The Horsemen's Journal - Summer 2015

SUMMER FALL 1015

July The

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volume 62/ # 2

summer 20 15

DEPARTMENTS

2 MESSAGE FROM THE NATIONAL HBPA

7 INDUSTRY NEWS

12 HBPA NEWS

23

WAKING UP THE MORNING GLORY

What makes some horses train well but race poorly?

14 LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

16 RESEARCH & MEDICATION UPDATE

18 MEDICATION COMMITTEE CORNER

20 2015 RACING SCHEDULE FOR NORTH AMERICA

47 AFFILIATE NEWS

FEATURES

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34

37

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COLD SALTWATER SPA FOR HORSES

CARING FOR THOSE WHO CARE FOR HORSES

THYROID HORMONE SUPPLEMENTATION: PERFORMANCEENABLING OR PERFORMANCEENHANCING?

WHEN THINGS DON’T ADD UP

A new spin on a long-used process

Thanks to a winning partnership, University of Louisville nurses provide quality care for backside workers in Kentucky

A handicapper shares his view of racing’s “drug” problem

An examination of what thyroxine does and does not do

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hj IN EVERY ISSUE

MESSAGE FROM

THE CEO

NATIONAL HBPA 870 Corporate Drive Suite 300 Lexington, KY 40503 P(859) 259-0451 F(859) 259-0452 racing@hbpa.org www.nationalhbpa.com

PRESIDENT/ CHAIRPERSON OF THE BOARD Robin Richards

AS I SIT DOWN TO PREPARE MY FIRST “MESSAGE FROM THE CEO,” I FIND MYSELF PONDERING THE ITEMS I ALREADY HAVE ON MY TO-DO LIST. MANY, I DARE SAY MOST, OF YOU DO NOT YET HAVE A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF MY BACKGROUND AS A HORSEMAN OR AS A LEADER. WITH THAT SAID, I DO UNDERSTAND YOUR TRUST IN THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND ULTIMATELY THE SEARCH COMMITTEE THAT WAS ASSEMBLED. IN THE SHORT PERIOD OF TIME BETWEEN WRITING THIS FIRST MESSAGE AND TAKING THE HELM OF THE NATIONAL HBPA, I HAVE ALREADY WITNESSED THE STRENGTH OF THIS ORGANIZATION AND ITS MEMBERS. WE, AS HORSEMEN AND HORSEWOMEN, HAVE A GREAT RESPONSIBILITY TO THIS INDUSTRY THAT WE LOVE.

As horsemen, we owe it to ourselves and to our industry to do everything within our means to be strong and united. As your

My promise is and will be to represent each of you and fight for

CEO, my top goal, without question, is to uphold “Horsemen

the rights of horsemen and to ensure our interests against those

Helping Horsemen.” The mission statement, which you will

who wish to harm or deface Thoroughbred racing. To uphold this

find on page 13 of this issue, has several points, eight to be

promise, I will need your help. That help from you comes through

exact. While the order of the eight is not meant to be a priority,

communication. I will need to hear from your executive directors

I would like to state that number eight is very important to me.

and your presidents as to what each of you wish for the rest of

I love the sport of Thoroughbred racing and the excitement, the

our industry to know. Please stay in contact either with your local

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Eric J. Hamelback

competition and the camaraderie it brings to all its participants.

HBPA affiliate or with me directly here at the national office.

VICE PRESIDENT CENTRAL REGION Leroy Gessmann

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT Leroy Gessmann SECRETARY/ TREASURER Lynne Schuller

VICE PRESIDENT EASTERN REGION Randy Funkhouser VICE PRESIDENT SOUTHERN REGION Rick Hiles VICE PRESIDENT WESTERN REGION Ron Maus

Acting as your CEO will be no small task, but you have my word

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Issues such as proposed legislation regarding the Interstate

that it will be my highest priority. In my own way, I hope to bring

Horseracing Act, issues revolving around medication reform

this organization closer together and make us even stronger

and punishment of violators, issues that call for governing

than we are today. My plans include continuous communication

our industry through private companies and issues that raise

with affiliate presidents and executive directors, as well as

concern about our rights as an extremely viable industry within

developing communication to members directly, as best as I

North America will all take our efforts together to ensure the

am able. My policy has always been to have an open door, and

voices of the HBPA members are heard. I ask that each of you

that will not change now. I consider it important to know how

strongly consider helping your local affiliate. Each affiliate

members view the performance of my duties, along with keeping

needs volunteer work either in local benevolence or serving on

a pulse on activity.

a committee.

Our summer and winter conventions will be very important

In general, I make a pledge to each one of you, readers

to me as well. This is our chance to meet, greet and socialize

and members, to live by this, my stated motto: I will stand for

with all that are in attendance. I understand attending one or

the advocacy of horsemen. I pledge to disseminate information

both may be difficult during the course of a year, but it will be

and use these as a roadmap toward unity and always promote

important to me that you do your best to attend, starting with

“Horsemen Helping Horsemen.”

the NHBPA Summer Convention set for August 6-9 in Denver.

I want every opportunity to meet members and their families, if possible, while also allowing you to meet me, and more important, my lovely wife, Debra.

As your CEO, I will ask you to hold me to a promise that I am making to you. Issues regarding this industry come up very

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often, as you have seen very recently in the media’s coverage.

SINCERELY,

Eric J. Hamelback

CONTRIBUTORS Betty Coffman Dr. Clara Fenger Brian W. Fitzgerald Rich Halvey Denise Steffanus Kent H. Stirling Heather Smith Thomas

THE

NATIONAL HBPA

WOULD LIKE TO THANK ITS CORPORATE

sponsors AFFILIATES Board of Directors - Affiliates Dr. David Harrington, Alabama J. Lloyd Yother, Arizona Linda Gaston, Arkansas David Milburn, Canada Randy Funkhouser, Charles Town Mark McGregor, Colorado Dave Brown, Finger Lakes Phil Combest, Florida Mark Buckley, Idaho John Wainwright, Illinois Joe Davis, Indiana Leroy Gessmann, Iowa Rick Hiles, Kentucky Benard Chatters, Louisiana George Kutlenios, Michigan Tom Metzen, Minnesota R.C. Forster, Montana Jami Poole, Mountaineer Park Todd Veerhusen, Nebraska Anthony Spadea, New England Mark Doering, Ohio David Faulkner, Oklahoma Sue Leslie, Ontario Ron Sutton, Oregon Tim Shea, Pennsylvania Robert Jeffries, Tampa Bay Downs Dr. Tommy Hays, Texas Horsemen’s Partnership, LLP David Ross, Virginia Ron Maus, Washington Glade VanTassel, Wyoming

The views expressed on these pages are those of the authors and/or advertisers, and they may or may not reflect the positions and/or beliefs of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, its officers, or Board of Directors.

The Horsemen’s Journal, Volume 62 #2.

Postal Information: The Horsemen’s Journal (ISSN 0018-5256) is published quarterly by the National Horsemen’s Administration Corporation, with publishing offices at P.O. Box 8645, Round Rock, TX 78683. Copyright 2015 all rights reserved.

The Horsemen’s Journal is the official publication for members of the Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, a representative association of Thoroughbred owners and trainers. HBPA is a non-profit 501(c)6 Kentucky corporation. Members receive The Horsemen’s Journal as a benefit of membership paid by the national office from affiliate dues. Annual non-member subscriptions are $14. Single-copy back issues, if available, are $7. Canadian subscribers add $6. All other subscriptions

PHOTOGRAPHERS Ackerley Images Denis Blake Coady Photography Tom Fougerousse Frogster Photo MaryAnn O’Connell Reed Palmer Photography Jana Tetrault

STAFF Denis Blake Editor 512-695-4541 E-mail: hj@hbpa.org Jennifer Vanier Allen Advertising Director 512-225-4483 509-272-1640 fax E-mail: advertising@hbpa.org Limb Design www.limbdesign.com Graphic Design THE HORSEMEN’S JOURNAL 870 Corporate Drive, Suite 300 Lexington, KY 40503-5419 Phone: 512-695-4541 Fax: 859-259-0452 E-mail: hj@hbpa.org HBPA Website: www.nationalhbpa.com Cover Photo: Amber Chalfin

outside the U.S. add $20 payable in U. S. funds. To order reprints or subscriptions, call (866) 245-1711.

The HBPA National Board of Directors has determined that the publication of this periodical is necessary in the transaction of the public business required of the association. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and/or advertisers and do not necessarily represent the opinion or policy of the publisher or HBPA board or staff. Query the editor prior to sending any manuscripts.

Periodicals Postage Paid at Round Rock, Texas and additional mailing offices.

CANADA POST: Publications mail agreement no. 41530527. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: P. O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Horsemen’s Journal, P.O. Box 911188, Lexington, KY 40591-1188.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

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KENTUCKY DERBY BREAKS RECORDS IN ATTENDANCE, HANDLE, TV RATINGS

Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer Photography

It was ideal weather for the 141st running of the $2 million Kentucky Derby Presented

by Yum! Brands (G1), as a record 170,513 fans, the highest attendance in Derby history, watched American Pharoah take home the garland of roses. The prior attendance record of 165,307 was set in 2012 when I’ll Have Another won the 138th Kentucky Derby.

Wagering from all sources was the highest all time on both the Kentucky Derby Day program and the Kentucky Derby race. Allsources wagering on the Derby Day program Kentucky Derby winner American Pharoah totaled $194.3 million, an increase of 4 percent over the 2014 total of $186.6 million, and an increase of 4 percent over the previous record set in 2012 of $187 million. All-sources wagering on the Kentucky Derby race increased 7 percent to $137.9 million from 2014’s $129.2 million and increased 4 percent over the previous record set in 2012 of $133.1 million.

On-track wagering on the Derby Day program of $23 million declined 2 percent from $23.4 million in 2014. On-track wagering on the Kentucky Derby race totaled $12 million, an increase of 1 percent over 2014’s $11.9 million.

Churchill Downs returned $154.3 million to bettors on the Derby Day program.

Additionally, purses earned from the Derby Day program approximated $10.7 million that will be paid out to horsemen during the remainder of the 2015 race meets.

All-sources handle from opening night, Saturday, April 25, through Derby Day, Saturday, May 2, rose to a record $263.3 million, up 4 percent from 2014’s $253.8 million, and 2 percent over the record set in 2013. Attendance for those five days was a record, up 5 percent to 365,006 from 348,530 in 2014 and up 1.5 percent over the previous record set in 2011.

NBC’s Kentucky Derby telecast posted an overnight rating of 10.8/24, the highest rating for a Derby since the 1992 telecast on ABC (10.9/29), when Lil E. Tee charged home to win. The overnight was up 7 percent from the 2014 rating of 10.1/23. Each rating point equals 1 percent of the approximately 115.6 million households. The 24 share represents the percentage of televisions tuned in to the Derby telecast. Top local markets for NBC’s coverage were Louisville (35.0/65), Fort Myers (19.7/39), Cincinnati (17.7/38), West Palm (16.8/32), Dayton (15.8/31), Tampa (15.6/30), Indianapolis (15.6/31), Richmond (15.6/28), Orlando (14.7/30) and Knoxville (14.6/27). Besides Saturday afternoon coverage on the main NBC channel, NBC Sports Network also provided several hours of coverage of the undercard races on Friday and Saturday.

CHRIS ANTLEY, KING LEATHERBURY, LAVA MAN AND XTRA HEAT ELECTED TO NATIONAL MUSEUM OF RACING’S HALL OF FAME Jockey Chris Antley, trainer King Leatherbury and racehorses Lava Man and Xtra Heat have been elected to the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in the contemporary category. The electees will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Friday, August 7, at 10:30 a.m. at the FasigTipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Antley, who was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and grew up in Elloree, South Carolina, won 3,480 races and had purse earnings of $92,261,894 in a career that spanned from 1983 until his death in 2000 at the age of 34. Antley rode his first winner, Vaya Con Dinero, at Pimlico in November 1983. He won 127 graded stakes races and 293 overall stakes.

The leading North American rider by wins in 1985 with 469, Antley was a two-time Kentucky Derby winner, taking the Run for the Roses with Strike the Gold in 1991 and Charismatic in 1999. He also won the Preakness Stakes with Charismatic. Antley ranked in the top 10 nationally in wins each year from 1984 through 1987 and was the leading rider at Monmouth Park in 1984, 1985 and 1986. He led the New York circuit with 234 wins in 1989 and was the leading rider at Saratoga in 1990.

Other major victories for Antley included the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Woodward, Santa Anita Handicap, Hollywood Derby, Alabama Stakes, Wood Memorial, Manhattan Handicap, Carter Handicap, Louisiana Derby, Blue Grass

Stakes, Coaching Club American Oaks and Jerome Handicap. On October 31, 1987, Antley won nine races when he had four victories at Aqueduct and five at the Meadowlands. He also had a streak of 64 consecutive days with at least one win in 1989.

Leatherbury, 82, who was born in Baltimore, won his first race at Florida’s Sunshine Park (now Tampa Bay Downs) in 1959 and currently ranks fourth all time with 6,454 wins. He has won 52 training titles in Maryland (26 each at Pimlico and Laurel) and four at Delaware Park, with career purse earnings of $62,910,371. Leatherbury led all North American trainers in wins in 1977 and 1978 and won 300 or more races each year from 1975 through 1978. He ranked in the top three in North American wins each year from 1975 through 1980 and has finished in the top 10 nationally in wins 18 times and in earnings four times. Leatherbury has won 23 graded stakes races and 153 overall stakes.

In 1987, Leatherbury won the Grade 1 Hempstead Handicap with Catatonic, and in 1994, he won the Grade 1 Philip H. Iselin Handicap with Taking Risks. Leatherbury also bred, owns and trains Ben’s Cat, a winner of $2.3 million. Ben’s Cat has won 22 stakes to date, including four graded events. Other top winners trained by Leatherbury include Ah Day (winner of 10 stakes) and Thirty Eight Paces (winner of six stakes). Leatherbury’s graded wins include multiple editions of the Parx Dash, Turf Monster Handicap, Laurel Turf Cup and John B. Campbell Handicap. He has also won the Toboggan, Gardenia, Tempted, Woodlawn and Allegheny stakes, as well as the Snow Goose, Betsy Ross, Assault and Roseben handicaps.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

NEWS

Lava Man (Slew City Slew—Li’l Ms. Leonard, by Nostalgia’s Star) was bred in California by Lonnie Arterburn, Eve Kuhlmann and Kim Kuhlmann. Arterburn trained Lava Man until the gelding was claimed during his 3-year-old season for $50,000 by trainer Doug O’Neill for STD Racing Stable and partner Jason Wood.

A winner of seven Grade 1 races—more than any other California-bred in history—Lava Man posted a career record of 17-8-5 from 47 starts with earnings of $5,268,706. Among California-bred horses, only Hall of Famers Tiznow and Best Pal and 2014 Horse of the Year California Chrome have higher career earnings. Lava Man won three consecutive editions of the Hollywood Gold Cup (2005 through 2007), matching a feat Hall of Famer Native Diver accomplished from 1965 through 1967. Lava Man also won back-to-back runnings of the Santa Anita Handicap in 2006 and 2007.

Lava Man’s other significant wins included the Pacific Classic, Californian, Sunshine Millions Classic, Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap, Goodwood Breeders’ Cup Handicap and Sunshine Millions Turf. In his first Hollywood Gold Cup victory, Lava Man won by a record eight lengths and earned a 120 Beyer Speed Figure. With his victory in the Whittingham in 2006, Lava Man became the first horse since Vanlandingham 21 years earlier to win a Grade 1 on both

dirt and turf in the same year. Lava Man was also the first horse to win the Hollywood Gold Cup, Santa Anita Handicap and Pacific Classic in the same year (a feat since equaled by Game On Dude).

Xtra Heat (Dixieland Heat—Begin, by Hatchet Man) was bred in Kentucky

by Pope McLean’s Crestwood Farm and sold as a 2-year-old for $5,000 at Maryland’s Timonium sale to trainer John Salzman Sr. and partners Ken Taylor and Harry Deitchman.

The Eclipse Award winner for champion 3-year-old filly in 2001, Xtra Heat compiled a career record of 26-5-2 from 35 starts and earnings of $2,389,635.

Xtra Heat won a total of 25 stakes races, 11 of which were graded events.

She registered two six-race win streaks and had two victories in the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap and Grade 3 Endine Stakes. Xtra Heat’s wins included the Grade 1 Prioress (setting a stakes record of 1:08.26), as well as the Grade 2 Vagrancy and Genuine Risk handicaps and the Grade 2 Astarita and Beaumont stakes.

The contemporary inductees were chosen by a nationwide voting panel of 180 racing writers, broadcasters, industry officials and historians from a group of 10 finalists selected by the Hall of Fame’s Nominating Committee. The top four vote-getters among the finalists are elected.

2015 BREEDERS’ CUP CHALLENGE FEATURES 58 GROUP/GRADE 1 RACES IN 13 COUNTRIES The 2015 Breeders’ Cup Challenge series schedule consists of 78 automatic qualifying races, including eight new races, for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, with 50 Challenge races held in the United States and Canada. Horses from around the globe will be qualifying for the 32nd Breeders’ Cup World Championships, which will be held for the first time at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington on October 30-31 and will be televised live by the NBC Sports Group.

On April 8, Breeders’ Cup and NBC Sports announced an expanded partnership to televise the “Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In,” a series of 18 Challenge races at top U.S. tracks across 10 shows on NBC and NBCSN from June until the World Championships.

The Challenge series, now in its ninth year, also will be held at many of the world’s premier racetracks outside of the United States and Canada, including tracks in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Peru and South Africa.

Breeders’ Cup will pay entry fees and provide travel allowances for Challenge winners to compete in the Championships, as well as travel allowances to all starters outside of Kentucky for this year’s Championships.

Breeders’ Cup will provide a $40,000 travel stipend to the connections of each Challenge winner from outside of North America and a $10,000 travel allowance for winners stabled outside of Kentucky. The Challenge winner must already be nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program or it must be done by the Championships’ pre-entry deadline of October 19 to receive the rewards. For the sixth consecutive year, the Breeders’ Cup will pay foal nominators of Challenge winners a $10,000 award.

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THOROUGHBRED TRAINERS CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF FAT-CAT Last year, 37 Breeders’ Cup participants earned automatic starting positions through the Challenge series. Bayern (Classic), Main Sequence (Turf), Work All Week (Sprint) and Goldencents (Dirt Mile) were Challenge qualifiers who won Breeders’ Cup races.

“The Breeders’ Cup Challenge has grown into a prominent international series with highly competitive qualifying for the Championships throughout the year on five continents,” said Craig Fravel, president and CEO of Breeders’ Cup Ltd. “Horsemen around the world continue to take advantage of the series’ benefits of automatic starting positions, free entry and the travel allowances to gain a spot in a Breeders’ Cup race. We also greatly appreciate the commitment and enthusiasm from our partner tracks in their conduct and promotion of the series.”

Some of the highlights of this year’s Challenge series are as follows: • There will be seven automatic berths awarded for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, all Grade 1 races: The June 13 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs; The June 27 Gold Cup at Santa Anita; the August 2 William Hill Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park; the August 8 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Race Course; the August 22 TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar; the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita (TBD) and the October 3 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.

• The series will include eight new races: the Gran Premio Criadores at Palermo in Argentina (Distaff); the Fleur de Lis Handicap (G2) (Distaff); the Qatar Sussex Stakes (G1) at Goodwood in England (Mile); the Sword Dancer (G1) (Turf); the Spinaway (G1) (Juvenile Fillies); the Princess Rooney Handicap (G2) (Filly & Mare Sprint); the Smile Sprint Handicap (G2) (Sprint); and the T. Von Zastrow Stutenpreis (G2) from Baden Baden in Germany (Filly & Mare Turf).

The international portion of the series began on January 10 in South Africa at Kenilworth Racecourse, when Futura won the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate (G1) and qualified for an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile and Inara captured the Maine Chance Farms Paddock Stakes (G1) and gained an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

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Links to the Breeding Statistics report that is released by The Jockey Club each September and the Report of Mares Bred information that is published by The Jockey Club each October can be found in the Breeding section of the Fact Book.

The 2015 editions of State Fact Books, which feature detailed breeding, racing and auction sales information specific to numerous states and Canadian provinces, are also available on The Jockey Club website. The State Fact Books are updated monthly.

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DEADLY DOPING MEETS ITS MATCH: TRAINERS PRAISE NATURAL ALTERNATIVE // BY:MARKHANSEN

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

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

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

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

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

A Kentucky trainer who refused to give out his name, said, “I don’t want my competition to know about this.” He found EPOEquine to be so effective that he’s dead set against disclosing who he is, who his horses are, or even where he trains and races. He first started ordering a single jar of EPO-Equine® once a month. Now he’s ordering several CASES each month. And he won’t tell BRL exactly why. He said respectfully, “Sorry – no way.”

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

BRL and asked about using this natural formula for their animals.

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

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

The supplement delivered significant blood building results, increasing red blood cell count and hemoglobin levels. Researchers also observed improved blood quality and increased oxygen transport in the supplemented horses. Improved blood levels leads to elevated exercise physiology and performance.

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

Trainers find it easy to add just 1 scoop (3.2 grams) of EPOEquine® to the horse’s daily feeding routine in the barn or on the road.

Within a few weeks of daily use, you can expect to see increased red blood cell levels with no undesirable side effects. An increase in red blood cell levels can improve muscle performance, supercharge endurance, and enhance recovery after hard exercise. Nothing else is scientifically proven to deliver these benefits in a completely safe and natural formula.

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NEWS

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HBPA NEWS

ERIC HAMELBACK NAMED CEO OF NATIONAL HBPA The National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association announced April 20 that it had appointed Eric Hamelback as new chief executive officer, beginning immediately.

Hamelback, who had worked as general manager at Adena Springs Kentucky, takes over the CEO role from Phil Hanrahan, who stepped down earlier this year. Until September, Hamelback had worked at Adena Springs, with some short periods away, since 1997. He began with Adena Springs as yearling manager and then was promoted to assistant manager both in Kentucky and with the Florida division. He was appointed general manager of the Kentucky operation in 2008.

“Accepting the position as CEO for the National HBPA is an honor,” Hamelback said. “To be part of an organization that has its primary focus being the health and welfare of the equine athlete, along with that of protecting horsemen’s interests, epitomizes what I have strived for in my professional career. I look forward to joining with members of this organization and continuing to promote and protect racing, our amazing athletes and, most importantly, the horsemen that make this industry great.”

