December, 2020 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Arkansas Derby Preps Can Be Lasix-Free After State Signs Off On Revised Rule

Oaklawn Park will now have the ability to card Lasix-free stakes races after a state legislative review committee in Arkansas signed off on a series of racing rule changes Friday. According to the Daily Racing Form, Oaklawn can now fall into line with the new requirements by Churchill Downs that all qualifying points races for the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks must be run with 24-hour furosemide administration only.

Also among new rule changes are a reduction of furosemide dosage from 500 milligrams to 250 milligrams, and a 60-day prohibition on clenbuterol pre-race.

The move comes as 1/ST Racing announced that Gulfstream Park stakes races in 2021 will be run under the same condition. Churchill Downs, Keeneland, Del Mar, The Stronach Group, NYRA and others in the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition have called for gradual partial phaseout of the anti-bleeding medication pre-race over recent years. Several tracks carded races in 2020 with the new 24-hour Lasix administration time for 2-year-old races, and the second part of the phaseout calls for the same rule to apply to stakes races in 2021.

Ultimately, coalition organizers have said, they hope the new rules will give trainers a chance to see whether young racehorses really need the drug and to reduce the number of severe bleeders entering the gene pool. A multi-jurisdictional study is underway to study the prevalence of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage in 2-year-olds under the new rules.

Fiery Off-Track Quarter Horse Becomes Barrel Racing Star In Two Countries

She lit the board in her career as a racehorse, and now Biscuit De Feu is lighting the board as a barrel horse in two countries.

Biscuit De Feu–whose name is “fire cookie” in French–was bred in California by Bryan and Pamela Scheer, owned during her racing career by Jeannie Baldwin and saddled by champion trainer Kenneth Roberts in Louisiana.

The strapping 2013 brown mare has an unusual racing pedigree, as she is sired by First Down French, a son of one of barrel racing's all-time leading sires, Frenchmans Guy, out of a mare sired by A Classic Dash.

Her dam is High Tide, a daughter of champion runner Ocean Runaway and the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame stallion Strawfly Special's daughter, Casual Slip Knot.

Biscuit De Feu's racing career was limited to two starts as a 2-year-old, including a solid second-place finish, when her connections decided it was time to move her into her new career.

Leanne Marie Sine of Dewinton, Alberta, was looking for something sired by First Down French, who was himself a successful barrel racing horse and sire, and she found Biscuit De Feu on Facebook and bought her.

“She caught my eye,” Sine said. “And then I really liked her bottom side, too.”

The mare, now known as “Ferrari,” moved to her new home in Alberta, and the barn of her owner, who is a professional trainer specializing in reining and barrel racing horses.

Sine's skill has paid off for the mare her owner describes as “an absolute little firecracker.”

The mare was racetrack broke when she arrived, and Leanne was prepared to be patient teaching the horse her new job.

“I took my time with her, went back to the basics and got her really broke,” Sine said. “I train reiners, too, so I put a really strong foundation on her. She's a real sensitive horse and a little bit hotter bred too, so lots of slow work and really took my time with her. I got her broke, broke, broke.”

Ferrari is a workaholic, and is saddled up on average six days a week – she doesn't like taking time off.

They travel to events in Alberta, as well as traveling to the United States to compete. Their first year they debuted in some smaller futurities and events, allowing Ferrari to learn and build confidence. In 2019, the first of her derby years, they began stepping up to bigger events, with placings and 1D wins, including a top 10 finish at the AQHA World Championship Show in Level 2 senior barrel racing.

“She's just full of herself, but a sweetheart to have around,” Sine said. “Just a personality.”

As for 2020, it's the final derby year for the mare and Sine had plans to campaign the mare, but, well, “This year … our plans have kinda got kiboshed.”

“This is her last derby year and I had some bigger stuff planned that we didn't get to do,” she said. “But hopefully (we'll get to) some bigger races and rodeos (when things start back up), we will see what she wants to do.”

This story, which is part of the Second Career Stars series, originally appeared on the American Quarter Horse News website and is republished here with permission. Second Career Stars is an ongoing series on retired racing American Quarter Horses in new careers. If you know of a horse that should be featured, write to acaudill@aqha.org. AQHA News and information is a service of the American Quarter Horse Association. For more news and information, follow @AQHARacing on Twitter, “like” Q-Racing on Facebook, and visit www.aqha.com/racing.

The post Fiery Off-Track Quarter Horse Becomes Barrel Racing Star In Two Countries appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Ohio HBPA Sues Belterra to Recoup $2.7M in VLT Money

The Ohio Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (OHBPA) filed a federal lawsuit against Belterra Park’s present and former owners Dec. 18 seeking more than $2.7 in gaming revenues that the OHBPA is claiming the track wrongfully withheld between 2014 and 2018.

“This action arises from Defendants’ failure to pay the OHBPA its share of net-win video lottery terminal [VLT] commission from Belterra Park,” states the complaint filed Friday morning in United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (Eastern Division). “The OHBPA has been deprived of these funds, which go directly toward the benefit of horse breeding and horse racing in Ohio.”

