The historic $1.25 million, Grade 1 Runhappy Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course dates all the way back to 1864, which means it is older than the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, Preakness St
Month: August 2022
Baffert Appeals, Asks KHRC To Remove Already-Served Suspension From His Record
Horse Racing Nation reports that Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who served a 90-day suspension from April 4 through July 2, 2022, will appeal to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to have that suspension removed from his record.
Baffert and attorneys Clark Brewster and Craig Robertson are scheduled to meet with the KHRC this week in Frankfort, Ky., for a hearing that could last the entire week. They seek to reverse Medina Spirit's disqualification, along with the removal of the suspension from Baffert's record.
The KHRC disqualified Medina Spirit from his win in the 2021 Kentucky Derby due to a post-race finding of betamethasone. The decision included the 90-day suspension for Baffert, which was reciprocated across all racing states, and a $7,500 fine. Medina Spirit died after a workout at Santa Anita Park on Dec. 6, 2021; a necropsy was inconclusive.
In March, the KHRC unanimously denied Baffert's request to set aside the suspension before it would hear the case, and Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate issued a ruling on March 21 siding with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) and denying Baffert's bid to overturn the commission's refusal to issue a stay of his suspension. That lead Baffert to his filing for an emergency stay with the state's Court of Appeals, which was denied by Acting Chief Judge Allison Jones.
Baffert resumed training at Santa Anita Park on July 3, 2022.
The KHRC suspension differs from Baffert's two-year ban from all Churchill Downs, Inc. properties, which is being contested in court. A one-year ban was also instituted by the New York Racing Association, which lasts through Jan. 25, 2023.
According to HRN, the winner's share of the 2021 Kentucky Derby purse has not yet been awarded to Juddmonte Farm, owner of Mandaloun, who crossed the wire second behind Medina Spirit but was awarded the victory upon the colt's disqualification. The KHRC does not plan to pay out that prize money until the entire legal process is concluded.
Read more at Horse Racing Nation.
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Rockets At The Ready As Doncaster Set To Soar
Not since Elon Musk became infatuated with space has there been so many rockets assembled in the one place at any given time than at Doncaster ahead of the Premier Yearling Sale.
These particular starships have been bred to fly and, lurking among the 411 yearlings getting ready for takeoff at Goffs UK over the next few days could be the next Acclamation (GB), Dark Angel (Ire), Wootton Bassett (GB) or Tasleet (GB), all of whom are graduates of this sale.
Joe Foley knows a thing or two about rockets. The Ballyhane man jetted into Doncaster on Monday morning and was greeted with nothing but good reports from vendors and buyers about his freshman sire Soldier's Call (GB) (Showcasing {GB}).
A smart sprinter, Soldier's Call won the G2 Flying Childers as a 2-year-old and placed in the G1 King's Stand S. and the G1 Nunthorpe S. at three. There are 14 yearlings belonging to him in the sale, four of which will be offered by Ballyhane.
However, rather than put the “kiss of death” on his own draft by speaking too soon, Foley spoke in general terms about his enthusiasm behind the son of Showcasing's prospects of making it as a stallion.
He explained, “Soldier's Call is exactly what the people at Doncaster are looking for–sharp, precocious, classy and speedy types. We have obviously had access to seeing a lot of them in their prep and we couldn't be more pleased.
“They've a great attitude and they love their work. I'd be apprehensively hopeful and, as time moves on and the more of them that you see, the more confident you'd be that he's going to be a good stallion.”
Foley added, “His progeny love lunging, love walking and love coming in and doing stuff, and that is a great sign in a stallion's progeny, because it doesn't always happen. Some of them don't like work, show a bit of temper, but the Soldier's Calls are not like that. They're deadly.
“They all have a lovely attitude. When you get over here and people report back the same, it creates a good vibe and I'm very happy with what I am seeing.
“Doncaster is a very popular sale and loads of people try to support it. It would appear that everyone is here this year so there's going to be a lot of competition for the right ones.”
