Month: July 2022

From the TIF: New York Wagering Rules Ignored in Saratoga Pick 5 Fiasco

by the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation

The rule seems clear.

What is also clear is that the rule, as written, was ignored on Thursday, July 21 at Saratoga, though by which party is unknown at present.

“On behalf of aggrieved horseplayers who were impacted by the decision last Thursday, and all future players of multi-race bets in New York, we felt it necessary to seek clarification from the New York State Gaming Commission about the rules, why a seemingly arbitrary decision was made in the sequence and what customer expectations should be going forward in similar cases,” said TIF Executive Director Patrick Cummings.

Contacted on Monday morning, the Commission has yet to reply.

“Customers expect operators and regulators will follow the wagering rules as written,” said professional horseplayer and author Mike Maloney. “Horseplayers' confidence is paramount and there is little doubt that some of that was lost as a result of this incident.”

Horseplayer Eric Bialek, a final table participant in the 2020 National Horseplayers' Championship, was incredulous after the announcement.

“It defies every expectation of horseplayers for a race that was run a half hour earlier to subsequently be declared an all-win,” Bialek said. “Without a proper explanation from either the state or NYRA, speculation is all we have and that's incredibly insufficient.”

For the full story, please click here.

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Group of “Industry Heavyweights” Propose Radical Changes for British Racing to BHA

A group of “industry heavyweights” has made proposals to the BHA ahead of the governing body's upcoming strategy review in an effort to help combat the problems facing British racing.

Peter Savill, a former BHB chairman, revealed to the Nick Luck Daily Podcast on Wednesday that he had spoken to a number of key industry stakeholders after the group's plans for the restructuring of British racing were leaked to The Times newspaper. 

“Over the last few months, I have met with a number of industry heavyweights to get their perspective on a number of issues facing British racing,” Savill told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast.  “As a result of that, we have put together a letter to the BHA outlining principles that we think they should take forward into their upcoming strategy review which starts around August/September time. 

“Those people are, as I say, heavyweights in the industry across all spectrums, so we are talking owners, breeders, trainers, racecourses and the betting industry. It was a very good cross-section of people who felt these principals were worth putting forward to the BHA. It is now up to them.”

The key issues, according to Savill, concentrated mainly on field sizes, prize-money and what he has labelled as a drain of equine talent. Earlier this month it emerged that Juddmonte's Thesis (GB) (Kingman {GB}), successful in the Britannia S. at Royal Ascot for Harry and Roger Charlton, was the latest high-class horse to be sold out of Britain to continue his career overseas after a deal was brokered for him to be sold to Hong Kong.

Savill drew parallels between British racing and a football league continuously losing its best talent to foreign clubs with deeper pockets and predicted huge damage could be done to the core product in Britain if the rot is not halted soon whilst suggesting that increasing the amount of Sunday fixtures was an avenue worth pursuing. 

“Although British prize-money has gone up, to the point where in 2022 it will be £170 million, which will be a record, the problem is, all other countries have gone up a lot faster than ours, particularly in America, where betting off-track has now been legalised. 

“There is a general problem with prize-money but it has now been exacerbated because our horses are not racing for the prize-money that they are worth. We have two real problems, one is field sizes and the other is basically a horse drain, which is a loss of horses at the top end.”

Savill added, “That has been caused by two things; first of all, we lost some major owners in the past few years from Juddmonte, Cheveley Park, Shadwell and King Power. Between 2019 and 2021, those owners are owning 20% less runners and the situation is going to get considerably worse in 2022 with those particular owners.

“The bigger problem is that now, those horses rated in the 80 to 85 range are getting offers up to £200,000 and £250,000 to go off to America to run straight off the plane and win maidens for $100,000. The reduction in the number of horses at the top end has been quite dramatic and when you look at the statistics the BHA put out on an equine drain review recently, every single statistic shows an accelerating departure of horses rated 85 and up. 

