Mar
2
A group of about a dozen Southland trainers showed up at Santa Anita on Monday to discuss the track’s racing surface with owner Frank Stronach.
After the announcement Jan. 18 that Santa Anita would replace its existing synthetic Pro-Ride track at the end of the current meet, trainers were anxious to express their feelings and hear what Stronach had in store for the Great Race Place.
A self-described anti-synthetic horseman, would Stronach be installing a new traditional dirt surface?
Would he opt for the untested sandy track he spoke about last week? Or would he shock the racing world and announce he was leaning toward another synthetic?
Would you believe none of the above?
Stronach told a roomful of mostly befuddled horsemen, which included California Thoroughbred Trainers president John Sadler, John Shirreffs, Darrell Vienna, Bruce Headley, Mark Glatt, Eoin Harty, Vladimir Cerin, A.C. Avila, Rafael Becerra, James Cassidy and Barry Abrams, what they perhaps didn’t expect to hear.
Santa Anita will stick with Pro-Ride for the time being until Stronach gets what he wants - the ability to run the track with less state regulations.
He told the trainers in a two-hour meeting that he won’t dole out the estimated $8 million to $10 million needed for a new surface without assurances he can race at Santa Anita whenever he wants, calling it “free enterprise,” and he also wants a partnership between the tracks and horsemen.
“We kept telling him we’re here to talk about the track and you can’t shut him up about free enterprise,” said Headley, a longtime critic of synthetics. “He thinks he’ll be able to change everything so he can race any time he wants, against Del Mar, Hollywood Park or Pomona.
“We told him we weren’t there to discuss free enterprise, that’s not our decision because we’re the track committee, but he still kept going on and on about it.”
Zenyatta’s owner Jerry Moss, another anti-synthetic horseman, met with Stronach on Sunday at Santa Anita and reportedly got the same message the trainers received about 24 hours later.
“Free enterprise, free enterprise, free enterprise,” Headley said. “And he’s never going to get it. Of course, there won’t be a horse left (in California) by that time.
“He also said if he wanted to change it (track), he has the resources to do it, but he’s not going to do it.”
Stronach was flying home later Monday and did not return two messages seeking comment.
A drainage problem with both of Santa Anita’s synthetic tracks has forced the cancellation of 16 racing days dating to 2008, including five this year. Stronach has said he’s spent an estimated $24 million on Cushion Track and Pro-Ride and refuses to spend another dime on a sport that’s in decline until it’s fixed.
“You know, the (current) model in horse racing doesn’t work,” Stronach said last week before his arrival over the weekend. “It’s broken.”
Hollywood Park president Jack Liebau said he’s heard the same message before.
“What I understand Stronach to be saying is vintage Stronach,” Liebau said. “His mantra has always been free enterprise, which I understand to be some form of deregulation. I differ with Stronach in that I believe racing in California needs to be subject to additional oversight with respect to financial responsibility.
“The bankruptcies of Santa Anita and Golden Gate Fields (another Stronach-owned track) have rained financial havoc upon California racing.”
Stronach, who’s owned many top horses over the years, currently has none stabled at Santa Anita because he doesn’t like the track.
He told the horsemen he’ll be back in April to talk more.
“Hopefully, he will discuss the track then because we all told him, which most of us hadn’t discussed with him before, how many injuries we’re having,” Headley said.
art.wilson@sgvn.com
Oct
16
Wow, and I thought my bank account was in disarray.
Raise your hand if you think the California horse racing industry could get any more messed up than it already is today.
Didn’t think so.
Let’s start with two of the licensed Advance Deposit Wagering companies.
I’m no genius, but it seems to me this is a sport that should be bending over backwards to attract new fans. Yet TVG continues to gauge its customers by charging them a small surcharge per bet and then making them pay even more if they want to watch their horses run on the Internet.
But at least TVG knows how to distribute its product, unlike Horse Racing TV, which continues to snub its nose at DirecTV and its potential 18 million viewers.
Santa Anita president Ron Charles has been telling me for three or four years it was only a matter of time before HRTV and DirecTV reached an agreement, and yet we’re still waiting for that announcement.
Of course, TVG and HRTV don’t have a monopoly when it comes to head-scratching decisions.
Can anybody tell me why Fairplex Park began racing this year the day after Del Mar closed?
Did somebody on the California Horse Racing Board mandate that the Southern California tracks have to race as many days as possible, or were those rulings limited to our wonderful synthetic surfaces?
