State Of The Art is coming to China

By Sally Duckett

Horses being led back to stables after security checks.

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

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

Horses enjoy the spacious and comfortable living environment at CRC.

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

The trainers pavilion has an unobstructed view of the racecourse.

Nine trainers were invited to send horses to Conghua last autumn, and each has a string of between 15 to 20 horses based at the 150-hectare site—the trainers now termed ‘dual-site trainers’. Currently around 150 horses are in training at the €377 million facility, although by December 2018 the number of horses who had shipped to Conghua, returned to Sha Tin and travelled to China had already exceed 500 individuals.

The equine swimming pool has a depth of 2.6m.

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

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

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

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

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

CRC will serve as a world-class facility for the training of Hong Kong's racehorses.

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

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

Establishment of the Equine Disease Free Zone

Wash-down facilities.

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

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

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Hit the Books!

By Denise Steffanus

Continuing education for trainers and their assistants has been a topic kicked around the racing industry since 1999. In the world at large, continuing education is a standard requirement to maintain an occupational license. Even hair stylists must complete courses to renew their credentials. But horse trainers, who have the lives of horses and riders in their hands, do not.

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

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

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

"The request from the industry was to provide an online platform for educational content that could be accessible for free to the industry and provide tracking," O'Meara said. "These [modules] were produced or reviewed by professors at NARA and UC-Davis, with most of the topics stemming from the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit. The system used is Articulate, which is a standard online course development program used by many universities."

The courses include timely issues, such as bisphosphonate use in racehorses and the management of equine herpesvirus (EHV-1). Another module teaches trainers how to identify horses at risk for a breakdown. 

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

As of mid-June, 365 participants had accessed the program, completing 715 course modules. When a participant has completed a course, he or she can specify which racing jurisdiction(s) to notify. At present, New York, California and Delaware accept these certifications of completion. O'Meara maintains a file of certificates for other jurisdictions to be provided to them if and when they adopt a continuing education program. 

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

New York: What not to do

New York is the only U.S. racing jurisdiction that requires continuing education for trainers and assistants. The New York State Gaming Commission approved the requirement in December 2016, mandating four hours of approved continuing education each calendar year as a requirement for license renewal, effective January 1, 2017. Those not domiciled in New York who have 12 or fewer starts during the previous 12 months may request a waiver of this requirement. 

The New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA) produced classroom presentations at the racetrack for horsemen to comply with the gaming commission's regulation. Online access to the continuing education program, which is available via YouTube, is simply a video of the classroom lectures, with no way to verify if the trainer actually watched the video. The gaming commission also accepts approved continuing education credits offered by the Grayson-Jockey Club, American Veterinary Medical Association-approved Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, other North American racing jurisdictions, and the ARCI.

The New York program fizzled. Nine days before the first year's deadline for compliance, a memo from Dr. Scott Palmer, the gaming commission's equine medical director, extended the deadline for compliance by 45 days, until February 15, 2018, because "many" trainers had not complied. What is interesting is that trainers need only email a form to the gaming commission that states they have completed the required continuing education courses. It's the honor system, with no proof required.  

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

Claude “Shug” McGaughey III

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

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

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

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

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

"Don't make it look like we don't know what we're doing. I've been doing this for 40 years, and I'm not a genius, but I've got some sort of idea of what the rules are, what you need to do, how you get licensed, and all that kind of stuff. And I don't really need to have somebody throwing that in my face. So I would think that maybe if they had presented it a little better, if they would present it better, some of the stuff that they do, they just didn't handle it, I think, in the right direction."

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

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Gut health - aspects of bad behavior and how to fix it

By Bill Vandergrift, PhD

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

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

Digestive health

While most trainers are familiar with gastric ulcers, their symptoms and common protocols utilized to heal and prevent them, there still remains a degree of confusion regarding other forms of digestive dysfunction that can have a significant effect on the horse’s performance and behavior. In many cases recurrent gastric ulcers are simply a symptom of more complex issues related to digestive health.  Trainers, veterinarians and nutritionists need to understand that no part of the horse’s digestive tract is a stand-alone component. From the mouth to the rectum, all parts of the digestive system are in constant communication with each other to coordinate motility, immune function, secretion of digestive juices and the production of hormones and chemical messengers. If this intricate system of communication is interrupted, the overall function of the digestive system becomes uncoupled, leading to dysfunction in one or more areas of the digestive tract.

