What's Going On Here : dan liebman

Derby Devil - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:40:00 GMT

(Originally published in the May 1, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

If you toss a coin 24 times, and it lands on heads each time, what are the odds it will come up heads on the 25th try?

Since odds are based on the probability that something will occur, or is more likely to occur than something else, on the 25th try—in fact on every try—the odds are 50-50.

Horse racing also has odds, but the pari-mutuel system is different from simply tossing a coin, where it either lands on heads or tails.

Trainer Todd Pletcher has started 24 horses in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I), which many point to as a dismal record in the country’s most famous race for a person likely headed someday to the Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Truth is Pletcher has never sent out the Derby favorite and 13 of his runners have gone postward at odds of 24-1 or higher. And to his credit he does have two seconds (Invisible Ink, 2001; Bluegrass Cat, 2006), a third (Impeachment, 2000), and two fourths (More Than Ready, 2000; Limehouse, 2004).

Obviously, Pletcher appeared to have his best chance this year, with a horse that would have been favored—Eskendereya. But the son of Giant’s Causeway was declared from the race April 25 after filling was discovered in his left front leg. Pletcher will still be represented by several other starters, including the filly Devil May Care.

As this was written, Pletcher also planned to saddle Derby starers Mission Impazible (winner of the Louisiana Derby, gr. II), Super Saver (2nd Arkansas Derby, gr. I), Discreetly Mine (Risen Star Stakes, gr. II), and possibly Interactif (second San Felipe Stakes, gr. II).

The comments about Pletcher’s Derby record remind this writer of a time when another hot topic was how trainer Bobby Frankel was 0 for 35 in Breeders’ Cup races prior to 2001. That year he broke through with Squirtle Squirt in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (gr. I).

From 2002 to 2009, Frankel, a Hall of Famer who died last November at age 68, ran 41 horses in Breeders’ Cup races, among them five winners: Starine (’02 Filly & Mare Turf, gr. I); Ghostzapper (’04 Classic, gr. I); Intercontinental (’05 Filly & Mare Turf, gr. I); Ginger Punch (’07 Ladies’ Classic, gr. I); and Ventura (’08 Filly & Mare Sprint).

I believe Pletcher’s drought will end with a Devil May Care victory. She has the breeding to run long (Malibu Moon—Kelli’s Ransom, by Red Ransom), has the right style and temperament, and her works since she won the March 20 Bonnie Miss Stakes (gr. II) have been outstanding, including her last move, five furlongs in 1:00 1/5 at Churchill Downs April 24.

Devil May Care, owned by John Greathouse of Glencrest Farm near Midway, Ky., broke her maiden at first asking last August at Saratoga and then won the Frizette Stakes (gr. I) at Belmont Park. In her final race at 2, she ran poorly in the Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) after having traffic problems and obviously not relishing the synthetic surface. In her first start at 3, she acted up in the gate and ran fifth in the Silverbulletday Stakes (gr. III) before easily taking the nine-furlong Bonnie Miss.

Greathouse and Pletcher had been discussing the possibility of running Devil May Care in the Derby since January, so this certainly is no snap decision.

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who won his first Derby with a filly (Winning Colors), has always said it is not about running a filly in the Derby, it is about running the right kind of filly in the Derby. Devil May Care is the right kind of filly.
Had Hal Wiggins made the same decision last year, perhaps Rachel Alexandra would have won the Derby instead of the Kentucky Oaks (gr. I).

Make it Devil May Care over Sidney’s Candy for the Derby exacta.

'Gail Force' By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:29:00 GMT

(Originally published in the April 24, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Gail Hughes called recently and wanted to stop by and chat, an invitation readily accepted. I have learned many things over the past 25-plus years covering the Thoroughbred industry, and one thing that has served me well is always making time to listen when the wise among us are speaking.

This is not to imply there are not talented, bright young people involved in the Thoroughbred industry. It is to state this writer believes each generation would do well to listen intently to those who have experienced more and are freely willing to share their wisdom gleaned from those experiences.

Though a Tennessee native, Gail is a Kentuckian at heart. He spent his summers in the state as a youth and transfered from William & Mary to the University of Kentucky after being discharged from the Army, where, naturally, he served in the cavalry. His love of horses brought him to Kentucky, but at UK he found the love of his life as well, a young New Yorker seated in front of him in class. In June he and Ruth will celebrate wedding anniversary number 58.

Arriving at The Blood-Horse a few weeks ago, Gail was accompanied by Ruth, who looked as if she could still exercise young horses at Forest Retreat Farm, which she did for decades while Gail managed the Asbury family’s Thoroughbred nursery outside Paris near Carlisle, Ky.

Besides the opportunity to reminisce and chat about his days at Forest Retreat and prior to that at Greentree Stud, Gail’s reason for visiting was to bestow upon me a priceless photo, taken last summer on the occasion of Ruth’s 80th birthday. Standing with Gail in the photo are Henry White, Johnny Griggs, and Bob Courtney.

Among Kentucky hardboots the foursome represents a superfecta of horse knowledge, each having toiled—and I do mean toiled—in the industry for four, five, six decades.

At Greentree, Gail was around such horses as Shut Out, Capot, Bimelech, Tom Fool, and of course, La Troienne, the greatest mare of recent memory, whom Gail held when she was euthanized.

He nurtured Forest Retreat into a solid breeding ground of success, standing Naskra, among others, and proudly having bred and sold the winners of both the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby.

Gail is a former Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers Club farm manager of the year, as are White and Courtney. Longtime friend Griggs is not, only because as a vet and farm owner he is more associated with those roles than as a farm manager.

Favorite hour of the year so far in 2010: the hour spent with Gail and Ruth Hughes.

Ted Bears Down
Speaking of someone with an incredible wealth of knowledge, those attending the annual Racing Commissioners International convention last week in Lexington were treated to such a person as their keynote speaker on the opening day of the gathering.

Ted Bassett has experienced much in his roles as the former president of Keeneland and Breeders’ Cup, not to mention the way his strong character was shaped by his years studying at Yale, his distinguished service in the Marines, and his stint as Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police.

So it is noteworthy that Bassett used such stern language when addressing the country’s regulators. Regarding the manner in which the industry has been led for the past 40 years, Bassett said: “If you graded us, you’d have to give us a resounding ‘F.’ ” He also called the state of the industry “dismal.”

Bassett pushed those in attendance to make a National Racing Compact a reality without delay. The compact would make it easier for states to adopt similar regulations and bring uniformity to racing without federal intervention.
“Where is the hope? The racetracks can’t do it; The Jockey Club can’t do it; the (Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association) can’t do it. The one hope, I’m saying to you, is the people charged with implementing the rules and regulations,” Bassett said. “No longer can we have the status quo (in horse racing).”

When the wise among us speak, we should listen.

State Bread - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:04:00 GMT

(Originally published in the April 10, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

There are two races in the condition book for Monmouth Park’s opening day, May 22, for maiden special weights, 3-year-olds and up. One is open company; the other restricted to horses bred in New Jersey. The purses are the same: $75,000. A race for state-bred non-winners of a race other than carries an $80,000 purse.

Much has been written about Monmouth’s gutsy move to offer $1 million a day during the upcoming meet that runs through Labor Day (Sept. 6). In particular, it is a boon for owners of New Jersey-breds, a big pie to be divided among not that many participants. There were 286 Thoroughbreds bred in New Jersey in 2008; 395 in 2007; 329 in 2006.

A former editor of this publication wrote many times about the proliferation and growth of state incentive funds. It was Kent Hollingsworth’s belief that these restrictive programs did nothing but promote mediocrity.

In a December 1980 column on the subject, Hollingsworth wrote: “…If the breeding stock in a state is upgraded, the state breeding industry can be improved. The thought here has always been, however, that to exclude a nice filly from a race she could win, solely because she was foaled out of state, will not improve Thoroughbred breeding anywhere; that to provide purse money to a lesser horse by excluding a possibly better horse from the race, solely along state lines, is contrary to the very essence of horse racing.”

That essence is that the best horse should win the best race and earn the most money. Not only money, but since the early 1970s, black-type and graded status. Only about 2.5% of foals go on to win a graded stakes, which signifies excellence in the Thoroughbred and has always been an important factor in assessing racing class in both stallions and broodmares.

Most tracks have had purse structures that reward the best horses, but in Monmouth’s case, the winner of an open race and the winner of a restricted race receive the same amount.

Indiana is currently debating the objective of its program and whether more money should be awarded to state-bred horses that win in open company, something that is done in some other jurisdictions.

The Indiana Horse Racing Commission supports increased rewards for Indiana-breds that win in open company; members of the Indiana Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association do not, arguing more money for state-bred races encourages more breeding in the state.

Information supplied by Equibase shows that 29 states in 2009 offered a percentage of purses for state-bred races, the notable exception being Kentucky. If the goal of state-bred programs has been to encourage more breeding within state borders, it has been an unequivocal success. If the goal has been to upgrade breeding stock within those states, then the debate rages on.

Indiana is certainly one of those states that pays a sizeable amount of its purse money to state-bred horses; of its $20.8 million in purses last year, $9.9 million, or 47.6%, was available for state-breds. Only one state had a larger percentage for state-breds, that being New Mexico, with almost $16.5 million of $31.4 million, or 52.5% available for horses bred there. Ranking third in that category was another state with slots that have enriched its state-bred program, Louisiana, which offered 41% of its purse money, $36.7 million of $89.5 million, to state-breds.

California has the largest purse structure in the country, by far, at $174.4 million. Of that amount, 6.8%, about $11.8 million, is for state-breds.

In addition to Kentucky, five states offered stakes purses of more than $10 million in 2009. Of those five, New York offers the highest percentage to state-breds, $6.3 million of $43.7 million, or 14.6%.

State breeding programs are big business, adding money to purses and in many cases paying breeder, stallion, and broodmare awards. But despite that, Hollingsworth probably had it right, that the best horse should always be able to compete anywhere and be rewarded for doing so.

Get Specific - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:54:00 GMT

(Originally published in the April 3, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

The Jockey Club issued a release last week that contained one single number, but it is an important number. Breakdowns are an unfortunate—and, frankly, unavoidable—part of racing Thoroughbreds (or any other breed), and the industry’s registrar reported that the initial finding from a recent study indicates the occurrence of 2.04 fatal injuries per 1,000 starts in North America.

