For the sixth year in a row, America’s Best Racing is challenging some of the brightest minds in horse betting to come up with their top three picks for key races every weekend leading up to the 2022 Triple Crown and then continuing through the 2022 Breeders’ Cup World Championships. The handicappers face off in what we like to call the “Big Race Showdown.”
Month: May 2022
Top Win Contenders in the 2022 Kentucky Derby
The 148th running of the $3 million, Grade 1 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve brings together a full field of 20 Saturday, May 7 at Churchill Downs. In addition, there are two horses that are also-eligible and can run if any starters in the main body of the race withdraw by 9 a.m. ET on the morning of Friday, May 6.
Giannelli Trial Continues
Lisa Giannelli testified at her horse doping trial May 4 that she had a good reason for wanting to testify in her own defense.
“To tell my story,” she told the jury in U.S. District Court in New York.
She is on trial on a conspiracy charge, accused of assisting veterinarian Seth Fishman in the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs that prosecutors say were used by corrupt trainers to dope racehorses in violation of racing regulations.
During three hours of questioning by her attorney Louis Fasulo, Giannelli, who admitted being nervous when her testimony began, told the jury that it was never her intention to defraud any racing commissions.
She also testified that she never benefited financially when trainers decided to break the rules to win races.
And she testified that she never agreed with Fishman to engage in fraud.
“It was never my intention,” Giannelli testified.
The testimony came on the trial's sixth day in front of Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil.
The trial resumes May 5 with closing arguments and then possibly jury deliberations.
Prosecutors say Fishman, who was convicted in February and faces 20 years in prison, manufactured PEDs that Giannelli sold out of her home as an employee of Fishman's company Equestology.
Giannelli testified it was her understanding she could sell whatever products Fishman created because he was a licensed veterinarian.
“I was just to take orders,” she told the jury. “I was not to give medical advice or offer a medical opinion or act as a veterinarian.”
Giannelli testified drugs she kept in her home that the FBI seized when she was arrested in 2020 were “items of Dr. Fishman that clients called in for as needed.”
She said Fishman manufactured his products without her help and that she knew little about them.
Gianelli also testified that she wasn't involved in designing labels for those products.
Asked then by Fasulo why another Equestolgoy employee sought her input on the color of a new drug bottle's cap, she replied, “Dr. Fishman was color blind.”
She also said that in conversations with Fishman it was hard to know what he was talking about.
Giannelli told the jury she didn't know what he meant when he told her about “stem cells” in a 2019 call that was wiretapped by the FBI.
“He is rambling and I was just like 'yeah,'” Gianelli testified. “Dr. Fishman rambled a lot.”
When asked why she sold drugs without any label on the bottle, she said, “That was a decision by my boss. It was what it was.”
On cross examination, prosecutor Sarah Mortazavi asked Giannelli if she knew the difference between prescription and non-prescription drugs.
“My employer did,” the witness testified, adding that she knows the difference now.
“But you didn't at the time?” Mortazavi asked.
“I know only know what Dr. Fishman told me,” Giannelli replied.
At another point, Mortazavi asked Giannelli if she had suggested new products for Fishman to make a Equestology.
“Yes,” the witness said.
“So now you are clarifying your testimony on direct in which you testified that you didn't suggest new products for Seth Fishman to make?” the prosecutor asked.
“Correct,” Giannelli testified.
At the start of the cross-examination, Mortazavi asked Giannelli about her days working as a groom and a trainer at harness tracks decades ago, before she began working for Fishman. Giannelli acknowledged her license was suspended when a horse tested positive for TCO2.
“It was a bicarbonate,” the witness testified.
“Is that baking soda?” Mortazavi asked.
“Bicarbonate is whatever bicarbonate is,” Giannelli told the jury.
The Thoroughbred industry's leading publications are working together to cover this key trial.
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Mike Repole Talks Derby, Oaks, Uncle Mo, Kobe Bryant On Writers’ Room
In arguably the most entertaining interview of the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland's 130-plus episode history, billionaire and high-profile owner/breeder Mike Repole sat down with Joe Bianca and Jon Green Tuesday as the Green Group Guest of the Week for a lively discussion that covered Repole's GI Kentucky Derby and GI Kentucky Oaks chances this weekend, his shared legacy with super-stallion Uncle Mo, his eight-figure donation to a nonprofit that honors his late friend Kobe Bryant and much more.
Looking for his first Derby win Saturday with Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo), who he bought into last Friday, Repole's weekend could start with a bang Friday as his Nest (Curlin), owned in partnership with Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House, was given a 5-2 morning-line nod in one of the strongest Oaks fields in recent memory.
“For a Curlin to be so precocious, win the Demoiselle and come back and win two stakes this year in incredible fashion, especially in the Ashland; we all know Curlins want to be 4-year-olds, so when they're this talented at three, you've got to feel really, really good,” Repole said. “And every week that goes by, she gets older and looks better. I'm really, really excited by her, and we all know the distance is not going to be an issue. In fact, if they can move this race to a mile and a half, we'll sign up for that too.”
Asked if that means, with a win Friday, Nest could be pointed for a run against males in the GI Belmont S., Repole said, “If you're interviewing me at the end of the race and I have a smile on my face, there's a chance. But if you're not interviewing me at the end and I'm just walking to my car, then I might have a different answer. So let's just leave it at that.”
A Derby win for Repole with Mo Donegal would be sweet for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the colt's sire, who launched Repole into racing stardom on the racetrack and has since proven himself as one of the top sires at the world at Coolmore's Ashford Stud.
“It's everything,” Repole said about Uncle Mo's impact on his racing life. “Obviously I'm playing the game at a very, very high level now and [thanks to] Uncle Mo, I went from claimers you used to lose money on, to Grade I horses you lose money on, so the consistent part is you're losing money. But when he won, he gave me that taste of, 'This is why I'm in the game.' I've said before I'm probably never going to own a horse more talented or brilliant than Uncle Mo. I've had Grade I wins, I won a Classic, I won a Travers, but as far as pure brilliance, only Uncle Mo is Uncle Mo. I remember going into the paddock for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, seeing all these horses then panning over to Uncle Mo and you say, 'Who put the 3-year-old in to play with the 2-year-olds?' It was almost like a high school kid playing against third-graders. I was so nervous for like three weeks, then once I went in the paddock, I started to get nervous for the other horses. It was amazing. He was just ahead of his time. People ask if he could've gotten a mile and a quarter. He could've gotten a mile and a half. He would've been American Pharoah before American Pharoah. And you know what? He proved it in the stallion barn.”
Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association, XBTV, West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers talked about what they're watching for on a monster Oaks/Derby weekend and what the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's new drug enforcement partnership could mean for racing. Click here to watch the show; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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