of things need to happen for ANY industry to survive.”

Part of creating a strong product is a healthy incentive program. Unlike some of the older programs which encouraged people to breed anything to create a statebred Thoroughbred, Kentucky focused on purse dividends going only to superior runners.

“Kentucky only collects money from ontrack wagers, so that is a limitation,” trainer John Ward said. “But I like how the rewards only go to those who win in open company, so it is rewarding quality over mediocrity.”

The quantity over quality argument played out for many years in California, which has had one of the oldest breeders’ incentive programs, since 1973. The program is fairly typical of what most states offer. [Details can be found at http://ctba.com/incentive-awards] The rewards are skewed with more money going toward races in Southern California than Northern California, to encourage better quality racing. To entice stallions to California, the program also includes awards for stallion owners whose California-conceived or California-bred progeny have won a qualifying race.

As with many states, increased quantity resulted from such a program at first but now quality is taking over. Doug Burge, general manager of the California Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association (CTBA), has noted the change over the years.

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“Ours is one of the largest breeders’ incentive programs,” he said. “It’s over a $30-million program and in 2009 we had $17 million in restricted races. There is more competition now than ever, particularly from states with slots. We’re losing mares to back East. There are more Cal-breds racing back East than ever before. We have suffered quantity reductions, like most states. Our foal crop is off 15-20% from last year.

“But we look at the quality going up in numbers – we had two Breeders’ Cup winners last year (California Flag and Dancing in Silks), Evening Jewel is a top graded stakes winner, and The Usual Q.T. is one of the top milers in the country.

Acclamation is a multiple graded stakes winner, too. Our program is the only one that rewards the first three finishers in graded stakes throughout the U.S. At the end of the year, we had three-to-five stallions in the top 100 stallions, more from outside of Kentucky than any other state.

Some out-of-state owners are now sending mares to California from Kentucky and elsewhere.”

In response to slots competition luring horses to race and breed in other states, and no sign of any gaming relief from the state legislature, the CTBA devised a new maiden bonus program for 2010, funded half from the purse account and half from the incentive fund. For any maiden special weight winner, restricted or open, the breeder receives a $20,000 bonus to the winner in Southern California and $10,000 in Northern California.

“The California bonus program is great,” said trainer Eric Kruljac. “It’s the only part of California that is giving us any assistance.

They (legislators) are all about our competitors and not about us.”

“Because the state was matching the purses, and it wasn’t entirely from them, there was no opposition,” Burge enthused.

“Already in place was .54% of every dollar wagered on our signal, on-track or off-track, going to fund the incentives.

“The new program has proven overly successful. In six months, we have had a 65% increase in the number of maiden special weight winners. The pie is declining in regards to purses. This is the most creative way to provide a way for breeders and owners to make some money.”

Additionally, restricted races can help the handle. On Cal Cup Day, the handle is $20million, and $10 million of that is from out of state.

“Some argue that handle drops on restricted races, but I will tell you that it’s about full fields, not where the horse was bred,” Burge said, a sentiment echoed by track executives in many jurisdictions. “And with this program, we are able to fill races.”

Like California, New York has been

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“The New York racing venue affects the national market for both breeding and racing. Stallions are made by winning graded stakes in New York” Jeffrey Canizzo – NYTB losing mares every year since 2004, well before the economic downturn. This is ironic, seeing as how perhaps the most famous New York-bred ever, Funny Cide, won the Derby and Preakness in 2003. The New York government has been in open warfare against racing, causing many people to look to an uncertain future and move their mares or sell their farms, while stallion owners did not want to stand prospective studs in the state.

To make matters worse, the New York City Off-Track Betting (NYCOTB) failed to pay the New York Breeders’ Fund more than $2.1-million in 2009 while it underwent bankruptcy. Since April of 2010, it has deferred further payments. However, it is expected to catch up on the missing payments now that the bankruptcy has reorganized its financial situation to make NYCOTB solvent.

All this despite an extremely popular incentive program developed in 1973 not only for horsemen, but as a means to protect green space. [Details can be found at http://www.nybreds.com/breeding/incenti ves.cfm] The quality of New York-breds has steadily risen, even as the quantity has gone down.

However, racing might be winning the war with the recent agreement to bring video lottery terminals to Aqueduct after seven years of trying, and seeing them pop up at harness tracks while being turned down at NYRA tracks. There was no faith in the breeding industry in New York on the part of racing insiders because the longrunning VLT saga showed that the state government had no interest in the New York breeding industry.

“This will absolutely change next year,” Jeffrey Canizzo, executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders’, said confidently, noting the importance of racing in New York on racing as a whole.

“Already breeders are talking about bringing mares in, even if they have a farm in another state. There are more people looking to buy farms. The New York racing venue affects the national market for both breeding and racing. Stallions are made by winning graded stakes in New York. The VLTs should bring a $40 million increase in purses.”

According to Canizzo, the VLTs at Aqueduct provide a three-year window of splits, 1% of the additional revenues coming in late next year, rising to 1.5% in three years. This is expected to bring $5-$8 million to the Breeders’ Fund.

Canizzo also seeks to revise the current format, whereby breeders and owners do not collect on wagers made on the New York signal exported out of state.

“The breeders get .07% of handle instate on NYRA on-track wagers, and NYRA internet wagers, and .05% from all NYCOTB sources, including harness,” he confirmed, “but nothing on exported signal wagers. This was how it was set up, before simulcasting all over, and there has never been a conclusion to it. The discussion is in the works. NYRA and the horsemen’s organizations are working on it.”

Next door in Pennsylvania, there was a 10-year battle to get slots passed, but the results have been phenomenal. Trainer Ronny Werner just received a dozen coveted stalls at Philadelphia Park, and was thrilled.

“Maidens are running for $90,000, horses where the claiming price is $5,000 are running for $50,000,” he said, waving the condition book like a map to a treasure chest. “Philly-stabled preferred, so it really encourages you to race at home. They are getting 12 cents on the dollar, where other

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INDUSTRY

states are getting seven cents. This is THE place to race right now.”

Pennsylvania’s Breeding Fund Program distributes more money, on a per foal basis, than nearly every other state-bred program now in operation. As in most programs, there was an initial rise in the foal crop, which peaked this year while the rest of the country declined. The quality is now starting to show.

In anticipation of the slots coming in 2006, support for stallions increased, with a Pennsylvania residency requirement to encourage use of in-state stallions. Numbers of quality stallions and mares have increased.

“They have to be better mares in order to justify the investment to board here, rather than at the farms of their owners,” explained Mark McDermott, executive secretary of the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders’ Association.

“We are not having low-quality mares coming here. Part of the stated purpose of slots was to improve racing and breeding in Pennsylvania.”

Education of legislators proved a major factor in the horsemen getting what they wanted.

“You can look to Pennsylvania as a model of how to go about the foundation to pass a good slots bill,” acknowledges Remi Bellocq, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. “They are enlightened to the fact that government favor does not last forever, and what to do while the money is flowing in. They are savvy in political action funds, and down the road, keeping the politicians aware of the needs of the racing industry.”

McDermott acknowledged that it took 10 years to get slots approved in Pennsylvania, but as more states get slots, it will get easier for others as stated fears are not materializing.

Louisiana is a state that was saved by gaming, and developed a friendly relationship with the state government along the way.

“All the improvements in Louisiana racing and breeding are government supported,” says Tom Early, Chief Executive Officer of the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association. “Slots passed by only one vote in 2003, because of the opposition of Baptist preachers, who are anti-gambling, whether it’s the lottery or whatever. But once the slots were here, we have not had government opposition to anything that is pro-racing or -breeding.”

In fact, Louisiana is very generous, offering three Louisiana-bred races every day at each track in the state. Purses for state-breds are funded by 30% of the Thoroughbred share of the net win from slot machines at the racetracks and half of 1% of video poker franchise fee statewide with

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two-thirds of the fund going to Thoroughbreds.

Louisiana had 1,500 Thoroughbred foals before slots, and now has 2,500. Kentucky has 15,000 foals and less money in its breeders’ fund.

“We now have more stallions here,” Early reported. “More local breeders are going to Keeneland and buying better quality. They are showing up for the first and second books, instead of in the last week. Some local people have been breeding for a long time, and are now shipping mares to breed to $15,000 stallions in KY.” One such breeder-owner who stepped up her quality is Elite Thoroughbreds’ Michele Rodriguez, who stated flatly, “Were it not for the program, we would not be in business.”

She was racing what she couldn’t sell, and has been increasing the quality of her broodmare band through the help of

“You can look to Pennsylvania as a model of how to go about the foundation to pass a good slots bill” Remi Bellocq – National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association

increased purses and breeders’ rewards.

“The program’s in place because of the legislature,” she said. “The slots made it so it would not make sense to race anywhere else.

Also, we have year-round racing now. The slots have had a wonderful impact. Now we’re starting to get big-name trainers here.”

Louisiana learned to keep promotion of the positives of racing and breeding in front of legislators on a constant basis, to maintain the friendliness of the government toward the industry.

“We promoted the horse industry as agribusiness,” Early said. “We go every year to the capital for educational seminars, just to teach, not to ask for anything. We have gained friends this way, but it has to be constant, because when new guys come in, we have to re-educate them.”

Rodriguez participated in a group that took local legislators to farms and a veterinary clinic, and showed them various equine-related jobs. Bellocq points to this vigilance as a key in maintaining a solid working arrangement with state governments and even at the federal level.

“There is a time and a place to have track management and the guys in boots show up on the steps of the capital building, and historically it’s been at the 11th hour before a bill can be passed,” he said. “It needs to happen well before that, and continuously. What does work is positioning racing and breeding as an agricultural and economic issue. This industry hires the unhirable, people who often can’t find jobs anywhere else, which is especially important in times of economic decline. And it offers green space. That’s a big factor these days, when open spaces are going away, and keeping areas as green space resonates with people.”

The lessons that different states have taught the industry as a whole are clear.

Racing needs to present itself as having a future, so that investment can still happen, so banks and state governments have confidence in the direction of the industry.

Where there is optimism, and enthusiasm, the bandwagon turns toward racing, but when horsemen act like they are part of an unpopular antiquated pastime, clinging to life by the good graces of a government handout, bickering among themselves and unclear on objectives, the momentum turns in the opposite direction, and righting the ship when a downward spiral has already begun is that much harder to accomplish.

Despite the boon to racing that slots made possible, McDermott has no illusions about the role of government in the racing or breeding industry.

“The government gets a lot of money from racing, but racing is not supported by the government,” he said emphatically. “It’s supported by the racinos. If government got out of our business, we’d prosper.” I

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STATE BREEDING AND RACING INCENTIVES Breeders Awards

Stallion owners Awards

Restricted Races

Restricted Stakes races

Out Of State Race Awards

Contacts

Awards range from 50% to 2% of purse money, for winners down to 8th. If there are fewer than 8 starters, those percentages go to the winner

50%, 30% and 20% of nomination, entry and starting fees for horses finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively

N/A

N/A

N/A

150,000

T: 334 288 0275 W: www.albreds.com

Arizona

Range from 15-25% of the winners share of the purse

Breeders can receive up to 36% of the winners share of the purse

N/A

Daily, with higher purses

Yes

N/A

T: 602 942 1310 W: www.atba.net

Arkansas

Paid annually on earnings at the Oaklawn Park live meet the previous year

Paid annually on earnings in the US and Canada the previous calendar year

Paid annually on earnings in the US and Canada the previous calendar year

Four, at Oaklawn Park in March each year

Two, at Louisiana Downs in October or November

Tel: 302 994 2521 ext 7284 W:www.dtha.com

Can receive at least a 20% bonus on the finisher's share for finishing 1st-5th in an open allowance or overnight stakes race; can receive up to a 20% bonus for finishing first in open starters above $15,000 and open claiming races with a gross purse above the predesignated level

For 1st-3rd of any race run in California and any graded stakes in the US: 75% of the remainder of the total incentive award monies after owners awards are paid; individual breeders receive a pro-rated share of the breeders fund. Maximum purses: 1st - $330,000, 2nd - $120,000, 3rd - $90,000

25% of the remainder of the total incentive award monies after owners awards are paid given for progeny who win non-claiming races with purses above $15, 000, and claiming races with a purse above pre-designated levels.

Maximum purses: 1st - $330,000, 2nd $120,000, 3rd - $90,000

At least one offered per day. Also California Cup held during Oak Tree meeting

Yes

Breeder and stallion awards for horses finishing 1st-3rd in grade stakes races within the US

T: 800-573-2822 W: www.ctba.com

Delaware

25% of the purse share if horse finishes 1st, 2nd or 3rd in any race, including Stakes races, during the Delaware Park meet (Awards in Stakes races not to exceed $15,000)

Certification Program.

Receive 20% of purse won for horses 1st – 3rd in overnight races and stakes races

N/A

Yes

Four races held, with purses of $75,000

N/A

Tel: 302 994 2521 ext 7284 W:www.dtha.com

Florida

Awards vary as they are paid out by the individual racetracks to winners of certain races. Payment is based on a percentage of the gross purse

AAn award of 15% of the gross purse is given. Each single breeder award may not exceed $15,000. The Breeder Bonus Award can be paid based on the balance of the awards account after certain conditions have been fulfilled

20% of the gross purse of a stakes races is given. Each single stallion owner award may not exceed $15,000

Yes, amount depends on individual racetrack

Yes, amount depends on individual racetrack

N/A

T: 352 629 2160 W: www.ftboa.com

Illinois

Given if IL Bred comes 1st – 3rd in most open races.

Ranges from 40-60% of the purse

Awarded in open races to the winner at 11.5 % of purse won. In restricted races offered from 1st – 4th at 60%, 20%, 15%, and 5% of purse won

Paid to stallion owners registered before 1995 only, in races of $10,000 or more, not including claiming races

Yes, County Fair races for IL breds

Yes. Races offering $75,000, a $25,000 bonus is given to IL bred horses

N/A

T: 618 344 3427 W:www.itbof.org

Indiana

Receive 20% of gross purse for winners in all allowance, stakes and claiming races.

The amount of the award for any race other than restricted races in IN is 25% of the winner's share of the purse

Receive 20% of the gross purse for all stake, allowance and claiming races

Receive 10% of the gross purse for all stake, allowance and claiming races

Hold restricted Indiana bred Allowance, Claiming and Stakes races. IN breds receive 3lb weight allowance in open races except stakes

18 in 2008, with purses of $100,000

Breeder awards for wins in other states or Canada at 10% of purse (only if no live TB meet in Indiana)

Tel:800-450-9895 W:www.itoba.com

Iowa

Receive 30% of purse won for horses 1st – 4th in restricted IA bred races, and 40% of purse in open company races.

Supplements are capped at $50,000 per race

Receive 12% of the winners purse won by an IA bred, paid to breeders at the end of each calendar year through Iowa Breeders Fund

N/A

Required to hold at least 1 race per day that is restricted to IA bred horses

N/A

N/A

Tel:515-957-3002 W: www.iowathoroughbred .com

Kentucky Breeders Cup Races excluded

For horses foaled in KY & by KY sires and registered with the KTA, KTDF fund available on races distributed as follows 65% for 1st, 20% for 2nd, 10% for 3rd and 5% for 4th

Receive 25% of winning purse for winners of all maiden special weights, allowance and stakes races (maximum bonus is $10,000 per race). Awards also for winners of Gr. 1 races in Kentucky who receive $25 000, or $100 000 for KY Derby/Oaks. Kentucky Claiming Title divided among the breeders of the top three claiming horses at all KY track throughout the year

N/A

N/A

N/A

Breeder awards at 10% of win purse for winners of maiden and allowance races held within US (maximum bonus of $10,000 per race). An incentive will be awarded to the breeders of the winner of each Kentucky-bred Grade I Stakes races held in other states. The award shall be $2,500 for each breeder

T: 859-246-2847 E: Jamie.Eads@ky.gov W:www.khrc.ky.gov

Louisiana

N/A

22 % of the purse earned by a LA bred finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd in any race in LA

Paid for the stallion’s progeny finishing 1st -3rd in an allowance, handicap or stakes race in LA or in a stakes race outside of LA

3 races per day are offered at each track holding a race meeting. LA has four State Bred Days, one at each track

N/A

22 % of the purse earned by a LA bred finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd in any Stakes race outside LA. World Wide Breeders Awards paid to LA bred finishing 1st, 2nd or 3rd in any race outside LA

T: 504-947-4676 E: roger@louisianabred .com W: www.louisianabred.com

Maryland

Awards available for winning Maryland bred horses- except stakes, starter or claiming races (less than $20,000)

Awards available for winners of any race and for stakes-placed horses in MD. Breeders Award usually double the Stallion Award. In stakes races the award is based on the first $100,000 of the gross purse

Awards available for winners of any race and for stakes-placed horses in MD. Stallion Award usually half the Breeders Award. In stakes races the award is based on the first $100,000 of the gross purse

N/A

Around 20

N/A

T:410 252-2100 W: marylandthoroughbred.com

Owners Awards Alabama

California

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STATE INCENTIVES

STATE BREEDING AND RACING INCENTIVES Owners Awards

Breeders Awards

Stallion owners Awards

Restricted Races

Restricted Stakes races

Out Of State Race Awards

Contacts

Massachusetts

30% of purse won for horses finishing 1st – 3rd in any races except restricted Mass-bred races

25% of purse won for horses finishing 1st – 3rd in any race in Massachusetts

15% of purse won for horses finishing 1st – 3rd in any race in Massachusetts

Yes

At least 8 races in 2008 with purses of $50,000

N/A

Tel: 508-252-3690 W: www.massbreds.com

Michigan

Amount changes depending on betting revenue, paid from 1st-3rd in open races.

