Wandering Eyes

The White Robe Lodge crew will be cheering on their home-bred horses in feature races on both sides of the Tasman on Saturday. On the home front, the Wingatui stable of Brian Anderton (the White Robe Lodge founder and principal) and son Shane will be represented by Tommy Tucker and Gallant Boy in the Gr.3 Coca-Cola Canterbury Gold Cup (2000m) at Riccarton. Then just under a couple of hours later, the Andertons’ attention will switch to Randwick where Gallant Boy’s year younger brother Patric... View the full article

Southern Legend heads Hong Kong quartet of entries to Kranji Mile View the full article

Riduan the next to carry on the Kelantan tradition at Kranji View the full article

Mister Yeoh nearing comeback in Rocket Man Sprint View the full article

A day with Kranji Stewards for Mauritius racing legal adviser View the full article

Duric sidelined after surgery until first week of May View the full article

The connections of stakes winners Anothertwistafate and Sueno still have hopes to qualify for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) as they enter the $200,000 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes (G3) April 13 at Keeneland. View the full article

A rundown of horse racing television and radio coverage for a jam-packed race day April 13, as well as the days leading up to Arkansas Derby (G1) Day. View the full article

The $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) at Oaklawn Park that will close out the 100-point preps April 13 with a race that could either showcase two of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby or leave two highly regarded candidates on the outside looking in. View the full article

The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance has launched an online survey to gauge Thoroughbred industry participants’ views on Thoroughbred aftercare. The survey is now live and can be accessed here. The TAA encourages all Thoroughbred industry participants, from owners and trainers to breeders, horseplayers, and fans, to take the survey and share their feedback. “Understanding the Thoroughbred industry’s views on current aftercare initiatives is a priority for the TAA as we plan for the future,” TAA president Mike Meuser said. “Equine welfare and aftercare is of the utmost importance for the future of our sport, and knowing where we currently stand will help us best serve the industry going forward.” View the full article

Joao Moreira snared a double at Happy Valley on Wednesday night including a win in the Class 4 Beijing Clubhouse Anniversary Cup Handicap (1200m). That score came aboard the Tony Cruz-trained Wah May Princess, who was registering a third win from nine outings this campaign. “It looks like he can go on from this,” Moreira said of the 2.8 favourite. “It felt like there was more in him. He’s got gate speed, he can always put himself up there – even if he goes up in class, I believe ... View the full article

E Five Racing Thoroughbred's Rushing Fall will try to become only the third horse to win more than three stakes at Keeneland when she makes her 4-year-old debut in the $350,000 Coolmore Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) April 13. View the full article

The Scientific Advisory Group of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) has reported that there is no current science linking furosemide treatments to muscular skeletal issues that may be a contributing cause of equine breakdowns in racing, according to a press release from ARCI Wednesday. The group reported to a meeting of the RCI’s Drug Testing Standards and Practices Committee that they discussed the issue at their meeting Apr. 2 and were not aware of any published studies or papers providing any evidence of such a link. “There remains an attempt on the part of some organizations and individuals to leave the impression that the current equine welfare policy of permitting the voluntary race day use of furosemide under controlled and transparent circumstances is somehow tied to the tragic equine deaths that have occurred at Santa Anita and elsewhere,” said ARCI President Ed Martin in a statement. View the full article