Trainer John Sadler does not work for Santa Anita, Hollywood Park or Del Mar, but maybe he should. He’s a guy who knows horses and is smart enough to realize we’re racing them way too often.
“I’ve preached for years to the blind if we don’t cut our dates a little bit we’re going to be in trouble,” Sadler said. “These (horses) are not machines. They can’t run a hundred million times.
“I think Del Mar was a success this year. For this economy, it was really good. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact they took a little initiative and didn’t race that sixth day. But you shouldn’t have to wait until you’re down in the dumps to do something.”
Then Sadler got really wild and crazy.
“I’d love to see a rule go into Del Mar that you can’t run more than three times at the meet,” he said.
Of course, he’s bright enough to know management will never allow that to happen.
“It’s funny, but anything that you say that affects anybody’s money line, they don’t like,” Sadler said. “When it comes to (management), they like field size, so they don’t want anything to discourage that. In an ideal world, you’d run every week in a 10-horse field. But that’s just not reality.”
No, reality is the current skirmish between the California Thoroughbred Trainers and the newly created California Horsemen for Change, the latter group comprised of some of the most prominent trainers in the Southland who believe a more aggressive approach is needed while confronting the problems they face.
CTT president James Cassidy might be right when he says this isn’t the economic climate for horsemen to be seeking more money or working to get the artificial tracks ripped out and replaced with traditional dirt surfaces.
After all, Santa Anita is embroiled in bankruptcy proceedings and might be under new ownership sometime early next year, Hollywood Park will fall victim to the wrecking ball when the economy improves and Del Mar’s license is running out. Money is in short supply.
But maybe if the CTT and CHC banded together with the Thoroughbred Owners of California, sort of the way it used to be before the old Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) was disbanded in the early ’90s and the trainers and owners went their separate ways, the horsemen would be better equipped to confront their many problems.
“It seems like it would be in the interests of both owners and trainers because they’d have a lot more negotiating leverage,” said Chris Knight, interim executive director of the CHC. “If the owners and the trainers stand together, we can hopefully push everything in the right direction.
“When you work together, you’re always stronger.”
Work together?
When was the last time those two words were used in conjunction with California racing?
Now, about that synthetic tracks mandate, those shrinking purses, the rising costs of workman’s compensation …
Aug
14
DEL MAR — As much as racing at Del Mar is about the beach atmosphere, the pageantry and the beauty of thoroughbreds racing at 40 mph, it’s really about the action.
That would be the betting action.
It’s the toteboard, the trip to the window and then collecting on the winning ticket or tossing the losing one.
It’s not exactly the halfway mark of the Del Mar meet. That happens Saturday, fifth race. But it’s close enough to look at the racing trends over the first 16 days of the 37 days at the beach. Also, new harrowing machinery might impact the second half of racing and influence a player’s pick of a winner.
After a slow start, favorites are finding the winner’s circle at Del Mar.
“The first week here, favorites were winning at like 14 percent,” said Bob Ike, one of The San Diego Union-Tribune’s on-site handicappers.
Bleary-eyed chalk players who studied the Daily Racing Form needed ATMs. Long-shot hunch players who bet favorite numbers, names or colors loved it.
After Wednesday’s races, favorites have won 31.8 percent of the time (47 of 148). The winning percentage for favorites on Polytrack is slightly lower at 31 percent (35 of 113).
Ike said the slow start for favorites on Del Mar’s synthetic surface had a lot to do with more horses competing here the first few weeks, leading to larger fields that were more difficult to handicap.
“That was a reflection of changing tracks and full fields here after Hollywood Park,” Ike said. “It wasn’t a reflection of the track. It was just more competitive here. And it’s a lot harder to pick winners when there are 12 horses in a race as opposed to four or five.”
The perception that the race cards are fuller this year at Del Mar after the track dropped one racing day a week is true – but just barely.
Tom Robbins, Del Mar’s racing secretary, said Del Mar averaged 8.3 horses a race last year compared with 8.6 horses per race this year.
If there has been one trend, it’s that the track has started to get more consistent, Ike said. Times are faster and more consistent than they were the first two years of Polytrack at Del Mar and even better than they were at the beginning of the meet this year.
“I just went though all my programs and I found maybe two days where there was a closer’s bias on the track this meet,” Ike said. “Some days it plays on the slow side, especially early in the week.”
Jon Lindo, another of the Union-Tribune’s handicappers, said new machinery brought in from Canada has produced a more consistent Polytrack surface. But Lindo said bettors should check the first couple of races each day to see if speed horses are holding or closers are chasing them down. He’s always looking for trends during a day’s races.