10% of gross purse of all races in Michigan

Amount changes depending on betting revenue, paid from 1st-3rd in open races.

Yes

At least one race per day

N/A

Tel: 616-844-5662 W: www.mtoba.com

Minnesota

62% of the total available paid as Purse supplements to places 1 – 3 in open and restricted overnights and as purses are paid in restricted stakes races

31% of total available paid from 1st to 3rd

7% of total available paid to stallion owners whose progemy finish 1st-3rd

N/A

N/A

N/A

Tel: 952-496-7950 W: www.mrc.state.mn.us

Owner & Breeders Stakes race at Fairgrounds in Feb

Mississippi

New Jersey

30% purse supplement for horses finishing 1st – 3rd in open company races in NJ (maximum award of $15,000)

Awarded for horses finishing 1st- 3rd in any race in NJ. Ranges from 25 -35% depending on if sired by a state stallion or not

10% purse supplement for offspring finishing 1st – 3rd in any race in NJ

Average 2 per day

Minimum 16 through the year

N/A

T:732 542-8880 W:www.njbreds.com

New Mexico

NM bred horses entering an open overnight race and finishing first, second or third to receive a 20% increase of the original purse

10% breeder awards are available for winners of races in NM

7% for winners of progeny of races in NM

Varies depending on revenue available, usually 4 per day

Varies depending on revenue available

N/A

T: 505 262-0224 W: www. nmhorsebreeders.com

New York

Owner awards are 20% of the amount won (1st - 3rd) for New York sired, New York-breds in all open races run on a New York track with a minimum claiming price of $30,000 through stakes races with a cap of $20,000 per horse

If the horse is by a registered NY stallion, Breeder awards are 20% of the amount won for a first place finish and 10% for 2nd and 3rd place finishes in all races run in New York State

Stallion awards are 7% with a cap of $10,000 on all races run in NY State (first through third place) by the progeny of NY-sired NY-breds

Run over 600 races annually restricted to NY breds

Hold 45 restricted stakes races annually with a total purse of over $4 million

N/A

T: 518 587 0777 W: www.nybreds.com

Ohio

N/A

Breeders receive 7% of winner’s share of purse on all races other than claiming or starter allowance. Receive 3.5% of winner’s share of purse on all claiming and starter allowance races

3% of purse paid on winners of any races

N/A

At least one per day

N/A

T: 513-574-5888 W: www.otbo.com

Oklahoma

Overnight races split 50% 30% - 20% for first three finishers

At all tracks in OK the OK Bred funds are divided 50% to purses and 50% to breeders awards. The breeders money is split 34% to broodmares and 16% to stallions

Required to schedule at least 2 per day

‘Oklahoma Classics’ – 8 restricted stakes races held at Remington Park.

Starting in 2010 Remington and Will Rogers will offer 2 additional stakes for nominated foals and nominated stallions standing in OK

N/A

T:405.330.1006 W: www.otawins.com

Oregon

33% of money earned

Breeders receive 10% of the purse for horses that win in any race in Oregon

N/A

Yes, at least 1 per day

N/A

N/A

T: 503 285 065 W: www.oregontoba.com

Pennsylvania

For horses finishing 1st – 3rd in designated overnight races owners receive a designated percentage of the purse share

Receive 30% of the purse won for PA-sired horses finishing 1st – 3rd in any Pari–mutuel race in the state; For non-PAsired horses, the award is 20%

Receive 10% of the purse won for horses finishing 1st – 3rd in any Pari – mutuel race in the state

Hold overnight restricted races for PA breds

Yes

N/A

T: 610-444-1050 W: www.pabred.com

Texas

40% of purse won for horses finishing 1st – 3rd in any race in Texas

40% of purse won for horses finishing 1st – 3rd in any race in Texas

20% of purse won by progeny finishing 1st – 3rd in any race in Texas

At least 2 required daily, with at least one for maidens

Yes

N/A

T:(512) 458-6133 W: www.texasthoroughbred. com

Virginia

100% bonus on all open races at Colonial Downs for winners only

Pro-rata share of earnings based on what other V bred horses have earned

Pro-rata share of earnings based on what other V bred horses have earned

Very little, around 4 annually

6 Restricted stakes with purses of $60,000

Breeder awards paid for wins in races anywhere in US

T: (540) 347-4313 W: www.vabred.org

Washington

Awarded for owners of horses finishing 1st – 4th, at 15% of the purse won

Awarded for horses finishing 1st – 3rd in races at Emerald downs. (75% of award goes to first placed horse, 15% to 2nd and 10% to 3rd)

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

T: (253) 288-7878 W: www. washingtonthoroughbred .com

West Virginia

Owners will divide 25% of monies available for distribution, not to exceed 35% of each horse's earnings

Breeders will divide 60% of monies available for distribution

Stallion owners will divide 15% of the monies available for distribution, not to exceed 35% of the sire's progeny earnings

2 races/day at Charlestown and 1 race/day at Mountaineer Park

N/A

N/A

T:304.728.6868 W: www.wvtba.net

Canada – British Columbia

13% purse supplement on BC bred horses finishing 1st – 5th in any race.

An award is given to breeders for horses finishing 1st – 3rd (except older horses competing in the lowest claiming categories)

Awards are paid when offspring finishes 1st -3rd in any race other than a starter allowance and claiming race.

N/A

N/A

N/A

T:304.728.6868 W: www.wvtba.net

Canada Ontario

150,000

$2,900,000 also Ontario-Bred bonuses at 20% in all open races at Ontario Race Tracks (Paid 1st -5th) est $4,300,000

400,000

Over 200 Ontario Sired Allowance Races - $1,200,000

5,529,500

150,000

T: 416-675-3602 W: www.cthsont.com

If you have any updates for this part of the magazine please call us on 1 888 218 4430 or email us at info@trainermagazine.com ISSUE 18 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com 33

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RACING

Dear International Horsemen, Thank you for your continued support and participation in the Breeders’ Cup racing programs. We look forward to welcoming you to Churchill Downs this autumn, for what we know will be a memorable and thrilling Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

We have some very exciting changes planned for the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In® Series in 2011. We will be selecting the very best races around the world as part of the new program. The Challenge program will feature approximately 50 races in North America and another 15 internationally across seven countries.

The winners of these select races will receive the following prizes and awards:

Automatic berth in their corresponding Championships division race.

All Entry fees paid (provided the horse is nominated by time of entry) Travel Stipend for Horse Shipping, $10,000 in the US and Canada, $20,000 internationally $10,000 Foal Nominator Award to the person nominating the horse

The new Challenge program added to the $26 million Breeders’ Cup World Championships provides nearly $30 million annually for horsemen to run for. These combined programs will provide horsemen with great opportunities to compete on a world stage.

In addition, if you have a non-nominated runner, we are going to offer a one-time special open enrollment period during 2011. The only requirement to participate in this open enrollment program is that the sire of your horse has to be nominated to the Breeders’ Cup in 2011.

This open enrollment will allow yearlings, two-year-olds and three year olds and up to be nominated to the Breeders’ Cup for their entire racing careers at substantially reduced prices. This program which will begin February 1, 2011 will only run until June 30, 2011.

For more information on both programs and how you can participate in 2011, please visit www.members.breederscup.com or call our office at (859) 514-9423.

Thank you again for twenty-seven years of nominations, entries and attendance, we couldn’t do it without you and with your help and support, we’ll just get better and better.

Kind regards,

Dora Delgado Senior Vice-President, Racing & Nominations

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NUTRITION

Can nutrition give horses that first-class travel experience?

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ISSUE 18 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com 37

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NUTRITION

While transporting horses by road to the local racecourse or by air to another part of the world is now a routine affair, the end result can still be stressful enough to have a detrimental effect on a horse’s health and performance on the racetrack.

Catherine Dunnett Bsc, Phd looks at ways nutrition can help the horse have a more comfortable experience.

T

RAVEL, whether by road, air, train, or sea, is a routine experience for most horses in training. For some, travel may be limited to relatively short journeys by road to race meetings within their home country, while other horses globetrot around the world to participate in race meetings in Europe, the Middle East, or Australasia and others may spend a proportion of the year in training in another part of the world. While travel is a much less arduous experience for horses these days, it can still be a relatively stressful experience and can have a detrimental impact on their health and subsequent performance. The digestive, respiratory, and immune systems are placed

under significant pressure during particularly long periods of travel, and colic and respiratory infection, including shipping fever, are of a particular concern.

Maintaining hydration is a particular target when travelling horses One of the main issues for travelling horses is maintaining hydration, as they can lose significant quantities of both fluid and electrolytes during travel, mostly as a consequence of sweating. While horses may not necessarily appear to be sweating profusely, the sweat reflex kicks in early to help cool the body in response to any increased environmental temperature and/or humidity, as well as being a

In some cases, you may want to hyperhydrate your horse with water from a nasogastric tube

38 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 18

physiological response to stress. This is apparent from the raised heart rate and hematocrit (red blood cell volume) that is observed in travelling horses. Loss of fluid in sweat is generally exacerbated by reduced water and feed intake during the period of travel, which may result from feed management or may be self-limited by the horses themselves. A stabled horse would normally consume about 1½-2 gallons of water per 220 pounds of bodyweight per day, so for the average horse in training this is about 8-9 gallons, although it will vary between individuals. The amount of fluid loss during travel is apparent if horses are weighed prior to and at the conclusion of their journey. Horses have been known to lose between 1.5-2.5% of bodyweight following racing combined with short-tomoderate journeys. It may take anywhere between several hours to days to reestablish normal hydration, and horses will often self-limit water intake following travel, which slows the rehydration process.

Providing water on an ad libitum basis helps to avoid dehydration; however, this is not always possible during travel and scheduled water breaks during longer journeys have to be relied upon. As yet, the technology for on-board automatic watering systems in horse vans or on planes is not as far as I am aware available and so manual watering is relied upon.

There is a minimum legal requirement to offer water to horses every 6-8 hours during commercial transportation. The normal practice among racehorse transporters exceeds this minimum requirement. In racing, it is also normal practice, especially where long journeys are considered, to pre-load or hyperhydrate horses prior to prolonged travel with the use of saline drips or water by nasogastric tube.

There are also a number of feed-related strategies that can be used to encourage water intake before, during, and after travel.

As there is a relationship between fiber intake (expressed as NDF, or neutral detergent fiber) and water intake, maintaining adequate fiber consumption is important to help prevent dehydration.

Plenty of forage before travelling will ensure that a reservoir of water and electrolytes in hindgut is available to help offset fluid and electrolyte losses during travel. Succulents such as carrots and apples and other feedstuffs with a high water content such as soaked sugar beet or ‘mashed’ feeds are also beneficial both prior to and following transportation.

Digestive function is compromised by sudden dietary change Travelling horses can also have a significant impact on the digestive tract: gastric

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NUTRITION

Kevin Needham of BBA Shipping

“As a rule we would not be running a [van] for more than about four hours without stopping and offering water�

Kevin Needham ulceration, colic, scouring, and laminitis are all potential complications. This is largely due to the inevitable change in feeding management during transport. Extended periods of time without forage, or equally inadequate amounts, can increase the risk of gastric ulcers and can certainly exacerbate any existing ulceration.

Research has shown that journeys of just four hours repeated over three days can increase hyperkeratosis and gastric ulcer score. The use of prophylactic antiulcerogenic medication such as omeprazole during prolonged travel, where medication and doping rules are not an issue, seems logical. However for those horses that are racing within the timeframe of recommended withdrawal of this medication, this is clearly not an option.

40 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 18

The use of supplements with proven efficacy in maintaining gastric health may be beneficial in this scenario in combination with ad libitum forage. However, as the effect of such supplements is likely to be relatively transient, they need to be fed ideally several times a day similar to normal feeding. Care should also be taken with the repeated use of electrolyte paste, as these can exacerbate pre-existing ulceration when administered very frequently.

Maintaining a healthy microbial balance throughout the digestive tract during travel is the key to avoiding some of the digestive issues mentioned above during travel. It has been shown that during transport the microbial balance in the gut is altered, probably in response to stress as well as the material change in feed management and

feeding behavior. A dehydrated horse will draw more water from the gut, which if depleted due to inadequate water and forage intake, may increase the risk of impaction. Retaining normal fermentation in the hindgut is therefore also important to help maintain water balance in the body.

Recent travel is repeatedly cited as a significant epidemiological factor in the occurrence of colic. One of the most important factors in reducing its’ likelihood is to avoid sudden changes in the diet.

Practically, high-starch concentrate feeds are actively avoided during extended travel, which is important as the risk of colic is significantly increased in horses fed highconcentrate diets. However, a sudden change to an exclusively forage-based diet can be a stressor and so a gradual shift away

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NUTRITION

may result in scouring following travel.

There is evidence to show that live yeasts (saccharomyces cerevisiae) and prebiotics are beneficial to digestive function.

However, while their use in travelling horses seems logical, there is little research to support this.

Have plenty of water on hand to hydrate your horses

from concentrate feeds towards forage in the days preceding prolonged transport is sensible. Also, if the source of forage can be kept consistent, this is ideal as simply a change in forage batch or type can increase the risk of colic.

The use of digestive aids such as probiotic yeasts or bacteria or prebiotic supplements has been advocated for travelling horses.

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Disruption to the normal balance of bacteria within the gut has certainly been shown to occur during transport and the opportunistic growth of pathogenic bacteria including Salmonella sp can be an issue. The stress of transport can result in Salmonella carriers starting to shed the bacteria in their feces. This is obviously a health risk for travelling companions and

Susceptibility to disease can be heightened during travel Stress during short periods of transport is most often short-lived and may actually heighten immunity. However, chronic stress in horses in training contributed to by regular transport or long-haul journeys can lead to suppression of the immune system, making them more susceptible to disease. Respiratory disease is a particular issue for travelling horses and there are numerous factors that contribute to its prevalence: G Contact with other horses G Poor-quality forage G Reduced tracheal mucocillary clearance, as a result of a prolonged period in the ‘head up’ position G Increased exposure to respiratory allergens, irritants or noxious gases such as ozone, ammonia or carbon monoxide Nutrition does certainly not currently hold all of the answers to support immunity, but there are a number of useful herbs and micronutrients where there is some rationale for their use prior to and after travel. Antioxidants such as vitamin C and the amino acid glutamine have some evidence to support their inclusion in the diet to maintain immune function. Herbs such as Echinacea, fed for a transient period, may also be useful. Probiotics and Omega-3 fatty acids also have some merit.

However, to put this into context, there is very little work that has been carried out to investigate the role of diet in relation to immune function in horses, and so these suggestions are largely unsupported by scientific literature.

In summary, good preparation for travel is essential in order to minimize any sudden dietary changes. Provision of water and forage is very important, and forage should be as clean as possible in microbiological terms. As horses may selfimpose water and feed restriction during travel, it is important to re-establish normal feeding and drinking behavior as soon as possible on arrival. Flavored water can be used to encourage intake, although plain water should also always be offered as an alternative. Concentrate feeds of any consequence should be largely avoided immediately before, during, or immediately after travel. However, minimal quantities of low-starch feed may be needed to allow useful anti-ulcerogenic supplements, probiotics, electrolytes, or other potentially useful additives to be fed. I

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RACING

OPINION Should medicationfree horses be given preferential treatment?

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MEDICATION

From next year, any trainer who has violated rules regarding use or possession of Class 1 drugs over the past twelve months, will be barred from having runners at the Breeders’ Cup races, it was announced following a Breeders’ Cup board meeting in September, says Geir Stabell

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HIS is good news, and – although positives for Class 1 drugs are extremely rare in racing – it is clearly another step in the right direction, and the new regulation leads my thoughts swiftly back to a vital question I posed in an earlier article, namely: should horses that have obtained invitations, achieved ratings, or points qualifying them for big international medication-free events while running on medication be given preference over contenders that have been campaigned to get into these same events while racing without any form of medication?

To my mind, the answer is an absolute ‘no.’ The way these things work in horseracing today is as bizarre as it is unique, when compared to practices in other sport. Outside observers can be forgiven for making comments like ‘horseracing is a business first, a sport second.’

Within the sport, we are all striving for a level playing field. As things stand in many a corner, that is not always so and is in some

cases far from so. The only true playing field would be in high-profile meetings open only to horses racing without any form of medication, and who have never been raced on medication. If, as is widely appreciated, these most common forms of medication, like Bute and Salix (Lasix), have a bearing on performance, how can it then be right that horsemen and women in some parts of the world get help from medication when qualifying their horses for an invitation to ship abroad to jurisdictions where any use of such medication is strictly prohibited?

We have seen enough examples of how a move to the U.S. and administration of raceday medication has contributed to turning ex-European runners around to believe that this is an important aspect of international competition well worth addressing. It is nothing short of astounding that racing’s regulators have made neither mention of nor attempt at addressing this problem. They seem to have been blinded by an obsession of getting international competition at their venues, regardless of how such visitors have been prepared in order to qualify.

Names like Ventura, Megahertz, Silic and Starine spring to mind. Until they ran on medication, they were nowhere near good enough make them anything but longshots at the Breeders’ Cup. Such ‘medicationimproved’ runners will, in turn, get invitations to participate in championship races outside North America. If they had stayed in Europe all along they might never have come within a marathon of getting such an invitation.

You might argue that in North America this is not a problem since horses are allowed to race on Bute and Lasix nationwide, which ought to make it a level playing field, but I’m not so sure about that.

