Hangin' With Haskin : nyra

No Banjo on Rachel's Knee

cdawahare — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:10:00 GMT

Jess Jackson has made his first decision: No Alabama for Rachel Alexandra. So what, you might say. That wasn't the place to run her anyway. Well, I believe that's just where she should have run.

Yes, I know that race would have proven little, and that she has transcended 3-year-old filly competition (using the word competition very loosely). But where does it say she has to prove herself every race?

My colleague Ed Fountaine of the New York Post wrote a column last week stating all the reasons why the Alabama would be the right race for Rachel. Although, most people would disagree with him, I am in total agreement.

So, the Alabama will not do anything to boost Rachel Alexandra's claim as Horse of the Year. If there is one horse who does not need to boost that claim it is Rachel. The Alabama is one of the most prestigious races in the country and offers a purse of $600,000. And some talented fillies were entered. What's wrong with showcasing Rachel in front of a packed house at Saratoga and let the fans simply enjoy her presence and watch her put on another show? Imagine the cheers as she glides down the Saratoga stretch in all her splendor. This one would have been for the fans. The race would not have taken too much out of her and would have set her up to take on older males in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, which would indeed cap off an amazing Horse of the Year campaign - Fair Grounds Oaks, Fantasy Stakes, Kentucky Oaks, Preakness, Mother Goose, Haskell Invitational, Alabama, Jockey Club Gold Cup. No horse has ever had a campaign such as that. And the Alabama would have given her a 1 1/4-mile race under her belt and prevented her from having to go that far for the first time against older males, assuming the Travers and Personal Ensign are not on her agenda.

Let's look at the options with which Jackson has left himself. The Woodward, regardless of how inferior you might think the older horses are this year - and it's far from a stellar group - they still are older horses, and a 3-year-old filly facing older males in early September is not an easy task, even for a horse as special as Rachel. And then she'd have to come back and do it again in the Gold Cup, going 10 panels for the first time. She doesn't need to beat basically the same older males twice. Once is quite sufficient. And as mentioned before, the Alabama would have set her up perfectly for the Gold Cup, giving her the necessary bottom. Also, the Labor Day weekend is not the best time to show off a star like Rachel, especially with it being so late this year. Most people are already home and getting ready to return to work or school.

Jackson won the Woodward last year with Curlin, but the buzz just wasn't there, nor were the numbers, despite an extensive marketing campaign by NYRA. And then Curlin winds up struggling to beat a horse he should have beaten by 10 lengths. This is Saratoga. Nothing is a certainty here.

Regarding the other alternatives, Jackson already has Kensei looking to boost his reputation as a stallion in the Travers, so it would make no sense to run Rachel there, unless he's willing to pass up that opportunity with Kensei and run him in the grade II Pennsylvania Derby, with its $1-million purse. Asmussen already has Soul Warrior set for Philly Park.

Running in the Travers would pit Rachel against Quality Road, who has to make a huge stretch-out from 6 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/4 miles. Although that is a daunting task, remember that Quality Road has the same running style as Rachel and would be hounding her the whole way. On top of that, physically, he's a beast. Although a gentle giant in his stall, Quality Road is a ton of horse with shoulders like The Incredible Hulk. He's extremely athletic for such a big horse, he's every bit as fast and brilliant as Rachel, and while we can't say for sure if he's ready to win the Travers, he definitely will be an imposing presence for a filly who is used to being an imposing presence herself and who has never looked a horse like Quality Road in the eye before. No disrespect to Mine That Bird and Summer Bird, who are both exceptional horses, but if f there is a superstar among the 3-year-old colts it is Quality Road.

The Personal Ensign is run this year the day after the Travers, making it anticlimactic, and many people will be heading home by then. Also, that is usually a strangely run race and always produces slow times and for the most part unusual results. Ashado was beaten by longshot Shadow Cast at 2-5. Wild Spirit was beaten by longshot Passing Shot at 1-5. Unbridled Belle was beaten by longshot Miss Shop at 8-5. Azeri was beaten at 3-5. Escena was beaten at 4-5. Beautiful Pleasure was beaten at 2-1. The race is rarely run in under 2:03 and change. In short, this is a dangerous race, which has been a killer on favorites. It's best not to fool around here.

So, that brings the question of which of these races to choose. They all have their gremlins. It could very well be that Rachel is special enough to overcome them, but it wouldn't be wise to go into any of them feeling cocky.

Of course, there is the big NYRA Beldame blitz, complete with unknown sponsor and elimination of the detention barn, to keep in mind, but that's not until Oct. 3, so Rachel would need a race anyway, and that match-up coming to fruition is still a longshot.

What's important is now. By turning in a sharp five-furlong work on Monday, Rachel appears ready to run, and we all know anything can happen between now and the Travers or the Personal Ensign or the Woodward. As the old-time trainers used to say, if they're ready to run, you run them. The Alabama was the perfect spot for her, but to resort to a cliché, that ship has sailed.

Let's Look at the Bright Side of Mullins Incident

Blood-Horse Staff — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:25:00 GMT

There have been numerous comments in the media this week vilifying Jeff Mullins, and how the detention barn incident caused a black eye for racing right before the sport’s biggest day.

