The $250,000 Grade 3 San Francisco Mile Stakes is a regularly anticipated feature during the Golden Gate Fields spring meeting. Not only is it a graded stakes with a quarter-million-dollar purse, it’s sandwiched between a great trio of races with the California Derby preceding and the California Oaks following this race.
Month: April 2021
Kirkpatrick & Co Presents In Their Care: Paye Looking Forward To Passing Her Love Of Horses To The Next Generation
In younger days, Courtney Paye felt obligated only to her horses while she ventured from coast to coast as a groom. She sampled life in Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia while being employed by such prominent trainers as Richard Baltas, Christophe Clement, Dallas Keen, Peter Miller and, currently, Tom Amoss.
The native of Orange County, Calif., was living her own version of Disneyland, the carefree amusement park that lit the night sky around the corner from her childhood home.
“If somebody would have told me when I was a little girl that one day you're going to be able to make a living working with horses and you're going to travel and see things, I wouldn't have believed it,” said Paye. “It would have been the best possible thing that could have happened.”
Her life took an even better turn several years ago when she met Jose, a fellow groom who came to the United States from Peru with the determination to build a better life. They quickly fell in love and will celebrate their second wedding anniversary in June.
Then came a most unexpected turn, bringing an equal measure of anxiety and excitement. At age 40, Paye will soon have more than horses, a husband, three cats, two dogs and a ferret to care for. She is eight months pregnant with a daughter who will be named Kinsley.
“I never dreamed of being a mother. I dedicated my life to these horses. That's been my life,” Paye said. “But I believe the universe unfolds the way it is supposed to and here I am at 40, eight months pregnant with our daughter, and we're very excited.”
Despite severe morning sickness that made early stages of her pregnancy extraordinarily difficult, she worked throughout the winter months at Oaklawn Park. She recently helped establish Amoss' barn at Indiana Grand, which is overseen by assistant trainer Katy Allen.
“I think Courtney doesn't think that she needs much help at all and we've been kind of careful because we don't want to treat her like something is wrong with her,” Allen said. “But all of the guys constantly jump in to help her. Nobody wants her going up in the hay loft. Nobody wants her bedding down stalls or picking up hay bales or feed bags or anything like that.
“It's really been kind of a team effort in the barn. Everyone has been on the same page and it wasn't like I said anything to the other grooms. It was just something they did.”
Paye gives Serengeti Empress a kiss after her win in the Grade 1 Ballerina
With the blessing of her obstetrician, Paye intends to report to the barn every morning, stopping to greet each of the horses assigned to her before she begins her chores, until her body signals that she must stop. She typically thrives on her daily routine.
“Those quiet mornings I have with them before the sun comes up, before the training starts, that's my favorite time of day,” Paye said. “I love taking care of them. I love trying to keep them happy.”
Serengeti Empress is foremost among the horses she has tended to. The filly became so attached to her last summer at Saratoga Race Course that she would gently bite Paye's toes as she prepared to leave the stall. It was as if to say, “'Please stay and fuss over me a little longer.'”
Paye fusses over every horse.
“She is not just a person who works with horses. She is a horse person,” said Jose, 34. “She doesn't care if the horse is going to run in a $5,000 claiming race or a stake. She takes care of every horse.”
Paye's dedication deep into her pregnancy also stems from the reality that she and Jose have modest means with which to satisfy major expenses they will soon encounter. There is no such thing as maternity leave for backstretch workers. They consider themselves fortunate to enjoy a rare day off.
“My husband and I have a bit of money set aside. But it is a big stress, to be honest,” Paye said. “I know we can make it work. I don't really have a full plan, but we're just going to do it. He's going to keep working as hard as he can and I'll get back to work as soon as I can.”
Although Jose toils primarily as a groom, he is licensed as an assistant trainer and looks forward to advancing his career. He noted that there are ample opportunities to gain extra income on the backside.
“I worry,” he said, “but I'm going to start doing extra things so we can afford everything.”
While Kinsley is an infant, they are considering giving up an apartment they rent near Indiana Grand to live in a recreational vehicle that has many payments remaining.