I don’t think one can say that it’s totally fair within the U.S. either simply because the thresholds regulating the use of medication vary from state to state. A trainer who feels that a horse needs a larger dose of medication to produce the form required to qualify for, say a Triple Crown or Breeders’ Cup race, or an invitation from Sha Tin or Royal Ascot for that matter, can run his horse in prep races in jurisdictions where a

larger dose is allowed, thus increasing his chances of getting those valuable points, stakes earnings, or achieve that crucial rating, catapulting the horse into the desired field. If the same horse had run gone through the preps in a state with a lower threshold, or in Europe, he may not have had much of a chance of securing a berth.

Even if you are not convinced that adding medication can move a horse up the charts, you must agree that – in principle – these practices are wrong. Okay, keep on inviting those horses with great results while racing on medication to take part in races where medication is not allowed. Keep on allowing them to push medication-free runners down to the list of reserves, but do not call this way of selecting big race runners fair, do not call it a ‘level playing field.’ Quite simply, it is not.

Ideally, horses qualifying for international championship races (which are often oversubscribed) should have been qualified by racing under exactly the same rules and regulations regarding medication, as in the jurisdiction where the big race is set to be staged. That, and only that, would be a way to go about creating a level playing field.

If organizers of such events as Royal Ascot, the Breeders’ Cup, Hong Kong International day, Dubai World Cup night, the Melbourne Cup festival, etc. really want to put up a fight against medication, perhaps they should give preference to horses that have been free of medication in their preceding races when sending out invitations and preference again if fields are over-subscribed. Perhaps they should only invite horses that have been medication-free in their races over, say, the past 24 calendar months.

In races that are designed to have a strong impact on the breeding of Thoroughbreds, one might also consider taking the ultimate step of writing race conditions allowing only horses that have never raced on medication, and whose sires and dams never raced on medication, to be eligible. Announcing such changes for a number of prestigious events, with a five-tosix years’ notice, might be both a bold and interesting experiment.

“Ideally, horses qualifying for international championship races should have been qualified by racing under exactly the same rules and regulations regarding medication, as in the jurisdiction where the big race is set to be staged” ISSUE 18 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com 47

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RACING

California Flag, who like most American horses races on Bute and Lasix, finished unplaced in the Hong Kong Sprint

In valuable, high-profile international events at Sha Tin, Meydan or Royal Ascot, North American-trained horses that have raced on medication can easily ‘lock out’ runners from other countries that have never raced on medication. In the foreseeable future, this is not going to be a major issue at Ascot, as the restrictions on field sizes are nowhere near the same as at places like Sha Tin and Meydan, both of which have a maximum field limit of 14 runners, with a panel of handicappers ranking the contenders in the event that more than 14 horses are declared to run. Do these handicappers pay much attention to which borderline horses have been raced on medication or not? I have seen no evidence of such practice.

2009 HONG KONG SPRINT – A BRILLIANT EXAMPLE On last year’s Hong Kong International day, the locally-trained runner Brilliant Chapter, a horse that had never raced on medication, failed to make the cut. His connections had to accept that their horse – a regular in stakes sprints at Sha Tin and beaten just two lengths by Happy Zero when giving that rival 2kg (4.4lbs) in the Sha Tin Trophy [G3] two months earlier – was ranked last of 15 declared runners in the Hong Kong Sprint [G1], a race allowing no more than 14 starters.

Meanwhile, the two U.S. shippers, California Flag and Cannonball, both

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made it comfortably into the field.

California Flag had raced 16 times previously, every time on both Bute and Lasix.

Cannonball had raced on Lasix in all but two of his starts in North America and – like California Flag – he had both “B” and “L” printed next to his name on the program at the Breeders’ Cup, where this pair filled first and third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.

Racing without medication, they had to settle for fifth and tenth at Sha Tin. Interestingly, One World, second when Brilliant Chapter ran such a fine third behind Happy Zero in the Sha Tin Trophy [G3], upheld the form with an excellent second to Sacred Kingdom in the Hong Kong International Sprint [G1]. Just over an hour later, Happy Zero took second behind the outstanding champion miler Good Ba Ba in the Hong Kong Mile [G1]. It is reasonable to assume that, in view of these results, the connections of Brilliant Chapter felt that their horse had deserved to get into the Hong Kong Sprint field, a race for which he had been aiming all season. Instead, he was pushed out by horses who qualified for a berth while racing on medication.

BAN THE HORSE TOO Returning to the Breeders’ Cup resolution mentioned initially – banning trainers who have broken the rules on medication over the past year from starting horses at what is often billed the ‘World Championships of

Horseracing,’ it needs pointing out that, if this is going to have any effect at all, the regulations on assistant trainers taking over the licenses of banned trainers must be tightened.

This resolution will not have the desired effect if a trainer gets his or her ban at some point leading up to the Breeders’ Cup, can simply ‘hand over’ the license to an assistant trainer – making sure that for his clients it is business as usual on the most valuable weekend of the year. The only way to pull the rug under the violators probably is to ban the actual horse from taking part, thus putting additional pressure on trainers.

Losing the license for a period of time is inconvenient but seemingly not an insurmountable problem these days. Losing the odd horse to another trainer may not be good for business, but what about the day when a violation of the rules might cost the trainer his support from a big owner? Going down this route may be creating deterrent that will actually get us somewhere. Then again, if a horse trained by a handler who has been found to have violated rules regarding use or possession of Class 1 drugs is as a result denied a run at the Breeders’ Cup – well, then this horse can always be rerouted to Hong Kong International day at Sha Tin. Can we say that the racing world is working in harmony when dealing with these matters?

Probably not. I

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TRAINING

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HE therapy basically involves a horse standing on a plate or set of plates which are underneath rubber matting in a stable-style setup. The vibration motor can be set to a frequency as mild or as intensive as required, from as little as ten minutes or more. With the option of the floor slightly tilting it also means that as the horse readjusts its balance, there is no risk of resting any one leg for a length of time.

Clinical studies have shown vibration therapy has no negative affect whatsoever on the horse. This non-invasive treatment does not cause any detriment to its subjects – in fact, horses appear to welcome it.

It works on the basic premise that vibration movement promotes good blood circulation around the body, particularly in legs and organs; this is especially useful for horses on stall rest. Vibration therapy increases bone strength and density, and also hoof growth – Thoroughbreds are notorious for having poor feet.

Whole body vibration therapy (WBV) is a non-chemical intervention that improves blood circulation because it is a biomechanical stimulation. This is particularly important for racehorses that spend the majority of their day cooped up.

The rapid contraction and relaxation of muscles means more blood flow around the body, which means more oxygen to the tissues and thus the removal of toxins.

Human studies have found vibration therapy has increased bone density by up to 20 per cent; it is the only kind of treatment with a documented positive effect on osteoporosis.

For equines, there had been no scientific or medical research carried out on the method until the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Uppsala got involved.

The SLU carried out research on the benefits of vibrating floors in 2004. Hans Broström is a university lecturer at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Division of Diagnostics and Large Animal Clinical Sciences. He was approached by Norwegian trainer and inventor Bendick Bö (profiled in Issue 17 of European Trainer) while working in the department of equine surgery. Bö had invented a vibrating floor and wanted to know if it had any adverse side effects which would undermine what he believed was of benefit to the horses receiving treatment.

The purpose of the study was to analyze what happened to a clinically healthy horse during vibration therapy. They used thermography (thermal imaging) and recorded the variations in temperature before and after treatment. They also made a clinical examination and monitored blood samples, rectal temperature, heart rate, and The vibrating floor can be an integral part of the stall 50 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 18

Vibration therapy Vibration therapy, whereby the horse’s whole body receives massaging vibrations, has been found to be an effective way of not only speeding up the healing process but of preventing injuries. By Katie Roebuck

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VIBRATION THERAPY

The outer workings of the vibrating floor

observed reactions.

Under the watchful eye of Broström, veterinary student Marianne Tingbö discovered no adverse effects. In her report Tingbö wrote, “the idea is that vibration will stimulate healing of injuries, relax rigidities and make the horse more variable.

According to users of the floor, it has also had a very positive effect on horses showing colic symptoms. No negative effect has been observed with the treatment of horses and the horses seemed to like the treatment.”

Broström agreed. He wrote, “The study concentrated on Thermographic imaging. It showed a significant decrease in skin and hoof wall temperatures in front legs after vibration for 45 minutes. No significant changes were observed in rectal temperature, heart rate and in several blood parameters. The horses did not reject repeated vibration periods. On the contrary, they seemed to like it.”

There didn’t seem to be any reason why youngsters could not also benefit from vibration therapy; growing bones, according to Broström, were not at any risk from the treatment, especially “if the young horse has a correct constitution.”

This was fantastic news to Bö and backed up what he believed about the vibrating floor. The Norwegian trainer first had the idea about the therapeutic properties of a vibrating floor when travelling a horse to a race in Milan, Italy, in 1992. The horse, Prairie, had tendon problems, but after a bumpy journey he came out of the trailer looking visibly better, according to Bö. The sprinter won his race. “I spent some time thinking about it.” Bö said. “Then in 2001/2002 it from went from idea to product and we developed and made it in 2003.”

Bö and his family patented and sold their first vibrating floor in February 2004, so it’s relatively new to the marketplace and still a novel concept as a preventive and healing tool.

Bö, his brothers, and their wives often discuss ideas for inventions and seem to have a few up their sleeves, but they chose to proceed with vibration therapy because of the positive effects it has on horses. Due to Bö’s profession as a trainer and formerly a jockey it was a subject close to his heart; he clearly has an affinity with the equine and a good eye for a happy one. But getting the product off the ground was hard. Bö said, “It’s not simple like if you develop a new screw which you screw in the wall to show people. It is effective for horses in all ways, but the horse business has been up and down and it takes a lot to convince people.”

Bö, who lives and used to train in Sweden, then enlisted the help of the SLU to run clinical trials, keen to know if there could be

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TRAINING

“It is a working product; you have to use it regularly.

When the fracture is set it is great for increasing the bone building in the skeleton, making it of better quality during the healing process” Bendick Bö

The tendon injury scan (top set of four images) shows improvement after six weeks (bottom set of four images)

any harm done to the horse by receiving such treatment.

“The only time you should not put a horse on the floor is with a recently fractured bone, because as you increase the vibration it will be painful. The rest is a very positive effect,” Bö said.

“It is a working product; you have to use it regularly. When the fracture is set it is great for increasing the bone building in the skeleton, making it of better quality during the healing process,” he explained.

Bö is currently not training professionally, but while he was, he would use his vibrating floor every day – on some horses – for more than five years. X-rays, he said, showed extremely good bone quality.

Bö added, “There are a lot of small things in the body that if you don’t get rid of, then the blood will be building slowly and all of a sudden you get an injury. Horses which use vibration therapy are in great health even though they train hard and are in old age. It is a great preventative method of getting blood circulating around the body.”

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Vibration therapy is relevant for horses which are working every day or at the other extreme – standing still on stall rest. In fact it has proved crucial for horses which are stuck in their stables with injuries, as it prevents their bodies from shutting down.

An experienced eye can see how well a horse is from their shiny coat, healthy appetite, and bright eyes. This can all still be the case for an injured horse on stall rest – with the right therapeutic measures.

In addition, trainers across the world have discovered vibration as a useful tool in warming up and down horses before and after they are worked. Work riders and jockeys have reported horses feeling freer and less stiff after a stint on a vibrating floor.

For trainers this is a bonus – it has been found to create significant muscle power increase which means horses can accelerate faster from a standstill. With trotters this means more elasticity and an increase in flexibility. The trials at the SLU implied horses seem to like the treatment, and

based on anecdotal evidence, Bö is also convinced of the same.

He said, “I know they enjoy it. I didn’t realize at one point when I had a horse on the floor that only half the floor was working and half of it was not. This is because I walk them on it, come off and then turn the vibration on. After I did this I noticed they were only standing on one side of the floor. So then I went on to find out why and realized they opted to stand on the side that was vibrating rather than the side that wasn’t.”

It’s clear that vibration therapy, like many forms of non-invasive treatments, has a multifaceted effect, whether it’s preventing injury, healing, or warming up/warming down those in work. However it also seems to be of help to the horse’s digestion system and therefore an aid for colic. The massaging qualities of the unit can help unblock a gut in trouble – and with no harm being caused to the horse while on the plates it makes sense for it to be on there while waiting for veterinary treatment to arrive. It may take a couple of hours, but if the horse gets relief by being put into a relaxed state and possibly even cured of the colic – then why not? Surely it beats walking the horse around the shedrow for an endless time.

Vibration therapy has been widely accepted and used by human athletes for some time; it makes sense for equine athletes, fit or injured, to do the same. I

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DANIELLE HODSDON

Danielle Hodsdon: for the love of horses A fan-favorite on the U.S. steeplechase racing circuit, Danielle Hodsdon is known to give the boys a run for their money, routinely ending high in the standings in a male-dominated sport. By Daniela Snyder

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HE currently ranks second on the leaderboard. On April 24th of this year, Hodsdon scored her impressive 100th career victory on Mrs. Calvin Houghland’s Nationbuilder in the $50,000 Queen’s Cup MCP Chase, and more recently won Saratoga’s prestigious A. P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase on William Pape’s Divine Fortune on August 5th, an event she had previously won twice on Pape’s Mixed Up. “This was a very rewarding win, as I have always thought that [Divine] Fortune is one of the most talented horses I have ever ridden,” Hodsdon says about this year’s Smithwick.

Aside from being able to maneuver her horse over hurdles with artful precision and a judgment of pace second to none, Hodsdon has that old crowd-pleasing style: she tends to drift back a little at the beginning of each race, almost as if she is letting everyone else exhaust themselves before she makes her move, flying by the others, usually in the stretch. Her horses seem to love what they do and appear to be as determined as the woman on board.

While there have been women jockeys for decades, horseracing has been mostly

regarded as a male-dominated sport.

Hodsdon took it a step further and is one of the few women to specialize in steeplechasing. But like most female riders, Hodsdon does not want to be defined by her gender. She grew up competing against men in three-day-eventing, thus Hodsdon does not consider being a jockey with mostly men to be any different.

“Some trainers are more open to girl riders than others, but different trainers prefer different types of riders regardless,” Hodsdon says. “Each rider has his or her own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to acquiring rides. I prefer to primarily ride for a trainer I work for and have a relationship with the horses that I ride. That’s just what works for me.”

She jokes, “One advantage to being a woman is that I usually have plenty of room in the changing quarters while the guys are jammed on top of one another!”

Hodsdon, who owned her first pony at the age of four, knew growing up that her life would always involve horses. The 33year-old has come a long way since her first victory in 2000 on Sultry Gate at Foxfield in Virginia and credits much of her success to Racing Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard, who gave her a job in 2004.

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PROFILE

“I see riding races as my reward for the work that I put in daily with our horses. I love the training aspect of it. I love the day-to-day riding, schooling, and care of the animals” Hodsdon was the National Steeplechase Association champion jockey in 2006 and the earnings leader last year, and has been a regular rider for Sheppard’s horses, such as champion steeplechaser Mixed Up, Nationbuilder, and 2008 champion turf female Forever Together, on whom she rides work.

Despite a remarkable racing career, Hodsdon prefers to define herself primarily as a horseman. “I see riding races as my reward for the work that I put in daily with our horses,” she says. “I love the training aspect of it. I love the day-to-day riding, schooling, and care of the animals. They are amazing athletes, and when they perform well, we have done our job. It is a team effort, and I’m just lucky enough to partner

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with some of them in their races. When a horse doesn’t perform well, then generally it’s because we have let them down in some way, and we need to figure out why.”

Hodsdon is tough mentally and physically, but she has an undying love for the horses she rides. While some may think that being a female steeplechase jockey is unusual or unique, trainers and horses will mostly remember Hodsdon for her ability to develop and nurture the many levels of emotional connection between horse and human: compassion, friendship, loyalty, willing partnership and mutual respect.

Hodsdon, who is based in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, spends half the year at Sheppard’s Ashwell Farms in Camden, South Carolina. She also spends time in

Saratoga during the summer before returning to Sheppard’s home barn in Pennsylvania for the winter.

Hodsdon competitively rides many of the horses in the races as well as in their daily training, wholeheartedly supporting Sheppard’s natural approach.

“Everything here is done in a very horsemanship way,” she explains. “We have a combination of Flat and steeplechase horses and although their speed work is a bit different, we all hack through the woods, cross creeks, etc. At the farm in Pennsylvania, we get to do a lot of hill work, and that prolongs their longevity a lot, because it takes a lot of the pounding off of the front end and strengthens them by jogging uphill. We end up not having to work them as hard, because the hill does more for them than training them on the flat. All these horses will do that before they do any kind of speed work. They all get a break in the winter and some downtime.

Every one gets turned out in groups and in company, because socializing is very important for them and it allows them time away from the stress of the racetrack.”

She says with a smile, “Someone once asked me why we put multiple stakes horses out in the pasture together. It’s because that’s what keeps them happy and it gives them a life.”

Hodsdon benefits from knowing the horses in Sheppard’s barns and being in an environment in which the welfare of the animals is a priority. She is never afraid to do the extra work, often taking on responsibilities her job does not require.

She helps with feeding, watering and bandaging the horses’ legs. She enjoys getting them ready for the day, allowing her to have a relationship with the horses she competes with, some of which have been in training for more than seven years.

“They are not numbers. We know what they like and dislike and we cater to them to keep them happy,” she says. “I have had a lot of special horses over the years, it’s amazing the bond and attachment you get when you spend every day with them.”

Some of Hodsdon’s favorite horses have been the ones that have been a little difficult.

“It makes it very rewarding if they have been a challenge and then accomplish success,” she says proudly.

Hodsdon’s most prominent horse has been Mixed Up (“Micky”), whom she has been riding since he was a 5-year-old who had yet to run over jumps during her first year with Sheppard.

