Robin Goodfellow’s Racing Tips: Best bets for Wednesday, March 10
Sportsmail's racing expert Robin Goodfellow dishes out his tips for Wednesday's meetings at Kempton, Fontwell, Lingfield and Catterick.
Month: March 2021
Cohen: Keepmeinmind ‘One Of The Top Two I’ve Ever Sat On’
The only time David Cohen hasn't ridden Keepmeinmind was the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) Nov. 6 at Keeneland. Cohen was still in the race, though, choosing to ride another horse for his main client, 2019 Oaklawn training champion Robertino Diodoro.
Cohen was aboard Dreamer's Disease, who was part of a torrid early pace in the 1 1/16-mile Breeders' Cup Juvenile before tiring to finish sixth, 9 ¾ lengths behind powerful winner Essential Quality. Those same hot fractions helped Diodoro's other entrant, Keepmeinmind, finish third, beaten two lengths, after being last of 14 through a half-mile in a lively :45.31.
In retrospect, Cohen recalled several months later, it was a case of zigging when he should have zagged.
“I did have the choice,” Cohen said. “I have amnesia when it came to that, really. We worked them against each other a couple of times and this guy (Keepmeinmind) couldn't keep up with the other one. The other one was outworking him. Worked them both, rode them both.”
Cohen will be back aboard Keepmeinmind, when he makes his long-awaited 3-year-old debut in the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) Saturday at Oaklawn. Keepmeinmind, a late-running son of Laoban, was among eight horses entered Tuesday for the 1 1/16-mile Rebel, Oaklawn's third of four Kentucky Derby points races.
Cohen, Oaklawn's leading jockey in 2019, rode Keepmeinmind three times last year, including a last-to-first maiden-breaking victory in the $200,000 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) Nov. 28 at Churchill Downs in his last start. Prior to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, Keepmeinmind finished second, beaten 3 ¼ lengths by Essential Quality, in the $400,000 Breeders' Futurity (G1) at 1 1/16 miles Oct. 3 at Keeneland. Dreamer's Disease, ridden by Cohen, punched his ticket to the Breeders' Cup with a front-running allowance victory going a mile on the Breeders' Futurity undercard.
“I've always loved Keepmeinmind, but he was never there mentally,” Cohen said. “In his races, he was sucking back and I knew there was more horse underneath me. And then in the morning, we worked these two against each other and the other one was outworking him. It was a tough decision. I had one speed horse, one coming from behind.”
Cohen said his Breeders' Cup choice was made easier because both horses raced for their breeder, Southern Equine Stable LLC, adding it indicated he would ride both back – even if Dreamer's Disease won.
“I think I told them that this horse is better today, but he won't be in a month from now,” Cohen said, referring to Dreamer's Disease. “He got burnt up on the front end. We had like four different waves of pressure. Once one stopped, another one came. Once he got tired, another one came. I was fine with my decision, but it had a lot to do with knowing that I wasn't giving up a mount for good.”
Reunited with Cohen for the 1 1/16-mile Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, Keepmeinmind was last of nine late on the second turn before passing two rivals on the inside turning for home and the remainder of the field on the outside in the stretch to win by three-quarters of a length. Keepmeinmind was the 2-1 favorite after going off 52-1 in the Breeders' Futurity and 30-1 in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
“On paper, there wasn't a lot of speed,” Cohen said. “I probably could have been a few lengths closer going into the (first) turn, but I just elected to get him to the back and let him relax and give us a few more options when it came to navigating where I wanted to go once I sat him down for his run. The issue that we were having with him in his first couple of starts was getting in tight and sucking out of there and then coming with a run. We threw blinkers on him and that seemed to really help that out. Before I sat him down for his run, I could have gone outside of some horses, but I still wanted to teach him something and let him do it the proper way. I probably had two, three extra gears there with him.”
Following the race, Keepmeinmind was sent to Kentucky's WinStar Farm and remained in light training there, Diodoro said, until shipping to Hot Springs in late December.