If this indeed was a case of Mullins simply making a foolish mistake, and that is currently under investigation, there is no denying he should have been aware of the rules that a horse cannot be administered anything in the detention barn other than Lasix. Nothing means just that and there is no other interpretation possible. They don’t call it a monitoring barn for nothing. Mullins claims he made an honest mistake, which may very well be the case. But that is up to others to decide.

Clearly, Mullins was not attempting to get away with anything nefarious, or else he wouldn’t have given Gato Go Win Air Power right in front of two NYRA security officers who were not only watching him do it, but supposedly allowing him to do it, according to Mullins. The typical punishment for this infraction is a fine and the scratching of the horse.

Instead of looking at this incident solely as a black eye for racing, shouldn’t we also put a positive spin on it and say the detention barn system on this occasion worked? Shouldn’t we be telling racing fans and mainstream America: “See, if horses and their handlers are being scrutinized this closely before a race and horses are being scratched because of even minor infractions, doesn’t that show that racing, at least in New York, is doing a good job policing itself before the races? And the rules are the same in California.

Yes, mistakes likely were made beforehand if indeed Air Power was seen being brought into the detention barn and ignored, or if Mullins’ bucket was not searched. But that also is under investigation, and until it is determined what exactly transpired it is pointless to comment on it.

I was at the detention when I Want Revenge arrived at approximately 10:45, which was a slightly early for the ninth race. Gato Go Win, who was in the seventh race, just barely made it in on time for his race. Mullins was right behind I Want Revenge, carrying a bucket filled with all kinds of paraphernalia that one would take into the detention barn. I certainly had no reason to look closely at its contents or notice to what extent it was observed. All I saw and heard was Mullins reporting in, telling the security guard at the entrance gate his last name and which race he was in. The guard checked his sheet and said: “You’re in the back barn, stall 20.” Mullins entered the barn and came out about 10 minutes later and got in his car and drove off.

The procedure is for the person accompanying the horse to log in and give the security officer in the booth his NYRA ID badge number, after which the arrival time is logged in. Once that is completed, another officer is supposed to check everything that is being brought in. Whether that was done, I have no idea (heck, if had known what was going to happen I surely would observed it more carefully, but I was already heading back to my car to warm up). Again, that is being looked into.

But this commentary is not about Mullins’ actions and what he was thinking, and not about whether proper procedures were followed upon his arrival. It is about the steps taken by NYRA following the infraction in the detention barn, which conceptually has been criticized in the past by several trainers.

With so much negativity surrounding racing in the past year, let’s at least attempt to look beyond the act of one person and find the positive factor regarding the sport as a whole. As I said, this was a case where the system worked, and that should not be overlooked. Every little bit helps.

View From the Verrazano

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:10:00 GMT

On Sunday, I leave for Lexington, Ky. to shoot our next “And They’re Off” video and attend the Keeneland fall yearling sale. The last time I traveled to Lexington in September was in 2001 to attend “John Henry Day” at the Kentucky Horse Park and to do a book signing with Ron McAnally. My “Legends” series book on John Henry had been released that summer. Flying back the following day, as we approached Newark Airport, we flew right past the World Trade Center and I commented to my wife and daughter how beautiful the Twin Towers looked shimmering in the evening sun. Two days later, they were gone.

As the years distance themselves from events, it reaches a point where it is more meaningful to recall thoughts and feelings as they actually happened rather than write a retrospective of the event years later.

As we approach the seventh anniversary of 9/11, I thought, rather than rehash how one of the most cataclysmic events in American history affected the racing world, I would reprint a story I wrote of my visit to Belmont Park four days later on Sept. 15 in order to recapture the atmosphere and the emotions that prevailed at the time, as well my own observations and feelings.

View From the Verrazano

Driving over the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn on the morning of Sept. 15, it was apparent why the New York Racing Association decided at the last minute to cancel racing until Sept. 19. Any thoughts of Belmont Park or Thoroughbred racing were obliterated by the sight of the seemingly naked skyline of Lower Manhattan off to the left and the deathly shroud that still hung over it.

The Statue of Liberty, once nestled under the shadow of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, now stood under an ominous ashen cloud that stretched across New York Harbor all the way to New Jersey.

After the initial shock of seeing nothing where the Twin Towers used to stand, one had to marvel at how the mighty city could have both its arms ripped out and still retain its ability to embrace.

Throughout New York, millions of hands linked to form an unbreakable chain. And beneath that gaping space where the World Trade Center once filled the sky, many of those hands scraped and clawed through tons of steel, oblivious to the crippled structures standing precariously above them.

With pride and sadness competing for dominance in the mind and heart, there was little room left for celebrations other than the discovery of life among the ruins. So, New York Racing Association officials decided at 10 a.m. Friday that the cheers and the trophies could wait.
Thoroughbred racing, like most everything now, is a mere speck against the cataclysmic events of Sept. 11, and New Yorkers were not quite ready for any diversions to take their mind off the horrific wounds that they, and all Americans, had suffered.

