North American Trainer - May to July 2016 - issue 40

GILES ANDERSON All set for the Triple Crown

AS regular readers will know, we always like to pick a trainer profile in this our Triple Crown issue of the magazine who we believe will have an impact on the coming Triple Crown race season.

Well, we got in early this year and featured Doug O’Neill in our previous issue. As we head to press, his outstanding colt Nyquist is a worthy favorite for the 2016 Run for the Roses.

While going through potential candidates to feature in this issue, one thing that dawned on both Frances Karon and me was the number of horses with A.P. Indy featuring in their pedigree. Ironically, of course, Nyquist isn’t one, but there are plenty who are, so we decided to break from tradition and run a cover profile on A.P. Indy, the horse whose contemporary legacy in North America is second to none.

A cruel twist of fate kept him out of the starting gate back on the first Saturday in May in 1992, but A.P. Indy did land the Belmont Stakes and that’s where, as our cover suggests, the legacy began.

Another look at the result charts for the past 10 years of the classic races shows how many trainers in this timeframe have won just one Triple Crown race, with each trainer choosing a different path to get to the winner’s circle. It’s now been a decade since Michael Matz took the then-unconventional five-

week route from Florida to Kentucky, with many pundits then questioning his wisdom, but this many years on, no one will be questioning Doug O’Neill bringing his champion to the race on only his third start since last November.

But the difficulty of winning these events is an obvious part of the challenge. Within these pages, Bill Heller sets out the ways in which winning trainers have overcome that challenge.

Previously, we’ve studied the advancement of female trainers today versus 50 years ago. Now, we turn our attention to the female jockey colony and how they have had to fight (sometimes literally) to gain mainstream respect. Denise Steffanus’s account recalls some fascinating stories from the female riders who over the years have become household racing names.

While during this time of the year we celebrate the historic races that the spring season brings, we must not forget that the “bread and butter” of many a trainer’s business is found in the claiming ranks, and as we know only too well, these races are simply the bedrock for the business. As you’ll read here, Bill Heller has spent much time over the past month compiling information as to the different rules, regulations, and taxes of the claiming game on a state-by-state basis.

So whether you’re eyeing Grade 1 races or $5,000 claimers – or anything in between – over the next three months, good luck. n

2016 SPRING/SUMMER MEET CALENDAR

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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 EPObooster 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. EPO-Equine® 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.

Praise Natural Alternative

DEADLY DOPING MEETS ITS MATCH: Trainers

// BY: MARK HANSEN

The 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. EPO-Equine® 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 ®

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ALAN F. BALCH Geese and Greed

WE all know the old tale about a particular goose and her golden eggs, but once in a while it’s good to remember and apply it to particular circumstances.

The owner of that fabled goose went from countryman to well-to-do. Not exactly overnight, but one golden egg at a time. So, a step at a time, he grew rich.

It wasn’t enough. He thought to himself one not-so-fine morning that he might as well get all that gold at once. And so that goose became the subject of what could only be described as a spectacularly failed surgery. “Greed often overreaches itself.”

The goose that is California racing – and perhaps North American racing as a whole – has been on the operating table for quite a long time now. It has been prodded and plucked and poked. It still lives, but for how long? A loud and healthy honking has been gradually replaced over the decades by what sounds in comparison like meager quacking.

A cooked goose might be preferable to a dead duck, but not by much.

When the flock of geese that are the race tracks and their communities of horsemen were at their happiest and healthiest, conditions were a lot different. Going way back – but less so as the decades went by – owning a race horse was the province of the privileged very few. In the era of mighty private stables competing one against another, the sporting collegiality that largely prevailed (particularly at the top of the sport but also throughout it) led to rules and practices suited to those eras.

They are much less suited to this one.

Once upon a time, a 100 years ago, most purses paid to three places, and often over 90% went to the winner. More recently, a benchmark of 60% to the winners was established, with minor awards to fifth. Presumably that was meant to insure that everyone tried to win, so great was the gap from winning to minor prizes. There weren’t exactas, trifectas, and superfectas in the earliest days, either! The wealth involved in owning horses and operating tracks

was so great that the results of potential wealth-redistribution among winners and losers in the races themselves couldn’t have calamitous consequences, at least not for most owners. Remember, owning a successful race horse (or any stable of race horses) was once a superior status symbol to just about anything else imaginable.

Statistical analysis of purses and where they go is a fairly modern pursuit. In my own case, I didn’t start studying this arcane discipline until about 40 years ago now, when reliable data was harder to come by than now. I began when horsemen were constantly agitating for higher purses, which they knew would be the answer to their prayers. “Everyone” knew it.

Shockingly, instead, we learned fairly quickly that 80% of purses (no matter how high or low) were being banked by 20% of connections.

Among the population of racing’s owners in the old days, the reasons for and consequences of applying that rule weren’t matters of great interest. Everyone involved could afford to lose money racing their horses, since great status and ever greater horses were the goals.

Not so much these days! Sport for sport’s sake and for improving the breed have collided with “capitalism,” loosely defined.

Now, however, more winnings are being banked by fewer interests. Those everhigher purses (unadjusted for inflation) benefit only a few. The latest Southern California data shows that last year, 16% of horsemen won 80% of purses, meaning that 84% of horsemen were struggling for their relatively tiny slivers of the remaining 20%!

In addition, more horses are controlled by fewer trainers, proportionally, than ever

before in the modern era. And fewer major trainers are working for more top-end owners than ever, too.

The consequences are startling to consider, since this didn’t happen overnight. The bettors who make it all go now face a growing number of races where contending separate interests are often few, even in large fields! Purse-generating handle declines accordingly. Racing offices struggle to fill more races than ever, up and down the cards. And the most prosperous owners complain about their high-end prep races not going, failing to sympathize with the healthy and aspiring “bottom” 84% that is essential to the continuing success of the (already) successful.

Confidence-enhancing safeguards are long gone, such as coupling partial or identical betting interests. Stall limits are, too, which previously divided horses of similar levels and categories among far, far more trainers, and also provided both incentive and opportunity for aspiring horsemen, including owners.

So, just how do we resuscitate our aging goose and keep her prolific? Greed and increasingly short-term thinking are not the answers.

Owners tend to forget that Mother Nature only produces a paucity of top horses, no matter what! While Grade I stakes winners may well deserve 60% of those riches, purses should logically be distributed much more broadly, increasing down each level of stakes and overnights. After all, in our pari-mutuel model, it’s betting on the overnights that generate those enormous purses for the stakes. Last year in Southern California, 35% of purses were devoted to stakes, but stakes were just under 11% of total races run. Without 90% of the races being appealing to bettors – competitive, attractive betting contests – riches at the top end must decline.

It’s long past time to develop a rational and effective new model for variable purse distribution, coupled with a return to meaningful stall limits. Without them –not to mention my other favorite topics of marketing investment and optimal, flexible pricing – we are all cooked. n

“The latest Southern California data shows that last year, 16% of horsemen won 80% of purses ”

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Trainer of the Quarter GEORGE “RUSTY” ARNOLD

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

WORDS: BILL HELLER PHOTO: HORSEPHOTOS

Corey Lanerie punches the air in celebration after Weep No More’s victory in the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland

THERE’S no telling how far a leap of faith can take you. When third-generation 61-year-old trainer George “Rusty” Arnold entered Ashbrook Farm’s lightlyraced three-year-old filly Weep No More in the 79th running of the $500,000 Grade 1 Ashland Stakes April 9th at Keeneland, he knew he was asking a lot of his filly. She was not only facing undefeated Cathryn Sophia, but also Grade 1 stakes winner Rachel’s Valentina. Weep No More’s only victories in three starts were in a maiden race and a $60,000 stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

“A lot had to do with where we were running,” Arnold said on April 18. “If we had to ship, we wouldn’t have done it. After she won the (Tampa) stakes, we said, ‘Let’s give her a shot at the big boys.’ It didn’t matter who was in there. We just wanted to see where she fit.”

She fit at the top. Sent off at 30-1 in the field of five in the Ashland, Weep No More, who was 13 lengths back after a half-mile in the mile-and-a-sixteenth race, came flying through Keeneland’s short stretch under Corey Lanerie to win by a neck over Rachel’s Valentina.

Weep No More’s next start will be in the mile-and-an-eighth Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks,

which suddenly became wide open when undefeated Songbird, champion two-yearold filly of last year, was declared out of the stakes. Stretching out another sixteenth of mile, Weep No More is certainly a contender. Should she add the Oaks to her resume, she will be yet another success story for her quiet but quite accomplished trainer who ranks 36th in all-time career earnings (just under $60 million) with 1,671 winners from 11,091 starters. Arnold is the third leading all-time trainer at Keeneland with 254 victories and has been leading trainer there three meets in 1985, 1986, and 1987. He lives two minutes from the track.

Born in Paris, Kentucky, Arnold was bred for a life with horses. His grandfather, James Russell, was the broodmare foreman at Elmendorf Farm. Arnold’s dad, the late George Arnold Sr., was a breeder and also trained a few horses at Keeneland. Arnold’s brother, Terry, manages Dixiana Farm.

Arnold worked on his family farm on weekends and summers, then began working for trainer Eugene Euster. He took pre-veterinary classes at the University of Kentucky, all the while continuing to work for Euster. “I went to UK for almost two years,” he said. “I was galloping horses in the morning and going to classes in the afternoon. Then I went to Hialeah for winter

break and never came back. I never regretted it. I’ve been very fortunate.”

After working as Euster’s assistant trainer, Arnold decided to open his own stable in 1975, winning his first race on July 25 of that year with La Yo Quiero at Delaware Park. His first stakes winner came in the Neptune Stakes a year later at River Downs with Fleeting North.

In 1980, Arnold went to New York. Two years later, Wavering Monarch gave Arnold his first Grade 1 victory when he captured the Haskell. Many more stakes have followed.

In 1995, trainer Shug McGaughey’s big break turned out to be one for Arnold, too. McGaughey, who had been training John Ed Anthony’s Loblolly Stable, was hired as private trainer for the Phipps family, and Arnold was subsequently named to train a division of Loblolly.

Arnold has enjoyed great success for decades with owner G. Watts Humphrey Jr., whose list of graded stakes winners includes Centre Court, Clear Mandate, Likely Exchange, Personal Diary, and Victory Ride. Thanks in part to his success with Arnold, Humphrey was able to achieve a unique double in October, 2011, when he was the leading owner of the Keeneland fall meet and part-owner of baseball’s World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals. n

A.P. INDY The complete Thoroughbred

A.P. Indy was always destined for greatness. By Seattle Slew, he was a sales-topping yearling, a Classic winner, a leading stallion and now a prolific sire of sires, enjoying retirement at Lane’s End Farm, Kentucky

WORDS: FRANCES J. KARON PHOTOS: FRANCES J. KARON, HORSEPHOTOS

Oday, for Asa Haley to snap a shank on his halter and escort him to his paddock. When that time came, Haley and A.P. Indy, bouncing and jig-jogging, took his place in the first wave of stallions headed for turnout at Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky.

Wrapped in a warm blanket and fitted with bell boots on his front feet, the pensioned stallion was turned loose in his familiar space. What followed is a routine Haley sees regularly, but still the stud hand stayed to watch as A.P. Indy, ears pricked, cantered to his automatic waterer, circled it three times before standing over the top of it, then took off at a gallop, broken by the occasional buck, and sped a few laps around the field. Even with a winter blanket instead of a racing saddle cinched under his belly, A.P. Indy was gliding, light on his feet, before finally dropping his head to pick at the grass.

Maybe this is his superpower: A.P. Indy loves to run.

It doesn’t hurt that he is also genetically blessed.

The record book on A.P. Indy’s stud career comes to a close as his influence on

won the Grade 2 Citation Handicap at the end of 1989 for trainer Rick Mettee.

In 1990, the same year he made two purchases through BBA (Ireland)’s Noel O’Callaghan at the Keeneland July yearling sale held on July 23-24, Tsurumaki opened Autopolis International Racing Course, a leisure center featuring a Formula One-style automobile racetrack, on Japan’s Kyushu island.

At Keeneland, Tsurumaki paid $2 million for hip 243, a colt by Fappiano out of Taminette who, as A.P. Jet, became a blacktype winner in Japan and a sire in New York with 14 stakes winners from 462 foals; and $2.9 million for A.P. Indy, the Seattle Slew son of Weekend Surprise sold as hip 249. D. Wayne Lukas was the underbidder on both.

Will Farish says of A.P. Indy, “He was actually one of the best-looking yearlings that I think we ever produced. He was just a beautifully balanced, lovely colt from the very beginning, and we were very, very impressed with him. I debated selling him, but of course we did.”

That $2.9 million was the highest price for a yearling that year, and hip 249 was to become the perfect addition to his owner’s portfolio. Tsurumaki, whose walls were decorated with paintings by Monet, Picasso, Renoir, and Van Gogh, had an appreciation for museum-quality pieces, and in A.P. Indy, he was to have another.

The name “A.P. Indy” was an advertising gimmick for the owner’s raceway, with the “A.P.” for “Autopolis.” The “Indy” portion was a nod to automobile racing’s Indianapolis 500, familiarly known as the Indy 500, the iconic American event in which cars race 500 miles on an oval track, set to have its centennial in May.

Swap cars for horses and measure miles in furlongs for the test of speed on an oval track, and the Indy 500 analogy works. A.P. Indy, his sons and daughters, and increasing generations of their sons and daughters are in the driver’s seat of North American racing.

Being the most expensive yearling sold in a sale season is often a poor indicator of racing class. Notable exceptions include the brilliant sprinter Mr. Prospector, later a leading sire and one who features prominently in the pedigrees of many of the A.P. Indy-line’s best runners (sold for $220,000 in 1971); topclass racehorses Majestic Prince (champion; Derby and Preakness winner; $250,000 in 1967) and Wajima (champion; fourtime Grade 1 winner; $600,000 in 1973); and Nureyev, a European champion who was disqualified from a win in England’s 2,000 Guineas but went on to become a leading sire ($1.3 million in 1978). Perhaps A.P. Indy’s great-grandson Mohaymen, the winner of four Grade 2 stakes and an expected contender in this season’s Triple Crown races, will become another saletopping classic winner: at $2.2 million, the son of Tapit shared top billing for yearlings of 2014 offered in North America.

In the 10 years directly before A.P. Indy,

there were Lichine ($1.7 million in 1980), a Listed stakes winner in France; Ballydoyle ($3.5 million, 1981), a winner in Ireland; Empire Glory ($4.25 million, 1982), a Group 3 winner in Ireland; Snaafi Dancer ($10.5 million, 1983), unraced and the subfertile sire of one winner from four foals; Imperial Falcon ($8.25 million, 1984), a winner of two races in Ireland; Seattle Dancer ($13.1 million, 1985), a Group 2 winner in Ireland and sire of 35 stakes winners; Northern State ($3.6 million, 1986), a Group 2 stakes-placed winner in the days when black-type was awarded for fourth place, in Ireland; Warrshan ($3.7 million, 1987), a Group 3 winner in England; Royal Academy ($3.5 million, 1988), winner of the Breeders’ Cup Mile-G1 in the U.S. and the July Cup-G1 in England, and sire of 167 stakes winners as a dual-hemisphere stallion; and Northern Park ($2.8 million, 1989), a Listed stakes winner in France.

Despite a few talented runners in this group, of A.P. Indy’s immediate predecessors only Royal Academy would be considered an unqualified success. Racing historians would have shrugged and moved on had A.P. Indy been a good-looking, wellbred horse who couldn’t outrun a fat man, as they say.

Sent to California-based trainer Neil Drysdale, A.P. Indy made his first start on August 24, 1991, against six other maidens in a six-furlong race at Del Mar. He ran fourth, beaten some 5¼ lengths. The chart noted he had raced wide and made a “mild rally.”

Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Delahoussaye, who was A.P. Indy’s regular rider, felt that his mount hadn’t performed to his full ability. “When I rode him the first time I

“A.P. Indy did everything that he was bred to do, in a sense he also exceeded expectations ”

told Neil after the race, ‘This horse can run, but there’s something not right with him behind,’” says Delahoussaye.

Drysdale replied that the horse was a ridgling, and soon afterwards, A.P. Indy underwent surgery to remove the undescended testicle. The rest, as Delahoussaye says, “is history.”

A.P. Indy re-emerged on October 27th at Santa Anita. With the addition of an extra half-furlong, he won by four lengths. His next starts resulted in a three-length allowance victory going a mile at Bay Meadows and a neck win over favored Dance Floor, with Casual Lies third, in the 1 1/16-mile, Grade 1 Hollywood Futurity, both in December.

At three, A.P. Indy captured the San Rafael S.-G2 in February and the Santa Anita Derby-G1 in April, with future champion older horse Bertrando second and Casual Lies third in the latter race.

The second choice, behind two-year-old champion Arazi, going into the Kentucky Derby, a blind quarter crack forced connections to scratch A.P. Indy on race day. In his absence, Lil E. Tee won the classic, with Casual Lies and Dance Floor –two horses A.P. Indy had defeated – second and third.

Drysdale opted to bypass the Preakness, diverting A.P. Indy, with a fiberglass patch on his left front hoof, to Belmont Park in New York, where he registered a facile win in the Grade 2 Peter Pan, contended eight days after the Preakness (won by Pine Bluff, with Casual Lies and Dance Floor third and

fourth) and 12 days before his next start, the Belmont Stakes.

A.P. Indy won the Belmont by threequarters of a length – Pine Bluff was third – to become his sire’s second winner of that classic race and his dam’s second classic winner overall. His final time was 2:26.13, still to this day the third-fastest Belmont, behind only Secretariat and Easy Goer.

Three months after the Belmont, A.P. Indy put in a lackluster performance in his next start, the Molson Export Million Stakes-G2 at Woodbine, running fifth. With some of the shine rubbed off, he next went to post in his first try against older horses, the 10-furlong, Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont. He stumbled at the start, tore off his right front shoe, and ran third, nearly seven lengths behind Pleasant Tap, splitting the previous year’s Kentucky Derby winner Strike the Gold in second and favorite Sultry Song in fourth.

A.P. Indy shipped to Gulfstream Park in

Florida for the October 31, 1992, Breeders’ Cup Classic, which he won by two lengths over Pleasant Tap in a final time of 2:00.20, tying him with Sunday Silence for the stakes record, which has since been surpassed.

In the classic-winning son of Seattle Slew, Tsurumaki had his equine masterpiece, one with a distinctive signature: A.P. Indy ran with a widely noted head-down style. Delahoussaye says of being on him, “Ironically, he was very comfortable. I rode horses like that that didn’t have his talent, and they were uncomfortable. Even with his unorthodox way of running he was so smooth.”

The Classic concluded A.P. Indy’s racing career, with eight wins and a third in 11 starts and earnings of $2,979,815, a rare expensive yearling that had earned more than his purchase price. He was voted Horse of the Year and, by a tally of 2761, champion three-year-old male, while Weekend Surprise garnered Broodmare of the Year honors. A.P. Indy and his trainer Drysdale were both inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in 2000.

“If he hadn’t had all those foot problems he would probably have been undefeated,” Delahoussaye reflects. “He had to have heart to run through that. That’s what was so amazing about him. That’s why he was so special.”

Breeders Farish and Kilroy, with partner Harold Goodman, had bought into A.P. Indy after the Belmont, and he was

A.P. Indy wins the 1992 Belmont Stakes, ahead of Pine Bluff

“A.P. Indy is already represented as sire, grandsire, and greatgrandsire of North American classic winners ”

syndicated to stand the 1993 season at Lane’s End, where his half-brother Summer Squall had covered his first book of mares in 1992.

Calling A.P. Indy’s initial covering fee of $50,000 a huge bargain would be an understatement.

His first yearlings, sold in 1995, averaged $298,750, and twelve of the 45 foals of racing age that crop yielded became blacktype winners. Among them were Grade 1 winners Royal Indy, Runup the Colors, and Tomisue’s Delight; Grade 2 winners A.P. Assay and Pulpit; and Grade 3 winners Accelerator, General Royal, and Parade Queen.

