Trainer magazine, North American edition - Spring 2019, issue 51

ISSUE 51 – SPRING 2019 $6.95 www.trainermagazine.com

THE QUARTERLY MA MAGAZINE AGAZINE F FOR OR T THE HE TRAINING TRAINING A AND ND DEV DEVELOPMENT VELOPMENT OF OF THE THOROUGHBRED

BELLAFINA Earns Simon Callaghan “Trainer of the Quarter” honors ANDREW LERNER

The young trainer who’s a fast learner!

HIRING WORK RIDERS? What you should know

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE

ULCER M E D I C AT I O N S What works for your horse

|OPINION |

GI LE S AN DE RS ON PUBLISHER’S OPINION

In her first six career starts, our cover photo subject, Bellafina, has never finished out of the first four. She’s only tasted defeat in her maiden last July and when running a gallant fourth behind Jaywalk in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Since August, she has won a brace of Gr1 and Gr2 races to boot. She has gained her handler, Simon Callaghan, the accolade of being our Equithrive Trainer of the Quarter in this issue of the magazine, and she’s one filly I am fully expecting to hear much more about this coming spring.

The owners of the filly Jaywalk that beat her in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies are featured in the return of our ever popular “Roadstallion” Gr1 winning owners profiles. The profiles tell the stories of the owners behind leading horses from the previous quarter, and in this issue we focus on connections behind five of the Breeders’ Cup races held last November at Churchill Downs.

For our main Trainer profile, we feature a young Santa Anitabased trainer, Andrew Lerner, who is very much a man going

places. At 29 years of age, he has already had a successful business career outside of racing which has enabled him to achieve his goal of becoming a trainer. Some 11 months after taking out his license, he already has 22 head of horses under his tutelage in Southern California and a growing reputation for being a good horseman.

Lerner understands one of racing’s biggest and perhaps inherent problems: attracting younger generations to come into racing. As Lerner says, “When it comes to attracting new owners, there’s not as much innovation now as there used to be. I think we have to initiate new ideas, entice younger people to come into the game, bring them to the track, and let them see what it’s all about.” What’s more, Lerner is reaching out to his peer group and actively encouraging them to be involved.

His views are shared by the forward-thinking management at Golden Gate Fields. As I found out when interviewing track supremo, David Duggan, they are making every effort to reach the different communities around the bay area and getting new racegoers out to the track. The results have been impressive under the first year of Duggan’s tenure. This April, the track will host an innovative stakes weekend of racing with the ambition to recruit runners from outside of North America. The ambitions on the track will be mirrored off the track with a range of attractions aimed at a wider audience. Duggan and his team are reaching out to San Francisco major league sports teams who have been invited to participate in what should prove to be the marquee weekend for Northern California racing.

Trainers and tracks who are prepared to “think out of the box” should be saluted for at least trying to extend the reach of this great sport to the widest audience possible.

Wherever your racing takes you this spring, good luck!

ISSUE 51 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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Editorial Director/Publisher Giles Anderson (1 888 218 4430) Sub-Editor Jana Cavalier Advert Production Shae Hardy Circulation/Website Anna Alcock (1 888 659 2935) Advertising Sales Giles Anderson, Oscar Yeadon, Anna Alcock 1 888 218 4430 Photo Credits: Eclipse Sportswire, Heather R. Grevelis, Shutterstock, Celia Marr, Alamy, Zoe Metz, Canterbury Park Racecourse, Michelle L. Benson, Jennifer Poorman, Kim Pratt, Chester Weber Horse America, Judy Wardrope and Giles Anderson Photographer “At Large” Frances J. Karon Cover Photograph Eclipse Sportswire Design ATG Media

Trainer Magazine is published by Anderson & Co Publishing Ltd. Contact details Tel: 1 888 659 2935 Fax: 1 888 218 4206 info@trainermagazine.com www.trainermagazine.com North America PO Box 13248, Lexington, KY 40583-3248 United Kingdom 14 Berwick Courtyard, Berwick St Leonard, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP3 5UA

Trainer Magazine 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, the Maryland Horse Breeders Association, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association and the Virginia Thoroughbred Association.

Education Ed cati tii ! Integrity I t it Service

Alan F. Balch was hired as the 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 President-Marketing and Assistant General Manager, and was in charge of the Olympic Games Equestrian Events in 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 of Madison Square Garden. He remains president of USA Equestrian Trust, Inc. Ed Golden is the author of Santa Anita’s widely acclaimed “Stable Notes,” hailed by peers as “the best in racing.” A native of Philadelphia, he earned Eclipse Award honorable mention while with the Philadelphia Daily News and has written for The Blood-Horse and USA Today.

Ted Grevelis started as a racing fan in New England and worked at Pimlico and Freestate in Maryland to help finance a year of graduate school. An owner for over 10-years and the former Daily Racing Form freelancer covering Canterbury Park, Ted also coordinates partnerships, is the racing manager for the Canterbury Racing Club, has contributed to the Blood-Horse, American Racehorse and is co-founder, with wife Heather, of the online blog Midwest Paddock Report (www.mwpaddockreport.com) covering mostly Minnesota and Iowa racing.

Bill Heller. Eclipse Award winning author of 26 books including biographies of Hall of Fame jockeys Ron Turcotte, Randy Romero and Jose Santos.

Bill and his wife Marianne live near Gulfstream Park in Florida. Bill’s son Benjamin is an accomplished marathon runner in Troy, N.Y. Jeff Lowe is a freelance writer who previously served as media director for Team Valor International for seven years. Lowe also was the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup beat writer during a nine-year stint

at Thoroughbred Times. He won the 2008 Bill Leggett Writing Award for a magazine story on the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He grew up around the harness racing business as his father was the long-time general manager of the small racetrack in Delaware, Ohio, that puts on one of the sport’s most prestigious races, the Little Brown Jug.

Professor Celia Marr is an RCVS recognized specialist in equine internal medicine based at Rossdales Equine Hospital and Diagnostic Centre, Newmarket, England. She is also editor-in-chief of Equine Veterinary Journal, honorary professor at the University of Glasgow, and has previously worked at Cambridge University, the Royal Veterinary College, the University of Pennsylvania, and in racehorse practice in Lambourn, England.

Lissa Oliver lives in Co. Kildare, Ireland and is a regular contributor to The Irish Field and the Australian magazine, Racetrack. Lissa is also the author of several collections of short stories and two novels.

Peter J. Sacopulos is a partner in the law firm of Sacopulos, Johnson & Sacopulos in Terre Haute, Indiana where he represents clients in a wide range of equine matters. He is a member of the American College of Equine Counsel and serves on the Board of the Indiana Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and Indiana Thoroughbred Breed Development Advisory Committee. Sacopulos has written extensively on equine law issues and is a frequent speaker at equine conferences.

Judy Wardrope. Mechanically inclined by nature, Wardrope has applied her curiosity regarding how things work in several directions, including a 17-year stint as a locomotive engineer.

Combined with an avid interest in horses, she started looking beyond straight legs and subjective descriptors to explain what she was seeing in individual horses. The addition of media credentials provided her with access to some of the world’s top horses, and verifiable patterns started to emerge.

Trainer Magazine (ISSN 17580293) is published 4 times a year, February, May, August and November by Anderson & Co Publishing and distributed in the USA

by UKP Worldwide, 3390 Rand Road, South Plainfield, NJ 07080.

Periodicals postage paid at Rahway, NJ and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Trainer Magazine, Anderson & Co Publishing C/O 3390 Rand Road, South Plainfield NJ 07080

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A DV E R T I S E M E N T

PUSHING THE LIMITS:

HOW SOME TRAINERS ARE GAINING “THE EDGE”!

BY: MARK HANSEN

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he pressure to win is so enormous that many horsemen resort to whatever it takes to get a piece of the purse or a decent sale… even if it means putting their horses’ lives in mortal danger by doping them with illegal synthetic erythropoietin (EPO) drugs to boost endurance.

Veterinarian Gary Smith said, “It’s a problem all over the industry. There is no way horses should be put on (synthetic) EPO.” So how do racers win? How do you gain a competitive edge without harming your horses or risking your livelihood? The answer may be found in a safe all-natural horse supplement that supports natural EPO function.

Why is EPO boosting so critical? Just like in people, a horse’s muscles require oxygen for fuel. Red blood cells are the body’s oxygen-carrying cells. A higher red blood cell count = more oxygen = more muscle energy. Elevated muscle energy helps the horse perform harder, faster and longer during endurance events. All horses naturally produce EPO in their kidneys to stimulate production of new red blood cells from bone marrow. In short, EPO is a natural “blood builder.”

With EPO doping, trainers try to boost the EPO effect to get a winning performance every time. They use a synthetic EPO (recombinant human EPO), even though the side effects can harm the horse. That’s one reason why it’s illegal.

Fortunately there’s another option. EPOEquine® is a safe, highly effective natural dietary supplement scientifically engineered for performance horses.

A Kentucky trainer who refused to give out his name, said, “I don’t want my competition to know about this.” He found EPO-Equine to be so effective that he’s

dead set against disclosing who he is, who his horses are, or even where he trains and races. He first started ordering a single jar of EPO-Equine® once a month. Now he’s ordering several CASES each month. And he won’t tell BRL exactly why. He said respectfully, “Sorry – no way.”

Bioengineers at U.S. based Biomedical Research Laboratories (BRL), first discovered a completely natural EPO-booster for human athletes (and it’s working miracles for top athletes and amateurs around the world).

Seeing these results, horse trainers contacted BRL and asked about using this natural formula for their animals.

That’s when the BRL team dug deeper and discovered a proprietary, horse-friendly strain of a common herb that promotes optimal blood-building results. EPOEquine® is based on the blood-boosting abilities of a certain strain of Echinacea that’s astounding researchers and trainers alike. (It’s not a strain you can find at the local health store.)

Veterinarians at the Equine Research Centre in Ontario, Canada ran a doubleblind trial investigating the blood building properties of the active ingredient in EPOEquine in healthy horses. For 42 days, one group of horses was supplemented with the active ingredient in EPO-Equine and another group of horses was given a placebo.

The supplement delivered significant blood building results, increasing red blood cell count and hemoglobin levels.

Researchers also observed improved blood quality and increased oxygen transport in the supplemented horses. Improved blood levels leads to elevated exercise physiology and performance.

The patent-pending formula in EPOEquine ® contains a dozen different herbs, antioxidants and anti-inf lammatory components combined to promote natural red blood cell production… for remarkable speed, strength and stamina right out of the gate.

Trainers find it easy to add just 1 scoop (3.2 grams) of EPO-Equine® to the horse’s daily feeding routine in the barn or on the road. Within a few weeks of daily use, you can expect to see increased red blood cell levels with no undesirable side effects.

An increase in red blood cell levels can improve muscle performance, supercharge endurance, and enhance recovery after hard exercise. Nothing else is scientifically proven to deliver these benefits in a completely safe and natural formula.

Compared to the cost of veterinarians, drugs, icing, tapping the knees, and putting the horse on Bute; or even the consequences of being banned for synthetic doping, EPO-Equine® is very affordable at the low price of just $59.95 per jar. Or save $180 if you are ready to commit to a larger trial of 12-jar case for just $539.55 with FREE shipping. EPO-Equine ® can be ordered at www.EPOEquine.com or 800-780-4331.

|CONTENTS |

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CONTENTS F E AT U R E S

58 Exercising horse sense

Our legal expert, Peter Sacopulos, looks at avoiding gray areas when hiring exercise riders.

10 Andrew Lerner

He’s only held a license for eleven months but he’s already making his presence felt on the Southern California circuit as Ed Golden discovers.

20 Changing hemispheres

Jeff Lowe examines the complexities involved in taking horses from the southern hemisphere to race in the northern hemisphere.

26 Grade 1 winning connections

Sponsored by RoadStallion. Bill Heller profiles five sets of winning connections who enjoyed success at the 2018 Breeders’ Cup.

64 State of Minnesota racing and breeding

Ted Grevelis looks at the racing and breeding industries in the “land of 10,000 lakes.”

70 Wobbler syndrome and the Thoroughbred

Wobbler syndrome, or spinal ataxia, affects around 2% of young Thoroughbreds. Celia Marr reports from last summer’s Gerald Leigh memorial lecture which was established to honor Leigh’s passion for the Thoroughbred.

REGULARS 06

Alan F. Balch column

08 EQUITHRIVE

Trainer of the Quarter – Simon Callaghan

94 #soundbites –

this quarter, Bill Heller asks: Are horses today less sound, and if so, has it affected training in any way?

Personal preference - training 36 An introduction to the functional 74 from horseback or the ground

aspects of conformation

The first in a series of articles by Judy Wardrope which set out different ways to examine how a horse’s conformation affects their running style.

42 David Duggan

Giles Anderson visits the Golden Gate Fields supremo and discovers how the Northern California oval is enjoying a golden revival.

52 Ulcer medication: are the

products different?

Celia Marr looks at the efficacy of the different types of ulcer treatment currently available.

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Ed Golden canvasses opinion amongst trainers and finds out why some trainers have a preference for training from the saddle, whilst others prefer watching from the stands.

80 PA sire power

Jennifer Poorman showcases a selection of stallions available for 2019 in Pennsylvania.

88 The importance of good nutrition for your staff

How improved diet can help to make outdated practices redundant and improve the physical and mental health of your staff, by Lissa Oliver.

/ t rai ner magaz i n e

TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 51

/ t r ai n e rmag azine

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| CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED TRAINERS |

COMPETE! ot too long after this esteemed magazine published my last essay, one of my "admirers" contacted me with her own opinions.

“You’re so smug and condescending,” she said. And went on to berate me for “never” doing anything except calling attention to problems, “never” offering solutions, “never” recognizing that it’s a far, far different world now than in my relative youth. And I’m “always snarky” besides.

I now rise to the challenge of trying to put some (more) solutions out there, in a little better detail than I’ve been able to do before, so fixated have I been on the problems we’re facing and their contexts.

A leading executive of The Stronach Group, one of the three principal behemoths controlling American racing these days (the other two being New York Racing Association and Churchill Downs), was quoted as saying that “there is about $11 to $12 billion bet annually,” and that the national total has not been growing, even though Gulfstream’s handle has. “It’s our job to get that money and lift the handle at Stronach tracks.”

There, succinctly, is the problematic perspective of our leaders. They are concentrating on what’s called racing’s market share – one small segment of a total market – and their own respective shares of that segment, instead of on growing the racing market’s total overall. The broader American gaming market is far, far bigger than just racing’s share. According to Casino City Press, annual U.S. gaming revenue (not handle, mind you) is around $106.4 billion. Across the U.S. and Canada, race and sports wagering revenue (again, not handle) is only 2.25% of the total, and declined by 4.5% in the last year. All other sectors rose . . . they are casino and card room gaming, lotteries, and tribal gaming, along with on-line and charitable gaming.

What I have previously referred to as “positive competition” among racing’s ownership oligarchs is essential for our future, and essential for true growth. That word – oligarch – has really negative connotations these days, owing to our toxic politics. But I’m using it in its literal, non-pejorative sense – government by the

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few. Racing worldwide has always been an oligopoly (yes, always). It’s just that now there are even fewer oligarchs than ever before.

Consider that in California over the last half-century, our previous oligopoly has contracted drastically. All Harness racing is now controlled by one association, and a separate one controls Quarter Horses. One additional entity controls two-thirds of Southern California Thoroughbred racing as well as eighty percent of it in Northern California. That doesn’t leave much for the couple of other oligarchs here!

This transition in contemporary American racing to an ever narrower oligopoly has taken place throughout the continent, owing to economic circumstances including vast and ever-increasing competition for the gaming dollar as well as skyrocketing real estate values in urban markets. No secret there. And no judgment, either . . . business decisions must be made on the basis of facts and return on investment, not emotion. Like “love of sport.”

So here’s what must be done to have a prosperous future: our remaining racing oligarchs must invest heavily in marketing for future growth, and not just scrap over their relative shares of a contracting market segment. They can do both, simultaneously. They must do so now, while they can still afford it. Strategically. Their forebears should have been doing this for at least the last 25 years; if they had, we would have more of them left today.

There’s one and only one way to grow: compete. Compete in the open marketplace for more of the total gaming

market. Since we have the best game of all, this seems elementary to me – but we also have the highest fixed costs of any sector of the gaming market. So we have to do much better, smarter, more efficient marketing than our competitors.

Yes, we have to manage our properties properly, including catering. But success at marketing racing is not dependent on that! Or on “special events.” In fact, the total market for restaurants and entertainment is even more enormous than the gaming market, so the thought that accentuating anything other than the gaming aspect of the racing experience is likely to succeed is . . . uh . . . foolish.

Our superior gaming product is now constantly available in essentially all households, via telephone and television. That’s a relatively recent development. But I would venture to say that not even 5% of total households are even aware that they could bet the races that way if they wanted to, let alone know how to do it.

There’s only one way to change that: hard-nosed, hard-sell, aggressive marketing . . . especially intensive (and expensive) mass-media advertising. The days are long gone when the on-track experience had to somehow be “protected” from cannibalization. Even though we need more than $2 bet away from the track to make up for $1 lost at the track, advertising must be developed and pursued that reaches the masses with a message stimulating interest in our sport, and the betting that fuels it, both at the track and away from it, simultaneously. Thus, growing our share of the total gaming market.

Wave after wave of new gaming competition has washed over racing in the last 30 years, as we have stood relatively still; the sports betting and cloud-based gaming breakers are rushing toward us. Our remaining racing leviathans now must each open their wallets wide and invest whatever it takes to advertise our game intensively and ingeniously, mainly through television, throughout America.

Competing that way among themselves – both to our existing and vast potential new markets – is the only productive way forward.

“Equithrive is a unique product that is extremely effective in managing the chronic inflammation associated with competition and training.” - Greg Fox, DVM

Owner Kaleem Shah congratulates trainer Simon Callaghan (right) after Bellafina wins the Del Mar Debutante (Gr1) on September 1, 2018, at Del Mar.

Bill Heller Eclipse Sportswire

TRAINER OF THE QUARTER

S IM O N C A L LA G H AN The Equithrive Trainer of the Quarter has been won by Simon Callaghan.Callaghan and his team will receive a selection of Equithrive’s clinically proven products for the barn.

lmost as if it were her New Year’s resolution to atone for her fourth-place finish as the favorite in the Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly at Churchill Downs, November 2, Kaleem Shah’s three-year-old filly Bellafina delivered a jaw-dropping, 8 ½ length victory in the Gr2 Santa Ynez Stakes at Santa Anita, January 6, confirming her trainer Simon Callaghan’s

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faith in her. “It was a relief more than anything,” Callaghan said. “I knew in my mind that the Breeders’ Cup wasn’t her race. For some reason, she didn’t run her “A” race. You can’t win a Breeders’ Cup race without an “A” performance.”

Bellafina has had several A’s, posting four victories in her first six starts, including two Gr1 stakes and a pair of Gr2’s. “We’ve always felt from Day 1 that she could be potentially really good,” Callaghan said. “She’s the best filly I’ve trained.”

With her resounding victory in her three-year-old debut, she is back on track to tackle the Gr1 Santa Anita Oaks and the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks as Callaghan continues to prosper at the young training age of 35. His age is misleading. He has been living with horses his entire life—the son of a successful trainer growing up in the unique horse hub of Newmarket,

England. “By the time I was 12, I knew what I wanted to do,” Callaghan said. “I was really passionate about it. It’s very special to see a horse out there trying, running in a race.”

His father, Neville, trained for 37 years before retiring in 2007. “He taught me not to cut any corner,” Callaghan said.

“Feed them well. Get good help. He took a lot of pride in how his horses looked.”

After working for trainer Richard Hannon in England, Callaghan got two gigs with Todd Pletcher in America. “He’s extremely dedicated, very hard-working,” Callaghan said. “His horses looked fantastic. Obviously, he’s a very intelligent man. He just doesn’t miss anything. His attention to detail is second to none.”

Callaghan opened his own stable in England at the age of 24, but soon set his sights on America. “One of my clients, Anthony Ramsden, pitched the idea of me

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Bellafina with Flavien Prat wins the Santa Ynez Stakes at Santa Anita Park on January 6, 2019

triple stakes winner Taris earned more than $1 million.

“We’re lucky we can have a living working around horses,” Callaghan said.

“When you go out there and train a

winner, it’s satisfying and rewarding.”

Bellafina may give him his most satisfying and rewarding year yet. After she won the Santa Ynez Stakes, Callaghan sent out a tweet: “Great start to 2019!”

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T H E O N LY S U P P L E M E N T S

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ISSUE 51 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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working there,” Callaghan said. “I spoke a lot with other clients I had, Michael Tabor and Coolmore, and they were much behind me. I felt I was so young at the time (26), if it didn’t work out, I could come back to England. In England, unless you had support from the top owners, it was very hard to come up with Gr1 horses. That’s what I always wanted to do: get horses to win at the top level. That was easier to do in America.”

And he has done it, quickly becoming a force at Santa Anita, where he keeps a stable of 50. His horses have earned more than $1 million for eight straight years and topped $2 million three times in 2015, 2017 and 2018. In 2015, his Firing Line finished second by one length to eventual Triple Crown Champion American Pharoah in the Gr1 Kentucky Derby.

