May, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Whether In Kentucky Or Oklahoma, Winfrey Always At Wolf Creek Farm

Troy Winfrey of Wolf Creek Farm, and the horses he had on offer, took a somewhat unconventional road to the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds In Training Sale.

The 2-year-old consignment sector of the industry is typically rooted in central Florida and South Carolina, with a smattering of local pinhookers around any given regional sale. Winfrey is based in Cynthiana, Ky. The Bluegrass State is known for a lot of things in the Thoroughbred industry, especially on the auction front, but the commercial juvenile market is near the bottom of that list.

Fortunately, Winfrey isn't afraid to travel. His roots are in Texas, where he got his start as a trainer of Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses in the 1990s. He found his specialty on the Quarter Horse side of the aisle, and he achieved a high point in 1994 when Do Ya Disco won the Grade 3 Trinity Meadows Futurity.

When Fasig-Tipton started conducting auctions at Lone Star Park in 1997, Winfrey entered the commercial arena, pinhooking weanlings to yearlings, and yearlings to 2-year-olds. Within a couple years, Winfrey realized if he was going to make a go of being a commercial horseman, he'd have to move to Kentucky.

“We decided we wanted to do more yearlings, weanlings-to-yearlings,” he said. “We were selling horses in Lexington every year anyway, so it was just easier to be centrally located. It's easier to do business there.”

Winfrey bought a farm in Shelbyville, Ky., a small town just east of Louisville, with property on Wolf Creek, giving the farm its name. When he moved back to Chickasha, Okla., in the mid-2000s, he was a long way from Wolf Creek, but he brought the name with him, anyway. Then, when he returned to Kentucky, this time in Cynthiana, northeast of Lexington, the Wolf Creek name stuck again.

The surroundings changed, but Winfrey said the training philosophies never did. Fortunately, his client base didn't change, either.

“It's mainly my own personal horses, and I've had four or five clients that have been partners with me for 20 years,” he said. “They keep me pretty full and pretty busy. They've been with me from the beginning.

“They're older guys, and as long as you keep them in the loop, they're happy,” he continued. “With the new age, everyone is texting, and FaceTiming, and videos, so I see them as much now as I ever did.”

Winfrey said he sells eight to 10 juveniles per year, usually going between the Texas Thoroughbred Association 2-year-olds in training sale and the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale, with potential commercial home runs reserved for the OBS March sale.

Because his clients are based in the Southwest, their horses are occasionally products of their region's breeding program.

Winfrey acknowledged that can make marketing some horses a challenge when offering them in a different regional market like the East Coast, but the timing of the auction calendar and his own sale schedule will sometimes leave no other option.

He ran into that issue at the Midlantic sale, where he offered, Hip 330, a Louisiana-bred El Deal filly. Fortunately, he was able to find a buyer from the Southwest in Terry Gabriel of Pelican State Thoroughbreds, who signed the ticket on the filly for $17,000.

“This filly came to us late,” Winfrey said. “She probably should have gone to Texas, but we missed that one, so she had to come here.”

The Cynthiana farm is reserved for Wolf Creek's yearling contingent, then he leases stalls at a training center in Kentucky to prepare his 2-year-olds. The six horses from the Wolf Creek consignment cataloged in the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic catalog were prepped at the Silver Springs Farm training center in Lexington, Ky.

Through the early hours of the Midlantic sale's second session, Wolf Creek's leader was Hip 146, a Bernardini colt who sold to bloodstock agent Bo Bromagen for $200,000 during Monday's opening day of trade.

The colt breezed an eighth of a mile in :10 1/5 seconds, just a fifth off the fastest overall time of the sale's under-tack show. It was a successful pinhook, after the colt was purchased for $50,000 at last year's Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

After three decades on the move, Winfrey is getting settled in at the Cynthiana incarnation of Wolf Creek Farm. The property is being built up to better grow yearlings for auctions, recently installing a covered six-horse walker, among other capital improvements.

The post Whether In Kentucky Or Oklahoma, Winfrey Always At Wolf Creek Farm appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Diet And Exercise Key To Managing Tying Up From PSSM

Polysaccharide storage myopathy (PSSM) is a glycogen storage disorder in horses that causes muscles to cramp. It occurs primarily in horses with Quarter Horse bloodlines, like Paints and Appaloosas, but it can also occur in draft horses, draft crosses and Warmbloods.

In normal horses, insulin goes from the blood and is stored as glycogen in the muscle and liver cells. In horses affected by PSSM, a large amount of sugar (glycogen) is stored in the muscle and up to four times the typical amount of polysaccharide (an abnormal form of sugar) accumulates in the muscles.