More details will be forthcoming from the study, which is part of the Equine Injury Database, begun in 2008 as an objective of the first Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit two years earlier. The third summit will be held this summer, at which time more information will be released.

What The Jockey Club did say is that the breakdown number is based on 378,864 starts at 73 participating racetracks. The one-year sampling period, which began Nov. 1, 2008, includes only flat races. As of March 23, 81 racetracks are now submitting data, along with the National Steeplechase Association. According to the release, the 81 tracks represent 86% of the flat racing days in North America.

(The study is being underwritten by The Jockey Club, which has provided tracks reporting tools through its InCompass subsidiary).

Owners should certainly peruse the list of tracks that submitted information (available at jockeyclub.com/initiatives.asp) and question whether they should run their horses at tracks not making data available.

They should also question The Jockey Club, the racetracks, and the leaders of the Welfare and Safety Summit because the release from The Jockey Club said it agreed with the racetracks to “not provide statistics that identify specific participants, including racetracks, horses, or persons.”

The response of owners and breeders should be that this is not acceptable; this is not information that should be kept secret.

Every owner and/or breeder of a Thoroughbred is entitled to the information, on an annual basis, in order to make decisions about his or her racing stable—what trainers to employ, what tracks to race at, even what sires to breed to or purchase horses by.

Though the compilation of data has only just begun—and obviously like many other studies, it takes years of research to form opinions on trends and findings—sharing the information would allow industry participants to digest and use it in their own ways and make it easy to follow the progress, or lack of progress, of every track.

Also, at a time when there is considerable discussion and disagreement regarding synthetic versus dirt surfaces in North America, this information, presented track by track, is invaluable.

The cries to release this information should come from numerous organizations and individuals, starting with state racing commissions. How can a regulatory body charged with overseeing racing in a jurisdiction not feel it is important to release figures related to how safe its racetracks are? California requires such information through its necropsy program. Others state agencies should follow suit.

Racetracks must participate in the Equine Injury Database to apply for accreditation through the NTRA Safety Alliance. What would happen if the Alliance required not only participation, but the release of the information? If that caused tracks not to apply for accreditation, that would say a lot about the track’s sincere desire to take care of safety.

The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, which oversees the American Graded Stakes Committee, requires racetracks to participate in its drug testing protocol in order to have its races considered for grading. The committee should also consider requiring racetracks not only to participate in the Equine Injury Database but to release their number of fatal injuries each year.

Of course, the agreement between The Jockey Club and the tracks only says The Jockey Club will not release information about specific tracks, persons, or horses. It does not say a track cannot release the information itself.

Owners and breeders should demand it be released by someone.

Racing's Backbone - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:46:00 GMT

(Originally published in the March 27, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

The results of a study done by the Thoroughbred Breeders Australia received little publicity in the United States when released last week, but its findings are noteworthy.

Data showed breeders own part or all of 63% of horses in training in Australia and had contributed more than $500 million in training fees over the past two years. No other costs, such as the purchase price of horses, breaking and preparing them for racing, and veterinary care, were included.

“The study demonstrates conclusively that breeders largely underwrite racing and make a massive contribution to the income and well-being of industry participants,” Trevor Lobb, president of Thoroughbred Breeders Australia, said.

The organization also noted in the study that breeders contributed another $10 million annually through sponsorships and incentive programs.

To my knowledge, no such study has been conducted in the U.S., but it seems safe to say its conclusions would be similar. As a matter of course, The Blood-Horse refers to most breeders as “owner/breeder” because few persons who breed Thoroughbreds do not also have their owner’s license.

Not that many years ago many of the leading stables in North America were homebred operations that bred for their own racing stables. Today that number has dwindled to just a few pure homebred operations. There are many breeders that have a considerable number of horses at the racetrack, a few examples being Adena Springs, WinStar, and Darley.

There also are breeders that follow a simple philosophy that helps them develop their broodmare bands: Sell colts and race fillies.

And, of course, there are those breeders who do not necessarily intend to have a horse in training but buy one back at a sale or buy out a partner, and thus find themselves needing a trainer and a set of racing silks.

The study in Australia reports that 7,177 of 8,500 breeders (84%) share in the ownership of more than 35,000 horses in training.

In North America, The Jockey Club estimates there are 18,000 breeders, but no one knows how many horses those breeders own or how much they pay in training fees. In fact, no one even knows how many owners there are in North America.

Licensing in the United States is done by each state; there is no database able to identify the number of owners throughout the country.

Regulations also vary from state to state. One state, for instance, may allow a three-year license while others require annual renewals. One state may require all members of a partnership to be licensed while another may insist only the managing partner obtain a license.

If there is a group of 50 individuals who own a horse, do you count that as one owner or 50 owners?

What is clear is that as in Australia, breeders in North America also help underwrite racing. Besides the day rates paid to trainers, breeders shell out millions in other ways. For one thing, the Breeders’ Cup World Championships would not exist without breeders, who fund the event through the annual payment of an amount equal to a stallion’s stud fee as well as the nomination of foals.

In addition, state-bred programs are funded by breeders who nominate horses to make them eligible to compete for purses restricted to those progeny.

At every track in North America, horses are racing for breeders. The men and women who breed Thoroughbreds are involved in an agricultural industry, but they also enjoy the thrill and excitement of the racetrack.

Similarly, there are countless stories of a person who became a Thoroughbred owner, only to become a Thoroughbred breeder eventually. Becoming a breeder must surely give that person a better idea of what it is like to be part of the backbone of the industry.

As Australia found out, the support breeders give to racing is enormous.

Straight Site Talk - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:06:00 GMT

(Originally published in the March 20, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Satish Sanan was publicly admonished by leaders of the Breeders’ Cup last week for his comments on a radio talk show. Sanan, they claimed, went too far with his discussion of a possible single site for future Breeders’ Cup World Championships, and with his criticism of Churchill Downs Inc.

Sanan, a leading owner and breeder, is one of 13 directors of the Breeders’ Cup and thus a man with inside knowledge of current negotiations.

This year’s World Championships will be held at Churchill Downs, but no site has been announced for future years. Breeders’ Cup officials have hinted of a possible permanent home for the event, and Sanan intimated the best location was Santa Anita’s Oak Tree Racing Association meet, which conducted the two days of Breeders’ Cup racing in 2008 and 2009. It was the first time since the Breeders’ Cup began in 1984 that it had been staged in consecutive years at the same locale.

One of the original selling points of the Breeders’ Cup was that it would change locations each year, rewarding racetracks, breeders, horsemen, cities, states, and fans around the country by rotating to different sites.

If the Breeders’ Cup directors choose a permanent site, the event will lose the attractiveness of showcasing a different track each year. Could the Breeders’ Cup become stronger with a permanent home? Maybe, but that is not what’s driving this decision. It is one thing and one thing only: money.

As Sanan correctly pointed out, Oak Tree is a not-for-profit company. Translation: more money returns to Breeders’ Cup when the event is held there.

It doesn’t take inside knowledge to figure out revenue at the Breeders’ Cup is decreasing. Stud fees are down; the size of the foal crop is down; sponsorships are much tougher to secure. The directors of the Breeders’ Cup are sitting around a board table having the same discussions as other companies: How can we trim expenses and raise revenues?

Certainly, reducing staff, and thus salaries, is one way to reduce expenses. Both chief marketing officer Peter Land and senior vice president of racing Pam Blatz-Murff are no longer with the Breeders’ Cup. The departure of Blatz-Murff, an original Breeders’ Cup staffer, did not sit well with many European horsemen, with whom she had developed a close relationship that aided the organization’s recruitment of overseas participants.

Certainly another way to generate revenue is to find the best deal possible for hosting the event.

Sanan said on the radio broadcast that, “Churchill will not deal with you on revenue. Churchill is probably the worst organization from a horse racing standpoint.”\

Breeders’ Cup issued a press release the next day saying the organization is “extremely disappointed with recent statements from (Sanan) with regard to host sites, and those views in no way reflect the official position of Breeders’ Cup.”

Churchill is perceived as the most bottom-line company in racing. Sanan’s comments indicate perception is reality.

Churchill wants what is best for Churchill, meaning what is in the best interests of its shareholders.

Well, Breeders’ Cup does not have stock-issued shareholders. But Breeders’ Cup has shareholders. Its shareholders are every industry participant, and those participants deserve to know what its directors are thinking.

A decision to hold the Breeders’ Cup at a permanent site, any site, will not be met enthusiastically by everyone. East Coast horsemen are already miffed they had to travel to California two straight years. Those who dislike synthetic surfaces will not be happy if a site with a manufactured main track is chosen as a permanent host. Fans who like to attend the event may wish to visit different racetracks, not the same site every year.

Most racing organizations meet behind closed doors and little is known until decisions are announced. In this case, those who support the Breeders’ Cup by nominating stallions and foals have a right to know what the directors are considering.

Sanan did not disclose anything sensitive about negotiations. He merely commented that the organization is considering a permanent site and that Churchill Downs is difficult to deal with.

Good for him.

Buy the Book - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:14:00 GMT

(Originally published in the March 13, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

The key to the success of any business is to know what the customer wants…and give it to him. Once again Keeneland has listened to its customers, recently announcing minor but significant changes to the structure of its September yearling sale.

Keeneland, and all other auction companies, are different, however, from most other businesses. They aren’t retailers or wholesalers; they are merely middle men. Their customers are both the sellers and the buyers, and they must keep both groups happy.

Where the sale companies do have something in common with other businesses is that the needs of their customers have changed.

It goes without saying that much is different, in the world and in the Thoroughbred industry, since the initial auction was held at Keeneland in 1938. The first of what would become an annual yearling auction was conducted under a tent in the paddock five years later.

Interestingly, that first Keeneland yearling sale was conducted by rival Fasig-Tipton because travel restrictions during World War II kept breeders, as was their custom, from shipping their yearlings to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., by rail to be sold. Also interestingly, that auction included a colt by Sir Gallahad III. Purchased by Fred Hooper and named Hoop Jr., that colt would go on to win the 1945 Kentucky Derby.