“You need an open mind,” Lindo said.
Robbins said the track’s newest machine is a “kinder” one that doesn’t dig up the track as much. He said the track crew here continually is learning how to adapt to the changing conditions of the coastal weather and the sea-level track. The latest machine is another part of Del Mar’s “arsenal,” Robbins said.
“It’s a cultivator,” Robbins said. “We can quantify how deep we want to go into the surface. On Mondays and Fridays we go a little deeper . . . They’ve been using it at Woodbine and Arlington Park, and Keeneland just got one.”
Ike said all this plays into how handicappers pick.
“As long as the track stays fair and consistent, as long as times are relatively normal to what we’re used to on a regular dirt track, I don’t have a problem with it,” Ike said.
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225;
May
15
Okay, so maybe my Derby analysis wasn’t so great. Fortunately, I wasn’t alone. While I thought one of the four favorites (three after the early morning scratch of I Want Revenge) would win, I had picked Mine That Bird to finish last. Like someone said to me later, “Turn the paper upside down and you had the winner.” At least the Derby wasn’t one of those heartbreaking photo-finish losses or won by a horse that I had considered and crossed out to save money. I could not have picked this year’s romping winner in 100 runnings. In fact, I would pick him last every time, unless I knew the track was going to come up wet again. I truly believe he “freaked” in the mud, probably improving his form 15-20 lengths.
And I will be extremely surprised if Mine That Bird wins again in Saturday’s Preakness. Like many of of those bands from the 70’s and 80’s, I think he might be a one-hit wonder. This race features one potential superstar against the remainder of what appeared to be an excellent 3-year-old crop. But with the two most talented members of this class (Quality Road and I Want Revenge) on the sidelines, this group suddenly isn’t looking all that great.
Pioneerof the Nile is a nice, hard-knocking colt that gamely held second in the Derby despite drifting out and somewhat impeding Musket Man and Papa Clem. Those three were part of a good battle for second and third as ‘Bird splashed away by nearly seven lengths. Friesan Fire deserves a chance to snap back in the Preakness, ala Snow Chief and some others who didn’t fire at Churchill Downs but came back with top efforts two weeks later. New shooters traditionally have not fared all that well in the Preakness, but I do believe Big Drama is a major player in here. Fast early, drawn inside and freshened off his monster effort (DQ’d out of track record-breaking win in the Swale), ‘Drama looks very dangerous.
But if Rachel Alexandra runs back to any of her last four performances, this race is history. She’s won those four races by a combined total of nearly 40 lengths while never being asked for her best. Yes, she wheels back in 15 days (which gives her one day more than her Derby counterparts), drew the 13-post and faces a quicker pace scenario. But, in horse racing, the best horse wins most of the time. And there is no question in my mind that she is the best horse.
Prediction: Rachel Alexandra, Big Drama, Pioneerof the Nile. And since I can’t imagine her new connections wanting to run back in the Belmont three weeks from now, we’ll very likely have three different winners in this year’s Triple Crown series.
NOTE: Bodog Racebook is offering a $50 match bonus to new players. Sign up and deposit $50 and a $50 match bonus will automatically be deposited to your account. Click here for more details.
My Saturday Premium Play selection sheet for Hollywood Park will be available late Friday night and will include Preakness selections and betting strategy.
May
1
Last year’s Derby was easy. Big Brown stood out a mile over 19 overmatched 3-year-olds. This year’s Derby, however, is another story altogether. Whether you’re betting at a racetrack, simulcast facility or online, true horseplayers are playing the Derby. Even the most casual racing fan puts at least a few bucks down on Derby Day—it’s almost un-American not to.
So here is how I see this year’s running. It may be a bit chalky and lacking in creativity but I believe one of the top four morning line favorites will win: I Want Revenge (3-1), Dunkirk (4-1), Pioneerof the Nile (4-1) or Friesan Fire (5-1).
I was all set to pick Dunkirk, believing he might be this year’s edition of Curlin—lightly raced but the most talented of the bunch. However, I’m hearing that the $3.7 million colt is not handling his Churchill Downs surroundings all that well. If you’re washing out in the morning and in a paddock schooling session, what happens on Saturday in front of 150,000 rabid rans? I still have to respect him, however. His three races have been too good (backed up by a big speed figure in the Florida Derby) to deny that this is one talented runner.
