June, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘Fair Compromise’: With Jockeys’ Guild On Board, Kentucky Commission Approves New Whip Rules

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission gave unanimous approval Tuesday to the new whip rules agreed upon by the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition and The Jockeys' Guild last month, reports the Daily Racing Form.

Kentucky's Legislative Research Commission is expected to recommend the new whip rules for approval later this year, so they could go into effect in late 2021.

The new rules are as follows:

A limit on overhanded strikes to a total of six throughout the race. Riders are required to give the horse a chance to respond after two. Overhanded uses may not include the rider raising the whip above the helmet.
Underhanded or backhanded use may begin in the final 3/8 of a mile. These uses will not count toward the six strike limit.
Showing the horse the whip or tapping the horse on the shoulder will remain acceptable if both hands are on the reins
Stewards can impose either a $500 minimum fine or a three-day minimum suspension. If the violation is egregious and intentional, they could impose both. Mitigating factors could include the rider's history with whip violations, and the number and types of use beyond the above restrictions

“We know this rule is a fair compromise and in the best interests of our industry,” Terry Meyocks, the chief executive officer of The Jockeys' Guild, told the KHRC after Tuesday's vote.

Purse Increases Announced for Saratoga; First Condition Book Available

The New York Racing Association will offer increased purses for its 2021 Saratoga meet, it announced Tuesday. The first online condition book for the meet is now available at www.nyra.com/saratoga/horsemen. Physical copies will be available in the Belmont Park racing office starting Friday.

All open stakes with a previously listed purse of $100,000 have been increased to $120,000. Open maiden special weights have been given a $10,000 bump to $100,000, while New York-bred MSWs have gone from $80,000 to $85,000. All other conditions have also been given purse increases.

“We look forward to welcoming horsemen from across the country back to Saratoga,” said Keith Doleshel, NYRA Racing Secretary for the Saratoga summer meet. “The purse increases across the board should help make the 2021 season a summer full of the competitive racing that Saratoga is known for.”

NYRA will once again offer maiden races restricted to horses who sold or RNA'd at their last auction for $45,000 or less–purses in the first condition book for those races are $80,000, up $5,000 from last year.

The Saratoga meet opens on Thursday, July 15 and will continue through Monday, Sept. 6. Dark days will be Monday and Tuesday–other than the traditional closing day on Labor Day.

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Fasig-Tipton Returns to Santa Anita Wednesday

Fasig-Tipton, which hosted its first Santa Anita 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in 2019, was forced to cancel the 2020 renewal of the auction due to the pandemic, but the sale returns to the Arcadia track for its second edition Wednesday. Bidding is scheduled to get underway at 1 p.m. PT in the Santa Anita winner's circle.

Raul Reyes's Ocala-based Kings Equine, which sold three of the top four lots at the 2019 Santa Anita sale, returns with a 13-horse consignment in 2021.

“It was an easy decision to come back–it didn't take me too long to think about it,” Reyes said of his return to California, which offers him the chance to mix business and pleasure.

“My mom lives here in L.A., so I always like to come out here,” he explained with a smile.

Four horses from the Kings Equine consignment were among the 11 to share the second fastest furlong time of :10 3/5 during Monday's under-tack show: hip 2, hip 10, hip 42, and hip 88.

“It went well. I am very happy with how it went Monday,” Reyes said of his consignment's under-tack show results.

A total of 115 juveniles have been catalogued for the one-day sale–down from 168 in 2019–and there were 39 horses withdrawn as of Tuesday afternoon.

Of the slimmed down catalogue, Reyes said, “I'd like to see the sale be bigger. It's better for the people who we have horses here with because there isn't so much competition, but for the sale to do well, I'd like to see a bit more horses. But there are trainers and a few bloodstock agents here looking and they are all very positive and wanting to buy horses.”

California-based consignor Bruno DeBerdt had plenty of activity at his Excel Bloodstock consignment Tuesday morning.

“I'm showing three horses as we speak and I've only got six horses in the sale,” DeBerdt said. “I'm very, very happy with the activity and there are serious buyers here, not just looky loos. I'd say it's probably at least 60% trainers and then we have agents and a few owners. I am very happy with the turnout.”

DeBerdt agreed the success of the Santa Anita sale is vital to the industry in California.

“It's very important to have this sale,” he said. “I hope everyone supports it because it's our only outlet. Fasig-Tipton just does a Grade A job. The stabling is good and they have good personnel managing it and it's been very pleasant to be here.”