A.P. Indy’s advertised fee peaked at $300,000, where it remained from 20022008. He was the country’s leading sire in 2003 and 2006 and was among the leading sires six other times. Progeny of his daughters, who are the dams of 139 blacktype winners including champions Royal Delta and Wait a While, elevated him to leading broodmare sire in 2015.

From 1,224 registered foals in 18 crops, he sired 155 black-type stakes winners (13% to foals), more than his sire Seattle Slew, who got 111 stakes winners from 1,102 foals (10%). A.P. Indy’s first stakes winner was General Royal in 1996 and the last, assuming none among the handful of runners still in training – his youngest foals are five – will change the total, was Key to Power in 2015.

Of these 155 stakes winners, 29 achieved Grade/Group 1 wins, 29 Grade/Group 2,

and 30 Grade/Group 3, with nine North American champions:

l Tempera, 2001 champion two-year-old filly (U.S.);

l Mineshaft, 2003 Horse of the Year/ champion older male (U.S.);

l Bernardini, 2006 champion three-yearold male (U.S.);

l Catch the Thrill, 2006 champion twoyear-old female (Canada);

l Rags to Riches, 2007 champion threeyear-old female (U.S.);

l Marchfield, 2008 and 2009 champion older male (Canada);

l Eye of the Leopard, 2009 champion three-year-old male (Canada);

l Serenading, 2009 champion older female (Canada);

l Honor Code, 2015 champion older male (U.S.).

With his own statistics as good as etched in stone, the great horse’s legacy hurtles forward as a burgeoning influence of class and, often, stamina in black-type pedigrees.

A.P. Indy is already represented as sire, grandsire, and great-grandsire of North American classic winners.

He got a Preakness winner in Bernardini and a Belmont winner in Rags to Riches, but the closest he came to siring a Derby winner was when Aptitude was second in 2000. Other progeny to place were A P Valentine (Belmont and Preakness) and Astrology (Belmont). A.P. Indy’s classic influence extended to Canada, where Eye of

the Leopard and Marchfield each won a leg

And he sired Kentucky Oaks winners, too: Secret Status in 2000 and Rags to Riches in 2007. Other Oaks-winning descendants are Plum Pretty (2011; dam by A.P. Indy), Princess of Sylmar (2013; by A.P. Indy’s son Majestic Warrior), and Untapable (2014; by

A.P. Indy’s son Malibu Moon sired 2013 Kentucky Derby winner and Belmont-placed Orb, and in 2014 there was a Triple Crown of sorts via great-grandsons California Chrome (by Lucky Pulpit, by Pulpit) with a Derby/Preakness double and Tonalist (by Tapit, by Pulpit) in the Belmont. Sons Aptitude, Bernardini, Master Command, Mineshaft, Pulpit, and Stephen Got Even each sired one or more colt to place in at least one U.S. classic. A.P. Indy is broodmare sire of 2010 Derby winner Super Saver, now the sire of champion sprinter Runhappy in his first crop and, among others, Grade 2 winner I Spent It, who is inbred 3x4 to A.P.

Through April 17th, five of the top 10 sires on the North American general sires list are A.P. Indy’s male-line descendants, with grandsons Lucky Pulpit and Tapit 1-2 on the list that also includes Bernardini in fifth, Congrats (sixth), and Mineshaft (ninth). Flatter (11th) and Malibu Moon (15th) round out the top 15.

Reshuffle the list to rank leading sires by 2016 graded stakes winners instead of earnings, and three of the top four trace to A.P. Indy. Tapit has more graded stakes winners – seven – this season than any other stallion. Bernardini is second on the list with six and Flatter fourth with four. Congrats, a full brother to Flatter, is in the top 10 as one of the sires with three graded winners.

Twenty-seven of A.P. Indy’s sons have sired Grade or Group 1 winners. With 13 individual winners at that level, Bernardini is the leader. Pulpit has 11 and Malibu Moon nine, so far. Interestingly, these stallions achieved varying levels of racecourse success themselves – one was a Grade 1 winner, another a Grade 2 winner, and the other, a maiden special weight winner – but together they have been A.P. Indy’s most influential branches to date.

Racing for his breeder Darley, Bernardini was trained by Tom Albertrani in a career that spanned 10 months from gate to wire, with six wins and a second in eight starts, all at three. His scores include the Preakness by 5¼ lengths, the Jim Dandy-G2 by nine, Travers-G1 by 7½ lengths, and the Jockey Club Gold Cup-G1 by 6¾ lengths “under wraps” against a small field of older horses. He finished a length second to eventual Horse of the Year Invasor (Arg) in the Breeders’ Cup Classic-G1.

The sire of 35 Graded/Group winners –a New Zealand champion and two winners of the Travers among them – stands for $100,000 at Darley America and is represented on the Kentucky Derby points leaderboard by Shagaf with 50. Zulu (20)

Bernardini, A.P. Indy’s first Classic-winning son

Animals speak louder than words. TM

If there’s greatness on the inside, it shows on the outside. purinamills.com/horse-feed

MARQUIS®

(15% w/w ponazuril)

Antiprotozoal Oral Paste

Caution: Federal (U.S.A.) law restricts this drug to use by or on the order of a licensed veterinarian.

For The Treatment Of Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM) In Horses For Oral Use Only

BRIEF SUMMARY

Before using MARQUIS, please consult the product insert, a summary of which follows:

INDICATIONS

MARQUIS (ponazuril) is indicated for the treatment of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) caused by Sarcocystis neurona

WARNINGS

For use in animals only. Not for use in horses intended for food. Not for human use. Keep out of reach of children.

PRECAUTIONS

Prior to treatment, a complete neurologic exam should be completed by a veterinarian. In most instances, ataxia due to EPM is asymmetrical and affects the hind limbs. Clinicians should recognize that clearance of the parasite by ponazuril may not completely resolve the clinical signs attributed to the natural progression of the disease.

The prognosis for animals treated for EPM may be dependent upon the severity of disease and the duration of the infection prior to treatment. The safe use of MARQUIS (ponazuril) in horses used for breeding purposes, during pregnancy, or in lactating mares, has not been evaluated. The safety of MARQUIS (ponazuril) with concomitant therapies in horses has not been evaluated.

ADVERSE REACTIONS

In the field study, eight animals were noted to have unusual daily observations. Two horses exhibited blisters on the nose and mouth, three animals showed skin reactions for up to 18 days, one animal had loose stools, one had a mild colic on one day and one animal had a seizure while on medication. The association of these reactions to treatment was not established.

ANIMAL SAFETY SUMMARY

MARQUIS (ponazuril) was administered to 24 adult horses (12 males and 12 females) in a target animal safety study. Three groups of 8 horses each received 0, 10 or 30 mg/kg (water as control, 2X and 6X for a 5 mg/kg [2.27 mg/lb] dose). Horses were dosed after feeding. One half of each group was treated for 28 days and the other half for 56 days followed by necropsy upon termination of treatment. There were several instances of loose feces in all animals in the study irrespective of treatment, sporadic inappetence and one horse at 10 mg/kg (2X) lost weight while on test. Loose feces were treatment related. Histopathological findings included moderate edema in the uterine epithelium of three of the four females in the 6X group (two treated for 28 days and one for 56 days).

For customer care or to obtain product information, including a Material Safety Data Sheet, call 1-888-6374251 Option 2, then press 1.

®MARQUIS is a registered trademark of Merial. ©2016 Merial, Inc., Duluth, GA. All rights reserved.

and Greenpointcrusader (14) have been taken out of Derby consideration. Fillies Lewis Bay (130) and Rachel’s Valentina (48) have substantial Kentucky Oaks points.

Like Bernardini, Pulpit, a Claiborne Farmhomebred conditioned by Frankie Brothers, only raced at three. His career lasted less than four months after he sustained a career-ending injury and was fourth – the only time he was worse than second – in the 1997 Kentucky Derby. Leading up to that race, he won the Grade 2 Blue Grass and the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, with a second in the Florida Derby-G1. Pulpit died aged 18 in December of 2012 but is the conduit for the red-hot Tapit branch of the line, as well as Sky Mesa (sire of 49 stakes winners) and Lucky Pulpit, sire of 2014 Horse of the Year California Chrome, who besides two-thirds of the Triple Crown has a Dubai World Cup win on his résumé. Pulpit’s record as a sire of sires could improve when foals by his young Grade 1-winning sons Power Broker and Mr Speaker hit the track.

Pulpit is represented this year as the broodmare sire of Fair Grounds Oaks-G2 winner Land Over Sea (128 Kentucky Oaks points).

Nineteen-year-old Malibu Moon’s stud fee at owner/breeder B. Wayne Hughes’ Spendthrift Farm is a fraction less than Bernardini’s at $95,000. He was among the leading sires in 2010, 2011, and 2013 and, in addition to his Derby winner Orb, has sired, among other major winners, 2004 champion two-year-old male Declan’s Moon. Trained by Mel Stute, Malibu Moon had a brief racing career, with a first and a second at two a month apart in his only starts, and cut his teeth breeding mares for $3,000 at Country Life Farm in Maryland before his move to Kentucky. This year, his Grade 2 winner Carina Mia has 20 Kentucky Oaks points.

Mineshaft began his racing career in England before finding his niche in the U.S., winning four Grade 1s – Jockey Club Gold Cup, Pimlico Special, Suburban Handicap, and Woodward Stakes – from nine-to-10 furlongs at four in his championship season. Bred and raced by Will Farish, James Elkins Jr., and Temple Webber Jr. and trained by Neil Howard, he stands at Lane’s End for $25,000. The 17-yearold’s Suddenbreakingnews won the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes and was second in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, both at Oaklawn, and has 50 Kentucky Derby points, while filly Weep No More (100 points) swept past Rachel’s Valentina (by Bernardini, second), Cathryn Sophia (dam by Mineshaft, third), and Carina Mia (by Malibu Moon, fourth) to win the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland in her Kentucky Oaks prep.

Grade 2 winner Congrats, based at WinStar Farm for $20,000 after starting out in Florida, has potential Oaks filly Venus Valentine (50) and Forever Darling (20). UAE Oaks and UAE 1,000 Guineas winner Polar River, who was second against males in the UAE Derby, has 50 Oaks points

and Forever Darling has 20, but neither is expected to contend the race.

The current graded winners by Congrats’s Grade 2-placed brother Flatter (Claiborne, $30,000) are all older horses, but he has Paola Queen, second in the Gulfstream Park Oaks-G2, with 40 Oaks points. Congrats, age 16, and Flatter, 17, were bred and raced by Claiborne and Adele Dilschneider, though Congrats was sold to Cloverleaf Farm II before his final two starts.

Looking to the future, A.P. Indy will have more opportunities to bolster his reputation as a sire of sires, with a number of graded stakes-winning or champion sons yet to have runners. Astrology (Taylor Made Farm, $6,500) and Eye of the Leopard (Calumet Farm, $7,500) have two-yearolds; Take Charge Indy (WinStar, $17,500) has yearlings; and Belmont Stakes second Commissioner (WinStar, $7,500) will have foals next year.

Lane’s End’s hopes are pinned on Honor Code, A.P. Indy’s last champion, to inherit his sire’s mantle. After a 2015 campaign that saw him win the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes and Metropolitan Handicap and finish third to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and Effinex (by Mineshaft) in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Honor Code now resides in the same barn as his sire and is covering mares for a $40,000 stud fee. The greatgrandson of champion Serena’s Song was bred by Dell Ridge Farm and trained by Shug McGaughey for Lane’s End Racing, Dell Ridge Farm LLC, and Teresa Viola Racing.

No praise, however high, is sufficient to truly encapsulate the influence A.P. Indy has made on the breed, but as this year’s classics are contested, take it for granted that his descendants figure to be major players, as they will be for generations yet to come, in all the big races.

Will Farish says of the horse he bred, sold, re-purchased, and whose stud career he developed, “It’s just absolutely remarkable that he hit on all four cylinders. So often the greatest horses don’t make it as the greatest stallions, for whatever reason. So to have him do it and then be such an outstanding sire of sires on top of everything else is just remarkable. That’s what I think his legacy’s going to be, that sire line and also that his broodmares are doing so well.”

Lane’s End has always been home to A.P. Indy. Even when he was on the racetrack, he was in the hearts of those who had known him from the night Weekend Surprise gave birth to him. Along with everyone else, Farish marvels at the horse’s accomplishments. “As a breeder and lover of Thoroughbred horses, it was the greatest thing you could possibly imagine.

“And as you can imagine, everything about him is very emotional to me and my family because he is and was so special.”

Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM) is an expert in deception and can be confused with other problems, such as lameness. Only stopping the parasite responsible can stop EPM from causing further damage to your horse’s brain and spinal cord. MARQUIS is a powerful anti-protozoal.

Only MARQUIS has a 3X loading dose that allows it to reach steady state in 24 to 48 hours.*,1

*Clinical relevance has not been determined.

Time matters. If your horse is showing signs such as gait abnormalities, unexplained stumbling or loss of conditioning — especially to one side — call your veterinarian. 2 The sooner EPM is detected and diagnosed, the better the chance for recovery.

The signs can be subtle. The treatment should be aggressive.

IMPORTANTSAFETYINFORMATION:ThesafeuseofMARQUIS inhorsesusedforbreedingpurposes,duringpregnancy,orinlactating mares,hasnotbeenevaluated.Inanimalsafetystudies,loosefeces, sporadicinappetence,lostweight,andmoderateedemaintheuterine epitheliumwereobserved.

TAPIT The worthy grandson

IF A.P. Indy is a masterpiece in oil, then his grandson Tapit is a Pegasus chiseled out of fine marble.

It’s no fluke that the 15-year-old stallion has been the leading general sire in North America for two years running. From the breeding shed, where high-profile mares regularly visit him; to the sale ring, as the sire of million-dollar racing prospects; to the racetrack, barely a week goes by that Tapit is not making news.

The lead news story as this season’s classic races draw near is that as of April 17th, Tapit has four out of 20 point-eligible Kentucky Derby starters.

“It’s really quite an achievement and it just shows you how prolific he is,” says Michael Hernon, director of sales at Gainesway Farm, where Tapit stands. “He’s just so capable of getting you a really very high quality, likely graded stakes runner and possibly Grade 1-winning performer.”

A fifth potential Derby entrant, My Man Sam, is by Tapit’s first-season son Trappe Shot, meaning that Tapit could be the sire or grandsire of a quarter of the field competing in the 2016 Run for the Roses. Sons Creator (110 points, coming off a win in the Arkansas Derby-G1), Japanese-based Lani (100, winner of the UAE Derby-G2), Mohaymen (80, whose most recent win was the Fountain of Youth-G2), Cupid (50, winner of the Rebel S.-G2), and grandson My Man Sam (40, second in the Blue Grass S.-G1) are guaranteed a spot in the 20-horse field should connections decide to enter.

In 2002, David J. Fiske, racing and bloodstock manager to Verne Winchell, was shopping for yearlings at the Keeneland September sale when he spotted the Oldenburg Farms-bred gray or roan colt by Pulpit in the Fred Seitz/Brookdale Farm consignment. The first four dams of the February 27 foal, stabled in Barn 19, fit on the catalogue page, but the second, third, and fourth dams had each produced one graded stakes-winning colt who’d gone on to be a good sire.

He was the first foal out of the minor stakes-winning Unbridled mare Tap Your Heels, a three-parts sister to champion sprinter Rubiano (by Unbridled’s sire Fappiano). Their stakes-winning dam Ruby Slippers was a half-sister to graded stakes winner Glitterman, and the next dam, Moon Glitter, was a full sister to Relaunch, the sire of 86 black-type winners including Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Skywalker and Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner One Dreamer.

Looking back, physically, Tapit “was not an imposing yearling,” says Fiske. “He was actually rather average height and length. He was quite nicely put together and had correct front legs. He was quite narrow viewed from the front but looked overall to be athletic and was a good mover.”

On behalf of Winchell, Fiske was the winning bidder on Tapit, hip 375, at $625,000, the second-highest price that year for a Pulpit, whose yearlings averaged $254,000.

Winchell passed away that November and

never got to see Tapit’s successes. Instead, with Fiske’s guidance, Winchell’s widow Joan and son Ron carried on with Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC. Racing under that entity and trained by Michael Dickinson, Tapit won half of his six starts and ran off the board in the others, with black-type wins in the Grade 3 Laurel Futurity at two and the Grade 1 Wood Memorial at three, to earn $557,400, before retiring to Gainesway in 2005 for a $15,000 covering fee. His credentials were those of a horse capable of flashes of brilliance, but gave no indication he was going to be the sensation he is today.

After two seasons, his stud fee dipped to $12,500 in 2007 and 2008 as the market adopted its standard wait-and-see approach until a young sire’s first two-year-olds show their stuff on the track.

Breeders didn’t have to wait long to know that Tapit was legit.

His first crop, foals of 2006, yielded 14 black-type winners, led by champion Stardom Bound and other Grade 1 winners in Careless Jewel, Laragh, and Testa Matta (in Japan). Stardom Bound, one of Tapit’s five Breeders’ Cup winners, won the Juvenile Fillies and sold as a racing prospect at the 2008 FasigTipton November mixed sale for $5.7 million on her way to the Eclipse Award two-year-old filly title.

Tapit’s stud fee began a steady ascent. It was $35,000 in 2009, $50,000 in 2010, $80,000 in 2011, $125,000 in 2012 and 2013, $150,000 in 2014, and finally $300,000 – matching grandsire A.P. Indy’s highest advertised stud fee – in 2015-’16.

Chief among Tapit’s 16 lifetime Grade 1 winners are champion two-year-old male Hansen, who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile; champion older filly or mare Untapable, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and Kentucky Oaks; Belmont Stakes and twotime Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Tonalist; and a Wood Memorial winner in Frosted, who was second in last year’s Belmont.

Demand for his services, even as the most expensive stallion in the country, has never been stronger, but Tapit’s book is restricted

to 135 mares. Hernon says, “Given the number he stands for and his position in the business, it’s good to have a ceiling there and I think breeders appreciate that.”

What breeders, bloodstock agents, and trainers do unequivocally appreciate is a sire who shows no sign of losing his momentum.

“I think,” says Fiske of Tapit, “his versatility has made him what he is as a sire. He crosses with many different types of mares and the offspring run at very high levels on any surface, at any distance, at any time during their lives. He is equally strong with his colts or his fillies.”

Fiske should know. Winchell Thoroughbreds has bred and raced a number of Tapit’s stakes horses, such as graded winners Untapable, Tapizar, Tapiture, High Tap, War Echo, and Just Wicked.

The stallion passes on the athleticism that Fiske noted in him as a yearling. Often, he passes on his color, too, making his progeny easy to recognize on the track. Untapable, Tapizar, and Tonalist are bays and Tapiture is chestnut, but all four of Tapit’s possible Derby starters are gray or roans. Tapit himself is a vision in near-white.

Whatever their color, produce by Tapit are a hot commodity, and he is just beginning to get warmed up as a male-line progenitor, too. Central Kentucky farms standing at least one graded stakes-winning son of Tapit in 2016 include Claiborne, Darby Dan, Gainesway,

Hill ‘n’ Dale, Lane’s End, Spendthrift, and WinStar. Farms in the regional programs of Florida (Woodford Thoroughbreds), New York (Rockridge Stud), and Maryland (Northview Stallion Station) also have graded winners by Tapit at stud.

Hernon says, “I’m pretty much expecting Tapit to make a further mark at stud through his sons and daughters, and of course with the fillies. He’s got so many good fillies that you have to think that he’s going to become a very good, highly sought after broodmare sire.”

First juveniles by Gainesway’s Tapizar, who won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, have been well received at sales, spearheaded by a “super” $800,000 two-year-old filly at the Fasig-Tipton February two-year-old sale this year. “She breezed really well,” says Hernon. “She looks the part and she’s in the hands of Doug O’Neill now, and we’re excited about Tapizar’s chances.”

That two-year-olds-in-training sale was spearheaded by Tapit’s Old South-consigned colt out of Bethan, who attracted a bid of $1.8 million from Woodford Racing / La Penta to become the most expensive horse of his age sold publicly this year.