According to the complaint, when VLT gaming was first legalized by Ohio in 2009, the state authorized racinos to retain 66.5% of revenues, with “between 9% and 11%” of those net-win proceeds to then be paid to Thoroughbred and Standardbred entities.

Those percentages were set five years before any actual VLT gaming happened at Belterra, and in 2012 the state authorized the Ohio State Racing Commission to set the actual rate that would go to purses, based upon that 9-11% range. But until a new, firm rate got set, 9% was to be used as the placeholder to determine purse proceeds.

“At all relevant times, the OHBPA and Belterra Park each understood that, pursuant to the statute, the actual percentage rate was to be set at some future time, and that Belterra Park would need to make a ‘true-up’ payment to the OHBPA for any difference between the 9% placeholder rate and a statutorily-set rate that was greater than 9%,” the suit contends.

Belterra didn’t open for VLT gaming until May 1, 2014, largely because the former track known as River Downs was undergoing a substantial renovation to rebrand the property as Belterra Park Gaming & Entertainment Center. The capital expenditures for that project were to be a factor in determining the new calculation rate for purse money, but the suit alleges Belterra stalled and tried to overstate the costs it incurred fixing up the property.

The complaint continues, “Upon information and belief, the delay in setting the statutory rate was due to Belterra Park’s years-long delay in providing to the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission a submission of reasonable capital expenditures incurred, such capital expenditures being the basis for the setting of the percentage rate.”

“Belterra’s submissions were unrealistic and overly aggressive attempts to persuade the authorities that it was entitled to a lower statutory rate; this caused delays in the determination by the Racing Commission,” the complaint alleges. “The OHBPA had no access to Belterra Park’s records of purported capital expenditures, and no way to expedite the rate-setting

process.”

Eventually, on June 27, 2018, the racing commission set the percentage of Belterra Park’s net-win VLT commission that it owed to the OHBPA at 9.95% (both retroactively and moving forward, according to the suit).

And four days after that rate was established, the OHBPA did, in fact, begin receiving its full 9.95% from Belterra.

But the bone of contention has to do with retroactivity: The OHBPA is arguing that Belterra never made good on the four-year difference between the placeholder rate and the revised rate, which it claims totals $2,769,652.

“The OHBPA has demanded the difference between the 9% placeholder rate and the 9.95% rate set pursuant to the statute in its negotiations with Belterra at various times since May 1, 2014, by, for example, proposing alternative methods of receiving the earmarked funds,” the suit contends. “Indeed, the Racing Commission itself has acknowledged that the true-up payment from Belterra Park is due and has asked the OHBPA if it would accept installment payments on the past-due amount.”

“The OHBPA has a right to possess the Converted Funds, which are identifiable and traceable, yet Defendants continue to withhold the Converted Funds from the OHBPA,” the complaint asserts.

In addition, the OHBPA is asking the court to make Belterra and the other defendants pay $25,000 in damages, plus pre- and post-judgment interest and the OHBPA’s attorney fees and court costs.

Belterra Park itself is named as a defendant, as is the racino’s current owner/operator, Boyd Gaming Corporation.

David Strow, Boyd’s vice president of corporate communications, answered a request for comment from TDN by emailing that it is company policy not to discuss pending litigation.

Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc., (which, according to the suit, owned Belterra between 2011 and 2018) and Penn National Gaming, Inc. (which, according to the suit, briefly had an ownership interest in Belterra in 2018), are also listed as defendants.

The post Ohio HBPA Sues Belterra to Recoup $2.7M in VLT Money appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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How Horses Helped With the Creation Of A COVID-19 Vaccine

People across the United States and Canada began receiving the COVID-19 vaccine this week, less than a year after the novel coronavirus that lead to a worldwide pandemic was first identified. The equine industry played a small but relevant role in this amazing scientific feat.

West Nile Virus first emerged in the United States 1999; in 2005, Fort Dodge Animal Health created a vaccine to protect horses from the mosquito-borne disease. This vaccine was the world's first DNA vaccine approved for human or animal use—and the technology used to make it became key to creating the COVID-19 vaccine.

Conventional vaccines used a killed or inactive form of a virus that teaches the body how to mount an immune response to it. DNA vaccines use small pieces of genetic material from a virus; the material itself is injected into the recipient and their cells transcribe the DNA into messenger RNA, which creates distinct proteins to jumpstart the body's immune response. This immune response will defend against the entire virus. Gene-based vaccines are faster to develop and manufacture than traditional vaccines.

Manufactured by Pfizer, the new COVID-19 vaccine is the next generation of genetic vaccines; it's a novel mRNA vaccine that directly translates into proteins once the cell incorporates it. The equine West Nile DNA vaccine was a beginning step for the creation of this vaccine, proving that nucleic acid-based vaccines were safe and effective.