February, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Junior Alvarado’s Derby Prep Win Propels Him To Jockey Of The Week Honors

Junior Alvarado travelled from his winter base of Gulfstream Park to Tampa Bay Downs for their Festival Preview Day and won two of their graded stakes, earning Jockey of the Week honors for Feb. 1 through Feb. 7. The award, which is voted on by a panel of racing experts, is for jockeys who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 950 active riders in the United States as well as retired and permanently disabled jockeys.

Alvarado was given a leg up on Candy Man Rocket by trainer Bill Mott's son and assistant, Riley Mott in the Gr. 3 Sam F. Davis, the centerpiece of the Festival Preview Day.

“I didn't really want to engage the horse up front (Boca Boy) or make any quick move too early. I just had to move a little bit, keep holding my position and wait as long as I could,” Alvarado said. “At the sixteenth pole when I switched my stick to the right hand and showed it to him to see what I had left, he put his head low and kept grinding his way there.”

The margin of victory for the 1-1/16 mile test was a length in 1:44.30.

Earlier on the card, Alvarado had the mount on Get Smokin for trainer Tom Bush in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes, the second choice in the 12-horse field.

“I had to get out of there running. He's a fast horse and he likes to be on the lead, but I knew (Proven Strategies) has a lot of speed too, so it wasn't necessary for me to keep going after him and go head-to-head. I knew the whole way around I had plenty of horse. Turning for home, I was just a passenger…he started picking it up on his own without me asking, so I knew I was in good shape.”

The winning time for the 1-1/16 mile turf test was 1:40.75.

Usually a year-round force on the New York racing circuit, Alvarado returned to south Florida for the winter months for the first time in 12 years to follow Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.

Alvarado's statistics for the week were 27-5-2-2 with $322,585 in purse earnings.

Alvarado out-polled Antonio Gallardo who had a stakes win and earned his 2,000th career victory, Irad Ortiz, Jr. who had a stakes win and was leading jockey by wins, Flavien Prat who won the Gr. III Las Virgenes and Joel Rosario who won two graded stakes including the San Vincente.

The post Junior Alvarado’s Derby Prep Win Propels Him To Jockey Of The Week Honors appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

A ‘Horse-on-a-Chip’? The Future Of Equine Drug Research Could Look Very Different

The research process for drug toxicology in horses has always been long, slow, and expensive. Too often, when veterinarians want to more about the way a drug behaves in horses, they find themselves relying on limited data collected from a small number of horses. That's because there is a lot of expense and regulation associated with using live animals for research of any kind, even a simple drug administration study aimed at determining how quickly horses' bodies metabolize a therapeutic substance. It's also expensive for universities to maintain horse research herds of significant size year after year, awaiting their use in a short study.

A research group at the Gluck Equine Research Center is hopeful they have a solution that will make it quicker and easier for scientists to understand how drugs behave in horses, and it sounds like something out of a sci-fi drama: microscopic equine organ systems.

It's no longer science fiction. Dr. Carrie Shaffer said researchers aren't reconstructing full-size organs, but rather are using defined layers of cells that mirror what you'd find in an equine kidney, liver, lung, or intestine. The cells come from tissue-specific stem cells collected from a Thoroughbred foal that had to be euthanized due to an unrelated structural deformity. Stem cells have the ability to become any kind of differentiated cell upon command, so the researchers are able to direct the cells to form a particular organ tissue.

“We can prove, using a variety of different methods, that our equine microscopic organ systems are stem-cell derived and have the same characteristics and architecture as the corresponding tissue in the horse.”

These microscopic organ systems are grown in clear, plastic microfluidic chips that are about the size of a AA battery. In human medicine, similar microfluidic chips have been developed to mimic the human liver, lung, intestine, kidney, and blood/brain barrier and are used to study various aspects of cell biology and tissue responses to therapeutics.

The metabolism of a drug isn't dependent on the full-size physical structure of an equine liver or kidney, according to Shaffer – it's how the cells of those organs interact with drugs they encounter as the substance passes through an animal's bloodstream and into the organ tissue. Shaffer is able to grow specific liver cells in one channel of the microfluidic chip while creating artificial blood vessels and blood-like fluid flow on the opposite channel of the chip. This simulates a continuous blood supply interfaced with the mucous membranes that are normally found in the body. The blood flow can go in only one direction, which also mimics the horse's body, where veins and arteries carry blood through an organ in only one direction at a time.