That colt, named South Beach, is from the same crop as the Tapits who headlined the yearling sales in 2016: Fasig-Tipton’s elite Saratoga yearling sale was led by Glory or Nothing, a $2 million colt out of Dress Rehearsal bought by El Capi Racing from the Four Star Sales consignment; at the Keeneland September sale, the top colt (a $2.1 million colt out of Silver Colors, bought by Whisper Hill Farm from the Gainesway consignment, and the most expensive yearling sold in North America last year) and the top filly (Nezet, a $1.65 million filly out of Pure Clan, bought by Lael Stable from the Gainesway consignment) were by the sire.

With each new success, Tapit honors his line and perfectly exemplifies the impact made by A.P. Indy.

“I think that’s the thing with Tapit,” says Hernon. “He can take you all the way to the Promised Land.”

n

“He crosses with many different types of mares and the offspring run at very high levels on any surface, at any distance, at any time during their lives ”

David J. Fiske

CHALLENGE

Entering the winner’s circle in a Triple Crown race

Training a winner of a Triple Crown race has never been more challenging. Thirteen different trainers captured the last 13 runnings of the Kentucky Derby, 11 of them for the first time. Eleven trainers accounted for the last 13 Preakness Stakes and 11 took the last 13 Belmont Stakes. Collectively, 26 trainers won at least one of those 39 Triple Crown races. A handful of them bucked tradition and what was then conventional wisdom to reach the winner’s circle of a Triple Crown race for the first time. They were armed with this conviction: they knew their horse and they knew how to get him – or her – to peak. The hell with everything else, including the betting public, which maintained its doubts. None of those winners were favored.

WORDS: BILL HELLER PHOTOS: HORSEPHOTOS

Barclay Tagg – Funny Cide’s 2003 Kentucky Derby

“I felt like this was going to be my only chance to do this,” Barclay Tagg said. “I remember reading magazine stories about the Derby as a kid. I’ll tell you, I was so confident with this horse. I told the men early on, `I want to do this my way. We all have to be aboard. I want to be left alone.’”

So did his horse. “With Funny Cide, I

wanted to go as late as possible (to Churchill Downs),” Tagg said. “I had a high-strung horse.”

And a fast one. On Tuesday, four days before the Kentucky Derby, Funny Cide blazed five furlongs in :58 2/5 at his home track, Belmont Park. The next day, Tagg reluctantly shipped him to Churchill Downs. “I flew him down on Wednesday,” Tagg said. “Bob Baffert came in Thursday,

Churchill Downs can be quirky, it’s important for a Derby horse to gallop and/ or work on the surface well before the race. Tagg isn’t the first trainer to suggest the track on Kentucky Derby Day is harder, and therefore a bit different, than it is on preceding days. Regardless, Tagg wasn’t thrilled about shipping in three days before the Run of the Roses.

“I really wanted to go the day of the Derby, which was impossible,” Tagg said. “I’d have loved to do that, avoid all the hoopla. I would have had to fly him in a helicopter and land on the infield.” Tagg laughed at the thought.

How confident was Tagg? “I was so confident, I bet a couple hundred,” he said. “That’s the only bet I’ve made in 35, 40 years. I never bet. I bet my life on these horses every day.”

For the Preakness, Tagg didn’t ship Funny Cide into Pimlico until the night before. “I wanted to go the day of the race,” Tagg said. “I drove him down there the night before. Torrential rain.”

Similar result. Funny Cide followed his Derby victory with an astounding victory in the Preakness, pushing him to the edge of immortality, on the doorstep of the Triple Crown. Ironically, Funny Cide finished third to Empire Maker on a sloppy track in the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park, the only Triple Crown race he didn’t have to

Michael Matz – Barbaro’s 2006

When Michael Matz announced before the Florida Derby that the race would be the last before the Kentucky Derby for his undefeated colt Barbaro, skeptics were shocked. The Kentucky Derby was five weeks after the Florida Derby, way too long of a gap

Of course, with perfect hindsight, two years after Barbaro won the

John Velazquez and Todd Pletcher (left) lift the trophy after Rags to Riches wins the 2007 Belmont Stakes

Florida Derby and the Kentucky Derby, Rick Dutrow Jr.’s Big Brown did the same, winning both races. This year, Doug O’Neill and Kiaran McLaughlin, the trainers of two Kentucky Derby favorites, were both perfectly happy to use the Florida Derby as the final prep for the Kentucky Derby for Nyquist and Mohaymen, respectively, with Nyquist winning to remain undefeated.

Asked how unconventional wisdom became conventional in 11 years, Matz chuckled. “I think all horses are different,” he said.

He felt he knew his horse well. “We had him all through his two-year-old career,” Matz said. “We knew the family a little bit. That’s what a trainer does, figure out a plan for your horse.”

His plan to race Barbaro in the Derby off a five-week layoff was questioned.

“A lot of people didn’t question our plan; it was only the press, not the trainers, none

of the people who knew what was going on,” Matz said. “The press said, `Nobody does it this way.’ Peter Brette (Barbaro’s regular exercise rider) and I spoke and we didn’t know what we were doing wrong.

“It looked like a lot of horses that did race in the preps, it looked like they kind of went over the top and they didn’t have their top performance in the Derby. If you’re going in the Derby, you have to be sure your horse is doing well. When you run in the Derby, you need everything to go well. It’s nice when you lay out a plan for him and it works. He never missed a workout.”

And Barbaro won the Derby in dominating fashion, only to suffer a breakdown in the Preakness which ultimately took his life.

Matz was confident he had another potential Derby winner in Union Rags in 2012. But he was bounced around like a pinball early in the Derby and had to rally to finish seventh under Julien Leparoux. “It just went from worse to worse,” Matz said. It went a lot better in the Belmont Stakes when John Velazquez rallied Union Rags through on the inside of front-running Paynter to win by a head.

Top left: Barclay Tagg and Funny Cide, Belmont Park; top right: Barbaro ponied by Michael Matz prior to winning the 132nd running of the Kentucky Derby, below

“When you run in the Derby, you need everything to go well. It’s nice when you lay out a plan for him and it works. He never missed a workout ”

Michael Matz

ADVANCED EQUINE NUTRITION

Fueling Triple Crown Success

At Hallway Feeds, we’re proud to have fueled 27 Classic wins, including 11 of the last 17 Kentucky Derby winners. We look forward to rooting on all our connections on the 2016 Triple Crown trail.

Kentucky Derby

American Pharoah California Chrome Orb

Animal Kingdom Big Brown Barbaro

Preakness

American Pharoah California Chrome Lookin at Lucky Big Brown

Belmont

American Pharoah Union Rags

Drosselmeyer Birdstone

Giacomo

War Emblem

Fusaichi Pegasus

Real Quiet Silver Charm

War Emblem Point Given

Real Quiet Silver Charm

Empire Maker Sarava Point Given

View the Hallway Feeds Hall of Fame at hallwayfeeds.com

PHOTO CREDIT: HORSEPHOTOS.COM

LEGEND® Multi Dose (hyaluronate sodium)

For Intravenous Use in Horses Only

Not for Intra-Articular Use

and LEGEND® (hyaluronate sodium) Injectable Solution

4 mL For Intravenous Use In Horses Only

2 mL For Intravenous or Intra-Articular Use In Horses Only

BRIEF SUMMARY

Prior to use please consult the product insert, a summary of which follows:

CAUTION

Federal Law restricts this drug to use by or on the order of a licensed veterinarian.

INDICATIONS

LEGEND® Injectable Solution and LEGEND® Multi Dose Injectable Solution are indicated in the treatment of equine joint dysfunction associated with equine osteoarthritis.

CONTRAINDICATIONS

There are no known contraindications for the use of LEGEND® Injectable Solution and LEGEND® Multi Dose Injectable Solution in horses.

RESIDUE WARNINGS

Do not use in horses intended for human consumption.

HUMAN WARNINGS

Not for use in humans. Keep out of reach of children.

ANIMAL SAFETY WARNING

For LEGEND Injectable Solution 4 mL and LEGEND Multi Dose Injectable Solution – Not for Intra-articular use. The Intra-articular safety of hyaluronate sodium with benzyl alcohol has not been evaluated.

PRECAUTIONS

Complete lameness evaluation should be conducted by a veterinarian. Sterile procedure during the injection process must be followed. Intra-articular injections should not be made through skin that is inflamed, infected or has had a topical product applied. The safety of LEGEND Injectable Solution and LEGEND Multi Dose has not been evaluated in breeding stallions or in breeding, pregnant or lactating mares.

ADVERSE REACTIONS

No side effects were observed in LEGEND Injectable Solution clinical field trials. Side effects reported post-approval: Following intravenous use: Occasional depression, lethargy, and fever. Following intraarticular (LEGEND Injectable Solution – 2 mL only) use: joint or injection site swelling and joint pain. For medical emergencies or to report adverse reactions, call 1-800-422-9874.

ANIMAL SAFETY SUMMARY

Animal safety studies utilizing LEGEND Multi Dose Injectable Solution were not performed. LEGEND Multi Dose Injectable Solution was approved based on the conclusion that the safety of LEGEND Multi Dose Injectable Solution will not differ from that demonstrated for the original formulation of LEGEND Injectable Solution. LEGEND Injectable Solution was administered to normal horses at one, three and five times the recommended intra-articular dosage of 20 mg and the intravenous dose of 40 mg. Treatments were given weekly for nine consecutive weeks. No adverse clinical or clinical pathologic signs were observed. Injection site swelling of the joint capsule was similar to that seen in the saline treated control horses. No gross or histological lesions were observed in areas of the treated joint. For customer care or to obtain product information, including a Material Safety Data Sheet, call 1-888-637-4251 Option 2.

®LEGEND is a registered trademark, and ™ the Horse Logo is a trademark, of Merial. ©2016 Merial, Inc., Duluth, GA. All rights reserved.

Tom Albertrani – Bernardini’s 2006 Preakness

Tom Albertrani hit it dead center when he said, “I think everyone starts to get Derby fever anytime they have a nice horse.” Bernardini was one of them. “He really proved to me to be a horse with great potential,” Albertrani said.

But time wasn’t on his side. “He was about ready to start in the fall [of his twoyear-old season], but he spiked a fever,” Albertrani said. “Then we went to Florida.”

Bernardini didn’t make his debut until he was three, meaning if he did win the Kentucky Derby, he would be the first horse to do so without racing at two since Apollo in 1882. “That was the farthest thing from my mind,” Albertrani said. “But if he had made his first start in December, things might have happened differently.”

Instead, Bernardini made his debut on January 7th at Gulfstream Park, finishing fourth by 5¼ lengths under Jerry Bailey. That meant a potential trip to the Churchill Downs’ winner’s circle on the first Saturday in May was even more unlikely. “I was kind of still considering it, but time wasn’t in our favor,” Albertrani said.

Bernardini didn’t return to the races until March 4th, when he won a maiden race by 7¾ lengths with Lasix added for his second start, with Edgar Prado aboard. That impressive score made giving up on the Derby a more difficult decision for Albertrani. “We considered a stakes at Turfway Park,” Albertrani said. “But that

would have been a lot to ask. We decided, ‘Let’s take a deep breath. We’ll run him in New York.’ We were looking for an allowance race or the Withers.”

They settled on the Withers. With Javier Castellano riding, Bernardini won the Grade 3 Withers easily by 3¾ lengths. That sent him into the Preakness, which he won impressively by 5¼ lengths, a victory overshadowed by Barbaro’s breakdown. “It was a bittersweet experience,” Albertrani said. “It was just kind of upsetting. We were very proud of Bernardini, but we didn’t get to enjoy it as much as we’d like to. But we had a pretty good year.”

Asked if it was difficult to skip the Kentucky Derby with a horse so talented, Albertrani said, “it was. But if we rushed him to the Derby, the results could have been very different. In hindsight, I think we did the right thing. Patience, patience, patience.”

Todd Pletcher – Rags to Riches’ 2007 Belmont Stakes

By any standard, the three-year-old male class of 2007 was outstanding. There was the returning two-year-old champion male Street Sense, who would win the Kentucky Derby, Jim Dandy, and Travers stakes at three. There was the hard-hitting Hard Spun, who would win the Grade 1 King’s Bishop, the Grade 2 Lane’s End Stakes and Kentucky Cup Classic, and the Grade 3 LeComte. And the colt who would become a two-time Horse of the Year and North American racing’s second all-time leading earner, Curlin.

Curlin avenged his eight-length loss to Street Sense when he was third in the Kentucky Derby by beating him by a head in the Preakness. With no shot at the Triple Crown, Street Sense’s trainer, Carl Nafzger, announced that his colt would skip the Belmont Stakes and point to the Travers. And that led Todd Pletcher to enter his amazing filly, Rags to Riches, against colts in the Belmont Stakes.

Pletcher, the Eclipse Award-winning trainer from 2004 to 2007, was still

Bernardini with Javier Castellano up in the winner’s circle at the 2006 Preakness Stakes

“If we rushed him to the Derby, the results could have been very different. In hindsight I think we did the right thing. ”

Tom Albertrani

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searching for his first victory in a Triple Crown race. Could he do it with a filly against colts? “A number of things went into the decision,” he said. “First and foremost, she was an absolute superstar. She had just won the Las Virgenes, Santa Anita Oaks, and Kentucky Oaks (all Grade 1). There was no doubt she was the best three-year-old filly. She was a daughter of Belmont Stakes winner A.P. Indy and a half-sister to Jazil,

a Belmont Stakes winner. Any concern of her having the pedigree to go a mile-and-ahalf went out the window. But then, it was a matter of trying to determine what the field was going to look like. It was a really loaded three-year-old crop. We had some concerns about facing all three. When Street Sense declared, we just felt it was like something we should give a try.”

He didn’t maintain that feeling when the

starting gate opened and Rags to Riches, breaking from the outside post in the field of seven under John Velazquez, stumbled forward so badly that her nose nearly hit the ground. “I remember very clearly that my first thought was, ‘I can’t believe this happened after all the thought we put into running her,’” Pletcher said. “Then Johnny did a real good job of staying on.”

Rags to Riches made her task even harder by racing wide on both turns. “They didn’t have Trakus then, but I’m sure, aside from nearly falling on her head, she went farther than anyone else,” Pletcher said.

And they were flying home late in a final quarter of :23 4/5. “A lot of times in the Belmont Stakes, it’s a war of attrition,” Pletcher said. “But they were running hard the last quarter. It might be one of the fastest last quarters ever. They were giving their all.”

And Rags to Riches got up to win by a head. “To this day, it remains the most exciting and personally rewarding race in my career,” Pletcher said.

Bennie “Chip” Woolley – Mine That Bird’s 2009 Kentucky Derby

When Giacomo went off at 50-1 in the 2005 Kentucky Derby, it was an overlay of gigantic proportions. Giacomo had finished a solid fourth in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby in his final prep at 7-1. When Mine

Mine That Bird, Calvin Borel up, after winning the 2009 Kentucky Derby

Rags to Riches is led in with trainer Todd Pletcher after winning the 2007 Belmont Stakes

That Bird went off at 50-1 in the 2009 Kentucky Derby, he should have been at least twice the odds of Giacomo, and that’s being conservative. Mine That Bird was not only a rare shipper from New Mexico to start in the Kentucky Derby; he had lost his two Derby preps there, finishing second by a neck in the Borderland Derby, then fourth by 3¼ lengths in the Sunland Derby.

Yet Bennie “Chip” Woolley, who had become Mine That Bird’s third official trainer at the end of February, not only believed in his horse – the two-year-old champion in Canada – he decided to drive him cross country himself despite being on crutches following a motorcycle accident.

“The big reason, the main reason, he went was because he didn’t get the trips he wanted in New Mexico,” Woolley said. “I wanted him off the pace. If you watched his races at Woodbine [as a two-year-old], he was always chasing the lead and getting outpaced. Here at Sunland Park, I put two mares in front of him, one 10 [lengths] in front of him and one 20 in front of him. He just mowed them down. I was right. He could close and close big. I told his owner he wants to go longer, but he has to be ridden the right way. The key is this horse can only run about threeeighths of a mile. The whole key to the horse is when you use that in the race.”

Woolley said it was a “miscommunication with the rider” that resulted in Mine That Bird’s two stakes losses in New Mexico. So he pointed Mine That Bird east to Kentucky

on faith, the faith he had in his horse. “Certainly, it was a tough choice to make,” he said. “The only thing I felt was positive was that the group in the Derby was very limited in distance. Nothing in there was going to go a mile and a quarter. I knew my horse, with the right ride, could.”

After trying to make connections to fly Mine That Bird to Churchill Downs, Woolley decided to drive him there, nearly 1,500 miles. “The real reason we vanned him was we weren’t on a direct flight path,” he said. “We’d have had to take him to Dallas to make a plane, and that’s half way.”

So they drove. Woolley landed Calvin Borel, who won the 2007 Kentucky Derby on Street Sense, as Mine That Bird’s rider. “In talking to Calvin, I told him I wanted to be 15 or 20 lengths off the lead,” Woolley said. Not a problem. On the sloppy track, Mine That Bird was last in the field of 19 by 21 lengths after a half-mile. “I thought,

‘God, that was too far back,’” Woolley said. “But Calvin hadn’t asked him.” When Borel did, Mine That Bird started passing horses quickly. “I said, ‘We’re going to get a big piece of this,” Woolley said.

Mine That Bird got the biggest piece, not only winning, but winning by 6¾ lengths. It remains one of the greatest upsets in racing history, captured forever by the film, “50 to 1.”

“It’s a blur,” Woolley said. “It was a pretty big emotional wave, a flood of emotion. You can’t believe it. It’s bigger than life. Being a person where I’m from, a smaller track, it was unbelievable.”

How great a job did Woolley do getting Mine That Bird to peak that day? Mine That Bird made nine more starts, the last four with D. Wayne Lukas as trainer, and didn’t win a single race. After finishing a game second by a length to Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness and third in both the Belmont Stakes and Grade 2 West Virginia Derby, Mine That Bird finished sixth, ninth, eighth, fifth, seventh and 10th to finish his career.

Bill Mott – Drosselmeyer’s 2010 Belmont Stakes

After finishing fourth in the Grade 2 Risen Star and fourth in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, Drosselmeyer was on the bubble for the Kentucky Derby. “We didn’t know if we’d draw in,” Bill Mott said. “There might be a possibility if there was a defection.” Mott conferred with Elliott Walden, whose

“It’s a blur. It was a pretty big emotional wave, a flood of emotion. You can’t believe it. It’s bigger than life ”

Bennie “Chip” Woolley

WinStar Farm owned Drosselmeyer. “If I remember correctly, we made the decision 10 days before the Derby to skip it.” Mott said. “Elliott Walden was very influential to make that decision. We decided we would have to bypass it.”

Asked if it was a difficult decision, Mott said, “No, not really. He probably wasn’t ready for the Derby.”

Instead of the Preakness, Drosselmeyer was pointed to the Grade 2 Dwyer to prep for the Belmont Stakes, and he finished second by six lengths to Fly Down. Drosselmeyer then edged Fly Down by three-quarters of a length under Mike Smith to win the Belmont Stakes, giving Mott his first Triple Crown triumph. “He produced a big race on Belmont Day,” Mott said. “We were excited. We thought he would stay, but he had to prove it. He proved it the rest of his career.”

Still, Mott would love to win the Derby. “I get asked that all the time,” he said. “‘Do you want to win the Derby?’ I’d love to win the Derby, but I realize you have to have the right horse to do it. You can’t just wave a wand and do it. You have to get the right horse and do the right thing with him. We’ve run in it, but I don’t think we’ve had the right horse. The greatest thing would be to be like American Pharoah. That’s the sign of greatness, to be able to be a champion two-year-old and win the three Triple Crown races. That’s an amazing feat.”

Graham Motion – Animal Kingdom’s 2011 Kentucky Derby

Win the Kentucky Derby without ever

having raced on dirt? Isn’t that blasphemy?

“I think we were in a little bit of a unique decision, perhaps,” Graham Motion said. “We didn’t have a lot of options to get the opportunity to get in with earnings.”

