After this year’s
#KyDerby
result, can we finally put an end to the practice of ditching the local rider that got a horse to the big dance for a name-brand jockey? It never seems to work, and it makes you look like a huge jerk when you take them off the mount.
When I left for Kentucky ten years ago, I said I was going to bring an Eclipse Award back to Mount Pleasant Meadows.
It took a year longer than planned, but I am a man of my word.
The most obvious solution to the situation with Arlington Park is Mattress Mack swooping in to take the track off CDI's hands and renaming it Runhappy Downs. He'd be the biggest hero this sport has seen in ages.
I think we all need to take a moment and recognize
@KeibaKate
as one of the MVPs of this year's Breeders' Cup. Her work recruiting Japanese connections has changed the shape of the card, and its results.
Props to Eric Reed for understanding that you can be a small-time connection that loses the
#BelmontStakes
with a Kentucky Derby winner and not put your foot in your mouth during the post-race interview. No calling anyone cowards, no arguing with spouses. Class.
You guys…YOU GUYS...
The dream from day one has been to win an Eclipse Award writing about Michigan racing, and that box has officially been checked. I’m beyond honored, and grateful to the people who have supported me every step of the way.
A bit of good news to start the week: Dynamic One, who raced in the 2021
#KentuckyDerby
, was purchased privately by breeder/co-owner Phipps Stable after the Keeneland April Sale to be retired and train toward his next career at
@NewVocations
.
Horse Racing: "Those pesky young people want everything handed to them. Why doesn't anyone want to work hard for anything anymore?"
Also Horse Racing: "What if we made the hardest part of the Triple Crown easier so more people can win? Breeding a sturdy distance horse is gross."
Today is my last day with DRF. Tough for a Michigan-bred to catch a break in 2018, it seems. Expect some changes to this account once I figure out what to do with it. Thanks for following along for the last five years and change.
Funny Cide was the kind of horse & story that makes you fall in love with racing for life. He made the highest reaches of the sport feel attainable to the average Joe, and a big part of that was
@sackatogastable
staying true to those roots.
Funny Cide was “the dream” made real.
Been getting a lot of questions from "once a year" horse racing fans in the wake of the
#KyDerby
decision. Remember, this is a big teaching moment for folks who might not understand the rules of the game. Be patient & give them good info. They're asking because they want to learn
Gordon Elliott, the trainer who sat on the dead horse, returned from his 6-month suspension this week, and I have a lot of things I want to get off my chest about who enables bad actors to feel comfortable in this business.
The level of class the Godolphin operation showed in 2023/24 was truly remarkable, from the respect they gave Mel Giddings during and after the nightmare Test at Saratoga to giving Kelly Dorman the Horse of the Year speech. Plenty to admire from how they conduct themselves.
Just witnessed a nice scene of an outrider leaning his horse's head over the apron for fans to pet. If your racetrack doesn't offer civilians an opportunity to touch a real live horse somewhere on the property, you're not doing everything you can to grow the sport.
Wishing a happy retirement to Tiznow, who was announced as pensioned from stud duty today by
@WinStarFarm
. Few sires have put as many yearlings into the sale catalogs that made me blurt out four-letter words in amazement.
With clear video evidence of lameness, scratching Forte was the only correct course of action. If he ran, and God forbid something happened to the Derby favorite after we saw and knew all of this, it would have made Mongolian Groom in the '19 BC Classic look like a tea party.
Y'ever stop to think about how many horses in need could live comfortably on the money Gary West is lighting on fire chasing the
#KyDerby
ruling? What kind of testing programs the KY Racing Commission could be funding instead of having to defend itself in court? Just checking.
All class from
@jenaantonucci
explaining the scratch of Arcangelo from the BC Classic. As it turns out, you don't have to go through the trouble of creating a new national organization when your big horse can't make it to a big race.
Baffert, in August 2022: “I do not want the use of betamethasone in my barn, and so they were all aware of it. We didn't — you know, do not inject these horses with betamethasone."
Vet records on Havnameltdown less than a year later:
A massive "get" for the
@claibornefarm
operation. He got a lot of his sire's Danzig-line qualities, and a diverse list of on-track achievements should open him up to a lot of different broodmare options.
I spoke to a geneticist that specializes in animal coat colors, and even he was surprised to see a foal "born gray" instead of shedding into the color. I visited
@ShawhanPlace
to learn more about the foal from
@courtney_erin19
(with video!).
I'm glad Bernardini's groom got mentioned in Darley's announcement. Seeing that horse come out of his stall was like watching a rockstar take the stage every single time, and Philip Hampton deserves his flowers for getting him to look like that.