Paye and Serengeti Empress prepare to leave Saratoga
Amoss is well known for his dedication to hard-working employees facing challenging circumstances.
“Tom is really willing to work with people like that,” Allen said. “He doesn't leave anybody stranded.”
Allen said it is possible that Paye might assist with laundry or paperwork as a way to generate income before she can return to the barn.
“Her job is cemented with us,” she said.
Paye already knows that Kinsley's earliest memories will be of the racetrack.
“She's going to grow up different from other kids,” the mother-to-be said. “She's going to travel. She'll definitely ride a horse before she can walk.
“I hope that she wants to work with horses. I would love for her to work at the racetrack. If she doesn't, that's okay, too. I just want her to have a passion in life.”
Whatever the future holds for Kinsley, she will be blessed with loving, devoted parents. She will be in the best of hands.
Tom Pedulla wrote for USA Today from 1995-2012 and has been a contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Blood-Horse, America's Best Racing and other publications.
If you wish to suggest a backstretch worker as a potential subject for In Their Care, please send an email to info@paulickreport.com that includes the person's name and contact information in addition to a brief description of the employee's background.
The post Kirkpatrick & Co Presents In Their Care: Paye Looking Forward To Passing Her Love Of Horses To The Next Generation appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Australia: A Champagne End To The Sydney Autumn Carnival
The Championships at Randwick may have come and gone, but Sydney's final two Group One races of the Autumn Carnival, the Champagne Stakes and All Aged Stakes, headline a 9-race card at Randwick this Friday night. Live-stream the card on the new Sky Racing World App or watch the broadcast live on TVG (First Post: 9:55pm ET / 6:55pm PT).
Just as The Championships bear similarities to the Breeders' Cup, there are parallels between Australia's and America's Champagne Stakes: both races were inaugurated in the 1860s and are staged late in the season for 2-year-olds at a mile, and both have produced future Classic winners and Horses of the Year. Belmont's Champagne Stakes has been won by future Triple Crown champions Count Fleet and Seattle Slew, and its winners now earn qualifying points to the following season's Kentucky Derby. Randwick's Champagne Stakes serves a dual purpose, both as a glimpse of Classic potential and as the culmination of a juvenile Triple Crown series. Six horses have swept Sydney's 2-year-old Triple Crown, but the possibility of a seventh was extinguished when last month's Golden Slipper winner Stay Inside was immediately sent for a layoff.
Despite Sires Produce winner Anamoe also being rested until next season, the second leg of the juvenile Triple Crown provides the top pair in Champagne wagering. Hilal (5-2) and Captivant (3-1) finished 2nd and 3rd in the 7-furlong Sires Produce. The other main formline is from last week's Fernhill Handicap, whose participants are the only runners to have experience going a mile. Converge (6-1) carried high weight to win the Fernhill, and is therefore advantaged under the Champagne's set weights versus those he vanquished. Converge was the first of two winners last Friday night sired by Frankel (the other, Hungry Heart, gave Frankel his first Classic victory Down Under by capturing the Australian Oaks). American racing fans looking to spice up an exotic wager might be drawn to Patton (70-1), a son of American Pharoah who will carry the famous Spendthrift silks into battle.
The Champagne will be served at 9.55 p.m. Pacific as Race 6, and followed 40 minutes later by the All Aged Stakes. Sydney's final Group One race of the season was so named because horses of all ages are eligible. However, despite a huge weight advantage under the race's weight-for-age conditions, it is a rarity to see a late-season 2-year-old take on elders. Still, this year's field does justice to the name by running the gamut from a trio of 3-year-olds to an 8-year-old! Wagering is headed by lone 4-year-old Masked Crusader (2-1), on the strength of his outstanding runner-up performance behind Nature Strip in the TJ Smith Stakes on Day One of The Championships. The Godolphin pair of Savatiano (6-1) and Cascadian (8-1) are both last-start G1 winners. Savatiano, a daughter of Street Cry, has been freshened since defeating Masked Crusader seven weeks ago; the conspicuously white-faced Cascadian cuts back a furlong from the Doncaster Mile two weeks ago. Cascadian will again be ridden by Jamie Kah, one of many female riders in high demand throughout Australia. Kah currently tops the Melbourne jockey standings.