Like Woolley, Motion was not Animal Kingdom’s first trainer. Wayne Catalano saddled Animal Kingdom to a second in a maiden race at Arlington Park and a 3¼-length maiden victory at Keeneland on September 18th and October 27th of his two-year-old season. Both those tracks were synthetic.

Motion didn’t get Animal Kingdom in his barn until late December. He didn’t race for Motion until March 3rd, when he finished second by a head in a one-mile allowance turf race at Gulfstream Park. Motion was impressed enough to consider pointing to the Derby. “Once he ran in the allowance race at Gulfstream, we looked at the Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park,” Motion said. “We were not even sure we were going to get in at Turfway.”

Animal Kingdom not only got in the

Grade 3 Spiral, he won on the synthetic track by 2¾ lengths, stamping his ticket to Louisville.

But could he run on dirt? That would be answered in Animal Kingdom’s first dirt workout. “I was nervous,” Motion said. “Sometimes, I think you get more nervous for the works than the race. You’re hoping he can handle it.”

He did, blazing six furlongs. “You know what, I think everyone who questioned it, the way he worked on the dirt convinced people,” Motion said. “For me and [jockey] Robby Albarado, I couldn’t have been more encouraged. He went three-quarters in :12 or :13. I was very happy.”

Motion wasn’t the only impressed witness. “Bob Baffert saw his work, and he said, ‘That’s the horse to beat in the Derby,’” Motion said. “Here’s a guy who does it every year. That was very encouraging.”

“I wasn’t honestly sure he was up to it. Did I think he was going to win the Derby? No, I wasn’t expecting it ”

Graham Motion

Animal Kingdom with trainer Graham Motion and connections after winning the 2011 Kentucky Derby

Kelly Breen – Ruler On Ice’s 2011 Belmont Stakes

Kelly Breen was not the first trainer to make an equipment change before a Triple Crown race. Tim Ice had added blinkers for Summer Bird’s start in the 2009 Belmont Stakes and he won the Belmont, the Travers, and the Jockey Club Gold Cup on the way to being named champion three-year-old male. After Ruler On Ice won the Belmont Stakes with first-time blinkers, Ice sent Breen a text message with a smiley face.

Early in his career, Ruler On Ice confounded Kelly Breen. “He had some behavioral problems,” Breen said. “He didn’t want to go to the track and train. That’s why he was gelded. That was before I got him. I picked him up in April as a two-year-old at Monmouth. He worked so fantastic. We had a lot of good horses. He could outwork them in the morning, even without the blinkers. We tried to get him

KNOwINg yOUR TImOThy fROm yOUR AlfAlfA which hay to use and when

The debate on forage in racing diets has moved on, and more trainers now value the contribution made by forage in their horses’ diets in terms of both health and nutrition. It is much more common to see horses in training being offered forage at a much healthier level, significantly above the historical 1% of bodyweight previously regarded as the minimum acceptable level.

WORDS: DR. CatheRine Dunnett BSC, PhD, R.nutR PhOtOS: ShutteRStOCK, gileS anDeRSOn

IN practical terms, there is a wide range in type of forage, such as timothy, ryegrass, or alfalfa hay, used in racing. There is also a lot of blended hay being used and of course meadow grass blends in some instances. There is now a need for further information to help understand the relevance, as well as benefits or disadvantages, of the many different types of forage available, and this is the focus of this article.

Alfalfa, the king of forages

Alfalfa, or lucerne as it is otherwise known, is a legume and not a grass. Its use in racing is widespread and it is often described as ‘the king of forages’ due to its high feed value compared to other forage types. There are other legume hays, including some clovers and sanfoin. Alfalfa is available in many different forms, such as sun-dried and barn-dried hay, as well as many forms of alfalfa chaff. Alfalfa is not often used as the sole source of forage but is typically fed at 5–11lbs per day.

Characteristically, alfalfa is high in protein (typically 15–22%) and so every pound fed provides 330-485g of protein to the diet.

Alfalfa’s high protein content also reputedly offers a buffering effect on gastric acid and other digestive juices helping to protect the gastric mucosa. Some amino acid residues, such as histidine and cysteine, within the protein in alfalfa confer this buffering capacity; i.e. they are able to physically hold onto the acidity as h+.

Alfalfa is also a rich source of calcium that is more digestible than traditional sources like limestone. It can typically contain 2.6% calcium, so that’s 57g of calcium per lb. This is not an insignificant amount, as a horse in full work requires 40g of calcium per day. Alfalfa is also very digestible and so has a high feed value but is not high in sugars. The makeup of its fiber and its high digestibility

means that it holds onto less water in the digestive tract and does not contribute as much to non-functional weight or gut fill.

Alfalfa is a good choice as part of the forage offering, but if used as the sole source of forage it would deliver a large excess of protein and calcium, which could be of detriment.

Ryegrass and timothy are forage stalwarts in racing

Timothy hay is also a popular choice amongst trainers, although much of it can have a relatively lower feed value compared to other forage choices. This is because it is often cut at quite a mature stage of growth. Timothy hay is very recognizable, as most will contain large numbers of dense cylindrical seed heads, which betray its maturity at harvest.

There is no doubt that horses find it quite palatable, but its often low protein content and overall digestibility make it less worthy as a forage for an athlete, as these nutritional inadequacies have to be offset by concentrate feed. The counterargument from many trainers would no doubt be that it is only being fed for its fiber content to maintain digestive health, and not for its contribution to overall nutrition. however, this is a missed opportunity, as why just feed bulk of low digestibility when you can feed forage fiber that makes a much more active contribution towards footing the energy and nutrient bill?

Ryegrass hay has also been a popular choice for trainers over the years and features consistently as seed hay. There are several types available, including perennial and Italian ryegrass. Ryegrass tends to be

“Alfalfa is also a rich source of calcium that is more digestible than traditional sources like limestone ”

Palatable forage will encourage high intake

quite robust, fast growing, and has a high genetic potential for accumulation of sugar and fructan. It is usually very palatable and can have a very good feed value, but again, this will depend largely on the stage of growth at harvest.

mixed hay offers a blend of different grasses or legumes. Alfalfa and timothy, or timothy and ryegrass, are often combined. These mixtures have generally been sown, grown, and harvested together for their particular attributes. Two contrasting forage types are often blended to achieve a more ‘middle of the road’ nutritional profile.

In contrast, unlike seed hay, meadow hay is harvested from well-established permanent grass meadows and as a result contains a natural mixture of grass species such as perennial ryegrass, rough meadow grass, cocksfoot, timothy, fescue, white clover, and in some cases herbs and other plants.

Forage targets

my key target for selecting forage for horses in training is that it is palatable and encourages a high daily intake, and of course it must be clean from a respiratory perspective. Pragmatically, the microbiological cleanliness of forage for racehorses almost takes precedence over its nutritional value (within reason), as the latter can usually be overcome through adjustment to the remainder of the diet. The advent of steaming hay has made this a simpler task and the research to support the use of steamers is growing.

meriel moore-Colyer, professor of equine science at the Royal Agricultural College, summarized the main benefits of steaming hay as such: “Steaming hay … has been shown by numerous independent studies to reduce airborne dust, bacteria, and mold by 90-plus percent without leaching out valuable protein and minerals, and produces

nutritious, hygienically clean, highly palatable fodder.

Respiratory problems are a major reason for poor performance in racehorses so good quality forage is a panacea. Steaming must be done properly as partial steaming acts as an incubator producing an explosion in bacteria, while not reducing respirable dust. Correct steaming involves pushing high-temperature steam (greater than 212˚ fahrenheit) into all of the hay for at least 10 minutes… Soaking to reduce respirable dust is not recommended as it leaches valuable nutrients, produces post-soak liquor that is a strong environmental pollutant, and like partial steaming, increases bacteria by 1.5-to5 times that in dry hay.”

In an ideal scenario, I would always like to offer clean hay with a relatively high feed value, which reduces the reliance on large quantities of concentrate feed. If your horses are eating 17–22lbs of good quality forage, with an above average nutritional profile, then this will significantly reduce the quantity of hard feed needed to satisfy energy requirements. Indeed, several research studies in Sweden have suggested that Standardbred trotters can be successfully trained on a forage-only diet. however, the forage used in these trials was very good quality, with a relatively high protein content as well as high overall digestibility.

There are many perceived barriers to this practice being extended into racing. The

potential disadvantage of extra weight, as a result of water carried in the gut, and the likely lowering effect on muscle glycogen concentration are often cited as reasons to retain the current status quo. There are also the more practical issues of limited sufficient nutrient intake of horses in training, as well as the realistic availability of forage with a suitably high nutritional profile.

istorical treadmill studies carried out by Dr. Joe Pagan of Kentucky Equine Research (KER) suggest that a metabolic advantage is conferred by reducing gut fill or nonfunctional weight before racing. however, I would counter this by suggesting that the degree of gut fill will vary a lot depending on the digestibility of the forage fed, and this particular barrier could be significantly reduced through better forage choice.

oore-Colyer reminds us that the horses’ total fiber intake can be contributed to by ingredients, such as alfalfa, sugar beet, or rice bran, which all represent highly digestible sources of fiber and as such hold less water within the gut, in the concentrate feed.

whether marginally reduced pre-race muscle glycogen concentration has any limiting effect on performance is debatable since one of the main drivers of muscle fatigue during racing is acidosis in the muscle, rather than glycogen depletion. while it is generally accepted that a high fiber, low starch-containing diet will reduce muscle glycogen concentration, this may not in fact be detrimental. In addition, we should not forget that forage does contribute to replenishment of muscle glycogen via its water-soluble carbohydrates (sugar) and also glyconeogenic fatty acids (propionic acid) produced from fiber fermentation.

There is yet more scope for increasing the contribution made by forage for horses in training and reducing concentrate feeds still further. Concentrate feeds may simply be needed to provide a sufficient source of vitamins and minerals, as well as important amino acids in the form of quality protein, plus some but not excessive amounts of starch. Perhaps we would be able to get down to 4.5–6.5lbs of concentrate feed per day, as opposed to the 11–13lbs per day more commonly used.

however, the biggest barrier to this scenario is a practical one. It would be imperative to be able to consistently source forage, which has a sufficiently high feed value and digestibility, and for a system of analysis to evolve amongst growers and merchants making purchase a relatively easy, straightforward task.

Unfortunately, at the moment horse owners are often hard pressed to find forage that is both clean and offers even a mediocre nutritional specification. Suitable forage may well be currently available to purchase, but it is not practical to analyze three or four samples of hay to find the right product each time a new batch is needed, especially as many trainers do not have sufficient storage to carry a large stack of it. n

“Respiratory problems are a major reason for poor performance in racehorses so good quality forage is a panacea ”

FIESOLANA (IRE) Gr.1 winner

BLUE DE VEGA Gr.3 winner at

HECTOR PALMA A Californian training legend

Palma shares his memories of a career stretching back over six decades – from the days with the “Shoe” to running both a racing and breeding business today

WORDS: ED GOLDEN

PHOTOS: BG THOROuGHBRED FaRm, EcLiPSE SPORTSWiRE

AT Del Mar one summer, Hector Palma became Irish. On a dry-erase board in the press box, an inexperienced intern (is there any other kind?) kept a running tally each day of the meet’s leaders.

There in the middle of the pack among trainers was Hector O’Palma.

Proper grammar be damned, the kid put an apostrophe where should have been a period. Thus, Mexican-born and -raised Hector Olvera Palma became as Irish as Paddy’s pig, Hector O’Palma, sure and begorrah.

Everyone makes mistakes, but some are more memorable than others.

Irish or Mexican, Hector Palma is still in the game, shuffling along as fast as his gait will take him at 78, a throwback to an era when leisure suits, flared trousers, and Members Only jackets were all the rage.

He is becoming a fossil of a bygone age.

Fortunately, his horses move faster than he does. And the only thing sharper than his mind is his wit.

He is at the barn each morning at 5 a.m. and can spend half the day at the track. “I

leave the barn between 10 and 11,” Palma said, “and if I have a horse running later in the day, I come back, but usually I’m at the track for the first race anyway.”

After taking care of early morning business at the barn, he can be found at Santa Anita’s Clockers’ Corner, where he parks himself at the first table, bantering in Spanish with the likes of fellow Mexican Victor Espinoza, Peruvian native Rafael Bejarano, and octogenarian agent Vince DeGregory, whose list of former riders also turned a tilde “n” or two in their day.

Among them are Hall of Fame inductees Angel Cordero Jr., Chris McCarron, Laffit Pincay Jr., Bill Shoemaker, and Alex Solis, in addition to members-in-waiting Espinoza, Darrel McHargue, and Joel Rosario.

Palma came to the United States six decades ago, when Shoemaker was taking baby steps on the trail of legends, where at journey’s end would sit ensconced the likes of Murphy, Woolf, Arcaro, Baeza, and Hartack.

He didn’t start out to become a trainer.

“In 1950, I went to a jockeys’ school in Mexico City,” Palma said. “I was 13 years old, but the teacher told me I was going to be too big and would never be a jockey.

“I told him, ‘I don’t want to be a jockey in Mexico City. I’m going to be a trainer in the United States.’ I was joking, but it turned out to be true.”

Today, Palma stands six feet tall and weighs 190 pounds, Bunyonesque for even a steeplechase rider.

Until now, some of Palma’s tales of the turf were exclusive to him. Fortunately, he remembers most and many are printable.

“Thirty years ago ‘Shoe’ rode a horse for me,” Palma recalled. “I told him it was a super horse. It finished last by 20 lengths.

“After the race, Shoemaker told his agent, Harry Silbert, that he wanted to ride the horse back. ‘This horse can’t lose next time out.’

“The race goes and at the half-mile pole,

Shoe hits the horse with his whip hard in the belly. The horse wins by six lengths. The next day, Bill told me what happened the day he got beat.

“‘The horse was holding his breath,’ he said, ‘but when I hit him in the belly, he exhaled.’

“Riders today couldn’t tell you a story like that. First of all, they’re not that creative, and second, regulations might prevent that from happening.”

Palma served 12 years as a groom, stable foreman, and assistant to the late Riley Cofer before taking out his trainer’s license in 1971.

He didn’t exactly arrive first class from Tijuana.

“I crossed the border from Caliente in a horse van, bent over at the waist, hiding under one of the horses,” Palma said. “The driver told me to stay low, so I wouldn’t be seen. It was 11 years before I became a legalized citizen. Gas was 17 cents a gallon when I got here.

“I went to Bay Meadows in 1956. Later I worked for Buster Millerick and was the groom for Native Diver.”

The great California-bred gelding won 37 races, 34 of them stakes, including the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup three straight years, from 1965 through 1967, and earned $1,026,500 in a pre-inflation career of 81 starts.

A son of Imbros out of the Devil Diver

dam Fleet Diver, Native Diver was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Louis K. Shapiro and was the first Cal-bred to earn a million dollars. He died at the age of eight on September 13, 1967, and later was buried under a monument at Hollywood Park.

His remains and the monument were moved to Del Mar when Hollywood closed in December of 2013.

Nicknamed “The Diver,” “The California Comet,” and “The Black Horse,” Native Diver was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in 1978.

“Buster was a tremendous guy and a very good trainer,” Palma said. “Riley was a good horseman too but I think I learned more from Millerick in the two years I was with

him. He was a very, very good horseman.

“I did have a trainer’s license in 1966 as an assistant to Cofer, but went on my own in 1971.

“I won my first race on the 10th of June, 1971, with my very first starter, a 6-1 shot named Ten Grand at Hollywood Park.”

Palma also numbers Charlie Whittingham as an amiable advisor.

“We were very good friends,” Palma said of the legendary “Bald Eagle,” who died at the age of 86 on April 22, 1999. “Anytime I had a problem, he helped me resolve it. He could tell you everything you wanted to learn, and he instilled confidence.

“Whittingham once told me he would only run a horse in the Kentucky Derby if it could win, so when he entered Ferdinand in 1986, I went to Las Vegas and bet $200 on him at 20-1.”

Call it blind faith.

Finding a gaping hole on the rail but not getting a call until deep stretch in the mileand-a-quarter classic, Ferdinand won by 2¼ lengths with Shoemaker up and returned a 17-1 win mutuel of $37.40, but at 20-1 in Vegas, Palma reaped $4,200.

“I was having a tough time one meet and asked Charlie what I was doing wrong,” Palma remembered. “He listened patiently, then told me, ‘Just keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be all right.’

“The very next meet at Hollywood Park I was the leading trainer and I beat Whittingham for the title. He was the greatest. Guys like Whittingham, Buster Millerick, Farrell Jones, they would help you.

“They were horsemen. Today we have trainers.”

One who qualifies in both categories is Doug O’Neill, who gleaned what he could during a tour with Palma before going on his own and ascending to racing’s apex.

“After I left Jude Feld, I went to work for Hector,” O’Neill related. “He was a great mentor, like Jude. Hector had a big stable ranging from claiming horses to stakes horses.

“I was the only gringo in the barn, so it

was a great experience. I learned a lot of

and knowledgeable in the stock market, too.”

Well, not that knowledgeable. “I lost a great sum of money ago buying on margin when the market collapsed,” Palma said, quickly dismissing it as being all relative.

“Fortunately, I had other funds to offset it, but I never forgot that I came to the United States with a dollar fifty. I still have that dollar fifty.

“Everything runs in cycles.”

Jockey Fernando Perez, who has ridden several winners for Palma, says the trainer’s experience and knowledge has helped him considerably.

“He’ll give me instructions before a race,” said the 29-year-old Perez, also a native of Mexico, “but if something unexpected happens, he’s OK if I change plans. We work well together, and he always pays for breakfast.”

Among Palma’s most memorable stakes winners was Pen Bal Lady, an English-bred filly who captured the Grade 1 Gamely

He has advanced light years in experience and financially since those days, passing the 1,100 mark in career victories, many at Santa Anita where he has 32 horses in training.

“I earned $300 a month for 11 years when I was with Cofer,” Palma said. “When I went on my own, in the first month I won three races and made $10,000, and there were no extra expenses except for exercise boys. We only paid them $2 a horse to gallop back then. Now it costs $15.

“There have been many changes since I started. The most significant has been satellite wagering. Today people don’t have to bet at the track. They can bet from home or at places closer than the track. They don’t have to drive that far; they want to bet at the closest place.

“They don’t have to fight traffic and the cost of gasoline (approaching $3 a gallon at press time in Southern California, up a dollar from the previous month, owing to a bureaucratic boondoggle called ‘the summer blend.’ The EPA: you gotta love it).

It’s remindful of the tale of two men at “Horses today don’t have the endurance horses had years ago,” Palma said, citing another difference from hither to yon. “They didn’t get hurt so easily back then. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because stallions now are bred to a 100 mares each season. Years ago, it was only 40. That could be one reason.

“Also, owners who used to be dedicated to racing have died off. It’s like Ron McAnally (now 84) says, ‘I’ve outlived all my owners.’ It’s the same with me. I counted my former owners the other day and 20 have died.

“It’s difficult to bring new people into racing. They prefer to put their money into other ventures. New owners want to claim a horse and win fast. When they don’t and see the game is not easy, they quit right away.

“Years ago there were families of horse people. Now, people don’t seem to be interested in racing for the long term. They want a quick return on their investment. I don’t know what the future holds.”

His optimism is overshadowed by reality.

“I have a son, Rigoberto, 50, who is a title engineer, but he’s not interested in horses at all, never has been,” Palma said.

“I hope something comes along to improve racing, but not having slots (in California) is a big disadvantage. Tracks with slot machines have good success thanks to increased purses generated from that revenue.

“We struggle in California and could use help from outside. Our purses are mediocre. You run a maiden four and up for a $20,000 claiming price and the purse is $19,000. Owners cannot survive on that structure.

“The overhead is high, the hay, the oats; doctors charge more for medication, blacksmiths charge more. Trainers don’t make it with what we get for a day rate (how much they’re paid per day to train a horse).

“Trainers like Bob Baffert can charge $120, $125 a day. Others charge $80, and at Los Alamitos, there are trainers who go as low as $60. I don’t know how they make it. I charge $95 and I lose money every month.

