My father never really retired. He worked for himself as a real estate broker/investor in the Washington, D.C. area for my entire life. So even when he was well into his 80s, he was out and about. My dad liked numbers, ones that spoke to him, that felt like an advantage even if the advantage was slight. So, it was no secret he’d be drawn to horse racing in the same way he’d be drawn to a property that — with the right touch — could yield a return.
Month: July 2021
GoFundMe Campaign Started for Injured Rider Vince Halliday
A GoFundMe.com campaign has been started for jockey Vince Halliday, who suffered serious injuries in a July 15 race at Delaware Park.
According to his wife, Stephanie Pastore, Halliday's injuries include: two small brain bleeds, a C-4 neck fracture, several thoracic fractures, a sternum fracture, a scapular fracture and a broken elbow.
Riding the filly Tua (Normandy Invasion) in a maiden claiming race, Halliday went down when his mount clipped heels with another horse. Pastore said that while there have been no signs of paralysis, Halliday has a difficult period in front of him.
“That I don't know,” she said when asked if Halliday will be able to ride again. “There's not going to be any surgery required for his fractures, but it's going to be a long, long rehab. Knowing Vince, I am sure he will want to go back to riding.”
Pastore said that the bills are already piling up. Halliday has won two races this year and his mounts have earned $75,165.
“Unfortunately, when you are a jockey, if you're not working and racing you're not making any money,” she said. “I work in retail, and I haven't been going to work. So, it's the same for me. I'm not making any money if I'm not working. There are things in place to help jockeys out, but with all the medical bills and trying to pay our mortgage it's going to require some help.”
Jennifer Shannon, who organized the GoFundMe, posted an update Tuesday that read, “Vince remains in the ICU at Christiana Hospital. His brain bleeds have stabilized however he still has not gained the ability to use his arms. The injuries to Vince's neck and lungs have made it very difficult to breathe on his own. Doctors have had no choice but to intubate to keep his Oxygen levels up. He is unable to speak or swallow on his own.
“Attempts to remove the breathing tube have been unsuccessful. Additional MRI's have shown multiple fractures to vertebrae and an additional fracture in his sternum.
“His wife Stephanie has been at his side and is relentless in aiding his recovery and encouraging Vince to stay strong. Vince is very frustrated that he cannot move his arms, speak, or breathe on his own. Vince was able to nod at letters in the alphabet to communicate, anyone that knows Vince will not be surprised to learn that he asked about the well-being ofTua, the filly that fell with him, Vince was happy to learn she will be okay.
“Vince and Stephanie are grateful for the support and the outpouring of love for Vince. Please continue to Pray for Vince and Stephanie during this difficult time.”
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On The Rhode To Victory
The village of Rhode in the Irish heartland of County Offaly may be better known for its peat but it can also boast a growing reputation as home to some of the stars of the racing and breeding world.
The most recent comet to shoot to prominence having been raised on its turf is Gubbass (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), winner of Saturday's Weatherbys Super Sprint for Richard Hannon and owner Jassim Bin Ali Attiyah. The youngster was bred at
Ballyheashill Stud in Rhode by Barry Lacy and his father Tom, the former jockey, trainer and mentor to many a young person starting out in the racing business.
“We would be known as bogland around here, so people say 'oh you're from the bog” and we have to put up with that,” says Barry Lacy, whose brother Tony is one of Ireland's many 'wild geese' and was recently appointed Keeneland's vice director of sales in Lexington.
He adds, “But when it comes to the land the proof of the pudding is in the eating and the amount of good horses that have come out of this little pocket here in recent years is pretty staggering. Derek has had some amazing results.”
The neighbour to whom Lacy refers is Derek Veitch, owner of Ringfort Stud with his wife Gay. Their growing number of stakes winners includes the G2 Duke of Cambridge S. victrix Indie Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), bred in partnership with Paul Hancock, as well as last year's G2 Lowther S. winner, Miss Amulet (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}), and the last two winners of the G2 Gimcrack S. in Threat (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) and Minzaal (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}). It's not completely unthinkable that the race could go to another Rhode-bred this time around as the unbeaten Gubbass already has a Gimcrack entry, through Hannon has identified the G2 Qatar Richmond S. at Glorious Goodwood as his likely next target.
“We can dare to dream,” says Lacy. “Look, the horse won on Saturday and it was fantastic but we get as much of a kick out of watching Roundabout Magic (Ire) (Zebedee {GB}), who we bred, win for Simon Dow at Lingfield. He's seven or eight, still a colt, rated in the 50s and I think he's won eight races. I love those tough, sound horses. Horses like that, that are still sound and loving it, they give you a great kick and they are hard to find. And they don't have to be stars but that just does your heart good.”