Before the summer of 1944, after Fasig-Tipton had decided against holding another sale in Kentucky, Keeneland co-founder and Beaumont Farm owner Hal Price Headley and Claiborne Farm owner A.B. Hancock Sr. formed the Breeders’ Sale Co. to ensure the continuation of an auction in Lexington.

While the first Kentucky sale was represented by graduate Hoop Jr. winning the Derby, the initial auction held by the Breeders’ Sales Co. included 1945 champion juvenile colt Star Pilot and champion juvenile filly Beaugay. Since then, Keeneland has become the largest-grossing Thoroughbred auction house in the world. But you don’t get there by yourself, nor without paying attention.

Many scoffed when Keeneland canceled its July yearling sale in 2003, but buyers—especially those from out of the country—had let it be known they were tired of traveling to Kentucky in July for a two-day sale, then to Saratoga for another few days, then back to Lexington in September. Instead, they insisted, let Keeneland add days to September if necessary.

It was a calculated risk for Keeneland, conceding the first two yearling auctions to Fasig-Tipton—Kentucky in July and Saratoga in August. Dollars spent at those two sales meant the possibilities a buyer’s bankroll would be shot or his order book filled before September rolled around.

But it was a risk worth taking.

The last couple of years, however, it appeared consignors were shunning Keeneland’s Book One, preferring to sell in Book Two or Book Three, where a good horse seemed more likely to stand out. Despite that being in conflict with the mantra of every consignor—you can’t hide a good horse—actions speak louder than words.

Thus, Keeneland has changed its format for this September, with a smaller Book One of 200 horses to be sold during night sessions Sunday and Monday (the sale formerly began on Monday), and a larger Book Two to be spread across Tuesday through Friday.

The first two days will now more closely resemble the old July sale while the second book, with roughy 1,300 horses to be sold over four days will spread the quality more evenly over more days.

Buyers and buying trends are continuously changing, but one thing that has remained constant is that a buyer’s time is precious. A more segmented catalog will allow buyers to more precisely plan when to shop.

With solid sales so far this year in Australia and New Zealand, and some positive signs at juvenile sales in Forida, Keeneland has chosen a good time to respond to the wishes of its customers.

Change Agent - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:23:00 GMT

(Originally published in the March 6, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Speaking recently to a group of students in the University of Louisville’s Equine Industry Program, I wanted to make a point about the dwindling size of newspapers and magazines around the globe. There was only one problem. Asked if they had read a daily newspaper that morning, not a single hand went up among the 20 students.

People, and not just college students, mind you, are getting their news differently.

The Blood-Horse is closing in on a century of publishing, a historic number of years to be in any business. But The Blood-Horse was founded as a news magazine, and that term applies to very few weekly publications today.
(Begun in 1916, the name was changed from The Thoroughbred Horse to The Blood-Horse in 1928.)

Today, news is delivered by Web sites, social media, cell phones, and e-mail and text alerts. News, like never before, is instantaneous. It is why The Blood-Horse was the first equine publication to offer breaking news alerts.

Despite that, the rumors of print being dead are exaggerted. Wounded maybe, but not dead.

The fact is the number of advertisements has always determined the total number of pages in any publication. Simple economics. Fewer ads mean fewer pages. So, at a time when society is getting its news on the fly, the recession began, and it took advertising budgets down with it. Newspapers and magazines were hit hard.

According to MediaFinder, more than 600 magazines ceased operations in both 2007 and 2008. The good news is the number slowed in 2009 to about 500. Of course, hundreds of magazines were also launched, but it is still hard to accept that such titles as Gourmet (begun in 1941), Home (1951), and Teen (1954) folded last year.

Media companies must adapt in these turbulent times. The Blood-Horse recently redesigned its Web site, BloodHorse.com, which gets more than 1.1 million page views weekly. Now, the latest headlines always appear on top, the latest race replays, videos, features, and blog entries are prominently displayed, and a cleaner, leaner navigation makes it easier to find what you want.

The print magazine must change as well, allowing us to provide as much content as possible in fewer pages. In fact, it has been changing for years. For example, for decades The Blood-Horse printed the hip-by-hip results of every horse sold at public auction in North America. Today, those results are on BloodHorse.com. And they are even better because they are searchable.

With news so readily available, we understand that readers demand to know not only what the news is, but what the news means. While we have published two commentaries each week, this column and The Final Turn, this week we introduce a business analysis written by Bill Shanklin and a pedigree analysis penned by Les Brinsfield, both experts in their fields. Blood-Horse senior correspondent Steve Haskin will regularly write analysis of recent racing. Other writers will begin appearing soon.

In the issue of June 7, 1980, The Blood-Horse began a news section titled “Dispatches.” Beginning in this issue that section of the magazine has been renamed “The Wire” and will contain shorter news items, but more analysis and commentary. Along with that, many sections of the magazine have been redesigned by art director Beth McCoy—the look and feel of her work provides a clean, fresh, imaginative way to help us enter this new era.

These changes are being made to strengthen The Blood-Horse, which for 94 years has been covering the Thoroughbred industry. But there are things that are not changing, most importantly the mission of The Blood-Horse, which is to serve Thoroughbred owners and breeders.

How we serve you has changed significantly since 1916, just like much has changed in the industry since the top 50 stallions that stood in North America prior to World War II averaged 15 foals a crop.

We do not take lightly the trust you put in us to deliver the content you desire, deserve, and demand.

Todd's Time? - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:02:00 GMT

(Originally published in the February 27, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

It seems funny to say fillies took a backseat to the boys, but after the big news of a possible race between Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta dominated headlines, it was prep races for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) that took center stage Feb. 20.

Todd Pletcher has been one of racing’s leading trainers the past decade, though the sport’s biggest prize, the Derby, has eluded him. He is certainly not the only trainer who has won many big races but not the Derby. He is the most prominent active trainer, however.

Pletcher has started 24 horses in the Derby since 2000, and has two seconds (Invisible Ink, 2001; Bluegrass Cat, 2006) and a third (Impeachment, 2000) to his credit. He has never started the favorite in the Run for the Roses.

Of the five Derby preps run Feb. 20 in Florida, Arkansas, California, and Louisiana, Pletcher won three. Thus, the trainer who nominated the most horses, 20, to the 2010 Triple Crown by the Jan. 16 early deadline is again pointing 3-year-olds down different paths that all lead to Louisville, Ky., the first Saturday in May.

The most visibly impressive of the group was Eskendereya, who edged away in the turn of the Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. II) and cruised to an 8 1/2-length score. Having won all three of his starts on dirt, the son of Giant’s Causeway—Aldebaran Light, by Seattle Slew, is certainly bred to handle the 10-furlong distance of the Derby.

Eskendereya was purchased for $250,000 at the 2008 Keeneland September yearling sale by Zayat Stables, which has been in the headlines recently for a different reason—the racing arm of Ahmed Zayat has filed for bankruptcy protection. And nothing could help an owner get out of bankruptcy faster than to own a Derby winner.

Two of the three Derby hopefuls Pletcher sent out on the day are by Giant’s Causeway, the other being Connemara, who won the El Camino Real Derby (gr. III) for his third win in four starts. The colt, out of the Mr. Leader mare Satin Sunrise, races for Michael Tabor, Susan Magnier, and Derrick Smith. Magnier’s husband, John, is the principal in the Irish-based Coolmore operation, which stands Giant’s Causeway (by Storm Cat) at its Ashford Stud in Kentucky.

Pletcher’s third score came with Discreetly Mine, who won the Risen Star Stakes (gr. II) at Fair Grounds. A son of Mineshaft, Discreetly Mine is a homebred owned by E. Paul Robsham Stables. The colt made his first five starts for trainer Stan Hough before being sent to Pletcher.

The Pletcher group does not stop there. In Steve Haskin’s Derby Dozen, four of his top six are trained by the 42-year-old Texas native, the above mentioned trio as well as the WinStar homebred Super Saver (by Maria’s Mon), who has yet to make his 3-year-old debut. Super Saver won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (gr. II) at Churchill Downs, home of the Derby, by five lengths in November.

The Pletcher stable also includes some other top 3-year-olds: Rule (by Roman Ruler), another WinStar homebred, who has won four straight including the Sam F. Davis Stakes (gr. III); the Wertheimer family’s Interactif (by Broken Vow), a graded stakes-winning turf horse who may get his shot on dirt (you are only a 3-year-old once); Dogwood Stable’s Aikenite (by Yes It’s True), who was third in the Fountain of Youth; Anstu Stables’ Ibboyee (by Medallist), who ran third in the Feb. 20 Hutcheson Stakes (gr. II) won by D’ Funnybone; and Twin Creeks Racing Stables’ Mission Impazible, who ran fourth in the Feb. 20 Southwest Stakes (gr. III).

Pletcher has won Eclipse Awards and trained Eclipse Award winners; he was the first trainer to surpass $20 million in earnings in a year; he broke records set by his mentor, D. Wayne Lukas, for stakes wins and graded stakes wins in a year…but he has never won the Kentucky Derby.

This could be his year.

Come to Papa - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:06:00 GMT

(Originally published in the February 20, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Standard football coach-speak on national signing day is always to say recruiting starts at home. “We need to get the best players from within our own state,” is a statement you hear over and over.

In Thoroughbred breeding it is often impossible for a state outside Kentucky to attract the best runners and/or best bred horses from within its borders. Kentucky is the center of the universe for breeding in North America, but it is far from the only planet within that universe.

A year ago, in his first stakes start, Papa Clem ran second to Pioneerof the Nile in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (gr. II) and his nine subsequent starts came in stakes, all but one graded. Though bred in Kentucky, Papa Clem is a Californian: owned and bred by a Californian; trained by a Californian; and based in Southern California, where he made seven of his 13 starts. Papa Clem went on to win the Arkansas Derby (gr. II) and, in his only start this year, captured the San Fernando Stakes (gr. II).

Papa Clem ran fourth in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) which, for California breeders, actually turned out to be a good thing. Had he won the classic, odds are his owner, Bo Hirsch, would have received higher offers to stand him at stud in Kentucky and perhaps been lured to the Bluegrass State.

