January, 2023 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Exercise Rider, Former Jockey Francisco Barrera ‘A Source Of Hope And Inspiration’ On Belmont Backstretch

As a jockey, Francisco Barrera disciplined himself to laser-focus on the next race – “looking at what was just ahead of me,” as he put it, “and taking it one step at a time in order to do my best.”

Now, with race riding in his past and based at Belmont Park, Barrera takes a similar approach in both his wide-ranging work as an exercise rider – and what Executive Director of the Backstretch Employee Service Team (B.E.S.T.) Paul Ruchames called, “a one-man, social-service program.”

In addition to working as an exercise rider in trainer Robert Falcone, Jr.'s barn, Barrera is an assistant tutor to fellow backstretch workers for “English as a Second Language” (ESL) classes; a trained drug-and-alcohol peer advocate coach; and manager of the weekly “bistro” where members of the backstretch community go for fellowship, snacks and to connect with family on laptops.

It's a heavy load, making the 48-year-old Lima, Peru native, who retired from race riding in 2007, a rock on Belmont Park's backstretch as a counselor, a mentor and just a friend to colleagues in need. If someone is having a personal issue, it's often Barrera who takes the call and then the time, always he said, “with empathy, by putting myself in their place, and careful never to judge.”

There are no designated hours for Barrera's volunteer role. The backstretch community knows how and where to find him 24/7, even when Belmont Park is bustling during morning training.

“Sometimes, I have to ask somebody to wait because I need to ride a few more horses,” he says. “But I always get to the person and see if I can help them. We're like a family here and we share problems. I'm always available to help.

“It's a matter of using what I learned along the way and doing what I can where I can,” continued Barrera, who, in his career as a well-traveled jockey, rode in Peru, Ecuador and Brazil; before emigrating to the U.S. to ride at Payson Park in Florida, Thistledown Race Track outside Cleveland; and for a spell in 2007, in Saratoga. “And if I can help somebody with a problem, provide some companionship or just listen, I'm happy to do it.”

Most involvements are modest, often conversations over coffee at the Bistro or, as happened several months ago, a 4:30 a.m. visit to a dorm room, when Barrera ended up driving a resident to a detox facility. In some cases, Barrera refers a person to the B.E.S.T. on-site, state-licensed drug-and-alcohol outpatient treatment program or to Chaplain Humberto Chavez at the New York division of the Race Track Chaplaincy.

While Barrera embraces the challenge, he is too modest to talk much about his contributions. Others do that for him.

“What Francisco does, day in and day out makes him a true role model,” said Ruchames. “He is very well respected. And he's a source of hope and inspiration for many on the backstretch.”

Chaplain Chavez agreed. “Francisco is a force for good, someone with the moral compass and the time to help a colleague in need,” he said. “And he does it with such humility and grace.”

Falcone, Jr. recalled the day that Barrera begged off a request to help transport a stakes horse in order to tutor the ESL class.

“It doesn't surprise me at all,” said Falcone, Jr. of Barrera's community efforts. “Francisco is dependable, always shows up and does his job the right way. He cares about the horses – and I can see him doing those things on the backstretch. He's that type of person.”

Barrera completed peer advocate training two years ago at Ruchames' suggestion and with the help of a scholarship from the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA).

“It taught me how important it is to listen when talking to people about their problems,” he said. “You need to learn how to separate yourself and really hear what they're telling you.”

Barrera called his decision to become a go-to person on the backstretch as a way of helping others face the kind of challenges he has dealt with himself. Breaking his back and forced to retire from race-riding in 2007, he returned to Peru to recover and eventually worked his way back to racing, not as a jockey but as an exercise rider.

“Doctors told me I couldn't ride anymore, but I found I could,” said Barrera. “You have to know what to do when you get on a horse. I told myself I could still make a living in this field, which I'm doing today.”

Arriving at Belmont Park in 2008, Barrera resolved to learn English to better communicate with trainers. Enrolling in B.E.S.T.'s ESL class, he became so proficient that he began serving as assistant tutor in the twice-weekly classes, a role he continues to relish.

“Seeing the confidence that people get from learning English is really great,” said Barrera. “It helped me and I know that with a lot of hard work, it can help others.”