National HBPA President Robin Richards said Hamelback has passion for his new position.

“The National HBPA went through a careful and deliberative search process and we are delighted with the outcome,” Richards said. “Eric’s background separated himself from the other candidates. He sealed the deal with his clear passion for the equine athlete, his desire to champion the cause of our members, along with his clear interest in helping the overall industry work together rather than divisively.”

Hamelback has been a long-time horseman, starting his career in the late 1980s on the racetracks and training centers in Louisiana and Arkansas.

He attended Louisiana State University, where he managed equine herds at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine. Upon graduating from LSU, Hamelback returned to the tracks of Louisiana and Arkansas to work for an equine veterinary practice. In 1994, Hamelback was given the opportunity to start his professional career in Kentucky with Prestonwood Farm.

Hamelback serves on the Kentucky Breeders Incentive Fund advisory board, the University of Kentucky Gluck Foundation board, the Thoroughbred Charities of America board of directors and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association board of trustees, and as secretary of the TOBA executive committee.

NATIONAL HBPA SUMMER CONVENTION SET FOR AUGUST 6-9 IN DENVER Want to get some relief from the heat of August? Plan to attend the National HBPA Summer Convention in the Mile High City of Denver, Colorado, from August 6-9.

The convention will include a wide range of seminars and forums covering medication and other issues affecting horsemen. On Saturday afternoon, attendees will be graciously hosted by Arapahoe Park and the Colorado Horse Racing Association for a day at the races.

In conjunction with the Racing Officials Accreditation Program (ROAP), the National HBPA will be hosting a ROAP Certificate Course at the hotel; just arrive a day early and pay $25.

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The host hotel, the Grand Hyatt Denver, is centrally located in the heart of downtown, right in the shopping and restaurant district. The National HBPA has secured a special rate of $179/night for single/double occupancy, $204/ night for triple occupancy and $229/night for quad occupancy with breakfast included. Hotel reservations can be made by calling (888) 421-1442 and asking for the HBPA rate by July 8.

Convention registration information, as well as a hotel booking link, is posted on the National HBPA’s website at hbpa.org.

NATIONAL HBPA MISSION STATEMENT Founded in 1940, the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) and its affiliates operate on behalf of Thoroughbred racehorse owners, trainers and backstretch personnel throughout the United States and Canada. Our mission is to improve and preserve Thoroughbred horse racing by: 1. Providing a representative voice for all Thoroughbred horsemen on matters integral to the advancement of Thoroughbred racing in the United States, Canada and at the state level.

2. Encouraging the highest standards of horsemanship to continuously improve the care, health and safety of the horse.

3. Facilitating guidelines to ensure the safety of the jockeys, trainers, grooms, exercise riders, hot walkers, farriers, veterinarians and all others who regularly come in contact with the racehorse.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Supporting the development, adoption, implementation and enforcement of nationwide uniform rules which promote safety and integrity in racing.

Disseminating information on critical issues facing our industry to HBPA affiliates and to the general public as appropriate.

Supporting and promoting programs and entities which provide general benevolence and other beneficial programs for affiliates and members.

Assisting in the development of programs at affiliated tracks providing for the aftercare of our horses when their racing careers are over.

Promoting the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing.

NATIONAL HBPA’S POSITION REGARDING THE REGULATION OF RACING MEDICATION 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

The National HBPA’s focus has always been, and remains, the health and safety of the horse, the safety of the jockey, and the safety of all individuals coming into contact with the horse including grooms, hot walkers, trainers and veterinarians.

The National HBPA believes a truly independent and transparent Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) composed of industry stakeholders (including the NHBPA, The Jockey Club, the United States Trotting Association and Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, among others) not dominated by any individual organization, with input from appropriate medical and veterinary professional bodies such as the American Association of Equine Practitioners, must be the final evaluator of medical and veterinary science.

The National HBPA believes that RMTC approved medication rules should be reviewed by the Association of Racing Commissioners International on behalf of state racing commissions, and following an evaluation based on science and medical research with all industry stakeholders being heard, the rules should be adopted or rejected by a majority vote.

The National HBPA contends that uniform medication rules must be based solely on published scientifically determined regulatory thresholds, with published scientifically determined withdrawal time guidelines, all based on and supported by data published in the scientific literature.

The National HBPA believes that RMTC and ISO-17025 accredited laboratories should perform all medication testing.

The National HBPA does not tolerate cheating in this sport.

The NHBPA supports rules wherein repeat offenders of medication rules, after due process, should be severely penalized, including permanent expulsion from the industry.

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NEWS

Note: This report was prepared in early May, so there are likely to be new developments on the issues discussed and new items of interest to horsemen that arise prior to publication.

By Brian W. Fitzgerald

NATIONAL HBPA

LEGISLATIVE

UPDATE

FEDERAL LEGISLATION TO REPEAL INTERSTATE HORSERACING ACT

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On April 30, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) introduced companion bills in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives—S. 1174 and H.R. 2182, the Teller All Gone Horseracing Deregulation Act of 2015. The legislation repeals the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978.

On May 1, James Gagliano, president and COO of The Jockey Club, released a statement regarding the Udall/Pitts legislation stating that The Jockey Club had no knowledge of the bill or advance notice that it was going to be introduced.

The Senate bill has been referred to the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee for consideration. The House bill has been referred to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.

FEDERAL GAMING LEGISLATION Several gaming bills introduced in the previous Congress have been reintroduced in the current Congress.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) reintroduced in February the Restoration of America’s Wire Act, H.R. 707, a bill that would restore the U.S. Department of Justice’s interpretation of the Wire Act prior to its reinterpretation of the Act in December 2011, thereby opening the door to the expansion of Internet gaming.

The bill has been referred to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations. As of the end of April, the bill had 16 co-sponsors: 13 Republicans and three Democrats. The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), held a hearing on the bill on March 25.

Two other gaming bills that have been reintroduced would amend the federal ban on betting on professional and amateur sports that was enacted in 1992 by the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) has reintroduced the Sports Gaming Opportunity Act of 2015, H.R. 416. The bill would open up a four-year window from January 1, 2015, through January 1, 2019, during which time any state could legalize betting on professional and amateur sports. As of the end of April, the bill had three co-sponsors: two Democrats and one Republican. Three other Republicans had cosponsored the bill but withdrew as co-sponsors the day after the bill was introduced.

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) has introduced the New Jersey Betting and Equal Treatment Act of 2015, H.R. 457. The bill would exclude New Jersey from the federal ban on sports betting and allow the state to offer sports betting limited to New Jersey, if approved by the New Jersey Legislature. As of the end of April, the bill had only two cosponsors: one Democrat and one Republican.

Both H.R. 416 and H.R. 457 have been referred to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations. As of the end of April, no action had been taken on either bill.

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PRESIDENT’S EXECUTIVE ORDERS ON IMMIGRATION On April 17, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on whether to lift the injunction ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen on President Obama’s executive orders on immigration. Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice and those representing the coalition of 26 states challenging the President’s executive orders presented their arguments to a three-judge panel.

If the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decides to lift the injunction, the Administration could move quickly to enact the President’s executive orders on immigration. If the court decides not to lift the injunction, the President’s orders could remain on hold for several months while the underlying litigation proceeds.

FINAL INTERIM H-2B VISA AND WAGE RULES On April 29, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Labor jointly issued a final interim H-2B temporary guest worker program rule and a final wage rule.

The final interim H-2B rule is very much like the 2012 H-2B rule that was blocked by a federal court following its release and is problematic for the horse industry and others. The final rule makes a number of changes to how the H-2B program currently works, including new requirements for corresponding U.S. workers, reimbursement of transportation costs and recruitment efforts. A number of the changes will make the program more costly and difficult for many employers to use the program. Although the rule is currently in effect, a 60-day comment period is open until June 29.

The final wage rule sets the methodology for determining wages for H-2B workers with new restrictions on the use of private wage surveys. The final wage rule will continue to use the mean wage rate established by the Occupational Employment Statistics wage survey for an occupation in the area of intended employment, which is expected to raise H-2B hourly wages. Also, the final wage rule will restrict when an employer-provided survey can be used instead of an Occupational Employment Statistics wage survey for establishing a prevailing wage.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY AND IRS ANNOUNCE INTENT TO AMEND PROPOSED REGULATIONS FOR REPORTING BINGO, KENO AND SLOTS WINNINGS TO INCLUDE PARI-MUTUEL WAGERING On March 4, the U.S. Department of Treasury published a notice of proposed regulations under Section 6041 of the Internal Revenue Code. The proposed regulations would update the existing regulations for reporting winnings from bingo, keno and slot machine play.

While the primary proposed regulations address the reporting of these forms of gambling, the notice of the proposed rulemaking states that the “U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS are aware that taxpayers required to report winnings from pari-mutuel gambling may have concerns, similar to those addressed in these proposed regulations, relating to when wagers with respect to horse races, dog races and jai alai may be treated as identical. [emphasis added] Identical wagers are combined and offset against winnings to determine proceeds from the wager for purposes of determining whether the reporting thresholds are met. The Treasury Department and the IRS intend to amend the regulations under [Section] 31.3402(q)-1 in a manner consistent with these proposed regulations and request comments from the public on this topic. In addition, comments are

requested regarding whether the aggregate reporting method should be available for gambling winnings from bingo, keno and slot machine play.”

Comments on the proposed regulations are to be filed by June 2. A public hearing on the proposed regulations is scheduled for June 17.

HORSE TRANSPORTATION SAFETY ACT OF 2015 Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) reintroduced his bill from the previous Congress, the Horse Transportation Safety Act of 2015, H.R. 1282, on March 4. The bill prohibits the transportation of a horse in interstate commerce in a motor vehicle (except a vehicle operated exclusively on rail or rails) containing two or more levels stacked on top of one another.

The bill has been referred to the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. As of the end of April, the bill had 31 co-sponsors: 26 Democrats and five Republicans.

A Senate companion bill, S. 850, was introduced on March 24 by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL). The bill has been referred to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. As of the end of April, the bill had no co-sponsors.

On April 15, Sen. Kirk introduced another related bill, S. 946, the Safe Transport of Horses Act. As of the end of April, four Democrats had co-sponsored the bill.

NATIONAL ANIMAL HEALTH MONITORING SYSTEM TO CONDUCT THIRD NATIONAL EQUINE STUDY

PREVENT ALL SORING TACTICS ACT On April 27, Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Mark Warner (D-VA) reintroduced the Prevent All Soring Tactics Act, S. 1121. The bill had very broad bipartisan support in the previous Congress. The bill would amend the Horse Protection Act of 1970 to prevent the soring of Tennessee Walking horses, Racking horses and Spotted Saddle horses. The bill has been referred to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

THE SAFEGUARD AMERICAN FOOD EXPORTS ACT OF 2015 On April 22, Representatives Frank Guinta (R-NH), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Vern Buchanan (R-FL) introduced H.R. 1942, The Safeguard American Food Exports Act. The legislation would prohibit the slaughter of horses in the United States and the export of horses to Mexico, Canada and other countries for slaughter. The bill is intended to protect human health from the risks posed by the consumption of horses that have been treated with drugs. The bill makes it illegal under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to knowingly transport or sell horses or horse parts in either interstate or foreign commerce for purposes of human consumption.

The bill has been referred to the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Health Monitoring System announced it is launching its third national equine study for 2015. Prior such studies were undertaken by the agency in 1998 and 2005.

WWW.NATIONALHBPA.COM

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TECHNOLOGY

hj

RESEARCH+MEDICATION UPDATE

USDA TO LAUNCH EQUINE HEALTH STUDY

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) has announced the launch of a new equestrian health study called “Equine 2015” that began in May. This will be the third national study of U.S. equine health issues; the previous studies were conducted in 1998 and 2005.

Equine 2015 is designed to provide participants, the horse industry and animal-health officials with information on the nation’s equine population that will serve as a basis for education, service and research related to equine health and management.

The study will also provide the horse industry with information regarding trends in the industry for 1998, 2005 and 2015.

Starting in 2013, NAHMS asked equine owners, industry stakeholders and government officials to provide input and define the health information needs of the equine industry for the study.

From this process, seven primary study objectives were identified: • Trends in equine care and health management for study years 1998, 2005 and 2015.

• The occurrence of owner-reported lameness and practices associated with the management of lameness.

• Health and management practices associated with important equine infectious diseases.

• Animal health-related costs of equine ownership.

• Control practices for gastrointestinal parasites.

• Presence of ticks and tick-control practices used on equine operations.

• The collection of equine sera along with equine demographic information in order to create a serum bank for future studies.

To collect data for the study, representatives from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will visit randomly selected equine operations in 28 states beginning in May 2015.

NASS representatives will conduct personal interviews and collect other information from participating operations. The American Horse Council encourages anyone contacted to participate.

For more information about the NAHMS Equine 2015 study, visit the NAHMS website at aphis.usda.gov/nahms.

GRAYSON-JOCKEY CLUB FOUNDATION ALLOCATES $1.1 MILLION FOR EQUINE RESEARCH The board of directors of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation has approved a budget of $1,100,500 to fund research in 2015. The budget will fund 10 new projects, seven second-year projects and two Career Development Awards to encourage young scientists. Also, the budget allows for a special call for more research, which will be announced at a later date. The 2015 funding brings the foundation’s totals since 1983 to 322 projects at 41 universities for an aggregate of $22 million.

“Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we are able to fund every one of the projects that our Research Advisory Committee evaluated as qualifying for support,” said Edward L. Bowen, president of the foundation.

“The fact that we also can reach out with a special call is a true bonus for us and, more importantly, for the horse.”

The 10 new projects address an important range of issues, including laminitis, foal pneumonia, stem cell treatment, stress hormones that affect neurological functions in newborn foals and equine herpesvirus.

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The Career Development Awards program was initiated in 2006 with the first Storm Cat Award, which was named for the famous stallion that stood at Overbrook Farm, owned by the family of foundation board member Lucy Young Hamilton. Hamilton personally underwrites the $15,000 stipends to assist in specific research by young candidates who pursue a career path in equine research. The 2015 Storm Cat Career Development winner is Aimee Colbath of Colorado State University.

The family of the late Elaine Klein has inaugurated another Career Development Award in memory of the distinguished equestrienne. The Klein Family Foundation is based in Louisville, Kentucky. The recipient of the inaugural $15,000 Elaine Klein Career Development Award is Sophie Bogers of the Marion du Pont Scott Equine Medical Center.

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hj MEDICAL

National

H B PA

MEDICATION COMMITTEE CORNER

NONSENSE TESTING AND NONSENSE REGULATION

By Kent H. Stirling

We all know that there is a prevailing theory that Lasix/Salix (furosemide) has caused the number of starts per year per horse to decline precipitously over the last few decades in the United States. How do we know this? Because the anti-Lasix crowd tells us over and over that this is a fact. So I got out my oldest Jockey Club Fact Book and found that in its Thoroughbred Racing and Breeding Worldwide chart for 1994 that the 67,301 U.S. starters made 545,305 starts that year, or 8.1 starts per horse. I then compared that to the top 12 countries by number of starters and found that only Italy with 9.1, Japan with 8.5 and Canada with 8.2 had more starts per horse than the then-and-now supposedly drug-riddled (because of Lasix) United States.

The last time The Jockey Club Fact Book published this chart was for the year 2006, and no, the United States hadn’t dropped to last in this field but had improved to third, almost second! Okay. Yes, the starts per horse dropped to 6.31, but only Japan with 7.7 starts per horse and South Africa with 6.37 starts per horse eclipsed the U.S. total. I only wish The Jockey Club would continue to publish this informative chart.

The only take-home message I derived from this exercise is that maybe the rest of the world should stop training on Lasix and begin racing on it too! It couldn’t hurt.

But let’s move on to nonsense testing and nonsense regulation.

In 1994, I attended a workshop titled “Testing for Therapeutic Medications and Environmental and Dietary Substances in Racing Horses,” hosted by Dr. Tom Tobin and the Gluck Equine Research Center at the University of Kentucky.

The audience included a who’s who of scientists and laboratory directors from all over the world.

During the workshop, Dr. Roland Devolz of France Galop responded to a question by Dr. Tobin regarding his opinion on whether the most sensitive possible drug test should be used for therapeutic medications. Said Dr. Devolz: “My answer is that you should stay in a common-sense situation, and as soon as the techniques lead you into nonsense, you should reverse.”

One can see the vast strides we have made in the trace-level testing of therapeutics during the past 21 years in the remarks of Dr. Terrance Wan, the lab director of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, when he wondered “if racing has come to a point where it should stop using so many of its resources testing for levels of therapeutic drugs and focus more on the illegal performanceenhancers” as was stated in an article on the recent Association of Racing Commissioners International (RCI) Convention in Tampa written by Ray Paulick.

Dr. Mary Robinson of the University of Pennsylvania stated at the RCI Convention, “Increased sensitivity in testing has been a dramatic change in the past 10 years. It has created a different situation for veterinarians to administer therapeutic medication and for trainers not to be hit with a drug violation.”

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The increased sensitivity of today’s drug testing has also caused problems with racing laboratories now able to detect nonsense levels of Class 1 and 2 environmental contamination. Racing has done little to address environmental contamination while the federal government has recognized environmental contamination as a problem for a long time. The Department of Transportation has set cutoff and confirmatory levels for its drug tests. For example, the cutoff for cocaine is 150 ng/ml, for morphine it is 2,000 ng/ml, and for methamphetamine it is 500 ng/ml.

For Thoroughbred racehorses in most jurisdictions, it is zero tolerance for all of the above drugs unless the lab director is smart enough or brave enough not to call them at trace-level amounts. You ride in airplanes piloted by humans whose drug tests fall below the above cutoffs because they are known to have no effect on the pilot, but our nonsense testing leads to loss of purse, $5,000 fines and a year-long license suspension because a lab detected less than a nanogram of one of these drugs? When are racing and some of its labs and regulators going to enter the 21st century and begin to do away with nonsense testing and regulation?

Many racing laboratories are commercial ventures, so they are looking to justify their existence to their current racing commissions. They are also always looking for new business from other racing jurisdictions by advertising their RCI Class 1 and 2 positive “call” rate. A lab will obviously have a higher call rate by focusing on therapeutic medications and environmental contaminants, which can often be found in trace levels in a number of horses. Focusing on real performance-enhancing drugs does not pad their call rate, because those substances are simply not used by most horsemen.

So, what is a racing chemist to do? Some labs seem to think that survival strategy number one is to call anything that looks like an RCI Class 1 positive and then trumpet how it was detected at such a low level because of the lab’s supersensitive equipment operated by its great laboratory personnel. So the industry now has more nonsense testing that is often followed by nonsense regulation and then splashed across the pages of newspapers, magazines and online publications. All of this by writers with very little understanding of what they are writing about or of the trainer’s career that they have possibly just destroyed!

Before we go any further, let me give you an analogy on how minute a nanogram (ng/ml) and a picogram (pg/ml) really are. If you were 32 years old, a nanogram would be the equivalent of one second of your life. If you were 32,000 years old, a picogram would be one second of your life. A femtogram is next up, and you just don’t want to know what a ridiculous nonsense level that is!

Example number one: In Canada, a trainer with a 10-year clean record suddenly had three trace-level positives for methamphetamine. I do mean trace levels, as they ranged from 0.05 to 0.34 ng/ml. How much is half a nanogram?

Well, again I remind you that the U.S. Department of Transportation cut-off for humans, such as airplane pilots, for methamphetamines is 500 ng/ml in urine.

regulation. And an innocent trainer will probably be put out of business due to analytical nonsense.

I have purposely saved nonsense therapeutic medication detections for last because the penalties are not career threatening. And I will use the detections of clenbuterol in Florida as my example. We have had more than 250 clenbuterol positives during the last two fiscal years. Wow! Some of you must think we have a bunch of trainers in Florida who are downright cheaters. Not so fast! For many years, Florida has had a fiveday withdrawal time for clenbuterol and very few positives for this Class 3 therapeutic medication. Then Florida apparently decided to play “gotcha.”

They had the five-day Florida withdrawal time for clenbuterol removed from the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium website and then no longer honored the 25 pg/ml laboratory threshold, instead going to “zero tolerance” on clenbuterol, amazingly without notifying the horsemen!

Of the 250 clenbuterol positives previously mentioned, the vast majority of these positives were well below 25 pg/ml. When I questioned what was going on with all of these positives for horsemen who had adhered to the five-day withdrawal time, I was told by a high-ranking member of our Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering (DPMW)—we don’t have a racing commission—that no administrative action would be taken against those horsemen who already had clenbuterol detected at less than 25 pg/ml and the five-day withdrawal was still in effect. I then notified the horsemen in writing at the Thoroughbred tracks of what I had just learned. But the calling of positives for clenbuterol at less than 25 pg/ml continued, which soon led to an email from the DPMW stating that it was now zero tolerance on clenbuterol. I then again notified the horsemen of this new edict from Tallahassee.

How were these clenbuterol positives handled as far as penalties? The DPMW decided that everyone with a below-25 pg/ml detection would be fined $500, no matter how many positives they had. One trainer had more than five clenbuterol positives at this level.

The bottom line is that the one good thing about published thresholds is that they are a defined line in the sand that is difficult for regulators to cross. The Florida clenbuterol threshold was “in house” and apparently unpublished, and could, therefore, be changed at the regulator’s whim and announced after the fact when everybody was wondering where all of the positives were suddenly coming from. Similarly, what is needed for environmental substances such as methamphetamine is a recognized lowconcentration cutoff, such as some states have for horses or like the U.S. Department of Transportation has for humans.

As an industry, we have apparently opted to not have our equine drug testing “stay in a common-sense situation.” We have certainly been led into “nonsense” testing but haven’t been clever enough to “reverse.”

So nonsense testing and nonsense regulation continue to give racing a black eye and ruin the careers of innocent trainers and embarrass unsuspecting owners.

Steve Queen

It turns out this trainer, who had no previous violations of any kind, had recently purchased a horse trailer to ship these three horses to the track. All ran within two days and all were “positive” for methamphetamine.

The Ontario regulatory investigators supposedly tested this trailer and found it to be contaminated with the substance. They testified at the hearing that the trainer likely had no part in these findings of methamphetamine. The stewards gave the trainer a one-year suspension and $5,000 fine, the lowest mandatory penalty for a Class 1 substance, because their hands were tied and their rules don’t recognize environmental contamination. The “death penalty” because of nonsense testing and archaic rules!