I Want Revenge doesn’t have any holes. Everyone saw his monster effort in the Wood, he has trained forwardly and is great hands. My one concern is that young jockey Joe Talamo might get the jitters and make a mistake. However, with ‘Revenge’s tactical speed and outside post, I think he might get the “Big Brown trip”, stalking the leaders while outside in the clear. He’s fast and consistent, so he should run his race.
Pioneerof the Nile has not blown me away despite winning four straight in Southern California. However, my gut feeling is that we haven’t seen his best yet. He will get more pace at which to run, might move up on a traditional dirt track and is trained by three-time Derby winner Bob Baffert. Whatever is he is capable of, he will show it on Saturday.
Finally, Friesan Fire. To me he’s a bit of an X-factor. The king of Louisiana swept the Fair Grounds series, topped off by a romping 7-length win over a muddy track in the Louisiana Derby. He has tactical speed, tries hard every time out, probably moves way up over a wet track and is trained by one of the best in the business, Larry Jones. How fitting would it be to see Jones win this year after all he endured last year with the breakdown of Eight Belles?
There are some longshot fringe players that I think could impact the trifecta and superfecta, including my preferred longshot Hold Me Back (15-1). Others with a chance at a price include Papa Clem (20-1), West Side Bernie (30-1), Chocolate Candy (20-1), Summer Bird (50-1) and General Quarters (20-1). I will try to devise some betting strategy that will use these bombers in the “underneath” slots for the exotics. Here is a listing of more Kentucky Derby Odds.
Or I may just resort to a self-serving hunch play. I am one of two managing partners (along with Brett Lindenbaum) in a new racing syndicate called Summit Racing. We currently have three horses in training with three different trainers: Bob Baffert, Jerry Hollendorfer and Jeff Mullins. It just so happens that each has a horse in this year’s Derby. How can I not key my plays around Pioneerof the Nile, Chocolate Candy and I Want Revenge?
However you play it, this year’s Derby features a very talented group while offering up the chance for a big-time score. Good luck on Saturday.
NOTES: Bodog Racebook is offering a special Kentucky Derby deal. Make a $100 deposit and a $100 match bonus will automatically be issued to your account. Click here for more details.
My Saturday Premium Play selection sheet ($10) for Hollywood Park will be available by 10:00 p.m. (Pacific) on Friday night and will include Kentucky Derby selections and betting strategy.
Apr
21
In many ways, this year’s Kentucky Derby, just 11 days away, will be a horse of a different color.
The actual two minutes of racing should not be a departure from the past. There will be a large field. The start will be a cavalry charge. The best horse may or may not win, depending on jockey pilot success in finding a crack in the usual Great Wall of Churchill that the horses create as they turn for home.
Other similarities will remain. The mint juleps will taste like medicine and be overpriced. New boundaries, in design and common sense, will be pushed in women’s hats.
And, within 30 seconds of the winner’s crossing the finish line, the horse’s connections will be asked about winning a Triple Crown.
Indeed, the Derby is the happiest time of the year for racing. But then, this year’s especially needs to be, because much in the sport leading up to it hasn’t been a belly laugh.
Here’s a scorecard of current-day horse racing:
Item: Hollywood Park’s summer meeting begins Wednesday and goes through July 19. It is held at a time when weather in Southern California is near-perfect and the interest of the wagering public is rekindled by Triple Crown season.
Problem: The land developers from Northern California who purchased Hollywood Park for its real estate value have not committed to racing at the Inglewood track past the close of the 2009 fall meeting, which ends just before Christmas. This now appears to be more about grading land than graded stakes.
Item: Santa Anita, during its Oak Tree meeting last October, held what Breeders’ Cup officials termed its “best-ever” event, and is scheduled to do it again this year, Nov. 6-7.
Problem: Santa Anita, a profitable track, is owned by Frank Stronach’s Magna Entertainment, an unprofitable corporation currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Monday, the Breeders’ Cup gave Santa Anita an April 30 deadline to establish a plan assuring that whoever owns the track in November can actually put on the event. Ron Charles is president of Santa Anita and an officer of Magna. He says the situation is close to being fixed but there is “still a little cloud” right now. Remember Charles in your prayers.
Item: The second leg of the Triple Crown, the favorite among the three for most horsemen, is the Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore on May 16. Pimlico has as much tradition as it has peeling paint. It is a charming dump.