In February 2021, when his brother, Miguel, passed away in Peru from COVID-19, Barrera was unable to travel home for the funeral and faced the kind of isolation and loneliness for which he counsels others.

Barrera credited his wife, Amy, and their three children, Fabiana, 25; Juan, 16 and Luciana, 12, with helping him cope. And as he is apt to do in many things, Barrera has made a special effort to be a mentor to his brother's three sons, even from a distance.

“Whether it's my nephews, my children or someone at the track, they know me and know I'm here for them,” said Barrera. “On the backstretch, it can be any time and any issue. Or it's just needing someone to listen. They know I'm here.”

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Instant Dividends From a Long Saga

It's not like you just add water. For the very possibility of reaping the ultimate harvest with Instant Coffee (Bolt d'Oro), on the first Saturday in May, has only been able to take root because the ending of even the longest stories, in this game, can always prove the start of a new chapter.

Having already demonstrated an aptitude for the Churchill surface in winning the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S., Instant Coffee resumes the Derby trail in the GIII Lecomte S. at the Fair Grounds on Saturday. And while those most immediately concerned in his performance are owners Gold Square LLC and the Brad Cox team, the colt also has the chance to script a heartening sequel to the poignant renunciation of a quest that had stirred much nostalgia in Maryland and beyond.

That Sagamore Farm happens to be registered as Instant Coffee's breeder is evidently more or less a quirk of bureaucracy. A deal had already been done for his dam Follow No One (Uncle Mo) to join the broodmare band at Upson Downs Farm in Goshen, Ky., and Instant Coffee was foaled, raised and prepared for sale there. But his existence nonetheless owes much to those years when Kevin Plank, as a proud son of Maryland, strove to restore Sagamore as a force in the Thoroughbred world.

It was here, of course, that Alfred G. Vanderbilt II bred Native Dancer before launching him on one of the greatest track careers in Turf history. “The Gray Ghost of Sagamore” subsequently achieved an enduring legacy at stud, notably via Raise A Native and Natalma, and is buried at the farm. And there were moments, during the Plank revival from 2007, when those specters found fresh company on the national stage: as when Shared Account (Pleasantly Perfect) won the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf in 2010, and Global Campaign (Curlin) won the GI Woodward H. a decade later.

Even as the latter was preparing for his swansong in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, however, it was announced that the farm was to be turned over to wheat and rye in support of Sagamore Spirit whiskey. Global Campaign ran an excellent third, and is now bidding to extend the farm's Turf heritage as a WinStar stallion. But for Hunter Rankin, the impressive young president of Sagamore's Thoroughbred program since 2015, it was time to find a new path in the industry.

Little could he realize that the twists and turns of fate had already reserved a wonderful consolation for the disappointing end of this particular adventure. For it was Rankin who bought Follow No One for Sagamore as a juvenile, at the OBS April Sale of 2016; and, after she failed to reach her reserve at $85,000 at the Keeneland November Sale in 2018, it was his father Alex who was able to agree terms with Plank to keep her for the family farm. Moreover it was Sagamore's final flourish with Global Campaign, trained by his cherished mentor Stan Hough, that helped to steer Rankin towards that horse's half-brother Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) as an appropriate first cover for Follow No One. The result is Instant Coffee.

So while the ambition to rekindle Sagamore as a beacon of the Maryland Turf was ultimately reduced to ashes, Rankin has been delighted to stoke up a final flame out of the embers; to have found a way, so to speak, of adding a little “more” to this great “saga”.

“Yeah, it's really cool,” he says. “I was very proud of what we tried to do there, of the effort that we put in to get where we were trying to go, which was to compete at the highest level and breed the best horses we could. It didn't work out, and I'm sure I'd go back and change some of things that we did, but we did our best and that's all you can do.

“Our goal was always to get a horse that would transcend Sagamore, and carry that brand whether we were in it or not: to have a horse to stamp the place, like Native Dancer did. Of course I'm not saying that Global Campaign is a Native Dancer. But it would be really nice for us to point to something and say that we did that while we were there. And, gosh, he just had so much talent-and he's the reason we bred this mare to Bolt d'Oro. So, yeah, what a great story.”

