May, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Mineral Content Of Pasture Affects Hoof Composition In Foals

Sampling of soil, pasture, and hoof capsules occurred in two periods. The first happened in summer and fall when all foals, between one and six months of age, were still nursing their dams; the second occurred after weaning when foals were nine to 12 months old. Forty-one foals were used in the preweaning period, 28 in the postweaning period.

All foals used in the study were Criollo, a South American breed revered for its tractability, soundness, and stamina under saddle. Mature height tends to be between 14 and 15 hands, and most are considered easy keepers. Foals were born and raised on five farms in Brazil. Mares and foals grazed native pastures consisting primarily of bahiagrass, kaimi clover, blanket grass, dallisgrass, and bermudagrass, though hundreds of other pasture species were likely part of the grazing landscape. They received no concentrate or mineral supplementation.

Prior to sampling, hooves were scoured with a mineral free-detergent and dried with anhydrous ethanol. Using a hoof rasp, 2-gram samples were collected from the front of the hoof wall, about 1 cm below the coronary band.

At the same time as hoof sampling, researchers collected pasture samples. Seventeen 1-kg samples were collected every season from the pastures grazed by mares and foals. Soil samples were also collected from each of the five farms.

In the end, researchers observed that the “levels of calcium, copper, and zinc in the hoof capsule during the preweaning and postweaning stages are influenced by the season and different physiographic regions.” More specifically, researchers found no association between calcium concentration in the hoof walls and in pasture from different regions. Contrarily, the copper concentration of the hoof and pasture in preweaning and postweaning, as well as zinc in preweaning, were positively associated. In regard to season, calcium and zinc were higher in both hoof and pasture samples in summer and spring, respectively, yet in autumn the concentration of copper increased. The lowest concentration of these minerals in hoof samples were observed in winter.

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“While this study investigated the mineral concentration of hoof samples collected from pasture-raised foals south of Earth's equator, hoof health is a concern for horse owners the world over, no matter the breed, age, or use,” said Catherine Whitehouse, M.S., a nutritionist at Kentucky Equine Research. “This research emphasizes the importance of a properly balanced diet in the formation of resilient hoof tissue even at a young age.”

A well-balanced diet often confers all of the nutrients needed for healthy, strong hooves. Whitehouse knows well, nevertheless, that some horses benefit from supernutritional hoof support. “Walk in any boarding or training barn that places high importance on nutrition, and you'll likely find hoof supplements. But, as a caveat, selecting the right supplement is imperative.”

The “right supplement,” according to Whitehouse, is one that contains not only biotin, the nutrient most notably aligned with revamping weak hooves, but also other important nutrients: the amino acid methionine, organic zinc, and iodine. Look for high-quality hoof supplements that are manufactured by reputable companies, especially those with an active research program.

“Even high-quality supplements are not a panacea for all horses,” Whitehouse explained. “While the hooves of many horses respond to supplementation, others don't, but it's the only avenue of investigation after other potential causes of poor hoof health are ruled out, namely mistakes in farriery and ration formulation.”

^*Silva, P.M., J.L.S. Silva, D.H. Bonemann, A.S. Ribeiro, L.O. Silva, G.L.B.L. Pizzi, and C.F. Martins. 2022. Influences of the seasons of the year and physiographic regions on the levels of calcium, copper and zinc in the hoof capsule of foals pre- and postweaning and raised in native pasture. Equine Veterinary Journal 109:103854.

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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‘Flash Sale’ a Perfect Opportunity for Ready Made Racing

When Dazzlingdominika (Ghostzapper) won a May 13 maiden special weight race at Churchill her connections were ready to pounce. The 2-year-old filly had become a hot commodity and they wanted to cash in. In year's past that would have meant selling her privately or waiting for the next horses of racing age sale on the calendar.

Instead, she will be sold Thursday by Fasig-Tipton in a one-horse digital, “flash sale,” a new means of selling horses that promises to make it easier for those looking to move horses fast.

“This seems like a good way to do it,” said Taylor Made's Frank Taylor, who heads the Ready Made Racing LLC ownership group. “It's a good way to get people focused on a horse and sell them when they're marketable and hot. Everyone wants to buy something that just won and everybody wants to buy a Kentucky bred. Hopefully, we can get people focused on this.”

Dazzlingdominika is trained by Will Walden, the son of WinStar CEO and President Elliott Walden. Will Walden got off to a late start to his training career because he had been dealing with substance abuse issues. When his life started to turn a corner last summer and he felt it was time for him to begin training, he felt like he needed something to distinguish himself at the start.