Instead, a group of Calfiornia breeders—Pete Parrella, Tom Bachman, Madeline Auerbach, Don Valpredo, and Brian Boudreau—approached Hirsch, and it was announced in late January Papa Clem would stand at Parrella’s Legacy Ranch near Clements, Calif.

California’s breeding industry has suffered in recent years, with the closure of farms and a decline in stallions and broodmares. At the beginning of the 1990s, more than 7,000 mares a year were being bred in California, a number that dropped to about 5,600 in 2000 and in the last year for which The Jockey Club has complete numbers—2008—4,075. The number of stallions standing in California was 430 in 2000 and 278 in 2008.

To keep with the coaching analogy, California has been able to recruit a top prospect. Papa Clem is a son of leading sire Smart Strike, a son of Mr. Prospector, and is best known as the sire of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin. Papa Clem’s dam is a grade I California stakes winner, Miss Houdini, by Belong to Me, and his second dam is a California grade I stakes winner, Magical Maiden, by Lord Avie.

California breeders should be enthusiastic about retaining Papa Clem, just as they have been about the success of the state’s current leading sire, Unusual Heat. It has been a while since a Golden State horse stood for $25,000 like Unusual Heat, who through Dec. 31, 2009 is the only California sire to have a lifetime Average Earnings Index of more than 2.00 (2.17).

Unusual Heat, who stands at Old English Rancho, ranked as the 29th-leading sire on the general sire list nationally last year, having occupied the 20th spot the previous year. California sire Swiss Yodeler ranked 19th in 2006, and such sires as In Excess and Bertrando have also appeared on the list in recent years.

These names, and others, remind us of California sires such as Fleet Nasrullah, Gummo, Reflected Glory, Flying Paster, Pirate’s Bounty, and Cee’s Tizzy.

Which brings us to this year’s running of the Robert Lewis Feb. 13 at Santa Anita, won by California-bred Caracortado. Though Caracortado, by Cat Dreams, will not be able to become a California sire because he is a gelding, he is the latest testament to the state’s breeding program, a grade II winner that is unbeaten in five starts.

In a state with fewer mares, fewer stallions, fewer farms, and fewer breeders, Caracortado, Papa Clem, and Unusual Heat are good news for Californians.

Lending Influence - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:00:00 GMT

(Originally published in the February 13, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Ahmed Zayat is a 47-year-old multi-millionaire who fell in love with horses during his youth in his native Egypt, where he competed in national show jumping events. The man followed horse racing with a passion, and when his business success afforded him the opportunity to enter the game, he did so.

He did so in 2005 with vim and vigor. He did so at the top, spending wildly for yearlings, hiring top trainers, and pursuing the richest prizes in the sport.

In fact, racing is the only sport in which you can simply show up and do what Zayat did. You can’t walk into the office of the commissioner of the National Football League, for example, and buy a team. But you can get credit at an auction and enter the racing game, at whatever level you wish to participate.

Though Zayat had the financial wherewithal, he did what many owners and breeders also do; he secured a line of credit with a lender, in this case Fifth Third Bank.

With the bank’s backing, Zayat pursued his dream of becoming a leading owner and breeder; of standing stallions; and of selling desirable bloodstock at auction. He succeeded in all areas.

Zayat Stables’ Pioneerof the Nile won last year’s Santa Anita Derby (gr. I) and ran second to Mine That Bird in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I). He will stand his first season this year at Vinery. Zayat Stables’ Zensational won three consecutive grade I sprint stakes last summer in California. He will stand his first season this year at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms.

Other grade I winners Thorn Song, Point Ashley, and Downthedustyroad have carried the stable’s blue and yellow-colored silks, as have such stakes winners as Soul Warrior, Eaton’s Gift, Massive Drama, High Again, E Z Warrior, Baroness Thatcher, Got the Last Laugh, Marcavelly, and Belgravia. Zayat Stables had earnings in 2008 of nearly $6.9 million and in 2009 of $6.3 million.

In 2006 Zayat went to $4.6 million at the Keeneland September sale to purchase Maimonides, a half-brother to Roman Ruler and El Corredor. At Fasig-Tipton Saratoga auction that year, he bought the sale topper, going to $1.6 million for the filly Mushka. Maimonides made just two starts before an injury cut short his career; he is standing in Florida. Mushka became a grade II winner for Zayat before he sold her at the 2008 Keeneland November sale for $2.4 million; she earned a grade I win by disqualification for her new owner.

Last year Zayat missed two payments to Fifth Third Bank, and it called in his entire loan portfolio of about $34 million in December. Fifth Third filed suit, seeking to name a receiver for Zayat’s stable, while he countersued, claiming the bank had agreed to renegotiate his loans but failed to do so. Before a hearing could be heard on the matter, however, Zayat Stables filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Feb. 3. Besides Fifth Third, other creditors include trainers, veterinarians, van companies, sales companies, a boarding farm, a sales agency, etc.

Under the terms of the agreement, it is within the rights of Fifth Third to call in the Zayat Stables’ loans. However, Ahmed Zayat is exactly the type of person the Thoroughbred industry needs, and his dealings illustrate the problem owners, breeders, and buyers are having securing funding.

Perhaps the single biggest problem facing the industry right now is that equine lenders have pulled back, many discontinuing loaning to Thoroughbred participants completely.

Bloodstock prices, like many other commodities in this recessionary time, have decreased, and lending institutions should adjust their thinking when loaning to owners, breeders, and bloodstock buyers. But this industry needs lenders willing to help it regain its footing.

Leaders of racetracks and sales companies; of the NTRA and Breeders’ Cup; of the American Horse Council and state breed organizations; and owners and breeders with strong relationships with banks should work together to gain access to funding for the industry.

We need the help of banks. And we need people like Ahmed Zayat.

States of Confusion - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:25:00 GMT

(Originally published in the February 6, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

The road to the Triple Crown trail has begun, and in less than three months, all eyes will be focused on Louisville, Ky., May 1…then Baltimore, Md., May 14, and Elmont, N.Y., June 5.

The eyes of owners and breeders, however, have been focused on Kentucky, Maryland, and New York for years now, and their vision is blurred by the lunacy known as politics.

It was announced last week that Gov. David Paterson and leaders of the New York legislature have chosen Aqueduct Entertainment Group to operate the video lottery casino at Aqueduct.

It took lawmakers in New York nearly 10 years to make a decision. Well, it only took seven years (1920-1927) to build the Holland Tunnel, which runs underneath the Hudson River and connects Manhattan with New Jersey.

More important is the statistic that the state of New York has been losing an estimated $1 million a day by not having slots at Aqueduct. You can do the math to figure out what the contribution to the state coffers would have amounted to had the politicians taken “only” five years to make a decision rather than 10. Every day that has passed, not only has the state not profited, but horsemen, breeders, and the racetracks in New York have struggled while competing states have benefited from slots-rich purses and breed incentive funds.

There are still contingencies that must be met by members of the Aqueduct Entertainment Group, and it must obtain legislative approval before the contract may be awarded, which means that based on the past 10 years of legal wrangling, we are still a long way from someone actually playing slots in Queens.

We may be happy that after 10 years a decision has been made, but we will hold off on the actual celebration until horsemen actually reap any benefits.

The picture in Kentucky, painted poignantly by news editor Tom LaMarra (see page 542 of the February 6, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse), is dire, and as in New York, getting more so by the day. As an editor, when someone asks for a deadline, the stock answer is “yesterday.” Well, whether you like alternative gaming or not, Kentucky needed it yesterday.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, not so much a proponent of alternative gaming as a supporter of the breeding and racing industries, has included revenue from video lottery terminals in his new budget. The move is a clever ploy by the governor, who can point to the fact more programs will have to be cut if members of the legislature do not approve an alternative gaming measure during the current session.

Slots in Kentucky have been debated for 15 years, yet the state’s signature industry continues to suffer because of the inaction by its elected officials. Only in Kentucky could the politicians make the 10 years it has taken New York to make a decision seem like a short time.

Lawsuits, foreclosures, layoffs, and bankruptcies are happening, and while it may be easy to blame the economy, the blame really lies with the Republican-led Senate in Kentucky.

Maryland’s breeding industry has been in a steady state of decline as well, and its racing product has suffered mightily, with horsemen understandably preferring to run in nearby states with larger pots infused with slots money (Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia).

In December the Anne Arundel County Council approved a zoning measure allowing slot machines at the Arundel Mills Mall, but it also passed a measure that allows slots at Laurel Park.

The Maryland Jockey Club, which operates Laurel and Pimlico, opposes the plan for slots at the mall, and is in support of a proposal to let voters decide if the mall is what they had in mind in 2008 when they approved slots to support the Thoroughbred industry.

We anxiously await spring and the running of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes (all gr. I). But owners, breeders, horsemen, and racetracks in Kentucky, Maryland, and New York need more than the Triple Crown races to survive. They need immediate legislative help.

Inexact Science - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:39:00 GMT

In Ireland last week trainer Jim Bolger and scientist Dr. Emmaline Hill announced they have formed a company to promote the Equinome Speed Gene Test, which they claim will help horsemen identify the optimum distance for a particular
Thoroughbred.

Bolger was quoted as saying the test is “without a doubt the most important thing that has happened to breeding since it began over 300 years ago.”

I suggest it could be the exact opposite.

There is nothing exact about breeding horses, and the fact that it is such an inexact science is one of its greatest traits and most alluring appeals.

There are many exciting possibilities related to the sequencing of the genome for any animal or species. But in horses, determining a speed gene is not one of them.

If researchers are able, for example, to identify a gene that determines whether a Thoroughbred will bleed or possess any one of a number of diseases, then that might be “the most important thing that has happened to breeding since it began over 300 years ago.” But being able to use genetics to breed a horse that can win at six furlongs but not at eight is, well, not something breeders should be interested in.

The beauty of breeding is that there are so many different philosophies among the men and women who make the decisions about which broodmares are mated to which stallions.

It may be as simple as this: “I own a share in a stallion so I need to pick a mare to breed to him.”

Every mare owner has heard this: “Sorry, book full, choose another stallion.”

There are those who believe strongly that inbreeding should be sought in every mating, and those who feel quite the contrary.

Breed an unproven mare to a proven stallion. Ever heard that one?

How about breeding to first-year stallions because they are well-received at public auctions? Well, until the economy headed south, that is.