Problem: Pimlico is also owned by Magna, and the bankruptcy proceedings have Maryland politicians — many of the same people who hemmed and hawed while neighboring states added slot machines to their tracks and not only saved racing but enticed away many Maryland horses — in a panic of breast-beating and oratory. The fear is that the Preakness will be taken from Maryland, and with it more than a century of horse racing tradition.
Last week, the state passed emergency legislation that authorized, if necessary, the takeover of Pimlico by eminent domain. The New York Times quoted interested developer Carl Verstandig, who says that he never said he would tear down Pimlico, as saying the politicians “have been going off half-cocked into a rampage of political chaos and showboating.”
Item: Last year, the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn. (NTRA) established its Safety and Integrity Alliance. It has a group that travels to tracks, inspects them and hands out accreditation. Its stated mission is to “protect the sport’s integrity and increase public awareness of horse racing’s safety and integrity programs.”
Problem: Ernie Paragallo, a prominent owner and breeder from New York, was arrested April 10 on charges of animal cruelty for allegedly allowing horses under his care to become malnourished. Various animal protection groups have been vanning away horses from Paragallo’s farm and describing some of them as “bags of bones, literally walking hides.” Paragallo is not some small player in horse racing. He owns half of super-stud Unbridled Song, winner of the Florida Derby and Wood Memorial in 1996 and a fifth-place finisher in that year’s Kentucky Derby.
Problem: California trainer Jeff Mullins will saddle I Want Revenge for the Derby. On the day I Want Revenge won the Wood at Aqueduct in New York, security guards found Mullins giving one of his horses (not I Want Revenge) a substance called Air Power with a syringe. The substance has been likened to cough medicine. Horses are not allowed medications on race day, but Mullins said he thought it was OK because he had been allowed in the area with the material to administer the substance. Then, last week, Mullins watched one of his horses train at Churchill Downs without having a license to do so, and when confronted, said he had been told the licensing office had been closed that day. It wasn’t.
Mullins was given a one-week suspension and a $2,500 fine for the Aqueduct incident and was not penalized for the Churchill Downs incident. Apparently, the “sport’s integrity” is best protected during weeks other than those of the Triple Crown races. Mullins’ one-week penalty will start the day after the Kentucky Derby.
Item: On April 4, the Santa Anita Derby, one of the top prep races for the Kentucky Derby, attracted 50,915. Most were there to see two great 3-year-olds, Pioneerof The Nile and The Pamplemousse. It had the makings of a match race.
Problem: Most fans were on-site when they learned that The Pamplemousse had been scratched that morning because of a tendon injury. The determination of the injury had been made by state veterinarian Jill Bailey. Trainer Julio Canani was so furious that he could be heard yelling at track officials. Word even circulated that the horse would be fine, that Bailey had overreacted, and that The Pamplemousse would race the next weekend at Keeneland in another Derby prep.
By Monday, it was announced that The Pamplemousse would be out for at least six months. And at the end of Santa Anita’s meeting Sunday, the track announced that Jill Bailey had been named “employee of the meeting.”
Item: On March 7, Einstein, a Brazil-bred horse handled by Florida trainer Helen Pitts-Blasi, won the Santa Anita Handicap. Pitts-Blasi became the first female trainer to do that. It had been another well-attended day, 31,496, during a Santa Anita winter meeting full of upticks.
Problem: A month later, lawyers Bill Gallion and Shirley Cunningham were convicted of stealing millions of dollars from clients for whom they got large settlements in the fen-phen diet scandal. Each faces more than 100 years in prison. Einstein, a likely favorite for this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, is owned in part by Gallion and Cunningham.
Also, the largest purse-winning horse in North America, the recently retired Curlin, is owned and beloved by Kendall-Jackson Winery founder Jess Jackson. His partners, inherited in the purchase deal, are Gallion and Cunningham.
Item: Racing is the sport of kings, and in so many ways, deservedly so.
Problem: The kings are the animals who compete, not the people who surround them.
bill.dwyre@latimes.com
Apr
19
I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, but what I saw yesterday at Santa Anita is most disturbing.
As the horses loaded into the gate for the seventh race, the Grade 3 San Simeon Handicap, MR GRUFF was listed at 4/1 on the tote board. After breaking cleanly and getting to the front, his odds dropped to 5/2. He went on to win while paying $7.60, instead of the $10 or so bettors were expecting at post time.