For a long time, it wasn’t easy being Richard Shapiro. As the head of the California Horse Racing Board, in 2006, he led the movement that required most of California’s tracks to convert to synthetic surfaces. Shapiro said he believed they were necessary to cut down on the number of fatalities at the California tracks. He wanted racing in California to be as safe as possible, both for the welfare of the horse and to quiet rumblings from animal rights activists who were starting to set their sights on the sport. He achieved that, as the number of fatalities did indeed drop significantly. But rather than being hailed as a hero, he was vilified by gamblers, trainers, owners and even some members of the media. It got to be so bad that he received one e-mail where the person demanded that he be hung from the Seabiscuit statue at Santa Anita. For myriad reasons, a lot of people hated synthetic surfaces and they cast Shapiro as the villain who they said had ruined California racing. No one can say for sure what would have happened at Santa Anita at this meet had the track not ripped out its synthetic surface in 2010, but, based on irrefutable statistics, synthetic tracks are safer than dirt tracks. Would 23 horses have died at the meet if a synthetic surface were still in place and would Santa Anita be caught up in a crisis that many consider a threat not only to Santa Anita’s future, but that of the entire sport? It’s hard to say, but the statistics suggest otherwise. In the meantime, Shapiro is still waiting to hear his first apology. That’s fine with him. He understands that this is a complex issue and that, surely, the track surface alone, is not the sole contributor to fatalities at Santa Anita. But he does think Santa Anita and Del Mar should have struck with synthetic surfaces. “I’ve looked at it and I have been following what’s going on with horror,” he said. “I have been really upset and I look at the problem in totality. I think it’s a very complex problem. Do I think it’s track surfaces? I think that is a component. Do I think that the industry abandoned it too quickly? Yes, I think they did.” Shapiro took over the same year Barbaro broke down in the Preakness and later had to be put down and Del Mar had one of the worst meets in its history from a safety standpoint, with 14 horses breaking down. He sensed that horse safety was a growing concern among the general public and that too many people viewed racing as a sport that amounted to animal cruelty. He wanted to be proactive. A synthetic surface was already in place at Turfway Park and was meeting all expectations. A handful of European tracks, in order to have flat racing in the winter, had also gone the synthetic route and were not having any problems with the new tracks. The CHRB voted to order California tracks to install synthetic surfaces by the end of 2007. The switch to synthetic tracks was not exactly a smooth one. Shapiro admits the CHRB should have given tracks more time to make the transition and work with the manufacturers of the surface to work out the kinks. There were bumps in the road, including a period when Santa Anita had to close down due to drainage problems. In addition, synthetic surfaces were hailed as a panacea. They were not. Horse were still breaking down. “When I pushed for the synthetic surfaces it was because we had a rash of breakdowns not to dissimilar to what is now going on,” Shapiro said. “And so I’m looking back and I think that perhaps I acted too hastily in rushing to put in the synthetic surfaces at all of the tracks. On the other hand, it was a very difficult problem and we did a lot of study and we talked to a lot of companies that had different tracks. That situation failed because there wasn’t a consistency in the tracks that were put in. The Polytrack that was put in at Del Mar had too much wax and the weather in the morning versus the afternoon created a huge inconsistency with that track. Then there was the track that was installed at Santa Anita, which was done by a different company. They put in so much sand and had other problems that their track fell apart. So while the idea I think was good and valid, I think that had there been more uniformity in the application of putting in these tracks things would have worked out better.” But Shapiro was right about one very important thing: the synthetic tracks were safer than dirt tracks and the lives of many horses were saved. According to Jockey Club statistics, from 2009 through 2018, 1.2 horses per thousand starters were euthanized in synthetic surface racing. In dirt racing, the number was 1.97. Yet, many synthetic surface tracks, including Keeneland, gave into the constant drumbeat of criticism from everyone from the $2 bettor to owner Jess Jackson, who refused to race Rachel Alexandra over “plastic.” The CHRB relented and Santa Anita went back to dirt in 2010 and Del Mar did the same in 2015. Golden Gate Fields is the only track left in the state with a synthetic surface. In 2008, Shapiro resigned from the CHRB and has had virtually nothing to do with racing since. While catastrophic injury rates remain low at Golden Gate, which registered 1.12 per thousand starters in 2018, at both Santa Anita and Del Mar, the switch back to dirt meant more fatalities. To simplify things, the TDN did not account for turf races or deaths that occurred during training hours as some of Santa Anita’s fatalities have come over its dirt training track. The clearest way to compare the safety of each surface was to compare the number of deaths during racing over dirt versus synthetic surfaces. In the three years since dirt was reinstalled at Santa Anita, which does not include the current meet, there has been an average of 15.3 fatalities in races. During the last three years of synthetic surface racing, the number was 9.3. Using the same formula for Del Mar, the number went from 3.66 to 7. The numbers would look a lot more damning for dirt tracks is breakdowns during training hours were included. On the other hand, Del Mar and Santa Anita both took on more racing dates after Hollywood Park shut down. To Shapiro, those numbers suggest a better option would have been to stay with synthetic tracks, all the while working the bugs out and trying to make them even safer. “What I am saying is that we had an opportunity to learn,” he said. “Then we threw the baby out with the bath water.” It was a difficult time for Shapiro, and he didn’t handle the criticism well. He was caught on camera “keying” a car owned by one of his harshest critics.. His new passion is hunter jumpers and he says he barely stays connected with thoroughbred racing. Since the Santa Anita situation started, PETA, Senator Diane Feinstein and Congresswoman Judy Chu have called on the California tracks to go back to synthetic surfaces and their demands have come with threats that should not be taken lightly. Shapiro says he doubts anyone cares what he thinks, but if someone were to ask him if a return to synthetics was a magic bullet his answer would actually be no. “Horse racing has totally ignored the fact that this breed has become so much more fragile, and is not understanding or is not trying to understand why the breed become that way,” he said. “What is it that’s going on that these horses simply can’t withstand running 40 miles an hour? Most of the breakdowns are on the front end, whether they’re their fetlocks, whether it’s their pasterns, whether it’s their cannon bones. That’s where most of the injuries are. So I think there is a myriad of issues that need to be studied, and a need to make correlations. Unfortunately, the industry remains so fragmented that overall it isn’t dealing with it. “Medication, I think is a huge issue. I’m totally opposed to race day medication. I am totally opposed to Lasix. It’s not natural. As well, I think there should be medical records from the day a horse is born that show what procedures are done on every horse. When a foal is born, let’s say they toe out in their front, then they will immediately try to do corrective measure, so that when the horse reaches the sales arena it doesn’t toe out anymore and that way they’ll bring more money if he’s straight. What does that do to the natural anatomy? Those types of procedures are corrective in terms of visually corrective, but are they hurting actually the soundness of the horse?” Shapiro tried to buck the system once and it didn’t work. He said that he believes that in light of the Santa Anita situation it is time for people in the industry to start opening their minds, forget about the way things used to be done, and welcome new ideas, no matter how radical they may seem. View the full article

Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy) was named Horse of the Year and Champion 3-Year-Old Male by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders during Wednesday’s KTOB Awards Luncheon at Keeneland. The KTOB recognized 12 other Kentucky-breds at the luncheon, led by Broodmare of the Year Stage Magic, the dam of Justify. “It was another exceptional year for Kentucky-breds at the racetrack, punctuated by Justify’s historic Triple Crown,” said Chauncey Morris, executive director of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association/ Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders. “Our award recipients–both equine and human–exemplify the dreams and aspirations of our industry, and we’re proud to celebrate their memorable achievements.” View the full article

Too Darn Hot (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) is set to miss his intended comeback in this weekend’s G3 Watership Down Stud Greenham S. at Newbury. Trainer John Gosden announced on Wednesday evening that the plan is instead to take last year’s champion juvenile and G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas ante-post favourite straight to the Classic at Newmarket. Having won all four of his starts last season, anticipation was building at seeing the ‘TDN Rising Star’ back in action on Saturday, but that will now have to wait until May 4. Gosden told the Racing Post, “Too Darn Hot breezed comfortably this morning under Frankie Dettori on the Al Bahathri but tonight at evening stables he was found to have some heat in his splint bone. Unfortunately he’ll have to miss Newbury as he’ll have a few easy days. The plan is to take him straight to the QIPCO 2,000 Guineas.” View the full article