While the auction's momentum was halted in 2020, DeBerdt looks for a strong sale Wednesday.

“We sold in the first sale in 2019 and we did well,” DeBerdt said. “And then we had a very large consignment scheduled for 2020, which obviously didn't materialize. So this year, we kind of toned it down. But the market is very healthy right now overall. Obviously, your better horses are going to bring good money and the not-so-good horses are going to probably not bring very much money, but I think they'll get sold. It's going to be a polarized sale, in my opinion, but we've got enough buyers here.”

Al Pike is offering his first Santa Anita consignment, with nine horses scheduled to go through the ring Wednesday.

“I had some horses at the March sale that we had lost time with due to the weather at home in February, so we weren't ready for March. So we just opted out of there and put them in this sale thinking that this would be a good spot for them,” Pike said of the decision to sell at Santa Anita. “We got more time with these horses that needed it and I am hoping to be rewarded for waiting.”

Of the activity at his barn Tuesday, Pike said, “We have been awful busy here. I am pleasantly surprised. I didn't know what to expect. This is my first time basically coming to California–coming to Santa Anita was on my bucket list, so I can check that off. It's a beautiful place. We've been treated really well here. Fasig-Tipton always does a great job.”

The fastest furlong of Monday's under-tack preview was :10 2/5 and a pair of Pike Racing juveniles (hip 16 and hip 36) were among the 11 who shared the second fastest time of :10 3/5.

“The breeze show went well,” Pike said. “The horses performed well. The track was not a fast track, it was kind of a deep track, but they got over it well and came home good. I had some people ask me, 'Was it slow horses or a slow track?' I said, 'I can tell you from home, it wasn't slow horses.'”

Pike agreed there was always some concern with attracting buyers to a sale with a smaller catalogue, but he said, “If it's a good horse, it's going to sell well. And there are some good horsemen looking at these horses, so I think it's going to be a good sale.”

Among the 22 juveniles in Andy Havens's Havens Bloodstock Agency consignment are a pair of horses who enter the Santa Anita sales ring off strong efforts at the track last weekend. Ko Olina (Stanford) (hip 17) finished first in her third lifetime start last Saturday, but was disqualified and placed second, while maiden winner Bochombo (Street Boss) (hip 20) finished second behind the freakish Big City Lights (Mr. Big) in Sunday's Fasig-Tipton Futurity.

“Bochombo ran a terrific race breaking his maiden [May 23] kind of coming off the pace,” Havens said. “And then he ran second in that stakes on Sunday to what looks like a special kind of colt. He's a fabulous horse. He's really attractive and looks like he is going to go on rather than win at these short distances. And he's very sound. I think he's a really useful horse.”

Of Ko Olina, Havens said, “The horse they gave the race to–Baffert's Munnings filly [Eda]–cost $550,000 [at OBS March]. She beat her and they were 13 lengths ahead of the third horse, so she showed she could win, but the buyer still gets the condition.”

Havens continued, “We are heading into Del Mar and people are looking for horses like this. I think this is a really unusual opportunity for 2-year-olds. These horses have shown they belong at a really upper level and they are sound. So you have as immediate action as you can get with a 2-year-old. We are getting a whole lot of interest here for both of these.”

While sales horses for the 2019 sale were housed in temporary barns near Santa Anita's seven-furlong chute, the 2021 horses are on the track's backside.

“We have had a terrific amount of interest,” Havens said. “We are on the backside of Santa Anita, so it's really worked out well from that standpoint in terms of interest.”

Havens is hopeful that, after having the sale's momentum interrupted last year, Fasig-Tipton will be able to build on the 2021 results.

“I think it's absolutely essential that we have a 2-year-old sale in California,” Havens said. “I think missing last year really impaired the turnout for this year. Because it has not been a real strong turnout relative to what we used to have. We used to have two sales here. We used to have a March sale and a May sale. When Barretts ended and Fasig took over with this sale in June and then missing 2020 completely, I think it put cold water on people's response to this sale. But they succeeded in getting a number of people from out of town, Florida in particular, and I have a really nice group. So I am very encouraged by that.”

Bloodstock agent Donato Lanni made the highest bid at the inaugural Santa Anita sale in 2019, acquiring subsequent stakes winner Eclair (Bernardini) for $420,000 on behalf of Sarah Kelly. In all, 69 horses sold for $3,769,500 at the 2019 auction. The average was $54,630 and the median was $30,000. With 39 horses not sold, the buy-back rate was 36.1%.