“That's the problem that we are faced with; if all of our top footballers were leaving the Premier League and going off to Spain or Italy, the Premier League would have far less appeal to people and the media rights would be far less valuable. That's the equivalent of what we've got-our top horses are disappearing faster than we can do anything about it and we have to do something about it.”

Savill does not think his views are elitist. Moreover, he is of the opinion that by reducing races at the higher end of the spectrum and increasing races for moderate animals, a mutually beneficial environment can be created.

“You have to get your better field sizes at the top end because that's where the greater betting turnover goes. What that means is, we need to reduce the races at the top end and put on more races at the bottom end. If you put on fewer races at the top end, automatically the prize-money will be divided between fewer races to start with. And at the bottom end, the people owning horses will have smaller field sizes and it will be good for them because they will have more races to run their horses in.”

Asked if that, as a result, those horses at the bottom of the food chain would be running for miserly figures, Savill responded, “They certainly shouldn't be running for anything less than what they are running for now but they will be running for far more prize-money because there will be more races for them to actually go and win. It will be easier to win because, instead of running in races with field sizes of 15 and 16 and, rather than getting balloted out, they will be running with field sizes of around 10. 

“We need to level up field sizes so we have the right field sizes for the right class of races. That means fewer races at the top and more races at the bottom.”

It is commonplace in Ireland and France to run flagship races on Sundays whereas the majority of the big races run in Britain take place on a Saturday. However, Savill believes it is time to explore staging more of the bigger meetings on Sundays, despite the fact that the fixtures would enter into direct competition with Ireland and France. 

He explained, “We think there should be more top-end racing televised on a Sunday rather than a bouncing castle day, which Sunday racing is becoming. All the evidence shows from the betting industry and the levy board that Sunday is the best and biggest opportunity for us to develop top-class racing, not just ordinary racing, but top-class racing. That's what happens in Ireland and France but for some reason it has never happened in England. Maybe we should run fewer fixtures on Sundays but they should be quality fixtures with quality horses and the evidence suggests that turnover would be far greater than it is at the moment, as long as it's on terrestrial television.”

 

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Bloodlines: Haskell Exacta Continues Elevating Gun Runner To Loftiest Company

With a one-two finish in the Grade 1 Haskell on July 23, Cyberknife defeating Tiaba by a head, leading sire Gun Runner (by Candy Ride) is wading into the subtle distinctions that separate truly important sires from the select few who transcend the breed and reshape the sport in their own images.

It is too early to say that, with only one crop at age three, but Gun Runner is stacking up accomplishments that bear scrutiny against the great sires of the past.

One of the most important of those accomplishments is getting multiple top-class performers. That's what makes a sire great – highest-quality offspring – but it's so rare and difficult to achieve.

Thirty-four years ago, Mr. Prospector (Raise a Native) had the one-two in 1988 Haskell. In one of the great rivalries of the 1980s, Forty Niner, the previous year's champion juvenile colt, and Seeking the Gold, a lightly raced and improving 3-year-old, showed the speed and determination that made Mr. Prospector one of the greatest sires in history.

The sons of Mr. Prospector – the chestnut and the bay – turned the 1988 Haskell into one of the best horse races in history. It was a truly thrilling event rarely matched in sport, and yet the same pair of colts came back three weeks later in the Travers at Saratoga and restaged their epic duel with the same result.

In both races, Forty Niner was the winner by a nose.

Twenty-two years earlier, Bold Ruler (Nasrullah) had the one-two finishers in the 1966 Garden State Stakes. Some bold planning in the early 1950s had allowed Garden State Park to boost the purse of their Garden State Stakes to be the richest racing event in the world for 2-year-olds. It drew big fields of the top talent to race over a mile and a sixteenth, and it stood for a generation as a championship deciding event, much in the fashion of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile today.