For example, a primary cause of recurrent gastric ulcers that return quickly after successful treatment with a standard medication protocol is often inflammation of the small and/or large intestine. Until the intestinal inflammation is successfully controlled, the gastric ulcers will remain persistent due to the uncoupling of communication between the stomach and lower part of the digestive tract.

How do we define digestive health? Obviously, digestive health is a complex topic with many moving parts (figuratively and literally). The main parts of a healthy digestive system include, but are not limited to 1) the microbiome, 2) hormone and messenger production and activity, 3) health of epithelial tissues throughout the digestive system, 4) normal immune function of intestinal tissue and 5) proper function of the mucosa (smooth muscle of the digestive tract) to facilitate normal motility throughout the entire length of the digestive tract.

Microbiome is key

A healthy and diverse microbiome is at the center of digestive health. We now recognize that reduced diversity of the microbiome can lead to digestive dysfunction such as colic and colitis, development of metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance, reduced performance and increased susceptibility to disease. Research efforts leading to greater understanding of the microbiome have recently been aided by the development of more sophisticated techniques used to identify and measure the composition of the microbiome in horses, laboratory animals, pets, livestock and people. While these research efforts have illustrated how little we really understand the microbiome, there have been significant discoveries stemming from these efforts already.  For example, a specific bacteria (probiotic) is now being used clinically in people to reverse depression resulting from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Bifidobacterium longum NCC3001 reduces depression in IBS patients by directly affecting the activity of the vagus nerve which facilitates communication between the brain and the digestive tract. It should be noted that Bifidobacterium longum NCC3001 has been demonstrated to be more effective at reducing depression in IBS patients than antidepressant drugs commonly used in these same cases. While we do not commonly recognize clinical depression as a physiological condition in horses, the same mechanisms that affect the function of the vagus nerve and brain chemistry in IBS patients can affect a horse’s behavior and reactivity due to intestinal dysfunction, resulting in a horse that bites, kicks, pins its ears or otherwise demonstrates hyper-reactivity for no apparent reason, especially if this behavior is a recent development.

One case in particular I dealt with years ago that had underlying suggestions of depression in a horse, and underscores the importance of a diverse and healthy microbiome for performance horses, was a horse that had been recently started in training and was working with compliance on the track. The problem was this horse seemed to be unable to find the “speed gear.” The trainer had consulted with various veterinarians, physical therapists, chiropractors and others in an attempt to pinpoint the cause for this horse’s apparent inability to move out; and it was everyone’s opinion that this particular horse had the ability but he simply wasn’t displaying the desire. In other words, he was “just dull.”  After reviewing this horse’s case and diet, I had to concur with everyone else that there was no obvious explanation for the lack of vigor this horse displayed on the track even though his body condition, muscle development and hair coat were all excellent. Despite any outward signs of a microbiome problem other than the horse’s “dullness,” I recommended a protocol that included high doses of probiotics daily, and within 10 days we had a different horse. The horse was no longer dull under saddle and when asked to move out and find the next gear, he would readily comply; by making an adjustment to the microbiome, this horse’s career was saved.

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

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Gary Young

By Ed Golden

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

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

“It’s about Russia.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“My dad would take me to the paddock and point out certain things, like horses washing out,” Young said, recalling those halcyon days of yesteryear. “We saw horses like Damascus, Dr. Fager and Buckpasser run there. When I was 12 years old, Secretariat came to Arlington after he won the Triple Crown at Belmont in 1973.

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

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

“Arnold was a really big trainer in Illinois,” Young said. “We’d see each other and I’d say hi to him. My parents (Cliff and Rachel) were weary of the Illinois winters and always talked about moving to Miami where Winick primarily was based.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“He was the meanest horse you’d ever want to be around but also an unbelievable talent. He won a couple stakes in Florida like a really good horse, but Arnold always would cut back his stock there and around April, he sent some to California, including Spence Bay.

