This Saturday, Pimlico will host the 146th renewal of the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes, the second jewel in the Triple Crown.
Month: May 2021
Irwin: Medina Spirit Positive Test A Shot Heard ‘Round The World
What's the deal with Bob Baffert and his rash of positives over the past year or so, during which time he has run afoul of the rules on five occasions?
Is Bob just unlucky? Is he running a sloppy shop? Are his vets dropping the ball on his behalf? Are the racetracks, racing regulators or racing associations somehow out to get him? Is he a victim of some sort of foul play?
Or, as the subject himself said after he announced over the weekend that his Kentucky Derby winner has tested positive for betamethasone (now where have we heard the name of that drug before, hmmm?), “…there's definitely something wrong. Why is it happening to me?”
Although lacking first-hand knowledge, experienced horsemen and vets with whom I have spoken ever since the betamethasone overage was revealed, to a man believe that the positive finding is a result of Baffert's Derby winner being injected in a joint (ankle or hock) too close to Kentucky Derby Day.
The vets' conjecture is that Baffert took a chance that the unpredictable and unreliable nature of the drug used would not rear its ugly head before the race and hopefully go undetected in the post-race analysis. They say that even if the withdrawal time is closely adhered to and even if a few extra days are tacked on, betamethasone reacts differently in every horse based on the make-up of its bodily systems. In other words, the recommended withdrawal times are best guesses and not carved in stone.
So, these vets believe, Baffert may have just taken a shot.
Or Baffert, in his arrogance, may have figured that even if a trace showed up it just might be ignored, because after all it was the Derby, and popular myth says that anything goes in the Derby.
Arrogance in the case of Baffert is completely understandable. Why wouldn't he be arrogant? He keeps getting in trouble and he keeps escaping unscathed. When this happens time after time after time after time, the escapee tends to become a bit unwary of possible pitfalls that might stand in his way. He becomes emboldened.
Within days after Baffert had basically skated from his two lidocaine positives in Arkansas, an emboldened Baffert (opined the experts) may have had betamethasone injected into a joint of Medina Spirit.
If Baffert, or Baffert at his direction to his vet, did in fact order the injection, he took a risk not just for himself and the horse's owner, but this time for the well being of the entire Thoroughbred industry. Now that would be total arrogance, because today there is not a major news outlet that did not cover Baffert's Derby positive in the shot heard 'round the world.
The arrogance required for such an act can come from one who feels that the rules do not apply to him.
Seemingly forever in Thoroughbred racing the phrase “nobody is bigger than the game” has been axiomatic. Well, I humbly submit to the readers that Baffert not only thinks he is bigger than the game, the ruling in Arkansas more of less proved it to be true.
Now, all of a sudden, seemingly out of the blue, Churchill Downs racetrack—an outfit known forever as an entity that would do and say anything to protect the sanctity and history of The Derby — has stepped up and closed its entry box to Bob Baffert until the current mess can be straightened out.
As excited as I am about the impending seating of the board and standing committees of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority in advance of getting it up and running next summer, this advent of Churchill Downs taking responsibility in the aftermath of the Derby positive is just as riveting and exciting. I for one look forward to following the Baffert positive in the days, weeks, months and, likely, years to come, as Baffert will no doubt once again fail to take responsibility for his own actions and place the entire industry in peril.
Barry Irwin is the founder and CEO of Team Valor International
The post Irwin: Medina Spirit Positive Test A Shot Heard ‘Round The World appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Quinones, Parker To Receive 2020, ’21 George Woof Memorial Jockey Award On Sunday
In a dual ceremony that will honor a pair of distinguished jockeys, DeShawn Parker and Luis M. Quinones, Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., will officially honor both the 2020 and 2021 winners of racing's prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award on Sunday, May 16.
Instituted by Santa Anita in 1950 to honor the legacy of the legendary jockey George Woolf, the Woolf Award, which can only be won once, honors those riders whose careers embodied class and dignity and have thus represented Thoroughbred horse racing in a consistently professional manner.
Currently based in Ohio, Quinones, America's second leading rider by races won in 2019 with 314 victories, was originally scheduled to accept the 2020 Woolf Trophy on March 22 of last year, but due to complications related to the COVID-19 virus, he will instead participate in a Runhappy Winner's Circle ceremony between races with his close personal friend and 2021 Woolf Award winner DeShawn Parker this Sunday.
Quinones, 42, outpolled a highly respected group of finalists last year that included Tyler Baze, Javier Castellano, Chris Emigh and James Graham.
“It's a great honor just to be on the ballot for this award,” said Quinones last spring. “Winning the Woolf Award is incredible. I'm looking forward to coming out there and I know this is something I will never forget.”
DeShawn Parker, who at five feet, 10 inches, “stands out” in any jockey colony, became the first African-American rider since 1895 to lead all American jockeys in races won in 2010, with 377 trips to the Winner's Circle and he becomes the 72nd Woolf Award winner, dating back to Gordon Glisson in 1950.