Coming into the 1966 Garden State, the leading colt was Successor, a full-brother to 1964 juvenile champion Bold Lad. Successor had defeated Dr. Fager (Rough'n Tumble) in the Champagne Stakes, then had a shocking reverse in the Pimlico Futurity when second by a neck to In Reality (Intentionally). Yet a success in the lucrative race in Jersey probably would clinch the divisional championship for the bay colt. (Dr. Fager did not race again in 1966 after the Champagne, which was his only loss at two.)

In the Garden State, Successor ran one of the very best races of his career and won by three lengths over the Bold Ruler son Bold Hour, who had six lengths on the colt in third. Earlier that year, Bold Hour had won the Hopeful and the Futurity; so his second in the Garden State was positively good form. As a 4-year-old, Bold Hour also won a race at Garden State Park called the Amory L. Haskell Handicap, well before that race swapped names with the Monmouth Invitational.

Successor profited from his extra racing at 2 to become the divisional champion of 1966, although he struggled thereafter. Dr. Fager, Damascus, In Reality, and Bold Hour made life tough for everyone else in the division too.

Of all the one-two finishes by great sires of the past, the greatest pairing in the greatest race came in 1948.

Juvenile champion Citation had not met the 3-year-old sensation Coaltown until the Kentucky Derby, when trainers Ben and Jimmy Jones sent both sons of Bull Lea (Bull Dog) out together on one of the worst tracks ever for the Kentucky classic. Churchill Downs that day was a muddy mess.

Coaltown possessed exceptional speed, which he had willingly displayed during his spring preps in Kentucky, and his front-running efforts at Keeneland had swayed local horsemen and observers to believe that not even Citation could cope with his kinsman's ability to turn on the speed early and continue through to the finish.

Both owned by Calumet Farm, Coaltown and Citation ran coupled for betting and were odds-on in the field of six. The unbeaten Coaltown broke alertly and sped away to an open lead by the time he passed under the finish wire the first time. Coaltown continued to lead through quick fractions of :23 2/5 and :46 3/5, by which point Coaltown had whistled away to a six-length lead over the sloppy track.

Citation was racing in second under the capable hands of Eddie Arcaro, however, and the master jockey wasn't going to be trapped into a speed duel with a stablemate. He understood pace far too well. Coaltown's next two quarter-mile fractions of six furlongs in 1:11 2/5 and a mile in 1:38 brought him back to the field, and Arcaro had only to use a hand ride to catch Coaltown by the time he reached the stretch call.

Citation drew off to win “handily” by 3 ½ lengths in 2:05 2/5, and yet none of the other horses could close effectively over the tiring track. That left Bull Lea's two great sons to take the first two positions in the Derby, and Citation went on to win the Triple Crown impressively. The next season, when Citation was on the sidelines regaining soundness, Coaltown took over as champion of the division and Horse of the Year in one of the year-end polls.

One of the barriers to clear comparisons between sires of the past and those of the present is that none of these older sires covered books nearly so large as those of the present. A book of 25 to 40 mares was considered adequate, even preferable, but stallions today are presented with a minimum of 125 mares annually, and some cover close to double that number.

Clearly, there could be some dilution of quality in the mates with such policies, as well as concentration of the top breeding stock in a smaller circle of bloodlines. But it does allow a stallion with the genetic and phenotypic excellence to be a super sire to get more top horses earlier than ever before.

Among contemporary sires, both Tapit (Pulpit) and Into Mischief (Harlan's Holiday) started off far from the perceived “best” stallion prospects of their crops and had some relatively small early crops from relatively moderate mares. Even Curlin (Smart Strike) had quite a bit of commercial pushback until his early crops began to display consistent classic potential.

Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie) and Gun Runner have had the steadiest volume in their books of mares and the best results for quality among the stallions with very large books from the start of their breeding careers. Uncle Mo has proven himself both a commercial star and sire of champions, and there seems no reason to expect anything less from the chestnut newcomer to the ranks of leading sires.

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