He came up with the idea of buying relatively inexpensive yearlings and running them in maiden races restricted to horses that sold for less than a certain amount at the sales. Dazzlingdominika was bought at Keeneland September for $30,000. The race she won at Churchill, which was her second career start, was restricted to horses that sold or RNA'd for $45,000 or less in the their most recent auction. Should they win one of those maiden races or show signs of promise they would be sold. It was a new take on pinhooking, selling yearling buys not at the 2-year-old sales but after they had distinguished themselves in races for 2-year-olds. Taylor came on board as his principal owner and formed Ready Made Racing.

“We came up with a game plan six, seven months ago,” Walden said. “In order for Ready Made to do this again next year we have to sell these horses in order to raise money to go the sales again. This has been the plan all along. We aren't selling the ones we don't like and keeping the ones we like. Everything in my stable is for sale. That was target goal when I came up with this idea back in August and we mean to see it through.

“Hopefully, I'd like to get to a place some day where the stable gets to recruit 2-year-olds we can race through their careers. Starting out training, we have to take an edge where we can get one. And this was an idea that sounded appetizing to the guys. We wanted to try something new, a different way of pinhooking horses.”

Before pop-up or flash sales came to be, selling Dazzlingdominika would have been a lot harder to pull off. The best way to do so may have been a private sale. That would have required Walden and Taylor to get the word out that the filly was for sale and then field phone calls from prospective buyers.

“Why just take individual phone calls and bat a number back and forth when you can let all the potential buyers bat it out in the ring?” Walden said.

It is not Taylor's first experience with a flash sale. In Fasig-Tipton's first ever flash sale, Taylor sold Sweet Tea (Into Mischief) for $320,000. The broodmare prospect had been owned by late Rick Porter.

“When we sold Sweet Tea it was a big success,” Taylor said. “We're trying it again with this filly. She won impressively and came back well. She's ready to move forward.”

In the case of Dazzlingdominika, prospective buyers will not only have to look at her race record, but project what she might do going forward. Walden believes that her future is bright.

“Personally, I don't train super aggressively,” he said. “I want to sell these horses with their best days in front of them and not behind them. Just like any seller would want, I want these horses to go on and have careers outside of this barn and go on win more races. We've done the bare minimum with her, without running them too unfit or running them unprepared or run in place where they could get injured. We had her ready but haven't tapped into the real meat of the horse.”

The bidding on Dazzlingdominika began Monday. At deadline for this story, the bidding was up to $70,000. The sale closes 2 p.m. (EDT) Thursday.

Taylor said that his team has been working behind the scenes to let as many people as possible know that a nice prospect is about to be sold through the digital sales ring.

“Some people think in a sale like this you don't need an agent,” he said. “Actually, you need an agent more than you would in a normal sale. You can't just throw it out there and say here it is. We have a team calling trainers and buyers, calling people who like to buy these kinds of horses. We've been dialing for dollars all day. We're getting a lot of responses and there's already been a lot of active bidding.”

It's anyone's guess so far as what she will sell for, but whatever it is, it will no doubt represent a healthy profit for her original investors. She cost just $30,000 at the sales, has earned $53,720 on the racetrack and will no doubt sell for six figures.

“This gives you a chance to market a horse when the timing is at the very best,” Taylor said.

With this filly, Walden's plan has worked perfectly, thanks, in large part, to a new way of selling horses.

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Baffert: Churchill a ‘Public Park’, Not Private Property

Trainer Bob Baffert, in his attempt to reverse a two-year ban from tracks operated by Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), underscored in a May 23 court filing that because CDI in 2002 transferred its flagship Louisville facility to the city and then leased back the land as part of a lucrative redevelopment financing deal, the gaming corporation that controls the GI Kentucky Derby gave up its right to exclude individuals based on private-property rights.

“CDI conveyed the Churchill Downs Racetrack to the City to convert the 'racetrack facility' into a 'recreation park' that 'will be utilized to make horseracing, entertainment, dining, pari-mutuel wagering and other recreational activities available to the public,'” Baffert's legal team argued, quoting from a 20-year-old municipal lease and citing documents that CDI had filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the time of the transaction.

“In so doing, CDI declared its purpose to devote the racetrack, the underlying real estate, and the facilities thereon 'to the public use,' which effected a dedication and a forfeiture of exclusion rights,” the filing stated.

