North American Trainer - Breeders' Cup to Pegasus - Issue 58

ISSUE 58 – Breeders’ Cup 2020 to Pegasus 2021 $6.95 www.trainermagazine.com

THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE FOR THE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE THOROUGHBRED

BARBARA

BANKE THE CASINO “BAND-AID”

Is racing’s temporary fix about to fall off?

Stonestreet Farm’s vibrant owner shares her thoughts on producing top racehorses

PINK LLOYD & ROBERT TILLER We profile the iconic Canadian racing duo

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE

JUSTICE ON TR ACK

Who is liable for injuries during morning training?

| OPINION |

GILES ANDERSON PUBLISHER’S OPINION

In our Breeders’ Cup to Pegasus World Cup issue of North American Trainer, it seems rather fitting that the cover profile feature is about an owner/breeder who has been such a major player in the sport and is fully invested in the development of its future. This year has been a good one one for Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Farm. Her Tapit colt (out of Tara’s Tango) topped the Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $2m; and her exciting prospect, Campanelle, is one of the world’s leading turf two-year-olds. At the time of writing, her Kodiac filly remains unbeaten from three starts in three different countries: enjoying a Gp1 win (against the boys) in Deauville’s signature two-year-old race—The Prix Morny in August; at Royal Ascot in the Gp2 Queen Mary in late June; and breaking her maiden back at Gulfstream Park at the end of May. But for Banke, her eye is firmly focused on the future development of the sport. Banke’s mission is to help the sport develop in a positive way, as she told Denise Steffanus earlier this fall. Back in 2018, she donated $100,000 to the University of Kentucky’s Maxwell Gluck Equine Research Center to develop the Equine Biological Passport with Dr. Scott Stanley. The project will benefit horses not only in drug use detection but also in tracking their health over time. As Banke explains, “Knowing how horses have been treated in the past will inform people at the track as to whether that horse might be at risk, or whether the horse has had different treatments given to it; and then it would be important to facilitate accurate testing for the horses to see if they’ve been given something that is illicit or they may have, on the other hand, (been exposed to) environmental contamination. “If you can distinguish between illegal substances and treatment protocols, it will help to preserve the reputation of the good trainers—and most of our trainers are good. I think we need something that will bolster the reputation of horseracing and make everyone aware that we’re trying as best we can to keep it clean.” At a time when racing is under further scrutiny with the prospect of the Racing Integrity Act, which will create uniform national medication rules and testing, passing the House of Representatives and seemingly on its way to becoming law, surely such research that Banke is contributing to with the Gluck Equine Research Center can only be good for the future of the sport. Wherever your racing takes you between now and the end of the year - good luck!

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CONTRIBUTORS Editorial Director/Publisher Giles Anderson (859) 242 5025 Sub-Editor Jana Cavalier Photography Co-ordination Kerstin Coward Advert Production Charlotte Fossey Circulation Charlotte Fossey (1 888 659 2935) Advertising Sales Giles Anderson, Anna Alcock (859) 242 5025

Alan F. Balch was hired as the executive director of the California Thoroughbred Trainers in April 2010. His professional career in racing began at Santa Anita in 1971, where he advanced to the position of senior vice president of marketing and assistant general manager, and was in charge of the Olympic Games Equestrian Events in Los Angeles in 1984. He retired in the early 90s to become volunteer president of the National Equestrian Federation of the USA, as well as of the National Horse Show of Madison Square Garden. He remains president of USA Equestrian Trust, Inc. Alex Campbell is a freelance writer based in Toronto, Canada, covering Woodbine Racetrack. He earned the Jockey Club of Canada’s Sovereign Award for Outstanding Writing in 2013. His work has appeared in the Daily Racing Form, The Blood-Horse, Canadian Thoroughbred, and Harness Racing Update. Ed Golden is the author of Santa Anita’s widely acclaimed “Stable Notes,” hailed by peers as “the best in racing.” A native of Philadelphia, he earned Eclipse Award honorable mention while with the Philadelphia Daily News and has written for the The Blood-Horse and USA Today.

Photo Credits: Alamy, Coady Photography, Coglianese Photos, Dave Landry Photography, Hollywood Park, Matt & Wendy Wooley/Equisport Photos, Eclipse Sportswire, FMBS Therapy Systems, Nigel Kirby, North Lodge Equine, Shutterstock, Stonestreet

Dr. Debbie Guest, BSc (Hons), PhD completed a BSc in Genetics at the University of Leeds in 2002, followed by a PhD on the transcriptional control of neuronal differentiation in stem cells which she completed in 2005. She then joined the Equine Fertility Unit in Newmarket as a post-doctoral scientist to derive and characterise equine embryonic stem cells. This work continued when Debbie moved to the Animal Health Trust in 2007, where she began to investigate the therapeutic potential of embryonic stem cells for treating horse tendon injuries. Her research group is now also conducting research to derive stem cells from horses, dogs and cats with inherited diseases.

Cover Photograph Matt & Wendy Wooley/EquiSport Photos

Bill Heller is an Eclipse Award-winning author of 26 books, including biographies of Hall of Fame jockeys Ron Turcotte, Randy Romero and José Santos. Bill and his wife Marianne live near Gulfstream Park in Florida. Bill’s son Benjamin is an accomplished marathon runner in Troy, N.Y.

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

Annie Lambert is a photojournalist based in Temecula, California. She grew up enjoying many facets of the equine industry with her veterinarian father, Dr. Willard D Ommert, and mother, Pat North Ommert, who is an inductee of the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Anne has been involved in many aspects of the Thoroughbred racing industry, rode hunters and jumpers as well as reined cow horses. Dr. Russell Mackechnie-Guire runs Centaur Biomechanics and works with elite athletes in all equestrian sports, optimizing performance and marginal gains. He recently gained a PhD in equine locomotion from the Royal Veterinary College Structure & Motion Lab. Russell is co-author of more than 30 published papers on horse-saddle-rider interaction. Catherine Rudenko is an independent registered nutritionist with a focus on Thoroughbreds. Based in the UK, Catherine has worked in the USA, Europe and Asia with trainers and studs creating feeds and feeding plans customized to their needs and climate. With a keen interest in education and research, Catherine works with professional bodies and universities to promote knowledge of nutrition and its importance in the management of Thoroughbreds and other breeds. Peter J. Sacopulos is a partner in the law firm of Sacopulos, Johnson & Sacopulos in Terre Haute, Ind. where he represents clients in a wide range of equine matters. He is a member of the American College of Equine Counsel and serves on the Board of the Indiana Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and Indiana Thoroughbred Breed Development Advisory Committee. Mr. Sacopulos has written extensively on equine law issues and is a frequent speaker at equine conferences.

Trainer Magazine is the official magazine of the California Thoroughbred Trainers. It is distributed to all ‘Trainer’ members of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and all members of the Consignors and Commercial Breeders Association, the Maryland Horse Breeders Association, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, the Alberta Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association and the Virginia Thoroughbred Association.

Denise Steffanus, 2017 Eclipse award winner, is a freelance writer and editor based in Cynthiana, Ky. A long-time contributor editor for Thoroughbred Times, she earned the prestigious Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award and the USA Equestrian (now the U.S. Equestrian Federation) Award for Media Excellence. A Pittsburgh native, she is a licensed Thoroughbred racehorse trainer and a member of American Mensa. Georgie White is a master’s degree qualified Veterinary Physiotherapist, following graduation from Writtle University College she now runs a mobile Veterinary Physiotherapy service for both horses and dogs in the East Midlands. She has a specific interest in equine performance and pre-habilitation.

Trainer Magazine (ISSN 17580293) is published 4 times a year, February, April, July and October by Anderson & Co Publishing and distributed in the USA by Modern Litho | Brown Printing, 6009 Stertzer Road, Jefferson City, MO 65101. Periodicals postage paid at Rahway, NJ and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Trainer Magazine, Anderson & Co Publishing, PO Box 13248, Lexington, KY 40583-3248.

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| CONTENTS |

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CONTENTS F E AT U R E S

56 The benefit of using

08 Barbara Banke - cover profile

Strength, stamina & class - three attributes that describe not just Stonestreet Farm’s vibrant owner but also her farm’s mission to produce winning racehorses as Denise Steffanus discovers.

22 Outlook for stem cell therapy: its role in tendon regeneration

Debbie Guest is looking into the different treatments for horse tendon injuries that have been tested over the years.

32 Is the casino “band-aid” falling off? - Not at Oaklawn Park

Casinos at racetracks were always seen as a temporary fix to racing’s massive problem of not doing enough business to survive. Bill Heller on what happens when the band-aid falls off ?

40 Hydrotherapy for performance

Georgie White explains the use of water for therapeutic benefit in the equine industry and hydrotherapy as a mechanism for enhancing performance in the racehorse.

Morning training of Thoroughbreds at tracks is standard, less standard is a collision between horses resulting in civil litigation. Peter Saccapolous examines such a case.

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Dr. Russell Mackechnie-Guire asks if a roller is a harmless piece of equipment or has it been previously overlooked?

62 Grade 1 Winning Owners

Bill Heller profiles the owners behind Shedaresthedevil, Authentic, Starship Jubilee, and Peter J. Callahan’s Swiss Skydiver.

72 Can nutrition influence EIPH?

Catherine Rudenko investigates alternative and supportive therapies to find other means of reducing the risk or severity of EIPH.

06 Alan F. Balch column “The Trainers”

100 #soundbites

This quarter, Bill Heller asks if the Racing Integrity Act, which will create uniform national medication rules and testing, and is seemingly on its way to becoming law, will be good or bad?

80 Remembering Hollywood Park

Ed Golden takes us on a journey presenting Edward “Kip” Hannan, a man dedicated to preserving timeless treasures and ensconcing them in pantheons for future generations.

88 Profile: Robert Tiller

Trainer Robert Tiller and Canadian sprint legend Pink Lloyd both reached momentous milestones this year - Alex Campbell shares all.

94 Rising from the ashes?

50 Justice on track

@ t ra i n e r _ m a g

“yearling rollers”

R EGUL A R S

Annie Lambert fills us in on Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Ariz. Sadly, there is a chance the Phoenix icon may never mythically rise from the ashes.

/ t ra i n e r m a g a z i n e

TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 58

/ t ra i n e r m a g a z i n e

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| CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED TRAINERS |

ALAN F. BALCH

“THE TRAINERS”

O

ver the last 65 years, since I first was a horse-crazy kid, doing anything I could to be with these animals, I’ve spent an inordinate time around horse trainers. To begin with, it was simple hero worship. Why, why, why … it seemed like every time I opened my mouth, that was the first word out. Why does a horse do this or that? Why do you do this or that? Since most of my time was spent mucking, feeding, watering, cleaning, raking, brushing – and relatively little time doing what I wanted to do much more, riding – I had plenty of time to observe and wonder. Looking back now on those earliest days of my equine consciousness, I guess it should be said that the best trainers are patient. With children (and fools) like I was (and am). And with their horses, which one famous horseman described to me as like “the dumbest child you might ever be around.” And he meant that in a positive way. The first horses I knew were not even what I might have later called park hacks. But I was in awe of them. I remember their names, just as you would: Joe, Maude, Sugar, Ginger, Marine, Banjo, Elvis, Sunburst, and a dozen more, including my favorite, Sox, who was a refugee from some race track, somewhere. They were rented by the hour, to sailors on the shore in San Diego, for birthday party rides, and matrons who had grown up in high society and their children. In those days, the 1950s, “horseback riding” was a thing to do, and rent stables abounded … to the professional trainers who owned and ran them, they were a gateway to the show ring, to competitive riding, and to clients with money. By the early 60s, I had also discovered the race track at Del Mar, earlier at the horse show during our county fair, then the races and summer sale, which brought layups and yearlings to be broke to the stable I worked at in La Jolla. Race horses that were too slow but still sound were the primary source of hunters and jumpers and dressage horses in those days. Horses from the major California tracks that had ultimately been relegated to Caliente, across the border, or to the many auctions conducted in those days, found their way to the show ring. Including my first competitive

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LEFT: Hall of Fame trainer Charles Whittingham with a bust of himself located in the paddock at Santa Anita.

horse, a gray gelding by Mahmoud, bred by Mervyn LeRoy, who had topped the Keeneland sale as a yearling. As I learned on my first day working at Santa Anita much later – when I discovered chart books and the American Racing Manual – he also once had held the course record there for about a mile and three-quarters on turf, in 1954. Until a little over ten years ago, in racing or otherwise, I was always a suit – I never had worked for a trainers’ organization, although I had been in plenty of intense negotiations with horsemen’s groups from time to time, and had owned any number of horses to ride and compete myself, but not to race. So, I now know about horse trainers, nationally and internationally, from almost every perspective, through many decades of experiences. And if there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s that those individuals in politics, management, or the media, or as regulators, or administrators, who speak of “the trainers,” just don’t know what in hell they’re talking about. Stereotypes of any category of people (or horses) may be entertaining or malicious, but are likely dubious in the most important respects. That word comes from the Greek – and literally means a “solid impression.” Those who traffic in stereotypes often use and enhance them viciously, as we have come to learn. Sadly. Repeating such stereotypes endlessly only makes their “impression” more solid. Just ask a lawyer. Preferably one with a sense of humor. “Get a group of ten horse trainers to discuss any subject and you’ll get at least a hundred opinions.” There’s more than a germ of truth in that, and I console myself with it when I hear management or regulators or journalists pontificate about what “the trainers” will do or say or believe in any instance.

Early in my days representing California trainers, I remember vividly the reaction I got when I spoke of the “intellectual capital” the professional horsemen might bring to a problem we were facing. An outburst of laughter and head-shaking greeted that! One prominent owner we were meeting was even more shocked at my reaction. I told him it might not be the same kind of firepower he was used to dealing with in his boardroom of fellow millionaires, but it was just as valuable and even more so when applied to horse racing. After all, I lectured, didn’t he spend a literal fortune on horses? Didn’t he then place them under the care, custody, and control of a “mere” horse trainer? To those of us who know and really like horses, trainers deserve and receive our undying respect and appreciation. And I’m not mainly talking about the exceptionally rare individuals who have achieved fame and riches … because, just as with horses, Mother Nature only makes a relative few with that kind of talent (whether in horsemanship or otherwise). Fortunately, she makes relatively few scoundrels, too, whether equine or human. No, it’s the overwhelmingly large number of trainers you’ve never heard of that I’m talking about. The people that commit themselves and their help to their horses 52 weeks a year, at all hours day and night, every day. They run small, unique, difficult businesses that never close. They deal with all the human problems the rest of us do, and an unfathomably large number of equine risks, issues, and behavior – and that of their owners – mostly without complaint. Why do they make this commitment? Why is this the life they’ve chosen? The next time you hear someone bash “the trainers,” please tell them the answer.

PROFILE

STRENGTH, STAMINA, & CLASS BARBARA BANKE

Stonestreet Farm’s mission is to produce winning racehorses with “strength, stamina, and class”—three attributes that also describe Barbara Banke, Stonestreet’s vibrant owner. Denise Steffanus

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EquiSport Photos, Eclipse Sportswire, Stonestreet

n 2011, Banke took over Stonestreet’s reins when her husband, Jess Stonestreet Jackson, died at age 81 from cancer. A worthy successor, Banke had worked shoulder to shoulder with Jackson as the two built their empire of fine wines and fast horses, including Horses of the Year Curlin (twice) and Rachel Alexandra, who together earned a combined six Eclipse Awards. Under her leadership, Stonestreet has won 35 graded stakes as Stonestreet Stables and has shared 15 graded stakes wins with 45 partnerships through the end of September. Stonestreet has been the leading breeder of yearlings at auction for the past five years. Banke also became chairman and proprietor of Kendall-Jackson Wines (now Jackson Family Wines)—an international domain of wineries based largely in California and extending to Oregon, Chile, Australia, France, Italy, and South Africa. Jackson wines graced tables in the White House during the Reagan administration

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when Nancy Reagan offered her favorite wine, Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay, to distinguished guests from around the world. Banke wasn’t the typical horse-crazy girl while growing up. She remembers going on a few trail rides, but her involvement with horses began in 2005 when she suggested Jackson find something to absorb his boundless energy. “I just felt that he needed some hobby because he was sort of driving us all crazy around the winery from being a micromanager. (Banke laughs.) He had been in the horse business with his uncle a while before that. He really wanted to get back into it,” she said. The two founded Stonestreet and purchased an Unbridled’s Song filly, Forest Music, in the summer of 2005 and turned her over to trainer Steve Asmussen. In her first start for Stonestreet, she went gate to wire in the Gr2 Honorable Miss Handicap at Saratoga, giving Stonestreet its first graded stakes winner. After the race, Asmussen prophetically told the media that it was “a sign of things to come.” Asmussen certainly was right about that.

| BARBARA BANKE |

ISSUE 58 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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PROFILE

Plunging head first into the racing industry, Stonestreet purchased Buckram Oaks Farm—450 acres of prime bluegrass land outside of Lexington—for $17.5 million that same year and renamed it Stonestreet Farm. Months later, Stonestreet purchased 650 acres in Versailles, Ky., and established a yearling division there. When asked why the Buckram Oaks parcel appealed to her, Banke, who litigated land-use cases before the United States Supreme Court and Court of Appeals in her former profession, did not give the expected answer citing investment strategies, the spring-fed limestone ponds coveted for raising horses with good bone, and other legal points. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful place,” she said. “And it’s really convenient because it’s close to Keeneland (Racecourse and Sales) and close to town; and it’s very scenic. The barns were beautiful. The ponds were beautiful. So it had a lot of improvements, and it was something that we thought would be a good home in Kentucky. I’m really glad now that we went there.”

• Broodmare Band Stonestreet started to populate its broodmare band, with an eye to transition its fine racemares into outstanding breeding stock of future Stonestreet runners and sale prospects. Banke called her strategy “mare-centric” and said, “That’s our focus, and that’s really fun. It’s fun to raise fillies for me because I know that they have a great career when they’re finished. It’s a nice thing to do.” Retired from racing at the end of 2005, Forest Music became the cornerstone of Stonestreet’s breeding operation, producing graded stakes winners Kentuckian, Electric Forest, and Uncle Chuck, plus winner MacLean’s Music— who sired 2017 Gr1 Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing in his first crop—plus three other graded stakes winners.

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ABOVE: Barbara with husband Jess (with trophy) celebrating after Rachel Alexandra won the Woodward Stakes in 2009.

IT’S A BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL PLACE, AND IT’S REALLY CONVENIENT BECAUSE IT’S CLOSE TO KEENELAND (RACECOURSE AND SALES) AND CLOSE TO TOWN; AND IT’S VERY SCENIC. THE BARNS WERE BEAUTIFUL. THE PONDS WERE BEAUTIFUL.”

| BARBARA BANKE |

Undefeated Campanelle ridden by Frankie Dettori wins The Queen Mary Stakes on day five of Royal Ascot 2020.

Banke called Stonestreet’s broodmare band “unparalleled,” and the names on the roster are a stellar list: homebreds My Miss Aurelia, 2011 champion two-year-old filly; Lady Aurelia, 2016 Cartier Two-Year-Old Filly of the Year in Europe; and Gr1 winners Dreaming of Julia, Tara’s Tango, and Rachel’s Valentina (daughter of now-pensioned Rachel Alexandra). Among the other broodmares: Bounding (Aus), New Zealand’s champion sprinter and champion three-year-old filly in 2013; D’ Wildcat Speed, Puerto Rican Horse of the Year and champion imported three-year-old filly in 2003 and the dam of Lady Aurelia; Dayatthespa, 2014 champion female turf horse; Hillaby, 2014 Canadian champion female sprinter; and eight other Gr1 or Gp1 winners. Seventeen of Stonestreet’s broodmares have produced gradedstakes winners. The latest starlet is Gamine, the three-year-old Into Mischief filly out of Banke’s mare Peggy Jane. Conditioned by two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer Bob Baffert, Gamine won the Gr1 Acorn Stakes by an incredible 18-3/4 lengths in 1:32.55, slashing the stakes record time of 1:33.58 and just a fifth of a second slower than the track record of 1:32.24 for the mile. Next she took the Gr1 Test Stakes by seven lengths, installing her as the 7-to-10 favorite going into the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks, where she finished third after a tough stretch duel with winner Shedaresthedevil. The Oaks was Gamine’s first two-turn race. Ready to Repeat, a More Than Ready gelding produced by Stonestreet’s Christine Daae, placed in the Gr1 Summer Stakes over the turf at Woodbine in Canada on September 20. After maintaining a comfortable lead all the way to the stretch, eventual winner Gretsky the Great cut in front of Ready to Repeat, causing the gelding to change course. Stewards disallowed a claim of foul. Banke sold Ready to Repeat for $60,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling sale. Banke is excited about Stonestreet’s Irish filly, Campanelle, who is expected to join the band at the end of her racing career. Banke gave $243,773 for the Kodiac (GB) filly at the 2019 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

WE BOUGHT HER AS A YEARLING, AND SHE’S NOW A GP1 WINNER IN EUROPE, AND SHE’S GOING TO BE A GREAT BROODMARE IN HER FUTURE, HOPEFULLY A LONG WAY FROM NOW.” BANKE ON STONESTREET’S IRISH FILLY, CAMPANELLE

“(Barbara Banke) loves coming to Royal Ascot every year, and she wanted to buy two or three fillies who could run there,” said Stonestreet’s agent Ben McElroy. “Campanelle looked like she’d fit the bill, and she did.” Undefeated in three starts, Campanelle earned a Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” berth when in August she won the Gr1 Darley Prix Morny—Finale des Darley Series in France. She is expected to start in the Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on November 6 at Keeneland, her home track. “We bought her as a yearling, and she’s now a Gp1 winner in Europe,” Banke said. “And she’s going to be a great broodmare in her future, hopefully a long way from now.” Banke’s philosophy is simple: “We try to get the best mares, or if we don’t buy the best mares, we try to buy the best fillies and race them and go from there. And, of course, then we breed them to great stallions,” Banke said. ISSUE 58 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| BARBARA BANKE |

PROFILE

IN THE 10 YEARS SINCE BANKE TOOK OVER STONESTREET, SHE HAS SOLD 470 YEARLINGS AT AUCTION FOR GROSS RECEIPTS OF $108,828,200. STONESTREET HAS DOMINATED THE MARKET AS LEADING BREEDER OF YEARLINGS FOR SIX OF THE LAST SEVEN YEARS.” LEFT: Stonestreet’s Tapit colt was the sale topper at this year’s Keeneland September Yearling Sale when the hammer fell for $2 million.

