Claude ʻʻShugʼʼ McGaughey III, the legendary trainer of champions
![Claude 'Shug' McGaughey IIIBy Bill Heller Sustained excellence is a rare commodity in any endeavor, even more so in Thoroughbred racing when success is tied to 1,000-pound horses traveling 35 miles per hour, guided by jockeys making rapid strategic decisions one after another. “For every good thing that happens, 20 bad things happen,” Hall of Fame trainer Frank Whiteley advised his young assistant, Shug McGaughey, decades ago. McGaughey didn’t listen, made it into the Hall of Fame, and continues to succeed. He recently turned 70, and his horses have earned more than $2 million for 37 straight years, thanks to a win percentage of 21 at the highest level of racing. GREATEST HONOURHe won one Kentucky Derby with Orb in 2013—the best victory of all for a Lexington native. And he hoped to do it again this year with Courtlandt Farm’s Greatest Honour, who fired off consecutive victories in the Holy Bull Stakes and the Fountain of Youth Stakes before finishing third in the Florida Derby as the 4-5 favorite. Doing the right thing for your horse is easier when he’s doing well but much more difficult when he isn’t. McGaughey noticed something wrong with Greatest Honour and acted accordingly. “I wasn’t pleased with the way he galloped Saturday and Sunday,” Reported Shug on Thursday, April 8. “I said on Monday, `We have to get to the bottom of this.’” That meant X-rays, a bone scan and consulting with Dr. Larry Bramlage, who has always been close to Shug’s heart. Bramlage’s successful surgery on Personal Ensign when she suffered a broken pastern as a two-year-old allowed her to come back at three to resume her historic, unblemished career, culminating with her victory in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.McGaughey said Greatest Honour had a minor problem in his ankle which wouldn’t require surgery. On Wednesday, April 7, just 24 days before the Kentucky Derby, McGaughey announced that Greatest Honour would get 30 days off at Courtlandt Farms and then be re-evaluated, hopefully in time for him to race in the midsummer Derby— the Travers at Saratoga. “We just need to give him a little time. I feel bad for Don Adam [the owner of Courtlandt Farms] and for the horse.”McGaughey had to make that difficult phone call to Adam to tell him the bad news. “It’s not easy, but I’ve made that call a lot of times,” As Shug put it. “It’s part of the game.”Greatest Honour would have been one of the top contenders in the Triple Crown series. By doing the right thing, McGaughey is allowing Greatest Honour to reach his potential, no matter how much McGaughey wanted to win another 3yo classic race. The challenge of getting Greatest Honour back to the winner’s circle is one McGaughey has enjoyed his whole career. “I enjoy the horses, the competition, the clients; I don’t enjoy the politics in racing today. It makes it hard to keep focused on training: the visas, the cost of workman’s comp, knowing how far out you can give horses medication. Certain states have certain rules. Other states are different. I will be happy when we get some kind of uniformity.” Thanks to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, that is about to happen. “I think the Horseracing Integrity Act is a good thing; it’s definitely a good thing. We weren’t going to do it ourselves. We tried policing ourselves, and it didn’t work.” What has worked for McGaughey is letting his horses earn their way into major stakes by their performances. Greatest Honour would have been only McGaughey’s ninth starter in the Kentucky Derby. “He doesn’t put a horse in a race just to have a horse in a race,” his 34-year-old son Chip, an administrator at Keeneland, said. “He wakes up every morning and goes to sleep every night thinking about his horses. He wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about his horses. He has dedication to getting everything he can out of his horses by developing them. His training philosophy has always been doing what’s best for his horses. He’s always had that. He is a very patient trainer, allowing a horse to tell him what the next step is.” LET THE HORSES TALKMcGaughey said, “I think the biggest thing is you have to watch them and let them tell you what’s going on. I try not to wake them up too soon. I like to see them go well within themselves. I tell the exercise riders not to get them tired when they work them. I don’t want to overdo it. I want to teach them how to run, breeze them up in company, breeze them behind horses, a half in :50 or :51. They get enough out of the workout.”Reeve, Chip’s 31-year-old brother, who is off to a promising start on his own training career, saw Shug’s approach first-hand, working for his dad after stints with Eion Harty and Reeve’s uncle, Charlie LoPresti: “There are only a handful of guys who have sustained excellence for the duration of his career, he works hard. He’s a very good trainer. Obviously, what’s worked for him has worked for him for a very long time. It helps to get good horses.”It helps even more to get good horses with patient owners. Asked if he enjoys the process of understanding horses as individuals, McGaughey said, “Very much so. That’s the way I sort of centered my career around: try to develop good horses. One of my big breaks was working for Loblolly, and that’s what they wanted. Then I stepped into the Phipps job, and also Stuart Janney. That’s what they were interested in, trying to develop a nice horse that can compete in big races. All the people I train for—that’s what they want: getting a horse to stakes quality.”And winning with them. That’s what great trainers do. Their work ethic is a given. Long hours. An open mind is a decided asset. “I think that you’re still learning; you see something new almost every day. I don’t know if I’m a better trainer, but I understand it more. I think you understand the game better placing horses. I know when I was young, I thought they should win every race. If they didn’t, I thought it was my fault. Now I understand the circumstances of the race. You can get in trouble. You might not be in the right place. You can get stopped.”McGaughey hasn’t stopped attacking his profession. “That son of a gun is like the Energizer bunny,” Shug’s wife Allison said. “He works his butt off. He lives, eats and sleeps those horses. I’m younger than him, and I don’t know how he does it. He gets up at 4:30ish, leaves the house around 5, 5:15. Works at the barn til 11. Maybe plays a little golf, showers and goes back to the barn. He wants to be at the barn all day, run them and go back to the barn. It’s like a constant, non-stop. Won’t go out to dinner if there’s a horse to cool out or he’s waiting for a shipper to arrive. I say, `Why don’t you take it easy?’ ‘No.’ Why don’t you take a nap?’ ‘No.’ Why don’t you take a vacation?’ ‘No.’ But we enjoy it.”She enjoys the races a bit differently than Shug. “I get very excited; I like to yell. And his thing is, he takes them over there. He wants them to run well. If they don’t, he wants to work it out. If he runs well, he’s already thinking what the next start is. I’m more in the moment.” LOOKING BACKMcGaughey’s happiest moments include Personal Ensign’s last-gasp nose victory under Hall of Famer Randy Romero in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs to retire undefeated—a race chosen by fans in 2009 as the most exciting Breeders’ Cup race in its first 25 years. “I thought she was hopelessly beaten,” said McGaughey. Instead, she won, retiring as the first major undefeated horse with at least 10 starts since Colin, who retired with a 15-for-15 mark in 1908. No horse has done it since Personal Ensign, so it’s now 113 years. McGaughey’s saddest moment came 18 years later, in the same race—the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, at the same track—Churchill Downs. McGaughey’s three-year-old filly Pine Island, who had won the Gr1 Alabama and Gazelle Stakes, suffered a fatal injury early in the race. “This was the worst; it’s bad when it happens at Aqueduct. It’s not that easy to say, but I’ve always tried not to let myself get too close to them because I know this is something that can happen. They can be here today and gone tomorrow. When the newspaper arrived, I told them to put it in the trash. I didn’t want to see the pictures.”There were many more happy pictures than sad as McGaughey churned out one talented Thoroughbred after another. Shug’s nine victories in the Breeders’ Cup are topped only by D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert. Fourteen of McGaughey’s horses earned more than $1.5 million. Eight of those topped $2 million. Their common denominator was treating out-of-money finishes as if they were the plague. Personal Ensign’s 13-for-13 set the bar impossibly high, but McGaughey’s Easy Goer, Inside Information, and Heavenly Prize, never finished worse than third. Inside Information was 14-for-17 with one second and a pair of thirds. Heavenly Prize, whose losses included a lopsided one to Inside Information in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, was nine-for-18 with six seconds and three thirds. Easy Goer was 14-for-20 with five seconds and one third, and earnings of $4,873,770, over $2 million more than any of McGaughey’s horses.THE EARLY YEARSBut McGaughey’s life could have been much different. His family was in the laundry and dry cleaning business in Lexington. McGaughey was 12 or 13 when his dad took him to Keeneland. Soon, McGaughey and his buddies were sneaking into Keeneland. “I’d pick up the Daily Racing Form from the people who had taken out just the Keeneland PPs and bring the rest of it home. I’d read the articles and maybe look at the horses that were running at Arlington.”McGaughey got a job with trainer David Carr, a brother-in-law of one of his friends. “I became enthralled with the whole atmosphere. I mean I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed being around the barn. I enjoyed the after hours. When the work was done in the morning, I’d like to hang around. They were teaching me, and I was intrigued. If anything had to be done, I always wanted to be there to watch. I was always looking over the veterinarian’s shoulder. I felt that if I ever had to do it by myself, I wouldn’t want anyone standing over my shoulder and telling me what to do. I wanted to be able to make those decisions by myself.”When he decided to move on, he landed a job with Frank Whiteley in South Carolina. Ignoring Whiteley’s career advice, McGaughey went into training. Judging by his $154 million in career earnings—10th highest of all time and his 20 horses who have won at least one Gr1 stakes—he’s done all right.Catching on with John Ed Anthony’s Loblolly Stable was a huge break for McGaughey, and he made the most of it, guiding Vanlandingham to an Eclipse Award as the 1985 Champion Handicap Horse. He also guaranteed a painful decision by McGaughey: to leave Loblolly and accept an offer to train for the Phipps family. “John Ed Anthony was very, very good to me; I think he was stunned. It was a very, very difficult thing for me to tell him.” THE PHIPPS YEARSHere’s how it happened on October 5, 1985: McGaughey journeyed to Dinny Phipps’ home in Old Westbury, Long Island, to interview that morning to take over as the Phipps family’s trainer. “I was scared to death, but he immediately put me at ease.” The interview went well. “I felt like I was going to get the job,” said McGaughey.That afternoon at Belmont Park, Vanlandingham won the Gr1 Jockey Club Gold Cup by 2 ½ lengths under Pat Day. Dinny, the chairman of the Jockey Club, presented the winning trophy to McGaughey. How’s that for a deal closer? Shug was hired four days later and has been training for the Phipps ever since. “We had a wonderful relationship for years; they not only made my career, they made my life, too.”Dinny passed April 6, 2016, at the age of 75. “I still have eight or nine of their horses in training and some two-year-olds and foals; they’re trying to keep it going.”DEVELOPING A DYNASTYAfter hiring McGaughey, Dinny Phipps explained to his new trainer that the foundation of the racing stable is based around broodmares. And to be good broodmares, they had to perform on the racetrack. Some trainers are better training fillies. In the Phipps operation, you had to be able to train fillies.McGaughey didn’t wait long to address that concern. Twelve days short of a year after he was hired, McGaughey unveiled Personal Ensign, who won her debut by 12 ¾ lengths, then the Gr1 Frizette by a head. She was the personification of McGaughey’s career, coming back from ankle surgery after the Frizette was thought to be career-ending. Instead, she returned, was managed brilliantly by McGaughey and resumed her unforgettable career. She eased back into Gr1 competition and punctuated her perfect career by running down loose-on-the-lead Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors at Churchill Downs—a track Personal Ensign had never raced on—to finish 13-for-13. “That was going to be her last race,” McGaughey said.But she wasn’t done, producing Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly winner My Flag, a daughter of Easy Goer, who got up in the final strides to win the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly. It had to feel like déjà vu—a horrible version of one—for Winning Song’s trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who also trained the two fillies that My Flag ran down seven years later: Cara Rafaela and Golden Attraction. As a three-year-old, My Flag finished third in the Belmont Stakes. She then produced Storm Flag Flying—the 2002 Champion Two-Year-Old Filly whose four-for-four season culminated with a half-length score in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly. Three generations of Breeders’ Cup winners over a 14-year period. Patience can pay off. Personal Ensign’s brother Personal Flag won the 1988 Gr1 Suburban and earned more than $1.2 