According to Baffert's initial complaint, the lease, which runs through 2032, was part of a tax increment financing agreement between CDI, the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government, and the Louisville Development Authority.

The city took title to the property, advanced funds to CDI, and designated the track as a “recreation park” within the meaning of Chapter 103 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes. Under the terms of the lease and Churchill Downs's designation as a development area, the track is exempt from taxation by the city “and other political subdivisions in Kentucky to the same extent as other public property used for public purposes.”

Thus, as it applies to the federal lawsuit Baffert initiated Feb. 28 against CDI, its chief executive, Bill Carstanjen, and corporate board chair, Alex Rankin, “Defendants have excluded Mr. Baffert from a municipal park, an action which has regularly been held to be a traditionally exclusive public function,” the filing stated.

“Mr. Baffert has a protected liberty interest in plying his trade at Churchill Downs Racetrack, a public park….” the filing continued. “Mr. Baffert clearly has liberty interests in using public property for its intended purposes and to enjoy it in the manner he is expressly permitted to do by law, and Defendants interfered with those interests.”

The beef over whether CDI is overstepping its power by excluding Baffert from a purportedly public space isn't the only issue that the plaintiff raised in Monday's filing, which took the form of a response to CDI's May 2 motion for dismissing the suit.

Baffert also took umbrage with CDI's alleged restraint of his ability to participate in interstate commerce, CDI's supposed “usurping” of the powers of the state racing commission to police the sport, and a purported “conspiracy” by CDI's higher-ups to “deprive [Baffert's clients] of their freedom to select their chosen trainer for their Derby horses while leaving the licenses of their own trainers unencumbered.”

June 2 will mark the one-year anniversary of CDI's ruling-off of the Hall-of-Fame trainer whose horses have crossed the finish wire first in the Derby a record seven times.

But one of those winners-Medina Spirit in 2021-is facing an under-appeal disqualification from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission because a post-race test detected an overage of betamethasone.

That failed test, plus Baffert's history of equine drug positives in major races in the year prior to the '21 Derby, were the stated catalysts for CDI moving to exclude him.

“This lawsuit is as meritless as all of his others,” CDI had stated three weeks ago when asking the judge to toss Baffert's suit. “Baffert's claims fail as a matter of law, and this Court should dismiss his complaint in its entirety.”

“Whatever his theory may be, Baffert is wrong in contending that CDI had no right to exclude him,” CDI stated in that motion to dismiss, asserting that legal precedents have established that Churchill Downs is “a private facility” that may “exclude whomever it desire[s] from the track.”

Baffert's filing on Monday reiterated what his lawyers had previously alleged in the initial complaint: “that individuals within CDI entered into an unlawful contract, combination, or conspiracy to exclude Baffert (and, thus, owners who use Mr. Baffert's services) from participating in the market for Derby horses; that members of this conspiracy own and race horses, and that they were the moving force behind the suspension.”

Those actions amount to a smear campaign, the filing implied.

“Over the last year, Defendants have wielded their substantial resources to spearhead a media campaign, to construct a strawman with the likeness of Bob Baffert, and to fashion it a scarecrow. They have defamed Mr. Baffert, impugned his integrity, and accused him (baselessly)
of criminal conduct,” the filing stated.

At a different point, Baffert's filing outlined the purported motives of the alleged CDI conspirators, framing the argument through the lens of the highly competitive quest to win the Kentucky Derby and then reap substantial bloodstock benefits when the champ retires to stud.

“Only a handful of trainers can reliably produce a Derby horse,” Baffert's attorneys wrote. “The operation and effect of this conspiracy therefore deprives the conspirators' competitors of the elite training services offered by Mr. Baffert, decreasing their horses' ability to qualify for and compete effectively in the Kentucky Derby and its qualifying races, and ultimately reducing their horses' value as breeding stock.

“At the same time, the conspirators remain able to utilize the elite training services of their choosing. This restraint opens the door to otherwise-lower-performing horses succeeding in races where they otherwise would have failed, thus inflating their value. In that way, the conspirators' horses' increase in value not because of the superior efficiency of their breeding and training operations but from their control over the facility that determines their horses' values. The special disability imposed on the 'relationships the competitors need in the competitive struggle' is the exact competition-reducing restraint on trade antitrust laws forbid.”

CDI, according to Baffert, is also going against the intent and spirit of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA).

