November, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

By My Standards Retired To Spendthrift Farm For 2022

Allied Racing's By My Standards, the 4-time Grade 2 winner and earner of $2,294,430, has been retired from racing and will enter stud at Spendthrift Farm where the son of Goldencents will stand the 2022 breeding season for a fee of $7,500 S&N.

“By My Standards came up with a quarter crack that was going to force us to miss the rest of our goals before the breeding season, so the decision was made for him to retire,” said Chester Thomas, owner and manager of Allied Racing Stable. “It's a bittersweet day because this is a special horse who deserved to win a Grade 1 and was very unlucky not to. However, I'm proud he is retiring happy and healthy, and I couldn't be more excited about him going to Spendthrift where he'll get the best opportunity to become a great sire, just like his sire and grandsire there.”

Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey added: “We are thrilled to be able to stand By My Standards and are thankful to Chester for the opportunity. Obviously, this is a sire line we know very well and just have tremendous confidence in. By My Standards really embodies the heart and ability that have become so signature to the Into Mischief line. In fact, only his sire Goldencents and Authentic have higher earnings than By My Standards among all the great racehorses from the Into Mischief sire line. Everyone who got in on the Share The Upside program for Into Mischief and Goldencents has enjoyed a lot of success, and we believe By My Standards is the next in line. I invite all breeders to come out and see him during the November sales, as he will be available for inspection immediately and will be shown Nov. 10-19 daily from 1-3 p.m.”

By My Standards will participate in Spendthrift's renowned “Share The Upside” breeding program for a fee of $8,500 for one year. Additionally, breeders must breed one mare in 2023 on a complimentary basis. After the breeder has a live foal in 2023, pays the stud fee, and breeds a mare back, he or she will earn a lifetime breeding right beginning in 2024.

Trained by Bret Calhoun, By My Standards broke his maiden and jumped straight into the $1-million Grade 2 Louisiana Derby a month later, taking down that major Triple Crown prep race over eventual Kentucky Derby winner Country House and eventual Preakness winner War of Will. He ran the 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.53 which marked the second fastest in 84 runnings of the Louisiana Derby at that distance.

As a 4-year-old, he captured his first three starts of the year including decisive victories in the $400,000 G2 New Orleans Classic at Fair Grounds and $600,000 G2 Oaklawn Handicap, running 1 1/8 miles in 1:47.80 in the latter to mark the fastest Oaklawn Handicap since Medaglia d'Oro in 2003. By My Standards went on to score his fourth Grade 2 win in the $400,000 G2 Alysheba at Churchill, defeating multiple Grade 1 winner McKinzie. He also was runner-up in Saratoga's prestigious G1 Whitney Handicap and in Churchill's G2 Stephen Foster.

This year, By My Standards won the $400,000 Oaklawn Mile in his seasonal debut before finishing runner-up in the storied G1 Met Mile at Belmont, beaten a length after a troubled trip. He retires to Spendthrift with a record of 7-5-1 from 17 starts, defeating 27 graded winners in his seven victories including five Grade 1 winners, two classic winners, and 10 Grade 2 winners. Only Horse of the Year Authentic ($7,201,200) and By My Standards' sire Goldencents ($3,044,000) earned more among all racehorses hailing from the Into Mischief sire line.

A $150,000 OBS 2-year-old purchased by agent Josh Stevens, By My Standards is one of two millionaires from the first crop of emerging young sire Goldencents. He is out of the multiple Santa Anita stakes winner and earner of $469,956, A Jealous Woman.

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Irish Trainer Loughnane ‘Couldn’t Be Happier’ With First Breeders’ Cup Runners Go Bears Go, Hello You

David Loughnane is excited about next year for Go Bears Go and Hello You after they ended their juvenile campaigns with excellent performances at the Breeders' Cup.

Go Bears Go was a fast-finishing half-length runner-up to Twilight Gleaming in the Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar, while Hello You just faded in the last half-furlong when fifth to Pizza Bianca in the Juvenile Fillies' Turf.

Both horses were Group Two winners in 2021 with Go Bears Go taking the Railway Stakes at the Curragh and Hello You the Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket.

“It was a great experience and both ran great races. I couldn't be happier with them,” said the Shropshire handler.

As for next year, Loughnane plans to aim Go Bears Go at the Commonwealth Cup and Hello You will begin in a Classic trial.