Although Stonestreet does not maintain a stallion division, it holds interests in eight stallions: leading sire Curlin and his sons Jess’s Dream, out of Rachel Alexandra, Union Jackson, out of Hot Dixie Chic, and 2017 champion two-year-old Good Magic, out of Glinda the Good; Racing Hall of Fame member Ghostzapper, 2004’s Horse of the Year and champion older horse; Gr1 winners Carpe Diem (2015 Blue Grass Stakes) and The Factor (2011 Malibu Stakes); and multiple-graded stakes winner Kantharos. Banke said that, at present, she has no interest in standing stallions. But she added, “Maybe. Never say never.” The stallions in which she owns an interest are spread among several well-respected farms that specialize in standing stallions. Each of those farms, in turn, has developed its own client base over the years to which they promote the stallions, in addition to running ads designed to attract newcomers into the Thoroughbred industry. “A lot of these places have great clientele. It’s a whole focus area,” said Banke. “Not that we couldn’t do it, but it would require a different orientation on our part. “We have a very good relationship with the stallion farms that stand our horses. It’s a different type of business; you have to have a different level of staffing. We compensate the stallion barns for standing the horse, and usually it works out better if the stallion barn has an interest in the horse. So that’s worked for us with all of them,” she said. In the 10 years since Banke took over Stonestreet, she has sold 470 yearlings at auction for gross receipts of $108,828,200. Stonestreet has dominated the market as leading breeder of yearlings for six of the last seven years, and second-leading breeder in 2015. Stonestreet has topped the overall breeders list for the past three years. Its gray Tapit colt out of Tara’s Tango was the sale topper at this year’s Keeneland September Yearling Sale when the hammer fell for $2 million.

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• Testing for Sale Banke was perplexed by reports that bisphosphonate—a drug to combat fractures in humans with osteoporosis—was being administered to young racing prospects destined for sale. When she learned that testing could only detect the drug if it had been administered within 30 days, Banke sought a way to assure buyers that Stonestreet’s sale horses were raised free of bisphosphonate and other hidden drugs. “We’re trying to raise racehorses,” Banke said. “We don’t want to raise them for looks necessarily, although obviously that’s desirable. We want to raise them for durability, for speed, for the ability to go out and compete. So we don’t want to give them anything that would jeopardize that. Our reputation is very important to us.” Banke worked with Dr. Scott Stanley, former director of the University of California’s Kenneth L. Maddy Laboratory —which studies the effects of drugs on equine athletes—to design a testing program that would follow Banke’s young horses from February of their yearling year to the sale ring. “If we test from the beginning with the horse, and we keep testing until we get to the sale, the buyers could have confidence that these horses had not received anything like that,” Banke said.

• Equine Biological Passport During her discussions with Stanley, Banke also learned of his pet project, adapting the principles of the Athlete Biological Passport in human sports to equine sports. The goal of the project is to monitor changes in a horse’s biomarkers to detect effects that indicate doping, even if the methods and

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to facilitate accurate testing for the horses to see if they’ve been given something that is illicit or they may have, on the other hand, (been exposed to) environmental contamination.” The rumor of designer drugs overshadows success in the industry. Throughout the history of horseracing, trainers with an exceptional win record have been rumored to have “special juice” that makes their horses run faster and farther. The ability to prove or disprove such rumors would be a giant step to regain the public’s confidence in the sport. “That’s important because it gives us an advantage so we can be on the alert for something new because the bad guys seem to be one step ahead of the current testing regimes. So we want to get out in front of it if we can,” Banke said. “If you can distinguish between illegal substances and treatment protocols, it will help to preserve the reputation of the good trainers—and most of our trainers are good. I think we need something that will bolster the reputation of horseracing and make everyone aware that we’re trying as best we can to keep it clean.” Stanley predicted that it will take about two years to implement the Equine Biological Passport in race testing, during which time regulators will have to adopt rule changes to allow its use to disqualify horses from competition. In the meantime, regulators could implement the program in out-of-competition testing to detect trainers who might be cheating. “It could be an application to determine that someone was using something systemically that they shouldn’t,” Stanley said. “Then the regulatory body would have the right to go back and test all their horses and find out if they could determine what was being used.” substances used by a cheater—including so-called designer drugs—are not otherwise detectable. In layman’s terms, testing via a blood sample would establish a baseline level of certain natural peptides and proteins (biomarkers) in the blood. If these levels change in some abnormal fashion in a particular horse, it’s an indication of something going on inside that horse. Stanley said a good analogy is the CBC (complete blood count), where changes in certain factors in the blood indicate conditions or diseases. “So instead of developing new tests for every new drug that comes along, which is what we’ve always done, this is a process where we would develop a test for these biomarkers that would be indicative of drugs in those classes,” Stanley explained. “So we could look for designer drugs; we could look for new FDA-approved drugs; we could look for old drugs that have been off the market but brought back.” In late 2018, Stanley accepted a professorship at the University of Kentucky’s Maxwell Gluck Equine Research Center and brought his project, renamed the Equine Biological Passport, with him. In July 2020, Stonestreet donated $100,000 to further that research. Banke said the project will benefit horses not only in detecting drug use but also in tracking their health over time. “Knowing how horses have been treated in the past will inform people at the track as to whether that horse might be at risk, or whether the horse has had different treatments given to it,” Banke said. “And then it would be important

• Stonestreet Training Center Banke wants her horses to be raised and developed as naturally as possible, from foal to retiree. On Stonestreet’s website, she states: “Our program values minimal human intervention and a good balance of proper nutrition, handling, exercise and rest. We enhance the development of youngstock and strive to exemplify excellence in every action.” Until December 2012, the only hole in that lifelong program for her horses was yearling training, and Banke felt that starting her racing prospects properly and bringing them along safely was an important phase over

OUR PROGRAM VALUES MINIMAL HUMAN INTERVENTION AND A GOOD BALANCE OF PROPER NUTRITION, HANDLING, EXERCISE AND REST. WE ENHANCE THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNGSTOCK AND STRIVE TO EXEMPLIFY EXCELLENCE IN EVERY ACTION.”

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| BARBARA BANKE |

ABOVE & LEFT: About 75 elite runners have come out of the Stonestreet Training Center including 2019 Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar (top left), 2017 champion juvenile Good Magic (left) and dual Eclipse winning female Unique Bella (above).

which she wanted more control. Establishing her own training and rehabilitation center in Florida was the answer. So Banke purchased the 230-acre vinery in Summerville, Florida, near Ocala, then added another 120 acres to form Stonestreet Training and Rehabilitation Center. The center also is open to outside horses. The training center has a seven-furlong dirt track, a threequarter mile turf course, and a European-style turf gallop. Three covered European freestyle walkers, a vibration platform, and an underwater treadmill help young horses to develop their muscles, older horses to freshen up, and layup horses to gently return to normal activities through enhanced rehabilitation techniques. Most of Stonestreet’s horses start preparing for their careers at its training center with a staff that specializes in breaking and training youngsters while employing Banke’s preferred methods. She emphasizes the advantage of nurturing a competitive spirit in her youngsters by placing them in similarly talented peer groups. A few of Stonestreet’s yearlings go elsewhere. “Last year we felt we had too many, we kept too many, and we were going to put a few through the two-year-old sale,” she said. “We sent one homebred to Eddie Wood; actually, we sent a couple to him to put in the two-year-old sale. And one of them was Cazadero.” Wood owns and operates Eddie Wood Training Center in Florida, as well as acts as an agent for two-year-old sales. At the time, he told Banke, “You don’t want to sell this horse.” She took his advice. Banke kept the Street Sense colt with Wood for the remainder of his prep work, then sent him off to Asmussen at Churchill Downs in Kentucky. In Cazadero’s debut maiden special weight

there, he broke on top and obliterated his opponents with a front-running 8-3/4-length win, followed by a win in the Gr3 Bashford Manor Stakes one month later. Banke thanked Wood for his good advice. “(Eddie) is fabulous, she said. “It was nice of him to tell us not to sell the horse because the horse would have done very well at that two-year-old sale. Unfortunately, (Cazadero) came up with a little hairline (crack) in his last start (the Gr2 Saratoga Special Stakes on August 7), so he’s off for a little bit, but he’ll be back.” As disappointing as that piece of racing luck was, other graduates of Stonestreet Training Center won five graded stakes and four listed stakes in August: Campanelle, Rushing Fall, Red King, Chaos Theory, Joy’s Rocket, Wink, Hendy Woods, Domestic Spending, and Halladay—the War Front colt owned by Harrell Ventures who wired the $400,000 Gr1 Fourstardave Stakes on the turf at Saratoga. About 75 elite runners have come out of the Stonestreet Training Center. The list includes 2019 Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar—winner of the inaugural Pegasus World Cup Turf and four other grade-one stakes for career earnings of $7,085,650; 2017 champion juvenile Good Magic; dual Eclipse winning female Unique Bella; Preakness Stakes winners Oxbow and Cloud Computing; 2011 Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Regally Ready; 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winners Rushing Fall (2017) and Sharing (2019); plus a roster of Stonestreet’s solid runners. ISSUE 58 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| BARBARA BANKE |

PROFILE

Stonestreet’s champion filly Rachel Alexandra was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2016.

• Giving Back A large part of Banke’s busy schedule is devoted to serving on committees and boards in her two signature industries, plus participation and philanthropic support of a long list of charities and educational initiatives in the community. Banke also is a global ambassador for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. She is a member of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, which appointed her to the American Graded Stakes Committee in 2016, a position she continues to serve. In 2013, Banke joined the Board of Trustees of the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame. Three years later, she accepted her champion filly Rachel Alexandra’s induction into the Hall of Fame. Her trainer Steve Asmussen, who campaigned Rachel Alexandra and Curlin, was inducted during the same ceremony. Under her trusteeship, the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame in 2018 launched a $20-million project to revamp the Saratoga Springs, New York, site with state-of-the-art interactive exhibits, a 360-degree theater screen, and a redesigned website packed with historical information. Banke served on the redesign committee for the project, which was concluded in 2020, with the reopening on September 5. Banke also is a member of the board of directors for the Keeneland Association and the Breeders’ Cup Ltd. She served on the Jockey Club Board of Stewards from 2016-2020, during which time she was a featured speaker at its Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing on August 13, 2017, in Saratoga Springs. She talked about unifying factions within the sport and the need for standardized rules, medication and testing.

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“To win in the long term, we must demonstrate to both new and future racing fans that our industry acts with integrity and elevated standards of care to protect the health of our athletes,” she said. “The morass of conflicting state medication thresholds and rules is too confusing and slow to change. “But the challenges and changes coming at us in the racing industry are fast and furious. I admit that I’m not a patient person, but I know that our industry does not have the luxury of time to waste. A robust future is available to us in an increasingly global business environment. We must foster consumer confidence and make the world stand up and take notice of our American horses. “We have a great deal to celebrate about the sport of racing, but we must build a strong, unified voice to bolster the global reputation of our American-bred horses. We must craft our narrative and rebuild the foundation of integrity to establish trust with audiences old and new.”

• War on Racing Since 2013, when People for Ethical Treatment of Animals invaded Asmussen’s stable with an undercover operative, who manufactured trumped-up lies and fake videos to discredit racing, the industry has been under attack from animal rights activists who want it permanently shuttered. The mainstream media latches onto each reported death on the racetrack, and conspiracy theorists within the industry spin a web around each high-profile medication violation. While the war on racing rages on, the only point that factions within the industry seem to be able to agree on is that racing needs to change if it hopes to survive. Without the public’s trust and confidence, horse racing’s future will be a short one. Banke’s advice is that everyone involved needs to hear out others’ views and then compromise on the most workable solution. She said that if we work together, we can get a lot done to improve and preserve racing. “I think the federal legislation will pass, and I think it’s a good thing,” she said. “I think banning race-day medications would be a good thing,

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and we’ve taken steps toward that. So I think we need to fit in with the rest of the world. And the rest of the world loves to say that we use race-day medications, and our breed is not quite as strong. But they’re very interested in our broodmares and breeding stock. I think by enhancing our reputation, we can again take the lead in the world because we do so many things very well.” She said the key to success is to treat all the athletes who are the backbone of the sport—horses, jockeys, and the people who work with the horses—well. She emphasized sharing viewpoints and actually listening to what others have to say. “I think the jockeys have a lot to say, and we need to listen,” Banke said. “And we need to make sure everyone is well treated and an advocate for the sport.” She also expects transparency from regulators, track management and other entities. “I do think people need to listen and hear whatever issues there are, and there are quite a few issues,” she said. “And as you go forward, if you have a new track surface or a new maintenance regime or new rules or whatever, they need to listen to the people who are actually in the trenches and try to make the rules work. All of that needs to happen. I think if we can do that more, it will be beneficial for everybody.”

• The Stonestreet Legacy Looking over all the horses that have borne the Stonestreet mantle of excellence, Banke did not hesitate to name her favorite, Curlin. Rachel Alexandra gave her unprecedented thrills when she toyed with the country’s best three-year-old colts in the Gr1 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga in 2009; but Curlin impressed her the most. Stonestreet bought a partnership interest in the Smart Strike colt after watching him destroy rivals by 12-3/4 lengths in his debut maiden special weight at Gulfstream Park in 2007. “The first one that really, really, really impressed me was Curlin,” she said. “And how could you not be impressed? He was just fantastic, and it was fantastic to be a part of his racing career. Trouble free, and he never missed a day of training. He never had a bandage. “He was so funny because he would fall asleep in the saddling paddock and take a little nap. He did that in Dubai as there were fireworks going off all around him. Then he woke up and went out and won the race.” That race was the world’s richest—the $6-million Gr1 Emirates Airline Dubai World Cup in 2008—when he dominated the world’s fastest horses in a 7-3/4-length win. “We spent a lot of days watching him train over there, and it was just a really magnificent experience,” Banke said. “I’d do it again in a hot second if I could get someone to go over there. We’re working on it.” Thousands of feature articles and news stories have been written about Banke, who is considered among the world’s most prominent and successful women. But she said there is one thing journalists haven’t written about her. “I’m a good grandma,” she said. “I have seven grandchildren and three children. My son and his wife are very prolific. They keep going for a girl, and it hasn’t worked. They have four boys. And my daughter has three. She has twins, and one of the twins is a girl. I love them all, and I say, ‘I’m a good grandma.’” A toast is in order. Hoist your Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay to Barbara Banke. Kudos!

: ABOVE: Barbara, Jess and connections celebrate Curlin’s 2008 Jockey Club Gold Cup win.

RIGHT: Curlin and Robby Albarado win the 2008 Jockey Club Gold Cup.

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| STEM CELL THERAPY |

OUTLO O K FO R S TEM C E LL TH E R A P Y: ITS ROLE IN TENDON REGENERATION Dr. Debbie Guest, Animal Health Trust

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ISSUE 58 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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T

endon injuries occur very commonly in racing Thoroughbreds and account for 46% of all limb injuries. The superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) is the most at risk of injury due to the large strains that are placed upon it at the gallop. Studies have reported that the SDFT experiences strains of up to 11-16% in a galloping Thoroughbred, which is very close to the 12-21% strain that causes the SDFT to completely rupture in a laboratory setting. An acute tendon injury leads to rupture of the collagen fibers and total disruption of the well-organized tendon tissue (Figure 1). There are three phases to tendon healing: an inflammatory phase that lasts for around one week, where new blood vessels bring in large numbers of inflammatory blood cells to the damaged site—a proliferative phase that lasts for a few weeks, where the tendon cells rapidly multiply and start making new collagen to replace the damaged tissue; and a remodeling phase that can last for many months, where the new collagen fibers are arranged into the correct alignment and the newly made structural components are re-organized. After a tendon injury occurs, horses need time off work with a period of box rest. Controlled exercise is then introduced, which is built up slowly to allow a very gradual return to work. This controlled exercise

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OVER THE PAST 15 YEARS, THE USE OF STEM CELLS TO IMPROVE TENDON REGENERATION HAS BEEN INVESTIGATED. STEM CELLS ARE CELLS WHICH HAVE THE REMARKABLE ABILITY TO REPLICATE THEMSELVES AND TURN INTO OTHER CELL TYPES. is an important element of the rehabilitation process, as evidence suggests that exposing the tendon to small amounts of strain has positive effects on the remodeling phase of tendon healing. However, depending on the severity of the initial injury, it can take up to a year before a horse can return to racing. Furthermore, when tendon injuries heal, they repair by forming scar tissue instead of regenerating the normal tendon tissue. Scar tissue does not have the same strength and elasticity as the original tendon tissue, and this makes the tendon susceptible to re-injury when the horse returns to work. The rate of re-injury depends on the extent of the initial

| STEM CELL THERAPY |

injury and the competition level that the horse returns to, but re-injury rates of up to 67% have been reported in racing Thoroughbreds. The long periods of rest and the high chance of re-injury therefore combine to make tendon injuries the most common veterinary reason for retirement in racehorses. New treatments for tendon injuries aim to reduce scar tissue formation and increase healthy tissue regeneration, thereby lowering the risk of horses having a re-injury and improving their chance of successfully returning to racing. Over the past 15 years, the use of stem cells to improve tendon regeneration has been investigated. Stem cells are cells which have the remarkable ability to replicate themselves and turn into other cell types. Stem cells exist from the early stages of development all the way through to adulthood. In some tissues (e.g., skin), where cells are lost during regular turnover, stem cells have crucial roles in normal tissue maintenance. However, in most adult tissues, including the tendon, adult stem cells and the tendon cells themselves are not able to fully regenerate the tissue in response to an injury. In contrast, experimental studies have shown that injuries to fetal tissues including the tendon, are capable of undergoing total regeneration in the absence of any scarring. At the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, we have an ongoing research project to identify the differences between adult and fetal tendon cells and this is beginning to shed light on why adult

cells lead to tendon repair through scarring, but fetal cells can produce tendon regeneration. Understanding the processes involved in fetal tendon regeneration and adult tendon repair might enable new cell based and/or therapeutic treatments to be developed to improve tendon regeneration in adult horses. In many tissues, including fat and bone marrow, there is a population of stem cells known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). These cells can turn into cells such as bone, cartilage and tendon in the laboratory, suggesting that they might improve tendon tissue regeneration after an injury. MSC-based therapies are now widely available for the treatment of horse tendon injuries. However, research has demonstrated that after injection into the injured tendon, MSCs do not turn into tendon cells. Instead, MSCs produce factors to reduce inflammation and encourage better repair by the tissue’s own cells. So rather than being the builders of new tendon tissue, MSCs act as the foreman to direct tissue repair by other cell types. Although there is some positive data to support the clinical application of MSCs to treat tendon injuries in horses, placebo controlled clinical trial data is lacking. Currently, every horse is treated with its own MSCs. This involves taking a tissue biopsy (most often bone marrow or adipose tissue), growing the cells for 2-4 weeks in the laboratory and then injecting them into the site of injury. This means the horse must undergo an extra clinical

FIG 1

Figure 1. A) The healthy tendon consists predominantly of collagen fibers (light pink), which are uniformly arranged with tendon cells (blue) evenly interspersed and relatively few blood vessels (arrows). B) After an injury the collagen fibers rupture, the tissue becomes much more vascular, promoting the arrival of inflammatory blood cells. The tendon cells themselves also multiply to start the process of rebuilding the damaged structure.

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| STEM CELL THERAPY |

procedure. There is inherent variation in the product, and the cells cannot be injected immediately after an injury when they may be the most beneficial. To allow the prompt treatment of a tendon injury and to improve the ability to standardise the product, allogeneic cells must be used. This means isolating the cells from donor horses and using them to treat unrelated horses. Experimental and clinical studies in horses, mice and humans suggest that this is safe to do with MSCs, and recently an allogeneic MSC product was approved for use in the EU for the treatment of joint inflammation in horses. These cells are isolated from the circulating blood of disease-screened donor horses and are partially turned into cartilage cells in the laboratory. They are then available “off the shelf ” to treat unrelated animals. Allogeneic MSC products for tendon injuries are not yet available, but this would provide a significant step forward as it would allow horses to be treated immediately following an injury. However, MSCs exhibit poor survival and retention in the injured tendon and improvements to their persistence in the injury site,

and with a better understanding of how they aid tissue regeneration, they are required to enable better optimized therapies in the future. Our research has previously derived stem cells from very early horse embryos (termed embryonic stem cells, ESCs. Figure 2). ESCs can grow in the laboratory indefinitely and turn into any cell type of the body. These properties make them exciting candidates to provide unlimited numbers of cells to treat a wide range of tissue injuries and diseases. Our experimental work in horses has shown that, in contrast to MSCs, ESCs demonstrate high survival rates in the injured tendon and successfully turn into tendon cells. This suggests that ESCs can directly contribute to tissue regeneration. To understand if ESCs can be used to aid tendon regeneration, they must be shown to be both safe and effective. In a clinical setting, ESC-derived tendon cells would be implanted into horses that were unrelated to the original horse embryo from which the ESCs were derived. The recipient horse may therefore recognize the cells as “foreign” and raise an immune response against them. Using laboratory models, we have shown that ESCs which have been turned into tendon cells do not appear recognizable by the immune cells of unrelated horses. This may be due to the very early developmental stage that ESCs originate from, and it suggests that they would be safe to transplant into unrelated horses. To determine if ESCs would be effective and improve tendon regeneration, without the use of experimental animals, we have established a laboratory system to make “artificial” 3D tendons (Figure 3). ESC-tendon cells can produce artificial 3D tendons just as efficiently as adult and fetal cells, and this system allows us to make detailed comparisons between the different cell types.

Figure 2. A) A day 7 horse embryo used for the isolation of ESCs. Embryos at this stage of development have reached the mare’s uterus and can be flushed out non-invasively. B) “Colonies” of ESCs can grow forever in the laboratory. Figure 3. Artificial 3D tendons grown in the laboratory are used to study different sources of tendon cells and help us work out how safe and effective an ESC-based therapy will be. A) Artificial 3D tendons are 1.5 cm in length. B) A highly magnified view of a section through an artificial tendon showing well-organized collagen fibers in green and tendon cells in blue.

FIG 2

0.3 mm

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FIG 3

1.5 cm

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IF YOU GAMBLE WITH ULCER TREATMENTS, Horse owners likely know their horses face stress. But they may not know that stress can cause gastric ulcers. If ulcers are diagnosed, veterinarians recommend treatment with GASTROGARD. There is no generic for the gold standard in omeprazoles. FDA approved. Proven to work. Trusted for decades.

STRIKE BACK AGAINST ULCERS

GASTROGARD IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION: The safety of GASTROGARD paste has not been determined in pregnant or lactating mares. For use in horses and foals 4 weeks of age and older. Keep this and all drugs out of the reach of children. In case of ingestion, contact a physician. Caution: Federal (USA) law restricts this drug to use by or on the order of a licensed veterinarian.

THEY WILL FEEL IT HERE.