“[B]ecause Defendants attempt to impose conditions on Mr. Baffert's ability to race horses in interstate commerce, federal public policy must be taken into account,” the filing stated. “Congress has created [HISA] and vested it with 'independent and exclusive national authority' over 'anti-doping and medication control matters.' Defendants' conduct would frustrate the express purpose of this Act, which replaces the current entity-by-entity regime with a national set of rules that 'should be uniform and uniformly administered nationally.'”

Baffert's filing also included-without citing the names of any contemporaries-a brief discussion about how his history of overages for permitted therapeutic medications is “comparable to or better than most at his level.”

Baffert also stated how racing's long-standing “absolute insurer” rule that applies to trainers is “a draconian combination of strict liability and assumption-of-risk which neither assigns personal fault nor depends upon any finding of culpability.”

And when charged with an infraction under the absolute insurer rule, how does a trainer defend himself?

According to Baffert's filing. the “only practical defense is to mitigate the inevitable penalty by showing, for example, that the overage was the result of a simple miscommunication, an oversight, or environmental contamination.”

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Lynam Eyes Group 1 Double at Royal Ascot With Romantic Proposal

Only Choisir (Aus) and Blue Point (Ire) have managed to win the King's Stand and the Platinum Jubilee in the same year but Eddie Lynam has opened the door to his Group 1-winning sprinter Romantic Proposal (Ire) (Raven's Pass) emulating those legendary speedsters at Royal Ascot next month and is eyeing an audacious tilt at the double.

Romantic Proposal showed blistering speed in winning the G1 Flying Five S. at the Curragh last season and, despite treating the Listed Woodlands S. at Naas like a piece of work on her comeback, the star sprinter will not run again before the royal meeting and will be kept fresh by Lynam.

“We were delighted with her comeback and decided to leave it at that with her because we're trying to keep her fresh for Royal Ascot,” Lynam told TDN Europe on Tuesday.

“She has entries in the King's Stand and the Platinum Jubilee and we're going to bring her over there fresh. We'll run her on the Tuesday, all going well, and then we'll see how she recovers. If we're happy with her, she will take her chance on the Saturday as well.”

Lynam added, “If you mind them when they are young, they can pay you back in spades when they get older, but that's easy for me to say as I have the owners who will let me do that. She was never going to be a 2-year-old and has developed from being a premier handicapper to making the big jump last year at five.

“You could say that she has improved again judging by that Naas performance as, while it probably wasn't the strongest listed race ever run, she was very impressive.”

Romantic Proposal can be backed at 10-1 for the King's Stand while odds of 16-1 are available for the Platinum Jubilee. According to Lynam, the King's Stand is the preferred target for the mare, who will only back up if her main assignment goes to plan.

He explained, “I'm not saying she can do the double but it's tempting. I was going to do it before with Sole Power (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}) but I didn't because he wasn't equally as good over six furlongs as he was over five. We won't back her up unless we're happy with her.”

Lynam added, “The King's Stand is the preferred target of the two and it's shaping up to be a real international race. Golden Pal (Uncle Mo) was very impressive in America recently so if he shows that sort of form we could be in trouble as he would be difficult to beat.

“Nature Strip (Aus) (Nicconi {Aus}) also has to be respected, as does any Australian sprinter, given the history of Choisir, Starspangledbanner (Aus) and all the rest of them. The Queen looks like she has a good one [King's Lynn (GB) (Cable Bay {Ire})] and Ireland will be well-represented with A Case Of You (Ire) (Hot Streak {Ire}) so it looks a top race.”

Should Romantic Proposal shine on the biggest of stages, she would once again highlight the prowess of Lynam's daughter Amy, who pinhooked the Clipper Logistics-owned star as a foal.

Amy was also responsible for sourcing Soffia (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}), who won a Group 2 for her father, and plans on capitalising on the recent run of success by making a go of it as a bloodstock agent.

She explained, “I'm over the moon with what Romantic Proposal has done. From her and Soffia before that, I am hoping to pick up some orders for the yearling sales. I always thought that being a bloodstock agent would be a great job but didn't know if I'd be any good at it. Thanks to the two of them, I might try and give it a go.”

Lynam added, “I bought a brother to Mums Tipple (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) at the November Foal Sale at Goffs last year and the plan is to pinhook him. He's very nice and is the only one I have at the moment but I'd like to try and fill a few orders if I can. I wanted to prove that I was good enough to do it first before I started spending people's money.”

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