Dubawi Heights gave Callaghan his first two Gr1 stakes victories in the Gamely Stakes at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita’s Yellow Ribbon Stakes. Slim Shadey won three stakes on turf and

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PROFILE

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| ANDREW LERNER |

YOUNG TRAINER PROVES

A QUICK “LERNER” Ed Golden

Zoe Metz

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PROFILE

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ndrew Lerner looks like he just stepped off the pages of GQ. At 29, six feet tall, 180 pounds and hazel eyes, he oozes subtle masculinity and innate innocence, bearing the attributes of an NFL tight end.

Picture Superman and Clark Kent or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But beneath that demure demeanor lies his true countenance, horse trainer, body and soul.

It was not a matter of if, but when it would happen.

“I created a couple of businesses that fortunately did well, and that put me in a position to buy some horses,” Lerner said. “I sent them to trainer Mike Pender with the caveat that I wanted to learn to train.

“I started a company with a friend of mine in 2012 and we did well; I sold half of it, not for a fortune, but for enough where I was able to buy a horse named Be a Lady and give it to Pender.

“That’s how it all began. She’s still racing.

“I told Mike I wanted to learn how to train, came out every morning at 4:30, shadowed his grooms and hot walkers for about a year and a half, then decided I wanted to learn how to ride, not at the track but somewhere else, just to get an idea of what the jocks and exercise riders were talking about when they got off a horse and told us how it went.

“I wanted to understand first-hand what they were explaining, more than just hearing their words. After that, it took me about six months to get my trainer’s license in March of last year.

“It was a small stable initially, just me, a groom and two horses. Now we’re up to about 22 head.”

Lerner came to Pender’s barn every morning, not with a chip on his shoulder but a thirst for knowledge.

Thus, Pender readily recognized that Lerner would triumph against the odds. His acuity was ever present.

“He won a race with the first horse we claimed together, and we were off and running,” said Pender, 52, a Los Angeles native whose major stakes winners in a career approaching 15 years include Jeranimo and Ultimate Eagle.

“When he told me he wanted to train, I asked why he would do such a crazy thing, and he was emphatic. He said he wanted to, and I knew how he felt because I had been in his shoes at one time.

“I told him he was going to fail more than he’d succeed and tried to talk him out of it, but he stood his ground. Even after I told him the only way to succeed was through hard work and spending a lot of money—some of it coming out of his own pocket when owners don’t pay and walk away leaving you high and dry with a $10,000 feed bill—he remained firm.

“He gave the right answers to all my questions, but most importantly, he showed up every morning. I’ve had a lot of guys walk through my doors saying they want to become trainers, and I feel a responsibility for them to achieve that goal, because it’s trainers who bring in new owners.

“Obviously, we need them—what with the current shortage of racing stock. The last thing we want to see is more three-horse fields.

“Andrew’s most important concession was acknowledging he knew nothing. He didn’t try to act like some hot-shot city slicker, walking in like he knew more than anybody else.

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“IT WAS A SMALL STABLE INITIALLY, JUST ME, A GROOM AND TWO HORSES. NOW WE’RE UP TO ABOUT 22 HEAD.”

PROFILE

“SEEMS TO ME IT’S STUPID AND NAIVE PEOPLE WHO ARE FULL OF CONFIDENCE AND THINK THEY’RE GOING TO COME IN AND TAKE THE WORLD BY STORM.”

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| ANDREW LERNER |

“He was humble and displayed that trait throughout.

As much as he tried to impress that upon me, I was interested in learning what he did know. He showed me he had good character, and at the end of the day, that’s all we really have.

“I figured if he couldn’t train a lick and couldn’t figure it out down the road, his character would carry him through, and by trial and error he would learn how to get a horse ready to win a race.

“Apparently, he’s a quick study because he won three races at Del Mar’s summer meet and didn’t have that many starters. He’s a smart kid, a modest guy who maintained he knew nothing during the whole process. I take that as a sign of high intelligence.

“Seems to me it’s stupid and naive people who are full of confidence and think they’re going to come in and take the world by storm.”

Pender knows whereof he speaks. He was the first in his family to earn college degrees, a bachelor’s from the University of California Santa Barbara and a master’s in psychology from Pepperdine. He taught for a spell, had a cup of coffee in clinical work as a counselor, but was enamored with racing from the time he came to Santa Anita at age six.

Ditto for Andrew Lerner.

“I’ve been coming to the track since I was six years old so it’s always been in my blood,” he said. “It’s something I’ve loved. Being at the track with my family and watching the horses run was always very enjoyable.

“Later, coming to the track on my own and watching how training evolved had an impact you can’t absorb as a casual fan seeing a horse in a race for just a minute and nine seconds. It’s fun as a fan, but to actually participate in the day-to-day training regimen—the hard work and preparation that go into getting a horse race-ready—is incredible.

“I emphasize to both my current and prospective owners that they be at the barn 4:30 every morning to see our daily routine. Understanding what goes in to training

DECEMBER 1 - MARCH 31

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PROFILE

produces a sense of gratification when one of our horses wins that otherwise might not be realized.”

A Californian through and through, Lerner was born in Thousand Oaks and raised in Agoura Hills. He learned from the ground up, mucking stalls, working as a hot walker and doing the basics for about a year.

His father, Ross, and mother, Nancy, have been married 44 years. “My dad owns a recruiting company in LA that helps athletes find jobs after their college careers are over, and my mother is a psychologist in Westlake Village,” said Lerner, whose one sister, Sara, resides in Manhattan.

But sports were always on his radar screen.

“I played baseball growing up through Agoura High School, and in college, at Arizona State, I boxed at 147 pounds - did that for about seven years and had several amateur fights.

“While at Arizona State, I studied land development and commercial real estate and did that for about five years before I started the company with my buddy, and did that for about four and a half years before going to the track full time.

“IN COLLEGE, AT ARIZONA STATE, I BOXED AT 147 POUNDS – DID THAT FOR ABOUT SEVEN YEARS AND HAD SEVERAL AMATEUR FIGHTS.” “When I started as an owner, I was with Little Red Feather Racing and other partners, but then went on my own.

I’d gather information from jockeys who were riding and working my horses, and soon began getting on horses myself in the mornings to learn first hand what they felt like.

“That way I could fully grasp what jockeys were telling me after they worked a horse. After about two years with Mike and transitioning through various stages, I decided to take my licensing test. That process took about fourand-a-half months.

“In March of last year, I finally got my license.”

That accomplished, Lerner joined others in racing of the Jewish faith—a select group, most notably Barry Abrams, Walter Blum, Bobby Frankel, Bill Harmatz, Max Hirsch, William (Buddy) Hirsch, Hirsch Jacobs, Walter Miller, Howard Tesher and Marty Wolfson.

Racing’s passion and dedication run deep and long, whether you’re a fresh face at 29 or a Hall of Fame trainer in the homestretch of a legendary career like 86-yearold Ron McAnally, who’s still a fixture on the Southern California circuit in this—his sixth decade on the beat.

“When I got started, no one wanted to send me horses, and that’s understandable,” Lerner said. “You have to earn their respect, so I had to put my money where my mouth was; and I did.

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| ANDREW LERNER |

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PROFILE

“YOU COULD TELL ON MY FIRST TWO TV INTERVIEWS THAT I WAS NERVOUS, I’M NOT USED TO BEING IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA”

“An owner named Jack Schwartz got me involved with my first horse when I was 16. I was working at Johnny Rockets to pay for the horse.” (Johnny Rockets is a vanishing 1950s-style burger and fries eatery in the throes of succumbing to McDonalds, Burger King, Arby’s and their ilk).

“Jack wanted to own half of the horse, but I didn’t want to train for anyone else. He insisted, however, so we claimed a horse called Jill Madden (bred by long-time California owner/breeder Nick Alexander, now president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California). She wound up winning two races for us.

“Jack was my first owner, and later more came on board—the major ones being John Andersen and Jason Bailey who campaign as Vindicate Racing. John called me, liked what I was doing, liked that I was a young trainer, and they wanted to get more involved. I waited three months for the right opportunity before claiming their first horse, Brandothebartender (who on Oct. 20 won the California Flag Stakes for current trainer Craig Dollase after he claimed him for $50,000).

“Brandothebartender won for us at Del Mar, made some money, and it catapulted our relationship; so they were instrumental in my success to date,” Lerner continued.

“Vindicate claimed about nine horses in a span of six weeks, and I think we won with 40 percent and were in the money with about 60 percent. It’s been an incredible run.”

And if Lerner has his druthers, it’s likely to continue. He always has his antenna raised hoping to lure new owners.

“I think it’s paramount to bring new owners into the game,” he said.

“That’s why I’ve formed some unique partnerships such as The Del Mar Summer Racing Club, where we brought in 16 new owners who had never been involved in racing before. They won with a filly named Drift Away.

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“But relatively speaking, when it comes to attracting new owners, there’s not as much innovation now as there used to be. I think we have to initiate new ideas, entice younger people to come into the game, bring them to the track and let them see what it’s all about.

“I was not only focused on doing well at the barn but tried to get as many new people involved as possible and fall in love with the game, because I’ve never had anyone come out to the track and say they hated it.

“Once they’re here, they love it. Some had never been to Santa Anita before, even though like me, they’ve lived in the area and the track is only 15 miles away.”

Lerner’s main magnet towards increasing the incredible shrinking nucleus of owners is social media.

“It’s been huge for me,” he said, “but people who have been in the game a long time are not privy to social media and don’t understand it, and I don’t blame them.

“However, it is a new way to bring people into racing, and that’s how I got so many new owners. It may sound silly, but I think social media is most important.”

Despite his matinee idol good looks, Lerner never had aspirations for modeling or acting. Those two vocations didn’t enter his mind.

“You could tell on my first two TV interviews that I was nervous,” he said. “I’m not used to being in front of the camera for pictures or anything like that. I never really even thought about it.”

Never say never, kid.

If you don’t make it in the winner’s circle, there’s always Hollywood.

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| HEMISPHERES |

SO UTHER N HEMI SPHE RE HO RS ES PR ESE NT C OMP LEX IT IE S A DJ US T IN G T O U .S. P R O V E N T R A I N E R S W I T H I M P O RT S P R E A C H PAT I E N C E

F

or as long as racehorses have been moved from one hemisphere to the other, the effect of crossing the equator has been an age-old mystery. How much recovery time a horse generally needs, and why, is still a complex issue for American trainers who regularly find success with horses from the Southern Hemisphere.

Hall of Fame trainers Richard Mandella and Ron McAnally follow a similar timetable before they generally feel comfortable sending a horse from the Southern Hemisphere to the races. Mandella, who has a long list of South American stars like Bal a Bali, Redattore, Gentlemen, Sandpit and Siphon accentuating his career highlights, suggested that four months is an ideal amount of time once a horse arrives to the United States before his or her first race. McAnally, with a roll call from Argentina that includes

Candy Ride, Different, Paseana, Festin and Bayakoa, operates with a ballpark estimate of four to six months.

“I could not tell you why they need that long,” McAnally said. “It would take God almighty upstairs to answer that.

“I just know that with a horse like Candy Ride, he had about six months once he got here and he was ready to go; he won an allowance on the dirt at Hollywood Park, then he won a nine-furlong Gr2 on the turf at Hollywood Park, and he won the Pacific Classic (a $1-million Gr1) going a mile and a quarter at Del Mar.” Mandella’s and McAnally’s calendar does fly in the face of the schedule of a giant gelding who helped blaze the trail from the Southern Hemisphere to the U.S. Australian legend Phar Lap traveled 10,000 miles by ship to San Francisco in the winter bridging 1931 and ‘32, arriving January 15. He promptly ran away with the Aqua Caliente Handicap in Mexico just two months later, setting a track record before mysteriously dying that April.

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MANDELLA’S AND MCANALLY’S CALENDAR DOES FLY IN THE FACE OF THE SCHEDULE OF A GIANT GELDING WHO HELPED BLAZE THE TRAIL FROM THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE TO THE U.S. Likewise, with the shoe on the other foot, horses from Europe regularly trek to Australia for prestigious races.

Godolphin Racing’s Cross Counter arrived “Down Under” last September 8 from England and came away with a victory in the Gp1 Melbourne Cup two months later.

European shippers have won the Melbourne Cup five times in the last nine editions.

Heading the other way, horses from Australia have been successful right off the bat in Europe, with the prolific sprinter Black Caviar as perhaps the most notable example.

She won the Gp1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot just six weeks after prevailing in the Gp1 Goodwood in Adelaide, Australia. Aidan O’Brien’s spectacular success from his Ballydoyle base in Ireland has featured a few imports from Australian and New Zealand, among them a top-caliber sprinter in Starspangledbanner and a 10-furlong specialist in So You Think.

Starspangledbanner, like Black Caviar, scored in the 2006 edition of the Gp1 Golden Jubilee at Royal Ascot, just a couple months after arriving from Australia. Conversely, So You Think had six months in between his final start “Down Under” and his European debut in Ireland.

“It all depends on the individual horse and how they adapt,” O’Brien said. “No doubt, when they don’t have to stop training and can continue exercise in quarantine, (it) is a big help.”

Mandella suggested that a break is often necessary for a Southern Hemisphere horse to adjust to its new environment and build back up after a long season back home. The differences in the U.S. include the makeup of the racetracks, as some dirt tracks in South America are

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much harder than the sandy loam in place at Santa Anita and elsewhere in the states. South American imports also have to adjust to wearing a saddle in their training each day, whereas back home they usually would only be ridden with a saddle in workouts and races.

“I let them down and bring them back easy and by the time I get them ready it’s about four months, and I think that works real well,” Mandella said. “Generally they have done quite a bit to earn the chance to come here, so they are due (for some time off), but the difference in the environment and the training is probably the biggest change, and you have to kind of re-train them to our style of training with saddles every day, traffic they have to face—those kind of things that we have at our American racetracks.”

Mandatory time in quarantine with little exercise upon arrival to the U.S. is another factor emphasized by John Fulton, who won the inaugural edition of the Japan Cup as an American-based trainer in 1981 and more recently has been a bloodstock agent focused on private sales that send South American-breds to the states.

“One of the problems we haven’t been able to overcome is the long quarantine in Miami where they have to spend six or seven days; that sets us back,” Fulton said. “If we could go straight into a quarantine at the racetrack or even just two days in (quarantine in) Miami, it would change the situation considerably. You can hire someone from the facility to go in and walk the horse a little bit but that is about it. If we could somehow eliminate this antiquated requirement—the (American) government doesn’t even seem willing to look at it—it would change things dramatically.”

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: Ron McAnally, Richard Mandella, Aidan O’Brien

BELOW: So You Think trained by Aidan O’Brien wins the Gp1 Red Mills Irish Champion Stakes

| HEMISPHERES |

ABOVE: Bal A Bali

Fulton lives in Buenos Aires most of the year and has been an agent in deals for dozens of South American horses who have gone on to race in the U.S. Fulton said six months used to be a rule of thumb for Southern Hemisphere imports who headed to the U.S. to join the likes of McAnally and trainer Charlie Whittingham.

“Down here (in Argentina), they run the big races in November and December and then that is when people would buy horses, and they were horses that were tired, so it was just standard practice to take them up and give them lots of time because they needed lots of time, just like any horse needs a break,” Fulton said. “They not only needed a break, they were shipping and changing hemispheres, so they always said six months. In recent times, the tendency is to buy horses earlier so they are more lightly raced and they arrive considerably fresher. It does depend on the horse. I’ve had horses run up in the U.S. two-and-a-half months after they had been running in Argentina and continue right on winning.”

Bill Recio, from his base at the Classic Mile Training Center in Ocala, quietly deals with a steady stream of South American imports who require or preemptively receive longer introductions to life in America. Recio cut his teeth as a trainer under the tutelage of Arnold Winick, who was among the pioneers in bringing horses to the U.S. from South America. In the 1960s and ‘70s, Winick won 12 training titles at Gulfstream, six more at Hialeah Park and three titles at Arlington Park—fueled in part by Argentine horses. Recio trained on his own in Chicago and New Jersey in the 1980s before deciding to switch to a prep role in Ocala. He retained a knowledge edge for

working with South American stock, dating back to his time with Winick.

“Some of them you can go right on with, but the majority you can’t,” Recio said. “They’ll come in and look great, you give them a little bit of time, and next thing you know they break out in skin disease and they kind of go backwards a little bit. Arnold Winick believed that crossing the equator is a lot tougher than coming from Europe or Japan. It’s the difference in seasons. Besides the fact that it is different water, different feed, I think the climate is a big factor as well. They are also not allowed to do much in quarantine, and it is pretty rough on them.

“Having said all that, I just got a horse—I probably shouldn’t say the name yet—that came from Argentina after winning a Gr1 race going a mile, and he has come in as good as any horse I have seen. He didn’t go backwards at all, never went off his feed and his feet were in great shape.

He was physically in great shape and he seemed to acclimate pretty quickly. So you have to judge them all individually.”

Ignacio Correas IV, a native of Argentina now based in Kentucky, has joined the orbit of Mandella, McAnally and Neil Drysdale in recent years in his success with South American imports. Correas, a fourth-generation horseman, soaked up lessons by observation, going back to his youth in Argentina when Drysdale was regularly acquiring South American horses on behalf of Whittingham to send to California.

As a groom in 1982, Correas accompanied his father’s Gp1 winner Compero from Argentina to France, where the horse was trained by David Smaga and prevailed in the Gp1 Premio Roma, but not before he required some patience.

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“We went there with Campero from Uruguay to Paris and 48 hours in the quarantine barn,” Correas said. “The next day he went to the track and he was coming out of his skin. We breezed about 10 days later, and he looked like a monster. Fifteen days later he looked like a monster and then 20 days after that, he could not beat a maiden 5-year-old.

It took him two months to start coming back. Sometimes you can see their coats are dull or they start washing out, and they show you; but a lot of times it’s not until you put them under pressure. I think part of it is adaptations to the American style of racing—the shorter stretches than we have in Argentina—so they need to be able to really quicken.

“Really, though, it’s the hemispheres. You go northsouth, south-north, and it screws with them. You go East-West, West-East, you’re perfect. Don’t ask me why.

Maybe you can find horses that can do it in five months instead of six, or maybe you can find one that can do it in four-and-a-half months, but that doesn’t mean that you are going to have the full potential in four-and-a-half.

The full potential, you’re probably not going to see until six months. Some horses even take a year. Usually when you go through the campaigns of the good Argentinian, Chilean, Brazilian horses, the second campaign is better than the first. Their good campaigns (in the U.S.) are as five- and six-year-olds.”

Argentine-breds Blue Prize and Kasaqui have fit that profile as headliners for Correas, who opened up a public stable in 2015 after serving as a private trainer for Kevin Plank’s Sagamore Farm in Maryland. As a four-year-old, Blue Prize finished second in allowance company in her first two starts in the U.S. in 2017, but she improved steadily and finished third in the Gr1 Juddmonte Spinster Stakes that October before scoring a breakthrough a month later in the Gr2 Falls City Handicap at Churchill Downs. In 2018 as a five-year-old, Blue Prize was better than ever in collecting four stakes victories, including

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| HEMISPHERES |

the Spinster. She became Correas’s first-ever Gr1 winner, taking the baton from Kasaqui, who was a Gr2 winner at Churchill Downs and finished second by a neck in the Gr1 Arlington Million.

“For different reasons, both those horses needed almost nine months before they raced here,” Correas said. “The (trainers) that have patience get the most out of the horses that come here from the Southern Hemisphere. Sometimes when you have a good horse, you have to hold yourself not to run them because they look like they are ready, but they are not. And unless they have the blessing of having conditions, they are going to have to go against tough horses right away. Blue Prize lost an allowance twice, but at least she had the conditions where she didn’t have to be thrown to the wolves and that built her back up. The problem is that they are good horses so they always look good and they always try. They look the part, but sometimes they are just not ready for that kind of effort.”

ABOVE: Blue Prize and jockey Joe Bravo win The Juddmonte Spinster (Gr1) for trainer Ignacio Correas IV

BELOW: Black Caviar wins the Gp1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot

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GRAD E 1 W IN NI NG CON N E CT ION S We mark the return of our ever popular feature on the stories behind those who have been involved with Grade 1-winning horses, with a look at five “stand-out” owners from the 2018 Breeders’ Cup.

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Bill Heller

Eclipse Sportswire

Completing the circle

When Accelerate and Joel Rosario won the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Classic, they did more than give trainer John Sadler and the Hronis brothers, Kosta and Pete, their first victory in a Breeders’ Cup race. They took Sadler and Hronis Racing, and Rosario, too, full circle.

Growing up on a ranch in Bakersfield, California, the Hronis brothers loved going to visit their grandparents a two-hour drive away. They lived five blocks from Santa Anita. “We were always the first ones in the car to visit Grandma and Grandpa because we knew we’d end up going

to the racetrack,” Kosta Hronis told Scott Jagow in a March 4, 2015, story in the Paulick Report. “Me and my brothers were little railbirds. We had our noses glued to the track.”