Amid the talk of whip use and medication restrictions during the last scheduled California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) meeting, there was another topic that resonated loudly: the safety of Santa Anita’s track surface. “We’re definitely considering plans in the future, on these rainy days, of almost being like in the Northeast, when they have snow days and take the day off,” said The Stronach Group’s COO Tim Ritvo, about the possibility of restricting racing and training on a sealed track. There’s much to dig into when it comes to training and racing on a dirt surface during periods of inclement weather-issues that will be returned to later in the article. But in terms of the health and well-being of the horse, what CHRB vice chair Madeline Auerbach said after the meeting is the “core of what we do,” it also refocuses the issue back on synthetic surfaces, with which California has a torrid and costly relationship. A cold hard look at available race-day fatality data, however, tells a stark story. According to the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database (EID), between 2009 and 2018, on average 1.2 horses per 1000 starts were catastrophically injured on synthetics. That number is 1.47 on the grass, and 1.97 on dirt. Using both CHRB and DRF chart data, the TDN zeroed in on four California tracks: Del Mar, Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Golden Gate Fields. Between the 2007-2008 season and the 2017-2018 season, on average 1.9 horses per 1000 starts were catastrophically injured on the synthetic tracks in place at those four facilities. That figure was 2.6 for the dirt. At the end of the day, “the numbers are staggering,” said the University of Kentucky’s Mick Peterson, about the marked difference in race-day fatality numbers between the dirt and synthetics. But, as with most issues concerning catastrophic breakdowns, the numbers only tell part of the story. “I know that there are hundreds fewer horses that are breaking down in front of the crowds, because we have synthetics,” said Peterson. “But what I don’t know is how many horses have had shorter careers,” he added, highlighting a common critique of synthetics: that while catastrophic injuries appear to be less on these surfaces, they cause more potentially career-threatening injuries than dirt. In the award-winning TDN article, “Is This the Death of Synthetic Racing?” which chronicles the failure of synthetic surfaces to garner a foot-hold in North America, trainer Mike Mitchell said that, “I’ve had more injuries on these tracks than I had on dirt,” with hind-end issues being most prevalent. In the same article, however, other prominent experts argued the opposite. Renowned veterinarian Dr. Wayne McIlwraith said that bone injuries and joint injuries were significantly lower, “but the absolute number [of soft-tissue injuries] was no higher.” The problem is, no definitive objective study has been conducted to offer an answer one way or the other. The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association released a 2010 study that found horses running on synthetics were half as likely to suffer career ending injuries as those on the dirt. The scope of the study was fairly limited, however. This 2015 study, using data collected from horses primarily racing and training on synthetics in California, found that the occurrence of non-fatal injuries was lower than other studies using trainer-reported injury data. But again, there was limited participation. California was at the vanguard of the synthetic revolution of the mid-2000s, when in 2005, the CHRB mandated synthetic surfaces be installed at the state’s four main tracks. Nevertheless, these surfaces were bedeviled with maintenance problems. Santa Anita’s wax-based cushion track, installed in 2007, was beset with drainage issues after an improper sand was used, and was subsequently replaced with a pro-ride surface. Drainage issues persisted, however, and the pro-ride was ripped out in 2010 and replaced with dirt. Despite these problems, in terms of catastrophic race-day fatalities, synthetic surfaces at these four tracks still proved safer than dirt. According to this study using data taken from the start of 2004 until the end of 2009, catastrophic breakdowns decreased by 37 percent after the dirt surfaces were converted to synthetics. In a nod to the concerns of trainers who saw an increase in hind end issues on synthetics, the study also found a “relative increase in hind end fatal injuries. “Unfortunately, they weren’t good enough,” admitted trainer Michael Dickinson, inventor of the Tapeta synthetic surface, about the first iteration of synthetics tracks. That said, synthetic surfaces have “come a long way” since then, Dickinson added, including the latest generation of his own, called Tapeta 10. Dickinson singled out Newcastle–a racetrack in the north of England which replaced its turf course in 2016 with Tapeta–as a poster-child for Tapeta 10. While many were initially skeptical of the change, said Dickinson, Newcastle is now a popular destination for top trainers, including many based hours away in Newmarket. “John Gosden ships his best maidens seven hours in a van just to run on that surface,” said Dickinson, pin-pointing a number of Gosden-trained stars-like duel Arc-winning Enable, GI Royal Ascot winning Without Parole, and GI Ascot Gold Cup winning Stradivarius-who all made early career starts there. “I mean, they love Newcastle.” Of course, the climate in Newcastle-on the same latitude as the city of Omsk, in Siberian Russia-is vastly different to the toasty climes of SoCal. But according to Dickinson, the latest version of Tapeta is “much less temperature sensitive” than its earlier cousin. “It’s alright on the heat,” he said. Irwin Driedger, director of Thoroughbred Racing Surfaces at Woodbine, agrees. “We go from one extreme to another, from really hot 90-degree weather to zero temperatures,” said Driedger, who manages Woodbine’s Tapeta surface, installed in 2016. “When it’s hot, we put some water on to maintain the temperature, and when it’s really cold, we loosen it up and don’t pack it up as tight,” said Driedger. In fact, the cold weather, Driedger said, is tougher on the surface than the heat. “It won’t break down as quickly in the heat, but it will soften up,” he said. “Last year, when a whole lot of tracks were cancelling because of heat in the east, we never cancelled or missed a day of racing. And you never saw a change in the track on race-day.” With Santa Anita’s checkered history with heavy rain in mind, both with synthetics and dirt, Driedger said that the track has “no” issues with drainage. “We just had on Saturday an inch of rain and about a quarter inch of snow, and the next day it froze, and we didn’t miss a beat,” he said. Most importantly, Woodbine’s race-day fatality record on the Tapeta holds up well against numbers for dirt. Last year, 1.3 horses were fatally injured per 1000 starts at Woodbine. That number was 0.63 in 2017, and 1.07 in 2016. Of course, key issues like racetrack surfaces invariably catalyze the old butterfly effect throughout the industry. Take