Month: March 2021

Canter For The Cause Draws Over 75 Participants To Gulfstream Park

More than 75 equine enthusiasts, many with retired Thoroughbreds, walked, trotted, or cantered their horse across legendary Gulfstream Park Monday morning as part of the second annual Canter for the Cause.

The event attracted riders from throughout Florida, as well as several retired Thoroughbreds with the Davie Police Department's Mounted Patrol Unit and the City of Coral Gables mounted unit.

The event, which ran Monday morning and afternoon for all equine enthusiasts, benefited the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that accredits, inspects, and awards grants to approved aftercare organizations to retrain, retire, and rehome Thoroughbreds using industry-wide funding, and Florida Thoroughbred Retirement and Adoptive Care (TRAC), an accredited TAA facility.

Canter for the Cause was sponsored by Gulfstream, the Florida Horsemen's Protective and Benevolent Association (FHBPA), Seminole Feed and Purina.

“This is a fun day for us at Gulfstream Park. I guess it's the equivalent of playing softball at Yankee Stadium,” said Aidan Butler, Chief Operating Officer of 1/ST Racing. “It gives us a chance to not only showcase what we do on the track here but showcase what horses do for aftercare. A lot of people don't know this but Thoroughbreds, while born and bred to race, are awesome at all kinds of other disciplines. We have some police horses here, we have a bunch of polo ponies, dressage and show jumpers, and other cool disciplines that racehorses excel at. And with the benefit of Florida TRAC and the TAA, which are the beneficiaries of this charity event, we hope to do even more.”

Katie Schmit, farm manager and trainer at Florida (TRAC), said: “I think it's awesome to do things like this and encourage people to see off the track thoroughbreds. We just need to keep raising awareness of aftercare. We need our focus on what horses are going to do after their racing careers and raising awareness at the track, and involving the horsemen is really special.”

Some of the retired Thoroughbreds returning to the track were Shadow Boxer, who is training for eventing, mounted police horses Tizrobertcharles and Guidoinaspeedo, Sweet Karen Sue, who became a hunter, and Cicerone, who went on to be a jumper.

The post Canter For The Cause Draws Over 75 Participants To Gulfstream Park appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Between The Hedges: Determining Post Times

Determining post time – the time at which a race is scheduled to start and entrants must be at their starting positions – is a complex calculation with a number of variables for New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) tracks.

There is a general notion that tracks blindly create post times and do so without coordinating with other tracks. But most tracks do work together.
Consider the extensive race dates offered across North America. In 2019, approximately 36,000 races were contested across 4,300 race days, with the summer months being the busiest.

Adding to the post time conundrum is the amount of daylight at different times of the calendar and the fact that NYRA runs year long. Sunset in New York is generally the earliest in December – at roughly 4:28 p.m. – and peaks at about 8:30 p.m. in June and July. Hence, necessitating different post times for NYRA tracks depending on the time of the year. NYRA attempts to conclude each race day within 30 minutes of sunset in the winter, both because of dusk settling earlier and to accommodate races offered by West Coast tracks.

There is a prime signal based on which track handles the most at each point during the year. NYRA almost always hits the board in terms of the top-three handling tracks, and during the Belmont meets and especially at Saratoga, NYRA sets the market and send out our post times in advance. Most tracks will react to NYRA's times, and the company works closely with Keeneland in the spring and the fall to provide race-day updates and ensure separation.

Another wrinkle to creating post times is ensuring coordination with the broadcasting schedule, which produces more than 800 hours of programming year round. Post times have to work within television windows and track partners for the duration of the programming. Dependent upon the time of year, NYRA works with Oaklawn Park, Tampa Bay Downs, Woodbine Racetrack, Monmouth Park, Churchill Downs, Fair Grounds Race Course, Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park, and others.

Time required between races is another consideration. At Aqueduct, NYRA can comfortably run 28 minutes between races. Once racing moves to Belmont and Saratoga, additional time between races is required, given the layout of the facility and proximity of the jockeys room, as well as to accommodate post-race interviews with winning connections. The post times must work in concert with our wagering menu to give a little extra time for Pick Ns and also on marquee days with a large on-track crowd.

Once post times are created, they are circulated to an internal group consisting of representatives from NYRA's racing office, mutuels, and television departments for approval before being circulated to our simulcast partners.

NYRA's mutuels team compares our post times to several other tracks once an overnight is produced and identifies any adjustments that will need to be put out on race day morning. Our internal efforts are complemented by the external review of Equibase. A number of tracks communicate any changes to an Equibase scheduling team that then suggest changes to the others in order to avoid any overlap.

So, does it work?

Yes, for the most part. A review of 2019 off times (pre-pandemic) compared to any races within 5 minutes of NYRA races on either side of the off time yielded the following:

Aqueduct's meets (winter, spring, and fall) had 69 of its races (8%) run within 5 minutes of others. A total of 229 races from other tracks fell within this window.

Belmont meets (spring/summer, fall) had 99 of its races (13%) run within 5 minutes of others. A total of 409 races from other tracks fell within this window.

Saratoga had 68 of its races (17%) run within 5 minutes of others. A total of 253 races from other tracks fell within this window.

The results support that the increased racing during the warmer months makes it more difficult for tracks to avoid each other given the volume of races.

While it is not an apples-to-apples comparison, in that NYRA did not run every day of the year, there were just 891 races out of 36,000 in 2019 that were run within five minutes of any NYRA races. That is only two percent.

The takeaway? Trust the process. A lot of work goes into NYRA's post times and the entire industry benefits when scheduled properly.

Send your questions for Between The Hedges to betweenthehedges@nyrainc.com.

The post Between The Hedges: Determining Post Times appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Mucho Unusual Named Cal-Bred Horse of the Year

George Krikorian's homebred Mucho Unusual (Mucho Macho Man), winner of last year's GI Rodeo Drive S., was named California-bred Horse of the Year for 2020 during Monday's annual awards presentation by the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association. The mare was also named the state's champion older female and turf horse.

Other Cal-bred champions announced during Monday's teleconference were: Big Fish (Mr. Big) and Good With People (Curlin to Mischief) (tied for 2yo male); Governor Goteven (Govenor Charlie) (2yo female); El Tigre Terrible (Smiling Tiger) (3yo male); Warren's Showtime (Clubhouse Ride) (3yo female); Galilean (Uncle Mo) (older male); Fashionably Fast (Lucky Pulpit) and Sneaking Out (Indian Evening) (tied for sprinter).

Reddam Racing's now-pensioned Square Eddie was California champion sire by earnings, winners, turf earnings and 2-year-old earnings and Reddam Racing was champion breeder by earnings.

Warren's Veneda (Affirmative), dam of Warren's Showtime, was named broodmare of the year. Steve Miyadi was named trainer of the year.

The post Mucho Unusual Named Cal-Bred Horse of the Year appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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