GASTROGARD® is a registered trademark of Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc. ©2020 Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc., Duluth, GA. All rights reserved. US-EQU-0242-2020

Oral Paste for Horses and Foals • Approved by FDA under NADA # 141-123 Caution • Federal (USA) law restricts this drug to use by or on the order of a licensed veterinarian. Description • Chemical name: 5-Methoxy-2-[[(4-methoxy-3,5-dimethyl-2-pyridinyl) methyl]sulfinyl]-1Hbenzimidazole. Empirical formula: C17H19N3O3S. Molecular weight: 345.42. Structural formula: OCH3

H3C N

CH3 O N S N H

OCH3

How Supplied • GastroGard (omeprazole) Paste for horses contains 37% w/w omeprazole and is available in an adjustable-dose syringe. Each syringe contains 2.28 g of omeprazole. Syringes are calibrated according to body weight and are available in boxes of 7 units or 72 units. 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-aday 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 weightmarking 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: 1) While holding plunger, turn the knurled ring on the plunger ¼ turn to the left and slide the knurled ring along the plunger shaft so that the side nearest the barrel is at the appropriate weight marking, aligning the arrows on the ring and plunger as shown in the pictogram. 2) Lock the ring in place by making ¼ turn to the right. 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. • To report suspected adverse drug events, for technical assistance, or to obtain a copy of the Safety Data Sheet (SDS), contact Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc. at 1-888-637-4251. For additional information about adverse drug experience reporting for animal drugs, contact FDA at 1-888-FDA-VETS, or online at www.fda.gov/reportanimalae. Precautions • The safety of GastroGard Paste has not been determined in pregnant or lactating mares Clinical Pharmacology • Mechanism of Action: Omeprazole is a gastric acid pump inhibitor that regulates the final step in hydrogen ion production and blocks gastric acid secretion regardless of the stimulus. Omeprazole irreversibly binds to the gastric parietal cell’s H+, K+ ATPase enzyme which pumps hydrogen ions into the lumen of the stomach in exchange for potassium ions. Since omeprazole accumulates in the cell cannaliculi and is irreversibly bound to the effect site, the plasma concentration at steady state is not directly related to the amount that is 147528-002

bound to the enzyme. The relationship between omeprazole action and plasma concentration is a function of the rate-limiting process of H+, K+ ATPase activity/turnover. Once all of the enzyme becomes bound, acid secretion resumes only after new H+, K+ ATPase is synthesized in the parietal cell (i.e., the rate of new enzyme synthesis exceeds the rate of inhibition). • Pharmacodynamics: In a study of pharmacodynamic effects using horses with gastric cannulae, secretion of gastric acid was inhibited in horses given 4 mg omeprazole/kg/day. After the expected maximum suppression of gastric acid secretion was reached (5 days), the actual secretion of gastric acid was reduced by 99%, 95% and 90% at 8, 16, and 24 hours, respectively. • Pharmacokinetics: In a pharmacokinetic study involving thirteen healthy, mixed breed horses (8 female, 5 male) receiving multiple doses of omeprazole paste (1.8 mg/lb once daily for fifteen days) in either a fed or fasted state, there was no evidence of drug accumulation in the plasma when comparing the extent of systemic exposure (AUC0-∞). When comparing the individual bioavailability data (AUC0-∞ , Cmax, and Tmax measurements) across the study days, there was great inter- and intrasubject variability in the rate and extent of product absorption. Also, the extent of omeprazole absorption in horses was reduced by approximately 67% in the presence of food. This is evidenced by the observation that the mean AUC0-∞ values measured during the fifth day of omeprazole therapy when the animals were fasted for 24 hours was approximately three times greater than the AUC estimated after the first and fifteenth doses when the horses were fed hay ad libitum and sweet feed (grain) twice daily. Prandial status did not affect the rate of drug elimination. The terminal half-life estimates (N=38) ranged from approximately one-half to eight hours. 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: inappetance 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: Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc., Duluth, GA 30096, U.S.A. Made in Brazil ®GastroGard is a registered trademark of Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc. All rights reserved. ©2020 Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc. US-EQU-0234-2020 Rev. 07-2020

|| V N AARRYY | | V E T E R II N

The 3D cellular environment more closely resembles the tendons present in the adult horse, thus providing a more physiological relevant experimental model system. This system has demonstrated that ESC-tendon cells more closely resemble fetal tendon cells than adult tendon cells. This may make them more likely to initiate the regenerative healing process that occurs in fetal tendons, rather than the scarring process that occurs in adult tendons. However, this will only truly be ascertained by performing placebocontrolled clinical trials and following up treated horses over time to determine if an ESC-treatment increases the number of horses that return to work and/or reduces the number of horses that suffer from re-injury. ESC-tendon cells have other unique properties that may enable them to produce better tendon tissue regeneration. For example, in the early stages following a tendon injury there is a significant increase in inflammation. Inflammation is likely to contribute to the poor tissue regeneration that occurs because it has profound negative consequences for adult tendon cells. We have demonstrated that adult tendon cells cannot produce artificial tendons efficiently when exposed to inflammation (Figure 4). In contrast, we found that ESC-tendon cells behaved normally when exposed to inflammation due to a lack of certain receptors for inflammatory signals on their surface. This means that tendon cells derived from ESCs may provide a useful source of cells for clinical transplantation into the injured tendon, as they are unlikely to suffer any negative effects from being placed into an inflamed environment. Furthermore, it opens up the possibility of further studies to understand more about how ESC-tendon cells protect themselves from different inflammatory signals, allowing for the development of new drug treatments that could be used to protect adult tendon cells following a tendon injury. Protecting tendon cells from inflammation could help to improve the regeneration of healthy tendon tissue,

| STEM CELL THERAPY |

FIG 4

Figure 4. Adult tendon cells exposed to inflammation can no longer make well-organized artificial tendons. However, ESC-tendon cells do not have the receptors for some of these inflammation signals and so produce well-organized artificial tendons even in the presence of inflammation.

thereby reducing the risk of re-injury and allowing more horses to remain in active work. Many treatments for horse tendon injuries have been tested over the years, and to date none of them have resulted in significant improvements in re-injury rates compared to the standard use of box rest and controlled exercise alone. Stem cell therapies could allow us to shift the balance between tendon repair and regeneration, ultimately reducing the risk of re-injury and allowing more horses to return to successful racing careers. There is scope to improve the current MSC-based therapies and research to harness the potential of ESCs for tendon regeneration is ongoing, but we hope that it will have a significant impact on horse welfare in the future.

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IS THE CASINO “BAND-AID” FA LLING OFF ? The danger signs are everywhere. Casinos at racetracks were always seen as a band-aid—a temporary fix to horse racing’s massive problem of not doing enough business to survive, let alone prosper. What happens when the band-aid falls off?

I

n Illinois, where horsemen battled for nearly 10 years to finally get casinos approved at its racetracks, Churchill Downs’ decision not to pursue a casino at Arlington Park has left the future of this international-caliber, iconic Chicago racetrack in dire doubt. In Florida, another Churchill Downs’ racetrack—Calder Raceway—which has operated as Gulfstream Park West on a lease agreement with Gulfstream Park, sought and received legislative approval to keep its casino open with jai alai replacing horse racing. This year’s Gulfstream Park West meeting is its last, with horsemen having to remove their horses by April 15. In the interim, horsemen are hopeful that an appeal and two lawsuits will change that reality. The governor in Pennsylvania in February called for revenue from casinos legislatively targeted to racetracks be used instead to offer free college education. And that was before the coronavirus pandemic made every state in America revenue strapped.

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Pennsylvania horsemen are hoping they’ll be protected under existing legislation. The sky is falling. “Frankly, not everyone is going to survive,” trainer John Servis, a board member of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen Association, said. “We all knew this was going to come. We need to be able to stand on our own two feet. We have to stop relying on the casinos.” Can they? The plight of Illinois horsemen is downright depressing. “The thing that strikes me is that Illinois never had the band-aid of the racino,” said Dave McCaffrey, a long-time harness racing trainer who was president of the Illinois Harness Horsemen for eight years and is now the executive director of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. “At least Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania had this nice run of 10 or 15 or 20 years of dramatically increased purses and increased racing dates because of casino revenue.”

| I S T H E C A S I N O B A N D - A I D FA L L I N G O F F ? |

A native of Iowa who went to college in Minnesota and fell in love with Quad City Downs—a harness track in Illinois— chronicled the decade-long battle to get slots approved at racetracks. It began while McCaffrey was the head of harness horsemen. It began with a typical, historic cooperation between the state’s Thoroughbred and harness horsemen. “The harness and Thoroughbred horsemen, typically in the country, do not agree on much,” McCaffrey said. McCaffrey and Thoroughbred trainer Mike Campbell, who was president of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen Association, had met at the University of Arizona Racing Symposium in 2009. The following year, they decided to work together. “Both breeds were in such dire straits we figured we were stronger together,” McCaffrey said. “What’s good for us is good for you. We hooked up in a great alliance, and in three months we crafted a bill that I think is the best racino deal in the country. It would have produced 15 percent of adjusted gross revenue to purses. In other states, the casino revenue goes from the racetrack to the state to the purses.

In Illinois, it would go straight from the track to purses—a huge difference. When other states are strapped, they don’t want to pay that money for purses. In Illinois, they never get their hands on it.” Neither have Illinois horsemen because there are still no racinos at Illinois racetracks a decade later. What went wrong? McCaffrey provided the two-word answer: “Illinois politics.” In various stages, the racino bill was a victim of the city of Chicago wanting its own casino; the governor vetoing the bill; one house passing the bill but the other house declining to do so; a governor who couldn’t get anything through because both houses were of the other party. “They fought like cats and dogs for four years,” McCaffrey said. “The bill didn’t even get to the floor.” Right before the election of a new governor, Jay “J.B.” Pritzker, who supported the gaming bill, in 2018, Churchill Downs, bought a 60 percent interest in the Rivers casino, 13 miles from Arlington. “I remember it being Halloween when that deal was announced,” McCaffrey said. “There was all this optimism that the damn gaming bill might finally be passed in 2019.” ISSUE 58 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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Prtizker took office in January 2019. The gaming bill passed both houses and was indeed signed into law on June 27, 2019, authorizing Illinois’ three remaining racetracks: Arlington Park, Fairmount Park and Hawthorne to build racinos. But Churchill Downs didn’t even apply for a racino license. “Churchill Downs decided this gaming bill doesn’t work for them and were not going to apply for the racino license at Arlington despite the fact that they were screaming for the bill to get passed for 10 years,” McCaffrey said. It got worse. The coronavirus pandemic struck this spring, and Arlington’s already reduced meeting of 70 days were slashed to 30 minus Arlington’s signature races including the Arlington Million. On July 31, according to a story in Chicago’s Daily Herald, Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen, on a quarterly earnings call with investors, said, “The long-term solution is not Arlington Park. That land will have a higher and better purpose for something else at some point. But we want to work constructively with all of the constituencies in the market to see if there’s an opportunity to move the license or otherwise change the circumstances so that racing can continue to Illinois. For us, we’ve been patient and thoughtful and constructive with the parties up in that jurisdiction, but long term, that land gets sold.”

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Mike Campbell is buying none of that. “I’ve repeatedly said I’ve had conversations with several gaming companies to buy Arlington Park—three gaming companies and a very wealthy horse owner all made inquiries to Churchill Downs. Churchill Downs said, ‘Not interested.’ They’re just not interested. Carstanjen said, ‘a higher use than a racetrack. Who the hell is he to say it’s suited for a better purpose? There are thousands of jobs involved. I think that what’s going to happen at Arlington is that in the middle of the night they’re going to come in and excavate that track in a manner that it can’t be fixed. Just do it and don’t ask questions.” “It’s exasperating,” Campbell said. “I’ve been president of the horsemen for 10 years. I’m all in for my horsemen. I told my board I’ll do everything I can to step in front of the train to slow it down. But money always wins. I’m the first to recognize it.” Phone calls to Churchill Downs, Inc. requesting a comment were not returned. Campbell, who trains a dozen horses, spent the past year on the road. “We traveled a lot,” he said. “I was in Tampa for seven months, then at Colonial. I plan on going to Keeneland, then back to Florida. I don’t want to do that. We’re being driven from our homes. This is very personal to me. I’ve lived 12 miles north of Arlington Park for 25 years. I raised my family there. My two sons are jockeys. They’re driving us from our own homes. We’re going to move. We’re going to sell our house. There are dozens like me. They’re not taking a gaming license? It’s absurd people are letting them get away with it.” According to McCaffrey, Hawthorne will begin building its racino in September. “It will take 12 to 14 months,” he said. Arlington Park could be shuttered by then. In Florida, Calder Raceway, a.k.a. Gulfstream Park West, will become history. “Our lease was up at the end of the year anyway,” said Billy Badgett, Gulfstream Park’s executive director and former trainer of Filly Champion Go for Wand. “They had

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| INDUSTRY |

| I S T H E C A S I N O B A N D - A I D FA L L I N G O F F ? | LEFT: Jai alai is set to become the only sporting action from next year at Calder Racetrack.

everything put in motion to get jai alai approved. I don’t know how it got approved.” He certainly understands Churchill Downs’ motivation: “They can run jai alai at a very minimal cost. They don’t have to have horse racing or dog racing. Eventually, everybody is going to do that or try to do that. This is the edge everyone wants to take.” The impact on South Florida horsemen is real. “We’re going to lose 430 stalls,” Badgett said. “We’re building more barns in Palm Meadows (Gulfstream Park’s training center, 20 miles north) so they’ll have a place to go. They let us extend an agreement to keep the barns open until April 15.” Badgett said Gulfstream Park will also “lose some substantial purse money,” but is working to mitigate that loss. “We’re working on some legislative action, including night racing.” Badgett is convinced that racing must address its own future. “I’m a firm believer that racing should be able to stand on its own two feet,” he said. “If you have to rely on your casinos for purse money, it’s not good.” He is not losing faith in horse racing’s appeal. “We’ve been lucky that people still love horse racing,” he said. “As you can see during the pandemic, the handle numbers have been huge. Even on Travers Day at Saratoga, they were up 38 percent with no people there.” In the meantime, the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (FLHBPA) has two lawsuits pending before an appellate court arguing that Churchill Downs built a jai alai fronton with no connection to its casino as the statute of Florida law stipulates. “Churchill Downs was allowed to tear down the grandstand at Calder and (was) told if they apply for a summer jai alai permit, they would no longer have to put horse racing on to maintain their casino license,” Kevin Scheen, the executive director of the FLHBPA said. “This is how they sidestepped their obligations to the horsemen and the horse industry. Their only consideration is to their shareholders—the bottom line. We’re losing 40 days of racing. We’re hopeful we’ll prevail on the appeal. If we don’t, we’ll be examining our options.” He mentioned Palm Meadows and Ocala as possibilities. “We’re lucky we have a great relationship with Gulfstream Park.”

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In Pennsylvania, Servis—who did a masterful job with 2004 Kentucky Downs and Preakness Stakes winner Smarty Jones— and Sal DeBunda (president of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association since 2010) continue to battle for horsemen’s future. “We’ve been battling every year,” Servis said. “Every year they want to take money from us. The governor can say take the money for education or highways or senior citizens, for whatever. Does the money ever get there? Politics is politics.” He continued, “There’s a bill where they want to put slot machines in the bars and restaurants. It may not be this year. It may be next year. But it’s coming. If that happens, we’re going to have to fight to get a piece of that. That’s only the tip of the iceberg. We have to be aggressive. We have to take care of ourselves.” DeBunda believes they already have through Article 71, which gives a percentage of slots to the Pennsylvania Horse Development Fund. “They’ve been taking money out of the Fund since year two after slots were passed 11 years ago,” he said. “If they take more than $31 million, they have to return all the money they’ve taken the last 10 years. That was a way to not let them take more. The governor was told this by his staff before his statement about education. If we were going to allow slots in the same facility where we have horse racing, we were going to take a piece. That’s been forgotten. They put in table games and online gaming, and we get none of that. When he first got slots, we looked at each other and said this is terrific. We didn’t realize every year we have to educate people. The biggest factor is educating our legislature.” With slots, DeBunda said, average daily purses at Pennsylvania tracks have increased from $130,000 to $250,000. Without them? “I’m an optimist,” Servis said. “I don’t want to paint a negative picture, but we’re battling every single year.” Will New Jersey and Kentucky tracks have to battle, too? In late August, the governor of New Jersey submitted a proposed state budget which did not include the $20 million subsidy that has been split evenly between the Thoroughbred and Standardbred industry. Meanwhile, a court ruling in Kentucky on September 24, has endangered the wildly-popular Historical Horse Racing (HHR) slot-like machine game, a completely different version of the Instant Racing game which literally saved Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, and allowed Kentucky tracks to boost their purses dramatically. On September 24, a Kentucky Supreme Court reversed a 2018 court decision allowing the game at Kentucky tracks. The ruling said that one part of the game using exactas violated the state law on legal parimutuel wagering. That decision could be devastating. In the 2019-2020 fiscal year, which ended in June, $2.2 billion was wagered on HHR at Kentucky tracks, generating $15.6 million for the Thoroughbred Development Fund, $11.8 million for the Standardbred Development Farm, $650,000 for the Equine Industry Program and $320,000 to Equine Drug Research. Churchill Downs Inc., which saw its share price drop by 9.74 percent on the day of the court ruling, released a statement that Churchill Downs tracks does not use the exacta in any of its HHR facilities. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said that HHR contributes $21 million to the state budget and that his office is working to find “a path forward.” Sooner than later, many racetracks are going to need a path forward, one dependent on its quality of racing and the marketing of its races rather than slot machines.

NOT AT O A K L AW N enturies after Plato said, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” Eric Jackson, the senior vice president at Oaklawn Park in his 40th year at the Cella family’s beautiful track in Hot Springs, Ark., was desperate. “We had been imperiled in the 1990s,” he said. “We had casinos popping up outside us in Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Louisiana. We had lost 50 to 60 percent of our business. We nearly went out of business. We knew we had to have an electronic product. “In Arkansas, we were allowed parimutuel betting. I had an idea to develop a slot-like wagering device based on horse racing. It took a while to germinate—three or four years.” That idea (Instant Racing) not only saved Oaklawn, it ultimately led to the state of Arkansas approving four casinos—one of them at the track the Cella family has owned for 117 years. Oaklawn is predicting purses for its next 57-day meet will top $700,000 daily. With the addition of the casino, Oaklawn Park dropped Instant Racing in November 2018, and it has done nothing to slow Oaklawn’s continuing purse growth, one which will accelerate when Southland Casino Racing in West Memphis abandons greyhound racing by December 31, 2022. That decision has already been made and announced. Southland Casino received 40 percent of targeted casino revenue for purses and Oaklawn 60. “When they close, we’ll get 100 percent,” Jackson said. “We believe we have the best racing gaming model in America, and the model is based on a single concept,” he continued. “And the concept is ‘racing comes first.’ We have been a track for 117 years. The Cella family loves racing.

C

The irony is epic. A slot-like machine based on horse racing allowed Oaklawn Park to prosper, then was abandoned when the track added a full casino. But that wouldn’t have happened had Oaklawn not used Instant Racing to literally continue to operate. “It exceeded our expectations,” Jackson said. His boss, Louis Cella said, “We buck the trend. You don’t see feel-good stories today. I think the answer is we focus on Oaklawn. We don’t have a higher agenda. We believe in it, and we’re going to lead by example. We have an unbelievable relationship with our horsemen and with the state racing commission. It’s the opposite of typical. Other companies focus on the bottom line. We don’t. We don’t have shareholders. A lot of our success is because we don’t have shareholders. We want you to have fun. We couldn’t care less if you make a wager. That’s not our focus. We prefer people come with a family, go in the infield with hot dogs, and enjoy the sport. We’re lucky. We don’t have professional sports in Arkansas. We are in the game to sell the sport. If you can’t, shut the doors.” His track nearly did. Oaklawn invited several technology experts to visit Oaklawn Park and meet with racetrack officials and officials from Amtote in 1998. Eventually, they devised Instant Racing, which allows betters to do a bit of handicapping, satisfying Arkansas’ state law description of parimutuel racing. Instant Racing was introduced in January, 2000, and then expanded in 2009. Purses grew exponentially. “In 2018, there was an effort from the Quapaw Native Indian tribe. They came ISSUE 58 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| I S T H E C A S I N O B A N D - A I D FA L L I N G O F F ? |

BECAUSE WE DON’T HAVE SHAREHOLDERS, WE GET TO CHOOSE. WHAT’S BEST FOR OUR INDUSTRY? WE ASK OURSELVES EVERY SINGLE DAY, ‘HOW DO WE IMPROVE OUR SPORT IN ARKANSAS?’” LEFT: Oaklawn Park dynasty, the late Charles Cella (left) with Louis Cella (right).

up with a novel idea,” Jackson said. “They would get one of four casinos in Arkansas, and they were willing to put casino revenue into purses. The voters approved it.” Oaklawn Park has flourished ever since. “First off, we’re really lucky,” said Cella, a lawyer and real estate dealer in St. Louis who took over the track’s operation three years ago after his dad died. “We don’t have professional sports in Arkansas. We’re really hard to get to. Once you get there it’s very hard to leave it. It’s the natural beauty surrounding us. We’re part of a park (Hot Springs National Park). It’s beautiful. Because of that, we have a very close relationship with our community. Hot Springs’ population is around 35,000 to 40,000. We’ll have 70,000 people on Arkansas Derby Day. We don’t have professional sports in Arkansas. People sneak in and go and have fun.” Of course, Oaklawn has a decided edge. Just like Saratoga, Oaklawn has a limited single meet every year. People miss racing. “Our nickname was Saratoga South,” Cella said. “That was our mantra. Follow them.” Oaklawn Park has done that with decisive, innovative ideas. “We took over our catering 25 years ago because we had to keep prices reasonable,” Cella said. “When you have an outside company, they have to make a profit. When we had our 100th anniversary celebration on opening day in 2004, we said, ‘What happens if we roll back prices to what they were 100 years ago?’’ We had 10-cent sodas and 50-cent corned beef sandwiches. We basically give away six tons of corned beef. We do that every year on opening day. That’s how we kick off the season. You see folks with sandwiches piled high. Businesses send people running in to get a stack of sandwiches. Because we don’t have shareholders, we get to choose. What’s best for our industry? We ask ourselves every single day, ‘How do we improve our sport in Arkansas?’” Jackson and Cella came up with an original idea. “When we started to grow, we had to hire gaming folks from outside Hot

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Springs or outside Arkansas,” Cella said. “We said most of our managers have no idea what horse racing is. Eric created an agenda for Oaklawn University. Eric does everything for it. The purpose is to give these new members a smidgen of information about horse racing, our family and our community. It ends with a tour of a horse farm. It has nothing to do with casinos. It’s about horse racing and our history. That’s the message.” Cella enrolled himself. “That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever been through.” He said. “I had no idea. I loved it. It’s a great program.” The six-week curriculum, Jackson said, “explains how we got here, why certain things are important to us. When you connect all the dots, it says racing comes first. We want people to never forget that.” Jockey Ron Moquet and Jeanette Milligan—office manager of the Arkansas Horsemen Benevolent and Protective Association, whose husband Alan is a trainer—are Oaklawn University graduates. Oaklawn’s successful business model with Instant Racing led to tracks all over the country to invite him to speak. One discussion, sticks in his memory. “I was at Derby Lane Dog Track in Tampa, Fla.,” he said. “I was with representatives of the dog industry and horse racing. They wanted to know about Instant Racing. I told them if one party gets greedy, it’s not going to work. You have to agree to have lower margins because the people will show up. People started yelling at each other, dogs vs. horses. I banged my glass and stood up. I said, ‘Gentlemen, you’re wasting my time.’ And I walked out.”