"Today is not about Bob Baffert," says Bob Baffert, releasing a six-paragraph statement to the media two hours before a Preakness Stakes made globally controversial because of his horse.
Racing needs to get off the idea of "If you'd just come out to the barn/track, you'd understand *insert bad-looking thing here*"
Public doesn't have time/resources/attention span to invest in learning every issue beyond headlines. If you've lost the first impression, you've lost
With his win in the Dubai Golden Shaheen, Mind Your Biscuits has surpassed Funny Cide as the highest-earning New York-bred of all-time. MYB has just over $3.7 million compared to Funny Cide's $3,529,412.
#DubaiWorldCup
I’m listed as the breeder of record on exactly one Thoroughbred. Mrs. Murphy is named after my grandmother, and she was bred in partnership by my grandpa and me.
I finally ventured out to Rockford, Mich., today to visit her in her new life as a polo horse, and it was so amazing.
I remain gobsmacked that Javi can win two legs of the Triple Crown on different horses, and that's still not enough for voters to make him at least a finalist.
Tobias, the 10-year-old gray gelding is so chill, owner/trainer Rafael Fernandez (in the hat) let kids pet him before jockey
@sophidoyle
got the leg-up in the
#Keeneland
walking ring. It absolutely made the kid’s day.
I wish I could say Barclay Tagg's comments don't speak for the greater population of the horse racing industry, but I follow enough of them on social media (especially Facebook, where they really let it fly) to know that would be a lie. And it's not just an "old guy" thing, sadly
@KYDownsRacing
Owners & trainers, take a look at the September 6 $250,000 Old Friends Stakes. It's a Win & You're In to Old Friends. The winner gets a home for life! Win & he gets in!
#TBT
Blueberry’s breeder Christine Hayden recently sent us this picture of him at a few days old with his mother, Unspurned. I am unable to withstand the cuteness.
Listen, there was a white Thoroughbred in Saratoga. The entire trip would’ve been a failure if I didn’t try to get a selfie with him. Those are just the rules
Anyway, meet Widmark, a Freud gelding in the Dominick Schettino barn. Really cool horse, and an incredibly patient staff
Absolutely devastated for the connections of Bullards Alley. Tough as nails, and a favorite of the fans and his caretakers. His Canadian Intl. win was a truly special performance.
Men will literally spend nearly three years and unspeakable sums of money fighting a doomed legal battle over a dead horse, all the while dragging an entire sport and the livelihoods of thousands into the depths with them, instead of going to therapy.
Reminder: A stallion getting sold to Asia is not necessarily a one-way street while they're still active. Take Charge Indy sold overseas before his first foals ran, and the success of his first two crops made his US market demand impossible to ignore. Empire Maker, similar thing.
Tom VanMeter's far from the only person in racing to hold the beliefs he displayed, if less blatantly so. If you put them in writing, you throw yourself in the crosshairs. Most had the appropriate response. Let's work from that base.
That said, I have some long-term concerns. 1/
Funny Cide's life - during his racing career and after - was a masterclass in how to create and reward lifelong fans of the sport: Be talented, be relatable, be accessible, and dance every dance.
Kudos to
@sackatogastable
&
@KyHorsePark
for managing his legacy so well.
Getting two healthy Thoroughbred twins is near-impossible. Seeing those twins debut on the track against each other is near-unprecedented. Here's the story of Mr. Ping and Mr. Pong, who run Friday in R4 at Charles Town.
Biggest cojones in Kentucky belong to
@b_hernandezjr
. There was about half a horse’s worth of gap to shoot on the rail in the
#KentuckyDerby
, and he made it work. Extremely deserving winner.
Two jokes. Choose your adventure:
1)This Preakness also deserves an asterisk because Muth isn’t running. So does the Pimlico Special & any other race he’s not in
2)Zedan’s legal team is already preparing for action against the thermometer company for keeping him out of the race
From Pimlico: Preakness (G1) morning line favorite Muth has been declared out of Saturday’s race after spiking a temperature after arriving at Pimlico late Tuesday night.
Hall of Fame trainer BB said the Arkansas Derby (G1) winner spiked a temperature of 103
If you placed a bet on Jan. 1 for which two first-crop sires would fill out the Derby/Oaks double, and your ticket had Arrogate and Keen Ice, please go to the window to collect your new yacht.
I know it’s not feasible to mic up every connection for every race, and not every trainer or jockey is going to be as open, clear & cordial as
@TomAmossRacing
&
@KendrickCarmou1
, but racing needs WAY more of this. Like, at least once every TV broadcast from here on out.