million in his career. McGaughey’s Seeking the Gold posted eight victories, including the 1988 Gr1 Super Derby, and six seconds in 15 career starts, earning more than $2.3 million. In 1989, Easy Goer, the 1988 Two-Year-Old Champion Colt, avenged his losses to his nemesis Sunday Silence in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness by denying him the Triple Crown, winning the Belmont Stakes by eight lengths. Easy Goer added the Whitney Handicap, Travers, Woodward and Jockey Club Gold Cup before losing to Sunday Silence again—this time by a neck in the Breeders’ Cup Classic—a result that cost Easy Goer the Three-Year-Old Colt Championship and Horse of the Year honors. Even with three losses to Sunday Silence, Easy Goer finished his career 14 of 20 with five seconds, one third and earnings of $4,873,770—McGaughey’s top money maker by more than $2 million.Rhythm, the 1989 Two-Year-Old Champion Colt, gave McGaughey consecutive victories in the Travers, winning the 1990 Mid-Summer Derby by 3 ½ lengths before losing his final seven races.McGaughey celebrated another Travers victory in 1998 with Coronado’s Quest, a head case who had tested even McGaughey’s patience, occasionally freezing on the way to the track. Following up on his victory over Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop in the Gr1 Haskell at Monmouth, Coronado’s Quest defeated him again in the Travers. Asked if Coronado’s Quest was his most difficult horse to train, McGaughey answered, “For a star horse, yes. It just took us a while to understand him. The Travers was really special—to win a race like that at Saratoga stretching out to a mile and a quarter. I give Mike Smith a lot of credit for that.” Coronado’s Quest finished 10-for-17 with earnings topping $2 million.On September 15, 1993, at Belmont Park, McGaughey unveiled two incredible two-year-old filly Phipps’ home-breds an hour apart. Inside Information won her debut by 7 ½ lengths in 1:11 3/5 under Mike Smith in the third race. In the fifth race, also under Mike Smith, Heavenly Prize won by nine lengths in 1:10 4/5.The two fillies’ careers then diverged. Inside Information finished third in an allowance race and didn’t start again as a two-year-old. Heavenly Prize won the Gr1 Frizette by seven lengths but lost the Two-Year-Old Filly Championship when she finished third by three lengths to Phone Chatter in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly. As a three-year-old, Heavenly Prize won the Gr1 Alabama by seven lengths, the Gr1 Gazelle by 6 ½ and the Gr1 Beldame by six lengths. Though she lost the Breeders’ Cup Distaff by a neck to One Dreamer, Heavenly Prize won the Three-Year-Old Filly Eclipse. At four, Heavenly Prize won four consecutive Gr1 stakes: the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park, the Hempstead at Belmont Park, and the Go for Wand and John A. Morris at Saratoga. In the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, she finished second by 13 ½ lengths to her incredible stable mate Inside Information.Inside Information won 13 of her 15 starts as a three- and four-year-old, the lone misses a distant third to Lakeway in the Gr1 Mother Goose and a non-threatening second to Classy Mirage in the Gr1 Ballerina. Inside Information won the Gr1 Ashland and Acorn Stakes as a three-year-old. At four, she captured the Gr1 Shuvee, the Ruffian by 11 lengths, the Spinster by a head and, in as dominant fashion as a race can be, the final start of her career: the Breeders’ Cup Distaff by 13 ½ lengths. Mike Smith rode Inside Information in 16 of her 17 starts. José Santos was aboard when she won the Shuvee by 5 ½ lengths.Lest McGaughey be classified as a top dirt trainer, two horses 20 years apart proved McGaughey’s prowess with grass horses. The speedy Lure posted 11 victories, including back-to-back victories in the Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Mile in 1992 and 1993. In 18 grass starts, Lure posted 11 victories and six seconds, earning $2,515,289.Twenty years later, the powerful closer Point of Entry—who rallied from 26 lengths behind to win an allowance race by a length and a quarter—captured five Gr1 stakes: the Man o’ War, Sword Dancer, Turf Classic Invitational, the Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap and the Manhattan. In two starts in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, Point of Entry finished second by a half-length to Little Mike in 2012 and fourth by 1 ¾ lengths to Magician in 2013. He made $2,494,490. Then came Orb, who made $2,612,516. “Orb was just a special, special thing—me being from Kentucky—to win the Kentucky Derby for the Phipps[es] and Stuart Janney was special. Going there to Louisville with the favorite for the Derby was a very special week for Allison and myself. We did enjoy it very much.” He expected to enjoy the Preakness, too. “He came out of the Derby very well; he had a good work before we went to Pimlico. But he drew inside when he wanted to be outside. He finished fourth. He was a victim of circumstances. I was disappointed. I would have loved to bring him to Belmont—a special place for me—to have a chance to win the Triple Crown at Belmont. That’s my favorite place to train. I’m comfortable there. There’s nobody else in my barn. It makes it easier. It’s not real busy. And I love a big racetrack.”Honor Code—a gorgeous black closer who was from the last crop of A.P. Indy out of Serena’s Cat by Storm Cat—was McGaughey’s next star. He only raced 11 times but made the most of it with six victories, including two emphatic 2015 Gr1 scores in the Met Mile, when he made an astounding rally to win going away, and the Gr1 Whitney. He finished his career by running third to American Pharoah in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, earning just over $2.5 million. Will Farish’s home-bred Code of Honor stamped himself as a top Kentucky Derby contender by winning the 2019 Gr2 Fountain of Youth. He finished third to Maximum Security in the Gr1 Florida Derby then gave McGaughey quite a thrill in the Kentucky Derby, making a bold move on the inside of Maximum Security as if he’d spurt by him coming out of the far turn. “There was a second and a half it looked like he was going to win,” Shug’s son Reeve said. “Then he lost his momentum.” Still, Code of Honor finished third and was moved up to second when Maximum Security became the first horse ever disqualified from a Kentucky Derby victory.Code of Honor came right back to win the Gr3 Dwyer, the Gr1 Travers and the Gr1 Jockey Club Gold Cup. He then finished seventh to Vino Rosso in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. After a seven-month vacation, Code of Honor returned to win the Gr3 Westchester. It was his last victory to date. He finished third in the Gr1 Met Mile, fourth in the Gr1 Whitney, second in the Gr2 Kelso, second in the Gr1 Clark and, in his last start on January 23, 2021, fifth in the 2021 Pegasus World Cup. LOOKING FORWARDGreatest Honour is poised to join McGaughey’s most accomplished horses when he returns. The son of Tapit is out of Better Than Honour, who has produced two Belmont Stakes winners: Jazil and Rags to Riches. “With his pedigree, the further he goes, the better for him.”Earlier on the Florida Derby card, Allen Stable’s three-year-old filly No Ordinary Time won a maiden race by a neck under Julien Leparoux for Shug. She was shipped to New York to make her next start. Shug might have another top three-year-old. Will Farish’s Bears Watching was mighty impressive, winning a seven-furlong maiden race by 7 ¾ lengths March 13, but he too is being freshened. “I had to stop on him too; he had a little chip in his ankle. He’ll be out for 30 days.”Shug will develop his horses the way he always has—prudently. It’s what made Shug a Hall of Famer. “Of course I’m proud of him, but not all of his accomplishments are in racing,” Allison said. “He’s a great guy—very kind, very understanding. He’s fun. We have a great relationship. We go fishing together. We golf together.” And now, Shug and Allison have a new member in their family. Chip and his wife Jenny have a baby daughter, Lily, who was born on February 2. She is Shug’s first grandchild. “She lives in Lexington, and we’re looking forward to meeting her.” Is Shug ready to be a granddad? “He’s mellowed a little bit,” Reeve said. “He’s still working every day, but he might take off a day or two. He needs to ease back and try to enjoy life a little bit more.” Lily may just make that happen for Shug. She may require patience, but her accomplished grandpa knows all about that.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/517636f8e4b0cb4f8c8697ba/1619185270908-34LKUMNTZJULHFJ5T31Q/_Z9A6617.jpg)
Sustaining Excellence
By Bill Heller
Sustained excellence is a rare commodity in any endeavour, even more so in Thoroughbred racing when success is tied to 1,000-pound horses traveling 35 miles per hour, guided by jockeys making rapid strategic decisions one after another.
“For every good thing that happens, 20 bad things happen,” Hall of Fame trainer Frank Whiteley advised his young assistant, Shug McGaughey, decades ago.
McGaughey didn’t listen, made it into the Hall of Fame, and continues to succeed. He recently turned 70, and his horses have earned more than $2 million for 37 straight years, thanks to a win percentage of 21 at the highest level of racing.
Greatest Honour wins the Holy Bull Stakes, at Gulfstream Park, 2021.
• Greatest Honour
He won one Kentucky Derby with Orb in 2013—the best victory of all for a Lexington native. And he hoped to do it again this year with Courtlandt Farm’s Greatest Honour, who fired off consecutive victories in the Holy Bull Stakes and the Fountain of Youth Stakes before finishing third in the Florida Derby as the 4-5 favorite. Doing the right thing for your horse is easier when he’s doing well but much more difficult when he isn’t. McGaughey noticed something wrong with Greatest Honour and acted accordingly. “I wasn’t pleased with the way he galloped Saturday and Sunday,” Reported Shug on Thursday, April 8. “I said on Monday, ‘We have to get to the bottom of this.’” That meant X-rays, a bone scan and consulting with Dr. Larry Bramlage, who has always been close to Shug’s heart. Bramlage’s successful surgery on Personal Ensign when she suffered a broken pastern as a two-year-old allowed her to come back at three to resume her historic, unblemished career, culminating with her victory in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
McGaughey said Greatest Honour had a minor problem in his ankle which wouldn’t require surgery. So, just over 3 weeks out from the Kentucky Derby, McGaughey announced that Greatest Honour would get 30 days off at Courtlandt Farms and then be re-evaluated, hopefully in time for him to race in the midsummer Derby— the Travers at Saratoga. “We just need to give him a little time. I feel bad for Don Adam (the owner of Courtlandt Farms) and for the horse.” McGaughey had to make that difficult phone call to Adam to tell him the bad news. “It’s not easy, but I’ve made that call a lot of times,” As Shug put it. “It’s part of the game.”
Greatest Honour would have been one of the top contenders in the Triple Crown series. By doing the right thing, McGaughey is allowing Greatest Honour to reach his potential, no matter how much McGaughey wanted to win another 3yo classic race.
Shug with current stable star Greatest Honour.
The challenge of getting Greatest Honour back to the winner’s circle is one McGaughey has enjoyed his whole career. “I enjoy the horses, the competition, the clients; I don’t enjoy the politics in racing today. It makes it hard to keep focused on training: the visas, the cost of workman’s comp, knowing how far out you can give horses medication. Certain states have certain rules. Other states are different. I will be happy when we get some kind of uniformity.”
Thanks to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, that is about to happen. “I think the Horseracing Integrity Act is a good thing; it’s definitely a good thing. We weren’t going to do it ourselves. We tried policing ourselves, and it didn’t work.” What has worked for McGaughey is letting his horses earn their way into major stakes by their performances. Greatest Honour would have been only McGaughey’s ninth starter in the Kentucky Derby. “He doesn’t put a horse in a race just to have a horse in a race,” his 34-year-old son Chip, an administrator at Keeneland, said.
“He wakes up every morning and goes to sleep every night thinking about his horses. He wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about his horses. He has dedication to getting everything he can out of his horses by developing them. His training philosophy has always been doing what’s best for his horses. He’s always had that. He is a very patient trainer, allowing a horse to tell him what the next step is.”
Shug with Storm Flag Flying, 2002.
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From the ground up - Preakness Stakes winning trainer Michael McCarthy worked his way into the training ranks, forming a solid foundation of success along the way.
By Annie Lambert
Trainer Michael McCarthy felt an immediate connection to the racing industry after attending the races with a few high school buddies. Following graduation, he found his way to the backside, working a variety of jobs while attending college at night. His most prominent employment was spending more than a decade as assistant to Todd Pletcher, a seven-time Eclipse Award winning Trainer of the Year.
McCarthy, now 50, attained his trainer’s license in 2006 and began training his own stable of horses in 2014. Since then, the Southern California-based horseman has saddled 1,063 starters with 174 wins, 138 seconds and 172 thirds, earning $18,083,294—including multiple graded stakes.
Pletcher once called his former protégé “reliable, confident and capable.” McCarthy has also proven himself to be responsible and patient with perseverance.
