Robin Goodfellow’s Racing Tips: Best bets for Friday, October 30
Sportsmail's racing expert Robin Goodfellow dishes out his tips for Friday's meetings at Newcastle, Wetherby, Uttoxeter and Newmarket.
Month: October 2020
From TDN Look: The Incomparable, Invincible, Unbeatable Cigar
Twenty-five years ago, Cigar put together a perfect 10-for-10 season in the middle of a streak of 16 straight wins. We remember it here.
It was the sixth race on an ordinary Friday card in October at Aqueduct some 26 years ago and there was nothing to suggest that the $34,000 allowance event would ever have any relevance. Jose Santos was aboard the favorite, a recent allowance winner who started out at Suffolk Downs named Golden Plover. Julie Krone had the mount for Tom Skiffington on second-choice Taddarruj. The third choice in the field of six was a Bill Mott-trained 4-year-old making the switch over to dirt after a lackluster 11-race run on the turf. His name was Cigar.
That’s where and how it began, on a quiet fall day at the Big A when no one could have seen this coming. Owned by Allen Paulson, Cigar started off his career in California for trainer Alex Hassinger, Jr., winning just two of nine starts. Transferred to the barn of Bill Mott, he lost another four straight races, all of them allowances on the grass. Perhaps the shift to the dirt would help. They were running out of options.
“It was just the process of elimination for us,” Mott said. “We tried him on the turf and that wasn’t working out well enough, so we switched him to the dirt. There was no magic in it.”
Cigar was dominant that day, winning by eight lengths. Twenty-one months, nine racetracks and two countries later, Cigar had pieced together an historic 16-race winning streak that is among the most extraordinary feats put together by a modern horse. It was the streak that would earn him two Horse of the Year titles, 11 Grade I wins, a spot in the Hall of Fame and legendary status. It was a streak that, for those who were part of it, will be forever etched in their memories.
I was fortunate to be there for almost all of it, 14 of the 16 wins. That was at a time when newspapers still mattered and not all had given up on horse racing. I was the racing writer for the New York Daily News, which allowed me to dart around the country, and to Dubai, to follow this horse.
“Greatness is neither easy to describe nor to qualify, but the criteria surely includes the ability to rise to any challenge, to be invincible,” I wrote after Cigar won the 1996 Dubai World Cup, his 14th straight win. “This is Cigar, a champion.”
Such breathless praise might ordinarily seem over the top, but not with this horse. He did what no other horse had done since the great Citation in 1948, who also won 16 in a row. Always show up. Always win. As the streak stretched on, through New York, California, Massachusetts, Florida, he really did seem to be invincible.
“Somebody asked me one time, ‘Was he the best horse that you ever rode?'” said Jerry Bailey, who was aboard Cigar for 15 of his 16 wins during the streak. “I think he’s almost the best horse anybody could have ever ridden.”
Click to continue reading and to watch the tribute video at TDN Look.
The post From TDN Look: The Incomparable, Invincible, Unbeatable Cigar appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
2021 Kentucky Derby: Churchill Hoping For 40-50 Percent Fan Capacity
Churchill Downs is hoping to welcome fans at as high as 50 percent capacity at the 2021 Kentucky Derby, CEO Bill Carstanjen told investors on Thursday's third-quarter earnings call. According to the Courier-Journal, Churchill's regular capacity is 165,000 people, so there could be as many as 82,500 fans at the Run for the Roses.
“We are starting with the assumption that we will limit the number of reserved seats to 40 to 50 percent of capacity, and we will delay selling any general admission tickets … until we are closer to the date of the Derby,” Carstanjen said.
Carstanjen added that he expects the company to retain the first Saturday in May date for the 2021 Kentucky Derby.
Read more at the Courier-Journal.
The post 2021 Kentucky Derby: Churchill Hoping For 40-50 Percent Fan Capacity appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
California-Based TRF Second Chances Program Celebrates First Anniversary
On Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020, ten student/inmates began a new semester at the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation's Equine Care Program at the Pleasant Valley State Prison (PVSP) at Coalinga, California.
There was no better way to celebrate its one-year anniversary.
“The four groups that made this happen – the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, the (California) Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, West Hills College and Harris Farms – worked extremely well together,” said Heidi Richards, whose work with the Equine Care Program earned her the CDCR's 2020 Corrections Officer of the Year Award. “We had 30 student/inmates in the first class, and 28 were certified. We are very excited about how successful the program is.”
The Equine Care Program at PVSP opened Oct. 16, 2019 and coincided with the prison's 25th anniversary celebration. The program is an extension of the TRF's Second Chances/Groom Elite Program that began in 1983 at the Wallkill State Correctional Facility near New Paltz, NY. Former racehorses enjoy a tranquil sanctuary home at Second Chances, which is now offered at prisons in New York, California, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois and South Carolina. In return, the horses provide hands-on vocational instruction in horse care as well as lessons in mutual respect, compassion, responsibility, and trust.
In collaboration with West Hills College, PVSP's Equine Care Program is a two-semester course that, at conclusion, not only certifies its participants to work at entry level jobs within the racing industry but gives them six transferable college credits. The program at this minimum-security facility is offered to student/inmates within five years of parole.
The fledgling program managed to hold strong despite the turmoil of 2020.
“Our biggest concern was the pandemic,” said Richards, who also is the West Hills College instructor for the program. “But our COVID-19 numbers were low enough to open the program this semester. Warden Scott Frauenheim and everyone here did a great job in maintaining the program. They kept testing everyone at the gate and, additionally, the staff was tested every 10 days. They were really on top of it.”
Warden Frauenheim, who will retire on Friday (October 30) after 26 years of state service and the last seven as PVSP's warden added: “I am proud and honored to have been the first Warden with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to start an Equine Care Program. I am grateful to provide a unique rehabilitative program that helps incarcerated people follow a new path in their lives. Although COVID-19 placed a hold on Pleasant Valley's Equine Program, Pleasant Valley State Prison has commenced with the program and its college courses. The Pleasant Valley Equine Program just completed its first year of program, and I foresee many more successful years to come.”
Presently, the student/inmates are working with two former racehorses. Michael the Man, a 13-year-old Kentucky-bred who had 60 races and earned $197,724 from a record of 11-8-9 and California-bred Slycy, who is also 13, earned $230,606 and posted a record of 14-10-7 from 52 starts.
The horses live on the Equine Care Program's two-acre facility that student/inmates built and help maintain in addition to their work with the animals.
A CDCV grant of $300,766 was secured last year with the help of the West Hills Community College District to fund the Equine Care Program at Pleasant Valley State Prison until 2022.
“It is hard to believe that the program is only a year old with all that Heidi has accomplished,” said TRF Executive Director Pat Stickney. “We are incredibly grateful to all the groups that came together to launch this Equine Care Program which, under Heidi's leadership, will continue to have such a positive impact on the graduates and the horses for years to come.”
The post California-Based TRF Second Chances Program Celebrates First Anniversary appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