As Sydney's Autumn Racing Carnival winds down, focus will soon shift north to my hometown of Brisbane. The aforementioned Nature Strip will be one of the star attractions during the TAB Stradbroke Carnival, which runs from mid-May through late-June. A pair of G1-winning mares are also slated to appear in Brisbane before retiring: star New Zealander Melody Belle will look to equal Black Caviar's total of 15 Group One wins prior to being offered at the National Broodmare Sale, while pizza-loving Nettoyer will try to earn another celebratory beverage after enjoying some pink champagne in the wake of last week's triumph in the Queen of the Turf Stakes.
The Randwick card will be broadcast live on TVG this Friday night (First Post: 9:55pm ET / 6:55pm PT) alongside cards from Gold Coast, Doomben and Kembla Grange. All races will be live-streamed in HD on the new Sky Racing World App, skyracingworld.com and major ADW platforms such as TVG, TwinSpires, Xpressbet, NYRABets, WatchandWager, HPIbet, and AmWager. Wagering is also available via these ADW platforms. Fans can get free access to live-streaming, past performances and expert picks on all races at skyracingworld.com.
A native of Brisbane, Australia, Michael Wrona has called races in six countries. Michael's vast U.S. experience includes; race calling at Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park, Arlington and Santa Anita, calling the 2000 Preakness on a national radio network and the 2016 Breeders' Cup on the International simulcast network. Michael also performed a race call voiceover for a Seinfeld episode called The Subway.
The post Australia: A Champagne End To The Sydney Autumn Carnival appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Wagering Insecurity: Organized Oversight Has Failed
This is Part 4 of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation's (TIF) series “Wagering Insecurity.”
Faced with remarkable competitive pressure from the rise of legal sports betting, horse racing is at a crossroads.
Confidence amongst horseplayers and horse owners is essential to the future sustainability of the sport. Efforts to improve the greater North American Thoroughbred industry will fall flat if its stakeholders fail to secure a foundation of integrity, along with increased transparency of the wagering business and its participants over time. Achieving this is growing increasingly difficult after the sport has neglected its core base – horseplayers – for decades.
“Wagering Insecurity” details some of that neglect, and the need to embrace serious reform. Fortunately, there are examples across the racing world to follow.
PART 4 – CONFIDENCE
The Breeders' Cup Fix Six rocked North American racing.
In response, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) launched the Wagering Integrity Alliance and a separate entity, the Wagering Technology Working Group (WTWG).
In August 2003, a report published by the WTWG, in concert with the NTRA's security consultants, recommended three “primary measures”:
– Create the National Office of Wagering Security,
– Establish uniform, minimum security standards for wagering systems,
– Enhance the technology infrastructure of wagering systems to enable additional cyber-security measures.
The report was released in advance of that year's annual Jockey Club Round Table (full transcript).
Jim Quinn was the horseplayer representative in the WTWG that assembled the report and highlighted the interests of horseplayers emerging from the Fix Six:
“In regard to reform, what did the players want? Three things, primarily:
“One, the transmission of all wagering data from the simulcast outlets and hubs to the commingled pools should be state of the art, that is, as good as it gets.
“Two, as soon as possible, technology upgrades must be implemented, so that the late mergers of simulcast pools that cause the suspicious drops in the odds for unacceptably lengthy intervals after the horses have left the starting gates, would be eliminated, or effectively mitigated.
“Three, the players demanded to know, what is the scope of the problem, or how long has this been going on?”
Greg Avioli, then chief operating officer of the NTRA, recognized the need for a national response:
“A national office is our best means for detecting and responding to potential security threats across multiple jurisdictions or tote systems.”
Roger Licht, then chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, offered a regulatory perspective:
“Perception is often more important than reality. The perception is that people are betting after the commencement of a race.
“From what we have learned to date, that is not reality, but unless we upgrade our tote systems, we'll continue to have disgruntled horseplayers who feel that the odds on the winner – especially when we bet on him – are dropping after the commencement of a race.