“This is my seventh season with Micky, and for most of the year, I spend every day with him,” Hodsdon says. “He has been a very challenging horse since the beginning.

He used to be too keen early in his races and use himself up, but we spent a long

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PROFILE

Hodsdon has become an integral part of the training process working for trainer Jonathan Sheppard

time teaching him to cooperate and rate himself.”

Hodsdon works until about 2 p.m. for Sheppard every day of the week and has become an integral part of the training process. Her sense of commitment to horses and trainer has undoubtedly contributed to a very successful operation. Since the sport of steeplechasing has taken some blows to the gut in the past few years, the public needed some good news, and Danielle Hodsdon has given it that as she continues to work in a manner that brings out the best the horses have to offer, the horse-and-rider relationship at its finest. It’s a refreshing change from the cynicism that too often dominates this game.

“If the horses are well-conditioned and properly schooled and trained, then it decreases the risks involved with steeplechasing,” she says. “We have no excuse to not have a horse prepared before it runs because the facilities that are here at the farm are excellent. The top trainers don’t want to send their horses out there if they’re not prepared to be there. But things still happen, just like in any other equestrian sport. There are falls. There are accidents.

And our horses have that happen too, but we try to prepare them in a way that when it comes to the jumping part of it, most of the time they know how to get themselves out of trouble. Any sport that involves horses, you want the horses to enjoy doing what they’re doing,” she continues. “These horses love what they do. They are bred to be athletes and they understand and love their jobs. They are not forced to do this; they weigh about 1,000 pounds and they are

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“I am committed to what I do because I love what I do. I have been involved with horses my entire life, and they define who I am. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else” generally very intelligent. If they decide they do not want to do this, then they won’t. It’s pretty much as simple as that.”

She concludes, “Although I am very competitive when it comes to racing, I never lose sight of the fact that safety comes first.”

Her strong concern for safety has spared her from many serious falls, but Hodsdon has experienced some setbacks from injuries. Looking back, she admits, “Pain is a difficult thing to deal with, both mentally and physically, and often you have to work through it in order to get stronger and better. A number of years ago, following a dislocated hip and a fractured collarbone, I was trying to get back to riding and being fit.

I had a lot of back problems, and it was difficult to get back to where I wanted to be.

I would find myself losing my temper easily when the horses would do anything wrong and then feel badly about it since it was not their fault.”

Injuries have been difficult to deal with, but Hodsdon puts hers to good use when dealing with a horse who is battling a soundness issue or coming back from injury.

“I have a better understanding of when they are reluctant to do things sometimes, and it makes me look into where their reluctance is coming from and whether it may be pain related,” Hodsdon says.

Despite a few setbacks, Hodsdon’s rise has been a steady, continual upward movement. Aside from riding and competing, she has had an occasional horse in training over the past few years, and she has all the ingredients to become a top trainer, a career she would love to consider some day. Her commitment to her equine partners has enabled her to hold her own at tracks across the country, riding with a talent and consistency that has earned her remarkable victories.

“I am committed to what I do because I love what I do,” she says. “I have been involved with horses my entire life, and they define who I am. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

With her bright spirit and amazing attitude, Hodsdon continues to be an inspiration to present and future equestrian athletes by developing a championship performance in the horses she rides. She admits, “It’s a puzzle at times, and we never stop learning,” her choice of words perhaps going beyond the sport of horseracing to become a reflection on life. I

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Weight allowance – do fillies and mares get a raw deal?

How many would disagree if I said that the weight-forage scales currently being used in horseracing is full of flaws? How many would disagree if I said that these scales, meant to give horses of different ages an equal chance, in many cases do exactly the opposite?

Quite a few, I suspect, since I heard no protesting voices after looking into this matter in a previous Trainer article. Protesting voices are not in short supply in horseracing circles. So, will there be any when I share the essence of my more recent ponderings that the current system of filly and mare allowances leaves a lot to be desired? Let's find out, says Geir Stabell

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IKE the weight-for-age scales, the filly and mare weight allowances in pattern races differ in different racing jurisdictions. That in itself is quite bizarre. As an example, a three-yearold filly racing against three-year-old colts in the U.S. gets a 5lb weight pull, while if she meets older males she gets only a 3lb weight pull. As with so many regulations within horseracing, there is a glaring lack of consistency.

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The idea behind a sex allowance is that a filly or a mare is not as strong as a colt or gelding. Thus, the ‘weaker sex’ is given a weight pull when they meet males in championship races. Often the sex allowance is 3lb (1.36kg) but not always.

Some races offer females a 5lb sex allowance (2.26kg). Most handicappers agree that 2lb equals about one length over a mile and if so, 3lb equals 1.5 lengths, while 5lb equals 2.5 lengths. As we can see, races framed with a 5lb filly and mare

allowance thus give the fairer sex about one length better terms than races with a 3lb allowance.

Let’s take a look at some of these discrepancies. While the King George at Ascot offers female runners a 3lb sex allowance, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp offers a 3.3lb allowance (1.5kg), the Hong Kong Cup a 4lb allowance, and in Dubai, a 5lb allowance.

These differing weight terms should make a trainer of a high-class filly think long and

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hard about where to ship, if he decides to let her have a crack at the boys in international races. Many of these contests produce close finishes and one or two pounds can make all the difference.

When the French-trained mare Pride won the Hong Kong Cup in 2006, she beat the colt Admire Moon by a nose while enjoying a 4lb allowance. If they had met in France, she would have been carrying 0.7lb less and probably won by more than half a length. If the race had been run in Dubai, on the other hand, Pride would have been carrying 1lb more and, perhaps, have lost by a narrow margin. Like the Hong Kong International races, the Japan Cup is staged with a 4lb sex allowance, and last year Vodka took full advantage of this weightpull to beat the horse Oken Bruce Lee by a nose. Run the same race in England, and would the result have been reversed?

Moving on to North America, we find an allowance of 5lb being used for the three Triple Crown races. The best example of a filly benefitting from this generous weight pull is Rags to Riches,

who beat the colt Curlin by a head when they clashed in over a mile and a half in the Belmont Stakes. When we get to the Breeders' Cup Series, however, all race conditions clearly state: “fillies and mares allowed 3lb.”

So, while three-year-old fillies are thought to need a 5lb sex allowance to be competitive against males of their own age in May and June, they are only handed a 3lb sex allowance when racing against older males in the autumn. Let’s establish these facts at the back of our minds and take the next step on this interesting thought journey.

To get to the bottom of this subject one needs to start with the obvious question: why have these sex allowances been put in place? The accepted explanation is that fillies and mares are lighter animals and not as strong as the males. The weight they carry ought to be a bit lower to be fairer in relation to their physical build and bodyweight.

This appears to make sense, but what puzzles me the most is that the sex allowances are exactly the same over all distances. At Royal Ascot, if a filly runs in the King's Stand Stakes over 5 furlongs (1,005 meters), she will have the benefit of a 3lb allowance, same as if she runs in the Ascot Gold Cup at 2½ miles (about 4,022 meters). In other words, the Gold Cup is four times as long as the King's Stand. If the sex allowance is meant to compensate for the fact that fillies and mares are lighter than males and therefore given a weightcarrying task that (compared to bodyweight) is equal to the weight task given to males, why then are these sex allowances not adjusted in relation to distances?

Another question is: how did one come up with 3lb as the correct sex allowance in one part of the world, yet 5lb in another part? I am not all that interested in which is the right allowance here (or the less wrong if you like), I am simply wondering how on earth one (and who) came to the conclusion that the sex allowance should be in this region. Why three, four, or five pounds? Why not nine, ten, or eleven, for example?

Looking at the riding weights relative to the bodyweight first, a good place to find relevant information is Hong Kong, where the weight of each runner

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French-trained mare Pride wins the 2006 Hong Kong Cup, beating the colt Admire Moon by a nose with a 4lb allowance

is published on racedays.

How much less do the females weigh, compared to their male rivals? This is individual of course. Some mares weigh more than some males. Take a look at Zenyatta. Her size and strength indicates that she should indeed be conceding weight to many of the boys. Look at the Godolphin trained colt Alexandros, a lightly-built male, whose weight was very close to the fillies' weights when he ran at Sha Tin last year.

This will be far from a scientific study, but the last two years of Hong Kong International races can give us a rough guide. In the 2009 Hong Kong Mile, Alain de Royer-DuprĂŠ ran the three-year-old filly Sweet Hearth, whose raceday weight was 973 pounds. The heaviest male in the race was the eight-year-old Egyptian Ra, a gelding weighing in at 1,185 pounds, and the lightest male in the 14-runner field was the four-year-old colt Alexandros at 987 pounds, just 14lb (6.3kg) more than Sweet Hearth. Taking the two extremes (Egyptian Ra and Alexandros) out of the equation, we are left with 11 males whose average weight was 1,090 pounds. Performing the same exercise for the Vase and the Cup (the Sprint had no female runners) we get these results for all three races combined: Average weight, males (28 of 32): 1,082 pounds Average weight, females (5): 965 pounds

In 2008, the corresponding figures were: Average weight, males (24 of 26): 1,089 pounds Average weight, females (2): 1,035 pounds

Hong Kong International 2008 and 2009 combined Average weight, males (52): 1,085 pounds Average weight, females (7): 1,000 pounds Vodka took full advantage of a 4lb sex allowance in the Japan Cup beating Oken Bruce Lee by a nose

The lighly-built colt Alexandros ran in the Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin in 2009 while physically weighing little more than the fillies on the same card

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A larger sample would be better but at least these figures give us an indication; they show that the average filly/mare weighs about 85 pounds less than the average male.

Put another way, the average filly weighs about 92% of the weight of the average male (1,000 = 92.1% of 1,085).

Taking these figures and comparing them to the sex allowances, we see that these allowances do not correspond to horses' bodyweights. In the Group Ones at Sha Tin, fillies and mares carry 122 pounds and males carry 126 pounds. 122 pounds equals 96.8% of 126 pounds.

Mathematically, there is a discrepancy of 4.7% here (96.8 - 92.1), and it is favoring the males.

The average weight of the fillies and mares running in the 2009 Hong Kong Cup races was 965 pounds (89% of the average male) and, to keep this study simple, we can say that on average a filly or mare weighs 90% of a colt/horse/gelding.

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Using 90% as a guide, if the sex allowance is to be relative to the bodyweights of the horses, the females should be carrying only 113 pounds (just under 90% of 126lb). It may be hard to believe that a 13lb sex allowance would be more accurate than a three, four, or 5lb sex allowance but how do we know that it wouldn't be? One thing is certain: that 13lb is lot closer to a figure reflecting the differences in body weights, than 3lb is.

The question is two-fold: Are the sex allowances correct, or at least near correct; and, whatever the allowances should be, should they also vary over different distances?

Let us go back to the question of sex allowances over various distances. The reasoning behind giving the females a weight allowance is that they are not as strong, and will thus find it harder to carry weight over a distance of ground. Surely, if this is right, such a sex allowance should increase with longer distances. Over the years, we have all observed sprinters managing to win under high weights while in staying races the high weights become more of a burden. From my days working in Scandinavia, I remember quite a few stakes-quality sprinters winning open handicaps carrying over 70kg (154 pounds!) though no trainer would run a horse in a staying race under such a weight.

Using 1,600 meters as a starting point, we’ll say that a filly should be given a 4lb sex allowance, which is accepted to be relative to her physical ability (comparative to a colt) to carry weight at speed over 1,600 meters. As the filly runs the race from start to finish she burns a certain amount of energy. Everyone agrees that she would burn less energy without a jockey, but how much more energy does she burn if she carries four pounds more? And how much more energy would she burn if she ran further?

I know exactly what I am trying to say here but I am not at all sure how best to say it. Here's an attempt: The core of the matter is how 4lb more or less affects the performance of a Thoroughbred over various distances. It hardly makes common sense to say that the effect will be the same over five furlongs as it is over two-and-ahalf miles.

If I carry a backpack weighing 20 pounds over a mile, I will burn a certain amount of energy. If I carry the same pack over four miles, wouldn’t I burn four times as much energy? And, if the pack one day weighs 24 pounds, how will this affect me? The obvious answer is that I will be burning more energy carrying a heavier pack, and this difference in energy consumption will be greater the farther I go. How much I feel the weight is directly relative to how much energy I have left. At the outset when I have

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The size and strength of Zenyatta indicates that she should concede weight to many of the boys

“If the sex allowance is meant to compensate for the fact that fillies and mares are lighter than males, why are these sex allowances not adjusted in relation to distances?”

FILLIES AND MARES, BREEDERS’ CUP 1984 – 2009 Examining the record of fillies and mares at the Breeders' Cup, where the sex allowance is 3lb, this study disregards the Classic, as only four fillies/mares have taken part in the race. We’ll instead analyze open Breeders’ Cup races that have had a fair share of female runners: the Sprint, Mile, and Turf.

BC SPRINT – 6 furlongs (short distance) 34 starts, 3 wins (8.5% winners-to-runners) 1st: 3; 2nd: 8; 3rd: 0 (31.4% in the money)

BC MILE – 8 furlongs (medium distance) 37 starts, 7 wins (18.9%) 1st: 7; 2nd: 3; 3rd: 2 (32.4%)

BC TURF – 12 furlongs (long distance) 35 starts, 2 wins (5.7%) 1st: 2; 2nd: 4; 3rd: 3 (25.7%)

These figures indicate that a mile may be the best trip for a filly or mare to run against males at current sex weight allowance terms, though bear in mind that outstanding back-to-back winners Miesque and Goldikova account for four of the seven wins for the fairer sex in the BC Mile. If those two had come to the Breeders' Cup just once each, the in-the-money stats above would show that the shorter the distance, the better the chances are for fillies and mares. While over 30% of all females taking a shot at the boys have finished in the first three in both the Sprint and the Mile, that figure drops to under 26% when we look at how female runners have fared in the Turf.

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plenty of energy, the pack feels light and is not much of a burden. By the end of a long walk, it feels many times heavier, simply because I have much less energy and I now feel tired.

Why should this be any different for a horse? A filly, with a lighter body and (assumably) less energy to burn than a colt, will be at a greater disadvantage against the colt the further these horses run.

If the four pounds we are using as an example is correct over 1,600 meters, the sex allowances should probably be 8lb over 3,200 meters (4lb x 2), 6lb over 2,400 meters (4lb x 1.5), and only 2.5lb (4lb ÷ 1.6) over 1,000 meters – and so on.

I am not assuming that 4lb is the correct sex allowance to use over a mile or over any other distance, nor am I assuming that the French are closer to a fair system when allowing fillies and mares just over two pounds in the Arc than the English are when allowing females three pounds in the King George, both run over 2,400 meters.

What I am assuming, however, is that these allowances, well-established and tradition bound they may be, may not have been very well thought through. In these days of working to harmonize racing rules, perhaps the subject of sex-related weight allowances should be on the agenda. I

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VETERINARY

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RAO

Recurrent Airway Obstruction in racehorses R

AO is the most recently adopted term and describes what happens to affected horses, namely that they experience intermittent episodes of blockage (obstruction) of the smaller airways deep in the lung. This obstruction is caused by the muscles around the airways constricting and closing the airways down, and also by over-secretion of mucus which blocks the airways. This is very similar to what happens to someone having an asthma attack although RAO probably shares more similarities with “farmers lung” than asthma as far as the causes.

The term equine COPD became less favored about 15-20 years ago as it caused confusion with human COPD. The latter is a condition brought about by smoking, and while a fair few owners, trainers, and jockeys may enjoy a cigarette, horses don’t.

What brings on an “attack” in a horse with RAO? RAO is an allergic disease in which affected horses have an overreaction to things normally present in their environment, such as pollens, molds (in particular Aspergillus species) and forage mites. Interestingly, a study from the University of Berne published in 2009 showed that the most common positive reaction (around 75% of tests) was to mite allergens rather than molds.

At some stage RAO horses have been “sensitized” to one or more of these allergens, so called because they produce an allergic reaction. This allergic reaction can lead to almost immediate signs of disease which are typical of RAO, including coughing, nasal discharge, increased mucus in the airways, increased lung sounds, increased respiratory rate and effort (this is where the term “heaves” comes from, describing the heaving effort of the chest and abdomen as the horse struggles to move air into and out of the lungs and the

The old name for it is “broken wind,” we used to call it COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), we refer to it more commonly as “heaves,” and the most recent term that was adopted by vets and scientists who were studying it is Recurrent Airway Obstruction (RAO). Many of these terms are still in common use, and different groups of people involved with horses will possibly recognize the different terms for what is exactly the same condition. By Dr David Marlin

Nasal discharge is one of the typical signs of RAO

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development of abdominal muscles as a result of the extra effort to breathe – the “heave” line), flared nostrils, and a decreased capacity for exercise. These acute changes are usually also accompanied by changes in the lung that take place over a much longer period of time when the inflammation associated with the disease persists untreated. This can include stiffening of the lungs, making them less efficient, and an increase in the thickness of the muscle around the airways so that when they clamp down, they do so to an even greater extent.

The classic “heaving” horse, often described as a horse in crisis, has fortunately become a more rare sight for vets over the past 15-20 years as education over air quality and the change towards lower dust management regimens has taken place. But they do still turn up now and again. They were probably always rarer amongst the racehorse population for several reasons.

The first was that air quality awareness and use of good quality bedding and feed were both likely to be more common than in the

general horse population. Another reason is age.