• Racing intrigue
At the age of six, McCarthy moved to Arcadia, Calif., with his family. The family home was near enough to Santa Anita to hear the races being called. Although McCarthy’s parents were not horse racing enthusiasts, he became smitten by the industry. His father, a high-end office furniture dealer (now semi- retired), was always a big sports fan—“a basketball, football kind of guy,” who was not initially into racing but now closely follows his son’s career. Young McCarthy’s first job at Santa Anita was working for trainer John O’Hara. He was at the track during the day and attending his freshman year at Cal Poly Pomona with night classes in animal husbandry. He also worked for veterinarian Dr. Wade Byrd and got handy with a stopwatch with help from Santa Anita clocker Gary Young.
Michael with Proud Accolade at Hollywood Park, 2004.
In about 1994, McCarthy had the opportunity to spend four months at a training center in Japan as well as several months at The National Stud in England. He worked as an intern in a variety of jobs, including breeding to training aspects of the racing business. While still in college, McCarthy soaked up experience working for trainer Doug Peterson and was an assistant at Santa Anita for Ben Cecil.
• Upward mobility
Working for Cecil was his final job prior to heading east to work for Todd Pletcher. Jockey agent Ron Anderson negotiated a meeting between McCarthy and Pletcher, who was looking for an assistant trainer to replace George Weaver who was leaving to start his own public stable. After some phone calls back and forth, McCarthy headed to Belmont Park in July of 2002 for an introduction of sorts. He began his new job on August 25, 2002—a date he has no trouble recalling.
Michael with Friendly Island after winning the Palos Verdes Handicap at Santa Anita Park, 2007.
“Moving east was certainly an adjustment period,” McCarthy admitted. “But when you’re young and single, it’s easy to do.” There was a learning curve going to work in an expansive stable like Pletcher’s—a fast-moving organization with many horses and a lot of moving parts. McCarthy quickly caught up to speed, and by November of that year, he found himself traveling to Hong Kong with Texas Glitter.
Texas Glitter was a six-year-old when he headed to Southeast Asia with McCarthy. Their first stop was at California’s Hollywood Park, where the son of Glitterman won the Gr3 Hollywood Turf Express Handicap. Sixteen days later, the multiple graded stakes winner found no luck in the Gp1 Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin— the final race of his career. …
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Can we use biomarkers to predict catastrophic racing injuries?
![Promising developments in quest to prevent catastrophic racehorse injuriesUniversity of Kentucky study shows association between mRNA biomarkers and catastrophic injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses—a positive step forward in the development of a pre-race screening toolCatastrophic injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses is a top-of-mind concern for the global racing industry and its fans. That sentiment is shared by researchers at the University of Kentucky and their collaborators, who are working to learn more about changes happening at a cellular level that might indicate an injury is lurking before it becomes career or life ending. Could it be possible to identify an early marker or signal in horses at risk of catastrophic injury, allowing for intervention before those injuries happen? And, if so, might this type of detection system be one that could be implemented cost effectively on a large scale?According to Allen Page, DVM, PhD, staff scientist and veterinarian at UK’s Gluck Equine Research Center, the short answer to both questions is that it looks promising. To date, attempts to identify useful biomarkers for early injury detection have been largely unsuccessful. However, the use of a different biomarker technology, which quantifies messenger RNA (mRNA), was able to identify 76% of those horses at risk for a catastrophic injury. An abstract of this research was recently presented at the American Association of Equine Practitioners’ annual meeting in December 2020 and the full study published January 12 in the Equine Veterinary Journal (https://beva.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/20423306). In this initial research—which looked at 21 different mRNA markers selected for their roles in encoding proteins associated with inflammation, bone repair and remodeling, tissue repair and general response to injury—three markers showed a large difference in mRNA levels between injured and non-injured horses. For almost four years, Page and his University of Kentucky colleagues have been analyzing blood samples from almost 700 Thoroughbred racehorses. The samples, collected by participating racing jurisdictions from across the United States, have come from both catastrophically injured and non-injured horses in a quest to better understand changes that might be happening at the mRNA level and if there are any red flags which consistently differentiate horses that suffer a catastrophic injury.According to Page, the ultimate hope is to develop a screening tool that can be used pre-race to identify horses at increased risk for injury. The results of this study, which was entirely funded by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s Equine Drug Research Council, suggest that analysis of messenger RNA expression could be an economical, effective and non-invasive way to identify individual racehorses at risk for catastrophic injury.Joining Page in the research from UK’s Gluck Center are Emma Adam, BVetMed, PhD, DACVIM, DACVS, assistant professor, research and industry liaison, and David Horohov, PhD, chair of the Department of Veterinary Science, director of the Gluck Center and Jes E. and Clementine M. Schlaikjer Endowed Chair.Previous research has shown that many catastrophic injuries occur in limbs with underlying and pre-existing damage, leading to the theory that these injuries occur when damage accumulation exceeds the healing capacity of the affected bones over time. Since many of these injuries have underlying damage, it is likely that there are molecular markers of this that can be detected prior to an injury.The identification of protein biomarkers for these types of injuries has been explored in previous research, albeit with limited success. The focus of this project, measuring messenger RNA, had not yet been explored, however. The overall objective was to determine if horses that had experienced a catastrophic injury during racing would show increased inflammatory mRNA expression at the time of their injury when compared to similar horses who were not injured.The genetic acronyms: A primer on DNA, RNA, mRNA and PCRThis research leverages advances made in genetics during the last several decades, both in a greater understanding of the field as well as in applying that knowledge to specific issues facing the equine industry, including catastrophic breakdown in racehorses.The genetic code of life is made up of genes and regulatory elements encoded by DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, which is found in the nucleus of cells in all living organisms. It is arranged in a double helix structure, similar to a twisted ladder. The rungs of that ladder are nucleotide base pairs, and the ordering of those base pairs results in the specific genetic code called a gene. The genetic code in the genes and the DNA tell the body how to make proteins. RNA (ribonucleic acid) is created by RNA polymerases, which read a section of DNA and convert it into a single strand of RNA in a process called transcription. While all types of RNA are involved in building proteins, mRNA is the one that actually acts as the messenger because it is the one with the instructions for the protein, which is created via a process called translation. In translation, mRNA bonds with a ribosome, which will read the mRNA’s sequence. The ribosome then uses the mRNA sequence as a blueprint in determining which amino acids are needed and in what order. Amino acids function as the building blocks of protein (initially referred to as a polypeptide). Messenger RNA sequences are read as a triplet code where three nucleotides dictate a specific amino acid. After the entire polypeptide chain has been created and released by the ribosome, it will undergo folding based on interactions between the amino acids and become a fully functioning protein. While looking at inflammation often involves measuring proteins, Page and his collaborators opted to focus on mRNA due to the limited availability of reagents available to measure horse proteins and concerns about how limited the scope of that research focus would be. Focusing on mRNA expression, however, is not without issues. According to Page, mRNA can be extremely difficult to work with. “A normal blood sample from a horse requires a collection tube that every veterinarian has with them. Unfortunately, we cannot use those tubes because mRNA is rapidly broken down once cells in tubes begin to die. Luckily, there are commercially-available blood tubes that are designed solely for the collection of mRNA,” he said.“One of the early concerns people had about this project when we talked with them was whether we were going to try to link catastrophic injuries to the presence or absence of certain genes and familial lines. Not only was that not a goal of the study, [but] the samples we obtain make that impossible,” Page said. “Likewise for testing study samples for performance enhancing drugs. The tubes do an excellent job of stabilizing mRNA at the expense of everything else in the blood sample.”In order to examine mRNA levels, the project relied heavily on the ability to amplify protein-encoding genes using a technique called the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). By using a variety of techniques, samples from the project were first converted back to DNA, which is significantly more stable than mRNA, and then quantified using a specialized machine that is able to determine the relative amount of mRNA initially present in the individual samples. While it is easy to take for granted the abilities of PCR, this Nobel Prize winning discovery has forever changed the face of science and has enabled countless advances in diagnostic testing, including those used in this study.The research into mRNA biomarkers Catastrophic racing and training injuries have long been a target for researchers due to the high societal and welfare impacts on the racing industry. With the nearly universal requirement for necropsies on horses that succumb to these injuries, work by researchers has demonstrated that most horses with catastrophic injuries have pre-existing damage in their legs. This pre-existing damage presents an opportunity to detect injuries before they occur, whether that be with advanced imaging or less invasive techniques, such as screening of blood for injury biomarkers. Horses eligible for inclusion in the study were Thoroughbreds entered into any race in one of five participating jurisdictions from September 2017 to June 2020. To look at the mRNA, these jurisdictions collected specific blood samples either pre-race or post-race from a selection of non-injured horses or immediately from a horse after a catastrophic injury. Once collected, samples were sent to the Gluck Center where they were analyzed using PCR. The names of horses and sample types (injured, pre-race or post-race) were kept from the researchers until the samples had been fully analyzed.Once the names and dates of samples were revealed, public records were then used to learn more about each horse. Information examined included the horse’s sex, age, race type and whether non-injured horses raced again within three months of the sampled race. For horses who had been catastrophically injured, necropsy results were used to categorize the type of musculoskeletal injury that occurred. “Out of the 21 markers (genes) that were measured, three of them immediately stood out as being able to predict injury. The three individual markers of interest were Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1), Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 (MMP2) and IL-1 Receptor Antagonist (IL1RN). Taken together, the changes seen in all three of these markers suggest that there is increased inflammation in the injured horses and that the inflammation arises from bone, just as was suspected,” Page said.“Based only on these three markers, we were able to correctly identify horses at risk for injury 76% of the time and exclude horses for being at risk 88% of the time,” Page said. “Obviously, we want to maximize those numbers as much as possible, so while there’s room for improvement, this is significantly better than any other option currently available.”One of the limitations of the study was that horses were only sampled once, so there was no ability to identify changes in individual horses over a period of time. Once horses start being sampled repeatedly on a regular basis with this testing, Page said he believes the ability to identify at-risk horses will improve dramatically.What does the future hold?“Since the ultimate hope is to develop a commercially-viable screening tool that can be used pre-race to identify horses at increased risk for injury, we anticipate adding multiple other markers with a new study that is just getting started,” Page said.As part of the new study, also funded by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, Page and two Gluck Center colleagues, James MacLeod, VMD, PhD, John S. and Elizabeth A. Knight chair and director of UK Ag Equine Programs, and Ted Kalbfleisch, PhD, associate professor, plan to utilize RNA-sequencing, a relatively new technology, to expand their search to all of the approximately 22,000 protein-coding genes horses have. This will dramatically increase the likelihood that they will be able to identify additional markers for horses at risk of injury. They plan to do this by using the large number of samples that have already been collected, further leveraging their initial research and decreasing the amount of time it will take to complete their new study.“We are really excited about this new project and the promise that it holds,” Page said. “In our first study, we drove the data because we had to select which mRNA markers we wanted to examine. In our new study, the RNA-sequencing data is really what will be driving us.”While that project is ongoing, Page and his colleagues continue to refine and improve upon the various laboratory steps required to isolate and analyze mRNA. Guided by the hope of providing the racing industry with a high-throughput screening tool, the group has employed multiple robotic platforms that can already handle 100 samples per day and be easily scaled up to handle more.“As a researcher, I see it as being my job to provide practical and reliable solutions to the horse racing industry,” Page said. “I know that change can be scary, but we can all agree that something needs to change to help better protect racehorses and the jockeys who ride them. Ultimately, the racing industry will decide when it wants to give this screening tool a chance. I’m confident that, when the industry is ready, we will be too.” The full study published in the Equine Veterinary Journal can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1111/evj.13423](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/517636f8e4b0cb4f8c8697ba/1619181103562-L9SRTHKK0L6C0FFYFXA2/Screenshot+2021-04-23+at+13.31.27.png)
By Holly Wiemers
University of Kentucky study shows association between mRNA biomarkers and catastrophic injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses— a positive step forward in the development of a pre-race screening tool.