Breeding a small mare to a large stallion has always seemed a good idea. That is genetics, isn’t it?

Whether breeders know it or not, they have been using genetics in their matings forever. The aforementioned inbreeding is selecting to infuse a pedigree with the genes of one sire line over another. Inbreeding to certain female families, or seeking the descendants of, say, La Troienne, are other examples.

Breeders know which stallions are more likely to throw sprinters and which are more apt to sire distance runners. They also know this about their mares, and hence the decision-making of planning matings.

Numerous statistics aid breeders in evaluating speed versus stamina, things as simple as average winning distance and dosage, the latter merely a mathematical equation that seeks to estimate the balance of speed and stamina in a given pedigree.

Of course, being a trainer, Bolger knows what all conditioners know, that breeding is merely the genes within the animal. The expression of those genes depends on many other factors, such as feed, shoeing, veterinary care…and, oh, yes, training.

A few years ago when Dolly the sheep was cloned and Thoroughbred folks were discussing the impact cloning could have, I suggested what I thought would be an exciting experiment: Take 20 clones of the same Thoroughbred and give the animal to 20 different trainers. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see how the same horse would turn out in the hands of 20 different trainers?

Geneticists, scientists, and researchers are doing exciting work now that the equine genome has been mapped. Perhaps one day they will identify the markers that can help the industry breed a sounder horse, or their work will lead us to a cure for grass sickness or help us prevent osteochondritis dissecans (OCD).

But do we need a researcher to tell us to breed mare “A” to stallion “B” and you will be assured a horse whose best distance is at a mile?

No, we don’t.

Jockeying For Votes - Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:02:00 GMT

(Originally published in the January 16, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Jockey Calvin Borel had another excellent year in 2009, but his 2010 has not started out so well. On Jan. 5 the Kentucky Racing Commission not only doubled the length of a suspension he had appealed, but specified the dates it must be served. The following day when the Eclipse Awards finalists were announced, Borel was not listed as one of the three jockeys with a chance to be honored Jan. 18.

To take the easier of the two issues first, the Eclipse Awards are decided by voters designated by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Daily Racing Form as well as regular members of the National Turf Writers Association.

There were 271 eligible voters for the sport’s 2009 champions. A total of 232 ballots were returned, meaning 39 persons (14%) did not even take the time to submit their choices. If these 39 individuals are not forever stricken from voting, the three sponsoring organizations should be ashamed of themselves.

In the category of jockey, the voters came down strictly on the side of earnings, with Garrett Gomez, Julien Leparoux, and Ramon Dominguez the three finalists. (I have no problem with that, though full disclosure mandates mentioning I voted for Borel, followed by Dominguez and Leparoux).

Gomez rode the earners of $18,571,171, Leparoux $18,560,565, and Dominguez $18,348,422. As for trips to the winner’s circle, Russell Baze again led that category with 415.

(As an interesting side note, 29 jockeys had earnings in 2009 in excess of $6.669 million, the winnings of the sport’s leading owner.)

Borel did not have his best year in terms of wins or earnings, but he won his second Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), aboard longshot Mine That Bird, and then was put in an awkward position, choosing Rachel Alexandra for the BlackBerry Preakness (gr. I) after she had been purchased and pointed to that race, which she won. Borel was back aboard Mine That Bird when he attempted to become the first jockey to win the Triple Crown races in the same year aboard more than one horse. The two finished third behind Summer Bird and Dunkirk.

Borel, of course, is the only person who sat on Rachel Alexandra during a race in 2009 as the 3-year-old filly went unbeaten in her eight races last year.

Whether Gomez, Leparoux, or Dominguez, the winner will be most deserving. This writer simply felt winning two of the three classics and riding one of the two Horse of the Year candidates through an unbeaten campaign meant more than money.

As for the other issue, the Kentucky Racing Commission is correct in trying to take the upper hand in the game jockeys and trainers play when suspended. It is common to appeal and later take the suspension during a time of less impact.

Borel was suspended for three days for interference during a race at Churchill Downs in November. He appealed but later dropped the appeal after the meet was over.

The commission, stating it was attempting to stop frivolous claims, upped the suspension to six days and mandated those days be Jan. 15-17 and Jan. 22-24, the first six days of the Oaklawn Park meeting.

A jockey or trainer should absolutely have the right to appeal, but should the suspension be upheld, the days, as the Kentucky commission ordered in this case, should be served during a race meeting commensurate to the one in which the infraction occurred.

What’s The Point

While on the subject of Eclipse Awards, this writer was puzzled by the winner in the photography division. The question is not whether the photo taken by Jeff Taylor is an award-winning shot, but whether it should have been eligible in the first place. Taylor’s photo is of a horse and rider at the Blue Ridge Hunt Point to Point races in Clarke County, Va.

The guidelines for entries distributed by the NTRA say submissions are “for outstanding achievement in the coverage of Thoroughbred racing.”

This writer fails to see what a point-to-point race has to do with Thoroughbred racing.

Regional Differences - By Dan Liebman

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:53:00 GMT

(Originally published in the January 9, 2010 combined issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Researching the leading regional sires of 2009, a coincidence was noted among the leading sires of the year in Maryland, California, and Florida: Not For Love, Unusual Heat, and Montbrook have more in common than being the leading sire in their respective states; they are also all members of the 1990 foal crop.

There is not a highly successful sire among the 19 horses that ran in the 1993 Kentucky Derby (gr. I) won by Sea Hero. Though Sea Hero was a heartwarming story because he was owned and trained by Paul Mellon and Mack Miller, respectively, he did not go on to a successful career at stud. Neither did any of the 15 other colts that followed him under the wire: Wild Gale, Personal Hope, Diazo, Corby, Kissin Kris, Silver of Silver, Ragtime Rebel, Bull Inthe Heather, Dixieland Heat, Wallenda, Mi Cielo, Union City, Storm Tower, Rockamundo, and Tossofthecoin.

Three members of that Derby field, second-place finisher Prairie Bayou, 10th-place finisher Truth of It All, and 18th-place finisher El Bakan, were geldings. Another, Union City, never had a chance to make it at stud because he broke down in the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) won by Prairie Bayou and was euthanized.

Cherokee Run, who finished second in that year's Preakness and sixth in the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) won by Colonial Affair, turned out to be the most successful sire from that year's Triple Crown races. Shortened up as a 4-year-old, Cherokee Run won the Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I) and Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (gr. II) and was named the year's champion sprinter. Cherokee Run was pensioned in 2009 after standing his entire career in Kentucky at Jonabell Farm (subsequently named Darley after Sheikh Mohammed purchased the farm). Cherokee Run is the sire of 45 stakes winners including champions War Pass and Chilukki.

Prairie Bayou, who broke down in the Belmont and had to be euthanized, was 1993's champion 3-year-old male, a year in which the Horse of the Year was the champion turf horse Kotashaan. The crop's Eclipse Award winner as a 2-year-old was Gilded Time, who won all four of his starts as a juvenile but missed the Triple Crown races because of chronic foot problems. Gilded Time stood at Vinery and shuttled to Australia before relocating to Canada for the 2008 breeding season. He is the sire of 53 stakes winners.

Of Not For Love, Unusual Heat, and Montbrook, it is Not For Love who has the best pedigree of the three, being by Mr. Prospector and produced from the Phipps family's mare Dance Number, by Northern Dancer. His dam, a grade I-winning daughter of champion Numbered Account, is also the dam of champion colt Rhythm and the filly Get Lucky, both full siblings of Not For Love. Get Lucky is the dam of three graded stakes winners and the granddam of grade I winner Bluegrass Cat.

For those who like to see a successful sire in the female family, Not For Love has it; his dam is a half-sister to Private Account. For those who like to see race record, he was but stakes-placed. Not For Love ranked 15th on the general sire list with earnings of more than $6.1 million, in a year in which he was represented by 16 stakes winners. He has 65 lifetime stakes winners, which leads to his most impressive statistic: 9% stakes winners from foals.

Unusual Heat is by Nureyev out of the Glacial mare Rossard, and his best distance was a mile. He won three stakes in Ireland but had little success in the U.S., being claimed to stand at stud. He ranked 29th on the general sire list with the earners of nearly $5.2 million and had out nine stakes winners. He has 24 lifetime stakes winners.

Montbrook was a pure sprinter who won two graded stakes as an Ocala Stud-bred. He ranked 66th on the general sire list with earnings of $3.78 million. The son of Buckaroo-Secret Papers, by Diplomacy, has sired 45 stakes winners.

Perfect Tens - By Dan Liebman

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:53:00 GMT

(Originally published in the December 26, 2009 / January 2, 2010 combined issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Asked to compile a series of “best of” lists for the first decade of this century, Blood-Horse senior correspondent Steve Haskin eagerly took up the challenge. It may sound easy, but thinking back over a 10-year period, and the people, horses, and races that were part of it, is not a simple task. Haskin’s effort, on pages 42-43 of this issue - and with expanded comments on his blog on BloodHorse.com where readers may offer their comments - got this writer thinking of the decade that has just passed.

As 2009 ended with the argument over whether Zenyatta or Rachel Alexandra should be Horse of the Year, I recalled the two times I saw the female I would consider the best—Sunline—whose racing career started in the ’90s and ended in the ’00s.

Though I did not see her race in person, I did see Sunline train one morning in January 2001 and visited her again in New Zealand four years later just three months after she had foaled her first offspring.

Sunline (Desert Sun—Songline, by Western Symphony) won 32 times in 48 starts, including 13 group I events, and earned a record amount for a distaffer, $11,351,607 (Australian funds). She is one of only two mares to win the Cox Plate (Aust-I) twice, the only distaffer to take the Doncaster Handicap (Aust-I) twice, and became the only mare to capture the Coolmore Classic (Aust-I) two times. In the latter, both victories came under 60 kilograms (132.28 pounds), equaling the weight-carrying record for the race.

Sunline won two runnings of the Waikato Draught Sprint (NZ-I) and All-Aged Stakes (Aust-I), the Manikato Stakes (Aust-I) and Flight Stakes (Aust-I), and also traveled to Hong Kong, where she won the International Mile (HK-I) over local favorite Fairy King Prawn.