Currently, there are two other cases of trace-level methamphetamine positives in Canada and possibly more in Australia. Oh, and a high-profile methamphetamine positive was recently detected in Kentucky! Everybody there agrees this trainer’s reputation is impeccable and that it was an environmental contamination, again at a trace level that only our ultrasensitive instrumental analysis could detect. This trainer is also supposedly getting a $5,000 fine, loss of purse and 14-month license suspension. A stay has been granted as of press time, but such actions have the potential to seriously damage a trainer’s career.

We, as an industry, have obviously penetrated deeply into the depths of nonsense drug testing but have not been smart enough to withdraw or set a threshold for this well-established environmental contamination.

Next, there is the strange oxycodone also detected in Canada. Three samples of blood were drawn from the same horse, and one of them was positive for oxycodone at about 0.7 ng/ml. It was confirmed by split sample to be about 0.6 ng/ml, so oxycodone was definitely present in one of the blood samples. However, it could not be detected at any level in the other two vials of blood drawn at the same time when analyzed by either the primary lab or the secondary lab. Of course, this can’t happen as it is physiologically impossible to have a circulating drug appear and then disappear from such sequential blood detections. So it is obvious this drug was never in the horse.

The only answer to the above puzzle is contamination of one of the blood samples. “How?” you might ask. It is possible oxycodone was present on the top of one of the blood tubes, left as residue by someone who handled some of these pills or had oxycodone in their sweat. Gloves were not used by the sample collector and many other people may have handled these blood vials, so contamination could have occurred in the test barn. Another possibility is contamination of one of the tubes by laboratory personnel as the same tubes were supposedly used for both primary and secondary laboratory testing, so initial contamination would be confirmed by the secondary or split sample lab.

This positive has not been resolved by regulators, so if it is finally settled with the $5,000 fine and year-long license suspension, nonsense testing will have struck again, possibly again followed by nonsense

WWW.NATIONALHBPA.COM

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June 18 – July 5

July 16 – Sep. 7, Oct. 29 – Nov. 29

Oct. 1 – 12

Aug. 21 – Sep. 13, Oct. 15 – Dec. 13

Aug. 19 – 30

July 2 – 12, Dec. 4 – Dec. 20

Sep. 10 – 25

Sep. 18 – 27

Apr. 24 – June 28, Sep. 25 – Oct. 25

Aug. 1 – 16

July 9 – 26

Alameda (Oak Tree at Pleasanton)

Del Mar

Fresno

Golden Gate Fields

Humboldt (Ferndale)

Los Alamitos Race Course

Pomona at Los Alamitos

San Joaquin (Stockton)

Santa Anita Park

Sonoma (Santa Rosa)

State Fair (Cal Expo)

California

Apr. 8 – June 30

Nov. 29, 2014 – June 30

Gulfstream Park

Tampa Bay Downs

Florida

May 16 – Oct. 17

Delaware Park

Delaware

May 22 – Aug. 16

Arapahoe Park

Colorado

Apr. 25 – Oct. 25

Hastings Racecourse

May 9 – July 5, Sep. 5 – Oct. 12

Rocky Mountain Turf Club (Lethbridge)

British Columbia, Canada

May 1 – Oct. 24

Northlands Park

Oct. 17 – Dec. 31

July 1

Millarville

Turf Paradise

July 10 – Aug. 30

Evergreen Park at Grande Prairie

Arizona

Alberta, Canada

DATES>>

20 racing 15

Oregon

Ontario, Canada

Oklahoma

Ohio

North Dakota

July 24 – Sep. 7

Saratoga Race Course

June 20 – July 12

Grants Pass Downs

Apr. 11 – Dec. 6

Woodbine

July 15 – July 18

June 2 – Oct. 20

Crooked River

May 17 – Oct. 13 Fort Erie

Aug. 29 – Nov. 14

Will Rogers Downs Ajax Downs

Aug. 14 – Dec. 13

Remington Park

Apr. 27 – Oct. 24

Thistledown

June 4 – July 25

Oct. 30 – Dec. 29

Mahoning Valley

Fair Meadows

May 1 – Oct. 10

July 18 – Aug. 2

Belterra Park

North Dakota Horse Park

June 13 – July 5

Apr. 25 – Dec. 4

Finger Lakes

Chippewa Downs

Apr. 29 – July 19, Sep. 11 – Nov. 1

Belmont Park

Sep. 12 – Dec. 15

Zia Park Nov. 4 – Dec. 31

July 3 – Sep. 1

SunRay Park

Aqueduct

May 22 – Sep. 7

Ruidoso Downs

New York

Sep. 11 – 27

The Downs at Albuquerque

May 9 – Sep. 27

Monmouth Park

Aug. 12 – 16

White Pine Racing

New Mexico

Aug. 29 – Sep. 7

Elko County Fair

TBA

New Jersey

Nevada

Lincoln Race Course

877-436-1221

DATES

Steve Queen

Aug. 22 – Sep. 13

Sandy Downs

July 3 – Sep. 7

Oct. 2 – 31

Sep. 5 – 19

Dec. 3 – Dec. 31

Ellis Park

Keeneland Race Course

Kentucky Downs

Turfway Park

Great Falls

Columbus

Montana

Nebraska

Aug. 7 – Sep. 7

July 18 – July 26

May 15 – Sep. 12

Feb. 6 – July 2

Northville Downs

Canterbury Park

May 1 – Sep. 12

Hazel Park

Minnesota

Michigan

Aug. 1 – 23, Sep. 10 – Dec. 31

May 10 – Sep. 7

May 1 – Sep. 19

Harrah’s Louisiana Downs

Laurel Park

Nov. 19 – Mar. 27, 2016

Fair Grounds

Assiniboia

Apr. 8 – Aug. 29, Sep. 30 – Dec. 19

Evangeline Downs

Maryland

Apr. 22 – July 11, Oct. 16 – Mar. 12, 2016

Delta Downs

Manitoba, Canada

Louisiana

Apr. 25 – June 27, Sep. 11 – 27, Nov. 1 – 29

Churchill Downs

Kentucky

Apr. 18 – Aug. 8, Aug. 15 – Oct. 10

Prairie Meadows

Iowa

Apr. 21 – Oct. 31

Indiana Grand

Oct. 2 – Dec. 31

July 3 – 12

Rupert Downs (Minidoka Fair)

Mar. 24 – Sep. 7

Aug. 1 – 9

Oneida County Fair

Hawthorne Race Course

May 16 – Aug. 8

Les Bois Park

Fairmount Park

June 7 – 21

Jerome County Fair

May 1 – Sep. 27

Sep. 6 – 12

Eastern Idaho County Fair

Arlington Park

Aug. 14 – 15

Cassia County Fair

Indiana

Illinois

Idaho

Wyoming Downs

Sweetwater Downs

Mountaineer Race Track

Hollywood Casino @ Charles Town Races

June 20 – Aug. 9

Aug. 21 – Sep. 6

Mar. 1 – Dec. 21

Jan. 2 – Dec. 30

Schedule is based on available information at the time each issue goes to press. All racing jurisdictions have differing schedules and policies regarding the granting of future race dates that impact availability.

Wyoming

West Virginia

Apr. 18 – Sep. 27

June 5 – Aug. 8, Sep. 4 – Nov. 28

Retama Park Emerald Downs

Apr. 9 – July 19, Sep. 18 – Nov. 14

Lone Star Park

Washington

July 4 – Aug. 23

Gillespie County Fairgrounds

Texas

May 17 – Oct. 1

Presque Isle Downs May 29 – Sep. 12

Jan. 2 – Dec. 19

Penn National

Marquis Downs

Jan. 1 – Dec. 31

Parx Racing

Aug. 5 – 8

Sep. 11 – 13

Saskatchewan, Canada

Pennsylvania

Tillamook County Fair

Harney County Fair

Steve Queen

WWW.NATIONALHBPA.COM

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Denis Blake

FEATURE

WAKING UP THE MORNING GLORY WHAT MAKES SOME HORSES TRAIN WELL BUT RACE POORLY?

By Denise Steffanus

M

ORNING GLORIES CAUSE EVEN GREAT TRAINERS TO SCRATCH THEIR HEADS. These horses roll out enthusiastically at daybreak and turn in workouts that leave their connections smiling widely with confidence.

But when the starting gate springs open and the race is on, they look like Gunpowder toting Ichabod Crane through Sleepy Hollow.

Figuring out what is wrong with a “morning glory,” the racetracker’s nickname for one of these disappointing runners, is not that simple. In some cases, it may be a physical problem that only shows up under extreme exertion. Or perhaps some horses, like some people who approach life with gusto in the morning but fizzle out as the day progresses, are simply “morning” horses.

Scott E. Palmer, VMD, New York’s Equine Medical Director and co-founder of New Jersey Equine Clinic, said, “I think there are a lot of factors that come into play when you are trying to explain to a trainer, and particularly to an owner, why their horses mysteriously show terrific workouts in the morning, but then when they get in a race, they just don’t perform. It’s a very frustrating thing.”

Palmer suggested the first step should be to look at both situations and ask, “What’s different and why?” Environment, physiology or psychology—or perhaps a combination of the three— could be the answer.

“Consider heat and humidity, for example,” Palmer said.

“Morning is a healthier time to work out. So from a physiologic standpoint, it’s more beneficial.”

Another factor might be cortisol production, which is part of the horse’s biorhythm cycle. Cortisol is a natural steroid produced by the body that acts as an anti-inflammatory, Palmer said. In humans, cortisol also acts as a mood elevator. In the morning, cortisol levels are higher than they are at other times of the day. So if the horse has a collection of niggling ailments, cortisol may temporarily have a positive effect on them and allow the horse to perform better in a morning workout.

“That’s conjecture,” Palmer said. “It’s just something that may be a possibility.”

WWW.NATIONALHBPA.COM

23

FEATURE

Eric Birks, DVM, PhD, formerly was assistant professor of exercise physiology and sports medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center. Now in private practice at Equine Sports Medicine Consultants in Landenberg, Pennsylvania, Birks evaluates equine athletes to solve their performance problems.

When asked why some horses are morning glories, he suggested that sensitivity to dust kicked up during morning barn work may cause some of these horses to have breathing trouble later in the day when they race.

In a stable’s daily training routine, horses are out on the track while their stalls are cleaned. But horses scheduled to race that day remain in the barn—either in their stalls or while being hand walked in the shedrow—while grooms muck stalls and stir up a lot of dust.

This can irritate the airways and impact the horse’s performance later in the day, Birks said.

To mitigate anxiety and to reduce dust on race days, some trainers schedule all work to be completed by 8 a.m., and they vacate the barn except for one attendant, he said.

SPRINTERS VS. ROUTERS Morning workouts require a horse to go at top speed for a shorter distance than it races. Workouts for horses that are racing fit seldom exceed six furlongs and typically are clocked at a half-mile or five-eighths. A horse with an undiagnosed respiratory problem or lameness issue may be able to sustain its run for a short distance before those problems begin to interfere with performance.

“As you increase the distance, more things come into play,” Palmer said. “Any part of the body becomes more strained, the longer the distance. The more times [a horse] has to put its foot on the ground—stride impact—the more tendon cycling that you have, and the more everything is strained. That’s where fatigue comes in.”

Palmer explained that when a horse becomes fatigued, it may not put its foot down properly, so its biomechanics of running are altered, making it less efficient at covering ground at speed.

For a normal horse, the obvious solution would be to get the horse fitter or race it a shorter distance, but Palmer said the solution is not that simple for a morning glory.

“Let’s say that you rule everything out,” he said. “There’s no obvious lameness, no nervousness; the horse is not tying up during the race; the horse is breathing okay; the endoscopic exam and blood work are normal. If the horse is performing well in six-furlong workouts and then you stretch it out in the afternoon to a mile, and it’s not doing well, then I think it’s logical to say, ‘We should be racing this horse six furlongs.’ ”

24

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Palmer added, “Then, of course, you have horses that train well at six furlongs but then they don’t race well at six furlongs. That’s a question for the trainer, not the veterinarian.”

ASK THE CHIEF When it came to a question about training, there was no one better to ask than the late H. Allen Jerkens, who in 1975 became the youngest trainer, at age 45, to be inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame. His Beau Purple defeated five-time Horse of the Year Kelso three times, and his Onion upset Secretariat after he won the Triple Crown. Jerkens’ skill at bringing down the great ones earned him the nickname “The Giant Killer,” a moniker that made him bristle. Around the barn, he was simply called Chief.

“The average horse will always run faster when he races than when he works,” Jerkens said in 2008. “But, every once in a while, you’ll get one that will go just as fast as you can ask him to in the morning. That’s where the majority of [trainers] get the idea that [the horse] is a morning glory.

“I’ve had horses that would work as fast as they could run in the afternoon. I’ve had some good ones who did that, too, like Beau Purple. He was a famous horse, and he could work as fast as at the races when he went out in the morning.”

Jerkens recalled that in the heyday of American racing, big stables found a use for morning glories.

“When I first came around, Mr. [James “Sunny Jim”] Fitzsimmons and Max Hirsch and John Gaver, they had the big stables in those days,” he said. “They would always keep one or two of those kinds of horses around to work with their stakes horses, but no one does that anymore.”

“To mitigate anxiety and to reduce dust on race days, some trainers schedule all work to be completed by 8 a.m., and they vacate the barn except for one attendant.”

But how do you solve the problem?

“You try different ways,” Jerkens said. “You try taking him back off the pace or galloping more. Everybody has their own way of trying different things. And some horses never get over it.

“Sometimes you try to train them lighter and get somebody [an exercise rider] to not let them run in the morning so that they will get to running faster in the afternoon. Some exercise riders are better at pulling horses in the morning than others are. An experienced boy can really slow them down better in the morning.

What usually works the best—trying not to let the horse work fast in the morning if you can help it.”

ALL IN THE HEAD Birks absolutely believes some horses are “morning people,” but he said there really is not a test to determine that.

Morning training is part of every racehorse’s routine. Every day, they awake for an early breakfast, then they are groomed, tacked up and sent out to the racetrack, where trainers watch them from the rail as they gallop through the crisp morning mist.

“They do their workout, then they come back to the barn and get a nice bath and relax,” Palmer said. “When they go to the races, it’s a whole different deal. It’s later in the day, the temperature is different, the light is different, the track surface may be different and the horses are kept in a detention barn sometimes for hours before the race.”

For a sensitive or nervous horse, the disruption in its routine may be enough to throw it off its game. And then you add the tension in the paddock, the crowds, the noise, and even different smells. For some horses, performing poorly at the races may be an equine version of stage fright.

“For the most part, what I’ve seen haven’t been medical-related problems,” Birks said. “The horse just doesn’t want to be in the race situation, with the screaming crowds and the high anxiety of being

“Trainers need to encourage the morning glory to be more competitive by mixing and matching work companions so they push each other to run faster.”

tacked up in the saddling area, and then the post parade to the starting gate. They wear themselves out, and some go to pieces.”

Another solution he offered for horses that run mid-pack instead of pressing ahead in a race is to discourage the horse’s natural tendency to run in a pack.

“So to make them win, you have to break that pack mentality and make them want to be in front,” he suggested.

To accomplish this, trainers need to encourage the morning glory to be more competitive by mixing and matching work companions so they push each other to run faster, he said.

Birks urged trainers to gather together the horse’s veterinarian, farrier, groom, exercise rider and jockey to discuss how the horse is different in the morning from how it is at the races. Gaining insight into the horse’s psyche as well as its health and the mechanics of how it runs could provide the key to making the morning glory a glorious racehorse.

Denis Blake

WWW.NATIONALHBPA.COM

25

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Courtesy ECB Equine Spa

FEATURE

COLD SALTWATER SPA A NEW SPIN ON A FOR HORSES LONG-USED PROCESS

By Heather Smith Thomas

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F

OR DECADES, HORSEMEN HAVE USED COLD THERAPY— including ice boots, cold water hosing and buckets of ice, among other methods—to reduce swelling, heat and pain in horses’ legs. Modern technology has taken this a step further with a hydrotherapy technique that combines cold water and salt.

In 1998, Professor Evan Hunt of the University of Sydney in Australia developed a cold saltwater spa unit for horses. As a veterinarian, he was researching the effects of cold saltwater on equine injuries and, in 2000, he teamed with Ean Branston after Branston imported one of Hunt’s spas to England to open an equine therapy center. As founder of ECB Equine Spa, Branston improved the unit by using fiberglass, rounding the edges, recessing all of the handles and putting cutouts in the doorways so horses wouldn’t catch their hips going in and out, making it safer.

Branston and Allen Gutowski, ECB’s North American representative, brought the product to the United States in 2005, and now many rehab centers throughout North America are using an equine spa as part of a multifaceted approach to helping horses heal, recover from injuries or regain fitness.

The Sanctuary, a rehab center in Ocala, Florida, uses its spa for treating a variety of equine injuries. Brenda McDuffee, who manages the center, said it also helps tighten the legs, making them less vulnerable to injury when the horse is working hard.

“We also treat wounds and abscesses since saltwater acts as a poultice and draws any edema and infection out of a wound,” McDuffee said.

In many instances, cold saltwater reduces the need for drug therapy (such as anti-inflammatories) since it can help prevent as well as treat injuries and decrease any swelling or stiffness in the legs immediately before and after training exertion or competitive events.

HOW IT WORKS “When Professor Hunt began his research, cooling the legs with saltwater, he began to see a ‘miracle’ effect,” Gutowski said. “The cold saltwater immediately takes heat and inflammation out of a leg.

A horse might go into the treatment with a leg twice the normal size and come out normal size. It starts to swell again several hours later, but if you treat heat and inflammation on a regular basis and keep taking the heat out, this is where the miracle takes place.”

After the horse enters the unit, water is added to a level above the knees and hocks.

“We can treat anything from that level on down,” said Roy Ferro of Southland Ranch near Pilot Point, Texas. Ferro was one of the first in the United States to get a saltwater spa.

“When I was a child, my father had me stand a horse in the river if it had swelled legs to reduce heat and pain,” Ferro said. “People would also stand a horse in ice. But this spa works much better. I’ve used it to heal pressure sores on horses that foundered when they got sores on stifles and hocks from lying down too much.”

The spa is installed on a pad of concrete with ramps for easy entry and exit, but it can also be installed below the floor to create a level entrance. The unit has a non-slip bottom for good footing and requires a water supply and a power source. It has a holding tank for 520 gallons of 35-degree Fahrenheit saltwater. The water is continually circulated through a cooling unit that keeps it at that temperature.

“According to the veterinarians I work with, this temperature almost closes the capillaries in a horse’s legs and nearly halts circulation,” Ferro said. “It pulls out heat and toxins and numbs any pain. After you take a horse out and feel his legs, they feel like they are frozen.”

The saltwater can be reused thousands of times because water purity is maintained using a double filtration system and chlorine.

“In the 520 gallons of water is 250 pounds of salt [150 pounds of Epsom salts and 100 pounds of sea salt],” Gutowski said. “The salty water acts as a poultice for wounds, drawing heat and infection out of tissues. Salt pulls heat out of anything near it; an example is adding salt to ice water around a tub of cream when making ice cream. If you add salt to water, the temperature of the water will drop.”

Ordinary seawater contains varying amounts of sodium chloride and magnesium chloride, but the cold spa allows for higher levels of salt, increasing the potential healing effect. Research done by Hunt pinpointed the amount that would have the greatest osmotic influence (pulling out heat and infection through osmosis). The water depth also increases physical pressure on leg tissues, and this is why the level is often brought above the knees and hocks, or as deep as possible without reaching the horse’s abdomen. When a horse is first put in the spa, a little water is added to get him used to it before filling it up.

The horse stands in circulating cold water for only 10 minutes.

There is no further benefit to prolonging exposure, and too long in water this cold might create nerve damage, as this water is colder than standing in ice water. Gutowski explained that the temperature of ice in water is in the mid-40s.

“In this machine, the aerated water is constantly circulating through the chilling system that keeps it at 35 degrees,” he said.

“It’s 10 to 15 degrees colder than plain ice and water, which gets warmer when the horse is standing in it.”

Yet the treatment doesn’t chill the horse.

“In a 10-minute treatment in 35-degree saltwater, no change takes place in the horse’s body temperature,” Gutowski said.

The horse’s legs and feet have a different type of circulation than human legs. A horse can stand in snow at subzero temperatures WWW.NATIONALHBPA.COM

29

and won’t suffer hypothermia or freeze his feet. The temperature of the foot does not affect body temperature. Cold water over the body, however, would lower body temperature, and this is why the water in the spa is only brought above the knees and hocks and not allowed to touch the belly. For injuries and open wounds on the body, a connecting hose can be used to spot-treat certain areas with the cold water.

After the horse stands in the spa for 10 minutes at 35 degrees, the legs usually stay cold for one to four hours.

“When the horse leaves the 35-degree saltwater, that’s when the miracle starts,” Gutowski said. “There’s suddenly a massive rush of blood and circulation back into the cold legs, even into areas where normally there wouldn’t be much.”

The circulatory system starts pumping maximum amounts of blood to that area to try to get the legs back up to temperature, and this increase in blood flow speeds the healing process.

“There is no healing without good circulation,” Ferro explained.

“The more blood flow, the faster the tissues can heal.”

This is similar to applying cold packs and heat alternately to an injury to try to reduce inflammation yet still increase circulation, but the cold saltwater treatment does it even better.

“Due to the increase in circulation following treatment, researchers began to use the spa on horses with serious injuries,” Gutowski said. “For instance, a grade 3 superficial flexor tendon injury could take 10 or 12 months to heal with conventional therapy and might never be perfectly strong again if it ends up with scar tissue. When the fibers come back together, they are often misaligned. When you use cold therapy in the spa on a grade 3 tendon injury to take the heat out, longitudinal fiber alignment is amazing in just one month. An injury like this can heal in as little as two months.”

Ferro said that, with the spa treatment, a badly pulled suspensory can heal in half the normal recovery time.

“The standard method of treatment is stall rest, which alleviates stress on the injury but doesn’t help circulation,” Ferro said. “You prolong the healing process with rest because you’ve reduced circulation to the legs. The vets want you to start hand walking the 30

HJSUMMER

15

horse as soon as possible in any horse that’s been stall rested, just to get some circulation going.”

