The LA Times has revealed the specific heightened security measures Bob Baffert trainees will be subjected to in order to compete in the Breeders' Cup World Championships on Nov. 5-6 at Del Mar.
On Sept. 18, the Breeders' Cup said it would be conducting a review process to determine Baffert's status in the wake of a failed drug test by Medina Spirit after the Protonico colt finished first in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby on May 1.
The Medina Spirit positive test for the corticosteroid betamethasone was the fifth failed drug test by a Baffert runner – and third in a Grade 1 race – over a one-year period dating back to May 2, 2020.
Since Wednesday, Oct. 20, a team of two investigators, three security officers, and one Breeders' Cup executive has been watching Baffert's barn at Santa Anita on a 24-hour basis. When his Breeders' Cup contenders are shipped to Del Mar, a security officer with a body camera will be assigned to each horse. There will also be 24-hour coverage by investigators assigned to Baffert's barn, who will have permission to confiscate medications and review daily treatment/billing records.
On Nov. 2, samples of blood, urine, and hair will be taken from each of Baffert's Breeders' Cup hopefuls. Additional random collections will be performed during the week leading up to the World Championships. Any horse testing positive for therapeutic medications, even those therapeutics within the window for legal use, will be scratched.
“We are happy to accommodate the transparency,” Baffert told the LA Times. “We will care for our horses as we always do and any testing or observation is welcomed.”
The Thoroughbred Makeover has been over for a week now. Horses and humans who came to the Kentucky Horse Park from all over the country have returned home, jumps and competition arenas have been packed away, and the last ribbons have been awarded. But for anyone who showed up to watch the finale competitions on Oct. 15, one performance probably burns clear in the memory.
Meg Hems and her off-track Thoroughbred Nucks arrived at the covered arena well ahead of their scheduled finale ride, streaked in silver and glitter. Hems and Nucks had qualified for the finals in barrel racing, and had also participated in the Thoroughbred Incentive Program Barrel Racing Championship earlier in the week, but their first performance was something completely different.
Their first ride on that Saturday was for Devyn.
Hems and Nucks were also finalists in Freestyle, which is a delightfully open-ended discipline at the Makeover. It has basic requirements of horse and rider – that they showcase the horse's ability to walk, trot, and canter in both directions, halt and back up, do a lead change and trot in a figure eight. They have five minutes to show the horse off however they like. The discipline has seen a wide variety of creative performances through the years, with riders foregoing saddles and bridles, leaping their horses over fire, wearing costumes, and hauling props to music.
(See the 2018 Freestyle finals below.)
Generally, the horses who demonstrate the most versatility and most bombproof nature prevails, and with the top five competitors advancing to the finals, the discipline is a highlight of the Makeover's last day for spectators.
Hems had practiced the core elements of her routine for a few weeks before shipping to Lexington from her base near Hamilton, N.Y. Hems works long hours at a car dealership and has a daughter who is ten months old – not exactly a combination that leaves a lot of time for riding. She said she rode Nucks in the dark by the light of her truck's headlamps more often than she did in daylight.
So for her, putting on a blindfold at the start of her routine made the crowd twitter, but was just another ride in the black, with Nucks to guide her like he always had before. With blindfold in place, Hems trotted and cantered Nucks around the indoor arena as Tim McGraw's 'Live Like You Were Dying' played over the loudspeakers. The pair looped figure eights over an enormous tarp laid in the middle of the arena, Hems counting strides and using the sound of Nucks' feet on the plastic to help her get a sense for where they were in the ring.
Having practiced the pattern at home, Hems said Nucks turned himself through the space, knowing the center of the figure eights should fall over the tarp.
Nucks' quick mind was one of many reasons he had converted Hems from her skepticism of Thoroughbreds. From time to time, Hems hauls horses for Second Chance Thoroughbreds, bringing them from the track to the facility's base. Something about the Mission Impazible gelding, who retired a maiden after 12 tries, stuck out to her. Nucks called the program's coordinator and asked what his story was.
“I was not looking for a horse. I did not want another horse,” she said. “I really liked him. I had picked up a rehab project, a mare from my track, and I said, 'I'll switch with you.' She said, 'I don't have room for another mare but I'll tell you what, I'll pay you the first month's board to take him. People brag about getting a free horse but I got paid to take him.
“I've worked with quite a few [OTTBs] but I've always trained them for someone else or rehomed them … I've never connected with one like I do with Nucks. I trust him with my life. He's not going anywhere. I love that horse.”