this excellent piece in the TDN last week, in which Sid Fernando emphasizes the commercial specter of decades of dirt-breeding in the U.S. Historically speaking, synthetics haven’t been terribly popular with horseplayers either. But on a strictly welfare basis, synthetics clearly cause less horses to catastrophically break-down than the dirt. A persuasive argument for reform, right? Not so fast, said Peterson, who said that he believes dirt could be as safe as synthetic surfaces, if the science was there to maintain them properly. “But we’re not headed that way,” Peterson added. “We’ve made no real progress in the seven years I’ve been saying that.” A big part of the problem is the industry’s wholesale lack of funding into researching better protocols for maintaining moisture content to improve its consistency, said Peterson. “The total investment in trying to do better moisture control on dirt tracks has been almost nothing compared to what has been spent on synthetic tracks that have then been removed,” he said. To understand why consistency is important, it’s important to know the three main phases of a horse’s stride, and the immense forces, both horizontal and vertical, at play when a horse is at racing pace, said Peterson. Phase one: the initial impact to the hoof and leg. Two: the hoof slides to a stop, and the foreleg is momentarily vertical. Three: the roll-over phase as the horse propels itself forward. On any surface, the horse’s hoof slides a certain distance before it stops. The trick is to find the right amount of slide. Too little, and the horizontal loading on the leg is too great. Too much slide can lead to “misalignment” of the loading on the ankle and knee joints. What better surface moisture consistency could do is narrow the gap between synthetics and dirt as to the variation in sliding, said Peterson. “The average slide on dirt was greater than it was on synthetic,” said Peterson about a study he worked on, but never published. “But in the most extreme cases, you had less slide on dirt than you did on synthetics. The key to dirt is the variation was so much greater than it was on synthetic. The variation was so small on synthetic, even between different manufacturers, different temperatures.” Which brings us neatly back to the issue of training and racing on a hard or sealed surface. “If sealing the track was a problem, then the catastrophic injury rate at Belmont, Laurel Park, and at Aqueduct would be awful,” said Peterson, highlighting racetracks that frequently endure periods of inclement weather, and as such are routinely sealed. “But they’re not, right?” Indeed, using EID data, the average catastrophic injury rates per 1000 starts over the past five year at Belmont Park (1.35) and at Aqueduct (1.55) are both lower than the average fatality rate nationally on the dirt during the same period: 1.82. Laurel Park’s is marginally higher, at 2.01. The key issue once again, said Peterson, is consistency, and the different set of conditions encountered on wet and dry tracks, as well as surfaces that don’t dry uniformly-issues that can affect the amount of “slide” underfoot. The track maintenance crews and the trainers in New York are more accustomed to inclement weather than their California-based cohorts, and adapt their maintenance protocols and training programs accordingly, said Peterson. At the same time, “to be fair to the California trainers, if you gave the trainers at Aqueduct and Laurel a dry spell, they might have as hard a time as the California trainers do in a rainy period,” said Peterson. “The water trucks and drivers at Santa Anita are some of the best in the country.” The context here is that it’s not just the track management who have to adapt to their conditions-it’s the trainers, too, who need to be mindful of subjecting their horses to unfamiliar conditions. Indeed, experts in bone physiology stress the importance of giving a horse time to acclimatize to unusual training surfaces. While racehorses can certainly adapt to sustained training on hard or sealed tracks, such surfaces transmit “greater loads” to the limbs during each stride, leading to increased “microscopic damage” within the skeleton, said Sue Stover, a professor of anatomy, physiology and cell biology at UC Davis, about the tiny fractures sustained by racehorses on a daily basis. “That must be repaired by the body to maintain skeletal health and resist injury.” In the same vein, inconsistent surfaces can also cause “unusual loads” on the skeleton, said Stover. “Loads that the skeleton has not adapted to during training and thus could increase the risk for injury,” she added. As such, training activities “should be modified” when horses encounter hard or inconsistent surfaces, said Stover. “In general, the length, which is directly related to the number of strides, of high-speed activities should be reduced to keep the amount of microscopic damage to a level that allows the skeleton to recover from the damage and strengthen,” said Stover. “If training and racing are too intense, the skeleton can not only not strengthen, but can become weaker and at increased risk for injury.” When asked if he thought the trainers had, as a whole, adequately modified their training programs during this unusually wet winter in California, CHRB equine medical director Rick Arthur pointed to the work tabs through that period. “You can draw your own conclusions,” he said. “What I will tell you is that I used to work for a guy called Willard Proctor. Old time trainer,” said Arthur. “We had a situation where the track was sealed for weeks. They opened it up, and a lot of trainers just had to work their horses. The next morning, these trainers were complaining about all the sore horses they had. Willard Proctor hadn’t worked any of his horses, and he told the trainer next to him, ‘well, you know what, when the track’s bad, you don’t work your horses.'” As California Thoroughbred Trainers president Jim Cassidy explained, when it rains on and off for a period of time, “a lot of guys feel pressured, if they haven’t done anything for days and days, to do something. So, they’ve got to bite their lip and go on with it.” But Cassidy said that he also believes more could have been done to the track to make it safer. “They don’t have to seal it, they can float it,” said Cassidy, about a maintenance procedure that still protects the track from rain, but doesn’t necessarily leave it as hard as when its sealed. At the end of the day, Cassidy said that he’s unsure about how to apportion blame. “I’d have a better assessment by the end of the meet, if we don’t have any more rain,” he said. Nevertheless, as a result of the changes made to the dirt surface since former Santa Anita track superintendent Dennis Moore was brought back on board, “if we go the rest of the year with no issues,” Cassidy would be more inclined to fault the track, he said. Others see the situation much more black-and-white. “We’ve had 100 years to perfect dirt, and we haven’t and we never will,” said Dickinson. “Now we’ve only had a few years to perfect synthetics, and we’ve still got room to improve.” View the full article