“California was California at that time, and I took the opportunity to come there with Spence Bay in April of 1981 and clock horses.

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

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

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

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Dr. Joel Politi - Serengeti Empress and Bill and Corrine Heiligbrodt - Mitole and co-owners of Mia Mischief

By Bill Heller

Telling the stories behind a selection of owners who won Grade 1 races this spring. 

Dr. Joel Politi - Serengeti Empress

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

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

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

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

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

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

But the deepest-rooted challenge in Politi’s life is Thoroughbred racing, tracing back to the days he shared with his late father Jacques, a pediatric allergist who had a 12-horse barn of Thoroughbreds in their backyard. “My priorities are work, family, exercise and then horse racing,” Politi said. “But I love horse racing. I grew up with a barn in my backyard. I’d get the newspaper every day just to see the horses running at Thistledown and Waterford Park (now Mountaineer). In the winter, we used to drive an hour Friday night to get the Racing Form just to look at before we went to the track at Thistledown the next day. I was 12, or 13. I got into it. I really got into it.”

Serengeti Empress

Politi and his three older siblings, Diane, June and John, earned 25 cents to feed the horses each morning, and they spent as much time as possible watching them race. Most, but not all of those Thoroughbreds were low-end claimers. “We had $1,500 claimers at Waterford and Thistledown,” Politi said. “That’s where I grew up. My dad owned and bred a bunch of Ohio-bred stakes winners. That was a really big accomplishment, especially with a home-bred. I said, `Wouldn’t it be great to win a little stakes?’”

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

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

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

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

Let’s face it. Bill and Corrine Heiligbrodt did just an awful job of getting out of the Thoroughbred business in 2011. Eight years after their dispersal sale, they enjoyed an afternoon at Churchill Downs few owners could even imagine. They won two Gr 1 stakes on Kentucky Derby Day, the Churchill Down Stakes with Mitole and, in partnership with Heider Family Stable and Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables, the Humana Distaff with Mia Mischief.

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

Mitole

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

Good thing the cowboy got back into racing, right?

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

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

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

Corinne and L. William Heiligbrodt

Heiligbrodt met his lifelong partner Corrine, in high school, where they became sweethearts. “We were together in high school and then in college,” he said. They’re still sweethearts. “I think the big thing is we enjoy the same things,” Heiligbrodt said.

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

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

After finishing graduate school, Heiligbrodt moved to California, taking a job with United California Bank. “I went to work in California and went to the races in California,” he said. “I liked it. We went a lot. I did handicapping. I got thoroughly indoctrinated in that.”

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

Twenty years later, he took a job with United Service Corp International, one of his bank’s former customers. He became president and CEO before leaving to work for two other companies until he retired in 2015.

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

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

They didn’t need a long time to pick out their racing silks: white and burnt orange, the colors of the University of Texas. “We’re pretty big Texas fans,” he said. “She’s the only one who bleeds more orange than me. She’s pretty tough, too.”

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

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

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

That’s not bad for a cowboy.

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Skin deep - overcoming barriers for effective transdermal drug delivery

By Professor Roger Smith

Ancient art, modern science

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

Although the art of transdermal delivery of medicines dates back millennia, it is only in more recent times that the science of transdermal drug delivery in man has advanced significantly.  The choice of modern drugs for topical applications is, however, relatively limited compared to the seemingly infinite choice available for oral delivery. This is perhaps not surprising since the gut is an organ that has evolved with the main purpose of absorbing food (chemicals when it comes to it) whereas the skin, despite being the largest organ, has evolved primarily as a protective layer to prevent desiccation of underlying tissues and to keep out harmful environmental chemicals. As this includes medicinal drugs, the pursuit of transdermal administration would appear, at first sight, to be an illogical choice. However, there are several compelling reasons why transdermal delivery routes are an important alternative to pills, injections or inhalation routes:

• It avoids poor absorption after oral ingestion—especially in animals, the absorption of a drug can vary between the omnivore (e.g., human) and herbivore (e.g., horse) stomach.  

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

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

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

• It enables ease and efficacy of drug withdrawal.

