February, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Pegasus Double Nets Irad Ortiz Jockey Of The Week Title

In the days leading up to the Pegasus World Championships, it was touch and go as to whether Irad Ortiz, Jr. would be released to ride following a knee injury at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 7. But the three-time Eclipse Award-winning Ortiz, Jr. was medically cleared and rode into the winner's circle in both Grade 1 events of the day. With the wins, Ortiz, Jr. was voted Jockey of the Week. The honor, which is voted on by a panel of racing experts, is for jockeys who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 1,050 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys in the United States.

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher gave a leg up to Ortiz, Jr. on defending champion, Colonel Liam in the G1 World Cup Turf Invitational. Despite a layoff of nearly eight months, Colonel Liam went off as the favorite in the field of 12. While racing off the pace, Ortiz, Jr. and Colonel Liam crept steadily closer to the leader, stablemate, Never Surprised. The pair took command at the eighth pole and drew clear to win by a length in 1:47.48 for the 1 1/8-mile distance. Ortiz, Jr. has now won three of the four runnings of the World Pegasus Turf Invitational.

“He didn't lose a step,” said Ortiz, Jr.. “He's healthy and he's strong. He did everything right. I asked him a little early and when I asked him to go, he just went on.”

The G1 Pegasus World Cup was thought to be a match race between presumed Horse of the Year Knicks Go with Joel Rosario in the irons for trainer Brad Cox and Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Life Is Good ridden by Ortiz, Jr. for trainer Todd Pletcher.

Off as the slight favorite, Life Is Good took control a sixteenth of a mile into the race and was never seriously threatened, covering 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.91 to post a winning margin of 3-1/4 lengths.

“I respect the other horse a lot,” said Ortiz, Jr. “I thought it was going to be a match race. But going into the first turn, my horse was so fast so I just let him do this thing. I felt like a lot of horse and I couldn't wait to let him run. I just wanted to get to the second turn. But when I let him go, he kept going.”

Ortiz, Jr.'s statistics for the week were 27-6-6-6 for an in-the-money rate of 66 percent and total purse earnings of $2,508,970 to lead all jockeys.

Other nominees for Jockey of the Week were Victor Carrasco with three stakes wins at Laurel. Harry Hernandez who won two stakes races at Sunland and led all jockeys for the week in wins with 11, Jose Ortiz who won the G3 Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf, and Joel Rosario with two stakes wins at Gulfstream Park and two stakes wins at Sam Houston.

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Curtain Up At Tattersalls For Popular February Fixture

NEWMARKET, UK–Here we go again. Dry January has been consigned to the books and the sales world will be back in full flow from Thursday at Park Paddocks.

The Tattersalls February Sale jumped up from one day to two five years ago and it shows no sign of reverting to its more compact format. Once withdrawals are taken into account, around 400 horses will pass through the ring, ranging from just-turned yearlings to horses in training and broodmares. They will be preceded by the TBA's annual stallion parade, featuring a dozen first- and second-season sires, on Thursday.

Shadwell continues with its reduction of stock and will sell a range of horses in and out of training through Barton Sales and New England Stud, as well as offering broodmares and yearlings through its own consignment during the opening session.

With the largest draft catalogued, Barton Sales also offers Tiger Lilly (Ire), a winning daughter of Galileo (Ire) and the only mare in the catalogue in foal to Time Test (GB) for Sir Robert Ogden, who dispersed the majority of his stock during the December Sales. The 11-year-old mare, whose half-sister Kelly Nicole (Ire) has produced the Group 2 winner Aljamaheer (Ire) by Time Test's sire Dubawi (Ire), is set to sell as lot 117.

Though lower key than the December Mares' Sale, the February Sale has however been a decent source for mares who have gone on to be stellar producers, with the dams of last year's Group/Grade 1 winners Going Global (Ire), Thundering Nights (Ire) and El Bodegon (Ire) having been bought from previous February Sales for 55,000gns, 32,000gns and 10,500gns respectively.