“Hoof growth is also improved,” Gutowski added. “Some people are using this for laminitic horses, and in the early stages, these can be quickly turned around.”

Frequency of treatment depends on the type of injury, its severity and how recently it occurred. Once-a-day treatments (or twice daily in some serious conditions) are usually required for a few days and then every other day for a while longer. The depth of the water can be altered, depending on the severity and position of the injury. The more severe injuries require higher water levels to increase pressure against the injury.

PREVENTATIVE THERAPY Some horsemen use the spa to reduce heat and inflammation a few hours before a race so the legs will be in peak form. Or horsemen may use the spa after an athletic event to reduce heat and relieve stress and strain. At that point, the legs are not as vulnerable to problems, and structural integrity is optimized. A five-minute treatment is typically sufficient for preventative therapy.

“We can’t make a bad horse great, but this allows a great horse to be great, to perform at his best potential,” Gutowski said.

Lisa and Kenny Osborne were the first to install a cold saltwater spa at a U.S. racetrack when they built one at Delta Downs in Louisiana.

“We use it on all kinds of injuries, including horses with severe, deep cuts that were difficult to treat, and the saltwater heals them up nicely,” Lisa said. “It’s also a good preventative to help keep horses sound and prevent athletic injuries. Some trainers put their

Courtesy ECB Equine Spa

Courtesy ECB Equine Spa

FEATURE

ou want to crease r Odds AYs to

MORE RESEARCH NEEDED

horses in it after their first workouts to try to stop an injury. You are better off to prevent a problem than have to treat it.”

If a leg has been slightly strained or has any heat and swelling, “There are several healing properties we are still learning it helps to take that inflammation right out of it. about,” Gutowski said. “The salt acts like a poultice, and the “You don’t want those young horses to get sore,” she said. transition from cold to hot increases circulation. But there is If horses do get a little sore, they may associate that with the something else that happens in 35-degree water that doesn’t happen work and not be as eager to perform. at 50 degrees or 80 degrees.”

“Jockey Pat Day used to take horses to the beach,” she said.

When the jets circulate the water, this aerates it, which “When he was younger and they first started riding at Bay Meadows, increases the amount of dissolved oxygen. they would ride the racehorses to the beach and stand them in the “At 35 degrees, oxygen content in the water triples,” Gutowski seawater. But not everyone has access to the ocean.” said.Breds “It goes from four parts per million to 12 parts per million. If we 12% Breeders Winning Iowa d MSW Races $36,167 Iowa aBred Accordingand to Ferro, couple of ntreatments in theAward spa canfor take introduce to $52,000 6%the Breeders Supplement Award for 2nd-4th air into 50-degree water or warmer, no change in oxygen the heat out of an overworked joint, nand horse feels like he’s been content takes place. At 35 degrees, as soon as we turn on that air, plements on Open Races in 2012 n Mares REGISTERED and IN the state

by December rested since his legs feel great.

31st may breed back to ANY stallion. the horse’s heart rate drops to as low as 22 beats per minute. We estricted Racing Opportunities “With two or three treatments innthe spamare and acan week of rest Your still have[after an Iowa bred foal even think some of ifthe oxygen is being absorbed right through the skin. We rantees a minimum of 67 days of live thorregistered after Dec. 31 - you would have to breed the horse’s mind is settled again after the athletic effort], the horse g and 11% of gaming revenue to purses areONLY hoping to do some studies on this. back to an Iowa Stallion for that year feels as good as if he’s been rested for three months,” Ferro said. wa Breds earned $7.2 Million at n Many quality stallions standing in Iowa “[Australian eligible for veterinarian and professor] Chris Pollitt has done Today, there are approximately 150 spaStallion units across the United ws Iowa Awards a lot of research on laminitis,” he continued. “Much of his work States and Per moreDay than 450 being used aroundmore the world.

They can be 3.3 Iowa Bred Races n Many incentives.

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University of Louisville/Tom Fougerousse

FEATURE

Patient Bernabe Garcia is examined

by University of Louisville nursing student Michelle Baxter (taking blood pressure) and Mary Skinner, MSN, APRN (at computer).

CARING FOR THOSE WHO CARE FOR HORSES THANKS TO A WINNING PARTNERSHIP, UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE NURSES PROVIDE QUALITY CARE FOR BACKSIDE WORKERS IN KENTUCKY

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By Betty Coffman

Convincing capricious half-ton racehorses to do your will can take a toll on the human body. The grooms, hotwalkers, exercise riders and other backside workers who tend to the needs of elite Thoroughbred athletes also carry heavy buckets and bales, endure challenging weather conditions and often travel with the horses to race meets around the country, making consistent health care difficult.

For the past 10 years, the University of Louisville (UofL) School of Nursing, in partnership with the Kentucky Racing Health and Welfare Fund (KRHWF), has provided free or low-cost healthcare services to backside workers at the Kentucky Racing Health Services Center, located just across the street from Churchill Downs in Louisville.

“It started as a safety net, and then it sort of bloomed into more of a primary care center,” said Whitney Nash, PhD, MSN, ANP-BC, associate dean of practice and services at the UofL School of Nursing and the founding director of the center.

“We are really the medical home for a large percentage of backside workers.”

“It is a great benefit to be a block away from the racetrack because of the work schedule and the transient nature of the people we serve,” said Richard Riedel, the executive director of the KRHWF. “They can get service at hours that are convenient and also a continuum of care.”

Funded by a grant from the KRHWF, the center is staffed and managed by nurse practitioners who address minor illnesses; provide maintenance treatment for

University of Louisville/Tom Fougerousse

conditions such as diabetes, asthma and hypertension; and conduct routine physicals and screenings. Thanks to recent state legislation, these nurse practitioners can also independently prescribe most medications.

The center is open year-round, with hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and patients usually can schedule appointments for the same day or the next session.

The KRHWF, founded in 1978, manages funds from uncashed pari-mutuel tickets to improve the health and well-being of racetrack workers. In addition to the health center, the fund supports workers through a retirement fund, funeral expenses and other health-related needs not covered by insurance or Medicaid.

“The racetrack clinic has offered our students a tremendous opportunity to work in the community, expanding their understanding of patient needs and enhancing the welfare of the workers,” said Marcia Hern, EdD, CNS, RN, dean of the UofL School of Nursing. “It has been a wonderful partnership between UofL and the racing community.”

Nursing students benefit by gaining real world experience in providing patient care at the center.

“It’s become a very popular site for internships and the volunteer service hours that are required for some of the programs,” Nash said.

“Students have an interesting and impactful experience, and they share that with their classmates, so we get multiple calls for students wanting to come out and work.”

In addition, students in the university’s Latin American and Latino studies program assist with translation services for Latino workers who speak limited English.

Cristina Bahena, a groom and hotwalker at Churchill Downs, uses the center regularly and has brought her two daughters in for care as well. Bahena appreciates the convenient location and the Latino studies students who are able to translate for her during visits.

“I am from Mexico,” Bahena said. “Sometimes the racetrack people don’t speak English, and the students help. Some people sleep at the track and don’t have cars. They can go over there because it’s close.”

The University of Louisville School of Nursing and the Kentucky Racing Health and Welfare Fund have been partnering for 10 years to help backside workers.

A DECADE OF building

trust

Over its 10-year history, the clinic has earned the trust of racetrack workers.

“We are known in the community—the geographic community as well as the racing community—and they really do trust that, when they come to see us, any discussions are confidential, whether it is related to health care or their job or whatever,” Nash said.

Riedel said the KRHWF is pleased with the partnership and that UofL staff members have achieved the fund’s mission of a healthier workforce at the racetrack by delivering excellent care.

“The backside is one big grapevine,” Riedel said. “If you are not providing good service, it comes out real quick, and people are going to avoid coming here.”

The partnership has worked so well that a plan has been approved to expand services to include care by a psychiatric nurse for a 13-month trial period beginning in July.

Cesar Morales, a stable foreman, has been going to the clinic since it opened.

“Every time I go, they are really friendly and help me out,” he said. “I took someone over there yesterday who was new in town. It’s a really good place for all the people who work on the backside at Churchill Downs.”

Nurse practitioners at the center focus on cost-effective care, not only to preserve the center’s funding but also for the benefit of the patients. They work to provide the most efficient medications for a condition, making it easier for patients to keep up their prescriptions even if they leave Louisville. Few other racetracks around the country have this type of clinic for racetrack workers.

Horace Chambers, who has been a groom for 40 years, said the nurses at the center hold him accountable for his health and remind him to come in for regular appointments.

“They know you, and it is more personal,” Chambers said. “No question about it, I am healthier.”

“A healthy workforce is going to be so important to the industry,” Riedel said. “If you have good health care, that’s a reason for an employee—or employer—to come back to Kentucky.”

“This partnership has resulted in a tremendous benefit for Kentucky horsemen,” said Marty Maline, executive director of the Kentucky HBPA. “Obviously, it is a direct benefit to the backside workers who are able to receive quality health care, but that also helps our trainers and owners because it makes Kentucky an attractive place for those workers to be employed. This type of partnership could also work in other states and provinces, and the KRHWF and Kentucky HBPA would be more than happy to assist other affiliates with any questions about setting up a similar program.”

For more information, visit the Kentucky Racing Health and Welfare Fund website at kyracinghealth.com. To donate to the center, contact UofL School of Nursing Director of Development Jessica Roth at jessica.roth@louisville.edu.

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FEATURE

THYROID HORMONE SUPPLEMENTATION: PERFORMANCE-ENABLING OR PERFORMANCE-ENHANCING?

By Clara Fenger, DVM, PhD, DACVIM

AN EXAMINATION OF WHAT THYROXINE DOES AND DOES NOT DO

SUPPLEMENTATION WITH THYROXINE (THYROID HORMONE) IS COMMONPLACE AMONG RACEHORSE TRAINERS, AND RECENTLY THIS PRACTICE HAS BEEN ACCOMPANIED BY A SWIRL OF CONFUSION. LIKE SO MANY OTHER TYPICAL RACETRACK PRACTICES, THE SUPPLEMENTATION WITH THYROXINE HAS BEEN DEMONIZED IN SOME CORNERS, FROM BEING USED TO “COVER UP” COBALT ABUSE TO BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR SUDDEN DEATHS ON THE TRACK. AND, LIKE SO MANY OTHER TYPICAL RACETRACK PRACTICES, THYROXINE SUPPLEMENTATION IS DEFENDED BY ITS PROPONENTS AS MAKING THE HORSES “FEEL BETTER AND DO BETTER,” WITH NO REAL EXPLANATION OF HOW IT MIGHT WORK. Let’s start this discussion by reviewing what thyroxine actually does. Thyroxine is normally produced in the thyroid gland, a paired gland on either side of the neck just behind the head. Thyroxine affects every cell in an animal’s body, including everything from normal growth to normal muscle development in response to exercise.

You can consider thyroxine as the hormone that permits everything else in the body to function properly. The basic metabolic rate, including heart rate and temperature, are determined by thyroxine. In fact, veterinarians recommend that horses that suffer from metabolic syndrome, a disease not dissimilar to Type 2 diabetes in humans, be supplemented with thyroxine to increase their metabolism for the purpose of weight loss, which requires a dose three to six times the typical amount supplemented to the average racehorse. Remarkably, these horses don’t seem to have a higher than average risk of sudden death and unquestionably have had no out-of-the-ordinary exposure to cobalt, despite this large dose of thyroxine. Most have minimal, transient signs or no signs at all of thyrotoxicosis (dangerously high levels of thyroxine in the blood).

What are the signs of thyrotoxicosis in horses?

There are no published reports; in fact, there are only a few published reports about thyroid hormone in horses at all. This leaves

us with a large hole in the scientific literature to assess whether our horses need extra thyroxine at all. Thyrotoxicosis in other species is associated with increased heart rate, increased body temperature, weight loss and diarrhea. In fact, most veterinarians will tell you that nervousness and diarrhea accompany excessive thyroxine use and can be seen occasionally in the first few days after starting the very high dose used in horses with metabolic disease. In humans, extremely high levels of thyroxine, such as those seen with thyroid gland tumors, are associated with cardiac arrhythmias and death, which is clearly the far-reaching source of the supposition made by racing officials when they posited a correlation between extra thyroxine and racetrack deaths. Based on the fact that many racehorses are supplemented with thyroxine and the spikes of sudden deaths were only observed in one jurisdiction, suggestions that there is a relationship between thyroxine supplementation and sudden death seem irresponsible at best.

Why do so many trainers supplement racehorses with thyroxine, and is it a legitimate practice?

While the scientific literature is sparse on the subject in horses, the studies that do exist clearly demonstrate that racehorses tend to be low in thyroxine.1,2 These old studies are likely the original source WWW.NATIONALHBPA.COM

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FEATURE

of the idea. Luckily, there is a lot of good scientific evidence in other species. Like the Thoroughbred racehorses in those two early studies, humans undergoing intense exercise can experience a low thyroxine3 level, which significantly impairs the individual’s ability to perform.4 Additionally, there is a lot of good scientific evidence in people5 and some limited data in horses6 that low thyroxine is associated with rhabdomyolysis (tying up).

Are there other causes besides intensive exercise that can cause low thyroxine in a racehorse?

The test for thyroxine in horses measures both active (free) and inactive (protein-bound) forms of thyroxine, and many exogenously administered substances, including estrogens and antibiotics, can displace thyroxine from its protein binding sites, causing a false low thyroxine reading without actually affecting the thyroid function in the horse. Other exogenously administered substances can actually drop both the active and inactive forms of thyroxine in the blood.

For example, five days in a row of Bute (phenylbutazone) causes a profound drop in both forms of thyroxine,7 which lasts two days for the active form and 10 days for the inactive form.

Cobalt chloride also interferes with normal thyroid function.

While a critical and necessary mineral in trace amounts, cobalt has been used in higher than normal quantities for a variety of reasons in horses. At levels exceeding daily requirements, especially many orders of magnitude above required amounts, cobalt activates and upregulates more than 300 genes, of which a number might influence performance. At modest amounts, cobalt has been administered to racehorses to counteract low red blood cell counts, although there is no evidence that it works for this purpose, and it has been used as a preventative for rhabdomyolysis.8 Very high persistent levels

of cobalt in the blood interfere with the iodine uptake by the thyroid gland, resulting in hypothyroidism, which is clearly the source of the rumored association between the two. However, in addition to dropping the thyroxine level, injudicious use of cobalt causes heart and liver damage.9 Simple thyroxine supplementation does not counteract these adverse effects. Additionally, the implementation of regulations limiting cobalt levels renders the exogenous administration of cobalt obsolete.

The veterinary community has not invested a lot of research on thyroxine in racehorses, but clearly the scientific data that does exist supports limited use of this therapeutic substance in racehorses.

At the dosages typically used in racehorses, toxicity is unlikely, but to determine if your horse needs supplementation, you can have a baseline thyroxine test done and only supplement if your horse actually has a low thyroxine level. The best method to determine a reproducible level of thyroxine is to have the blood test drawn in the morning before training and when the horse has not received other medications within 10 days.

In conclusion, the use of thyroxine supplementation is clearly an appropriate therapeutic treatment for horses, but it is critical to test for a low blood thyroid level before starting on therapy rather than indiscriminately treating all horses. Has overuse of thyroxine been responsible for sudden deaths among racehorses? Highly unlikely. Is it good to investigate all possible variables when there is an unexpected number of deaths or other incidents involving animals? Absolutely. Is it irresponsible to suggest a cause without solid scientific evidence? Yes. Both regulators and horsemen are under pressure to have an answer whenever injuries or deaths occur, but kneejerk responses without science to back them up doesn’t get us any closer to solving the problems in our industry. At the same time, it is critically important that we understand every therapy we administer to our athletes and apply each of them appropriately.

Notes 1.

Bayly W, Andrea R, Smith B, Stensislie J, Bergsma G, 1996. Thyroid hormone concentrations in racing Thoroughbreds. Pferdeheilkunde 12: 534–538.

2.

Blackmore DJ, Greenwood RES, Johnson C, 1978. Observations on thyroid hormones in the blood of Thoroughbreds. Res Vet Sci 25: 294–297.

3.

Pakarinen A, Häkkinen K, Alen M, 1991 Jun. Serum thyroid hormones, thyrotropin and thyroxine binding globulin in elite athletes during very intense strength training of one week.

J Sports Med Phys Fitness 31(2): 142–146.

4.

Werneck FZ, Coelho EF, de Lima JR, Laterza MC, Barral MM, Teixeira PD, Vaisman M, 2014 Mar 21. Pulmonary oxygen uptake kinetics during exercise in subclinical hypothyroidism.

Thyroid [Epub ahead of print].

5.

Lochmüller H, Reimers CD, Fischer P, Heuss D, Müller-Höcker J, Pongratz DE, 1993 Dec. Exercise-induced myalgia in hypothyroidism. Clin Investig 71(12): 999–1001.

6.

Harris P, Marlin D, Gray J, 1992 Jan–Feb. Equine thyroid function tests: a preliminary investigation. Br Vet J 148(1): 71–80.

7.

Ramirez S, Wolfsheimer KJ, Moore RM, Mora F, Bueno AC, Mirza T, 1997. Duration of effects of phenylbutazone on serum total thyroxine and free thyroxine concentrations in horses.

J Vet Int Med 11: 371–374.

8.

Fenger CK, Sacapolus, P. “What Is Cobalt?,” The Horsemen’s Journal, Winter 2015.

9.

Ebert B, Jelkmann W, 2014 Mar. Intolerability of cobalt salt as erythropoietic agent. Drug Test Anal 6(3): 185–189.

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WHEN THINGS DON’T ADD UP

Ackerley Images

FEATURE

A HANDICAPPER SHARES HIS VIEW OF RACING’S “DRUG” PROBLEM

By Rich Halvey

H

ORSEPLAYERS CAN BE A CYNICAL GROUP. A TRAINER GETS TAGGED WITH A DRUG OR MEDICATION VIOLATION, AND MOST OFTEN THE REACTION IS A SARCASTIC, “THERE THEY GO AGAIN.” The propaganda machine that is the Water, Hay, Oats Alliance (WHOA) and the Association of Racing Commissioners International (RCI) has done a good job of convincing the public that racing is overwhelmed with alchemists, determined to win using chemical means at all costs, or that unless horses run free of any medication, the sport is tainted.

Let’s be bold and turn to the facts to better understand this “runaway drug use” in racing. A 2010 study commissioned by RCI found the following to be true: • There were 324,215 biological samples of blood and urine taken from racehorses and tested by labs.

• Less than one-half of 1 percent (0.493) came back with a drug or medication overage.

• As hard as it may be to fathom, this was 20 percent fewer violations than in 2001.

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• Of the violations, 94 percent were for legal therapeutic medications.

• Forty-seven of the 324,215 samples tested (that’s 0.015 percent, or about one every 7,000 tests) came back positive for Class 1 or 2 substances, those drugs that are most serious when it comes to concerns about performance enhancement.

• The study did not differentiate, but a certain percentage of the 47 positive tests were almost certainly due to either errors in administration of legal therapeutic medication or environmental contamination. This isn’t an excuse.

It’s the truth.

• If you’re wondering how this compares to just a few years ago, in 2001, the number of violations for Class 1 and 2 substances was 60. This is despite the fact that new testing equipment can find the equivalent of not just a needle in a haystack but a needle in all of the hay grown in Kansas.

Denis Blake

• Violations of the target drug for WHOA, Lasix/Salix (furosemide), stood at 36 out of 324,215 samples, a 33 percent reduction from violations in 2001.

If these numbers indicate a crisis in racing, I’d hate to see the reactions if the number of violations hit 1 percent.

Things have changed a bit since the 2010 study. RCI is finding more drugs to control, including cobalt. They are urging the absolutely absurd adoption of zero-tolerance standards for known and commonly used therapeutic medications. They have even better mass spectrometers that can find amounts of substances so small they are incomprehensible to the average human sense of proportion.

If you want to look at the bright side of things, the number of violations for real, performance-enhancing substances hardly rises to the level of “the sky is falling.” It is a clear demonstration that the vast majority of trainers are not trying to win through cheating and that the testing programs in place are working.

The idea that some imagined rampant drug use by trainers is why people are staying away from the sport in droves is nothing more than finger-pointing by unqualified racing commissions and those who have declared a fatwa on any drug use, including therapeutics.

It is as much the adoption of unattainable standards by RCI that guarantees positives at levels that have no relation to performance enhancement and their relentless crowing about nailing trainers who are sincerely trying to comply and are good and caring horsemen. It is their failure to find and harshly penalize the real cheats. It is some poorly conceived idea that the racetrack chemists are hard at work designing undetectable boutique drugs and that trainers are clamoring for more and more of them.

We’re not idiots. Of course there are cheats, and I imagine there are drugs that are one step ahead of the testing protocols, but I want to know this: Where are the labs making the drugs? Why is racing not spending money finding these “Breaking Bad” actors and shutting them down? How many veterinarians are willing to lose their livelihood just to make a few extra bucks injecting horses with secret potions? Are you telling me that lab equipment that can detect picogram (trillionth of a gram) level amounts of more than 1,800 compounds is getting regularly fooled by amateur chemists compounding drugs in their garage? Is that the story we’re supposed to believe?

How many BALCOs were there in the United States, and how long did it take for the FBI to eventually felonize them once they put their minds to the task? It is not particularly easy to compound completely undetectable medications, and to suggest it is rampantly

occurring is at best an indefensible distortion of reality. It is a few trainers and a few home chemists that are the bad guys, and just like baseball, if we make a modest effort, we’ll find them and shut them down.

But it is the governors of the sport who create the perception of rampant cheating far beyond the reality of actual cheating. Call it job security or public relations if you want. If you consider the violations of only performance-enhancing drugs and not legitimate, therapeutic medications, as RCI’s own numbers show, the number of starts per violation is an incredibly low number. It is a problem equivalent to the recent problem Ebola represented in the United States. Lots of fanfare and arm waving, two cases total.

The anti-drug people cite spurious statistics like the number of starters per race has decreased since Lasix and Bute (phenylbutazone) became ubiquitous. Yes, and the number of foals born per year has dropped by nearly two-thirds from its peak. Now which do you think might be the more likely explanation for lower numbers of starters per race?