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| HYDROTHERAPY FOR PERFORMANCE |

Georgina White

Nigel Kirby, FMBS Therapy Systems, Shutterstock

• What is hydrotherapy? The historic use of water for therapeutic benefit in the equine industry has taken a leap in development in recent decades, from the humble use of cold hosing a swollen limb through to the development of water treadmills and water walkers for injury rehabilitation and performance development. Cold hosing and other forms of cooling localized areas of the body is more correctly termed cryotherapy—meaning, it aims to harness the benefits of reduction in temperature to treat mainly acute and edemic injuries. By reducing temperature of the local area, for example, a distal portion of a limb, several key functional changes occur. First, local blood flow is reduced. This is especially useful if an open wound is involved; the precapillary sphincters constrict and direct blood away from the area. Secondly, there is evidence that nociceptors, involved in the perception of pain and sensory receptors located at the end of peripheral nerve endings can be temporarily suppressed with local application of cryotherapy. Following a brief summary of cryotherapy, this article is going to focus on hydrotherapy as a mechanism for enhancing performance in the racehorse, focusing on the specific parameters of fitness that can be targeted and thus improved.

• Fundamental properties of water There are several fundamental principles of water that can be used as a recovery tool to facilitate optimum rehabilitation and ongoing performance improvement. When immersed in water, or made to move through water, the horse’s

body, like the human, encounters a medium for which it is not designed, and locomotion is of limited efficiency. It is in fact the imposed limited efficiency that is useful in different training contexts—it forces the body to work harder than on dry ground, thus improving fitness and better preparing the horse’s body for future athletic tests. Similarly, the method of human altitude, or hypoxic training, is where the body will learn to produce the same amount of energy with a significantly lower available amount of oxygen and thus benefit at a later date in a competitive environment. First, and most important in an equine fitness protocol, is the viscosity of the water creating resistance; the resistance offered by water is greater than that experienced in locomotion on dry ground, therefore requiring greater overall effort to move through it. Exercising in water has shown to provide up to 15 times the resistance of exercising on land. This factor alone means that the trainer can achieve a far more challenging training environment without the horse experiencing the concussive forces on the limbs associated with high-end aerobic or anaerobic land based exercise, such as works on a gallops. Resistance also works indirectly at lower water levels whereby horses will choose to step over the water in a bid to avoid resistance. Therapists then utilize this to gain increased flexion at limb joints (further discussion of this throughout the article). Hydrostatic pressure is the pressure exerted on an object when immersed in water. Depth of immersion is an influential factor with greater depth correlating with greater pressure.

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Depending on the type of hydrotherapy system used, the benefits of hydrostatic pressure will vary. For example, greater hydrostatic pressure will be exerted when using a swimming lane with depths of up to two meters, as opposed to depths of 12-24in of water on a treadmill. Application of hydrostatic pressure greatly benefits the recovery processes, acting in a similar way as compression bandages. The pressure reduces the formation of edema, or swelling, and improves the elimination of muscular by-products such as lactic acid and carbon dioxide. Buoyancy is not utilized in the same way as it is in humans and small animal hydrotherapy, except in the use of swimming lanes; this is partly due to the obvious size difference and limitations associated with submerging a horse almost completely in water. Buoyancy is achieved when the weight of the fluid displaced by the body is equal, also accounting for the force of gravity on the body. To remain buoyant, the two forces must counterbalance one another. Once this balance occurs, the body is essentially weightless, allowing exercise without the impact of joint load experienced in land-based exercise. These properties act together during water-based exercise to produce the increased benefits to the horse’s fitness discussed in this article.

IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THE HORSE TO ESTABLISH A RELAXED FRAME WHEN WORKING ON THE TREADMILL OR IN THE HYDROTHERAPY POOL TO PREVENT ANY STRESS-RELATED OR COMPENSATORY POSTURE DURING THE WORKOUT.” When using a treadmill, it is typical that the horse warms up on a dry treadmill prior to adding water. As with land-based exercise, a thorough warmup ensures adequate preparation of the horse’s muscles to be ready for harder work during the session.

• The bodily systems during exercise

• What happens during a hydrotherapy session? Horses are typically introduced to the hydrotherapy equipment to acclimate them and ensure they will be relaxed while exercising. It is important for the horse to establish a relaxed frame when working on the treadmill or in the hydrotherapy pool to prevent any stress-related or compensatory posture during the workout. As we know from land-based exercise, if a horse is stressed, they are likely to tire more quickly; so in order to utilize this workout, acclimation is beneficial.

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ABOVE: The effect of hydrostatic pressure increases as water depth increases.

During a hydrotherapy session, the horse’s different bodily systems will be affected in several ways. But essentially, the efficiency and smooth-running of these systems all contribute to overall performance quality, and any deficiencies will act as an overall limitation. The cardiovascular system is often considered to be the horse’s engine during locomotion, working with the respiratory system in concert to provide the horse with the oxygen needed for exercise as well as dispelling by-products. Working as a muscular pump, the heart delivers oxygen and nutrient-rich blood across the body via a network of blood vessels that develops further with long-term consistent exercise. Supplying this oxygen are the nasal

| HYDROTHERAPY FOR PERFORMANCE |

structures; as obligate nasal breathers, horses must breathe through their noses. Flaring of nostrils and dilation of the horse’s larynx work to provide a greater cross-sectional area of space for oxygen uptake. When exercise begins, the previously oxygenated muscles begin to work and enter temporary oxygen debt. The cardiovascular and respiratory system combat this by working harder to produce a continual supply of oxygenated blood by increasing the number of breaths taken per minute, thus increasing oxygen intake. During hydrotherapy exercise, the respiratory system will be required to deliver elevated levels of oxygen and removal of increased quantities of carbon dioxide. This is because the horse begins to work towards the higher levels of aerobic exercise. At rest, the horse will be taking in approximately 60 liters of air per minute; when moving towards moderately strenuous exercise, this can increase to as much as 2,250 liters of air per minute. From here the heart increases in beats per minute to keep up with this demand. When still working with oxygen the exercise is considered aerobic; when the horse reaches a speed or exercise intensity where they require greater oxygen than is available, the horse will begin working anaerobically. In a hydrotherapy setting, the treadmill can be considered more the equivalent of strength and conditioning training where heart rate does not rise significantly. On the contrary, swimming increases heart rate significantly without the concussive forces of traditional gallop work. This is when the horse is unable to utilize oxidative processes quickly enough—also known as maximum oxygen consumption (VO2max). Any further energy must be generated by anaerobic

HORSES ALSO EXPERIENCE RESPIRATORY LOCOMOTOR COUPLING IN HIGHER INTENSITY CANTER AND GALLOP WORK–A PHENOMENON THAT EPITOMIZES THE EFFICIENCY OF THE HORSE AS A PERFORMANCE ANIMAL.” glycolysis. The horse cannot sustain long periods of anaerobic exercise, but instead the horse’s aerobic capacity becomes greater and thus delays onset of the anaerobic exercise. Incidentally, horses also experience respiratory locomotor coupling in higher intensity canter and gallop work—a phenomenon that epitomizes the efficiency of the horse as a performance animal. The stride and breath are in sync at a harmonious 1:1 ratio; they must lengthen their stride to increase their speed. From a fitness point of view, the respiratory system is often considered the horse’s limiting factor where minimal conditioning takes place of the related structures. Additionally, the horse’s respiratory system is highly specialized for exercise. This means that any damage to or deficiency of the respiratory system can have significant influence on overall performance. Unlike in the human, the horse’s resting heart rate does not lower with increased fitness; therefore, opportunities to measure fitness are reduced to monitoring during exercise and in the recovery phase.

KEY PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES THAT OCCUR DURING HIGH INTENSITY EXERCISE. ARYTENOID CARTILAGES OPEN

TRACHEA TRANSPORTS AIRFLOW F ORELIMB REACHES FORWARD (FREE FLIGHT PHASE= INHALATION)

THORACIC CAVITY LOADED

FORELIMB STRIKES GROUND = EXHALATION

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AS WELL AS BEING USED TO DEVELOP MUSCLE IN THE GENERALLY POORLY MUSCLED HORSE, HYDROTHERAPY HAS BEEN PROVEN ANECDOTALLY TO BE AN EXCELLENT METHOD OF CORRECTING MALADAPTIVE OR ASYMMETRICAL MUSCLE BUILDUP.” motion. The horse increases flexion at the hip and elbow joint, for example, to clear 2-3 inches of water and perhaps increases range of motion at the affected joints by 10-20 degrees; when doing this consistently during a session, the 10 degrees increase in range per stride suddenly becomes very influential on work done by muscles. Horses will typically complete several repetitions of swimming a length of the pool with varying rest breaks depending on the trainer’s fitness plan.

Fitness testing methods may include blood-lactate tests, monitoring of respiratory and exercising heart rate, recovery rate from exercise—with the fitter the horse, the quicker the recovery rate. Like on dry treadmills, the controlled indoor nature of the hydrotherapy environment lends itself well to applying various fitness testing equipment as opposed to some of the environmental constraints often found in-field exercise environments such as out on a gallops. In contrast, to the respiratory system, the horse’s muscular system has great potential for improvement, and targeted use of hydrotherapy can be hugely beneficial. Muscles are arguably the most adaptive structures in the body; consistent and targeted exercise makes them effective energy providers and force producers. As part of muscle development, the individual muscle strands (myofibrils) increase in thickness (diameter) and muscle cell length; increase in muscle cell number is limited to the prenatal and immediate postnatal development. Therefore, muscle growth in the adolescent horse primarily concerns increased thickness of fibers. During exercise, miniscule micro-tears occur that are repaired and result in greater cross-sectional area of muscle mass over time. It is this occurrence that dictates the need for adequate rest and recovery following a period of exercise in order to allow these micro-tears to repair themselves fully. Once the horse has achieved a diet of quality protein and a positive energy balance (i.e., more energy going in than is being used), the horse can begin to build muscle. There is a direct relationship between the range of motion available at a joint and the likely surrounding muscle mass. If the horse has a greater healthy range of motion, then this promotes development of quality muscle or hypertrophy. If the opposite occurs, a horse with a restricted range of motion at a joint, either due to pathology or weakness, lesser work is done at the joint resulting in long-term atrophy of muscle. Using a treadmill in shallow water helps to facilitate this relationship by providing a stimulus to increase range of

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• Hydrotherapy as a corrective aid As well as being used to develop muscle in the generally poorly muscled horse, hydrotherapy has been proven anecdotally to be an excellent method of correcting maladaptive or asymmetrical muscle buildup. This may have occurred following injury or from overuse of one side of the body. There are emerging clinical controlled trials looking at the benefits which are linked at the end of this article. Using a treadmill to work the horse in straight lines can be particularly useful where exercise on a circle is contraindicated. As mentioned above, the intricate control that the trainer has, coupled with the ability to view almost every angle of the horse during water treadmill exercise, means that the exercise can be quickly adapted to suit the horse’s capabilities. For example, if the horse is tiring significantly or beginning to compensate, the intensity can be adjusted quickly instead of the horse adopting a maladaptive gait to continue. Unless the distinct biomechanical effects are explained, one may wonder how and why in some cases the small amount of water on the treadmill is beneficial to the horse’s performance and fitness. First, we must consider the proprioceptive influence of water on the horse: Proprioception refers to the horse’s self-awareness and ability to place their limbs correctly; water provides stimulation to this additional sense. By adding just a small amount of water to the treadmill, say around coronet band height, the horse begins to increase the flexion through their limbs to “clear the water” as the air space above the water provides the path of least resistance. With increased flexion comes increased work done by the muscles, in particular the limb flexors. Working this much harder you begin to see the horse really use their body—lowering of the head, engagement of the core musculature, and hindlimbs stepping underneath their barrel. By raising

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| TRAINING |

the water further, you are able to increase these benefits to a point. Individual horses will differ, but they will then begin to walk “through” the water rather than stepping over it; here the trainer is then able to utilize the property of resistance further. Aside from the benefits of variation on the horse’s energetic body systems, the horse’s mental state greatly benefits from a change in surroundings. A number of studies as well as anecdotal evidence shows the benefit of variation in a training routine and avoiding mental “burnout” from repetitive training environments.

• Typical hydrotherapy protocols The use of interval training is commonly used in land-based exercise and can also be utilized in the hydrotherapy setting whereby repeated spells of hard work are interspersed with rest or less intense work, allowing the horse to recover to some degree their resting heart rate. Consistent use of this training method conditions the horse’s cardiovascular and muscular systems—over time requiring the horse to recover quicker before commencing the next spell of exercise. When using a water treadmill, spells of high-intensity exercise can either take the form of increased speed or increased water depth; and the trainer can elect to use this in varying forms to suit the trainer’s desired outcomes for the horse. Different centers will work differently, but a typical 10% water fill will reach approximately to the horse’s coronet band, eliciting a proprioceptive response and making the horse reach up and over the water. This is generally considered a height that will begin to tone muscles already present. A 30% treadmill fill will typically reach the fetlock or low cannon bone; here a similar response is seen with increased flexion through the limb joints as the horse steps higher to clear the water. With this, there is greater vertical displacement of the pelvis.

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| HYDROTHERAPY FOR PERFORMANCE |

Typically you will see an increased rounding of the spine and engagement of the horse’s core musculature. Next you have a 50% fill—generally water reaches the carpus height. This harnesses a different water property in that the horse now moves their limbs through the water, utilizing resistance of the water. A multifaceted, well-rounded hydrotherapy session would typically include short spells at various heights once the horse was well-established working on the treadmill. An example interval session on a treadmill may take the form of: • 1-2 minutes dry treadmill warmup; speed generally measured in m/s and adjusted according to the horse’s natural walking speed. • 1-2 minutes at lowest water height to provide a gentle increase in stimulus and workload done by the horse’s body. •S everal bursts of work at various lower heights, possibly increasing and decreasing speed accordingly. • At the peak or middle of the session, the highest water height for that horse may be selected for a shorter time; this may be where the horse works anaerobically for a period of time depending on fitness. • Depending on fitness and desired outcomes, the horse may continue with a couple more spells of lower intensity work before performing a cool down on the dry treadmill. At this time, a trainer may choose to monitor the time taken for the horse’s vital signs to return to pre-exercise levels.

A horse walking on the water treadmill in a functionally correct posture, stretching over the back.

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Horses typically have an inverted back posture when working in a swimming lane. As a result, this method of hydrotherapy may not be appropriate for horses with weak backs or previous back injury.

• A look at the different equipment available Many commercial establishments now offer hydrotherapy sessions for equines with centers offering various services, including swimming pools, water walkers and treadmills. It is important for the therapist or trainer utilizing these to correctly clinically reason their use and apply correct treatment protocol in order to benefit performance and rehabilitation. If the trainer wishes to have a high degree of control over the various parameters available, then a water treadmill would be a suitable choice—with speed, water depth and incline all manageable via a set of controls. This means that bespoke interval training programs are easy to design for targeting specific aspects of each horse’s fitness. On the other hand, a swimming lane also provides a challenging workout for the horse where the trainer can still influence rest breaks between each length repetition without the need of fine tuning the controls; and horses will generally swim at their own pace. When considering if training on a circle or in straight lines is preferable, the trainer has several options. Water walkers will train the horse on a circle with the inside limb taking greater load and the outside limb is required to complete greater ground coverage. On the contrary, both swimming lanes and water treadmills will train the horse in a straight line, which is often considered beneficial in a rehabilitation setting, especially for gait correction, rehabilitation of spinal pathology and straightness training. Training on a circle does have its benefits when applied at the correct time in a rehabilitation program, but as with most training, an adopted ethos of “little and often” is practical. Using a swimming lane for horses that are weak through the back or have previous back pathology would not be ideal given the fact that horses generally swim quite hollow through their backs, keeping their

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| HYDROTHERAPY FOR PERFORMANCE |

THE USE OF HYDROTHERAPY SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS AN ADJUNCT TO A HORSE’S TRAINING REGIMEN. IT IS NOT LIMITED TO USE IN TIMES OF INJURY BUT INSTEAD AS A POTENTIALLY INFLUENTIAL TRAINING METHOD TO ADD TO A TRAINER’S REPERTOIRE.” noses up out of the water to breathe. This posture is counterproductive for the horse with back pathology where a rounded, engaged and lengthened spinal posture is beneficial for long-term musculoskeletal health. When it comes to the utilization of buoyancy and hydrostatic pressure, the swimming lane is the most effective method, given that it provides the greatest degree of body submission under water. It will provide the greatest degree of whole-body resistance when compared to the water treadmill, where water depths may not reach above hock height. In summary, having reviewed the physiological effects of exercise in a hydrotherapy application, the use of hydrotherapy should be considered as an adjunct to a horse’s training regimen. It is not limited to use in times of injury but instead as a potentially influential training method to add to a trainer’s repertoire.

Thanks to Dr. Jessica York for her assistance in the development of this article. Further research studies concerning hydrotherapy can be found below: • Kinematics of the equine axial skeleton during aqua-treadmill exercise, York, 2017 • Effect of water depth on amount of flexion and extension of joints of the distal aspects of the limbs in healthy horses walking on an underwater treadmill, Mendez-Angulo et al., 2013

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JUSTICE ON TRACK:

REAL-WORLD LESSONS FROM A THOROUGHBRED COURT C ASE

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Peter J. Sacopulos

Morning training of Thoroughbreds at tracks is standard to the industry. So too are exercise riders losing their mounts and loose horses. Less standard is a collision between horses resulting in civil litigation. This article examines such a case and several issues important to Thoroughbred trainers including the Sports Activity Doctrine.

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• From routine to unforeseen Monday, May 7, 2018, dawned clear and cool at the Indiana Grand racetrack in Shelbyville, Ind. Jeremy Staley, who worked as an assistant groom for Michael E. Lauer Racing Stables, prepped a chestnut mare named Accessorizing for a routine morning training session. Accessorizing is owned by the trainer’s wife. The four-year-old had chalked up an impressive three first-place finishes in just under two years, and the Lauers were confident she had a bright future ahead. As expected, Mr. Staley met with a licensed jockey named Marcelle Martins. Martins had offered to exercise horses free of charge. Several trainers had taken her up on it, including Mike Lauer. Lauer had four decades of experience as a trainer and knew that Martins was a skilled horsewoman with a valid jockey license. Each received something of value from the transaction. For Lauer, it was the chance to test a potential hire while saving the expense of an exercise rider. For Martins, it was the chance to showcase her skills for a successful trainer and a shot at mounts in future races. Neither Martins nor Lauer presented or signed any paperwork. It was the kind of easy, informal agreement that happens all the time in professional horse racing. Martins mounted Accessorizing and began the workout. Of course, she was not the only rider on the track that day. A number of other exercise riders were putting horses through their paces, and the track’s outriders were on duty. Everything went as expected until Martins and Accessorizing rounded a turn. The mare began ignoring Martins’ commands. Martins was unable to gain control of the reins. Martins lost her balance and mount, and Accessorizing was loose and headed toward a group of horses that included Glitter Cat. Glitter Cat was owned by Civiol Cruz, who was taking his horse through its own morning exercise routine. Accessorizing collided with Glitter Cat. Cruz was thrown to the ground and injured. The clocker had sounded the loose horse alert. Cruz was loaded into an ambulance and taken to a local hospital. Martins was roughed up but did not require a trip to the ER. Remarkably, neither Accessorizing nor Glitter Cat sustained serious injuries.

• The lawsuit On July 2, 2018, Civilo Cruz filed a civil lawsuit. The suit named the track, the training business, the owner/trainer, and Marcelle Martins as defendants. Cruz alleged in his complaint that the owner of the track failed to provide adequate safety precautions and protections. He also ISSUE 58 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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alleged that the existing safety systems, including the loose horse siren, failed to function properly. Cruz further alleged that, as owner/trainers, the Lauers knowingly allowed an unqualified employee to ride a dangerous horse, consciously putting others at risk. Finally, Cruz claimed Marcelle Martins was an unqualified exercise rider who had acted recklessly by losing control of her mount. Simply put, Cruz and his attorneys alleged that the defendants were responsible for the accident because they behaved recklessly and/or negligently. Cruz demanded the defendants pay his medical bills that totaled over $60,000. He also sought compensation for lost income and for pain and suffering.

CRUZ AND HIS ATTORNEYS ALLEGED THAT THE DEFENDANTS WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACCIDENT BECAUSE THEY BEHAVED RECKLESSLY AND/OR NEGLIGENTLY.”

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• Insurance and liability The owner and trainer had purchased a ranch insurance policy. A ranch insurance policy is something of a hybrid between a consumer homeowner’s policy and a commercial policy. While policies vary, a ranch policy typically offers the protections of homeowner’s insurance, providing coverage for theft, burglary, fire and certain natural disasters. Similar to a homeowner’s policy, a ranch policy also offers specified levels of liability protection should someone be injured on the property. Ranch policies also include commercial protection, covering business assets and activities associated with the property, such as animals, equipment, and outbuildings. The policy’s liability protections extend to commercial activities as well. In many instances, a ranch policy may provide coverage beyond the physical location of the ranch. However, these policies vary. Therefore, had a visitor been injured by a horse on the Lauers’ Kentucky ranch, the company that issued the policy would have been involved in determining fault. If the injured party was not at fault, the policy would afford coverage within the limits of the policy. If an incident or injury resulted in a lawsuit, the insurer would provide a defense, including payment of legal costs and judgments per the limits of the policy. Confusion and misunderstandings about insurance coverage abound in the Thoroughbred racing world. What is clear is that trainers and owners should give serious consideration to securing business insurance that specifically covers equine athletic activity. A reputable equine insurance professional will ensure that you have a policy that fits your needs.

| JUSTICE ON TRACK |

THE TRACK’S ATTORNEYS MAINTAINED THAT THE SAFEGUARDS IT HAD IN PLACE WERE APPROPRIATE AND FUNCTIONING AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT.”

Kevin Lavin, director of equine insurance at Sterling Thompson in Louisville, Ky., explains, “If an equine policy contains an athletic activity exclusion, a liability exposure exists for Thoroughbred trainers and owners.” Evan Beauchamp of Equine Insurance Specialists in Lexington notes: “At the bare minimum, trainers should have a liability policy that covers their training operation. In fact, in many areas, proof of liability coverage is required to participate in racing activities.”