In 1999-2002 Sunline was named Horse of the Year in her native New Zealand, and she earned the same title in Australia from 2000-2002.

At the farm of Trevor McKee, who trained the champion with his son, Stephen, Sunline was led from her stall in January 2005. Trailing behind her was her first foal, a Rock of Gibraltar filly later named Sunstrike. No one was leading or holding the filly, quite different than how the same event would have occurred in this country.

I was fortunate enough to see the male I would put on top of my personal “best of the decade” list. Interestingly, the race came during the first few months of the decade and was never topped. On March 25, 2000, Dubai Millennium won the Dubai World Cup (UAE-I) by an easy six lengths, a visibly impressive race by a visibly impressive horse.

Dubai Millennium (Seeking the Gold—Colorado Dancer, by Shareef Dancer) won nine of 10 starts by a combined 47 1/2 lengths. He won races during the Royal Ascot meeting at 3 (Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, Eng-I) and 4 (Prince of Wales’s Stakes, Eng-I), took the Jacques le Marois (Fr-I) at 3, and won the Dubai World Cup at 4. His only loss came in the Vodafone Epsom Derby (Eng-I) when it appeared the 1 1/2-mile distance did not suit him. He was unbeatable at 10 furlongs.

Sheikh Mohammed was desperate to win the World Cup as the new millennium dawned, and impressed by the colt’s work at David Yoder’s yard, he changed his named from Yaazer to Dubai Millennium. That he would actually win the race two years hence made for an incredible story.

Sadly, neither Sunline nor Dubai Millennium lived to see the end of the decade. Dubai Millennium covered mares just part of one season before he died in England of grass sickness, having been sick for some time and having endured several surgeries. Sunline produced four foals before she died of laminitis, having battled the hoof ailment for nine months.

Sunline and Dubai Millennium epitomize the highs and lows so associated with the Thoroughbred. For one writer they head a decade of memories.

Safety At A Cost - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:01:00 GMT

(Originally published in the December 19, 2009 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Suppose you chose a day and stationed survey takers at the entrance of every racetrack asking those who entered the grandstand three questions: Who is Rachel Alexandra? Explain the difference between an exacta and a quinella? What is the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Safety and Integrity Alliance?

What type of responses do you think would be received?

For one thing, the sample would be limited because, as we know, approximately 80% of all wagers today are placed off track. But, let’s assume for a moment either 100% is wagered on track, or we are also able to survey those at off-track sites as well as those wagering at home through advance deposit wagering systems.

One would expect a high response regarding Rachel Alexandra, considering the 3-year-old filly is undefeated this year, won a classic, defeated colts, and is one of the two Horse of the Year candidates.

Because we are asking those wagering on races, one would confidently assume most know the difference between an exacta and a quinella. If they don’t, then we truly welcome their handle.

One can only imagine the responses about the Safety and Integrity Alliance, though the name alone should provide a hint. But the best guess would be that few would know what the alliance is or its mission.

The alliance was born after the tragic breakdown of Eight Belles brought an avalanche of unwanted attention to the sport of Thoroughbred racing and breeding. But though unwanted, many saw it is a wake-up call that the industry needed to do considerably more in the areas for which the alliance was named.

To boil it down, a racetrack must first submit an application and later be inspected before it can be accredited by the alliance. To date, 13 racetracks have been accredited, and officials expect as many as 20 more could be by the end of 2010.

On Dec. 8 at the Arizona Symposium on Racing & Gaming, the independent monitor hired by the alliance, Tommy Thompson, released his initial report. Among the items he cited was the need to get additional racetracks to want to become accredited and to educate the public about the alliance’s functions.

“Racing fans need to buy into the alliance,” said Thompson, the former governor of Wisconsin and secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Unfortunately, both getting more tracks to buy in and educating the public boil down to one thing, and that is money, which is in short supply today. The independent monitor’s report states there are “serious concerns that more resources are needed in the coming years,” and that an “upfront investment needs to be made by all stakeholders in Thoroughbred racing to the alliance.”

Wagering on races in the United States, for the first 11 months of the year, was down 10%, about $1.2 billion. Purses paid to owners and horsemen declined 5.8%, more than $60 million. Gross receipts at Thoroughbred auctions in North America are off more than $300 million, about 30%, after falling $250 million in 2008. Stud fees were decreased in 2009 and for all but a few hot horses have been cut (or remained stable) for 2010.

So, many racetracks are making less; most horsemen are winning less; sales companies, consignors, and breeders are selling less; and stallions farms have cut fees, so they will take in less in both 2010 and 2011.

The work of the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance is vital to the industry. Just like a track cannot open if its elevators, fire alarms, and concessions are not inspected, so too its facility should have to pass muster in regard to its starting gate, safety rail, drug testing, etc.

Though even passing every safety and integrity standard cannot ensure another accident such as Eight Belles’ will not happen, it shows that the proper steps were in place.

But finding the funding will not be easy in these tough economic times.

Fee Feasibility - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:01:00 GMT

(Originally published in the December 12, 2009 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

The reality of a recession—whether or not you were using that term to describe the economy at the time—hit hard in November 2008 when the Keeneland breeding stock sale rolled around. The only inevitability coming out of the sale was stud fees would have to drop. And they did.

Of course some farms that had announced their fees prior to the sale had to lower them further—which they should have done. Others never announced a second round of lower fees, but clearly the negotiations were on when breeders inquired.

Things are no different in 2009. Though there actually were some strengths in the Keeneland November sale, considering the quality of the offerings and continued instability in the industry, the sale finished down and stud fees must follow suit again (except for a small number of stallions).

So, fewer mares were bred in 2009, and one would expect even fewer to be sent to the breeding shed in 2010. That affects both the stud fee receipts and yearling sales for multiple years.

There are numerous indicators of the current state of the market, as breeders begin deciding which mares to breed in the coming year and more importantly how much they can afford in the way of stud fees.

For one, the number of racehorses being retired has decreased considerably. Only 19 horses will enter stud in 2010 for a fee of $5,000 or more, compared to 44 in 2009. Noteworthy also is that the highest fee for any newcomer is the $25,000 for Zensational, pictured on this issue’s cover and joining the stallion roster at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms near Lexington.

The fee for Zensational (by Unbridled’s Song) is the lowest top fee for a horse entering stud since 1996 (Tabasco Cat) and only the second time since 1990 that such a fee was highest among newcomers.

Information from The Blood-Horse database, compiled from stud fees known during the past three years and the coming year, shows a significant decline in the average stud fee for Kentucky-based stallions.

In 2007, 298 stallions in Kentucky stood for a combined $6,932,100, an average of $23,262. The following year the number of stallions increased to 340 and the gross for all fees was up to $7,981,250, but the average was only slightly higher at $23,474.

The number of stallions fell to 288 this year, and the total fees dropped more than $2 million to $5,848,200. This produced an average of $20,306.

As we look ahead to the breeding season that begins in February, nearly the same number of stallions reportedly will stand in Kentucky (286), but for substantially less money. The gross for all fees is $4,395,950, a drop in two years time of 45%. The average stud fee is $15,370, a decrease from two years ago of 35%.

Lest anyone think the decrease in stud fees is enough to make breeders whole again, they would be wrong. For one thing, the horses sold this year and last (many for a loss) were produced from higher fees. For another, many of the reduced fees are for stallions that were purchased and retired to stud at increased costs.

It is never hard for a stallion manager to know whether he has priced a horse correctly. If breeders are not calling to book mares, the stud fee is usually one of the reasons. Even a stallion that may be cool to breeders generally has a price point where it can make sense to send a mare to him.

This year, as much as ever, price is not the only consideration, with terms more important than ever. Many farms are offering a 10% discount on a live foal, stands and nurses fee if the payment is made prior to Nov. 1 of the year bred. In addition, most farms are providing a discount on multiple mares bred, whether to the same stallion or more than one stallion at the same farm.

Lowering the cost of production will help breeders, but the key will be to keep stud fees reasonable for years to come as the recovery happens.

Shifting Sands - By Dan Liebman

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:26:00 GMT

(Originally published in the December 5, 2009 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Ever wonder what the Thoroughbred industry would look like if Sheikh Mohammed woke up one morning and decided he no longer wished to be a participant?

If you are a breeder, you probably don't want to think about it. Well, the game would continue, but it would certainly have a different look.
There is no reason to believe this will happen, but the subject became something to postulate when the United States economy took a step back Nov. 27 on news the country Sheikh Mohammed rules, Dubai, is not immune from the global economic crisis.

On Nov. 25, the country's development arm, Dubai World, asked for as much as six months to postpone payment on approximately $60 billion it owes creditors. That news rocked global markets including the U.S., which when trading reopened following the Thanksgiving holiday, saw the Dow drop more than 150 points, about 1.5%.

Dubai has been consumed with development, countless stories detailing how the tiny Arab emirate had the majority of the world's construction cranes building skyscrapers at a frenetic pace. But when the recession hit, it forced real estate into a tailspin, and Dubai found itself in trouble.

When the country that has symbolized growth suddenly can't pay its bills, markets around the world fall. And, while there is no reason to think the ruler of Dubai will walk away from the business that appears to give him as much pleasure as any other with which he is involved, the Thoroughbred market would also fall if he decides to call it quits.
It seems safe to say Sheikh Mohammed has invested more than anyone else in the Thoroughbred industry. He owns more land and horses, employs more people, and spends more at auctions. This has not been done overnight, but rather over more than 25 years, so his involvement is not a passing fancy.

Though neither Sheikh Mohammed nor his bloodstock agent, John Ferguson, attended the Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sales, which was certainly unusual, Sheikh Mohammed did attend the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale in person and Ferguson was far and away the top spender at the Keeneland September sale. Also, representatives of the Sheikh's operation are continuing to seek bloodstock; for instance, several offers have been made for the winner of a recent major stakes race for juveniles.

Sheikh Mohammed is busy working on financing to solve the financial crisis that has hit his country. There is no reason to think he will cause a crisis in the Thoroughbred industry.

WHAT'S IN A NAME
It is nice the Oak Tree Racing Association wishes to honor Zenyatta by naming a stakes race after her. Zenyatta won four grade I stakes during Oak Tree at Santa Anita meetings, including the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic in 2008 and this year's Breeders' Cup Classic. Oh, and for the last two years she also won the Lady's Secret Stakes, named for the 1986 Horse of the Year and champion older mare who became a member of the Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1992. The race Oak Tree has named for Zenyatta was formerly the Lady's Secret.

