North American Trainer - Summer Sales 2019, issue 53

ISSUE 53 – SUMMER 2019 $6.95 www.trainermagazine.com

THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE FOR THE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE THOROUGHBRED

FAMILY BUSINESS

Greg and Vickie Foley share the joy of Hog Creek Hustle’s Grade 1 success

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE

WHY CONTINUING EDUCATION IS GOOD FOR TRAINERS AND RACING

IS FUNGI THE INVISIBLE HEALTH RISK?

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A HORSE’S PEDIGREE AND ITS CONFORMATION

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|OPINION |

G I LES A ND E R S ON PUBLISHER’S OPINION

In this issue, Alan Balch writes an intriguing column on both the frailties of human instinct as well as examining what emphasis could be taken on a more national basis to improve our racing stock.

“The very first priority, however, is to continue improving our own husbandry of horses, beginning with breeding a sounder horse, then managing and training them as the individuals they are, always recommitting ourselves to respecting and enhancing their welfare above all else. We must improve and magnify continuing, extensive, expert education of veterinarians, trainers, riders, and stable workers. Racing associations, horsemen’s organizations, and regulators must respect the declining size of the foal crop, adjusting calendars and conditions accordingly. Every protocol for track and turf maintenance must be re-examined; the possible improvement and re-introduction of the latest in synthetic tracks must be considered”, writes Balch.

In my opinion, there does need to be some type of a cohesive vision plan for the whole industry to sign up to. For too long, it has been a major detriment to the success of our sport that there is no ‘national’ framework or rulebook for the industry to follow. I’m not just talking about the behind the scenes of licensing and education but also at the front end of our sport - the customer-facing side of racing, focussing on ways of increasing the confidence of our key patrons - the betting public.

I always remember the late, great Arnold Kirpatrick summarizing it in one word why we didn’t have a national governing body - fiefdoms. Nobody from state to state, he would regularly tell me, wants to give up their ‘power’ for the greater good of racing. Times have changed, the dysfunctional set up suddenly became the norm in racing. We’re living in the modern age of simulcast wagering and before each bettor stakes their money, are we really expecting them to understand the rulebook for each state where they are wagering?

An article which illustrates this point is Bill Heller’s piece entitled ‘Is a foul a foul’? Heller looks at different examples, from state to state, of what constitutes a foul and how US racing is effectively out of kilter with the rest of the major racing nations, with the interpretation of IFHA (International Federation of Horseracing Authorities) rulebook.

In this issue, we also look at the importance of ‘Continuing Education’ for trainers. It’s commonplace in most licensed professions. As Denise Steffanus points out, even hair stylists sign up to the concept. But what is being done in racing? Wouldn’t it be great for the industry if this became standard practice? At the end of the day, no amount of education is going to stop accidents from happening, but at least the industry can say, we’ve done our best to educate those we license and learn from what’s gone wrong.

As Balch suggests in his column - whatever our role – we need to pause, step back, and assess our own mistakes objectively, admit them, and learn from them.

Wherever your racing takes you this summer - good luck!

ISSUE 53 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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Editorial Director/Publisher Giles Anderson (1 888 218 4430) Sub-Editor Jana Cavalier Advert Production Shae Hardy Circulation/Website Anna Alcock (1 888 659 2935) Advertising Sales Giles Anderson, Anna Alcock 1 888 218 4430 Photo Credits: Giles Anderson, Benoit & Associates, Joe Cantin, Eclipse Sportswire, Taylor Edjys, EquiSport Photos, Dr. Emmanuelle van Erck, Hong Kong Jockey Club. Rose Lewis, Emily Shields, Shutterstock and Judy Wardrope.

Photographer “At Large” Frances J. Karon Cover Photograph EquiSport Photos Design ATG Media

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

Trainer Magazine is the official magazine of the California Thoroughbred Trainers.

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

Education Ed cati tii ! Integrity I t it Service

Alan F. Balch was hired as the executive director of 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 BloodHorse, Canadian Thoroughbred and Harness Racing Update.

Sally Duckett is editor of International Thoroughbred magazine, “aide” (and partner) of British based trainer, Geoffrey Deacon and the sales day live writer for Tattersalls and Tattersalls Ireland.

Dr. Emmanuelle van ErckWestergren graduated from the École Nationale Vétérinaire de Maison Alfort (France) in 1996.

After completing a PhD on respiratory diseases and respiratory function testing in horses at The University of Liège, Emmanuelle launched her own private referral practice in equine sports medicine. She specializes in exercise testing and unexplained poor performance cases.

Ed Golden is the author of Santa Anita’s widely acclaimed “Stable Notes,” hailed by peers as “the best in racing.” A native of Philadelphia, he earned Eclipse Award honorable mention while with the Philadelphia Daily News and has written for The Blood-Horse and USA Today.

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

Bill and his wife Marianne live near Gulfstream Park in Florida. Bill’s son Benjamin is an accomplished marathon runner in Troy, N.Y.

Professor Roger Smith is currently Professor of Equine Orthopaedics at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC). He qualified from Cambridge University in 1987 with a First and a Full Blue in swimming. After 2 years in practice, he became a Resident in Equine Studies at the RVC and subsequently undertook a PhD on equine tendons. He holds the Diploma of Equine Orthopaedics from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) and is both a Diplomate of the ECVS and an RCVS Specialist in Equine Surgery.

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.

Dr. Bill Vandergrift utilizes his 50 plus years of horse experience to help horse owners, trainers, breeders in the areas of nutrition, management, training and exercise physiology. He obtained his doctorate in Animal Nutrition from Texas A&M University in 1980 and continues to combine cutting edge scientific discoveries with horsemanship to develop nutritional products for specific needs and provide effective advice. He has a major interest in gut health and how it affects immune function, metabolic disorders and behavior.

Judy Wardrope Mechanically inclined by nature, Wardrope has applied her curiosity regarding how things work in several directions, including a 17-year stint as a locomotive engineer. Combined with an avid interest in horses, she started looking beyond straight legs and subjective descriptors to explain what she was seeing in individual horses.

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

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

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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 53

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|CONTENTS |

12 ISSUE

22

72

36

53

84

CONTENTS F E AT U R E S

The brother and sister who each train from Churchill Downs, talk to Bill Heller about their lives and how they are continuing the training legacy of their father, Dravo.

22 Is a foul a foul?

Bill Heller looks at what constitutes a foul, looking at the different interpretation of racing rules in different states.

30 Fungi

56 Grade 1 winning owners –

in association with RoadStallion Bill Heller profiles owners of four horses that made headlines winning Grade 1 races this spring.

64 Continuing education for trainers Denise Steffanus looks at different schemes across America to enable trainers to keep learning and examines the importance of the

Is fungi the invisible health risk?

Emmanuelle van Erck DVM, PhD, ECEIM takes a detailed look.

36 Tony Gattellaro

schemes.

72 Gary Young

10 Trainer of the Quarter – Richard Baltas 92 News from the PHBA 94 #soundbites –

this quarter, Bill Heller asks: Should rules be added to limit or eliminate a jockey’s use of the whip?

Ed Golden talks to a man who started in racing as a hotwalker and transitioned into an

Alex Campbell finds out how a love of pedigrees and buying horses eventually led to a training career at Woodbine Racetrack.

42 Medication delivery

Roger Smith investigates how medication might be administered through the skin as opposed to injection.

48 Pedigree v Conformation

In the third part of her series, Judy Wardrope examines the relationship between a horse’s pedigree and its conformation.

04

06 Alan F. Balch

column

12 Vickie and Greg Foley

@ tr ain er _ mag

REGULARS

accomplished bloodstock agent and clocker of horses.

78 Gut health

Bill Vandergrift PhD examines aspects of bad behaviour which may be linked to gut health.

84 State of the art training comes

to China

Sally Duckett travelled to China to see first hand the new facilities on offer for Hong Kong trainers.

/ t raine rma gaz in e

TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 53

/ tr ain er magaz in e

Visit trainermagazine.com to download our current digital editions and access back issues of both European and North American Trainer

ADVERTISEMENT

“My horses are winning more and it’s no coincidence. They’ve really turned it around!”

— Scott Lake, American Trainer of Thoroughbreds, Over 5,000 Career Wins

SCOTT LAKE REACHES

6,000 CAREER WINS As one of only six trainers to win a career 6,000 races, Scott Lake sees a dramatic improvement in his thoroughbreds

By Mark Hansen

When you’re one of the top all-time winning thoroughbred trainers, you’re not about to jeopardize the health of your horses, your winnings, or your reputation by giving them a new performance supplement without doing your research first.

That is why Scott Lake, a thoroughbred trainer who reached a major milestone on April 22nd by being only the sixth trainer to reach over 6,000 career wins, was - at first - hesitant to try a supplement that his colleague insisted would dramatically increase his horses’ performance.

Scott said, “I was skeptical about trying anything promising to boost EPO levels because I have heard too many horror stories about horses being harmed by doping. But a friend of mine in the industry kept giving me information on this new, natural supplement. Then I did my own research, and I realized this isn’t the synthetic EPO that damages horses. This is a 100% all-natural

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“The horses had coats that weren’t where I thought they should be. They were dull, dry and wiry. Plus, their blood levels were a little messed up, and they were training just ‘OK’. I thought, let’s try it. Let’s see if this supplement will help them.”

After feeding his horses EPO-Equine for a month, Scott noticed a huge improvement.

“All of my horses looked better and their coats were shinier. Then 4 of the horses on the supplement won the first time I ran them. Coincidence? I don’t think so. They looked better and performed better. They really turned it around. I liked seeing that.”

Scott’s quite certain that EPO-Equine, is making a huge difference in his horses’ performance. And because of the results, he plans on putting more of his horses on this natural “blood builder”.

But why is it important to “build blood,” and how does this supplement work as a blood builder?

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| CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED TRAINERS |

A CLUSTER-F****AILU URE! iven the ongoing train wrecks or meltdowns (take your pick) we’re now experiencing in our racing lives, isn’t it about time to try to figure out what the hell happened in the last six months? Why it did? What’s still to come?

And what to do about all this?

Twenty-five years or so ago this study made a lasting impression on me: “The Logic of Failure,” by Dietrich Dörner, now emeritus professor at the Institute of Theoretical Psychology at the OttoFriedrich University in Bamberg, Germany.

One reason is that the English translation I had was exceptionally difficult for me to understand; the most important is that after grappling with it through two complete readings, I felt I had learned some critical lessons.

Consider for a moment what your definition of “success” is. If you’re a Major League hitter in baseball, you’re very successful – that is, you get a hit, and win your competition with the pitcher – maybe three at-bats out of ten. You bat .300. Which means you failed to get a hit in seven of those at-bats. Far more than most hitters aren’t even that successful.

They fail to solve the problem the pitcher presented way more often.

In racing, if you’re a trainer or an owner or a breeder, you know your success rate, counting by wins, is almost certainly worse than this. Which means you fail even more.

Even if you have already solved innumerable problems just to get into the starting gate.

Shall we talk about betting the races?

Solving those problems? Uh, no.

So, when you contemplate all the books and courses about “how to succeed . . . ,“ at just about anything, it struck me that what we all should really be doing is what Professor Dörner did: study failure and mistake-making instead. So much so that, at the time, I thought I could make a fortune founding the Balch Institute for the Study of Failure. After all, I’ve had plenty of experience with it. We all have.

Success or “winning” or true problemsolving really mean the avoidance of mistakes or errors. What we’ve been experiencing at Santa Anita, and threatened with everywhere else, is stark, colossal failure. Mistakes compounded by more and more.

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Do we really understand failure?? Why it happens? How to avoid it?

In part, Dörner used a case-study approach to analyze various disasters, and see what they had in common. Were he still active, I’d send our current experience in American racing his way to headline a new edition of his book. We in racing continue to check virtually all his boxes for serious mistakes and likely calamity.

One overwhelming reason for the critical situation in which racing finds itself is the complexity of our sport and industry. Virtually all of our stakeholders – and the media – have participated in elaborating the fundamental errors that have led us to a precipice. Whether or not we can even correct our course at this point is open to serious question.

We’ve all heard the maxim that assumption is the mother of all mistakes.

It’s true. Humans tend to oversimplify problems. Of all our many self-defeating behaviors, according to Dörner, one is key: we just don’t like to see any particular problem as part of a whole system of interacting factors. So, when there’s a problem in a particularly complex system (like a nuclear generator or Thoroughbred racing or training a horse) oversimplification and assumption are dastardly enemies of success. Of avoiding failure. Oversimplified assumptions cause serious mistakes to be made. Even deadly ones.

I still remember the late Edward DeBartolo, Sr., telling us that in all his many varied businesses and fields of enterprise, racing was far and away the most complex.

So, when an important racing management assumes that what apparently “succeeds” in Florida (whether it actually does or not is a separate question) can be applied to California, with the same results, without seriously considering all its possible ramifications, that’s just planting a quickly germinating seed of escalating failure.

Anyy true prob blem is likely much h more compleex than we humans would prefer, says Dörner. My old boss at Santa Anita, Robert Strub, whose father founded it, was incessantly criticized by just about all of us for being too deliberate, requiring too much study before any important decision. But that worked for Santa Anita through six decades. When he turned away from that deliberation just one time, he got the first Canterbury Downs in Minnesota, and almost took down his original Crown Jewel in the bargain.

The outside “experts” on which he relied, rather than insiders, knew what they were doing, he said. Until they didn’t. Then it was too late and bankruptcy beckoned.

So, always beware the “experts,” whether inside or outside. Check their assumptions.

Incessantly. Three-Mile Island nearly melted down, in important part, because an expert of great renown didn’t need his calculations checked, because of that renown. Until he did, and then it was almost too late. Expert trainers and their expert veterinarians must likewise be checking their mutual assumptions incessantly.

Our human errors are so frequent because we resent slow thinking. We want to streamline processes to save time. In the name of “urgency.” We try to repeat our past successes, even if the situations are importantly different.

The more complex the situation, the more facets are involved, the more dynamic and constantly changing it is. We humans don’t easily grasp the exponentially multiplying ramifications of what might at first appear to be simple commands: “tighten up this track.” “Run more often or your stalls are at risk.” Intended to achieve a goal of growing field size, while ignoring the potential ramifications of the escalating and even more serious problems they created, among other factors these directives provided an ideal environment

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| CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED TRAINERS |

for upheaval. Like my old horse trainer used to preach, “you never know what you can do until you try to undo what you just did.” Amen.

Is it any wonder that adding the exceptionally complex physiology of the horse and infinitely ingenuous human art of training them to such a complex, volatile mix, you actually have all the elements (or even more) of an operating nuclear reactor?

As Dörner states, “An individual’s reality model can be right or wrong, complete or incomplete. As a rule it will be both incomplete and wrong, and one would do well to keep that probability in mind.”

Indeed. The reality-model that track management applied to Santa Anita in January was both incomplete and wrong.

Then when things started to go awry, these same human frailties we all have as problemsolvers came into play, whether for managers, trainers, owners, regulators, veterinarians, reporters, critics, or politicians. Every human shortcoming was reflected in what each of us did in response, and magnified the original problem exponentially. We’re all mistakeprone humans.

At first, we fail to react, carefully or at all, especially if we as managers or administrators or trainers or regulators are afflicted with the “it’s not my problem” or “this isn’t really serious” syndrome. Those of us who saw our problems developing and didn’t do enough (or anything) to confront them, share mind-numbing responsibility for what happened later.

Those who stonewalled their very recognition have even more.

The next response following their recognition, however, can be equally or even more dangerous: emotional, subjective overreacttion. Governments, regulators, managerrs, and media, all

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then join a chaotic and ever-expanding whirlpool of feedback, failing to respect or even recognize their own lack of objectivity and knowledge. Managers speed decision-making even more, and point fingers, attempting to fix blame elsewhere. Honest media, in particular, while not intentionally destructive, tend to hide behind the “don’t kill the messenger” syndrome, having little or any regard for their own complicity in exaggeration and lack of context. They can’t control what others do, or fail to do, with the facts they report. Then there’s the observer effect: the mere observation of a phenomenon inevitably changes that phenomenon.

Journalists share the same human frailties with the rest of us, remember, although some don’t seem to recognize that. With ever-increasing competition among all media, for speed of reporting, for notice, readers, viewers, clicks, and social sharing, not to mention ego, recognition, reward, and profile . . . their selfish goals almost always overwhelm context, accuracy, sourcing, and detail. The world is more complex than ever before, and our sport the most complex of them all; yet the media are now correspondingly at their most superficial. Any and all public enterprises are at serious risk in such an environment, where broadcasting and sharing of the false or misleading or incomplete or exaggerated become virtually impossible to prioritize, modify, correct or place in proper context. The media, fired by critics and extremists, in turn inform (or misinform) governments; then, even experienced legislators and regulators panic in reaction, rather than pausing to learn, then to calm and educate their publics.

Let’s remember the comp plexity of our sport yet again – racing and horses are

far, far more difficult to understand and explain than they were even 50 years ago.

Which brings us to the issue of animal welfare vs. “rights,” an important distinction lost on most of the media and apparently on most regulators, legislators, and leaders as well. The public statistics relied upon by racing’s insatiable enemies, developed in the context of The Jockey Club’s own equine injury database and by governments, must be urgently and seriously corrected, improved, clarified, expanded, refined, and made capable of explanation by all of us.

Our adversaries respect no rules, and care nothing about honesty, nuance, expertise, or horsemanship . . . racing’s leaders must become equally implacable and much better equipped than at present to educate the public, media, and governments about our efforts continually to improve horse welfare and simultaneously protect the hundreds of thousands of humans who depend on the sport and larger industry. Not to mention its overall economic impact. Those who oppose what they call “speciesism” – those who believe that humans and all “other” animals are equals, that discrimination in favor of one species, usually the human species, over another, is wrong – must be understood and isolated as the impractical extremists they are. Their influence within government and the media must be unrelentingly resisted and rejected if racing is to survive. Not to mention owning animals for pets and the raising of livestock, poultry, and fish for human consumption.

The very first priority, however, is to continue improving our own husbandry of horses, beginning with breeding a sounder horse, then managing and training them as the individuals they are, always recommitting ourselves to respecting and enhancing their welfare above all else. We must improve and magnify continuing, extensive, expert education of veterinarians, trainers, riders, and stable workers. Racing associations, horsemen’s organizations, and regulators must respect the declining size of the foal crop, adjusting calendars and conditions accordingly. Every protocol for track and turf maintenance must be re-examined; the possible improvement and re-introduction of the latest in synthetic tracks must be considered.

So, right now, every one of us in this almost infinitely complex and interdependent industry, and all the observers of it – whatever our role – need to pause, step back, and assess our own mistakes objectively, admit them, and learn from them. We all have made them.

We have to learn how to avoid continuing and compounding them.

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| TRAINER OF THE QUARTER |

TRAINER OF THE QUARTER

R I C HA RD BALTAS Bill Heller Eclipse Sportswire, Joe Cantin alifornia trainer Richard Baltas’ path to winning the 2019 $1 million Queen’s Plate at Woodbine in Toronto June 29 was anything but direct. His trip was anything but short.

That made the victory even sweeter when his three-year-old ridgling One Bad Boy made his first start outside of California a memorable one, taking the 160th running of Canada’s premier race wire-to-wire by 3 ½ lengths. Credit Baltas with the guts to make an equipment change heading into a million-dollar race.

C

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Without blinkers for the first time in his fifth career start, One Bad Boy controlled the race from start to finish. Baltas had decided to watch the race on TV from Los Alamitos, where he was running a horse that day. “I was jumping up and down,” Baltas said. “It was quite a win.”

Score one for sticking with it. Because there was more than one time that the 58-year-old trainer’s career had all the looks of a train wreck. He won three races in his first year of training in 1991, then took other jobs and didn’t even train on his own again until 1995. There was another gap between 2009 and 2011. And through 2012, he’d never won more than 11 races in a single season. In 2013, he won 18 races. He’s won more than 40 races each year since.

“I stuck with it because I loved the game,” Baltas said. “I loved working around horses.”

Born in Gary, Ind., Baltas’ family moved to Huntington Beach, Calif. when he was nine. His dad, Gus, took him to the races for the first time when he was 13. When he attended Cal Poly Pomona, he took anatomy courses at the school’s equestrian center.

In 1983, he attended the Kentucky Derby with his sister Lorna and found out about the Kentucky Equine Institute.

He began mowing lawns, moved up to working in the breeding shed and eventually landed a job with Spendthrift Farm. “Seattle Slew was there and Raise a Native and Affirmed,” he said. “They

| TRAINER OF THE QUARTER |

were all there at the same time. That was really cool.”

Baltas took out his training license in 1991. “The first horse I saddled won,” he said. “I was surprised. I thought, well, this is easy.”

Baltas quickly realized how far away from reality that was. He took a job working for other trainers, including Tom Skiffington, Richard Mandella, Craig Dollase and Barry Abrams.

Baltas began training on his own again in 1995 and struggled again. In 2009, he took a job as an assistant to trainer Eric Guillot for two years, moving from California to Louisiana. “I was getting discouraged,” he said. “I wasn’t really making a living and I was going into debt. I put my ego to the side. I didn’t see it as a step down because I love being around horses.”

When he returned to train on his own at the end of 2011, he still struggled until he suddenly took off. He cited maturity and getting more horses, including one from Barry Abrams that he won with. “He sent me a horse and I won with that one,” Baltas said. “Then I got a few more. It snowballed.”