Facts have taken a back seat to opinion in a world where science has never been so capable of explaining things. I was watching a piece on some of the anti-GMO folks who believe modified vegetables can put holes in our cells. The actual scientific community finds that idea completely incomprehensible. All but about three scientists in the world believe climate change is in some significant part due to human activity. Medical science tells us that while nothing is 100 percent guaranteed safe, vaccines come pretty close to that standard, and the likelihood that they cause autism is so miniscule it’s laughable to consider it. But instead of arguing the facts, we argue about philosophy or anecdote or undocumented opinion. We give serious TV time to someone who would walk onto the floor of the Senate with a snowball to “prove” the earth is not warming. Even if you don’t buy the global climate change science, you have to be smart enough to recognize a snowball in winter is proof of nothing more than it still snows in winter in the Northeast, and that isn’t going to change unless the tilt of the earth’s axis changes.

A REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE I apologize for the long introduction, but all of this leads to the case of trainer Kellyn Gorder, who is considered an excellent horseman and, until the recent fiasco in Kentucky, a guy who has an almost unblemished record for medication violations. In 2013, he had WWW.NATIONALHBPA.COM

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FEATURE

Ackerley Images

a positive for clenbuterol, a drug for which many of the top trainers using a nebulizer and he failed to dispose of them after the treatment in the sport have been dinged. That’s it in close to the 10 years he was finished, a story that was backed up by his vet. Regardless, the has had a trainer’s license. syringes were still considered illegal, and the unlabeled medication On November 22, 2014, he ran a filly named Bourbon Warfare in was also a regulatory violation. Gorder has no dispute with those a maiden race at Churchill Downs. The horse won and was routinely violations or the punishment assigned for them. tested. Gorder was notified a month later that the test came back I asked Gorder if the inspectors took any samples that might positive for methamphetamine, a Class 1 substance and a zeroconfirm environmental contamination. To the best of his knowledge, tolerance drug. Gorder received a 14-month suspension and a $5,000 he said they took no samples. I asked if they sampled the stall fine from the Kentucky Bourbon Warfare occupied Horse Racing Commission. in Barn 72. He said, to “In fact, if the 48 picograms were indicative of The initial level for the best of his knowledge, anything, it was that the most likely source of the meth the meth positive was they never inspected was environmental contamination.”

57 picograms, and the Barn 72. I asked if the confirmatory test came people from the transport back at 48 picograms. Just to refresh everyone’s understanding, company were questioned or the transport vehicle tested. Again, no. I a 3 cc dose of a substance would contain about 215,000,000 asked if Barn 42 at Churchill was inspected. Not that he was aware. picograms. I asked Dr. Steven Barker, a professor at Louisiana State I asked if Keeneland or Churchill had video surveillance in place. No University who serves as state chemist for the Louisiana Racing to both.

Commission, for the significance of 48 picograms of meth, and Gorder tested 33 of his employees. All were clean for meth use. he said, “48 picograms of meth isn’t enough to get a flea high.”

Gorder can, at best, be described as stunned. Like many of the Whatever the actual amount of meth needed to get a flea high, trainers I have spoken with, he feels betrayed by the sport to which Dr. Barker’s statement is clearly indicative that the amount of the he has devoted many of his waking hours for years. Horsemen rise drug in Bourbon Warfare’s system would have zero impact on with the sun and toil until after it sets, seven days a week, 52 the horse’s running time. In fact, if the 48 picograms weeks a year. They are in this game out of love for the were indicative of anything, it was that the most horses and love of the game, and Gorder is no likely source of the meth was environmental exception. If there is an upside for Gorder, it is contamination. that he has received almost universal support According to information published from his owners and other horsemen, people in Medical Laboratory Observer, the who have recognized him as the competent, therapeutic value (the level at which we caring horseman he is. would see a physiological effect) is 200 Still, that cannot compensate for times greater than the level in Bourbon being labeled a cheater. It cannot make up Warfare’s blood. for the loss of his reputation in the eyes of Bourbon Warfare was stabled at Keeneland the public. Gorder understands the seriousness Race Course in Barn 72. Gorder’s primary barn is of the situation.

74, but because of space limitations, Barn 72 houses “It’s a serious, serious situation,” he said. some of the overflow horses. Barn 72 is also used by a handful “Fourteen months. You’re talking about starting over. The of smaller trainers, those with four- to six-horse stables. In other clenbuterol was a wake-up call for me, and I really tried to tighten words, Gorder was not in as absolute control of the activities in Barn the operation, then this happens. It’s very disheartening.”

72 as he was in Barn 74, but even putting that aside, Barn 74 had The ruling of the stewards has far-reaching impacts. Thirtysignificance once the meth positive was reported. three stable personnel—grooms, hotwalkers and exercise riders Bourbon Warfare was shipped to Churchill for the race and among others—will lose their jobs along with Gorder. housed in Barn 42. She was returned to Keeneland after the race.

Like most of these cases, the judgment of the stewards is After the meth positive, the Kentucky stewards conducted based on nothing beyond the fact that some level above zero for a an inspection of Barn 74 at Keeneland and turned up syringes banned substance was found. Did they research the potential for and unlabeled but legal medications, but no sign of meth. Gorder environmental contamination? (For example, studies have shown explained that the syringes were used to treat a horse with antibiotics that upward of 90 percent of the paper money in circulation is 42

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contaminated with cocaine, which is why the feds have de minimis levels for a cocaine positive. If this were horse racing, pretty close to 100 percent of racetrack bettors would show a positive level at picograms for cocaine considering how much paper money circulates at a track.) Did they even try to understand the mechanism by which it occurred? Did they thoroughly investigate the other places where the horse was housed or the other people who handled her? Did they look at the jockey? The person handling the sample in the testing barn? The person in the lab handling the sample? Did they consider the performance-enhancing effect of 48 picograms? Did they consider when a horse might have been actually dosed with methamphetamine to have a residual of 48 picograms? Did they ask themselves why someone would dose a horse and then wait until it had cleared out of its system before running it if they were looking for a chemical edge?

Did they feel any responsibility for not having better security in place?

No to all of this, and yet at any point between Barn 72 and the lab, the horse or the sample could have been contaminated. It’s not as if meth is a rare substance. They didn’t even bother to ask the question.

The overriding question state legislatures need to ask themselves is, when you gave the racing commissions the power to oversee the sport, did you mean that they should promulgate rules that are as likely to punish the innocent as the guilty? Was it your intention to rid the sport of the good guys in some misguided zeal to

find the bad guys? Have you really helped horse racing to prosper by sending the message to good, honest horsemen that at any time you could lose your livelihood? Are you really happy with how this sport is being managed?

Let’s be realistic. Racing commissions are being pushed by various groups to adopt standards when they have no idea what unintended consequences will occur. Snaring a few dolphins is a small price to pay to grab the tuna.

There is no piece of hard evidence that would convince any rational thinking person that Kellyn Gorder cheated to win a race. On the other hand, there are piles of real and circumstantial evidence leading to the conclusion that cross-contamination is the likeliest explanation for a 48-picogram positive.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commissions still has the chance to do the right thing. Not just for Kellyn Gorder. For horse racing too.

Rich Halvey is a racing writer and handicapper based in Denver. His handicapping and opinion articles can be found at halveyonhorseracing.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: After this article was written, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission granted a stay of Kellyn Gorder’s 14-month suspension, which was to have begun May 1. A hearing had not been scheduled as of press time.

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Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinion or policy of the publisher or National HBPA board or staff.

ALABAMA HBPA Although we give it a very, very slim chance, gambling at the four dog tracks in Alabama is being talked about as a source of revenue to help offset the state’s deficit. The conservative Republican Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh says he will introduce legislation to authorize a lottery and casino gambling, saying that it is time to let the people of Alabama make a decision on gambling. Threefifths of Alabama legislators and a majority of voters would have to approve the gambling proposal. The lottery proposal was handily defeated when put on the ballot several years ago.

What does this mean for the horsemen?

Birmingham Race Course, originally a horse track, is one of the four dog tracks being talked about. The contract from the Alabama Thoroughbred Association with the track operator, Jefferson County Racing Association (JCRA), was established back in the early 1990s and only guarantees a daily purse structure of $85,000 should gambling be allowed. Even though it is highly unlikely that gambling would be approved, this would not be sufficient to run a quality horse meet. The JCRA has been unwilling to discuss a live horse meet with the Alabama HBPA. In racing news, the Alabama HBPA sponsored the $25,000 Kenneth Cotton Memorial maiden special weight for Alabama-breds on April 25. With the help of the Louisiana HBPA, the race was run at Evangeline Downs. The race was named for Kenneth Cotton of Wing, Alabama, who had been an avid supporter of Alabama racing as both an owner/trainer and breeder. The winner, Deuceswildcat, by Jade Forest out of Double Mystery, by Double Honor, is owned and was bred by Alabama HBPA board member Rhett Harrelson and trained by Kenward Bernis. This was the fifth start for the 3-year-old, who had his first start in the Kudzu Juvenile on December 12 at Fair Grounds, running eight out of nine.

Royal Punter, owned by Salena Walker and trained by Darrell Jackson, finished second after having his first start in the Kudzu Juvenile and running seventh. Joyce’s Buckaroo, a 4-year-old owned by Cheryl King and trained by Howard Alonzo, ran third.

The Alabama HBPA continues to pay out funds to the owner of any Alabama-bred horses running in open company. In keeping with “Horsemen Helping Horsemen,” going forward we will require that the recipient of the funds, if eligible, be a member of good standing with the Alabama HBPA. We have doubled the 2015 supplemental purse structure to a guaranteed $20,000 to be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, paying out $800 for first, $600 for second, $400 for third and $200 for fourth-place finishes.

On a closing note, our condolences go out to the family of long standing Alabama HBPA member John B. Porter of Brooksville, Florida. John passed away on April 16 in Brooksville. A trainer at the Birmingham Race Course during the days of live racing, John passed his love of racing on to his daughter Tracy, who along with her husband, Randy Nunley, trains and races out of Delaware Park.

Nancy Delony Executive Director

ARIZONA HBPA Turf Paradise closed out its live race season for 2014–2015 on May 5. The weather was good, and the track had a nice crowd on hand. Horses will return to Turf Paradise for the 2015–2016 season, which starts October 17 and runs

through May 7, 2016. Horses will be allowed to move back onto the grounds for training in September.

Awards for the meet were presented on April 26. The leading trainer was Robertino Diodoro. The leading owner and jockey awards went down to the wire, with the leading owner ending in a tie between King River Ranch and Charles Garvey and veteran jockey Scott Stevens taking the riding title. Among the special award recipients were Loretta Brasher, the Walter Cluer Award; Carol Chappell, the Whinny Award; Tamara Metzen, Arizona-Bred of the Meet; and Stapley, Hatch and Ellis, 3-Year-Old Filly. Sawyer Cattle Company, Patti and Hal Earnhardt, Karl Krieg, Drew Fulmer and Dorothy Morrison, and Shiew and Morgan were among the many Thoroughbred recipients. Quarter Horse award recipients included Matt Fales, Leading Trainer; Ralph and Carolyn Fales, Leading Owners; and Martin Bourdieu, Leading Jockey.

Rillito Park in Tucson opened under new management for this year’s meet.

The race meet opened February 8 and ran through April 11 with racing on Saturdays and Sundays. Many improvements were made in the grandstand and on the backstretch for horsemen. The extended meet was well received by horsemen and the community.

Thank you to all of the horsemen and women who participate in Arizona racing. We value your participation and look forward to your return in the fall.

Have a good, safe summer, and we will see you in October.

ARKANSAS HBPA OAKLAWN CONCLUDES A HUGELY SUCCESSFUL 2015 MEET Highlighted by a season-high crowd of 67,500 and a scintillating performance by Zayat Stables’ American Pharoah in the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1), Oaklawn’s 2015 live meet ended Saturday, April 11, with recordsetting purses and increases in total handle.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better end to the season,” said Director of Racing David Longinotti. “We had picture-perfect weather the final week and unbelievable performances by champions Untapable and American Pharoah.

We believe our fans witnessed something special this season and hope that those memories will carry them through the Triple Crown season and beyond. We also wish the best of luck to all of the horsemen who participated in our racing program and look forward to welcoming them all back next year.”

With business good across the board—on-track, off-track, Oaklawn Anywhere, Instant Racing and gaming—Oaklawn was able to increase purses three times during the season. Total purses were a record $24.2 million, an average of $465,000 per day. This marked a 13 percent increase over 2014 and a 70 percent increase over just 10 years ago.

Despite losing seven days to weather, total handle topped last year’s at $174,201,721 compared to $169,248,051. Not only was the weather unkind, but it also cost Oaklawn some of what would have otherwise been among the best days of the season, including opening weekend and President’s Day. On the track, jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. secured his third straight leading rider title, while trainer Chris Hartman earned his first Oaklawn trainer’s title after coming on strong the final month. Danny Caldwell was the leading owner for the second straight year.

Champion American Pharoah proved to be the horse of the meet after winning both the $750,000 Rebel Stakes (G2) and the Arkansas Derby in impressive fashion.

Oaklawn’s 2016 season begins January 15 and continues through April 16, Arkansas Derby Day. WWW.NATIONALHBPA.COM

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CHARLES TOWN HBPA MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT: THE CONTRACT For more than a year, your CTHBPA Contract Committee has been negotiating with Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races to agree to a new contract. Members of your committee are Jim Miller, Lee Couchenour, Joe Funkhouser and President Randy Funkhouser. Through numerous addendums to allow time to resolve many issues, it appears that we are very close to reaching a final agreement. Many thanks to our counsel, David Hammer, for his legal expertise as well as kudos to Executive Director Maria Catignani for her assistance during this entire process.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE Our legislative efforts were bolstered and unified by West Virginia Racing United LLC (WVRU), uniting breeders, horsemen and jockeys for the first time.

WVRU lobbyist Joe Funkhouser did an excellent job of educating legislators about the horse industry as well as producing weekly newsletters updating constituents on the latest movements of legislative bills.

During the past legislative session, the West Virginia Legislature passed a resolution to study the entire West Virginia horse racing and breeding industry.

This resolution drafted by lobbyist Phil Reale and sponsored by Senator Herb Snyder and Delegate Paul Espinosa provides for a comprehensive study of all segments of our industry. All horsemen and breeders must take advantage of this opportunity to “save our industry.” We must mount a campaign over the next nine months to educate legislators, business leaders and political constituencies on the economic importance in terms of jobs, commercial activities, tourism and agricultural green space, as well as its underlying historical justification for permitting casino gaming in West Virginia under current law as enacted in 1994. The objective of this campaign is to restore and grow revenues to the Thoroughbred purse and breeders’ funds in an amount sufficient to sustain Thoroughbred racing and breeding in West Virginia, especially in Jefferson County at the Charles Town Races.

We need your help! All horsemen and breeders will soon receive notice of a general meeting; it is imperative that all of you attend and participate in the campaign to save our horse racing and breeding industry.

WEST VIRGINIA RACING COMMISSION RETIREMENT PLAN FOR BACKSTRETCH WORKERS We are in the process of making the final disbursements for the old retirement plan (years prior to 2009). Please contact the HBPA office at Mountaineer or Charles Town for more information.

THE EASTER BUNNY VISITS CHARLES TOWN The chaplain’s Easter party provided the children with lunch and sweet treats. There were games for all age groups, stories and an Easter egg hunt.

Of course, the Easter Bunny was the highlight of the day. Everyone went home with lots of Easter goodies.

EYE-SCREENING CLINIC The Assistance Fund Board, with the help of the Jefferson County Care Clinic, coordinated an eye-screening clinic that was provided by the Appalachian Vision Outreach Program. Seventy-five participants received free eye exams and glasses at a discount.

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTION This coming fall will be an election year for the Charles Town HBPA Board of Directors. If you are a member of our affiliate, please make sure our roster has your correct mailing and email addresses in order for you to receive all of the information regarding the election. Email us at cthbpa@yahoo.com, stop by the office or call the office.

FLORIDA HBPA GULFSTREAM PARK CHAMPIONSHIP MEET Each year, I do a review of the Gulfstream Park Championship Meet in regards to handle and purses. Each passing year has been even more successful than the previous year, including the prior Championship Meet when Gulfstream raced simultaneously with the track formerly known as Calder Race Course. Calder, as you probably know, will be referred to as Gulfstream Park West until the year 2020.

So how did the Gulfstream Park Championship Meet fare this year? Well, that’s not an easy question to answer unless you know when this meet actually took place. Gulfstream now races under four permits, two from Calder and one not-for-profit permit. The Gulfstream permit begins on December 6 and runs through May 17, as the Tropical at Gulfstream dates are raced beginning May 21. Now the Championship Meet was supposedly run from January 1 to April 5, and indeed, the purses increased from 7 percent to 35 percent on January 1 when compared to the December purses. The Gulfstream condition book had “Championship Meet” across its cover and began with race day one as December 6 and concluded on race day 87, which fell on April 5. I am going to base our numbers on the period from December 6 to April 5.

Wagering on Gulfstream’s live product on track was just over $48 million, wagering within the state of Florida or intrastate wagering (ITW) on the live product was $32 million, and wagering on the simulcast product or interstate wagering (ISW) was more than $623 million. Total wagering on Gulfstream’s live product was just more than $704 million or just short of $8.1 million per day, the highest in the country in the winter and possibly anytime but for the boutique Keeneland meets.

Last year, those figures were roughly just under $50 million on track, just under $32 million ITW and over $609 million ISW. Total wagering on the Gulfstream live product was just under $691 million or $13 million less than this year, but live handle was $8.3 million per day. This means, on gross handle numbers, Gulfstream was up this year almost 2 percent over the previous year, but four more race days were run this year, so when you adjust for that, Gulfstream is down more than 2.5 percent from the prior meet. This is mainly due to the Mid-Atlantic Cooperative refusing to take wagers on the Gulfstream signal because Gulfstream was looking for an increased host fee that the Mid-Atlantic refused to pay.

The Mid-Atlantic Cooperative buys signals for a group of smaller racetracks, including harness and dog tracks. Obviously, with this now massive buying power, they expect to pay lower host fees. The power of the Florida Derby prevailed, and just days before the Derby the Mid-Atlantic agreed to the host fee increase from Gulfstream in a multiple-year deal. That should be a good omen for the future.

Now one might ask, “What do those numbers mean to purses?” Well, for this meet the contributions to purses from the pari-mutuel side were as follows: Live on track, 15.7 percent; ITW live, 7.8 percent; and ISW, 63.8 percent. The missing 12.7 percent is pretty much split equally between simulcast or full card wagering on other tracks whether on track or at ITW

NEWS

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

By Bill White There have been many challenges facing South Florida horsemen in the past year. There was the epic battle between Gulfstream Park and Churchill Downs that was finally resolved. We also have been faced with the prospect of decoupling the pari-mutuels from casinos. There are currently serious attempts around the state to activate dormant Quarter Horse permits. We have worker compensation issues and Indian gaming concerns.

With these issues in mind, it is the FHBPA’s goal to try to create a consistent working relationship with Gulfstream Park, the Florida breeders and other legitimate horse racing entities.

We can no longer ignore or hope these issues disappear or are resolved by third parties.

There are political and competitive forces that are taking dead aim at the Thoroughbred industry. As president, I will do my part to make this organization part of the solution.

BACKSIDE DOINGS The annual backside appreciation picnic was again sponsored by Gulfstream Park and the FHBPA. More than $10,000 was donated by owners, trainers and jockeys, with the funds going toward the purchase of 130 bicycles, numerous microwaves, coffee makers and boom box radios, plus lots of candy and toys for the kids. FHBPA hats and T-shirts were given to everyone along with shirts and mugs from Gulfstream. Pictured among the bicycles are Chaplain Tom LaPointe and Mrs. Young, who helped gather donations for the picnic, and also a view of the picnic crowd…Every day, Chaplain LaPointe

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locations around the state. This year, only $32.4 million was wagered on track on these simulcast signals, while last year it was $37.8 million. It was a different story on simulcast or full card wagering at ITW locations, where $39.6 million was wagered this year but $26.4 million last year. This impressive increase was due to a deal struck between Gulfstream and Tampa Bay Downs as both tracks by law are able to sell most out-of-state simulcast signals during the same timeframe.

Now, on to purses for the Championship meets. For this year’s 87-day Championship Meet, including December, average overnights paid were $246,600, with average Florida Owner Awards (FOAs) of $8,700 for total daily overnights paid of $255,300. Total purses paid daily including stakes were $388,000. If you want to think the Championship Meet was really from January 1 to April 5 (which is perfectly acceptable), then the above numbers would be the following: overnights, $259,400; FOAs, $9,500; total overnights, $268,900; and total purses, $408,100. Starters per race beginning December 5 were 9.4.

The prior Championship Meet, which was 83 days from November 30 to April 6, had average overnights of $264,700 with FOAs of $11,700 for total daily overnights of $276,400. Total purses paid daily were $416,200. Starters per race were 8.4.

All in all, it was another banner year for Gulfstream despite the problems with the Mid-Atlantic Cooperative. With Calder but a memory, the future looks bright!

and his assistants drove 20 grooms and hotwalkers living at Gulfstream to their jobs at Gulfstream West, formerly known as Calder (pictured is what is left of what was once one of America’s most aesthetic backsides)…The Gulfstream winter soccer league had six teams competing for the championship with the “Jockeys” defeating “More” in overtime to win the championship…The Gulfstream Memorial Hospital Clinic is now open year-round after Gulfstream, and the FHBPA agreed to fund it for the summer and fall.

INDIANA HBPA SWEET CHOCOLATE WINS OPENER OF 2015 RACING SEASON AT INDIANA GRAND Sweet Chocolate and Israel Ocampo cruised to victory in the season opener at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino on April 21. The event kicked off a nine-race card of Thoroughbred and American Quarter Horse racing, with the meet running through October 31.

Indiana HBPA board member Kim Hammond, who is ranked fourth on the list of all-time leading trainers at Indiana Grand, also started off the meet well.

She is the trainer of both Sweet Chocolate and Moonlight Success, who finished third in the race. The local resident is the all-time highest-winning female trainer in horse racing, hitting her 2,000th career win in 2014.

The season opener was greeted with a mild afternoon of weather and good attendance in the stands. Fans were treated to a new feature for racing with the addition of Trakus, an accurate, real-time tracking of the horses during the race. Special “chicklets” follow the full field on the television monitors during the race for accurate tracking.

“We had great weather to kick off our 13th season of racing, and the track crew has done an excellent job in preparing the surface for the race meet,” said Jon Schuster, vice president and general manager of racing for Indiana Grand.