Catastrophic injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses is a top-of-mind concern for the global racing industry and its fans. That sentiment is shared by researchers at the University of Kentucky and their collaborators, who are working to learn more about changes happening at a cellular level that might indicate an injury is lurking before it becomes career or life ending. Could it be possible to identify an early marker or signal in horses at risk of catastrophic injury, allowing for intervention before those injuries happen? And, if so, might this type of detection system be one that could be implemented cost effectively on a large scale?
According to Allen Page, DVM, PhD, staff scientist and veterinarian at UK’s Gluck Equine Research Center, the short answer to both questions is that it looks promising.
Allen Page
To date, attempts to identify useful biomarkers for early injury detection have been largely unsuccessful. However, the use of a different biomarker technology, which quantifies messenger RNA (mRNA), was able to identify 76% of horses at risk for a catastrophic injury. An abstract of this research was recently presented at the American Association of Equine Practitioners’ annual meeting in December 2020 and the full study published January 12 in the Equine Veterinary Journal (www.beva.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/20423306).
In this initial research—which looked at 21 different mRNA markers selected for their roles in encoding proteins associated with inflammation, bone repair and remodeling, tissue repair and general response to injury— three markers showed a large difference in mRNA levels between injured and non-injured horses.
For almost four years, Page and his University of Kentucky colleagues have been analyzing blood samples from almost 700 Thoroughbred racehorses. These samples, collected by participating racing jurisdictions from across the United States, have come from both catastrophically injured and non-injured horses in a quest to better understand changes that might be happening at the mRNA level and if there are any red flags which consistently differentiate horses that suffer a catastrophic injury. …
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Small but mighty - the role of antioxidants for horses in training
By Catherine Rudenko
Antioxidants are substances that slow down damage to organisms created by the presence of oxygen. The need for antioxidants is always there, in all species, increasing as exercise intensity and duration increase. Is there merit in specifically supplementing antioxidants to enhance performance?
• The nature of antioxidants
There are many forms of antioxidants naturally present within the body and supplied through the diet. One key feature of antioxidants is that they are “team players.” No one antioxidant alone can maintain the system, and some will only function in the presence of another antioxidant. The role of an antioxidant is to keep reactive oxygen species (ROS) or free-radicals created in the presence of oxygen at an optimum level. Oxygen is required for life; it is always present, but as an element, it is highly reactive and so can also have an adverse effect on the body. The reactivity of oxygen in the body produces ROS which cause damage to cellular components such as DNA, proteins and lipids of cell membranes. Some ROS also have useful cellular functions, and so the purpose of antioxidants is not to eliminate ROS altogether but to maintain a healthy balance. In general, antioxidants operate in two ways: either preventing the formation of an ROS or removing it before it can cause damage to a cell component.
• Sources of antioxidants
There are multiple sources of antioxidants including vitamins, enzymes and nutrient derivatives. Other nutrients such as minerals, whilst not having antioxidant properties, are also involved as their presence is required for the functioning of antioxidant enzymes. Two key examples are zinc and selenium.
Oxidative stress
As with many body systems, the ideal healthy balance can often go awry. When the level of ROS present overwhelms the capacity of antioxidants present, the body experiences oxidative stress. There are three main reasons for a horse in training experiencing oxidative stress:
• Increased exposure to oxidants from the environment
• An imbalance or shortage in supply of antioxidants
• Increased production of ROS within the body from
increased oxygen metabolism during exercise Oxidative stress is of concern as it can exaggerate inflammatory response and may be detrimental to the normal healing of affected tissues. Oxidative stress during strenuous exercise, such as galloping or endurance, is typically associated with muscle membrane leakage and microtrauma to the muscle. Oxidative stress is now understood to play a role in previously unexplained poor performance. …
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Roadrunner Racing, Boat Racing and Bill Strauss, Jonathan and Leonard Green (D.J. Stable) and Mark, Stacy and Bob Krembil (Chiefswood Stables)
By Bill Heller
In this issue we profile the owners of three horses who have been major players in the key Triple Crown prep races.
Roadrunner Racing, Boat Racing and Bill Strauss – Hot Rod Charlie
Five football-playing fraternity brothers seeking a way to stay connected after graduating from Brown University in Providence, R.I., did just that by connecting with two veteran Thoroughbred owners in Southern California. Now all of them are having the ride of their lives with their Louisiana Derby winner Hot Rod Charlie.
“It’s astounding,” said Greg Helm, the managing partner of Roadrunner Racing, which owns 50% of Hot Rod Charlie after being convinced by bloodstock agent Dennis O’Neil to take a step away from claiming horses and take a shot with a yearling he liked. “Dennis has a good feel for the personnel groups that would fit together,” Greg said. “Thanks to him, we have a unique ownership.”
The world got a glimpse of this unique group immediately after Hot Rod Charlie won the Louisiana Derby. TVG’s Scott Hazelton was interviewing one of his owners, Bill Strauss, in the winner’s circle. Wildly enthusiastic and raspy after cheering his horse home, Bill fairly shouted, “This is what you get in the game for, to go to Kentucky on the first Saturday of May.” In the background, the brothers were jumping up and down on one another’s body as if they were, well, frat brothers playing boat racing—the beer chugging game they used to name their stable.
“We bring a youthful enthusiasm,” said Patrick O’Neil, the frat brother who is a nephew of Dennis and who bought Hot Rod Charlie as a yearling for $110,000, and his brother Doug, their trainer.
What do the frat brothers get from their elder partners? “The best thing that happened from this is you get to meet a lot of great new people along the path,” Patrick said. “We are meeting so many amazing people in the world. We are attached to Greg and Bill, who have had very impressive careers. They became mentors to us.”
Working together? “We all have the same mindset about racing, about what’s important to us,” Greg said. “All the decisions that had to be made were unanimous and simple.”
Greg, a 73-year-old retired advertising agency owner, and his wife Glenna formed Roadrunner Racing with five other couples. At their golf club, they watched Hot Rod Charlie’s coming-out party in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, when he led late before finishing second by three-quarters to still unbeaten Essential Quality at 94-1. “They said they could hear the cheering miles away,” he said. “At 94-1, we were pretty pleased.”
His golf club, which had offered a special on its menu that afternoon—the Hot Rod Charlie (a spicy, crispy chicken sandwich)—made it a permanent lunch option. “They have a picture on the menu,” Greg said proudly.
He said of the partnership with Boat Racing, “We’re a pretty lively group ourselves. When you get around the Boat Racing people, it’s hard not to get further energized. We met all of them in New Orleans. That was fantastic. We all sat together, partied together and had lunch together.”
Now he has a horse that deserves a start in a Triple Crown race. “I can almost sleep,” he laughed. “It’s tough to get to sleep.”
Maybe a few beers would help. He could ask any of the brothers—all 28 and in successful careers in California, far removed from those New England winters in college. “I was born and raised in Hawaii,” Patrick said. “Providence was a huge cultural change. I had no boots or a jacket when I went to Brown.”
At Brown, all five brothers played football. Patrick was a cornerback; Eric Armagots a safety; Dan Giovaccini, a linebacker and a senior captain; Reilly Higgins a wide receiver and Alex Quoyeser a tight end. All five joined Theta Delta Chi, where they proved themselves as normal college students by playing boat racing. “Reilly was the best at it,” Patrick said. “Now, after a long and tiring day, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the great relationship we have over a beer or two.”
Patrick, who admitted watching TVG while he was in class, was drawn into racing by his uncles, especially after Doug won the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness with I’ll Have Another and the 2016 Derby with Nyquist. “We talk every day,” Patrick said. “My dad passed away when I was 22.”
When Patrick took his frat brothers to Santa Anita and Del Mar, they were hooked. “Doug won a couple of races, and he allowed us to go to the winner’s circle,” Patrick said. “They were like, `Wow!’”
Patrick said of their college football days, “We were very, very competitive. We missed it a lot. We got into this game as an excuse to get together. We missed the competition. Horse racing has given that to us.”
Bill, a 62-year-old native of the Bronx who was raised in New Jersey, attended Syracuse University, which allowed him to frequent Vernon Downs, a harness track a half-hour drive away. “I was a trotter guy long before I did Thoroughbreds,” he said. “I’ve always been attracted to the animals. And I love the action. It’s over in two minutes, not three hours. And you can get money back. I loved handicapping. I really loved the puzzle. Am I smart or not?”
He was smart enough to have a successful career, doing high-tech software in California. He did well enough that he helped his brother Jeffrey, now a master chef who has cooked for five Presidents, to pursue his dream. He now runs The Pamplemousse Grille. “It’s one of the highest-rated restaurants in San Diego,” Bill said. “I’m a silent partner. I write the checks. It was a pleasure writing a check so he could chase his dream.”
At the Pamplemousse Grille, Bill met a frequent diner, bloodstock agent Alex Solis II. “He was always there with friends and owners celebrating,” Bill said. “I became friends with him. I approached him about getting my first Thoroughbred, and I was with him for years.”
Bill and his wife Margie won back-to-back Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprints with Mizdirection in 2012 and 2013 with trainer Mike Puype.
Now he’s chasing victory in a Triple Crown race, with a lot of partners. “It’s an amazing experience,” he said. “In the beginning, you’re alone and get excited. Then you’re with these guys all the way. We discuss what to do—the next race. Patrick recommended the Louisiana Derby. We were completely on board with that because we have so much respect for each other—mutual respect—and we care about each other. Who’d have thought at 62, you’d make lifetime friends?”
Jonathan and Leonard Green (D.J. Stable) – Helium
Jonathan Green’s priorities crystalized for him at an early age. “I was probably eight or nine years old,” he said. “Our neighbor had a $5,000 claimer. He was racing at Monmouth Park, just minutes from our home. My dad took me. The horse won. I cashed a $5 ticket, ate a hot dog and got to go to the winner’s circle.”
Hooked for life.
Fast forward to college. “I went to Lehigh because Comcast showed Philadelphia Park,” he said. “I’d set up my classes to see the races. I took night classes.”
Now, at the age of 51, he is living his dream as the general manager of his and his father’s D.J. Stable—one of the largest racing and breeding operations in the entire country with more than 100 racing stock, foals and broodmares in five states. “As a family, we’ve really enjoyed it,” Jonathan said. “You have to treat it as a business, but it’s such a thrill to win a big race or sell a big yearling and enjoy it with your family. We’ve won more than 2,400 races and over 150 stakes.”
There is one race they covet winning. They’ve had one starter in the Kentucky Derby—a horse they owned in partnership with former Duke University basketball star Bobby Hurley, Songandaprayer, who set the fastest pace in the Derby’s long history: a half-mile in :44 86 and three-quarters in 1:09.25 before tiring to finish 13th in 2001. But the race they want to win most is the Haskell at Monmouth Park July 17th. “Our Kentucky Derby is the Haskell,” Jonathan said. “We’ve always wanted to run a good horse in the Haskell. We’ve never started a horse in it. The Haskell is a million-dollar race in our backyard…. We’ve done unorthodox things before.”
If Helium were to win a Triple Crown race, that would be tough to resist. That’s what’s classified as a good problem to have. And Lenny and Johnny are good at solving problems. They both succeeded in financing. “My father is 84, and he still works 70-hour weeks and loves every minute of it,” Jonathan said. “My grandfather, Abe, lived to be in his late 90s. He said, `Your mind is a muscle, and you must exercise it daily.’
Lenny is an accountant and CPA who explored the business side of horse racing before getting involved. “He wanted to explore the tax laws to see if there was a benefit for owning horses,” Jonathan said. “He remembered something about the tax codes. He studied it for eight, nine months. Doing that was about as exciting as it sounds.”
Lenny survived and dived in. “He found an industry that he enjoyed that he wanted to be a part of—one that had tax benefits,” Jonathan continued. “He was an athlete. He was a tennis player. He loved competition. In the late 70s, he was a minority owner of the New Jersey Nets.”
The Nets, in the American Basketball Association before it merged with the National Basketball Association, had an outstanding guard named Super John Williamson, who helped the Nets wins two ABA titles. “He was the first actual star I met,” Jonathan said. “He was very gracious. We named a horse Super John.”
Jonathan & Leonard Green with jockey Joel Rosario after Jaywalk wins the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filies
Super John was not a superstar, but an allowance winner who is still racing. The Greens have had many major stakes winners and one champion, Jaywalk, as partners with Cash is King Stable. Jaywalk won the 2018 Gr1 Frizette and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly on the way to the Two-Year-Old Filly Championship.