There is certain to be plenty of interest in Heaven's Angel (Ire) (Henrythenavigator), one of 43 lots to be offered by Godolphin. The unraced 8-year-old (lot 172) is not only a half-sister to the Oaks winner Qualify (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) but is also the sole mare in the book to be offered in foal to the French champion sire Siyouni (Fr). Further back on her page are the Classic winners Workforce (GB) (King's Best) and Brian Boru (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), while a more recent update was provided by the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud winner El Bodegon (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), who is also a full-brother to four-time Group 1 winner Best Solution (Ire).

Those looking for form horses with which to hit the ground running this all-weather season or farther afield, a last-minute update has come for Tributo (Ire) (Dragon Pulse {Ire}), who sells late on Friday as lot 445. The 4-year-old dead-heated when winning for the second time on Jan. 31 for Stuart Williams and Opulence Thoroughbreds.

The 3-year-old gelding Sydney Street (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}) is another to have been in good form through the winter, winning in December and January for Hugo Palmer and Chelsea Thoroughbreds, and he comes under the hammer as lot 417 from The Castlebridge Consignment.

Trainers and breeze-up consignors who didn't quite fill their quotas from last year's yearlings sales have another 22 chances to recruit a 2-year-old at Tattersalls on Thursday. Among the juveniles on offer is a filly from the lone crop of the late Roaring Lion (lot 71), who is one of those being sold by Shadwell through New England Stud. The grey filly is out of the young Shamardal mare Raddeh (GB), a half-sister to the Listed winner and Group 1-placed Hadaatha (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}). In the same draft is a 2-year-old colt by Sea The Stars (lot 80) out of the Group 2 winner Tarfasha (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), a full-brother to Listed winner Rakan (GB), and also a Dubawi colt (lot 81) out of the Listed winner Yaazy (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}). His dam is a half-sister to group winners Matterhorn (Ire) (Raven's Pass) and Bangkok (Ire) (Australia {GB}) as well as to the dam of Ribchester (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}).

This time last year Britain was still in the grip of strict lockdown restrictions, meaning that the February Sale had to be held online. Figures held up remarkably well, with the median and average only marginally down on those set for 2020 and, given the extraordinary way in which most sales fared during the pandemic, it is fair to expect some decent trade across the next two days.

For breeders with mating plans still undecided, there is the chance to peruse some young stallions in advance of the proceedings getting underway, with Newsells Park Stud new boy A'Ali (Ire) kicking off a parade which will conclude with his stud-mate Without Parole (GB), whose first foals are arriving this season. Not quite an A to Z then, but between A and W, you can find Bangkok (Ire), Lope Y Fernandez (Ire), Mr Scaramanga (GB), Roseman (Ire), Ubettabelieveit (Ire, Diplomat (Ger), Legends Of War, Sergei Prokofiev, Southern Hills (Ire) and Tip Two Win (GB).

Meanwhile, the Shadwell stallions Tasleet (GB), Mohaather (GB) and Eqtidaar (Ire) have been brought in from Nunnery Stud for breeders to view close to Tattersalls at Beech House Stud.

The sale commences directly after the stallion parade at 11am, and it is worth nothing that Friday's trade gets underway earlier at 10am.

The post Curtain Up At Tattersalls For Popular February Fixture appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Colic Survival Scoring System In Horses

Colic, defined as any acute abdominal pain, is an important sign of gastrointestinal disease in horses. Because colic may stem from many causes, predicting survival is challenging, if not impossible, at times. Could a scoring system reliably predict colic survival based on certain clinical evidence? A group of researchers thought so, and here's how they went about it.*

The researchers took a two-pronged approach to the question. First, they designed a retrospective study to determine the clinical parameters described in horses that survived colic and used them to formulate a survival scoring system. Second, a prospective study used horses presented for colic at two different veterinary clinics to determine the validity of the scoring system.