Follow No One was initially purchased by Gatewood Bell for just $20,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale. Pinhooked through Eddie Woods, she advanced her value to $100,000 when Rankin bought her for Sagamore the following spring.

“She was petite, not small by any means, but feminine,” Rankin says. “She's kind of a dainty type. She worked okay, 21.1, but she had little things, I guess you could pick her apart. But I talked to Eddie and he said, 'I think she's a really nice filly, she's sound, she'll run through her conditions and I could maybe get some black type for you.' And that's exactly what happened, he was dead on.”

Follow No One (who was so named by skier Lindsay Vonn) did grab third in a Laurel sprint on her only black-type start, but her overall record was fairly modest and, though she was out of a stakes-winning daughter of the KatieRich foundation mare Miss Mary Apples (Clever Trick), nobody was too interested when she was consigned for sale through Upson Downs as a 4-year-old.

“It was about the time that we were transitioning out of the breeding part of things at Sagamore,” Rankin explains. “After she RNA'd, we put her in foal and my dad, who had liked her on the farm, ended up buying her privately.”

Rankin had naturally admired Bolt d'Oro as a racehorse but especially favored him as a first mate for Follow No One because of his regard for his half-brother.

“We just thought, and still think, that Global Campaign will be a great sire,” he reasons. “So we wanted to support that line, and she did fit well with him: her pedigree matched up, and their body types seemed to mesh well too. Well anyway, we got the foal-and what a nice foal he was. She's a little offset, a little this and that, but her foals have been great. And he was great. He was a lot like her: not feminine, but very similar in that [elegant] body type. He became a very good-looking yearling, very sensible and straightforward.”

Though offered deep in the Keeneland September Sale, Instant Coffee made $200,000 from Joe Hardoon as agent and duly won on debut at Saratoga. Still inexperienced when just missing the frame from off the pace behind divisional champion elect Forte (Violence) in the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity, he then banked 10 Derby starting points on his successful reconnaissance of Churchill.

Incidentally, Rankin reminds us of an overlooked distinction in another Kentucky horseman that day. For the same year that he pinhooked Follow No One, Gatewood Bell also bought a rather more expensive yearling at Saratoga for Cheyenne Stables: a $750,000 daughter of Tapit who won a couple of races before being sent to Into Mischief. The resulting filly is Hoosier Philly, who romped in the GII Golden Rod S. half an hour before Instant Coffee won. Bell, it seems, was only just getting going as a bloodstock agent when he joined Keeneland as Vice-President of Racing a couple of years ago!

Rankin himself has meanwhile engaged with a stimulating new project, having topped the second session of the Keeneland January Sale when signing a $650,000 docket for the promising young filly Ancient Peace (War Front) on behalf of Boardshorts Stables. But meanwhile there's an obvious personal fulfilment available in having brought together the dam of a potential Derby horse, as a residue of his time with Sagamore, with his parents' home operation. (It's a connection, by the way, that has already been fertile in the past: at Saratoga in 2018 Upson Downs consigned Shared Account's $350,000 daughter by Speightstown for Sagamore, and she became GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Sharing.)

“I help with all their matings and I love working with my dad,” Rankin says. “He and I are very close. It was always his dream to own a horse farm, and we moved out there from town when my mom was pregnant with me. And he built it from a single mare that he bought in 1983 with [the late] Bob Courtney, who was a legend around Lexington and like a second father to my dad. Everybody loved Bob, my dad was just lucky enough to know him and learn from him, very much the same way I have been with Stan.”

That foundation mare, Flash McAllister (Ward McAllister), cost just $24,000. Her granddaughter Tar Heel Mom (Flatter) was trained by Hough to win 11 of 31 starts and $832,892 in the family silks, including three graded stakes, and it's a dynasty that has been cultivated at Upson Downs for 40 years now. For this is an enduring passion that has placed Rankin's father, in daily experience, shoulder to shoulder with the Bluegrass community-a point worth stressing in view of the occasional flak he inevitably endures in his role as Chairman of the Board at Churchill Downs Inc.