In 1989, Jonathan went to his first sale by himself to check out the New Sire Showcase section of the Fasig-Tipton July Sale in Lexington. “I couldn’t take my eyes off a beautiful, steel gray filly across the walking ring,” he said. “She walked with a certain confidence, an aura around her, and had a long stride and peaceful walk. I spent 15 minutes watching her walk, graze and stand in the summer sun. Needless to say, I was in love.”
He got the filly, hip No. 11, a daughter of freshman sire Pancho Villa, for $23,000. “I ran back to the phone bank, made a collect call to my parents and excitedly reported the stunning news of our purchase,” he said. “I was almost 19.”
That filly, Do It With Style, broke a track record at Philadelphia Park in her first start, ran second to Meadow Star in the Comely and won the Gr1 Ashland as a three-year-old.”
Thank goodness for night classes at Lehigh. Actually, Jonathan did benefit from his college education, becoming a certified financial planner. “I started my own company and sold it,” he said. “My primary occupation is managing D.J. Stable.”
He is deeply involved in racing, regularly co-hosting the weekly Thoroughbred Daily News Writers’ Room Podcast, and is on the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association Board of Directors. He has been the guest lecturer at the University of Louisville Equine Studies Program.
Now Helium, who has made just three career starts, has them thinking about the Triple Crown races and the Haskell. When pinhooker Bo Hunt touted Helium, he told Jonathan he travels so well that his feet don’t hit the ground, that he floats over it. “I looked at the periodic table,” Jonathan said. “I wanted a name of gas to convey that, and helium was the one I picked.”
Helium had won two sprint starts on synthetic at Woodbine in his lone starts at two for trainer Mark Casse, then showed up for the mile-and-an-eighth Gr2 Tampa Bay Derby on March 6th to make both his distance and dirt debut off a 4 ½ month layoff.
Helium won the Tampa Bay Derby impressively. “It was a sensation I’ve only had a couple times,” Jonathan said. “My father called me after the race and said, `The only times I was this excited was when I got married and when your two sisters were born.’” Of course, Lenny could have told him when his three children were born. Jonathan laughed. “My father and I have formed a tremendous friendship over the horses,” Jonathan said.
The team decided not to give Helium another start before the Triple Crown series of races. “We don’t want to wear him out,” Johnathan said.
Yeah, there’s the Haskell coming up.
Mark, Stacy and Bob Krembil (Chiefswood Stables) – Weyburn
Weyburn (inside) fends off Crowded Trade to win the 2021 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct
Some people talk about doing the right thing. The Krembil family, who breeds and races as Chiefswood Stables, has been doing the right thing for humans and horses for decades from their base in Schomberg, Ontario. Along the way, they have emerged as one of Canada’s most powerful stables, winning multiple owner titles at Woodbine and receiving two consecutive Sovereign Awards as Canada’s Outstand Owner in 2018 and 2019.
Now their colt, Weyburn—named for a small town in Saskatchewan—has emerged as the early favorite for this year’s Queen’s Plate, (Woodbine on Saturday, August 22) following his extremely game victory in the Gr3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct March 6th for trainer Jimmy Jerkens.
Before his intended start in Ontario, Weyburn will likely make his next starts in the Gr3 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park on May 8th and then onto the Gr1 Belmont Stakes in early June.
Bob Krembil, the 78-year-old patriarch of the family, founded a mutual-fund company and sold it in 2000. In 2001, he launched the Krembil Foundation. “It focuses on neurosciences,” his 54-year-old son Mark said. “One of my interests is biology. We’re trying to make a difference helping people solve their problems. We’re hoping to help people with Alzheimer’s.” The Foundation also deals with the immune system and arthritis.
Mark is in charge of the stable’s 125 horses with the help of general manager Rob Landy, a Hall of Fame jockey who rode the stable’s lone Queen’s Plate winner in 2004. “Rob makes the wheel go round,” Mark said. “He does the daily things. My dad really likes the breeding part of it, determining matches. I really enjoy the animal, and I’m competitive. There is nothing like winning a race. Stacy [Mark’s wife] works on after-care, and she follows up on them. My mom, Linda, keeps my dad going. She tolerates all of us, and she loves the animals. Everyone plays a role.”
The family’s fascination with Thoroughbred racing stretches back to Mark’s grandfather, Jake. “He was an avid fan,” Mark said. “My grandfather would go every day if he could have. I’d go with him and my dad to the Queen’s Plate every year. Later in life, when my father was in a position to enter the business, we started in the mid-90s. Things changed for us when we sold the business, and we started escalating this hobby, and it grew. We have a broodmare farm, a yearling farm and a 7-8ths dirt track. Our goal has been to race at the top of this game.”
They have won at the top of the game, taking their cherished Queen’s Plate with Niigon, who was ridden by Landry in 2004. Niigon’s more than $1.1 million in earnings is Chiefswood Stables’ second-leading earner. Tiz a Slam, who captured the Gr2 Nijinsky Stakes, earned over $1.26 million. Chiefswood Stables now has 344 victories and more than $20.5 million in earnings.
In a February 25, 2020 story in the Canadian Thoroughbred, Bob talked about recreating a new brand for the sport he loves: “We need to build a brand that features honesty, integrity and fair competition so that we can grow the fan base. We need to create an atmosphere where people want to bring their families and groups can be part of the horse racing lifestyle. Part of building that brand is doing a better job showing our love for horses. In a good year, Chiefswood will breed 20 babies, and we will also transition 20 of our racehorses away from the track.”
Mark’s high school sweetheart, Stacy, administers the unique and highly effective Chiefswood Aftercare Program. “I started attending the Queen’s Plate when I was 16 with Mark,” she said. “That’s our Kentucky Derby.”
Asked why having a program transitioning racehorses after their career, she made it sound simple: “They race for our pleasure. We have to take care of them.”
On its website, Chiefswood Stables tells visitors, “Chiefswood Stables is a family owned and operated Thoroughbred racing farm. Our goal is to breed quality Thoroughbred horses to compete in the classic races. It is our belief that the responsibility of care for our horses extends beyond the finish line of their last career races. It is with this belief that we have developed the Chiefswood Aftercare Program (CAP). Our goal is to find lifelong adoptive homes for our horses. We do this by trying to match the right horse with the appropriate adapter.”
What sets the Chiefswood program apart is its follow-up. For the past 10 years, it has had eight to 12 horses adopted annually. “We only had six last year because of the pandemic,” Stacy said. “About five years ago, they finally built me a barn nearby. It works well because the horses can transition slowly. We list them on FaceBook. We follow the horses for a couple of years after their adoption. Then, people voluntarily keep in touch. We get lots of pictures.”
Mark is justifiably proud of his wife’s program. “For two years, the adopted horses can’t be sold,” he said. “They’re happy, and they have a home. Stacy is a fan just like I am.”
The entire Krembil family wants to see the sport they love prosper. “From an outsider’s perspective, the industry appears fragmented with many vested interests,” Bob told Canadian Thoroughbred. “The industry players need to be open minded and work together for the betterment of racing.”
Unraced since December 5th when he won a maiden race, Weyburn fought every step of the way to win the Gotham Stakes under Trevor McCarthy three months later. After the race, Landry said, “We’ve had high hopes for Weyburn all along. We thought he was the real deal, but until they meet those kind of horses you just never know. He ran a fantastic race. He looked like he really dug in hard in the stretch when it counted. He had every reason to give up.”
In return, whether he wins the Queen’s Plate or Belmont Stakes, or never wins another race, Chiefswood won’t give up on him, making sure he—as all of the Chiefswood horses—has a good home, long after his last race.
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A safer Santa Anita - How the Santa Anita vets & trainers made a positive difference in 2020
By Ken Snyder
Some media observers have opined that bad journalism is not just reporting inaccuracies or things made up to suit a narrative, but also what isn't reported. From the perspective of many people in the racing industry, especially in Southern California, the absence of even the slightest acknowledgment of the safety turnaround at Santa Anita in 2020 is an example of the latter.
Here are the facts with one apples-to-apples comparison of statistics between 2019—when Santa Anita suffered a horrific spate of fatalities—and last year. According to The Jockey Club's Equine Injury Database, there were 13 racing fatalities on the dirt track in 2019 at Santa Anita. In 2020, there were zero racing fatalities—zip, nada, none—on the dirt track. Pick your adjective to describe that: incredible, astonishing, miraculous? The public is still waiting, by and large, on adjectives, or anything else for that matter, from the media.
Looking at all statistics, the dirt stat is no anomaly. With training fatalities, there were 17 in 2019 and 10 in 2020. Only with turf racing are the numbers close; in fact, they're even—six turf fatalities in both 2019 and 2020.
Hall of Fame Trainer Richard Mandella is perhaps charitable when he says the absence of reporting is "suspicious."
The one indisputable fact is that animal rights activists want racing shut down, he said. Why the governor and the politicians "jumped on board last year," as Mandella states it, is anybody's guess.
He speculates that a decline in marketing spending by the California racing industry—advertising in media outlets—may be at the root of not reporting the turnaround. Perhaps People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA, the principal anti-racing activist group) exert powerful political pressure (and funding to political campaigns). Maybe public perception crafted by media reporting (and "not reporting") impacts things at the ballot box far more than those in racing can imagine.
There is no question that a cluster of fatalities like those that occurred in 2019 at Santa Anita will produce an outcry from the public, and deservedly so. "We were warned that if we didn't get it straight," referring to 2019, "that they were going to 'cut our cord' and stop racing," said Mandella.
Bullet dodged. Mission accomplished. Racing continues. So, what was the story-behind-the-story of the success at Santa Anita in 2020?
Mandella expresses the principle behind the solution: "Two heads are better than one." In actuality, a training inspection program established by The Stronach Group (TSG) brought to bear not just two heads but four veterinarians led by TSG Equine Medical Director Dr. Dionne Benson.
As many as three vets hired by Santa Anita and reporting to Benson space themselves around the track every morning, watching workouts and coordinating with another vet in the barn area. They will observe all the horses but particularly those on a daily list of horses deemed at "elevated risk," as Benson terms it, who will breeze that day. A horse exhibiting lameness, whether it is on the list for close observation or another horse merely out for a gallop, will be examined by the vet serving backside duty that day once it leaves the track. Often that vet will meet a horse and exercise rider at the barn and examine the horse while still under saddle.
An on-track vet will sometimes radio an outrider to get a horse off the track immediately if it appears to be in distress. The vet will then call the trainer to alert them to a possible injury and have the barn-area vet waiting as well. On-track vets have even followed a distressed horse and rider from the track to the barn.
The program began informally in 2019 when the state shut down Santa Anita because of the fatalities. Benson came onto the Santa Anita racetrack in May 2019 and had the foresight to assign Santa Anita vets with downtime to watch training.
"Prior to that time, the responsibilities of the track and training were the track surface, making sure that it was well taken care of, setting the training hours, and providing outriders to catch loose horses. We really felt we could do a lot by adding some oversight and supervision to training.
"We really refined it as we proceeded, and it progressed to a more active role for the veterinarians."
The refinements and staffing meant an unprecedented degree of inspection and effort in terms of time and money. "When you're watching horses one day a week or one day a month, it's not the same as watching five days a week for five hours," said Benson. Santa Anita veterinarians rotate days off to make certain of training coverage daily. "You start to know the horses, and because we also do physical inspections on horses in training, we have a really good idea of which ones we're most concerned about."
Benson said her vets develop "a good sense of the horses. They'll say, 'Oh, that's so and so. He looks great today.' They not only have the ability to pick out unusual movement patterns for the horses, but they also know enough about the horses that each one has a profile in their mind."
Inspection is not a matter of random selection. A requirement for Santa Anita trainers mandates they must register any horse they intend to breeze 48 hours before that workout. A horse working Wednesday, for example, requires registration with the racing office on Monday. The office will compile expanded past performance data that includes races and workout times plus injury and vet's list history. The office passes these on—usually 70 to 80 pages—for Benson or a member of her team to review. The reviewer will apply as many as eight criteria to determine horses that may be at higher risk for injury and fatality. Things looked for include inactivity for more than 90 days, unusual work patterns, horses coming into California from another state, and, as one might expect, horses that have a history of being on the state veterinarian's list for unsoundness.