Fast forward several decades. The Hronis brothers never lost their love of racing, eventually buying a box at Santa Anita. On a fateful day at Santa Anita in 2010, 50-year-old Kosta turned to his brother and told him he was going to buy a horse. Peter told him, “Dude, you’re crazy. You have no idea what you’re getting into.”

Fortunately, someone next to them did. A long-time usher named Tony overheard their conversation and told them he’d set up an appointment with a trainer if they would wait a week. They waited. Tony had set them up for a meeting with John Sadler. Kosta laughed and said, ISSUE 51 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| PROFILES |

ABOVE: Accelerate, ridden by Joel Rosario, wins the Breeders’ Cup Classic

“There’s no way John Sadler’s going to mess with a little valley kid like me that’s never been in the racing business.”

Sadler couldn’t have cared less and welcomed Hronis Racing into his stable, where they had considerable success with Lady of Shamrock, Iotapa, the incredible mare Stellar Wind and Hard Aces. The brothers, whose parents began Hronis, Inc., specialize in growing, packing and shipping premium citrus in Delano, California where they were born and raised. They were the leading owners at Santa Anita in 2012 and 2014 and at Del Mar in 2012, remarkable early success for new owners.

But they’d never won a Breeders’ Cup race before the 2018 Classic, losing their first 13 races, including Catalina Cruiser’s disappointing sixth as the 4-5 favorite in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Sadler topped that oh-fer,

going zero-for-44, including three losses in races before the Classic—one of them when Catapult finished second by a half-length to Expert Eye in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Mile. That didn’t prevent the owners and trainer from feeling confident with Accelerate and Rosario, who went off a deserving favorite in the Classic.

“Joel Rosario rode our very first horse in our very first race in February of 2010 on Sleep Ride, a little horse that John claimed for us; and to turn all the way around and have Joel win the Breeders’ Cup Classic today, it’s a special day and we’re very happy for Joel,” Kosta said after the race.

So was Sadler. “It was great,” Sadler said in late December. “I think Joel rode one of his first winners on one of my horses at Golden Gate. We have a long history—a good history. When Victor (Espinoza) got injured (before the Pacific Classic), I sat down and thought to myself, and it came to me right away to use Joel in the Pacific Classic.”

Sadler also remembers the first time he met the Hronis brothers: “They came down to my box and we introduced each other. Their uncle had a business in San Marino, and I’m a local guy. So we hit it off. We liked each other right away.”

Asked if “like” has grown into “love” after the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Sadler had a long laugh, and said, “Yes it has.”

The Super Bowl and Lemonade

RIGHT: Kosta Hronis with jockey Joel Rosario

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When Cash Is King Stable, co-owners of the brilliant twoyear-old filly Jaywalk with DJ Stable, won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly, it wasn’t the stable’s first time in the national spotlight.

Cash Is King’s initial success was almost immediate thanks to managing partner Chuck Zacney. Founder of Sirrus Group—a regional medical billing company based in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Zacney grew up near Liberty Bell and Keystone racetracks and fell in love with racing at a young age. His friend Joe Lerro approached him at the 2004 Super Bowl about buying a Thoroughbred. He did.

One of their first horses was Afleet Alex, who finished second in the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Afleet Alex’s success as a three-year-old in 2005 took on a whole new level thanks to the brave little girl, Alex Scott, who in 2000, at the age of four while suffering neuroblastoma (a rare form of childhood cancer), created Alex’s Lemonade Stand in her home town in Manchester, Connecticut, to raise awareness and money to fight the pediatric cancer she was battling and to help find a cure for all children with cancer. She opened her first stand on her front lawn and raised $2,000 that day.

Alex, of course, fell in love with Afleet Alex, and his connections brought her family to all three Triple Crown races and the connections became major contributors, helping to raise $4 million in 2005 as Alex’s Lemonade Stands popped up all over the country.

Afleet Alex nearly won the Triple Crown in 2005. Afleet Alex led in deep stretch before finishing third by one length to Giacomo in the Kentucky Derby.

Then Afleet Alex somehow won the Preakness Stakes by 4 ¾ lengths! Despite being clobbered by another horse at the top of the stretch, nearly falling to his nose and keeping his balance somehow with just one foot on the

ground, he allowed jockey Jeremy Rose to stay on and regain control. When asked how he stayed on, Rose said, “An angel kept me safe. There was someone up there who helped us; little Alex kept me on.”

Afleet Alex romped in the Belmont Stakes by seven lengths, but then was injured and retired to stud.

To date, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation has raised more than $150 million to fight childhood cancer and funded nearly 1,000 research projects nationally—a mission which might not have prospered if Afleet Alex hadn’t distinguished himself in the Triple Crown.

“I will never be able to thank that horse enough for what he did for the Foundation and for our family,” said Jay Scott, Alex’s dad and co-executive director of the Foundation.

Cash Is King was awarded a Special Eclipse Award in 2005 for their work with the lemonade stands and with Alex’s ongoing battle, which she unfortunately lost in August, 2004.

Cash Is King didn’t have another Breeders’ Cup starter until 2018 when Jaywalk entered the starting gate at Churchill Downs.

Alex Scott would likely have fallen in love with Jaywalk, a filly who excelled and had a limitless future—one she deserved but never received.

DJ Stable was founded in the early 1980s by New Jersey natives Lois and Leonard Green. DJ Stable is now managed by their son Jonathan, the “J” in DJ Stable.

The “D” is for one of the daughters, Debbie, who, like another daughter, Beth, is an attorney. The stable’s top horses include Gr1 winner Songandaprayer and 2000 Sapling Stakes winner Shooter. In addition to their racing operation, the Greens have a successful breeding operation at Hawkeye Farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

LEFT INSET: Jaywalk, led back by co-owner Leonard Green BELOW: Jaywalk wins the Juvenile Fillies at Churchill Downs for co-owners, D.J. Stable LLC and Cash is King LLC

ISSUE 51 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| PROFILES |

RIGHT: Owner Peter Brant

Even better second time around

BELOW: Sistercharlie, ridden

by John Velazquez, wins the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly Mare Turf

30

Peter Brant, the 71-year-old owner of the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Sistercharlie, had so much success in his first life as an owner or co-owner.

With 1979 and 1980 Older Filly Champion Waya, 1984 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Swale; 1984 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Gulch, 1995 Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes winner Thunder Gulch, who made Brant the only breeder to have bred a Kentucky Derby winner and both his sire and dam, it’s amazing he ever walked away from the sport for two decades.

Brant, who is Chairman and CEO of White Birch Paper Company in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a noted arts advocate and the founder and president of the Brant Foundation and The Brant Foundation Art Study Center in Greenwich, is also a world-class polo player. When he left racing in 1996, he concentrated on polo, playing for

TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 51

the White Birch Farm team and serving as founder of the Greenwich Polo Club and the Saratoga Polo Association and co-founder of the Bridgehampton Polo Club. He retired from polo in 2016 and returned to racing.

The brilliant filly Ruffian had led to his initial involvement. “I had always been interested in racing since I was a kid,” he said. “I used to go to the racetrack and watch all the great horses like Kelso and Carry Back run.

But Ruffian, how great she was and how she performed, really affected me. I wanted to go into racing.”

The second time around? He credits 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. “I went out for the Belmont Stakes, and I just had a feeling he was going to win that day at Belmont,” he said. “I went out with my son Chris and we saw a lot of people that we knew and I just felt like, `Wow. This horse, after so many years, won the Triple Crown,’ and that kind of inspired me to get back in racing.”

Yet he won just three races in 2017 before hitting a huge home run in 2018 with Sistercharlie, one of trainer Chad Brown’s outstanding bevy of turf stars. Brant bought Sistercharlie in France in 2017. “This is the greatest win I’ve ever had,” Brant said after the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. “She hasn’t always been able to make her schedule because of the weather, or because of a spider bite, or because of a fever she had. She had a bout of pneumonia earlier. And she’s just overcome everything, and she’s very special, very special to me and very special to my family and I’m sure very special to Chad.”

Brant nearly had two winners in the Breeders’ Cup. His four-year-old filly Wow Cat, who he co-owns with Stud Vendaval, Inc., finished second by a length to the brilliant filly Monomoy Girl in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

It’s good being back.

| PROFILES |

ABOVE LEFT: Cloud Computing owners, William Lawrence left and Seth Klarman (right) with trainer Chad Brown (far right) ABOVE RIGHT: Cloud Computing wins the Preakness Stakes BELOW: Newspaperofrecord, ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., wins the Juvenile Fillies Turf on Breeders’ Cup World Championship Friday at Churchill Downs

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Worth the wait

Seth Klarman’s whole life has revolved around numbers, usually business numbers as a financial boy genius who became a self-made billionaire as CEO and president and portfolio manager of the Boston-based Baupost Group, a private investment partnership he founded in 1982. He also, as a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox, knows all of baseball’s analytics.

In Thoroughbred racing, a natural fit for him growing up three blocks from Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, he’s put up great numbers since becoming an owner in 1993, first in partnership with Jeff Ravich as Klaravich Stables before Ravich opened his own stable on the West Coast. Klarman held on to the stable name and found a new partner in 2006 in William H. Lawrence, the CEO and chief investment officer of Meridian Capital Partners in Albany, N.Y. Klarman’s precociousness in business was absolutely extraordinary. When he was four, he redecorated his room as a retail store, putting price tags on all his possessions.

In the fifth grade, he gave his class a presentation about buying a stock. To supplement his personal income, he had a paper route, a snow cone stand, a snow shoveling business and sold stamp and coin collections. He bought his first stock at the age of 10, purchasing one share of Johnson & Johnson because he had gone through a lot of band-aids growing up. The stock split three-for-one,

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allowing Klarman to triple his investment. By the age of 12, he was calling his broker regularly to get stock quotes.

He intended to major in mathematics when he enrolled at Cornell University, but switched to economics. He graduated magna cum laude in economics with a minor in history in 1979. He worked for the Mutual Share Fund, where he had interned in the summer of his junior year, for a year and a half before going to business school at Harvard, where he was a Baker Scholar. When he graduated in 1982, he co-founded the Baupost Group. In 2008, he was inducted into the International Investors Alpha’s Hedge Fund Manager Hall of Fame.

His philanthropic endeavors are legendary

William H. Lawrence, who is on the Board of Overseers for the Wharton School of Business, was born in North Dakota, but his family moved to Albany, N.Y., when he was young and his family enjoyed going to Saratoga. He was 12 when he visited Saratoga Race Course for the first time, and he subsequently went back with friends many times. They told each other that if any of them wound up with the capital to buy Thoroughbreds, they would do that. A few decades later, after Lawrence had graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and made his fortune as the founder and CEO of Meridian Capital Partners, his friends reminded him of that, saying “You’re the guy.”

So he stepped up to the plate and joined forced with Klarman. He did so with no pretensions. “If you find people who are actually making money in this sport, then please let me know,” Lawrence told Tim Hyland in a 2013 story in The Wharton Magazine. “For me, being from Wharton; for Seth, who is a great investor, this business is very incongruous to how we would normally think otherwise.”

Regardless, Klaravich Stables has some 100 horses, most of them with Chad Brown. Many have had financial names, including Currency Swap, Balance the Books, Economic Model, Takeover Target and Cloud Computing. One can only imagine the thrill Klarman had when Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence’s Cloud Computing won the 2017 Preakness Stakes in his hometown.

Through October, 2018, though, there was one number that Klaravich hadn’t reached: one. They had not had one

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| PROFILES |

ABOVE LEFT: Stormy Liberal, ridden by Drayden Van Dyke, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint RIGHT: Gary Hartunian right leading Roy H, winner of the Twinspires Breeders’ Cup Sprint TOP RIGHT: Roy H, ridden

by Paco Lopez, wins Twinspires Breeders’ Cup Sprint for owner Gary Hartunian

victory in the Breeders’ Cup. Klaravich was 0-for-16 and Klarman 0-2 on his own heading into the 2018 Breeders’ Cup, an oh-fer that ended in exultation when their unworldly two-year-old filly Newspaperofrecord upped her perfect record to three-for-three with a dominant 6 ¾-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly Turf.

“We never won a Breeders’ Cup race, so that’s special,” Klarman said. “I think she’s our most spectacular horse.

We’ve never had somebody that emerged so quickly in their career—showed so much promise and fulfilled it.”

Economics be damned because, as Lawrence pointed out, “Winning a horse race is one of the greatest feelings in the world.”

Better than an airplane or yacht

There were two crucial moments in Gary Hartunian’s brief, yet incredibly successful, tenure as a Thoroughbred owner after building a strong career in Los Angeles commercial real estate. The first—the decision to buy a Thoroughbred—came in 2012 when he took advantage of the first Barretts Paddock Sale at Del Mar and purchased a ready-to-race Fast N Furius Cat after conferring with trainer Peter Miller. Hartunian explained his rationale for becoming an owner in a July 15, 2013, story by Ed Zieralski in the San Diego Tribune: “I was having such a great time at Del Mar every year, I thought, why not?

I might as well buy a horse. I figured it was better than

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owning an airplane or yacht—probably cheaper and a lot more fun because I really like horses. They’re such beautiful animals and do so much amazing things.”

His second seminal decision to stay in the business also came in 2012, when, after Fast N Furius Cat finished third and eighth, he was claimed for $32,000. Instead of walking away, Hartunian plunged head first into racing, not a bad decision as his Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen’s two sprinters, Roy H, who is named for Hartunian’s grandfather, and Stormy Liberal, captured their second consecutive Breeders’ Cup stakes in 2018, winning the Sprint and the Turf Sprint. That’s four Breeders’ Cup victories in a little more than one year.

Roy H began his career on turf, making nine of his first 12 starts on grass. He was zero-for-three on dirt at that point, when Miller returned him to dirt out of desperation and watched him blossom into a two-time Breeders’ Cup winner.

Even more remarkable is that they purchased Stormy Liberal in a $40,000 claim, and that he won his four last starts of 2018 by a nose, a nose, a head and his second straight Breeders’ Cup by a neck, a year after he won his Breeders’ Cup race at Del Mar. “It’s pretty amazing to have won at Del Mar, which is sort of my home track, and then to come out to Churchill Downs and pull the same thing off,” Bernsen said. “It sort of capped off a very tumultuous year for Peter especially, dealing with the barns that were burning down (at the San Luis Rey Training Center); and a month later we’re getting an Eclipse Award. Then a couple of months after that, we’re in Dubai, and both horses ran well.”

Two months after winning his second consecutive Breeders’ Cup race, Stormy Liberal proved that he’s mortal, finishing second to Caribou Club in the Gr3 Joe Hernandez Stakes at Santa Anita on 2019 New Year’s Day. A year ago, after Stormy Liberal won the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar, he finished 11th in the Gp1 Hong Kong Sprint. Then, after finishing second in the Gr3 Daytona Stakes at Santa Anita, he was second by a halflength in the Gp1 Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai.

He’d literally taken his connections all over the globe. They could have gotten to those exotic destinations in an airplane or on a yacht, but what fun would that have been?

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| VETERINARY

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AN INTRODUCTION TO THE FUNCTIONAL ASPECTS OF CONFORMATI ON Judy Wardrope

hy is one horse a sprinter and another a stayer? Why is one sibling a star and another a disappointment? Why does one horse stay sound and another does not? Over the course of the next few issues, we will delve into the mechanics of the racehorse to discern the answer to these questions and others. We will be learning by example, and we will be using objective terminology as well as repeatable measures. This knowledge can be applied to the selection of racing prospects, to the consideration of distance or surface preferences and, of course, to mating choices.

Introducing a different way of looking at things requires some forethought.

W

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Eclipse Sportswire, Judy Wardrope

Questions need to be addressed in order to provide educational value for the audience. How does one organize the information, and how does one back up the information? In the case of equine functionality in racing, which horses will provide the best corroborative visuals?

After considerable thought, these three horses were selected: Tiznow (Horse #1) twice won the Breeders’ Cup Classic (1¼ miles); Lady Eli (Horse #2) won the Juvenile Fillies Turf and was twice second in the Filly and Mare Turf (13/8 miles); while our third example (Horse #3) did not earn enough to pay his way on the track. Let’s see if we can explain the commonalities and the differences so that we can apply that knowledge in the future.

Factors for athleticism

If we consider the horse’s hindquarters to be the motor, then we should consider the connection between hindquarters and body to be the horse’s transmission. Like in a vehicle, if the motor is strong, but the transmission is weak, the horse will either have to protect the transmission or damage it.

According to Dr. Hilary M. Clayton (BVMS, PhD, MRCVS), the hind limb rotates around the hip joint in the walk and trot and around the lumbosacral joint in the canter and gallop. “The lumbosacral joint is the only part of the vertebral column between the base of the neck and the tail that allows a significant amount of flexion (rounding) and extension

| CONFORMATION |

(hollowing) of the back. At all the other vertebral joints, the amount of motion is much smaller. Moving the point of rotation from the hip joint to the lumbosacral joint increases the effective length of the hind limbs and, therefore, increases stride length.” From a functional perspective, that explains why a canter or gallop is loftier in the forehand than the walk or the trot.

In order to establish an objective measure, I use the lumbosacral (LS) gap, which is located just in front of the high point of the croup. This is where the articulation of the spine changes just in front of the sacrum, and it is where the majority of the up and down motion along the spine occurs. The closer a line drawn from the top point of one hip to the top point of the other hip comes to bisecting this palpable gap, the stronger the horse’s transmission. In other words, the stronger the horse’s coupling. ● See page 38 for images We can see that the first two horses have an LS gap (just in front of the high point of the croup as indicated) that is essentially in line with a line drawn from the top of one hip to the top of the opposing hip. This gives them the ability to transfer their power both upward (lifting of the forehand) and forward (allowing for full extension of the forehand and the hindquarters). Horse #3 shows an LS gap considerably rearward of the top of his hip, making him less able to transfer his power and setting him up for a sore back.

You may also notice that all three of these sample horses display an ilium side (point of hip to point of buttock), which is the same length as the femur side (point of buttock to stifle protrusion)—meaning that they produce similar types of power from the rear spring as it coils and releases when in stride. We can examine the variances in these measures in more detail in future articles, when we start to delve into various ranges of motion as well as other factors for soundness or injury.

Factors for distance preferences

The hindquarters of Horse #1 and Horse #2 also differ from that of Horse #3 based on the location of the stifle protrusion (not the actual patella, but the visible protrusion that one can watch go through its range of motion as the horse moves).

The differences in stifle placement equate with range of motion of the hind leg, stride length and, to some degree, stride rate.

When it comes to the stifle placement for a champion at Classic distances, we can see just how far below sheath level Tiznow’s stifle protrusion is and we can equate that to Lady Eli’s as well, even though she doesn’t have a sheath. Horse #3 has a stifle placement that is higher than the other two horses, more in keeping with the placement of a miler (at the bottom of or just below the bottom of the sheath). Sprinters tend to have stifle placement that is above that of milers.

The most efficient racehorses have a range of motion of the forehand that

ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: The stride pattern of Lady Eli

corresponds to the range of motion of the hindquarters. That may seem like stating the obvious, but not all horses have strides that match fore and aft. We have seen those horses that “climb” in the front as well as those that seem to “bounce” higher in the rump. In both cases, a mismatch of strides is often the cause.

For simplicity, let’s say the horse has to generate power from his hindquarters, transfer that power upward and forward through the spine as well as extend his front end at the same stride rate created by the hindquarters for efficiency. He/ she has to maintain the same rate in the forequarters and the hindquarters.

One of the things we seldom think about is that horses have to move the front quarters at the same stride rate created by the hindquarters, but they do not necessarily have to be built to have the same stride lengths and turnover rates front and back.

If a horse has to significantly adjust the stride length fore or aft, he/she is likely not going to win in top company, especially racing. And for those horses that can adapt to slight discrepancies, a strong LS placement is paramount.

A car with different sized tires in the front than in the back will travel at a constant speed, but the smaller tires will rotate faster than the larger ones.

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| VETERINARY

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A horse can’t do that, though; he/she has to compensate to bring the front and rear into the same stride rate.

In a person, the length of the thigh has a major impact on stride length. Now imagine that you have one thigh shorter than the other. How will you run? If you don’t compensate for the difference, you will either fall down or go in circles.

Chances are, if you want to travel straight, you will dwell in the air on the short side in order to balance the stride rates. This is what the mismatched horse does, but it is not typically efficient.

When considering the stride length/ turnover rate of the horse’s forehand, one must remember that from the top of scapula to knee is all one apparatus.

Nothing moves independently. That means that different configurations can have similar results. Conversely, a slight change in humerus length or angle can affect the stride tremendously. For instance, a horse with a short humerus (elbow to point of shoulder) that is considerably angled upward will be much quicker with his turnover rate on the forehand than a horse with the same scapula that has either a longer humerus or one that is not angled as steeply. If a horse has a shorter, quicker range of motion of the forehand, dwelling in the air on the forehand while the hindquarter goes through its range of motion is the most common method of compensation.

But, again, a strong coupling is required.

Without a strong LS, the horse simply does not attempt to balance its stride in order to maximize range of motion. Such horses just move slower.