Big Macher, a horse Baltas claimed for $20,000 in 2013, gave him his first Gr1 stakes when he captured the Bing Crosby Stakes in July 2014. Spanish Queen gave him another Gr1 stakes in 2015; and then just last year, Next Shares scored in the Gr1 Shadwell Turf Mile. Now this year,

One Bad Boy just gave him the thrill of a lifetime—one he shared with his wife Debby, who runs the track kitchen at Santa Anita. “We’re very fortunate,” Baltas said. “We both have good jobs.”

He added, “I never thought of doing anything else.”

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PROFILE

VICKIE AND GREG FOLEY

C O N T I N U I N G A F A M I LY T R A D I T I O N FROM THEIR KENTUCKY BASES

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| GREG & VICKIE FOLEY |

Bill Heller

EquiSport Photos

ISSUE 53 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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PROFILE

A

sked how long the inquiry deciding the fate of her winner of the $400,000 Gr1 Woody Stephens Stakes Hog Creek Hustle seemed, trainer Vickie Foley said, “Eternity.”

Then she added, “Usually, the longer it goes, the worse it is.”

Her family shared her anxiety as Hog Creek Hustle’s number 8 blinked on and off on the toteboard at Belmont Park on the undercard of the Belmont Stakes June 7. Hog Creek Hustle had won by a neck under Corey Lanerie but had clearly bumped Mind Control, ridden by John Velazquez, around the top of the stretch. Mind Control wound up finishing eighth.

Vickie’s brother Greg was watching on TV at Churchill Downs, where he saddled a horse that afternoon and where he is eighth all-time in training victories. Her nephew Travis, Greg’s son and assistant trainer, and Travis’ girlfriend Patsy, were on vacation watching on television at the Golden Nugget casino in Biloxi, Miss.

Vickie has been training for 38 years. Greg, who has been married to Sheree for 38 years, has also been training for 38 years. Neither Vickie nor Greg had ever won a Gr1 stakes. Their late father, Dravo, trained horses for 48 years after a horse ended his jockey career by stepping on him, forcing doctors to remove a piece of his lung. He had never won a Gr1 stakes as a rider or as a trainer.

Vickie had watched the race by herself on a TV monitor at Belmont Park: “I just looked up and said, `God, please don’t take this horse down.’”

Then in an instant, the inquiry was over. Using their discretion, the stewards ruled that the foul did not affect the outcome of the race because Mind Control had pretty much come up empty at that point. They left Hog Creek Hustle stand as the winner, but disciplined Lanerie with a five-day suspension for the incident.

The collective sigh of relief stretched from Mississippi to Kentucky to New York.

“I felt I had a ton of bricks lifted off my shoulders,” Vickie said, “It was the best feeling ever. I take my hat off to John Velazquez. He told the stewards that his horse was done. He wasn’t going anywhere. They did the right thing. It was the right call.”

Maybe it was karma. The stakes honors Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens, who grew up in Stanton, Ky. Thirteen miles from Hog Creek, this small town in a depressed area of eastern Kentucky that the horse was named for, signified that all of the horses’ connections had to hustle to make their way through life. Patty Tipton, who was raised in Hog Creek, and her Louisville neighbors—Mickey and Beth Martin, Stewart Smith, Melissa and Shawn Murphy, Rex McClanahan, Haley Lucas and Candy and Brian Minnichin—created a partnership. They named it Something Special Racing and purchased Hog Creek Hustle for $150,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Greg advised the partners to purchase the yearling.

Greg waited until Vickie got out of the winner’s circle to call. “He said, `Congratulations! You did a hell of a job.

I give you all the credit. I am so proud of you, and I love you,’” Vickie said. She was touched. “He’s not the mushy type,” she said.

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| GREG & VICKIE FOLEY |

His appreciation was genuine. “That was the first Gr1 for our family,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for a long time the hard way. We persevered and we’re still at it.

It’s a tough sport, period, and that much tougher for a woman. I’m proud of her for that.”

They had started their journeys together so many years ago. And though they train separately—she with a dozen horses and he with 40—they share the same barn when they winter at The Fair Grounds. Vickie, 62, is the oldest of four children, followed by Greg, Sharon and Lisa. “He’s my best friend,” Vickie said. “He always has my back. And I have his. If I have a problem with a horse, I go to him.

He would be a great veterinarian.”

They were blessed by a father and mother who not only showed them a way of life but also a way to live.

“Racing automatically brings you together,” said Travis, who eschewed a corporate life with his MBA from the University of Kentucky to work for his father. “There’s a common ground. We’re all thinking about the same things—what’s going on with the stable. It’s a common ground most families don’t have. Family bonding definitely happens. Horse racing is seven days a week, getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning. You have to love it.

Obviously, they do and they passed it on to me. That’s one of the reasons I stayed in it.”

Dravo and Jean Foley, whose real name was Shelby, were young when they married, 18 and 16 years old, respectively. “They basically grew up together,” Vickie said.

“She was 18 when she had me. Most caring, giving person you would ever meet. Everybody loved her.”

Both Vickie and Greg characterize their father as “very strict.” Vickie said, “He never had to say a word. He put a little fear in you. He never laid a hand on us, but we thought he might. We didn’t want to test him. Nowadays, kids want to run the show. We did what our parents told us to do. We didn’t argue.”

And pretty much from the time they could walk, they helped take care of their father’s stable. “They taught us a great work ethic,” Vickie said. “It’s good for a kid to get responsibility. We were spoiled in a certain way, but in other ways we weren’t. We had jobs. Be on time. Don’t dilly dally. Move. Move. Move. We were expected to do things right and when we did, we were rewarded for it. I think it’s a tribute to our parents.”

Greg guesses he and Vickie were three or four years old when they began showing up in winner circle photos.

“We grew up on the racetrack pretty much,” Greg said. “I started walking hots when I was six or seven. We liked doing it. He liked having us there, working of course.”

They remember good times at River Downs in Cincinnati, where their father was leading trainer several times and trips to Michigan to race at Detroit Race Course and Hazel Park, where Dravo also won training titles. He also was leading trainer once at Latonia (now Turfway Park).

Frequently, victories at River Downs were followed by good times at Coney Island Amusement Park in Cincinnati.

Vickie said, “If we won a race, we’d go to Coney Island.”

That objective was right in front of them. “My father had a box seat on the finish line at River Downs,” Greg said. “You could see the Shooting Star, the roller coaster at ISSUE 53 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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PROFILE

| GREG & VICKIE FOLEY |

AS FAR AS TRAINING, THAT WAS THE BIG THING. TAKE CARE OF THEM, FEED THEM, RUN THEM WHERE THEY BELONG, AND THEY’LL TAKE CARE OF YOU.

Coney Island. It was an old-time amusement park. We’d go to the races every day, and it seemed like we’d go to Coney Island a lot.”

Vickie said, “They had a restaurant there called the Moonlight Garden. We’d play Skee-Ball there. We had a wonderful childhood.”

Some memories are better than others. At Detroit Race Course, 10-year-old Vickie was walking a horse in the barn when another horse got loose in the shed row. “That was the only time I was frightened by a horse,” Vickie said. “I ducked in a stall under the webbing.”

Another time, Vickie and Greg thought they were in a lot of trouble with their father when they returned to the barn after their father had left, re-saddled a couple saddle ponies and took off to ride with a couple friends on an old training track behind DRC. “We were coming back to the barn, and something spooked my horse, and he went over a culvert and got a cut—one that would need stitches,” Vickie said. “We thought our father was going to kill us.

He didn’t say anything, other than, `I told you kids to leave the horses in the barn.’ No big deal. I guess he was glad we were all right.”

In Michigan, where they raced at DRC and Hazel Park, the family rented a house for the spring and summer, and Greg, still a fan of the Detroit Tigers, got the thrills of a lifetime. “My father was the leading trainer at DRC

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a couple times, and he knew the president of DRC,” Greg said. “They had a box right on the first base dugout at Tigers Stadium. We went to games the year they won the World Series. I was in heaven. I collect old baseball cards from the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s, and I have signed baseballs.”

Dravo taught horsemanship to Vickie and Greg every day they worked. “There was a groom we had, Jerry Joseph,” Greg said. “My father pushed me in a stall with him and said, `Do what he tells you to do.’ He taught me how to rub horses. That’s how I learned that.”

Quickly, they learned to appreciate their father’s acumen with horses. “He was a perfectionist,” Vickie said.

“Everything had to be done a certain way. His barn was cleaner than most people’s houses.”

Greg said his father, was “a stickler for the little things.

He took great care of his horses. As far as training, that was the big thing. Take care of them, feed them, run them where they belong, and they’ll take care of you.”

When it came time for Vickie and Greg to start taking care of themselves, both tried college. “I wanted to go to college,” Vickie said. “I wanted that accomplishment under my belt.”

She spent one year at the University of Louisville, then transferred to Western Kentucky where she graduated with a degree in business administration and a minor in communications. “There wasn’t anything specifically I

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PROFILE

| GREG & VICKIE FOLEY |

wanted to do,” she said. Greg was down in Florida with father’s top horses. He was at Gulfstream. I went down there. I was 21. At Gulfstream, I thought I died and gone to heaven. We won a lot of races. I said, `This is what I want to do.’ It’s a roller-coaster ride, but there’s nothing like winning a race. When you do, it’s all worth it.”

Greg had lasted just one year at Western Kentucky. He said he went “because my mom told me to. I liked it all right, but I pretty much knew what I wanted to do.”

So Greg started training on his own with his father’s horses in 1981 and won 54 races that year from just 246 starts. Vickie took a different path, starting with five horses when she won just two races from 14 starts. She upped her win total to 19 the following year.

Vickie’s career got a boost in 1986 when she hooked up with Bill Malone, a CPA who had been doing her father’s accounting and tax returns for years. Malone is a founding partner of Deming, Malone, Livesay & Ostroff in Louisville. “Vickie came up to me and said she was going to be training horses at Turfway Park and needed horses, and I know so many people maybe I could help,” Malone said.

Malone got three friends to put up $2,000 each to match his $2,000, while Vickie put in the equivalent $2,000 of her training bills and they claimed a horse named Mr. Bobeva, a warrior who would make 118 career starts with 12 victories and $134,025. “We ran him on February 1, my birthday, and he won in a dead heat,” Malone said. “It’s true; I’ve got the picture. And I’ve been in it ever since.”

There would be plenty of pictures as Malone became known as the father of affordable syndicates. “It started slow with $15,000 to $20,000 claimers, then we started to go to two-year-old sales,” Malone said. “Vickie and I have been together for 33 years. We never put together a deal that Vickie and I haven’t joined ourselves. No markups. No hidden agendas. We don’t do that.”

What they do is frequently find the winner’s circle.

“I’ve been very lucky to have a business partner and a dear friend in Bill Malone,” Vickie said.

Vickie has kept going with a small stable, amassing 592 victories and earnings of more than $11.2 million. She won the 2002 Gr3 Derby Trial Stakes with Sky Terrace in 2002 and the 2005 then-Gr2 Alcibiades Stakes with She Says It Best, which is now a Gr1.

Her best year in earnings was in 2004 ($725,514), but thanks to Hog Creek Hustle, she’s already made $415,470 through mid-June with three victories and four seconds from 33 starts this year.

Asked what she learned from her father’s horsemanship, she said, “Every horse is different. When a horse has an issue, you have to give him time. You have to take time to take care of a problem. Don’t rush your horse. Know your horse. Know your horse’s habits. The key is getting them in the right spot where they’re the most effective. We’ve done well because we were taught right. We grew up in the business. We were hands on.”

And she still is. “There’s something to say about longevity,” Vickie said.

Malone said, “Certainly, I think she’s the best female Thoroughbred trainer in the state of Kentucky. She was walking horses for her father when she was eight years

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PROFILE

| GREG & VICKIE FOLEY |

I DON’T KNOW IF I’M EVER GOING TO GET A REALLY GOOD HORSE, BUT I’LL KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH HIM. old. It’s a small stable. Sometimes, a woman can’t get horses. She said, ‘I don’t know if I’m ever going to get a really good horse, but I’ll know what to do with him.’”

Hog Creek Hustle is living proof.

Greg’s numbers have been splashier as he’s become one of the top trainers at Churchill Downs. He’s topped $1 million in earnings in nine years and has 1,356 career victories with earnings of more than $25.6 million. He won a career-high $2,017,295 from 66 winners in 2004, and topped that win total with 71 two years later. Greg, whose first victory came at The Fair Grounds on January 7, 1981, has been leading trainer at Churchill Downs twice and at Ellis Park five times.

He races at Churchill Downs, Indiana Downs and Ellis Park in the spring through fall and winter at The Fair Grounds.

And he wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. “I do love horses, being around them, working with them, trying to figure each one out, taking care of them,” he said. “I think I take care of horses as good as anybody. My father

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drilled that into me from day one. I just try to do the right thing for each horse. Take care of them, put them in the right position. Just keep your horse happy and put him in the right spot. Travis is modernized. I’m old school.”

Travis is 36. His younger brother, 26-year-old Alex, just graduated from law school and is waiting to take the bar exam. Until that happens, Alex is helping his father at the barn. Travis is making a living doing that, and Greg couldn’t be happier about it. “He got our website up,” Greg said. “He has newer ideas. He’s been a big help. He’s really improved his horsemanship. He’s come a long way in a short period of time. I’m proud of what he’s picked up.”

Travis said, “I love the game of horseracing—being able to do what my grandfather did and what my father did. I grew up playing sports. I love the competitive challenge a horse provides.”

The biggest challenge comes in a Gr1 stakes. And now the Foley family has that first Gr1 victory. “It’s hard to believe,” Vickie said. “I had a hundred text messages after the race. I heard from people I hadn’t heard from in years.

I pinched myself and said, `Vickie, this wasn’t another day. This was Belmont Stakes Day. In New York.’”

She’s pointing Hog Creek Hustle to another New York Gr1 stakes named for a Hall of Fame trainer, the $500,000 Allen Jerkens Memorial on August 24 at Saratoga. And if Hog Creek Hustle adds that laurel, maybe Vickie will stop pinching herself. She’s worked nearly four decades to reach that plateau and she just might stay there, her family rooting for her every step of the way.

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| RACING |

I S A FO UL A FO UL ?

Bill Heller

Eclipse Sportswire, The Jockey Club

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| CLAIMING FOUL |

F

our and a half years and 2,071 miles apart, stewards on opposite sides of the nation faced a similar dilemma: whether or not interference in two of the most important races in the world—the $5 million 2014 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita and the 2019 $3 million Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs—had occurred, and if it had, whether or not that justified the disqualification of the winning horse.

Wouldn’t it have been great if both sets of stewards had uniform rules to help make those incredibly difficult decisions affecting all the horses’ connections as well as millions of bettors and fans around the world?

Horse racing in North America having uniform rules would be a dream come true. Different rules in different states is an ongoing nightmare. “It’s a joke,” said Bennet Liebman, a former member of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board from 1988 through 2000, who is currently the government lawyer in residence at the Albany Law School. “It’s a freaking joke.”

Nobody’s laughing.

Other than North America, racing jurisdictions around the world use Category 1 rules on interference that mandates a disqualification only if the horse who committed the foul gained from the interference.

Penalties are severe for jockeys who commit a foul resulting in a disqualification: suspensions and fines which increase with repeated infractions.

North America is in Category 2, which mandates disqualification only if the interference “in the opinion of the stewards” affected the order of finish or compromised the fouled horse’s chances of a better placing. Different language, terms and standards within those individual states’ rules make it even more confusing.

Japan, which switched from Category 2 to 1 in 2013, saw a drastic reduction from 143 inquires in 2012 to 25 in 2013. In 2017, there were only nine inquiries.

The catalyst for Japan’s decision came after a controversial disqualification in one of its most cherished races, the 2010 Japan Cup. The popular favorite in the race, Buena Vista, won by two lengths but was disqualified and placed second because the stewards ruled that she had shifted in and cost Rose Kingdom a chance at a better placing, Kim Kelly, chief steward of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and chairman of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) Harmonization Rules Committee, spoke about the effect of that disqualification at the International Conference of Horseracing Authorities in Paris on October 8, 2018: “The demotion of Buena Vista caused considerable consternation both within Japan and internationally as the horse which was overwhelmingly the best on the day was placed behind a horse which was demonstrably inferior. Even the trainer of the horse which was elevated to the winner of the race was quoted as saying that he had `mixed feelings’ about the result.”

Kelly continued, “The silver lining to what clearly was a less than ideal outcome was that the Japan Racing Association reacted positively to the international comment on the result by seeking assistance of the Harmonization Committee in changing to the Category 1 philosophy. It is indisputable that had Category 1 been ISSUE 53 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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in operation in Japan in 2010 then Buena Vista would have rightfully retained the race. The decision of the Japanese Racing Association to change to Category 1 was a brave one for which they deserve tremendous credit.

To recognize that change was necessary and in the best interests of the sport, and to completely change a racing interference culture dating back decades was a significant moment for the JRA.” More recently, both France and Germany, the last two European countries using Category 2, switched to Category 1 at the beginning of their 2018 seasons. They were followed by Panama, the last country in Latin America using Category 2, which switched to Category 1 in September 2018.

“Since January 1, 2019, North America is the only racing jurisdiction using Category 2,” Cathy O’Meara, program coordinator for the Racing Officials Accreditation Program, said.

But in reality, both categories have their deficiencies.

“Category 1 makes for easy decisions, but it seems like anything goes,” Liebman said. “If I cut somebody off and it costs him one length, no big deal. They’re not going to take me down. I think our system doesn’t go far enough, and theirs see seem to go too far. Our system is so confusing affecting the outcome. It was easier when a foul was always a foul.”

That didn’t prevent a major controversy in 2002 which ultimately led to a change in New York’s racing rules.

On August 19 at Saratoga, Silver Squire and his jockey Richard Migliore came in slightly in mid-stretch on the way to a 5 ¾ length victory. Just four days earlier, Migliore rode Doc’s Doll when she finished second after being bumped by the winner Roses for Sonja. “They posted the inquiry sign but left the number up because they said it didn’t affect the outcome,” Migliore said. He expected a similar result with Silver Squire. The official chart of the race said Silver Squire “lugged in a bit while blowing by the leaders.” Regardless, the stewards disqualified Silver Squire. Migliore ripped a phone out of the wall in the jockey’s room, got dressed and took off the rest of his mounts, actions which prompted a $2,000 fine.

Dr. Ted Hill, one of the three stewards along with John Joyce and David Hicks who collectively voted to disqualify Silver Squire, empathized with Migliore. “That was a tough pill to swallow,” Hill said last month. Hill, a former chief examining veterinarian at Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga, was a New York Racing Association steward from 1996 through 2015.

Both Hill and Liebman said that race was a catalyst in changing the New York State rule on interference in 2004 to say a horse may be disqualified “if the foul altered the finish of the race” or “if he interferes with, impedes or intimidates another horse.”

Liebman said, “The rule was rewritten very badly. It reads very strangely. The point of it was now you take into consideration whether it affects a position. How do you determine that?”

That’s a decision stewards in each state must make based on its state’s rules, definitions and terms, which vary from state to state across the country. Sixteen years after Silver Squire’s disqualification at Saratoga, Daily Racing Form handicapper Mike Watchmaker wrote this of the

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Bennett Liebman

Cathy O’Meara

Kim Kelly

| CLAIMING FOUL |

2018 Saratoga meet: “It is not hyperbole to suggest the inconsistency from the stewards at Saratoga meet was among the worst ever seen. It’s not even a stretch to make that claim.

It’s a valid position. Forget about the demonstrable evidence that what was a foul one day was not another day. No one knew from race to race what an actionable foul was. If felt like the goalposts were always moving.”

The NFL didn’t have that problem, but it took a lot of criticism this year when a controversial non-call of pass interference at the end of the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Rams game resulted in a Rams’ victory in the NFC Championship Game January 20. Can anyone imagine the bedlam that would have ensued if there had been different rules about pass interference in Louisiana and in California—that it was not a penalty in Louisiana where the game was played, but is a penalty in California?

“We need to determine which philosophy we want and uniformly have Category 1 or Category 2 rules,” O’Meara said. “Now is the time to deal with it.”

How did the stewards deal with those two decisions in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Classic and this year’s 2019 Kentucky Derby?

In 2014, the speedster Bayern went from the seven post. On his immediate inside in post six was Shared Belief, the undefeated favorite. In the four post was Moreno, a longshot speedball.

At the start, Bayern immediately veered inward, slamming Shared Belief hard enough to create a chain reaction, which affected both the horse in post five, V.E. Day, and Moreno.

The incident was so blatant that the track announcer called it live, saying Bayern “may have impeded” other horses.

ABOVE: Buena Vista (pink cap) yellow bridle was disqualified from first position in the 2010 Japan Cup.

Without Moreno to push him, Bayern went unchallenged on the front end early and wound up winning by a nose. Shared Belief, who was steadied a second time after his compromised start, finished fourth.

Writing about the race for the Daily Racing Form, Jay Privman said, “Bayern led from start to finish after clobbering several rivals at the start but was left the winner by the stewards after a lengthy inquiry.”

In Privman’s story, he named the three stewards, Kim Sawyer, Scott Chaney and Tom Ward, and quoted Sawyer saying, “When the contact occurred at the start, according to the rules, we thought the horse (Shared Belief ) was not cost a better placing.”