“George Yager and I own BG Thoroughbred Farms in Hemet, where we have about 200 horses, and every month we lose money.

BG Thoroughbred Farm is a full service facility offering breeding, boarding, mare and foal care, lay-ups, and breaking and training on its new five-eighths mile track.

“We have six stallions and advertise on television and in the Racing Form, but the problem is, California doesn’t have enough horses for breeding. ” Palma said.

They are Capital Account, the only son of Grade 2 winner Closing Argument to stand in California; Daddy Nose Best, the only son of the late leading sire Scat Daddy standing in California; Affirmative, whose progeny have earnings of $3.3 million; Fighting Hussar, the only stakesperforming son of the late Rockport Harbor to stand in California; Montecito Stable’s Unusual Heatwave, a son of the remarkable Unusual Heat, who stands for $20,000 at Harris Ranch in Coalinga, California, at the grand old age of 26; and Tiz a Minister, a graded stakes winner that entered stud in 2016.

Palma is not exactly painting a picture of the Mona Lisa. He adheres to an old Mexican saying: “Hope dies last.”

“I want to see racing improve but I have no regrets,” he said. “Maybe one day we’ll have slot machines, and if we do, California will be great.

“But I’m very happy. I don’t want to do anything else but train until my last breath. I want to be right here with the horses.”

Despite his unflagging passion, Palma did abandon the game he loves for three years when he dedicated himself to a greater cause.

From 2001 through 2003, he provided sustenance and therapy for his long-time girlfriend and business associate, Becky Rodriguez, after she suffered a paralyzing stroke at the age of 50. She owned Granja Mexico, for whom Palma trained horses with great success until it went out of business in 2000.

He had been separated for 35 years from his wife, Maria, who died in 2013.

“Becky was my right-hand man back then,” Palma said. “She ran my business and took care of the horses for 37 years. She knew her stuff, too, because she worked many years for (equine transporter) Tex Sutton. She was like my wife, but we were never married.

“She’s my sweetheart and I’ll take care of her until the day I die.

“I did have a few horses during the time I was caring for her, one with Ted West, one with Paddy Gallagher, and another with Peter Eurton, so I didn’t drop out completely, but I didn’t want to train horses then.”

Rodriguez, fortunately, is still with Palma

and doing well, relatively speaking. “Her right side is paralyzed and she’ll be disabled the rest of her life,” Palma said.

“She walks with a cane but her mind is very sharp and she still helps me. She picked out Pen Bal Lady in England, the best horse we ever had.”

They live in San Dimas, California, 17 miles east of Santa Anita.

Going on two decades, Palma’s No. One guy at the barn has been Jose Sanchez, the brother of 37-year-old jockey Felipe Sanchez Valdez. “Jose is a real good horseman,” Palma says.

“I’m very comfortable working with Hector,” says Sanchez, who turns 50 in July. “We’re very good friends.”

Winning more than 1,100 races ranks high on Palma’s end game of achievements, but in a career spanning more than half a century, he is most proud that he has been cited for only one medication violation.

“Twenty-five years ago,” he says, “I was fined $200. I have a very clean record. I don’t administer anything that doesn’t conform with regulations and I don’t exceed the proper dosage.

“Besides, the best medication is a good horse. Nobody can make a horse run good if the horse is not already a good horse.

“If you give medication to a burro, it won’t become a Thoroughbred.”

Turns out, after all these years, maybe that Del Mar intern was on to something, because by any name, Hector O’ Palma or Hector O. Palma, the trainer is his own man.

And by any ethnic background, this eerie fact remains: Hector O. Palma was born on the Fourth of July, the most American of all holidays. n

“New owners want to claim a horse and win fast. When they don’t and see the game is not easy, they quit right away ”

BG Thoroughbred Farms in Hemet

STAKING A CLAIM

THERE is no racing without claimers. Frequently, a person considering Thoroughbred ownership is advised to start with a claimer, a proven commodity, rather than speculate on a yearling or a two-year-old. If they go ahead and claim a horse, do they know the business rules? Do they know there may be multiple sales taxes to pay on the claim? Are they informed of the restrictions placed on the next start of a horse they claim?

Similar to medication rules, the business rules of claiming Thoroughbreds are not standard in the U.S. Would it be simpler to have a single set of national rules? Of course

it would. But that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

“It’s confusing, because it varies from state to state,” Del Mar director of racing Tom Robbins said. But even within a single state, including Robbins’ California, sales tax rates on claimed horses vary from track to track.

Rules also vary state to state and even track to track regarding “jail time,” the restrictions on a claimed horse making his next start. Most states, but not all, practice reciprocity regarding jail time.

It’s a bloody mess out there.

“Almost every state is different,” New York-based trainer Bruce Levine said. “Every state has different rules. You’ve just got to be

very careful when you ship in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

“I raced in Jersey for a long time,” Levine said. “Every year, it was changing. It was crazy in Jersey. They had no jail time one year. Guys were claiming horses for ten ($10,000) and running him for a nickel ($5,000). There were a bunch of odds-on horses. Every race there was a 3-5 shot. They did away with that. For a long time, they had 21 days in jail. They had one time that you couldn’t drop if you finished first or second. They kept trying to tweak it to make it better. It kept changing.”

New Jersey officials might not be done. As of March 30th, a claimed horse in New

SALES TAX ON CLAIMS

Jersey, who must race in-state until the end of the meet, must also run for 25% higher for 20 days after the claim. The second half of that rule is being reviewed this spring. The state racing commission is considering changing “25% higher” to “just higher than the claiming price.”

In New York in 2015, 1,259 Thoroughbreds were claimed at four tracks. By comparison, a total of 1,139 Standardbreds were claimed at seven tracks. Here’s the breakdown by tracks. For Thoroughbreds: Aqueduct 463, Belmont Park 414, Saratoga Race Course 243, and Finger Lakes 137. For harness horses: Batavia 49, Buffalo 156, Monticello 78, Saratoga Gaming and Racing 149, Tioga 42, Vernon 41, and Yonkers 624. Not a single New York horseman paid a penny of sales tax on their claims. “We used to have sales tax here,” Levine said. “I’d say 20-plus years ago. The New York HBPA (Horsemen’s and Benevolent and Protective

Levine

Association) fought for it for the horsemen (to remove it).”

New York isn’t the only racing jurisdiction without sales tax on claims. Horsemen

Webb Carroll Training Center Graduates

in Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, and Wyoming also enjoy that perk.

Until recently, horsemen in Louisiana were also paying state sales tax. Thanks to successful lobbying by the Louisiana Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, the state dropped the sales tax in the mid-2000s. “We’re very grateful that the state of Louisiana Legislature recognizes the importance of the racing industry,” Ed Fenasci, Executive Director of the Louisiana HBPA, said.

They are, however, hit with taxes by the local parish and city. Four different tracks pay three different amounts. The tax is 5% at Fair Grounds and Louisiana Downs, 5.25% at Delta Downs, and 5.75% at Evangeline.

Horsemen at two Florida tracks, Gulfstream Park and Gulfstream Park West, pay 6% state sales tax on claims versus 7% at

“Almost every state is different. Every state has different rules. You’ve just got to be very careful when you ship in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic ”

Bruce

CLAIMERS

STATE RESTRICTIONS ON A CLAIMEd HORSE’S NEXT START

Arizona – Can’t race out of state for 60 days or the end of the meet, whichever is less.

Arkansas – 25% higher claiming price for 20 days, same track until the end of the meet.

California – If horse wins, 25% higher for 25 days; if horse loses, at least the same price for 25 days.

Colorado – Same track for 30 days or until the end of the meet, whichever comes first.

Delaware – 25% higher for 20 days, in-state for 60 days or until the end of the meet, whichever is first.

Florida – Can’t race for less at Tampa Bay for 30 days, in-state for various amount of days at Gulfstream, Gulfstream Park West, and Tampa Bay.

Idaho – 25% higher for 30 days, must stay at current meet until the meet ends.

Illinois – 25% higher for 20 days, same price for additional 10 days, in-state for 45 days.

Indiana – 25% higher and in-state for 30 days.

Iowa – If horse wins, higher after first start or for 30 days, whichever first, and same track until the meet ends.

Kentucky – 25% higher for 30 days, nowhere else until the end of the meet.

Louisiana – Same track for 60 days or until the end of the meet.

Maryland – 25% higher for 30 days, in-state for 60 days.

Massachusetts – No lower price for 30 days, same track for 60 days or until end of meet, whichever first.

Michigan – 25% higher for 30 days, in-state for 60 days or until the end of the meet.

Minnesota – Same track for 60 days or until the end of the meet, whichever is shorter.

Nebraska – At the same track until the end of the meet.

Nevada – In-state until the end of the meet.

New Jersey – 25% higher for 20 days, in-state until the end of the meet.

New Mexico – In-state for 30 days or the end of the meet, whichever first.

New York – 25% higher and in-state 30 days or until the end of the meet, whichever is longer.

North Dakota – Same track for 30 days or end of the meet, whichever first.

Ohio – In-state for 60 days.

Oklahoma – In-state 30 days or the end of the meet.

Oregon – No restrictions.

Pennsylvania – 25% higher for 30 days, same track until the end of the meet.

South Dakota – No restrictions.

Texas – Same track until the end of the meet.

Virginia – 25% higher for 30 days, same track until the end of the meet.

Washington – No restrictions.

West Virginia – In-state for 60 days.

Wyoming – 25% higher for 30 days, same track until the end of the meet.

(Note: Most states have exceptions allowing a claimed horse to run elsewhere in a stakes race or with permission of the tracks’ stewards)

both Tampa Bay Downs and Hialeah, where Quarter Horses race.

In Illinois, Mickey Ezzo, the projects manager for the Illinois Racing Board, said there has been discussion of a sales tax on claims for many years. “I’ve been doing this my whole life,” he said. “I remember discussing this issue for 25 years. There’s been talk about it, but it never happened.”

Horsemen at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, Golden Gate in California, and Emerald Downs in Washington share the dubious distinction of paying the highest sales tax in the country at 9.5%. In Arkansas, the state sales tax is 6.5%. “We pay 1.5% to the city of Hot Springs and 1.5 to Garland County,” Dave Longinotti, Oaklawn Park’s director of racing, said. “It’s confusing to us, too,” he joked.

Robbins, a long-time California racing official who has served at all of the state’s major tracks, said, “It’s hard to keep track of all those things.”

It’s even harder in Washington. “The sales tax is only collected on geldings, as stallions and mares can be used for breeding

purposes,” Doug Moore, the Executive Secretary of the Washington Racing Commission, said. “Stallions and mares were declared exempt by the state Department of Revenue.”

Washington, South Dakota, and Oregon stand alone in the country on the restrictions placed on a horse who’s been claimed. “There is no jail time in Washington or restriction on their next start,” Moore said. “There is no requirement that is mandated in other jurisdictions where the horse must run

for an increased claiming price for a certain amount of time either.”

In South Dakota, “A claim is a legitimate method of acquiring ownership of a horse,” Larry Eliason, executive secretary of the South Dakota Commission on Gaming, said. “Once a horse is in your possession, you can do anything that’s legal in terms of placing him.”

Other racing states have varied restrictions on a claimed horse’s next start, specifying that the horse must run for at least 25% higher for a number of days or until the end of the current meet, and banning a claimed horse from racing at other tracks in-state and/or out-of-state. Most have exceptions to those restrictions if the horse is entered in a stakes race or if the horse receives permission by the stewards to race at other tracks.

In New York, a claimed horse must race within state and for at least 25% higher for 30 days or the end of the meet, whichever is longer. “I like the way it’s set up in New York,” Levine said. “It protects the little guy from losing his horse. You’ve got to save the little guy.” n

“I like the way it’s set up in New York. It protects the little guy from losing his horse. You’ve got to save the little guy ”

Bruce Levine

PEMFT The natural therapy giving racehorses around the globe a competitive edge

Widely used in conditioning racehorses around the world, the benefits of PEMFT (Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Field Therapy) are no secret, with more and more trainers turning to this natural and gentle therapy to heal and even calm their Thoroughbreds.

WORDS: PROfeSSOR michael claRk

PhOTOS: PROfeSSOR michael claRk, gileS anDeRSOn

SoME leading PEMFT device manufacturers have noticed a significant uplift in sales to the equine world during the past year. What’s more interesting, however, is the growing number of ways in which it is being used. Whether you are looking to speed up the process of healing broken bones, boost recovery time, maximize performance, or simply keep a horse calm in transit, PEMF offers a myriad of benefits to equine health.

PEMFT’s ability to aid bone repair is fully recognized by the FDA. Veterinarians have been using this therapy to heal broken legs in racehorses for many years. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are in excess of 10,000 published scientific papers about the effects of PEMF therapy. Many of the initial studies were carried out in Russia

and Eastern Europe, but more and more research is now taking place in Western Europe and the United States. These studies are centered on humans but are equally applicable to the equine world.

Couple that with a sea of anecdotal evidence attesting to the treatment’s efficacy across many areas of equine health, and it is not surprising this gentle and natural therapy has piqued the interest.

Health is an energy dance; the more you have, the better you will feel – provided the energy is harmonious and beneficial. The health of a body is totally dependent on the health of the cells. All organs and tissues are made of cells. Horses are, in essence, cellular beings, with trillions of cells intelligently communicating at faster-than-light speed, creating some 400 billion reactions every second,

involving over 100,000 bio molecules. Newtonian-based physics and biology are left speechless when attempting to explain this complexity. This amazing intelligence residing in an animal’s body knows how to heal itself, and it only requires the essential elements of food, water, and oxygen, as well as sleep, exercise, and the earth’s natural PEMFs to accomplish this.

Gaining a greater understanding of the importance of PEMFs to cellular health has been largely accelerated by space exploration agencies. Yuri Gagarin, in his historic flight into space, returned to earth in nearcritical condition after only one hour and forty-eight minutes in space. He had all the fundamental elements considered important to human life, but was sealed off from the earth’s natural PEMFs. It is not surprising to learn that PEMF devices are now

PEMFT box (Magnafield MF 2200)

standard issue in most space suits and space stations, including the MIR space station –with NASA’s own research underpinning many of the medical devices on the market today. This includes units that were originally developed by New Zealander Dr. Bob Grace, a passionate PEMFT advocate who worked alongside prominent men such as American Dr. Linus Pauling, the twotime Nobel Prize winner, who once stated: “PEMF is a benefit for Mankind from infant to the geriatric. PEMF will lead to a change in the paradigm of medicine.”

Medicine has since taken a rather different route. However, there are a growing number of advocates of PEMFT, which has led to the modern units available on the market today.

Zero field studies, where PEMFs are blocked using a Faraday cage, have been conducted on earth with both laboratory animals and human subjects. These studies have found that in just a matter of hours with zero exposure to healthy PEMFs, cell metabolism begins to break down, causing bone loss, muscle weakness, depressed metabolism, disorientation, and depression. It makes sense, then, that the specific application of PEMFs to cells not performing at optimum level can have a therapeutic effect.

This type of therapy is still relatively new and remains at the edge of conventional

and complementary medicine, despite many scientifically validated articles that confirm and attest to its efficacy. It doesn’t help that the research is also rather complex, because of the complexity of the science behind it. The average person’s inability to fully understand it, however, is not stopping the therapy from attracting significant interest.

Many racehorse trainers use devices as a reparative technique in the field of orthopedics for the treatment of fractures, failed fusions, depression, and congenital pseudarthrosis. However, bespoke solutions are increasingly being created for trainers who recognize the wider benefits. In addition to the therapy’s healing capacities, PEMFs can have a profound calming effect

on horses at the correct frequency, so equipment is being fitted to horseboxes, as well as stables. A horse that is well rested and calm following transit can invariably perform a lot better than one that is highly stressed. Similarly, a horse whose cells are performing at optimum level will certainly have a competitive edge, which also explains why more trainers are using my devices on perfectly healthy racehorses as a means to maximize performance and boost recovery.

The main benefits of PEMF therapy are:

l Stronger bones;

l Endorphins and pain relief;

l More energy ATP (adenosine triphosphate);

l Better oxygenation and circulation;

l Improved immunity;

l Relaxation and stress reduction;

l Nerve and tissue regeneration.

STRONGER BONES

Healthy bones are one of the most important keys to living a long, healthy, and active life. one of the earliest discoveries of PEMF was its effect on the healing and strengthening of bones. A low frequency earth-type PEMF signal has been shown to stimulate the osteoblast cells in the bones to produce bone matter. The mechanism for this is called the piezoelectric effect.

An electromagnetic blanket in use

“PEMFT’s ability to aid bone repair is fully recognised by the FDA. Veterinarians have been using this therapy to heal broken legs in racehorses for many years ”

The piezoelectric effect is a phenomena produced in crystals and bones whereby mechanical pressure produces an electric current. In the bones this electric current causes them to strengthen. The piezoelectric effect is also produced by movement and exercise and in particular weight-bearing exercise where the exercise exerts pressure on the bone ‘piezes’ to stimulate an electric current.

Albert Einstein recognized the benefits of this effect when he said: “The pulsation of the cell is stimulated and supported by body movement. Every step, every movement of a muscle creates an energy impulse which flows through the whole body and assists the vibration of many millions of cells. Movement of the body therefore recharges the energy of the cells.”

MORE ENERGY – ATP

At the most fundamental level, your body, organs, tissues, and cells need energy to heal. No matter what the problem, disease, condition, or current state of health, if you give the body and cells more energy, the animal will get better and feel more vitality.

The main currency and storage unit of energy in the cell is adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. An average horse will expend its body weight in ATP every day. Research shows that PEMF signals in certain biological windows (0-18Hz) increase the

activity of key enzymes needed in ATP production and utilization. PEMF therapy in that frequency range and at low power levels enhances all the channels, pathways, and the delivery of the essential elements needed to create energy: oxygen absorption, hydration, assimilation, circulation, and energization of the cellular pump known as TMP, or Trans Membrane Potential. All of this comes together in the Krebs cycle in the cells mitochondria to produce ATP.

BETTER OXYGENATION AND CIRCULATION

The primary function of the respiratory system is to provide oxygen to the blood. This occurs between the alveoli and red blood cells in pulmonary capillaries. Air is warmed and humidified and warmed again

to body temperature. This facilitates the allimportant gas exchange.

The primary function of the circulatory system is to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the cells and to remove waste products from the cells, which are delivered to the organs that eliminate them.

The cardiovascular and respiratory systems are intimately connected. Better respiration and circulation result in optimal ATP production. We know that with an optimal oxygen supply to the cells, 38 molecules of ATP are produced, whereas with low oxygen only two molecules are produced (per single unit of glucose or fatty acid).

PEMF enhances the cardiovascular and respiratory system in three fundamental ways: angiogenesis, increased nitric oxide (No) production, and improved oxygenation of the cells. There are devices available that measure oxygen utilization, and these clearly show that even just eight minutes of PEMF therapy will optimize the extraction of life-nurturing oxygen from the air that is breathed.

IMPROVED IMMUNITY

A horse’s immune system is its central defense against foreign invaders, toxins, and even cancer cells. All the previous benefits directly and indirectly enhance the immune system – namely oxygenation, circulation, and the production of ATP. Because PEMF increases the voltage of the cells as well, it increases the pH and provides an unsuitable environment for virus, bacteria, and parasites.

Top chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur admitted on his deathbed that the germ theory of disease was completely wrong! The key is the biological terrain. In fact, the terrain is everything.

It has been shown innumerable times that germs, viruses, bacteria, parasites, and cancer cannot thrive if the body has optimal levels of oxygen, a proper alkaline pH, high cellular charge, and good circulation. It is also important to have the right temperature and glucose levels.

It is impossible to get sick if an animal’s biological terrain has a healthy level of those essential parameters needed for life. PEMF creates homeostasis within all of these components. Even if an infection is contracted, PEMF will so directly energise the immune cells as to easily get rid of unwanted bacteria and viruses. The immune system resides primarily in the gut, lymph vessels, and lymph nodes. Having good nutrition and lymphatic circulation is of paramount importance.

There is direct research showing that PEMF improves immunity through the proliferation of lymphocytes.