So speaks a man who has been involved with the riding and training of horses for a lifetime. Sales-ring touches are fantastic, and fast, early 2-year-olds help a mare's commercial value, but at the crux of it all is breeding robust individuals who will stand up to the work required, both mentally and physically, to get them to the racecourse and into the winner's enclosure.
“Gubbass looks like he's a black-type horse and for a mare to have a horse like that as her first foal is just wonderful,” he adds. “It's also lovely vindication for mum as she would have watched all the foals walking round from the kitchen window over the years and she called it first, that the Mehmas colt was something special.”
Lacy's mother Margaret is the sister of Paddy Behan, breeder of a superstar under another code, the nine-time Grade 1-winning jumper Altior (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}).
Along with the former training stable, Tom and Margaret Lacy have always kept “two or three mares” and played something of a key role in one of Ballylinch Stud's major families as the breeders of Group 3 winner Ingabelle (GB) (Taufan {GB}).
Lacy recalls, “In the 1970s dad bought a filly by Falcon (GB) who turned out to be Bodelle (GB). She was quite a good race filly and got black type on the Flat and over hurdles. Her first foal was Ingabelle, who became an important foundation mare for Ballylinch Stud. We kept the first two foals out of her, a colt and a filly, and we still have one grand-daughter here.”
The Ballylinch connection continues through one of the three mares currently on the farm, Gubbass's 7-year-old dam Vida Amarosa (Ire), a daughter of Ballylinch stallion Lope De Vega (Ire).
“We had originally been interested in her half-sister Queen Of Power (Ire), who ran in the Guineas at the Curragh. My brother Tony had asked me to have a look at her but for some reason we didn't end up going for her. Then this Lope De Vega filly came out of the blue,” he continues.
“In the meantime when we stumbled across this filly, as she was at the time, I noticed that Queen Of Power had had an Acclamation (GB) colt foal who went through the sale for €130,000, so I thought to myself 'he must have been nice', and it was almost another reason to use Mehmas. We'd been interested in that family for quite a few years but looking at them is one thing, buying them is something else.”
As it was, Vida Amorosa wasn't too hard to buy and she was picked up as a 3-year-old at the Goffs February sale for €1,200 and sent to Mehmas the following year. Following a record-breaking start with his debutants, the Tally-Ho Stud stallion shows no sign of slowing up. And in fact the O'Callaghan family of Tally-Ho are now the owners of Gubbass's full-brother, having paid €75,000 for him at last season's delayed Goffs Foal Sale the week before Christmas.
“He was one of only about three colts by Mehmas at that sale last year and we had the impression that they were crazy about Gubbass [at Hannon's]. Word must have filtered down because it wasn't just Tally-Ho bidding on him. He was in the last 10 lots on the first day of Goffs and everybody stayed around. We thought they were hardly here for our horse, but as it turns out they were,” says Lacy.
Vida Amorosa is being rested this year having produced a colt quite late in the season by another Tally-Ho resident, Inns Of Court (Ire).
Reflecting on the mating that produced Gubbass, Lacy says, “I suppose we broke the golden rule in a way, in that she was an unproven mare–she'd never run or had a foal–and we sent her to an unproven sire. If you were to tell people starting off, you'd tell them not to do that but we were so strong on Mehmas. We just absolutely loved him. Physically they just seemed to match each other. She was a big, scopey filly with a big walk, and Mehmas just has that quality. It made sense physically and I could see how Acclamation was working with the family.”
The Acclamation colt foal out of Queen Of Power previously spotted by Lacy is now known as the listed-winning sprinter Garrus (Ire), who was recently fifth in the G1 Diamond Jubilee S. at Royal Ascot.
Gubbass was himself consigned to the yearling sales by Tally-Ho Stud on the Lacys' behalf, fetching £28,000 at the relocated Tattersalls Ireland September Sale. His appearance at the auction came at a sad time for the racing industry in the week following the death of Pat Smullen, who was easily Rhode's most famous son.
The nine-time champion jockey readily admitted when reflecting on his illustrious career that he owed his start in racing to Tom Lacy, and indeed Smullen rode his first winner as his apprentice on the Lacy-bred and -trained Vicosa (Ire) (General View {GB}) at Dundalk in 1993.
“Patrick only lived down the road from us and we can't exaggerate how much he meant to all of us,” says Lacy of his much-missed friend. “I'm looking out across the paddocks now and about three fields across from me is where Patrick and Frances live, and then if I take a drive two minutes down the road I'm at Derek Veitch's, and another 15 minutes and I'm at Tally-Ho. So we're surrounded by likeminded people.”
He adds, “I was at the yearling sales in Newmarket with Gubbass at the time of Patrick's funeral and it was very hard for none of us to be able to go. We lost somebody very important round here. It's hard to exaggerate the effect that it had on the local area. It was like losing your Muhammad Ali, your hero.”