If the horse has a shorter stride or quicker turnover rate in front, he’ll often climb with his front end in order to equalize the time it takes to go through the range of motion for each rear stride.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing in a jumper, but it is not such a good thing in a racehorse. Many of us have witnessed a horse that climbs in the front, but we may not have attributed it to a difference in turnover rates or stride lengths.

What if the reverse is true and the horse has a shorter stride and quicker turnover rate behind? If the horse has a slower stride rate or longer stride on the forehand, he may choose to dwell in the air for a fraction of a second with his hindquarters. If that is the case, he is not going to be as smooth to ride. He’ll likely pitch the jockey forward and land heavier on his forehand, which is not pleasant and not complimentary to soundness.

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Tiznow (Horse #1)

Lady Eli (Horse #2)

(Horse #3)

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Before looking closer at the forequarters for range of motion, it is important to understand that the forehand works as one apparatus—nothing moves independently from top of scapula to point of shoulder to elbow to knee. If the knee rises and comes forward, the forearm follows plus the humerus (elbow to point of shoulder) and the scapula move through corresponding ranges of motion. Likewise, if the top of the scapula rotates rearward, the point of shoulder rises, the elbow comes forward and the forearm is extended and the knee is lifted and moved forward.

Good forelimb movement is characterized by a full range of motion in the swing phase and the stance phase. The latter part of the stance phase is the part of the stride where the horse has rotated his forehand over his front leg and is about to lift that leg from the ground. That is also when the elbow is closest to the ribcage in forward movement. Horses such as #3 have an elbow that could make contact with the ribcage in the latter part of the stance phase (just before the hoof leaves the ground), but they want to avoid that painful collision (almost bone on bone with little padding).

How did our sample horse compensate?

He built a muscle over his elbow because he has been using it as a brake. He also built muscle on the underside of his neck.

Both of these things were meant to lift the hoof off the ground before the elbow struck

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| CONFORMATION |

the ribcage. Again, this does not lead to efficiency of stride.

Length of humerus adds reach, and if that humerus has sufficient rise from elbow to point of shoulder, it does not restrict stride rate. Horses with a short humerus that has a steep rise from elbow to point of shoulder tend to have more knee action than is desired on the track.

Stride length and turnover rate are the two components of speed. Imagine the difference on the clock between two horses of equal stride rate, but one has a longer stride. It may well be the difference between winning and placing out of the money.

In future articles, we will delve into how the variations in length and angle of humerus affect movement plus how tightness of the elbow can impede the rearmost portion of the front stride, thus limiting extension.

Factors for soundness

Aside from the LS and a few factors in hindquarter construction that we will cover in future articles, one of the best advantages for soundness is lightness of the forehand since speed and weight amplify the forces on a horse’s front legs.

As a means of measuring lightness of the forehand, I use several markers. The first is the pillar of support, which is simply a line extended up and down through the naturally occurring groove in the horse’s forearm. In general one can see how

much horse is out in front of that line, but specifically, the further in front of the withers the line emerges, the lighter the horse’s forehand. Additionally, a rise in the humerus adds to lightness, as does a base of neck that is well above the point of shoulder.

All three sample horses share the above traits for lightness. However, where the bottom of the line depicting the pillar of support emerges also plays a role in soundness and longevity. In Horse #1 the line emerges into the rear quarter of his hoof, ideal placement. In Horse #2 it just catches the rear quarter of the hoof, and in Horse #3 it emerges just behind the hoof.

Of the three, Horse #3 is at more risk for damage to the suspensory apparatus (bowed tendons and torn ligaments) and is more likely to hit his fetlock on the racing surface.

Please keep in mind that where the bottom of the pillar emerges has little to do with length and angle of the pastern. Shocking, but true. More on this in future articles.

Failure or success

Sometimes it is all in how you analyze the horses and whether you place them where their conformation functions as an asset rather than a detriment. Tiznow proved his championship form at Classic distances on dirt. Lady Eli proved her championship form at Classic distances on turf. And Horse #3 proved that he was not built to be a successful racehorse.

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| DAVID DUGGAN |

IN CONVER SATION WI TH

DAVID DUGGAN Golden Gate Fields is one of North America’s fastest growing racetracks in terms of handle growth. But that’s only part of the story as Giles Anderson found out when he recently sat down with Golden Gate Fields General Manager and Vice President David Duggan.

Giles Anderson

Giles Anderson, Golden Gate Fields

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GA: You’ve been at Golden Gate Fields now for nearly eighteen months, running the track since October 2017.

The figures from your first winter/spring meet were up massively, and then the summer meet was up 29%. What have you done to achieve such staggering growth?

DD: We made a lot of changes. It became quite a fastmoving, changing environment. What we discovered was that we have a lot of people who’ve been here for many, many years, but there hadn’t been any adrenaline shot given to the place for quite some time, so we did change it, but it wasn’t necessarily all down to me. There was a lot of people involved in this, and I was keen to have a younger crew in the management of the facility. They’re great at connecting and they understand what their friends and colleagues are thinking, and they tell me. I feel all the talk about getting the young people in, and we have an aging demographic that follows horse racing. The only way to connect with young people and the millennials, and all these different groups that people are putting together now, is to listen to young people and that’s what we have.

We’ve spent a lot of time since I came here, both myself and Cynthia Sidle—my special operations manager in San Francisco. We speak to and go and shake hands and meet lots of different groups. We’ve made a very big effort in Chinatown because I obviously know the Asian market quite well. We take bus loads of them to come out here on a Saturday to see us. We’ve spent a lot of time with the LGBTQ community and we’ve had some very, very successful events with them as well and indeed the Hispanic population which is very, very big in the city. We have a specific Latin festival here in the summer which is very, very well patronized as well.

What we’ve discovered is we can sit and hope people are going to come. In the greater majority of time, we’ve

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actually had to go out and get the people and bring them here. There’s so much talk that the world of horse racing has become very, very small through various means, but there’s so much talk about attracting younger people, getting younger people to come to the races. That’s all very well, but you’ve got to be proactive and you have to do something about it.

If you make the effort to get people and bring them to the racetrack, they will come back.

But was the handle growth mainly off track—is that where the growth was coming from?

We worked hard with the racing office to increase the field size, therefore a lot of eyes around the country were on us. We also paid particular attention to the post times because on a weekend in particular, it can become quite a congested program because you have action on the East Coast, you have action on the West Coast, and you have action in Florida. It’s very important to keep an eye on when everybody’s coming out of the starting gate. We’re very keen, and we watch them very carefully and we get a lot of help. If we need to move or wait a couple of minutes until somebody finishes, that’s what we did.

When we looked at the figures, it was evident that we were clashing with bigger meetings; it was the “clash of the Titans” really. We were going off at the same time as Saratoga or Keeneland or Belmont, and we were going to lose every time. It was like a heavyweight mismatched boxing match.

We had to adjust that and that was a big help, but export was great and amazingly enough of our own track figure—people betting on us, on the facility, etc. was very good too with the increased attendance, but our figures across the board were good.

| DAVID DUGGAN |

IF YOU MAKE THE EFFORT TO GET PEOPLE AND BRING THEM TO THE RACETRACK, THEY WILL COME BACK. What’s your average field size been?

Our average field size has jumped. I think we’re about a 7.2 and we’re heading in the direction of 7.4 at the moment. That’s a big, big jump from early sizes (late 5’s).

You’re in a unique position having the only artificial surface on the west coast. That must be a big strength for you?

Although we’ve got lots of different artificial surfaces worldwide, the Tapeta track is sensational. We’ve got a beautiful, beautiful turf track here. It’s very mature and it really is tremendous. In fact Tom Queally, who was Sir Henry Cecil’s jockey, was here for a season last year, and he said it rode as good a turf track as any.

When we do have to come off the turf, when we have heavy rain and we go onto the Tapeta, it’s a very seamless transition and we get very few scratches. It takes the weather really well. It really is a great all-weather surface.

I know Tapeta and Michael Dickinson won’t thank me for saying all-weather, but it is Tapeta surface; but it’s extremely durable, very kind and it’s got a great cushion on it. The equine injuries are way, way down and there’s very little attrition off it. It’s really a wonderful surface.

The horsemen love it. It’s great to train on and it’s very durable. I think that’s the key. There’s a lot of horses out there in the morning. It’s very easy to maintain as well. Once you follow the guidelines as set out by the manufacturers, it really is terrific.

What’s your stabling capacity?

Well, we can hold something in the region of 1,400 horses. I think we’ve got 1,350 odd at the moment, so we’re very, very full. A lot of that credit goes to Patrick Mackey and his racing team down there. Patrick and I went out and we went to the East Coast. We went to tracks that would have similar surfaces to us, and we got some trainers to come here from there.

It’s not as easy. We haven’t got a great pool of horses around us so we have to go and get them, but we’re very full at the moment. We’ve also got some excellent trainers.

Last summer, the Northern California off track wagering deal was seemingly threatening the future structure of racing in this part of the state. Has any progress been made?

Very often in California it’s a place of political influence, and sentiment outweighs economic reality, which in itself is puzzling, but that’s California. It’s a very different state. It’s a very heavily regulated state, and that transcends down to horse racing as well and the administration of horse racing.

Tim Ritvo is very keen to provide a better grounding for our trainers with regards to what they get back and the purse money gets back. That’s an ongoing situation at the moment and that’ll continue to play out, I would imagine, well into 2019.

We’d love to be year round. We always put in our application for as many dates as we can possibly have.

It’s a shame in many respects that we don’t race in the ISSUE 51 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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summer because we’ve got such a fabulous turf track that holds its moisture so well; and we’d love to be racing on the turf, but we don’t for the greater part of June and July, and we start back in August. It’s regrettable but it is the way it is. Hopefully one day the time will come when we can race in the summer.

Where do you see the role of the fair meets?

I think the fairs are part of the fabric of Californian society and there’s no denying that. Whether they continue to exist in the current format, it will be interesting to see how that plays out. But they’ve been here a lot longer than me, and they probably will continue to be here a lot longer than me.

We do our very best to accommodate them. The majority of the horses that are stabled at Golden Gate Fields race indeed at the fairs. I think there will come a time where perhaps economic reality will outweigh political sentiment.

It’s important to recognize at the very least that they are part of the fabric of our society in California.

BELOW: Cynthia Sidle special operations manager at Golden Gate Fields

46

Looking ahead for the coming year, what are your aspirations for the track?

Well, we’re doing something that has never happened at Golden Gate Fields before. At the end of April 2019, we’re going to have what we call the Goldrush weekend. We’ve planned this with P.J. Campo, where we’re going to run a whole load of stakes races on Saturday, the 27th of April.

The $250,000 San Francisco Mile (Gr3), for three-yearolds and up on turf, will be run on April 27, as will the

TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 51

| DAVID DUGGAN |

$100,000 California Derby, the $75,000 California Oaks, the $75,000 Lost in the Fog Stakes for older sprinters, the $75,000 Golden Poppy Stakes on grass for fillies and mares and then the $75,000 Camilla Urso Stakes, also for fillies and mares on the grass at five furlongs.

This is going to be one of the biggest days on Golden Gate Fields’ calendar ever. It’s a marquee day; we’ll also have stakes races on the Sunday. We’re very anxious to attract runners from Europe, which is quite a task. The West Coast is a long way away, but we have plans in place for that. We’re anxious for European runners to come. It’s going to be a wonderful weekend of racing. We’re working with the Oakland Athletics to have some of their guys out here. The Raiders, the San Francisco Giants—we’ve got some great famous sporting institutions around us, and they’re all very much behind us with this.

Then longer term?

Longer term would be of course to increase the capacity to attract more people to the venue. We’ll be spending a good deal of time in the city of San Francisco again this year; we’re working closely with the Irish consulate and various other consulate services in the city. We’ve got some events planned for the city itself. During Chinese New year, we’re going to take a booth downtown for that whole week. We’ve got some Latino events planned for the city as well. When I first came here, not a lot of people knew exactly that we were here. People said to me at the start, ‘When are you going to start marketing the place?’

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I said, ‘I have no intentions of marketing it at the moment until I get people aware that we exist.’ We’re kind of making a great comeback here. It’s not quite Lazarus, but it’s not a million miles away from it.

What about the actual facility itself?

We’ve had a lot of corporate presence here throughout 2018.

With us doing a lot better and becoming a lot more relevant in the great scheme of things in North America, we’ve a lot of promised re-developments going on and generally tidying up the place, painting it and making a lot of changes for the customer. We’re very customer-oriented—we want nicer venues. It’s such beautiful scenery so we’re going to make nice boutique restaurant areas and stuff like that.

So kind of following the model that you had in your previous job in Hong Kong?

Yes, but I don’t quite think I’ll have the same amount of budget! I think if you can take a little piece of what they do in Hong Kong and make it work, you know, it’s a great thing.

We’ve got quite an old barn area too, and the barn areas are always a discussion of great debate in America, the state of them. We spent a lot of money and time fixing them up and making them right, and we’ve got quite a few people living there as well. They’re very important to us. Often they get forgotten. We spent a long time doing up all the bathrooms and fixing things and making it right. It’s like a different city down there, and we want to make people feel that they’re all inclusive. Nobody works

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| DAVID DUGGAN |

for me at Golden Gate—everybody works with me, and that’s very much the way I like to work.

This is a way of life; it’s not a job, it’s a way of life. It’s very much a lifestyle. We do a lot for our folk in the back, and they’re hugely important to us—they really are. It’s not all glamour, even in California. California is often sold as the Golden state. It’s the place where everybody wants to be and it is a wonderful state, but it does rain and it can get cold. Annually we have a Christmas party for all the staff at the back, and it’s quite a big affair here. We have several hundred people come to it and that’s important. We also have a health service for them. Cynthia and I work very hard on this with the CTT (California Thoroughbred Trainers).

They’ve got a great doctor that tends to their needs. They’ve got a dentist, they’ve got a full medical facility, so they’re very well looked after. I would thank Alan Balch and his CTT for providing such a service; it’s really terrific.

Part of the thing we did in the summer—and it was Cynthia’s and my idea—was to fix the sanitary conditions in bathrooms that people often overlook. We spent a good two months and spent a lot of money fixing them and tidying them up and making them up clean where you would go in and use them yourself. The reason I did it was because with grooms and with people who work in racing, they all talk. If you’ve got a backstretch that’s clean and tidy and easy to live in and the sanitary conditions are good, people will want to come and work here. We did that and we do great now with staff. The trainers are very, very happy because they saw the benefit.

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ISSUE 51 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

49

| BUSINESS |

If you had three things that you could take out of the Hong Kong model to transplant into Golden Gate, what would they be?

Undoubtedly integrity! Integrity would be my number one. Everybody here is issued with a California Horse Racing Board license: your picture is on there, your name is on there, the expiry date, and I insist that everybody displays that at all significant points on the track, whether it’s the paddock or the stable area. That’s something that had become a little bit lax, so I’m very hung up on integrity.

Quality of food would be number two. In the restaurant we’ve got a very good food and beverage director who came to us from Gulfstream Park. I want to produce much, much better food for the customer experience.

The third thing would be the cleanliness of the facility. I think it’s absolutely imperative that the place is immaculate seven days a week, not just when somebody important is coming. Seven days a week I insist on it being immaculate. We’ve got a company who we’re contracted with that cleans the facility. I meet with them every two weeks. They email me every Friday and tell me what they’re doing. I’m very proud that the place is as clean as it is.

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| DAVID DUGGAN |

I THINK IT’S ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE THAT THE PLACE IS IMMACULATE SEVEN DAYS A WEEK, NOT JUST WHEN SOMEBODY IMPORTANT IS COMING. Those would be my three main things. They may not be the “be all and the end all,” but to me they’re very important and they’re the three things that work extremely well in Hong Kong.

You’re going out and getting younger people out to the racetrack, but what about getting new owners into the game. Do you see a responsibility as the race track to be out promoting ownership as well?

Very much so—we do of course. For example, we’ve got a group here this weekend who are a syndicate, My Racehorse, so they’re here. We’re very happy to accommodate them. The Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC) obviously is a very important part of the mechanics of racing in California.

They do a lot of road shows and trainer meetings and introducing people to the sport.

We’re hoping at some point to develop something on a slightly smaller scale than Clocker’s Corner at Santa Anita, which is hugely important. Everyone who goes to Santa Anita always raves about Clocker’s Corner because it’s a very relaxed, fun atmosphere where you can have a doughnut and coffee in the morning, and all of a sudden you’re watching racehorses.

It’s all very exciting. You get very drawn into it and it can become quite addictive, so Clocker’s Corner is very important.

We’re looking very closely at introducing a Clocker’s Cornerthemed area at Golden Gate to encourage people on a Saturday morning to open the doors and let them all come in and look at it with their children and see what it’s all about.

ARLINGTON INTERNATIONAL RACECOURSE

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF RACING SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2019

EARLY CLOSING - SATURDAY, MAY 18 DATE RACE CONDITIONS

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August 10 August 10

3 Year-Olds Fillies, 3 Years-Old

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CHRIS POLZIN | DIRECTOR OF RACING & RACING SECRETARY Telephone: 847.385.7738 | Facsimile: 847.870.6720

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| VETERINARY |

ULCER MEDICATIONS:

A R E T HE P R OD U C T S D I F F ER E N T?

Professor Celia M Marr Professor Celia M Marr, Alamy

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| ULCERS

|

MEASURES TO HELP PREVENT RECURRENCE OF EQUINE GASTRIC ULCER SYNDROME Feeding: The horse’s digestive system has evolved for continuous intake of low-quality forage; domestication has altered feed habits but not the anatomy or physiology of the stomach: • Ensure continuous access to water.

• Allow the horse access to pasture as much as possible.

• Feed up to 8 small concentrate meals per day at 1.5 kg DM/100 kg BW. • Encourage the horse to eat more forage, ideally hay.

• Replace part of the forage ration with lucerne or alfalfa that is capable of neutralizing acid more effectively than grass hay.

• Reduce starch in the diet to < 2 g/kg body weight starch per day and < 1g/kg body weight per meal • Cubes usually have lower starch content than mix.

• Barley or oats are preferable to other starches.

• Vegetable oil may be beneficial particularly for glandular disease.

Fig

1

Fig 1: The equine stomach has two regions: the upper region is the squamous portion, and the lower region is the glandular portion. The squamous portion is lined by pale pink tissue, which is susceptible to acid damage. The glandular portion is lined by darker purple tissue. Acid is produced in this region. In this horse, the stomach lining is healthy and unblemished. The froth is due to saliva, which is continuously swallowed Fig 2: This horse shows signs of discomfort. She carries her head low, her ears are back a little, and the muscles of the face are clenched, affecting the shape of the nostrils and eye

Exercise: Pressure within the abdomen squeezes the stomach and allows the acid to splash up towards the unprotected part of the stomach: • Approximately 30 minutes prior to exercise, feed 1 or 2 handfuls of alfalfa, which will act as a sponge to soak up the liquid acid.

Stomach ulcers are not all the same

Racehorse trainers and their vets first began to be aware of stomach ulcers over 20 years ago. The reasons why we became aware of ulcers are related to technological advances, which produced endoscopes long enough to get into the equine stomach. At that time, scopes were typically about eight feet long and were most effective in examining the upper area of the stomach, which is called the squamous portion. Once this technology became available, it was quickly appreciated that it is very common for racehorses to have ulcers in the squamous portion of the stomach.

The equine stomach has two main areas: the squamous portion and the glandular portion. The stomach sits more or less in the middle of the horse, immediately behind the diaphragm and in front of and above the large colon.

Imagine the stomach as a large balloon with the esophagus— the gullet—entering halfway up the front side and slightly to the left of the balloon-shaped stomach and the exit point also coming out the front side but slightly lower and to the right side. The tissue around the exit—the pylorus—and the lower one-third, the glandular portion, has a completely different lining to the top two-thirds, the squamous portion.

The stomach produces acid to start the digestive process. Ulceration of the squamous portion is caused by this acid. Like the human esophagus, the lining of the squamous portion has very limited defenses against acid. But, the acid is actually produced in the lower, glandular portion. The position of the stomach is between the diaphragm, which moves backwards as the horse breathes in and the heavy large intestine which tends to push forwards as the horse moves. During exercise, liquid

Fig

2

acid produced at the bottom of the stomach is squeezed upwards onto the vulnerable squamous lining. It makes sense then that the medications used to treat squamous ulcers are aimed at blocking acid production.

Lesions in the glandular portion of the stomach are less common than squamous ulcers. The acid-producing glandular portion has natural defenses against acid damage including a layer of mucus and local production of buffering compounds. At this point, we actually know relatively little about the causes of glandular disease, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that disease in the glandular portion is very different from squamous disease.

Often, it is more difficult to treat.

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| VETERINARY |

| ULCERS |

Fig

Fig

3

Fig

5

Stomach ulcers can cause a wide range of clinical signs. Some horses seem relatively unaffected by fairly severe ulcers, but other horses will often been off their feed, lose weight, and have poor coat quality. Some will show signs of abdominal discomfort, particularly shortly after eating. Other horses may be irritable—they can grind their teeth or they may resent being girthed.

Additional signs of pain include an anxious facial expression, with ears back and clenching of the jaw and facial muscles and a tendency to stand with their head carried a little low.