In the retrospective study, 658 horses with colic signs were identified. At the end of their review, the researchers settled on six health variables to use in the scoring system based on their strong predictive value for outcome at discharge: heart rate, respiratory rate, total calcium, blood lactate, abnormal abdominal ultrasound, and abnormal rectal examination. A total assessment score of 0 to 12 was possible, with a range of 0 to 2 points for each of the six variables.

As for the prospective study, data from 95 horses with colic were collected to assess the validity of the colic scoring system. Those that received a score equal to or less than 7 were predicted to survive, while those that received a score greater than 7 were predicted to die.

Researchers concluded that the scoring system “developed in this study is applicable for clinicians in a hospital setting with a clinical caseload of horses with colic signs using data available in most equine practices.”

Sound feeding management is one way to keep colic at bay, according to Catherine Whitehouse, M.S., a nutritionist at Kentucky Equine Research.

“Many of the nutritional strategies that horse owners follow daily, sometimes subconsciously, evolved with gastrointestinal health in mind: near constant availability of forage, whether it's pasture or hay; small concentrate meals; access to potable water; and the provision of clean, or hygienic, feedstuffs,” she said. Everyday awareness of these and other management practices fosters gastrointestinal health.

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“More recently, we have begun to understand the importance of balancing all-forage diets with vitamins and minerals, and augmenting diets with nutritional supplements that target specific problems,” she explained. “Kentucky Equine Research has developed ways to support gastrointestinal health on many fronts, such as protecting the stomach from ulceration and maintaining a healthy hindgut microbiome.”

*Farrell, A., K. Kersh, R. Liepman, and K.A. Dembek. 2021. Development of a colic scoring system to predict outcome in horses. Frontiers in Veterinary Science:697589.

Reprinted courtesy of Kentucky Equine Research. Visit ker.com for the latest in equine nutrition and management, and subscribe to Equinews to receive these articles directly.

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Message from the NTRA’s Tom Rooney

Former U.S. congressman Tom Rooney is the new president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA). He released a statement Wednesday, which appears below. For more insight into Rooney's plans and priorities for the NTRA, watch or listen to the final 2021 Writers' Room podcast (links appear at the bottom of the story). Following is Rooney's Wednesday statement in its entirety:

Horse racing has been in my family since long before I was born, and I've grown up with a passion for the sport. When I retired from Congress a few years ago, many people asked me what I would do next. I often responded that I wasn't too sure, I was going to coach my kids in football, and that my dream would be to own a horse that would run in the Kentucky Derby.

Fast forward to last year, when my predecessor Alex Waldrop announced he was retiring from NTRA. When I heard about this opportunity, I thought to myself how much I love horse racing, and how deeply I want to be a part of it for the rest of my life. Now, as the new President and CEO of this great organization, I am excited for the future of the industry and feel deeply honored to help play a small part in shaping what that future looks like.

It's not lost on me that the industry and racing as a whole has changed significantly in my lifetime, and will continue to evolve for future generations. While these changes may be inevitable, it is critical that we have a unified voice to advocate for what's best for the industry overall. I was hired for one reason and one reason only: to go to Washington, D.C. and be that unified voice on behalf of the Thoroughbred breeding and racing industry.

As a former Member of Congress, I understand how Washington works. As a horse owner and fan myself, I understand many of the leading issues we face. But as your representative in Washington, I know that I don't have all the answers. I need to spend time with you, listening and understanding, to get a sense of what's most important and how I can most successfully advocate on your behalf. My goal is to build consensus in the industry and tell the positive story of the sport in Washington.

We're always going to face opposition, and there will be some people we can never convince that we're doing what's right by the animals we so deeply care about. We need to constantly strive to do the best that we can do for the industry. We need to hold people accountable for wrongdoing. We need to praise the good news and successes we have. And we need to work to maintain horse racing for generations to come.

I'm eager and excited to work with you and serve as the leader of NTRA. Together, we can continue to do great things.

The post Message from the NTRA’s Tom Rooney appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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