“We are also appreciative of the continued support from the community. We hope to make the meet excellent for our customers, and adding Trakus is a great way to enhance our racing program.”

The track has opened with a four-day schedule, racing Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 2:05 p.m. and on Saturdays at 6:05 p.m. An additional day of racing will be added on Thursdays at 2:05 p.m. beginning September 17 until the end of the meet. A total of 120 days will once again be contested, including six dates dedicated to Quarter Horse racing.

INDIANA GRAND HOSTS JOCKEYS AND JEANS EVENT FOR PDJF On May 30, Indiana Grand Racing & Casino hosted the 2015 Jockeys and Jeans fundraiser event for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. The WWW.NATIONALHBPA.COM

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a technical clean-up session day for June. Such dates have, upon occasion, resulted in veto overrides. Horsemen have been contacting the governor’s office to explain why the state needs these changes in hopes that such an override might not be necessary.

So a long race that carried extremely high stakes for Indiana Thoroughbred horsemen and women went to the wire too close to call. Stay tuned for the determination of a winner…

IHRC MAKES CHANGES TO MEDICATION AND TESTING PROGRAM After a tumultuous racing season in 2014, riddled with multiple medication overages, confusion and long delays in returning test results, the Indiana Horse Racing Commission has instituted changes it says will restore a more orderly and consistent process in 2015.

Truesdail Laboratory in Tustin, California, has been selected to be the IHRC’s primary laboratory. Truesdail’s contract will include performance-based metrics ensuring the quality of its testing and the timeliness of reporting.

In a first-of-its-kind development, the IHRC will also engage a quality assurance laboratory, which will perform periodic testing. A number of samples will be simultaneously sent to this laboratory for quality assurance. Industrial Laboratory in Denver, Colorado, will perform this audit function.

The IHRC will continue to test for cobalt in 2015. The threshold will remain at 25 parts per billion. Indiana, the first state in the nation to regulate cobalt, experienced a decrease of 87 percent in horses racing with elevated levels once a regulatory threshold was established on September 30, 2014. Additionally, cobalt has been included in the list of substances regulated through out-ofcompetition testing.

The multitude of violations in 2014 resulted in a multitude of administrative hearings and interviews during and after the meet. The Indiana HBPA has been attempting to get some clear definition of the types of hearings that are conducted as part of the administrative adjudication process and a delineation of horsemen’s rights. As part of that effort, the organization put on a backside meeting led by Chief Steward Stan Bowker in which he walked horsemen through each step of the process and took questions from those present.

Also, the IHRC has published its 2015 medication withdrawal guidelines on its website. Go to in.gov/hrc/files/Medication_2015_Withdrawal_ Times_4-10-2015.pdf.

IOWA HBPA

INDIANA LEGISLATIVE SESSION ENDS: RESULTS STILL PENDING The Indiana General Assembly adjourned its biennial budget session April 29 with the potential for some positive changes for the state’s racing and breeding industry and for Thoroughbreds, in particular. But those issues were still unresolved at the publication deadline for this article because the specific bills had not been approved by the governor.

In a legislative session that debated huge education and social policies— occasionally to the detriment of the state’s national image—racing and gaming issues were resolved in the last hours of the session. The legislation included the potential for live dealers at the two track casinos, a shift in the split of racino revenue that would put more money into the Indiana Thoroughbred racing and breeding program, race date clarification, a new appointment process for the breed development advisory boards that would give horsemen a voice in the make-up of the committees and the reauthorization of advance deposit wagering in Indiana.

Though both houses of the legislature passed these items by substantial margins, Governor Mike Pence had expressed reservations, leaving questions as to whether he would veto the legislation. Legislative leaders scheduled 50

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Coady Photography

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publication deadline for this article preceded the event, but since preparations started after last year’s event at Tampa Bay Downs, the 2015 Indiana Grand fundraiser was likely to be huge.

The night featured special appearances by Triple Crown jockeys Ron Turcotte, Steve Cauthen and Jean Cruguet, plus Hall of Fame jockeys Pat Day, Chris McCarron and Laffit Pincay Jr., and Indiana Pacers legends, along with many more celebrities, who enjoyed the night’s Thoroughbred racing, dinner and live and silent auctions.

2015 AWARDS BANQUET FOR IOWA HBPA & ITBOA The annual Iowa HBPA Awards Banquet held for the category winners of the 2014 racing meet was a huge success with an excellent turnout. The honored guests and keynote speakers were Danica Fick, sales manager with NTRA, and Chance Timm, director of stallion seasons at Lane’s End. Both speakers did an excellent job of educating everyone in attendance in their respective areas. Danica spoke about Chance Timm the benefits of being NTRA members, which all Iowa HBPA and ITBOA members are, and the purchasing power that allows members to go to five major brands through the NTRA Advantage Program. Chance spoke on the current state of the breeding industry, how it is slowly coming back and how that impacts Iowa breeding and sales.

Chance also spoke about the current industry trends regarding commercial sales and how those trends have an impact on pricing at all levels in the sales arena.

The awards banquet was once again held in combination with the ITBOA. This is the fourth year this has occurred and will continue this way for the foreseeable future. After each organization’s 2011 banquet occurred less than a Danica Fick week apart, it was decided that both organizations should combine their events to make it easier on both groups and their representative members. The results have been a resounding success from all of the compliments that have been received following the banquet. As always, the Prairie Meadows buffet was well received by those in attendance.

Danny Caldwell was the winner of Owner of the Year for the Iowa HBPA and ITBOA. This is the first time Danny has held the title of Iowa HBPA Owner of the Year. In 2014, his horses won 40 races, finished second 22 times and third 20 times in Iowa. His stable’s earnings were more than $747,000. The Iowa HBPA and ITBOA teamed up to present a special shadowbox of Danny’s silks for winning the owner title for both organizations.

Horse of the Year honors went to Sugar Shock, who started nine times in 2014 and won four of those starts with one second and one third. She won the Grade 3 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park and Panther Stakes at Prairie Meadows. In all, Sugar Shock had total earnings in excess of $392,000 in 2014. Sugar Shock is owned by On Cloud Nine LLC, composed of Warren Bush (vice president of the Iowa HBPA), Aaron Kennedy, Jim Coulter and trainer Doug Anderson.

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Iowa HBPA President Leroy Gessman (left) presents the 2014 Trainer of the Year Award to Ray Tracy

Coady Photography

Iowa HPBA President Leroy Gessman (far left) presents the 2014 Horse of the Year Award to Sugar Shock’s owners (from left), Doug Anderson, Aaron Kennedy, Jim Coulter and Warren Bush Coady Photography

The Claimer of the Year for 2014 was Nevaehs Rae, with earnings of more than $94,000 after being claimed by Federico Villafranco for owner Danny Caldwell. She ran off five consecutive wins for her connections over various race surface conditions.

Trainer of the Year went to Ray Tracy. Ray began training in 1989 in Montana and had his first stakes win in the Montana Derby. Since his beginnings, Ray has consistently put up impressive stats with 2014 being no different. He had a total of 272 starts, 49 wins, 44 seconds and 37 thirds.

His stable earned more than $1 million, hitting the board 48 percent of the time.

Once again, congratulations to all Iowa HBPA 2014 award winners!

At right are a few pictures of the award recipients in their respective categories.

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GROOM ELITE 101 IN FULL SWING ON PRAIRIE MEADOWS BACKSIDE The Elite Program class Groom Elite 101 is starting strong this year with more than 20 people in attendance for the first couple of days. This year’s lineup of classes will be covered by various experts in their respective fields, from trainers to veterinarians.

Iowa HBPA President Leroy Gessman presents Iowa HBPA President Leroy Gessman (left) and This year, it was decided to conduct a Groom Elite 101 the 2014 Claimer of the Year Award to Danny ITBOA President Deb Leech present the 2014 Caldwell for Nevaehs Rae class after a one-year hiatus from being offered on the Prairie Owner of the Year Award to Danny Caldwell Meadows backside. Last year, a Groom Elite 201 class was Vet Dr. Stephanie offered that lasted for a total of six days with excellent participation. The Iowa HBPA White, Director will try to conduct a rotating schedule of offering a couple years of Groom Elite 101 and AAEP Vet followed by a 201 class. This way the Iowa HBPA can try to capture as many people Dr. Keith Soring, as possible to participate in the 201 class when it comes back around.

Director Derron The continued success of the Elite Program at Prairie Meadows is Heldt, Director not in doubt, as there are many grooms who want to learn more about the Suzanne Evens Thoroughbreds they are charged with caring for on a daily basis. The Iowa HBPA and Director thanks all the individuals who will be teaching the material in the Groom Elite Brandi Fett.

Class. The Iowa HBPA also thanks Dr. C. Reid McLellan for his work in creating Since its the Elite Program and all of the classes available through this outstanding founding in husbandry educational curriculum.

(From left) HART Board members include Jon Moss (Iowa 2011, HART HBPA), Sharon Vail (ITBOA), Barb Carroll (Iowa HBPA), has continued HART SILENT AUCTION SET FOR FESTIVAL OF RACING Brandi Fett (ITBOA), Dr. Keith Soring (IRGC) and Derron to build and is Heldt (Prairie Meadows) During the Iowa Festival of Racing on Saturday, June 27, the local horse celebrating its retraining program Hope After Racing Thoroughbreds (HART) will be holding a fourth full year of operation.

The nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization continues to silent auction in the Prairie Rose Room located on the fourth-floor clubhouse. retrain and accept Thoroughbreds off the backside of Prairie Meadows.

Some All of the proceeds will benefit this program and help aid in the placing and/or of the accepted horses had very raucous starts into the HART program with retraining of Iowa-racing Thoroughbreds when their racing careers are over. If you difficult injuries that needed to be addressed immediately upon acceptance into would like to donate an item(s) to the silent auction or want to make a monetary the program. Others have simply been a little too slow for the racing game and donation for HART, please contact the Iowa HBPA office at (515) 967-4804. need to find a new area in which to excel. HART has been there to help these horses transition into the best homes for them.

HART RECOGNIZED BY TCA WITH AWARD OF MERIT Finally, HART says “thank you” to everyone who has participated in the HART is very proud to be recognized by the Thoroughbred Charities of silent auctions by either donating items or purchasing items and to all the America (TCA) for its hard work and dedication to helping Thoroughbreds owners who contribute $5 per start at Prairie Meadows to the program. Also, transition from the track to new homes. The organization is the cooperative HART thanks the people and organizations that have donated monetarily work of the Iowa Thoroughbred industry stakeholders and more specifically the in support of these first few years of operation. It’s this continued level of Iowa HBPA, ITBOA, Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino and Iowa Racing and generosity that enables HART to help horses find homes and careers after they Gaming Commission. The current board members are President Maggi Moss, Vice are done racing in Iowa.

President Jon Moss, Treasurer Barb Carroll, Secretary Sharon Vail, Director and AAEP WWW.NATIONALHBPA.COM

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KENTUCKY HBPA

Steve Queen

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE In March of this year, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) voted to approve a new regulation. The regulation prohibits the administration of furosemide (Salix/Lasix) less than 24 hours prior to post as a condition of the race. This will allow a racetrack, in its sole discretion, to card Lasix-free races, which is in direct contradiction to current KHRC regulations that permit the use of Lasix within four hours of a race. The regulation also proposes a threshold level of 100 picograms, which is a trillionth of a gram, to determine if Lasix was given within 24 hours of the race. When Dr. Clara Fenger of the North American Association of Racetrack Veterinarians questioned the science in determining the threshold, Commissioner John Phillips emphatically stated that 100 picograms is a long-established threshold. One week later, Dr. Rick Sams informed members of the Equine Drug Research Council that the threshold listed in the regulation was incorrect. He now proposes 1,000 picograms as the threshold level, but even the new level has yet to be peer-reviewed.

There are other issues with the proposed regulation that the KHBPA presented to the KHRC, like the fact that it is an unconstitutional delegation of authority by the KHRC. Peter Ecabert, general counsel of the National HBPA, explained to KHRC Commissioners: “When this regulation is put under analysis, it is clear that it fails as being an improper and unconstitutional delegation of authority.”

The KHBPA reached out to horsemen throughout the country to determine their views on the proposed regulation. Petitions were signed by horsemen expressing their opinions against the regulation allowing a racetrack the opportunity to card Lasix-free races. Letters in support of the KHBPA position against the proposed regulation were received from the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), the California Thoroughbred Trainers (CTT) and the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (THA).

The regulation will now move through a lengthy legislative process. The KHBPA will be there to express our views every step of the way.

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Recently, a bill was introduced to repeal the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978 by Senator Udall and Congressman Pitts. The bill would effectively cripple the racing industry. The National HBPA and The Jockey Club were quick to issue statements opposing the proposed legislation. The Jockey Club has, in the past, proposed federal intervention to address their concerns with medication. The saying “be careful what you wish for” comes to mind.

Don Sturgill, former general counsel for the KHBPA and my good friend, was recently inducted, posthumously, into the American College of Equine Attorneys Hall of Fame. Don, along with being our trusted advisor, was instrumental in the important federal case that upheld the horsemen’s right to simulcasting revenue under the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978.

Good luck in your racing endeavors.

Rick Hiles, Kentucky HBPA President 810 KAR 1 — INTERNATIONAL MEDICATION PROTOCOL Peter Ecabert, General Counsel NHBPA 1. Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (“KHRC”) voted on 3/23/15 to approve a regulation that prohibits the administration of furosemide (“Lasix”) less than 24 hours prior to post time as a condition (“House Rule”) of the race. The regulation authorizes a licensed racing association (i.e., private racetrack) to require adherence to this protocol, if the track in its sole discretion decides to apply this restrictive protocol.

The new regulation directly conflicts with the existing regulation promulgated by the KHRC that permits the administration of furosemide outside 4 hours prior to post time. In addition, the regulation provides that the threshold level for the determination of whether furosemide has been administered within the 24-hour prohibited period shall be 100 picograms/ml in a serum sample as prima facie evidence of a violation.

2. Significant Concerns and Issues: a. The regulation is purportedly to be invoked only on a very limited basis for a few select races as the track shall determine. The language of the regulation has no such restriction as the track could in its own discretion choose to apply this house rule to every race held at that track. b. The concentration levels for furosemide of 100 picograms appears to have no basis in scientific research as confirmed by Dr. Clara Fenger during the Rules Committee session but contrary to the strong representations of Commissioner Phillips that the threshold level is a well-established scientifically acceptable level. c. There appears to be no input from the Kentucky Equine Drug Research Council that was established per KRS 230.265 to advise the KHRC on equine drug research and testing that presumably would include advice on threshold levels. This is a further indication of an abuse of discretion. d. The KHRC is to promulgate administrative regulations restricting or prohibiting the use and administration of medications to horses participating in races [See: KRS 230.240(2)]. This new regulation establishing an “International Medication Protocol” constitutes a delegation of powers vested with the KHRC to private associations (i.e., tracks) whereby the track may arbitrarily and capriciously set conditions for a particular race that makes administration of furosemide (that is otherwise legal per KHRC) a violation subjecting the trainer and owner of the horse to penalties including fines and suspensions. e. The unequal application of such rules is problematic in two ways: first, it is an unequal application of medication rules by KHRC and likely violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as being a violation of the equal protection clause, and second, it is an unconstitutional delegation of authority per the Kentucky Constitution.

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UNION BETWEEN KY HORSEMEN, TRACKS SHOWS EVOLVING MINDSET ON AFTERCARE

By Teresa Genaro Originally commissioned by Thoroughbred Racing Commentary for Thoroughbredracing.com. Reprinted with permission.

At the close of the second Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit in March 2008, the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and The Jockey Club, underwriters and hosts for the event, released eight recommendations, developed by the working groups that participated in that summit held in Lexington, Kentucky.

Recommendation No. 7 reads: “Find solutions for unwanted Thoroughbreds.”

Two years later, at the 2010 Summit, the fate of Thoroughbreds post-racing was still a concern, but the focus and the language had changed dramatically.

Among the recommendations emerging from that summit was “Transitioning Thoroughbred Racehorses to Second Careers.”

And two years after that, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s Mike Ziegler stood in front of those assembled at the 2012 Summit and introduced them to the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA), the first industrywide initiative to support the care of Thoroughbreds who could no longer race.

In the three years since that announcement, the TAA has brought together sales companies, consignors, Thoroughbred buyers and breeding farms to fund Thoroughbred retirement, retraining and adoption. In an industry that seldom finds common ground, the TAA is slowly but surely uniting its myriad stakeholders in a purpose with which few can quibble: making sure that retired racehorses have safe, comfortable, productive lives in the decades they are likely to live when their racing days are over.

The TAA announced its latest initiative earlier this month, a partnership among Kentucky horsemen, Churchill Downs and Keeneland Race Course, in which Thoroughbred owners who are members of the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association will contribute $5 to the TAA for each of their horses that starts at Churchill or Keeneland, a donation that the racetracks will then match for the starts at their tracks.

The agreement went into effect immediately. Keeneland’s spring meet

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f. The seminal case for the proposition that a governmental agency cannot delegate the exercise of discretion as to what the law shall be is the case of LRC v. Brown, 664 S.W.2d 907 (1984). In Brown, the court citing Bloemer v. Turner, 137 S.W.2d 387, 390 (1940) states that, “we declared that the Kentucky Constitution…made sure that the legislature may not in any degree abdicate its power.” The court in Bloemer said: “It is an accepted principle that the legislative department has no right to deputize to others the power to perform its governing functions. The primary theme that is consistently made throughout the case is that the delegation of discretion to determine what the law should be is an improper delegation of authority and when this regulation is put under that analysis, it is clear that it fails as being an improper and unconstitutional delegation of authority. g. Finally, it is clearly set forth in KRS 230.215 that the power to prescribe conditions under which legitimate horse racing is to be conducted in the Commonwealth and to regulate and maintain horse racing at meets within the Commonwealth, including the power to exclude and punish for violation of conditions, is vested solely with the KHRC and any delegation of this power to a private organization would be in violation of KHRC’s own mandate and again an improper and illegal delegation of the power so conveyed.

began on April 3 and concluded on April 24; Churchill Downs’ spring meet started the next day and runs through June 27.

“There was no resistance,” said trainer Dale Romans, second vice president of the Kentucky HBPA. “Everybody sees the need. I don’t think that there’s anybody that doesn’t agree that these horses deserve a pension.”

“We met with the Kentucky HBPA in Louisville last November,” explained Stacie Clark, operations consultant for the TAA. “I give them a lot of credit for taking Kentucky by the hand and saying, ‘Let’s do this together.’ It showed a real sense of community between horsemen and racetracks, for the greater good.”

Keeneland has been a supporter of the TAA since its inception, one of three organizations, along with the Breeders’ Cup and The Jockey Club, that provided seed money to cover administrative costs as the organization got its fundraising and operations up and running. Keeneland was also one of the sales companies that pledged to donate .05 percent of its gross sales to the TAA and to make available to its buyers and consignors the opportunity to do the same. Joining forces with the horsemen to make additional contributions was a natural next step, said Keeneland president and CEO Bill Thomason.

“The concept of the TAA has always been,” he said, “that at every touch point in a horse’s life, those people are the ones responsible for these great animals and for the care of them during racing and training and for the rest of their lives. The partnership between the HBPA and Keeneland continues the effort to spread the message of collective responsibility.”

In addition to accrediting aftercare organizations, which undergo a rigorous application and inspection process, the TAA disburses grants annually to the organizations that have earned accreditation. Through the end of 2014, it had granted $3.4 million to approved organizations.

Its track record is part of what led Churchill Downs to sign on to match the donations, said Mike Ziegler, now executive director of racing for Churchill Downs Inc. Ziegler also served as the first executive director of the TAA. The horsemen’s contributions will be paid through the track’s horsemen’s bookkeeper, a procedure that required the permission of CDI. The request for that permission spurred CDI president Kevin Flanery to ask Ziegler, “Should we match these funds?”

“Obviously,” said Ziegler, “I said yes.”

Romans, whose horses are based at Churchill Downs, wasn’t necessarily surprised by Churchill’s decision.

“Down deep I thought they would [sign on], but you never know,” he said.

“It’s not really their responsibility, and they did the right thing.

“We knock Churchill Downs a lot,” he went on, “but they did this right and they didn’t have to. They deserve to get a pat on the back for it.”

Beyond the immediate and financial benefits of the partnership to retired racehorses, the Keeneland/Churchill/TAA arrangement also sets a model for racetrack contributions that the participants hope that other jurisdictions will follow.

Trainer Rick Violette offered a frank assessment: “The major states have to step up.”

The president of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and its New York chapter, Violette also sits on the board of the TAA and was instrumental in the creation of Take the Lead, the aftercare program at the tracks of the New York Racing Association (NYRA). New York’s horsemen have been contributing $5 per start to the TAA for the last year, and Violette hopes that NYRA will follow the lead of the Kentucky tracks and match the horsemen’s donations.

Violette also noted that while a number of racing organizations have initiated their own backstretch retirement programs, such as Turning for Home at Parx, the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA) and the Gulfstream Park Thoroughbred Aftercare Program, many have not.

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“Some horsemen’s organizations are light years ahead of others in terms of aftercare,” he observed. “We want to see states that have not recognized the importance of aftercare step up, and the TAA is certainly the way to go.”

“We’re glad to be doing what we’re doing,” said Churchill Downs’ Ziegler.

“We hope that the TAA points to us as an example when speaking with other jurisdictions.”

Clark said that Turfway Park in northern Kentucky has made a verbal commitment to set up a similar program.

Owners are automatically enrolled in the program but may opt out by speaking to the horsemen’s bookkeeper where their horses are running.

“We’re not forcing people to do things,” said Keeneland’s Thomason. “When people learn about the mission of the TAA, it resonates with them and makes this a very, very easy sell.”

He continued, “Problems can seem so big, but these incremental efforts from small beginnings can turn into something that has a big impact. People in significant racing jurisdictions across the country need to find places like this to work together.”

“It’s nice to see them [work together] over the horse,” said the TAA’s Clark.

“We all benefit, and we should all be giving back.

“The heart of the matter is that people really love racehorses, and this is the right thing to do.”

Steve Queen

MEETING WITH CONGRESSMAN ANDY BARR Representatives of various horsemen’s groups met in Washington, D.C., with Congressman Andy Barr of Kentucky. Will Velie of Horseman Labor Solutions and Julio Rubio of the Kentucky HBPA attended to discuss labor and immigration issues. In addition, Dale Romans, vice president of the KHBPA; Rick Violette, president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association; Alan Foreman, chairman of the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association; and Joe Morris, president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, also attended the meeting with Congressman Barr to discuss a host of issues including medication in Thoroughbred racehorses and the Interstate Horseracing Act (IHA).

