New rules brought in to cut down on whip use by jockeys in bid to address public concerns
A raft of measures aimed at addressing public concerns over the use of the whip will be implemented in the Autumn by the BHA.
Month: July 2022
Princess Grace Repeats In Dr. James Penny Memorial At Parx
Taken to the lead shortly after the start by jockey Florent Geroux, John and Susan Moore's 5-year-old homebred Karakontie mare, Princess Grace, posted a front-running score in the Grade 3, $200,000 Dr. James Penny Memorial Stakes at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa., on Tuesday. The Michael Stidham trainee also captured the 2021 renewal of the race.
Heavily favored Flirting Bridge finished second under Julien Leparoux, with Love in the Air and Paco Lopez third and Runaway Rumour and Jorge Vargas Jr. fourth in the field of eight older fillies and mares.
Time for 1 1/16 miles on a firm turf course was 1:43.30.
The win was the first for Princess Grace since last year's G3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf Stakes. The latter was her fourth consecutive graded stakes victory following wins in the G2 Mrs. Revere Stakes in November 2020, the Dr. James Penny Memorial last July and the G2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at Del Mar last August. Following the Yellow Ribbon, Princess Grace ran third in a pair of stakes at Del Mar last November, the G2 Goldikova and the G1 Matriarch.
She kicked off her 2022 campaign with a disappointing seventh in the G3 Eatontown Stakes at Monmouth Park June 18.
The post Princess Grace Repeats In Dr. James Penny Memorial At Parx appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Washington Mainstay Frank Lucarelli Saddles 2,000th Winner
Trainer Frank Lucarelli saddled his 2,000th career winner on Sunday when he sent out River Kat to win the fourth race at Lone Star Park. The 3-year-old Washington-bred filly by Dontmesswithkitten won the $7,500 maiden claimer by a nose under Jansen Melancon. One race later on the Lone Star card, Lucarelli got his 2,001st winner with Sargent Kline, and in Sunday's fifth race at Emerald Downs, Lucarelli notched number 2,002 with Ms Parkside.
Lucarelli, 65, has training operations in both Washington and Texas. He notched his first career victory in Washington State in 1979, and ranks first in wins at Emerald Downs and has seven training titles at the Auburn track.
The trainer spoke with Eli Sports Network, the leader of High School Sports coverage in Southwest Washington, after the victory.
“This day didn't seem very possible the first year I was training, because I was wondering if I was going to get enough horses to be doing this job,” Lucarelli said. “My first win ever was at Portland Meadows. I had one horse, and I lived in a little travel trailer. I probably over-trained her; she was probably ready to run a month before I ran her! I won that race the first time I ran her, and after that I took quite a while to get to my second win.
“It's an eye-opener right away; this business is tough. Anybody that's done it knows it… I've been fortunate to have clients that have stuck with me through a lot of years.”
According to a story on the Western Washington University website, Lucarelli was born in New York but the family moved to Washington state when he was just three years old. His father became part-owner of a horse stabled at Longacres in Renton, Wash., and Lucarelli would join his father every Saturday for trips to the racetrack.
Lucarelli decided that after his baseball career, he'd become a horse trainer. As pitcher for the WWU team, he threw the only perfect game in the program's history on Apr. 9, 1977.
Two-and-a-half years later, Lucarelli would saddle his first winner on the racetrack.
The entire Washington Thoroughbred industry was on edge when Longacres shuttered in 1992, and racing was not held in the Western part of the state again until Emerald Downs opened in Auburn in 1996.
“Ron Crockett opening this track literally saved my family and myself, so I'm thankful for that,” Lucarelli said. “We've had a great run here at Emerald Downs… I hope I have a lot more wins in the barn here. Washington has been great.”
In 2019, Lucarelli became the first trainer to win 1,000 races at Emerald Downs, and also won the first five races on an eight-race card, a track record.
The top horse Lucarelli trained was Gallant Son, only the second-ever horse from Emerald Downs to race in the Breeders' Cup when he started in the Juvenile in 2008.