In the 10th race, a maiden claimer for 3-year-olds, favorite FOREIGN TAUREAN was 8/5 going into the gate, but took a huge drop to even-money after breaking well and setting the pace. Again, wire-to-wire, paying $4.00 instead of $5.20 or $5.40 that was expected. In both cases a payoff drop of about 25% from what horseplayers could have expected to receive even if they had wagered at the last possible moment.
To add insult to injury, Pick 4 “will pays” into the final race showed ‘TAUREAN returning $443. However, when the actual payoff came back at $401, winning bettors had been dinged another 10%. As if beating the races isn’t hard enough, winning gamblers lost large percentages of their profits due to the above examples.
Batch betting? Past posting? Taking advantage of the seven-second delay afforded to mutuel clerks in order to cancel (or not cancel) a ticket after the gates open? Something had a very foul odor in the air on the last Saturday of the meet. These problems (loopholes?) need to be fixed immediately.
Apr
19
It’s tough enough trying to handicap the Kentucky Derby without the added guessing game of whether the synthetic horses can successfully transfer their form to dirt.
There’s no doubt Pioneerof the Nile, the Empire Maker colt who gave trainer Bob Baffert his record fifth Santa Anita Derby victory April 4, should be among the favorites when the horses load into the starting gate May 2.
But will he be as successful over Churchill Downs’ main surface as he has been on Cushion Track and Pro-Ride?
“He beat us twice and we’ve run against him twice, so I am scared of him,” said David Lanzman, co-owner of another of the Derby favorites, I Want Revenge. “I’d be stupid not to be. But I wouldn’t trade positions with anybody.
“We’ve answered a big question by running over the dirt and running the way we did, and he’s not going to be able to answer that question until May.
I Want Revenge was runner-up to Pioneerof the Nile in last December’s $750,000 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park. He finished third, behind Pioneerof the Nile and Arkansas Derby winner Papa Clem, in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Feb. 7 at Santa Anita before shipping east to continue Derby preparations.
Since switching to the dirt at Aqueduct, I Want Revenge has been the most impressive of the Derby hopefuls, winning the Gotham Stakes by an eye-opening 8 1/2 lengths March 7 and then overcoming a terrible start and traffic trouble in the stretch to win the Wood Memorial on April 4 like he’d had a clean trip.
He and Pioneerof the Nile are just two of four California horses that figure prominently in the Derby, joining Papa Clem and Chocolate Candy, the latter of whom won two stakes over Golden Gate Fields’ Tapeta synthetic surface this year before finishing second to Pioneerof the Nile in the Santa Anita Derby.
But Chocolate Candy, trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, is another who has never raced on dirt. All nine of his career starts have come in California. It’s debatable whether his closing kick will be as effective at Churchill Downs as it has been on artificial surfaces.
Ahmed Zayat, Pioneerof the Nile’s owner, doesn’t think the dirt will be a detriment to his colt, pointing out that his sire finished second in the Derby and won the Belmont. His dam won by 11 1/2 lengths at Churchill Downs in record time.
“And his trainer really likes dirt better,” Baffert cracked.
Here’s a look at our top five heading into Derby week:
1. I Want Revenge: If this son of Stephen Got Even runs back to his New York form, it’s all over. His victory in the Wood, when he lost four or five lengths at the start, was one of the most impressive Derby preps in years.
Of course, he might also have had a fondness for Aqueduct, meaning he won’t run like a monster at Churchill. Point Given, who won the Preakness and Belmont in 2001 and wound up Horse of the Year as a 3-year-old, didn’t fire on Derby Day and wound up fifth.
2. Pioneerof the Nile: If Garrett Gomez doesn’t opt for this guy over Dunkirk as his Derby mount, it will be a surprise. But Baffert doesn’t seem too concerned over the uncertainty.
“If Gomez doesn’t ride him, I might go down to Los Alamitos and find a jockey down there,” he joked.
3. Friesan Fire: The Louisiana Derby winner will go into the Derby off a seven-week layoff, which could prove beneficial. He might be fresher than many of the other colts.
Oh, and the horse the A.P. Indy colt beat at the Fair Grounds on March 14?
Papa Clem, who gained more supporters with his victory in the Arkansas Derby last weekend.
4. Quality Road: A quarter crack in his right hind foot doesn’t figure to cost the Florida Derby winner a start in the Kentucky Derby, according to foot specialist Ian McKinlay, who treated Big Brown’s famous quarter crack before last year’s Belmont Stakes and is watching over Quality Road.
The fact it cropped up a month before the Derby and not a week before the big race like Big Brown’s also plays in Quality Road’s favor.
