ASK RAY - Paulick Report

August 11, 2015
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SPECIAL
Jockey Club Round Table: Glass Half Full Or Half Empty?
By Natalie Voss
The sixty-third annual Jockey Club Round Table conference took place on Sunday at the Gideon Putnam Resort
in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Depending upon your perspective, it was either a marker of tremendous positive change
for the racing industry, or a reminder of just how slowly
things progress in the sport.
The conference began with a review of where the industry
stands in relation to the report presented at the Round
Table by McKinsey and Company in 2011. On some
points, racing is looking pretty good; on others, not so
much. On one hand, McKinsey had predicted that the
annual handle, which was dropping at that time, would be
down to $10.1 billion by 2014. In reality, Jason Wilson,
president of media ventures at the Jockey Club, reported
that total handle was $10.6 billion in 2014. Wilson
attributed this relief to racing’s increased presence on
television. Part of McKinsey’s suggested course of action
was for the industry to get proactive about controlling its
brand. Penelope Miller, senior manager of digital media
for America’s Best Racing, presented numbers indicating
that in just three years, the initiative has already succeeded in engaging fans both at the racetrack and online.
On Saturday, Miller reported that ABR hosted several
dozen “influencers” with sizable followings on blogs or
social media at Saratoga Race Course for a day of racing
that will be recounted to a combined 400,000 people
between the influencers’ combined audiences. In the first
half of 2015, ABR-produced videos have garnered over
700,000 views online as of mid-June, Miller said.
More technology is coming to racing—Wilson announced
that by 2016, a web system will be in place allowing trainers to send in entries on their smartphones or tablets,
streamlining the process and helping centralize data. Bill
Squadron, executive vice president of strategic relationships for STATS, outlined a statistical database with pre-
ASK RAY
QUESTION: Why is the New York Racing Association limiting attendance on Travers day to
50,000?
ANSWER: The attendance cap was set in the event Triple
Crown winner American Pharoah runs in the “Midsummer
Derby.” NYRA hasn’t had 50,000 on Travers day since
2003, when 66,122 were on hand.
dictive algorithms to help horseplayers and casual fans,
coming to the industry in 2016. Rick Bailey, registrar at
the Jockey Club divulged plans to require all foals to be
registered by microchip by 2017, helping streamline the
process of identifying horses. Critics would point out that
other racing jurisdictions are already using microchips,
and that microchip use in pets has been in place for years
(New Zealand first required all dogs be microchipped in
2006).
Glass half full, glass half empty.
In the ‘progress’ column, Dr. Kathleen Anderson outlined
the American Association of Equine Practitioners’ new
ten-point plan for cooperative improvement of the racing
industry, which included the intent to seek out alternatives
Continued on Page 7
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Pedigree Spotlight
Into Mischief
By Frank Mitchell
A Grade 1 winner at 2, Into Mischief showed the precocity and speed and class associated with the best progeny
of his sire Harlan’s Holiday (by the Storm Cat son Harlan).
Harlan, who died very young with only 99 foals, surely would
have provided an even more exciting addition to the legacy
of Storm Cat. From his brief time at stud, Harlan sired multiple G1 winner Harlan’s Holiday and G1 winner and Kentucky Derby second Menifee, among other good horses.
More would have followed but for the misfortunes of fate.
Winner of the G1 Florida Derby, Blue
Grass, and Donn, Harlan’s Holiday
earned $3.6 million in his career on
the racetrack and kicked off his time
at stud with quick and precocious
racers that showed class. Although
Harlan’s Holiday also died relatively
early, he sired more than 10 times
as many foals as his sire and has 57
stakes winners to date, with more to
come.
And most importantly with Into Mischief, Harlan’s Holiday has had early
success with his sons at stud. Into
Mischief led the charge as his sire’s first top son at stud,
and Into Mischief has delivered with $3 million winner Goldencents in his first crop, along with graded winner Vyjack
and other good winners. Likewise, Harlan’s Holiday’s top
sprint son Majesticperfection has followed that pattern
with 2015 Kentucky Oaks winner Lovely Maria in his first
crop.
Purchased at auction and raced by B. Wayne Hughes, Into
Mischief was retired to stud at Spendthrift Farm and became one of the farm’s first sire prospects in its innovative
The
little
tractor
that
can.