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Congressman Barr emphasized that, in his opinion, the federal government should not be involved in regulating the racing industry. He feels this is better left to the states. He mentioned that there is a push on behalf of some individuals to pursue federal intervention regarding medication and to provide funding for this effort through the IHA. Dale stressed that the IHA is sacred ground and is the lifeblood of the racing industry. There is no sentiment to allow any entity to access the IHA for their funding or to give an outside group consent rights. The IHA is the industry’s vehicle to provide the simulcasting of racing throughout the world.

It provides horsemen the opportunity to decide if sending races to a particular location damages live racing and if so the horsemen at the host site can veto the signal. Consent rights should only be in the hands of the stakeholders and not outside interests.

As far as uniform medication nationwide, several of the participants agree with this concept but agreed with Congressman Barr that this process should be in the hands of the various states and not the federal government.

THE HBPA IS YOU The HBPA, established in 1940, is an organization of owners and trainers numbering approximately 30,000 nationally in 23 states and Canada and more than 6,000 in Kentucky. The association is governed by a board of directors consisting of owners and trainers volunteering their time and elected by the membership every three years. The HBPA is committed to working for the betterment of racing on all levels.

The HBPA represents owners and trainers on several fronts: • The HBPA is present in negotiating sessions with each racetrack regarding purse structure, equitable share of simulcast revenues, overall track safety, sanitation and security.

• The HBPA provides benevolence to horsemen in need, education and recreation programs to the backstretch, and various insurance packages that include—free of charge to members—fire and disaster insurance and claiming coverage. Visit one of the fully staffed HBPA offices at the currently running racetrack in Kentucky for details.

• The HBPA works in conjunction with the chaplaincy program and the Kentucky Racing Health and Welfare Fund to provide support and benefits for horsemen.

• The HBPA supports scientific research and marketing initiatives on a regional and national level to help promote interest in Thoroughbred racing.

• The HBPA is at the forefront in litigation and legislation on issues involving horsemen’s rights in regard to interstate simulcasting, proprietary rights, casino gambling, therapeutic medication, sports betting and many other areas of concern to horsemen.

How can I join? You are invited to drop by the HBPA office to meet the staff and learn more about current projects and how you can get involved in helping to improve the industry. There are no membership fees. Remember, this is your organization. Become an active participant and one of the horsemen helping horsemen. To join, all you need to do is fill out our membership card and fax, mail or email it back to us. For more information, please visit our website at kyhbpa.org and click on “How to Join.”

NEWS 8000 Hwy 80 East, PO Box 5519, Bossier City, LA 71171 318-742-5555 * www.ladowns.com

2717 Delta Downs Dr., Vinton, LA 70668 * 337-589-7441 * www.deltadowns.com Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu

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Fair Grounds Race Course 2015-2016 Race Meets 1751 Gentilly Blvd. New Orleans, LA 70119 504-944-5515 * www.fairgroundsracecourse.com

2235 Creswell Lane Extension, Opelousas, LA 70570 Toll Free: 866-4-Racing * www.evangelinedowns.com

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educational grant from the Minnesota Racing Commission; volunteer support from trainers, veterinarians and the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association; and in-kind donations from Canterbury Park, will host the five-week Groom Elite 101.

This program gives new and experienced grooms a more complete education on horses’ physiology to bring them to a higher skill level that makes them better horsemen and employees. Graduates feel they are better equipped to better care for the horses in their charge, helping them to have longer, safer careers.

Overall, racing is the real winner, and when you invest in people as loyal and dedicated as our grooms, the benefits last for years.

The Minnesota HBPA welcomes at least a dozen new trainers who have come to the Land of 10,000 Lakes to compete for their share of more than $170,000 average daily purse money. We welcome back 2014 leading trainer Robertino Diodoro. In addition to new trainers, we also have a new starter and gate crew, a new track man and new faces in the stewards’ stand. We look forward to a safe, prosperous meet for all of our horsemen!

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MOUNTAINEER PARK HBPA PRESIDENT’S UPDATE The 2015 West Virginia legislative session again proved to be detrimental for the racing industry in the state.

During the 2014 session, Spring Training at Mountaineer HB 101 was passed, which reduced the percent that the horsemen received by 10 percent and redirected the portion of the purse fund that paid the workers’ comp debt to the excess video lottery fund, subjecting it to appropriations. Last year, $14 million was appropriated from the excess video lottery fund to the racing purse accounts. During the 2015 legislative session, they reduced the appropriation by another $3 million. This reduction will result in approximately $900,000 less to be appropriated to the purse account for Mountaineer.

In addition, a joint Senate and House resolution was passed that will study all aspects of the gaming and racing industries, including the history of both industries, the gaming and racing business models, the funding mechanisms and how revenue is utilized. The Mountaineer Park HBPA Board of Directors feels that it is imperative for the entire racing industry to present a united front to protect and preserve racing.

The reduction in income from the legislature and the increased competition has resulted in a dramatic decrease to the horsemen’s purse account. In preparation for this study, the West Virginia Racing Commission provided an in-depth analysis of the funding to the purse accounts, daily average purse and possibilities for race day. This analysis projected $15,703,706 for purse funds for 2016.

Through West Virginia Racing United, we will continue to promote our industry on a statewide basis. There are things that you can start to do now to help in this campaign to promote racing: • If you live in Hancock County, join the Farm Bureau and become an active member.

Jana Tetrault

When this is delivered to your doorstep, we are a month into Canterbury Park’s 2015 racing season. Kentucky Derby Day was the official first crowd at the track, welcoming spring and the racing season. Nearly 10,000 partiers and race enthusiasts filled the grandstand, most displaying their Kentucky Derby passion by wearing the hats, dresses, suits and even outrageous attire typically associated with the Run for the Roses. One fellow was wearing only boxer shorts (yes, the kind made by Fruit of the Loom) and a sport coat. Another was dressed to the nines in pink flowered trousers and a fedora. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day at the Park!

Canterbury Park has been viewed as family-friendly not only on Sunday afternoons but also on the backside. In line with that concept, the Minnesota HBPA has partnered with Shakopee Community Education, the YMCA, New Creation Church and other community resources to develop a summer program for racetrack kids that are 3-18 years old. Programming includes arts and crafts, swimming, field trips, games, reading and sports. The older kids join with others their age in the community for soccer and other sports both on and off the grounds.

The Minnesota HBPA, with the help of an

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! July 4 — Horsemen’s brunch and nomination meeting July 13 — Minnesota HBPA golf tournament If you are not receiving emails from us, please make sure we have your email address!

Jana Tetrault

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BACKSIDE NEWS The Derby recently took over the operations of our horsemen’s kitchen. They will be offering daily lunch and dinner specials as well as regular menu items for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We would like to thank the Blankenship family from Donna’s Kitchen for their years of service to the backstretch community.

Also new to the backside is Hookstown Feed and Supply, who joined S & C Tack as the vendors located in the rec hall.

WEST VIRGINIA RACING COMMISSION RETIREMENT PLAN FOR BACKSTRETCH WORKERS We are in the process of making the final disbursements for the old retirement plan (years prior to 2009). Please contact the HBPA office at Mountaineer or Charles Town for more information.

CHANGES TO THOROUGHBRED RACING RULES EFFECTIVE JUNE 28, 2015 The West Virginia Racing Commission has adopted: 1. The RCI Model Rule on Multiple Medication Violations that allows for a points system.

2. RCI’s Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances that adds: • Methylhexaneamine as a Class 1, Penalty A substance • Pergolide as a Class 3, Penalty B substance 3. Adoption of Version 2.1 of RCI’s Controlled Therapeutic Medication Schedule at Table F of the rule adding thresholds for: Albuterol, Isoflupredone, Ketoprofen and changes to regulations on NSAIDs. Come into the Mountaineer Park HBPA office for a complete listing of the changes!

NEBRASKA HBPA The Nebraska HBPA held its election for the board of directors and president. The new president is Barry Lake; all terms run through 2018. Owner directors are Joe Koziol, Margaret Landis, Bob Moser Jr., Dr. Dennis Smith and Craig Wulf. Owner/Trainer or Trainer directors are Larry Donlin Jr., Steve Hall, John Ness, Larry Staroscik and Ron Westermann. First Owner Alternate is Gene McCloud and First Trainer Alternate is Schuyler Condon.

Congratulations to all the newly elected members!

NEW ENGLAND HBPA NEW ENGLAND HPBA PLANNING A THREE-DAY MEET IN 2015

By Lynne Snierson The cold, hard truth is that there wasn’t enough money and there weren’t enough horses for the horsemen to conduct a full live meet at Suffolk Downs this year. But live racing in New England is still rising out of the ashes.

“Nobody wanted a 50-day live meet more than the people serving on the

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• Talk to businesses, teachers and elected officials about the importance of racing to your family and the local community.

• Promote racing—invite friends and family to the races. Invite them into the winner’s circle and post pictures of wins in social media.

We need to work together to protect the racing industry in West Virginia.

Jami Poole, President

boards of directors of the HBPA and the Massachusetts Thoroughbred Breeders Association,” said NEHBPA President Anthony Spadea, who is a certified financial planner and investment manager. “We all understand that there are some unhappy horsemen, and we sincerely regret that. But it would have been financially impossible, not to mention irresponsible, to try to put on a meet of more than three days. That is what makes the most sense, and it is what we now intend to do.”

That the NEHBPA is in a position to lease the track even for three festival days of racing—on one Saturday in July, August and September with a purse distribution of $500,000 per day— is nothing short of miraculous.

Last September, the ownership group of Suffolk Downs announced that it was completely done with live racing and would pursue real estate development opportunities for the valuable property after the track’s gaming partner, Mohegan Sun, was turned down for the single greater Boston area destination casino license. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission instead selected the proposal of Wynn Resorts to develop a $1.75-billion casino project, which will be located only two miles from Suffolk’s stable gate.

The leadership of the NEHBPA then stepped in with plans to lease the 80-year-old track, and a two-year agreement with Suffolk management was finalized earlier this year after favorable legislation was passed by state lawmakers. The bill allows Suffolk to continue to offer full-card simulcasts, with revenue being shared with the horsemen, through July 31, 2016.

The legislation also will allow a portion of the monies from simulcasting and live racing to be used by the horsemen to cover some of the operating and administrative costs of a meet.

Nevertheless, the total amount of money available would remain significantly short of what was required by Suffolk Downs’ owners to rent the racetrack and occupy the backside, pay all of the other necessary expenses to be incurred and at the same time allocate purses for a duration of greater than the three days.

There were other considerations as well, including code issues with the local fire department and several regulatory agencies. For example, the track kitchen burned down at the beginning of the 2014 meet and was never replaced, and then the brutally hard winter with record-breaking snowfall and cold took its toll on the already shabby stable area’s dormitories, barns and other structures.

“We initially attempted to lease the track for a meet of 50 days,” explained Lou Raffetto, consultant to the NEHBPA. “There were many discussions and negotiations held with Suffolk’s management, and a number of proposals were made over many months. It came down to that Suffolk would continue to operate every aspect of running the track and we would make a lease payment based on the number of days of live racing and how much of the barn area was to be used. At the point of the discussion for 50 days, the horsemen had no way of knowing all of the costs involved, and at the same time, we had no idea of the inventory of horses that would be available and, more importantly, would be ready to run. As time went on, it became painfully obvious that regardless of the costs, there would not be enough horses.”

After polling the New England horsemen who had scattered to other tracks all over the East Coast and then factoring in local horses wintering and training on area farms, it was evident that at best there would only be a maximum of about 400 horses available to fill the entries.

Moreover, the availability of tapping into the state’s new Race Horse Development Fund (RHDF), which is being fueled by a percentage of the licensing fees and profits from two future casinos and one slots parlor and then split 75/25 between the Thoroughbred and Standardbred industries, still would not have stemmed the river of red ink.

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“The amount of money that Suffolk Downs required from us to lease the track was far beyond the ability of the horsemen to pay for the four to six months between April and October that the backside has traditionally been open for stabling and training,” Raffetto said. “Although there is now a little over $5 million in the Race Horse Development Fund for use and that is enough to pay purses, it is nowhere near enough to also be able to lease Suffolk Downs.”

The abbreviated three-day meet in 2015 sets the stage for a stable future.

The purse account will have a chance to accrue, and the state’s two already licensed casinos will be closer to completion. The single slots parlor at the new $250 million Plainridge Park Casino, which will contribute 9 percent of the slots revenue to the RHDF, was slated for a June 24 ribbon cutting.

“Our plan is to escrow as much money as possible from the fund in 2015 and 2016 in order to guarantee live racing in the future,” Raffetto said. “We hope to run the truncated schedule in July, August and September to allow live Thoroughbred racing and breeding to remain relevant in Massachusetts and New England.”

Current plans call for 12 to 14 races on each of the three Saturday cards, with some reserved to showcase Massachusetts-breds and three designated for steeplechase horses.

With the daily purse distribution of $500,000, a first-level allowance race would pay $50,000, maiden special weight races would be run for $45,000 and bottom-level horses would compete for $25,000. All places would be paid back to fifth, and horses finishing from sixth back would receive an $800 runner’s bonus.

“We will write a wide variety of races from top to bottom over the three days, and certain races will be limited to horses that ran at Suffolk Downs in 2014,” Raffetto said. “All preference will be given to those Suffolk Downs horses, provided that they qualify for the conditions of the race. We are still finalizing plans but anticipate that over the three days there will be nine stakes races restricted to registered Massachusetts-breds with purses totaling at least $450,000.”

Though approval was still needed from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission at press time, there was reason for optimism and enthusiasm.

The horsemen were continuing with concrete plans to control their destiny by building a new state-of-the-art, environmentally safe Thoroughbred racetrack with a smaller grandstand and equestrian center, which they would own and operate elsewhere in the state.

Legislation that would allow bonds to be sold to finance the construction and the debt service to be funded with revenue in the Race Horse Development Fund is being introduced, and support is building with lawmakers.

“The hope for the future is to build a boutique-type equine center that would hold 4,000 to 5,000 people and be fan-friendly and family-friendly,” Raffetto said.

Spadea added, “We are working diligently with the best interest of the horsemen as our top priority. By running two short and economically viable meets this year and next, our vision can become reality. Then we control our destiny and won’t ever have this problem in the future.”

In related news, the New Hampshire House of Representatives resoundingly rejected a bill to authorize two casinos in the state on April 29 and thus crushed any hope of live Thoroughbred racing returning to Rockingham Park in the foreseeable future. Although the bill had passed the Senate earlier in the legislative session and had the backing of the governor, the casino bill or any other similar to it cannot be reintroduced in the House until the next biennium in 2017.

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OHIO HBPA Thistledown began its live racing season in late April with the highest daily purse structure in the more than 80-year history of the track with purses averaging nearly $150,000 per day.

The 100-day live meet will run through October 24 with racing being conducted on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday each week. The meet is highlighted by the $500,000 Ohio Derby to be run on Saturday, June 20, for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles. The 2015 Ohio Derby will be the richest Thoroughbred race ever conducted in Ohio.

Thistledown will also play host to this year’s Best of Ohio series, which will be run on Saturday, October 10, in 2015 and features five Ohio-bred stakes each carrying a purse of $150,000.

Belterra Park kicked off its live meet on May 1 featuring a new sevenfurlong turf course complete with a state-of-the-art moveable safety rail.

There will be a total of 11 stakes for Ohio-breds during Belterra’s 93-day live racing season with each carrying a $75,000 purse. Belterra’s live meet runs through October 11. Live racing will be conducted on a Thursday through Sunday schedule each week as well as a live card on Labor Day, September 7.

The inaugural live racing season at Mahoning Valley Race Course ended on April 25. In all, 82 full live programs were conducted during the opening season, which kicked off on November 24, 2014.

Despite very tough winter weather, only five live racing programs were lost during the first live racing season, less than half of the total cancellations of any other Thoroughbred track racing throughout the winter in the region. Four of those five programs were made up before the end of the meet.

Overall, the first season at Mahoning Valley was a success with average daily purses exceeding $78,000 and all-sources handle per day coming in at nearly $580,000. Field size averaged 7.38 starters per race at Mahoning Valley during the inaugural season with the adverse weather undoubtedly having a negative impact on this number.

Mahoning Valley Race Course’s second season of live racing will kick off on October 30.

THOROUGHBRED RACING ASSOCIATION OF OKLAHOMA (OKLAHOMA HBPA) TRAO AWARDS BANQUET REMINDER TRAO will hold its fourth annual champions awards banquet on July 31 at the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City. Look for more information to come at traoracing.com FAIR MEADOWS RACE DATES Following are the 2015 race dates for Fair Meadows in Tulsa.

June: 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28 July: 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26 OKC SUMMER SALE SET FOR AUGUST 16 The Carter Sales Co.’s OKC Summer Sale, which posted record-breaking figures last year, will be held this year on Sunday, August 16, at the Oklahoma City State Fairgrounds. The sale will include yearlings and horses of racing age.

Last year’s auction set records across the board with gross sales of nearly $500,000, an average of $8,863 and a sale topper of $67,000. That sale also debuted a $25,000 bonus incentive for sale grads running in the Clever Trevor Stakes at Remington Park.

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OKLAHOMA HALL OF FAME BREEDER/OWNER DON MCNEILL PASSES AWAY Don McNeill, the Edmond, Oklahoma-based commodities broker with a lifelong love for breeding and racing horses, passed away on March 21.

McNeill grew up on his family farm in Thomas, Oklahoma, and immersed himself in the business of breeding racehorses at a young age. Once parimutuel wagering became legal in Oklahoma in the early 1980s, McNeill was immediately involved in supporting the state’s newest sport.

When Remington Park opened in 1988, McNeill Stables was primed for victory in its home state. Under the guidance of trainer Donnie Von Hemel, McNeill runners won four races in the track’s first season. In the second season, the spring of 1989, one McNeill homebred would make history.

Bred in Oklahoma by McNeill, Clever Trevor, already a top local runner as a 2-year-old, became the first winner of the Oklahoma Derby, known originally as the Remington Park Derby. The triumph catapulted the Slewacide gelding and his connections into a successful tour of North America in 1989.

Clever Trevor, who was out of the Twice Bold mare Little Mary Beans, finished 13th behind Horse of the Year Sunday Silence in the Kentucky Derby but would rebound to win the St. Paul Derby at Canterbury Downs in Minnesota and the Arlington Classic in Chicago. In defeat, Clever Trevor may have run his best career race, leading the Travers Stakes at Saratoga before Belmont Stakes winner Easy Goer could run him down in the final strides. Clever Trevor earned more than $1 million before his 3-year-old campaign was over and retired in 1992 with nearly $1.4 million in earnings. He was the first horse to earn more than a million dollars for McNeill.

A few years after Clever Trevor, another Oklahoma product bred by McNeill emerged. Mr Ross, named after McNeill’s high school football coach in Thomas, would win stakes races both sprinting and going more than a mile. He won three consecutive Oklahoma Classics in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Taking his act on the road in 2001, Mr Ross nearly swept the Oaklawn Park graded handicap series by winning the Essex and the Razorback and then running second in the Oaklawn Handicap. After a career spanning six years, Mr Ross finished in 2003 with total earnings of $1,091,046. Almost half of the money was made at Remington Park, where Mr Ross won nine races from 15 starts before retiring to McNeill’s farm in Edmond.

Caleb’s Posse, a Kentucky-bred out of an Oklahoma-bred Slewacide mare, was McNeill’s most recent national talent. He campaigned the colt with Oklahoma businessman and friend Everett Dobson. After winning the 2010 Clever Trevor Stakes at Remington Park, Caleb’s Posse matured as a 3-year-old in 2011, winning the Grade 3 Ohio Derby at Thistledown and then scoring in both the Grade 2 Amsterdam and the Grade 1 King’s Bishop at Saratoga. He then ran away with the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs.

Caleb’s Posse moved to a stallion career in Kentucky, having amassed more than $1.4 million on the track.

McNeill’s steady plan for racing enjoyment produced three millionaires and countless exciting memories for his family as most of his runners were named after children or grandchildren.

McNeill joined some of his best horses in the Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame at Remington Park in 2012. He was the second leading owner in stakes wins at Remington Park with 17. McNeill’s horses were trained nearly exclusively

by Von Hemel for more than 30 years.

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Entries for the sale are due June 10. For more information, call (405) 6408567 or go to cartersalesco.com.

BREEDERS’ CUP CLASSIC WINNER CONCERN DIES IN OKLAHOMA Concern, the only Breeder’s Cup Classic (G1) winner to race and stand at stud in Oklahoma, died in late March at age 24.

The 1994 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner was laid to rest at Oklahoma Equine Hospital in Washington, Oklahoma. The Maryland-bred son of Broad Brush moved from Northview Stallion Station in his home state to Oklahoma in 2004, where he stood until being pensioned in 2011.

Concern brought national attention to the young Remington Park when he ran in the 1994 Great Western Stakes. He ran third that day behind Al Horton’s Oklahoma-bred Silver Goblin before winning the Arkansas Derby (G2) at Oaklawn Park and ultimately the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Going off as the fourth betting favorite in the Classic at Churchill Downs, Concern unleashed his familiar kick and went from last to first. Running six wide in the stretch, he caught Tabasco Cat in the final yards to win by a neck as Tom Durkin shouted, “And it’s Concern from out of the clouds!”

A lifetime winner of $3,079,350, Concern won more than any other horse to compete exclusively in North America in 1994 with a bankroll of more than $2.5 million that year. In 1994, Concern ran 14 times, with three wins, five seconds and six thirds. He was a runner-up for the 3-year-old Eclipse Award to Holy Bull (who was also named Horse of the Year).

“Concern was such a gentleman to be around,” said Dr. Joe Carter of Oklahoma Equine Hospital. “He wasn’t your typical stallion. He honestly had the presence of a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and many fans came just to see him.

He was born on Valentine’s Day in 1991, and he had the big heart to prove it.”

In addition to producing multiple stakes winners, Concern was also the sire of two-time Eclipse Award winning steeplechaser and millionaire Good Night Shirt.