Cohen has regularly breezed Keepmeinmind in advance of his 2021 debut, which was originally scheduled to come in the $750,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) Feb. 15 at Oaklawn before the race was postponed twice because of severe winter weather. Diodoro opted to pass the delayed Southwest (won Feb. 27 by unbeaten champion Essential Quality) and point for the Rebel after Keepmeinmind's training schedule was interrupted by snow and brutal cold.
Cohen said Keepmeinmind has progressed mentally since the Kentucky Jockey Club and already ranks him with Grade 1-winning millionaire sprinter Proud Tower Too as the best horse he's ridden in his career. Cohen rode his first winner in 2004 and guided Golden Ticket to victory (dead-heat) in the $1 million Travers Stakes (G1) for 3-year-olds in 2012 at Saratoga.
“Seeing him develop and being part of his early career, before he's ever run, a lot of times you get on these horses when they're already good,” Cohen said. “But the way he's doing it, and does it so effortlessly, he's still not even at his full potential. I've got to think he's one of the top two I've ever sat on.”
The Rebel is one of five stakes races to be run Saturday at Oaklawn, the others being the $150,000 Temperence Hill for older horses at 1 ½ miles, $200,000 Hot Springs for older sprinters, $350,000 Azeri (G2) for older females at 1 1/16 miles and the $500,000 Essex Handicap for older horses at 1 1/16 miles.
Racing begins Saturday at noon (Central), with probable post time for the Rebel, the 11th of 12 races, 5:16 p.m. The infield will be open, weather permitting.
The projected Rebel field from the rail out: Caddo River, Florent Geroux to ride, 122 pounds; Big Lake, Ricardo Santana Jr., 117; Hozier, Martin Garcia, 117; Get Her Number, Javier Castellano, 119; Twilight Blue, Brian Hernandez Jr., 119; Keepmeinmind, David Cohen, 119; Concert Tour, Joel Rosario, 117; and Super Stock, Joe Talamo, 117.
The Rebel will offer 85 points (50-20-10-5, respectively) toward starting eligibility for the Kentucky Derby, which is limited to 20 starters. Keepmeinmind has 18 points to rank 12th on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, according to Churchill Downs.
The Rebel is the final major local prep for the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) April 10.
The post Cohen: Keepmeinmind ‘One Of The Top Two I’ve Ever Sat On’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Louisiana Commission Stonewalls Broberg Even After False-Positive Exoneration
One day after learning he had been exonerated by split-sample test results that negated an original “ridiculous” finding of three serious drug violations in a single mare who won a Nov. 24 race at Delta Downs, trainer Karl Broberg told TDN that Louisiana State Racing Commission (LSRC) officials turned down his offer to have the mare's hair tested while the case was being adjudicated to prove that no Class 1 and 2 drugs were in the system of Tiz One Fee (Tiz the One).
Broberg also said the LSRC has thus far been uncooperative about engaging in any substantial dialogue about how the potentially career-ending false positives might have been triggered, and that regulators have stonewalled his efforts to obtain a copy of the testing contract between the commission and the lab it employs, which is run by the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine.
Broberg, who is currently second on the continent in training wins for 2021 and led North America in victories every year between 2014 and 2019, said that one of the most maddening aspects of the months-long ordeal was the time he spent trying to figure out if someone had intentionally spiked the food of a mare he knew had not been medicated with the alleged substances-oxycodone (a Class 1 drug, the most severe category according to Association of Racing Commissioners International standards), plus levamisole and citalopram (both Class 2).
“The anguish I went through for the two months waiting for the split to come back, thinking that it could essentially be the end of my training career, speaks for itself. It was [expletive] horrible,” Broberg said.
“My initial reaction was that somebody got me,” Broberg said. “That somebody had done something intentionally, and most likely put it in the feed tub or something like that. So you're going through all of these scenarios wondering who could possibly hate you enough and be a sorry enough human being to do something like that to an animal.”
The Paulick Report first broke the story of the false positives Mar. 8, detailing Broberg's account of how after being notified of the initial results Dec. 28, Broberg sent a check for $3,750 Jan. 12 to the testing laboratory at the Kenneth L. Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory at the University of California at Davis to have the split samples tested for confirmatory purposes.
Broberg said that in addition to being out the cost of testing the split sample, the false positives cost him an opportunity to run Tiz One Fee in the $50,000 Premier Lady Starter S. at Delta Downs Feb. 10, a race in which Broberg said she would have been heavily favored to win.