“Share the Upside” program. This approach, rather than
traditional syndication, allowed breeders to purchase a
breeding right in stallion prospects by breeding a mare to
a horse, typically for two years at a set price, and paying
that fee upon the birth of a live foal.
After the two years, the breeder owns a breeding right in
the horse and can breed to him for the rest of his career at
stud with no additional fees. Those who “shared the upside”
with Into Mischief have certainly profited, as the bay stallion
is now standing for $35,000 live
foal, about three times his initial fee.
The sales market is appreciating
the success of Into Mischief, and
the young sire has five yearlings cataloged at the Saratoga select sale.
mont Stakes.
Among the prominent offerings
by Into Mischief are Hips 151 and
190. Hip 151 is a half-brother to
stakes winner Phoenician Moon
(Malibu Moon), and his second dam
is a stakes-producing full sister to
Kingpost, who won the Jim Beam
Stakes and ran second in the Bel-
Hip 190 is a big, bay filly out of stakes winner Shy Lil (Lil’s
Lad). The sire marked this filly notably, and she is an impressive individual, with size and strength. She has three
white socks, compared to her sire’s two, but is an athletic
specimen with a good mind and demeanor.
If Into Mischief consistently combines mind with a racy physique in his stock, he may develop his own sire line. PRS
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Honor Roll
Callback Takes Small Breeder To Grade 1 Heights
By Scott Jagow
“I never thought I’d breed a Grade 1 winner. I’m still
stunned,” he said. “My legs kept shaking the whole night.”
Callback again hit the wire first in her next start, the Sunland Park Oaks, but she was disqualified and placed fourth.
She shipped to Churchill Downs for the G3 Eight Belles in
May and put in another good effort, finishing second to
Promise Me Silver, the winner of eight straight. Callback
came out of the race with an injury and is expected back
in training soon. Colbert keeps his two mares with Tony
Ocampo at Rose Hill Farm in Lexington, Ky.
“Tony and his group are the best. He does it all. I just write
the checks,” Cobert said.
2012 B Filly, Street Sense — Quickest, by Forest Wildcat. Consigned by Paramount Sales, agent, to 2013
Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, purchased by Spendthrift
Farm for $375,000.
When Super Saver won the 2010 Kentucky Derby, breeder Vincent Colbert saw an opportunity. He owned an unraced half-sister to the colt, and he put her up for sale at
Fasig-Tipton November that year, hoping for a big return on
the mare’s $40,000 purchase price.
It didn’t work out. Quickest was an RNA at $360,000. In
hindsight, it wasn’t such a bad turn of events. The following spring, Colbert bred Quickest to Street Sense, and she
produced an attractive filly named Callback.
“She was put together nice, a lot of class to her,” said Colbert, a part-time breeder based in Massachusetts. “She
really blossomed from February (2013) to when the guys
at Fasig-Tipton saw her, and then she just really took off in
the summer.”
Colbert sold her through Paramount Sales for $375,000
at the 2013 F-T Saratoga Sale. The filly, purchased by
Spendthrift Farm, went west to Bob Baffert’s California
stable. Callback debuted a year later and quickly showed
promise, winning her second start and placing next out in
the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes. A few weeks later, Colbert
watched as the filly prevailed in the G1 Las Virgenes
RANDOM FACTS
by Ray Paulick
Todd Pletcher has run 43 horses in the
Kentucky Derby since 2000, with one win by
Super Saver in 2010. Following the Kentucky
Derby, those 43 horses had an aggregate 299 starts
(6.9 average per horse) and 69 wins (1.6 per horse).
To date, 16 of Pletcher’s 43 Kentucky Derby starters
(37 percent) did not win another race.
Quickest was given this season off, but Colbert said she’ll
breed back to Street Sense in 2016, and her yearling colt
by Arch will go as hip 163 in this week’s Saratoga Sale.
“He’s by far the prettiest, best foal she’s ever had,” said
Colbert.
That’s saying something considering Callback’s track record so far. PRS
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How does your racehorse grow?
By Natalie Voss
Today we bring you Part 2 of a talk presented by Kentucky Equine Research president Dr. Joe Pagan at the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association’s annual seminar in the United Kingdom last month. In yesterday’s issue of the PR Special,
Pagan discussed current research on growth rates in foals and yearlings. Turns out, environmental factors begin to
impact bone growth before horses hit the track.