Disappointed, not surprised, that so many replies (& likes) from established TB industry folks to
@MaryCage_
's post are not "How can we improve things to keep people from leaving?" but instead come off as "Why can't you be tough like me?"
Which is exactly why people are leaving.
Funny Cide's racing career was unforgettable, of course, but my enduring memory of him was a visit to
@EllisParkRacing
in 2009, when he was presented in the paddock for bystanders to pet before parading on the track.
This isn't my best shot of him, but it's one of my favorites.
I'm not 100% sold on HISA, but if you're positioned against a program whose public mission is to make racing safer, you'd best have a plan front-and-center to make it safer than HISA ever could, or else it just looks like you're against horse welfare.
Will you improve or impede?
Is this an incredibly sportsmanlike response? Yes.
Should someone still have hung the Inquiry sign & gotten the jocks on the phone? Yes.
Would I need more than both hands to count how many American connections would've had lawyers on speed dial if this happened to them? Yes.
Ryusei Sakai’s, rider of Forever Young, thoughts on the stretch duel with Sierra Leone:
‘The last straight line of the Kentucky Derby, the battle against Sierra Leone, It's true that I was approached many times and there was contact, and there was a scene where I actually lost
I've seen the horse racing industry divide itself on every issue that's been put on the table, to the point that very little of note gets done at the "big picture" level. At the end of a most tumultuous year, I'm glad we've all finally found some common ground.
And I'm sure there will be folks upset that the lameness exam was filmed and posted in the first place (because we love shooting a messenger). Don't be. This is what transparency looks like. This is what the system working looks like. This is what rumor-killing looks like.
Jason Kelce getting an early and swift lesson in the "we only want positive stories in horse racing" side of the business.
Come on in, the water's fine.
If horse racing is going to survive, we need public examples of a horse showing lameness not being allowed to go out there and risk injury. Sucks it happened to Derby favorite but - again - this shows the system WORKING. Show me anywhere else in horse racing where that's the case
There were 22 horses that sold for $1 million or more at
#KeeSept
this year. To my recollection, this is the only horse of the sale where the handlers were getting their phones out. The all-white Flat Out filly hammered for $14k.
Ouija Board dies in UK, no cause given
Readers: What a champ. RIP
Girolamo dies in Korea, no cause given
Readers: WHY AREN'T YOU DOING YOUR JOB REPORTING DETAILS? WHAT ARE YOU COVERING UP?
I know there's more than one reason for this, but that one reason feels pretty obvious.
Sad to report that G1 winner Archarcharch was euthanized in Korea after an illness took a turn for the worse. Thanks to
@korearacing
for the assist on details, and for his insight on what made the stallion's time in the country somewhat unique.
The real passing of the torch in the
#PegasusWorldCup
was Stilleto Boy taking over the “big race check-getter” championship belt once held by Gunnevera.
This has always been my favorite picture of The Queen, found in the Canadian Racing Hall of Fame from one of her appearances at
@WoodbineTB
for the Queen's Plate. I'd never go as far as to say she was "One Of Us," but she watched the races like one of us.
I’m tired of standing out in the rain for the
#KYDerby
, as the forecast implies we will AGAIN. Can’t Churchill Downs use some of the scads of money it’s taking in and build My Old Kentucky Dome?
There have been Eclipse Award winners & top broodmares sold at this year’s
#KeeNov
sale, but the most photographed horse on the grounds just might be Hip 3111 Southern Phantom out of the
@selectsalesagt
consignment. He sells today & was kind enough to take a moment for a picture
The front plates of
#EclipseAwards
are meant for the sport’s elite - the classic winners, the millionaires, the future breed-shapers. A long-dead four-furlong bullring in the middle of nowhere doesn’t fit that description, but we got Mount Pleasant Meadows on that real estate.
My biggest takeaway from the 60 Minutes piece was “they could have gone so much harder than they did.” The reporting was much more level-headed and fair than a lot of mainstream coverage has been, and - whether you think so or not - the tone was optimistic and forward-looking.
If you missed
@claibornefarm
's virtual farm tour on Instagram yesterday, they've uploaded it to their Facebook page. They've always done an amazing tour in-person, and it's cool to have them share it.
"It’s your job, as a member of the media, to educate, promote & headline positives rather than negatives."
Nope, you're thinking of a PR agency. Not a news outlet. We report on the good & bad. Coverage without a critical eye doesn't serve the reader or industry, only their egos.
Fulfilling childhood dreams, shattering glass ceilings, and a bit of a death wish. I could have written twice as much about
@ChristinaZurick
and not fully encapsulated the story of one of the most interesting people in Kentucky’s stallion barns.