Privman also wrote that the decision by the stewards was unanimous, and that 90 minutes after the race, the California Horse Racing Board released a statement from Chaney that said in part, “The incident occurred in a part of the race where the horses interfered with were not cost the opportunity to place where they reasonably expected to finish.”

That statement defies logic, common sense and any understanding of the dynamics of a race. How could Shared Belief, the undefeated favorite who rallied for fourth despite the incident at the start and a second incident because of that poor start, not have finished better than fourth? He wasn’t “expected to finish” fourth; rather he was expected to finish first because he was the undefeated favorite.

Shared Belief ’s jockey, Mike Smith, told Privman, “I think it cost him the race. I was never able to get comfortable after getting hit at the break.”

And what of Bayern? Given the fact that even with ISSUE 53 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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being loose on the lead, he barely won by a nose. With Moreno pressing him for any part of the race, it would be logical to conclude he wouldn’t have won.

If Category 1 had been used, Bayern’s action was a perfect example of a horse gaining an advantage because of the foul he committed. But California used Category 2. Even so, it’s hard to fathom the race not producing markedly different results had the incident not occurred.

The unsaid message sent by the stewards was “anything goes at the start of a race, including plowing into the horse to beat and wiping out the only other speed horse in the race to win by a narrow margin.”

More telling was that after the incident, a part of the California rule on interference was changed, deleting a mention of what part in the race the foul had occurred.

Suffice to say, there was blatant contact at the start, a narrow victory by the horse who committed the foul, and a decision by those stewards to let the original order of finish stand.

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| CLAIMING FOUL |

ABOVE: Waiting for the stewards’ decision Luis Saez in a pensive mood.

BELOW: Richard Migliore

Contrast that decision with this year’s Kentucky Derby, when the 1 ¾-length winner, Maximum Security, became the first winner in the Derby’s 145-year history to be disqualified for an incident around the far turn. Replays clearly showed no contact, but that Maximum Security’s legs drifted into the path of War of Will’s legs on his outside. That forced War of Will’s jockey, Tyler Gaffalione, to take up and also caused two other horses, Long Range Toddy and Bodexpress, to take up, while the horse immediately outside those horses, Country House, did not appear to be affected.

The incident became even more confusing when the rider of Country House, Flavien Prat, claimed foul after finishing second, and Long Range Toddy’s jockey Jon Court claimed foul after finishing 17th, but War of Will’s jockey, Tyler Gaffalione, didn’t claim foul after finishing eighth.

One fact seemed to be accepted by just about everyone is that Maximum Security saw something or heard something in the infield, which caused him to switch leads and drift right. But Maximum Security’s rider, Luis Saez, immediately grabbed his horse to get him back running straight, and then drew away to win the Derby by nearly two lengths.

A second fact widely accepted is that it was practically a miracle that one of the affected horses didn’t clip heels with another horse, which would have caused a massive accident, possibly leading to significant injuries or even fatalities of jockeys and horses.

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The three Kentucky Derby stewards, Chief Barbara Borden, Brooks Becraft and Tyler Picklesimer, were in a no-win decision. If they did not disqualify Maximum Security, there would have been complaints that racing did not protect the safety of the affected horses. With a disqualification, the stewards would be making Derby history for all the wrong reasons.

Citing that Maximum Security had “impacted the progress” of War of Will, Long Range Toddy and Bodexpress, the stewards took down Maximum Security, the 9-2 second choice, creating a ton of unhappy fans, bettors, horsemen and casual observers. Then they gave Saez a ridiculously severe suspension of 15 days. As soon as Maximum Security changed course when he spooked, Saez took a hold of him and straightened him out. If the stewards decided Saez had to be disciplined because Maximum Security caused two other horses to check, and because Maximum Security was disqualified, a five-day suspension would have made a lot more sense than 15 days.

Again, if Churchill Downs used Category 1 rules of interference, the decision would have been easy because Maximum Security actually lost a bit of momentum when he drifted, then resurged to win by a considerable margin.

He hadn’t gained by the interference he committed, and he had been much the best horse in the Derby.

That’s exactly the point Kim Kelly made in a story in the South China Morning Post the day after the Kentucky Derby. “He [Maximum Security] was the dominant horse in the race,” Kelly said. “No case could be successfully argued that those horses, if not for that interference, would have finished in front of him.”

Kelly has been invited to speak about the advantage of the Category 1 rules of interference at the Jockey Club Round Table this summer August 11 in Saratoga Springs.

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| CLAIMING FOUL |

ABOVE: The start of the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Kelly had already gone on record about the importance of uniform rules on interference at the International Conference of Horseracing Authorities in Paris in 2018: “Conflicting rules have the potential to negatively impact owners, trainers and jockeys traveling between jurisdictions. They can be in conflict with each other.

Uniformity is crucial for the sport.”

This is the IFHA Model Rule on Interference: “If, in the opinion of the Staging Authority’s relevant judicial body, a horse or its rider causes interference and finishes in front of the horse interfered with, but irrespective of the of the incident, the suffered would not have finished ahead of the horse causing the interference, the judge’s placings will remain unaltered.”

Kelly said he hopes the dissatisfaction over this year’s Kentucky Derby winner being disqualified will induce the United States to switch from Category 2 to Category 1.

But, unlike every other racing jurisdiction in the world, there is no central racing authority in the United States able to make that decision. We are left with each state’s independent racing commissions, whose common denominator is preserving its power and its existence with hundreds if not thousands of patronage jobs hanging in the balance.

Is it wishful thinking to have a national racing authority in the United States? Does the NFL, MLB, the NBA and the NCAA have separate rules, state by state? Of course not.

Choosing Category 1 or Category 2 isn’t as important as choosing one or the other for the entire country. “It should be obvious that we need national uniformity in our race rules,” Liebman said. “There no longer are meaningful borders between states. Everyone bets on everything. It’s a no-brainer to have a uniform rule. We have a mess on our hands.”

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| ENVIRONMENT |

F U NG I T H E I N V I S I B L E H E A LT H R I S K Dr. Emmanuelle van Erck, DVM, PhD, ECEIM explains her work looking at the link between the presence of fungi and lower airway inflammation

H

orses are incredible athletes. Their physiology—the way their body functions—is truly fascinating. They can adapt to training at a phenomenal rate, they have massive hearts that fuel their powerful muscles and pushes them to peak speeds. So what could stop them? Oxygen, or rather the lack of it. Horses experience hypoxemia during racing, which means they enter a state of deficiency in oxygen. The reason for this deficiency is a failure of the respiratory system to effectively ventilate and adequately fuel oxygen to the muscles. Horses are obligate nasal breathers and were endowed with particularly long and narrow upper airways in relation to their body size. These factors increase the resistance to breathing. They are also constrained by the fact that they ventilate at very high rates, which does not allow for effective and rapid renewal of oxygen in the lungs.

Even the fittest, best Thoroughbreds crave oxygen from mid-race onwards. So maintaining horses in optimal respiratory health is absolutely essential for them to achieve an efficient sprint and optimal performance.

Respiratory diseases are highly prevalent in horses. It is inherent to their living and working conditions. The mere fact that a horse is housed in a box increases his risk of developing airway inflammation. The content in fine dust is naturally high in a horse’s box. Closed or poorly ventilated barns further deteriorate air quality in the horse’s immediate environment. Several studies have shown that horses housed indoors are exposed not only to high amounts of organic dust and ammonia but also germs and endotoxin they produce that trigger a detrimental reaction from the immune system. The problem is that even low-grade respiratory diseases will directly affect the horse’s capacity to perform and recover from strenuous exercise.

With my colleagues, Dr. Dauviller and Dr. ter Woort, specialists in equine internal medicine, we have investigated the link between the presence of fungi and

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lower airway inflammation. In our ambulatory referral practice, we go out to the stables and have the opportunity not only to examine the horse but also attentively assess his environment. As we collected respiratory samples and analyzed them ourselves, we became aware that the presence of microscopic molds or fungal elements was frequently associated to lung issues. To investigate this further, we decided to systematically record clinical and environmental data and link it to our findings in the respiratory samples of the horses referred for investigation.

We collected more than 700 cases; the horses included in the study were either referred routine examinations, unexplained poor performance or respiratory symptoms such as coughing or breathing heavily during exercise. All horses had a tracheal and a bronchoalveolar lavage done, which allowed us to evaluate their level of respiratory inflammation, as well as estimate the presence of fungi within the airways. We also looked at the state of activation of fungi: if they were inert particles or if they showed signs of active proliferation. Our results were without appeal; the presence of inhaled fungi significantly and negatively affected respiratory health in horses, causing inflammation and in some cases, infection.

In this population, inflammatory airway disease (IAD) was diagnosed in 88% of cases, confirming that respiratory inflammation is very common and often under-diagnosed. Of these positive cases, 81% had evidence of fungi in their airways. The presence of fungi more than doubled the odds of having lung inflammation.

The effects of inhaled fungi have been well described in human patients but not as extensively studied in horses. The fungi constitute very small dust particles that are easily inhaled into the deeper areas of the lung.

The inhaled fungi can cause inflammation of the airways by their mere presence or trigger an allergic reaction in sensitized individuals. Some fungal species will produce toxins, which can exacerbate the damages caused to the respiratory system. Furthermore, when the immune system is overloaded, some fungi will start invading the

| FUNGI |

Dr. Emmanuelle van Erck

Rose Lewis, Dr. Emmanuelle van Erck

Microscope picture of a germinating fungal spore in a respiratory sample, an indication of inhalation of fungal spores in the airways and subsequent infection from the mold.

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| ENVIRONMENT |

| FUNGI |

SOAKING HAY AND THE USE OF HAYLAGE ALSO CAME OUT AS DETRIMENTAL. ON THE OTHER HAND, STEAMING HAY AT HIGH TEMPERATURES WAS THE ONLY MEANS TO EFFECTIVELY REDUCE RISKS OF IAD.

airways and cause infection. In our study, the horses that had fungi were more frequently affected with poor performance. More obvious respiratory clinical signs such as nasal discharge or coughing were not systematically observed. Some specific fungal species, such as Aspergillus type molds, were more frequently associated with lung bleeding (exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage).

When we looked at the link with environment, it was obvious that its hygienic quality was determinant. The use of certain types of bedding and forage were major risk factors. The use of straw bedding and dry hay constituted the highest risks of inhaling fungi and more than doubled the odds of having IAD. Soaking hay and the use of haylage also came out as detrimental. On the other hand, steaming hay at high temperatures (with a Haygain machine) was the only means to effectively reduce risks of IAD. Likewise, the use of wood shavings was protective against fungal inhalation and IAD. Where do these fungi come from, and how can we evict them? When straw and hay are harvested, they are left to dry for a couple of days on soil. If the summer is humid, fungal content in soil is higher and the risk of contamination of the harvested hay and straw by fungi is increased. Subsequent storage of hay and straw can further promote fungal growth if temperature and humidity are favorable. Soaking hay has been shown to increase bacterial and fungal growth, whereas steaming hay effectively kills any deleterious microorganisms present in the forage, fungi included. Only hay steamers that provided high temperature steaming, right to the core of the bale, were used in the study.

Homemade incubators were exceptions but were unsafe as they did not steam at sufficiently high temperatures and served as incubators, multiplying microbial content

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instead of reducing it. Haylage did not come out as a protective factor probably because of the very variable quality of the bales that were used. In terms of bedding, wood shavings were the best option, as they are produced in a non-contaminated environment wrapped up in plastic. Wood also contains natural antiseptic compounds, which would prevent microbial growth.

So reducing the introduction of fungi in the stables by choosing the right forage and bedding is key to ensuring respiratory health of our horses. The problem is that the fungi we are concerned with are microscopic, meaning invisible to the human eye. Unless you have overwhelming proliferation, such as black mold on your stable walls, or hard evidence by having the environment sampled by an expert, these fungi will remain undetectable by sight or smell. It is problematic for both the equine athlete and the persons working in the stables. Once introduced in

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| ENVIRONMENT |

| FUNGI |

the environment (storage areas and box), fungal spores can persist for hundreds of years. To eliminate them and avoid contamination of fungal-free bedding and forage, regular thorough disinfection of the facilities is mandatory. It needs to be carefully planned, as it requires the use of chemicals that can be irritating for the horse.

Once the disinfection has been effectively made, adding specific probiotics to the environment can prolong its effects. We have tested products that effectively recreate a healthy ecosystem and prevent excessive growth of potentially harmful fungi and bacteria.

There are a variety of other environmental factors that can affect horses and foster airway inflammation.

These include everything from external factors such as climate and seasonal changes to internal factors, such as temperature and humidity within the stable, building configuration and ventilation, number of horses being housed. Management practices to clean can be paradoxically problematic. Human activity such as cleaning out the boxes, sweeping or the use of blowers will stir up high amounts of dust.

Our study has enabled us to prove how fungi can promote respiratory disease in horses. Horses with unexplained poor performance should be investigated for the possible implication of the respiratory system.

Lung sampling can help determine if the horses have inhaled fungi and what level of inflammation is present.

In addition to medical treatment, there are more global solutions that can be implemented to help affected horses through better management of the environment. Regular disinfection and the choice of adequate bedding and forage treatment can make a huge, long-term difference for the horses’ health and performance.

HORSES WITH UNEXPLAINED POOR PERFORMANCE SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED FOR THE POSSIBLE IMPLICATION OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM.

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PROFILE

TONY G ATTELLARO A love of pedigrees and buying horses eventually led Tony Gattellaro to a training career at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario.

Alex Campbell

T

he 33-year-old native of Aurora, Ontario, got exposed to horse racing through family ties to the sport.

Gattellaro’s grandfather is owner and breeder Mike Nosowenko, and Tony’s father, Joe Gattellaro, owned horses. Gattellaro got an inside look at the sport of horse racing through his family’s ownership of racehorses as a young child and would even pretend to buy horses himself out of sales catalogs.

“As a kid, seeing the jockeys in colors and being around the racetrack and experiencing all of the excitement, I just kind of caught the bug at a young age,” he said. “My grandpa and my dad would put a sales book in my hand.

Literally, I was eight or nine years old and I was playing with a sales book, memorizing stallion names and what not. That’s where I got that side of the bug in terms of pedigrees, sales and purchasing horses. I was doing mock sales purchases and following the horses.”

Gattellaro admitted that he lost a bit of interest in the sport for a brief period of time while growing up, as he spent time engaged in other activities. Gattellaro was participating in several different sports throughout his childhood, including hockey, lacrosse and golf. He would eventually make his way back to the sport in high school, however, thanks to a couple of horses, his grandfather owned, including stakes-placed horses Tacky Affair and Tamara.

“It wasn’t until later in high school that my grandpa had a couple of good horses. I just loved going to the track at that point to watch them and I kind of re-caught the bug that I had a young age. It just never went away from that point,” he said.

After high school, Gattellaro attended Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, and upon graduation he moved out west to figure out what he wanted to do. As the 2009 Kentucky Derby drew closer, Gattellaro decided that he wanted to pursue a career in horse racing, and

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Joesph Cantin reached out to a representative from the Canadian branch of Adena Springs in his hometown of Aurora for work.

“I kind of had that ‘aha’ moment where I just said this is what I need to be doing,” Gattellaro said. “That day, I sent an email to Dermot Carty at Adena Springs and said I wanted to get into the game. He asked if I could get there on Monday and I was there on Monday. I just interviewed with them and explained myself. I told them my background and they gave me a chance.”

Gattellaro said he began working with broodmares when he first started at Adena Springs but wound up working in a number of different departments on the farm, including in the racing department, before moving over to the breeding side selling stallion seasons. While working in the racing department, Gattellaro had the chance to work closely with accomplished trainers Sean Smullen and Jim Day, who both had an impact on Gattellaro’s training methodology.

“Both are great horsemen, have unbelievable resumes and have been a lot of places,” Gattellaro said. “Sean gave me a lot of patience. He’s really good at nurturing his horses and dealing with owners. Jim was more aggressive in my pursuit in believing in myself. He saw that I had the bug. When we were done with work, he would spend an hour or two talking about the old days. Even though it was a short time with Jim, I learned a lot from him just based on those talks that I had with him.”

Gattellaro said his main motivation for beginning to train was to have an opportunity to purchase horses.

“Being in Canada, it’s a different market than a lot of other places in the world where bloodstock agents aren’t really commonly used,” he said. “There’s maybe a handful of guys that control the bigger stables and have the bigger clients. My focus was on buying horses, and I had this realization that a lot of trainers here purchase horses for their clients. It was at that point that I shifted focus on learning to train and kind of looking towards that.”

| TONY GATTELLARO |

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PROFILE

Gatt ttellaro t was gett tting t set to move back to the west coast again to work on a project with wii Andy An n Stronach when Stronach presented him with wii an opport rtunity t tyy to get into training.

“It was in a car ride there that we had a discussion,” Gattellaro said. “He presented me with wii an opportunity to give me some horses to learn how to train. It was a good opportunity because I didn’t want to just step into the deep end here at Woodbine. It’s my belief that you only have one chance to do it right. It was actually a perfect storm where I was able to train horses on the west coast and learn how to take care of horses and build my trade.”

Gattellaro spent three years on the west coast training horses at Portland Meadows, Hastings Racecourse, and Emerald Downs, and recorded eight wins wii from 115 starts to go along with wii 19 runner-up finishes fii and 16 thirdplace finishes fii between 2014 and 2016. Among the more memorable horses Gattellaro trained while out west included Dynasheals, who was Gattellaro’s first fii winner. wii Gatt ttellaro’s t plan was always to return to Woodbine, and in 2016, he made his way back east aft fter t sett tting t up a small breeding operation a few years prior. Among Am m the fii horses Gatt first ttellaro t raced back at Woodbine were a pair of homebreds out of mares he had purchased while working at Adena Springs. Gatt ttellaro’s t fii Woodbine first starter, Hockey Hair, was out of Tetherett tte, t while Fresh Princess was out of Kamaina Rose, a mare Gatt ttellaro t had

purchased for $800 at the 2011 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society tyy Ontario Divi vision’s i Winter Mixed Sale. At the time Gatt ttellaro t purchased her, Kamaina Rose was in foal to Macho Uno, and Gatt ttellaro t went on to sell that foal as a weanling for $20,000 at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in 2013. Gatt ttellaro t said it was the sale of the weanling that really got his business off fff and running.

“I sat down with wii myself and charted out what I wanted to do and strategically how I was going to get there,” he said. “At the time, it’s laughable, but I had $800 in the account. Working the Adena Springs job, I determined my best avenue was to buy a mare in foal and just nurture the foal, try to sell it at the sale and try to make a small profi fit. i We had a good sale and that helped me and got me started that way. The reason I came home is because I was doing that. I was planning on coming home to these horses that I either purchased, bred or acquired.”

Gatt ttellaro’s t stable at Woodbine during his first fii year back east was made up of three horses. Along All wii Hockey Hair with and Fresh Princess, Gatt ttellaro’s t other horse was 2-year-old Ellan Vannin, who broke her maiden in her career debut and then came back two tw w weeks later to record Gatt ttellaro’s t fii stakes win first wii in the Ontario Lassie Stakes.

“You’re lucky to get a good horse in your barn, let’s be honest,” he said. “She helped. It does put a little bit of confi fidence i into you as a trainer when you do get a good

| TONY GATTELLARO |

horse and you know you can keep them sound and keep them on a path.”

While in the middle of his first season at Woodbine, Gattellaro continued to add to his stable. At the 2016 CTHS Ontario Yearling Sale, Gattellaro made two purchases, which included Red Riot for $25,000 and Clickity Clack for $20,000. In both cases, Gattellaro purchased horses for friends he knew, and with Clickity Clack, the investment from members of Gattellaro’s fantasy football pool paid immediate dividends, as she captured the Princess Elizabeth Stakes during her 2-year-old campaign in 2017.

“I bought Clickity Clack for $20,000 myself and I didn’t have the money, but I loved the horse,” Gattellaro said. “I got home and posted on the forum and said, ‘I got a horse, anybody interested?’ Six of the guys said yes.”

Despite recording stakes wins in each of his first two years as a trainer, Gattellaro said additional new owners did not come on board right away. But his continued success over multiple seasons has led to some owners taking notice.

“Everybody can get lucky with a good horse,” Gattellaro said. “Everybody can get lucky two times with a good horse.

To do it three, four or five times, that’s proven you’ve got something. That’s kind of what happened with us. The first time, I expected to get a few calls. We didn’t. It’s the offseason where I do a lot of networking and building my stable.”

Gattellaro finished the 2018 season with a career-high 11 wins from 98 starts and also crossed $400,000 in purse earnings. As a result, he has built up his Woodbine stable from just three horses in 2016 to 28 horses this season, with a number of those 28 horses being unraced 3-year-olds. Gattellaro said he is just taking his time with those 3-year-olds, a trait learned from his time at Adena Springs working with Smullen.

Despite the large numbers, Gattellaro said he likes to have daily interaction with each horse in his stable.

A difference between Gattellaro and other trainers is Gattellaro will decide on each horse’s training regimen for the day following an inspection first thing in the morning.

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PROFILE

“When I start rted, t I had three horses so I did every ryytthing t myself,” he said. “I did the grooming, the mucking, the walking. I was a one-man show. As As you get horses, the main thing I tried to do was keep myself available to every ry horse.