“I thought going into it five might be a bit sharp for him over there. He missed the break by a millisecond which he's never done before,” he said.

“I don't know whether it was the stalls are wider over there or having a stalls handler in the gate with him that just took his mind off the job for half a second.

“Had he jumped, he'd have won. In four more strides he'd have won, but I couldn't be any prouder of the horse. He ran an absolute belter of a race and it capped off a fantastic year for him.

“Five to six furlongs will be his trip over here next year. I suppose the most logical option would be something along the lines of the Commonwealth Cup.

“We'll see how it goes. He thrived off the whole travelling. There are loads of options, including Dubai at the end of February. He'll go for a nice holiday now and then we'll take it one step at a time. We'll see how he is come January and then we'll make a plan from there.”

Loughnane felt the long trip to California took its toll on Hello You, but has no concerns about her staying a mile next season.

“The journey over there probably took a bit more out of her. She jumped, she travelled, she got a lovely run through the race,” he went on.

“She travelled like a dream and turning for home, I thought how far does she win, then when Johnny (Velazquez) asked her she just didn't go though with it completely. She pulled up a tired horse. It took a lot out of her. She was only beaten a length and a half in a Grade One over there when she wasn't at her best.

“I have no doubt on her day she was probably the best horse in the race. She'll go for a holiday as well now and we'll come back and try for a Guineas trial with her.

“I have no concerns about her getting the mile. I said whatever she did this year was only going to be a bonus to what she does next year.”

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Reigning New York-Bred Champion Mr. Buff Retired With 17 Wins

Even a career this good must end at some point. After 48 starts, 17 wins and $1,403,536 in earnings, New York-bred star Mr. Buff will race no more.

The 7-year-old retires with two New York-bred championships – Older Dirt Male of 2019 and 2020 – in six seasons on the track. He won 11 stakes and made every start but two in New York. For now, the chestnut gelding heads to his birthplace, owners/breeders Chester and Mary Bromans' Chestertown Farm in Chestertown, N.Y.

“It's sad, but happy too,” said trainer John Kimmel. “It's hard to find a horse that could win 17 races and retire sound. He's the winningest horse I've ever had. We'll miss him, but he goes to the farm as a sound horse.”

Mr. Buff foaled at Chestertown (about 50 miles north of Saratoga Springs) in February 2014. The son of Friend Or Foe (who won five races and earned $349,134 for the Bromans and Kimmel) and the Speightstown mare Speightful Affair finished fifth in his debut at Saratoga in 2016 and won his next start at Belmont Park in September.

Mr. Buff won twice more in 2017, but endured eight losses to start 2018 before closing with wins in four of his final six starts – topped by the Alex M. Robb Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct. The success carried over, as he opened 2019 with a victory in the open-company Jazil Stakes at Aqueduct. Later that season, he added the Saginaw, Evan Shipman, Empire Classic and another edition of the Robb while piling up a career-high $455,750.

Awarded his first New York-bred divisional crown after that season, Mr. Buff duplicated the feat in 2020 thanks to wins in the Jazil, Haynesfield and Empire Classic and $307,500 in earnings.

Kimmel loved the success, and the ride the burly chestnut took everyone on.

“He gets better and better all the time. He's just been an iron horse,” the said in early 2021. “Once we figured out a few things about him, he kept losing his shoes, we've been gluing his shoes on for two-and-a-half years now. He's got white feet, they're kind of brittle, once he had shoes that didn't fall off, he's run a little better and a little better. He can use that big stride to his advantage.”

Mr. Buff opened 2021 with a third consecutive win in the Jazil and another stakes score in the Stymie. That Aqueduct victory would be his last as he followed with a third in the Westchester, fifths in the Commentator and Evan Shipman and a well-beaten eighth in the Empire Classic Oct. 30. Kimmel but pinned some of the dull performances on the inability to use Lasix in New York stakes races starting in 2021.

“He was always a bleeder, and benefitted from the use of Lasix,” Kimmel said. “He's not gushing, but he's bleeding like a two out of five and he's so smart, and he's such a veteran that I think he can tell he's going to bleed if he tries any harder. In the morning, he works well. He's right there with other horses breezing, but he's treated with Lasix. Without it, running in the afternoon in tougher races, he's taking care of himself. He's been too good to us to push the envelope anymore.”