Having served a stint with CDI himself, Rankin acknowledges the heartache and contention over the sale of Arlington, in particular, but emphasizes the authentic commitment to the wider sport that he found among colleagues there. And, be all that as it may, the one guarantee is that long and ardent embrace of life at the coalface-Upson Downs foals out 50 to 60 mares every year, the majority for longstanding clients-fully preserves his father in the respect of fellow horsemen.

Rankin Sr. has built up the farm parallel to his work as chairman of Louisville insurers Sterling G. Thompson Co. “From the day they moved out there he worked every weekend, all day, and then Monday through Friday he'd wake up at 5 a.m., go out on the farm until 7.30 and then go to work,” marvels Rankin. “He has lived and breathed it for a really long time. Like when we had that big cold snap recently, and the temperature's negative five, he was still out there breaking the water tanks. He shouldn't be doing that anymore, but he does. And you hope that all that hard work pays off for him, because he's such a great guy.”

Little wonder, then, that Rankin is so gratified by the rise of Instant Coffee. He knows that the Derby still remains a long way off; but he also knows that Cyberknife (Gun Runner), after disappointing the same connections in the Lecomte last year, regrouped to confirm himself one of the best of the crop. So who can say what flavors may yet percolate through the Instant Coffee story?

Follow No One, remember, has only just turned nine. She has a juvenile filly by Frosted but sadly aborted last year before being bred to Maclean's Music. All going well with that imminent delivery, her first son's flying start is scheduled to earn her an upgrade in fee this spring to Life Is Good.

“We're excited,” Rankin says. “There's a good nucleus on the farm right now, youngish mares either with nice family or that could run a little bit. But to have this horse running for one of those mares, foaled and raised at Upson Downs, it's a dream. When he won in November, one of the girls that helped raise him was in the winner's circle crying. So it's a neat story. And just for my parents, you'd love to have a really, really good horse come off the farm. They've raised Grade I winners, for clients, but you'd love to have something that had a chance at the big one.”

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Equibase Analysis: Improving Pattern, Jockey-Trainer Combo Give Confidence Game An Edge In Lecomte

This Saturday's Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes kicks off the Road to the Kentucky Derby series at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans, La., which includes the Risen Star Stakes and the Louisiana Derby.

Eight colts signed up to run, including Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes winner Instant Coffee. The other Lecomte entrant proven at the level is Two Phil's, who was victorious in the Grade 3 Street Sense Stakes last October, but who has not run in nearly three months since that race.

Four of the others enter off strong wins in their most recent starts but at lower levels. That group is led by Confidence Game, who won an allowance race for his second career victory, as did Bromley, who is undefeated in two starts. Tapit's Conquest was the most impressive among the quartet when winning by three and one-half lengths. The last of the group is Itzos, intriguing for another reason as he is a half-brother to champion Rachel Alexandra and cost $1.4 million at auction in 2021.

Echo Again and Denington both exit third place efforts in good company, in the Springboard Mile Stakes and Smarty Jones Stakes, respectively.

Top contenders:

Confidence Game ran the best race of his career in his most recent start at the end of November and at the distance of the Lecomte when leading the field from start to finish in a highly rated allowance race. The 94 Equibase Speed Figure he earned is the second highest behind the 96 Echo Again earned when third in the Springboard Mile Stakes and is likely to be improved upon, perhaps significantly, based on a pattern of physical and mental improvement started in September. In his first route race that month, Confidence Game earned a 67 figure when fifth of nine in the Iroquois Stakes, improving to 73 when second then to 94. Although both wins have come when leading from start to finish, Confidence Game can stalk likely pacesetters Echo Again and Itzos (who is stretching out from sprints), just as he did in his Oct. 12 race when rallying from fifth to second. Jockey James Graham, who rode Confidence Game to that rallying runner-up effort, gets back on and Graham has won for trainer Keith Desormeaux at Fair Grounds one-third of the time over the past couple of years, including in the 2022 Lecomte with Call Me Midnight at 28 to 1 odds. Those are reasons enough to give Confidence Game top billing in this year's race.