“No explanation. No apology,” Broberg told TDN. “I wasn't able to run the horse during that two-month time frame. I went to the stewards to offer to have hair pulled and sent off for testing to show that there's nothing in the horse. [They said] that was not an option, that the horse would not run until a ruling had been issued.
“I mean, I've never even heard of a horse testing positive for three different drugs,” Broberg continued. “More than anything, I'm just curious as to how something like this gets to that point.”
Charles Gardiner, the executive director of the LSRC, did not reply to a request from TDN to explain the commission's side of the story prior to deadline for this article.
“I think the laboratory needs to be looked at,” Broberg said. “When they come up with these ridiculous results to begin with, do they immediately send [the findings] off like that, or does common sense come into play? [As in] 'Hey. We should probably run this [test] again.'”
Broberg said he has requested the details of the LSRC/LSU testing contract, “but you would think I'm asking for top-secret information, because there's not much interest in sharing that with me at this point.”
Andrew Mollica, a New York-based attorney, in 2014 helped Hall-of-Fame trainer Bill Mott fight an alleged drug overage case against the New York State Racing Commission on the basis that regulators failed to provide Mott with a split sample he could test. Mollica told TDN Tuesday that Broberg's ordeal underscores not only the need for trainers to be guaranteed the right to split samples, but that commissions need explicit rules that mandate such cases get thrown out when the independent tests come back clean. Mollica said that is still not the case in at least two states that he knows of, New York and New Jersey.
Mollica said even though Mott dropped his civil lawsuit against the New York commission in 2018 and served a negotiated seven-day suspension, the challenges that Mott presented in court helped bring about a protocol change in November 2017 that now gives New York horsemen the option of sending a “referee sample” to an independent lab.
“Broberg's case exemplifies why split samples are essential for due process,” Mollica said. “The denial of split samples is a denial of due process. Broberg didn't do it. The test proves it. The reality is that jurisdictions, like New York, didn't [provide split samples] for years. And the fact that we were able to at least initiate them now shows that we're on the right track.
“But we're not there yet,” Mollica continued. “The regulation in New York doesn't mandate that you can be exonerated by a split sample. They don't even acknowledge that. New York wants to continue to litigate, even if you prove the [original] test was no good. And New Jersey's even worse. New Jersey goes as far to say in threshold matters, if your threshold comes back under {the allowable amount], the mere fact that we found it, you're guilty.”
Broberg said it was unclear whether he would purse some sort of remedy in the court system.
“I really don't know at this point,” Broberg told TDN. “A simple apology from someone would be a nice start, instead of being treated like you're a crook and [told] you should just be thankful the split came back clean and you should just shut up and go on.”
Asked if he had a message for other trainers based on what he just went through, Broberg said this: “That there's got to be easier ways to make a living in another endeavor.”
After a long pause, he added, “I'm disgusted by the entire thing, if you can't tell.”
The post Louisiana Commission Stonewalls Broberg Even After False-Positive Exoneration appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
First Mare in Foal to Honor A. P.
Grade I winner Honor A. P. (Honor Code–Hollywood Story, by A.P. Indy) has his first mare confirmed in foal, Lane's End announced Tuesday.
The first mare scanned in foal is stakes winner and graded stakes-placed Omaticaya (Ire) (Bernstein), owned by Dell Ridge Farm, LLC. She is from the female family of Grade I winner Muhtarram (Alleged), champion St. Hilarion (Sir Ivor), and graded stakes winners Ballet de France (Northern Dancer) and Profit Column (Private Account).
An $850,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling purchase, Honor A. P. broke his maiden as a 2-year-old by over five lengths with a 91 Beyer and bested eventual Horse of the Year Authentic (Into Mischief), one of only two horses to do so, in his GI Santa Anita Derby victory as a 3-year-old by 2 3/4 lengths with a 102 Beyer.
Honor A. P. stands for $15,000. For more information, contact Jill McCully at jillmac@lanesend.com or Chris Knehr at cknehr@lanesend.com.
The post First Mare in Foal to Honor A. P. appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