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

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

Challenges for transdermal drug applications

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

Topical applications, such as insect repellents and sunscreen creams, target the surface of the skin or deliver a drug locally such as for the control of inflammation (insect bite or reaction to an allergen). In contrast the aim of transdermal, or subcutaneous, applications are to deliver the drug deeper to either an adjacent organ, or, more commonly, to the blood circulation as an alternative to oral or needle routes to reach distant organs. The main barrier to local or transdermal delivery is the outermost layer of the skin, called the stratum corneum in the epidermis. This consists of dead skin cells, the corneocytes, that combine with lipid bilayers into a tightly packed “bricks-and-mortar” layer that form alternating hydrophilic (the water rich corneocytes) and hydrophobic (lipid bilayer) regions (figure 1). The stratum corneum therefore not only forms a mechanically robust layer but also presents a challenge in designing drugs with chemical properties that can negotiate their way into and through these contrasting hydrophobic and hydrophilic environments to reach the lower region of the epidermis. The epidermis consists of living skin cells but has no blood vessels for the drug to diffuse into, so instead the drug must penetrate further to the dermis where it can finally enter the bloodstream or the subcutaneous layers.

Routes for drugs through the skin

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

Transcellular route: Drugs pass through the corneocytes of the stratum corneum rather than the lipid ‘mortar’ that surrounds them. However, the drug has to exit the cell to enter the next corneocyte and therefore through the skin. It means that it has to encounter the external hydrophobic environment between the cells multiple times as it moves through the alternating cell and lipid layers of the epidermis. Drugs therefore have to have balanced hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties to enable this to happen. 

Intercellular route: The drug predominantly diffuses through the lipid rich “mortar” around the corneocytes of the epidermis. This lipid matrix can form a continuous route through the epidermis (avoiding entering the cells), but this route has been suggested to be less efficient because it increases the distance 50-fold3 compared to the direct route through the stratum corneum due to the interdigitating brick and mortar arrangement. Again, the chemical formulation used to carry the drug is important and drugs that more readily dissolve in lipids benefit from this route.

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

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Pedigree vs Conformation

By Judy Wardrope

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

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

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

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

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

What about when planning a potential breeding for a mare or a stallion? Is conformation more important than pedigree? Or does pedigree have more influence than conformation? How much of a role does marketing play in the selections?  

Although ancestry and conformation do go together, the correlation is complicated. For example, top basketball players tend not to come from families of short people, but most NBA stars do not have siblings who are star players. The rule holds for other athletes, including gymnasts. But what would you get if you crossed a basketball player with a gymnast? 

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

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

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

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

Ocean Colors

PEDIGREE 

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

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

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

CONFORMATION

Her lumbosacral gap (LS), which is just in front of the high point of croup and functions like the horse's transmission, is considerably rearward of ideal. This constitutes a significant difference when compared to either of her athletic parents. 

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

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

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

Because her humerus (elbow to point of shoulder) is not as long as one would expect for a range of motion that would match that of her hindquarters, she likely resembles her sprinter lines in this area. Although I never saw her race, I strongly suspect that her gait was not smooth. In order to compensate for a shorter stride in the front than in the back, she probably wanted to suspend the forehand while her hindquarters went through the full range of motion. Unfortunately, she is not strong enough in the LS to effectively use that method of compensating.

RECORDS

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

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

Sequoyah

PEDIGREE

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

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

CONFORMATION

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

His rear triangle is slightly shorter on the femur side (point of hip to stifle protrusion), which not only decreases the range of motion of the rear leg by changing the stride’s ellipse, but it adds stress to the hind leg from hock down.

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

His pillar of support does emerge in front of the withers, but the bottom of the line emerges behind the heel, making him susceptible to injury to the suspensory apparatus of the foreleg (tendons and ligaments).

His humerus is of medium length and is moderately angled and would represent a range of motion that would match the hindquarters. However, the tightness of his elbow (note the circled muscling over the elbow) would likely prevent him from using the full range of motion. He would stop the motion before the elbow contacted his ribs; thus, the development of that particular muscle as a brake and a reduction in stride length. His base of neck was well above point of shoulder, which adds some lightness to his forehand.

RECORDS

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

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#Soundbites - Should rules be added to limit or eliminate a jockey’s use of the whip?