• Mounting a defense The defendants had a strong and solid defense to Mr. Cruz’ allegations. In fact, many points of the owner and trainer’s defense and the track’s defense overlapped. Counsel for the defendants moved that the case be dismissed before proceeding to trial. Such a dismissal is known as a “summary judgment.” A summary judgment is a motion seeking a ruling in favor of the moving party. To be successful, the moving party must show that there are no genuine issues as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. It might be assumed that Indiana’s Equine Activity Law, which limits lawsuits against individuals and businesses involved in horse-related activities, played a role in these motions. However, in most states, the Equine Activity Statutes do not apply to horse racing. This meant the Sports Activity Doctrine formed the core of the defense. The Sports Activity Doctrine holds that, in most situations, an individual participating in a sport understands and accepts the

inherent risks involved. Because the individual willingly exposes himself or herself to those risks, the Sports Activity Doctrine places limits on a participant’s ability to sue if he or she is injured. Of course, there are exceptions. If the injuries suffered are due to someone else’s negligence, recklessness, or intent to cause harm, legal action may establish that the injured party is owed a “duty of care.” The track, owner, and trainer asserted that Mr. Cruz had willingly and knowingly participated in a dangerous sports activity, accepting the risks involved. All defendants also asserted that the accident was of the type known to occur during such activity, and no one involved acted with recklessness, negligence, or the intent to harm. The track’s attorneys maintained that the safeguards it had in place were appropriate and functioning at the time of the accident. The owner and trainer pointed out that Marcelle Martins was licensed as a jockey by state regulators, and that her license qualified her to be an exercise rider, proving she was qualified to ride Accessorizing. Further, the owner and trainer’s defense maintained that Martins was not an employee, but rather an independent contractor.

• Employees and independent contractors An issue not decided by the trial court was whether Marcelle Martins was an employee or an independent contractor at the time of the incident. Martins had exercised horses for multiple trainers on the morning of May 7, 2018. The possibility of Martins being determined to be an employee of the trainer ISSUE 58 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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TRAINERS RETAINING EXERCISE RIDERS OR ANYONE ELSE ON A “PER ASSIGNMENT” BASIS SHOULD ESTABLISH THAT THESE INDIVIDUALS ARE INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS, NOT EMPLOYEES.” would have been contrary to the nature of the business. Therefore, the Lauers sought a determination of Marcelle Martins’ status on appeal. The issue of exercise riders being employees or independent contractors was not unique to this case. A brief discussion of the differences and distinctions between employee and independent contractor for trainers is important. Employees work directly for an individual or company. They are on the payroll, under the direction of the employer, and often receive benefits, such as sick time, paid vacation and health insurance. An employer is responsible for the actions of his/her employee(s) and specific payments toward an employee’s Social Security, unemployment insurance and Medicare funding. An independent contractor is an individual or company that operates as an independent business entity. Independent contractors often establish their own schedule, provide their own equipment, and are responsible for their own Social Security and Medicare payments. They are also typically responsible for their own business and health insurance retirement funding, and so on. Whether one is an employee or independent contract is a recurring issue in the racing business. Mr. Cruz argued that Ms. Martins was an employee; the owner and trainer argued that she was an independent contractor.

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Trainers retaining exercise riders or anyone else on a “per assignment” basis should establish that these individuals are independent contractors, not employees. Having a simple contractor agreement that is signed before any work is performed is ideal, as is creating a record of work assigned and payments issued. If the work requires a license, check the license, and make sure it is up to date. Doing so will go a long way toward protecting your business.

• A decision and an appeal On November 21, 2019, the trial court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, holding that the Sports Activity Doctrine applied and that the track and the Lauers were entitled to judgment as a matter of law. In doing so, the court ruled that Cruz had not provided adequate evidence that the track, trainer, owner or the exercise rider had engaged in reckless or negligent behavior, nor that any of them owed him a “duty of care.” Pursuant to the Sports Activity Doctrine, Cruz had been injured while participating in an inherently risky activity. However, the court did not dismiss the issue of whether Martins was an independent contractor or employee, providing a possible avenue of appeal.

• The court conducts a review Counsel for Mr. Cruz appealed the trial court’s decision. The Court of Appeals, in affirming the trial court’s decision, reviewed the Sports Activity Doctrine. In doing so, the court reviewed and relied upon Indiana’s Sports Activity Doctrine authority that has been applied to date. The discussion reviewed three cases that used the Sports Activity Doctrine. Those cases and a brief synopsis of those decisions follow.

• In South Shore Baseball vs. DeJesus, a woman seated just outside of an area protected by netting was injured by a foul ball. She filed suit, largely based on the claim that the ballpark’s netting and other safety precautions were inadequate. South

| JUSTICE ON TRACK | Shore Baseball asserts a defense based on the Sports Activity Doctrine. The state supreme court dismissed her case. The court found the netting and warnings to be adequate and determined that the woman had willingly exposed herself to the type of accidents known to occur in ballparks.

• In Pfenning vs. Lineman, a teenager attending a golf tournament was injured by a golf ball while driving a beverage cart on a golf course. She filed suit, claiming negligence. The defense relied on the Sports Activity Doctrine. The court ruled that the young woman had accepted the risks associated with a sporting event, and in a decision viewed as expanding the protections of the Sports Activity Doctrine, that participants in a sport cannot be held liable for accidents if their conduct is within the range of acceptable behavior for that sport.

• In Megenity vs. Dunn, a woman bracing a large punching bag at a karate event was injured when another participant delivered a more powerful type of kick than instructed. This case also found its way to the state supreme court. The defendant relied on and advanced a defense based on the Sports Activity Doctrine. The judges ruled that because sports are “imprecise and intense,” courts must look at the sport in general, and not focus on unintentional, in-the-moment mishaps occurring within the range of acceptable behavior.

• A decision is made On June 26, 2020, the Indiana Court of Appeals dismissed Cruz’s suit against defendants, citing precedents established in the cases summarized above. The court ruled that the track’s safety systems met acceptable standards, and that none of the track’s personnel had acted recklessly or negligently. The appeals court also ruled that the precedents and protections defined by Pfenning and Megenity shielded the exercise rider, Martins, from liability. Because Martins could not be held liable, the owner, trainer and Lauer Stables could not be held liable regardless of the nature of her employment. The court noted that the Lauer Stables could potentially have been held liable if 1.) Martins had deliberately intended to harm others and 2.) Mike Lauer had been aware of such intentions but made no effort to prevent her from doing so. However, there was no evidence supporting either of these hypothetical situations. The court also ruled that there was no evidence that Accessorizing was any more dangerous than a typical Thoroughbred racehorse, vindicating the trainer and owner. Finally, the court found no that there were no facts disputing Marcelle Martins’ status as an independent contractor. Having represented individuals and entities in the equine industry for more than 15 years, there are a few “take away” points. First, do not assume that equine activity statutes and/or the Sports Activity Doctrine offer ironclad protection or defenses against liability actions. Second, work with an equine insurance professional to assure you and your business have the necessary coverage. Third, classify and document business interactions to limit disputes regarding whether assistants are employees or independent contractors.

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SCIENTISTS DISCOVER PERFORMANCE INHIBITING

SPINAL PRESSURE UNDER ROLLERS Reducing pressure under the saddle, bridle and girth has been found to significantly improve performance, and now the roller has been scientifically tested. 56

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Dr. Russell Mackechnie-Guire North Lodge Equine

| LUNGING ROLLER RESEARCH |

L

ost training days, treatment and medication for back problems are time consuming and costly, so optimizing equine spinal health from early on is an essential consideration in improving equine health and welfare. When a young horse is started, one of its first experiences is to have tack on its back, initially a lunging roller. The roller, a seemingly harmless piece of equipment and its effect on the horse, has previously been overlooked. However, it has now come under scientific scrutiny by the same research team that investigated the impact of pressure distribution under the saddle, bridle and girth on equine health and performance. Their recent study used high-tech pressure mapping to examine the pressures exerted on the horse’s back during lunging (see technology panel). Localized areas of high pressures were consistently recorded under the roller on the midline of the horse’s back directly over the spinous processes in the region of the 10th and 12th thoracic vertebrae (T10-T12, see anatomy panel). High pressure directly in this region, as seen under a conventional roller, is likely to cause the horse to seek a compensatory locomotor strategy and adopt a posture where the back is stiffened and hollowed, resulting in an extended spine. Previous research has shown that back function and gallop kinematics are compromised by a stiffened spine. Studies have demonstrated that pressure-relieving modifications in a saddle result in increased stride length and hip flexion, along with a greater femur-tovertical angle (indicating that the hindleg is being brought forward more as the horse gallops). Reducing saddle pressures leads to a marked improvement in the horse’s locomotion, allowing it to gallop more efficiently.

Alleviating pressure encourages spinal flexion T10 T12

The roller is positioned over the part of the back where the front half of the saddle sits; by applying these principles, modifying the roller to remove pressure would allow unhindered back function. The equine back is an essential component of the locomotor apparatus, transferring biomechanical forces from the hindlimb. So, a modified roller will not only result in improved locomotion and performance but will also have long-term spinal health benefits.

• Strong start In racing, where lunging is primarily used prior to backing, what we do to and the equipment we use on the young horses in the preparatory stages are likely to have a significant impact on the development of the horse’s posture, back health and locomotion. If a young horse begins the training process of being lunged with a roller that exerts pressure directly on the spine at T10-T12, it will develop a strategy to compensate for the discomfort. Then, as the horse progresses to a saddle—which similarly exerts high pressure in the same area—it is inevitable that this will have an effect on the locomotor system. The horse’s athletic performance will be significantly compromised before it even gets on the track. Innovative pressure-relieving modifications in tack design have demonstrated improved locomotion when pressure is reduced. Identifying and replacing any equipment that has limiting effects on locomotion or development could have long-term benefits for the longevity and performance of the horse. This applies particularly to the lunging roller as it is the first piece of tack a youngster has on its back. It is essential that the horse does not develop a locomotor strategy to compensate at this stage.

Fig 1: A modified roller that removes pressure will allow the back to function without restriction.

Spinal pressure causes hollowing

T10 T12

FIG 1

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• Under pressure

• Lunging for rehab

In a recent study, horses were lunged on a 20-meter circle on both reins in trot and canter wearing a roller fitted with pads. In canter, peak pressures were seen each time the inside forelimb was in stance (on the ground). In trot, pressure peaks occurred each time a forelimb was in stance phase. Given that the horse is experiencing high pressures under the roller directly on the spine in the region of T10-T12 in every repeated motion cycle (stride), it is inevitable that a compensation strategy will develop. When trotting and cantering with no attachments, such as side reins or training aids, peak pressures under the center of the roller were found to be similar to those seen under the saddle with a rider on board. Studies have shown pressures over 30kPa can cause back discomfort. In this study, researchers measured pressures up to 35kPa directly on the midline of the horse’s spine, in every stride, with just a roller and pad. With side reins attached, the location of the peak pressure was brought further towards the front edge of the roller. Essentially, the pull of the side reins caused a ridge of pressure under the roller, and the readings increased to 45kPa.

In addition to the backing process, lunging also occurs during other influential periods of a horse’s life, including rehabilitation after surgery. Post-operative recommendations for kissing spines can often include lunge work with training aids to induce spinal flexion and opening up of dorsal spinous processes. In these cases, if horses are being rehabilitated wearing a roller which creates high pressure on the very area it is supposed to be improving, it is likely that the benefits of using any training aid will be diluted. It is also likely that lunging for rehabilitation using a roller which creates high pressures will have a detrimental effect on any veterinary or physiotherapy program.

• Compensation costs Compensatory gait strategies lead to asymmetric forces which have a negative effect on limb kinematics (movement). The consideration here is that the horse is experiencing these locomotor compromises before the back has been conditioned to manage the increased forces, and before a jockey has even sat on its back. It remains to be shown whether the compensatory gait and asymmetric forces caused by early roller pressure manifest as lameness or loss of performance later on. There is a coexisting relationship between back problems and limb lameness, but evidence is still being gathered as to which one comes first. Researchers are investigating to what extent loss of performance and lameness issues might be traced back to these “training and backing” experiences. It is therefore essential that young horses are started with correctly fitting equipment to limit any long-term effect.

FIG 2

• Assess all areas Thanks to advances in recent research developments and design, it is now possible to take a more holistic view and examine the whole horse when looking at training tack. Of course, there are benefits from making modifications to individual items, but maximum gains are achieved when the whole locomotor apparatus can function without restriction. For example, girth pressure has been the subject of extensive investigation, and a modified girth design which relieves peak pressures behind the elbow has been proven to significantly improve gallop kinematics. Combining a pressure-relieving lunging roller with a girth designed to de-restrict the musculature will maximize locomotor benefits. Bridle design has also been shown to have a significant impact on the horse’s locomotor apparatus. When bridle pressure is reduced and stability is improved by using a correctly-fitted noseband, gait analysis shows an increase in forelimb extension and a greater range of hindlimb motion. Using a modified bridle when lunging will enhance the benefits afforded by the roller and girth. Each modification is a step towards improving comfort, which will improve athletic performance.

CONVENTIONAL ROLLER Conventional CONVENTIONAL ROLLER Conventional Conventional Conventional Conventional rollerroller roller roller Conventional Conventional Conventional rollerroller roller roller WITHOUT ATTACHMENTS WITH SIDE REINS with with side-reins with side-reins with side-reins side-reins without without attachments without without attachments attachments attachments

NEW ROLLER DESIGN

New New roller New roller design New roller design roller design design WITH SIDE REINS with with side-reins with side-reins with side-reins side-reins

45.0045.00 45.00 45.00 35.0035.00 35.00 35.00 25.0025.00 25.00 25.00 15.0015.00 15.00 15.00

PRESSURE MAPPING DURING LUNGING Conventional roller - 35kPa pressure directly on the spine at T10 Conventional roller & side reins - pressure consistent at T10 but increases at T11 and T12 to 45kPa New roller design, even with side reins - all pressure is removed from the spine

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T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

T10

10.00 10.00 T1010.0010.00

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

T12

6.00 6.006.006.00 1.00 1.001.001.00 1.00 1.001.001.00 kPa kPa kPa kPa

| LUNGING ROLLER RESEARCH |

MODIFIED ROLLER DESIGN

A new design of roller, based on a tree similar to that used in a saddle, alleviates pressures directly on the midline of the back by ensuring clearance of the spinal processes is maintained while the horse is moving (Fig 3). High pressure was recorded directly on the spine (T10-T12) under conventional rollers (with pads) used by the majority of yards. Even when used with pads, these rollers still draw down on to the spine when the horse is in motion because they have no integral support to ensure that clearance of the spinous processes is maintained.

FIG 3

FIG 4

1 4

5

2 3

• New roller design Built on a contoured tree to maintain spinal clearance Splayed girth straps stabilise the roller even when side reins are attached natomic long elasticated girth provides A optimum clearance behind the elbows and increases freedom of movement Can be adjusted to accommodate horses from narrow to wide Built-in pressure relieving pads cushion the musculature at either side of the spine

1

• Reins and rings Usually, side reins are attached around one or both of the roller’s “girth straps”. The lunging study demonstrated that this pulls the front edge of the roller forward, increasing pressures on the horse’s back. A roller with ring attachments tends to stay parallel to the horse’s back during motion—the ring provides articulation between the roller and the side rein, helping maintain stability. An added benefit of a design with extra rings is that it enables the roller to be used throughout the backing process. For example, stirrups can easily be attached to prepare the horse for the saddle.

4

5

2 3

• Conventional roller No integral strengthener to prevent roller drawing down onto the spine arrow girth straps cause instability and N tipping especially when used with side reins Short straight girth causes pressure behind the elbows and reduces freedom of movement Cannot be adjusted to fit different widths of horses dditional pads are used to increase comfort A but don’t prevent draw down onto the spine

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| LUNGING ROLLER RESEARCH |

FIG 6

THORACIC TRAPEZIUS MUSCLE T10 LATISSIMUS DORSI MUSCLE

T12

FIG 5

SPINAL ANATOMY

The area around the thoracic vertebrae T10-T13 (the base of the withers) is the location of a high concentration of muscle activity related to posture and movement. The Longissimus dorsi (m. longissimus dorsi) is a stabilizing muscle that’s most active at T12, and spinal stability is essential for the galloping Thoroughbred. This is because, in gallop, the forelimbs have to support two-and-a-half times the horse’s body weight with every stride. In addition, the cranial thoracic vertebra (where the saddle, roller or jockey is positioned) are responsible for force transfer from the forelimbs, head and neck. It’s the back that has to manage these high forces. The horse has no collarbone, and the forelimbs are attached to the trunk by the thoracic sling musculature. Some of the most influential and important thoracic sling muscles attach to the spine, so it’s easy to appreciate why spinal health is critically important. Any compromises in this area at any stage of the horse’s career will impact on performance. When compromises such as high pressures occur, the horse adopts a compensating strategy. It will still perform but will develop a gait that alleviates discomfort. Anatomical structures or locomotion patterns that have been affected by a compensatory gait will be disadvantaged in terms of performance and, potentially, more susceptible to increased risk of injury.

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PRESSURE TESTING

Pliance is the industry-standard method of measuring pressure on the horse’s body. It has been utilized extensively in research under saddles, and it can operate in all gaits, including gallop and jumping. A large mat with 128 individual pressure sensor cells on each side of the spine is usually positioned over the back, under the saddle. In this study, the mat was positioned transversely across the back, with sensors able to measure pressure directly on the spine. Initially the results are displayed as a moving colour-coded image, with areas of peak pressure showing as pink and red. Data regarding peak pressures, maximum force and mean force is also available, and is extracted and processed for statistical analysis.

Further reading • European Trainer Magazine, January-March 2020 • European Trainer Magazine, April-June 2020 • European Trainer Magazine, July-September 2020 •R Mackechnie-Guire, Local back pressure caused by a training roller during lunging with and without a Pessoa training aid, Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 67 (2018) •R Coomer, A controlled study evaluating a novel surgical treatment for kissing spines in standing sedated horses, Veterinary Surgery 41 (2012) •K Von Pienen, Relationship between saddle pressure measurements and clinical signs of saddle soreness at the withers, Equine Veterinary Journal 42 (2010) • F Henson, Equine Neck and Back Pathology, Wiley Blackwell (2009)

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Stride length variations are invaluable as they afford me the opportunity to correct issues prior to competition. The accuracy of the GPS timing component is a great comparative tool of my horses work. It also assists track riders with their times, which produces more consistency and accuracy in a horse’s work program. All in all, I thoroughly recommend the E-Trakka program to anyone who is serious about training racehorses.

Experienced Racetrack Veterinarian and Graded Stakes Winning Trainer Gregory Fox DVM will now be handling distribution and support in North America. www.etrakka.com.au | www.tbperformancediagnostics.com | (859) 533-1365 ISSUE 58 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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GRA DE 1 WI NN ING OWNE RS Not even a pandemic could prevent Thoroughbred racing from bringing people together.

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SHEIKH FAHAD AL THANI, STATON FLURRY, AUTRY LOWRY JR. - SHEDARESTHEDEVIL ow does a sheikh from Qatar, a parking lot owner in Hot Springs, Ark., and a fire captain from Benton, La., wind up partners on Shedaresthedevil—the Brad Cox-trained stakes-record winner of the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks? They all bought in. “At the end of the day, I’m happy to partner with anyone,” Sheikh Fahad said September 24th. “I haven’t met them, but they seem like nice people.” Lowry said, “It’s definitely a unique relationship.” Sheikh Fahad’s love of horses began as a child. “I’ve grown up with horses—a lot of Arabians,” he said. “I’ve always loved the horses. Not the Arabians that much. I dreamed of Thoroughbreds.” He made that dream real after studying in England. He tuned in to watch a steeplechase race on television in 2008, and liked it so much he watched it every week. In 2010, he saw his first live race. “I said, ‘I better try that,’’’ Sheikh Fahad said. “When I started, it was just myself. Then my brothers joined me. I had my first win in 2011—a great thrill. I definitely caught the bug.”

H

Bill Heller

Coady Photography, Coglianese Photos, Eclipse Sportswire

Dunaden was why. He captured the 2011 Gp1 Melbourne Cup, Australia’s premier race, and the Gp1 Hong Kong Vase. The following year, he won the Gp1 Caulfield Cup, completing his career with 10 victories from 46 starts. In 2014, Sheik Fahad’s QIPCO Holding became the first commercial partner of Royal Ascot by special royal permission. Now, Sheik Fahad’s horses race in England, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and in the United States with Fergus Galvin as his U.S. racing advisor. “I’ve had a lot of partnerships in California with Simon Callaghan as trainer,” Sheikh Fahad said. “I was out at Del Mar. I usually go to Del Mar.” Sheikh Fahad saw Shedaresthedevil finish third last year in the Gr2 Sorrento Stakes, a nose off second to the six-length winner Amalfi Sunrise. He was pleased with his filly’s third. “I thought she was a big filly,” he said. “I thought she’d do better as a three-year-old.” He had no idea.

I TOLD EVERYBODY THAT ASKED, I SAID, ‘ANYTHING BETTER THAN FOURTH WAS A BONUS, AND ANYTHING WORSE THAN FOURTH WAS A DISAPPOINTMENT.” STATON FLURRY ON SHEDARESTHEDEVIL’S CHANCES HEADING INTO THE OAKS

Staton Flurry didn’t grow up around Arabians, rather cars. His family has operated 10 to 11 parking lots around Oaklawn Park for more than 30 years. He estimates he was 12 or 13 when he began parking cars. “From the time I had sense enough to not run in front of cars,” he said. “You meet a lot of cool people.” Now 30, he graduated from Henderson State University with a degree in business administration. He used that education to claim his first horse, a five-year-old mare named Let’s Get Fiscal, with a few friends. “She won her second race for us,” he said. “She got claimed and I’ve been enjoying racing ever since.” Staton Flurry and Shedaresthedevil connections celebrate winning the 2020 Longines Kentucky Oaks.

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| GRADE 1 WINNING OWNERS |

He races as Flurry Racing Stables. “I got tired of my first name being mispronounced,” he said. Flurry was contacted by his bloodstock agent Clay Scherer to check out Shedaresthedevil, who had one win from four starts for Simon Callaghan and was entered as part of a package of two-year-olds offered at the 2019 Keeneland November Sale. The sheikh’s partners wanted out, but the sheikh felt differently. “I thought I’d give her a chance,” Sheikh Fahad said. “I believed in the filly.” Flurry said, “Before the sale, we were contacted by a representative from the sheikh. They were interested in keeping part of the filly, and they offered to go 50-50 on her.” Flurry said yes, giving a piece of his percentage to his buddy Lowry, who in turn, gave a piece to his father. The new partnership bought Shedaresthedevil for $280,000. Flurry and Lowry had become close friends after sharing a suite at Louisiana Downs. Lowry, who started going to that track when he was 14, races under Big Aut Farms. “We started off with a couple

I WAS HAPPY MY DAD WAS WITH ME. THAT’S PRICELESS. HE LIVES IN NORTH CAROLINA. WE DON’T GET TO SEE EACH OTHER THAT OFTEN. FOR US TO BE ABLE TO SHARE THAT TOGETHER WAS A VERY SPECIAL MOMENT.” AUTRY LOWRY JR.