Hems has done a little bit of everything as a rider. She runs barrels and does a lot of trail riding, but has evented, driven, done Western pleasure, roping, and hunters.
“I grew up riding English and decided I didn't like placing off someone's opinion,” she said. “Now, we just place off the clock and it's a good time. And I can wear sparkles.
“I'm weird in the sense that I like finding the job the horse likes, and then I enjoy doing the job with them.”
Her equestrian horizons were widened by the influence of her close friend, Devyn Merritt Anderson. While Hems grew up riding 4-H, Anderson grew up doing Pony Club, ultimately earning the organization's highest certification level in horse management. Anderson evented in the Genessee Valley, becoming the beginner novice champion for Area 1 and also drove carriages.
Hems and Anderson met while working at a farm and garden store a decade ago and realized they had horses in common. Their bond became a strong one. Hems stood up in Anderson's wedding and she was there for her friend throughout her ten-year battle with ocular cancer. Anderson was there for Hems' brother when he too was diagnosed with cancer.
Anderson (left) and Hems (right) at Hems' first event
“She lit up every single room she went into. If you needed someone to talk to or someone to cheer you up, Devyn was the person,” said Hems. “Devyn was the one who helped him through it more than anyone. Any time he was scared or unsure, he'd call or text Devyn. She'd walk him through it and tell him it would be ok. He ended up beating cancer, and that was their deal was he beat cancer so she had to, too.
“He fought, he won, and he gives a lot of credit to Devyn.”
Anderson also saw something special in Nucks. It was Anderson who convinced Hems not to make him a resale project, but to keep him. Anderson gave them both dressage basics that made Nucks' strides even and easy to count.
So as Hems prepared for the delayed 2020 Thoroughbred Makeover, she had an idea. She planned to take Nucks to the freestyle, which Anderson knew. What she didn't know was that Hems was planning to dedicate the routine to her.
“I was going to come in that arena and, surprise, this whole routine's for you,” she said. “She was going to cry. There was no question there. But it would be all the best tears. Her and I lived off surprising each other. I'd send her flowers randomly to brighten her day. She'd call me to tell me I was doing a great job. That was our friendship – we went out of our way to cheer each other up.”
Having wowed the crowd with her blindfolded trot and canter work, Hems signaled to four people standing in the arena with her – including her younger brother. Each lifted a corner of the enormous tarp, with Hems and Nucks walking underneath. Hems shed her blindfold and grabbed a flag from her brother, then galloped out from underneath the tunnel. The black flag showed a rainbow of cancer awareness ribbon colors, each representing a different type of disease, surrounding white letters spelling out “No One Fights Alone.”
Hems sent Nucks at a gallop around the arena's perimeter, the glittered tassels on her show shirt flying, the flag flapping, her hair streaming behind her. And then, she dropped the reins, throwing her arms open and letting her Thoroughbred sprint at full speed, completely free. To anyone sitting in the crowd, she had an otherworldly power to her, racing the wind on her nearly-black horse like something out of an ancient myth.
“I am going to be completely honest – I didn't plan to throw my hands up,” she said. “I didn't practice it, I didn't plan on it. The emotion hit me, and Nucks has my back through everything and I knew it. It just felt right.”
Anderson wasn't in the stands, as Hems had planned. Just a month before the Makeover, she lost her battle with cancer at the age of 31. At the conclusion of the song, Hems looked skyward. She said she knew that even though she wasn't sitting in one of the seats in the front row, her friend could see her.
“It's very true that nobody fights alone, as cliché as it sounds,” said Hems. “I wanted every single person in that crowd to know they're not alone. The disease is nasty, but there are people out there. We all have to have each other's backs.”
Hems and Nucks finished second in the freestyle competition, third in barrel racing overall and 3D Average Champion in the TIP Championships and High Point Adopted Horse Award.
Not long after finishing second in the @RRP_TBMakeover 2020 freestyle division (riding around the arena blindfolded!) Megan Hems and Nucks, by Mission Impazible brought the same spectacle to the barrel racing final, where they were third. That was pretty cool. pic.twitter.com/lnJFOQaaLe
“He's got an old soul to him,” said Hems. “He's only six years old but that horse, I can put my daughter on him. I knew he wouldn't do anything dangerous. He knows he's got to take care of his people and he genuinely loves to be loved. He lives for me to tell him he's a good boy.”
Now, she said Nucks will get a vacation. They'll spend the winter trail riding through the snow before gearing up for shows again. He may learn to work cattle in springtime. Whatever comes, Devyn was right about Nucks – he belongs with Hems for life.