Assessing ulcers

Ulcers can only be diagnosed with endoscopy. A grading system has been established for squamous ulcers, which is useful in making an initial assessment and in documenting response to treatment.

Grade 0 = normal intact squamous lining Grade 1 = mild patches of reddening Grade 2 = small single or multiple ulcers Grade 3 = large single or multiple ulcers Grade 4 = extensive, often merging with areas of deep ulceration

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4

Fig

6

Fig 3: Grade 1 squamous ulcers, which are mild patches of reddening Fig 4: Grade 2 squamous ulcers—there are several of these, but they are all small Fig 5: Grade 3 squamous ulcers—these are larger, and there are several Fig 6: Grade 4 squamous ulcers—there are extensive deep ulcers with active hemorrhage

Although it is used for research purposes, this grading system does not translate very well to glandular ulcers where typically, lesions are described in terms of their severity (mild, moderate or severe), distribution (focal, multifocal or diffuse), thickness (flat, depressed, raised or nodular) and appearance (reddening, hemorrhagic or fibrinosuppurative).

Fibrinosuppurative suggests that inflammatory cells or pus has formed in the area. Focal reddening can be quite common in the absence of any clinical signs. Nodular and fibrinosuppurative lesions may be more difficult to treat than flat or reddened lesions. Where the significance of lesions is questionable, it can be helpful to treat the ulcers and repeat the endoscopic examination to determine whether the clinical signs resolve along with the ulcers.

Medications for squamous ulcers

Because of the prevalence and importance of gastric ulcers, Equine Veterinary Journal publishes numerous

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ISSUE 51 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| VETERINARY |

Fig

7

Fig

9

Fig 7: The glandular tissue around the pylorus (or exit point) has reddened patches. This is of questionable clinical relevance, and many horses will show no signs associated with these lesions Fig 8: There are dark red patches of hemorrhage in the glandular tissue of the antrumâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the region adjacent to the pylorusâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which is the dark hole toward the bottom of this image Fig 9: This horse has moderate to severe glandular disease. There are depressed suppurative (yellow) areas several of which also have hemorrhage. Nearer to the pylorus there is reddening and raised, swollen areas (arrow) Fig 10: This horse has moderate to severe glandular disease. The majority of lesions are depressed and hemorrhagic

research articles seeking to optimize treatment. The most commonly used drug for treatment of squamous ulcers is omeprazole. A key feature of products for horses is that the drug must be buffered in order to reach the small intestine, from where it is absorbed into the bloodstream in order to be effective. Until recently only one brand was available, but there are now several preparations on the market and researchers have been seeking to show whether new medicines are as effective as the original brand. There is limited information comparing the new products, and this information is essential to determine whether the new, and often cheaper, products should be used. A team

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Fig

8

Fig

10 of researchers formed from Charles Sturt University in Australia and Louisiana State University has compared two omeprazole products given orally. A study reported

by Dr. Raidal and her colleagues, showed that not only were plasma concentrations of omeprazole similar with both products, but importantly, the research also showed that gastric pH was similar with both products, and both products reduced summed squamous ulcer scores. Both the products tested in this trial are available in Australia and, although products on the market in other regions have been shown to achieve similar plasma concentrations and it is therefore reasonable to assume that they will be beneficial, as yet, not all of them have been tested to show whether products are equally effective in reducing ulcer scores in large-scale clinical trials. Trainers should discuss this issue with their vets when deciding which specific ulcer product they plan to use in their horses.

Avoiding drugs altogether and replacing this with a natural remedy is appealing. There is a plethora of nutraceuticals around and anecdotally, horse owners believe they may be effective. One such option is aloe vera that has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and mucus stimulatory effects, which might be beneficial in a horseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stomach. Another research group from Australia, this

| ULCERS

time based in Adelaide, has looked at the effectiveness of aloe vera in treating squamous ulcers and found that, although 56% of horses treated with aloe vera improved and 17% resolved after 28 days, this is compared to 85% improvement and 75% resolution in horses given omeprazole. Therefore, Dr. Bush and her colleagues from Adelaide concluded treatment with aloe vera was inferior to treatment with omeprazole.

An alternative solution to this problem might be to give omeprazole by another route. Dr. Sykesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; team has been working on an intramuscular omeprazole preparation. In a recent Equine Veterinary Journal article, it was shown that after a single dose of intramuscular omeprazole, the stomach pH was above the target of 4 for 66% of the day for 4 days in all horses studied, and this target was achieved in 4 of 6 horses for 7 days. Two doses of intramuscular omeprazole, given at 7-day intervals was used as a treatment in 22 horses with gastric disease; complete squamous ulcer healing was seen in all 22 when they were re-examined at 14-16 days. Only 12 of these horses had glandular disease, and 9 of these healed completely while improvement by at least one grade was found in 12, suggesting that intramuscular omeprazole is an effective alternative option for treatment of equine gastric disease. Although again, these results are somewhat preliminary, and larger studies looking at different clinical populations are warranted.

Medications for glandular ulcers

It has been known for some time that glandular ulcers do not respond as well to omeprazole treatment as squamous ulcers. Researchers from Nottingham University (UK) have looked at some alternative approaches to this problem. In a study reported by Dr. Varley and colleagues, 18 horses were treated with omeprazole combined with sucralfate, a drug with local anti-inflammatory effects, which improved glandular ulcers in 89%, but complete healing was only achieved in 22%. The researchers also treated 22 horses with misoprostol, a drug that has a range of effects including improving the blood supply to the intestinal tissue; similar rates of improvement were noted, and 90% of horses improved. However, 73% of horses given misoprostol healed completely at the end of the trial. Therefore, Dr. Varley concluded that misoprostol was superior to omeprazole with sucralfate for treatment of glandular ulcers.

Does medication prevent ulcers?

73% OF HORSES GIVEN MISOPROSTOL HEALED COMPLETELY AT THE END OF THE TRIAL. Maximizing the benefit of medication

The time above the target pH of 4 is an important factor influencing how effective omeprazole is in treating ulcers. Drug absorption can be influenced by whether or not it is given to the horse when its stomach is full.

Research published by Dr. Sykes has shown that diet has a massive impact on the absorption of omeprazole. Dr. Sykes and his team used an experimental set up in which they implanted pH probes into two locations within the stomach. They showed that horses fed a high-grain and low-fiber diet had higher pH (i.e., less acid); and when a high (4 mg/kg) dose of omeprazole was given, this achieved the target pH for healing within one day. When a lower (1 mg/kg) dose was used, it took longer for the pH to reach target, and this was only achieved in one of the two pH measurement locations. Omeprazole at both doses was less effective in horses fed hay only. The high-grain, low-fiber diet used in this study was similar to diets typically used in racehorses. To get the best out of omeprazole, it should be given on an empty stomach with feed withheld for at least 30 mins after administration.

Because the drugâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s effects are greatest shortly after it is administered, ideally oral omeprazole should be given 1 to 4 hours before vigorous exercise.

|

When considering the prevention of gastric ulcers, there are various management changes which can be considered, but radical alteration of the management of individual horses on a training yard can be difficult to achieve.

Trials, which have looked at how effective omeprazole is in preventing ulcers, have varied in their design and quality, particularly in the doses used and in whether or not the trial included a placebo group. To try to get over these problems, Dr. Mason, a researcher based at the San Francisco State University, evaluated the published literature and found seven high-quality trials, including 566 horses in race training. Four of these studies focused on horses which had been diagnosed and treated for ulcers previously, while the other three involved horses had not previously been diagnosed with ulcers. Dr. Mason looked at how many cases of squamous gastric ulceration were prevented by using oral omeprazole in 1,000 horses. With any dose, there were between 440 to 633 fewer cases; and if a dose of 2 mg/kg was used, omeprazole given to 1,000 horses produced between 5,410 and 767 fewer cases of ulceration. The ulcer severity score was around 1 point lower with any dose and between 1.3 and 1.9 points lower with the 2 mg/kg dose.

SUMMARY

Omeprazole has been used for treatment of gastric ulcers for well over a decade. Omeprazole is generally effective against squamous ulcers, but ulcers in the glandular region are more difficult to treat. Misoprostol and to a lesser extent, sucralfate combined with omeprazole, can be helpful against lesions in the glandular region. There are now several different omeprazole-containing products on the market, and trainers should discuss with their vets how much research has been published to support the use of the particular product they would like to use. It is important to consider the impact of diet on drug absorption, and giving omeprazole on an empty stomach is advisable. Intramuscular products may get around some of the variability in absorption of omeprazole when it is given orally. Omeprazole is effective in preventing ulcers, but trainers should consider whether they can alter the horseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s management to achieve the same goal.

ISSUE 51 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| INDUSTRY |

E XE RCISIN G H ORSE SENSE PART I: AVOIDING GREY AREAS WHEN HIRING EXERCISE RIDERS Peter Sacopulos

Eclipse Sportswire Sportswire, Shutterstock

This is the first article in a two-part series on managing your legal and tax liabilities when hiring exercise riders.

It examines recent accidents involving riders, how to ensure a riderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s status as an independent contractor, and hiring basics. Part II will focus on available insurance protection for trainers and riders, as well as proper safety regulations, procedures and equipment, and equine liability laws.

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| EXERCISE RIDERS |

A series of tragic events

Shortly before 6:00 a.m. on November 11, 2018, Odanis Acuna, a long-time exercise rider at Churchill Downs, was taking two-year-old New York Harbor through a routine workout. Acuna was breezing the unraced colt when it suddenly broke down, sending both horse and rider crashing to the ground. The track’s EMTs responded quickly, but Acuna had sustained catastrophic head and neck injuries in the fall. He died shortly after their arrival.

Odanis “Cuba” Acuna was admired for his horse skills, work ethic, upbeat personality and devotion to his family.

He was 42 years old at the time of his death.

The tragedy was one in a number of recent accidents involving exercise riders. Just 14 months earlier, Darren Fortune was killed when a horse he was exercising bolted after gallop at Woodbine in Toronto. Like Acuna, 43-year-old Darren Fortune was a highly seasoned pro who impressed many with his horse skills, people skills and work ethic. In addition to his morning sessions as an exercise rider, he worked as an outrider at Woodbine.

Witnesses have stated that Fortune’s actions during the mishap that took his life very likely prevented other riders from being killed or injured.

Kellie Hedges, another highly experienced exercise rider who had also served as an outrider, was severely injured while working at Belterra Park near Cincinnati, Ohio. On the morning of June 26, 2018, the horse Hedges was breezing fell forward, threw Hedges, rolled over her, then rose and sped off down the track. Two outriders eventually intercepted the runaway horse—a filly that, remarkably, was not hurt in the incident. Meanwhile, the severely injured Hedges lay on the track in a daze.

The Paulick Report and local news coverage reported no outrider attended to Hedges while she was down.

According to Hedges, the “clear the track” alert siren sounded only briefly, and Hedges says other riders and horses returned to the track and continued to work while she lay immobile.

Track-based EMTs appeared slow to respond to Hedges accident, and track security staff demanded Hedges exit the ambulance and be taken to track offices in order to verify her license. Eventually loaded onto another ambulance, Hedges was taken to the local hospital. After she arrived, emergency room physicians had her rushed to Cincinnati Medical Center, where she underwent emergency surgery to save a broken leg. Surgeries for other injuries followed. It is unclear if Kellie Hedges will ever ride again. Belterra has drawn sharp criticism for how the incident was handled.

Questions you must ask

As of this writing, none of the incidents mentioned above have resulted in a lawsuit being filed. But others have.

All pose a series of questions that you should be asking yourself. As a trainer, do you know what your liability would be if an exercise rider you hired were injured or killed while working one of your horses? If a horse you are training were injured or killed while being exercised?

If another horse or rider were injured or killed in an accident involving a horse you are training?

ISSUE 51 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| INDUSTRY |

I N N O RT H AMERICA, AN EMPLOYER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SPECIFIC PAY M E N TS TO WA R D A N EMPLOYEE’S SOCIAL S E C U R I TY.

On an even more basic level, do you know how to ensure that a rider who works for you is viewed by the IRS and other government entities as an independent contractor, rather than an employee who adds to your tax and liability burdens? Are you familiar with the requirements for protective gear for riders? Or are you aware of the safety guidelines every exercise rider should be operating under on a daily basis?

The answer to any one of these questions could dramatically impact your ability to earn a living as a trainer, especially if something goes wrong. This article is designed to provide you with broad, general advice about such issues. Remember, regulations vary widely. You should seek professional legal and insurance advice when dealing with the specific needs of your business.

Employee vs. independent contractor

Under U.S. labor and tax laws, the IRS and other government entities draw a distinction between employees and independent contractors. State and local laws and tax regulations may also apply. Both an employee and an independent contractor may perform tasks for a company. But legally speaking, each is a distinctly different type of worker.

In North America, an employer is responsible for specific payments toward an employee’s Social Security, unemployment insurance and Medicare funding. Often, employers are also responsible for an employee’s worker compensation insurance funding and certain aspects of offering or providing employee health insurance. The employer is also responsible for payroll reporting to the employee and the IRS. At the end of each calendar year, the employer must provide each employee and the IRS with a completed W-2 form. Employees may work for

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an employer on a full-time or part-time basis, and the number of hours worked may affect certain aspects of what the government requires the employer to fund or provide on an employee’s behalf.

In short, an employee works for a business or organization. By contrast, an independent contractor performs work for an individual, business or organization but works for himself or herself as an independent business. This means that independent contractors are responsible for their own Social Security and Medicare funding (paid as self-employment taxes) as well as certain other payments. Independent contractors are also responsible for seeking out and paying for their own health insurance, retirement funding, disability insurance, and so forth. Any business that uses an independent contractor must pay the contractor for satisfactory work.

The business must also provide a completed Form 1099 to both the independent contractor and the IRS if the business pays the independent contractor more than $600 in a calendar year. (Note: Independent contractors are also commonly referred to as freelancers, contract workers or contract laborers.)

So why doesn’t every business simply declare its employees to be independent contractors and save big on tax payments, perks and paperwork? Because the determination is not strictly up to the employer. Laws, tax regulations and guidelines apply, playing an essential role in determining which workers are employees and which workers are independent contractors. Failing to follow the rules invites major trouble, especially if an employer tries to commit fraud by passing off employees as independent contractors. Doing so can lead to a nightmare of make-up payments and paperwork, as well as severe tax penalties and criminal prosecution.

| EXERCISE RIDERS |

Categories to consider

The government applies various factors in the following three categories to help determine if an individual is an employee or an independent contractor: Behavioral factors: Does the company control what the worker does and the specifics of how he or she carries out tasks? For example, if a company specifies a worker must complete assignments in an office at the company’s headquarters, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, take a one-hour lunch break at noon, adhere to a strict dress code, and cannot perform similar tasks for other companies, then these behavioral controls indicate the individual is an employee. If the worker is merely required to complete the task by a specified deadline, setting his or her own schedule, at a location of his or her choosing, taking breaks whenever he or she deems appropriate, and is free to perform similar tasks for other businesses, then these behavioral control factors indicate the individual is an independent contractor.

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Financial factors: Are the business aspects of the worker’s job controlled by the payor? For example, is the worker involved in setting the price for his or her services? Does the worker complete tasks using his or her own tools and equipment? Is he or she reimbursed for expenses, such as mileage? Is the worker on a business’ regular payroll, or does the worker submit invoices for payment for tasks performed? A worker who works for a set salary, is reimbursed for all or most expenses and is provided most or all necessary tools and/or equipment is likely an employee, especially if the worker is on the company’s regular payroll. A worker who submits invoices and is paid per task, writes off expenses on his or her taxes, and supplies his or her own tools or equipment is most likely an independent contractor.

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Relationship factors: Is the worker covered by the payor’s employee compensation plan, retirement plan or health care plan? Does he or she receive paid vacation time, sick leave or other benefits from the payor?

If the answers to the questions is yes, the law will likely view the worker as an employee. Workers who set their price of work performed, or are involved in negotiations regarding that price, who set their own working hours and vacation schedules, and take care of their own business insurance, health insurance and retirement planning are most likely to be judged as independent contractors.

Of course, other factors may come into play when determining if an individual is an employee or independent contractor. But using the above IRS Common Law guidelines will go a long way to accurately determine if an exercise rider or other worker is an employee or independent contractor.

Hiring an exercise rider is often a remarkably casual transaction. A trainer brings a horse to the track and finds a number of individuals waiting there, looking to find a day’s work exercise riding. A price is quickly negotiated, the rider takes the horse through the routine, and is paid for the work. Payments are sometimes made in cash with no written record of the job or the transaction.

That seems like a straightforward way to fill a basic industry need. If asked why they use this approach, many trainers and riders would simply say that they’ve been doing it this way for years. It works. And the truth is, it does work. Until something goes wrong. Once that happens, the informality of such a transaction can leave you tangled in a web of complex liability issues. Because the casual approach actually means everyone involved has been operating in a grey area. And grey areas can turn into legal nightmares.

Casual mistakes

Some large Thoroughbred operations do hire exercise riders and backstretch workers as full-time employees with salaries, perks and benefits. While many workers and employers view this as an ideal situation, it is financially impractical for most owners and trainers. That’s why so many in the industry rely on independent contractors to perform tasks like exercise riding.

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Smart hiring

Put it in writing

Working with an attorney to create a simple written Independent Contractor Agreement form that you and an exercise rider both sign before the rider saddles up is a great start. Once filled in by you and the rider, the completed agreement should include what work is to be done, when it is to be completed, and what the worker will be paid. A written agreement protects both you and the rider, since it defines what has been agreed to and the responsibilities of both parties. The agreement can cover a single day’s work or multiple workouts over a given time period. Should you ever run into legal or IRS issues, even a very brief written agreement can go a long way to making your case.

That having been said, remember: a business cannot magically turn an employee into an independent contractor simply by making him or her sign an Independent Contractor Agreement. Employers who attempt to avoid the costs of taxes and benefits using this unethical trick are committing a serious legal offense.

Courts and the IRS understandably take an extremely dim view of such shenanigans.

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Hiring a competent, reliable rider is essential. You are, after all, placing this individual on a powerful, expensive animal, and paying him or her to work in an environment surrounded by other powerful, expensive animals, all of whom are being led or ridden by other human beings.

Both horses and human beings can behave in unexpected or unpredictable ways, sometimes with disastrous consequences. A steady temperament is an asset on the track, in horses and humans alike.

Hugh Gallagher, a safety steward with the New York Racing Authority (NYRA), offers the following thoughts on hiring an exercise rider. “Look at how the individual candidates present themselves. Do they appear to take pride in their appearance and what they do? Obviously, you shouldn’t consider anyone who smells of alcohol or shows signs of drug use. Observe their general demeanor—around people and around horses.”

Gallagher stresses the importance of asking questions.

“Ask who they’ve worked for. Check it out. Make sure they have a good reputation and a professional manner.

Get their point of view on the importance of safety.”

You should also make sure that anyone you hire, whether as an employee or an independent contractor, can present you with proof that they are legally eligible to work in the United States. Not doing so exposes you to potentially severe government penalties. Given the Trump administration’s views on immigration, now is the worst of times to expose yourself to such risks.

An ounce of prevention

Given the long and storied history of Thoroughbred racing, it’s no surprise that many industry professionals are traditionalists who tend to resist change. Taking pride in the history and traditions of the sport is a tremendous positive. But sometimes, it can lead to a stubborn insistence on doing things “the way we have always done them,” even when logic tells us otherwise. I have no doubt that some trainers will dismiss the suggestions offered in this article as a time-consuming pain in the neck. But following through on them should prove a great help in avoiding legal issues—and in dealing with them should they ever arise. After all, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is a great American tradition as well.

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MI N N E hen the gates open for Canterbury Park’s first race on May 3, 2019, it will mark the 25th season of operation under public ownership led by the Sampson and Schenian families. Minnesota racing was down and out for the count after debuting in 1985 at then-Canterbury Downs with much fanfare and seam-bursting crowds.

Through management changes and the

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development of Native American gaming just down the street at Little Six and then Mystic Lake, the track spiraled downward into unprofitability before being mothballed by Ladbrokes in 1993.

In 1994, Curtis Sampson and Dale Schenian stepped in, reopened the racetrack and began the great Minnesota racing turnaround. One of Curtis’ sons, Randy, is the track’s current CEO and president while another son, Russell, runs the family’s racing and breeding operation.

“That’s the only reason this racetrack

is here,” said Andrew Offerman, Canterbury’s Senior Director of Racing.

“Horsemen bought it because this is what they wanted to do. There are certainly still differences of opinion between management and horsemen on what should be done on some issues, but the differences are so minor compared to what faces other places because of the people that are here running things.”

“We are fortunate here in Minnesota,” said Kay King, Executive Director of the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association,

| MINNESOTA |

Ted Grevelis

Heather R. Grevelis,

Canterbury Park Racecourse, Michelle L. Benson, Coady Photography

SO TA “that track management, the HBPA, owners, trainers—everyone can work together on a common cause. There is not the friction that you hear about elsewhere. I have people from other states tell me that they can’t believe that the MTA and the MQHRA work together on issues and put on a barbeque for backside workers together because in their states the Thoroughbred and quarter horse folks couldn’t get along long enough to do that.”