Bone doesn’t evolve at a constant pace
The long bones in a horse’s body (like the cannon bones) are comprised of three sections if you look at a cross-section
of the bone—the lateral (outside) cortex of bone and the medial (inside) cortex of bone, with a hollow section called the
medullary cavity. The medullary cavity remains the same width throughout a horse’s life, but the widths of the medial and
lateral cortexes of the bone change as the horse grows. The medial width, interestingly, experiences more change.
Neither does bone composition
In addition to measuring bone growth and density, researchers examined the composition of bones. Turns out, this changes
over time as well, and like overall growth, it sometimes changes in fits and starts.
A KER study of 30 foals born in 2003 determined that bone mineral content builds slowly early in the horses’ lives and
experiences a period of rapid change in spring and summer, presumably because of the increased quality of the grass.
Bones can lose mineral content, too.
“Most breeders don’t realize how alive bone is,” said Pagan. “All of the calcium in a foal’s body turns over 100 percent in a
year. The foal’s skeleton will completely demineralize and remineralize in a year. You may think that once the mineral’s there,
it’s like you’ve poured concrete and it’s not going away, but that’s not how it works.”
You may want to rethink wintering up north
Pagan said KER researchers looked at a group of two-year olds that spent the winter and their early under-saddle training
Continued on Page 6
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in Kentucky, rather than shipping south to Florida’s sunny
weather. In November, the study group had 18 hours of
turnout a day. After they went to a training center, they
were stalled most of the day with limited outside work due
to harsh weather in January and February. By March, the
climate warmed up and the horses began to increase their
training intensity.
Bone mineral content decreased during January and February when the 2-year-olds had limited exercise, as did the
width of the medial side of the cortical bone in their cannons. Although the incidence of injury was not measured in
this study, a similar study conducted at Texas A&M found a
correlation between bone demineralization and injury rates.
“Bone mineral content starts to become very important
when a young horse goes through that transitional phase
between a yearling that’s not doing much and a 2-year-old
racehorse that’s doing a lot,” said Pagan. “When young
horses go into training, there’s a period of vulnerability in
early training when training intensity may be too low to provide adequate feedback to the bone so that it can strengthen. Then when training intensity increases, the bone may
not be strong enough, and bone injuries can occur.”
Some exercise is absolutely better than no exercise
The exercise that young horses receive during turnout is
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Continued from Page 5
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critical for optimal bone development. Pagan cited a study
of 17 weanlings that either experienced 24 hours in a stall,
12 hours stalled and 12 on turnout, or 24 hours on turnout.
Both groups that went outside had an increase in bone mineral content and cannon bone circumference.
Echoing the sentiments of Dr. Larry Bramlage at this year’s
Jockey Club Welfare and Safety Summit, Pagan said if possible, some movement during recovery from an injury is
probably better than none. KER conducted a study with a
group of 2-year-olds and a group of 6-year-olds that were
either exercised on a high-speed treadmill or confined in
stalls. They showed that during the exercise period, the
horses maintained normal bone mineral status, but during
confinement bone demineralization occurred. Providing the
horses a dietary supplement called Duraplex reduced the
demineralization that took place during confinement.
“Duraplex served as a bit of a band-aid to prevent bone demineralization when you don’t have the normal strains that
signal the bone to remodel when the horse is exercising,”
said Pagan. “It’s what NASA is worried about with sending people up into space for a year. You put a person in a
cast and that bone will demineralize. There needs to be a
lot more research to understand how quickly equine bone
demineralizes during confinement and how long it takes to
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re-strengthen following an injury.”
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Continued from Page 1
to Lasix in hopes of phasing the drug out of competition.
Whether you’re for Lasix or against it, such a move would
help quell public anxiety about the drug.
On the other hand, several of the organization’s points
could be construed as closing some loopholes from older
reform movements—anabolic steroids are recognized
as legitimate therapeutic tools in the treatment of some
medical conditions, but in 2009 the industry moved to
end the use of the drugs in racing based on public outcry.
The idea was to put the public’s mind at ease that the
horses they saw on the track weren’t “juiced up,” but the
laws that made their way into state statutes did nothing
to create penalties for trainers of horses testing positive
for anabolic steroids outside of competition…meaning that
some of the horses you see at morning workouts could
still be getting doses of steroids, depending on how far
they are from race day. The AAEP’s plan calls for the halt
of anabolic steroid use in training as well as racing.