But life did go on at Belmont Saturday morning, as horses and horsemen went about their daily chores. Unlike other athletes across the country, Thoroughbreds have been oblivious to the darkest day in American history. There were no billowing black clouds of smoke or haunting images to obscure their view. They still saw the same wide open spaces before them and felt the same crisp breezes blowing in their face. And on Wednesday, when Belmont reopens, just maybe, for a few hours, they will be able to help people see and feel something beautiful again after a week of unspeakable anguish.

“We understand we need to get back to normal, but unlike the other tracks that are racing, we're just so close to it,” NYRA president Terry Meyocks said. “There's so much tension around here, we felt it wasn't in the best interest of New York to conduct racing so quickly. We were going to race, but then baseball, football, golf, and NASCAR all canceled, and Friday was proclaimed a day of mourning. We’ve developed a good rapport with the communities over the years, and we realized that there's a lot more to life than racing this weekend. It just wasn’t the right thing to do. The employees and the horsemen are still pretty somber, and this will give them another weekend to be with friends and family.”

All around Belmont were sights and sounds that continued to pummel Tuesday’s disaster into our psyche. On the Belt Parkway, just outside the gates of Aqueduct, a funeral procession headed east, escorted by two police cars and a fire engine, strongly suggesting it was for one of the deceased firefighters. On the Staten Island Expressway, another police car escorted a dump truck, filled with debris from the World Trade Center, to the Great Kills dump.

At the Belmont stable gate, a sign was tucked into the window of the booth, showing the American flag, with the words “Pray For America.”

Media pins no longer wielded the same authority as before. “I can get that in a box of Cracker Jacks,” the security guard said. “Let me see the ID number on the back.” The guard, who wished to remain anonymous, later said, “You can imagine what it’s been like around here. It’s pretty morbid. But everyone has been showing solidarity. Everyone is proud to be an American. A lot of people were very upset when they originally announced they were going to race.”

Tony Pittelli, a security guard directing traffic inside the backstretch, was happy to see planes flying overhead once again. “The mood hasn’t been too good,” he said. “One of my sons lost his sister-in-law, and one of the riders here lost his son-in-law. His daughter and son-in-law had been married for two years and have a one-year-old baby. Unbelievable. It’s just terrible.”

Buzz Tenney, assistant to Shug McGaughey, can’t believe how quiet the backstretch has been. “It feels like it does when a meet is over and you’re just hanging around waiting to move to the next track,” he said. “We're all going through our work, but there’s been only one topic of conversation.”

As Tenney spoke, Tiznow, who has been stabled in their barn, walked down the shed with Ramon Arciga aboard. Last year’s Horse of the Year has been unable to return home to California following his third-place finish in the Sept. 8 Woodward Stakes. “We're stuck here,” Arciga said. “We were supposed to have left Wednesday, then again on Friday. Now they say Tuesday, but we're not sure when we'll be leaving.”

One barn that has been affected in a much different way is the Godolphin stable of Sheikh Mohammed. The Godolphin grooms are all Pakistanis, and they have been told by assistant trainer Laurent Barbarin to keep a low profile. “It’s a very difficult situation,” Barbarin said. “I spoke to them and told them to stay quiet. It's safer for everybody. But we’re all holding up very well.”

Another trainer, Bobby Frankel, was scheduled to return to California on Monday, following You’s appearance in Sunday’s Matron Stakes.
“It’s tough getting a commercial flight, so I’ll stay through the week and leave after I run Squirtle Squirt in the Vosburgh Saturday,” he said. Frankel ran into racing secretary Mike Lakow, who was driving out of the stable area, and said about canceling the races, “You definitely did the right thing.”

Neil Howard, who had entered Secret Status in Saturday’s Ruffian Handicap, was also forced to remain in New York. He had originally been scheduled to fly out of LaGuardia to Louisville on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. “I'll just stay here for a while and point Secret Status for the Beldame. Even if we had won the Ruffian, how can you go in the winner’s circle and act happy?”

One person who has been doing everything he can to offer assistance is veterinarian Russell Cohen, who purchased two dozen work gloves from True Value and several cases of soda, then brought them to the fire house on 48th Street and Seventh Avenue, which had lost 14 firefighters – one third of its entire crew. He also brought other goods to a police precinct in the Bronx. From 48th Street, he walked down to Canal Street, offering his services in case the police needed any assistance with their horses.

"There’s nothing much we can do, but every little bit helps,” Cohen said. “I’ve done work for the ASPCA before, and was on the Animal Planet (network) once, so a lot of the people know me. I just found out that one horse owner, a member of a syndicate, was killed at the World Trade Center. And there’s probably more that we don't know about.”

So, Belmont Park sits back and quietly waits for the country to return to some sense of normalcy. Because of the timing factor, four of the five stakes scheduled this weekend have been canceled, while the Jerome Handicap will be run next Saturday.

Returning back over the Verrazano, smoke from newly ignited fires continued to rise from the ashes of Lower Manhattan, adding to the hell-like conditions. But beneath the smoke, the Statue of Liberty could be seen, now sparkling like an emerald in the late morning sun, reminding us that there is still a great, powerful city out there waiting to get on with its life.