#Soundbites

Compiled by Bill Heller

Robbie Davis

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

Carla Gaines

It’s interesting. At this stage, the whip is so soft. Here in California, our sticks are as soft as can be. We used to use a stick which was far more severe for decades. It left welts. I rode horses all my life. I think the stick is necessary. You’re sitting on top of an explosive, thousand-pound animal. The stick will help control the horse. A lot of people advocate no stick. I understand that public concern is we’re hitting the horse, but it’s used to control the horse. People who work with other animals know you have to have some sense of control, not abuse. You have to keep them going in a straight line, or they could endanger somebody’s life.

John Velazquez (Hall of Fame Jockey)

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

Jeremiah Englehart

I can see a limited use of the whip to a certain degree. I like what Ramon’s (Dominguez) whip has done. I think from before, the old whips, you would get more whelps. With Ramon’s whip, it will be enough to get a horse’s attention. There are times when the whip has a good use. With a green horse, you’re trying to keep everyone on the racetrack safe. They’re not going to run in a straight line all the time. The use of the whip is necessary. I don’t think eliminating the whip is the answer. There should be panel looking at it with riders involved.

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Tony Gattellaro

By Alex Campbell

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

The 33-year-old native of Aurora, Ontario, got exposed to horse racing through family ties to the sport. Gattellaro’s grandfather is owner and breeder Mike Nosowenko, and Tony’s father, Joe Gattellaro, owned horses. Gattellaro got an inside look at the sport of horse racing through his family’s ownership of racehorses as a young child and would even pretend to buy horses himself out of sales catalogs.

“As a kid, seeing the jockeys in colors and being around the racetrack and experiencing all of the excitement, I just kind of caught the bug at a young age,” he said. “My grandpa and my dad would put a sales book in my hand. Literally, I was eight or nine years old and I was playing with a sales book, memorizing stallion names and what not. That’s where I got that side of the bug in terms of pedigrees, sales and purchasing horses. I was doing mock sales purchases and following the horses.”

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

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

After high school, Gattellaro attended Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, and upon graduation he moved out west to figure out what he wanted to do. As the 2009 Kentucky Derby drew closer, Gattellaro decided that he wanted to pursue a career in horse racing, and reached out to a representative from the Canadian branch of Adena Springs in his hometown of Aurora for work.

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

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

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

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

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

Gattellaro was getting set to move back to the west coast again to work on a project with Andy Stronach when Stronach presented him with an opportunity to get into training.

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

Gattellaro spent three years on the west coast training horses at Portland Meadows, Hastings Racecourse, and Emerald Downs, and recorded eight wins from 115 starts to go along with 19 runner-up finishes and 16 third-place finishes between 2014 and 2016. Among the more memorable horses Gattellaro trained while out west included Dynasheals, who was Gattellaro’s first winner.

Gattellaro’s plan was always to return to Woodbine, and in 2016, he made his way back east after setting up a small breeding operation a few years prior. Among the first horses Gattellaro raced back at Woodbine were a pair of homebreds out of mares he had purchased while working at Adena Springs. Gattellaro’s first Woodbine starter, Hockey Hair, was out of Tetherette, while Fresh Princess was out of Kamaina Rose, a mare Gattellaro had purchased for $800 at the 2011 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Ontario Division’s Winter Mixed Sale. At the time Gattellaro purchased her, Kamaina Rose was in foal to Macho Uno, and Gattellaro went on to sell that foal as a weanling for $20,000 at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in 2013. Gattellaro said it was the sale of the weanling that really got his business off and running…

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Is a foul a foul?

By Bill Heller

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

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

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

Nobody’s laughing.

Other than North America, racing jurisdictions around the world use Category 1 rules on interference that mandates a disqualification only if the horse who committed the foul gained from the interference. Penalties are severe for jockeys who commit a foul resulting in a disqualification: suspensions and fines which increase with repeated infractions.