RELAXATION AND STRESS REDUCTION

Relaxation and stress reduction can be directly linked to sleep. Life is a delicate balance of activity and rest. Contrary to

PEMFT box installed in a stable block

“PEMFs can have a profound calming effect on horses at the correct frequency, so equipment is being fitted to horseboxes, as well as stables ”

some schools of thought, stress is healthy in the correct amount. The problem is that, as a species, high-performance horses are overstressed. Their central nervous system (CNS) mediates the stress and relaxation in the body with what is called the sympathetic and parasympathetic response.

Simply put, your sympathetic nervous system is your fight, flight, or fright response that prepares the horse for action. It triggers adrenaline and cortisol release, which raises heart rate, increases breathing rate, relocates blood from the core to the muscle, and basically prepares the system to run away from danger.

Exercise can trigger this response in a healthy way, but many high-performance horses are in a constant state of stress, which leads to burnout and exhaustion. In direct

contrast to the fight or flight sympathetic system is the parasympathetic system, which is the rest, digest, and healing system.

This system is the opposite of the sympathetic in that it moves your energy, blood, and nutrients into the core for healing, repair, rest, and digestion. PEMF assists the body in relaxation, repair, and healing. It will shift emphasis from the sympathetic mode to the parasympathetic mode if the animal becomes overstressed.

It will energize, invigorate, and stimulate the body for optimal performance. PEMF has been shown to significantly lower cortisol levels and create a balance in autonomic functions. Cortisol is the primary hormone responsible for stress response. The use of PEMF therapy will reset a horse’s body back to the earth pulse of healing and relaxation.

NERVE AND TISSUE REGENERATION

Another exciting benefit seen from the use of PEMF therapy is that of nerve and tissue regeneration. It is one thing to symptomatically shut off pain through the effect on neural pathways, it is quite another to fix the underlying cause.

A four-year NASA study conducted by Dr. Goodwin and his colleagues, together with hundreds of other peer-reviewed, studies have shown conclusively that PEMF therapy helps to heal, repair, and regenerate tissue, including the difficult nerve and brain cells. PEMF therapy also promotes the growth of damaged nerves after traumatic injury as well as the binding of nerve growth factor of the receptor proteins on the surface of nerve cells, which facilitates regeneration. n

Untapable and jockey Rosie Napravnik win the 2014 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs

“DON’T CALL ME ‘JOCKETTE’” Battling the gender issue

ILOVED it,” said Diane Crump, who on February 7, 1969, became the first woman to ride in a pari-mutuel race. “I loved racehorses. I loved galloping horses. I loved the whole sport. I just loved riding racehorses, and I don’t know why. There’s no explanation. It didn’t matter to me that it was hard.

“And the more capable I became—when I could come out of the gate in the morning with eight horses and work three-quarters of a mile against the regular jockeys and beat them—at that point in my life, I loved riding racehorses more than anything in my life.”

That same passion for horses and horseracing is the inspiration for today’s woman riders, who face different challenges.

Trailblazers

In 1967, Olympic equestrian Kathy Kusner used the newly minted Civil Rights Act to sue the Maryland Racing Commission for her right to ride. The Maryland Supreme Court agreed, forcing Maryland to issue her the first jockey’s license for a woman. Unfortunately, Kusner was laid up with a broken leg and unable to ride.

In November 1968, Crump and exercise rider Penny Ann Early were granted apprentice licenses at Churchill Downs. During the week of November 17, Early’s attempt to be the first woman to ride a race was boycotted three times by the Churchill jockey colony, who sent a funeral wreath to her hotel, signed “From your mealymouthed friends in the room.”

Early left Churchill for Santa Anita in California, and Crump moved on to Hialeah Park in Florida.

At Hialeah, Crump was faced with an obstinate jockey colony and track management who didn’t quite know what to do with her. Instead of a jockey’s room, she had to use the horsemen’s office and weigh in on a bathroom scale. When it was time for her to mount up, state troopers escorted her to the paddock past boos and catcalls from the pressing throng.

Crump didn’t win a horse race that day— she finished 10th in the 12-horse field—but

In the late 1960s, a handful of tough women with a passion for horseracing fought for their right to be jockeys. This passion gave them courage to chase their dreams, not the women’s lib bandwagon. The determination to show they were just as capable as their male counterparts helped motivate modern-day women to pursue a career in the male-dominated world of race riding.

WORDS: DeniSe SteffanuS PHOtOS: BaRBaRa JO RuBin, DeniSe SteffanuS, enzina MaStRiPPOlitO, HORSePHOtOS

The jockeys weren’t kidding. One of them threw a brick through the window of the travel trailer that served as her jockey’s room.

Rubin, nicknamed “The Ladybug” by the media, wasn’t afraid, but she was frustrated. A record crowd had turned out to watch her ride, and pandemonium broke loose when they were told the races would not go forward unless Rubin withdrew. So she did. Webb took his stable back north, and Rubin went to ride in Nassau. But the two tried it again on February 22 at Charles Town Races in West Virginia, where another spectacle plagued the event.

“A lot of people were booing and yelling and cussing and telling me to go home,” Rubin said. “And then some people were rooting for me. But I just sort of blanked it all out.”

Aboard Cohesion, Rubin sat chilly behind the leaders, waiting for the mare Kathy Kiely in front to go wide through the turn. When she did, Rubin slipped through on the rail to win the race.

In 1970, Crump became the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby. She retired from racing in 1999 and now operates Diane Crump Equine Sales in Linden, Virginia.

Barbara Jo Rubin

Three weeks before Crump’s historic Derby ride, Barbara Jo Rubin, the pigtailed tomboy next door, took out her license at Tropical Park and suited up to boot home trainer Bryan Webb’s Stoneland in the seventh race. But 13 members of the jockey colony refused to ride against her, and their boycott halted Tropical’s card.

“They might weigh the same as male jockeys, but they aren’t as strong,” fivetime Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Bill Hartack told Life magazine in 1968. “And, as a group, I don’t think their brains are as capable of making fast decisions. Women are also more likely to panic. It’s their nature.”

In the same interview, Hartack said he wasn’t against women being given a chance to ride, because when things got tough, they’d quit.

The lone voice in support of the girls came from then 26-year-old rider Angel Cordero Jr.

Diane Crump became the first woman rider in the Kentucky Derby

Barbara Jo Rubin, above, winning on Cohesion at Charles Town Races and below with Angel Cordero, the lone voice of support from male jockeys

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The performance horse is a unique, unparalleled example of the magnificence of God’s creation: A superb professional, bred, trained and driven to deliver victory in every competition. Caring for this animal – in the best way possible – is a duty that lies at the heart of our mission.

At Abba Vet Supply, our commitment and our values are built around a unique focus: caring for the health, well-being and success of your racehorse. Because of this unique focus, built around over 30 years of experience in treating thoroughbred and standardbred horses by Dr. Kevin Brophy, D.V.M. and his colleagues, we have created an innovative approach to selecting and offering a range of performance horse treatments and supplement supplies.

Our website gives you access to this unique array of products, backed by advice and support developed to help owners, trainers, grooms and others who care for and work with equine athletes.

Braeburn Training Center (BTC) is a family owned business located in Crozet, Virginia, where we are committed to the care and success of your racehorse. From the beginning breaking stages through their racing career, with over 31 years of experience ensures quality handling of your investment. We train on both dirt and turf surfaces and have our own covered Eurocizer. Official published workouts can be recorded from BTC, so your horse can ship to race at several tracks in the mid-atlantic region, right from the relaxing environment of the farm.

Patrick F. Nuesch, Trainer

1500 Thurston Dr, Crozet, VA 22932

Patrick@BraeburnTrainingCenter.com

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my pony and the Barton kept beside me, with the rogue between us, until I was safely off the track. I will ever be

J. P. Alexander, the “boy”

Many women riders, even Rosie Napravnik in 2005, used their initials to hide their gender. Patti Cooksey, who

briefly became the all-time top female rider in 1988, became P. J. Cooksey when she followed in Barton’s footsteps in West Virginia. (She was surpassed by Racing Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone weeks later.)

As the story goes, an unsuspecting trainer who had named Cooksey to ride his horse was stunned when he came face to face with

“Hey, you’re a woman!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Cooksey said. “I’ve been one for

J. P. Alexander went one step further. She disguised herself as a boy so she could gallop for Hall of Fame trainer King Leatherbury

“It was winter, so I was all bundled up, and I cut my hair short. I galloped for Mr. Leatherbury for six months before he realized I was a girl,” said Alexander, now Judith Parmlee in Lexington.

Leatherbury was surprised to learn of the deception 40 years later, but he said he always hired the best person to get a job done.

“You hire people for their talent and their work, regardless of sex or color or anything,” he said.

Not one female was in Leatherbury’s employ, but his wife of 50 years, Linda, said it was pretty much out of his hands.

“You just didn’t find women grooms,” she said. “At that time they just weren’t there.”

In the beginning, Leatherbury said he thought the backside was too rough for females.

“They would have to get in there with a bunch of guys working, and to have a girl in there didn’t seem just right,” he said.

Alexander got her jockey’s license in 1978, becoming the first apprentice in Maryland to ride as a free agent, not under a trainer’s contract.

Cheryl White

A vintage photo offered on eBay of Cheryl White in her silks bears the hand-

Cindy Herman Medina had an 18-year career in the

Caution Federal (USA) law restricts this drug to use by or on the order of a licensed veterinarian.

Storage Conditions Store at 68°F – 77°F (20-25°C). Excursions between 59°F – 86°F (15-30°C) are permitted.

Indications

For treatment and prevention of recurrence of gastric ulcers in horses and foals 4 weeks of age and older.

Dosage Regimen

For treatment of gastric ulcers, GastroGard Paste should be administered orally once-a-day for 4 weeks at the recommended dosage of 1.8 mg omeprazole/lb body weight (4 mg/kg). For the prevention of recurrence of gastric ulcers, continue treatment for at least an additional 4 weeks by administering GastroGard Paste at the recommended daily maintenance dose of 0.9 mg/lb (2 mg/kg).

Directions For Use

• GastroGard Paste for horses is recommended for use in horses and foals 4 weeks of age and older. The contents of one syringe will dose a 1250 lb (568 kg) horse at the rate of 1.8 mg omeprazole/lb body weight (4 mg/kg). For treatment of gastric ulcers, each weight marking on the syringe plunger will deliver sufficient omeprazole to treat 250 lb (114 kg) body weight. For prevention of recurrence of gastric ulcers, each weight marking will deliver sufficient omeprazole to dose 500 lb (227 kg) body weight.

• To deliver GastroGard Paste at the treatment dose rate of 1.8 mg omeprazole/ lb body weight (4 mg/kg), set the syringe plunger to the appropriate weight marking according to the horse’s weight in pounds.

• To deliver GastroGard Paste at the dose rate of 0.9 mg/lb (2 mg/kg) to prevent recurrence of ulcers, set the syringe plunger to the weight marking corresponding to half of the horse’s weight in pounds.

• To set the syringe plunger, unlock the knurled ring by rotating it 1/4 turn. Slide the knurled ring along the plunger shaft so that the side nearest the barrel is at the appropriate notch. Rotate the plunger ring 1/4 turn to lock it in place and ensure it is locked. Make sure the horse’s mouth contains no feed. Remove the cover from the tip of the syringe, and insert the syringe into the horse’s mouth at the interdental space. Depress the plunger until stopped by the knurled ring. The dose should be deposited on the back of the tongue or deep into the cheek pouch. Care should be taken to ensure that the horse consumes the complete dose. Treated animals should be observed briefly after administration to ensure that part of the dose is not lost or rejected. If any of the dose is lost, redosing is recommended.

• If, after dosing, the syringe is not completely empty, it may be reused on following days until emptied. Replace the cap after each use.

Warning

Do not use in horses intended for human consumption. Keep this and all drugs out of the reach of children. In case of ingestion, contact a physician. Physicians may contact a poison control center for advice concerning accidental ingestion.

Adverse Reactions

In efficacy trials, when the drug was administered at 1.8 mg omeprazole/lb (4 mg/kg) body weight daily for 28 days and 0.9 mg omeprazole/lb (2 mg/kg) body weight daily for 30 additional days, no adverse reactions were observed.

Precautions

The safety of GastroGard Paste has not been determined in pregnant or lactating mares.

Efficacy

• Dose Confirmation: GastroGard® (omeprazole) Paste, administered to provide omeprazole at 1.8 mg/lb (4 mg/kg) daily for 28 days, effectively healed or reduced the severity of gastric ulcers in 92% of omeprazole-treated horses. In comparison, 32% of controls exhibited healed or less severe ulcers. Horses enrolled in this study were healthy animals confirmed to have gastric ulcers by gastroscopy. Subsequent daily administration of GastroGard Paste to provide omeprazole at 0.9 mg/lb (2 mg/kg) for 30 days prevented recurrence of gastric ulcers in 84% of treated horses, whereas ulcers recurred or became more severe in horses removed from omeprazole treatment.

• Clinical Field Trials: GastroGard Paste administered at 1.8 mg/lb (4 mg/kg) daily for 28 days healed or reduced the severity of gastric ulcers in 99% of omeprazole-treated horses. In comparison, 32.4% of control horses had healed ulcers or ulcers which were reduced in severity. These trials included horses of various breeds and under different management conditions, and included horses in race or show training, pleasure horses, and foals as young as one month. Horses enrolled in the efficacy trials were healthy animals confirmed to have gastric ulcers by gastroscopy. In these field trials, horses readily accepted GastroGard Paste. There were no drug related adverse reactions. In the clinical trials, GastroGard Paste was used concomitantly with other therapies, which included: anthelmintics, antibiotics, non-steroidal and steroidal anti-inflammatory agents, diuretics, tranquilizers and vaccines.

• Diagnostic and Management Considerations: The following clinical signs may be associated with gastric ulceration in adult horses:inappetence or decreased appetite, recurrent colic, intermittent loose stools or chronic diarrhea, poor hair coat, poor body condition, or poor performance. Clinical signs in foals may include: bruxism (grinding of teeth), excessive salivation, colic, cranial abdominal tenderness, anorexia, diarrhea, sternal recumbency or weakness. A more accurate diagnosis of gastric ulceration in horses and foals may be made if ulcers are visualized directly by endoscopic examination of the gastric mucosa Gastric ulcers may recur in horses if therapy to prevent recurrence is not administered after the initial treatment is completed. Use GastroGard Paste at 0.9 mg omeprazole/lb body weight (2 mg/kg) for control of gastric ulcers following treatment. The safety of administration of GastroGard Paste for longer than 91 days has not been determined. Maximal acid suppression occurs after three to five days of treatment with omeprazole.

Safety

• GastroGard Paste was well tolerated in the following controlled efficacy and safety studies.

• In field trials involving 139 horses, including foals as young as one month of age, no adverse reactions attributable to omeprazole treatment were noted.

• In a placebo controlled adult horse safety study, horses received 20 mg/kg/day omeprazole (5x the recommended dose) for 90 days. No treatment related adverse effects were observed.

• In a placebo controlled tolerance study, adult horses were treated with GastroGard Paste at a dosage of 40 mg/kg/day (10x the recommended dose) for 21 days. No treatment related adverse effects were observed.

• A placebo controlled foal safety study evaluated the safety of omeprazole at doses of 4, 12 or 20 mg/kg (1, 3 or 5x) once daily for 91 days. Foals ranged in age from 66 to 110 days at study initiation. Gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT) levels were significantly elevated in horses treated at exaggerated doses of 20 mg/kg (5x the recommended dose). Mean stomach to body weight ratio was higher for foals in the 3x and 5x groups than for controls; however, no abnormalities of the stomach were evident on histological examination.

Reproductive Safety

In a male reproductive safety study, 10 stallions received GastroGard Paste at 12 mg/kg/day (3x the recommended dose) for 70 days. No treatment related adverse effects on semen quality or breeding behavior were observed. A safety study in breeding mares has not been conducted.

For More Information

Please call 1-888-637-4251

Marketed by: Merial Limited, Duluth, GA 30096-4640, U.S.A.

Made in Brazil

®GASTRoGARD is a registered trademark of Merial. ©2011 Merial. All rights reserved. Rev. 05-2011

written description “First Negro Jockette.” White faced different challenges as the first black woman jockey. Despite the nation’s racial unrest, blacks were part of the fabric of American racing. Her father, trainer Raymond White, was a fixture at Thistledown in Cleveland, and the backside community watched Cheryl grow up.

“I was a kid, I was young, and I loved what I did,” she said. “It was a passion. I

rider to win races in two states (Ohio and West Virginia) on the same day. Her success landed her on the cover of Jet magazine. White left Cleveland to ride in California, where she won five races on a single card (October 19, 1983) at the Fresno Fair. She now serves as a racing official in California and Ohio.

Cynthia Herman Medina

Cynthia Herman Medina got her license at Mountaineer Park in 1986 and spent her 18-year career on the Midwest circuit, eventually retiring from Fairmount Park in Illinois with 1,116 career wins. In 1987, she was second-leading apprentice nationally, behind Kent Desormeaux, and leading rider at Mountaineer.

Medina faced a different kind of obstacle. No one took her seriously because she was a perky, blue-eyed girl with cascading blond

“ I see it today, young girl riders coming in, and some of the young guys are hitting on them”

Chantal Sutherland

Shanghai Bobby and jockey Rosie Napravnik after winning the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Grey Goose Juvenile at Santa Anita

wife first. I would smile, but not too big, and shake her hand while thanking her for giving me the opportunity to ride for them. Then I’d turn and shake the trainer’s hand. While the trainer and I discussed our strategy for the race, I did my best not to make too much eye contact with the trainer, and when I did voice my comments, I usually looked more at the wife when I spoke.”

Medina is the only female rider to notch four wins on a single card twice at Fairmount, in 1998 and 2003. An artist, she now devotes her time to painting artwork glass, nurturing young riders through U.S. Pony Clubs, and reschooling retired racehorses.

Chantal Sutherland

Chantal Sutherland, two-time Sovereign Award-winning apprentice in Canada, faced similar hurdles when she began riding in the United States in 2000. Besides being a jockey, she is a model, and a pretty woman has a fine line to walk, she said.

“I see it today, young girl riders coming in, and some of the young guys are hitting on them,” she said. “The [girls] get ticked off at them and tell them where they can go. And then that causes problems on the racetrack, and hatred. That’s the wrong way

to go. It kind of takes an intelligent, savvy person to be able to walk that fine line and keep everything professional, but also be friends.”

Sutherland said her professional stance often was misinterpreted as being aloof and a shrew.

In 2011, a member of the Hollywood Park jockey colony tried to sexually assault Sutherland. She never publicly revealed his identity or disclosed details of the incident except to say that it was physical, not verbal.

“I was able to take care of myself,” she said. “But I felt something like that should never happen to anyone, so I went to the stewards and asked them privately if we could [conduct a sexual harassment seminar] so I wouldn’t have conflict with this one jockey on the racetrack. But it all blew up in my face.”

Many of the male jockeys believed his side of the story, and they ridiculed her relentlessly for months. One of the older men in the colony had enough of it. He

“It never even occurred to me that gender would be an issue. And that, in itself, is a huge part of the reason it wasn’t that big of an issue for me ”

Rosie Napravnik

called a big meeting (including Sutherland’s assailant), where she was able to tell her side.

Her actions gained the riders’ respect, and nothing more was made of it.

Sutherland said a jockey’s life is tough, without added drama.

“You have to be perfect, and you have to get every piece, every inch out of your horse,” she said. “You have to be on your game. You have to know your trainer. You have to know what horses ran when. It has to be an obsession. You have to be a pro at handicapping, riding, racing, politics, knowing people, being popular, being light.

“You have to work at it,” she continued. “On top of your diet, you’re getting up at o’clock in the morning and you don’t get home until 7 p.m. You work on weekends. And that’s your lifestyle. Nobody understands it unless they’re in it. Meeting people outside is not even an interest. All you want to do is ride horses, talk horses. And not everybody has that kind of obsession.”