Horses with PSSM are generally in good weight and have a quiet temperament. They often experience a PSSM episode when they begin training or go back into training after a layup, when their movement is restricted. The episode normally comes on after the horse has been walking and trotting for about 20 minutes.

When a horse has a PSSM episode, their muscles get very stiff and hard, especially over their hindquarters; they will sweat profusely, refuse to move, and their flanks may tremble. When they stop moving, the horse may stretch out as if urinating. Foals with PSSM often show signs of muscle pain and weakness when they have diarrhea or an infection like pneumonia.

Horses that have PSSM should not be fed sweet feed, wheat, oats, barley, molasses or feeds high in starch. They should also be exercised daily. Exercise encourages the body to use glucose properly and improves energy metabolism in skeletal muscle.

Researchers have found that if horses have only their diet adjusted, about 50 percent will improve. If both diet and exercise are adjusted, more than 75 percent of horses with PSSM will have few or no tying-up episodes. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, horses should be turned out and encouraged to move as soon as a PSSM episode has dissipated.

‘Still Growing’ Malathaat To Bypass Belmont Stakes, Point To CCA Oaks At Saratoga

Shadwell's undefeated multiple Grade 1-winning 3-year-old filly Malathaat, winner of the $1.25 million Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) on April 30, will skip the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) on June 5 and point toward Saratoga. The ultimate plan for the Stonestreet-bred, Todd Pletcher-trained divisional leader is the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar, according to Shadwell Farm's Vice President and General Manager Rick Nichols.

“Todd and I have talked and have elected to bypass the Belmont,” Nichols said. “She is a little light right now because she is still growing into the frame that she has. We want to give her a nice break and hopefully put some weight on her.

“We will point her toward the CCA Oaks at Saratoga, which is 12 weeks from the Kentucky Oaks,” he continued. “Then we will aim for the Alabama, which is the main target, four weeks later. Then we will be able to give her a nice 10-week breather and head toward the Breeders' Cup.”

The $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) is scheduled for July 24 over the same nine furlongs of the Kentucky Oaks, while the $600,000 Alabama (G1) is slated for Aug. 21 over 10 furlongs.

The Breeders' Cup World Championships take place on Nov. 5 and 6 at Del Mar. A specific race goal, either the $2 million Longines Distaff (G1) over nine furlongs or $6 million Longines Classic (G1) over 10 furlongs, will be determined at a later date.

In five perfect starts, the sophomore star has amassed $1,125,150 in earnings and four stakes wins, including graded scores in the aforementioned Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, G1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland and G2 Demoiselle Stakes at Aqueduct. Her '6' on the Ragozin Sheets from the Kentucky Oaks was equal to that of Medina Spirit one day later in the Kentucky Derby (G1).

Bred in Kentucky and a daughter of Stonestreet stars Curlin and Dreaming of Julia, the sizable filly was consigned by Denali Stud and purchased for $1,050,000 at Keeneland's September Sale in 2019, one of the final in-person purchases of her late owner, His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum. She is already the third-highest earner for Shadwell's 36-year US-based operation, trailing only Breeders' Cup-winning champions Invasor and Lahudood.

The post ‘Still Growing’ Malathaat To Bypass Belmont Stakes, Point To CCA Oaks At Saratoga appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Wagering Insecurity, Part 11: Recommendations

The following is the 11th of a 12-part series on wagering insecurity in American racing from the think tank the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation.

A growing firm in the sports integrity business approached a major racing operator in 2017.

“They told us better integrity does not help us bring in more customers and their main focus right now is on growing the customer base.”

The reality is different in almost every other major racing jurisdiction. Integrity oversight is a necessity to ensure acceptance and participation. Customer and stakeholder confidence is paramount.

Last weekend at Pimlico, the disparity between America's existing, substandard practices and the rest of the developed racing world could not have been clearer. Two races, held within hours of each other, served to highlight the gap.

After 10 installments, the “Wagering Insecurity” series has reached its recommendations phase.

The passage of the omnibus spending bill which created the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Authority (HISA) was undoubtedly a massive step for American racing.

But just how big could it be? Is it clear how broad its possible powers over the sport could be, in a positive way for horseplayers and all well-intentioned stakeholders, upon full implementation?

HISA must lead on matters pertaining to wagering oversight while also adopting modern, transparent best practices that elevate American racing to join that of the rest of the developed racing world.

The recommendations across this series are hardly novel. Reinvention of the proverbial wheel is not required. That's a good thing!

Read Part 11 of “Wagering Insecurity.”

The post Wagering Insecurity, Part 11: Recommendations appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post