Tapit's Conquest is one of two from the very strong barn of trainer Brad Cox, the other being Instant Coffee. Tapit's Conquest is likely go to post in the Lecomte at higher odds than his stablemate, who just won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes as compared to the allowance level race Tapit's Conquest recently won. Just the same, Tapit's Conquest has as much chance to win as Instant Coffee because his only try around two turns was a tremendous effort in which he drew off to win by three and one-half lengths after stalking in third in the early stages. After earning a 79 figure in his debut at seven furlongs last September, Tapit's Conquest improved to an 84 figure and now as a much more mature three year old could improve markedly. Trainer Cox is not only on fire at the Fair Grounds meeting, having won with 15 of 33 (46%) starters to date, he has a tremendous record with horses returning from layoffs in route races. A Race Lens query reveals Cox has won with 27% of his starters coming back from layoffs of two to six months in routes over the last five years. Better still, another Race Lens query shows us with 3-year-olds in dirt route stakes coming back from layoffs of three to six months, Cox has won four of seven. Jockey Florent Geroux, the number one winning jockey for the barn, rode Tapit's Conquest to victory in his last race and rides back, and the colt worked in company with his stablemate Instant Coffee so it is very clear he's in great shape coming into this race.

Instant Coffee won his debut in impressive fashion last summer at Saratoga when running seven furlongs, which is a difficult distance to win at first asking. Moved way up in class the following month he ran in the Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland with the hope of proving ready to run in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile one month later. In spite of rallying from 10th to fourth and earning a 94 figure it was not good enough for trainer Brad Cox to run him in the Juvenile, so he rested the colt until the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in November, where Instant Coffee prevailed in a field of nine as the favorite. Although regressing to a 79 figure, Instant Coffee proved to have a big burst of speed mid-race when going from fifth to third on the turn and into the stretch before drawing off by a length and one-quarter. Being another top runner who could benefit from a contested early pace, Instant Coffee has a more than decent chance to win his second graded stakes in a row and put himself on the short list of early Kentucky Derby favorites.

The rest of the field, with their best Equibase Speed Figures, is Bromley (84), Denington (92). Echo Again (96), Itzos (75) and Two Phil's (88).

Win contenders, in preference/probability order:

Confidence Game
Tapit's Conquest
Instant Coffee

Lecomte Stakes – Grade 3
Race 14 at Fair Grounds
Saturday, January 21, 2022 – Post Time 7:30 PM E.T.
One Mile and One Sixteenth
Three Year Olds
Purse: $200,000

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Dual Aspect Makes Montaigu a Popular Stop on ‘La Route’

France was the forerunner of the stallion trail, its La Route des Etalons having been launched in 2010, catching the rising tide of increasingly sought-after stallions in the country following a spell in the doldrums.

This popular weekend feature of late January was, like almost everything else, interrupted for a few years by Covid restrictions, but there is none of that to worry about now as the two days of touring around some of Normandy's most exquisite stud farms gets underway this Saturday morning.

The bright young things of TDN Europe, Alayna Cullen and Brian Sheerin, will bring you plenty of updates via social media and in these pages over the coming days, with Sheerin's attempt of a dry January likely to be sorely tested given the generous hospitality likely to be on offer at the 22 farms taking part this year. These range from the new names of Haras de Beaumont (situated on part of the Haras du Quesnay estate) and Karwin Farm to the more established farms of the French breeding industry, including Haras d'Etreham, Haras du Logis, and the Aga Khan's Haras du Bonneval.

There is something for everyone on the tour, whether you are a hobby jumps breeder with one mare or a top-of-the-range Flat breeder with Siyouni (Fr) in your sights. One farm which caters for both breeding disciplines is Haras de Montaigu, which celebrates its 120th birthday this year, all that time having been carefully nurtured under the ownership of the same family. Established by Gabriel Guerlain in 1903, the farm, whose notable graduates include the Derby winner Wings Of Eagles (Fr), is now run on a more commercial footing by his great grand-daughter Aliette Forien and her husband Gilles along with their daughter Sybille Gibson, who represents the fifth generation of the family to take the helm.

Eight stallions will be on show there this weekend, including one of the real buzz horses of the National Hunt scene, No Risk At All (Fr), the sire of Champion Hurdle winner Epatante (Fr) and multiple Grade 1-winning chaser Allaho (Fr).

“No Risk At All does so well year after year,” says Gibson of the son of My Risk (Fr), himself a grandson of the late Highest Honor (Fr), one of the stalwarts of the French stallion ranks in the latter years of the 20th century.