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of broodmares,” he said. “Then another. I love the adrenaline—for the animal to give 110 percent and put out their maximum effort. They give everything they’ve got, and I appreciate it. They’re doing what they want to do.” Sheikh Fahad is having quite a year. His horse, Kameko, won the 2000 Guineas in Newmarket on June 6. Three months later, Shedaresthedevil won the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks. “He was just ecstatic to win a Classic in Europe and in the U.S.,” Galvin said. A couple weeks before the Kentucky Oaks, Sheikh Fahad got a call from Brad Cox. “He said, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news,’” Sheikh Fahad said. The good news was that Shedaresthedevil was training “as good as Monomoy Girl did heading into the Kentucky Oaks.” The bad news was that Shedaresthedevil would have to face two terrific fillies, Swiss Skydiver and Gamine. “I thought if we finish third or fourth, it would be a good result,” Sheikh Fahad said. Flurry said he was also realistic heading into the Oaks. “I told everybody that asked, I said, ‘Anything better than fourth was a bonus, and anything worse than fourth was a disappointment.” He got the bonus—a big bonus: his first Gr1 stakes. “I started jumping up and down, screaming, ‘We’re going to win the Oaks!” Lowry said, “It was surreal. I was hugging people. I was crying. People were calling me on the phone to congratulate us. I was happy my dad was with me. That’s priceless. He lives in North Carolina. We don’t get to see each other that often. For us to be able to share that together was a very special moment.”

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MYRACEHORSE STABLE ( WITH SPENDTHRIFT FARM, STARLIGHT RACING AND MADAKET STABLES) - AUTHENTIC artnerships have been flourishing in recent years, but there’s never been a partnership like this one: matching three well-known, long-tenured Thoroughbred groups with the upstart MyRacehorse Stable, and it’s 5,314 shareholders on Authentic. When Authentic turned back Tiz the Law to win the Kentucky Derby, MyRacehorse literally jumped from curiosity to game changer—a vision of founder and CEO Michael Behrens when MyRacehorse debuted in California only on Belmont Stakes Day in 2018. MyRacehorse went national in June, 2019. Now? “We had just under 1,000 people that signed up on Derby Day before the Derby,” Behrens said. “We never had that many in one day before. It was breathtaking actually.” That it happened with Wayne B. Hughes of Spendthirft Farm, who has backed MyRacehorse, made it even more meaningful. “They joined us in 2019,” MyRacehorse’s West Coast Manager Joe Moran said. “Mr. Hughes has been such a supporter of racing. It’s quite amazing.” Spendthrift was able to partner with MyRacehorse after buying a majority interest in Authentic. “It was a huge stepping stone for us,” Moran said. “It brought us credibility.” Behrens, 44, was the chief marketing officer for Casper, a start-up online mattress company with offices in Manhattan. Behrens lives in California. He’d always been a racing fan. “I spent a lot of time looking at reports, and I came to the conclusion that we needed a simple way to itch people’s curiosity about horse

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racing,” he said. “It’s very difficult to get people to try that. I figured if I could sell mattresses, why couldn’t I sell horses? There were racing clubs in Japan and Australia. Ownership was the way to go. I forced it. We’re all in on social media. You’ve got to give people information they want to share with their friends. That’s how you grow the product. “We had 5,314 winners, and almost all of them have been posting on Facebook, sharing their stories of winning the Kentucky Derby. That was always the vision. We did that with Casper. I just thought that those attributes would work here.” Shares in Authentic ranged from $206 for a one-thousandth of one percent to $70,000. That interest includes Authentic’s breeding career. “We had teachers, business leaders and big-time owners,” Moran said. “We had a gentleman in Ireland. On the morning of the Derby, he bought a share for $206. He got it off our website, and he shut out 10 other people when the horses loaded in the gate. Very cool.” And that was before the Derby. MyRacehorse’s website says “With micro-shares, you compete at the highest level for a fraction of the cost.” Perks for this one-time investment include “race-day privileges, winner’s circle access, meeting the trainer and jockey, updated entries and recaps, visits with your horse and race winnings paid directly to your on-line account.” Fred Riecke, MyRacehorse’s owner concierge, said, “The thrill for most people, if you buy one share, it’s the same as the cost of going out to dinner. This is something you can never match. How many people can say they have an ownership in a Kentucky Derby winner? We had people from Japan, Venezuela, Australia and Ireland. I talked to a guy yesterday from Dubai.” To help recruit new owners, Behrens recruited both Riecke and Moran. Riecke, 73, is a former high school teacher who always loved racing. “I’ve had other ventures as partners in horse racing, and it never amounted to anything but a lot of frustration

ABOVE: Authentic’s jockey John Velazquez, trainer Bob Baffert and connections celebrate Authentic’s 2020 Kentucky Derby win.

and sorrow,” he said. “I met these guys one day when I walked into Del Mar. Michael was in a tent. I talked to him and I was hooked. It was so affordable. I had always wanted to own. Michael is the most charismatic and brightest person I’ve ever met. Just brilliant.” Moran, whose father has owned horses for 35 years, was working as a groom and hotwalker for trainer Andy Mathis when he met Behrens at Del Mar. “He told me the rundown of his plan and asked me for my interest,” Moran said. “I told him he was crazy. He sure proved me wrong. Everything he said came to fruition. He wants the industry to grow.” Like Riecke, Moran decided to get on board trying to make that happen. “I don’t think we believed that in two years we’d win the Derby,” he said. “It’s really a dream come true.” MyRacehorse’s popularity has absorbed all of the stable’s horses. So it’s restocking. On its website, MyRacehorse is offering three prospects, all labeled “Coming Soon.” One is $229 for a .05 percent share; another is $173 for a 0.1 percent share, and the third in $35 for a .005 percent share. MyRacehorse’s ascension has been astounding. “It’s been unbelievably quick,” Behrens said. “I was sitting in a meeting with Wayne, figuring out how to take advantage of this opportunity of winning the Derby. I told him, ‘I’ve never had more fun.’ I literally don’t work. I want to celebrate the sport.”

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BLUE HEAVEN FARM - STARSHIP JUBILEE tarship Jubilee, a seven-year-old mare, was the 2019 Canadian Horse of the Year, and she just may repeat this year after winning five of her six starts, including the Gr1 Woodbine Mile. “She’s taken us to new heights,” Adam Corndorf, Blue Heaven Farm’s vice president and general manager, said. “And she’s brought four generations of our family together.” That’s quite an accomplishment for the former $6,500 yearling and $16,000 claimer, who was sold in the 2018 Keeneland November Sale after finishing fourth in the Gr1 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine. When she failed to reach her $425,000 RNA, Adam and his family scooped her up in a private deal. This family tale begins with Corndorf ’s grandfather, 99-year-old Sy Baskin; Corndorf ’s mother, Bonnie Baskin; Corndorf; and now Corndorf ’s very enthusiastic children, seven-year-old Henry and five-year-old Emma. Their story and their lives sure seemed headed in other directions. Sy, who had dabbled in partnerships in the Chicago area, had retired and moved to Florida. Bonnie, who splits her year between Minnesota and Texas, is an accomplished microbiologist who founded, served as CEO, and ultimately sold two science law companies. Then, in Johnson City, Texas, she founded the Science Mill, a science museum. “It’s a rural area, and it’s for kids who don’t normally have access to labs and museums,” she said.

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SHE’S TAKEN US TO NEW HEIGHTS, AND SHE’S BROUGHT FOUR GENERATIONS OF OUR FAMILY TOGETHER.” ADAM CORNDORF ON STARSHIP JUBILEE

| GRADE 1 WINNING OWNERS

Adam Corndorf & Bonnie Baskin

Adam was working for a law firm in New York City, specializing in mergers and acquisitions. He was there for four years before he redirected his life to horses. Bonnie picked up their story: “When my father turned 80, he calls me up and says, ‘I have an idea. What if I create a partnership with two other guys, and you and me buy a little higher-end horses?’ I had two young kids. I was divorced. I felt it could be my father’s last hurrah. I said, ‘Count me in.’”

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Two weeks later, he called back. The other two guys dropped out. He told her, “It would be just the two of us.” She replied, “Okay, let’s do it.” They created Sybon Racing Stables and used Taylor Made as their farm. The game plan was to buy three fillies at a 2001 Keeneland Sale. All three won. The best was multiple gradedstakes winner Ocean Drive for Todd Pletcher. “Todd was just starting out,” Bonnie said. “It was beginner’s luck. So we all got hooked. Adam got hooked.” Adam gave up his practice. “The legal profession in New York City was a grind,” he said. “It’s a wonderful city, and I met my wife Cynthia on the job at the same firm, but I didn’t see myself living there my whole life.” Adam worked for Pletcher for four months, then with Taylor Made. In 2004, Bonnie founded her own racing and breeding entity, Blue Heaven Farm, named after the 1928 Gene Austin song “My Blue Heaven.” Her father used to sing it to her as a little girl. They had been boarding their mares at Taylor Made, but decided to buy their own farm in central Kentucky in 2010. “I had sold my second company in 2008,” Bonnie said. “We had started growing our stable. It got to the point where we had critical mass. It made sense to have our own farm. Adam made the decision he was going to move to Kentucky.” Adam has never regretted that decision. “It’s been wonderful— for the quality of life, the experiences we’ve had and the friends we’ve made,” he said. “Zero regret and zero complaints.” Having Starship Jubilee hasn’t hurt. The Woodbine Mile was Blue Heaven’s first Gr1 stakes. “We felt confident going in,” Adam said. “She’s tough as nails. It was a great moment. It was amazing.”

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PETER J. CALLAHAN - SWISS SKYDIVER f ever there was a horse to shoot for the stars with, it was Peter J. Callahan’s Swiss Skydiver, named in honor of his granddaughter Callie, who sent him pictures of her skydiving in Sweden a month after he purchased the yearling filly. Two years later, Callahan, who is battling cancer, entered her against colts for the second time this year in the rescheduled Preakness Stakes. She gave the 78-year-old owner the thrill of a lifetime, grimly holding off Kentucky Derby winner Authentic to win the Preakness by a neck. She became the sixth filly to win the Classic, the first since 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra defeated Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” Callahan said. “It’s the best-looking trophy in Thoroughbred racing.” Trainer Kenny McPeek, who had purchased Swiss Skydiver at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $35,000—$15,000 less than Callahan had budgeted—convinced Callahan to give the Preakness a shot, making her the 55th three-year-old filly to contest the Preakness in its 145-year history. McPeek said, “He’s a great guy. He allows me to take chances.” One of them was nominating Swiss Skydiver for the Triple Crown. “We sat around with a glass of wine, and we talked about Triple Crown payments coming up,” Callahan said. “Kenny said, ‘We should nominate this girl.’ We take shots. That’s exactly what we do. A little out of the box, a little unconventional. I said, ‘I’ve never had a Triple Crown starter. I’m 78, and I’m sick. This could be my last chance.’” They had the right filly for it. Swiss Skydiver is an incredibly rugged filly, a throwback to a time when good horses raced frequently, crisscrossing the country to do so. The Preakness

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IT’S REMARKABLE, IT REALLY IS. SHE’S GOT A LOT OF FREQUENT FLIER MILES. WE’VE FLOWN HER EVERYWHERE. SHE HAS NO ACHES AND PAINS. SHE’S A FIGHTING BITCH.” PETER CALLAHAN ON SWISS SKYDIVER’S DURABILITY

was Swiss Skydiver’s ninth start this year at her ninth different racetrack. Robby Albarado became her sixth different jockey this year when he climbed aboard for the Preakness. Who does that anymore? Who has ever done that? “It’s remarkable,” Callahan said. “It really is. She’s got a lot of frequent flier miles. We’ve flown her everywhere. She has no aches and pains. She’s a fighting bitch.” Callahan, who says he is semi-retired, is the son of a New York City truck driver who put himself through college by delivering newspapers. He was the president of McFadden Publishing when it teamed up with a group of investors to purchase the National Enquirer—a supermarket tabloid—for $412 million in 1989, outbidding British media mogul Robert Maxwell and French publishing giant Hachette. He sold his interest 10 years later. “I’ve got print in my blood,” Callahan said. “The National Enquirer

| GRADE 1 WINNING OWNERS |

was a wonderful experience. I’m a little crazy, and we made a lot of money, and we had a lot of fun.” In 1998, Callahan became a minority owner of the Daily Racing Form, partnering with Alpine Capital, a group which included Steve Crist and Charlie Hayward.“I remember some of my partners said, ‘Are you crazy?’” Callahan said. “As it turned out, it was a lot of fun.” Callahan sold his interest in 2002. His top horses before Swiss Skydiver included Gr1 winner Bevo, Beautician, who earned more than $600,000, and Gr3 stakes winners Scotus and Fistfite. He co-bred 2017 Gr1 Pacific Classic winner Collected, who finished second in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Classic to Horse of the Year Gun Runner. Swiss Skydiver, now a cinch to be named ABOVE: (L-R) Kenny McPeek, Eclipse Champion Three-Year-Old Filly, has Robby Albarado, taken him on a unique journey. “Maybe a Peter Callahan month after we bought her, my granddaughter & Sherri McPeek was skydiving, and it was the time I usually name celebrating the my horses,” Callahan said. “I said, ‘This nut is 2020 Alabama Stakes win. jumping out of planes.’ This is a natural. Let’s put this name in the hopper.” The Jockey Club approved the name and Swiss Skydiver has been sensational, taking the Gr2 Gulfstream Park Oaks, the Gr3 Fantasy at Oaklawn Park and the Gr2 Santa Anita Oaks. Callahan and McPeek rolled the dice for the first time in

challenging males in the Gr2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. Swiss Skydiver ran well, finishing second by 3½ lengths to Art Collector. At Saratoga, Swiss Skydiver dominated her opponents in the Gr1 Alabama Stakes by 3½ lengths. She then finished second by a length and a half to Shedaresthedevil in the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. When Swiss Skydiver trained well after the Kentucky Oaks, McPeek convinced Callahan to challenge colts again in the Preakness, where she faced Art Collector again as well as Kentucky Derby winner Authentic. All she did was make history, making a long-time Thoroughbred lover and owner a very happy man.

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E

IPH (exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage) was first identified in racehorses in the 16th century. Since this time, the focus has been on mitigating the hemorrhage. Management of EIPH largely revolves around the use of furosemide, dependent of jurisdiction, which may or may not be used on the day of racing. Alternative and supportive therapies are becoming increasingly popular as trainers seek to find other means of reducing the risk or severity of EIPH. Nutrition and plant-based approaches are part of an alternative management program. While research is somewhat limited, the studies available are promising, and no doubt more work will be done as using furosemide becomes more restricted. There are several directions in which nutrition can influence risk for EIPH, including inflammatory response, blood coagulation, cell membrane structure, hypotension and reducing known lung irritants.

The various approaches are all supportive, working on altering an element of risk associated with the condition. Some are more direct than others, focusing on the effect on red blood cells, while others work on some of the broader lung health issues such as reducing mucus or environmental irritants. None are competitive with each other, and there may be an advantage to a “cocktail” approach where more than one mode of action is employed. This is a common practice with herbal-based supplements where the interactive effects between herbs are known to improve efficacy.

• Cell membrane The red blood cell membrane—the semipermeable layer surrounding the cell—is made up of lipids and proteins. The makeup of this membrane, particularly the lipid fraction, appears to be modifiable in response to dietary fatty acids. Researchers feeding 50mls of fish oil found a significant increase in the percentage of omega-3’s in the cell membrane. Essential fatty acids (EFA’s), omega-3 and omega-6, are important cell membrane components and determine cellular membrane fluidity. Fluidity of a cell membrane is important, particularly when pressure increases, as a cell membrane lacking in fluidity is more likely to break. A cell that can deform, effectively changing rather than breaking, has an advantage and is linked with improved exercise performance in human studies.

Catherine Rudenko

Eclipse Sportswire

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levels and inflammation post-exercise gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) in Thoroughbred racehorses levels and inflammation post-exercise in Thoroughbred racehorses

| NUTRITION |

| CAN NUTRITION INFLUENCE EIPH? |

BELOW: Kentucky Equine Research study results.

Eight fit Thoroughbred racehorses in training at the Kentucky Equine Research Performance Center in Ocala, Florida, were used in a 28-day study to assess the effect Eight fit Thoroughbred racehorses in training at the of long-chain omega-3 (EO-3TM) supplementation and Kentucky Equine Research Performance Center in Ocala, exercise on blood serum gamma-glutamyl transferase Florida, were used in a 28-day study to assess the effect (GGT) levels and inflammation. of long-chain omega-3 (EO-3TM) supplementation and exercise on blood serum gamma-glutamyl transferase Four of the horses were supplemented daily with 60 mL (GGT) levels and inflammation. fo horses served as controls and (2 oz) of EO-3, while four received the same feed without EO-3. All horses were fed Four of the horses were supplemented daily with 60 mL 13-15 lb (6-7 kg) of a commercial racing feed (12% protein, fo horses served as controls and (2 oz) of EO-3, while four 8% fat) with free-choice timothy hay. During the study received the same feed without EO-3. All horses were fed the horses were galloped 3 times per week (1-1.5 miles 13-15 lb (6-7 kg) of a commercial racing feed (12% protein, per session) on a racetrack and jogged 3 times per week 8% fat) with free-choice timothy hay. During the study (30 min per session) on a mechanical exerciser. At the the horses were galloped 3 times per week (1-1.5 miles conclusion of the 28 days, the horses performed an per session) on a racetrack and jogged 3 times per week exercise test on the racetrack that consisted of a warm(30 min per session) on a mechanical exerciser. At the up jog, 10-furlong (2,000-m) gallop, and a 2-furlong conclusion of the 28 days, the horses performed an (400-m) breeze. Blood samples were taken before exercise test on the racetrack that consisted of a warmexercise as well as 2 and 4 hours post-exercise. up jog, 10-furlong (2,000-m) gallop, and a 2-furlong (400-m) breeze. Blood samples were taken before The horses supplemented with EO-3 had significantly exercise as well as 2 and 4 hours post-exercise. lower (p<0.05) GGT levels 2 andthe 4 hours ABOVE: Inclusion of fish oil in the diet increases abilitypost-exercise of red compared to the control horses. This may have resulted EPA and DHA, blood cells to deform. The horses supplemented with EO-3 had significantly specific forms from a reduction in inflammation observed post-exercise Kansas State University investigated the 4 effect of omega lower (p<0.05) GGT levels 2 and hours post-exercise of omega-3 in the horses fed EO-3. supplementation onto10the Thoroughbreds overThis a five-month compared control horses. may have resulted fatty acids period. The was supplemented with either EPA and commonly fromdiet a reduction in inflammation observed post-exercise DHA combined, or DHA onEO-3. its own. EPA (eicosapentaenoic found in oily in the horses fed fish are well acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) are specific evidenced for Supplements for bleeders will often contain relatively forms of omega-3 fatty acids commonly found in oily fish. their effect in 3910 Delaneythe Ferry Road, KY 40383 ker.comof• +1.859.873.1988 high doses of antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin When supplementing diet with Versailles, both EPA and DHA, aUSA •regulation E to support antioxidant status in the horse and reduce reduction in EIPH was seen at 83 days and again at 145 inflammation. risk of damage to cell membranes. Vitamin C has also days. Feeding DHA on its own did not produce an effect. 3910 Delaney Ferry Road, Versailles, KY 40383 USA • ker.com • +1.859.873.1988 been shown to benefit horses with recurrent airway Fish oil contains both EPA and DHA and is readily obstruction and increase antibody response. Dose available, although the smell can be off-putting to both rates required for an effect range from 15-20g per day. horse and human. There are flavored fish oils specifically RIGHT: If including high doses of vitamin C in the diet, it is designed for use in horses that overcome the aroma Kentucky important to note that any sudden withdrawal can have challenge and have good palatability. Equine negative effects. Gradual withdrawal is needed to allow Research • Inflammatory response and oxidative stress study results. the body’s own mechanisms for vitamin C production to recognize and respond to the change in status. Airway inflammation and the management of this Rosehips are natural potent antioxidants containing inflammatory process is believed to be another pathway many active substances. Research into the effect of in which EIPH can be reduced. Omega-3 fatty acids are rosehips specifically on red blood cells has shown they well evidenced for their effect in regulation of inflammation, have a high efficacy when assessing their ability to and this mode of action along with effect on cell membrane ameliorate cell damage. fluidity is likely part of the positive result found by Kansas State University. • Hypotensive herbs Kentucky Equine Research has investigated the effect The essential oil of caucus carota species is a wellof a specific fish oil on inflammatory response with horses documented oil having a hypotensive, lowering of blood in training. The study supplemented test horses with 60mls pressure effect along with antifungal properties. Its per day and found a significant effect on level of inflammation antifungal effects are noted against aspergillus species, and GGT (serum gamma-glutamyl transferase). GGT is an a common cause of poor enzyme that breaks down glutathione, an important respiratory health. Allium antioxidant. As GGT rises, less glutathione is available sativum is also well known for to neutralize damaging free radicals, creating its ability to lower blood pressure. an environment for oxidative stress. An initial study (data unpublished) into A horse’s red blood cells are more the effects of these two plants along susceptible to oxidative stress than humans, with herbs reported to alleviate mucus and maintaining a healthy antioxidant in the lungs has shown promising status is important for function and results in a group of horses in training. maintenance of cell integrity.

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| NUTRITION |

• Prolonged blood coagulation As prolonged blood coagulation is cited as a possible factor for EIPH, herbal products that are noted for their ability to enhance coagulation are in certain parts of the world widely used as part of managing EIPH. It is believed that increased clotting time during exercise-induced injury may exacerbate the severity of EIPH as a result of the delayed sealing of damaged micro vessels. This effect, where exercise diminishes the ability of equine platelets to respond to platelet aggregating factors, occurs in both horses known with EIPH and those with no history or apparent presence of EIPH.

Platelet = synonymous with thrombocytes, a component of blood whose function is to stop bleeding by clumping and clotting blood vessel injuries.

Aggregating factor = substances such as adenosine diphosphate, collagen and platelet activating factor involved in triggering and mediating the clotting process.

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| CAN NUTRITION INFLUENCE EIPH? |

Researchers at Kansas State University have investigated two herbs for efficacy on severity of EIPH with a small number of Thoroughbreds. The two herbs considered were notoginseng and bletillae. Both herbs are documented to reduce thrombin time, which relates to the time taken to form clots, and to reduce bleeding time. The study of five horses showed no effect in terms of severity of bleeding or preventing bleeding based on bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) results. This may indicate that impaired haemostasis—the ability to stop blood flow—was not the primary cause of EIPH or that the herbs were not effective in addressing coagulation as a problem. Studies of both known bleeders and those without a history of bleeding have shown that all horses when strenuously exercised will experience some degree of bleeding. With this in mind, the coagulation theory is debated as to whether it is a primary factor in EIPH. It is difficult to prove conclusively that impaired coagulability exists in exercising horses for a number of reasons, including timing of sampling and how the body adapts through increased fitness and exercise intensity. Without specific and more conclusive evidence available, use of such herbs becomes a field study—a case of trying and seeing first hand whether an impact is made.

Thrombin = an enzyme found in blood plasma which causes the clotting of blood.