“Let's change that perception – as fast as we can.”
Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York City mayor hired as an NTRA consultant through his firm Giuliani Partners, said:
“The idea of a wagering security office is very, very important.
“The only way in which you can assure yourselves and assure the public that there's a standard of integrity necessary for people to continue to invest in this sport in all different ways is to centralize the data and to have an office that focuses on accomplishing that mission and then making certain with tests along the way that integrity is maintained.”
Horseplayers in 2021 will be nodding their heads in agreement with all of these takes relative to betting on racing in North America 18 years after they were first shared. That should serve as a significant indictment.
Given the state of affairs at the time, the move to create the national office was met with optimism.
Horse racing's wagering business was changing. Bettors' perception was poor. The Fix Six scandal undermined confidence and discredited whatever controls the industry thought it had in place.
It did not go as planned.
ORGANIZED OVERSIGHT FAILED SLOWLY
Financial reports from the time show the NTRA spent almost $3 million on consultative work to form and launch the Wagering Integrity Alliance and a national office after the Fix Six through 2003.
Sharon O'Bryan, the initial Alliance director hired by the NTRA, turned-down the post one week before she was supposed to start. An interim director, Isidore Sobkowski, was hired a month later. But the project languished and NTRA annual reports from this period serve as reminders of the shifting interests of the time.
The Wagering Integrity Aliance became the National Office of Wagering Security but was soon rebranded as the Office of Racing Integrity (ORI). In its 2005 year-end publication, the NTRA indicated the ORI would be functional by the end of 2006.
In December 2005, Craig Fravel, then in the midst of a 20-year leadership role with Del Mar, highlighted the tough position of track operators being the only responsible entity for wagering integrity, with help from the shrinking TRPB.
After outlining a suspicious wagering outcome raised by a customer which he investigated with TRPB help, Fravel told an audience of industry professionals at the University of Arizona's symposium that self-oversight was not enough.
“I think to allow customers to have sufficient levels of confidence in us, we have to demonstrate that not only are we capable of reviewing things, but that there is a sufficiently independent and authoritative organization out there that can be the ultimate arbiter of those kind of decisions.
“And to a degree track management does have a vested interest in making sure that, [not only are we] at least portraying the game as on the up and up, but we are a little suspect simply because we are maybe overly confident at times, and I think the Breeders' Cup Pick-6 scandal was a classic case of that.
FORMER DEL MAR PRESIDENT CRAIG FRAVEL
PHOTO: ALEX EVERS
“I had said for years that, upon representations by various tote companies, there's no way anybody could get in and manipulate the mutuel pools.
“Well, in 2002 we found out that that was absolutely untrue and I had been told for years that there was no way that anybody could do past posting and found out about six months after that, that somebody was past posting in New York.”
Self-oversight remains the status quo and is insufficient for the modern gambling marketplace in 2021.
Despite the initial impetus to promote wagering security, the national initiative floundered.
After spending nearly $3 million in its first two years, NTRA outlays on wagering security initiatives dropped to just $1.1 million across 2004 and 2005 combined. The NTRA's five-year strategic plan for 2006-2010, published in June 2005, indicated the NTRA was budgeting $1 million annually for each of the next five years to support the Office of Racing Integrity. Instead, spending fell to just $28,531 in 2006 and $125,040 in 2007, about $1.8 million less than projected spending announced 18 months earlier.
The NTRA reported the ORI mission was to take “a lead role in the Wagering Transmission Protocol project to improve the technological infrastructure of the pari-mutuel wagering system.”
By 2008, ORI was gone and the hope of independent oversight of wagering was fading.
In December 2008, three executives from different spheres of the business addressed the topic of wagering security in Arizona. All three abandoned their work in racing soon thereafter.
Coming Tuesday, April 27 – Part 5 – Bingo
Miss a previous installment? Click on the links to read more.
Part 1 – Expectations
Part 2 – Intertwined
Part 3 – Volponi
Want to share your insights with TIF? Email us here.
The post Wagering Insecurity: Organized Oversight Has Failed appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
