Winchester, a globetrotting turf horse who was a multiple Grade 1 winner in the U.S., died in Korea on March 27, per Korea Racing Authority records. He was 17.
The son of Theatrical had resided at stud in Korea since the 2014 breeding season, arriving in the country after a brief stint in Australia.
Bred in Virginia by Mr. and Mrs. Bertram R. Firestone, Winchester initially raced as a homebred in partnership with Allen Paulson in Europe. He was listed stakes-placed in Ireland during his 3-year-old campaign, then relocated to the U.S. in the middle of that season, where he won the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park in his debut start.
Winchester came into his own at age five, racking up victories in the G1 Manhattan Handicap and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational Stakes. He also finished fourth in that year's Breeders' Cup Turf at Churchill Downs. His 6-year-old campaign included a win in the G1 Sword Dancer Invitational Stakes.
Winchester retired with six wins in 30 career starts for earnings of $1,607,774.
His stud career has been quiet, covering small books of mares in Korea and producing runners of modest success. His highest ranking on the country's general sire list was a 42nd-place finish in 2019.
This week's TDN Snippets have a little international flavor, while also appreciating one of America's best, and most versatile, stallions.
Can lightning strike twice?
LNJ's Lighthouse (Mizzen Mast)'s Group 1 exploits in Australia have been well documented, and she's set to be offered through the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in May. The same connections have sent Ivy League (Medaglia d'Oro), formerly with Richard Mandella, to the Ciaron Maher/David Eustace stable trying to repeat the magic formula.
All Purpose. All Places. All Power…
It's not just a marketing slogan, as Speightstown has amassed 23 Northern Hemisphere G1SWs. Here's the breakdown by distance/surface (note: Charlatan won G1s at two different trips, Rock Fall was a 2x G1 winner at 6f)
22 And Counting…
Less than 24 hours after 'TDN Rising Star' Shirl's Speight became the newest top-level scorer, see above, for WinStar's Speightstown in Friday's Maker's Mark Mile, the nursery's homebred son Under Oath followed suit with an eye-catching Keeneland maiden victory to become the 22nd 'Rising Star' for the son of Gone West. He's still going strong at 24 years of age.
There's Something About Mary…
Mary's Follies (More Than Ready), a MGSW who sold at the 2021 Keeneland January sale for $500,000 to BBA Ireland for the Coolmore connections, is not only the dam of GI Jenny Wiley S. winner Regal Glory (Animal Kingdom), but also of Japanese sensation Cafe Pharoah (American Pharoah). Sadly, Mary's Follies was reported as having aborted her Curlin foal at the time of her sale, but has the 2-year-old colt Ready to Connect (Connect), who sold at OBS March for $180,000 to Chad Schumer after working a furlong.
Remember Me?
Sunday Racing's Geoglyph (Jpn) (Drefong) closed from off the pace to win Sunday's G1 Satsuki Sho, the first leg in Japan's Triple Crown. This marked the first Group 1 scorer for U.S. Sprint Champion Drefong (Gio Ponti), winner of a trio of Grade I races for Bob Baffert, including the 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. Drefong's fee is ¥7,000,000 ($55,000) at Shadai Stallion Station in 2022.
It's been 13 years since racetracks and tote companies said they solved the issue of odds changing throughout the running of a race. Yet at least one prominent racetrack still has a problem posting final odds until a minute or more after a race has started.
In the fifth race at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla., on Friday, April 15, the number four horse, Chill Haze, was installed a 30-1 longshot in a field of seven runners carrying a $5,000 claiming price in a mile and 40-yard contest. In three one-turn sprint starts at Tampa Bay Downs in January and February, Chill Haze was never less than 20-1 odds and he beat one horse in those three races. after showing early speed and stopping.
Transferred from trainer Enrique Amado to Rafael Romero, Chill Haze was dropped from $6,250 claiming to $5,000 and stretched out to two turns. None of his four career wins came around two turns, though he'd been tried at longer distances before.
In the April 15 race, jockey Lexander Sanchez gunned Chill Haze out of the starting gate and quickly took the lead. The odds displayed on the race video shortly after the start showed him at 12-1, bet down considerably from his 30-1 morning line.
In another 10 seconds, the odds on Chill Haze were 10-1 as he led into the backstretch. He maintained a comfortable advantage down the backside, but 35 seconds after being listed at 10-1, the odds were suddenly just 6-1.
Ten seconds later, with Chill Haze still leading over over 7-5 favorite Bourbon Wisdom, the odds dropped a final time, t0 7-2, making this one-time 30-1 outsider the third choice in the betting.
It took 65 seconds from the start of the race for the final odds to be posted.
Chill Haze put away the favorite, but second betting choice It's Fate ran him down in the final sixteenth of a mile to win by three-quarters of a length. Chill Haze paid $5 to place and $3.20 to show.
A similar incident occurred at Tampa Bay Downs in the eighth race on March 30, when front-running Ideal Breeze defeated the 6-5 favorite R Love On the Run in a six-furlong race at 12-1 odds. It took over a minute for the video to display his final odds, having started the horse at 18-1. then 19-1, then 14-1 and finally 12-1.
When asked about that incident, Peter Berube, the track's vice president and general manager, said he was awaiting a response from tote provider Amtote on some “cycling issues.” Berube insisted there is no betting taking place after the start of a race.
Those issues were said to be fixed way back in 2009 when many tracks were experiencing similar delays in posting final odds, and suspicions about “past posting” – betting after the start of the race – were running rampant. Adding fuel to those suspicions were occasional instances where an official would forget to hit the “stop betting” button or there were technical glitches that permitted some bets to be placed after the start.
My suspicion at the time was that racing had moved into the 21st century while relying on 20th century technology to process bets from an increasing number of locations within North America and from offshore wagering companies. Compounding the problem in recent years are the computer assisted wagering accounts that can dump a massive number of bets into the pools in the final seconds before betting is closed.
The solution in 2009 was to speed up the cycling of bets into the host track's pool, shortening the cycle time from 30 seconds to 10 seconds. Many tracks opted not to display odds on the video screen until 10 seconds into a race, at which time almost all of the bets had been processed.
Another issue at that time was lack of synchronization between the totalizator odds and the video display software. That was supposed to be fixed, too.
It's not acceptable for odds to change more than a minute into a horse race. It leads to suspicions and questions about the integrity of the betting pools from horseplayers. They have a right to be suspicious. This is something that needs to be fixed once and for all.