• Ammonia Ammonia is a known respiratory irritant linked with poor respiratory health. Exposure to ammonia results in increased mucin production and reduced pulmonary clearance. Excess protein intake in the diet increases nitrogen presence in urine and feces, which can be volatilized to ammonia. To understand protein intake, it is necessary to analyze forage and calculate contribution alongside any hard feed or straights. Excessive protein can also impact performance by causing changes in blood pH. A shortage of protein is equally detrimental, and dropping down to a lower protein feed should only be considered once the total contribution is understood.

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| NUTRITION |

The majority of horses in training will receive above the base requirement for protein, and in moderation over-provision can have its advantages, such as improved recovery and refueling of muscle. It is important to understand the difference between an elevated intake and an excessive intake.

Pulmonary clearance = the ability of cells within the lungs to propel mucus and debris upwards and out of the lungs.

• Summary There is a role for nutrition and plant-based therapies in management of EIPH with strong evidence as their effects on cell membranes, regulation of inflammation, ability to reduce bleeding time and hypotensive effects. The balance of dietary protein is also a factor when considering how to manage general respiratory health, which in turn plays a role in managing the risk of EIPH. Getting the best result for horses suffering with EIPH will involve a cocktail approach reviewing the diet and supplements as a whole. Assessing total protein intake and including fish oil, containing both EPA and DHA, are two easy practices to put in place. Targeted use of antioxidants, hypotensive herbs, coagulative herbs and those involved in mucus clearance can then be built around the base diet changes. The aim of such practices is to reduce the severity and frequency of bleeding so that the limitations that EIPH has on performance are reduced. Nutritional and plant-based approaches require a period of adaptation, with some studies noting effects only after a month of use, and so patience and planning are required. For known bleeders, ideally all dietary practices and supplements should be put in place as soon as the horse returns from a holiday period, rather than waiting for full work to commence or for a serious incidence of EIPH to occur.

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| CAN NUTRITION INFLUENCE EIPH? |

GETTING THE BEST RESULT FOR HORSES SUFFERING WITH EIPH WILL INVOLVE A COCKTAIL APPROACH REVIEWING THE DIET AND SUPPLEMENTS AS A WHOLE. ASSESSING TOTAL PROTEIN INTAKE AND INCLUDING FISH OIL, CONTAINING BOTH EPA AND DHA, ARE TWO EASY PRACTICES TO PUT IN PLACE.” Further reading •A lves-Silva,J.M., Zuzarte,M. Gonclaves,M.J. Cavaleiro,M.T.C., Cardoso,S.M., Salguerio,L. (2016). New claims for wild carrot (daucus carota subsp. carota) essential oil. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. • Epp,T.S, McDonagh,P. Padilla,D.J., Cox,J.H., Poole,D.C., Erickson,H.H. (2004). The effect of herbal supplementation on the severity of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage. Equine and Comparative Exercise Physiology 2(1): 17-25 •E rickson,H.H., Epp,S.T. Poole,D.C.(2007) Review of Alternative Therapies for EIPH. AAEP Proceedings (7) • Geor,J. Harris,P. Coenen,M. (2013) Equine Applied and Clinical Nutrition. China: Elsevier •P ortier,K., De Moffarts,B., Fellman,N., Kirschvnik,N., Motta,C., Letellier,C., Ruelland,A., Van Erck,E., Lekeux,P., Coudert,J. (2006). Equine Veterinary Journal Supplement, Equine Exercise Physiology 7. •W iden,C. Ekholm,A., Coleman,M.D., Renvert,S., Rumpunen,K. (2012). Erythrocyte Antioxidant Protection of Rose Hips (Rosa spp.). Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity.

| RACING |

R E M E M B E R I N G

HOLLY WOOD PARK In an age of “Races Without Faces,” Edward “Kip” Hannan is a renaissance man. Not to be confused with an anarchist bent on destroying history’s truths, Hannan is an archivist, with an ethos dedicated to preserving timeless treasures and ensconcing them in pantheons for future generations.

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| R E M E M B E R I N G H O L LY W O O D P A R K |

Ed Golden

Courtesy of Hollywood Park

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ith the artistic and obdurate passion of a Michelangelo, when Hollywood Park closed forever on Dec. 22, 2013, like a man possessed with an oblation, Hannan knew there was “gold in them thar hills” and dug in like he was assaulting the Sistine Chapel. Far from a fool and capitalizing on today’s applied sciences, Hannan has successfully transitioned through more than four decades, surviving— yea, overcoming—a concern once epitomized by Albert Einstein who said: “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” Hannan made it his mission to rescue archives from the Inglewood, Calif. track that opened 75 years earlier on June 10, 1938. The Hollywood Turf Club was formed under the chairmanship of Jack L. Warner of the Warner Brothers film corporation. Among the 600 original shareholders were many stars, directors and producers of yesteryear from movieland’s mainstream, including Al Jolson, Raoul Walsh, Joan Blondell, Ronald Colman, Walt Disney, Bing Crosby, Sam Goldwyn, Darryl Zanuck, George Jessel, Ralph Bellamy, Hal Wallis, Wallace Beery, Irene Dunne and Mervyn LeRoy. They pale, however, compared to the equine stalwarts that raced at Hollywood Park, which include 22 that were Horse of the Year: Seabiscuit (1938), Challedon (1940), Busher (1945), Citation (1951), Swaps (1956), Round Table (1957), Fort Marcy (1970), Ack Ack (1971), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1979), Spectacular Bid (1980), John Henry (1981 and 1984), Ferdinand (1987), Sunday Silence (1989), Criminal Type (1990), A.P. Indy (1992), Cigar (1995), Skip Away (1998), Tiznow (2000), Point Given (2001), Ghostzapper (2004) and Zenyatta (2010). Hannan obviously had his hands full, but thrust ahead undeterred as he soldiered on to digitize Hollywood Park’s entire film/video history of nearly 4,000 stakes races for eventual public access. It seemed a mission mandated by a higher power. BELOW: Hollywood Park, 1939.

ABOVE: Bing Crosby & Cary Grant comparing betting tickets at Hollywood Park, 1938.

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LEFT & ABOVE: Hollywood Park Opening Day and Closing Day programs.

Hannan, who turns 57 on Jan. 29, was born in Phoenix, Ariz., where his mother and father had come from Brooklyn. Moving to California when he was just two, they lived on the Arcadia/ Monrovia border within a couple miles of storied Santa Anita, and left in 1972 for nearby Temple City where Kip has lived ever since. In 1979, at the tender age of 15, he began working as a marketing aide at Santa Anita under the aegis of worldly racing guru Alan Balch and his fastidious publicity sidekick, Jane Goldstein. He was the last employee at Hollywood Park in order to organize archives for digitization and eventual transfer to the UCLA Library, where he began working in late 2014 as videographer and editor. He is still employed there, maintaining the integrity of Hollywood Park film, video, photo and book archives. Hannan sums up his career in one word: “Fascinating.” “I had already started collecting music at age 11, in 1975,” Hannan said, “and probably because of this, I associate many life events with the music of the time. I’m sure many people can relate. “It was at Santa Anita where and when I first met Lou Villasenor, who was already working there and would go on to become a staple of its TV broadcast team—a job he held for nearly 35 years before his death in 2018. “Lou became one of my best friends and eventually was the one who brought me to Hollywood Park where I was hired to work in its television department in 1986.” As marketing aides, their tasks were menial and labor intensive, such as removing duplicates from mailing lists, organizing contest entry cards filled out by fans, and other simple office-related duties. After a few years, Hannan was promoted to supervisor. At Santa Anita in 1982, Hannan met another new hire who became an instant best friend: Kurt Hoover, current TVG anchor whose relaxed and ingratiating on-camera presence is the stuff of network standards. He also is a devoted and skilled handicapper and a successful horse owner.

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ABOVE: Stuart Erwin and wife June Collyer at opening day of Hollywood Park, 1938.

“We hit it off immediately,” Hannan says. A couple years later, Hannan left Santa Anita briefly to study television production at Pasadena City College, while also finding time to work at Moby Disc Records in town. “I had always been a movie buff, with the original 1933 ‘King Kong’ my inspiration, along with ‘One Million Years B.C., and not just because of Fay Wray and Raquel Welch—although I had crushes on both. It was the dinosaurs and the stop-motion filmmaking and special effects. “I wanted to get into film somehow but couldn’t afford USC, so the gateway was video/television production, first in high school and then at Pasadena City College. “It was around this time, summer of 1985, that Santa Anita contacted me out of the blue,” he said. “Knowing I had radio operation training in college, they told me of a radio station in the planning stages that would be an on-site source for racing fans and handicappers broadcasting information throughout the day. “Nearly doubling my hourly wage from the record store, I jumped at the chance. It was designed and organized by the same company that created the low-power AM radio station that can be picked up near the LAX Airport for flight information; and soon, KWIN Radio AM was created. “I was the operator/engineer with countless marketing people and handicappers available for on-air hosts and guests. It was at this time I met Mike Willman, the ‘roving reporter’ and program manager of sorts, who gathered interviews on his cassette recorder for us to air. “On April 23, 1986, Villasenor took me to Hollywood Park where he was program director and graphics operator in its TV department. “I was fortunate to be there and was in the right place at the right time. They were short of cameramen that day, and word came from Hollywood Park President Marje Everett that many of

| R E M E M B E R I N G H O L LY W O O D P A R K |

ABOVE: Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor, 1986.

her personal friends would be attending, including popular celebrities of music, film, television and politics. “The TV department was to capture ‘Opening Day Greetings’ from them on their arrival. The TV director asked if I could handle the professional portable camera, portable tape deck and tripod. I said yes, gathered up everything, and headed to the Gold Cup Room, avoiding crowded elevators with all that gear. “It was then I realized my career was moving up, for at that moment, not three steps behind me on the escalator were Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson. As we continued to climb, all I could think of was getting to a phone to tell my folks how my first day went, before it had even started! “There is one particular snapshot taken in the Gold Cup Room that I cherish. I’m not in the photo but was about six feet ahead of them, walking with my gear like I was on top of the world at age 22. “I did get Michael Jackson’s autograph later, as miraculously he only had one bodyguard with him that day. At the time, there was not a bigger pop music star on the planet, and it was surreal to see him right before me. “Even though they both declined to appear on camera for a greeting, it was Elizabeth Taylor who got to me. As I set up my camera gear not 25 feet from where she was sitting (and momentarily alone), she glanced up from the table and looked directly at me with this big smile. “I literally melted! As I continued to fumble getting the camera onto the tripod, I kept thinking, ‘Dear God, those eyes!’ and I was ready to sign on for husband number seven, as suddenly it had all made sense to me. “That was my first day as a TV professional that I’ll never forget.” Hannan also has noteworthy literary credits. “I was fortunate to be mentioned in the ‘thank you’ section of Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling book, Seabiscuit, for simply

providing her with basic Seabiscuit footage from Hollywood Park,” he said. “I sure wish I could have sent her all the eventual work I did years later, after I had restored all of Seabiscuit’s existing race films, including some four-minute vignettes on the 1938 Gold Cup, the famous match race with War Admiral and the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap, before her book was published. “Through a connection via Charlotte Farmer—a fan who had rescued the great horse Noor’s remains from land repurposing and moved them across the country to be reinterred at Old Friends in Kentucky—I contributed photos to Milton C. Toby’s book, Noor-A Champion Thoroughbred’s Journey from California to Kentucky. “These included the cover photo of Noor working out with Johnny Longden up, which came from a negative that had probably been unprocessed and unseen for 62 years! “A few years ago, I was asked to contribute to a book by photographer Michele Asselin, who had been commissioned to photograph and document the closing of Hollywood Park and its people during late 2013 and early 2014. It resulted in a coffee table photobook entitled Clubhouse Turn—The Twilight of Hollywood Park Race Track, which was published in March 2020. “With Roberta Weiser, we wrote a detailed Hollywood Park ‘timeline’ for the end of the book, to provide a sense of the track’s history, which was only being represented in the book by photos of its final months. “Without Roberta, the rescue, work and maintenance of the entire Hollywood Park archive would not have happened, and more importantly would not exist to this day.” Displaying his passion and knowledge of music globally, Hannan also edited a full-length DVD version of Laffit Pincay Jr.’s retirement ceremony at Hollywood Park in July 2003. “I added music from the Mascagni opera, Cavalleria Rusticana, during Laffit’s farewell speech,” Hannan said. “If you think of the ISSUE 58 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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ABOVE: Hollywood Park legend Zenyatta after her 2010 Lady’s Secret Stakes win.

ABOVE: Three-time Hollywood Gold Cup winner Lava Man.

music soundtracks to either the opening scene of Raging Bull (with the boxer in the ring by himself, feinting blows in slow motion) or the final scene on the steps in Godfather III, it might come to you. “If you don’t get a lump in your throat and your eyes don’t water when Laffit says, ‘I still have that fire inside me that I cannot put out …’ before he continues with his tearful and thoughtful farewell moment, hugging his very young son, his grown children and his mother, then we might need to check your pulse.” Another of Hannan’s highlights was the creation of a “quadruple whammy Living Legends” music video in 2005, honoring four recently retired legendary jockeys in the Hollywood Winners’ Circle: Pincay, Chris McCarron, Eddie Delahoussaye and Julie Krone. The piece was done with no narration, accompanied only by visuals and Electric Light Orchestra’s powerful instrumental, “Fire on High.” “As a music collector, researcher, cataloger, historian and fan, it’s not much of a stretch to see how I was able to latch on to the Hollywood Park archive and become its archivist. I treated it the same as my music collection, gathered it and organized it … I knew I had an audience that wanted history to remain alive, so I kept it going the next five or six years.

LEFT: Kip’s Zenyatta - Queen of Racing DVD documentary.

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“I restored clips of Seabiscuit winning the first Gold Cup in 1938 … found a color film reel with footage of Citation from 1951—probably not seen by anyone in 60 years—and had that professionally restored along with the earliest color film found of Hollywood Park from 1945. The cool stuff just kept turning up … Native Diver’s 1967 farewell parade after his third consecutive Gold Cup victory, Cougar II’s 1971 win over Fort Marcy in the Hollywood Turf Invitational, and the 1978 Swaps Stakes with J.O. Tobin beating Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew in front of 68,000 fans.” Hannan’s favorite race is Lava Man winning a third consecutive Gold Cup in 2007, tying Native Diver’s mark. “I stood up and screamed all the way down the stretch at the TV screen in my little editing room,” he said. “What a race and what a finish! Thank you, Lava Man and Corey Nakatani.” But had the fates allowed, his choice would have been the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic in which Zenyatta, the remarkable stretch-running mare, suffered her only defeat after 19 straight dramatic come-from-behind victories, losing by a head to Blame ridden by the late Garrett Gomez. “Zenyatta: Queen of Racing, was a career highlight for me and the best I’ve ever done,” said Hannan, who enlisted Jay Hovdey to help script it. “Such a beautiful horse and fan favorite. Her wonderful story was easy to tell, but once again I had to tell it right for her legion of fans.” The Zenyatta story was buoyed, thanks to music by The Police and Sting, and by Hannan’s brother Chris, who composed all the original music. Added Hannan: “I still feel Zenyatta gave her greatest performance in defeat, making up 18 lengths at one point against the best boys in the world at her age (six), at night with lights on (a first for her) and on an unfamiliar (Churchill Downs) surface. “That stretch run was another screamer for me, but to come up short by so little was a heartbreaker … If she gets up and beats Blame, it’s the greatest race of all time. That’s my two cents; sorry, Lava Man.” Hannan’s favorite tale is about horse owner and music legend Burt Bacharach who was at Hollywood in 1996 but on this particular day had a horse running at Keeneland and wanted to see the race.

RACING |

THE DIGITIZATION PROJECT IS FINALLY COMING TO A CONCLUSION, WITH WELL OVER 3,000 STAKES RACES FROM THE TRACK’S HISTORY, BEGINNING IN 1938 THROUGH THE FINAL 2013 SEASON.” Hannan picks it up from there. “Our TV department scrambled to downlink a satellite feed from Keeneland to do it,” he recalled. “I put the track’s feed on the monitor and ran into another room and popped in a tape to record the race, just in case. “Burt came in a few minutes later. I welcomed ‘Mr. Bacharach’ and he said, ‘Please call me Burt,’ I said ‘OK’ and escorted him down the hall to a room where he could watch his race. As I was stepping out, I said, ‘Good luck with your horse” to which he quickly replied, ‘No, you don’t have to go. Sit down and help me cheer on my horse.’ “As I sat there, I couldn’t stop thinking about this musical genius sitting right next to me, dressed casually as always, in a tracksuit with a sweater around his neck—one of the most beloved and successful songwriters of all time, sharing horse racing chit chat with me. “At first I held back from telling him I was a great fan and collector of music, how I used to write down the Top 40 every Sunday morning while listening to Casey Kasem on the radio, how so many of those classic songs were written by him and his lyricist, Hal David, and how my dad was also a music collector … I patiently waited to see how the race went first.

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“The race went off, and we were both yelling down the stretch as his horse pulled away and won easily. We both cheered, and as I turned to Burt, he had his hand raised ready to receive a high five. I graciously obliged, of course. ‘Holy cow,’ I thought. ‘I just high-fived Burt Bacharach!’ “I told him I had taped the race and could make him VHS copies later; he was very happy to hear that. It was then that I informed him I was a music nut and respected his amazing body of work. We talked music for a few minutes to the point that he realized I knew my stuff, and he said he would have his secretary send me a CD box set of his songs, although I never thought it would happen. “Two days later at home on a Tuesday, my off-day, there was a medium-sized white envelope on my doormat with a return address on it but no name. It didn’t hit me until I opened it. “Inside was a four-CD box set, a publishing promo unavailable to the public containing all of Burt Bacharach’s hit songs as recorded by the performers who made them hits. It included a small, handwritten note with ‘Burt Bacharach’ printed as a letterhead at the top. “To Kip—hope you enjoy—thanks again for all your help—appreciate!”—Burt Bacharach. “Boy, I was impressed. What a kind gesture from a really, really nice guy and one of my heroes. My favorite Hollywood celebrity story by far.” After Hollywood Park closed, Hannan stayed for an additional nine months to move and organize the archive and prepare it for digitization—a laborious and emotional task in its own right—as the track was being demolished around him. His final day came on Sept. 30, 2014. “I had arranged for UCLA to send out two huge trucks that day for transporting much of the archive directly to its special collections’ library, while much of the rest would be kept and staged for the future stakes races’ digitization project,” Hannan said. “My time at Hollywood Park was done. Within two months, however, I was hired by the UCLA Library, after I had suggested they may need a curator for the collection they were just gifted. It worked out nicely, and I’m currently still employed there as a videographer. “The digitization project is finally coming to a conclusion, with well over 3,000 stakes races from the track’s history, beginning

| R E M E M B E R I N G H O L LY W O O D P A R K |

LEFT: Kip Hannan outside of UCLA’s Royce Hall.

in 1938 through the final 2013 season. A computer database for the files’ metadata of statistics and for future cross-referencing is another ongoing project nearing completion.” As to his unique middle name of Kip, it’s a grand story in its own right. Hannan explains: “My maternal grandfather, Domenick Bertone—a man unfortunately I never got to meet as he passed away at 54, a year and a half before I was born—worked for Western Union and then Associated Press. “He could type 125 words a minute and became a linotype machine operator for the AP in New York. He was one of the first people on the east coast to receive news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked and couldn’t believe what he had to type out for the country to wake up and read.

“Anyhow, I believe the story goes that he used to wear these round, wire-rimmed glasses, much like that of journalist, poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling, of Gunga Din and The Jungle Book fame. “Eventually, instead of Domenick or Dom, his coworkers nicknamed him ‘Kip,’ short for Kipling, because of his wire-rimmed glasses; and the nickname stuck. “So, to this day I refer to him as my Grandpa Kip. As for me, my mom decided to pass on her father’s nickname to her first son as my middle name, even though she had to fight for it at my baptismal because the priest said it wasn’t a saint’s name. “She begged to differ and eventually won, with the threat of going to another church as the deciding factor. As a baby, I was known as ‘Eddie Kip,’ utilizing both my first name and the name of my father, Edward (and his father) and my grandfather’s nickname. “As time passed, the ‘Eddie’ fell off, and I became ‘Kippy’ to everyone. Eventually, at the age of seven, I put my foot down and demanded to be called simply Kip. “However, I do use my full name for my signature and production credits. So, perhaps it’s all from Rudyard Kipling. I can’t know that for sure, but it might explain why, as a toddler, I was such a fan when Disney’s The Jungle Book movie came around in the late ‘60s.” Through the years, Hannan’s sobriquet has remained transfixed and true, adhering to these profound words of Henry David Thoreau: “Let us make distinctions; call things by the right names.” Edward “Kip” Hannan: fascinating, for sure.

LEFT: Burt Bacharach and wife Angie Dickinson admire their race horse Apex II in his Hollywood Park stall, 1969.

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B

y now, you’ve likely heard of Pink Lloyd, one of the greatest Canadian sprinters of all time. He has won 26 of his 31 starts—23 of which have come in stakes events. He was named Canadian Horse of the Year for his 2017 campaign that saw him win all eight of his starts. In addition, he’s been the Canadian champion male sprinter the last three years from 2017 to 2019, and appears to be well on his way to earning that honor for a fourth time in 2020. This year, Pink Lloyd also hit a major earnings milestone, crossing C$2 million in career earnings with his victory in the Gr3 Vigil Stakes on September 5. Pink Lloyd’s trainer, 2008 Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Robert Tiller, also recorded a personal milestone of his own back on June 19, when he captured his 2,000th career training victory. Tiller didn’t come from a horse racing background but has devoted his life to the sport. Born in Amsterdam, Holland, 70-year-old Tiller immigrated to Canada with his family in 1960 when he was 11 years old. At 16, he found his way to the racetrack, responding to an ad in a newspaper from the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association of Ontario looking for grooms and hot walkers at Woodbine. Tiller took a summer job with John Calhoun walking hots in 1966, and never left the racetrack. “I went straight from grade school to the University of Woodbine,” Tiller said. “I stuck after the summer was over. I basically got the upbringing on the racetrack, living in tack rooms. I always had a desire to be a horse trainer and started very young.” After a couple of years working for Calhoun, Tiller then went on to become a groom for trainer Glenn Magnusson. While working for Magnusson, Tiller had the opportunity to travel with horses to Blue Bonnets Raceway in Montreal, and while he was not officially a trainer at that time, Tiller said he was doing most of the training himself.

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Alex Campbell

Dave Landry Photography

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He returned to Toronto at 21 to obtain his trainer’s license and quickly found success. He recorded 21 wins in his first year as a trainer in 1972, and 48 wins during the 1974 season after just a few years of being out on his own. In 1975, Tiller had his first Queen’s Plate starter, sending out long-shot Near the High Sea to a runner-up finish behind future Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee L’Enjoleur. Tiller has been Woodbine’s leading trainer four times (1994, 1997, 2001, and 2003), and has won three Sovereign Awards as Canada’s outstanding trainer in 2001, 2003, and 2004. Tiller has trained a number of Canadian champions over the years.