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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Improving Miss Marissa Could Bring Ryerson To Del Mar
It may have been more than a decade since Jim Ryerson has had a graded stakes winner in his barn, but he certainly hasn't forgotten what to do with one. The 4-year-old filly Miss Marissa proved that fact decisively with her victory in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 10.
“You have to train the horses that you have and you try to do the best you can for the owners that you have,” Ryerson said of the in-between years. “Then at times a nice one comes along, I think we have an idea of what to do with them when we get them. But if you should ever think that it's a given to always have nice horses in the barn, you're in the wrong business!”
With the filly now pointing to the Grade 1 Personal Ensign near the end of the Saratoga meet, 68-year-old Ryerson is remembering to savor the experience along the way.
The trainer had to take his time developing Miss Marissa for owner Alfonso Cammarota, to whom Ryerson was recommended by Frank and Patricia Generazio three years ago. A New York-bred daughter of He's Had Enough, Miss Marissa needed four starts to break her maiden as a 2-year-old, then the pandemic last year caused major interruptions in the first half of her 3-year-old season.
Miss Marissa really started to put it all together last July, winning an allowance race at Ryerson's old stomping grounds of Monmouth Park to kick off a three-race win streak that culminated in the G2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico in October.
“That all followed stretching her out to two turns, which really helped her,” Ryerson explained. “She then ran a pretty good second in the Ladies (Handicap) in January, got beat by a filly of Todd (Pletcher's), and I didn't think the track was to her liking at all that day. We had made up our minds to give her a break after that, and she's come back very well.”
After a five-month layoff, Miss Marissa ran second to Dream Marie in the listed Obeah Stakes at Delaware on June 9, then stepped up to capture the G2 Delaware 'Cap a month later by 1 ¼ lengths.
“You like to see a filly progress from three to four – she's gonna have to run faster and all – and I think you can see signs that she's doing that,” said Ryerson. “You have Letruska, Swiss Skydiver, some other fillies that ran a good bit faster than her last year, but she's narrowed the gap. I think she has controlling speed, she's not one-dimensional where she has to have the lead, but she can carry her speed and there aren't a lot out there that have done that.”
Miss Marissa wins the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap at Delaware Park.
He acknowledges that the Personal Ensign will be a big step up in class, but Ryerson thinks Miss Marissa is capable of continuing to progress in what will be her third start off the layoff.
“We're stabled here (at Saratoga) and she won here last year, so that goes into it,” the trainer explained. “I think her effort in the Delaware Handicap puts us there. It's a pretty big jump but I think it's time to try and make it, and we've got about six weeks to get ready for that.”
The Personal Ensign is a “Win and You're In” race which offers the winner an expenses-paid berth to the Breeders' Cup Distaff this fall at Del Mar.
Should Miss Marissa earn a trip to the West Coast, it won't be Ryerson's first experience at the Breeders' Cup. He saddled the winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in 1995: Unbridled's Song.
Later a champion sire, Unbridled's Song also won the 1996 Florida Derby and Wood Memorial before a well-publicized foot issue leading up to the Kentucky Derby. The colt wound up finishing fifth in the Run for the Roses.
Ryerson also had multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Park Avenue Ball run in his hometown's Breeders' Cup World Championships at Monmouth Park. in 2007.
“I haven't had too many opportunities in the Breeders' Cup, but this filly, looking at her going into this year, I think if she can win a couple this year, she can get herself in that discussion,” Ryerson said of Miss Marissa.
No matter how this season pans out, Ryerson has come a long way from the 15-year-old kid who walked onto the Monmouth backstretch looking for a summer job. He became a well-known figure on the New Jersey circuit for several decades, but made the decision to move his stable to New York full time about 10 years ago.
“I was looking for a place that I could continue doing what I love doing; because of the lost dates in New Jersey, there were a lot of opportunities lost in the state,” said Ryerson. “My wife and all my kids still live in Monmouth County, along with all our grandchildren, so it wasn't an easy decision to make.
“My wife understands, but she stays there while I work in New York because it keeps her happy, and I then try to be the grandfather I want to be. You try to make the time. It's not as much as I would like, of course, because it's hard sometimes, but it's doable.”
With 17 horses at Saratoga and another 13 at Belmont, Ryerson said he definitely still enjoys coming to work every morning.
“I know that I'm not getting any younger, but I love doing it and I think that I can offer clients a good option as a horse trainer. I'm probably as busy now, even though I don't have a huge outfit, compared to five years ago, 10 years ago, so I think it's been a good move (to New York).”
Besides, you just never know when the next good horse will walk into your barn.
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