October, 2020 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Physical Therapy Returns Horses To Competition Ring More Rapidly

A horse that requires surgical intervention for a bout of colic isn't out of the woods as soon as he come out of anesthesia. His recovery period can be fraught with complications as his abdominal muscles have been damaged: the surgeon must cut through them to access the origin of the pain. This incision will alter the function of the skeletal muscles.

Drs. Hillary Clayton and Narelle Stubbs of Michigan State University have developed a series of physical therapy exercises that can be completed after the horse's surgery is complete to help strengthen the horse's core and back muscles. Dubbed the core abdominal rehabilitation exercise (CARE) program, the rehabilitation begins 30 days post-surgery and recommends four weeks of in-hand strengthening exercises. These exercises include lumbar lifts and limbering exercises that ask the horse to move his chin to his withers, chest, knees and fetlocks.

A study was done to determine if the CARE program allowed horses to return to work or to competition more rapidly than not implementing rehabilitation exercises post-surgery. Owners of horses that had had colic surgery between 2008 and 2017 were given the option of taking part in the CARE program. Those owners who chose to engage their horse in the program received a manual, DVD and schedule to follow. Horses that were alive one year after the colic surgery were able to be included in the study.

There were 62 total horses used for the study; 11 horses had completed the CARE protocol and 51 did not complete the program. Researchers reviewed each horse's medical records and sent out surveys asking about the horse's post-op care and progress. Questions included for how long the horse was on stall rest after surgery as well as the timeline on surgery, the beginning of work and the return to full training and competition. They were also asked how the horse was performing one year after the surgery.

Results showed that horses that participated in the CARE rehab program returned to work more quickly: On average within 60 days while the control horses returned to work in 90 days. CARE horses returned to full work in 75 days, versus the control horse's 120 days it took to return to full work.

The researchers concluded that the CARE protocol is beneficial post-surgery, but that it may also be helpful during any recovery that includes long periods of rest for the horse.

ARCI: Financial Impact, Implementation Details Should Be Known Before Passage Of HISA Bill

Expressing concerns about undefined cost mandates and implementation issues associated with S.4547, the proposed Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020, the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) believes Legislators should require more information about how the legislation will impact individual States before moving forward with the proposal.

“The RCI Board believes there are some very good things in this bill,” said Ed Martin, President of the ARCI. “But there is a huge financial unknown concerning the cost, especially how it will impact smaller and mid-sized racing entities and exactly how this is to be implemented.”

Martin said the ARCI is committed to a smooth transition once the proposal is enacted into law, noting that the legislation addresses issues long advocated by the association, specifically uniform rules and testing. “This legislation accomplishes that and also solves the funding issue that has been an annual headache for every racing commission,” he said.

The ARCI Board met this week and discussed the proposal at length. “There are many questions about how this will work and a general concern about how smaller and midsized racing venues will survive if required to pay additional regulatory expenses,” he said. A staff analysis of the legislation noted at least 35 racing venues in 19 US States that should be monitored to assess the extent to which they will be able to withstand additional financial mandates imposed by the legislation.

The RCI Board felt that there were too many unanswered questions to embrace the legislation at this time although directors from Kentucky spoke in favor, West Virginia against, and some other jurisdictions withheld comment pending direction from their full Commission.

Other than shifting medication rule making authority and in some jurisdictions the responsibility for operating and paying for the enforcement program, the State Racing Commissions are perhaps the entities least impacted by this legislation.

There is a concern that in an attempt to strengthen racing, this bill may reduce racing opportunities in some communities with a ripple effect on local economies, particularly in the agricultural sector.

“The RCI Board believes the sponsors and proponents of this bill should allay those fears by providing details about the anticipated costs associated with the new Authority and the Enforcement Agency as well as state specific operational costs should they assume the entire enforcement program now operated by the State,” Martin said.

Martin said that the statute, when implemented, will be similar in some ways to the system in place for RCI Members in Canada, except that investigations there and adjudications are handled by Provincial Racing Commissions with testing and screening limits handled by a federal agency uniformly.

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Kentucky Downs Hoping for Better News From Graded Stakes Committee

Every year, the Kentucky Downs stakes schedule seems to get richer and attract better horses. This year, there were 16 stakes worth a combined $8.6 million and many were won by horses that could have an impact at the Breeders’ Cup. The stakes schedule is a source of pride among the track’s management team, but also a source of frustration. Only five of the stakes are graded and those are all Grade III events, which the track’s senior vice president and general manager Ted Nicholson called “dumbfounding.”

“It’s frustrating,” Nicholson said. “Graded races are important. It’s not that our races don’t get filled. They do fill and they fill very well. But to attract the top horses, it does help to get higher level graded races.”

A perceived lack of respect from the graded stakes committee has been an issue for years at Kentucky Downs. As recently as 2016, there was only one graded stakes on the schedule, what was then called the GIII Kentucky Cup Turf.

Though Nicholson is hoping the committee will look at all of the Kentucky Downs stakes, there are a couple that he said have been particularly slighted.