In 2011, he upped that total to 400 wins, and was again the nation's leading jockey by races won. A Cincinnati, Ohio native, Parker, 50, was a dominant force at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia for more than 20 years and he has also enjoyed much success at Indiana Grand, as he led all riders there in 2020, and at Sam Houston Race Park, where he was their leading rider in 2015.
Fast closing in on 6,000 career wins, Parker is the son of longtime highly respected Ohio racing steward, Daryl Parker, who passed away in Cincinnati on March 4.
“My idol, my best friend and a great father!” Parker tweeted on March 5. “He meant so much to my life and my career. I can only hope to be as great as he was…”
Parker, who outpolled fellow jockeys Alex Birzer, Jorge Martin Bourdieu, Kendrick Carmouche and Aaron Gryder to win this year's Woolf Award, and Quinones, will be accompanied on Sunday by their wives, children and close friends.
Billy Johnson, who died last December, was agent for both Parker and Quinones during the years they were at or near the top of the national standings by wins.
The exact timing of Sunday's event will be determined following entries on Thursday.
The post Quinones, Parker To Receive 2020, ’21 George Woof Memorial Jockey Award On Sunday appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Mark Shrager Wins Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award For Diane Crump Biography
Veteran turf writer Mark Shrager has won the 15th Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, presented by Castleton Lyons, for Diane Crump, A Horse-Racing Pioneer's Life in the Saddle. The winner was announced on May 10 via Zoom conference for the second straight year due to pandemic concerns. Previously, the by-invitation winner's reception had been held on-site at the Ryan family's Lexington-based farm, and hopes are that it will return to that venue in the future.
Shrager, a previous Book Award finalist for The Great Sweepstakes of 1877, took top honors for his beautifully written and comprehensively researched biography of one of racing's great trail blazers. During the late 1960s, Diane Crump represented the face of hope for aspiring young women in the Sport of Kings. Though diminutive in size, she boldly blew open doors and shattered glass ceilings while defying threats, jeers, and boycotts to achieve her goal of becoming a professional jockey. Along the way, she would be the first of her gender to ride in a sanctioned North American pari-mutuel race, the first to compete in the Kentucky Derby, and the first to win a stakes event. Hers was a story long overdue to be told, and Shrager did it with a master's touch.
“The author chronicles Diane's historic firsts,” noted judge Kay Coyte, “including her 1970 Kentucky Derby ride, with a wonderful chapter on her brother listening to the radio broadcast from Vietnam. Shrager also mines biographical gold in the all-but-unknown aspects of Diane's life: her mother's special 'gift,' her daughter's unique perspective and service to others, particularly with therapy dogs, during her post-racing career. It's a beautiful telling of a remarkable life.”
Shrager, a native of Southern California, caught the racing bug in his teens at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar. The UCLA graduate went on to a long career in education finance with the Los Angeles Unified School District, but never lost his love for racing and the fascinating stories the sport routinely produces. For nearly 50 years Shrager has written freelance for various trade publications including Turf and Sport Digest and American Turf Monthly, and his story, 1,000 Surefire Ways to Lose a Horse Race, was published in a 1974 Best Sports Stories anthology.
As winner of the 2020 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, Shrager will receive a check for $10,000, along with a Tipperary crystal replica of Castleton Lyons' iconic stone tower.
Other finalists were: Linda Shantz for her novel Good Things Come, and Vicky Moon for the biography Sylvia Rideoutt Bishop Had a Way With Horses, both of whom will receive $1,000 and a crystal trophy.
The winner and finalists were selected from more than a dozen submissions published in 2020, representing a broad range of style and genre.
“In addition to many books by debut authors,” said Coyte, “this year's class had an international flavor, with literary trips around the globe—from Linda Shantz's Canada, to racing in World War II-era Shanghai, to a 1988 Mexican gambling coup, to a globetrotting mystery novel.”
Fellow judge Caton Bredar also noted that “In the midst of a global pandemic, it was heartening to find the quality of writing unwavering. And on a personal note, I appreciated the fact so many of the authors and/or main characters were female.”
The competition was launched in 2006 by the late Dr. Tony Ryan, to recognize the best book-length writing with horse racing as a backdrop. Past winners have included a National Book Award recipient and several Eclipse Award-winning writers. Since Dr. Ryan's passing in 2007, his son Shane has carried on the award to honor his memory.
The recorded Zoom ceremony will be available later this spring on the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxqFTKaOoNYoGSZ02EWeiJQ
Submissions for the next Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award must be received no later than December 31, 2021, and all must have been published during the current calendar year.
Additional information is available at https://www.castletonlyons.com/about/dr-tony-tyan-book-award, or by contacting Betsy Hager at bhager@castletonlyons.com.
The post Mark Shrager Wins Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award For Diane Crump Biography appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