The first i thing I do in the morning is go and inspect every ry horse myself. I check all of the legs. I check shoulders. I check backs. At that point, I know what I’m dealing w wiith i each day. I make set lists aft fter t I do my morning examination.

It’s also based on that horse’s energy gy level that morning.”

Gatt ttellaro t said his experience playi ying i sports throughout his life, and taking note of how he felt afte terwards, led to him opting to decide upon training programs for his horses right before they head out to the track for their daily work. “ To me, it’s just a common sense thing,” he said. “I played sports myself and I know how I felt on diffe ferent days after you did certain exercises or played games and got banged up. It’s day-to-day. You’ve got to treat it like a normal athlete would.”

Another diff fference between Gattellaro and other ffe trainers is how horses go from the barn to the track for training each day.

“Each horse gets hand walked to and from the track,” Gattellaro said. “Sometimes in a walk you’ ll catch a horse’s

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| TONY GATTELLARO |

head nod, something that the rider may not feel. It’s good to have two heads at it. It’s also for safety reasons to have a hand on the horse.”

Despite growi wing i the stable so quickly, Gattellaro said his current numbers are actually higher than what he would like to maintain on an ongoing basis.

“It seems like a lot, but my goal is to be around 20 to ying i to increase the quality a 25,” he said. “We’re just tryi little bit. That’s my model. It’s boutique. That way, I can maintain that one-on-one approach w wiith i each horse.”

With h Gatteellaaro’s exxperience wit ith breeding and pedigrees, and his success acquiring new horses for his stable to this point, Gattellaro could be a name to follow at Woodbine for years to come.

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S K IN D EEP: OVERCOMING BARRIERS FOR EFFECTIVE TRANSDERMAL D R U G D E L I V E RY 42

TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 53

Ancient art, modern science

One shared medicinal practice among disparate ancient societies was the application of primitive ointments to the skin to treat almost all and any ailments. A vast plethora of poultices and plasters have been described, including in Babylonian and Greek medicine texts1 among others, suggesting that the magical healthrestoring powers of ointments were well-recognized to traverse the skin. Thus, it was no coincidence that the skin was the preferred therapeutic route over surgical (and oral) intervention since the former method was likely to result in reduced mortality rates compared to the latter; undoubtedly an important consideration, given that the top ancient physicians were likely charged with the health of the royal courts.

| TRANSDERMAL MEDICATION DELIVERY |

reasons why transdermal delivery routes are an important alternative to pills, injections or inhalation routes: • It avoids poor absorption after oral ingestion—especially in animals, the absorption of a drug can vary between the omnivore (e.g., human) and herbivore (e.g., horse) stomach.

• It avoids first-pass effect where the blood circulation from the gut passes through the liver to remove absorbed drugs.

• It can reduce systemic drug levels to minimize adverse effects.

• The design of sustained release formulations overcomes the frequent dosing necessitated by oral and injectables to achieve constant drug levels.

• It enables ease and efficacy of drug withdrawal.

• Transdermal drug delivery is painless and noninvasive, thereby potentially allowing longer treatment when daily injection is unacceptable or impractical.

• It has the potential to target local administration such as for the treatment of flexor tendon disease because the tendons are subcutaneous.

Challenges for transdermal drug applications

Although the art of transdermal delivery of medicines dates back millennia, it is only in more recent times that the science of transdermal drug delivery in man has advanced significantly2. The choice of modern drugs for topical applications is, however, relatively limited compared to the seemingly infinite choice available for oral delivery.

This is perhaps not surprising since the gut is an organ that has evolved with the main purpose of absorbing food (chemicals when it comes to it) whereas the skin, despite being the largest organ, has evolved primarily as a protective layer to prevent desiccation of underlying tissues and to keep out harmful environmental chemicals. As this includes medicinal drugs, the pursuit of transdermal administration would appear, at first sight, to be an illogical choice. However, there are several compelling

The skin is made up of three key layers: the epidermis, dermis and hypodermis (figure 1) and the waterattracting (hydrophilic) or water-repelling (hydrophobic) properties within each raise unique challenges for topical or transdermal drug applications.

Topical applications, such as insect repellents and sunscreen creams, target the surface of the skin or deliver a drug locally such as for the control of inflammation (insect bite or reaction to an allergen). In contrast the aim of transdermal, or subcutaneous, applications are to deliver the drug deeper to either an adjacent organ, or, more commonly, to the blood circulation as an alternative to oral or needle routes to reach distant organs. The main barrier to local or transdermal delivery is the outermost layer of the skin, called the stratum corneum in the epidermis (figure 1). This consists of dead skin cells, the corneocytes, that combine with lipid bilayers into a tightly packed “bricks-and-mortar” layer that form alternating hydrophilic (the water rich corneocytes) and hydrophobic (lipid bilayer) regions (figure 1). The stratum corneum therefore not only forms a mechanically robust layer but also presents a challenge in designing drugs with chemical properties that can negotiate their way into and through these contrasting hydrophobic and hydrophilic environments to reach the lower region of the epidermis.

The epidermis consists of living skin cells but has no blood vessels for the drug to diffuse into, so instead the drug must penetrate further to the dermis where it can finally enter the bloodstream or the subcutaneous layers.

Routes for drugs through the skin

Most transdermal drugs are designed so that they diffuse through the skin in a passive fashion. The routes for drug can be through the skin cells (transcellular), around them (intercellular) or using the skin components—hair follicles, sweat glands and sebaceous glands (produce lipids)—to bypass the stratum corneum (so-called “appendageal” routes).

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| VETERINARY |

FIG 1 Figure 1 – Anatomy of the skin with expanded illustration showing the cells of the stratum corneum (“bricks”) embedded in lipid matrix (“mortar”).

Transcellular route: Drrugs pass through the corneocytes of the stratum m corneum rather than the lipid ‘mortar’ that surroun nds them (ffigure i 2). However, the drug has to exit the ceell to enter the next corneocyt yte t and therefore through thee skin. It means that it has to encounter the external hydrophobic envi vironment i between the cells multiple times as it moves th hrough h the alternating cell and lipid layers of the epidermis.

Drugs therefore have to have balanced hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties to enable this to happen.

Intercellular route: The drug predominantly diffuses through the lipid rich “mortar” around the corneocytes of the epidermis. This lipid matrix can form a continuous route through the epidermis (avoiding entering the cells), but this route has been suggested to be less efficient because it increases the distance 50-fold compared to the direct route through the stratum corneum due to the interdigitating brick and mortar arrangement (figure 2). Again, the chemical formulation used to carry the drug is important and drugs that more readily dissolve in lipids benefit from this route.

Appendageal route: The hair, sweat glands and sebaceous glands provide a direct channel to the deep layers of the skin circumventing the hazardous barriers of the epidermis and dermis. The main challenge for this relatively easy route is that the amount of drug that can be taken up is limited by the density of hair follicles and sweat glands, although in haired animals, such as the horse, the density can be as high as 1-5% of the skin surface area. Furthermore, sweat from an active sweat gland would be travelling against the direction of drug flow, washing out the drug and its carrier and severely limit drug uptake. It is likely that all skin applications use

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FIG 2

Figure 2 – Path of molecules through (A) the stratum corneum for the transcellular route (Note the drug has to enter and exit the aqueous environment of the cells into the surrounding lipid matrix requiring an ability to be soluble in both); (B) Intercellular route (Note the tortuous path for molecules passing through the stratum corneum via this route which delays diffusion).

this appendageal route as it’s unavoidable but probably more efficient for drugs that are large molecules.

Optimising skin penetration

Newer approaches can incorporate physical and active methods to improve drug movement, such as: Chemical formulations: This is the most common approach for preparing a drug for skin applications. The basic principle is to prepare a supersaturated solution or suspension of the drug. However, the uptake of the drug depends on the nature of the solvents used to resuspend the drug, which can include among other things water, various alcohols and esters, which provide different amounts of positive and negative charges that can interact with the drug and the components of the skin such as water, lipids and proteins. The exact combination that most efficiently drives the movement of the drug through the skin has to be empirically tested in the laboratory. A database of critical parameters can be derived from which to determine the ideal combination to achieve optimum drug levels for topical or systemic administration.

Liposome formulations: Chemical formulations have been modified to include lipids that mimic the outer bilipid layer of the cells. These bilipids can spontaneously form into small spheres (liposomes) within which drug molecules can be enclosed acting as a protective transport vehicle to carry the drug through the skin (figure 3).

This arrangement can help avoid difficulties such as poor drug solubility. The current view is that the liposomes absorb into and fuse with the skin, and the broken lipid components boost the penetration of the

| TRANSDERMAL MEDICATION DELIVERY |

drug. The efficiency can vary depending on conditions such as the size of the liposome and other chemical characteristics that can be introduced into the liposome structure. Introducing a mild detergent leads to a highly elastic liposome, which has been proposed to enable the structure to squeeze into narrow spaces in the bricks and mortar of the stratum corneum.

Microneedles: This approach uses minute needles arranged on a surface which when applied to the skin can penetrate the stratum corneum (figure 4). As they do not penetrate the dermis where the nerves are located, this is painless. Solid microneedles form very tiny channels in the stratum corneum so that the drug can travel into the dermis bypassing the stratum corneum barrier. In some cases the drug is coated onto the surface of the microneedle tips to deposit a drug below the stratum corneum. Microneedles are made from silicon or various metals and can have a hollow centre to act like a hypodermic needle through which a drug can be transferred deep into the skin. Other variations include those made from materials that are soluble such as sugars. These biodegradable types can be packed with the drug, and the whole microneedle deposited into the skin to release the drug as the soluble scaffold dissolves with time. The packing density of the microneedles can determine the drug dose to be delivered and is pain-free.

The key challenges with using microneedles is the volume of drug that can be loaded and delivered and the skin

FIG 3

Figure 3 – Liposome structure used to carry drugs through the skin.

The drug of interest is shown as the large red or blue dots.

surface area they can currently cover. This can be an issue for drugs that are not highly potent in their action (as more drug is required).

Horse skin properties and the potential for transdermal applications

Our work, has exploited emerging state-of-the-art strategies from human medicine to develop scientificallybased transdermal drug delivery systems. However, horse skin is structurally different from human, and there has been only limited characterization of the barrier properties of horse skin based on the diffusion of a few specific drugs in vitro. Consequently, this route of administration is poorly developed for horse and the fundamental properties of skin from different anatomical locations has not been systematically investigated.

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| TRANSDERMAL MEDICATION DELIVERY |

formulations for clinical applications to optimize treatment. To maximize delivery to the systemic blood, drugs that are hydrophilic in nature could be targeted via the flank or croup, whereas hydrophobic molecules could be targeted via the inner thigh skin.

Exciting new applications for the technology

We have found that while horse and human skin have remarkably similar overall thickness, the horse skin has a range of thicknesses dependent on its anatomical location with the metacarpal and croup skin being the thickest and the inner thigh the thinnest. The skin thickness does not appear to be related to the epidermis since this is thickest in the metacarpal and inner thigh skin and thinnest in the neck skin. However, the ratio of the dermis to epidermis is greatest for the croup skin (40-fold) compared to the inner thigh (15-fold). In addition, the density of hair follicles also varies with the neck and metatarsal skin having the greatest density and the croup and inner thigh the lowest, which suggests that appendageal routes could be more efficiently exploited in the neck or metatarsal skin.

To complicate things further, two other parameters influence the delivery of drugs to the body—the lag time and rate of “flow” of the drug through the skin. To maximize the delivery of a drug through the skin, we need one that has a high flux and low lag time. Consequently, we have devised an “FLT ratio” to provide an objective measure of this—the higher the value the better the drug can be delivered. The flank and croup had the highest values for hydrophilic drugs (e.g., caffeine), while the inner thigh was highest for the hydrophobic drugs (e.g., ibuprofen).

Our work highlights the site-to-site variations in drug delivery through equine skin when designing transdermal

PICS: UNC CHAPEL HILL

FIG 4

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Figure 4 – Microneedles.

Left panel is a typical template with microneedles on the end of a fingertip to show its relative size; the middle panel shows a magnified view of the microneedles; and the right panel is a rollertype applicator with the microneedles on the roller surface.

In addition to the obvious usefulness in delivering established drugs for therapy, transdermal drug delivery could potentially be used to deliver new small therapeutic molecules locally. We are particularly interested is harnessing this technology as a preventative strategy for injuries to the superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT).

The SDFT of the forelimb is frequently injured in athletic and sports horses and can be career ending. It is also a major cause of wastage in the industry. Our previous work shows that the damage to the tissue starts before there are obvious clinical signs and that specific classes of enzymes are actively involved in this pre-clinical phase.

Since the SDFT lies just under the skin, we propose that a transdermal approach to deliver inhibitory drugs to the metacarpal region skin could deliver the drug directly to the SDFT. This would overcome the side effects reported when such drugs are delivered to the whole body. In addition, application during or soon after exercise, when the degradative processes are most active, could be a more effective preventative approach and our current work, also supported by the Horserace Betting Levy Board, is evaluating such small molecule inhibitors with this in mind. Challenges still remain but our systematic analysis of the horse skin properties is a step in the right direction for this and other disorders.

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to the British Horserace Betting Levy Board for funding this research.

References: J Dudhia1, S Bizley1,2, A Williams2, RK Smith1 2Department of Clinical Sciences and Services, Royal Veterinary College, University of London North Mymms AL9 7TA UK; 2School of Pharmacy, Whiteknights Campus, University of Reading, RG6 6AF UK [1] Geller MJ (2010). Ancient Babylonian Medicine, 1st edn. WileyBlackwell: Malden, MA. [2] Williams, AC (2003) Transdermal and Topical Drug Delivery from Theory to Clinical Practice Pharmaceutical Press.

[3] Potts RO, Francoeur ML. Lipid biophysics of water loss through the skin. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1990; 87: 3871-3.

[4] Zhang Y, Liu Q, Yu J, Yu S, Wang J, Qiang L, Gu Z. Locally induced adipose tissue browning by microneedle patch for obesity treatment.

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PE DIG REE vs CO NF OR MATION Judy Wardrope

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Judy Wardrope, Giles Anderson

| CONFORMATION |

hat are the factors people consider when assessing a potential racehorse? In part, it depends on their intentions. Different choices may be made if the horse or offspring is intended for their own use or how the horse or offspring might sell.

And when a horse gets to the track, what factors help a trainer decide on a particular distance or surface to try? Most of the trainers I interviewed say that they usually look at who the sire is when trying to determine distance and/or surface preferences.

Trainer Mark Frostad said, “I look at the pedigree more than the individual regarding distance and surface.”

W

Richard Mandella says that his determining factors are “conformation, style of action, pedigree and the old standby, trial and error.”

Roger Attfield says, “It is extremely hard to tell turf versus dirt. I’ve watched horses all my life and I’ve tried to figure it out. I can tell when I start breezing them. I had a half-sister [to Perfect Soul], who was stakes-placed, and she couldn’t handle the turf one iota. I had the full brother…also turf. Approval could win on the dirt, but as soon as he stepped on the turf, he was dynamite.”

What about when planning a potential breeding for a mare or a stallion? Is conformation more important than pedigree? Or does pedigree have more

influence than conformation? How much of a role does marketing play in the selections?

Although ancestry and conformation do go together, the correlation is complicated.

For example, top basketball players tend not to come from families of short people, but most NBA stars do not have siblings who are star players. The rule holds for other athletes, including gymnasts.

But what would you get if you crossed a basketball player with a gymnast?

Pedigree is not an absolute despite what marketing campaigns may lead you to believe. Look at human families—maybe even your own. Are you built like all of your siblings, do you all have the same talents? And what about your cousins?

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Ocean Colors

Are you all built alike and of equal talent?

When it comes to Thoroughbred horses, you will find that only the very top sires boast a percentage of stakes winners nearing 15%. If one assumes that a stakes winner is the goal of most breeders, then that would indicate at least an 85% failure rate.

When breeding horses or selecting potential racehorses, the cross might look good on paper or in our imaginations, but what are the odds that the offspring would be able to perform to expectations if it was not built to be a success at the track? Looking at the big picture, one has to wonder what we are doing to the gene pool if we only breed for marketability.

To get a better understanding, let’s look at four horses. Three of our sample horses have strong catalog pages, but did they run according to their pedigrees or according to the mechanics of their construction? Furthermore, did the horse with the humdrum catalog page have a humdrum racing career?

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Ocean Colors PEDIGREE

She is by Orientate, a campion sprinter of $1,716,950 (including a win in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint [Gr1], who sired numerous stakes horses and was the broodmare sire of champions.

Her dam, Winning Colors, earned $1,526,837, was the champion three-yearold filly and beat the boys in the Kentucky Derby (Gr1) and the Santa Anita Derby (Gr1). She was a proven classic-distance racehorse.

Winning Colors was the dam of 10 registered foals, 9 to race, 6 winners, including Ocean Colors and Golden Colors (a stakes-placed winner in Japan, who produced Cheerful Smile, a stakes winner of $1,878,158 in North America), and she is ancestor to other black-type runners.

CONFORMATION

Her lumbosacral gap (LS), which is just in front of the high point of croup and functions like the horse’s transmission,

is considerably rearward of ideal. This constitutes a significant difference when compared to either of her athletic parents.

The rear triangle is equal on the ilium side (point of hip to point of buttock) and femur side (point of buttock to stifle protrusion), and her stifle is well below where the bottom of the sheath would be if she were male. In essence these would contribute to the long, ground-covering stride seen in distance horses like her dam.

Her pillar of support (a line extending through the natural groove in her forearm) emerges well in front of her withers for some lightness to the forehand and into the rear quarter of the hoof for added soundness.

Her base of neck is neither high nor low when compared to her point of shoulder, meaning that placement neither added nor subtracted weight on the forehand.

Because her humerus (elbow to point of shoulder) is not as long as one would expect for a range of motion that would match that of her hindquarters, she likely

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Sequoyah

resembles her sprinter lines in this area.

Although I never saw her race, I strongly suspect that her gait was not smooth. In order to compensate for a shorter stride in the front than in the back, she probably wanted to suspend the forehand while her hindquarters went through the full range of motion. Unfortunately, she is not strong enough in the LS to effectively use that method of compensating.

RECORDS

Her race record shows her as a stakesplaced mare and winner of $127,093 but closer examination shows that the stakes race was not graded with a small purse and that her three wins, two seconds and three thirds were not in top company.

While valuable on paper as a broodmare, and despite being mated to some top stallions early in her breeding career, she failed to produce a quality racehorse. Naturally her value dropped significantly until she sold in November 2018 for $20,000 in foal to Anchor Down.

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Sequoyah PEDIGREE

His sire, A.P. Indy earned $2,979,815, won the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Belmont Stakes plus was the Eclipse Champion three-year-old and Horse of the Year. He was also a top sire of stakes horses as well as a noted sire of sires.

His dam, Chilukki, earned more than $1.2 million, was the Eclipse Champion two-year-old filly, was second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and set track records at Churchill Downs for both 4.5 furlongs and a mile. Her sire won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and equaled a track record for 7 furlongs.

CONFORMATION

His LS is 1.5” (by actual palpation) rearward of ideal and just at the outer limits of the athletic range.

His rear triangle is slightly shorter on the femur side (point of hip to stifle protrusion), which not only decreases the range of motion of the rear leg by

changing the stride’s ellipse, but it adds stress to the hind leg from hock down.

The stifle placement (well below sheath level) would indicate a preference for distances around 10 furlongs (similar to his sire’s), except for the short femur.

His pillar of support does emerge in front of the withers, but the bottom of the line emerges behind the heel, making him

HE DID GO TO STUD BASED ON HIS PEDIGREE, BUT WAS NOT A SUCCESS. HE SIRED ONE STAKES WINNER OF NOTE, A GELDING OUT OF A STAKES-WINNING SMART STRIKE DAUGHTER.

| CONFORMATION |

Diamond Necklace

susceptible to injury to the suspensory apparatus of the foreleg (tendons and ligaments).

His humerus is of medium length and is moderately angled and would represent a range of motion that would match the hindquarters. However, the tightness of his elbow (note the circled muscling over the elbow) would likely prevent him from using the full range of motion. He would stop the motion before the elbow contacted his ribs; thus, the development of that particular muscle as a brake and a reduction in stride length.

His base of neck was well above point of shoulder, which adds some lightness to his forehand.

RECORDS

He was injured in his only start and had zero earnings. He did go to stud based on his pedigree, but was not a success. He sired one stakes winner of note, a gelding out of a stakes-winning Smart Strike daughter, who won at distances from 7 to 9 furlongs.

Diamond Necklace PEDIGREE

Her sire, Unbridled’s Song, won the BC Juvenile and had stakes wins from 7 to 9 furlongs, but was best at the latter distance. He sired stakes winners on several continents, including such notables as Forever Unbridled, Eclipse Champion older female with earnings of $3,486,880 and her stakes wins coming from races at 8.5 to 9 furlongs.

Her dam, Helsinki, was a full sister to Street Cry (stakes winner of $5,150,837 and a successful sire in the U.S. and Australia with champions of the likes of Zenyatta and Street Sense to his credit).

Helsinki produced a champion in England (Shamardal) and stakes winners in other countries as well. In addition, Helsinki’s sire was the high-weighted two-year-old in France.

CONFORMATION

By palpation, her LS is back an inch from ideal but within athletic limits.