5. Chocolate Candy: The son of Candy Ride’s closing style is perfect for the Derby if he proves he can handle the dirt.
DOWN THE STRETCH
In addition to the big four of Pioneerof the Nile, I Want Revenge, Papa Clem and Chocolate Candy, two other California-based colts - Square Eddie and Mr. Hot Stuff, third in the Santa Anita Derby - also have Kentucky Derby aspirations. “It just shows you the quality of horses in California is pretty strong … there’s a lot of nice horses, and this is a tough Derby field,” said BobBaffert, trainer of Pioneerof the Nile. “There are six, seven, eight horses there … I think it’s going to be a very competitive race. I’m just glad that I’m part of the top five.”
Former jockey Gary Stevens, winner of three Kentucky Derbies during his Hall of Fame career, agrees with Baffert that this is a nice batch of 3-year-olds. “I think it’s an outstanding crop,” he said. “At the top of my list right now I’ve got I Want Revenge, Friesan Fire … Quality Road ran huge the other day. It’s as good a 3-year-old crop at this point in time as I’ve seen in quite some time. It’s a quality bunch.” Stevens, a racing analyst for NBC and Horse Racing TV, said he doesn’t miss riding. “Not so much, because of that adrenaline rush of doing live shows,” he said. “It’s the same feeling, and I know when I’ve done a good job and I know when I’ve done an OK job and I know when I’ve done a poor job the same way as when I rode.”
Contact Art Wilson at art.wilson@sgvn.com
Mar
31
The changes for the 2009 season at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club are coming fast and furious.
Track officials will go before the California Horse Racing Board next month to drop Monday racing, cutting its 43-day meet to 37 days. And on Sunday, officials said they plan to revamp their stakes schedule, including moving its two biggest races —- the $1 million Pacific Classic and Grade I Del Mar Futurity.
Del Mar intends to create a racing festival on the final weekend of its meet, Sept. 4-7, with the Pacific Classic moved back one week from its traditional spot on the racing calendar to Sept. 6 and the Futurity moved up two days from its closing-day position to Labor Day, Sept. 7.
“We felt like we could make it a helluva weekend,” track president Joe Harper said. “It will make that weekend more special for us.”
Tom Robbins, Del Mar’s vice president of racing, said the idea came from brainstorming sessions between the track’s marketing and racing offices.
“We want to go out with a bang,” Robbins said. “We’re going to have four Grade Is at the end of the meet and see how it works out.”
Del Mar will begin Labor Day weekend on Sept. 4 with the Rancho Bernardo Handicap, a sprint for older fillies and mares. That will be followed on Sept. 5 by the Grade I Debutante for 2-year-old fillies.
On Sept. 6, in addition to the Pacific Classic, Del Mar will run the Torrey Pines Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, the Grade II Pat O’Brien Handicap for sprinters at 7 furlongs and the Grade II Del Mar Derby for 3-year-olds at 1 1/8 miles on the turf course.
With the 2-year-old Futurity championship moved to Sept. 7, the closing-day feature will now be the Grade II Palomar Handicap for fillies and mares on the turf.
Additionally, Del Mar will move the San Diego Handicap —- a prep for the Pacific Classic —- from the first weekend of the meet to the second weekend and the Best Pal Stakes for 2-year-olds up one week to have more time between that race and the Futurity.
Del Mar won’t officially announce its stakes schedule until the CHRB accepts —- or rejects —- its request to drop racing days at an April 23 meeting.
Robbins said he has received varying reactions from horsemen over the proposed changes to the racing schedule.
“It just depends on the philosophy of the individual,” he said. “The majority (of the trainers) want more spacing (between races).”
Said Harper: “Every time we change anything, we’re worried about the horsemen. We think this is a good deal.”
Harper said he was concerned about a backlash from fans who have made Pacific Classic weekend a traditional getaway in August.
“That’s always a concern,” he said. “We think we have buttressed the whole (Labor Day weekend), and the Pacific Classic will still be a good day.”
Unlike in previous years, Del Mar doesn’t have a television package for this year’s Pacific Classic on ESPN, but Harper said he’s not worried about it and that the move of the premier race was never discussed in relation to television coverage.
“Television is not dictacting where we put these things,” said Harper, who last year allowed the Pacific Classic to be run at 6:45 p.m. so it could be seen in prime time on the East Coast. “You run into problems when you allow television to tell you when to run races. We’ll just do our own thing on television or not.”
Contact staff writer Jeff Nahill at jnahill@nctimes.com or (760) 740-3550.