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Today’s Observations features a son of War Front, who is eyeing a GI Kentucky Derby slot. 3.35 Chelmsford, Cond, £60,000, 3yo, 8f (AWT) U S S MICHIGAN (War Front) takes the next step towards a possible tilt at the Run For the Roses in this Woodford Reserve Cardinal Conditions S. which serves as a “Road To The Kentucky Derby” race. Off the mark at Dundalk at the start of last month, the grey relative of Lines of Battle who was also by War Front and who finished seventh in the classic in 2013, meets a stern challenge headed by Godolphin’s G2 Vintage S. scorer Dark Vision (Ire) (Dream Ahead) from the Mark Johnston stable. View the full article

The 2019 Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series; Win and You’re In, presented by America’s Best Racing will consist of 11 live programs featuring over 20 automatic Breeders’ Cup qualifying races, the Breeders’ Cup and NBC Sports announced Wednesday. The series will kick off June 8 during NBC Sports’s coverage of Belmont Stakes Day, with the GI Runhappy Metropolitan H. and GI Ogden Phipps S. offering automatic berths into the GI Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and GI Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff, respectively. “NBC Sports continues to be the leader in televising the best in domestic and international Thoroughbred racing and we are delighted to partner with them again to deliver our fans the best in Breeders’ Cup Challenge races throughout the summer and fall leading to the World Championships,” said Craig Fravel, Breeders’ Cup President and CEO. “We also thank our participating racetracks in the 2019 series and the support of our presenting sponsor America’s Best Racing.” The complete Breeders’ Cup Challenge TV schedule can be found here. View the full article