Her rear triangle displays a short femur and a stifle protrusion near that of a male miler.

Her pillar of support emerges into the rear quarter of her hoof for soundness and in front of the withers for lightness, but it bisects the humerus very close to the elbow, which means there is more horse (weight) in front of the line.

Her humerus is medium to short in length and well angled, but her scapula is so laid back that she would have a diminished range of motion to the foreleg apparatus.

The base of neck is well above her point of shoulder for lightness of the forehand, but she has two areas for improvement: her short femur and where the pillar bisects the humerus.

RECORDS

She was a non-winner, but did manage a third in the Irish Stallions Memorial Stakes (9.5 furlongs on turf ) in Ireland and earned $13,428 from 10 starts.

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Silent Eskimo

She sold for over $1 million as a weanling, then as a broodmare (once in foal to Storm Cat and once in foal to Giant’s Causeway).

Her best foal was Dogtag (by War Front), who earned $137,200 and won the P. G. Johnson Stakes (8.5 furlongs on the turf at two) plus the Hilltop Stakes (8 furlongs on the turf ).

Silent Eskimo PEDIGREE

Her sire won a stakes race and was twice graded-stakes place on his way to earning $183,981 from 43 starts. Although he did not sire champions, he did sire solid racehorses and a good number of minor stakes winners.

Her dam, Slide Out Front, won nongraded handicaps and stakes races plus was third in the Apple Blossom H. (Gr1) for total earnings of $185,851 from her 21 starts. And Slide Out Front’s sire won the Sheridan Stakes (Gr3), earning $65,897 from his four starts.

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CONFORMATION

Her LS was ideal by palpation and her rear triangle was essentially equal on the ilium and femur sides.

Her stifle was a bit below sheath level, or equivalent to that of a male preferring distances of about 9 furlongs.

The line depicting the pillar of support was good at both the base and where it emerged in front of the withers.

Her humerus was of medium length and well angled, giving her both lightness of the forehand and a range of motion that allowed her to have matching ranges of motion in both forequarters and hindquarters.

In addition, her base of neck was well above her point of shoulder for additional lightness to the forehand. In essence, she was built to do what she did: outrun her pedigree.

RECORDS

She tallied four stakes wins (Gr2 and Gr3) at from 8.5 furlongs to 9 furlongs while amassing $1,039,485 from her 31 starts.

However, bred to leading sires, her best offspring were stakes-placed runners.

In the End

No matter how famous the ancestors or how enticing the pedigree page, if the horse does not have the physical qualities that made the ancestors famous, it is unlikely to perform up to expectations in either competition or in the breeding barn.

Therefore, the individual horses need to be good representatives of their ancestors. Would you want to own or breed to a horse with a fabulous pedigree that was not wellconstructed? You may not want to compete with it, but sadly, you could probably market it as breeding stock or market the offspring until the mare or stallion became a proven failure.

Little wonder the search for a great candidate is so daunting and why breeding is such a gamble.

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ISSUE 53 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| PROFILES |

GRADE 1

WI NNI NG OW NE R P R OF IL ES Telling the stories behind a selection of owners who won Grade 1 races this spring.

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SPONSORED BY

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Dr. Joel Politi - Serengeti Empress

Challenges have defined Dr. Joel Politi’s life. Feeling constricted while working in a small practice as an orthopedic surgeon in Columbus, Ohio, he helped form Orthopedic ONE, the largest physician-owned orthopedic and sports medicine practice in the state, in 2016. “We’ve taken our small group and merged with other groups,” he said. “I’ve been a managing partner. I’m very proud of it.”

Think live TV is a challenge? Politi allows his surgeries to be live-streamed to the local science center COSI (Center of Science Industry), which sends the signal via the Library Science Center in Jersey City to six high schools around the country. Politi estimates the program, called “Surgical Suite,” has cumulatively reached more than 300,000 high school students who are building careers in medicine the last 15 years.

“It’s live and I have a microphone on me,” he said. “I narrate the operation to them and field questions.”

At the end of the surgery, he introduces everyone— nurses, surgical technicians, anesthesiologists, medical device representatives and physicians’ assistants—and each one describes his or her role, training and education they received to get to this point.

“He’s not only a very successful surgeon, he’s developed tools for others,” his Thoroughbred trainer Tom Amoss said. “He’s a giver. He’s not just a client, he’s a friend.”

In his lifestyle as a newly-minted 50-year-old who is thrilled to be blessed with four daughters, Rachel (22), Leah (20), Annie (18) and Nina (14), Politi and his wife Julie have challenged themselves by running in five marathons and more than 20 half-marathons. “We run together and talk together the whole time,” he said. “We’re not winning any races, but it’s kind of our sanity.” Just to make the challenge of long-distance running a bit more daunting, they’ve signed up to do a half-Ironman: a 1.2mile swim, 56-mile bike race and then a half marathon (13.1 miles). “I’ll see if I’m still alive after that,” he laughed.

But the deepest-rooted challenge in Politi’s life is Thoroughbred racing, tracing back to the days he shared with his late father Jacques, a pediatric allergist who had a 12-horse barn of Thoroughbreds in their backyard. “My priorities are work, family, exercise and then horse racing,” Politi said. “But I love horse racing. I grew up with a barn in my backyard. I’d get the newspaper every day just to see the horses running at Thistledown and Waterford Park (now Mountaineer). In the winter, we used to drive ISSUE 53 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| OWNER |

RIGHT: Serengeti Empress

an hour Friday night to get the Racing Form just to look at before we went to the track at Thistledown the next day. I was 12, or 13. I got into it. I really got into it.”

Politi and his three older siblings, Diane, June and John, earned 25 cents to feed the horses each morning, and they spent as much time as possible watching them race. Most, but not all of those Thoroughbreds were low-end claimers.

“We had $1,500 claimers at Waterford and Thistledown,” Politi said. “That’s where I grew up. My dad owned and bred a bunch of Ohio-bred stakes winners. That was a really big accomplishment, especially with a home-bred. I said, `Wouldn’t it be great to win a little stakes?’”

That challenge wasn’t addressed until Politi became a Thoroughbred owner. “In 2005, I put together my first partnership with a bunch of friends,” he said. “We called it Giddy-Up Stables, from Kramer’s line in a Seinfeld episode. We claimed two horses with Bernie Flint.”

Serengeti Empress, whom Politi purchased for $70,000 as a yearling at Keeneland in 2017, took Politi to another level, when giving Politi his first Gr1 triumph, when she captured the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks by a length and three-quarters.

“I don’t know if I’ve recovered from it,” Politi said three weeks after the Oaks. “I would say it’s the greatest thrill— that race, that win. I’d love for her to win a bunch more races (she then finished second after an awkward start in the Gr1 Acorn at Belmont Park), but winning that race that day was a dream come true...a true dream come true.”

Politi acknowledged he’s come a long way from Waterford Park: “Oh my gosh, yeah.”

Bill and Corrine Heiligbrodt – Mitole and co-owners of Mia Mischief

Let’s face it. Bill and Corrine Heiligbrodt did just an awful job of getting out of the Thoroughbred business in 2011. Eight years after their dispersal sale, they enjoyed an afternoon at Churchill Downs few owners could even

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imagine. They won two Gr 1 stakes on Kentucky Derby Day, the Churchill Down Stakes with Mitole and, in partnership with Heider Family Stable and Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables, the Humana Distaff with Mia Mischief.

“It’s pretty hard to win a Gr1 race, so winning two in an hour and a half was pretty good for a cowboy like me,” Bill Heiligbrodt said.

Who could imagine another incredible thrill awaited them when Mitole stretched his winning streak to seven by taking the Gr1 Met Mile with perhaps the deepest field the gloried stakes has ever offered, at Belmont Park on June 8?

Good thing the cowboy got back into racing, right?

In July 2011, the Heiligbrodts sold 80 broodmares, horses of racing age, yearlings, a stallion, and, in a separate dispersal sale, 12 foals. The decision wasn’t made lightly because the Heiligbrodts, bridged to Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, had been consistently successful, finishing in the top 10 leading owners nationally every year from 2007 through 2010. They campaigned, either on their own or in partnerships, 118 stakes winners, including 45 graded stakes winners. None were better than Lady Tak, who won multiple Gr1 stakes, including the Ballerina when she set a track record at Saratoga, and earned more than $1 million with 10 victories from 19 starts before being retired and sold in 2005.

Asked why he got out of racing eight years earlier, Heiligbrodt said in June, “I wasn’t a youngster. “My children were going in different directions. I thought that it was a good thing for me. I always enjoyed the racing, but I had been involved in breeding. I decided to sell it all.”

But horses had always been in his life growing up in Bay City, Texas. “There were 7,000 to 8,000 people there back then, basically ranchers and farmers,” he said.

Heiligbrodt met his lifelong partner Corrine, in high school, where they became sweethearts. “We were together in high school and then in college,” he said.

They’re still sweethearts. “I think the big thing is we enjoy the same things,” Heiligbrodt said.

Dreaming of playing football at the University of Texas, Heiligbrodt was recruited in high school by legendary UT Coach Darrell Royal and received a full scholarship. “You played both ways then,” he said. “I was a running back, split end, defensive end and defensive halfback. Of Royal, Heiligbrodt said, “He was a great individual—a very good judge of people and a very good judge of talent.”

Heiligbrodt started on the freshman team, but an injury brought a premature end to his football career, though he remained on full scholarship through his final year.

After finishing graduate school, Heiligbrodt moved to California, taking a job with United California Bank.

“I went to work in California and went to the races in California,” he said. “I liked it. We went a lot. I did handicapping. I got thoroughly indoctrinated in that.”

He returned to Texas in 1967 to work for Texas Commerce Bank in Houston, where he would eventually become a vice-chairman.

Twenty years later, he took a job with United Service Corp International, one of his bank’s former customers.

He became president and CEO before leaving to work for two other companies until he retired in 2015.

He’d been involved with horses much earlier, using Quarter Horses in cutting—a western-style equestrian event with horses and riders working together as a team to handle cattle before a judge or a panel of judges.

“Then I got involved with a Thoroughbred trainer looking to race in Kentucky, Arkansas and Louisiana,” he said. “I got involved and I liked it. My wife and I picked our own horses. The kids were working in the business. It was a family business.”

They didn’t need a long time to pick out their racing silks: white and burnt orange, the colors of the University of Texas.

“We’re pretty big Texas fans,” he said. “She’s the only one who bleeds more orange than me. She’s pretty tough, too.”

FAR LEFT: Corinne and L. William Heiligbrodt BELOW INSET: Mia Mischief BELOW: Mitole

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The Heiligbrodts bought their first Thoroughbred, Appealing Breeze, in 1989 and he won more stakes than any two-year-old in the country that year. But in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, he was hit in the eye by a chip of a rock and missed nearly a year before returning to finish his career, earning more than $600,000.

Despite ongoing success, the Heiligbrodts got out of the business in 2011. Fortunately for them, it didn’t take. “I couldn’t resist getting back into racing,” Heiligbrodt said.

Asmussen has said that he may have saddled more than 1,000 winners for the Heiligbrodts. And if Asmussen surpasses Dale Baird for most career victories in the history of racing, he’ll have the Heiligbrodts to thank.

That’s not bad for a cowboy.

Gatto Racing and All Schlaich Stables – Vasilika

BELOW: Gatto Racing and All Schlaich Stables Vasilika.

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Nick Gatto’s journey in horse racing began with a bucket of fried chicken he’d share with his father at Del Mar, 15 miles from their home in Encinitas, Calif. “I grew up going to Del Mar with my dad and a bucket of KFC ever since I could walk, or before I could walk,” Nick said. “My dad in college, he always joked around that he wanted to own a racehorse. My dad was a CPA. He was a numbers guy. He and a close friend, Jim Cahill, claimed a horse named Senator Maddy with trainer Ed Moger Jr. in 2008.

An $8,000 claimer, he won a couple of races for us, and we became hooked for life.”

With both his father and Cahill still working regular jobs (Cahill worked in retail with PriceSmart), they turned to Nick for help. “They didn’t really have the time to manage their horses,” Nick said. “They gave me the responsibility

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of working with Ed Moger. Then we dipped our toes in the water and got a two-year-old with Jeff Mullins. She became a winner. We started to accumulate a bankroll. We were profitable, and we kept rolling with it.”

Soon, Nick had to make the most important decision of his life. “My dad’s good friend, Will DeBurgh had Tuscan Evening, a successful horse with Jerry Hollendorfer,” Nick said. “I met with them. I asked, `How do I get more involved?’ Will mentioned that Taylor Made had an internship program. I was working as a local EMT for the fire department. I decided I wanted to pursue a career in racing more than I wanted to be a firefighter.”

Nick, now 34, completed the internship program at Taylor Made and then took an offer to stay, working there three years and eventually becoming a barn foreman.

Then he worked for trainer Matt Chew at Del Mar one summer. Nick then worked for Jenny Craig before turning his attention full-time to form and then operate Gatto Racing with his partner, Mark Schlaich.

If Schlaich tells you a horse is a lock, take him up on it.

He runs a locksmith company in Northern California with three shops and 30 employees. He slipped into the lock business after racing motorcycles and working in a flower shop. “I’m very mechanical,” Schlaich said. Schlaich, 58, got to know Nick through Nick’s father.

In 2018, credit Nick, his father and Schlaich for not getting lost in the moment when their horse War Moccasin got claimed for $40,000 at Santa Anita in her first start as a four-year-old in 2018. Trainer/co-owner Jerry Hollendorfer and his partner George Todero claimed Vasilika for $40,000 in that same race. “Jerry gave me the opportunity to go in on her,” Nick said. “Dan Ward, Jerry’s assistant, takes his job very seriously. He doesn’t smile that much. When he claimed this mare, he smiled at me. So I knew I had to jump aboard. I told Jerry, `Absolutely. Thank you.’”

They haven’t looked back as Vasilika has turned into a once-in-a-lifetime claim. Her victory in the Gr1 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita May 27 was her 12th victory in 14 starts since that claim. “When Jerry got her, he put some weight on her and spaced her races,” Nick said. “She was entered in the November sale last year, but we decided to race her another year.”

Smart move. She is four-for-four this year with that Gr1, a pair of Gr2 and a Gr3 stakes score, but it’s been a bittersweet journey for Nick, still trying to heal after his dad died in January at the age of 64. “He was at a golf tournament following Phil Mickelson,” Nick said. “My mother was with him. He had a heart attack when he was on the golf course.

This ride with Vasilika has been very emotional. It was very difficult. It still is. What this mare has brought us after losing my dad. He couldn’t have this ride with her.”

Mark Schlaich said, “Nick and his dad were extremely close. Always very supporting and loving. He’s still processing the loss of his father.”

Nick’s wife Karla handles all the stable’s book work while also caring for their two young children. Nick has long-time partners in Schlaich, Hollendorfer and George Todero. “It’s been great to have a partnership that has been together for so many years,” Nick said. “We’re riding this wave together. That’s what partners do.”

Especially when one of them is gone.

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Whispering Oaks, Bradley Thoroughbreds, Jay Hanley, Sal Kumin’s Madaket Stables and Tim and Anna Cambron – She’s a Julie

BELOW: She’s a Julie connections – Carrol Castille (grey suit) hugging Tim Cambron and Peter Bradley (light sports jacket) hugging Scott Blasi.

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How do a Louisiana owner breeder, a man who grew up on a cattle ranch in Northern California, a couple who hit it big with a jewelry store in Knoxville, Tenn., a sign business from Versailles, Ky., a homebuilder from Nantucket, Mass. and a businessman from Boston wind up celebrating a Gr1 stakes victory together as owners?

“That’s what horses can do,” Peter Bradley of Bradley Thoroughbreds said.

He should know. He organized the partnership of Nantucket’s Jay Hanley and Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables, his Bradley Thoroughbreds and sign makers Tim and Anna Cambron, who now own a sign company in Versailles, Ky., that purchased a 75% interest in She’s a Julie, who was owned by Carrol Castille’s Whispering Oaks Farm in Louisiana. Whispering Oaks maintained a 25% interest in She’s a Julie, the five-year-old mare who won the Gr1 La Troienne Stakes on Kentucky Oaks Day at Churchill Downs.

Castille, 52, grew up with horses. His father was a trainer. Besides Whispering Oaks, Castille has a tack shop and is involved in the communication tower business.

Castille moved his stable to Phyllis Comeaux’s breeding facility last August. Comeaux is the manager of Whispering Oaks. “It’s working out really well,” Comeaux said.

She’s a Julie has, too. Her trainer, Steve Asmussen, bought the filly for Whispering Oaks at the 2016 September Keeneland Yearling Sale for $160,000, and she has done little wrong in her entire career, posting

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six victories, two seconds and one third in 13 starts with nearly $900,000 in earnings.

“I’d seen her as a yearling and I loved her,” Bradley said.

“I followed her career.”

Bradley’s career and life began on his grandparents’ and parents’ ranch in Northern California. He went to the University of California-Davis, studying agricultural economics. When his family sold the ranch, Bradley went to work for trainer Gene Cleveland at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park, working his way up from groom to assistant trainer in three years. “I decided I had to go to Kentucky,” he said. “I moved to Kentucky and started pinhooking, and I’ve been here since 1981.”

After She’s a Julie won the Gr3 Iowa Oaks at Prairie Meadows on July 5, 2018, Bradley heard from a friend that Castille might be interested in selling a piece. He knew just whom to call and put together a group that bought 75% of the star mare. And he couldn’t be more thrilled with the mare. “She’s not only won a Gr1, but she’s placed in a Gr1,” he said. “The Gr1’s are always so exceptional. She tries with every inch of her body. She’s really an interesting filly. She’s like a pet in the barn. But on the track, she has this determination—this heart. We love to see that in our horses. I didn’t know Carrol or his wife Stacey beforehand, but they’ve been great partners.”

Bradley knew everyone else.

Tim and Anna Cambron, the president and CFO of Ruggles Sign Company in Versailles, met Bradley through their CPA, who had an office down the hall from Bradley’s office in Lexington. “He mentioned that if we ever want to get interested in Thoroughbreds, he was the guy to call,” Anna said. “We thought about it for a while. We grew up near Keeneland. We decided to dip our toes in it in 2015.

Our very first horse was Dacita.”

Dacita won the Gr2 Ballston Spa Stakes that year in Saratoga, quite an accomplishment for rookie owners.

She’s a Julie has done even more.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Anna said. “It’s not an inexpensive hobby. We really enjoy going to the racetrack, meeting the partners, hanging around the barn, talking to the trainers a little bit, getting to meet the jockeys, getting on the inside a little bit. Our friends who have been in the horse industry for many years tell us, `You’ve been very lucky.’ But we feel we associated ourselves with good people.”

Hanley and Kumin are two of them. Hanley, originally from San Francisco, operates Hanley Development in Nantucket. He had already teamed with Boston businessman Sol Kumin (and two silent partners) to form Sheep Pond Partners. Hanley and Kumin met when Kumin hired Hanley to work on his home in Nantucket, which was located on Sheep Pond Road.

Hanley and Kumin have won Gr1 stakes before. But it’s a new thrill for the Castilles. “We alternate our silks with She’s a Julie, and she won the La Troienne in Carrol’s silks,” Bradley said.

He was thrilled to see Castille win his first Gr1. So was Comeaux, Whispering Oaks Manager: “I was at the farm.

I was home. I got a real good seat by myself. I was happy for Carrol. With all the people in the racing industry who would love to have a Gr1, a lot never get a taste of it—never got close to that. People dream of it. He got to experience it.”

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| CONTINUING EDUCATION |

HIT THE BOOKS! Denise Steffanus

C

ontinuing education for trainers and their assistants has been a topic kicked around the racing industry since 1999. In the world at large, continuing education is a standard requirement to maintain an occupational license. Even hair stylists must complete courses to renew their credentials.

But horse trainers, who have the lives of horses and riders in their hands, do not.

The Jockey Club’s inaugural Welfare and Safety ty of the Racehorse Summit in 2006 identifi fied the need fie for trainer continuing education to enhance equine welfare, health and safety. y. The Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) joined the movement in 2008 when itt issued the model rule requiring trainers to complete at least four hours per calendar year of approved continuing education courses in order to maintain a current license.

Model rules are suggested policies. They have no power of enforcement unless they are adopted by individ idual jurisdictions. The Jockey Club’s Thoroughbred Safety Committee followed up by urging all racing jurisdictions to adopt the continuing education model rule.

The initiative gained supporters, wi with the wit Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, the North American Racing Academy (NARA), and the University of California-Davi vis joining forces vis to produce a seeries of 11 online modules called the Advanced Horsemanship Program. Cathy O’Meara, manager of Industry Initiatives for the Jockey Club, coordinates the program.

“The request from the industry was to provi vide an vid online platform for educational content that could be accessible for free to the industry and proviid de tracking,” O’Meara said. “These (modules) were produced or revi viewed by professors at NARA and UC-Davi vie vis, vis wiitth most of the topics stemming from the Welfare and Safety ty of the Racehorse Summit. The system used is Ar Articulate, which is a standard online course Art development program used by many universities.”

The courses include timely issues, such as bisphosphonate use in racehorses and the management of equine herpesvir irus (EHV-1).

Another module teaches trainers how to identify horses at risk for a breakdown.