While in young racehorses we predominantly see infectious respiratory disease, both as a result of viral (e.g. Equine Herpes Virus 1) and, even more commonly, bacterial infection (e.g. from Streptococcus zooepidemicus, Actinobacillus species and Pasteurella species), the prevalence is highest in yearlings and two-year-olds and decreases with increasing age such that by the time a horse reaches four, it’s unlikely to be having a problem with repeated infections (Inflammatory Airway Disease or IAD). By contrast, RAO does not really begin to be recognized in horses until they are at least 5-6 years of age. So RAO would be extremely rare in the flat racehorse population but more likely to be present amongst the population of horses running over jumps.

Certainly there is still some debate as to whether IAD is caused by infectious agents, allergens or both. There is also debate as to whether IAD is a precursor to RAO. While we know that placing an RAO-affected

RAO is an allergic disease which can cause symptons such as coughing

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horse in “remission” (that is at a time when it does not appear to have any signs of excess mucus, inflammatory cells, cough, etc.) in a stable with moldy hay and straw will produce a worsening in perhaps as a little as 6-12 hours, or in some cases 2-3 days, we don’t know what the underlying cause that makes a healthy horse become an RAO horse is.

There is good evidence of a genetic predisposition in some horses. It may also appear that viral infection plays a role. In human medicine there have been theories for asthma based on either being exposed to too little allergen or to too much allergen. Interestingly, there is evidence that parasite infection may program the immune system away from allergic reactions. Today, with the high value of horses and the aim of maintaining healthy populations in the belief that they will give better performance, our use of wormers and antibiotics could potentially be programming our horses to be more “reactive.” However, that study from the University of Berne suggested that RAO horses in a family of horses susceptible to RAO actually had a higher resistance to Strongylid parasites.

RAO is therefore essentially a condition seen in older horses, kept predominantly in stables in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s an unavoidable fact that keeping racehorses in stables will compromise air quality. Bedding materials, feed materials, and even the horse itself create dust and bring various potential allergens into the stable where the horse will breathe them. And again, while very, very few older jump horses are likely to have full-blown RAO, there is a strong potential for a significant proportion to have sub-clinical RAO (i.e. have the disease but not show obvious external clinical signs such as cough or nasal discharge).

Why might we suspect this? In a survey carried out in jump stables in the England some years ago, there was evidence that around one third of the staff had some evidence of respiratory symptoms as a result of working in the stable environment. Now of course, if the staff have symptoms and spend only perhaps 3-4 hours a day inside the stables, then we might reasonably expect horses spending 22 hours a day to be affected to a greater extent.

So how common could sub-clinical RAO be in the older racehorse population? In a study of 91 jump racehorses referred to the University of Bristol, England, for loss of performance, 68% of the horses had increased tracheal mucus and 70% had signs of lower airway inflammation. In this study it was referred to as IAD, but this could equally well be termed sub-clinical RAO. Was this the reason why these horses were suffering from loss of performance? We can’t say. But we know the normal

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condition of the equine respiratory tract is for it not to be inflamed and have excess mucus. And there can’t be too many trainers who would prefer to send a horse with a dirty scope into a race than one with a clean scope.

What we do know from a number of controlled studies is that airway inflammation (increased mucus, increased neutrophils) has the potential to adversely affect movement of air in and out of the lung, the efficiency of oxygen supply to the muscles, and, potentially, to worsen bleeding (EIPH) and therefore by implication, negatively affect performance, even if only by a few lengths. The aim must be to have horseracing as clean as possible.

Preventing RAO is going to be problematic as we still don’t fully understand what causes it, although we now know there is likely to be a genetic tendency to develop it in some horses. As it is more common in stabled horses then of course turnout and maintaining as clean a stable environment as possible are likely to reduce the number of horses that might develop RAO, and the severity and frequency of exacerbations (worsening). In this respect, good ventilation is probably the first place to start.

Horses, even Thoroughbreds, can survive well in cold weather.

My approach is to never close up the ventilation but to put on an extra rug or two if necessary.

The next issue to address is bedding. Here my preference is for a sealed rubber floor with around a quarter of the area covered with low-dust bedding (there is no such thing as dust-free). Large woodchips and paper are ideal in this respect. It may not look as nice as a deep straw bed, but would we expect the top human athletes to perform after sleeping in straw-filled stables? One might argue that a straw-filled stable is not a natural environment for a human athlete, and my response would be neither is it a natural environment for a horse – a field is!

As to forage, go with high-quality hay, steamed or soaked or haylage. There is potential for these to be contaminated with forage mites, molds, and mycotoxins, which can all lead to airway inflammation. The same applies to hard feeds. For example, feeds with molasses are likely to be relatively low in dust while crushed oats may be very dusty.

If you really want to find out how good your stable air quality is, find an asthmatic and get them to stand in the stables for half an hour. If they come out wheezing and coughing, you need to make some adjustments. The respiratory system is one of the weakest links in the horse. The muscles and heart have a tremendous capacity to adapt with training. Even bone and tendon has some capacity to respond to training. Contrary to popular belief, the lungs to do not improve with training. If anything they deteriorate with repeated exercise as a result of repeated blood vessel rupture (bleeding; EIPH). Therefore anything that you can do to maintain them in the best possible state is likely to pay dividends where it counts – on the racetrack. I

“RAO is therefore essentially a condition seen in older horses, kept predominantly in stables in the Northern Hemisphere”

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THE BIG ‘C’ Racehorses can suffer from a nearly endless list of different types of cancer. The term ‘cancer’ is not actually a single disease but encompasses a group of diseases in which the normal mechanisms of cell growth and death are disturbed.

It is fortunate that the majority of common equine cancers are benign because the success rate of treating malignant cancers in horses is very low. This article will discuss the most common types of cancer in the racehorse.

By James Tate BVMS MRCVS

Bold Ruler (with trainer Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons) winner of the Preakness Stakes and sire of 11 champions including Secretariat, died of cancer aged 17. While cancer is not as common in horses as in other species, it is still a frequent killer of older horses.

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What is cancer?

In normal healthy tissue, damage is repaired by new cell growth which stops when the damaged cells have been replaced. However, in cancers, there is a transformation of normal body cells into cancer cells, whose growth is unregulated leading to the formation of tumors.

The transformation of a normal cell into a cancer cell involves a change in the cell’s genetic make-up – its deoxyribonucleic acid or ‘DNA.’ The exact cause of this change is unknown but it is probably a result of the faulty repair of damage to the cell, which can be caused by a number of things.

Certain cancers have been linked to viruses, while others are thought to have a genetic link. In addition, high incidences of cancer can also be linked to high-doses of ionizing radiation or certain carcinogenic agents (the most well known examples of which in human medicine are tobacco smoke and asbestos).

These altered cells pass on inappropriate genetic information to their progeny cells and begin to reproduce and multiply in an abnormal and destructive way. As the cancer cells continue to multiply, they form a growing mass of abnormal tissue called a tumor. These tumors can be benign, which means that they are not growing quickly and they will not spread to other parts of the body, or they can be malignant, which is much more serious. As the malignant tumor grows, it ulcerates and begins to shed cells that spread the disease locally or to distant sites. Locally, this spread or ‘metastasis’ occurs by the invasion of cells into neighboring tissues, destroying and displacing normal cells and taking their place. However, cancerous cells can also enter the blood or lymphatic vessels and so

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be carried to other parts of the body.

Diagnosis If a tumor starts to form near the surface of the body then the cancer can be picked up quite early on because it is visible and therefore easily detectable. However, if the cancer is deep within the body – in the chest or abdomen, for example – then it is not usually detected until the tumor starts to impede the horse’s vital functions. In both circumstances, lumps and associated lymph nodes are either biopsied or removed for examination under the microscope to search for abnormal cancer cells which identify the individual cancer.

Treatment Although the treatment options for equine cancer are similar to that of human medicine – surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy – the frontline therapy for cancer in horses is surgery. However, the treatment of specific cancers often depends upon the type and location of the cancer.

For example, a skin tumor can be removed surgically or have substances applied to it or injected into it whereas tumors deep within the chest or abdomen are hard to access and treat. Hopefully, all the cancer research that is being undertaken in human medicine will eventually be carried across into the treatment of cancer in horses as regrettably, unless the tumor is benign or detected at a very early stage, the long-term prognosis for most horses with a serious cancer is poor.

Papillomas or ‘warts’ Perhaps the least significant benign tumor the racehorse can get is the papilloma, which is more commonly referred to as a ‘wart.’ These are usually found in horses aged two years or less and are thought to be caused by the Equine Papillomavirus. They appear quickly and can look quite unsightly but they are harmless and usually disappear in a relatively short period of time, so if they persist then the strength of the horse’s immune system should be questioned.

They are most frequently found around the horse’s face and muzzle but can also appear in other locations such as the lower leg.

Sarcoids The most common skin tumor in the horse is the sarcoid. Sarcoids are rather strange skin growths that can occur in all ages, breeds, and colors of horses and mainly affect the head and legs. The exact cause is unknown but research strongly suggests that Bovine Papillomavirus has some involvement. Due to the fact that sarcoids often grow at sites where the horse had previously suffered a wound, it has been suggested that flies may play a part in spreading the disease, probably by passing

A young horse with ‘papillomas’ or ‘warts’ around its muzzle

the virus from one horse to another. As a result, work is currently being carried out to try to produce a commercial vaccine.

There are several types of sarcoid and some are more serious than others. Horses can have one inconspicuous, small sarcoid on the inside of a back leg or can be affected by several malignant sarcoids that spread quickly and eventually result in death. A small, settled sarcoid in a place where it is not causing a problem should be left alone; however, if a sarcoid is in an important place, or if it is particularly active

and growing, then treatment may be attempted. There are many treatment options which include a rubber ring to kill the root of a round nodular sarcoid, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, cryotherapy, the injection of BCG, surgery to remove the sarcoid, or the application of sarcoid cream. Fortunately, the majority of sarcoids are manageable but they are very important when it comes to pre-purchase veterinary examinations – it is impossible to predict which sarcoids will end up causing problems and so no horse with a

On the left is a horse with a single, settled sarcoid just behind its right ear which was treated successfully using sarcoid cream. On the right is a horse that is severely affected by several active, growing sarcoids on the inside of its left stifle

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On the left is a horse with a mass of several melanomas underneath its tail that caused it to have difficulty passing feces. On the right is a horse with a large melanoma growing from its upper eyelid

sarcoid can completely pass a vetting.

On the left is a squamous cell carcinoma of the third eyelid. On the right is a squamous cell carcinoma of the penis (red circle)

Colic is often the first sign of abdominal cancer

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Melanomas Perhaps the most well-known type of equine cancer is melanomas in grey horses, and this is because up to 80% of grey horses aged fifteen years or more have at least one melanoma. They are most frequently found underneath the tail and around the dock, but they can also occur behind the jaw, around the ear, and in the eye. Fortunately, most equine melanomas remain small and benign hence it is best to leave them alone if possible. However, sometimes even benign melanomas can cause problems by physical obstruction, such as making it difficult for the horse to pass feces. In addition, some melanomas are malignant and can spread rapidly throughout the body, transforming into an invasive, destructive cancer and it is for this reason that so many people are reluctant to buy a grey horse with a melanoma. Surgery can be successful in the case of the removal of a single tumor that is causing a physical obstruction providing that it is not malignant. However, the prognosis for horses affected by malignant melanomas is usually hopeless.

Squamous cell carcinomas The last common cancerous disease that can be found when examining a horse from the outside is the squamous cell carcinoma.

This type of cancer usually occurs at the junction between the skin and mucous membranes, for example, the eyelids, mouth, and genitals. Squamous cell carcinomas of the eye are generally found in older horses, especially if they lack eyelid pigmentation – surgery can be successful but it should be performed quickly to improve the chances of a full recovery.

Squamous cell carcinomas of the genitals

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VETERINARY

loses its blood supply, dies, and releases toxins that essentially ‘poison’ the horse and therefore the surgeon faces a race against time to remove the affected tissue.

A strangulating lipoma (held with forceps) is the most common cancerous cause of colic

2005 Eclipse Award-winning sprinter Lost in the Fog was euthanized shortly after he was diagnosed with a splenic lymphoma in August 2006, just two months after his last win

are also quite common, especially affecting the penis in older geldings. Although squamous cell carcinomas are usually malignant, the spread of the disease occurs late in its progression and as a result surgery is often successful.

Cancers that cause colic such as strangulating lipomas Unfortunately, unlike the tumors mentioned above, cancers of the intestine and abdominal organs often only become apparent once the disease is in an advanced state. This is because internal tumors within the abdomen can become very large without any outward sign of a problem. It is usually only when the cancer begins to obstruct the intestines that the horse starts to show signs of the disease. In many cases, affected horses suffer from recurrent bouts of colic and the intervals between episodes then become shorter. However, some

74 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 18

horses with massive cancer infiltration of their intestines can slowly become less able to absorb nutrients from their food and hence show slow but progressive weight loss, often despite eating extra feed.

Many different types of cancer can cause colic but perhaps the most common abdominal cancer is a strangulating lipoma.

A lipoma is simply a benign fatty lump and if it is found elsewhere in the horse’s body, for example, under the skin, then it causes very little problem. However, horses that are 12 years of age or more are prone to developing a tumor called a strangulating lipoma. This can occur in any horse, fat or thin, and the lipoma can twist itself around a loop of gut and so cause a life-threatening blockage. This is a very severe colic which must be operated on immediately not only to remove the lipoma but just as importantly to address the twisted piece of gut. The compromised piece of intestine

Other abdominal cancers such as splenic lymphomas Regrettably, most abdominal tumors are not detected until they have reached an advanced stage because they are very difficult to find. As the horse is so large, modalities such as ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography (CT) scans, which are employed in other species, often do not penetrate deeply enough to be useful.

Consequently, abdominal tumors are usually only found when a horse starts to show signs of failure of an organ because the tumor has taken over so much of the organ that there is little normal tissue left.

Unfortunately, this usually means that it is too late to save the horse and this is exactly what happened to 2005 Eclipse Award-winning sprinter Lost in the Fog. When the sad news first broke that Lost in the Fog had a splenic lymphoma, the American public could not understand how this was possible. How could such a robust four-year-old colt that had won the Grade Three Aristides Breeders' Cup Handicap at Churchill Downs just two months earlier now be terminally ill with cancer? In fact, Lost in the Fog had three large tumors – one in his spleen, one in the ligament supporting the spleen, and one just next to his spine. It was impossible to know how long the tumors had been growing but they must have been there when he won his last race on 3rd June 2006.

Sex hormone related cancers Sex hormone related cancers are not uncommon and there is a ‘textbook’ example for both sexes. A rig or cryptorchid refers to a male horse with only one descended testicle. If the horse is young, for example, less than two years old, then it may yet descend. However, if the testicle never descends, then it is probably located in the horse’s abdomen and this puts it at a higher risk than normal of cancer because the temperature in the abdomen is higher than the temperature in the scrotum where the testicle is meant to be located. Laparoscopic abdominal surgery to remove the testicle usually cures the problem unless the cancer is malignant and has spread.

The most commonly occurring sex hormone-related cancer of the mare is an ovarian tumor known as an equine granulosa cell tumor. This tumor provides an excellent example of how the function of cancerous cells can be altered. The male hormone testosterone is normally only present in very low levels in mares but

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CANCER

A splenic lymphoma (circled) similar to that found in Lost in the Fog

“Abdominal tumors are often only found when a horse starts to show signs of failure of an organ because the tumor has taken over so much of the organ that there is little normal tissue left. Unfortunately, this usually means that it is too late to save the horse� equine granulosa cell tumors produce excessive levels of testosterone, which leads to stallion-like behavior and aggression towards other horses.

Fortunately, this particular type of cancer is usually treatable via removal of the

cancerous ovary, and the mare returns to normal after surgery.

Keratomas By far the most common tumor of the equine musculoskeletal system is the

On the left is an x-ray of a horse with a keratoma. The keratoma was removed surgically at Glasgow University and the photograph on the right was taken immediately afterwards

The undescended testicle of a rig is prone to becoming cancerous because it is kept at a higher temperature than in the scrotum

keratoma, which is a tumor that arises from the hoof wall. They are usually found in horses that are seven years old or more during a lameness investigation because the growing mass can cause considerable pain, although they can sometimes also result in abnormal hoof growth. An x-ray diagnoses the problem and surgery is usually successful providing that the growth can be completely removed.

Conclusion In summary, horses suffer from cancer just like any other species. However, equine cancer receives very little publicity for two main reasons. Firstly, the risk of serious cancers increases dramatically with age and illness in older horses is only really newsworthy in champions such as Bold Ruler. Secondly, the cancers that occur most frequently in younger horses are often not life-threatening, for example, papillomas, benign sarcoids, and benign melanomas in grey horses.

This is why it was such a big story when the reigning champion Lost in the Fog was diagnosed with terminal cancer just two months after winning a Grade Three sprint.

Each cancer is different and every case must be treated individually. Veterinarians have become quite proficient in the treatment of certain tumors such as sarcoids and keratomas.

However, horses like Lost in the Fog show just how helpless we are in dealing with malignant cancers such as a splenic lymphoma. Every veterinarian and human doctor would dearly love for us to be able to treat malignant cancers more effectively, and researchers around the globe continue to work tirelessly in the hope that one day there will be a more effective treatment. I

ISSUE 18 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com 75

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PRODUCT FOCUS

Supplement your horse’s diet with Palm Fat The recent winner of the 2010 Jamaica Handicap (G1) Prince Will I Am, trained by Michelle Nihei is supplemented with EquiPalm™, a medium chain fatty acid from palm fat and OmegaTri™, an omega 3 fatty acid supplement manufactured by Equi-force Equine Products, LLC. Nihei has contracted the services of Dr. Amy M Gill, an equine nutritionist based in Lexington KY to fine tune her feeding program. After careful evaluation of Nihei’s base forages and concentrates, Gill has added several targeted nutrient therapies to the feeding regime in order to address specific metabolic and exercise related issues common amongst performance horses. Prince Will I Am needed to gain stamina and staying power, and the properties of palm fat work well to address both problems. Palm fat is a direct source of energy and calories that is preferentially used for metabolic functions as soon as it is consumed. It is not stored as fat. The horse uses medium chain fatty

acids for muscle contraction, sparing the use of stored glycogen until later in the race, and therefore helping to improve stamina or the ability to continue exercising at intense levels. The addition of OmegaTri ™to the equine diet, a blend of pure seed oils including flax, provides potent anti-inflammatory effects, which can help improve upper respiratory function in many horses that are exposed to mold, pollen and dust in their environment. For more information please contact Dr. Amy M Gill (drgill@equiforce.com) or visit www.equiforce.com.