YOU’RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR HORSES IN THIS GAME. IT’S LIKE A GOOD HOCKEY COACH IF THEY HAVE A BUNCH OF BAD PLAYERS. I DON’T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS: WITHOUT TALENTED HORSES, WE HAVE NOTHING.”

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Along with Pink Lloyd, Tiller also trained 2001 Canadian Horse of the Year and Canadian champion three-year-old, Win City, who won the Prince of Wales Stakes and finished second in the Queen’s Plate. Rare Friends was also named Canadian champion two-year-old male in 2001, and Simply Lovely was named Canadian champion two-year-old filly in 2004. Tiller has also trained a pair of Canadian champion female sprinters, including Indian Apple Is in 2010 and River Maid in 2016. “I went through all of the stages that trainers go through,” Tiller said. “I was ‘wonder boy’ for a while. We got into the claiming game with some clients. I was leading trainer a few times or close to it. We’ve won a lot of races. You’re only as good as your horses in this game. It’s like a good hockey coach if they have a bunch of bad players. I don’t care what anyone says: without talented horses, we have nothing.” If a trainer is only as good as his or her horses, as Tiller says, then it must take a good eye to select those good horses. Tiller has done that, not only at the sales but in the claiming game as well. Tiller said his experience with different horses throughout his career has helped refine his horse selection process. “You learn from your mistakes,” he said. “I’ve bought a lot of good horses over the years. I enjoy going to the sales. I like to think of myself as an all-around horseman.” Pink Lloyd was a $30,000 purchase at the 2013 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society’s Canadian Premier Yearling Sale. Tiller said he and his clients, including Frank Di Giulio, Jr., went into the sale with a short list of horses and ended up purchasing six horses out of the sale.

| ROBERT TILLER & PINK LLOYD |

“We had a list of horses that year, as every other horseman does,” he said. “We liked the way (Pink Lloyd) walked and we liked the sire, Old Forester. We took a shot on him, and it’s all turned out great. Three of them ended up winning races, and two of them never made the races. This happens all of the time.” Tiller said there’s one piece of advice he learned early on in his career that he’s always remembered, and that advice has played a key role in Pink Lloyd’s achievements. “There was a trainer, Lou Cavalaris Jr., who was well-respected,” he said. “He said to me ‘everybody trains horses son, but it’s a game of details.’ I never forgot that. It is a real game of details. Everything from shoes to feed, to how you train a horse. That to me is the most important thing—trying to figure out how to get that horse to that race happy and fit and wanting to run.” Tiller’s attention to the details has helped the eight-year-old son of Old Forester stay at the top of his game over multiple campaigns. Pink Lloyd’s career even got off to a late start, as he didn’t make it to the races until his four-year-old year due to a number of issues along the way. Pink Lloyd won the first three starts of his career in 2016, but Tiller noticed that he seemed to be over-exerting himself in the mornings. “In the early years, we used to take him out on the track when there were a lot of horses, and he just kept getting tougher and

tougher,” he said. “He got to the point where he was in a very strong gallop all of the time. He was just burning himself out in the morning.” To help Pink Lloyd relax, Tiller decided that he would take the horse to the track very close to the end of training hours, around 10:30 a.m., when almost every other horse on the grounds had completed their training for the day. “In my past experience, it’s worked with a few horses, so I said ‘let’s take this guy out there when there’s nobody out there,’” he said. “Every day, he got more relaxed; and then we got to the point where we could actually hack him and do a slow, slow gallop. It was just a shot I took with him, and it worked with him.” Shortly after Tiller made that adjustment, Pink Lloyd went on to reel off a streak of 11 consecutive wins over a 13-month span between April 2017 and June 2018. He also went on another double-digit win streak between May 2019 and October 2020, and Tiller is hoping to run him twice more before the end of the 2020 season. In between, Tiller said Pink Lloyd has had his share of close calls. “It’s amazing he’s still running as good as he is now as he was as a four-year-old,” he said. “He had incidents at the starting gate where he broke through the gate a few times. He had one major

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ABOVE: (L-R) bleeding incident at the end of his 2018. We put Groom Michelle him away. It was caused by a viral thing. He’s Gibson, Robert had many days where he wasn’t sound. He’s had Tiller & assistant foot problems and hock problems. Nothing’s Tom Lottridge guaranteed here, and he’s survived it all. He with Pink Lloyd. had a lot of issues and a lot of problems, and it’s pretty amazing what he’s done. He’s not an ordinary horse.” Another factor in Pink Lloyd’s prolonged success has been his training program. Instead of recorded works in between races, Tiller said his program for Pink Lloyd has centered around those long, slow gallops. “He loves two-mile hacking,” he said. “I haven’t worked him in between races. This horse gets away with hacking for three and a half weeks and racing again without a work. These are all unorthodox ways of training horses, but it has worked for him. Other trainers might argue with me, but I believe that most horses—once they’re fit—are over-trained. I don’t like working too close to a race. I like to work my horses a week to 10 days before a race. All I can say is that it’s worked for me. I’ve won enough races with the kind of stock we’ve had. I just think once horses get fit, they’re over-trained, and a lot of them do not last because of that.” Tiller has the opportunity to keep a close eye on Pink Lloyd each day, as his stall at Woodbine is located right outside of Tiller’s office in the barn. Tiller said he usually gets to the track by 6 a.m. each day. By then, the barn is already bustling with activity, as Tiller’s 35-year assistant, Tom Lottridge, gets the horses prepared for their morning training with the barn’s staff— many of whom have been with Tiller for as long as Lottridge has.

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WOODBINE’S BEEN VERY GOOD AT MAKING SURE THIS HORSE IS SAFE. I’VE BEEN HERE 54 YEARS, AND I’VE NEVER SEEN ONE LIKE HIM; AND I DON’T THINK YOU’LL SEE ONE LIKE HIM IN THE NEXT 54 YEARS AT WOODBINE.” TILLER ON PINK LLOYD’S POPULARITY

“It’s a second family,” Tiller said. “We have a year-end party every year for our crew. I give out lots of hundred-dollar bills for their birthdays and stuff like that. I like to be good to people because they’re good to me. This is a job that not everybody can do. They do it for the love of the horses. It’s like a family—things aren’t always perfect, but nothing’s perfect all of the time in life.” Among Tiller’s dedicated staff is Pink Lloyd’s groom, Michelle Gibson, who Tiller said has been in close quarters with Pink Lloyd for much of the last two years.

“She won’t leave him,” he said. “She’s been there seven days a week. The last two years, she’s worked 10 months straight. She will not leave this horse alone. This is the kind of dedicated people you have here. We’re all in love with him, but she’s terrific. She’s done a terrific job with him.” Tiller added that a big part of his job is staying in communication with his owners, which like Tiller’s staff, have been with him for a number of years. “I like to have a little fun at night too,” he said. “My wife, Gail, and I have always enjoyed going out with the owners and having a meal, talking about things and what’s coming up. A large part of this game for a trainer is keeping your owners happy and being communicative with them. Most of my owners are not only my owners, but they’re my friends. I think that’s very important.” As the wins have piled up, Pink Lloyd has only grown more popular with the horse racing community. Nowhere is that more true than at Woodbine, where Tiller said a number of people keep an extra eye out for the Canadian champion. “People love this horse,” he said. “The outriders are always looking for him, and they stay an extra 15 minutes to watch him gallop around there. Woodbine’s been very good at making sure this horse is safe. I’ve been here 54 years, and I’ve never seen one like him; and I don’t think you’ll see one like him in the next 54 years at Woodbine.” After more than 2,000 wins and more than 170 stakes victories, Tiller acknowledged that he would likely scale down his training in the coming years, but looking back at his career, Tiller is confident that he wouldn’t have done anything differently. “It helps to have grey hair and to have seen it all,” he said. “I’ve certainly done that. I’ve seen it all. I’ve had it all happen. This is the only business in the world where you can be a hero in race six and a bum in race eight. At least you feel that way anyway. One of these days, this thing’s going to come to an end. We’ve had a great career, and I have no regrets.”

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RISING FROM THE

ASHES?

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Annie Lambert

Coady Photography

Turf Paradise, in Phoenix, Ariz., normally runs one of the longest race meets in the country—late October through early May. The COVID-19 pandemic, among other suspected culprits, has closed the track. Sadly, there is a chance the Phoenix icon may never mythically rise from the ashes.

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urf Paradise horsemen were notably shell-shocked by the abrupt shutdown of the year-around training and racing facility. Owned by Jerry Simms for the past 20 years, Turf Paradise has been in operation since 1956 and was the first organized professional sports franchise in the state. Trainers, track workers, jockeys and even horse owners and breeders have established residences in the area, with children in schools and year-around businesses associated with the racing life. Skeptics immediately challenged the notion that COVID-19 was the only, or even the main, reason for shutting down Turf Paradise and turning so many lives toward an uncertain future. Some horsemen have called the track home for decades, and pandemic restrictions along with no clear answers coming from track management have their lives in limbo. Joyce Long, 82, trained a small stable at Turf Paradise for 30 years, relishing the people and the lifestyle there. Track management shutting down the track, she implied, was devastating for everyone. “Turf Paradise was such a wonderful place,” Long explained, speaking in the past tense. “There were so many people that depended on it; they would come in here from all over. Sure, the purses weren’t as big as some places, but you could make a living here.” But wait, the Arizona desert sands are shifting between racing and no racing nearly daily as Turf Paradise, Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, Arizona Downs and other racing entities wrangle to reach sophisticated agreements that ensure live racing in 2021 and hopefully beyond.

• Pack up, get out On March 15, 2020, Turf Paradise management suddenly canceled the remainder of their 2020-2021 race meet. There was no approval to do so by Arizona’s racing regulators, nor were horsemen consulted regarding the issue. Horses were not allowed to train as of March 16, with the stable area completely shut down on March 28. Trainers were told to remove all their belongings including corrals and hot walkers. The abrupt closure by Turf Paradise’s ownership and management left horsemen with no place to go. Due to pandemic regulations, trainers had no options to move their stables to other tracks. And, the track’s large Canadian contingency, which is about 30 percent of the horses, could not return to Canada due to border closures. The Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, led by President Robert Hutton, opposed the shutdown. Without trivializing the seriousness of COVID-19, the AHBPA pointed out how major tracks across the country were able to safely allow horses to train and run meets, albeit without spectators. ISSUE 58 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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I WANTED TO SEE INVOICES (REGARDING THE EXPENSES) BECAUSE THERE WAS AN OBVIOUS DISCREPANCY AS TO HOW THE TRACK WAS BEING MAINTAINED AND PROMOTED; I HAD ISSUES WITH THAT AND SO DID MY BOARD MEMBERS.” ROBERT HUTTON - AHBPA

BELOW: The desert track, which opened in 1956 as the first organized professional sports franchise in Arizona, has since added a turf course.

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Turf Paradise might have been strictly adhering to CDC guidelines when stopping racing and training, yet management opted to keep OTBs open for simulcasting. This did not sit well with horsemen who quietly suspected Simms was planning to sell the property to developers.

• Negotiations & arbitrations There is a whole lot more to the Arizona racing story than a bad flu bug pandemic, however. The ongoing “discussion” between Turf Paradise management and the AHBPA is no doubt front and center. Control of purse money generated by OTBs and live racing mixed with signal disputes has everyone shaking heads, or wringing their hands. It seems a confusing mess. When the AHBPA’s contract with Turf Paradise was ending in 2019, Hutton called around the country to different jurisdictions looking for options to negotiate a better deal with Simms. Horsemen were contributing half of the $800,000 annual advertising expenses. In renegotiations the horsemen’s costs were lowered to $150,000. “I wanted to see invoices (regarding the expenses) because there was an obvious discrepancy as to how the track was being maintained and promoted; I had issues with that and so did my board members,” Hutton pointed out. “The other big issue was at the OTBs where (the track) was getting 60 percent and horsemen 40 percent. We felt that was not fair and equitable, especially when at the racetrack it was 50/50. It seemed people were being driven away from the racetrack to go to the OTBs—60/40 at OTB compared to 50/50 at the track; the math is pretty easy to do. It was not to our advantage.”

“We negotiated to 52/48, and it was acknowledged in arbitration that the HBPA has a right to have their own bank account with the purse money and we get to control it,” he added. “Both parties agreed.” In February of this year, Hutton and three of his board members met with the Thoroughbred Owners of California to discuss fairness in simulcast signals, a confusing subject at best. Legislatively, California doesn’t pay more than three percent for an out-of-state signal coming into their state, according to Hutton. Contrarily, Turf Paradise’s takeout was 23 percent. Horsemen in California were splitting up 20 percent, and horsemen in Arizona were splitting up three percent. “I told Jerry (Simms), ‘This isn’t right,’” Hutton said. “‘We’re going to cut off the signal from Turf Paradise going outward to any of the Monarch/Stronach tracks.’ “Two or three days later, Mr. Simms announced the closing of the meet by March 14th and that the horsemen had two weeks to get out with no exercising of horses.” With empathy for equine health and safety, the HBPA negotiated a settlement agreement that horsemen would pay for half the training as far as maintenance of the track and other expenses pertinent to operating the track for training only. The agreement lasted through May 10 when, fortunately, Canterbury Park and a few other tracks began accepting horses again. Many horsemen were still left without a destination. Hutton was trying to decide what to do with a barn area full of horses, limited training and a track owner flip-flopping on training and racing dates. “I told the (HBPA) members that I didn’t think Simms was ever going to run again,” Hutton said. “After a meeting he said he’d open September 1st for training and November 1st to race. ABOVE: Turf Paradise’s stable area completely shut down on March 28. Trainers were told to remove all their belongings including corrals and hot walkers. The abrupt closure left horsemen with no place to go.

I think he kept changing the dates because in the settlement agreement he had, his network of OTBs would only get the signals from out-of-state tracks through January 1.” Hutton wrote Simms a letter asking 17 questions, one of the most pertinent being: “What guarantee will there be that you will not evict horsemen off the track?” Simms offered no guarantees. At an August 8 commission meeting, track management declared they were not interested in any race days. They then proceeded to sell the air conditioner and all furniture out of the clubhouse and took all the pictures off the walls, according to Hutton and others. “I mean, the place is an absolute ghost town,” Hutton opined. “It looks like something you’d find in a documentary on Afghanistan. There is no intention of ever running a race at Turf Paradise again.”

• Hold your horses Wonders never cease, however. On September 24, via the Turf Paradise Facebook page, General Manager Vincent Francia announced the track had submitted live racing dates for an 84-day winter meet (January 2 through May 1, 2021) to the Racing Commission for consideration of approval during their October 8 meeting. Francia did stipulate: “First, the $2.1 million that the AHBPA transferred out of the Turf Paradise Horsemen’s account into an AHBPA account must be returned to the horsemen’s purse account at Turf.” The AHBPA leadership, the notice reminded, is on public record as saying whoever is running live gets the money. “Keep in mind,” they added, “that $2.1 million does not belong to the AHBPA or to Turf Paradise.” That money belongs to the horsemen who would run live at Turf Paradise.” According to Francia, when the $2.1 million is back in the horsemen’s account and the projected $1 million generated in ISSUE 58 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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current OTB accumulation between now and December 31, added to the purse monies generated during the proposed live race meet; Turf Paradise will be able to offer the horsemen a 25-percent purse increase for the proposed race meet—an amount of $80,000 to $100,000 daily. The second condition: the AHBPA approves simulcasting for both export (Turf Paradise’s signal being sent to other race tracks for wagering); and import (bringing in other race track signals for wagering) must be approved through May 31, 2021. Turf Paradise advised in their September 24 announcement: “Those approvals are essential in order to continue generating money into the purse account, and we simply cannot conduct a

RIGHT NOW, THE MAIN TRACK, THE TURF TRACK AND THE TRAINING TRACK ARE NOT FIT TO RUN ON.” ROBERT HUTTON - AHBPA

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live race meet with AHBPA constantly threatening to withdraw those approvals.” The track stated their two conditions were reasonable as was “offering the Arizona horsemen a live race meet.” Track management also pointed out the challenges they will face, having to take certain action and following protocols dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Since the Turf Paradise proposed racing dates were announced, ADOR Racing Director Rudy Casillas has advised the track that AHBPA is “willing to make only weekly payments.” “Turf horsemen conduct business daily with the Horsemen’s Bookkeeper,” management stated. “As an example, if a horseman wanted to withdraw money from his/her account under Mr. Hutton’s plan, they would have to wait a week until the funds are deposited.”

• Details & delays While Turf Paradise management laid out stringent requirements for an agreement with AHBPA, Hutton also stayed steady. Representing the AHBPA, Hutton responded via letter to Francia. Hutton agreed to Francia’s request for a winter meet. Hutton did not agree to a new AHBPA board of directors, but rather that he left the horsemen’s choices of leadership to their discretion. He also requested that Simms honor the agreement, giving control of the horsemen’s purse account to the AHBPA. It was also demanded that the track and all facilities be brought up to standard for safe conditions for humans and horses.

| T U R F PA R A D I S E |

“Right now, the main track, the turf track and the training track are not fit to run on,” Hutton wrote. “The backside is full of trenches, power boxes with wires exposed, and the roads and bridle path are in terrible condition. The barns are, as always, dilapidated.” When the Arizona Racing Commission met October 8, the agenda included the possible approval of the Turf Paradise 2021 winter meet dates. Stipulations were discussed regarding those dates. There was concern that safety protocols were in place, providing for a safe environment for horses and people. It was believed that maintenance equipment had been sold off. Francia guaranteed that essential equipment such as tractors, water trucks and ambulances were on site. Turf Paradise representatives requested a reduction in the minimum number of live racing dates as required by law to operate their OTBs due to the current state and federal emergency declarations of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also important for the commissioner’s consideration were simulcast agreements between The Stronach Group’s Monarch Content Management and Arizona Downs, located in Prescott Valley, as well as Monarch’s agreement with Turf Paradise. Monarch negotiates simulcast contracts on behalf of Stronach tracks Pimlico, Laurel Park, Gulfstream Park, Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields. They are charged with the same duties for Monmouth Park, Tampa Bay Downs and Del Mar. Arizona Downs has had an ongoing feud with Monarch since their reopening in May 2019. Formerly operated as Yavapai Downs, the track feels it is subjected to different rules than Turf Paradise. The commission unanimously voted for a special hearing to settle all of the Monarch contract issues. Will all the parties involved find common ground? After months of hardball negotiations, it is hard to say. “I’m an eternal optimist,” Francia offered. “It would be a tremendous help to the Arizona horse owners—the people who both race in state and those who come from out of state—to have this meet and get some revenue into their operations.” Horsemen are hoping for the Turf Paradise they remember from her grand past to rise from the ashes, but only time will tell. UPDATE OCTOBER 19, 2020: Per a Turf Paradise press release, management and horsemen have agreed to winter meeting dates January 2 through May 1, 2021. There are stipulations that must be met by management; those measures are to be collaborated in writing soon. “I’m optimistic (the meet) will go on,” acknowledged Robert Hutton, Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protection Association President. “It’s all predicated on inspections by the Commission and with the Department of Racing; both entities have to make sure the facility is safe.” Hutton noted the AHBPA would be getting an agreement in writing before horses begin repopulating the stable area on November 25. He is in the process of taking an equine head count, which will hopefully be enough to fill races for five days per week. It has been stipulated that horses relocating to Turf Paradise will be allowed to remain on the grounds for training through May should the track cancel racing for any reason. “The needle is moving a little bit,” Hutton said. “We do have an agreement on the table, but things have to be done right. I don’t want to overpromise and under deliver.”

UPGRADES, REPAIRS, SAFETY?

A water main rupture in the stable area flooded out several barns. Horsemen had to hand water horses from a single water source for an extended time when repairs were not made in a timely manner. (Photos provided anonymously.)

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urf Paradise is regulated by the Arizona Racing Commission as set out in Section A of R19-2-104 under Permittee Responsibilities: “A permittee shall maintain the grounds in a neat, clean and safe condition. If a steward determines that a permittee is not in compliance with this Section, the steward shall require that the permittee immediately bring the grounds into compliance.” According to long-time racetrack employees and horsemen making a living at the Phoenix track, the backside has been in disrepair and in need of repairs and/or upgrading for many years. Why stewards have not required track owner Jerry Simms to make these repairs has never been answered. Horsemen working on the backside of Turf Paradise repeat the same story of a once pristine stable area that has fallen into disarray over it’s 70-year history. Current owner Jerry Simms has made no recent improvements to the track he has owned for 20 years. Horsemen willing to speak asked to do so “off the record,” seeming to fear repercussions from management. There is a “failure to regulate,” the horsemen agreed. Regulators have ignored the deterioration of the barns, including water and electrical infrastructures. Both human and equines have been subjected to “deplorable conditions,” according to one backside worker. During an October 8, 2020, Arizona Racing Commission meeting, Turf Paradise requested an 84-day racing meet from January 2 to May 1, 2021. Approval for the proposed winter meet was pushed until involved parties reached an agreement. Will management improve conditions on both the backside and front side of Turf Paradise in their new racing agreement? One of the main stipulations is that the track would be safe for people and horses before the start of the proposed meet.

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| #SOUNDBITES |

Bill Heller

Eclipse Sportswire

#SOUNDBITES With the Racing Integrity Act, which will create uniform national medication rules and testing, passing the House of Representatives and seemingly on its way to becoming law, is that good or bad?

# Bruce Brown I think it’s very good. I am all for uniform rules at every track. It’s a little ridiculous now, always having to know what’s allowed and not allowed with protocols. Not just having a blanket that says this is how it is, this is what you can do, and this is what you can’t. Now, when I ship, I say what can we do here? What’s the difference? So we don’t do something that’s legal in one place and not legal in the other.

# Mike Stidham I think that we need some uniformity in our industry. Whatever it takes to get that, to get everyone going in the same direction is a move forward. We need something to make this happen. It’s good for racing. 100

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# Tim Hills I think there is one exception we need. We need to study the Lasix question before we ban Lasix. Everything else, we’re all on board. I think anybody who is not for it has a guilty conscience.

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| #SOUNDBITES |

# Eddie Kenneally

# Linda Rice I think there’s a lot to be done on the bill. It’s the beginning of the process and it’s going to take time. But I think it’s a beginning, a start. I think it’s a good thing for racing.

# Pat Kelly I’m a little skeptical myself. Here in New York, our mid-Atlantic group has been very forward regarding medication standards, trying to get everyone on the same page. We’ve made a lot of progress trying to get the rest of the country to jump aboard with us. I’m not a big fan of big government. 104

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It’s very good. If it’s passed, the medication guidelines will be the same in every state, and the penalties will be the same in every state, and the testing will be done by the same lab. There are three reasons alone why it’s a good thing. I hope penalties will stick with no loopholes under this new law.

# Jimmy Toner I think it’s good in some respects. We need it. You go from state to state with medication protocol and licenses, and it drives you nuts. We need a national authority to oversee the sport. Same medication rules. Same whip rules. To get that all under one roof will be helpful in that aspect. The other side of the coin is the feds are involved. That might be a bad thing. If it’s an offense, then it’s a federal offense.

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