The track still had to compete with Native interests as well as stiff competition

for the recreation dollar in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area.

In 2012, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC)—proprietors of Little Six and Mystic Lake Casinos— and the track entered into an historic joint marketing agreement, leaving their animus in the past and moving into the future as partners.

The agreement provided the purse account with $75 million over ten years.

The track and SMSC agreed to work together to promote the region and resist

the expansion of gaming. The pair teamed with the nearby Renaissance Festival and Valleyfair Amusement Park to market themselves as River South, an area in the south metro to stay and play.

Thanks to the agreement, purses have increased substantially. In 2011, the year prior to the agreement, total purse distribution equaled $6,172,707. For the 2018 meet, that amount nearly doubled, rising to $13,316,050.

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ABOVE: Andrew Offerman, Canterbury’s Senior Director of Racing. ABOVE: Canterbury crowd, Memorial Day

to the Minnesota-bred stakes program, breeding is also on the upswing. The year prior to the SMSC agreement, the foal crop was 153 registered foals. The 2013 crop—the first post agreement—jumped to 253 registered foals. The number since then has remained relatively steady with quality increasing every year.

The only requirement to have a Minnesota-bred foal is the mare has to be in the state by March 15 prior to foaling.

The tentative 2019 Canterbury Park Stakes schedule features 18 state-bred stakes with over $1.3 million up for grabs.

It is not only the owners of Minnesotabreds that are making money, but their breeders as well. While purse supplements for Minnesota-breds totaled $325,435 in 2018, breeder awards increased 4% over 2017 to $460,595, while stallion awards

increased 2% to $85,527. Total added money, either breeding or racing, was $871,557 for 2018.

“I think you’re going to see some phenomenal pedigrees this year,” said Dave Dayon, owner of Wood-N-Wind Farm, a leading breeding and foaling farm in Minnesota. “We have a Quality Road and an Orb from this year, and I just got the list for 2019 that are coming in for Lothenbach Stables: we’ll have a Kitten’s Joy, two Malibu Moons, a Speightstown and others—and I have 14 mares from him this season.”

Breeder Dean Benson of Wood Mere Farm foaled out an American Pharoah colt earlier this year—the first time a Triple Crown winner has sired a Minnesota-bred.

“My client was very involved in Illinois, but he was seeing what has happened to

Kay King

Mister Banjoman

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that program so he decided to get involved in Minnesota,” said Benson. “And he did it in a big way.”

The increase in Minnesota-bred quality has also made its way into the sales ring.

The market for quality-bred horses is better than it has ever been. The 2018 MTA yearling sale had a six-figure horse for the first time in its history. The pairing of Discreet Cat and Gypsy Melody—a six-figure earning, stakes-winning mare— produced a colt that sold for $100,000 to Novogratz Racing Stable.

“I have a client who had a Quality Road,” said Benson. “He foaled in Kentucky but ended up being bought back in a Kentucky sale. If he had bred and sold him up here, I know he would have piqued the interest of the big owners, and he would have got the money for him.”

“Over the last few years we are slowly starting to see an increase in buyers here at our sale,” said King. “We’re starting to see buyers who realize that a Minnesota-bred can bring money. There was always that ‘glass ceiling’ of around $50,000, which was as high as folks would go for a Minnesotabred. This year we shattered that with three of the forty horses sold, bringing more than $50,000 including the $100,000 gelding.”

King and her husband bred the sales topper from 2017, an Astrology colt out of former Minnesota champion Bella Notte named Notte Oscura, which sold for $37,000 to Paul Schaffer. Schaffer turned around and did what was thought to be impossible: he pin-hooked the Minnesotabred in the 2018 April OBS Sale for $160,000.

In the October 2017 Fasig-Tipton yearling sale, a Minnesota-bred yearling

| MINNESOTA |

2018 sales topper with breeders the Von Seggern Family and Marlene Colvin

MICHELLE L. BENSON

became the highest priced gelding ever sold at auction. The son of Maclean’s Music and Mesa Mirage, bred by Almar Farms, brought $200,000. The yearling, subsequently named Mister Banjoman, won this year’s Shakopee Juvenile, a $75,000 unrestricted stakes race and finished the season with two wins and a second in four starts, only faltering in his turf debut in the Indian Summer Stakes at Keeneland.

Mr. Jagermeister, a Minnesota-bred and owned by trainer Valorie Lund and her sisters, has won seven of twelve starts, amassed $308,975 and finished second in the Prairie Gold Juvenile at Prairie Meadows and the Bachelor Stakes at Oaklawn.

“People are seeing that there is value to Minnesota-bred horses,” said King. “People are making wise breeding decisions.”

Quality pedigree Minnesota-breds are selling for considerably more money than ever—locally and around the country—and competing favorably against all comers.

Dean Benson

ABOVE: Notte Oscura. BELOW: Mr. Jagermesiter

“I go down into the paddock before races, and I see a lot of new people,” said Canterbury’s Offerman. “I go back and look them up and I see that they’ve been in the industry for years, live right here in Minnesota and never have participated in racing here. In the last four of five years, these owners have gone from sending up the occasional open horse to compete in a stake to buying these horses to participate and race at their home track.

“I talk to people all the time who, when they finally realize where we are located, recognize that there is a lot going on,” said Offerman. “We have four major sports teams, an MLS team, the Mall of America, several Fortune 50 companies headquartered here, and we’re less than 20 miles from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.”

“I think the Super Bowl last year helped break a lot of mystique,” said Dayon. “Even with the snow and everything else, people came up here and realized that ‘Hey, you can do things, you can go places and they don’t roll the sidewalks up at 10:00.’

“And when you come to the racetrack,” Dayon continued, “we have one the best backsides with barn quality and cleanliness than just about any other place in America.”

“Folks that have never been here say to me ‘This place is awesome,’” said King.

“You get people here, and they see what we have to offer; and they quickly get over their misconception that we’re just some small, bull ring operation.”

“I had an interesting experience this year,” said Rick Bremer, who with his wife, Cheryl Sprick, have been multiple winners of the TOBA and Charles Bellingham Awards for excellence in breeding. “My sales agent had come up here from Kentucky to inspect yearlings this past spring and I said to him, ‘We’re racing tonight; you should come out to the track.’

“He came and was totally blown away,” said Bremer. “This was absolutely not what he was expecting. He didn’t expect to have this great a facility, this great a fan base. He never imagined that this many people would come to the races here. People just realize what a great place Canterbury is to race.”

“The people that I bring out to the racetrack think much the same way,” added Offerman. “They think that I’m bringing them to a dumpy county fair with a beatup grandstand and falling-down backside, and they are always pleasantly surprised by what they experience.”

Minnesota is not only a great place to live, work and race, but the racing industry is still developing and maturing, indicating that the best is yet to come.

“What people don’t realize,” opined Offerman, “is that this is a relatively young pari-mutuel market. Patrons who are very energetic on the handicapping front were only 18, 19 years old when this facility opened. Now they are all 50-55 years old and want to participate in the industry on a different level and they have the means to do so now. Some of the best owners we have are people that learned to love the game when they were 20 years old. We’re not the same as other places that are in the third, fourth, fifth generation of this; we’re on our first.”

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Though a relatively young racetrack and racing jurisdiction, Canterbury Park has been in the forefront of innovation and experimentation.

“The Thursday night ‘Buck Night’ has attracted more young people to the racetrack, and those people have stayed vested in the sport to this day,” said Dayon.

“The atmosphere participating in a race here on a day-to-day basis is like nowhere else in the country,” said Joe Scurto, deputy director of the Minnesota Racing Commission.

“There are so many winners’ circle photos here that are packed with people,” said King. “There is nothing sadder than when you see three people in the winners’ circle. Here you get family and friends involved, and the excitement on the apron with people cheering on horses is amazing.”

There are plenty of services that support racing in Minnesota as well.

“There is an excellent vet program at the University of Minnesota just north of the track in Minneapolis,” said Lisa Duoos Smrekar, owner of Dove Hill Farm, a breeding and foaling facility in New Prague. “We have some really great veterinary care here off the racetrack and a lot to offer as far as a whole industry from start to finish. We have some great foaling facilities, excellent trainers and jockeys that have ‘grown up’ here, if you will. Minnesota has talent, and that is felt across the industry.”

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“Minnesota is horse country,” added Dayon. “We’ve had many stock horse champions, quarter horses, appaloosas, reining horses, cutting horse—champions from all breeds and disciplines here. This really is horse country.”

“Over the last ten to fifteen years management has reinvested about $25 million into the facility,” said Offerman.

“Name another place that’s not Churchill Downs or a place that holds an elite Thoroughbred meet that can say that?

Over the past 25 years, that current management has owned the racetrack, and there are only two small areas that

Joe Scurto

have not been completely gutted and redone at least once and sometimes more than once.”

Offerman adds, “Canterbury was one of the last crown jewels built in racing, but it also has received more maintenance and care than your average racetrack over that period.”

Canterbury also recently completed a major renovation of the track surface from the foundation up in order to bring the quality of the racing surface back to its original specifications.

“There is reinvestment going on in all areas of racing,” said Scurto. “The racetrack is reinvesting, the breeders are reinvesting—much more than many other jurisdictions; and this is a great place to come race. There is a lot of uncertainty in some places from year to year. Here in Minnesota there is reinvestment and growth with every indication that it is going to continue.”

“You get all the benefits of a major market race venue with—and I know it’s cliché but it’s true—small town personal touches,” concluded Offerman. “We don’t have layers of management or regional and corporate offices. If a player, owner or trainer has a problem, they can come to me or Randy directly and we’ll get it taken care of.”

In all aspects of racing, including the track president, employees, trainers, breeders, jockeys and fans, Minnesota is becoming the place to breed and race.

66-DAY MEET WITH NEW PURSE INCENTIVES New in 2019, all thoroughbred starters are guaranteed $500 per start throughout Condition Book #1 (May 3 - June 2). Total purses are anticipated to average more than $215,000 per day thanks to the Mystic Lake Purse Enhancement Fund.

INVESTING IN OUR FUTURE In 2019, Canterbury Park is proud to celebrate our 25th Anniversary under current management. Over that time, our backside has benefited from more than $6 million in renovations and enhancements.

EXCITING ATMOSPHERE Located only 20 minutes outside Minneapolis-St.Paul, Canterbury Park provides major league racing in a major league city. Plus, with an average attendance exceeding 6,500, there is never a dull moment on track.

WHY RACE AT CANTERBURY PARK?

We invite you to head north and experience racing the Canterbury Way!

Randy Sampson President & CEO

EXPERIENCE THE CANTERBURY WAY!

Andrew Offerman Sr. Director of Racing Operations

WWW.CANTERBURYPARK.COM â&#x2014;? (952)-233-4838

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WOB B LE R SY N DR O ME AN D THE THOR OUGHB RED Professor Celia M Marr obbler syndrome, or spinal ataxia, affects around 2% of young Thoroughbreds. In Europe, the most common cause relates to narrowing of the cervical vertebral canal in combination with malformation of the cervical vertebrae.

Narrowing in medical terminology is “stenosis,” and “myelopathy” implies pathology of the nervous tissue, hence the other name often used for this condition is cervical vertebral stenotic myelopathy (CVSM).

Wobbler syndrome was the topic of this summer’s Gerald Leigh Memorial Lectures, an event held at Palace House, Newmarket.

Gerald Leigh was a very successful owner/ breeder, and these annual lectures, now in their second year, honor Mr. Leigh’s passion for the Thoroughbred and its health and

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Professor Celia M Marr, Shutterstock

welfare. The lectures are attended by vets, breeders and trainers, and this year because of the importance and impact of wobbler syndrome on Thoroughbred health, several individuals involved in Thoroughbred insurance were also able to participate.

Dr. Steve Reed, of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, Kentucky and international leader in the field of equine neurology gave an overview of wobbler syndrome. Affected horses are ataxic, which means that they have lost the unconscious mechanisms that control their limb position and movement. Young horses with CVSM will generally present for acute onset of ataxia or gait abnormalities, however, mild ataxia and clumsiness may often go unnoticed. Trainers often report affected horses are growing rapidly, well-fed, and large for their age. It is common for riders

to describe an ataxic horse as weak or clumsy. Sometimes, a horse that has been training normally will suddenly become profoundly affected, losing coordination and walking as though they were drunk, or in the most severe cases stumbling and falling. Neurological deficits are present in all four limbs, and are usually, but not always more noticeable in the hindlimbs than the forelimbs. In horses with significant degenerative joint disease, lateral compression of the spinal cord may lead to asymmetry of the clinical signs.

When the horse is standing still, it may adopt an abnormal wide-based stance or have abnormal limb placement, and delayed positioning reflexes. At the walk, the CVSM horse’s forelimbs and hindlimbs may not be moving on the same track, and there can be exaggerated movement

ABOVE L–R: Lateral radiographs can show the vertebral bones have an abnormal shape with flare of the caudal vertebral epiphysis (curved arrow) and extension of the dorsal laminae (straight arrow)

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CELIA MARR, ROSSDALES LLP, NEWMARKET

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CELIA MARR, ROSSDALES LLP, NEWMARKET

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Abnormal ossification of the articular processes and enlargement of the joints due to degenerative joint disease (arrows) Measuring the ratio of the spinal canal to the adjacent bone identifies narrowing of the spinal canal. In this case, the narrowing is dramatic due to malalignment of adjacent vertebral bones

of the hindlimbs when the horse is circled.

Detailed physical examination may reveal abrasions around the heels and inner aspect of the forelimbs due to interference and short, squared hooves due to toe-dragging.

Many young horses affected with CVSM have concurrent signs of developmental orthopedic disease such as physitis or physeal enlargement of the long bones, joint effusion secondary to osteochondrosis, and flexural limb deformities.

Radiography is generally the first tool which is used to diagnose CVSM. Lateral radiographs of the cervical vertebrae, obtained in the standing horse, reveal some or all of five characteristic bony malformations of the cervical vertebrae: (1) “flare” of the caudal vertebral epiphysis of the vertebral body, (2) abnormal ossification of the articular processes, (3) malalignment between adjacent vertebrae, (4) extension of the dorsal laminae, and (5) degenerative joint disease of the articular processes. Radiographs are also measured to document the ratio between the spinal canal and the adjacent bones and identify sites where the spinal canal is narrowed.

Dr. Reed also highlighted myelography as the currently most definitive tool to confirm diagnosis of focal spinal cord compression and to identify the location and number of lesions. The experts presenting at the Gerald Leigh Memorial Lectures agreed that myelography is essential if surgical treatment is pursued.

However, an important difference between the U.S. and Europe was highlighted by Prof. Richard Piercy of the Royal Veterinary College, University of London. In Europe, protozoal infection is very rare, whereas in U.S., equine protozoal myeloencephalitis can cause similar clinical signs to CVSM. Protozoal myeloencephalitis is diagnosed by laboratory testing of the cerebral spinal fluid, but there is also a need to rule out CVSM. Therefore, spinal fluid analysis and myelography tends to be performed more often in the U.S. Prof.

Piercy pointed out that in the absence of this condition, vets in Europe are often more confident to reach a definitive diagnosis of CVSM based on clinical signs and standing lateral radiographs.

Dr. Reed went on to discuss medical therapy in horses with CVSM, which is aimed at reducing cell swelling and edema formation with subsequent reduction of the compression on the spinal cord.

In the immediate period following an acute onset of neurologic disease, antiinflammatory therapy is important.

Thereafter, depending on the type of CVSM and the age of the horse, different therapeutic options exist. A diet that is

Myelography involves injecting a radiopaque dye around the spinal cord, which outlines the cord and highlights areas of compression (arrow)

aimed at reducing protein and carbohydrate intake and, thus, reducing growth will allow the vertebral canal to “catch up”. The three most important nutritional factors appear to be excessive dietary digestible energy, excessive dietary phosphorus, and dietary copper deficiency. However, it is important that restricted diets are carefully managed with professional supervision.

Dietary supplementation with vitamin E/ selenium is also recommended. In adult horses, the options for medical therapy are restricted to stabilizing a horse with acute neurological deterioration and injecting the articular joints in an attempt to reduce soft tissue swelling and stabilize or prevent further bony proliferation.

The aim of surgical treatment is to stop the repetitive trauma to the spinal cord, which is caused by narrowing of the vertebral canal, and thereby, to allow the inflammation in and around the spinal cord to resolve. Surgical treatment of CVSM is controversial, mainly due to concerns regarding safety of the horse after surgery and potential heritability of the disease.

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| WOBBLER SYNDROME |

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ABOVE: CT imaging of a CSVM horse. CT has the advantage of examining the vertebral bones in three dimensions. This horse has enlargement of the articular processes that is more severe on the right side, which causes lateral compression.

This image has been obtained at a post-mortem exam. As improved CT facilities become more widely available, our ability to precisely assess CVSM cases pre-mortem will also improve

PIC:S DR EMIL OLSEN, ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

Ventral interbody fusion through the use of a stainless steel “basket” is currently the most commonly used surgery for CVSM. The prognosis of horses following surgical treatment depends on the age of the horse, the grade of neurological deficits that were present prior to surgery, the time the horse has demonstrated neurologic disease for, the number of compressed sites, the severity of the lesions, and the post-operative complications encountered. Following surgery, an improvement of 1-2 out of 5 grades is expected, although some affected horses improve more than 3 grades.

Whether horses are treated medically, surgically or not treated (i.e., just turned out), the response and the prognosis depend on the age of the horse, the severity of the neurological deficits, the duration of neurological signs, and what level of performance is expected from the horse.

Without treatment the prognosis in all types of CVSM is poor, as there is continued damage to the cervical spinal cord with an increasing chance of severe cord damage.

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Dr. Tim Phillips, of Liphook Equine Hospital, discussed the surgical management of wobbler’s in more detail. The procedure is technically quite demanding and has significant risks attached. The recovery period is protracted. The outcome can be very satisfactory or it can be very unsatisfactory.

Unfortunately, most often the procedure results in significant but only partial improvement. Currently myelography is used to pinpoint the site of compression, which is targeted at surgery, but this is imprecise. Advances in imaging through the introduction of computed tomography (CT) should help to improve this.

Wobbler clauses are included in some Thoroughbred insurance policies, which prompted a panel discussion that David Ashby of MS Amlin represented the underwriters and Charles Hamilton, of Weatherbys Hamilton Insurance put forward the viewpoint of the insurance broker. Although the clauses specifically apply to horses with Grade 3 ataxia, there are problems with their implementation.

RIGHT: Dr. Olsen is working on a system using inertial sensors attached to the horse at various points to document its movement in details. This is likely to be a more widely accessible tool to help identify and quantify ataxia BELOW LEFT: Blindfolding the horse exacerbates the ataxia and improves the accuracy of objective ataxia assessment BELOW RIGHT: Force plates and motion capture facilities available in the Structure and Motion Laboratory at the Royal Veterinary College has the advantage of very precise and detailed measurements and the disadvantage of requiring expensive and complex facilities including 12 kinematic cameras, 8 force plates and a 25m runway; and even with all this, the system is only able to measure few strides at a time

The severity of ataxia can vary from day to day, or indeed from hour to hour in some horses. Most importantly, as explained by Prof. Piercy, grading ataxia is a subjective process, and assessors do not consistently agree. It can also be very challenging to distinguish ataxia from lameness. However, Dr. Emil Olsen, also from the Royal Veterinary College, explained that there is hope for the future as objective assessment of spinal ataxia is possible using force plates and motion capture. Blindfolding ataxic horses can highlight their disability and improve the accuracy of this technology.

In summing up the afternoon of lectures, Fred Barrelet, trustee of the Beaufort Cottage Educational Trust, emphasised that wobbler syndrome remains a challenging problem in Thoroughbreds. It can be difficult to diagnose confidently, and the outcomes following both medical and surgical therapy can be disappointing.

Future developments in diagnostic imaging and objective gait analysis are on the horizon which may reduce the impact of some of these problems.

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Chocolate Covered Grapes ISSUE 51 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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TR A IN IN G FROM HORSEBACK O R THE GROUND? LEADING TRAINERS ON WHAT WORKS FOR THEM Ed Golden

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Eclipse Sportswire

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| HORSEBACK OR GROUND? |

A

t 83, when many men his age are riding wheelchairs in assisted living facilities, Darrell Wayne Lukas is riding shotgun on a pony at Thoroughbred ports of call from coast to coast, sending his stalwarts through drills to compete at the game’s highest level.

One of three children born to Czechoslovakian immigrants, Lukas began training quarter horses full time in 1967 at Park Jefferson in South Dakota. He came to California in 1972 and switched to Thoroughbred racing in 1978. Rather than train at ground level as most horsemen do, Lukas has called the shots on horseback lo these many years, winning the most prestigious races around the globe.

A native of Antigo, Wisconsin, he was an assistant basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin for two years and coached nine years at the high school level, earning a master’s degree in education at his alma mater before going from the hardwood to horses.

His innovations have become racing institutions, as his Thoroughbred charges have won nearly 4,800 races and earned some $280 million. They are second nature to him now.