North American Trainer Suppliers’ Guide

This size ad for just $790 for four issues For further details call Anderson & Co on 1 888 218 4430 76 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 18

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PRODUCT FOCUS

Original vibrating floor system now also available in North America Brand new to the USA, Vitafloor ® is a computer controlled vibrating floor system that can be built into any horse stall allowing the horse to be treated in a safe and controlled environment. Vibration motors enable the floor to gently vibrate at different frequencies depending on whether intended for training, injury prevention or rehabilitation. To avoid the horse continually resting one leg, the floor can be made to gently tilt at one minute intervals, causing the horse to shift its balance, thus ensuring that he stands on all 4 legs for maximum effect.

The result is a notable improvement in blood circulation, especially in the legs and organs, ensuring better health and injury prevention, as well as accelerating the healing process for injuries, and helping in colic prevention. Horses benefit from needing shorter training times to develop power, flexibility and stamina. It

also helps to increase acceleration and elasticity. In addition, using Vitafloor® helps to reduce the risk for tear or fracture of muscles, tendons and bones and promotes hoof growth.

Due to the fact that no direct supervision is needed when a horse is on the floor, the product is very cost effective.

After much success in Europe, Belebro® has now introduced Vitafloor ® onto the North American market.

Belebro’s new General Manager for North America, Mr. Holm Oostveen says: “We are very excited to be able to offer this innovative and proven product to our North American customers and believe it is a major step forward in the training and rehabilitation of our horses.”

For further information visit www.belebro.com or call 801-671-1131.

North American Trainer Suppliers’ Guide

TRUE CENTER GATE DESIGN TO FOLLOW

ISSUE 18 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com 77

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STAKES SCHEDULES

STAKES SCHEDULES RACES

DISCLAIMER

Races are divided by distance and the relevant surface is indicated as follows: AWT – All Weather Track D – Dirt T –Turf The indexes cover all graded races in North America over $50,000 in value, where information was available at the time of publication. Additionally, all European Group One races have been included as well as major races from Japan.

Whilst every effort has been made to publish correct information, the publishers will not be held liable for any omission, mistake or change to the races listed in all published indexes.

IMPORTANT NOTICE If you would like to receive notification as we update the Stakes Schedules on our website, simply send an e-mail to feedback@trainermagazine.com.

COPYRIGHT Under Copyright law, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means. This includes but is not limited to: photocopying for commercial redistribution and or facsimile recording without the prior permission of the copyright holder, application for which should be addressed to the publisher.

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Country Track USA Sunland Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) The Getaway Stakes

Class

Race Date 19-Apr-2011

Value $50,000

4.2f (850m) Age 3 QH & TB

Surface D

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Track Sunland Park Sunland Park Sunland Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) Mt. Cristo Rey Handicap Copper Top Futurity Copper Top Futurity

Class S S S

Race Date 19-Mar-2011 16-Apr-2011 16-Apr-2011

Value $100,000 $75,000 $75,000

Track Churchill Downs Tempa Bay Downs Gulfstream Park Sunland Park Delta Downs Delta Downs Delta Downs Delta Downs Sam Houston Tampa Bay Downs Gulfstream Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint The Lightning City Stakes Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint Budweiser H Premier Night Sprint Premier Night Matron Premier Night Bon Temps Starter Premier Night Ragin Cajun Starter Rail Splitter Stakes Turf Dash The Ladies Turf Sprint

Class Gr 2

R

Race Date 6-Nov-2010 11-Dec-2010 23-Jan-2011 5-Feb-2011 5-Feb-2011 5-Feb-2011 5-Feb-2011 5-Feb-2011 12-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 6-Mar-2011

Value $1,000,000 $75,000 $60,000 $50,000 $100,000 $100,000 $55,000 $55,000 $50,000 $75,000 $60,000

Age 3+ 2 C&G 2F

Surface D D D

Track Zia Park Sunland Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Sunland Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Oaklawn Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Sunland Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) Lea County Sprint KLAQ H Bonapaw S Esplanade S Bold Ego H John E. Jackson Jr Memorial S Happy Ticket S Dr A.B. Leggio Memorial S Colonel Power Stakes Spring Fever Mardi Gras Stakes Bienville Stakes Bayou St. John Stakes La Coneja Stakes

Class

S S

S S

Race Date 14-Nov-2010 11-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 26-Dec-2010 15-Jan-2011 15-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 19-Feb-2011 20-Feb-2011 8-Mar-2011 19-Mar-2011 25-Mar-2011 27-Mar-2011

Value $55,000 $50,000 $60,000 $60,000 $50,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $120,000

Age 3+ 3+ F&M 4+ 3+ 4+ 4+ F&M 4+ F&M 4+ 4+ 4+ 4+ F&M

Surface T T T D D D D D T T T

Track Maisons-Laffitte Philadelphia Park Monmouth Park Churchill Downs Remington Park Remington Park Calder Monmouth Park Monmouth Park Hollywood Park Aqueduct

Race Name & (Sponsor) Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte Parfaitment Stakes Rutgers S Breeders’ Cup Sprint Oklahoma Stallion S Oklahoma Stallion S Jack Dudley Sprint Handicap Jersey Juvenile Colts Jersey Juvenile Fillies Playa Del Rey Stakes New York Stallion Series - Great White Way Division

78 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 18

Class Gp 2 S Gr 1 S S S S S S

Race Date 1-Nov-2010 2-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 14-Nov-2010 14-Nov-2010

Value E190,000 $75,000 $60,000 $2,000,000 $50,000 $50,000 $125,000 $60,000 $60,000 $55,000 $100,000

Closing 11-Mar-11 15-Oct-10 15-Oct-10

Furlongs 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

Closing 25-Oct-10 04-Dec-10 08-Jan-11 28-Jan-11 21-Jan-11 21-Jan-11 21-Jan-11 21-Jan-11 05-Feb-11 19-Feb-11

5.5f (1100m) Age Surface 3+ D 3+ D 3+ T 3+ F&M D 3+ F&M D 4+LA Bred D 4+ F&M LA Bred D 4+ F&M T 4+ T 4+ F&M D 3F T 4+ FM T 4+ La Bred D 4+ FM D

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Country FR USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

Furlongs 4.5 4.5 4.5

5f (1000m)

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Closing

4.5f (900m)

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Furlongs 4.2

Furlongs 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5 5.5

Closing 05-Nov-10 01-Dec-10 04-Dec-10 04-Dec-10 18-Dec-10 01-Jan-11 01-Jan-11 08-Jan-11 05-Feb-11 19-Feb-11 05-Mar-11 12-Mar-11 19-Mar-11

6f (1200m) Age 2 2 3 3+ 2 2F 3+ 2 C (NJ bred) 2 F (NJ bred) 3+ F&M 2

Surface T D D D D D D D D D D

Furlongs 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

Closing 20-Oct-10 30-Oct-10 25-Oct-10 30-Oct-10 06-Nov-10 06-Nov-10

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STAKES SCHEDULES

Call us on 1 888 218 4430 to subscribe from $20 Country USA USA CAN USA USA USA USA USA JPN USA USA USA USA USA USA JPN USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

Track Aqueduct Mountaineer Woodbine Penn National Hollywood Park Aqueduct Fair Grounds Zia Park Kyoto Turfway Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Sunland Park Nakayama Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Aqueduct Tempa Bay Downs Tempa Bay Downs Turfway Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Tempa Bay Downs Turfway Park Gulfstream Park Tempa Bay Downs Gulfstream Park Turfway Park Sunland Park Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park Oaklawn Park Fair Grounds Sunland Park Sam Houston Race Park Sam Houston Race Park Oaklawn Park Oaklawn Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Turf Paradise Oaklawn Park Oaklawn Park Oaklawn Park Oaklawn Park Fair Grounds Turfway Park Turfway Park Oaklawn Park Oaklawn Park Oaklawn Sunland Park Tampa Bay Downs Oaklawn Park Sunland Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) New York Stallion Series - Fifth Avenue Division Sophomore Sprint Championship Stakes Kennedy Road S Blue Mountain S Vernon O. Underwood Stakes Fall Highweight Handicap Thanksgiving H Zia Park Distaff S Keihan Hai Holiday Inaugural Stakes Louisiana Champions Day Sprint Louisiana Champions Day Lassie S Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint Louisiana Champions Day Juvenile S New Mexico State Racing Commission H Capella Stakes Sugar Bowl S Letellier Memorial Stakes S Gravesend Handicap The Inaugural Stakes The Sandpiper Stakes Gowell S Louisiana Futurity Louisiana Futurity The Minaret Stakes Holiday Cheer Stakes Old Hat Stakes The Pelican Stakes Spectacular Bid Stakes Wishing Well Stakes La Senora H Adena Springs Sugar Swirl Mr Prospector Dixie Belle S F.W. Gaudin Memorial S Pepsi Cola H Yellow Rose S Spirit Of Texas S American Beauty S King Cotton S Black Gold Stakes Pan Zareta Stakes Phoenix Gold Cup Rainbow S Rainbow Miss S Mountain Valley S Hot Springs S Duncan F. Kenner Stakes Queen Stakes Hansel Stakes Prima Donna S Carousel H Downthedustyroad Breeders Czaria H Hilton Garden Inn Sprint Count Fleet Sprint H KHEY Y-96 Sprint

Class S Gr 3 S G3 Gr 3 Gr 3 S S S S S S Gr 3

S S S Gr 3

S Gr 3 Gr 3 S

S S

S

Race Date 14-Nov-2010 16-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 24-Nov-2010 25-Nov-2010 25-Nov-2010 25-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 4-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 12-Dec-2010 12-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 26-Dec-2010 26-Dec-2010 26-Dec-2010 31-Dec-2010 31-Dec-2010 1-Jan-2011 1-Jan-2011 5-Jan-2011 8-Jan-2011 8-Jan-2011 15-Jan-2011 15-Jan-2011 15-Jan-2011 15-Jan-2011 15-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 23-Jan-2011 29-Jan-2011 5-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 26-Feb-2011 27-Feb-2011 5-Mar-2011 20-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011 27-Mar-2011 3-Apr-2011 9-Apr-2011 9-Apr-2011 14-Apr-2011 19-Apr-2011

Value $100,000 $75,000 CAN150,000 $75,000 $100,000 $100,000 $60,000 $55,000 $937,000 $50,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $120,000 $888,000 $60,000 $60,000 $65,000 $75,000 $75,000 $50,000 $50,000 $50,000 $50,000 $50,000 $100,000 $60,000 $100,000 $50,000 $120,000 $100,000 $100,000 $50,000 $60,000 $120,000 $50,000 $50,000 $50,000 $50,000 $60,000 $60,000 $75,000 $50,000 $50,000 $60,000 $60,000 $125,000 $50,000 $50,000 $60,000 $60,000 $50,000 $50,000 $75,000 $150,000 $50,000

6f (1200m)

Age Surface 2F D 3 D 3+ AWT 2F D 3 D 3+ D 3+ D 3+ F&M D 3+ T 3+ F&M AWT 3+LA Bred D 2 F LA Bred D 3+ F&M LA Bred D 2 C&G LA Bred D 3+ F&M D 3+ D 2 D 2F D 3+ D 2 D 2F D 2F AWT 2 C&G LA Bred D 2 F LA Bred D 4+ D 3+ AWT 3F D 4+ D 3 D 4+ F&M AWT 3F D 4+ F&M D 4+ D 3F D 4+ D 3 D 4+ F&M D 4+ D 4+ F&M D 4+ D 3 D 4+ FM D 4+ D 3 C&G (Ark Bred) D 3 F (Ark Bred) D 3 D 4+ D 3+ D 4+ FM AWT 3 AWT 3F D 4+ F&M D 3+ F&M D 3+ F&M D 4+ D 4+ D 3 D

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Track Philadelphia Park Philadelphia Park Remington Park Sunland Park Sunland Park Turfway Park Turfway Park Sunland Park Turfway Park Sunland Park Gulfstream Park Sunland Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) South Carolina Residence Race (F) South Carolina Residence Race (C & G) Silver Goblin S Johnie L Jamison S Riley Allison Futurity Turfway Prevue St Cincinnati Trophy Stakes El Paso Times H Forego Stakes El Diario H Hurricane Bertie H Bill Thomas Memorial Handicap

Country CAN USA USA JPN USA USA JPN USA USA CAN CAN USA USA USA

Track Woodbine Churchill Downs Remington Park Kyoto Calder Calder Tokyo Aqueduct Aqueduct Woodbine Woodbine Hollywood Park Delta Downs Delta Downs

Race Name & (Sponsor) Frost King S Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint Clever Trevor S KBS Kyoto Sho Fantasy Stakes Jack Price Juvenile Joe O’Farrell Juvenile Fillies Keio Hai Nisai Stakes New York Stallion Series - Staten Island Division New York Stallion Series - Thunder Rumble Division Glorious Song S Jammed Lovely S Hollywood Prevue Stakes Orleans Sam’s Town

Class R R S S

Gr 3

Race Date 14-Nov-2010 14-Nov-2010 26-Nov-2010 12-Dec-2010 28-Dec-2010 8-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 23-Jan-2011 29-Jan-2011 12-Feb-2011 13-Feb-2011 12-Mar-2011

Value $75,000 $75,000 $50,000 $120,000 $100,000 $50,000 $50,000 $50,000 $50,000 $50,000 $150,000 $50,000

Gr 3 S S Gr 2 S S S Gr3 R

Race Date 3-Nov-2010 5-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 14-Nov-2010 14-Nov-2010 14-Nov-2010 17-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010

Value CAN125,000 $1,000,000 $100,000 $703,000 $125,000 $125,000 $888,000 $75,000 $75,000 CAN150,000 CAN150,000 $100,000 $60,000 $60,000

Closing 02-Nov-10 03-Nov-10 16-Nov-10 13-Nov-10 13-Nov-10 16-Nov-10 12-Oct-10 25-Nov-10 01-Nov-10 01-Nov-10 01-Nov-10 01-Nov-10 02-Dec-10 26-Oct-10 04-Dec-10 04-Dec-10 04-Dec-10 11-Dec-10 11-Dec-10 17-Dec-10 Closed Closed 18-Dec-10 23-Dec-10 22-Dec-10 26-Dec-10 29-Dec-10 07-Jan-11 01-Jan-11 01-Jan-11 08-Jan-11 14-Jan-11 12-Jan-11 12-Jan-11 22-Jan-11 05-Feb-11 11-Feb-11

12-Mar-11

01-Apr-11 26-Mar-11 09-Apr-11

6.5f (1300m) Age 2F 2 CG 3+ 3+ 2 3 3F 3F 4+ 3+ F&M 4+ F&M 3+

Surface D D D D D AWT AWT D AWT D D D

Furlongs 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5

Age 2 3+ FM 2 2F 2 2F 2 3+ FM 3+ 2F 3F 2 3F 3

Surface AWT D D T D D T D D AWT AWT D D D

Furlongs 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

Now available for iPhone/iPad via Appstore Class R Gr 1

Furlongs 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

Closing 30-Jun-10 30-Jun-10 17-Nov-10 02-Dec-10 18-Dec-10 15-Jan-11 04-Feb-11 29-Jan-11 04-Mar-11

7f (1400m) Closing 13-Oct-10 25-Oct-10 28-Oct-10 28-Sep-10 30-Oct-10 30-Oct-10 28-Sep-10 27-Oct-10 03-Nov-10 05-Nov-10 05-Nov-10

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STAKES SCHEDULES

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Country USA CAN USA USA USA USA JPN USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

Track Hollywood Park Woodbine Philadelphia Park Laurel Park Calder Charles Town Hanshin Delta Downs Tempa Bay Downs Tempa Bay Downs Sam Houston Race Park Sam Houston Race Park Tempa Bay Downs Gulfstream Park Delta Downs Delta Downs Tampa Bay Downs Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park Tampa Bay Downs Tampa Bay Downs

Race Name & (Sponsor) Moccasin Stakes Bessarabian S Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes The Squan Song Kenny Noe Jr Handicap Eleanor Casey Memorial Hanshin Cup My Trusty Cat The Pasco Stakes The Gasparilla Stakes Groovy S Bara Lass S The Manatee Stakes Forward Gal S Premier Night Starlet Premier Night Prince Super Stakes Gulfstream Park Sprint Championship Hutcheson Stakes Inside Information Swale S Sunshine State Stonehedge Farm South Sophomore Fillies Stakes Ocala Breeders’ Sales Sophomore Stakes

Class

S Gr 3 S Gr 2

Gr 2

Gr 2 Gr 2 Gr 2 Gr 2

Race Date 21-Nov-2010 21-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 4-Dec-2010 4-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 14-Jan-2011 15-Jan-2011 15-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 29-Jan-2011 29-Jan-2011 5-Feb-2011 5-Feb-2011 5-Feb-2011 12-Feb-2011 26-Feb-2011 19-Mar-2011 3-Apr-2011 9-Apr-2011 9-Apr-2011 9-Apr-2011