Mar
7
Bill Strauss arrived for his staff meeting Monday morning to find a mint julep stationed at his seat.
Independently, Strauss’ brother Jeff received a gift basket containing the same cocktail’s key components: bourbon and mint.
This was neither a coincidence nor a conspiracy, but sure symptoms that Kentucky Derby Fever has again infiltrated San Diego County.
The Strauss brothers own 20 percent of The Pamplemousse, a 3-year-old colt on an accelerating collision course with America’s most renowned horse race. Because the brothers are relative rookies as thoroughbred investors, and because The Pamplemousse was one of 34,712 registered foals in the United States in 2006, the odds against this happening conjures a photo finish between Ridiculous and Preposterous.
Yet here it is and here they are – a pair of transplanted New Yorkers on a jubilant joy ride, living the outlandish dream of horsemen worldwide.
“Dreaming is the best part of it,” Jeff Strauss said. “People say “ ’Don’t jinx your horse.’ But what the hell, most of the fun is talking about it, what may become of this.”
What Jeff Strauss once rationalized as a marketing vehicle for his Pamplemousse Grille has become a bona-fide Derby favorite. Fresh from his third straight victory, an emphatic six-length triumph in Saturday’s Sham Stakes at Santa Anita, The Pamplemousse improved from 20-1 to 10-1 in the Daily Racing Form’s Derby Watch.
Only two horses are assigned shorter odds: Old Fashioned at 5-1 and Pioneerof the Nile at 8-1. Selected by bloodstock agent Alex Solis Jr. and ridden by jockey Alex Solis Sr., The Pamplemousse is scheduled to run his last Derby prep on April 4 in the Santa Anita Derby.
Barring injury, it will then be mint juleps on the menu.
“The other ones when they win, it’s the adrenaline for that race, and you’re just excited for that race,” Bill Strauss said. “With this one, it’s the hope and the potential and the possibility that you’re watching. It’s a completely different feeling. . . .
“Of all the horses, I’ve seen, he has as good a shot at any. The good news is he’s getting better every race and he’s happy, he’s feeling great. He wants to run. I would not trade him for any other horse running right now.”
When asked about his horse’s Derby prospects, Jeff Strauss admitted that he was already “thinking about all three of them,” meaning Triple Crown legs. If that statement seems slightly audacious, why bother living the dream if you’re not going to live it large?
Clearly, the Strauss brothers do not recoil from risk. Bill Strauss, 50, says he had “zero” knowledge of the flower business when he started ProFlowers.com, but trusted his direct marketing expertise to build a powerful Internet brand. Jeff Strauss, 47, opened a high-end French restaurant across the street from the Del Mar backstretch, fully aware that the track’s annual meet spans just seven weeks.
Both brothers are gamblers. Neither is in need of a bailout.
“He’s Mister Midas,” Bill Strauss said of his sibling, the star chef. “Everything he touches turns to gold. If you ever want to do something and you’re not sure it will be successful, get him as your partner and it’s a home run.”
The brothers were first drawn to the track by the lure of legalized gambling, and made their first trek to the winner’s circle 30 years ago, as they remember, in Delaware. But though they have hosted an annual benefit for disabled jockeys, they were basically racetrack dabblers until 2007, when they took a minority stake in four horses during the Keeneland Fall Sale. They added four more horses to their shared stable the following spring in Florida, including the gray colt that would become The Pamplemousse.
Pamplemousse is French for “grapefruit,” a translation that was initially lost on Jeff Strauss during an apprenticeship at Le Moulin de Mougins in the south of France. The word ultimately lodged in Strauss’lexicon through the sustained screaming of chef Serge Chollet.
Strauss’ apprenticeship was unpaid, but his piece of The Pamplemousse has proved to be enormously profitable. Purchased for a total price of $150,000, The Pamplemousse has already earned $209,280 in five career starts. The Strauss brothers’ original $30,000 investment might soon be worth millions should some Sheikh decide to try to buy the Derby.
“There are always offers coming in,” Bill Strauss said. “But this is the dream. This is what you do it for. As Jeff says, after this horse retires, we might never own another horse because the odds of us being in March with another Derby contender are slim to none.”
Jeff Strauss also said a mint julep might be improved by adding grapefruit. Or, if you prefer, “Pamplemousse.”
Tim Sullivan: (619) 293-1033; tim.sullivan@uniontrib.com
Tim Sullivan: (619) 293-1033; (Contact)
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