Also, a horse scratched from a race, who flipped in the gate or that finished 20 lengths behind in a race are additional things noted in reviewing past performance and history, said Dr. Jay Deluhery, a Santa Anita inspector.
Of, say, 200 horses scheduled for workouts, an average of 50 makes the "watch list" for close observation while on the track, according to Deluhery. The team will then divide and examine each horse on the following day. Vets will flex and palpate the limbs and have the horse jog in the shedrow or just outside it. "From there, they can make the decision of, 'Do I want this horse to breeze or not?'" he added.
"In some cases, we'll say, 'Yeah, this horse is good,' or we want more information about this horse. 'It's had a long layoff. Why?' Or, 'I want to talk to your vet about this horse, or you need this diagnostic before you can breeze.'"
"We maybe see a couple to five horses a week that we actually turn down for works.
"In some cases, we'll say, 'Come and jog in front of the vet on the track under tack.' Sometimes you see different information there."
If the workout registration and subsequent inspections sound extreme, it has gained acceptance by Santa Anita trainers, by and large. "I think learning is setting in that maybe mistakes were being made, and we're learning to correct them," Mandella said.
Benson estimates that since the program's inception, the team has performed 3,700 to 3,800 examinations of horses both routinely and before breezes at Santa Anita.
An unexpected result of the program beyond reduced fatalities is what Benson calls a "culture change" among the racing community at Santa Anita. "We have trainers who are more willing to go directly to diagnostics instead of saying, 'Let's see if we can medicate the horse through this problem.'"
Deluhery added, "They are seeing the value of having more MRIs [magnetic resonance imaging] and increasing PET scans [also for tissue and organ functioning], and even more nuclear scintigraphy [essentially a bone scan] on the horse."
"Some of them have taken the initiative, and we don't have to tell them; they just do it. Horses with bone scans? It's unprecedented. They're doing it on their own."
Benson added, "There are always going to be outliers, but the majority of the trainers that we have at Santa Anita, San Luis Rey and Golden Gate Fields [all California TSG facilities] really want their horses to be healthy and safe; and they don't want to be the person who has a horse that's injured."
Important to the inspection is not only the cooperation of trainers but private vets employed by trainers. Whether intended directly or not, the TSG inspection program has "instituted private vets doing exams prior to works and prior to entry," said Benson. "We've actually involved the veterinarians to do things that they had not been doing, but they're reaping the benefits.
"It's a very collegial atmosphere for the most part. I mean, no one wants to have their horse scratched. No one wants to be told, ‘Your horse has to go and have this diagnostic,’ but instead of the pushback that we might have gotten two years ago, people now are like 'Absolutely, we'll do the right thing,'" said Benson.
Deluhery believes acceptance by trainers was the key factor in the success of the program. "I expected them to either accept this or the inspection program would die," he said. "Now that they've seen the results, they're wanting to cooperate, and they're happy to show me any horse in the barn."
He believes trainers have seen the value in replacing guessing, hunches and risk-taking with "putting a little science into things" where horse health is concerned. Too, he believes they see "the economics of it on a big scale." A healthy horse will be a more productive horse with a potentially maximized racing career.
The inspection program has drawn the interest of others in racing. "I've had a few calls with different regulators, different individuals, different jurisdictions; and I think there is a desire to do it," said Benson. Currently, TSG has veterinarians watching training at all of its California tracks and is working to expand the full program elsewhere.
"It is costly. Hiring three to four vets per track to cover your days is not inexpensive, but I think it is an investment that is well worth it. The more interventions, the more eyes we have on these horses, the better we can see something before it happens."
Whether covered or ignored by those professing to be journalists, one thing is inescapable and captured by Mandella in an overview of the inspection program: "The facts are there. It's worked."
Dr. Benson and her team are, without question, pleased with the success of the inspection program and look for continuing improvement statistically. One unrecorded statistic, however, means more to them than anything: horses that, because of the workout inspections and examinations, have been retired.
She recounted just one story among many: "I had a vet come up to me and say, 'You know, there was a horse that was on the track that your vets kept flagging. They just kept saying, 'We don't like the way it moves.' I could never really see it as that lame. You guys kept at it so I finally sent the horse for a bone scan and sure enough, it had a humeral stress fracture brewing.'"
Horses with stress fractures, with time and therapy, can come back. In this case, the owners and trainer elected to retire the horse.
"Those kinds of things have certainly happened more than once, but that was one that really stuck out to me because humeral stress fractures are really hard to identify by a private vet. This guy trusted our vets," said Benson. "If they're saying there is something wrong, then there's probably something wrong. Let's do something that probably saved that horse's life."
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The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act: Review, analysis and concern
By Peter J. Sacopulos
For nearly a decade there has been an effort to have national legislation that governs Thoroughbred horse racing. The first major effort began in 2011, when the Interstate Horseracing Improvement Act of 2011—an attempt to amend the Interstate Horseracing Improvement Act of 1978—was introduced by Senator Tom Udall (D-NM). This bill was not successful. Another effort was advanced when, in 2015, Representative Andy Barr (R-KY) and Representative Paul Tonko (D-NY) introduced the Thoroughbred Horseracing Integrity Act. That same year, Representative Joe Pitt (R-PA) introduced the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (the first HISA). It too failed to pass.
Fast forward to 2020: the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act is introduced by Representatives Barr and Tonko and passes in the U.S. House of Representatives on September 29, 2020. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) then introduced corresponding legislation in the Senate that was approved.
Senator Mitch McConnell and member groups representing the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act meet at Keeneland, August 2020.
On December 28, 2020, President Trump signed into law a government funding bill and COVID-relief package. Tucked away into this massive omnibus bill was the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA). Since that time, there has been considerable reporting on HISA. Several issues have dominated the discussion of this new legislation. Those include the elimination of furosemide (also known as Lasix) on race day in two-year-olds and Stakes Thoroughbreds for the first three (3) years and, ultimately, in all Thoroughbreds after that.
President Donald J. Trump signs the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 which included the incorporation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, December 2020.
A second issue receiving attention is how the new federal bill that places the United States Anti-Doping Association (USADA) at the head of the recently established Horse Racing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority will be funded. Additionally, there has been and continues to be discussion of whether the HISA, which presently only governs Thoroughbred racing, will ultimately include both Standardbred and Quarter Horse racing, as well. However, there is a section of the HISA that is critically important to those in the Thoroughbred industry that has received limited discussion. That is Section 1209 of the HISA. For three primary reasons, Section 1209 of HISA is of particular concern for horsemen. First, it truncates the horsemen’s constitutionally protected right to due process. Second, instead of replacing the state system(s) of regulatory enforcement, the HISA creates a second system of review and enforcement for alleged medication and track safety violations that results in both additional expense and redundancy. Finally, the HISA, as presented, guarantees a multitude of constitutional challenges. Section 1209 of HISA entitled “Review of Final Decisions of the Authority” outlines the disciplinary process. Under the current systems, when a licensee elects to contest an alleged medication or safety violation, the dispute proceeds through an administrative law process followed by a judicial process. ….
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Scientific research quantifies the impact different pads have on the horse's performance
![[Headline]Scientific research quantifies the impact different pads have on the horse’s performance [Standfirst]The use of pads under the saddle has been common for years, but now scientists are using dynamic testing technology to discover how well they really work [INTRO]In everyday yard situations where multiple horses use the same saddle, putting one or more pads under has been seen as a way of providing cushioning and comfort for the horse, or even relieving pain. However, there has never been any research in racehorses to demonstrate whether this reduces saddle pressures or provides comfort. Furthermore, there is limited scientific evidence to suggest which type of pad is most effective. A recent study suggests that, depending on the material and design, using a pad beneath the saddle might not always achieve the desired pressure-relieving effect. And using multiple ineffective pads under the saddle might not only be a waste of time and money, but it could potentially cause areas of high pressures, compromising the horse’s locomotor apparatus and affecting race performance. [CROSSHEAD] Material matters[FIGURE 1] caption:Peak pressure of more than 35kPa were recorded in two of the three pads. Peak pressure of >35 kPa can cause compression of the capillaries, leading to soft tissue and follicle damage (ischemia) which, in extreme or prolonged cases, results in white hairs, muscle atrophy, skin ulcerations and discomfort. A recent published study evaluated saddle pressure distribution in sports horses using pads made from sheepskin, viscose gel and a medical-grade closed-cell foam. When using a gel pad, the peak and mean pressures increased in the front region of the saddle in trot and canter. This is possibly due to the gel’s lack of ability to dissipate shear forces compared to wool or foam. Similar findings were seen in a pilot study of thoroughbreds galloping at half speed over ground. The same dynamic testing was used (see Technology & Anatomy panel) to compare the forces and peak pressures under polyfill pads, as well as viscose gel and medical-grade closed-cell foam. From the initial trials, the overall forces recorded were significantly higher than those seen in the sports horse study. This seems reasonable, given the difference in locomotion and speed (see Speed & Force panel). Preliminary findings show the forces were 75% lower, and peak pressures were 65% lower under the medical-grade closed-cell foam pad than those recorded under the gel pad. Interestingly the polyfill pad, which deforms to the touch, reduced the forces and peak pressures by 25% and 44% respectively compared to the viscose gel pad. The role of the pad is to act as a dampening layer between the horse and the saddle, reducing pressures and absorbing the dynamic forces which occur during locomotion.Based on findings from the sports horse study, and initial findings from the racehorse study, it appears that the medical-grade closed-cell foam pad is superior in its effectiveness at acting as a pressure-reducing layer between the saddle and the horse. [CROSSHEAD] Pressure to perform Reducing saddle pressures improves gallop locomotion. Horses will still perform when asked, despite areas of high pressures induced by the saddle and pad; but they develop a compensatory locomotor strategy in an attempt to alleviate any discomfort. To increase speed, a galloping horse will either increase stride frequency or increase stride length. Both mechanisms can be used, but the horse will have a natural preference. Published pressure studies have shown that stride length is increased when saddle pressures are reduced. Now, new research is underway quantifying whether a stride frequency approach, which has higher peak forces, could be a compensatory strategy in response to discomfort caused by pressure. Forces are influenced by speed and weight and are produced when the hoof comes in contact with the ground. At racing speeds of 38 mph, the hoof hits the ground approximately 150 times a minute. Stride frequency is an important consideration because a study has suggested that horses have around 100,000 gallop strides before the soft tissues fail. Therefore, any reduction in loading cycles (number of strides) could potentially help reduce injury risk. Harder, faster, longerEvery stride impacts the horse’s joints, causing wear and tear (see Speed & Force panel), so fewer longer strides is the preference for optimum training efficiency. Although horses have a naturally imprinted option, the pressure studies demonstrate that they switch between the two in response to certain extrinsic factors, such as high saddle pressure. Our task as trainers is to optimise the horse’s locomotor efficiency by removing any impediment that might force it to adopt the shorter-stride compensatory gait. We speculate that equipment which increases pressure (such as an unsuitable design of saddle, bridle, girth or saddle pad) will be counterproductive because it may encourage an increase in stride frequency and compromise natural locomotor efficiency. [CROSSHEAD] Contouring is key[FIGURE 2] caption: A saddle pad that is shaped to follow the contours of the back is able to maintain better spinal clearance under the saddle when galloping. In both studies, the saddle pads that were designed to follow the contour of the horse’s back and withers performed better than those that were flat with no shaping. Furthermore, pads with a midline seam connecting the two sides were able to maintain traction and position, providing spinal clearance even at speed. In contrast, pads that were flat without any contouring or with no central webbing seam were observed to slip in response to the horse’s movement, drawing down against the spine under the saddle. This was seen even when the pads were pulled