Value $100,000 CAN150,000 $75,000 $50,000 $100,000 $50,000 $1,652,000 $200,000 $75,000 $75,000 $50,000 $50,000 $50,000 $200,000 $100,000 $100,000 $75,000 $150,000 $150,000 $150,000 $150,000 $60,000 $75,000 $75,000

7f (1400m) Age 2F 3+ F&M 2 3+ F&M 3+ 2F 3+ 3F 3 3F 3 3F 4+ F&M 3F 3F 3 4+ 4+ 3 4+ F&M 3 4+ 3F 3

Surface D AWT D D D D T D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D

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Track Remington Park Laurel Park Hollywood Park Laurel Park Hollywood Park Fair Grounds Gulfstream Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) Ladies on the Lawn S The Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship Cats Cradle Handicap The Maryland Juvenile Championship On Trust Handicap Grindstone S South Beach S

Class S S S

Race Date 26-Nov-2010 11-Dec-2010 12-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 19-Dec-2010 5-Mar-2011 16-Apr-2011

Value $50,000 $50,000 $75,000 $50,000 $75,000 $60,000 $60,000

Track Churchill Downs Delta Downs Delta Downs Delta Downs Aqueduct Aqueduct Churchill Downs Churchill Downs Mountaineer Churchill Downs Churchill Downs Rome Beulah Park Laurel Park Tokyo Delta Downs Delta Downs Delta Downs Delta Downs Kyoto Monmouth Park Hollywood Park Aqueduct Hollywood Park Aqueduct Hollywood Park Fair Grounds Zia Park Aqueduct Remington Park Hanshin Sunland Park Nakayama Sunland Park Fair Grounds Sunland Park Gulfstream Park Fair Grounds Delta Downs Turf Paradise Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park Oaklawn Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Gulfstream Park Turfway Park Delta Downs Delta Downs Turfway Park Oaklawn Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf Gold Cup Magnolia Treasure Chest Tempted Stakes Nashua Stakes Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Mountaineer Mile Handicap Chilukki Stakes Breeders’ Cup Mile Premio Ribot Ohio Freshman Stakes The Twixt Stakes Tokyo Chunichi Sports Hai Musashino Stakes Delta Mile Louisiana Legacy Louisiana Jewel Boyd Gaming’s Delta Princess Mile Championship Honey Bee S The Matriarch Top Flight Handicap Generous Stakes Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile Handicap Miesque Stakes Pago Hop S New Mexico Eddy County S East View Stakes Springboard Mile Hanshin Juvenile Fillies Enchantress S Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes Red Hedeman Mile Woodchopper S Winsham Lad H Hal’s Hope H Dixie Poker Ace S Jean Lafitte Cotton Fitzsimmons Mile Dania Beach Sweetest Chant Smarty Jones S Tiffany Lass S Lecomte S Holy Bull S WEBN Stakes Premier Night Ladies Starter Premier Night Distaff Likely Exchange Stakes Martha Washington S

80 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 18

Class Gr 2 S Gr 3 Gr 2 Gr 1 Gr 2 Gr 2 Gr 1 Gp 2 R Gr 3

Gr 3 Gr 1 Gr1 Gr 2 Gr3 Gr 1 Gr3 S Gr 1 S Gr 1 S Gr 3 S

Gr 3 Gr 3 R

Race Date 5-Nov-2010 5-Nov-2010 5-Nov-2010 5-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 7-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 14-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 21-Nov-2010 21-Nov-2010 26-Nov-2010 26-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 28-Nov-2010 4-Dec-2010 5-Dec-2010 5-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 12-Dec-2010 19-Dec-2010 19-Dec-2010 30-Dec-2010 31-Dec-2010 8-Jan-2011 8-Jan-2011 8-Jan-2011 14-Jan-2011 15-Jan-2011 16-Jan-2011 16-Jan-2011 17-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 23-Jan-2011 29-Jan-2011 5-Feb-2011 5-Feb-2011 5-Feb-2011 12-Feb-2011 12-Feb-2011

Value $1,000,000 $100,000 $100,000 $125,000 $100,000 $150,000 $1,000,000 $1,000,000 $125,000 $150,000 $2,000,000 E154,000 $50,000 $50,000 $888,000 $125,000 $250,000 $250,000 $500,000 $2,344,000 $60,000 $250,000 $150,000 $100,000 $250,000 $100,000 $60,000 $120,000 $65,000 $250,000 $1,521,000 $120,000 $1,652,000 $120,000 $60,000 $50,000 $100,000 $60,000 $250,000 $50,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $400,000 $50,000 $70,000 $150,000 $50,000 $75,000

Closing 03-Nov-10 24-Nov-10 20-Nov-10 09-Nov-10 31-Dec-10 01-Jan-11 01-Jan-11 12-Jan-11 12-Jan-11 15-Jan-11 15-Jan-11 21-Jan-11 21-Jan-11 22-Jan-11 29-Jan-11 13-Feb-10 05-Mar-11 19-Mar-11 26-Mar-11 26-Mar-11 26-Mar-11

7.5f (1500m) Age 3+ F&M 2F 3+ F&M 2 3+ Cal Breds 3 3+ F&M

Surface T D D D D T T

Visit www.trainermagazine.com/america Country USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA ITY USA USA JPN USA USA USA USA JPN USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA JPN USA JPN USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

Furlongs 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

Furlongs 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5

Closing 17-Nov-10 01-Dec-10 08-Dec-10 19-Feb-11 02-Apr-11

8f (1600m) Age 2F 3+ 3+ F&M 3+ F&M 2F 2 3+ 2 3+ 3+ FM 3+ 3+ 2 3F 3+ 3+ 2 C&G 2F 2F 3+ 3+ F&M 3+F&M 3+ FM 2 3+ 2F 3F 2 2 F N.Y. Bred 2 2F 2F 2 No G 2 3 3+ 4+ 4+ LA Bred 3 4+ 3 3F 3 3F 3 3 3 4+ F & M 4+F&M 4+ FM 3F

Surface T D D D D D D T D D T T D D D D D D D T D T D T D T T D D D T D T D T D D T D T T T D D D D AWT D D AWT D

Furlongs 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

Closing 25-Oct-10 26-Oct-10 26-Oct-10 26-Oct-10 23-Oct-10 23-Oct-10 25-Oct-10 25-Oct-10 25-Oct-10 20-Oct-10 25-Oct-10 07-Oct-10 03-Nov-10 28-Sep-10 05-Nov-10 05-Nov-10 05-Nov-10 22-Oct-10 05-Oct-10 21-Nov-10 13-Nov-10 13-Nov-10 20-Nov-10 26-Nov-10 20-Nov-10 02-Dec-10 26-Oct-10 10-Dec-10 09-Nov-10 21-Dec-10 18-Dec-10 01-Jan-11 29-Dec-10 26-Dec-10 31-Dec-10 07-Jan-11 01-Jan-11 01-Jan-11 08-Jan-11 08-Jan-11 15-Jan-11 21-Jan-11 21-Jan-11

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Now available for iPhone/iPad via Appstore Country USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

Track Turfway Park Sam Houston Race Park Sam Houston Race Park Sunland Park Gulfstream Park Oaklawn Park Gulfstream Park Turfway Park Fair Grounds Sunland Park Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park Turfway Park Sunland Park Fair Grounds Turfway Park Gulfstream Park Sunland Park Gulfstream Park Oaklawn Park Oaklawn Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) Dust Commander Stakes Two Altazano S Jim’s Orbit S Sydney Valentini H Sabin Southwest S Davona Dale Stakes Valdale Stakes Sarah Lane’s Oates S Island Fashion S Canadian Turf H Honey Fox H Gulfstream Park H Wintergreen Stakes New Mexico State University Handicap Crescent City Oaks Bourbonette Oaks Breeders’ Cup Ocala Harry W Henson H Appleton H Instant Racing Northern Spur

Class

S Gr 3 Gr 2 S Gr 3 Gr 3 Gr 2 S S Gr 3 Gr 3

Race Date 19-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 21-Feb-2011 26-Feb-2011 26-Feb-2011 26-Feb-2011 27-Feb-2011 27-Feb-2011 5-Mar-2011 12-Mar-2011 12-Mar-2011 20-Mar-2011 25-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011 27-Mar-2011 27-Mar-2011 3-Apr-2011 16-Apr-2011 16-Apr-2011

Value $50,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $250,000 $250,000 $50,000 $60,000 $50,000 $150,000 $100,000 $300,000 $50,000 $120,000 $75,000 $125,000 $60,000 $100,000 $100,000 $75,000 $75,000

8f (1600m) Age 4+ 3F 3 C&G 4 F&M 4+ F&M 3 3F 3F 3 F LA Bred 3F 4+ 4+ F&M 4+ 4+ FM 4+ 3 la. bred F 3F 4+ F&M 3+ F&M 4+ 3F 3

Surface AWT D D D D D D AWT T D T T D AWT D D AWT D D T D D

North American Trainer delivered to your door!

Country Track USA Monmouth Park USA Aqueduct

Race Name & (Sponsor) Frisk Me Now Stakes Damon Runyon Stakes

Class S

Race Date 20-Nov-2010 5-Dec-2010

Track Churchill Downs Churchill Downs Laurel Park Zia Park Hollywood Park Churchill Downs Hollywood Park Woodbine Calder Churchill Downs Calder Calder Woodbine Aqueduct Aqueduct Delta Downs Churchill Downs Fair Grounds Beulah Park Hollywood Park Churchill Downs Churchill Downs Woodbine Woodbine Woodbine Hawthorne Racecourse Zia Park Fair Grounds Woodbine Hollywood Park Hawthorne Racecourse Hollywood Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Turfway Park Hollywood Park Calder Fair Grounds Aqueduct Calder Fair Grounds Sunland Park Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park Oaklawn Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Sam Houston Race Park Sam Houston Race Park Oaklawn Park Turf Paradise Fair Grounds Delta Downs Oaklawn Park Delta Downs Sam Houston Race Park Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) Ack Ack Handicap Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies The All Brandy Stakes Veterans S Real Quiet Stakes Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sharp Cat Stakes South Ocean S Elmer Heubeck Distaff Handicap Commonwealth Turf John Franks Juvenile Fillies Turf Arthur I Appleton Juvenile Turf Autumn S New York Stallion Series - Cormorant Division New York Stallion Series - Perfect Arc Division $1,000,000 Delta Downs Jackpot Mrs. Revere Stakes Mr Sulu Bobbie Bricker Memorial Handicap Citation Handicap Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes Golden Rod Stakes Kingarvie S Display S Sir Barton S Pat Whitworth Illinois Debutante Stakes Zia Park Derby Buddy Diliberto Memorial H Ontario Lassie S Bayakoa Handicap Jim Edgar Illinois Futurity Hollywood Startlet Louisiana Champions Day Turf H Louisiana Champions Day Ladies H Louisiana Champions Day Starter My Charmer Stakes Cashcall Futurity Stage Door Betty Handicap Tenacious H Alex M. Robb Handicap Tropical Park Oaks Blushing K.D. H Albert Dominguez Memorial H Fort Lauderdale Stakes Marshua’s River Stakes Fifth Season S Louisiana H Col. E.R Bradley Hcp Star Of Texas S San Jacinto S Pippin S Glendale Handicap Marie G Krantz Memorial H Premier Night Gentlemen Starter Essex H Premier Night Championship Jersey Lilly S Donn H Hallandale Beach S

Class Gr 3 Gr 1

Gr 1 S S Gr 3 S S Gr 2 S S Gr 3 Gr 2 S R Gr1 Gr 2 Gr 2 S S S S Gr2 S Gr1 S S S S Gr1 Gr 3 S S

Gr 3

R

Gr 1

Race Date 5-Nov-2010 5-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 7-Nov-2010 10-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 15-Nov-2010 15-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 26-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 28-Nov-2010 1-Dec-2010 4-Dec-2010 4-Dec-2010 4-Dec-2010 4-Dec-2010 5-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 31-Dec-2010 1-Jan-2011 1-Jan-2011 2-Jan-2011 9-Jan-2011 9-Jan-2011 14-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 29-Jan-2011 29-Jan-2011 5-Feb-2011 5-Feb-2011 5-Feb-2011 5-Feb-2011 5-Feb-2011 6-Feb-2011

Value $60,000 $65,000

Value $100,000 $2,000,000 $50,000 $55,000 $100,000 $2,000,000 $100,000 CAN125,000 $150,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 CAN150,000 $75,000 $75,000 $1,000,000 $175,000 $60,000 $50,000 $250,000 $150,000 $150,000 CAN125,000 CAN150,000 CAN125,000 $100,000 $150,000 $60,000 CAN150,000 $150,000 $100,000 $250,000 $100,000 $100,000 $50,000 $50,000 $750,000 $100,000 $60,000 $65,000 $65,000 $60,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $75,000 $60,000 $100,000 $100,000 $50,000 $75,000 $50,000 $60,000 $70,000 $100,000 $200,000 $50,000 $500,000 $100,000

Closing 02-Feb-11 02-Feb-11 01-Feb-11 05-Feb-11 12-Feb-11 12-Feb-11 19-Feb-11 12-Feb-11 19-Feb-11 26-Feb-11 01-Mar-11 12-Mar-11 12-Mar-11 19-Mar-11

8.32f (1650m) Age 3+ 2

Surface D D

Call us on 1 888 218 4430 to subscribe from $20 Country USA USA USA USA USA USA USA CAN USA USA USA USA CAN USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA CAN CAN CAN USA USA USA CAN USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

Furlongs 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

Furlongs 8.32 8.32

Closing 13-Nov-10 20-Nov-10

8.5f (1700m)

Age Surface 3+ D 2F D 3+ F & M T 3+ D 2 D 2 CG D 2F D 2F AWT 3+ FM D 3 T 2F T 2 T 3+ AWT 3+ T 3+ FM T 2 D 3F T 3+ LA Bred T 3+ FM D 3+ T 2 D 2F D 2 AWT 2 AWT 3+ AWT 2 F (IL bred) D 3 D 3+ T 2F AWT 3+ F&M D 2 C&G (IL bred) D 2F D 3+LA Bred T 3+ F&M LA Bred D 3+ LA Bred D 3+ F&M AWT 2 D 3+ FM D 3+ D 3+ D 3F T 3+ F&M T 3+ D 4+ T 4+ F&M T 4+ D 4+ D 4+ T 4+ D 4+ F&M T 4+ F&M D 4+ F&M T 4+F&M T 4+ D 4+ D 4+ D 4+ F&M T 4+ D 3 T

Furlongs 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5

Closing 20-Oct-10 25-Oct-10 27-Oct-10 26-Oct-10 25-Oct-10 27-Oct-10 30-Oct-10 27-Oct-10 30-Oct-10 30-Oct-10 27-Oct-10 22-Oct-10 03-Nov-10 13-Nov-10 10-Nov-10 10-Nov-10 10-Nov-10 10-Nov-10 17-Nov-10 23-Nov-10 20-Nov-10 17-Nov-10

01-Nov-10 01-Nov-10 01-Nov-10 02-Dec-10 04-Dec-10 04-Dec-10 18-Dec-10 18-Dec-10 18-Dec-10 23-Dec-10 29-Dec-10 29-Dec-10 08-Jan-11 08-Jan-11 12-Jan-11 12-Jan-11 21-Jan-11 15-Jan-11 21-Jan-11 21-Jan-11 26-Jan-11 22-Jan-11 22-Jan-11

ISSUE 18 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com 81

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STAKES SCHEDULES

Visit www.trainermagazine.com/america Country USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

Track Tampa Bay Downs Tampa Bay Downs Fair Grounds Tampa Bay Downs Sunland Park Oaklawn Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Tampa Bay Downs Turf Paradise Sunland Park Sam Houston Race Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Tampa Bay Downs Turfway Park Fair Grounds Oaklawn Park Oaklawn Park Tampa Bay Downs Tampa Bay Downs Oaklawn Park Tampa Bay Downs Oaklawn Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Turfway Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Sunland Park Sunland Park Sunland Park Oaklawn Turfway Park Oaklawn Tampa Bay Downs Tampa Bay Downs Oaklawn Park Oaklawn Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) Endeavour Stakes Sam F. Davis Stakes Pelleteri Stakes Suncoast Stakes Curribot H Bayakoa S Mineshaft Handicap Silverbulletday Stakes Risen Star S Risen Star Stakes Wayward Lass Stakes Turf Paradise Derby Borderland Derby Sam Houston Distaff Allen Lacombe Memorial Handicap Gentilly S Challenger Stakes John Battaglia Memorial Stakes New Orleans Ladies Stakes Razorback H Honeybee S Florida Oaks Tampa Bay Derby Azeri S The Tampa Bay Stakes Rebel S Costa Rising Stakes Red Camelia Stakes Crescent City Derby Rushaway Stakes Bayou Handicap Fair Grounds Oaks New Mexico Breeders’ Derby New Mexico Breeders’ Oaks Sunland Park Oaks Arkansas Breeders (Female Division) Fairway Fun Stakes Arkansas Breeders (Male Division) L&D Turf Distaff The Sophomore Turf Fantasy S Apple Blossom H

Class Gr 3 Gr 3

Gr 3 Gr 3 Gr 3 GR 2

S

Gr 3 Gr 3

S S S Gr 2 S S S S Gr 2

Race Date 12-Feb-2011 12-Feb-2011 12-Feb-2011 12-Feb-2011 13-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 26-Feb-2011 26-Feb-2011 26-Feb-2011 26-Feb-2011 26-Feb-2011 26-Feb-2011 5-Mar-2011 5-Mar-2011 12-Mar-2011 12-Mar-2011 12-Mar-2011 12-Mar-2011 12-Mar-2011 19-Mar-2011 19-Mar-2011 19-Mar-2011 25-Mar-2011 25-Mar-2011 25-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011 27-Mar-2011 27-Mar-2011 27-Mar-2011 2-Apr-2011 2-Apr-2011 3-Apr-2011 9-Apr-2011 9-Apr-2011 10-Apr-2011 15-Apr-2011