In 2010, Sutherland became the first woman to win the Santa Anita Handicap-G1, aboard Game On Dude, and the two partnered to win the Hollywood Gold Cup-G1 and the Goodwood Stakes-G1 in 2011. She nearly became the first woman to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic-G1 that year. She and Game On Dude ruled the whole way, but Drosselmeyer rocketed from behind to nab them at the wire.

Sutherland temporarily retired from riding in 2012 to pursue other interests. During that break, she and California Horse Racing Board commissioner Bo Derek made a bold decision to photograph Sutherland in the nude aboard a racehorse. Derek is a fine photographer, and Vanity Fair published the photo in its June 2012 issue.

“I thought it was more of an artistic move,” Sutherland said. “It was a choice that Bo and I had talked about for a long time before we committed to this. And I really trust Bo. She’s iconic herself. I thought it was kind of cool for racing in that it got people talking, and I feel privileged that I could be a part of that. But it was both negative and positive. There was a lot of drama surrounding it. But I have no regrets. I am very proud of the photo.”

Sutherland now rides in California under her married name, Kruse.

Rosie Napravnik

Rosie Napravnik was a hellion on horseback at age seven, when she competed in pony races in her native Maryland.

“It became my passion, and it’s what I focused on my whole life,” she said.

For Napravnik, the best and worst parts of being a jockey are the same for both genders.

“Getting to the point in your career where you are riding some of the best horses in the country and competing at a high level, and getting to experience the prestigious races, the Derby and things like that, that’s the best part. And I think that’s not gender specific. The worst part of racing for me was the politics and trying to keep everybody happy. And I don’t think that’s really gender specific either.

“To me, it never even occurred to me that gender would be an issue. And that, in itself, is a huge part of the reason it wasn’t that big of an issue for me, because I really didn’t believe it existed. And I was a little bit naïve in thinking that, but that’s still the attitude I carried throughout my career.

“I have been somewhat of a mentor to a few female jockeys in recent years,” she said. “I had one of them come to me and say, ‘I’m really starting to see the struggles of a female rider. This guy, my competitor, is getting all these mounts, and I don’t understand why. It’s just because I’m a girl.’ My response to her was that I rode in that same colony and there were 11 bug boys, apprentice riders, all guys at the very same time, and I was the leading rider overall. So gender is obviously not the issue. If you dwell on that, you’ll convince yourself of that and it will become true.”

Napravnik retired after scoring a second in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile-G1 with Tapiture and a victory aboard Untapable in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Distaff-G1, her second Breeders’ Cup win. In 2012, her masterful, aggressive ride on Shanghai Bobby captured the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile-G1, earning the colt the Eclipse Award for outstanding two-yearold male. In less than 10 years, Napravnik won 58 graded stakes and earned $71,396,717.

Donna Barton Brothers

Donna Barton Brothers, one of Patti Barton’s three children who all became jockeys, rode for 11 years and retired in 1998 as the nation’s second-leading female rider by money earned. In addition to winning six graded stakes, she was second aboard Hennessy in the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile-G1. Brothers now is the familiar reporter on horseback and racing analyst for the NBC-TV Sports team.

“There have been so many great girl riders,” she said, “and these girls can just flat out ride! We have proven that girls can ride every bit as well as guys can, and any girl who is out there not riding to her full ability and potential is selling herself and every other girl short.” n

“ We have proven that girls can ride every bit as well as guys can ”

Donna Barton Brothers

Donna Barton Brothers and Smokey on Preakness Day 2015 at Pimlico

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GASTRIC DISEASE

How should we treat it?

The horse’s stomach is divided into two main regions with different lining tissue and function. For many years the term “gastric ulcers” has been applied to all lesions observed or assumed to be present in the stomach, which is a balloonshaped structure that sits in the front of the abdomen, tucked up between the diaphragm and the remainder of the intestine. Recently, it has been recognised that disease in the squamous region at the top of the stomach is not the same as disease in the glandular region, at the bottom of the stomach.

WORDS AND PHOTOS: GAYLE D. HALLOWELL, SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM

The stomach produces gastric acid, which not only helps digestion but also prevents microorganisms from reaching and colonising the rest of the intestines. The lower, glandular region is always bathed in acid, and mucus and bicarbonate produced by the stomach lining protect it from acidinduced damage. The squamous region

does not have these protective factors, so the stomach lining in this region is prone to damage if it comes into contact with acid, particularly at the junction between the glandular and squamous portions, aka the lesser curvature, which sits closest to the acidic stomach contents and is at particular risk from the effects of ‘acid splash’ when acidic liquid sitting at the lower end of the stomach is pushed upwards as the horse moves.

Different lesions in different stomach regions

Overall, disease of the squamous region is

much more common than disease of the glandular region, but glandular lesions are on the increase. Latest studies have suggested that 80% of racehorses have clinically important squamous disease and 60% have significant glandular disease. Risk factors for disease in these two separate regions of the stomach also appear to be different, and established factors for development of squamous ulcers cannot be linked to disease of the glandular region. The risk factors associated with squamous ulcers include increased grain feeding, periods of fasting, and reduced access to water, and squamous ulcers have also been linked to a metropolitan location, lack of direct contact with other horses, talk instead of radio in the barn, and feeding straw while some training yards have a higher prevalence of others.

Examination of stomach lesions under the microscope show that they are not the same pathology: Lesions in the squamous region are ulcers, whereas lesions in the glandular region are not. Glandular lesions contain a mixture of inflammatory cells and although they are generally seen at the pylorus – the exit point where the stomach connects to the small intestine – the disease can be found throughout this stomach region.

A complete examination of the entire equine stomach requires a 10ft endoscope, and feed must be withheld for at least 12 hours

This endoscopic image shows the greater curvature of a normal stomach. The paler area at the top is the squamous region and the redder section at the bottom is the glandular region. The line between the two is the margo plicatus, and it is along this line that most squamous ulcers are found

Glandular Disease

At the moment veterinarians are in a little bit of a quandary about what exactly causes disease in the glandular region in horses. Humans and dogs suffer from gastric disease that affects the same glandular region and thus we may be able to glean information about some of the causes in horses from these other species. Reduced blood flow to the stomach plays a role in the development and continuation of this disease, and potential causes for reduced blood flow include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as phenylbutazone or flunixin meglumine, systemic corticosteroids, exercise, or any form of systemic illness. However, so far studies in horses have failed to show a link between administration of the anti-inflammatory drugs and glandular disease. Another main cause of disease in people and dogs in the glandular region is a type of bacteria called Helicobacter. Again, despite extensive examination in the horse, this organism has not been identified. Stress is the other major cause in human patients and may well be playing a role in the horse but specific evidence for this has not been found, and it is difficult to tease out because what causes ‘stress’ in one horse will be different to the next.

Diagnosis of gastric disease

The clinical signs, such as reduced appetite, particularly for concentrates, that are

This endoscopic image shows the lesser curvature of a normal stomach. The paler region is squamous mucosa and the darker region the glandular mucosa. Beyond this ‘shelf’ lies the pylorus. In the lower part of the stomach, liquid contents can be seen and this shows how close the margo plicatus sits in relation to the damaging acid

This endoscopic image shows of a normal pylorus. The gastric contents leave the stomach through this hole to enter the small intestine. This is where glandular lesions are more commonly found

consistent with gastric disease do not help to distinguish between problems in the squamous or glandular. Gastroscopy is necessary to achieve this. Food has to be withheld for at least 12 hours to examine

the deepest regions of the stomach; with any less time, there is a good chance that pylorus will not be able to be visualised as it will be immersed in food and fluid. Most veterinary surgeons now performing gastroscopy have

endoscopes that are long enough (greater than three metres) to visualise this region.

Squamous ulcers can range from small erosions to deeper cavities, with variable degrees of bleeding.

Gastric disease generally causes reddened patches and variable degrees of thickening of the tissues. In some cases, bleeding or pus and exudate can be found on the surface of the lesions.

Is treatment of squamous and glandular disease the same?

Recent research published in the Equine Veterinary Journal (EVJ) questions how we treat both squamous and glandular disease. For many years, the mainstay of treatment for gastric disease has been omeprazole at 4mg/kg for 28 days for treatment and 1mg/ kg for prevention, and previous studies have shown that the efficacy of omeprazole is influenced by drug administration time. This drug works most effectively when given prior to feeding and exercise. With squamous disease, where ‘acid splash’ during exercise likely contributes to the disease, the drug should be given one-tofour hours ahead of exercise to neutralise the acid stomach contents.

The study in EVJ showed that doses as low as 1mg/kg for 28 days can be as effective for squamous ulcer healing as the licenced 4mg/kg dose. Three doses were compared (one, two, and four mg/kg), and for squamous ulcers, complete healing at any dose from 1mg/kg to 4mg/kg was between 80-90% and while improvement was seen in 85-95% of the cases.

The findings were very different for glandular lesions. These had much lower improvement (34%) and healing rates (14%), and in fact in 34% of horses the glandular lesions got worse whilst on treatment. Although there was no difference in these very poor results between doses, the study results question the value of omeprazole used on its own for the treatment of glandular lesions.

Why are results poor for treating glandular disease?

There are a few options. Perhaps it is that even at 4mg/kg, omeprazole administered once daily does not reduce the gastric acid concentration low enough to allow healing of the stomach lining in this area that is bathed all the time in acid.

Perhaps these lesions take longer to heal than 28 days and longer courses of omeprazole are required. Alternatively, perhaps it is because acid does not play a large role in this disease and we need to consider alternative drugs that will help improve blood flow to or reduce inflammation in the stomach.

What we do know is that bacteria and parasites do not appear to be playing an important role. Another study has shown that omeprazole in conjunction with an antibiotic (trimethoprim sulphadiazine) did not improve healing or improvement above omeprazole being used alone.

Currently the jury is out on how best to treat these lesions. Perhaps omeprazole being used more frequently would improve its efficacy in the treatment of glandular disease, and certainly some veterinary surgeons are using lower doses of omeprazole twice. Alternatively, drugs such as sucralfate or misoprostol, neither of which are licenced for equines, are being used as they are thought to increase blood flow to the stomach, but we currently have no published data on their effectiveness.

If this is a primarily inflammatory disease then perhaps oral corticosteroids would be helpful but again, effectiveness in unknown. Perhaps some of the new drugs in the same class as omeprazole, such as pantoprazole, being used in people may be more effective and play a role in the treatment of this equine disease.

What the trainer needs to know

l Confirming gastric disease with gastroscopy will allow identification of the part of the stomach that is affected (squamous, glandular region or both);

l Horses with confirmed squamous ulcers can be treated with a much lower dose (1mg/kg) of omeprazole whilst being maintained in training if given on an empty stomach prior to exercise. This will have obvious financial benefits;

Actively bleeding ulcers in the squamous region in a horse with weight loss, reduced appetite, and signs of colic following eating

l Horses with glandular disease are likely to have poor healing rates and will need longer courses of omeprazole. Future research aiming to find better alternative drugs is required. n

Left: Examples of the common types of glandular lesions. The lesions are raised with either bleeding or pus on the surface

THE ABSOLUTE INSURER RULE

Maintaining the integrity of racing

Absolute liability is defined as: “liability without fault – liability for which there is no excuse.”1 In the case of a trainer, absolute liability is imposed when a horse entered in an official workout or race tests positive for a prohibited medication or substance, or test results reveal permitted medication in excess of the maximum allowable levels. When such a positive test result occurs, it is prima facie evidence of a violation of the trainer responsibility rule/absolute insurer rule.

WORDS: PeteR J. SacOPulOS PHOtOS: SHutteRStOcK, HORSePHOtOS

ALL racing states have the equivalent of such a rule, and these rules are among the most important in horseracing. These rules are, in many ways, the lynchpin of maintaining integrity in our sport. The trainer responsibility rule is not a modern rule premised on a specific event or series of events. On the contrary, the accountability of trainers dates back to the prohibition against the use of banned or controlled medications in the 1930s. Once strict enforcement began, it was not long until such rules were challenged. In fact, one of the earliest challenges to a penalty imposed for violation of a trainer responsibility rule was in an appeal filed by Tom Smith, trainer of the famous Seabiscuit.2

Despite many challenges, attacks, and appeals over decades, Illinois and Maryland are the only two jurisdictions to have held the absolute insurer rule to be unconstitutional. Illinois did so in the case of Brennan vs. Illinois Racing Board 42 Ill. 2nd 352, 247 NE 2d 881 (1969) and Maryland in the 1946 decision in Mahoney vs. Byer 187 Md 81,

48 A2d 600 (1946). Both states have since rewritten and/or modified these regulations and have in place an absolute insurer rule, as do all states that presently have horseracing. Although all states’ trainer responsibility rules have similarities, it is both difficult and dangerous to classify any one as typical. This said, California’s absolute insurer rule provides a good example of the trainer responsibility standard. It states, in pertinent part:

“(a) The trainer is the absolute insurer of and responsible for the condition of the horses entered in a race, regardless of the acts of third parties, except as otherwise provided in this article. If the chemical or other analysis of urine or blood test samples or other tests, prove positive showing the presence of any prohibited drug substance defined in Rule 1843.1 of this division, the trainer of the horse may be fined, his/her license

suspended or revoked, or be ruled off. In addition, the owner of the horse, foreman in charge of the horse, groom, and any other person shown to have had the care or attendance of the horse, may be fined, his/her license suspended, revoked, or be ruled off. The owner of a ship-in horse is the joint-absolute insurer of and is equally responsible for the condition of the horse entered in a race.” 4 CCR 1887.

California’s rule has been and continues to be challenged. One example involved a California trainer who argued it was unconstitutional for him to be held liable for a prohibited substance violation, pursuant to California absolute insurer rule, when the trainer’s brother administered the prohibited substance without his knowledge. The California Court of Appeals rejected the trainer’s argument and held that regarding delegated tasks, even where the agent disobeys express instruction, the principal/ trainer is liable for the act of the agent. The California Court of Appeals in this case determined the trainer’s constitutional challenge to be without merit, stating:

“A trainer cannot disclaim responsibility for the performance of his duties merely because he assigns a task to another – whether a brother, an employee, or anyone else – who fails to properly perform the task. An innocent principal or employer is liable for the torts committed by an agent or employee while acting within the scope of the agency or employment, even if the agent or employee acts in excess of the authority or contrary to

1 Wheatland Irrigation Dist. v. McGuire, 537 P.2d 1128

2 Smith v. Cole, 62 N.Y.S. 2nd 266 (1946)

instructions.” Stokes vs. California Horse Racing Bd., 119 Cal. Rptr. 2d 792, 98 Cal. App. 4th 477.

New York’s trainer responsibility rule contains similar absolute insurer language. However, New York’s rule specifically addresses licensed trainers’ duties and responsibilities regarding both the use and recording of corticosteroid joint injections. That specific provision is found at 9 NYCRR 4043.4 and states:

“Trainers shall maintain accurate records of all corticosteroid joint injections to horses trained by them. The record(s) of every corticosteroid joint injection shall be submitted, in a form and manner approved by the commission, by the trainer to the commission within 48 hours of the treatment. The trainer may delegate this responsibility to the treating veterinarian, who shall make the reports when so designated. The reports shall be accessible to the examining veterinarian for the purpose of assisting with pre-race veterinary examinations.” See 9 NYCRR 4043.4.

A recent high - profile case involving administrative action taken by a commission based on the trainer responsibility rule is seen in the New York case of Dutrow vs. New York State Racing and Wagering Bd. 949 N.Y.S.2d 241, 244, 97 A.D. 3d 1034, 103637 (App. Div. 3d Dep’t 2012). In this case, the trainer appealed an adverse decision by the Board revoking his license for 10 years for violation of the trainer responsibility rule on the ground that there was no “substantial evidence” of the charges, being that samples

were not tested to eliminate the possibility of cross contamination. The Appellate Division denied this point of error, however, noting that in light of the rebuttable presumption of trainer responsibility that arises under the rule, the tribunal below properly rejected the speculative “contamination” argument, instead relying upon positive test results, veterinary records, and the testimony of a veterinarian-pharmacologist to support the accusation.

Indiana’s trainer responsibility rule states that a trainer is responsible for the condition of the horse entered in an official: (1) workout; or (2) race. Indiana’s rule, consistent with both California and New York’s rules, states that a positive test for a prohibited substance or a positive test in excess of the maximum allowable level of therapeutic medication is prima facie evidence of violation and, absent: “substantial evidence to the contrary” the trainer, “shall be responsible.” 71 IAC 5-3-2 and 71 IAC 5.5-3-2. The Indiana Horseracing Commission has consistently and aggressively enforced Indiana’s trainer responsibility rule. A recent example involved a trainer arguing Indiana’s rule to be in violation of his due process rights is found

in the decision in P’Pool vs. Indiana Horse Racing Commission 916 N.E.2d 668, 67477 (Ind.Ct.App. 2009).

In this case, the trainer sought review of a decision from the Indiana Horse Racing Commission imposing a six-year suspension and a substantial fine for violation of the state’s trainer’s responsibility rule. Specifically, this case involved multiple violations based on multiple positive tests for Dexamethasone. The trainer argued that the six-year suspension and stiff fine were arbitrary and capricious, and that Indiana’s trainer responsibility rule violated his constitutionally guaranteed right to due process. The Indiana Court of Appeals rejected both of the trainer’s arguments and affirmed the Indiana Horse Racing Commission’s decision.

This decision clearly demonstrates that Indiana’s trainer responsibility rule is, in fact, an absolute insurer rule and that both the Indiana Horse Racing Commission and the Indiana courts have not, to date, been persuaded by a licensee with a positive test result arguing the rule violates his or her state or federal constitutional rights. As such, the best and perhaps only affirmative attack to Indiana’s absolute insurer rule is in assembling and presenting substantial evidence, that being, for example, that the positive was a result of environmental contamination, that there is no science to support the permissible level in an excess case, and/or other exculpatory evidence.

Kentucky’s trainer responsibility rule is similar to those previously discussed, and the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority and Kentucky’s state and appellate courts

“Although all states’ trainer responsibility rules have similarities, it is both difficult and dangerous to classify any one as typical ”

have consistently enforced the rule and found licensees’ constitutional challenges unpersuasive. An example is seen in the case of Allen vs. Kentucky Horse Racing Authority, 136 S.W.3d 54 (KY Ct.App. 2004).

In this case, a horse owner/trainer appealed from a decision of the Franklin Circuit Court that had affirmed a decision of Kentucky Horse Racing Authority disqualifying the horse as a winner of two races. The Kentucky Court of Appeals held, in part, that Kentucky’s trainer responsibility rule, making the trainer of a racehorse the sole insurer of the horse for any violation including the presence of a prohibited substance, was and is constitutional. The trainer argued that the rule was unconstitutional because it could hold trainers liable for factors out of their control (such as environmental contamination), but the appeals court rejected that argument, stating that such regulations are applied similarly nationally and because the rule is a reasonable means to promote the safety in the sport.

An additional interesting case involving Kentucky’s absolute insurer rule involved a horse owner who admitted he had placed Prozac into an Equinyl bottle he fed to his horse before a race, an action the owner stated was done without the knowledge of the trainer. The trainer was held liable, pursuant to Kentucky’s absolute insurer rule, and suspended for 150 days. The trainer appealed, arguing, in part, that: (a) the burden of proof of his culpability should fall on the Commission, not on him, and; (b) the penalty was excessive. The Appeals

Court denied both assignments of error. Significantly, this court affirmed Kentucky’s trainer responsibility rule holding it was a rational means to accomplish the goal of preventing use of prohibited substance, and enforcing violations. In doing so, the Kentucky Court held:

[T]he trainer responsibility rule is a practical and effective means of promoting these State interests— both in deterring violations and in enforcing sanctions. The imposition of strict responsibility compels trainers to exercise a high degree of vigilance in guarding their horses and to report any illicit use of drugs, medications or other restricted substances by other individuals having access to their horses. Additionally, the rebuttable presumption of responsibility facilitates

the very difficult enforcement of the restrictions on the use of drugs and other substances in horse racing. Indeed, it would be virtually impossible to regulate the administering of drugs to race horses if the trainers, the individuals primarily responsible for the care and condition of their horses, could not be held accountable for the illicit drugging of their horses or for the failure either to safeguard their horses against such drugging or to identify the person actually at fault. It is not surprising, therefore, that trainer responsibility rules have been upheld, almost without exception, in other jurisdictions. Deaton, 172 S.W.3d 803 at 806.