The Aga Khan’s unbeaten champion and Group 1-producing mare Zarkava (Ire) (Zamindar {GB}) has produced her 10th foal, a bay filly by Dubawi (Ire) born on Friday. The Aga Khan Studs reports that both mare and foal are doing well. The filly is a full-sister to Zarkava’s best foal to date, the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud winner and G1 Prix du Jockey Club and G1 Prix Ganay runner-up Zarak (Fr), now at stud at Haras de Bonneval. Zarkava has also produced the listed-winning and G1 Prix Vermeille-placed Zarkamiya (Fr) (Frankel {GB}). Her current 2-year-old is an as-yet unnamed filly by Siyouni (Fr), and she has a yearling colt by Sea The Stars (Ire). Georges Rimaud, manager of the Aga Khan Studs in France, said she is “a lovely filly, full of quality and very elegant. She’s quite similar to her brother Zarak in that she has a deep girth and is quite compact. Zarak has his first foals on the ground this year and from the ones we’ve seen, he is producing nice strong foals that are full of class and quite stamped by himself and by Dubawi.” View the full article

The Joseph O’Brien-trained G1SW Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler of the World {Ire}) stars among 60 entries for the G1 Investec Oaks at Epsom Downs on May 31. The £500,000 1 1/2-mile contest is carded as part of Investec Ladies’ Day. A winner of the G1 Fillies’ Mile for O’Brien and owner Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez, Iridessa, who finished third in the Apr. G3 1000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown on Apr. 6, is joined by the same connections’ Altair (Ire) (Australia {GB}), who won a Dundalk all-weather maiden in January. France is represented by a threesome of French-trained Oaks entries, and Nicolas Clement trainee Wonderment (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), who landed the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud against males, is the star. “Wonderment has grown over the winter and looks a picture at the moment,” said Clement. “I could not be happier with her. She was a Group 1 winner as a 2-year-old, we have no doubts about her staying a mile and a half, and we think she will handle Epsom, which is why we decided to make the entry. She will start off in the [G3] Prix Penelope at Saint-Cloud on May 1 and then depending on how she gets on there, we have the option of the Investec Oaks or the [G1] Prix de Diane.” O’Brien’s father Aiden has 19 fillies nominated for the second British fillies’ Classic on the calendar and is looking for his eighth victory. Among his entries are G1 Fillies’ Mile bridesmaid Hermosa (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who was a last out second in the G1 Criterium International at Chantilly in October; and G2 Rockfel S. heroine Just Wonderful (Dansili {GB}). Two-time Oaks winning-trainer Ralph Beckett has a trio of Lope de Vega (Ire) fillies entered, including G3 Prestige S. victress Antonia De Vega (Ire) and the listed winner Manuela De Vega (Ire). Trainer Richard Hannon has also entered G1 Prix Marcel Boussac third Star Terms (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}). View the full article