Shutterstock, The Jockey Club

The UC-Davis is modules on scapular and humeral fractures provi vide illustrations of the injuries that vid are reinforced by actual photos of the post-mortem examination of the fractured bones. The combination of the two, plus information about factors that contribute to these fractures, give trainers a better comprehension of what’s going on inside the horse.

As of mid-June, 365 participants had accessed the program, completing 7 15 course modules. When a participant has completed a course, he or sh he can specify fy which racing jurisdiction(s) to notify. y. At present, New York, California and Delaware accept these certifi fications of completion. O’Meara maintains fic a fi file of certifi fil ficates for other jurisdictions to be fic provid ided to them if and when they adopt a continuing education program.

The most popular course, wi with 106 completions, wit is UC-Davi vis’ module on humeral fractures. The least vis popular course is “ The Hoof Inside and Out,” wit ith only 20 completions. For a full list of the online courses, see the sidebar “Online Continuing Education Modules for Trainers and Assistants.” These courses are free and open to the public.

New York: What not to do

New York is the only U.S. racing jurisdiction that requires continuing education for trainers and assistants.

The New York State Gaming Commission approved the requirement in December 2016, mandating four hours of approvved continuing education each calendar year as a requirement for license renewal, eff ffective Janu ffe uary 1, 2017. Those not domiciled in New York who have 12 or fewer starts ts during the previo ious 12 months may request a waiver of this requirement.

The New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s As Association Ass (NY NYTH NYT THA) produced classroom presentations at the racetrack for horsemen to comply wit ith the gaming commission’s regul ulation. Online access to the continuing education program, which is available via ia YouTube, is simply a vi video of the classroom lectures, wi vid with no way wit to verify fy if the trainer actually watched the vi video. The vid gaming commission also accepts approved continuing education credits off ffered by the Grayson-Jockey Club, ffe American Veterinary Medical As Ame Am Association-approved Ass Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, other North th Am American Ame racing jurisdictions, and the ARCI. The New York program fi fizzled. Nine days before the fiz first year’s deadline for compliance, a memo from Dr. fir fi Scott Palmer, the gaming commission’s equine medical

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The request from the industry was to provide an online platform for educational content that could be accessible for free to the industry and provide tracking.

CATHY O’MEARA

director, extended the deadline for compliance by 45 days, until February 15, 2018, because “many” trainers had not complied. What is interesting is that trainers need only email a form to the gaming commission that states they have completed the required continuing education courses. It’s the honor system, with no proof required.

Attendance at the classroom lectures has been sparse.

A presentation on August 22, 2017, delivered by Palmer, was attended by 30 participants, with one man visibly asleep in his seat; a presentation on biosecurity on August 21, 2018, had just two attendees, with the corresponding YouTube video gaining just 18 views.

Racing Hall of Fame trainer Claude “Shug” McGaughey III, who has mastered the powerhouse Phipps stable since 1985, expressed his frustrations, not with the program but with the way the gaming commission presented it.

“It almost looked like, ‘Well, you’re a bunch of idiots, and you have to take this stuff to catch up.’ And it was almost sort of a threatening gesture that if you didn’t have it done, you weren’t going to have a trainer’s license,” McGaughey said. “I called Dr. Palmer and he sent me the stuff, and I did it. There was some pretty interesting stuff in there. It was easy to do. But the threatening manner in which they did it didn’t suit me.”

McGaughey, with the help of NYTHA Executive Director Andrea “Andy” Belfiore, completed the online courses; plus he attended a classroom presentation on insurance. The 68-year-old trainer, who admitted, “I’m not really good with all that tech stuff,” said it all was easier once he had some help. And the information presented was so interesting, he recommended it to his assistant and his son.

McGaughey said the gaming commission needs to brush up on its public relations.

“I think that probably the biggest mistake they made was when they kind of came out and were as aggressive as they were about it,” he said. “A lot of times it doesn’t hurt to explain to people in person instead of just online or in a memo or something.

“Don’t make it look like we don’t know what we’re doing. I’ve been doing this for 40 years, and I’m not a genius, but I’ve got some sort of idea of what the rules are, what you need to do, how you get licensed, and all that kind of stuff. And I don’t really need to have somebody

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throwing that in my face. So I would think that maybe if they had presented it a little better, if they would present it better, some of the stuff that they do, they just didn’t handle it, I think, in the right direction.”

Todd Pletcher, who has amassed 40 leading-trainer titles in New York since 1998, criticized the lack of communication regarding the program.

“I think it’s a terrific idea, but my concern is that I haven’t really seen much literature on it this year in terms of new courses and things like that,” he said. “I think it’s a good idea. My question is the execution of it.

“I haven’t read anything this year of any new seminars or anything. I was talking to my assistants not too long ago about it to see if any of them had noticed anything.

Actually, one of them made a point to ask me if we were having to do anything again this year. I said, ‘Good question. I haven’t heard anything.’”

Regarding low attendance, Pletcher said he understands that planning these classroom presentations to fit everyone’s schedule is difficult.

“But I’m sure there is some work that could be done on it to improve that; perhaps try to pick out some times that are a little more convenient, especially with Saratoga this year with five days of racing per week,” he said.

Pletcher offered this advice for increasing attendance and compliance: “I think just getting the message out there is the main thing,” he said. “Giving everyone plenty ty of advance notice and, certainly, I think there are a lot of people eople in the industry who would be glad to attend. Get some highquality speakers through NYRA to come in and d give a

I think it’s a terrific id dea, but my concern is th hat I haven’t really seen much literature on it this yea ar in terms of new courses and things like that.

TODD PLETCHER

Claude Shug McGaughey III

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presentation, and that would be beneficial to everyone. But there has to be advance notification and trying to get the message out to everyone. That would be the key.”

Trainers David Donk and Gary Gullo are in favor of continuing education for trainers and assistants. They commended Belfiore for organizing business-related classroom presentations for trainers, who are essentially a group of small businesses operating on the racetrack.

“Becoming a trainer isn’t just about training horses anymore,” Donk said. “You are running a business; you are president and CEO of your own company. So there are a lot of things that are entailed with day-to-day business. A lot of that is dealing with federal and state requirements.

Some of it entails quite important information, especially in the State of New York—immigration issues and Department of Labor issues. Without even being a continuing education program, they are important seminars to listen to,” he said.

Donk preferred to attend classroom presentations to complete his requirement, but he said online modules are necessary because classroom attendance is low. He also questioned how well the rule is enforced.

“I’m going to be honest. They’re poorly attended,” he said. “Some people might think it is a nuisance, but it’s only four hours per year. … These seminars are quite educational, so it’s something, as a trainer, you should be paying attention to.”

Gullo has been training racehorses for 40 years. He doesn’t object to continuing education being mandatory, because operating a racing stable is much different today, he said, especially following Department of Labor regulations.

“Growing up with the horses, it was like you had a groom and they groomed so many, and if they didn’t like the job, they’d go somewhere else,” he said. “That’s the way it was.

For me, I’ve been around so long that you’re going to have to learn to follow it as it is today, or you’re pig-headed and you end up being out of business. I think it’s a great thing, but more people have got to get involved with the serious issues.”

Gullo suggested more trainers would attend classroom sessions if the topics dealt with important issues facing the industry.

“It’s not really getting to the right issues, the way the whole business is falling, and about certain things

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| EDUCATION |

| CONTINUING EDUCATION |

—management, racetracks—just the way this thing is going,” he said. “I think if these issues will all come up, we’ll be better educated about them.”

Belfiore defended the classroom presentations, saying NYTHA has brought in experts in their respective fields, such as attorneys who discussed labor laws and sexual harassment in the workplace. The labor courses drew 25-30 attendees; an immigration course drew 15-18.

“Dr. Palmer did a couple last summer, and I don’t think they were well attended, although I didn’t go myself,” she said.

“I don’t think the issue really is how we’re offering the courses,” Belfiore continued. “I think it’s just whether the trainers are motivated to do it or not. They certainly would have no trouble utilizing what the Jockey Club and what the gaming commission has to offer because they’re very simple.

I’ve gone through some of the Jockey Club courses myself, and the gaming commission ones are even easier. There’s not even an interactive portion with that. So I’m sure any trainer who wants to do it has the wherewithal to do it.

“And even if our courses don’t fall into their schedule, we try to schedule them at a time that is normally convenient for trainers—on a dark day after training when they’re still around. I think it all comes down to motivation. Are the trainers motivated to do this or are they not?”

Despite multiple emails and calls to Brad Maione, director of communications for the gaming commission, requesting completion and enforcement statistics, they were not provided for this article. Palmer was given the opportunity to rebut criticisms of the program, but he declined to be interviewed.

Up next: California

California has been trying to launch a continuing education program for trainers since 1999. At the outset, the program was intended to be voluntary. When Rick Baedecker became executive director of the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) in 2014, the program was languishing. It hadn’t progressed through the necessary steps to attain adoption. When the CHRB decided to make continuing education a requirement for licensing and to put the courses online with the help of the University of CaliforniaDavis, it hit more snags.

“There are many regulations that have to be followed if you’re putting a state-mandated program online,” Baedeker

David Donk

said. “We learned that it’s not just as easy as passing a rule.

There are )Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements if you’re going to have written materials.”

The solution was to go “old school” and return to the classroom setting. Baedeker said this was the simplest route to deliver continuing education because most trainers in California are based in the state, unlike New York, which draws trainers from surrounding states. CHRB Equine Medical Director Dr. Rick Arthur, in collaboration with UC-Davis, designed the curriculum with an emphasis on how bone responds to training and racing, so trainers can learn to identify horses at risk.

Renowned surgeon Dr. Larry Bramlage with Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Kentucky also contributed.

The most common objection by trainers is that every day is a continuing education for them, so they don’t need others telling them how to do their job.

“That’s fine. Then this will be a piece of cake for those folks,” Baedeker said. “It’s four hours a year. They can probably find the time to participate. I don’t doubt that many trainers, maybe even most, are 100% qualified, but I worry when someone thinks they can’t learn anything more. That’s generally not a good place to be. And I do think there are a number of trainers that may have passed the trainers test many years ago that can certainly benefit from more recent study. We’re not going to leave this to chance going forward.”

The California program was approved for public notice on April 19, 2018. Adoption is expected, and the CHRB intends to fully implement the program by 2020. Trainers and their assistants will have to

I am a supporter and believer that this needs to be done. And the main reason for it is that th this industry and sport is under such scrutin scrutiny from the animal rights people.

RICHARD MANDELLA

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It’s an informal discussion. We sit down wn and meet with the trainer, stewards, equine uine medical director, the jockey, track personnel onnel who might have been involved, and others. ers.

MARC GUILFOIL

complete 12 hours of approved continuing education in order to renew their licenses. California licenses are renewed every three years, so this constitutes four hours of continuing education per year.

Racing Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella, based in California, is a strong proponent of continuing education. Mandella began his training career in 1974 and has more than 250 graded stakes wins on his resume, including nine Breeders’ Cup victories and the 2004 Dubai World Cup (with Pleasantly Perfect). Mandella campaigned five champions, including four-time Eclipse Award-winner Beholder.

“I am a supporter and believer that this needs to be done. And the main reason for it is that this industry and sport is under such scrutiny from the animal rights people,” Mandella said. “Horsemen work hard and they come up learning, and in the old days that was great.

But now we have PETA and people like that who are following each injury. We need to be able to stand up to the pressure and stay together.”

Mandella believes trainers owe it to the racing industry to be up to date on current research in addition to having a good understanding of the horse’s anatomy and physiology, medication and hoof care. Fewer injuries will give those bent on racing’s destruction less ammunition for their attack.

“When a person says, ‘This horse’s knees are remodeling,’ he needs to understand what that means and what the consequence is if he keeps pushing,” Mandella said. “When you do a bone scan and they say, ‘His condyles lit up pretty good. He might be trying to get a condylar fracture,’ they need to take it real serious and know what they’re talking about so that they don’t complete that process. Bone remodeling is an important topic now.”

Mandella said it is no longer acceptable for trainers to rely on hearsay for knowledge. They need to get evidence-based information from experts in the field, and this can be accomplished through approved continuing education courses.

“People used to just believe something was right because somebody told them so,” he said. “Now, as studies and research are done, you find out that’s not always the true answer.”

On Kentucky’s Agenda

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) has been buried for two years in Gov. Matt Bevin’s Red Tape Reduction Initiative, which required state agencies to simplify regulations by removing outdated language and redundant

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passages. During that time, the KHRC was not permitted to make any substantive changes in the regulations.

“Now that we’ve finished the red-tape reduction, we’re going to have discussions and make some other regulatory changes, and continuing education for trainers is going to be on that list,” said Executive Director Marc Guilfoil.

“We’re going to talk it over and vet it through with all the constituents out there. I think it’s a great idea.”

Guilfoil put the topic on the Rules Committee agenda.

He said he can’t guarantee the commission will pass the regulation, but he can guarantee the proposal will be wellvetted. Guilfoil also is a strong proponent of continuing education. He has been a licensed steward for 30 years for Standardbred, Quarter Horse, and Thoroughbred racing, and he said he still attends continuing education classes.

Since 2012, the KHRC has been conducting mortality reviews of every horse that dies in a race or during training.

The aim is to discuss the results of the horse’s post-mortem examination with everyone involved with the horse so they can understand the factors leading up to its death.

“It’s an informal discussion,” Guilfoil explained. “We sit down and meet with the trainer, stewards, equine medical director, the jockey, track personnel who might have been involved, and others. We just go over what happened, what we could have done different. There are some things that maybe a trainer does not understand about something

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| CONTINUING EDUCATION |

Rick Baedeker

that a veterinarian or our equine medical director or stewards maybe can explain to the trainer. I think that would be a perfect part of continuing education.”

Going one step further, Guilfoil said continuing education could be a proactive approach by having these kind of discussions before a fatality occurs.

“There is a lot learned from all sides in those mortality reviews,” he said. “So why can’t we implement something like that in trainers’ education? That way we’re not at a mortality review talking about a dead horse; maybe we can talk about it prior to [a fatality], and it may help the horse.

“I don’t want to downplay the mortality review, and I don’t want to up-play the fact that trainer continuing education would keep horses from breaking down, but it might. There may be something in the discussion that registers with the trainer. And it would help us understand why they’re doing what they’re doing, and maybe we can have a discussion on changing that.”

Indiana’s Brief Excursion

Indiana was the first state to adopt the ARCI model rule for mandatory continuing education for trainers. Under then Executive Director Joe Gorajec, the Indiana Horse Racing Commission adopted the program in 2013 in the face of strong opposition from horsemen, who objected to it being mandatory. Once it was passed, however, the Indiana Horsemen’s Benevolent Protective Association got on board, bringing in excellent speakers for the program.

“The HBPA was very helpful,” Gorajec said. “They worked with us to put on workshops, and we had a very good success rate getting the local population of trainers to participate in the workshops and participate in continuing education.”

Because online courses were not available at the time, Indiana’s continuing education classes had to be held on the racetrack grounds there. More than a few out-of-state trainers, primarily those in Kentucky, balked at having to travel to Indiana to get the required credits to renew their licenses. With race fields already dwindling, the absence of entries from Kentucky became a critical issue.

“A few horses here and there can make the difference of seeing a race go or a card go,” Gorajec said. “The reason we pulled the plug was that I didn’t want to have the continuing education mandate be a liability for the racetrack to attract horses.”

Despite its repeal in 2015, the Indiana program was a success. Some topics presented were regulatory issues, horsemanship, access to veterinary knowledge, medication and immigration. The goal was to enable trainers to expand their horizons with regard to correct information that they otherwise would not have bothered to seek, Gorajec said.

He explained the commission’s philosophy.

“We wanted to meet the horsemen where they were at, and then expand their knowledge base,” he said. “So it wasn’t remedial, but on the other hand, it wasn’t over their heads. Maybe we made them stretch a little bit, but you can’t go in one extreme or the other, or they won’t get anything out of it. You have to give them something they can use every day.”

Ed Bowen, president of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, finds it difficult to understand why more jurisdictions haven’t mandated continuing education for trainers, when others in the industry have done the development work and paved the way.

“If commissions were to follow Indiana’s brief breakthrough in making continuing education mandatory, they would not need to undergo expense for creating the curriculum or recording who has met the requirement,” Bowen said. “Long term, of course, there would be some cost and organization involved with ongoing curriculum selection and development, but the basics are in place. … We have tried to explain we are, in fact, offering g quick and readyy up pdates on scientific work that can help them, at very little effort an nd no expense.”

The HBPA was very helpful. They worked with ith us to put on workshops, and we had a very y good success rate getting the local population ion of trainers to participate in the workshops and participate in continuing education.

JOE GORAJEC

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| GARY YOUNG |

GARY YOUNG Ed Golden

F

or a guy whose livelihood is based on calculations measured in milliseconds, Gary Young never seems to be in a hurry.

But he is a quick study with a quicker opinion, remindful of Woody Allen’s quip: “I took a course in speed reading and read War and Peace in 20 minutes.

“It’s about Russia.”

Gary Young’s life is about racing, and consummately longer than 20 minutes. It started when his parents took him to Arlington Park at the age of six, too young to realize it was chapter one of an engrossing biography.

Half a century later, Young is a respected fixture at the apex of his profession as a private clocker and bloodstock agent, providing information for a fee, winning the odd bet with his own dough, and earning sizeable chunks of change as a buyer or seller of young horses at the sales ring.

Sitting in an open box in the last row of the Club House on any given morning, Young has all the tools of a clocker’s trade at hand: binoculars, stop watch, pens, pencils, notepad, recording devices, the obligatory cell phone, snacks, liquid refreshment and other assorted paraphernalia.

He confirms for posterity the horses’ workouts into his recorder with the verbal rat-a-tat-tat of a polished auctioneer, not missing a beat.

His is a specialized sanctum. It has been thus for four decades now.

Born in Joliet, Ill., Gary grew up in nearby Lockport and got his first glimpse of major racing at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, about 28 miles and a 30-minute ride from Chicago.

“My dad would take me to the paddock and point out certain things, like horses washing out,” Young said, recalling those halcyon days of yesteryear. “We saw horses like Damascus, Dr. Fager and Buckpasser run there.

When I was 12 years old, Secretariat came to Arlington after he won the Triple Crown at Belmont in 1973.

“At that time, there was really big-time racing at Arlington Park. It started sliding later that decade, ironically after (owner) Marge Everett got caught bribing the governor to build a freeway from downtown Chicago to Arlington Park.”

It was there he linked his liaison with the Winick family—Arnold, Neal and Randy—Arnold being the most prominent of the trio in the Windy City area.

Benoit & Associates

“Arnold was a really big trainer in Illinois,” Young said.

“We’d see each other and I’d say hi to him. My parents (Cliff and Rachel) were weary of the Illinois winters and always talked about moving to Miami where Winick primarily was based.

“He told me if I ever came there to stop by and I could have a job. About 1978, we moved to Florida where I started at the bottom, walking hots and later grooming horses for Neal, who was trainer of the Winick stable there. Randy was training in California.

“As a groom, I became very aware that I was severely allergic to hay. The inside of my arms would burn like they were on fire if I filled up a hay net. Turned out, the Winicks always had someone who would go up in the grandstand and time horses, watch their horses work, watch other horses work, and make recommendations on ones to purchase or claim.

“Neal decided that because of my allergy, I couldn’t groom horses, so he bought me a stopwatch and sent me to the grandstand to time horses. It was in April of 1979 when I was 18. This past April marked 40 years I’ve been a clocker.”

During that span, Young has received testimonials from the game’s biggest players, among them Jerry Bailey and Todd Pletcher. Noted Bailey: “Gary Young has the unique ability to spot good horses at two-year-old-in-training sales after they come to the track to embark on their careers.

“Having watched him grow in racing from the bottom up, his foundation is rock solid and his eye for talent as good as any in the game.”

Added Pletcher: “Gary found Life at Ten for us. His record at auction speaks for itself. He commands respect in many aspects of the racing world.”

Young readily acknowledges he’s made more money buying and selling horses than betting on them, although his maiden triumph as a gambler remains fresh in his memory.

“The first horse I clocked and bet on that won was trained by Stan Hough, who was the dominant trainer in Florida at that time, along with Winick,” Young said. “It was the first horse that Hough bred, and it was named Lawson Isles. He paid $12 or $14.

“I thought to myself, ‘That’s pretty cool.’ Little did I know that I’d still be doing it 40 years down the road.

“I spent a couple years around Florida clocking, and in the fall of 1980, a horse came to our barn named Spence Bay that Arnold had purchased out of the Arc de Triomphe sale.

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“He was the meanest horse you’d ever want to be around but also an unbelievable talent. He won a couple stakes in Florida like a really good horse, but Arnold always would cut back his stock there and around April, he sent some to California, including Spence Bay. “California was California at that time, and I took the opportunity to come there with Spence Bay in April of 1981 and clock horses.

“I stopped working for the Winicks about 1983, but it was amicable, not bitter by any means. They were kind of downsizing a bit then anyway, and I basically went out on my own. I got my last steady paycheck around 1983, before I started clocking.

“Racing was really good in California at that time, and the Pick Six was very popular and appealing. I’d provide my information to Pick Six players for a percentage of the winnings, and I hit a lot of them in the 80s.”

Times have changed, however. “These days, I definitely make more money buying and selling horses than I do gambling,” Young said. “It’s not the same.