Though he hesitated to single out one race as the most memorable, Kimmel called the 2020 Empire Classic a favorite. Facing six foes, coming off three losses and making his first start in almost three months, Mr. Buff controlled the race from the inside post position and made the lead last 1 1/8 miles while winning by 3 1/4 lengths for Junior Alvarado.

“He had run a couple clunkers against the better horses and hadn't run in a while,” Kimmel said. “I was real tickled because they were kind of writing him off and for him to come back and show at the age of 6 that he could come back and do that against a pretty good group of New York-breds was something.”

Kimmel tried graded company seven times with his stable star, but Mr. Buff never broke through – finishing ninth in the 2019 New Orleans Handicap-G2, seventh in the 2019 Woodward-G1, 10th in the 2019 Clark-G1, fifth in the 2020 Suburban-G2, Whitney-G1 and Cigar Mile-G1 and third in the 2021 Westchester-G3.

The Bromans bought Mr. Buff's dam for $80,000 at Fasig-Tipton's Kentucky mixed sale in February 2013. Her 12-start racing career yielded two wins and a second in a Grade 3 stakes. As a broodmare, she has produced two winners for the Bromans in addition to Mr. Buff – a full-brother Cain Is Abel and the Scat Daddy gelding Daddy Knows. Miss Buff, a 3-year-old full-sister, has yet to race. The top side of Mr. Buff's pedigree starts with Friend Or Foe, whose career included wins in the Mike Lee, Empire Classic and Easy Goer stakes plus a fourth in the Grade 1 Whitney in 2011 for Kimmel and the Bromans. His sire Friends Lake also raced for the Bromans and Kimmel, winning the Grade 1 Florida Derby and starting in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby in 2004.

Retirement plans, other than no racing, weren't quite finalized. Mr. Buff headed to Chestertown with no plans, though his trainer wouldn't rule out a second career as a stable pony.

“I used to use him with the babies,” Kimmel said. “He's so big that he's good at it. He's over 17 hands and he'd go, 'Come on, Sonny, this is the way we do it.' And the 2-year-olds would follow him like, 'I better pay attention to this guy. He knows what he's doing.'

“I don't know if we make him into a pony on the track, but I'm sure he's sound enough that he could do something. Right now, he's going to get a break. He's going to be a happy horse.”

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Irish Doping Rules Align With International Standards Accord to Report

A report on horseracing in Ireland found no evidence that doping regulations fall below international standards. The report, made by the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee, was prompted by allegations from trainer Jim Bolger that drugs are Irish racing's top problem. However, the report did make 11 recommendations, including that favourites and the top five finishers of each race be mandatorily tested via hair samples, as well as for random testing to occur. Another recommendation was for a review into the composition of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB), to address concerns over a lack of independent membership and gender balance. In addition, the report recommends that the IHRB follow governance structures similar to the United States.

Agriculture Committee Chair Jackie Cahill said, “We're happy that the testing standards in Irish racing are of the highest possible international standards.

“There was a lot of comments in the media and to restore public confidence, we felt that transparency was very important. That is coming out clearly in this report.

“The IHRB, there's no question that they're doing the testing to the highest possible standards. But to meet the modern criteria that's there, I think greater transparency was needed. That's where a lot of our recommendations are coming from.”

“At no stage was there any evidence found that the testing regulations in Ireland were anything but the highest possible international standards.”

Other recommendations of the report are detailed as follws: an independent review of Irish racing should be conducted by an outside body, with a full audit of all tests previously carried out, to “ensure that Ireland's drug testing procedures match international best practices”; that CCTV be installed at all Irish racecourses; and that a system of equine traceability be created.

“For the public out there, whether it's for the betting public or the general public, to ensure that this kind of comprehensive testing will ensure that everyone is fully convinced that there can be no wrongdoing involved in horse racing in Ireland,” Cahill added on Tuesday.

“I think this recommendation would be a comprehensive testing post-race, will give the public 100% confidence that the highest standards are being employed and that there is a very comprehensive testing regime in place.

“The comments that appeared in the media did do reputational damage to the sport. There's no point in me denying that and that was the basis of why we initiated this report. I think these changes to bring transparency to the IHRB would do an awful lot in restoring that public confidence. I would hope that the minister would set about implementing our recommendations as quickly as possible.”

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