You don't have to walk beyond Barn A to realise that there will be a wicked fight in the sales ring to smoke out the best of what's on offer at this year's sale.
At one end of that barn in particular on Monday afternoon, you had George Boughey busy inspecting yearlings while in another, Mark Johnston had just arrived.
William Haggas, Andrew Balding, Joseph and Donnacha O'Brien, Kevin Ryan and Roger Varian are just a handful of other well-known trainers to have made their presence felt in recent days.
The breeze-up fraternity were also out in force, with Johnny Collins, Byron Rogers, Katie Walsh, Roger Marley and more providing a snapshot of the faces on the ground at Doncaster.
Like Soldier's Call, progeny by Le Brivido (Fr) represent something new for prospective buyers. Simon Sweeting, who for one season stood Le Brivido at Overbury Stud, offers two of the three yearlings in the sale by the former G3 Jersey S. hero, the pick of which appears to be lot 201.
A bonny half-brother to Ladies Church (GB) (Churchill {Ire}), who bagged the G2 Sapphire S. at the Curragh when last seen, lot 201 will bid to provide his stallion with something of a springboard.
Sweeting said, “He's a super colt and obviously the page has improved a lot. Unfortunately, we stood Le Brivido for a season-shared him with Coolmore-but he wasn't as popular as we hoped he'd be.
“Why that was, I don't know. Whether they couldn't get their heads around Siyouni (Fr) at the time, I don't know, but we thought he was everything that a breeder could want.
“We supported him and have several yearlings by him to sell this year but, because he didn't cover enough mares, we made an early decision to move him back to France.”
Sweeting added, “He's over there now covering plenty of mares and obviously we hope some of these yearlings can win plenty of races to get his stallion career up and running. He covered just 60-odd mares in that first season for us, which isn't enough, so to give him a chance, we sent him to France. He's been busy over there so we'll see what happens on the racecourse.”
All told, there are six yearlings by Advertise (GB) in the sale, one of which is lot 174, a colt offered by Llety Farms, whose David Hodge is quietly optimistic.
Hodge said, “He's been busy and is what I'd call a typical Donny horse-it's what we picked him out for, to bring him here. He's a homebred. He was bred on the farm for Paul Brocklehurst, who had the Cesarewitch winner Sweet Selection (GB) (Stimulation {Ire}).”
Fellow first-season sires for next year, Inns Of Court (Ire), Blue Point (Ire), Calyx (GB), Eqtidaar (Ire), Invincible Army (Ire), Land Force (Ire), Magna Grecia (Ire), Masar (Ire), Too Darn Hot (GB), Phoenix Of Spain (Ire), and Ten Sovereigns (Ire) are all represented in the catalogue.
Mark McStay, who was busy at the August Sale at Arqana just over a week ago, expects to be active at Doncaster and praised Goffs for making the huge number of clients in attendance feel welcome.
He said, “I will be buying for a variety of different people–some trainers and owners. I thought it was a typically good draft of yearlings and, as per usual, it will throw up a lot of good 2-year-old winners next year. Goffs have done a great job in making everyone feel really welcome here and it should be a very good sale.”
Only one man knows more about launching rockets than Musk, and that's the Goffs Chief Executive Henry Beeby, the man behind that warm welcome.
Beeby was typically optimistic on the eve of the 2022 Doncaster Premier Yearling Sale, which kicks off at 10 am on Tuesday, and admitted that everything was in place for a good sale.
He said, “The vendors have all been very positive. They brought very good horses and were very busy yesterday and very busy today and everything is set up nicely. We're cautiously optimistic but, the closer you get, the more you think, 'goodness me, there are some lovely horses here.' We'll see what happens. It's looking very positive at the moment.”
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Ramey: Can Horses Have Mental Illness?