“Everyone knows everybody’s business, and anyone can watch workouts in person or on XBTV, which isn’t a bad thing, even though everyone doesn’t have the same sense of expertise or knowledge.

“A guy like (private clocker) Andy Harrington, who is a good friend of mine, has insightful reports that many people rely on—some even pay for them—but gambling for me these days is not nearly as lucrative as it was in the 80s and 90s. Even in the early 2000s it was really good, but it’s been on a slow slide the last year.

“There was a time, however, at the 1983 fall meet at Hollywood Park, when I waited and waited on a horse

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| GARY YOUNG |

to run. I mentioned to Craig O’Bryan, who was Eddie Delahoussaye’s agent at the time, that he might want to ride the horse. He did, and it was Mighty Adversary who I think paid $83 and wound up winning the Santa Anita Derby the next year.

“The very next day after Mighty Adversary broke his maiden, a horse named Not Even a Card was running off a layoff, and she had trained exceptionally well for Lee Rossi. Fernando Toro was on her. Toro and I became good friends when he rode Spence Bay for us, and I’m still friends with him to this day.

“Obviously, I had a pocketful of money from the day before, and I saw The Bull (Toro’s nickname) that day and asked him what he thought of the filly in the sixth race. He said, ‘She’s ready.’ She won and paid $62. I don’t foresee doing that again in my lifetime.

“Nowadays, if I get a first-time starter to pay $10 or $11, I think I’ve really pulled a coup.

“Ideally, if times were more stable these days, I‘d be thinking of moving to Del Mar, like some people do when they get to be my age, but with what’s gone on in California in the last year or so, that’s on hold.

“I’m very grateful I was here for racing in the 80s because I don’t think I’ll ever see a decade like that again.

Being here then compared to racing today—and I’m not just singling out Santa Anita—is very different.

“When I was younger, I was interested in all the races, but as I’ve grown older, I basically concentrate on those with higher quality horses or promising two-year-old prospects in maiden special weight races.

“By 2000, you could sense a downward shift, in California as well as the East Coast. California horses

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Versailles, Kentucky | 859.256.0083 office@blackwoodstables.com | www.blackwoodstables.com

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| GARY YOUNG |

more than held their own in the classics and turf races during the (Charlie) Whittingham and (Bobby) Frankel eras.

“Frankel was not the warm, lovable type but he was smart. Back then he raced full time in California during the winter, with a skeleton stable in the summer. But he sensed the evolving trend and later started running more in New York.

“Where do I see racing going in California’s future?

That’s the million-dollar question.

“It’s kind of troubling because I go to my gym every day, flip on the races while I’m on the elliptical machine, and people look at me like I’m Charles Manson or somebody.

That bothers me. The glory days of clocking and gambling are behind us, for the time being.

“My main focus these days is buying horses for people out of the two-year-old sales, and I have a couple clients in California—Aron Wellman and Michael House. But chances of picking up a new client in California these days aren’t very promising.

“If someone really wanted me to, I’d go to the yearling sales, but I’m at a point in my life where I’m not really looking to increase my workload. So basically, the sales I concentrate on are the two-year-old sales that run from March through the middle of June.

“From the start of March through the Preakness sale in Timonium (Maryland), I’m out of town more than I’m in town. I don’t really like doing that, but it’s what I need to do to maintain my lifestyle.

“This is the time of year I go to Del Mar and clock horses, and if you get it rolling there, you can make money gambling, although it’s difficult. Unpredictable things happen where the turf meets the surf.

“If you’re on the right end, it can be a very good place to gamble, but it also can be a very frustrating place. It’s the only track in the world where Skimming could beat Tiznow twice and Dare and Go could beat Cigar.

“What’s happening in racing now disturbs me because I love this sport. It’s provided me with a very good life, but I’m concerned about the future, not only in California but elsewhere.”

Respected turf authority Ray Paulick elaborated on Young’s anxiety when he alluded to 30 equine deaths at the Santa Anita meet that ran from Dec. 26 through June 23. He wrote: “Santa Anita has been the focal point for animal rights protestors who want to end racing, and a bloodthirsty media seeking television ratings and internet clicks.”

One aspect in this controversial furor that has reached stentorian levels puzzles Young. “For the life of me,” he said, “I can’t understand why we invited the PETA people to the table. That’s like asking Colonel Sanders to watch your chickens, as far as I’m concerned.”

Young plans to continue buying and selling horses “as long as I have customers. When Bolo won the Shoemaker Mile in June, he was the 20th Grade 1 winner I had a hand in purchasing.”

He also is proud of selecting 1993 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile champion Brocco for the late Albert and Dana Broccoli, producers of the iconic James Bond movies, and is eternally grateful to them. “They gave me my first big chance, and I’ll never forget them for that,” Gary said.

Young lives in Pasadena, a few furlongs from pastoral Santa Anita with his longtime girlfriend, confidant and soul mate Jennifer Knight, who hails from South Bend in the Hoosier State, but is not kin to the irascible former Indiana University basketball coach, Bobby Knight.

“When I learned she was from Indiana and her last name was Knight, the first thing I asked her was if she was related,” Young joked. “I didn’t want her throwing a chair at me.”

These are blissful times together for the couple, but as in all families, into each life some rain must fall. Young is no exception.

“Both my parents died of Alzheimer’s disease,” Gary said. “They lived a mile from me in Pasadena. My dad was 82 when he died in 2000, and my mom was 89 when she died in 2011.”

Abandoning any signs of a degenerate gambler consumed by avarice, Young did what any loving son would do: he bared his soul and showed he cared.

Doing anything else would have been disingenuous, like a guy saying he goes to Hooters strictly for the food.

“It was tough,” Young said. “My dad had to be placed in a nursing home across the street from Santa Anita, but my mom died in her apartment. Basically, I stayed home from Del Mar for seven years to look after her because it was something I had to do.”

And justifiably so, because after all, racing is merely a game, a business, while life and death are finite diversions, offering the inevitable in positive and negative perspectives.

Still, racing offers a vision unique unto itself, worthy of climbing the mountain in pursuit of a new horizon.

This axiom from Alaskan dog sledders comes to mind: “If you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes.”

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN RACING NOW DISTURBS ME BECAUSE I LOVE THIS SPORT. IT’S PROVIDED ME WITH A VERY GOOD LIFE, BUT I’M CONCERNED ABOUT THE FUTURE, NOT ONLY IN CALIFORNIA BUT ELSEWHERE. GARY YOUNG

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Bill Vandergrift, PhD Alamy

GUT HAS PEE ACT SL OF T HBAD BEHAVIO R AND HOW TO F IX IT

W

hen performance horses behave or react in ways that are less than desirable, we as trainers and handlers try to figure out what th hey are telling us. Is there a physicall problem causing discomfort, or is it anxiety based on a previous negaative experience? Or, is the bad behavior resulting from a po oor training foundation leading the horse to take unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations into their own hands, whiich usually triggers the fright and flight reflex instead of relying on the handler for direction and stability?

Often when the most common conditions that cause physical discomfort are ruled out, it may be tempting to assume that the bad behavior is just in the horse’s head or that the horse is just an ill-tempered individual. In myy experience, most unexplainable behavior expressed by performance horses is rooted in the horse’s “other brain,” otherwise known as the digestive system. In this article I w wiill i explain what causes poor digestive health, the link betweeen digestive health and brain function, and what steps can be taken to prevent and/or reverse poor digestive health.

Digestive health

While most trainers are familiar with gastric ulcers, their symptoms and common protocols utilized to heal and prevent them, there still remains a degree of confusion

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regarding other forms of digestive dysfunction that can have a signiffiicant eff ffect f on the horse’s performance and behavi vior. i In many cases recurrent gastric ulcers are simply a sym ymptom m of more complex issues related to digestive health. Trainers, veterinarians and nutritionists need to understand that no part of the horse’s digestive tract is a stand-alone component. From the mouth to the rectum, all parts of the digestive system are in constant communication wi wiith each other to coordinate motility tyy, immune function, secretion of digestive juices and the production of hormones and chemical messengers. If this intricate system of communication is interrupted, the overall function of the digestive system becomes uncoupled, leading to dysfunction in one or more areas of the digestive tract.

For example, a primary cause of recurrent gastric ulcers fter t successful treatment w wiith i a standard that return quickly aft medication protocol is oft ften t inffllammation of the small and/or large intestine. Until the intesstinal infl flammation fla is successfully controlled d, the gastric ulcers wil ill remain persistent due to o the uncoupling of communication betwe ween the stomach h an nd lower part of the digestive tract.

How do we defi fine digestive health? Obviio fin ously, digestive health h iss a complex topic wi with many movin wit ing parts (fi figu i uratively and literally). The main parts of a healthy digeesttivve system include, but are not limited to 1) the miccro obiome, 2) hormone and messenger production and actiivviity i y, 3) health of epithelial tissues throughout the

| G U T H E A LT H |

REDUCED DIVERSITY OF THE MICROBIOME CAN LEAD TO DIGESTIVE DYSFUNCTION SUCH AS COLIC AND COLITIS.

digestive system, 4) normal immune function of intestinal tissue and 5) proper function of the mucosa (smooth muscle of the digestive tract) to facilitate normal motility throughout the entire lengt gtth of the digestive tract.

Microbiome is key

A healthy and diverse microbiome is at the center of digestive health. We now recognize that reduced diversity of the microbiome can lead to digestive dysfunction such as colic and colitis, development of metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance, reduced performance and increased susceptibility to disease. Research eff fforts f leading to greater understanding of the microbiome have recently been aided by the development of more sophisticated techniques used to identify fy and measure the composition of the microbiome in horses, laboratory animals, pets, livestock and people. While these research eff fforts have illustrated how little we really understand ffo the microbiome, there have been signifi ficant discoveries fic stemming from these eff fforts already. For example, a ffo specifi fic bacteria (probiotic) is now being used clinically fic in people to reverse depression resulting from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Bifi fidobacterium longum fid NCC3001 reduces depression in IBS patients by directly aff ffecting the activit ffe ity of the vagus nerve which facilitates com mmunication between the brain and the digesttive trract. It should be noted that Bifi fidobactterium longum fid ISSUE 53 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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NCC3001 has been demonstrated to be more effective at reducing depression in IBS patients than antidepressant drugs commonly used in these same cases. While we do not commonly recognize clinical depression as a physiological condition in horses, the same mechanisms that affect the function of the vagus nerve and brain chemistry in IBS patients can affect a horse’s behavior and reactivity due to intestinal dysfunction, resulting in a horse that bites, kicks, pins its ears or otherwise demonstrates hyper-reactivity for no apparent reason, especially if this behavior is a recent development.

One case in particular I dealt with years ago that had underlying suggestions of depression in a horse, and underscores the importance of a diverse and healthy microbiome for performance horses, was a horse that had been recently started in training and was working with compliance on the track. The problem was this horse seemed to be unable to find the “speed gear.” The trainer had consulted with various veterinarians, physical therapists, chiropractors and others in an attempt to pinpoint the cause for this horse’s apparent inability to move out; and it was everyone’s opinion that this particular horse had the ability but he simply wasn’t displaying the desire. In other words, he was “just dull.”

After reviewing this horse’s case and diet, I had to concur with everyone else that there was no obvious explanation for the lack of vigor this horse displayed on the track even though his body condition, muscle development and hair coat were all excellent. Despite any outward signs of a microbiome problem other than the horse’s “dullness,” I recommended a protocol that included high doses of probiotics daily, and within 10 days we had a different horse. The horse was no longer dull under saddle

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and when asked to move out and find the next gear, he would readily comply; by making an adjustment to the microbiome, this horse’s career was saved.

There is always a change to the microbiome whenever there is a dysfunction of the digestive system, and there is always digestive dysfunction whenever there is a significant change to the microbiome. Which one occurs first or which one facilitates a change in the other may be dependent upon the nature of the dysfunction, but these two events will almost always occur together. Therefore, efforts to maintain a viable and diverse microbiome will reduce the chances of digestive dysfunction and increase the speed of recovery when digestive dysfunction occurs.

Leaky gut

Even though the physiological basis of leaky gut has been understood for some time, leaky gut has not been a condition recognized to affect behavior, performance or health in horses until recently. Today, leaky gut is quickly becoming a recognized dysfunction of the digestive system that has a multitude of negative effects on the overall well-being of horses including allergies, insulin resistance, uncharacteristic behavior, picky appetite and reduced performance. As illustrated in Figure 1 leaky gut refers to a breakdown of the structures, referred to as tight junctions that hold adjacent intestinal cells together.

When the small and large intestine are healthy, the tight junctions between individual intestinal cells remain closed, forming a barrier between the inside of the intestinal lumen and the inside of the horse’s body. This barrier normally serves a very important function by preventing complex molecules such as undigested proteins and carbohydrates as well as pathogenic and non-pathogenic

| G U T H E A LT H |

bacteria from “leaking” through the intestine and entering the horse’s blood stream. Also note in Figure 1 that as you move your focus from left to right in the diagram, not only do the tight junctions become open but the intestinal cells become more and more inflamed, eventually leading to total breakdown of the intestinal cells themselves. At this point you not only have leaky gut, but now the condition has progressed from a leak to a flood so to speak. This illustrates that the severity of leaky gut can vary from mild to severe with increasing severity also being associated with increasing intestinal inflammation.

As the severity of leaky gut increases, the communication between the different components of the digestive system is disrupted, and the coordination between the different sections of the digestive tract becomes uncoupled. The production of hormones such as serotonin and dopamine is altered, which has a direct effect on digestive function and brain function concurrently. This is one of the most obvious reasons why intestinal inflammation causes a horse’s behavior and temperament to change. Inflammation of intestinal cells initiates a self-propagating process that stimulates additional inflammation of the intestine and initiates systemic inflammatory processes throughout the entire body. The self-propagating nature of intestinal inflammation is the reason why horses don’t just simply recover from it without assistance. In fact, I have worked with individual horses that have suffered from leaky gut for years based on their case history. The longer leaky gut has existed, the longer it will take to reverse in most cases.

In addition to leaky gut causing changes in behavior and performance, leaky gut can also alter immune function and metabolic status. There is growing evidence that the initial cause of insulin resistance in many horses is in fact leaky gut. Intestinal inflammation causes a marked change in glucose homeostasis, which in turn reduces insulin sensitivity. Unfortunately, it appears that once insulin resistance is established, it is near impossible to reverse completely even if the leaky gut condition that caused it in the first place is successfully reversed.

Leaky gut is also a common trigger for allergies in horses. It is well known that the majority of the horse’s immune system is located in the intestine. When the intestine “leaks,” undigested proteins, bacteria and other immune-stimulating agents gain access to the bloodstream, thus putting the immune system on high alert. Many horses respond to this situation by presenting with multiple allergies, many of which are reactive

Figure 1.

Basic Physiology of Leaky Gut

enough to warrant immunotherapy (allergy shots). I often hear in these situations that “my horse is allergic to everything” and in many instances this would seem to be the case. Fortunately, by reversing leaky gut and removing these immune-stimulating agents from the horse’s body, many of these allergies simply disappear. Keep in mind that horses can in fact be truly allergic to certain feeds and environmental agents, and these allergies have nothing to do with digestive health. It is best to consult with an experienced veterinarian and nutritionist to distinguish between true allergies and those caused by an overactive immune system triggered by leaky gut.

As illustrated in Figure 2, leaky gut can be caused by many different “triggers.” In performance horses, the most common triggers for leaky gut are: 1) stress (physical and emotional), 2) intense exercise, 3) heat stress and 4) various medications. Of these, stress is the strongest trigger for leaky gut due to the fact that stress of any kind increases circulating levels of cortisol. Cortisol breaks down the tight junctions of the intestine, which in turn results in leaky gut.

Preventing and reversing leaky gut

Almost all performance horses will present with digestive dysfunction or leaky gut at some point in time in their career. The reason is simple: stress is the strongest trigger for leaky gut, and all performance horses experience stress to one degree or another. Unfortunately, there is no exclusive marker for leaky gut at the present time.

Researchers are getting close to developing a reliable diagnostic test for leaky gut as this article is written, but in the meantime it is best to detect digestive dysfunction and leaky gut by evaluating changes and observing symptoms presented by the horse. A partial list of symptoms to look for includes: a) not performing to the previous level or level that is expected, b) change in personality (e.g., grouchy or “leave me alone” behavior, c) resistance to leg aids especially on right side (right dorsal colon is often inflamed), d) backing ears or biting when being saddled especially when the cinch is tightened, e) dull, f ) prefers to eat hay rather than grain, g) manure has a funny odor or consistency, h) low fecal pH (herd specific), i) constantly shifting weight from one hind leg to the other in the stall, j) tight and “sunk in” in flank area, k) tight in back and hamstrings, l) eating a lot of

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| G U T H E A LT H |

Figure 2. Possible Factors Causing Leaky Gut in Horses © Kemin Animal Nutrition and Health North America (Kemin Industries, Inc.)

graiin but not gaiiniing weiigh ht, m)) dulll coat and d/or sk kin disorders, n) poor hoof quality, o) multiple allergies, p) improves while on omeprazole but quickly reverts when taken off, q) recurrent or chronic diarrhea and r) irreconcilable behavior. (Note: No two horses will present with all of these symptoms or the same symptoms, but this list provides a guide as to the most common symptoms to evaluate.

Since stress is the strongest trigger for intestinal inflammation and leaky gut, steps should be taken to remove as much stress as possible. For example, paying attention to biosecurity measures, transporting at times and with methods that reduce stress, adjusting training schedules to avoid heat stress and overexertion are things that can be done to reduce stress. Keeping forage (hay and/ or pasture) in front of horses 24/7 is critical. Controlling the amount of grain-based feed fed per day can help in many cases. As a guideline, if you are having to feed more than 7 kgs or 15 lbs of grain per day to maintain a horse’s condition and energy level, you should suspect digestive dysfunction as one of the reasons so much feed is required.

If you suspect your horse is presenting with leaky gut, how can you help reverse it? Begin by continuing to provide good quality forage 24/7 and make sure your forage is “good quality”; and utilize a high-fiber, high-fat, low-soluble carbohydrate feed in place of a grain-based feed.

Second, utilize nutritional tools that are now available to stimulate closure of the tight junctions. These include nutraceuticals such as butyric acid, glutamine, bioactive peptides (plasma or colostrum), specific probiotics such as Bacillus subtillus PB6 and carnitine. There are products available currently that provide one or more of these nutraceuticals in the proper dosage.

Third, support a diverse and healthy microbiome with the use of probiotics and prebiotics. When selecting probiotics,

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bers matter!! It is prefferred d th hat any prob biotiic straiin numb be dosed at a minimum of 1 billion CFU’s (colony forming units) per day. Be sure to understand that this is per strain and not cumulative for a mixture of different probiotic strains. I would rather dose with 10 billion CFU’s of a single probiotic strain than 5 billion CFU’s of a product containing a mixture of seven different strains. Additionally, for optimal effectiveness of any probiotic, it is imperative that it be dosed in combination with prebiotics such as yeast cultures, mannan-oligosaccharides, fructanoligosaccharides, or inulin, for example. Prebiotics and probiotics work synergistically to alter the diversity and overall activity of the microbiome in a manner that provides far superior results compared to either one by itself.

Fourth, provide anti-inflammatory activity to the intestine with omega-3 fatty acids. Flaxseed, chia seed, hemp oil, and fish oil all contribute to reduced inflammation in the intestine. The omega-3 fatty acid EPA from fish oil is especially effective as an anti-inflammatory agent for the intestine. DISCLAIMER: In cases of severe leaky gut and severe intestinal inflammatio,n omega-3’s may exacerbate the inflammation rather than reduce it. This will be noted within just 2–3 days by the horse presenting with notable diarrhea. Additionally, omega3’s and coconut products are contraindicated for horses presenting with severe or chronic diarrhea, as this is usually a reliable symptom of severe leaky gut which is often made worse by these dietary components.

Fifth, include nutraceuticals to improve production of intestinal hormones and provide additional protection for intestinal cells. Possible choices include licorice, slippery elm, aloe, arginine, citrulline, theanine, tryptophan, or alpha lipoic acid. Consult with a reputable supplement company for suggestions on which products and dosage are appropriate for your horse.

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ISSUE 53 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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TRAINING FACILITIES COME TO CHINA Sally Duckett

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Hong Kong Jockey Club

TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 53

| CHINA |

he dream for many trainers is to be based at a top-class state-of-the-art training center with wonderful gallops, leading rehabilitation facilities, top-class staff accommodation as well as an ambitious site owner prepared to establish the facility as the very best of the best. For nine Hong Kongbased trainers, that dream has come true.

In August 2018, an eight-year project conceived by the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) came to fruition with the opening of its Conghua racecourse and training center in China.

There is the slight downside for Sha Tin-based trainers, as the center is a four-hour drive away from their main Hong Kong stables—across the border and in China. But every possible negative that it might have caused has been mitigated by the HKJC through discussion, cooperation with the Chinese authorities, big planning, alongside the focused use of technology and ambitious ideas.

Nine trainers were invited to send horses to Conghua last autumn, and each has a string of between 15 to 20 horses based at the 150-hectare site—the trainers now termed “dual-site trainers.”

Currently around 150 horses are in training at the $424 million facility, although by December 2018 the number of horses who had shipped to Conghua, returned to Sha Tin and traveled to China had already exceeded 500 individuals.