OKLAHOMA-BRED WINS BATTLE OF THE X’S CHALLENGE The 2015 Battle of the X’s Trainer’s Challenge and All Breed Horse Show was held March 21-22 in Fort Worth, Texas, and ended with a winning performance by Oklahoma-bred Miss Zanjero. Hosted by Remember Me Rescue of Burleson, Texas, the event was the first phase of a Red River Shootout between Oklahoma and Texas and afforded the opportunity for off-track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs) to be paired with trainers from across the country to compete for $10,000 in prize money.

In the months leading up to the challenge, all competitors were spotlighted, and adoption applications were accepted for the right to bid on the contestants at the conclusion of the challenge. Proceeds benefited Remember Me Rescue, as well as Oklahoma-based Thoroughbred Athletes Inc. for its entry of Miss Zanjero, who was trained by Wendy Thompson of Piedmont, Oklahoma. This year’s challenge had eight horses and trainers competing for top honors.

Following the event, Miss Zanjero was offered at auction to approved adopters and was purchased by Lisa Hunt of Edmond, Oklahoma, who plans to continue the horse’s show career by participating in the Sport of Kings Challenge to be held June 19-21 at Remington Park. The Sport of Kings, part two of the Red River Shootout, is an annual event highlighting the Thoroughbred horse and benefitting Thoroughbred Athletes.

Miss Zanjero was discovered at an Oklahoma auction by a representative of Helping Hands Equine Assistance in late September 2014. The particular auction is known to attract buyers looking to purchase horses to ship to Mexico for slaughter.

Thoroughbred Athletes was contacted and arrangements were made for the purchase of Miss Zanjero and another filly. Helping Hands procured and delivered the horses to Thoroughbred Athletes to help find them new homes and new careers. After her evaluation, Thoroughbred Athletes selected Miss Zanjero to represent the organization in the challenge.

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OKLAHOMA THOROUGHBRED RETIREMENT PROGRAM HOSTS HELP A HORSE DAY The Oklahoma Thoroughbred Retirement Program (OTRP) participated in the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) National Help a Horse Day with a two-day event to compete for a chance to win up to $10,000 in grant prizes Oklahoma-bred Highland Ice shows off his artistic skills. to assist with its efforts to protect Thoroughbred racehorses off the racetrack.

To start the celebration, the OTRP hosted a meet and greet on April 25 at its satellite facility, C K Thoroughbreds, in Guthrie, Oklahoma. The community had the chance to meet many OTRP adoptable horses, pucker up for Murphy the donkey in the “Kiss My A$$” kissing booth and witness Highland Ice, a Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Famer and OTRP permanent retiree, display his artistic skills as a painter.

The festivities continued April 26 at Remington Park. The day featured “extreme racing” with camels, ostriches, pigs, zebras and miniature donkeys.

The Express Clydesdales made their first appearance in an exhibition match race with an old-fashioned flag start before the races. Highland Ice was also on hand to meet his fans. The now 22-year-old gelding was a fan favorite at the Oklahoma City track, where he won 15 times during his illustrious career.

This nationwide competition aims to help equine rescues and sanctuaries to raise awareness about the work they do year-round to care for at-risk horses in their communities that often have been abused or neglected.

“Taking part in this national event is another example of the work of the OTRP in continuing efforts to raise awareness for retired racehorses and their lives once they leave the racetrack,” OTRP publicist Dana Kirk said. “The ASPCA Help a Horse Day contest is a wonderful opportunity for our team to welcome the residents and businesses of central Oklahoma, as we help in seeking forever homes for at-risk horses in our community. These horses are majestic and affectionate animals.”

Dedicated to providing new opportunities for retired Thoroughbred racehorses, the OTRP is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization started in 2007 by a veteran group of Oklahoma horsemen concerned about the future of Oklahoma’s ex-racehorses. TRAO is among the many supporters of the OTRP. The OTRP cares for more than 50 horses at various satellite facilities across the state and is made up entirely of volunteers. There are no salaried employees, expenses for offices or overhead associated with staffing. All funds donated to the OTRP are used for the care of the horses.

For more information about the OTRP, please visit otrp.info.

HBPA OF ONTARIO SEASON TWO OF “TALKIN’ HORSES” BEGINS JUNE 13 The first episode of “Talkin’ Horses” season two is scheduled to air on Saturday, June 13, at 11:30 a.m. on CTV2 and 1 p.m. on CTV. 60

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“Talkin’ Horses” was created by executive producer Joe Tilley, who shares hosting duties with Jason Portuondo. Viewers can tune in to watch the “Talkin’ Horses” team showcase the province’s Thoroughbred racing industry and its many interesting personalities.

The show will be based out of Toronto’s Woodbine Racetrack, making frequent trips to the picturesque oval Fort Erie. They will be joined by returning reporters Jennifer Morrison, Elissa Blowe and Maddie-Jo Tilley.

“Talkin’ Horses” will air every Saturday on CTV2 at 11:30 a.m. and CTV at 1 p.m. Season two will begin Saturday, June 13, Plate Trial weekend, and will conclude Saturday, November 7, on Breeders’ Cup weekend.

For all things “Talkin Horses,” check out their new website at talkinhorses. com, and don’t forget to follow the “Talkin’ Horses” team on Twitter (@ TalkinHorsesTV), Instagram (@TalkinHorsesTV) and Facebook (Facebook/ TalkinHorses).

2015 BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTION It is an election year for the HBPA in Ontario. Licensed Ontario members are reminded that in order to cast a ballot in the election it is imperative that we have your current address information on file at the HBPA administrative office.

To verify that we have your contact information on file, please call (866) 7793067 or (416) 747-5252.

2015 RACE SEASON AT FORT ERIE KICKED OFF TUESDAY, JUNE 2 Opening day at Fort Erie took place on Tuesday, June 2. Post time was at 4:15 p.m. This kicked off the popular Twilight Tuesday race cards for June, July and August, which are followed by the free Summer Concert Series at the Tiki Bar Patio.

Post time for Sundays will be 1:50 p.m., and beginning September 1, Tuesday post time will shift to 1:50 p.m. Closing day is scheduled for Tuesday, October 20.

This year will mark the racetrack’s 118th season of live Thoroughbred racing, with the highlight being the 80th running of the Prince of Wales Stakes on Tuesday, July 28. The Prince of Wales is the second jewel in Canada’s Triple Crown as well as Canada’s richest race on dirt, with a purse of $500,000.

EVENTS IN 2015 Sunday, August 9: HBPA Day at the Races — Fort Erie Race Track Sunday, August 30: HBPA Day at the Races — Woodbine Race Track Saturday, September 26: Annual General Meeting at 10 a.m. — Munnings Room, Woodbine Race Track Saturday, September 26: Owners Appreciation Day at 12 p.m. — Trackside Tent at Woodbine Race Track (Please call to order tickets to Owner Appreciation Day. Limit of two—owner’s license required upon entry.)

Saturday, November 7: Backstretch Appreciation Day — Woodbine Race Track Tuesday, November 17: Christmas Party — Woodbine Backstretch REGISTRATION FOR 2015 GROOM SCHOOL COURSES NOW OPEN We are offering two 13-week skills improvement courses at Woodbine in 2015. The Thoroughbred Racing Business and Anatomy & Physiology of the Horse dates and times will be announced once classes are filled.

The cost to participate in each course is $100. For those interested in enrolling, please visit the Woodbine backstretch office for more information and to pick up an application form.

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APPLICATIONS DUE May 20 July 2 September 2

TEST DATE June 10 July 22 September 23

Applications are available at both HBPA track offices or online at hpba.on.ca.

Remember completed applications are due three weeks prior to the test date.

OREGON HBPA Our horsemen and horsewomen are getting ready for our summer fair circuit here in Oregon. It starts with the Eastern Oregon Livestock Show in Union on June 12, 13 and 14. Grants Pass Downs starts June 20 and runs through July 12. From there, they jump in their rigs and head over to the Crooked River Roundup in Prineville. Their dates are July 15, 16, 17 and 18; this is one my favorite places to run because it’s so much fun. In August, we all go to the coast for the Tillamook County Fair, which runs the 5th through the 8th. We finish over in Burns for the Harney County Fair on September 11, 12 and 13. Good luck to everyone. Yee haw!

There have been quite a few trainers who have started horses at Emerald Downs and some who ran over at Sun Downs Race Track.

Hope the summer brings good things to everyone.

PENNSYLVANIA HBPA PRESQUE ISLE DOWNS Spring has finally arrived on the shores of Lake Erie. A long hard winter has given way to sunshine and the enthusiasm that accompanies the change in seasons. A much awaited caravan of horse trailers and vans signals renewal.

Hope is in the air. You can smell the scent in the warm breezes. You can see it in the eyes of horsemen watching their respective steeds galloping and breezing in their morning drills. The horses too bear a quiet intensity, as if anticipating success. Many of them rested and freshened through the winter months feel their bloodlines spurring them on to speed and victory. It is a lovely time of year at Presque Isle Downs, perhaps the best of times.

Optimism fills the air. Opening day was May 17, and the meet will run through October 1. Live racing had been slated to start on May 11. The opening card was moved back a week in order to allow more time for horsemen shipping from Tampa Bay Downs and Keeneland to prepare their charges. It is hoped this will facilitate the filling of entries early in the meet better than last year.

Additional stalls will also be available for racehorses. A temporary barn has been set up to accommodate ponies. This will free up a considerable number of stalls. The 100-day meet will once again run a compendium of stakes, culminating in the Presque Isle Mile on September 6 and the prestigious Grade 2 Presque Isle Masters Stakes for fillies and mares on September 7.

2015 BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTIONS The Pennsylvania HBPA will be holding elections for the board of directors this fall. Please make sure your address on file with the horsemen’s bookkeeper at Penn National and Presque Isle Downs is accurate for the location where you

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ASSISTANT TRAINER AND TRAINER TESTING DATES FOR 2015 For all of those interested in taking the assistant trainer or trainer testing this year, please note all important dates.

want your election information and ballot to be delivered. The mailing list is generated from the InCompass system at both racetracks. In addition, if you are a valid member involved in a partnership and not the authorized agent for your partnership and wish to receive a ballot, please contact the Pennsylvania HBPA office at (717) 469-2970. Ballots will be mailed in October.

GROOMS QUARTERS GRAND OPENING The newly built grooms quarters were officially opened via a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 1. The project, a collaboration with Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, had a total expenditure of $800,000. The new building is dormitory style with central air and heat. Each of the 30 rooms has cable television and a window. Each tenant was given a new bed, furniture, new towels and linens.

The Pennsylvania HBPA is proud to have partnered with Penn National Gaming to enhance the living conditions for the many individuals who reside on the backside.

TAMPA BAY DOWNS HBPA The first leg of the 2014–2015 meet at Tampa Bay Downs concluded on May 3 with Jamie Ness capturing his ninth consecutive year as leading trainer.

Jockey Antonio Gallardo took home the leading rider title, and Brother Pat, trained by Ness, was leading horse, with five victories for the meet.

HBPA events this spring included: March 24 — The 13th annual horsemen’s barbecue, sponsored by the TBD HBPA. A super turnout and beautiful weather contributed to one of our most popular events of the meet. As always, Sonny’s Real Pit Barbecue came through with a feast to be remembered.

April 4 — Florida Cup Day, sponsored by the Florida Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, Tampa Bay Downs and the TBD HBPA, showcased Florida-breds in an exciting day of racing. Owners, trainers and their guests enjoyed a beautiful day of racing and fine dining.

May 2 — The Equestrian Inc. Horse Rescue of Tampa Western saddle drawing was held. Thanks to Bonnie and Walter Nazarenko for their generous donation of two beautiful vintage western saddles, which the TBD HBPA and Equestrian Inc. raffled off over the last few months to benefit Equestrian Inc. We were able to raise nearly $1,000. The lucky winners were trainers Derek Ryan and George Bush.

The TBD HBPA Board of Directors election, held on March 27, resulted in the following persons being elected to serve a three-year term: President — Robert Jeffries; Owner Directors — Jan Meehan, Vic Scodius, Sharyn Wasiluk, Robert White; Trainer Directors — Mike Dini, Gary Jackson, Anthony Pecoraro, Bernell Rhone, Joan Scott; Alternate Trainer Director — Kathy Guciardo.

Robert Jeffries, having served on the board since 1995, begins his 16th year as president. Other long-term directors include Sharyn Wasiluk, Bernell Rhone, Vic Scodius and alternate director Kathy Guciardo.

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rescue and retirement programs this year, the TBD HBPA became affiliated with the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, a national organization dedicated to providing funding for accredited Thoroughbred retirement facilities.

Locally, Equestrian, Inc. and Step Ahead Thoroughbred Retirement provided an invaluable service in placing several Thoroughbreds retired from racing at Tampa Bay Downs.

On a sadder note, we have lost several great horsemen this year. Trainers Connie Kendall, Jerry Noss and the legendary John Reading will be greatly missed but not forgotten. Our heartfelt condolences to their families and friends.

The two-day summer Festival of Racing will take place on June 30 and July 1.

VIRGINIA RACING HEADED IN A NEW DIRECTION The past year has been a hectic one for racing in Virginia. Colonial Downs, the state’s only venue for pari-mutuel wagering on live races, voluntarily surrendered its operator’s license. The track also gave up its right to run 10 off-track betting shops as well as Colonial’s license to run its ADW company, EZ Horseplay. Taken together, those actions ended racing at the track in New Kent, Virginia, for the immediate future.

Colonial’s moves were prompted by its dispute with the Virginia HBPA over race days. For the past 10 years, we raced in June and July, averaging 30 race days with purses of $200,000. In 2014, the track abruptly shifted gears. It proposed reducing racing to just six days, ostensibly to increase the “quality” of racing. In the horsemen’s view, the track’s motive had little to do with “quality” and everything to do with cutting expenses.

Even though the horsemen’s purse account, controlled by the VHBPA, had sufficient funds to conduct our usual June/July racing program, the track continued to insist on a radical reduction of racing. That created an impasse, which resulted in a failure by the parties to reach agreement on a horsemen’s contract.

In response, the VHBPA, along with our state breeder’s organization, our Standardbred horsemen’s association and our principal steeplechase racing group, set up a nonprofit corporation—the Virginia Equine Alliance—to re-establish racing in Virginia. The Alliance’s first step, with the help of our state legislature, was amending Virginia’s Racing Act to fund the Alliance so it has resources to develop and support racing sites in addition to Colonial Downs. Under the amendments, source market fees from TVG, XpressBet and TwinSpires that used to go to Colonial now are paid to the Alliance. In addition, the amendments also permit the Alliance to own and operate off-track betting shops, a right previously limited to Colonial Downs.

The Alliance is now looking at turf racing sites in Virginia similar to Kentucky Downs, with the hope of having some racing in 2015. We also had discussions with Colonial Downs about leasing the track to the Alliance, but racing this year at Colonial is not likely.

We expect the process of creating a new racing model for Virginia will take some time. But with the support of our horsemen and breeders, as well as the state legislature, we think it will be successful.

Mary Ann O’Connell

VIRGINIA HBPA

ANNUAL CINCO DE MAYO FIESTA The 13th annual WHBPA Cinco de Mayo Celebration was held at Emerald Downs on May 5 and began with a stunning fashion show depicting native dress from various Mexican regions.

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by Emerald Downs’ Celeste A fashion show depicted the native dress from many regions Brady, the of Mexico. show featured costumes from her personal collection. The models all had ties to the racetrack stable area. An accounting of the number of cell phone cameras raised and the enthusiastic applause during the event was a clear indicator that the fashion show was well received.

The models were not the only ones well dressed at the WHBPA’s signature annual event. A plethora of party dresses, well-pressed shirts, cowboy boots and hats made for a colorful and attractive dance floor, and the good food, balloons and upbeat songs made for a fun and festive party.

Music was provided by WHBPA’s Lanna Allen with groom Mike “Spanky” LeClair Tony and Edwin Ruiz’s Disco Movil, who with the encouragement of the audience played until the final bell. As always, the Emerald Downs chefs and staff did an excellent job at feeding and accommodating the crowd.

Thank you to Emerald Downs and all of the volunteers who helped contribute to the success of the evening. Special thanks to WHBPA’s Lanna Allen and her volunteers: Celeste Brady, Marshall Allen, Luis and Luisa Romo, Paco Gonzalez, “Chuy” Gonzalez, Luz Barragan and the Quarter Chute Cafe.

Models were Monica Sanchez, Denise and Herendida Alvarado, Beatriz Jasso, Faby Trujillo, Elena Espinoza, Marissa Peirce, Kimberly Hoerner, Bianca Carbojal, Sam Carbojal and Ele and Laura Alcaraz.

All profits from the Cinco de Mayo party will benefit the Backstretch Chapel and Backstretch ClubHouse, as well as longtime groom Mike “Spanky” LeClair to help with medical issues.

BATTLE OF HORSE NATIONS ADDS TO AN EXCITING NEW ERA AT EMERALD DOWNS The Muckleshoot purchase of Emerald Downs, added horsemen incentives and purse money have stirred a renewed enthusiasm for horse racing in Washington state. New trainers, more horses, higher handle and new promotions have resulted in more excitement in the grandstand, too.

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NEWS

WHBPA ELECTION NEWS On May 8, the WHBPA 2015 Board of Directors election process got underway when the Election and Nominating committees were appointed by President Ron Maus. The board is made up of five owner directors, five trainer directors and a president.

Thank you to Linda Newman, Lanna Allen and Celeste Brady for volunteering to serve on the election committee and to Chris Stenslie, Howard Belvoir, Bob Cappelletti and Darrin Paul, who agreed to serve on the nominating committee.

Qualifying members wishing to run for the board of directors or president should contact the WHBPA staff or a member of the nominating committee prior to the nominating meeting, which is scheduled for July 8 in the WTBOA pavilion.

At that meeting, nominees will be announced and additional nominations may be taken from the floor. The election committee is responsible for counting the ballots after the election closes on October 6.

You are a member of the Washington HBPA if you were/are a licensed owner or trainer at Emerald Downs in 2014 or 2015. To ensure that you receive your election materials, it is imperative that the WHBPA/WHRC has your correct address, so if necessary please make any corrections to your contact information as soon as possible. Customarily, the WHBPA sends out approximately 1,100 voter packets, but only a fraction of the members participate. If you do not wish to receive election materials, the WHBPA must receive notice in writing (email, fax, USPS) prior to mailing the election packet in late August. Members should expect to receive their ballots by September 7.

AFFILIATE

At a meeting with horsemen in April, Phil Ziegler, president of Emerald Downs, announced that the new management will focus on providing more entertainment and a better fan experience at Emerald Downs. In late July, a new jumbo screen will be unveiled, enhancing the Emerald Downs fan experience further.

The 2015 Indian Relay Race Season began June 12 at Emerald Downs, with 15 of the world’s best teams traveling to Washington to honor the Muckleshoot Tribe and their important acquisition of the racetrack.

“This is a historic moment for the Indian Horse Nations,” said Calvin Ghost Bear of the Oglala Lakota Nation and owner of the world champion Lakota Warpath team. “It is very important that our people and our children do not lose the important place the horse has in our history and our culture; we come to honor them and our ancestors.”

Indian Relay Racing is America’s first extreme sport as well as the nation’s oldest sport, 500 years old by many accounts. Teams dressed in traditional regalia ride Thoroughbred racehorses around the mile racetrack, exchanging horses every half-mile. Warriors leap from one galloping horse to another, creating organized mayhem. Fans are screaming, and dirt is flying everywhere from the powerful and traditionally painted warhorses.

The top three teams from each of the main horse nations have been invited

by Emerald Downs, the Muckleshoot Tribe and the Professional Indian Horse Racing Association (PIHRA) to compete in this historic event.

“This may be the best Indian Relay races ever run,” commented Gary Fellers, one of the PIHRA directors. “These are 15 of the top teams in the world, and they have never really run as an elite group against each other before. This is historic. The Emerald Downs fans are in for a real treat.”

Food and Brew Festivals, the Fireworks Spectacular on July 3, the Longacres Mile on August 16, and the Bank of America EMD Quarter Horse Championship Challenge on September 6 are highlights on the long list of fan-centered entertainment for the 2015 season.

If you have any questions regarding the election, please contact the office at (253) 804-6822 or by emailing contactus@whbpa.com.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR WHBPA BOARD MEMBER AND PRESIDENT NOMINEES To be eligible for Washington HBPA Owner or Trainer Director, an individual must meet the following requirements: a. Is an Association member in good standing on the date of nomination and has been during each of the two (2) calendar years immediately preceding the nomination date; b. Started a horse, or the fractional equivalents of one horse, at a track in Washington with which the Association has a current contract a minimum of five (5) times in each of the two years immediately preceding the date of his or her nomination; c. If running as an owner candidate, has raced as an owner-only at a track in Washington with which the Association has a current contract during each of the two (2) calendar years immediately preceding the date of his or her nomination; and d. If running as a trainer or owner-trainer, has raced as a trainer or ownertrainer at a track in Washington with which the Association has a current contract during each of the two (2) calendar years immediately preceding the date of his or her nomination.

To be eligible for Washington HBPA President an individual must meet the following requirements: • Is an Association member in good standing on the date of nomination and has been during each of the three (3) calendar years immediately preceding the date of his or her nomination; • Is licensed as an owner or owner-trainer in Washington on the date of nomination and has been so licensed in Washington during each of the three (3) calendar years immediately preceding the date of his or her nomination.

• Has owned horses in Washington at tracks with which the Association has a current contract during each of the three (3) calendar years immediately preceding the date of his or her nomination; and • Has started a horse, or the fractional equivalent of one horse, a minimum of five (5) times in Washington at a track with which the Association has a current contract and each of the three (3) calendar years immediately preceding the date of his or her nomination; and • Has no conflict of interest as defined in Article IV, Section 5; and • Has served at least one (1) calendar year as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Association. For purposes of the requirements of Section 7(F), “one calendar year” means the 365 days immediately preceding the date of the nomination.

MORE REASONS TO RACE AT EMERALD DOWNS: SHIP AND RUN INCENTIVE A guaranteed $400 bonus will be paid to any Thoroughbred horse in its initial Emerald Downs race (stakes race included) whose most recent start was made outside the state of Washington and that has not previously started at Emerald Downs.

Horses must have started for a claiming price of $3,000 or more in all of their previous three starts.

Emerald Downs Racing LLC reserves the right to determine eligibility for qualified starters. Please direct any questions about the program to the Emerald Downs race office.

WWW.NATIONALHBPA.COM

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