“The Tourist Mile is the one that is the most baffling,” he said. “We had a Breeders’ Cup winner come out of there and other horses who have done extraordinarily well.”

The Tourist Mile S. is a $750,000 race that is ungraded. It was renamed after Tourist (Tiznow) went on to win the GI Breeders’ Cup Mile in 2016 after winning what was then known as the More Than Ready Mile S.

The stakes program also includes the $750,000 Gun Runner Dueling Grounds Derby. It and the Tourist Mile are the richest non-restricted stakes races run in North America that are not graded.

Nicholson also wondered how the race now known as the Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup can only be a Grade III event. With a $1 million purse, it is the richest race run at Kentucky Downs. Arklow (Arch) won the race in 2020 and in 2018 and is a Grade I winner. So is 2019 winner Zulu Alpha (Street Cry) {Ire}).

“The Calumet Turf Cup has been won three years in a row now by Grade I winner, it’s a $1 million race and is still a Grade III,” he said. “I don’t know how that can be.”

Kentucky Downs has been able to pour money into its stakes program thanks to the revenue that is accrued from its historical horse racing machines. It may be true that, seven or eight years ago, some top trainers didn’t focus on the meet and the quality of the stakes fields was lacking. But that has changed, and the track now regularly attracts the likes of Bill Mott, Graham Motion, Shug McGaughey, Chad Brown, Mark Casse and Doug O’Neill, as well as Kentucky mainstays like Wesley Ward, Brad Cox and Steve Asmussen.

While the committee has since given graded status to four additional races, Nicholson doesn’t think it has done enough to recognize the quality of racing his track offers.

“Over the last few years we have seen such an enormous response, not only in stakes nominations, but who actually comes,” he said. “Trainers are circling our meet on their calendars and it’s not just all the usual people. We’re seeing guys coming in from all over now, including from California. It really helps when you have a year like this year when the Breeders’ Cup is in Kentucky. They know they can ship in, run here for big money and stick around for the Breeders’ Cup.”

Horses coming out of this year’s Kentucky Downs meet have gone on to win a number of major races around the country, which has Nicholson hoping that better news from the committee is just around the corner.

Harvey’s Lil Goil (American Pharoah) just won the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup after finishing second in the Dueling Grounds Oaks. The winner of that race, Micheline (Bernardini), came back to finish second in the Queen Elizabeth. Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}) came back to win the GI Shadwell Turf Mile S. after finishing third in the Tourist Mile. Got Stormy (Get Stormy), Plum Ali (First Samurai) and Royal Approval (Tiznow) have also won graded stakes since racing at this year’s Kentucky Downs meet.

Harvey’s Lil Goil and Ivar became the 32nd and 33rd horses since 2010 that went on to win a Grade I race in North America after racing at Kentucky Downs.

“After seeing the results of our meet and seeing how the runners from our recently concluded meet are performing at Keeneland, Belmont, Pimlico, I really would be surprised and extraordinarily disappointed if we don’t see elevations in some of our graded races and grades for some of our non-graded races,” Nicholson said. “You can look at our whole stakes schedule and look at where those horses have gone and how they have performed and it is amazing. I’m not someone who has a vote. I just have to hope they are seeing the same things that I am.”

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Jockey Juan Gutierrez Becomes All-Time Leading Rider At Emerald Downs

Juan Gutierrez made riding history Wednesday afternoon at Emerald Downs, supplanting Gallyn Mitchell as the track's all-time leading rider.

With a 1¼-length victory on Stay in Grace in the featured $17,000 Muckleshoot Casino Purse, Gutierrez moved one ahead of Mitchell—1,420 to 1,419—to become No. 1 all-time at Emerald Downs. He had tied Mitchell's mark with a victory aboard Mike Operator earlier on the card.

“You know, I was excited the last eighth of a mile when I was pretty sure we would get there,” Gutierrez said in the winner's circle after the victory on Stay in Grace. “This is a great record because it has taken a long time to get there.”

Gutierrez, 51, notched his first Emerald Downs' win April 29, 2000 and has been a mainstay here ever since. He recorded 15 consecutive top-five finishes in the riders' standings during one stretch, including a riding title in 2012 with 117 wins. He also ranks No. 1 in track earnings with over $15 million and No. 3 in stakes victories with 68, including three wins in the Longacres Mile. He ranks second at the current meet with 47 victories through Wednesday.

A 2018 inductee into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame, Gutierrez has 2,031 overall wins, hitting the 2,000 mark aboard Semi Sweet in July.

Gutierrez will be honored with a winner's circle ceremony before Thursday's first race.

Mitchell, the leading rider at Emerald Downs since 2002, retired four years ago and now resides in southern California.

Stay in Grace, a 5-year-old Oregon-bred mare by Understatement, has three wins in her last four starts and improved to 10 for 22 lifetime with earnings of $78,347. Rigoberto Velasquez is the trainer for owners Jerry Carmody and John Sneesby.

In Wednesday's victory, Stay in Grace ($3.20) gained command into the turn and held off B C Z Middleton in the drive, running six furlongs in 1:09.79

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