Robin Goodfellow’s Racing Tips: Best bets for Friday, October 9
Sportsmail's racing expert Robin Goodfellow dishes out his tips for Friday's meetings at York, Kempton, Newmarket and Chepstow.
Month: October 2020
Turf Paradise 2021 Winter/Spring Meet Edges Closer to Reality
With both Turf Paradise and Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) representatives telling the Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) Thursday that they are now close to agreeing on a contract for an 84-date, Jan. 2-May 1 race meet, AZRC chairman Rory Goree indicated that the commission stands ready to approve the dates request, which has already been submitted to the board but was not placed on the agenda for a vote at the Oct. 8 video meeting.
Approval could come via a special AZRC session that might get scheduled before the next monthly commission meeting Nov. 12.
“The primary question is ‘Can we be ready?'” Turf Paradise general manager Vincent Francia asked rhetorically during his presentation before the commissioners. “Yes. I know exactly what has to be done, and I have the staff here to get it done before the horses get here on Dec. 2.”
Leroy Gessmann, who serves as both the AZHBPA executive director and the National HBPA president, also expressed optimism. “We’re hoping soon some things will be resolved,” he said. “Hopefully we’re close, and we get this wrapped up soon.”
Goree said he was well aware that Turf Paradise management wanted the 2021 winter/spring dates request to be voted on during Thursday’s meeting, but he explained commissioners didn’t want to be put in a position of voting on any race meet until a contract has been inked.
“Yes, I did see the dates come before us to be put on the agenda,” Goree said. “[But] we don’t want them on the agenda until we know we have an agreement between [Turf Paradise] and the HBPA. Then that way we know we’re approving something that everyone’s finally in agreement on,”
Added Francia: “It will come as no surprise I’d like to request a special session as soon as possible once those dates are ready to go before the commission, because I’m running out of time. It’s not on my side right now.”
The newfound spirit of cooperation between the AZHBPA and Turf Paradise stands in sharp contrast to the acrimony-tinged AZRC meeting on Sept. 10, at which members of the state’s racing community railed at Turf Paradise management and desperately implored the AZRC to take some form of action so that live racing can get back up and running in Arizona-even if that meant transferring Turf Paradise’s customary block of dates to competitor Arizona Downs.
Turf Paradise ended its spring meet prematurely Mar. 14 as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the nation. In August, Turf Paradise withdrew its dates request for a traditional 2020-21 autumn-to-spring meet, citing liability concerns related to COVID-19. In between, the Arizona Downs summer meet never ran because local health officials would not extend permission to reopen under pandemic conditions.
Beyond the pandemic, a prolonged fight over off-track betting (OTB) privileges, simulcast signals, and how the horsemen’s purse money can be used has been batted back and forth in the courts, in the press, and during commission meetings, clouding the future of the state’s two commercial tracks.
Francia said Turf Paradise would have a two-phase approach to getting the idle plant ready for reopening. The barn area, frontside, main dirt track, and turf course all need to be put back in order. Simultaneously, all of those common areas need to be refurbished with COVID-19 safeguards in place, like those at every other track in the nation that has resumed racing during the pandemic.
One bone of AZHBPA contention that has consistently come up since Turf Paradise shut down seven months ago is that track management has allegedly sold off equipment that is essential to operating a race meet. Goree asked Francia directly what impact that might have on safely operating the facility.
“No impact whatsoever,” Francia said, although he did not detail what actually has been sold. “That equipment has nothing to do with the essential [things needed] to run a race meet. Francia then listed examples-tractors, harrows, water trucks, ambulances-of equipment that remains “on-site here at Turf. None of the essential equipment has been sold.”
Francia continued, focusing on the negotiations: “We are very close to working out all terms of agreement. We will probably continue our discussions after this commission meeting to try to finalize the last few minor things that are sticking points. But we’ve made a lot of progress, and I’m quite confident that we’re going to get this completed.”
The post Turf Paradise 2021 Winter/Spring Meet Edges Closer to Reality appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
Gaffalione Agent Responds to McPeek Criticism
The finger pointing over Tyler Gaffalione’s decision not to ride Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) in the GI Preakness S. continued Thursday when Gaffalione’s agent Matt Muzikar said trainer Ken McPeek’s version of the events was “nowhere near the truth.”
On this week’s edition of the TDN Writers’ Room podcast, McPeek sharply criticized both Muzikar and Gaffalione, claiming that the two reneged on an agreement to ride the filly in the Preakness.
“I announced that we’re going to run in the Preakness and Tyler was on board,” McPeek said on the podcast. “By maybe 6:00 that night, his agent tells us that he can’t ride. And I’m like, ‘Look, you’ve given us a two-race commitment [GI Kentucky Oaks and Preakness].’ He said, ‘Oh well, sorry, I’ve got to ride for Chad Brown at Keeneland.’ I said, ‘You can’t do this. It’s dishonorable.’ I’ve been doing this for 35 years and I’ve never had something like that happen. I still find it dishonorable. Shame on Tyler Gaffalione and his agent.”
When Muzikar told McPeek his rider would not be accepting the mount in the Preakness, McPeek was left to scramble before lining up Robby Albarado.
About the only thing that Muzikar and McPeek agree upon is that Gaffalione did agree to a two-race commitment. But Muzikar said that after the Oaks McPeek told him Swiss Skydiver would be making her next start in the GI Juddmonte Spinster S., which was run the day after the Preakness.
“Maybe two days after the Kentucky Oaks he called me and said he didn’t know what the second race was going to be, that it was between the Spinster, the Preakness and the [GI] Queen Elizabeth,” Muzikar said. “I told him that I needed to know as soon as possible. We talked again Saturday, nine days before the draw for the Preakness, and he told me she was going in the Spinster.”