In the latest move in the ongoing chess games at Santa Anita, jockeys will carry and use their crops under the existing rules when race-riding at the track this Friday. This reverses a decision the Jockey’s Guild touted last week, that the jockeys would ride on Friday without one. “We will comply, for the time being, with the request from the Thoroughbred Owners of California to not proceed with the jockeys not using riding crops during the races at Santa Anita Park on Friday, April 12,” said Jockeys’ Guild President and CEO Terry Meyocks, in a joint press release between the Jockeys’ Guild and the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC). “For the past month we have received virtually no support from industry organizations in California until contacted by the TOC in the last day and a half. In the interest of moving forward to create a safer environment for both equine and human athletes, we have agreed to work with the TOC to come to a mutually agreeable position on riding crop usage in California to be submitted to the CHRB,” Meyocks added. Currently, jockeys are permitted to use the whip three times in succession before putting it down to give a horse time to respond. According to the press release, the Guild will ask the jockeys at Santa Anita and Golden Gate to use the new 360 GT riding crop, which was used by jockeys at Keeneland Racecourse over the weekend. Former jockey Ramon Dominguez helped develop this new crop. “Jockeys, who take great personal risk every time they ride, are focused on safety and are vigilant caretakers of their horses,” said Greg Avioli, president of the TOC, in the press release. “We appreciate the Guild’s willingness to continue to work with us on policy options that protect horses and riders while ensuring that races are run fairly for all participants.” The back-and-forth over the no-whip Friday at Santa Anita follows a proposed rule change approved by the CHRB at its scheduled meeting last month, which restricts riders to using riding crops only “to control the horse for the safety of the horse or rider.” The proposed rule change was subsequently put out for a 45-day public comment period, and can be amended before the board votes on it again. The day of whip-less races at Santa Anita was advertised as a fact-finding mission. The Jockey’s Guild explained that after each race on Friday Apr. 12, “data” would be gathered from input from the jockeys. The information collected during the trial experiment was intended to be submitted for consideration during the public comment period. A letter Avioli wrote to the Jockeys’ Guild—which was distributed to jockeys at Santa Anita Wednesday morning, and on which trainer Bob Baffert was cc’d—laid out clearly his organization’s position on the issue of both the no-whip Friday and the proposed CHRB rule change. “Our only request from you and your Guild members is to postpone any implementation of the Friday ‘no whip’ rule until after the CHRB rule making process is completed in the coming months,” Avioli wrote. Avioli added that “to go thru with the planned ‘racing without whips’ this Friday will almost assuredly put our California racing industry back on the front pages in a very unfavorable light,” and he emphasized the potential risk of injury “to horses or jockeys, that could have major negative long-term implications for everybody.” Furthermore, Avioli wrote that the TOC does not support the CHRB’s proposed revision to the whip rule. The revisions are “unworkable for many reasons,” the letter states. As such, the TOC requests “that we join in the Jockey’s Guild in presenting to the CHRB a joint position on what appropriate changes could be to the existing crop rule that would be acceptable to both of our organizations.” “We are most definitely in a time of crisis right now that has the potential to radically change for the worse horseracing in California and other states down the road. For example, we know for certain there are a number of organizations currently working on a statewide anti-horseracing ballot initiative in California. In this time of upheaval and real threats to our industry, we must find common ground where we can with core industry stakeholders including the jockeys,” Avioli wrote. In Wednesday’s press release, Baffert, a TOC board member, said that “we owe it to the riders to work with them to ensure that they’re on board with the steps we are taking to create the safest environment possible for our athletes.” This story will be updated throughout the day. View the full article

Osarus stages Europe’s second breeze-up sale of the season on Thursday when it puts 74 juveniles-after scratches–under the hammer at La Teste. Videos from the breeze show, which took place on Wednesday, are available at osarus.com. The 64 sires represented include France’s top sires Siyouni (Fr), Le Havre (Ire), Wootton Bassett (GB) and Anodin, as well as Dansili (GB) and Camelot (GB). First-season sires include Anjaal (Ire), who has already had his first winner, and Sidestep (Aus), sire of the G1 Golden Slipper winner Kiamichi (Aus). Highlights on paper include lot 26, an Anodin colt out of a listed-placed mare; lot 41, a Le Havre colt out of the listed-placed Changeable (GB) (Dansili {GB}); lot 61, a Makfi (GB) colt out of a half-sister to Group 1 winner Giofra (GB) who has already produced a stakes-placed 2-year-old; and lot 93, a Nathaniel (Ire) filly out of the listed-placed Rime A Rien (GB) (Amadeus Wolf {GB}). Siyouni’s offerings include a filly (lot 2) and a colt (lot 85) both out of group-placed mares from Ecurie Prevost-Baratte, as well as HDG Consignment’s colt out of a half-sister to G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud winner and G1 Prix du Jockey Club second Morandi (Fr) (lot 25). The sale begins at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. View the full article

A planned experiment to have jockeys compete without riding crops April 12 at Santa Anita Park has been canceled. Through an agreement between the Jockeys' Guild and TOC, jockeys will ride with crops Friday at the Arcadia, Calif. track. View the full article

Umberto Rispoli is hitting form at an opportunistic time and he’s hoping to keep it rolling after securing a Happy Valley double on Wednesday night.The Italian has enjoyed a strong two meetings, collecting a winner (Green Card), a Group Two second aboard Eagle Way (at $46) and a Class One second with Insayshable (at $55) on Sunday before lifting Ruletheroost and Big Bang Bong to victory at the midweek meeting.With the recent departure of Silvestre de Sousa and some other riders struggling for… View the full article