The AAEP plan also seeks a reciprocal status for horses
placed on the veterinarian’s list for a health issue across
state boundaries. While the reciprocity of suspensions
and other sanctions for trainers and jockeys has moved
more into the public consciousness in recent years, many
racing fans probably don’t realize that a horse categorized
as lame in Maryland can run in New York if he passes the
necessary vet checks.
Finally, former Olympic gold medal winner Edwin Moses,
chairman of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, spoke
at the Round Table to encourage racing to support the
Horse Racing Integrity Act that has been introduced in
the House of Representatives. The Act would turn over
drug testing and regulation to the USADA, a non-profit, in
accordance with the federal law.
Moses acknowledged after the meeting that while the
USADA has focused on the regulation of human sport, its
leadership is aware that any eventual hand-over of equine
drug regulation comes with new and unique veterinary
challenges. Moses said that the USADA has already been
in talks with the Federation Equestre Internationale, which
conducts testing for a range of equestrian sports such as
dressage, show jumping, and eventing all over the world,
all under the same rules. Moses made reference to a
presentation by the USADA’s Travis Tygart in 2012—
three years ago. It remains to be seen whether this year’s
legislation will pass through Congress, but even if it does,
it’s hard not to think that there are those in the industry
who will fight control by an outside organization, tooth and
nail for many more years to come.
Is the glass half full or half empty? No matter where you
sat in the Gideon Putnam ballroom, it’s best to keep pourPRS
ing.
The Perfect Trip
* DEPART FOR EUROPE
27th SEPT
* Arrive Dublin
Goffs Orby Yearling Sale
29th-30th Sept
* Arrive Paris
Arqana ‘Arc’ Sale
3rd Oct
* Arc meeting
at Longchamp
3rd-4th Oct
* Arrive London
Tatts Oct Yearling
Sale - Book 1
6th-8th Oct
www.destinationeuroperacing.com
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Five to Watch
A look at some of the sale’s top hips
By Frank Mitchell
Hip 132 Dark bay colt by Malibu Moon x More Than
Pretty, by More Than Ready: This colt is a full brother to
a pair of graded stakes winners. Kauai Katie is a winner
three times at the Grade 2 level (Matron, Adirondack, and
Forward Gal), and Winding Way has a victory and a second
in the G3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap at Del Mar. Their
dam is a stakes winner and one of two with that distinction
out of the second dam.
Hip 144 Dark bay colt by Not for Love x Parlez, by French
Deputy: A full brother to a pair of restricted stakes winners,
including Maryland Million Sprint winner D C Dancer, this
colt is also a half-brother to G2 stakes winner International
Star (Louisiana Derby). They are out of the good winner and
producer Parlez. Pensioned sire Not for Love has been a
staple of Maryland breeding, and he is the broodmare sire
of Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome.
Hip 169 Bay filly by Congrats x Rebalite, by More Than
Ready: A March 2 foal, this filly is a half-sister to G2 winner Race Day (Tapit) and to a stakes-placed filly. The dam
is a half-sister to Lite Light (Majestic Light), a four-time G1
winner, including the Kentucky Oaks, and the dam of three
stakes winners. Sire Congrats was the leading freshman
sire of his crop and has sired G1 winners Turbulent Descent, Wickedly Perfect, and Emma’s Encore.
Hip 182 Gray colt by Tapit x Savvy Supreme, by Distorted
Humor: A son of leading 2014 and 2015 sire Tapit, this
colt was a January foal and is the first produce of his dam.
G3 Monmouth Oaks winner Savvy Supreme is a full sister
to G1 Commentator, who won the G1 Whitney Stakes at
Saratoga twice among his 14 victories and earned more
than $2 million.
Hip 187 Bay filly by Jersey Town x Settling Mist, by Pleasant Colony: From the first crop of G1 Cigar Mile winner Jersey Town (Speightstown), this filly is a half-sister to 2014
Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist (Tapit). They are out of the
Pleasant Colony mare Settling Mist, and two of her halfsisters have produced G1 winners. Easter Bunnette is the
dam of Horse of the Year Havre de Grace (Saint Liam), and
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The Bink is the dam of Riskaverse (Dynaformer).