Florida’s courts have also consistently enforced the Trainer’s Responsibility Rule. In doing so, they have provided the state’s rationale and reasoning for strict adherence to the absolute insurer rule. Illustrative of this position is the decision of Hennessey vs. Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, 818, So.2d 697, 699-700 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002).

The final order in this case upholding the validity of Florida’s trainer responsibility rule reflects careful consideration of the facts presented to the Administrative Law Judge and the Department’s actions in firmly enforcing the absolute insurer rule. In this decision, the Florida court set forth its rationale and reasoning as follows:

“. . . Horse racing, at its best, is difficult to control, and would be

“Florida’s courts have consistently enforced the Trainer’s Responsibility Rule. In doing so, they have provided the state’s rationale and reasoning for strict adherence to the absolute insurer rule ”

practically impossible to regulate if every governing rule and regulation were made dependent for validity upon the knowledge or motives of the person charged with a violation. It would be almost impossible to prove guilty knowledge or intent in cases involving a reported positive test for an impermissible substance. . .

decision that was written nearly four decades ago and is still heavily relied upon today for enforcement of this state’s absolute insurer rule, set forth the policy rationale that underpins implementation of the “absolute insurer” trainer responsibility rule and demonstrates why Florida’s rule has been and continues to be held constitutional.

provide adequate control, and the consequence of the default is possible suspension of the trainer’s license or a fine. We have no doubt that a rule which both conditions a license and establishes with specificity reasonable precautionary duties within the competence of the licensee to perform is both reasonable and constitutional.”

. . .

The trainer is singularly the best individual to hold accountable for the condition of a horse. The trainer is either going to be with the horse at all time or one of his or her employees or contractors is going to be with the horse at all times, whether the horse is racing on an individual day or is merely stabled at the track. . . At no time prior to a race is a trainer or his employer prohibited from seeing to the security of the horse in the paddock. While there are other persons who come in contact with the horse prior to a race, the trainer due to his responsibility for the care and supervision of the animal stands in the best overall position to prevent improper medication of the horse. . . .” Hennessey v. Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Div. Of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, 818 S0.2d 697, 699-700 (Fla. 1st DCA 2002).

The Florida Supreme Court, in a separate

The Florida Supreme Court, in Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, Dept. Of Business Regulation v. Caple, 362 So.2d 1350, 1354-56 (Fla.1978), to this point, held, in part,

“On review, we are now persuaded that Florida should align itself with the well-reasoned majority view. To protect the integrity of this unique industry, it is really immaterial whether “guilt” should be ascribed either directly or indirectly to the trainer. The rules were designed, and reasonably so, to condition the grant of a trainer’s license on the trainer’s acceptance of an absolute duty to ensure compliance with reasonable regulation governing the areas over which the trainer has responsibility. Whether a violation occurs as a result of the personal acts of the trainer, of persons under his supervision, or even of unknown third parties, the condition of licensure has been violated by the failure to

Despite numerous multi-state attacks on the trainer responsibility rule/absolute insurer rule, over many decades, Illinois and Maryland appear to be the only two jurisdictions that have (previously) held the absolute insurer rule to be unconstitutional. No challenge, on constitutional grounds, has been successful in nearly five decades.

In summary, constitutionality of state trainer responsibility rules have most often been upheld on the grounds that (a) the rule is a rational application of state police powers to regulate an industry inherently subject to corruption, and (b) liability is not premised upon holding trainers responsible regardless of any fault or negligence, but instead upon the trainer’s negligence in failing to adequately guard the horse, and verify the contents of medicines or ingestibles, prior to raceday. This having been said, it appears the trainer responsibility rule/absolute insurer rule is here to stay whether it is viewed as being “un-American” or not. n

SERENA’S SONG Enjoying an honorable retirement

TOUGH as hickory.’

That’s the term Wayne Lukas would use to describe her,” recalls Jeff Lewis of Serena’s Song, one of six champion racehorses campaigned by his parents, Bob and Beverly.

But not too tough that the rustle of a peppermint wrapper won’t soften the Hall of Famer up a little.

She’s 24 now and maybe she’s mellowed a bit these days, but Serena’s Song was always a tough gal.

“She’s the queen bee, and rightfully so,” Lewis says.

Lukas had already guided the career of “The Iron Lady” Lady’s Secret, so a toughas-hickory Serena’s Song was a natural fit in his barn.

“My dad had approached Wayne Lukas and made a proposal that he would spend a goodly sum of money for three consecutive years – let’s say ’93, ’94, ’95 – for Wayne to buy yearlings, and they’d see how it went,” recalls Lewis. “Mom and Dad had only been in the horse business for a couple of years, but he could see that Wayne had established an incredible record.”

Serena’s Song was among Lukas’s first purchases for the Lewises. After buying her for $150,000, which was considerably higher than the $42,000 Arthur Appleton of Bridlewood Farm had paid breeder Dr. Howard Bender for her as a foal, Lukas turned to his new client and said, “Bob, I think that one fell through the cracks.”

“You talk about the truth!” says Jeff Lewis in retrospect.

Rahy was just a young sire with first foals one year older than Serena’s Song, but already by the time of her sale at Keeneland in July of 1993, he was showing promise, with Fly Love and Miss Ra He Ra completing the exacta in the Debutante

She made 38 starts, 36 in graded company, 18 wins, of which 11 where in Grade 1’s.

What a mare !

WORDS AND PHOTOS: FRANCES J. KARON

Stakes at Churchill Downs in June and Miss Ra He Ra the winner of the Grade 3 Bashford Manor over colts on July 3rd.

Lukas took note and bought at least three second-crop yearlings, conceived on a $15,000 stud fee, by Rahy. The daughter of Imagining (by Northfields) was the least expensive of the bunch, but Lukas knew her family, having trained Grade 3 winner Alabama Nana, a half-sister to Imagining, in the mid-1980s.

As Serena’s Song, the bay filly with a small star above eye level and a short white sock on her right hind ankle compiled a record that would eventually see her go out as horseracing’s leading female earner at $3,283,388, and with an Eclipse Award for three-year-old filly.

And if by now you’re wondering who Serena’s Song was named after, the answer is, “Nobody.”

“There was no particular ‘Serena,’” Lewis

says his mother recently reminded him. “They weren’t all this way, of course, but my mother always liked alliterative names that had that ‘S’ and ‘S’ or ‘P’ and ‘P.’ I guess ‘Serena’s Song’ popped into her head and that’s how Serena got named.”

Maybe divine intervention was behind Beverly Lewis’s naming inspiration. When Serena’s Song was three, the Lewises learned about a young girl, Serena Waldman, with cerebral palsy and the wheelchair-accessible hot air balloon, the Serena’s Song, her father had designed and built to give free rides to people with special needs. The Lewises supported the cause with donations whenever Serena’s Song raced…which was often.

Racing from two to four, Serena’s Song made 38 starts – 36 of them in stakes races – with 18 wins among 32 top-three finishes, and she never ran fewer than 10 times in a single year. Eleven of her wins came in Grade 1s, with at least two victories at that level every season.

Her connections weren’t afraid to try her against the boys, either. She took them on seven times and earned blacktype on five of those occasions: she won the Haskell Invitational Handicap-G1 and Jim Beam Stakes-G2, was second by a neck in the Whitney Handicap-G1, second by half a length in the Hollywood Juvenile Championship Stakes-G2, and third in the Philip H. Iselin Handicap-G1. Against males, Serena’s Song was unplaced only in the Kentucky Derby (16th), in which she was favored with her entrymate Timber Country, at three and the Santa Anita Handicap (7th) at four.

One of Serena’s Song’s most memorable races was the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, in which she and heavily favored stablemate Flanders, owned by W.T. Young, dueled eyeball-to-eyeball down the long stretch at Churchill Downs. Flanders prevailed by a head but was ultimately

“Racing from two to four, Serena’s Song made 38 starts – 36 of them in stakes races – with 18 wins among 32 top-three finishes”

pushed beyond her limit by Serena’s Song, fracturing a cannon bone in the heat of the battle. Flanders, voted champion two-yearold filly, never ran again.

Tough as hickory, that Serena’s Song. Her roll of wins is impressive. There was the Haskell, Hollywood Starlet, Beldame, Santa Anita Oaks, Hempstead Handicap, Oak Leaf, Mother Goose, Las Virgenes, Santa Monica Handicap, Santa Maria Handicap, Gazelle Handicap – Grade 1 races all. The Grade 2s were the Jim Beam, BlackEyed Susan, Landaluce, and Santa Ynez, and for good measure, there were Grade 3 wins in the Pimlico Distaff and Fleur de Lis Handicaps. Serena’s Song was second or third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Beldame, Whitney Handicap, Coaching Club American Oaks and the Vanity Invitational, Ruffian, Apple Blossom, and Iselin Handicaps, all Grade 1, among other graded stakes placings. What’s more is that Serena’s Song didn’t run on Lasix.

Equally if not more impressive is that she didn’t leave it all on the track, that she was an outstanding broodmare. “We’re very proud of what she’s accomplished overall,” says Lewis.

Retired to Craig and Holly Bandoroff’s Denali Stud in Paris, Kentucky, Serena’s Song produced 13 registered foals – one filly died before registration – in 18 breeding seasons.

She’s the dam of six black-type winners, four of them graded: Sophisticat (1999 filly by Storm Cat), a French classic-placed winner of the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot; Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap winner Grand Reward (2001 colt by Storm Cat), sire of 21 stakes winners; Harlington (2002 colt by Unbridled), who won the Gulfstream Park Handicap-G2; and Schramsberg (2006 colt by Storm Cat), first in the John B. Connally Turf Cup-G3. Serena’s Song is also the dam of Serena’s Tune (1998 filly by Mr. Prospector), a Listed winner; 2016 stakes winner Serene Melody (2010 filly by Street Cry); and

stakes-placed Arbitrate (2000 colt by Deputy Minister).

Six foals out of Serena’s Song, including three of her stakes winners, were sold as yearlings by the Lewises through Denali for $12.65 million, averaging over $2.1 million each.

Two of Serena’s Song’s daughters –Serena’s Tune and Sophisticat – are stakes producers. Sophisticat’s daughter Sefroua (by Kingmambo) won a stakes race and foaled stakes winner Sivoliere (Sea the Stars). Serena’s Tune, who died young, was the dam of Group 3 winner Vocalised (Vindication) and Serena’s Cat (Storm Cat), the dam of Grade 2 winner Noble Tune (Unbridled’s Song) and 2015 champion older male Honor Code (A.P. Indy), first in the Metropolitan Handicap and the Whitney, both Grade 1. Serena’s Cat, who belongs to Del Ridge Farm and Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine Holdings, is also the dam of Serena’s Harmony, a two-year-old Tapit filly sold to Bridlewood Farm for $3,000,000 as a weanling, and an unnamed yearling colt by War Front, a $2.6 million weanling bought by M.V. Magnier.

Like their granddam Serena’s Song, Honor Code and Noble Tune hit the board but didn’t win Breeders’ Cup races, Honor Code in the Classic and Noble Tune in the Juvenile Turf. However, though not a female-family descendant, there is a

“We’re just trying to stay in the business and get better at breeding to pay for the racing till we get a big racehorse, but it wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for Serena’s Song”

Jeff Lewis

Serena’s Song’s champion grandson Honor Code, Javier Castellano up, on the outside winning last year’s Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga over Liam’s Map

Breeders’ Cup winner related to Serena’s Song; last year’s Filly and Mare Sprint winner Wavell Avenue is by Harlington.

Bob Lewis, one of the true gentlemen of the turf, died in 2006, just weeks before Harlington’s stakes win and the birth of Schramsberg. “When he passed away,” says Jeff Lewis, “my mother and I wanted to stay in the horse business, but in a different way. We kind of laughed and said that he took a lot of the pixie dust with him. We’re not trying to do that, rolling the dice like my dad did. We’re just trying to stay in the business and get better at breeding to pay for the racing till we get a big racehorse, but it wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for Serena’s Song.”

The Robert and Beverly Lewis Trust retains three of Serena’s Song’s daughters. Golden Serenade (Medaglia d’Oro), the last foal Serena’s Song produced, is two and in training at Keeneland with Charlie LoPresti; Serene Melody is being bred to top sire War Front, who stands at Claiborne Farm, for her first foal; Night and Day (Unbridled’s Song) is due to Verrazano in 2016 and will go back to Honor Code for a foal inbred 4x2 to the great mare herself. Night and Day’s two-year-old Made You Look is a $360,000 More Than Ready colt sold to Let’s Go Stable & Three Chimneys Farm last year, and her 2015 colt by Speightstown is slated to go through the Denali consignment at the Keeneland September sale.

Golden Serenade was the last foal produced by Serena’s Song and is now a two-year-old trained by Charlie LoPresti

Serena’s Song herself is no longer an active broodmare. She was 22 when Gold Serenade was born, and she got back in foal to Stormy Atlantic, only to abort. “It was at that point in time I made the decision, with Mom’s concurrence, that we retire her,” says Lewis. “She was telling us, ‘Hey, I may look good but I’m not the breeding mare that I was when I was younger.’ Every so often you open the news and you read of a

mare in her early twenties or even late teens who has died in foaling and you go, ‘Oh my, what a tragic thing to happen to anybody,’ but to have it happen to Serena’s Song would have been the ultimate indignity that we just couldn’t as a family take the risk of.

“So that’s why she’s just hanging out and eating mints. We’re very happy for her and hope that she lives quite a number of more years at Denali in retirement.” n

BETTER STRENGTH and WEAR ON THE TRACK

KERCKHAERT LEGENDARY

The Kerckhaert Legendary XT Front and RT Hind feature additional thickness and high grade aluminum for better strength and wear.

LEGENDARY

XT FRONT

•Sole Relief and beveled heels

•Toe nail position that allows use of a nail puller

•Unclipped FrontsSizes 4, 5, 6 & 7

LEGENDARY

RT HIND

•Hind shape is slightly more pointed than the Tradition and Kings

•Unclipped HindsSizes 4, 5, 6 & 7

Kerckhaert Race Plates are designed to work with Liberty Horseshoe Nails.

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RACES

Races are divided by distance and the relevant surface is indicated as follows:

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The indexes cover all graded races in North America over $50,000 in value, where information was available at the time of publication.

Stakes Schedules are now updated monthly – visit trainermagazine.com

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EQUINE PRODUCTS

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N-based Mohaymen was the cohighest priced yearling of 2014, selling at the Keeneland September sale for $2.2 million. Obviously, he had the pedigree and the looks to bring that type of money, and his sire, Tapit, led the general sire list of 2014 and 2015 and is the most expensive stallion on the continent at $300,000 live foal.

California-based Nyquist, from the first crop of champion Uncle Mo, was the best colt to emerge from the two-year-old-intraining sales of 2015, selling for $400,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s Florida February sale after making $230,000 as a yearling at Keeneland September and $180,000 as a weanling at Keeneland November. He was the champion two-year-old colt of last year and his sire was the leading first-crop stallion of 2015 and a horse who appears to be on the trajectory of Tapit, who led all first-year stallions in 2008. Uncle Mo’s stud fee jumped from $25,000 in 2015 to $75,000 for the start of 2016, and that raise now looks a bargain based on his stakes results through the first four months of the year.

Nyquist, of course, won the Florida Derby decisively from Mohaymen and enters the Kentucky Derby as a deserving favorite; he’ll also be one of several Uncle Mos in the race, along with Grade 1 Wood Memorial winner Outwork and the hard-luck Mo Tom, winner of the Grade 3 Lecomte but blocked from clear runs in the Grade 2 Risen Star and Grade 2 Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds. Mohaymen will regroup for the classic and will be one of several Tapits in the race, too, along with Grade 1 Arkansas Derby winner Creator and the Japanese-trained Group 2 UAE Derby winner Lani. Astonishingly, there could be others for both stallions in the Derby as well.

Beneath the rivalries between Mohaymen and Nyquist and Tapit and Uncle Mo heading into the Derby, the one brewing between

SID FERNANDO

Juvenile sales vs. Sales yearlings

sales yearlings and two-year-olds in training is particularly pronounced this year as Nyquist isn’t an outlier by any means. For example, from the same Fasig-Tipton February sale from which he sold came Grade 1 winner Mor Spirit, a $650,000 buy; Grade 2-placed Zulu, sold for $900,000; Grade 2 winner Annual Report, who made $600,000; Grade 1-placed black-type winner Hollywood Don, a $400,000 RNA; Grade 3 winner and Grade 2-placed Flexibility, a $185,000 sale; and Grade 3 winner and Queen’s Plate favorite Shakhimat, a bargain at $60,000, among others. Through April 10, the Fasig-Tipton February sale of 2015 has produced 16 blacktype horses, including five Graded winners, and the favorites for the two premier classics in the United States and Canada. That’s quite an accomplishment for a boutique sale that saw only 132 head go through the ring.

Aside from homebreeders, horsemen have traditionally shopped at the premier North American yearling sales for Derby prospects, and those with the best pedigrees and physicals, horses like Mohaymen, have commanded the premium prices.

In contrast, two-year-old sales are mostly about performance – at an eighth or a quartermile under tack – and less about pedigree and fashion. The fastest workers make the money, and with the Fasig-Tipton February sale in 2015 there’s certainly been a correlation with speed to success: seven of the sale’s 11 blacktype winners to date came from the group of 46 horses that worked in 10.2 seconds or better, including Nyquist (10.2) and Mor Spirit (10.1); 10 flat was the fastest time for the sale, recorded by two horses. Shakhimat, who won the Grade 3 Transylvania at Keeneland on opening day and was a Canadian stakes winner last year, galloped instead of breezed at

the sale, which is why he made only $60,000.

In the early days, these types of sales were best known for producing early maturing twoyear-olds and sprinters, because pinhookers –the backbone of juvenile sales – bought mostly the precocious physicals at yearling sales to flip and were limited in what they could afford for sire power and pedigree. Nevertheless, since 1989, seven of 27 Derby winners have exited juveniles sales: Sunday Silence (1989), Lil E. Tee (1992), Thunder Gulch (1995), Silver Charm (1997), Monarchos (2001), Big Brown (2008), and I’ll Have Another (2012). Nyquist, Mor Spirit, or another runner could add his name to this list this year, but even if that doesn’t happen, it’s quite likely that more graduates of juvenile sales will in the future.

Nowadays pinhookers, many of them backed by shrewd investors, are excellent trainers with large crews behind them and are more sophisticated judges at yearling sales, and with the advent of larger sire books they’ve had access to bigger-name stallions than ever before, too. Frequently they bid against end users at yearling sales instead of working around them – Nyquist, for example, was the seventh most expensive of 67 auction yearlings for Uncle Mo in 2014 – and their outlook for developing young horses goes well past the first season of racing as a result.

Fasig-Tipton, certainly, has encouraged this line of thinking, too, and its partnership with Gulfstream to add a bonus of $1 million to the Florida Derby for a graduate of its February Florida sale was the impetus for Nyquist’s meeting with Mohaymen, something that ordinarily would not have occurred before the Derby in years past. That Nyquist defeated Mohaymen at Gulfstream was certainly symbolic for this crowd. n

“Beneath the rivalries between Mohaymen and Nyquist and Tapit and Uncle Mo heading into the Derby, the one brewing between sales yearlings and two-year-olds in training is particularly pronounced this year ”

The

Mohaymen versus Nyquist matchup in the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park was symbolic in several ways besides the obvious clash of two undefeated colts from the East and West.

After training at WinStar, graduates have gone on to win some of North America’s biggest races to date in 2016.

Fox Hill Farm’s SONGBIRD SANTA ANITA OAKS (G1) WINNER

Mike Repole’s OUTWORK WOOD MEMORIAL S. (G1) WINNER

Charles Fipke’s FOREVER UNBRIDLED APPLE BLOSSOM H. (G1) WINNER

WinStar Farm’s CREATOR ARKANSAS DERBY (G1) WINNER