September, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Del Mar CEO Joe Harper Talks Banner Summer Meet On Writers’ Room

The Del Mar summer meet, always a hot attraction in Southern California, could not have gone much better this year. The stand set records for average daily handle and average field size, and crucially, recorded zero racing or training fatalities, the fourth stakes Del Mar meet with no racing breakdowns. Tuesday, Del Mar CEO Joe Harper joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about how the track has become the gold standard for racehorse safety, what the future looks like for Del Mar, his childhood acting career and more.

“We spent $5 million putting in a new surface,” Harper said when asked what the keys have been to eliminating breakdowns. “It's kind of like picking up a carpet and shaking it out and putting it back down again. We re-banked the turns, and I think the main thing was just keeping our eye on these horses in the morning as well as when [trainers] put in stall applications. I want to know where they've been, how long the layoffs have been, why there were layoffs, take a look at vet records, and then when they get here, we put a lot of eyes on them. We hired a number of veterinarians to watch morning workouts, and they're really good. They know every horse on the grounds. They know the trainers. So if they see something a little off, they call the trainer and say they're going to come by the barn and take a look at this horse. I think it took a while for the change of culture to sink in. There's a little bit of, [when horsemen say] 'I think we've got one more race left in this horse', saying to them, 'I think it's time to retire them.' It was great getting that change of culture and the horsemen to accept the fact that we all had to do something. And it worked. It worked the first year, and it's been working a bit better every year.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the KTOB, Lane's End, XBTV, West Point Thoroughbreds, Three Chimneys and Legacy Bloodstock, Joe Bianca, Bill Finley and guest co-host Barry Spears reacted to closing weekend at Del Mar and Flightline (Tapit)'s stud deal at Lane's End. 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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Road Safety: Can Horses Hear Electric Cars?

Electric bikes and electric scooters are causing a stir in areas of the country where they share trails with horses. Like their electric vehicle counterparts, the bikes and scooters are so quiet that they often startle horses who come upon them on trails.

A study by the British Horse Society (BHS), in conjunction with the Electric Vehicle Association (EVA) Scotland, sought to determine how well horses could hear electric vehicles and what their reaction to these electric vehicles was.

The team used three horses to monitor how they reacted to three electric cars and to one gas-powered car. The ridden horses stood on a road with the cars approaching from behind. The noise the cars made was recorded using a microphone and the horse's reactions were recorded via video.

The scientists determined that the low-level noises made by electric vehicles were detected by horses before the car was visible and that the horses were aware of the vehicles long before the humans were.

Alan Hiscox, Director of Safety at The British Horse Society said that these findings should help alleviate rider concerns regarding how horses will react to quiet electric vehicles.

Classic Causeway, Nations Pride Renew Rivalry In Jockey Club Derby

Classic Causeway and Nations Pride, who have each won one leg of the Caesars Turf Triple, will square off once more in Saturday's Grade 3, $1 million Caesars Jockey Club Derby, to close out the lucrative series in the 12-furlong inner turf test for sophomores at the Belmont at the Big A fall meet.

Kentucky West Racing and Clarke M. Cooper's Kentucky homebred Classic Causeway struck first with a gate-to-wire 26-1 upset score under Julien Leparoux in the 10-furlong Grade 1 Caesars Belmont Derby on July 9 to win his turf debut by three-quarter lengths over Nations Pride.

Trained by Ken McPeek, the Giant's Causeway chestnut dug in gamely to stave off the late-running Nations Pride, who endured a troubled trip from post 10-of-12 under Frankie Dettori when slow from the gate and checked in upper stretch.

Godolphin's Irish homebred Nations Pride, by Teofilo, turned the tables on his familiar foe last out in the 1 3/16-mile Grade 1 Caesars Saratoga Derby Invitational on August 6, stalking the early foot of Classic Causeway before pouncing to a 1 3/4-length score with William Buick in the irons. Classic Causeway settled for third, a head back of Annapolis, who exited that event to capture the Grade 3 Saranac by a geared down 5 1/2-lengths on September 3 at the Spa.

McPeek said he is hopeful that Flavien Prat, who picks up the mount from post 1, can work out a comfortable trip while trying the Big A turf for the first time.

“I don't know that surface is going to be a big deal as much as how he rates and relaxes and how long he can stay. It's going to be an interesting run for him, it's a mile-and-a-half,” McPeek said. “He's a unique horse in that the pace of the race is all the difference with him.”

Classic Causeway, who was Grade 1-placed as a juvenile, began his 3-year-old season with a pair of starts at Tampa Bay Downs for his former trainer Brian Lynch, making the grade in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis in February and following with a 2 1/2-length score in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby.

He set the pace when 11th in the Grade 1 Florida Derby in April at Gulfstream Park before an off-the-board effort in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby in May at Churchill Downs. Classic Causeway was then transferred to McPeek, finishing third in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby on June 25 at Thistledown before returning on two week's rest to win the Belmont Derby.