Muzikar said that after he was told that Swiss Skydiver was going to run in the Spinster, he started lining up mounts for Gaffalione. He turned down all mounts on the Preakness card and accepted mounts for the weekend races at Keeneland. Gaffalione did not win a race on the Oct. 3 card at Keeneland but had several live horses, including GI First Lady S. favorite Newspaperofrecord (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) and GI Shadwell Turf Mile S. favorite Analyze It (Point of Entry).
Muzikar said that McPeek did not tell him he was going to run in the Preakness until the Saturday before the race, by which time he had already made commitments to Chad Brown, Brendan Walsh and others to ride for them the same day at Keeneland.
“I called him and said, ‘What are you doing?'” Muzikar said. “He said, ‘Matt, we are running in he Preakness. Handle it.’ Then he hung up the phone.”
Muzikar said that it was too late to get out of his commitments at Keeneland.
“What did he expect us to do? Not take business for the Preakness card or at Keeneland and sit there and wait for Kenny McPeek because the world revolves around him?” Muzikar said. “Knocking me and the jockey, he crossed a line.”
On the podcast, McPeek said that after Gaffalione worked Swiss Skydiver at Churchill Downs the Saturday before the Preakness he told the trainer how eager he was to ride her in the Triple Crown event.
“Tyler worked her and then Tyler and I came into my office and he said, ‘Oh my God, that’s the best she’s felt all year. Let’s go. Let’s do it.’ I announced we were going to run in the Preakness and Tyler was on board,” he said.
Muzikar said that McPeek reached out to Gaffalione.
“He said that he was going to go on Twitter, that he was going to knock me, that he was going to knock the jockey,” Muzikar said. “He told Tyler he should fire me and force me to take the mount in the Preakness.”
The agent said he was particularly upset that McPeek chose to criticize Gaffalione.
“Tyler had nothing to do with this whole situation, so I don’t like him knocking the jockey,” he said. “Tyler is the greatest kid and the greatest jock I have had in the 26 years I have been doing this. He did nothing to him.”
The post Gaffalione Agent Responds to McPeek Criticism appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
New Twist In Arizona Racing Saga Tabled As Commission Requests Hearing On Monarch Contracts
Those following the ongoing saga of racing and simulcasting in Arizona walked away from the latest meeting of the Arizona Racing Commission on Oct. 8 with limited clairity. Negotiations are ongoing between Turf Paradise and the horsemen regarding a live meet at the Phoenix track in 2021, which under current terms is likely to take place Jan. 2-May 1. While commission staff have seen a proposal to race those dates, the group held off voting on it until a final agreement is reached between the two parties.
(Read more about the dispute between Turf Paradise and the horsemen in this Sept. 23 column from Ray Paulick.)
Commissioners did ask track officials about rumors the facility has sold off certain equipment and let the track and barn area slide into disrepair. Representatives from Turf Paradise assured the commission that if racing dates were granted, the track would be safe for horses and humans in time for the meet to begin. Turf Paradise general manager Vincent Francia said “none of the essential equipment” like ambulances, water trucks and other maintenance vehicles had been sold.
Turf Paradise representatives also hoped the commission would grant a reduction in the minimum number of live racing dates required to operate OTBs in the state, given the current Arizona and federal-level state of emergency declarations. The commission delayed action on this question and requested more information about the language of existing rules allowing a reduction in minimum live racing dates as it may apply specifically to a pandemic.
For many, the most critical item on Thursday's agenda was consideration by the commission of simulcast agreements between Monarch Content Management and Arizona Downs in Prescott Valley, and Monarch with Turf Paradise. Monarch, owned by The Stronach Group, brokers simulcast contracts on behalf of Stronach tracks Santa Anita, Golden Gate Fields, Gulfstream Park, Laurel Park, Pimlico, plus Del Mar, Monmouth Park and Tampa Bay Downs.
Attorney Kory Langhofer, representing Arizona Downs, revealed that the most recent draft of the agreement Monarch sent the track would require money wagered at Arizona Downs OTBs to be held in a separate pool and not commingled into the host track's pools.
“It's going to have a profound effect on the commercial viability of those sites,” Langhofer said.
Langhofer also suggested he understood the copy of the contract offered to Turf Paradise by Monarch did not have this restriction, instead allowing money wagered at those facilities to go into the host track's pools as is customary.
“It hasn't been approved and my client won't approve it because it's unreasonable,” said Langhofer, who urged the commission not to approve the contract between Monarch and Turf Paradise either. He was unsure whether Monarch imposed similar restrictions on operators in other states.
Arizona has a law on the books, similar to one in California, requiring that if a company sells simulcast signals to one track in the state, it must sell to all. Attorneys for Turf Paradise, which is apparently in favor of Arizona Downs OTBs being restricted this way, pointed out that the law doesn't say anything about what the pool arrangements should be. Language in the rule that contracts can't be “anti-competitive and deceptive” refer to the rates charged for signals, not to the specific constructs of a deal. Scot Claus, an attorney for Monarch, accused Arizona Downs of repeatedly defaulting on its contracts with Monarch and said that out-of-state tracks sending their signal into Arizona cannot be forced to take wagers into their pools.
Ultimately, the commission voted unanimously to hold a special hearing to consider the Monarch contracts, with instructions that attorneys for each party should file briefs of no longer than 25 pages before the next racing commission meeting. The next regularly scheduled commission meeting is Nov. 12, 2020.
The post New Twist In Arizona Racing Saga Tabled As Commission Requests Hearing On Monarch Contracts appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