“He has produced the champions Epatante and Allaho, who have won 11 Grade 1 races between them, as well as the Grade 1 winners Esprit Du Large (Fr) and Gannat (Fr). He's been fully booked each year since he entered stud. Breeders from France, Ireland and England are all mad about him.”

While No Risk At All is now an established name, one stallion whom Gibson will be hoping will become so, even if those outside France might struggle to pronounce that name, is Beaumec De Houelle (Fr). He is a rare beast among the ranks of the National Hunt stallions in that the eight-year-old actually boasts jumping form himself, though this is less unusual in France than it is in Britain and Ireland.

Akin to a Flat sire retiring to stud after winning the Dewhurst, Beaumec de De Houelle was a top-class hurdler who beat Pic d'Orhy (Fr) when winning the G1 Prix Camabaceres at Auteuil as a three-year-old. His retirement to Haras de Montaigu is of particular resonance to the team there as his sire, the Juddmonte-bred Martaline (GB), was such a successful stallion for the farm until his death in 2019.

Gibson says, “Beaumec De Houelle is a proper stunner and when we look at him we see the great Martaline, who again this year is champion [National Hunt] sire for the fifth time in France.”

The six-time winner is certainly a young sire for the notebook, with a number of British and Irish breeders starting to catch on by sending mares to France.

She adds, “His progeny did very well at the sales and we are looking forward to see his first 3-year-olds on the track this year.”

Two new arrivals have been welcomed to Haras de Montaigu ahead of this covering season, though they are not newcomers to the stallion ranks. Both Dabirsim (Ger) and Shamalgan (Fr) have moved from Haras de Grandcamp, which is ceasing to stand stallions. Last year Dschingis Secret (Ger), a Group 1-winning son of Germany's darling, Soldier Hollow (GB), also joined the team, transferring from Haras de Saint Arnoult.

“Dabirsim was second behind Siyouni in 2022 according to the number of races won,” Gibson says. “He has already had five winners this year and he had two unbeaten two-year-olds in Horizon Doré (Fr) and Over Wins (Fr) that we are very interested to follow this year.

“Shamalgan, as he did in his racing career, does better and better at stud, and he celebrated a Group 1 winner last year with Toskana Belle, who won the German Oaks. Dschingis Secret had his first 2-year-olds on the track in 2022 and he had two winners, which is quite an achievement for a non-precocious horse.”

Another new name at Haras de Montaigu last year was the Juddmonte-bred globetrotter Flintshire (GB), a five-time winner at the highest level in America and Hong Kong, who started his stud career at Kentucky's Hill 'N Dale Farms.

“We are confident that he will find the right mares here in France, all turf mares,” Gibson says of the son of Dansili (GB) who covered 72 mares in his first season in Europe. “This year, thoroughbred jump mares will be accepted and this could really open his book as we know that the National Hunt breeders are very keen to use him.”

The former Godolphin representative Jimmy Two Times (Fr), a treble group winner in France over seven furlongs and a mile, is another interesting member of the stallion barn at Montaigu. The son of Kendargent (Fr) spent two years at stud in Germany before returning to Normandy, where he was bred at Haras de Saint Pair, Jimmy Two Times will have his first French-bred yearlings at the sales this year and he, too, has a more personal connection to the Foriens and Gibson as a grandson of the stud's former resident Kendor (Fr)

“We love that Kendor line so much so we were very happy to receive him,” enthuses Gibson.

Haras de Montaigu will doubtless be teeming with visitors this weekend, and if you have a soft spot for a grey then no fewer than three of the resident stallions, Beaumec De Houelle, Jimmy Two Times, and the G1 Prix Royal Oak winner Technician (Ire), all share that coat colour.

“This weekend is very important for us as we have a lot of breeders visiting year after year,” Gibson says. “It is a great opportunity to have a private chat with each of them and discuss mating plans for their mares, and the breeders love to discover the new stallions and see the changes in the horses who have been here for a few years.”

That is doubtless a sentiment shared by all participants in this popular event. A full list of the stud farms and stallions available for viewing across the weekend can be found on the Route des Etalons website.

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