OK, here's the full question –
“A couple friends and I were talking about all the horses we've trained and ridden throughout the years and comparing their characteristics and personality traits, etc. We were wondering if horses can develop mental illness similar to what humans exhibit. For example, one of my horses, many years ago, acted like he had a nervous breakdown. And my one friend described her mare as 'acting autistic.' We both had raised these horses from birth and they had never been mistreated, and had normal-acting sires and dams. Do horses experience mental illness? Have there been any studies? Or do you think all behavior problems stem from training?”
I guess that we'd first have to define terms. Otherwise stated, what does the term “mental illness” mean? In looking it up, I find this definition, in the online medical dictionary: “Any of various conditions characterized by impairment of an individual's normal cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning, and caused by social, psychological, biochemical, genetic, or other factors, such as infection or head trauma.”
As such, that seems to me to be a pretty broad definition. But the key phrase seems to be “impairment of an individual's normal …. functioning….” As such, in order to determine if a horse had mental illness, you'd have to know what's normal for that individual. And there's the rub.
One would presumably equate mental illness in a horse with abnormal behavior. And, the subject of horse behavior is one that has received a whole lot of study. There's a lot that goes into horse behavior, but a lot of it comes down to two things: how horses normally behave, and how they were raised. So, for example, in the wild, horses are prey animals, so they normally react quickly, and without thought, when confronted with things that seem threatening; while we may understand that a traffic cone or a flapping tree limb isn't going to eat us, to a horse, it's something strange, and something to be afraid of. You never know when that tree limb is being pushed around by a pack of wolves, I guess. And while it'd be pretty weird for a person to run off blindly if, say, they saw a piece of paper blowing across the street, that's just the way that horses are.
The way that horses are raised definitely affects behavior. So, for example, it's been shown that stalled weanlings spend significantly more time engaged in behaviors that are considered undesirable, such as licking or chewing the stall/shed wall, kicking at the stall/shed wall, pawing, and bouts of bucking and/or rearing. And, of course, they may react quite aggressively to an unpleasant stimulus, remembering, for example, that something was unpleasant for them (like a horse trailer). While some people may not be able to understand why the horse wouldn't want to climb in the trailer, and may think that it's irrational, I personally have no idea why a horse would ever consider climbing into a dark, moving box.
Certain diseases definitely cause behavior changes, as suggested in the definition of mental illness. Diseases like encephalitis or rabies can cause depression or aggression. I remember one horse that I treated that had a brain abscess – he would seem normal, then start running around blindly, and become very aggressive. (He had to, ultimately, be put to sleep.) So I guess from that standpoint, you could say – at least on some level – that the horse was mentally ill.
From a physiology standpoint, horse brains are somewhat similar to human brains in both form and function; for example, most of the same chemical neurotransmitters work in both horses and humans. So there's not any reason why horses couldn't have mental illness.
But I think that the biggest problem with answering your questions is that there's no objective way to tell if a horse might have mental illness. There aren't any cognitive tests that might help differentiate between a horse with a behavioral problem and one that is certifiable. Even some of the questions that are typically asked people wouldn't help much if you were screening a horse.
OWNER: “Doc, I'm concerned that my horse might be depressed.”
PSYCHOLOGIST, TO CLIENT: “Hmmm. Let's see. Let me ask him a few questions.”
PSYCHOLOGIST, TO HORSE: “Do you feel like eating all the time? Do you feel fearful, but you can't figure out why? Do you find it hard to focus?”
From my point of view, if the horse answered, “Yes” to any of those questions, it would mean that he was a… well, a horse.
So, bottom line is that I think it's possible, but I think that it would be really hard to tell. Some of your friends probably act crazy from time to time, too, but you accept them for who they are, or move on. I think that's probably a good idea for most horses, too!
Dr. David Ramey is a vocal advocate for the application of science to medicine, and—as such—for the welfare of the horse. Thus, he has been a frequent critic of practices that lack good science, such as the diverse therapies collectively known as “alternative” medicine, needless nutritional supplementation, or conventional therapies that lack scientific support.
This article original appeared on Dr. Ramey's website, doctorramey.com and is reprinted here with permission.
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