“In the case of the lung chip and the intestine chip, we can also introduce relevant biomechanical forces that simulate complex biological processes,” she said. “We can introduce physical stresses into the chip that mimic breathing and lung inflation, or recreate defined patterns of stretch across the intestine chip that simulate the wave-like pattern of nutrients and waste products moving along the equine intestinal system.”

These forces have been shown to direct gene expression in the cells, which create small, but critical, changes that make the microfluidic chips behave more like the cells found in a live animal.

Previous iterations of this technology didn't include biomechanical forces like stretch, so the tissue wasn't as true to that in a horse's body. Additionally, previous tissue culture systems did not allow for directional fluid flow, but rather exposed a single type of liver or kidney cell to static fluid containing a drug at a fixed concentration. That's not how real kidneys and livers actually work, said Shaffer – the organs contain multiple cell types that are exposed to blood flowing at a relatively high rate. Therapeutics within the bloodstream pass through various organ systems within seconds, and carry metabolized drug away from one organ system for delivery to another.

“Under normal drug testing conditions, we are able to analyze a blood sample from a horse after a drug is administered, but we cannot tell in that blood sample where the drug metabolism occurred,” she said. “We don't know whether the drug was liver-metabolized, intestinal-metabolized, or metabolized in the lung. Our horse-on-a-chip microfluidic technology allows us to isolate exactly where drug metabolism occurs within the horse.”

Some drugs metabolize at different rates in different organs, and organs probably take turns at metabolizing a drug but there's currently no way to know in what order metabolism occurs for a given therapeutic. That information could be useful because some drugs linger longer in the body than expected, and scientists often don't know where the hold-up is.

Shaffer said her lab has performed only a handful of studies with the technology because it's so new. So far, the team has pulsed a drug through an equine lung-chip and a liver-chip for sample collection from the apparatus at defined times post-administration to see how much of the drug had been metabolized by specific tissues in a set timeframe.

The team is still validating these emerging methods and drafting papers for peer-reviewed journals describing the process they've used to create this technology. Shaffer said they're still a few months away from using the organ chips en masse for huge studies – and they need to expand to include tissues from other breeds – but she thinks the microfluidic chips could be useful for pre-clinical analysis of new therapeutic drugs.

“The big sell with our horse-on-a-chip technology is that it's going to significantly reduce animal use for studies – reduce euthanasia, reduce the need for research herds,” she said. “We can now perform the majority of upstream pre-clinical analyses in the lab using our technology that recreates the dynamic environment within the horse. Before, we'd study the effects of a new drug using expensive and limited research herds. Now, we can perform critical toxicity and safety studies before the candidate drug is ever injected into a horse.

“The key to our technology is that we don't need to euthanize additional horses. We can go back to our cryobank of Thoroughbred tissue and enrich for tissue-specific stem cells to essentially grow equine microfluidic organ-chips indefinitely. My research team has developed several innovative methods that allow us to keep using and expanding these diverse equine tissues indefinitely.”

The post A ‘Horse-on-a-Chip’? The Future Of Equine Drug Research Could Look Very Different appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Kathy Walsh Penalized $3,000 and 30 Days for ‘Ace’ Positive

Longtime trainer Kathy Walsh, who currently has no horses actively racing according to Equibase, was fined $3,000 and suspended 30 days stemming from a June 28, 2020, acepromazine metabolite positive at Los Alamitos Race Course.

But Walsh, who has been a licensed trainer since 1970 and an assistant since 1962, will pay only $1,500 and serve seven days through Feb. 13, 2021. The remainder of the penalty will be stayed pending a one-year probation without any Class 3 or lower violations because Walsh entered into a “settlement agreement and mutual release” over the matter, according to a Feb. 5 ruling issued by the California Horse Racing Board.

Acepromazine is a Class 3 Penalty Category B sedative.

The horse that triggered the positive was the 0-for-16 gelding Git On Your Pulpit (Lucky Pulpit), who ran second, beaten half a length, at 3-1 odds in a $20,000 maiden-claimer. He was disqualified and placed last for co-owners Walsh and Marietta Gelalich.

That start was Walsh's last recorded entry on Equibase,although Git On Your Pulpit has made three mixed-meet starts at Los Al this year, winning a 1,000-yard maiden race Jan. 21.