up into the saddle channel before setting off. Quality vs quantityIn an attempt to improve comfort, it’s standard practice to use multiple pads under an exercise saddle. However, adding more shapeless padding can lead to instability and potentially saddle slip. This feeling of instability can encourage the jockey to overtighten the girth in an attempt to keep the saddle still. One study demonstrated a relationship between increased girth tension and a reduced run-to-fatigue time on a treadmill, indicating that girth tension can affect the breathing of the galloping horse. In addition, bulk under the saddle puts a feeling of distance between the horse and rider. This compromises the close contact feel and balance all jockeys strive to achieve and hinders the lowering of the jockey’s centre of mass relative to the horse. Age concernIt’s worth noting that the ability of a material to absorb pressure can be significantly compromised with use and washing, as well as changes in climate. As some materials age, they degrade and lose any initial shock-absorbing qualities. For example, wool loses its ‘crimp’ over time and becomes less effective, so a well-used wool pad may not absorb as much pressure as a new one. The medical-grade closed-cell foam used in the saddle pad studies was developed to prevent capillary damage in bed-ridden hospital patients and the pressure relieving properties are not affected by extremes of weather or machine washing. Saddle systemIt is becoming clear that the saddle, pad and girth operate best when they are viewed as a complete system. When choosing a pad, it’s worth bearing in mind that these pressure studies were carried out under correctly fitted saddles with wide channels and ample spinal clearance. The benefits of a pressure-relieving pad are diminished by a badly fitting or poorly designed saddle with a narrow channel and limited spinal clearance. Likewise, trainers who are experiencing the performance gains associated with advances in saddle design will not reap the full benefits of a pressure-relieving saddle if the fit and effectiveness are compromised by poorly performing pads underneath. [PANEL] Speed & force [FIGURE 3] caption: The hoof exerts a force against the ground, and the ground exerts a force against the hoof, which is transferred through the muscles and tissues of the forelimb. In gallop, the forelimbs have to support two-and-a-half times the horse’s body weight with every motion cycle (stride). In each motion cycle, a fast-moving front foot interacts with the stationary ground and, as the hoof comes to an abrupt halt, the forelimb has to absorb these forces. The forces are transmitted through the soft tissues and muscles to the thoracic vertebrae in the region where the saddle and jockey are positioned. These thoracic vertebrae in front of T16 (the anticlinal vertebra) are responsible for force transmission from the forelimbs, head and neck. The horse’s back does not just have to deal with the large forces from the forelimbs (and hindlimbs) but also the dynamic forces of the jockey, which can be in excess of two-and-a-half times the jockey’s body weight. As speed increases, so do pressures beneath the saddle and pad. There’s a 5% pressure increase when the walk speed rises by 10%, and in trot it goes up to 14%. As the racehorse is travelling at a faster pace the forces involved are inevitably increased and, at gallop with the jockey ‘up in his pedals’, approximately 80% of his weight is focused on the front part of the saddle—the T10-T13 region (see Technology & Anatomy panel). If the saddle pad draws down along the spine during locomotion and creates restrictive pressure, this will interfere with muscle activation and force transmission, potentially causing the horse to adopt the compensatory short-stride gait.The horse will not only need more strides to cover the same distance, but it will also experience more forelimb loading every stride due to the increased speed of each cycle.Studies are ongoing into the long-term impact of this extra limb loading, but we speculate it will potentially result in poor performance and increased risk of injury.[END PANEL] [ PANEL] Stability in Motion[FIGURES 4a,b,c caption: The three axes of rotation]The spine rotates in three directions, providing stability, forcing transmission and generating power efficiently. Lateral bending – left to right Flexion-extension – up and down Axial rotation – rolling one side to the other For optimum locomotor efficiency, the vertebral column needs to be dynamically stable. Stability is the combination of strength and suppleness; it isn’t stiffness. The muscles in the back and neck must be strong so they can support the spine but flexible enough to allow the necessary range of movement and transmission of the dynamic forces required during locomotion.Studies have shown that when the saddle and rider are stable and symmetrical, the horse’s back can stabilise through the cranial thoracic spine at T13 (see Technology & Anatomy), allowing the efficient transfer of forces from the hindlimb.A saddle pad that is causing pressure is likely to compromise this dynamic stability. From a preliminary study, it appears that high pressures are associated with increased spinal instability. This instability is likely to cause the horse to seek a compensatory locomotor strategy and adopt a posture where the back is stiffened. Previous research has shown that back function and gallop kinematics are compromised by a stiffened spine.[END PANEL] [PANEL] Technology & Anatomy[FIGURE 5] caption: Pressure mapping and 3D motion capture are used to quantify the effects of saddle pads on performance at gallop on the track. Thanks to extensive research, scientists now have a greater understanding of the importance of the area around the 10th-13th thoracic vertebrae (T10- T13). This is the location of a high concentration of muscle activity related to posture and movement. Repeated studies have demonstrated how pressure at T10-T13 compromises the locomotor apparatus of the horse and consequently performance. Relieving pressure here affects the mechanics of the whole back, allowing the transfer of propulsive forces from the hindlimb, creating increased power and longer stride length. Testing equipmentResearch teams employ pressure mapping (using a mat with 128 sensor cells on each side of the spine) and 3D gait analysis (using Inertial measuring units) to show precisely how changes in pressure affect spinal movement. The measuring units (IMUs) quantify flexion-extension, axial rotation and lateral bending. The combination of these state-of-the-art measuring systems allows researchers to prove that relieving pressure has a direct effect on spinal kinematics. Long-term trials using pressure testing and gait analysis have demonstrated that back discomfort associated with pressure can affect the development of the horse’s posture, gallop stride and potentially long-term back health. [END BOX OUT] FURTHER READINGR Murray, Journal Equine Vet Science 2019 81 102795 K von Peinen, Vet Journal 2010 538 650-3 S Latif, Equine Vet Journal 2010, 42 630-6 R MacKechnie-Guire, Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 2020ML Peterson, Racing Surfaces white paper, http://www.racingsurfaces.org/bulletins 2012](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/517636f8e4b0cb4f8c8697ba/1619171002004-MBXCIWLV6YDQRJDIHBBU/OPENING+SHOT+%281%29.jpg)
By Dr. Russell Mackechnie-Guire
The use of pads under the saddle has been common for years, but now scientists are using dynamic
testing technology to discover how well they really work.
In everyday yard situations where multiple horses use the same saddle, putting one or more pads under the saddle has been seen as a way of providing cushioning and comfort for the horse, or even relieving pain.
However, there has never been any research in racehorses to demonstrate whether this reduces saddle pressures or provides comfort. Furthermore, there is limited scientific evidence to suggest which type of pad is most effective. A recent study suggests that, depending on the material and design, using a pad beneath the saddle might not always achieve the desired pressure-relieving effect. And using multiple ineffective pads under the saddle might not only be a waste of time and money, but it could potentially cause areas of high pressures, compromising the horse’s locomotor apparatus and affecting race performance.
MATERIAL MATTERS
Peak pressure of >35 kPa can cause compression of the capillaries, leading to soft tissue and follicle damage (ischemia) which, in extreme or prolonged cases, results in white hairs, muscle atrophy, skin ulcerations and discomfort. A recent published study evaluated saddle pressure distribution in sports horses using pads made from sheepskin, viscose gel and a medical-grade closed-cell foam. When using a gel pad, the peak and mean pressures increased in the front region of the saddle in trot and canter. This is possibly due to the gel’s lack of ability to dissipate shear forces compared to wool or foam. Similar findings were seen in a pilot study of Thoroughbreds galloping at half speed over ground. The same dynamic testing was used (see Technology & Anatomy section) to compare the forces and peak pressures under polyfill pads, as well as viscose gel and medical-grade closed-cell foam. From the initial trials, the overall forces recorded were significantly higher than those seen in the sports horse study. This seems reasonable, given the difference in locomotion and speed (see Speed & Force section). Preliminary findings show the forces were 75% lower, and peak pressures were 65% lower under the medical- grade closed-cell foam pad than those recorded under the gel pad. Interestingly the polyfill pad, which deforms to the touch, reduced the forces and peak pressures by 25% and 44% respectively compared to the viscose gel pad. The role of the pad is to act as a dampening layer between the horse and the saddle, reducing pressures and absorbing the dynamic forces which occur during locomotion. Based on findings from the sports horse study, and initial findings from the racehorse study, it appears that the medical-grade closed-cell foam pad is superior in its effectiveness at acting as a pressure-reducing layer between the saddle and the horse.
PRESSURE TO PERFORM
Reducing saddle pressures improves gallop locomotion. Horses will still perform when asked, despite areas of high pressures induced by the saddle and pad; but they develop a compensatory locomotor strategy in an attempt to alleviate any discomfort. To increase speed, a galloping horse will either increase stride frequency or increase stride length. Both mechanisms can be used, but the horse will have a natural preference. Published pressure studies have shown that stride length is increased when saddle pressures are reduced. Now, new research is underway quantifying whether a stride frequency approach, which has higher peak forces, could be a compensatory strategy in response to discomfort caused by pressure. Forces are influenced by speed and weight and are produced when the hoof comes in contact with the ground. At racing speeds of 38 mph, the hoof hits the ground approximately 150 times a minute. Stride frequency is an important consideration because a study has suggested that horses have around 100,000 gallop strides before the soft tissues fail. Therefore, any reduction in loading cycles (number of strides) could potentially help reduce injury risk.
• Harder, faster, longer
Every stride impacts the horse’s joints, causing wear and tear (see Speed & Force section), so fewer longer strides is the preference for optimum training efficiency. Although horses have a naturally imprinted option, the pressure studies demonstrate that they switch between the two in response to certain extrinsic factors, such as high saddle pressure.
Our task as trainers is to optimize the horse’s locomotor efficiency by removing any impediment that might force it to adopt the shorter-stride compensatory gait. We speculate that equipment which increases pressure (such as an unsuitable design of saddle, bridle, girth or saddle pad) will be counterproductive because it may encourage an increase in stride frequency and compromise natural locomotor efficiency.
CONTOURING IS KEY
In both studies, the saddle pads that were designed to follow the contour of the horse’s back and withers performed better than those that were flat with no shaping. …
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Roarers - surgery for recurrent laryngeal neuropathy -impact and outcomes
By Safia Barakzai
Recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN), more commonly known as “roaring”, “laryngeal paralysis” and “laryngeal hemiplegia” is a disorder affecting primarily the left recurrent laryngeal nerve in horses >15hh. This nerve supplies the muscles that open and close the left side of the larynx. The right recurrent laryngeal nerve is also now proven to be affected, but only very mildly, thus affected horses very rarely show signs of right-sided dysfunction. Horses with RLN become unable to fully open (abduct) the left side of their larynx. During exercise they then make abnormal inspiratory noise due to collapse of both the vocal fold(s) and the left arytenoid cartilage (Fig. 1), and airflow to the lungs can become severely obstructed in advanced cases. There is a proven genetic component to RLN, but in many cases the disease progresses over months or years. The age at which clinical signs become apparent is highly variable. Foals can show endoscopic and pathologic evidence of RLN, but some horses do not develop clinical disease until >10 years old. Severity of disease can be reasonably estimated using endoscopy in the resting horse (grades 1-4), but the gold standard for assessing this disease is endoscopy during exercise, when the high negative pressure—generated when breathing—test the affected laryngeal muscle, which is trying its best to resist the “suctio”’ effect of inspiration (Fig. 1).
Horse undergoing exercising endoscopy to ascertain how the left arytenoid performs when the airway is under pressure. Inset photos show resting (top) and then exercising endoscopy (bottom) of a larynx with grade D arytenoid collapse (green arrow) with additional deformation of the arytenoid cartilage shape and bilateral vocal fold collapse (red arrows).
During exercise, RLN is graded from A to D, depending on how much the left side of the larynx can open (Table 1).
• Treatment of RLN
TABLE 1: Grades A-D of laryngeal abduction during exercise. Figures c/o F. Rossignol.
Traditionally, left-sided ventriculocordectomy (“Hobday”/ ventriculectomy plus vocal-cordectomy surgery) and laryngoplasty (“tie-back”) surgeries have been used to treat the disorder, depending on which structures are collapsing and how severely. The intended use of the horse, the budget available and other concerns of the owner/trainer also come into play. New techniques of providing a new nerve supply (“re-innervating”) to the affected muscle are now being trialled in clinical cases. Pacing the muscle with an implanted electronic device has also been attempted in research cases.