While no one can argue against naming a race for an unbeaten champion, surely there must be another race that could be named for Zenyatta.

This would be like Hollywood Park renaming the Charlie Whittingham Stakes for Bobby Frankel.

STARS WIN
While being interviewed in early October for a feature story (The Blood-Horse of Nov. 7, page 4070), WinStar Farm racing manager Elliott Walden was asked a simple question: Name a horse we haven't heard of yet but will soon? With farm owners Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt listening, Walden didn't hesitate. "American Lion and Super Saver," Walden said.

Since then American Lion (by Tiznow) broke his maiden and won the Nov. 21 Hollywood Prevue Stakes (gr. III), while Super Saver (by Maria's Mon) was a close fourth in the Champagne Stakes (gr. I), and won the Nov. 28 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (gr. II).
OK, we have now heard of them.

Partnership - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:35:00 GMT

The most important aspect of any business is the relationships that are built. We are not immune to that in the publishing business, our relationships being with our customers, whether they be subscribers, advertisers, Web site visitors, etc.

The Thoroughbred owner has many important relationships, but none more so than the one that exists with the man or woman entrusted to train his or her horses. We were reminded of this with the Nov. 16 death of Bobby Frankel, who trained for numerous owners, but was most closely associated in recent years with the Juddmonte Farms operation of owner Khalid Abdullah. The two clearly had a special relationship.

That type of special relationship was evident on racing’s biggest stage just nine days prior to Frankel’s passing when Zenyatta won the Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I). The bond between owners Ann and Jerry Moss and trainer John Shirreffs seems to be yet another example of how close people can become through racing.

There was another example during the Breeders’ Cup World Championships when Alain and Gerard Wertheimer won the Mile (gr. IT) for the second straight year with Goldikova, trained by Freddy Head. The Wertheimer and Head families have been intertwined for several generations.

Of course, the flip side was the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) won by She Be Wild. Owners Mike and Nancy Mazzoni just met trainer Wayne Catalano this spring, and She Be Wild is one of two fillies he agreed to take for them.

Whether an owner has had horses with a trainer for decades or months, the relationship is vitally important. It has always seemed ironic that a person who does extensive due diligence in his primary business before making any decision may hastily, and without much of any background work, hire a trainer—or boarding farm or sale consignor, for that matter—to oversee his investment in the Thoroughbred industry.

With modern-day statistics, it is easy to find information about trainers. Data are readily available, for example, on which trainers do better with 2-year-olds, or with turf starters, or have a higher percentage of horses that race until age 4 or 5.

Of course, the hiring of a trainer comes down to many factors, and what is most important surely varies from owner to owner. For instance, an owner may be influenced by such simple things as the region of the country he wishes to race in or the value of his racing stock.

This is far from a one-sided equation, however. Trainers should also do their homework, listening to the business plan and understanding the goals of the owner.

While there are numerous examples over the years of longtime affiliations between owners and trainers, there also are just as many notable break-ups.

Asked this summer why he seemed to have fewer horses, a prominent trainer said succinctly, “the owners that weren’t paying their bills were told to come and get their horses.”

Owners often take heat for changing trainers, but the man paying the bills should certainly be allowed to move his horses for any reason, or for that matter without explanation. So, too, the trainer should at any time be able to tell an owner to send a van to pick up his horses.

The owner/trainer relationship is an interesting one because it is about more than business; it is about equine athletes, each of whom requires individualized care.

A well-known trainer once said it was best to treat owners like mushrooms, meaning feed them manure and keep them in the dark. Another was often quoted as saying the worst owner was one that could read a condition book.

But the key to any business relationship should be open communication—especially between a Thoroughbred owner and trainer.

Small Fall - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:57:00 GMT

There appears to be a “glimmer of hope,” Keeneland associate director of sales Tom Thornbury said Nov. 16. For those who make their living breeding and selling Thoroughbreds, that glimmer shines brightly as they try to make sense of the bloodstock market.

Thornbury’s comments were echoed by several consignors who saw positive signs in the results of the Keeneland November sale, in particular that the gross was “only” down about 10% through six of 13 days of selling and that the RNA rate was 20.6% compared to 32.8% a year ago.

The Keeneland sale saw a dramatic decrease from 2007 to 2008, when the global economy took a real toll and the gross plummeted 45.5%. In two years’ time the gross receipts of $340 million in 2007, an auction record, will fall this year to roughly $160 million.

Through Nov. 15 the cumulative gross for North American Thoroughbred auctions of horses of all ages was $637.7 million. Projecting THAT number through the end of the year shows a gross of about $660 million, a drop of 32% from last year when the total year’s gross was $972.8 million. The gross in 2007 was $1.2 billion.

You would have to go back to 1997 to see a gross for all North American sales near the projection for 2009; in 1997 the figure was $693 million.

The decrease in the number of horses bought back indicates an acceptance of the marketplace, as well as the thought that many horses had to be sold to satisfy creditors.

It should be noted that at the Keeneland sale the dispersal of Overbrook Farm, again through day six, accounted for just under 20% of the gross. No one likes selling into a down market, but the fact is the Overbrook horses stood out at a time when many breeders are holding on to top mares and foals. The 93 Overbrook horses averaged $297,000, compared to $108,000 for the entire sale. W.T. Young built a premier breeding operation at Overbrook, and breeders seized the opportunity to buy into the farm’s female families.

KENTUCKY’S LOSS

The definition of irony arrived this week in the form of a press release announcing that Ro Parra’s Millennium Farms in Central Kentucky was selling a portion of 30 mares to Moon Lake Farm in Louisiana and relocating the mares there (read online at www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/53398). Parra had previously announced he was moving some stallions to Moon Lake.

The ironic part is that the release was distributed by Damon Thayer, who owns Thayer Communications and Consulting and counts Parra among his clients. Thayer, a member of the Kentucky State Senate, has angered many Kentucky horsemen by refusing to work toward the passage of legislation to allow slot machines at the state’s racetracks.

“We will likely move more mares over time,” said Parra. “We feel that the Kentucky program is not as competitive as other regional programs like the one in Louisiana.”
Parra is the type of person we need in the Thoroughbred industry. He made money as an executive with Dell computers, started in Texas, and moved to Kentucky. That one of Thayer’s clients is moving mares and stallions out of Kentucky to a state bolstered with slots revenue, is, well, the ultimate in irony.

A GIANT DEPARTS

Racing lost a Hall of Fame member Nov. 16 when trainer Bobby Frankel died at age 68 after a battle with leukemia. Frankel began with claimers and rose to the top of his profession, in the process moving from his native New York to California.

To some, Frankel’s personality was an acquired taste, but to all, his training prowess was easily recognized. He had a special way with horses, and, in fact, all animals, being a true dog lover as well.

Two statistics tell you all you need to know about how good a trainer Frankel was: He saddled the winners of more than 160 grade I races, and since the Eclipse Awards began in 1971 only one trainer, Bobby Frankel, has won five times.

Golden State - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:03:00 GMT

Despite the legitimate gripes by Easterners about the Breeders’ Cup World Championships being run two consecutive years in California, there is much to like about having the races at Santa Anita. It is a beautiful place to watch horses train, offers majestic scenery (when the haze allows you to see it), and the weather Nov. 6-7 was nearly as spectacular as the racing.

Granted, the continuous on-track announcement proclaiming Santa Anita as “the most exciting place on earth” was laughable, but for two days, the racetrack lived up to its label as “The Great Race Place.”

Despite the fact Santa Anita is an excellent place to host the Breeders’ Cup, it should not have had the event two years in a row. Nor should any track. The founders designed the Breeders’ Cup to change locations each year, moving around the country, and that is as it should be, for many reasons.

Only a handful of tracks can play host to the Breeders’ Cup, and it is good the organization’s leaders appear ready to announce a rotation for several years into the future, as is done routinely in other sports.

Clinging to the marketing-speak that the reason the Breeders’ Cup was held in Southern California in successive years was to attract Hollywood stars may have actually been a dream some marketing person had, but suffice it to say it was a pipe dream at best. While some sports and entertainment stars show up annually for Kentucky Derby weekend, there has never been a huge turnout from that community at the Breeders’ Cup, including the past two years.

Because of the economy, and because some Breeders’ Cup races seemingly were contrived and have no real divisions to support them, the organizaton’s board should seriously discuss changing the event back to one day and trimming the number of races from 14 to nine or 10.

One is left with some impressions from this year’s event:

It was pleasing that in a year when the Breeders’ Cup was held in California, two winners—California Flag and Dancing in Silks—were bred in the Golden State. Not unlike what is occurring in some other states, California’s breeding industry has suffered mightily in recent years; farms have closed; mares have left or are not being bred; and the number of stallions is decreasing. Hopefully, this Breeders’ Cup success will help.
Breeding and racing is about the dream, no matter who you are. We were reminded of this during winner’s circle celebrations. There were winning owners of considerable wealth as well as others in a far lower tax bracket. A good horse can come from anywhere.
The Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I) win by Zenyatta opens up the Horse of the Year discussion. Her victory was exhilarating. But the vote should not be about one race or who won the most recent race. It should be about the body of work over the entire year. Just as a horse should not get an Eclipse Award for winning one race in this country, neither should a horse be rewarded for showing up, or be penalized for not showing up, on a particular day.
Repeat wins by Goldikova and Conduit and then watching the first female win the Classic were simply as good as it gets.
Zenyatta had a bit of trouble loading, had to suffer with the rest of the field through Quality Road’s antics, broke on the wrong lead, was throwing her head the first 200 yards…and then won with a dramatic run to deny a most game Gio Ponti. She walked onto the track with her head bowed, reached her right front out in a sign of majesty, and on the way back to the winner’s circle, stopped to pose before parading in front of her adoring fans. She is class personified in the Thoroughbred. Even members of the press, as jaded and cynical as they are, stood and clapped.

Less Than Classic - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:45:00 GMT

You would think Eileen Mayer never heard of P.T. Barnum.