Value $125,000 $225,000 $60,000 $75,000 $50,000 $100,000 $125,000 $150,000 $300,000 $300,000 $50,000 $50,000 $100,000 $50,000 $60,000 $60,000 $60,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $125,000 $175,000 $300,000 $100,000 $125,000 $300,000 $60,000 $60,000 $75,000 $100,000 $125,000 $400,000 $100,000 $100,000 $200,000 $50,000 $50,000 $50,000 $75,000 $75,000 $300,000 $500,000

8.5f (1700m) Age 4+ FM 3 4+ FM 3F 3+ 4+ F&M 4+ 3F 3 3 4+ FM 3 3 4+ F&M 4+ FM 3 LA Bred 4+ 3 4+ FM 4+ 3F 3F 3 4+ F&M 4+ 3 4+ La. Bred 4+ FM La Bred 3 La. Bred 3 4+ FM 3F 3 3F 3F 3+ F&M 4+ FM 3+ C&G 4+ FM 3 3F 4+ F&M

Surface T D D D D D D D D D D D D D T T D AWT D D D D D D T D D T D AWT T D D D D D AWT D T T D D

Now available for iPhone/iPad via Appstore Country USA USA USA USA JPN CAN USA USA USA USA USA USA JPN USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA JPN USA JPN USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

Track Churchill Downs Churchill Downs Beulah Park Churchill Downs Kyoto Woodbine Charles Town Calder Calder Aqueduct Charles Town Aqueduct Tokyo Churchill Downs Churchill Downs Laurel Park Aqueduct Aqueduct Aqueduct Hollywood Park Calder Calder Hanshin Zia Park Hanshin Calder Fair Grounds Turfway Park Calder Sam Houston Race Park Sam Houston Race Park Gulfstream Park Fair Grounds Gulfstream Park Sam Houston Race Park Gulfstream Park Tampa Bay Downs Gulfstream Park Turfway Park Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Fair Grounds Turfway Park Sunland Park Gulfstream Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) River City Handicap Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic Ruff/Kirchberg Memorial Stakes Cardinal Handicap Miyako Stakes Coronation Futurity My Sister Pearl Bonnie Heath Turf Cup Carl G Rose Classic Stuyvesant Handicap A Huevo Stakes Discovery Tokyo Sports Hai Nisai Stakes Falls City Handicap Clark Handicap The Jennings Handicap Gazelle Stakes Remsen Stakes Demoiselle Stakes Native Diver Handicap My Charmer Handicap Tropical Turf Handicap Naruo Kinen Zia Park Distance Championship Japan Cup Dirt Fred W Hooper Handicap Louisiana Champions Day Classic Prairie Bayou Stakes Tropical Park Derby Richard King S John B. Connally BC Turf Suwannee River Fair Grounds Handicap Fountain Of Youth Stakes Maxxam Gold Cup The Palm Beach S Hillsborough Stakes The Herecomesthebride S Tejano Run Stakes Mervin H Muniz Jr Memorial New Orleans H Louisiana Derby Lane’s End Stakes Sunland Derby The Gulfstream Oaks

82 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 18

Class Gr 3 Gr 1 R Gr 3 Gr 3 R S S S Gr 3 S Gr 3 Gr 3 Gr 2 Gr 1 Gr 1 Gr 2 Gr 2 Gr3 Gr 3 Gr 3 Gr 3 Gr 1 Gr 3 S S Gr 3 Gr 3 Gr 3 Gr 3 Gr 2 Gr 3 Gr 3 Gr 3 Gr 2 Gr 2 Gr 2 Gr 2 Gr 3 Gr2

Race Date 4-Nov-2010 5-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 7-Nov-2010 7-Nov-2010 7-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 14-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 25-Nov-2010 26-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 27-Nov-2010 4-Dec-2010 4-Dec-2010 4-Dec-2010 4-Dec-2010 5-Dec-2010 5-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 11-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 1-Jan-2011 22-Jan-2011 29-Jan-2011 5-Feb-2011 19-Feb-2011 26-Feb-2011 5-Mar-2011 12-Mar-2011 12-Mar-2011 13-Mar-2011 19-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011 27-Mar-2011 2-Apr-2011

Value $100,000 $2,000,000 $50,000 $100,000 $888,000 CAN250,000 $50,000 $125,000 $150,000 $100,000 $50,000 $100,000 $752,000 $150,000 $500,000 $50,000 $250,000 $200,000 $200,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $954,000 $200,000 $3,058,000 $100,000 $150,000 $50,000 $100,000 $50,000 $200,000 $150,000 $125,000 $400,000 $150,000 $150,000 $150,000 $150,000 $50,000 $300,000 $300,000 $1,000,000 $500,000 $800,000 $300,000

Furlongs 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5 8.5

Closing 29-Jan-11 29-Jan-11 29-Jan-11 29-Jan-11 04-Feb-11 05-Feb-11 05-Feb-11 05-Feb-11 12-Feb-11 18-Feb-11 16-Feb-11 12-Feb-11 20-Feb-11 19-Feb-11 26-Feb-11 26-Feb-11 26-Feb-11 05-Mar-11 12-Mar-11 12-Mar-11 12-Mar-11 12-Mar-11 12-Mar-11 19-Mar-11 19-Mar-11 12-Mar-11

26-Mar-11 26-Mar-11

9f (1800m) Age 3+ 3+ FM 3+ 3+ FM 3+ 2 3+ F&M 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3 2 3+ FM 3+ 3+ 3F 2 2F 3+ 3+ FM 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ LA Bred 3+ 3 4+ 4+ 4+ F&M 4+ 3 4+ 3 4+ FM 3F 4+ 4+ 4+ 3 3 3 3F

Surface T D D T D AWT D T D D D D T D D D D D D D T T T D D D D AWT T T T T T D D T T T AWT T D D AWT D D

Furlongs 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9

Closing 20-Oct-10 25-Oct-10 20-Oct-10 28-Sep-10 30-Oct-10 30-Oct-10 06-Nov-10 12-Oct-10 10-Nov-10 10-Nov-10 17-Nov-10 13-Nov-10 13-Nov-10 13-Nov-10 20-Nov-10 20-Nov-10 26-Oct-10 23-Nov-10 12-Oct-10 27-Nov-10 01-Nov-10 09-Dec-10 18-Dec-10 12-Jan-11 19-Jan-11 22-Jan-11 05-Feb-11 12-Feb-11 23-Feb-11 26-Feb-11 26-Feb-11 26-Feb-11 12-Mar-11 12-Mar-11 12-Mar-11 01-Feb-11 19-Mar-11

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STAKES SCHEDULES

North American Trainer delivered to your door!

Country USA USA USA USA USA USA

Track Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park Tampa Bay Downs Oaklawn Park Oaklawn Park Sunland Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) The Rampart S Florida Derby Kinsman Turf Classic Oaklawn H Arkansas Derby Sunland Park H

Class Gr 3 Gr 1 Gr 2

Race Date 2-Apr-2011 3-Apr-2011 9-Apr-2011 9-Apr-2011 16-Apr-2011 17-Apr-2011

Value $150,000 $1,000,000 $75,000 $350,000 $1,000,000 $100,000

9f (1800m) Age 4+ F&M 3 3 4+ 3 3+

Surface D D T D D D

Call us on 1 888 218 4430 to subscribe from $20 Country Track USA Aqueduct

Race Name & (Sponsor) Queens County Handicap

Class Gr 3

Race Date 11-Dec-2010

Value $100,000

Track Churchill Downs Woodbine Rome Saint-Cloud Fukushima Hollywood Park Kokura Kokura Hanshin

Race Name & (Sponsor) Breeders’ Cup Classic Maple Leaf S Premio Roma Criterium de Saint-Cloud Fukushima Kinen Hollywood Derby Chunichi Shimbun Hai Aichi Hai Radio Nikkei Hai Nisai Stakes

Class Gr 1 Gp 1 Gp 1 Gr 3 Gr1 Gr 3 Gr 3 Gr 3

Race Date 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 7-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 20-Nov-2010 28-Nov-2010 11-Dec-2010 19-Dec-2010 25-Dec-2010

Value $5,000,000 CAN175,000 E297,000 E250,000 $954,000 $250,000 $954,000 $888,000 $752,000

Age 3+

Surface D

Track Churchill Downs Aqueduct Kyoto Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf Red Smith Handicap Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup Mac Diarmida H The Very One H

Class Gr 1 Gr 2 Gr 1 Gr 2 Gr 3

Race Date 5-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 14-Nov-2010 19-Feb-2011 20-Feb-2011

Value $2,000,000 $150,000 $2,121,000 $150,000 $100,000

Age 3+ 3+ F&M 3+ 2 CF 3+ 3 3+ 3+ FM 2

Surface D AWT T T T T T T T

Track Aqueduct Aqueduct Churchill Downs Jagersro Hollywood Park Tokyo Calder Calder Gulfstream Park Gulfstream Park

Race Name & (Sponsor) Long Island Handicap-Div. 2 Long Island Breeders’ Cup Turf Jockeyklubbens Avelsopning Hollywood Turf Cup Japan Cup La Prevoyante Handicap WL McKnight Handicap Orchid H Pan American H

Class Gr 3 Gr 3 Gr 1 L Gr1 Gr 1 Gr 3 Gr 2 Gr 3 Gr 3

Race Date 1-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 6-Nov-2010 7-Nov-2010 13-Nov-2010 28-Nov-2010 11-Dec-2010 18-Dec-2010 20-Mar-2011 26-Mar-2011

Value $150,000 $150,000 $3,000,000 SEK 500,000 $250,000 $5,872,000 $100,000 $150,000 $150,000 $150,000

Age 3+ FM 3+ 3+ FM 4+ 4+ F&M

Surface T T T T T

Race Name & (Sponsor) Copa Republica Argentina Arima Kinen (The Grand Prix)

Class Gr 2 Gr 1

Race Date 7-Nov-2010 26-Dec-2010

Value $1,363,000 $4,220,000

Age 3+ FM 3+ FM 3+ 3+ F&M 3+ 3+ 3+ FM 3+ 4+ F&M 4+

Surface T T T D T T T T T T

Race Name & (Sponsor) Gallant Fox Handicap

Class

Race Date 31-Dec-2010

Value $65,000

Age 3+ 3+

Surface T T

Race Name & (Sponsor) Breeders’ Cup Marathon Valedictory S

Country Track AUS Flemington USA Aqueduct

Race Name & (Sponsor) Emirates Melbourne Cup Garland of Roses Handicap

Class Gr 3

Race Date 5-Nov-2010 5-Dec-2010

Value $500,000 CAN150,000

Age 3+

Surface D

Race Date 2-Nov-2010 4-Dec-2010

Value AUS$6,175,000 $65,000

Race Name & (Sponsor) Sports Nippon Sho Stayers Stakes

Class Gr 2

Race Date 4-Dec-2010

Value $1,504,000

Furlongs 11 11 11 11 11

Furlongs 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12

Furlongs 12.5 12.5

Furlongs 13

Age 3+ 3+

Surface D AWT

Furlongs 14 14

Age 3+ 3+ FM

Surface T D

Furlongs 16 16

Closing 25-Oct-10 23-Oct-10 05-Oct-10 05-Feb-11 05-Feb-11

Closing 30-Oct-10 30-Oct-10 25-Oct-10 13-Sep-10 12-Oct-10 27-Nov-10 04-Dec-10 05-Mar-11 12-Mar-11

Closing 28-Sep-10 09-Nov-10

Closing 18-Dec-10

Closing 25-Oct-10 17-Nov-10

16f (3200m)

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26-Oct-10 09-Nov-10 09-Nov-10

14f (2800m)

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Class Gp 1

Closing 25-Oct-10 20-Oct-10 07-Oct-10 27-Oct-10 12-Oct-10

13f (2600m)

Now available for iPhone/iPad via Appstore Country Track USA Churchill Downs CAN Woodbine

Furlongs 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10

12.5f (2500m)

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Closing 27-Nov-10

12f (2400m)

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Furlongs 9.5

11f (2200m)

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Country USA USA USA SWE USA JPN USA USA USA USA

09-Apr-11

10f (2000m)

Now available for iPhone/iPad via Appstore Country USA USA JPN USA USA

Closing 19-Mar-11 22-Jan-11 26-Mar-11

9.5f (1900m)

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Furlongs 9 9 9 9 9 9

Closing 03-Aug-10 20-Nov-10

18f (3600m) Age 3+

Surface T

Furlongs 18

Closing 26-Oct-10

ISSUE 18 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com 83

Kirkpatrick issue 18.qxd:Jerkins feature.qxd

O

K, even in view of the fact that I had very little to do with the thing as a whole, I have to say the last issue of North American Trainer may have the best ever. Not only did it have a wonderful picture of Linda Rice – who is not only beautiful but a superb trainer – on the cover, but it also had the first of what promises to be a series of excellent articles from my friend Alan Balch, who has taken over as Executive Director of the California Thoroughbred Trainers.

Alan led off his article with one of my favorite quotes from another friend and great writer: Way back in October 1991, Edward L. Bowen... penned a remarkable column entitled “The ‘Without Us’ Syndrome,” in which he condemned the self-destructive circular firing squad among racing’s component parts.

Sound familiar? And he concluded, “The next time you hear ‘Without us, there would be no game,’ the suggestion here is just shake your head and walk away.”

That thought bears repeating and repeating, every time we even to begin to talk about the problems of the horse business.

Today, it has evolved into what I call the “Backbone of the Industry” argument, but it’s still the prime bête noir of the Thoroughbred business as far as I’m concerned. It goes like this: 1. Owners say, “We’re the backbone of the industry, and none of it would work without us.”

2. Breeders say, “We’re the backbone of the industry, and none of it would work without us.”

3. Trainers, riders, racetrack officials, bloodstock agents say, “Ditto, Ditto, Ditto.”

The problem is they’re all correct – none of it would work without them – but, more importantly, they’re all wrong: none of it would work without all of them. Assuming that the backbone is a fairly decent analogy, they might be vertebrae, but anyone who has ever had a problem with his or her backbone can tell you if all the vertebrae aren’t healthy, your entire back – in fact your entire body – goes straight to hell.

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THE ARNOLD KIRKPATRICK COLUMN Pain and Suffrage It’s the same with the aspects of racing; if we can’t get them all healthy and happy, we’re going to have a sport that is broken.

Truth is, though, not only are none of the aforementioned groups the real backbone of the business, none of them is even the key vertebra of the industry. That designation goes to the racing fans, and one of the reasons our business has been heading south at warp speed is that racing fans are, by and large, regarded as merely a sort of necessary evil to racing.

For example, back in the ’70s, when I was working in Washington, D.C., for the American Horse Council [AHC], I inserted a panel of serious – very serious – racing fans in the American Racing Congress, which was intended to get all these vertebrae together for another in the series of endless discussions we still endure on the subject of how to fix our business.

After that panel (which attracted a grand total of about 10-15% of the people registered for the conference), the late AHC Chairman, Frederick L. Van Lennep – who bore a striking resemblance in attitude, attire and demeanor to a member of Eastern European royalty (Count Dracula) – demanded that Rich Rolapp, who was President of the AHC, should fire me for “wasting our valuable time.”

Then, in the ’80s when racing’s attendance really began to plummet, particularly the all-important daily average attendance, the industry responded with typical resourcefulness – we quit publishing attendance figures. So it’s all better now; we don’t think about it unless we go to a typical racetrack on a typical day and see all the empty seats and think of all the people who are not lined up at the pari-mutuel windows.

And now, worse than ignoring our fans, we’re forsaking them for slot machine arm pullers and video poker button pushers.

The point of all this blather is that certain tracks such as Del Mar, Keeneland and Monmouth are paying attention to the fans

and are as a consequence doing pretty well on the attendance front, but most other tracks – those which are just providing the same bad racing day after day, week after week and year after year – are suffering, as well they should.

Maybe the industry should extend a hand to the forgotten majority.

Here’s just a very simple suggestion – suffrage. Why don’t we let the fans vote on the divisional champions and Horse of the Year? For the most part, the successful sports do it – baseball, football, basketball, hockey, even American Idol, Dancing With the Stars and America’s Got Talent – thus giving their fans a feeling of being a part of the process, a feeling of belonging.

As a matter of fact, I think I heard somewhere that more people voted in American Idol last year than in the 2008 presidential election. How much does racing need fans like that?

Hell, in racing, most of the actual participants in the sport don’t even get to vote on the champions. The Eclipse Awards are chosen by a triumvirate comprised of the NTRA, the Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers Association. Do members of the TOBA get to vote? Do members of the HBPA get to vote? Do members of the Jockey’s Guild get to vote?

No! Truth be known, I can think of a number of our better turf writers that don’t get to vote. They’re not members of NTWA. So let’s get with the times. After all, this is America. One person, one vote. The triumvirate could even pick the candidates and then let the public vote, a la American Idol, etc., where the judges pick the finalists and let the public vote.

It would just be a tiny chink in our armor of regality, and it might just give the fans the feeling that they mean something to us.

Fan suffrage.

NFL, NBA, NHL, allow fans to vote on their most valuable players.

Suffrage for the suffering. I

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North American Trainer ISSUE 18 (FALL 2010)

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DRIVEN BY SLOTS Are we playing Russian Roulette with racing?

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Should all preceding races be medication free?