Frank Salive, Fort Erie's track announcer, is retiring from his commanding post in the announcer's booth at the border oval on Tuesday. Salive has been the voice of horse racing for over three decades, calling races at several thoroughbred and harness tracks including Fort Erie Race Track, Woodbine, Western Fair, and Pompano Park.
In the mid-70s, the Leamington native was a star junior goalie for the Peterborough Petes. After hanging up his skates, he seamlessly transitioned into the world of mainstream sports broadcasting, working for various networks including CTV, CBC as well as TSN. In 1976, at the age of 21, Salive's first network assignment was covering five events a day at the Montreal Summer Olympics for CTV.
In 1990 he stepped into the world of horse racing at Woodbine Racetrack. Salive worked at Woodbine for a decade and a half before heading west to London, Ontario to call races at Western Fair for four years from 2005 to 2009. His next venture would be Pompano Park in Florida where his voiced filled the atmosphere and racing apron until 2012. As he developed his craft calling races, Salive credits several announcers that impacted his career in the announcer's booth.
“I would say Stan Bergstein was a foundation announcer that I really patterned myself after for harness racing. Certainly, Dan Loiselle (thoroughbred racing) helped me a lot in my years at Woodbine. I went a lot by his example – to transform a race from just the look of horses going on an oval into a little bit of a story,” said Salive.
In 2016, the venerable track announcer landed his feet at Fort Erie Race Track. He's called the border oval home for the last six racing seasons.
Narrating a fleet of horses as they move from gate to wire jockeying for top spot might seem like a fairly straightforward task, but Salive knows there's a lot more to it than that.
“You really don't know how your body and mind are going to react, but its kind counterintuitive to the crowd. The crowd is excited, and they are all cheering, and you have to be exactly the opposite. Before The Prince of Wales – a live national tv broadcast, you challenge yourself on how far you can slow down your heart rate and breathing because you can't be out of control with excitement from gate to wire. You have to build it up to the finish. So, it's different than being in the crowd as a race fan, you have to go the opposite direction and stay calm.”
Asked to recall career highlights at the border oval, the track announcer is quick to respond.
“I came from a strong Standardbred past so to get to cross over and do six of the Canadian Triple Crown races in my tenure here.”
To date, Salive has called close to 200,000 races during his illustrious career. Salive will call his last card at Fort Erie Race Track this afternoon.
Grade 1 winner Firenze Fire will enter stud at Arrow Stud in Japan for the 2022 breeding season, following a projected final start in the upcoming Breeders' Cup Sprint, Daily Racing Form reports.
The 6-year-old son of Poseidon's Warrior has won 14 of 37 starts heading into this year's Breeders' Cup, earning $2,710,350 as a Florida-born homebred for Mr. Amore Stable.
Firenze Fire has been a stakes winner in each of his five seasons, starting with his 2-year-old campaign when he won on debut at Monmouth Park and took the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes, before highlight his season with a triumph in the G1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park.
He was put on the Triple Crown trail at three, winning the listed Jerome Stakes and earning enough qualifying points to earn a spot in the 2018 Kentucky Derby, where he finished 11th. Firenze Fire was then moved to the sprint ranks, where he saw immediate dividends, with wins in the G3 Dwyer Stakes and G3 Gallant Bob Stakes, and a third in the G1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes.
The horse's 4-year-old campaign featured listed wins in the Runhappy Stakes, Fabulous Strike Stakes, and Gravesend Stakes in the Mid-Atlantic region, and Grade 1 placings in the Forego Stakes and Vosburgh Stakes. His 5-year-old season started with a win in the G3 General George Stakes, and later included scores in the G2 True North Stakes and G2 Vosburgh Stakes, before running third in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Keeneland.
His 2021 campaign started with wins in the G3 Runhappy Stakes and G2 True North Stakes. He enters the Breeders' Cup off a pair of runner-up efforts in the G1 Forego Stakes and G2 Vosburgh Stakes.
Firenze Fire is out of the placed Langfuhr mare My Every Wish.
Firenze Fire will join a roster at Arrow Stud that also includes Eclipse Award winners California Chrome and Shanghai Bobby.
The popular sprinter Firenze Fire will make his last start in the BC Sprint and then stand stud in 2022 at Arrow Stud in Japan, joining U.S.-based runners California Chrome and Shanghai Bobby, per owner owner Ron Lombardi.