“I’m on a horse every day for four to five hours,” said Lukas, who’s usually first in line. “I open the gate for the track crew every morning. I ride a good horse, and I make everybody who works for me ride one.

“My wife (Laurie) rides out most days. She’s got a good saddle horse. I make sure my number one assistant, Bas (Sebastian Nichols) rides, too.”

The Hall of Fame trainer is unwavering in his stance.

“I want to be close to my horses’ training, because I think most of the responses from the exercise rider and the horse are immediate on the pull up after the workout or the exercise,” Lukas said.

“I don’t want that response 20 minutes later as they walk leisurely back to the barn. I want it right there.

If I’m working a horse five-eighths, and I have some question about its condition, I want to see how hard it’s breathing myself, before it gets back to the barn.

“I’ve always been on a pony when my horses train, ever since I started. I’ve never trained from the ground. If my assistants don’t know how to ride, they have to take riding lessons, and they’ve got to learn how to ride. I insist on them being on horseback.”

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“I’M ON A HORSE EVERY DAY FOR FOUR TO FIVE HOURS. DARRELL WAYNE LUKAS

Wesley Ward, a former jockey and the 1984 Eclipse Award winner as the nation’s leading apprentice rider, is a landlubber these days as a trainer, yet has achieved plaudits on the international stage.

“I don’t think there’s any advantage at all on horseback,” said Ward, who turns 51 on March 3. “Look at (the late) Charlie Whittingham. “He’s the most accomplished trainer in history, I think, and he wasn’t on a pony . . .

Everybody’s different. It’s just a matter of style. I can see more from the grandstand when the horses work.

“I like to see the entire view, and on a pony, you’re kind of restricted to ground level, so you can’t really tell how fast or how slow or how good they’re going.

“I like to step back and observe the big picture when my horses work. I can check on them up close when they’re at the barn. But all trainers are different. Some like to be close to their horses and see each and every stride. I’ve tried it both ways, and I like it better from an overview.”

Two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer Bob Baffert, himself a former rider, employs the innovative Dick Tracy method: two-way radio from the ground to maintain contact with his workers on the track.

“I used to train on horseback,” said Baffert, who celebrated his 66th birthday on Jan. 13, “but you can’t really see the whole deal when you’re sitting on the track.

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ABOVE: Darrell Wayne Lukas ABOVE RIGHT: Wesley Ward

BELOW LEFT: Peter Eurton BELOW RIGHT: Bob Baffert

From the grandstand, you can see the horses’ legs better and you can pick up more.

“On horseback, you can’t tell how fast a horse is really going until it gets right up to you. That’s why I switched.

I have at least one assistant with a radio who’s on horseback, and I can contact him if someone on the track has a problem.”

Peter Eurton, a successful mainstay in California and starting on his third decade as trainer of a multi-faceted stable, is ambivalent. Now 61, the father of budding on-air superstar Britney (TVG, NBC) began his career as a jockey at 19 and rode for two-and-half years until he had to abort due to weight issues.

“There’s a slight advantage being on a pony,” Eurton said, “because you’re hands on, but on the other side of it, you’re limited being at eye level. On the ground, I can

ON HORSEBACK, YOU CAN’T TELL HOW FAST A HORSE IS REALLY GOING UNTIL IT GETS RIGHT UP TO YOU. THAT’S WHY I SWITCHED. BOB BAFFERT

| HORSEBACK OR GROUND? |

go up the grandstand steps for a panoramic view and see horses across the track as well as directly in front of me.

“There are advantages and disadvantages both ways. I don’t get on horseback now because I’ve had back spasms too many times from being arched over, so I tend to stay away from experiencing that discomfort.

“But other trainers love to get on horseback, and I totally get that.”

Val Brinkerhoff (62), who rode at bush tracks in Utah, Montana and other god-forsaken outposts for more than three decades before becoming a full-time trainer, still breezes his own horses when he wants to get a hard line on how they’re doing.

“You can probably get a better look at what’s going on if you’re on a pony on the track,” Brinkerhoff allowed.

“You’re closer to the horses, but that said, if you’re watching from the stands with binoculars, there can be advantages as well.

ABOVE: Val Brinkerhoff (orange cap)

BELOW: Leonard Powell (white cap)

“But I’d rather be on the horse working it myself. To me, that’s the most advantageous . . . I’ve never ridden a pony onto the track to watch my horses train. When I want to know something, I breeze them myself . . . I think the closer you are to the horses, and the more intertwined you are, the better off you are.

“I galloped 18 head today because my gallop boy didn’t show up,” Brinkerhoff said on a recent morning at Santa Anita. “I was getting tired and hoping I didn’t have a heart attack.”

Leonard Powell was weaned on training across the pond before gaining recognition in the United States, where the 42-year-old Frenchman achieved a racing rarity by sending out 47-1 shot Soi Phet to win the $100,000 Crystal Water Stakes by a head at Santa Anita on May 20.

Claimed for $16,000 in 2013, now at age 10, Soi Phet is believed to be the oldest stakes winner in Santa Anita’s storied history. The California-bred gelding has earned nearly $1 million.

“It’s definitely an advantage training on the track,” Powell said, “because there are things you can see on horseback you cannot see from the ground, plus nothing is lost in communication between trainer and rider.

“Whenever a trainer can get on his own horses, it’s a lot better. I’ve become too heavy to breeze my horses,” he said with a chuckle, “but I always prefer to be on a pony or on horseback. That enables me to focus more on my workers without distraction. In Europe, I’d say about 50 percent of trainers are on a pony.”

Art Sherman, yet another former jockey whose training career reached its apex with two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome, plied his trade aboard equines when he was younger, but approaching his 82nd birthday come Feb. 17, now confines his tutoring on good old terra firma.

“I used to have my own ponies,” Sherman said, “but not now; I watch my horses work from ground level these days.

It was good being on a pony, but when you get my age, it’s a little tougher to get on a horse. I really don’t see any

IT’S DEFINITELY AN ADVANTAGE TRAINING ON THE TRACK, BECAUSE THERE ARE THINGS YOU CAN SEE ON HORSEBACK YOU CANNOT SEE FROM THE GROUND. LEONARD POWELL

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| HORSEBACK OR GROUND? |

significant difference in training one way or the other.”

Similar to fellow octogenarian, Lukas still holding the reins during training hours is no surprise to Sherman.

“Being on a pony is as natural to him as getting up in the morning and putting on his boots,” Sherman said.

John Shirreffs, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, then headed to Hawaii to become a surfer after his discharge, is more than comfortable maintaining a low profile, be it on horseback or the ground. But if he had his druthers, he’d prefer training while on a pony.

As for being in the public eye, Shirreffs does so with reluctance, bringing to mind a description of Ty Cobb— arguably the greatest baseball player of all-time, but a tyrant on and off the field. Of the irascible Cobb, a peer once said, “He played his whole career with his teeth clenched.”

I USED TO HAVE MY OWN PONIES, BUT NOT NOW; I WATCH MY HORSES WORK FROM GROUND LEVEL THESE DAYS.

ABOVE: John Shirreffs LEFT: Art Sherman

ART SHERMAN BELOW: Trainers Chad Brown left and Bill Mott (on left horse) talk to Darrell Wayne Lukas and his exercise rider Danielle Rosier at Churchill Downs

Thankfully, Shirreffs isn’t close to being in that league.

When push comes to shove, he is mellow, intelligent and introspective.

“It’s always nice to be on your pony because you’re not talking to anybody,” said Shirreffs, 73.

“There are no distractions on a pony,” he added with a chuckle. “Everybody trains differently, but I like to ride the pony just because I like to sit on a horse.”

Despite setting the gold standard as a Thoroughbred trainer early on in a career spanning more than half a century, Lukas, to the game’s benefit, has no plans to retire and ride off into the sunset.

He will follow in the philosophical footsteps of Charlie Whittingham, who, when asked when he would retire, always had the same retort: “Retire? Retire to what?”

Lukas adheres to the same mantra. Asked if the day will come when he calls it a career, he responded quickly and unequivocally with this: “I’m going to train right up to the end.”

I’M GOING TO TRAIN RIGHT UP TO THE END. DARRELL WAYNE LUKAS

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SIRE POWER

NEW SIRES HEADED TO THE K E Y S T O N E S TAT E I N 2 0 1 9

Jennifer Poorman Kim Pratt, Jennifer Poorman, Eclipse Sportswire

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| PA B R E E D E R S |

Airoforce

A multiple graded stakes winner and Breeders’ Cup placed at 2, Airoforce joins the roster at Cabin Creek Farm in Bernville for his second season. His 2019 fee is $2,000 live foal. A son of Travers Stakes-Gr1 winner Colonel John, the gray/roan five-year-old is the first foal for the multiple stakes-placed Cuvee mare Chocolate Pop. He sold for $350,000 as a two-year-old at the Ocala April sale, and won three of his four starts that fall. After breaking his maiden by daylight first time out, Airoforce won the Gr3 Dixiana Bourbon Stakes at a mile and a sixteenth on the turf and headed to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf-Gr1 as the favorite. He missed by a neck to Hit It a Bomb. The final race of his juvenile season was against a high-powered field that included Gun Runner, Mor Spirit, Mo Tom and Tom’s Ready sent out for the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes-Gr2 at Churchill Downs. He scored by nearly two lengths over Mor Spirit, with Gun Runner fourth. Airoforce added two seconds in graded turf stakes to his record at 3—finishing a nose back of Camelot Kitten in the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame-Gr2 and missing to Catch a Glimpse, while finishing ahead of Oscar Nominated, in the Penn Mile-Gr3. He retired with earnings of $679,130 while first or second in six of his 12 starts. Airoforce is from the family of champions West Coast and Caressing, millionaire and three-time Gr1 winner Sea Cadet. He stood his first season in 2018 in Indiana.

Dolphus

Dolphus, a half-brother to Hall of Famer Rachel Alexandra, will stand his first season in 2019 at the newly established Cabin Creek Farm in Bernville. The five-year-old son of champion and leading sire Lookin At Lucky out of stakes winner Lotta Kim (by Roar) retires a graded stakes-placed winner of $211,060. In a 12-start career, Dolphus recorded four wins while racing at Aqueduct, Gulfstream Park and Fair Grounds. He added blacktype to the family when finishing second, missing by a neck, to Shaman Ghost in the mile and three-sixteenths Gr3 Pimlico Special.

He was a winner first-time out at two at Fair Grounds going six furlongs, and took a seven-furlong Gulfstream Park allowance in 1:22.88 by nine and a quarter lengths.

Dolphus is one of five winners from as many starters for his dam, led by one of racing’s all-time greats, Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra. An earner of $3,506,730, Rachel Alexandra was a champion 3-year-old filly during a year in which she defeated males in the Preakness Stakes-Gr1, Haskell Invitational-Gr1 and Woodward Stakes-Gr1, the latter against older males, and dominated fillies in the Kentucky Oaks-Gr1 and Mother Goose Stakes-Gr1. She is the dam of Gr1-winning juvenile filly Rachel’s Valentina.

Second dam Kim’s Blues (by Cure the Blues) produced additional stakes winners High Blues and Lotta Rhythm.

Owned by Dr. Dede McGehee, Dolphus will stand for a special introductory fee of $2,500 live foal, with special consideration to approved mares. Maria Vorhauer, former manager of Dana Point Farm, has taken the past year to get the Cabin Creek operation up and running. “I’m looking forward to the breeding season,” she said.

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| PA B R E E D E R S |

Flashback

ABOVE: Eastwood

Eastwood

Eastwood was an $800,000 sales purchase at the 2013 Fasig-Tipton summer horses of racing age sale, the second highest-price of the sale, after posting eye-catching victories in his first two starts as a three-year-old. The strapping chestnut’s career debut was a six-furlong contest at Belmont Park, which he won by more than two lengths, followed by a gutsy allowance score at the same distance. Later in his career, Eastwood scored impressive victories in a pair of allowance contests at Saratoga and Keeneland. Still running sound as a seven-year-old, he was runner up in the 2017 Gr3 Los Angeles Stakes at Santa Anita Park, defeating Kentuckian and Grazen Sky. Eastwood retired from racing with earnings of $265,545 in a dozen starts. The first foal out of the Deputy Minister mare Fifth Avenue Ball, Eastwood was originally a $240,000 purchase at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale. Five of the first six foals out of the mare have sold at auction for six figures. “Speightstown is revealing himself as a sire of sires,” said Glenn Brok.

“We’re excited about bringing this son of Speightstown to Pennsylvania.” Eastwood will stand for $2,500 live foal.

RIGHT: Flashback FAR RIGHT: Hoppertunity

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Flashback, a graded stakes-winning son of Tapit who previously stood at stud at Hill ‘N’ Dale Farm in Kentucky, has moved to Diamond B Farm in Mohrsville for the upcoming breeding season. His fee is $3,500 live foal, with special consideration to mares foaling in the state.

Campaigned by Gary and Mary West, the gray won the Gr2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes and was second in the Gr1 Santa Anita Derby (to Goldencents) and Gr2 San Felipe in his first three stakes appearances, all at a mile or more over a threemonth span in early 2013. In seven starts, he ran six times in stakes, also finishing second in the seven-furlong Damascus Stakes at Santa Anita and third in Churchill Downs’ Ack Ack Handicap-Gr3 at one mile, and finished fourth in the Gr1 Malibu Stakes to retire with earnings of $405,730.

Flashback, now eight, has first-crop runners at the races this year and ranks in the top 15 among the nation’s freshman sires. His runners include Gr1 performer Boujie Girl, third in the Del Mar Debutante Stakes-Gr1 and Gr2 Sorrento Stakes, as well as Tripwire, second by only a half-length in the Gr3 Grey Stakes in his second start, and seven other winners. Flashback is a full brother to multiple Gr1 winner Zazu ($691,985, Las Virgenes S-Gr1, Lady’s Secret S-Gr1, etc.), who is the dam of group placed Arusha. Their dam, the winning Mr. Greeley mare Rhumb Line, also produced stakes winners Corinthian’s Jewel and group-placed Art Princess.

Both Zazu and Rhumb Line were million-dollar broodmares, selling for $2.1 million and $2 million respectively.

Hoppertunity

Multiple Gr1 winner and multimillionaire Hoppertunity will enter stud in 2019 at Northview PA in Peach Bottom.

With career earnings of $4,712,625, the seven-year-old becomes the richest horse ever to stand his first season in the Mid-Atlantic region. His stud fee is $5,000 live foal, with shares and lifetime breeding rights being offered. In a career that spanned five seasons and 34 starts, Hoppertunity had 22 top-three finishes while consistently racing at the highest level from coast to coast. His nine stakes wins were all graded, with Gr1

A N Y G I V E N S AT U R D AY – R E F U G E E , b y U N A C C O U N T E D F O R • 2 0 19 F E E : $ 5 , 0 0 0 L F

Abounds in PA NEW for 2019

Multiple G1 SW

Won/Placed in

19 Graded Stakes

At 3:

Won Clark H.-G1

defeating older horses in his second start back after six-month lay-off

Won Rebel S.-G2

in a faster time than AMERICAN PHAROAH, CURLIN, and WILL TAKE CHARGE

As An Older Horse:

Won Jockey Club Gold Cup S.-G1 over previous G1 SW/Breeders’ Cup Classic-G1 runner-up EFFINEX

Won Brooklyn Inv. S.-G2

in a time only 1/2 second off JUSTIFY’s Belmont S.-G1 victory later that day

Earned $4,712,625 “SPEED, CLASS, STAMINA and SOUNDNESS

will make you a multimillionaire in this business.

HOPPERTUNITY has them all.”

- TRAINER BOB BAFFERT

NORTHVIEW PA A DIVISION OF NORTHVIEW STALLION STATION

Linda Bench: 410.885.2855, lbench@northviewstallioins. com Paul O’Loughlin: 443.566.2996 (cell), paul@northviewstallions.com 163 Little Britain Church Rd., Peach Bottom, PA 17563 Office: 717.548.3401 northviewstallions.com

BULLSBAY HOPPERTUNITY JUMP START MEDALLIST PEACE AND D JUSTICE UNCLE LINO

© LOUISE REINAGELW

| RACING |

BELOW: Smarty Jones at Northview

scores in the historic Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park and Churchill Downs’ Clark Handicap. He made two trips to Dubai and hit the board in the 2016 Dubai World Cup-Gr1 when third behind California Chrome.

He won the San Antonio Stakes-Gr2 twice at Santa Anita and the Brooklyn Invitational Stakes-Gr2 at Belmont.

Hoppertunity recorded his first stakes win in the Gr2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park before finishing second to California Chrome in the Santa Anita Derby-Gr1 next out. He went into Derby Week at Churchill Downs as the second choice for the Kentucky Derby-Gr1 until a foot issue forced his defection two days before the race. He returned at the end of the year to nail down the Clark Handicap over older horses. “I could go on and on about his racing statistics, but everyone can look them up,” said Northview’s general manager David Wade. “What most haven’t seen yet is this horse. I went to Santa Anita to inspect him for purchase, and I thought they had brought me the wrong one. How could a horse that’s run 34 times—31 of them stakes races—have legs this clean and joints this tight?” Hoppertunity was trained throughout his career by Bob Baffert for Karl Watson, Mike Pegram and Paul Weitman. The bay recorded 15 triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures, and only twice in his career was he worse than fourth. He won at distances up to a mile and a half, broke his maiden at one mile at Santa Anita, and faced the best runners in training year after year. “Speed, class, stamina, and soundness will make you a multimillionaire

| PA B R E E D E R S |

ONE OF PENNSYLVANIA’S ALL-TIME GREATS, SMARTY JONES, RETURNS TO THE STATE OF HIS BIRTH FOR A SECOND TIME TO STAND AT STUD. in this business. Hoppertunity has them all,” said Baffert.

A son of Gr1-winning Any Given Saturday from the male line of Forty Niner, Hoppertunity is out of the graded stakes-placed Unaccounted For mare Refugee.

He is a half-brother to Gr1 Del Mar Debutante and Gr1 Chandelier winner Executiveprivilege, an earner of $999,000 from 10 starts. Refugee’s weanling filly by Tapit sold for $1.3 million at the 2015 Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale. The mare has since had foals by War Front and American Pharoah. Hoppertunity’s third dam is champion and Hall of Famer Davona Dale, winner of the Filly Triple Crown of the Coaching Club American Oaks-Gr1, Mother Goose-Gr1 and Acorn-Gr1 as well as the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks, Fantasy and five other stakes. Her foals include Belmont Stakes-Gr1 placed Le Voyageur.

Smarty Jones

One of Pennsylvania’s all-time greats, Smarty Jones, returns to the state of his birth for a second time to stand at stud, taking up residence at Rodney Eckenrode’s Equistar Farm in Annville for the 2019 season. His stud fee has been set at $3,500 live foal. The 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner stood in his home state from 2011-2015, first at Ghost Ridge Farms and then Northview Pa., before being relocated to Calumet Farm in Lexington, Ky. He has regularly shuttled to Uruguay since 2011, and was that country’s leading sire in 2017 when represented by champion two-year-old filly Bamba y Bamba. With 11 North American crops of racing age, Smarty Jones has sired earners of more than $38 million. His 33 stakes winners include a dozen graded/ group winners, including millionaire and four-time Singapore champion Better Life, Japanese millionaires Keiai Gerbera and Noble Jewelry, and Gr1-winning sprinter Centralinteligence. Smarty Jones has 2018 progeny earnings of more than $1.3 million (through late October). His current stakes winners are Pennsylvaniabreds Midnight Poker and Someday Jones. Bred by Roy and Pat Chapman and campaigned in the name of their Someday Farm, Smarty Jones was undefeated in his first eight starts, earned a $5 million bonus from Oaklawn Park for winning the track’s traditional Kentucky Derby preps, the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby-Gr2, plus the Kentucky Derby-Gr1, and finished second in his only loss, the Belmont Stakes-Gr1, his final start. The son of Elusive Quality and Smile’s stakes-winning daughter I’ll Get Along retired with earnings of $7,613,155 and remains the richest Pennsylvania-bred of all time.

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ABOVE: Social Inclusion BELOW RIGHT: Warriors Reward

Social Inclusion

Social Inclusion, an impressive track record-breaker and classic performer, will stand at Glenn and Becky Brok’s Diamond B Farm near Mohrsville, Pa., for the 2019 breeding season. Social Inclusion, who will stand for $5,000 live foal, is one of the fastest sons of the exceptional stallion Pioneerof the Nile, who also sired Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Social Inclusion and American Pharoah are his track record-setting sons. Demonstrating pure, raw talent in his first two starts, he broke his maiden first time out by 7½ lengths, going six furlongs in 1:09.35 at Gulfstream Park. Next out in open allowance company, he won in wire-to-wire fashion, defeating future champion older horse Honor Code by 10 lengths and covering 1 1 ⁄16 miles in a track record 1:40.97. Social Inclusion followed with third-place finishes in the Gr1 Wood Memorial (won

by Wicked Strong), Gr1 Preakness Stakes (won by California Chrome), and Gr2 Woody Stephens (won by Bayern). He completed his racing career with earnings of $450,800.