“Gallant Son is just a phenomenal horse,” Lucarelli said. “He won stakes races until he was 9 years old, Horse of the Year [at Emerald], ran in the Breeders' Cup and got beat four lengths.
“His name is number one. ”
Watch the full interview with Eli Sports Network here:
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Fishman Has Been Sentenced. Is That the End of This Story?
Having been convicted of two counts of drug adulteration and misbranding, with intent to defraud and mislead, Dr. Seth Fishman was sentenced Monday to 11 years in prison, by far the longest sentence handed down to anyone among the many people tied up in a far-reaching doping scandal that has shaken the Thoroughbred and Standardbred industries. He will soon call a federal penitentiary home, and for a long time. Good. He got what he deserved.
But is this the end of his story or a precursor to what's to come? Are the arrests of Fishman, Jason Servis, Jorge Navarro and some 25 others just the first chapter in scandal that will bring down dozens, maybe even hundreds, of others? Some say that is inevitable.
“I have no doubt there are many arrests pending,” Jockey Club Chairman Stuart Janney III said at the 2020 Jockey Club Round Table. “Fortunately they will happen, just not as soon as we would like.”
Despite Janney's assurances, nothing is certain here. Nothing is clear cut.
Fishman is a key figure. Surely, he was dealing performance-enhancing drugs to far more people than those who were targeted, indicted and convicted of doping horses by the federal government. It can't just be Servis, Navarro and a handful of others.
In February, a list of Fishman's clients was released. But that raised more questions than it answered. There were more than 2,000 individuals on the list, and virtually all of them were from the Standardbred industry. The list included hundreds of people whose integrity has never been questioned and who have spotless records. That may be because some of those whose names were on the list purchased legal medications from Fishman. We just don't know.
So the list did not answer the key question: who was buying performance-enhancing drugs from Dr. Fishman? Fishman may decide to answer that question, to tell all. Maybe he already has. Then again, maybe that's not necessary. Is there a paper trail of not only who he sold drugs to but which drugs? One would think that would be the case. There's also the case of Louis Grasso. Another veterinarian who dealt primarily with Standardbreds, he entered a guilty plea in May on the charges of one count of drug adulteration and misbranding conspiracy. What does he know? Who, beyond those already caught up in the scandal, was he dealing his drugs to? Will we ever find out? Nailing a bunch of other cheats would seem to be a case of low-hanging fruit.
“I hope there will be more arrests and indictments,” said Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural, who has played a large part in the effort to catch the worst of the worst when it came to racing's cheats. “I would hope we will be able to find out who bought what from Fishman and Grasso. Because, clearly, they know who bought what. I am sure people bought legitimate medications, but I'm also sure others bought performance-enhancing drugs. I don't think this is the end of it at all.”
One school of thought is that the government is waiting, that it wants to first resolve all the cases against all the alleged cheaters from the original March, 2020 indictments. That includes Servis, who is set to go on trial in January. After Servis' trial is over and, if he is found guilty, and his sentence has been announced, maybe that's when there will be a fresh and lengthy list of additional horsemen, trainers and vets that have been indicted.
But here's another scenario, one that I believe is most likely.
The government probably already has a laundry list of people who bought PEDs from Fishman and Grasso. It wouldn't be hard to come up with one. And maybe Fishman and Grasso, in hopes of getting a lighter sentence, have cooperated with the authorities and named names. That's entirely possible, if not plausible. But that doesn't mean that the government has to act on that.
Does the government really want to use up even more resources on something, that in the grand scheme of things, isn't that big of a deal? Every minute they spend trying going after people who may have cheated in what is not a major sport is one less minute they can devote to going after drug dealers, money launderers, gang leaders and the likes of Ghislaine Maxwell. As much as we care about our sport and as much as we want to rid ourselves of the cheats, we really are small potatoes.
The hope is that there are a bunch more bad guys out there who are going to face the consequences for doping horses. I just don't think that's going to happen. Sure hope I am wrong.
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