The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority would “immediately” get involved if, at the start of Arizona's Turf Paradise meet on Nov. 4, the track were to continue to show fatality numbers nearly two times higher than the national average, HISA director of racetrack safety Ann McGovern told the Thoroughbred Daily News.
During an Arizona Racing Commission meeting on Feb. 15, 2022, Arizona Department of Gaming's chief veterinarian Dr. Sue Gale reported that fatality statistics at Turf Paradise in Phoenix were approximately 2.98 per 1,000 starts; the national average for 2020 was 1.41 fatalities per 1,000 starts. A total of 11 horses were fatally injured during morning training, another 18 during racing, and 13 more were lost to other circumstances at Turf Paradise from Oct. 10, 2021, to May 7, 2022.
HISA's currently-enacted racetrack safety program includes stipulations for the racing surface itself, detailing requirements for daily record-keeping and testing methods as well as pre-meet examinations of the base.
To that end, Turf Paradise has hired a new track superintendent in George Lopez, purchased additional track maintenance equipment, and joined forces with the Arizona Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association (AZHBPA) to hire noted racetrack expert Steven Wood to oversee operations.
“We've had to make sure the banking is how we want it,” Wood told TDN of the pre-meet preparations. He said the team has also removed material from the existing surface and added new sand and bark (for cushioning).
While the Turf Paradise team is confident these changes will make for a safer meet in 2022-2023, HISA will be able to get involved should those expectations fall short. Exactly what that involvement will look like remains to be seen.
“Getting involved may mean talking to management, talking to the track superintendent, sending Mick [Peterson] to look at the track surface, looking at necropsies, looking at training methods,” McGovern told TDN. “HISA would absolutely react to any track that had numbers as significant as we have seen at Turf Paradise last year.”
August was a month of never-ending trouble. When we last left off, Fin was just beginning her stall rest journey and, in total, it lasted for almost four weeks! She blew an abscess from her right front coronary band and I thought we were in the clear. The weather forecast called for rain the next few days, so to be safe I thought I would keep her up until the weather had passed.
Tattersalls Ireland has released its sale schedule for the 2023 season. The September Yearling Sale has been scheduled for Sept. 19-20, with Part II set for Sept. 21.
The remaining calendar for 2023 (dates are subject to change):
What do an award-winning chef, a rising young country music star and a reigning champion trainer have in common?
All three are featured in the Common Wealth of Kentucky Project, an exhibit going on now through Oct. 1 at LexArts Gallery in Lexington, Kentucky. Along with chef Ouita Michel and singer Walker Montgomery, trainer Brad Cox is one of 70 Kentuckians who shared their life story for the collection, which is the culmination of a year-long project for impressionist painter Kelly Brewer and partner Beth Pride, a writer and digital storyteller.
Visitors can explore the gallery and connect with each Kentuckian on a multi-sensory level as they observe the portrait of the participants, read a short summary of their lives, and even scan a QR code with a smart-phone camera to listen to the participant's voice as they share portions of their own story.
The project was inspired by Brewer's mother, Jo B. Robertson, who passed away in 2020. Brewer decided that she wanted to paint portraits to honor her mother and raise money for the Jo B. Robertson Charitable Foundation, which was established to continue Robertson's legacy of helping to educate, house, clothe and feed the less fortunate. Brewer turned to Pride, the wife of Godolphin's Dan Pride, for assistance.
“We decided that we would call it the Common Wealth of Kentucky and that it would reveal the richness that the people who comprise this state are made of and the commonalities that we all have,” said Pride. “We hoped to do our best to break down these artificial barriers that really, at the end of the day, are not real.”
Together Pride and Brewer, along with advocate Jill Johnson, spent the next year traveling throughout the Commonwealth as Brewer painted Kentuckians from all walks of life while Pride collected their stories.
They met with Jeff Broadwater, a United States Army major general who served in Kuwait during Desert Storm and was deployed to Iraq twice, and Lou Anna Red Corn, the first Native American Commonwealth Attorney in Kentucky. They talked to Pedo Mann, a coal foreman in Eastern Kentucky, and Gentille Ntakarutimana, who was a Burundian refugee as a child and is now a legal assistant for Morgan and Morgan.
Louisville native Brad Cox is not the only racing industry member to appear in the collection. The sport is a common theme throughout the exhibit. Keeneland is represented by President and CEO Shannon Arvin along with well-known ringman Cordell Anderson. Other members of the sport who are featured include Lane End Farm's Bill Farish, Airdrie Stud's Bret Jones, Phipps Family Stable racing manager Daisy Phipps Pulito and Hall of Fame jockey Steve Cauthen.
“What we really tried to do is build a unique impression of who these people are and find something that maybe everyone doesn't know about them,” explained Pride. “Daisy was in the sports television industry for years and Bill was a personal aide to President George H.W. Bush. Everyone has something unique that really differentiates them, but we also found that we have so many things in common as human beings and we're all connected through our humanity no matter our background or where we're going.”
Participants also included political figures like Lexington mayor Linda Gorton as well as Kelly Craft, the former United Nations Ambassador who recently launched her campaign for Kentucky governor. Lexington locals will recognize names like Kentucky Sports Radio's Matt Jones and Bluegrass Hospitality Group founders Brian McCarty and Bruce Drake.
Each of the portraits on display are available for purchase through a super silent auction format where the bid amount is hidden from the public and managed confidentially. The auction will continue through Friday, Oct. 1.
“We're very grateful for the response,” Pride said. “We had about 400 people there on opening night and LexArts has told us that the traffic for the exhibit has been triple what they are accustomed to.”
The exhibit has also been encapsulated in the form of a book, which was written and sound-produced by Pride and features the original artwork by Brewer (the book is available in the gallery, at the Keeneland Mercantile in Lexington or can be purchased here).
As Pride reflected on the project, she said that in many ways, Kentucky horse racing represents a microcosm of the Commonwealth as a whole.
“The horse business is one of those industries where there is a lot of competition within the industry, but it's also an industry that has external criticism,” Pride said. “It's the same with bourbon, parimutual betting and coal mining. What happens is that the people in the industry are friendly competitors because they know they need to be bonded in a singular purpose of promoting and advocating for the horse and for the industry. That spirit where everyone is in it together is reflected all throughout Kentucky.”