Walsh, a MGSW conditioner from a family that was prominent for decades in racing in the Pacific Northwest, has 1,231 lifetime wins and is a member of the Washington Racing Hall of Fame.

The post Kathy Walsh Penalized $3,000 and 30 Days for ‘Ace’ Positive appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

A Legacy Of Excellence, And Still In The Making

There are few horses-or humans, for that matter-that have logged as many air miles as Exceed and Excel (Aus). The 21-year-old stallion can claim some 338,000, having shuttled for 16 consecutive seasons from his base at Darley Australia's Kelvinside Stud to Sheikh Mohammed's Dalham Hall or Kildangan Studs in Europe. Continued good results as both a sire and broodmare sire in both hemispheres mean that Exceed and Excel is a very notable absentee from the European stallion ranks in 2021, with Darley having called time on the bay's Northern Hemisphere stud career late last year, citing simply the desire to reward him for a career done well.

Exceed and Excel is not the most traveled horse of the modern shuttle era-that honour belongs to WinStar Farm/Vinery Stud's More Than Ready, who in 2019 completed his 18th consecutive year shuttling between Australia and the U.S. But it seems fair to bestow upon Exceed and Excel the honour of being the sire that revolutionized the shuttle route from Australia to Europe.

Exceed and Excel's sire Danehill (who shuttled for 14 consecutive seasons) died at the tail end of the 2003 breeding season in Ireland, and it didn't take long for an heir apparent to emerge, a horse that, like his sire, had near-equal effect on both sides of the globe-an incredibly rare feat indeed, something that even the great Galileo or Dubawi couldn't quite pull off.

Raced initially by Alan Osburg and Nick Moraitis, Exceed and Excel won the G2 Todman S. at two for trainer Tim Martin before blossoming into a Group 1-winning 3-year-old when taking the G1 Dubai Racing Club Cup over seven furlongs and the G1 Newmarket H. over six. Sheikh Mohammed purchased Exceed and Excel thereafter for a reported A$22-million-a record for an Australian homebred at the time–and shipped him to Newmarket with the intention of running in the Golden Jubilee at Royal Ascot, but plans went awry when the colt was forced to sit out the Royal meeting with unsatisfactory bloodwork. A reroute to the G1 July Cup provided a disappointing result, with Exceed and Excel beating just one horse home in the field of 20.

While Sheikh Mohammed's big buy may have yielded underwhelming results in the short term, a glimpse back over a near 20-year stud career reveals him to be an inspired purchase indeed. He was fast from the gates with his first crops Down Under after starting out at A$55,000, with 17 stakes winners across his first two headed by the G1 Blue Diamond S. scorer Reward For Effort (Aus). Exceed and Excel stood at Kildangan Stud in 2005 and 2007 for €10,000, bookending a season at Dalham Stud in 2006 where he stood for £7,500. He covered 300 mares cumulatively his first three seasons in Europe.

Exceed and Excel marked himself as a youngster to watch in 2008 with four stakes winners in his first season with runners in Europe, headed by the G2 Lowther S. scorer Infamous Angel (Ire) and the Listed Windsor Castle S. victor Flashman's Papers (Ire). The bay's first two crops would additionally go on to yield the G2 King George S. winner Masamah (Ire), the G3 Winter Derby scorer Nideeb (Ire) and the GIII Senorita S. victress Mrs Kipling (Ire), but Exceed and Excel's true breakout came with his 2018 crop, which produced the 2011 G1 Nunthorpe S. winner Margot Did (Ire) and the 2012 G1 Prix Jacques le Marois and G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. victor Excelebration (Ire), who suffered the misfortune of being a standout miler in the same era as Frankel (GB). By the time Exceed and Excel notched his first North American Grade I winner, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf victor Outstrip (GB) in 2013, his credibility had soared too Down Under, with standout juveniles Guelph (Aus), Helmet (Aus) and Overreach joining his honour roll. Earthquake (Aus) became his second Blue Diamond winner in 2014, and in 2019 Microphone (Aus) gave his sire a first winner of the G1 Sires' Produce S. and a clean sweep of the country's elite 2-year-old races.