Mayer is Chief of Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation. Her job involves overseeing probes into claims of tax fraud. Barnum, of course, was the famous 19th century master of hoaxes, founder of the outfit that would become the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, and the man erroneously credited with saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

After three principals of the former ClassicStar horse breeding operation—David Plummer; his son, Spencer Plummer; and accountant Terry Green—were reported last week by the U.S. Department of Justice as having pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding the United States, it was Mayer who said, “Investment schemes that seem too good to be true should be a signal to individuals to stay clear.”

Furthermore, Mayer said, “The IRS is actively pursuing promoters who market these tax-evasion schemes.”

P.T. Barnum was a self-proclaimed promoter. So, too, was David Plummer, who founded ClassicStar and recruited investors to participate in the company’s mare lease program. A release from the government about the guilty pleas said Spencer Plummer “assisted David Plummer in the operation of the mare lease program,” and Green assisted investors by “preparing and filing income tax returns on which they reported fraudulent deductions” and “assisted customers in their IRS audits by creating false and backdated documents and presenting them to IRS auditors,” the government alleged.

The information presented in the government’s case by the justice department claims participants in the ClassicStar mare lease program filed tax returns with the IRS claiming false tax deductions of more than $500 million, resulting in a tax loss to the government of more than $200 million.

Other allegations against ClassicStar include: lacking sufficient mares to fulfill its obligations to investors and at times substituting Quarter Horse mares; providing loans to investors through National Equine Lending Co., said to be an independent company but actually owned by ClassicStar; and often, at the conclusion of an investor’s participation, having the outstanding loan “extinguished through fictitious trades involving an entity that purportedly owned interests in coal bed methane gas wells” through ClassicStar’s parent company, GeoStar.

ClassicStar began buying mares earlier this decade: $4,171,000 for 15 mares in 2001; the leading purchaser by money spent in 2002 and 2003, with 27 mares for $17,535,000 in 2002, and $13,570,000 for 20 mares the following year; and $9,835,000 for a dozen mares in 2004.

It didn’t take long for things to unravel.

In 2006 ClassicStar’s Kentucky farm was raided by federal agents, as was David Plummer’s Buffalo Ranch in Utah. Later that year a group of ClassicStar mares was sold at auction for $20.8 million. The following year 48 ClassicStar mares were purchased for $9.8 million by John Sykes of Cloverleaf Farm in Florida, who would also purchase ClassicStar’s Central Kentucky farm in partnership. The money was used to pay creditors.

In September 2007, ClassicStar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; court documents listed claims from more than 200 persons totaling nearly $1.4 billion.
Numerous civil suits alleging fraud involving ClassicStar and its practices are still pending. Newspaper reports have said the Plummers and Green, who each face a maximum sentence of five years for conspiracy to defraud the government, are cooperating in the continuing investigation.

It is hard to imagine anyone who makes his living breeding Thoroughbreds fully believed the veracity of the mare lease program’s claims that were the underlying principle of ClassicStar.

People have been breeding horses for many years, and there are many intelligent and experienced attorneys and accountants who handle nothing but equine accounts. They are well versed in the tax codes as they apply to breeding and racing horses, including those leased from one entity to another.

Eileen Mayer is an experienced attorney herself, and as she said, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

A Great Guy - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:34:00 GMT

I tuned in Aug. 8 to listen to Ralph Wilson give his acceptance speech when the longtime owner of the Buffalo Bills was enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame.

As the applause quieted, I dialed Bruce Hundley’s cell number to ask a question, the answer to which I already knew. Bruce raised and sold horses for Ralph for decades.

“What are you doing?”

“I just watched Ralph give his speech,” Hundley said. “What a guy. What a great guy.”

One day about 30 years earlier Bruce phoned Ralph and told him, “We have a great colt here. He will do well at the sale.”

“What do you mean ‘we?’ ” Wilson asked.

“Well, Mr. Wilson, you haven’t paid your bill in a while,” Bruce said, and a lifelong friendship was forged.

Bruce, who died Oct. 21 at age 67, forged many lifelong friendships.

I first met Bruce July 24, 1984, at the Keeneland summer yearling sale, but we didn’t become good friends until 20 years later. That day in 1984, as the bidding on a Northern Dancer colt Bruce was selling for Ralph reached $4.5 million, Bruce ran down the aisle of the pavilion to the auction stand. It had not been announced the colt, out of the group stakes-winning and classic-placed Le Fabuleux mare Fabuleux Jane, was a cribber.

It took a brave man to stop the bidding on a horse at $4.5 million.

The bidding began again, and the colt was sold to Sheikh Mohammed for $7.1 million.

Though that colt, named Jareer, didn’t amount to much, Bruce did raise four champions at his Saxony Farm—two for Wilson, one for himself and partner Wayne Garrison, and another for a breeding partnership he managed.

For Wilson, he raised and sold Ajdal, a Northern Dancer colt out of Fabuleux Jane’s dam, the Raise a Native mare Native Partner. Ajdal brought $7.5 million and was the champion sprinter in England in 1987. For his friend he also raised and sold Arazi, a son of Blushing Groom out of Fabuleux Jane’s daughter Danseur Fabuleux. Sold as a weanling for $350,000, Arazi won the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (gr. I) and was champion 2-year-old male in the U.S. and France.

Bruce told Ralph to sell colts and keep fillies to develop female families. Wilson had acquired Fabuleux Jane’s granddam, the Tom Fool mare Dinner Partner, as a yearling in 1960 for $20,000. Dinner Partner, Native Partner, and Fabuleux Jane all became stakes winners and stakes producers.

As a child growing up in Louisiana, all Bruce wanted to do was raise champion cattle and horses. During a trip to Kentucky in 1964 he met Doug Davis Jr., and the trainer and breeder became his mentor. One day while working for Davis at Oaklawn Park, Bruce met his wife, Susan. Not long after, they moved to Kentucky and bought the first parcel of what would become Saxony.

For 40 years Bruce raised and sold horses in Central Kentucky. He often said of selling yearlings: “You can’t hide a good one, and you can’t give away a bad one.”

Bruce’s son, Broussard, has learned his father’s lessons, and will keep the Saxony name alive and well.

Bruce liked good horses, but he also lived for good food, good wine, and good conversation. Not to mention good fly fishing and good hunting. He was an avid polo player. He served on the Kentucky Racing Commission and Equine Drug Council and was very active politically.

Visitors were always welcome at the gathering spot at Saxony, which Bruce called his cantina. The building was filled with saddles, spurs, photos, and hides he had collected over the years, and friends sat around a giant table made from a tree on the farm that had fallen during a storm.

Bruce was free with his thoughts, and he never, ever ran out of colorful stories.

He would say to me, “Here’s what I thought about your column,” and then would add, “That’s just my opinion.”

He was a friend to many. He was a man who wanted only what was best for the industry. And he was a hell of a horseman.

But that’s just my opinion.

Chilling Spills - By Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:09:00 GMT

The top three headlines in the news section of BloodHorse.com the morning of Oct. 19:

Kaenel Retires From Race Riding
Jockey Escobar Out 4-6 Weeks
Albarado Off Oct. 18 Mounts at Keeneland

Sadly, word was then received that at Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw, Okla., rider Mark Pace was killed Oct. 18 when he was thrown from his mount, Reep What You Sow, after she hit the rail.

Mark Pace was 58 years old and had just arrived at the racetrack from a farm in Texas. He picked up the mount on the maiden claimer after jockey Mike Bishop was injured the day before and took off his mounts. It was only Pace’s second mount in 2009. He was said to have previously ridden more than 10 years ago, but Equibase shows no wins at recognized tracks for Pace.

By contrast, Kyle Kaenel is only 21 but has been banged up enough already to call it quits. His riding career lasted five years.

Kaenel, son of former rider Cowboy Jack Kaenel—who was the youngest jockey to win a Triple Crown race when he guided Aloma’s Ruler home in the 1982 Preakness Stakes (gr. I) at the age of 16—was injured in a spill Sept. 27 at Fairplex Park. Kaenel’s mount, maiden claimer Sheval Dom Sallay, clipped heels, tossing him to the dirt. He suffered a broken collarbone, shoulder blade, acromion (a bone at the top of the shoulder blade), and pinched a nerve in his back. In previous riding accidents he had broken his back and neck.

Having begun riding in the fall of 2004 at age 16, Kaenel had booted home 608 winners from 4,345 mounts; this year he had 47 winners, three in stakes races.

Martin Escobar, 41, has numbers very similar to Kaenel’s. He began riding in 2001 and has 687 winners to his credit from 6,420 mounts. This year he has visited the winner’s circle 55 times from 469 mounts, with eight wins from 93 mounts at the current Remington meeting.

Escobar had finished second in the last race at Remington Park Oct. 17 when his mount, Cuvee Blanc, fell just past the wire, unseating the rider. The jockey walked away under his own power but was later found to have a fractured hand and back and will be sidelined four to six weeks.

Then there is Robby Albarado, who is one of the top riders in North America; the man who guided Curlin to his two Horse of the Year campaigns.

Albarado, 36, has been aboard 4,067 winners from 24,668 mounts and is having an excellent 2009, with 166 victories from 929 races and three grade I wins. In the sixth race at Keeneland, Oct. 17, an allowance event on the turf, Albarado’s mount, My Baby Baby, stumbled at the start. In regaining her footing, My Baby Baby’s head came back and hit Albarado in the head, cutting the jockey near his right eye. He took off his mounts Oct. 18 but was expected to return to riding Oct. 21.

It is hard enough for a jockey to maintain weight by sitting in a sweat box or purging what he or she eats. But there is much more to it than that. Jockeys compete in a sport that is not only demanding physically and mentally, but full of peril at every turn. The Jockeys’ Guild reports that 150 jockeys have been killed in riding accidents since 1940.

Of course, accidents don’t just happen in the afternoons or evenings. The same dangers exist for jockeys and exercise riders who guide horses in their daily morning gallops and breezes.

Padded helmets, protective vests, safety rails, synethetic surfaces—all have been designed to help protect those who ride Thoroughbreds. But this week’s headlines are yet another reminder of how dangerous it is to be an athlete who rides Thoroughbred horses for a living.

The best thing you can wish a jockey as he or she is being legged up is simple: Have a safe trip.