• Ventriculocordectomy
Ventriculocordectomy is commonly now referred to as a “Hobday” operation; however, the “Hobday” actually only refers to removal of the blind ending sac that constitutes the laryngeal ventricle. Currently, surgeons tend to remove the vocal cord as well as the ventricle, because it is vocal cord collapse that creates the “whistling” noise. It is a relatively straightforward surgery to perform with minimal risks and complications for the patient. In the last 15 years, there has been a shift to performing it in a minimally invasive way, using a diode laser under endoscopic guidance in the standing sedated horse rather than with the conventional method, via an open laryngotomy incision on the underside of the neck with the horse under a general anesthetic. However, transendoscopic laser surgery is technically difficult with a very steep learning curve for the surgeon. All ventriculocordectomies are not equal (Fig. 2) and for both laser and ‘open surgery’ methods, incomplete resection of the fold can leave behind enough tissue to cause ongoing respiratory noise and/or airway obstruction after surgery.
Two horses after ventriculocordectomy surgery. The horse on the left has an excellent left-sided ventriculocordectomy, with complete excision of the vocal fold tissue (black arrow). The right cord is intact, but the right ventricle has been removed (‘Hobday’). The horse on the right has bilaterally incomplete vocalcordectomies, with much of the vocal fold tissue left behind (green arrows).
Sports horses, hunters and other non-racehorses were often previously recommended to have a ventriculocordectomy performed rather than a laryngoplasty, even if they had severe RLN. This decision was often made on the grounds of cost, but also due to fear of complications associated with laryngoplasty (‘tie-back’ surgery). A new study has shown that for horses with severe RLN, a unilateral ventriculocordectomy is actually extremely unlikely to eliminate abnormal noise in severely affected horses, because the left arytenoid cartilage continues to collapse.3 The authors recommended that laryngoplasty plus ventriculocordectomy is a better option than ventriculocordectomy alone for all grade C and D horses if resolution of abnormal respiratory noise and significant improvement of the cross sectional area of the larynx are the aims of surgery.3
Advancements in laryngoplasty (‘tie-back’) surgery
Laryngoplasty is indeed one of the most difficult procedures that equine surgeons perform, and suffice to say that with such an advanced surgery, using a registered specialist veterinary surgeon that has considerable experience in airway surgery will likely minimise the chances of a negative outcome. Laryngoplasty surgery has an unjustified poor reputation in my opinion, …
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Recruiting runners - the lengths racing secretaries are going to to field runners for their races
By Bill Heller
From New York to California, racing secretaries are working diligently to recruit horses, a task made significantly more difficult by the ongoing pandemic.
“Everybody is struggling to get horses,” New York Racing Association Senior Vice-President of Racing Operations Martin Panza said. “Everybody has empty stalls. Tracks that were running five days a week, now are running three or four.” Del Mar Racing Secretary David Jerkens put it this way: “It’s always a challenge. Any racing secretary in the country will tell you it’s hard to land new inventory.” Panza and Jerkens are veteran executives who have seen good times and bad.
Santa Anita’s Chris Merz began his first job as race secretary in February 2020. His timing couldn’t have been worse. “I think it was just before the pandemic,” Merz said. “You’re trying to come up with these ideas to get horses out here, and then you have the pandemic. Any plans get thrown out the window. Recruiting went out the window. You’re just trying to survive.” Thankfully, the New York Racing Association’s three tracks: Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga did survive, as did Santa Anita and Del Mar, which is the site of this year’s Breeders’ Cup. Yet the racing industry has shriveled considerably following the closing of Hollywood Park, the recent loss of Calder Raceway and, unless a miracle happens, Arlington Park.
“If tracks such as Arlington go away, if you lose a city like Chicago and take a big track out of the picture, it hurts the industry,” Panza said. “They’re not going to build new tracks to replace Calder, Hollywood, Arlington Park. It’s sad what you lose, but it’s a sign of the times. The industry is changing so quickly. What maybe worked 15 years ago might not work today.”
For smaller tracks, survival may depend on finding a niche. At Indiana Grand, Chris Polzin, who had been working at Arlington Park before moving to Indiana at the end of last October, was asked how his track competes with larger ones. “We race Monday through Thursday,” He said. “So we don’t really run against them. The big tracks gather all the attention. Who’s going to pay attention to us if we run on weekends?”
In mid-March, a month before Indiana Grand opened its 2021 Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse meeting, Polzin said, “Our stalls are jam packed. We have 900 stabled. I’ve got a list of 140 stalls people want and there are none.”
In mid-March, a month before Indiana Grand opened its 2021 Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse meeting, Polzin said, “Our stalls are jam packed. We have 900 stabled. I’ve got a list of 140 stalls people want and there are none.” Mike Anifantis, the racing secretary at Prairie Meadows in Iowa, hopes his Thoroughbred/Quarter Horse meet, which runs from April 30 to September 26, will be smoother than 2020. “This year, obviously, is a little bit easier than last year,” he said. “We didn’t know when we were opening. This year, we’ve got 15 to 18 new trainers coming in and eight or nine people who couldn’t come last year. We start out with Thoroughbreds, then mixed breeds; both run on the same card.”Asked if it’s a challenge to survive, Anifantis replied, “It’s a challenge for sure.”
Lone Star, which has both a Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse meeting, relies on its neighboring tracks. “We have a good circuit,” Lone Star Assistant Race Secretary Matt Crawford, a former trainer, said. “Sam Houston runs from January to April, then we start and run through July. Remington Park runs from August through December. We primarily get 75 to 80 percent of our horses from here. We get some horses from Oaklawn Park. We get some interest from Louisiana Downs, and it’s only a three-hour drive from Turf Paradise.” Asked about his hopes for this year’s meet, Crawford said, “We hope to be okay. It might be a little light the first couple of weeks. Around the first of May, we’ll start rolling pretty good.”…
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#Soundbites - The Jockey Club just proposed limiting a stallion to 140 breedings a year. We asked breeders, owners and bloodstock agents: Is this a good idea?
By Bill Heller
According to The Jockey Club, the number of mares bred in 2020 were down 12.5% in California, 7.6% in Florida, 5.3% in New York and 4.3% in Kentucky; while the number was up 7.0% in Pennsylvania, 3.4% in Louisiana and 3.3% in Maryland. The Jockey Club just proposed limiting a stallion to 140 breedings a year.
We asked breeders, owners and bloodstock agents: Is this a good idea or bad? If it’s bad, then what’s the alternative?
# John Harris - Harris Farms, California
I think it’s a good idea, but it’s kind of academic in California. We rarely have stallions in California who breed over 140 mares. Some are over 100, but none over 140. 140 is quite a few. We breed horses here to race. The declining mares— that’s the tip of the iceberg. The problem in California is a lot of people aren’t making a lot of money racing here, and their interest starts to wane.
# Rob Whiteley – Liberation Farm, Califon, N.J.
Rob Whiteley
I’m very happy that the Jockey Club is taking action. 140 is a lot of mares. In 2020, there were nine stallions that bred over 200 in Kentucky, averaging 232 mares. That’s 2,088 top mares going to just nine stallions. I don’t think that’s good for the mare owners or for the long-term wellness of the industry to have huge books for a number of reasons. Mares need to be bred when they’re ready to breed. Spreading them out is important so that other stallions have enough runners to be competitive in the marketplace. Finally, whatever the number, stallion owners should be transparent in the number of mares their stallions breed.
# Brent Fernung - Journeyman Stallions, Ocala, Fla.
Brent Fernung
It would be beneficial to regional breeders like me and everybody else. The industry’s changed considerably over the years. If one stallion breeds 250 mares, they’re taking out other people’s pools. I don’t know if you can legislate that. I guess we’ll find out because there are lawsuits about it.
# Ken Ramsey – Breeder and owner, Kentucky
I have mixed feelings on it. I don’t believe in a lot of government control— the government telling a man what to do—but at the same token, I do think the breed needs more diversity. …
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Alan Balch - Toast?
Those of us of a certain age vividly remember Walter Annenberg, friend of presidents, Ambassador to the Court of St. James, master of Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, and publisher of Daily Racing Form.
We tend not to remember his criminal father Moses (Moe) or the Chicago and Capone connections integral to the success of the racing wires and Form, leading to his imprisonment for evading over $20 million in U.S. taxes (in today’s currency). For those interested in the birth and ongoing life cycle of American racing, further research would be enlightening.
Suffice it to say that our sport was once highly lucrative. An oligopoly, and even monopolistic in some respects.
Tycoon Warren Buffett, now styled “The Oracle of Omaha,” long ago teased his audiences by asking them to name the nation’s most profitable newspaper, having little advertising, costing the buyer a dollar when other papers cost a dime. He started out as a teen-aged publisher of his own tip sheet, was ruled off for not sharing his proceeds with the track operator—a student of “speed” vs. “class” handicapping. Most of those at his feet had no idea that he was talking about The Morning Telegraph, which was succeeded by the Form, of course.
In the many decades since, Buffett’s investing led him far, far away from speed and concentrated on staying. He took a cue from the Annenberg son, whose Triangle Publications was founded on what Walter termed “essentiality.” Anyone seriously interested in business had to have The Wall Street Journal; in horse racing, the Daily Racing Form; in television, TV Guide. For the nation at large, two of the three were essential. Even the Form was essential, in the sense that no other sport, early on, permitted legal betting on its contests; any bet on a race, without critical information, was literally uninformed to a significant extent. In the early days, racing was undoubtedly America’s leading professional sport.
Until recently, Buffett was a major investor in newspapers, and one of his first jobs, along with that track publishing stint, was as a paperboy. Over a decade ago, he bought 28 local papers for $344 million. In 1977, he had gotten The Buffalo News for $36 million. Lately, he sold all those at a loss, although financing terms of the transactions may make him better than whole in the long run.
In a 2019 interview with Yahoo Finance, he described the evolution of newspaper publishing, along with the essential nature of local news and advertising, and how the business had changed. “It went from monopoly to franchise to competitive to ... toast.” Gulp.
That racing and its place in the gaming universe also have been dramatically changing isn’t exactly a secret, right? Or unforeseen, long before now? New York OTB was authorized in 1970. The New York Lottery had begun in 1967. Out on the island of California, its state lottery was authorized by a vote of the people in late 1984. Despite its 50% takeout, giant payoffs to the brain-dead and a very few with real luck began luring our clientele away the next year.
While we in racing haven’t exactly been asleep, maybe we’ve been dreaming ... that somehow this reality would never actually bite. And chew. That simulcasting, satellites, ADW and sports betting would see us through? And just exactly how would that work? Decades, literally, largely have been wasted. Racing’s leaders could have invested wisely in research, development, and acquisition, dedicated to competing successfully in the evolving world of gaming. There was a time when we should and could have better marshaled our financial resources for critical future orientation.
Not to mention keen, deep appreciation for our unique selling proposition in the gaming world: the horse.
The last time the North American foal crop was under 20,000, as it is now, was 1965, but then it was on an upward trend. That year, the average field size was stable at just under 9 horses per race. In 2019, it was 7.5, or a decline of 17%. Average annual starts per runner has declined from 11 in 1965, to barely over 6 in 2019, or about 45%. In California alone, 3,365 races were run in 1965; in 2018, 3,874. Make sense?
Most industries use similar objective data to guide decision making and policies. We do not. Despite our fans’ mania over the most minute data to drive betting! Is it any wonder we face the most uncertain of futures?
To make matters still worse, greater and greater numbers of the declining stock of horses are increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, leading to far less attractive betting contests for the public. Racing associations, governing bodies and horsemen’s organizations seem reluctant even to discuss, let alone act on, what the data present. For racing to have a serious chance to flourish again, stall limits on trainers must be gradually but increasingly implemented. A far broader distribution of horses among trainers is essential to growing field size and enhancing our fundamental game. The business reasons are starkly clear.
But that’s only one essential tactic in what should be a strategy based on all the intellectual capital the entire industry can assemble.
So, do I believe we’re toast? No, not necessarily ... racing will continue, survive and possibly thrive.
However, true prosperity is only ours if we remember, no matter the obstacles, the fundamental reasons for our sport’s adaption to change through the centuries. Its foundation is the majesty and attraction of horses to the vast public, and the socialization our shared affection inspires. In turn, that requires vigorous commitment to equine welfare, allegiance to the principle of breeding a better, sounder horse, and genuine, loving, sincere observance of good horsemanship.
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