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

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

The catalyst for Japan’s decision came after a controversial disqualification in one of its most cherished races, the 2010 Japan Cup. The popular favorite in the race, Buena Vista, won by two lengths but was disqualified and placed second because the stewards ruled that she had shifted in and cost Rose Kingdom a chance at a better placing,

Kim Kelly, chief steward of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and chairman of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) Harmonization Rules Committee, spoke about the effect of that disqualification at the International Conference of Horseracing Authorities in Paris on October 8, 2018: “The demotion of Buena Vista caused considerable consternation both within Japan and internationally as the horse which was overwhelmingly the best on the day was placed behind a horse which was demonstrably inferior. Even the trainer of the horse which was elevated to the winner of the race was quoted as saying that he had `mixed feelings’ about the result.”

Kelly continued, “The silver lining to what clearly was a less than ideal outcome was that the Japan Racing Association reacted positively to the international comment on the result by seeking assistance of the Harmonization Committee in changing to the Category 1 philosophy. It is indisputable that had Category 1 been in operation in Japan in 2010 then Buena Vista would have rightfully retained the race. The decision of the Japanese Racing Association to change to Category 1 was a brave one for which they deserve tremendous credit. To recognize that change was necessary and in the best interests of the sport, and to completely change a racing interference culture dating back decades was a significant moment for the JRA.”

More recently, both France and Germany, the last two European countries using Category 2, switched to Category 1 at the beginning of their 2018 seasons. They were followed by Panama, the last country in Latin America using Category 2, which switched to Category 1 in September 2018. 

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

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

That didn’t prevent a major controversy in 2002 which ultimately led to a change in New York’s racing rules. On August 19 at Saratoga, Silver Squire and his jockey Richard Migliore came in slightly in mid-stretch on the way to a 5 ¾ length victory. Just four days earlier, Migliore rode Doc’s Doll when she finished second after being bumped by the winner Roses for Sonja. “They posted the inquiry sign but left the number up because they said it didn’t affect the outcome,” Migliore said. He expected a similar result with Silver Squire. The official chart of the race said Silver Squire “lugged in a bit while blowing by the leaders.” Regardless, the stewards disqualified Silver Squire. Migliore ripped a phone out of the wall in the jockey’s room, got dressed and took off the rest of his mounts, actions which prompted a $2,000 fine.

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

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

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

That’s a decision stewards in each state must make based on its state’s rules, definitions and terms, which vary from state to state across the country. Sixteen years after Silver Squire’s disqualification at Saratoga, Daily Racing Form handicapper Mike Watchmaker wrote this of the 2018 Saratoga meet: “It is not hyperbole to suggest the inconsistency from the stewards at Saratoga meet was among the worst ever seen. It’s not even a stretch to make that claim. It’s a valid position. Forget about the demonstrable evidence that what was a foul one day was not another day. No one knew from race to race what an actionable foul was. If felt like the goalposts were always moving.”  

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

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

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

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

At the start, Bayern immediately veered inward, slamming Shared Belief hard enough to create a chain reaction, which affected both the horse in post five, V.E. Day, and Moreno. The incident was so blatant that the track announcer called it live, saying Bayern “may have impeded” other horses…

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Vickie and Greg Foley - Continuing a family tradition from their Kentucky bases

By Bill Heller

Asked how long the inquiry deciding the fate of her winner of the $400,000 Gr1 Woody Stephens Stakes Hog Creek Hustle seemed, trainer Vickie Foley said, “Eternity.” Then she added, “Usually, the longer it goes, the worse it is.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Greg waited until Vickie got out of the winner’s circle to call. “He said, `Congratulations! You did a hell of a job. I give you all the credit. I am so proud of you, and I love you,’” Vickie said. She was touched. “He’s not the mushy type,” she said.

His appreciation was genuine. “That was the first Gr1 for our family,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for a long time the hard way. We persevered and we’re still at it. It’s a tough sport, period, and that much tougher for a woman. I’m proud of her for that.”

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

They were blessed by a father and mother who not only showed them a way of life but also a way to live. “Racing automatically brings you together,” said Travis, who eschewed a corporate life with his MBA from the University of Kentucky to work for his father. “There’s a common ground. We’re all thinking about the same things—what’s going on with the stable. It’s a common ground most families don’t have. Family bonding definitely happens. Horse racing is seven days a week, getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning. You have to love it. Obviously, they do and they passed it on to me. That’s one of the reasons I stayed in it.”…

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