If there is a trend of sires becoming less prolific with age, Exceed and Excel has well and truly bucked it. In Australia alone he provided 14 individual stakes winners during the 2019/20 season, his second-highest number ever in a year. He has provided back-to-back winners of the G1 Coolmore Stud S. in Exceedance (Aus) and September Run (Aus), and Godolphin homebred Bivouac (Aus) has marked himself out as an heir apparent with wins in the G1 Golden Rose S., G1 Newmarket H. and G1 Sprint Classic-excellent credentials with which to go to stud, perhaps in a dual hemisphere capacity? While Exceed and Excel's shuttle days are over, his career as a sire seems to keep finding another gear. He stood for a career-high A$132,000 during the recently completed Australian season-a remarkable accomplishment at age 20 when even the top-tier sires are often seeing their popularity dwindle in favour of the flashy youngsters.

Exceed and Excel's Northern career followed a similar trajectory. After starting out at €10,000 and £7,500 his first three seasons, Exceed and Excel's fee didn't dip for 13 years, rising to €50,000 in 2019, 2018 and 2019 before being trimmed to €40,000 in 2020.

While Exceed and Excel has carved out a reputation as a source of top-class 2-year-olds-he was the first stallion in the world to reach 500 juvenile winners-he has also had a knack for siring tough-as-teak horses that train on, like the dual G1 Hong Kong Sprint winner and G1 Chairman's Sprint Prize victor Mr. Stunning (Aus), who ran up until the age of seven last year; G1 Al Quoz Sprint winner Amber Sky (Aus), who ran until the age of eight; Heavy Metal (GB), who won the G2 Coventry S. and G2 Richmond S. at two, won three group races at the Dubai carnival at eight and was still running up to last year at age 10; Championship (Ire), who won a pair of Group 2s at the Dubai carnival in 2017 aged six; and Secret Ambition (GB), who won last week's G3 Firebreak S. at age eight.

With two crops still to hit the racetracks in the North, Exceed and Excel has left behind 144 stakes winners, 64 of which are group winners, and 815 overall winners-and he has a few sire sons coming up through the ranks that could yet build on his legacy. While Excelebration has since moved on from Coolmore his stud career has not been without merit, he having thrown the classy Group 1 winner Barney Roy (GB) and the evergreen group-winning sprinter Speak In Colours (GB). Helmet provided the first-ever dual winner of the G1 Dubai World Cup, Thunder Snow (Ire). Buratino (Ire) showed some promise with his first 2-year-olds last year, while among those yet to have runners are Cotai Glory (GB) and James Garfield (Ire). Or perhaps it will be the aforementioned Bivouac or Microphone who eventually follow their sire's well-trodden path down to Europe.

If there is any need to put further proof to the abundance of class that Exceed and Excel has spread, it is there for all to see in his broodmare daughters. During a golden summer in 2019, Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) won the G1 Epsom Derby just weeks before Ten Sovereigns (Ire) (No Nay Never) added a win in the G1 July Cup to a victory at two in the G1 Middle Park S. Margot Did has made a flying start at stud, with G2 Prix de Sandringham winner Mission Impassible (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and G3 Prix Vanteaux and GI Belmont Oaks Invitational scorer Magic Attitude (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) her first two foals. Interestingly, a handful of Exceed and Excel's daughters have already thrown multiple big-race winners: Anthony Van Dyck's dam Believe'N'Succeed (Aus) is also responsible for the G1 Railway S. winner Bounding (Aus), while Darley's excellent mare Essaouira (Aus) has provided Group 1 winners Alizee (Aus) and Astern (Aus). Exceed and Excel's daughters have thus far been responsible for 49 stakes winners, 29 of those group winners and nine Group 1 winners.

It cannot be overlooked, either, the doors that Exceed and Excel opened for Australian shuttlers in the Northern Hemisphere. His success could only have been encouragement for breeders to back another Group 1-winning son of Danehill, Fastnet Rock (Aus), when he shuttled for the first time as a proven sire in 2011, and he has been a rousing success in Europe with the likes of One Master (GB), Fascinating Rock (Ire), Qualify (Ire), Zhukova (Ire) and Diamondsandrubies (Ire) to his credit. Though no longer shuttling, Pride Of Dubai (Aus) caught the eye with five stakes winners from his first European crop last year, and yearling buyers will this year have the chance to get their hands on members of the first European-breds by G1 Coolmore Stud S. winner Zoustar (Aus), who has made such an exciting start Down Under.

Exceed and Excel's legacy will continue for generations to come through a multitude of channels, and it is very plausible that the best could be yet to come.

The post A Legacy Of Excellence, And Still In The Making appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post