The trainers were fully involved with the design and planning of Conghua from outset; the racecourse and gallops are in fact a replica of Sha Tin. Ensuring that the daily work and training processes are exactly the same, methods honed in Hong Kong can merely be picked up and transferred to China. There is though, at the trainers’ request, an additional 5f uphill straight gallop.

Selected trainers were invited to trial the Chinese venture and were chosen on their own abilities and that of their staff. The HKJC wanted to ensure that stable staff sent to China were capable and experienced.

The nine trainers with horses on site include leading trainers John Size, John Moore, Danny Shum, Casper Fownes and Tony Cruz.

All have been successful back in Hong Kong with their Conghua-trained horses (which are identified as such in the media for the betting public); and the Sha Tin nine are kept fully abreast of the training at Conghua courtesy of video, timing facilities and real-time technology all provided by the HKJC. The trainers, however, can spend as much time as they wish in China.

“John Size and Danny Shum in particular have spent a lot of time at Conghua,” reports Andrew Harding, the HKJC’s executive director of racing. “We have had applications from other trainers to send horses, and we will be adding another two later in the year.”

Horses being led back to stables after security checks.

Horses enjoy the spacious and comfortable living environment at CRC.

The trainners pavilionn hass an unnobstruccted view w of the racecourse.

The equine swimming pool has a depth of 2.6m.

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The success of the training process has kicked into gear quicker than even the ambitious HKJC team planned, and the site has already lost its initial “pre” training tag.

“We had thought trainers would take horses back to Hong Kong two or three weeks ahead of a race, but they are traveling down and running just two days later—and winning,” smiles Harding. “We thought this would take perhaps a year to phase in, but it has come much quicker.

The HKJC provides all the transportation, and we are already needing to ramp up the logistics—the transport initially between the two sites was twice a week, but we have extended it to six days a week (much earlier than anticipated). The traveling process had also been taking five business days to process with the levels of administration required for the border crossing, but our dual site trainers said that was too long. We have already narrowed that down to two days. Trainers can now ship on Monday in order to race on Wednesday at Happy Valley, and the horses need to undergo certain veterinary examinations ahead of racing; so they have to be in Hong Kong two days ahead of racing. They can then return to Conghua on Friday. The transport costs are all part of the HKJC’s service, and owners do not see any extra expense.”

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ABOVE: CRC will serve as a worldclass facility for the training of Hong Kong’s racehorses.

BELOW: Wash-down facilities

Establishment of the Disease-Free Zone

The HKJC’s CEO Winfried Engelsbrecht-Bresges has driven the concept. (Engelsbrecht-Bresges is the organization taking advantage of a unique opportunity that emerged in 2010.)

That year the People’s Republic of China hosted the Asian Games at Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. The equestrian sector was based at the site in Conghua, and in order to successfully host the equine side of the games, an Equine Disease Free Zone (EDFZ) had to be established.

An EDFZ is a way to create a disease-free zone within a wider geographical area in order to facilitate international equine movement to and from those countries which have stringent controls in place regarding diseases not found in their own regions.

The initial Conghua EDFZ consisted of a 5km radius around the site via a wire fence to exclude wildlife, stringent biosecurity measures and the exclusion of other equines within a 1km corridor linking to the local airport. A diseasefree equine sub-population was created at Conghua.

After successful operation of the games, the HKJC came up with the concept of extending the EDFZ and turn it from a temporary to a permanent zone. The Hong Kong veterinary services, Chinese veterinary authorities and the HKJC engaged in a public-private partnership to transform the venue into a permanent EDFZ to facilitate safe regular cross-border transportation of racehorses between the Hong Kong Special Administrative region and the EDFZ in Guangzhou.

“The EDFZ really is an asset and was an extreme opportunity to the catalyst development of the equine industry in China—both horseracing and equine sport,” informs Engelsbrecht-Bresges. “It took a significant time to be established and be internationally accepted, though there are some teething problems with Australia, which we can hopefully overcome.

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ISSUE 53 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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“We really could leverage the EDFZ. It was a strategic investment for China and a strategic investment for us and the Greater Bay area of China and required very strong collaboration between Hong Kong and Guangzhou,” explains Engelsbrecht-Bresges.

Now horses traveling to Conghua from Hong Kong are loaded into “sealed” lorries at Sha Tin, and the transport does not stop until it reaches Conghua. Special border controls are in place to allow the lorries, grooms and drivers seamless travel while all others need to queue.

The lorries enter the Conghua site, still protected by an impenetrable fence, vi via i double-locking gates and wi with i full wash facilities, wi with i the horses unloaded in a special designated area before movi ving i to their respective barns.

The human and equine border requirements take place on site, requiring an on-site Conghua-based government department of 40. wiith same quality ty “To run a world-class training center wi of servi viice betw tween w Hong Kong and China has been a massive exercise,” adds Engelsbrecht-Bresges of the further requirements needed to house and feed nine stings of horses in a country w wiiithout any signifi fiicant equine infrastructure.

“There are multiple layers involved, government and stakeholders, to get approvals for things such as the import of feed and drugs so that our vets and horsemen can practice as required. “It ranges from talking to local off ffi ficials i right through to discussion w wiiith top-level departments in Beijing.

It has required tactics, diplomacy and an understanding of Chinese culture and working methods.

| CHINA |

ABOVE: Six horses ridden

by Hong Kong jockeys dash past the Winning Arch on the turf track.

Racing plans and Sha Tin refurbishment

BELOW: Spelling paddocks for relaxation and rehabilitation.

LEFT: Trotting rings for light trainning annd pre- and post-workout routines.

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“It has been the largest strategic undertaking by the HKJC since Sha Tin was built 40 years ago,” recalls Engelsbrecht-Bresges, placing the investment into context. “Forty years ago Hong Kong racing had Happy Valley only, and the decision made to build Sha Tin was a little bit like the move to Conghua—it was on an island, there was little infrastructure, [and] it was away from the center. You have to ask now, if that had not been done, where would racing be in Hong Kong w i Sha Tin? We are hoping Conghua w wiill i be of a wiithout similar importance.”

Signifi ficantly, i there is a racecourse on site equipped w wiith i state-of-the-art facilities for stewards, jockeys and horses.

The ffiirst i “exhibition race day” took place on March 23, albeit w wiithout i betting due to the anti-gambling Chinese rulings.

While the meeting confi firms i that the HKJC sees the facility as a way to extend its racing facilities—while introducing the sport to the Chinese public—the reasoning behind the Conghua development, which at its current size could house 660 horses, was more immediate and more pressing; for years some of the stabling at Sha Tin has been in desperate need of refurbishment. “ The stables at Sha Tin are 40 years old,” says Engelsbrecht-Bresges. “ To further Hong Kong racing, we

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| TRAINING |

need to replace and refurbish—we need to build modern facilities, and we have a $168 million investment for the next phase of Sha Tin. We could only do this if we moved horses to Conghua; we couldn’t knock down stables and do the significant work with horses on site.” That phase is envisaged as a five- to seven-year plan with batches of horses moving to the China site as required.

Engelsbrecht-Bresges adds: “I visited Conghua around two weeks after the first batch of horses arrived on site, and I was surprised how well the horses looked; even then horses were eating better, were more relaxed, were looking good in their coats.”

Barrier trials have been held, attended by jockeys, and it is envisaged that in the future jockeys will make more frequent journeys to China to ride work.

The Hong Kong-based owners were initially a little resistant to plans unused as there were by the idea of traveling horses to race, but as ever in horseracing, success trumps all doubts.

“We have had greater buy-in from owners as they have become used to the idea of traveling horses and their runners have been successful,” observes William Nader, the HKJC’s director of racing business and operations.

“They can travel to Conghua to see the horses; we have an owners’ suite and entertainment facilities.

Reporting on the concept so far, Engelsbrecht-Bresges is delighted with progress and is looking forward to the future. “We have been working on this for six or seven years,” he explains. “And we think it is a unique project.

We are pretty convinced it will help Hong Kong racing to develop to the next stage and continue to ensure we have the world’s best horses and the world’s best facilities.

“It is a beautiful fresh-air environment; there are no challenges in the environment. It is an environmentally protected site, and we are extremely certain that there are no negative challenges.”

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| CHINA |

ABOVE: CRC has four tracks – one turf course 2000m, two all-weather tracks (1780m, 1600m) and one uphill turf gallop (1100m).

BELOW: The world-class veterinary hospital has 4,928m2 of working space.

The area around Conghua has for centuries attracted tourists from all over China to visit its hot springs and enjoy using the healing properties of the warm water.

With an urban population of 25 million and only an hour’s drive from Conghua, the region’s Guangdong government is keen to leverage these advantages and has seized on the added value than an equine industry might offer. Of course, the “elephant in the Chinese room” is betting, and the government is firmly opposed to legalizing gambling in China. But if the Conghua venture proves to be successful, and with continual dialogue with the Chinese government, who knows what could be achieved by the special administrative district of China. Since they are world leaders in the field, technology could be developed to control gambling to certain geographical zones.

Betting, however, is just one item on a long-term plan for the HKJC. To begin with, however, the club is keen to ensure that its ambitious plan creates a win-win-win for the three main stakeholder groups: the Chinese government, the cash-rich Hong Kong racing industry, and its horses and horsemen—who can take advantage of on-site facilities that are the stuff of trainers’ dreams.

| HORSE BREEDERS |

CELEBRATING THE 2018 PA-BRED CHAMPIONS

Cindy Deubler

HORSE OF THE YEAR 3-YEAR-OLD FEMALE & FEMALE SPRINTER SHAMROCK ROSE B, F, Foaled March 17, 2015 First Dude— Slew’s Quality, by Elusive Quality Bred by Best A Luck Farm LLC The 2018 Eclipse Award Champion Female Sprinter capped off her year with a thrilling victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint-G1 at Churchill Downs, her fourth consecutive stakes win, a streak which started in the Malvern Rose at Presque Isle Downs, followed by the La Lorgnette at Woodbine and the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland.

Racing exclusively in stakes in her seven starts–with a second in the Cicada at Aqueduct and a third in the Weber City Miss at Laurel –she earned the most of any PA-Bred in 2018 with $848,076.

TWO-YEAR-OLD FILLY AMY FARAH FOWLER B, F, Foaled March 5, 2016 Astrology—Run Cat Run, by Sir Cat Bred by Blackstone Farm LLC Three wins and three seconds in six starts and the richest PA-Bred juvenile filly of the year with $154,900, she captured the Mrs. Henry D. Paxson Memorial Stakes at Presque Isle Downs and was second in the Colleen Stakes at Monmouth Park as well as the Mark McDermott and Fitz Dixon Jr. Memorial Juvenile at Presque Isle, the latter two against the boys.

TWO-YEAR-OLD MALE CALL PAUL B, C, Foaled January 26, 2016 Friesan Fire—Avani Force, by Forestry Bred by Daniel W. McConnell Sr. Never off the board in five starts at five different tracks, with three wins and earnings of $279,500 to top all PA-Bred juveniles, he led throughout to win the Saratoga Special Stakes-G2 in his stakes debut, dominated the Pennsylvania Nursery at Parx by 5 lengths, and in between finished third in the Grade 1 Champagne and Grade 3 Nashua Stakes.

PHOTO: EMILY SHIELDS

THREE-YEAR-OLD MALE NAVY COMMANDER CH, G, Foaled April 8, 2015 Poseidon’s Warrior—Glenmary Lane, by Fairbanks Bred

by Swilcan Stables LLC A five-time winner from 11 starts at 3, his biggest score came in Monmouth Park’s Long Branch Stakes, leading gate-to-wire to win by 3 1 ⁄4 lengths.

CO-CHAMPION MALE SPRINTER ARMY MULE B, R, Foaled May 29, 2014 Friesan Fire—Crafty Toast, by Crafty Prospector Bred by Hope Hill Farm He won both his starts, each less than a second off the track record, and earned $266,400 before being retired. First out was a 6-furlong

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Gulfstream Park allowance by 7 1 ⁄2 lengths in 1:08.87, followed by a 6 1⁄4-length romp in Aqueduct’s Grade 1 Carter Handicap at 7 furlongs in 1:20.94, the latter earning him a 114 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest in the nation for an older sprinter in 2018.

CO-CHAMPION MALE SPRINTER FIELDER B, G, Foaled March 28, 2014 Sidney’s Candy—Karakorum Fugitive, by Ten Most Wanted Bred by HnR Nothhaft Horseracing LLC Five wins from nine starts included the 5-furlong Marshall Jenney Stakes over the Parx turf, and a three-race win streak earlier in the year. He was also third in the Laurel Dash at Laurel Park in the fall, rallying late to miss winning by a half length.

OLDER FEMALE UNIQUE BELLA GR/RO, F, Foaled March 2, 2014 Tapit— Unrivaled Belle, by Unbridled’s Song Bred

by Brushwood Stable The two-time Eclipse Award winner– 2017 Champion Female Sprinter and 2018 Champion Older Dirt Female – her season ended in July, but not until she added two more Grade 1 wins to her record– the Clement L. Hirsch and Beholder Mile – as well as the Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes, and a second in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom from four starts to become a millionaire. She was the third richest PA-Bred of the year with $680,000.

Army Mule

| PHBA | Fahan Mura

by Malibu Moon Bred by Fantasy Lane Stable 2018 earnings: $221,750 Won Victory Ride Stakes-G3, Belmont Park; 2nd Jose Flores Memorial Stakes at Parx; 3rd New Start Stakes at Penn National.

TURF FEMALE FAHAN MURA CH, M, Foaled March 7, 2014 English Channel—Celtic Cross, by Giant’s Causeway Bred by Michael J. Moran Winner of seven of 11 starts, she concluded her season with a victory in the Grade 3 Robert J. Frankel Stakes at Santa Anita, where she earlier won the Swingtime Stakes at a mile on the turf in 1:32.77. Her first career stakes win came in the Osunitas at Del Mar during the summer after starting her season with four straight wins, all at Santa Anita. With $365,665 earned in 2018, she placed fifth on the top PA-Bred earners’ list.

TURF MALE – OLDER MALE SPRING QUALITY B, G, Foaled March 17, 2012 Quality Road— Spring Star, by Deputy Minister Bred by George Strawbridge Jr. Winner of his first Grade 1 in one of the most exciting races of the year, the Manhattan on Belmont Stakes Day in which nine horses were separated by less than 2 lengths, he went into the race off a second in the Fort Marcy-G3, and was third in the Sword Dancer-G1 at Saratoga.

He was the top-earning PA-Bred male of 2018 with $684,785 from five starts, all graded stakes.

STEEPLECHASER SENIOR SENATOR B, G, Foaled March 28, 2010 Domestic Dispute—Queen Kennelot, by Awesome Again Bred by Charles D.C. McGill He came back from a serious injury suffered when falling in the previous year’s Maryland Hunt Cup to win his only two starts of the year – his second consecutive Grand National Timber Stakes and a second Maryland Hunt Cup.

PA PREFERRED FEMALE DIXIE SERENADE B, F, Foaled March 25, 2015 Uptowncharlybrown—Moonlight Serenade,

PA PREFERRED MALE (co-award winners MIDTOWNCHARLYBROWN CH, H, Foaled April 3, 2014 Uptowncharlybrown—Torchwood, by SpeightstownBred by Godric LLC 2018 earnings: $164,080 Won Fabulous Strike Stakes at Penn National.

PA PREFERRED MALE (co-award winners) SMOOTH B B, C, Foaled February 2, 2015 Weigelia— Katarica Disco, by Disco Rico Bred by St. Omer’s Farm and WynOaks Farm LLC 2018 earnings: $214,778 Won the Danzig Stakes at Penn National; 2nd Crowd Pleaser at Parx, City of Laurel Stakes at Laurel Park

BROODMARE OF THE YEAR SLEW’S QUALITY Dam of Shamrock Rose An unraced daughter of Elusive Quality owned throughout her broodmare career by Thomas and Lori Fackler’s Reddick, Fla.based Best A Luck Farm, an operation that regularly foals in Pennsylvania, she is the dam of 2018 Eclipse Award-winning Champion Female Sprinter Shamrock Rose.

THOROUGHBRED MAKEOVER TOP PA-BRED B K’S ANGUS Bred by Briter Farm B K’s Angus was

trained by Lauren Lindsay to compete in the 2018 Thoroughbred Makeover at the Kentucky Horse Park. Together they finished 13th in Eventing, making them the leading points earner of all PA-Breds entered in the Makeover.

LEADING BREEDING FUND RECIPIENT (Horse) IMPLY $245,375. CH, M, Foaled February 6, 2013 E Dubai—Allude, by Orientate

STALLION OF THE YEAR JUMP START For the fourth year in a row, Jump Start led all Pennsylvania stallions in Stallion Awards, his total in 2018 was $225,292.

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LEADING TOTAL BREEDING FUND RECIPIENT WYNOAKS FARM LLC $457,341 in Breeder and Stallion Awards

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ISSUE 53 TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM

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| OPINION |

Bill Heller

Eclipse Sportswire

# SO UN D BIT ES We posed this question to several trainers and two Hall of Fame jockeys: Should rules be added to limit or eliminate a jockey’s use of the whip?

# John Velazquez (Hall of Fame Jockey)

We have rules already, but there are different rules. Would uniform rules be nice? Yes. But we talk about it, and nothing happens. It would be nice to see it happen before I retire. About eliminating the whip, absolutely not. It’s a tool we need. We need something to get the horse’s attention. We need it to get horses to go straight. Also, horses need to be encouraged. I’m not concerned about the perception because we use new whips that are much softer, much different now than the ones we used to use.

# Carla Gaines

It’s interesting. At this stage, the whip is so soft. Here in California, our sticks are as soft as can be. We used to use a stick which was far more severe for decades. It left welts. I rode horses all my life. I think the stick is necessary. You’re sitting on top of an explosive, thousand-pound animal. The stick will help control the horse.

A lot of people advocate no stick. I understand that public concern is we’re hitting the horse, but it’s used to control the horse. People who work with other animals know you have to have some sense of control, not abuse. You have to keep them going in a straight line, or they could endanger somebody’s life.

# John Kimmel

The whip is not only for trying to get more out of your horse, but also to control the horse when he’s acting up. Riders use it when horses prop or veer out, even during post parades. You need some kind of extension of your arm. Eliminating the whip would be more dangerous. I think a less forceful whip might help, more than the ones that can cause welts, ones that encourage them without inflicting pain. You could limit the number of times a whip is used.

# Robbie Davis Yes. When a horse is beat, he shouldn’t be beaten up. Horses are competitive for the most part. Once they’re tired, you’re not going to get any more out of them. Or if he’s winning by several lengths, he shouldn’t be getting hit. It doesn’t take long to look right, look left and see how far ahead you are. I’ve seen the whip do more trouble than not. You’re not supposed to steer with the whip. That’s what the reins are for. In Canada, they limit the number of hits from the quarter-pole home and you can’t go above your head to whip.

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| OPINION |

# Mike Trombetta It’s like anything else. There should be some guidelines that everyone could follow. A rider shouldn’t have to remember which state he’s in to know what the rules for whipping are. When you drive your vehicle, and you drive into a different state, the rules don’t change. As far as eliminating the whip, I don’t believe it would be a good idea. It does have a purpose. I think horses need encouragement. It helps the riders get the most out of them.

Certainly, I don’t want to see any of these animals abused.

Simon Callaghan right

# Simon Callaghan No, I don’t think so. I think if anything, I would suggest we go to how they do it in Europe where it’s regulated. You can maybe use it seven times, and between any strike, you have to put your hands back on the reins. I think outside of the realm of horse racing, maybe the perception isn’t good, but the people in the industry know the jockeys need to carry their whips. Sometimes you need to correct a horse bearing in and bearing out.

# Ron Ellis

I think there should be rules to limit but not eliminate. I think that there has to be a way to encourage the horse somewhat. It should be limited to hitting with a backhand, not raising the whip above the jockey’s shoulder.

They should only tap the horse on his shoulder. The big overhand strikes, visually, looks bad. I think the perception is that they’re hitting the horse very hard.

# Tom Amoss

I think what the traditionalists like myself have got to recognize is that the public perception of horse racing has as much to do with racing’s future as anything. With that in mind, for better or worse, I think the rules need to be installed that limit the use of the whip. It’s all changing. People don’t recognize that it’s going to be racing versus no racing.

# Jeremiah Englehart I can see a limited use of the whip to a certain degree. I like what Ramon’s (Dominguez) whip has done. I think from before, the old whips, you would get more whelps. With Ramon’s whip, it will be enough to get a horse’s attention. There are times when the whip has a good use.

With a green horse, you’re trying to keep everyone on the racetrack safe. They’re not going to run in a straight line all the time.

The use of the whip is necessary. I don’t think eliminating the whip is the answer.

There should be panel looking at it with riders involved.

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# Mike Smith (Hall of Fame Jockey)

With the crops we have now, it’s part of being able to ride correctly.

It’s part of the art of racing. Keeping him going forward. Keeping him going straight. This is a very important tool for riders. That’s why it’s been in the sport for a hundred years. If you don’t have it, you’re going to have a lot of weird things happen. Horses could lose their balance, throw their heads.

You use it correctly. They need to focus. The whip makes them focus. Perception is perception.

The reality is to educate the public that the kind of crop we’re riding with now is much softer, a totally different riding crop from the old days. if someone is abusing it, the stewards should deal with it.