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Four Months After Announced Arlington Sale, IRB Just Now Initiates CDI Talks

After four months of no public action by the Illinois Racing Board (IRB) since Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), announced its polarizing intention to sell Arlington International Racecourse for “non-horse racing” purposes, IRB chairman Daniel Beiser disclosed just before the end of Tuesday's meeting that the IRB will only now begin the process of reaching out to the gaming corporation to try and get a clearer understanding of what is likely to happen to suburban Chicago's landmark Thoroughbred track, which faces potential permanent closure at the end of this season.

But Beiser said that discussion with CDI won't happen at an open, public meeting at which stakeholders can listen to sworn testimony and commissioners can ask questions about the potentially devastating blow to Illinois racing.

Instead, Beiser explained, he is asking the IRB's executive director, Domenic DiCera, to set up a private phone call “in the near term” with CDI that will include only those two IRB officials and whichever representative(s) CDI makes available.

“Hopefully it will become a reality soon.” Beiser said, seemingly indicating it's not a certainty CDI officials will agree to participate.

“Two things I want to be able to accomplish by that [call],” Beiser said. “Number one is I want to reiterate and explain to them how much this uncertainty is impacting the men, women of the horse racing industry moving forward…. The last two years have been unbearable for these men and women and their future.

“The other thing I would like to find out–as much as they'd like to divulge–[is] what's going to happen in the near term and in the long term regarding this whole process?” Beiser said.

Beiser said it was only on Monday–the day prior to the June 22 meeting–that he finally directed the IRB's executive director to initiate contact with the gaming corporation. CDI had announced its intention to sell Arlington back on Feb. 23.

“This is the proper time now to make that contact,” Beiser explained. “Prior to this, the bidding process was open and was ongoing. That has come to a conclusion. And now, from what we've been told in the past, their decision is going to be made sometime in the third quarter. But we would like to try to, again, ask them to please bring some conclusion to this that would allow for people to plan for their future.”

Beiser said he'd like CDI to accede to some form of “hopeful accommodation” that would help to preserve the linchpin track of the Illinois Thoroughbred circuit, although he did not elaborate and spoke only in general terms about what might be discussed in that private phone call.

“Once we've made that contact, I will reach out to commissioners to let them know what went on…as soon as that phone call, hopefully, is completed,” Beiser said.

The IRB has now held three teleconference meetings since Arlington was officially put up for sale. Yet instead of addressing head-on the prospect of the region's signature track vanishing or proposing ways in which regulators might help to salvage racing at Arlington under new ownership, the IRB has treated the most pressing Illinois racing issue in decades as the proverbial “elephant in the room” by almost entirely avoiding the subject during open, public sessions.

Only one commissioner, Alan Henry, has even brought up the topic at all, using the “commissioner comments” portion of the agenda during the last three monthly meetings to read into the record prepared statements seeking a “win-win” outcome for CDI, the racing community, and the state.

But up until Beiser's disclosure on Tuesday about the planned phone call, the entire nine-member board has reacted with silence and inaction regarding the Arlington sale each time Henry has spoken up.

Although CDI has stated it has received multiple bids on the 326-acre Arlington property, only two have been publicly disclosed by the bidding parties.

One, submitted by the track's former president, Roy Arnold, in partnership with a consortium of developers and investors, calls for the track's grandstand and track to remain in place, while a mid-size arena for a minor-league hockey team is constructed as part of a 60-acre entertainment district alongside a 300-unit housing development and 60 acres of industrial space. Racing would continue under the new ownership.

The other bid is from the Chicago Bears football team, which wants to build a new stadium and put up mixed-use development on the site, razing the racetrack to do so.

On June 21, officials for the village of Arlington Heights, where the track is located, voted unanimously to tweak some zoning rules to prohibit certain uses of that property, like for adult businesses, kiddie parks, funeral parlors and warehouses.

But according to a story in suburban Chicago's Daily Herald, Mayor Tom Hayes underscored at that Monday night meeting that the village does not control or own the property, and there's only so much it can do to impact the outcome of the sale.

“The ultimate decision will not be ours. Certainly we'll have some involvement in terms of uses down the road. But the proposals were not submitted to the village of Arlington Heights, but to Churchill Downs…. As I've said many times, and I think the board agrees, our goal is to put the property to its highest and best use for our community.”

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