Social Inclusion relocates from John and Susan Sykes’ Woodford Thoroughbreds near Ocala, Fla. He is out of the Gr2 stakes-placed Saint Ballado mare Saint Bernadette, and a full brother to 2018 stakes-placed Road to Damascus.

His first foals arrived this year. “He was a super impressive racehorse. . . we are always trying to get good sire power in Pennsylvania, and I think we’ve succeeded in identifying a horse like him,” Brok said. “He’s got a great disposition. He’s a big horse, standing 16.3 hands; he’s got a lot of bone, with a big hip and shoulder. He’s built like a horse that can get you both speed and distance.”

Warrior’s Reward

Young graded stakes sire Warrior’s Reward will be standing the 2019 season at Barbara and Chip Wheeler’s WynOaks Farm in Delta. The Gr1-winning sprinter by Medaglia d’Oro is currently ranked 38th in the nation on the leading general sires list, above any other Mid-Atlantic stallion. The 12-year-old dark bay will stand for $4,500 live foal in 2019, with special discounts for mares foaling in Pennsylvania.

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| PA B R E E D E R S |

With five crops of racing age, Warrior’s Reward has sired 21 stakes winners, eight in 2018, led by graded winners Axelrod and Warrior’s Club, both entered in this year’s Breeders’ Cup. The three-year-old Axelrod takes aim at the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic-Gr1, drawing post 12 for the main event on the Saturday, November. 3 card at Churchill Downs. An earner of $732,925 from 10 starts, he goes into the Breeders’ Cup having won the Smarty Jones Stakes-Gr3 at Parx and the Indiana Derby-Gr3. The swift Warrior’s Club, a career earner of $704,104 who captured this year’s Commonwealth Stakes-Gr3 at Keeneland and was second in Saratoga’s Gr1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap and the Gr2 Churchill Downs Stakes on Derby Day, will break from the four-post in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint-Gr1. Warrior’s Reward ranked in the top 10 in the nation as a first-crop sire, as well as on the second-crop and third-crop sire lists. He has total progeny earnings in excess of $16.8 million, with nearly $5 million in 2018.

He is also the sire of 2018 stakes winners T Rex Express, who captured the West Virginia Breeders Classic Distaff in October; three-year olds Georgia’s Reward, winner of Oaklawn’s Rainbow Miss Stakes in five starts, and New York stakes winner Battle Station; Yockey’s Warrior, backto-back winner of Fair Grounds’ Thanksgiving Handicap who captured the Duncan F. Kenner Stakes in his only start of 2018; Puerto Rican Gr2 winner Exclusivo and 15-time winner Medal of Courage. Warrior’s Reward was the fastest three-year-old colt in his year, recording a 113 Beyer and winning at 7 furlongs at Churchill Downs in 1:21.60 over Munnings, Reynaldothewizard and Custom for Carlos, and finishing second or third in the Gr2 Jim Dandy, Gr2 Dwyer and Gr3 Northern Dancer Stakes that year. He returned at 4 to capture the Gr1 Carter in 1:21.62 for 7 furlongs and added graded placings in the Churchill Downs Stakes-Gr2 and Phoenix Stakes-Gr3 before retiring to stud with a record of four wins from 17 starts and earnings of $565,716.

A son of champion sire Medaglia d’Oro out of a Seeking the Gold mare, Warrior’s Reward is from the family of Canadian Horse of the Year Catch a Glimpse, English champion Forest Flower, English classic-winning millionaire Night of Thunder, and Gr1 winner High Yield.

*Source: TDN Sire List

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| NUTRITION |

THE I M P O R TA N C E OF GOOD NUTRITION AND ITS BEARING O N M E N TA L H E A LT H

FIRST PUBLISHED IN EUROPEAN TRAINER MAGAZINE

U

nique to the racing in ndustry is the daily neeed fo or staffff to meeet reequireed maximu um weights. Many in racing alreadyy believe they understand nutrition and the best methods to make weight, using tried and tested prractices that have been in common use for decades. The perceived success of such practicess leads to an attitu ude of ‘it works for me’ and a reluctance to change or adoptt new suggestions, and few consider thee future consequeences on health in later years.

Dehyd drating and starvation to make weight is common nplace, and long periods in saunas and saalt baths,

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laxaativees and self-iinduced vo omiting are familiar practices.

Thee heealtth imp pliccatio onss associaated wiitth theese incclu ude poor bone density ty, y hormonal isssues and impaired mood proffile. i Despite increased awareness of these problems, they remain as common globallly as they were thirty ty years ago.

To help address this, th he UK based Racing Foundation awarded a grant of just ovver £200,000 ($260,000) to support a ground-breaaking, nutritional intervention program developed over three years by a specialist team at the Research Institute of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Mooress University. The team is led by former jockey, Dr. Geo orge Wilson, and includes

| FOOD FOR THOUGHT? |

the head of nutrition for cycling’s Team Sky, Dr. James Morton, and Daniel Martin, a doctoral researcher and high-performance nutritionist for the Professional Jockeys Association.

Dr. Wilson has already spent seven years (part-funded by the Sheikh Mansoor Racing Festival) researching the serious health implications of extreme weightmaking practises in jockeys and has designed healthier, alternative weight-making programmes. In addition to offering the facilities at the University to measure bone and body composition, hydration, metabolism and provide strength and fitness assessments, he also works with racing organisations to provide workshops, tests, presentations and bespoke advice. He is in the ideal situation to conduct research into the health issues faced by racing staff, having ridden as a steeplechase jockey in his younger days.

“For my first ride as a conditional (bug) jockey at Southwell in 1985, I lost a stone (14 lbs) in five days to make 10st (140 lbs) minimum weight, felt awful and, given the occupational risks, I shouldn’t have been near a horse, let alone riding in a race,” he reflects on his experience. He later rode as an amateur mostly in point-to-points and hunter chases when weight became a problem. “Having ridden over jumps, I fully empathize with staff and understand the need for, and risks from, dehydration and starvation. Riding out stable staff are weighed in some yards and most vacancies are advertised with a maximum weight, so making weight is not just a problem for jockeys but also for a lot of racing staff.

“I was aware that not a lot had changed since my own time in yards in the 1980s and 1990s and so I decided to do my doctorate in the effects of common weight-making practices such as dehydration and nutrition (or lack of!).

In 2009 I started my first research and have now had 11 papers published.”

Lissa Oliver Shutterstock

BELOW: It is the responsibility of the trainer to ensure younger staff members are set a good example

Currently, Dr. Wilson is studying the effects of diet, dehydration and bone health of jockeys, but, as he recognizes, comparisons of bone density between standard 12st (168 lb) athletes and 9st, (126 lb), jockeys may have potential flaws given jockeys are an atypical population, being much smaller athletes. Furthermore, unlike other athletes, jockeys don’t tend to perform substantial hard surface training that helps maintain healthy bone metabolism.

Assisting Dr. Wilson is Daniel Martin, and their paper, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health (August 31, 2017), is the first body of research to investigate the opinions and practices of racehorse trainers in relation to rider welfare. Disappointingly for the researchers, from over 400 invitations, only five trainers expressed an interest to take part, something that certainly needs addressing.

A reluctance to face up to industry problems isn’t new and is not confined to trainers. “When I first went to the British racing industry authorities and said I wanted to do this, they originally didn’t offer any help,” he reveals. “There appeared to be a reluctance to accept that the current services and advice to help riders, particularly with weightmanagement, were clearly not working. Therefore, I just ‘kicked on’ with my research, and because jockeys had not received the sports science support in the past, they flocked to LJMU to undergo the testing and receive bespoke weight-management programs.

“Thankfully, now everyone is aware of the issues and have embraced the research findings on healthier weight-management practices, and it appears we are all singing from the same hymn sheet. Indeed, Dr. Jerry Hill, the Chief Medical Advisor at the British Horseracing Authority, is a collaborator on some of my recent published research and we have some other research projects we are currently working on together.”

Even so, it is an industry culturally-driven and based on the shared knowledge and experience of its senior

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| NUTRITION |

Arachnoid Granulation

Dural Sinus (Ve enous Blood Sub Arachnoid Space Choroid Plexus (CSF Prooduction La ateral Ventricle

Pituittary Glan nd

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professionals, which can represent an obstacle to Dr. Wilson and his team when some of that knowledge is outdated and incorrect. As Martin explains within one of the published papers, “If apprentice and conditional jockeys can carry some knowledge of evidence-based practices and the dangers of traditional methods into their early careers, there will be less of a reliance on seeking advice from senior jockeys. Similarly, over time the ‘new’ practices will hopefully supersede the current archaic medley of dehydrative methods.”

It certainly behooves trainers to ensure that younger staff members are set good examples and it isn’t asking too much of their time or level of expertise to provide suitable meals, in yards where catering is offered. Where meals are not provided, posters and literature should be made available to display in the yard to help encourage awareness of a good diet.

The Liverpool team’s research has already identified that poor nutrition habits may be inherited from one generation of jockey to the next. Up to 85% of current professional jockeys have a parent or sibling either still currently riding, or now retired, which may well contribute to the estimated 63% of jockeys who prefer to seek weight-making and nutrition advice from their senior peers and retired elders rather than a qualified nutritionist or dietician. This obviously applies also to other staff members, particularly work riders.

Mental health is another major area of research that has revealed a connection to diet, and the clinical tests for measuring mood in lifestyle have shown Dr. Wilson and his team that staff struggling to make weight “are not the

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Fou urth Ventricle

nal Chord Spin

| FOOD FOR THOUGHT? |

happiest bunnies.” Furthermore, studies into concussion have shown that due to lower levels of the body’s natural chemical production to protect the brain, those suffering from depression are far more likely to suffer a concussion in a fall.

“You are what you eat and you’re not happy if you have a poor diet,” says Dr. Wilson. “Staff now have to watch their weight and some yards set weight limits.

Traditionally, how to make weight is to undergo food restriction and even starve. When you’re hungry, you’re not in the best mood, and that has massive implications.

“There are many riders who now use science and understand energy balance, and some trainers have bought into this and recognize the benefits this has on their business. If your staff are happy, your horses are happy; but we are only seeing the ‘grass shoots’ of change and only a handful of trainers to date have taken on board the recommendations from mine and Dan (Martin’s) research. I am confident, however, with the backing of the industry stakeholders which we largely have now, that as the message gets across this should increase.

“The power that trainers have is unquestionable,” he points out. “Trainers are integral to improving the lifestyle of their staff, as well as most importantly themselves.

They have a lot of control and the power to instigate change. Let’s not underestimate that their business is a non-stop hamster wheel and this brings with it a lot of stress; therefore they need to look out for their own welfare, as well as obviously the welfare of their horses, jockeys and staff.”

TRAINERS ARE INTEGRAL TO IMPROVING THE LIFESTYLE OF THEIR STAFF, AS WELL AS MOST IMPORTANTLY THEMSELVES. DR. GEORGE WILSON

LEFT: New dietary guidelines could ease jockeys’ longstanding battle with the scales

Martin has conducted studies into the psychological side and he and Wilson acknowledge that the biggest problem is that the racing industry is culturally-driven and needs to be breaking the old accepted norms. “The young still look to their seniors for advice and example, but there is evidence people do want to change.”

The research Wilson conducted in 2009 showed the existing nutritional guidelines of the time to be incorrect and based upon guidelines for general athletes rather than jockeys, who in comparison have much lower energy expenditure.

“The science was based on other athletes who burn off 3,500-4,000 calories a day, but jockeys have only high activity for a short period of time so would typically burn more around 2,500 calories even on a really busy day. So we changed the guidelines to specifically suit jockeys, and hence many started fuelling better and making weight without the reliance on sweating and starving. These practices still do go on in racing across the world, however.

Again, we are seeing change and the hope is that the next generation of riders coming through will have the education and therefore the knowledge to make weight safely.”

Once again this means re-educating and affecting change in an industry that isn’t renowned for embracing new ideas and tends to work on the principle ‘if it works for me why stop?’ “This is not unique to racing and, as shown in recent years in other weight-making and nonweight sports like boxing and football respectively, when the culture changes for the better the athlete welfare changes for the better.

“We have to make people believe in it and buy into it,” Wilson enthuses. “Trainers, jockeys and work riders are self-employed so it can be a lonely industry and they’re often left to their own devices, but the industry now recognizes this and is pulling together. People are now being more candid.”

According to UK Health Service figures, at any one time around one in six adults may be suffering from a mental health problem. The racing industry is probably unique in the candor currently shown by the many individuals who have come forward to speak of depression and this has led to a greater awareness and proactive approach to mental health. Dr. Wilson and the team report a case-study showing that the mental well being of a professional National Hunt jockey in the UK could ISSUE 51 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| NUTRITION |

be improved with a dietary and exercise intervention, suggesting that dietary practices may be responsible for impaired mood profiles.

This could be important research, with mental health of such concern to the industry.

In September, Racing Welfare launched a nationwide Racing Occupational Health Service, providing an occupational health check with a nurse for anyone in the industry. Individuals may request a health check, or may be referred by their employer, GP or any other professional.

“We have also commissioned a mental health study, by a team at the Liverpool John Moores University, for the whole of the industry, to discover what the problems are and how we can best provide help,” reveals Sear. “We should have those results in May 2019.”

The recent research by Dr. Wilson and his team in professional jockeys has demonstrated that a high protein, low glycemic index carbohydrate diet (for example, dried beans, kidney beans and lentils, all nonstarchy vegetables, and some starchy vegetables such as sweet potatoes, most fruit, and many whole grain breads and cereals), providing a total energy intake equivalent to resting metabolic rate, can facilitate fat loss whilst still maintaining lean tissue and improving performance markers. The jockeys in this test were also asked to jog for 30 minutes each morning pre-breakfast at 75% of the heart rate maximum, and to refrain from wearing sweatsuits or additional clothes to intentionally sweat.

Following the six-week dietary intervention, the jockeys were significantly lighter in total body mass, body fat in kilograms and body fat percentage, and maintained lean mass. There were no significant changes for hip and lumbar bone density, but metabolic, respiratory and physical data showed significant increases in resting metabolic rate, chest strength, leg strength and jumping

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| FOOD FOR THOUGHT? |

ABOVE: The study found jockeys’ mental well being improved for dietary change

height. The resting heart rate was also significantly lower.

The jockeys were also asked to complete a General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), which is a widely used and highly reliable measure of psychological distress in the general population, capturing symptoms of depression, anxiety, social dysfunction, and loss of confidence.

The GHQ-12 data showed that prior to the dietary intervention, a significant proportion of jockeys (21.4 %) could fall into the classification of ‘psychiatric caseness’ or likely to be suffering from depression or anxiety and requiring specialist clinical input. The mean GHQ-12 score was 10.3 prior to the dietary intervention, reducing to 8.9 after the intervention. The number of ‘psychiatric caseness’ reduced from 2 out of 10, to 1 out of 10 following the dietary intervention.

This was the first study to use the GHQ-12 in jockeys to detect possible psychiatric disorders and assess psychological distress before and after dietary intervention, and highlights the importance of a good diet for stable staff. The reliance on archaic methods of wasting and dehydration need to be actively discouraged, as does a dependence on fast food and irregular mealtimes. Instead, enabling and supporting three meals a day that include recognized healthy foods will not only improve the health and well being of staff, but of the business too.

References:

The horseracing industry’s perception of nutritional and weightmaking practices of professional jockeys, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, (D. Martin, G. Wilson, J. P. Morton, G. L. Close & R. C. Murphy) http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/215967 6X.2017.1340330 Fasted Exercise and Increased Dietary Protein Reduces Body Fat and Improves Strength in Jockeys, Authors G. Wilson, P. P. Pritchard, C. Papageorgiou, S. Phillips, P. Kumar, C. Langan-Evans, H. Routledge, D. J. Owens, J. P. Morton, G. L. Close

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ISSUE 51 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| OPINION |

Bill Heller

Eclipse Sportswire

#S O U ND B I T ES number of starts per year has been in free-fall since the mid1970s, falling from 10.2 in 1975 to 6.2 in 2017 according to the Jockey Club.

So for this #soundbites column, we ask trainers: Are horses today less sound,

# Jerry Hollendorfer

It’s hard to consider without thinking of the number of racing dates now. Back in the day, there wasn’t that much pressure on horses. That would be the first thing to take into account. There are more race dates now. We race 365 days a year. They used to have less, so there wasn’t as much stress to race them.

The scrutiny of trainers is no different than in any sport. Trainers aren’t criticized in the press as much as baseball players are perhaps.

and if so, has it affected your training in any way?

# Todd Pletcher

I think to me a lot of it has to do with trainer management and owner management. One thing over the years trainers have learned is that when you give your horse more time off, they seem to do better. If you’re running at stakes ability level, you can manage them that way. You might compare it to analytics in baseball, trying to figure out what’s best.

Injuries are part of our business and of all sports—something you need to know.

Part of it is in the commercial breeding aspect. Breeders can’t afford horses to be horses. They are more protective...the way parents treat their kids.

BACK IN THE DAY, THERE WASN’T THAT MUCH PRESSURE ON HORSES JERRY HOLLENDORFER

#Jonathan Sheppard I think Thoroughbreds are fragile animals. There’s always been a higher percentage of injuries than we want. I don’t think it’s any different. Some trainers changed their perception that maybe they’re not as sound. Most of my horses are home-bred, so I’ve been involved with them since they were broken as yearlings.

Whether or not that makes a difference, I don’t know. A lot of the training I do is on my farm. On my farm, every horse is turned out every day before they’re ridden.

Horses are more relaxed if they’ve been turned out. It gives them more time out of the stall. I don’t think most people have that luxury afforded them because they’re training at the track.

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| OPINION |

# Kiaran McLaughlin It’s hard to say, but there are issues why they run less per year. The No. 1 issue is Equibase. They keep track of everybody’s stats. I remember when I started out with Wayne Lukas in 1985; nobody was paying attention. If someone asked how you’re doing, you’d say “Great.” There were no stats. You’d turn the page and go on with the next meet.

I don’t check my stats periodically, but owners do. You won’t attract a big owner if you’re not

# Tony Dutrow

There’s no question about it. I’m 60 years old, and this is all I’ve done in my life for nearly 50 years. The Thoroughbreds lately are such fragile animals. We used to get so many starts for our horses. One would be unrealistic now to expect a horse to race more than a dozen starts in their two and three-year-old years. The nicer kind just aren’t there anymore.

You have to take that into account.

These horses today, the big numbers we’re paying for stud fees and for horses at auction are just incredible.

So many owners have teamed up to get partners.

No. 1, we need to protect our racehorses. No. 2, we want to keep our clients in the business. That is a very serious issue for trainers.

One has to be so careful. We’ve got a very different avenue from horses when I was a kid.

I think the industry needs to look at this. More turf racing now is good.

#John Sadler

I say no. It’s all the other factors. I think that horses have an increased number of racing dates. It’s become more of a racing business than a racing sport. You have to start with the breeding. I think people are breeding more horses to sell than to run. Everybody’s breeding speed and brilliance more today.

They’re not breeding for soundness.

They’re breeding horses who race once or twice. Everybody is selling pieces of horses. I look at what we’re breeding.

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training at 12 percent. You want to keep your percentage at 18 to 25, but it’s hard to do. I usually have a good idea of how I’m doing.

The other thing I say is definitely the Ragozin sheets. We look at these sheets. If there’s a big number, we need to give a horse extra time off.

Soundness-wise, another issue is today in 2018, we have digital x-rays and ultrasounds, and we see things we didn’t know about back then. Nowadays, we’re stopping with them before they break a cannon bone.

# Richard Mandella It’s not an easy answer. I think the biggest influence is the trainer’s percentage of wins and the close following everybody has. Your win percentage is in the program or in the Racing Form. In the old days, it was common sense to say, “Let’s get a horse into a race.” Now they worry about percentages, and they train until they think the horse is just right. We don’t often run horses back when we should because it’s not been the style.

If you get a real good horse, they have to be at such a high level. My wife pulled out one of my old training charts. She said, “In May 1980, you won 11 races. You raced horses off a week or two rest.” I think we’re afraid of criticism in some cases. Running a horse back in two weeks is sometimes a good thing. There’s nothing wrong with being old-fashioned and run them back in one week. Last year, I ran back a horse on six days apart, and she ran a great race. Most of the horses I trained like that ran fantastic.

It’s difficult to answer because there are a lot of things to consider. The horses may not be as strong as they were mentally and physically. It could have to do with statistics. I worry about it when I’m not doing good.

Everybody looks at your stats. You never had to look at it before. You just trained horses. You didn’t have to think about it. I’m seeing young guys trying to get started who think about that. There are a lot of factors.

# Michael Matz

I think one thing is that we have racing year-round. It’s hard for horses to do that without a break. We have sort of bred for speed, to be precocious.

I’ve read that horses used to run a lot more that they run now.

When I was in Australia in October, I saw that they tend to run more frequently. It just seems like they run more frequent than they do here. But I did notice that while they run more often, they also give them more rest.

It looks like we’re breeding a lot of horses for speed and precociousness.

It’s sort of trending in that direction. Whether or not that has something to do with it, I don’t know. We want the horse to be more precocious—work really fast. Sometimes people don’t want to take the time.

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