The Charlie Appleby-trained Nations Pride made his North American debut in the Belmont Derby from an eighth in the 12-furlong Group 1 Epsom Derby on June 4, five weeks after a seven-length romp over subsequent Derby runner-up Hoo Ya Mal in the Newmarket Stakes.

Nations Pride had a four-race win streak snapped at Epsom, with his three previous wins all coming on flat courses, including a 3 1/4-length score in the 10-furlong Jumeirah Derby at Meydan in Dubai.

Nations Pride, who has remained in New York in the care of travelling assistant Chris Connett, has breezed regularly over the Oklahoma training turf at Saratoga including a five-eighths breeze in 1:01.67 on September 11.

“The entire trip, the horse has gone from strength to strength. You can see that in his runs,” Connett said. “Physically, he's matured into his frame. Earlier in the year he was a nice horse. He was well thought of to run in the Derby at Epsom, but from a physical standpoint he's just filled his frame a lot more and mentally as well. He really switches off now and is really taking it all in very well.”

Appleby won this event last year with Yibir, who subsequently captured the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf in November at Del Mar en route to Champion Turf Male honors.

Dettori returns to the irons aboard Nations Pride from post 3.

Bennett Racing PYT's multiple group stakes winner Ardakan is one of four newcomers to the Caesars Turf Triple series.

Trained by Markus Klug, who will saddle his first starter in North America, the Reliable Man grey captured the nine-furlong Group 3 Premio Guido Berardelli in November at Capannelle and added the 11-furlong Group 2 Premio Derby Italiano to his ledger in May. He followed with a close eighth-place effort in the 12-furlong Group 1 Deutsches Derby in July at Hamburg, defeated 2 1/2-lengths by Sammarco, who exited that effort to win a Group 1 over older company at Munich.

Ardakan enters from a third-place finish versus older horses in the 12-furlong Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin in August at Hoppegarten, defeated just two lengths by the victorious Rebel's Romance.

Andrasch Starke, who captured the Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup in June with Loft, will pilot Ardakan from post 6.

Marc Keller's stakes-placed Kentucky homebred Daunt [post 5, Javier Castellano] will make his second attempt in graded company, having finished a close fifth in the nine-furlong Grade 2 Pennine Ridge in June at Belmont.

Trained by Robert Ribaudo, the dark bay Nyquist colt finished third in the Awad in November to close out his juvenile campaign.

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Albert Frassetto's The Grey Wizard [post 4, John Velazquez] graduated in March traveling 10 furlongs over the Dundalk synthetic for his former conditioner Joseph O'Brien.

The Caravaggio bay launched his sophomore season in North America in the care of conditioner Graham Motion, finishing second in June at Laurel Park. He enters from a close fourth, defeated 2 1/4-lengths, in a 1 3/16-mile allowance event on August 25 at the Spa, closing from last-of-12 after a slow start to finish a nose ahead of Daunt.

Rounding out the field is Wicked Fast [post 2, Irad Ortiz, Jr.], who was claimed for $35,000 last out by owner-trainer Joe Sharp from a second-place finish in a 1 1/16-mile turf tilt.

He sports a record of 8-2-2-2 led by a maiden win for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott in November at Belmont, from which he was haltered for $50,000, and an allowance score for conditioner Jorge Abreu in June traveling nine furlongs over yielding Belmont green.

The Tourist gelding's dam, Wicked Charm, is a half-sister to multiple Grade 1-winning Champion English Channel.

The Caesars Jockey Club Derby is slated as Race 10 on Saturday's 11-race card, which also offers the Grade 3 Jockey Club Oaks in Race 7. First post is 1 p.m. Eastern.

America's Day at the Races will present live coverage and analysis of every day of Belmont at the Big A on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Belmont at the Big A, and the best way to bet every race of the fall meet. Available to horse players nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

The post Classic Causeway, Nations Pride Renew Rivalry In Jockey Club Derby appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Kentucky Derby Upsetter Rich Strike To Face Older Horses In Lukas Classic

The surprise winner of this year's Kentucky Derby, Rich Strike will face older horses for the first time in the Oct. 1 Lukas Classic (Grade 2) at Churchill Downs, trainer Eric Reed confirmed to the Daily Racing Form on Wednesday.

Reed's other option with the 3-year-old son of Keen Ice was the G1 Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 24, but the trainer remains disinclined to ship the colt up to Parx.

“I've thought and thought about going to Parx, but I just can't make it work with the travel,” Reed told DRF. “I'd rather go there than run against Hot Rod Charlie (expected to target the Lukas), but I don't have much choice. The timing and the travel are what makes it so difficult. Maybe if the Parx race had been another week or so later we could've swung it, but there's just no way.”

Rich Strike posted his first work since finishing fourth in the G1 Travers on Tuesday, covering five furlongs in an easy 1:02.40 at Reed's Mercury Training Center.