January, 2023 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Pletchers To Be Honored By NYRTC

The New York Race Track Chaplaincy (NYRTC) will honor Tracy and Todd Pletcher for their generous and continued support of the New York backstretch community at its 16th Annual Fundraising Brunch, which will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 16 at the Saratoga National Golf Club in Saratoga Springs, New York.

“This honor means the world to Tracy and to me,” said Todd Pletcher. “Our record reflects a team effort and the members of the backstretch are key members of our team. The New York Chaplaincy does great work serving those who care for our horses and we are humbled to join their list of honorees.”

“The Pletchers have demonstrated a deep commitment to the backstretch community, and their support has come in many forms over the years,” said Ramón Dominguez, President of the Board of the NYRTC. “We are thrilled to honor them in this way for all they have done and all they continue to do.”

Previous recipients have included Anne Campbell, Edgar Prado, Michael Dubb, Fay and David Donk, Marylou Whitney and John Hendrickson, Letty and Kiaran McLaughlin, Lisa and Kenny Troutt, Debbie and Terry Finley, the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, Irad Ortiz Jr. and Andy Serling.

Additional information, including tickets and sponsorships for the event, may be found at www.rtcany.org.

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Fire At Will To Enter Stud At Sequel New York In 2023

Fire At Will, winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf in 2020, will stand the 2023 season at Sequel Stallions New York in Hudson, N.Y. The 5-year-old son of Declaration of War will stand his first season for $6,000.

Fire At Will will be available for inspection during Sequel Stallions New York's open house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at 167 Maple Lane in Hudson.

Campaigned by Three Diamonds Farm and trained by Mike Maker, Fire At Will won three of six starts and earned $675,932.

“He is absolutely the fastest 2-year-old I have ever trained on the turf,” Maker said.

Fire At Will bounced back from a troubled trip in his debut at Saratoga Race Course to win the $93,000 With Anticipation Stakes there less than a month later as a maiden over a sloppy and sealed surface. He showed his affinity for the grass with a 2-length victory in the Grade 2 Pilgrim Stakes at Belmont Park before a 3-length tally over an international field in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland Race Course.

Fire At Will, who topped the likes of Grade 1 winner Gretzky the Great and Grade 2 winners Mutasaabeq and Battleground in the Juvenile Turf, was an Eclipse Award finalist in the champion 2-year-old male category in 2020.

Fire At Will returned to the races in 2021 and contested the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes on dirt at Gulfstream Park before a third in the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes on grass in his final start at Keeneland.

Out of the Kitten's Joy mare Flirt, who sold in foal to Lemon Drop Kid for $500,000 at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November mixed sale, Fire At Will was originally purchased by Three Diamonds for $97,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale. He was offered this month as a stallion prospect via Fasig-Tipton Digital.

“Recent Fasig-Tipton Digital Sale graduate Fire At Will presents a great opportunity to breeders in New York,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning Jr. “He was a brilliant Breeders' Cup winner at two and has an outstanding pedigree. Becky Thomas and her team at Sequel have added another really exciting stallion prospect for the 2023 breeding season.”

Fire At Will is the first foal out of Flirt, who is a half-sister to Pegasus World Cup Turf contender and Grade 1 winner Decorated Invader (by Declaration of War), stakes winner Jubliant Girl and stakes-placed Cabral. Flirt, who is also from the family of top sire Stormy Atlantic, is also the dam of the unraced 3-year-old Mendelssohn colt and $310,000 yearling Sacred Rhyme and a 2-year-old filly by Lemon Drop Kid that sold as a yearling for $210,000.

“This is, perhaps, the most powerful stallion family in the world today,” said pedigree expert Alan Porter.

The post Fire At Will To Enter Stud At Sequel New York In 2023 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Understanding Texas Holdem Poker

Texas Holdem is actually quite easy to learn. This is perhaps why the game is becoming quite the rage in card rooms all over the world whether online or offline. In the Texas Holdem poker, the dealer gives two faced-down cards, which is called the hole cards or the pocket cards in poker lingo. After which, the players are dealt with 5 faced-up cards, which is called community cards. At the final round of betting, players must make the best hand out of the seven cards that they are dealt with, the two cards given faced down and the five cards given faced-up.

The process

For the first round of betting, two faced-down cards are given. Three are then supplied facing up at the middle of the table. These cards can be used by other players to make their hands strong. This is known as the flop. A round of betting is done after this. The fourth card is dealt with faced down and betting is again opened. This is called the fourth street or the turn card. The fifth and final card is dealt again at the center of the table and the last round of betting will then occur. This final card is called the river card. Players have the option to bet, to check, to raise or to fold.

Players that are in immediate left of the dealer are called the small blind (referring to the nearest) and the big blind (referring to the farthest positions). Players that want to enter the hand should call the big blind so that they can stay in the game. Otherwise they will have to fold.
As mentioned before, players who have the best hand will win the pot. The best hand combinations will of course depend on the standard poker hands. In case of ties, which often happens with this variant of poker, players will split the pot money.

Types of Betting
There are three types of betting in Texas Holdem Poker. In the Limit Holdem betting structure, the amount that a player will bet or raise will be limited to amounts that are already specified at the start of the game. Small blind and big blinds will have specific amounts that they can bet on the first two rounds of betting. On the third and succeeding betting rounds, the bets will be raised in specified increments, for instance, two-dollar increments. After turn and river betting will of course be more expensive.

Spread limit Holdem Poker, on the other hand, is much the same as Limit Holdem except for one thing, the raising of bets will not be according to a specified amount but instead according to a certain range or “spread,” the term used in poker games.

Another kind of betting structure is the Pot Limit Holdem, which limits the player’s maximum bet. In this structure, a player’s bet cannot exceed the total amount accumulated in the pot.

In the no limit holdem betting structure, there is no limit on the amounts that players can bet or raise. This can be difficult for players who also depend on the size of the betting to guess the strength of the hand of their opponents. Because there are no limits and no ranges, they have no way of knowing if the player is confident with his hand or just a plain big casino spender.

New Ruling on Changes Leaves NYRA, Trainers Puzzled

The notice began appearing on the overnight in early January. “By order of the stewards. Pursuant to NYSGC RULE 4033.8. Effective February 1^st, only equipment specifically approved by the stewards shall be worn or carried by a jockey or a horse in a race. No equipment change (including shoes) will be allowed once the overnight is published.”

“There is no new rule,” wrote Brad Maoine, Director of Communications for the New York State Gaming Commission in response to TDN's request for information about the new posting on the overnight. “The intent of the message is (to) ensure that the betting public has access to accurate information regarding equipment changes in a timely fashion.”

But a reading of the NYSGC's rule 4033.8 reveals no mention of a horse's equipment, and reads only, “Only equipment specifically approved by the stewards shall be worn or carried by a jockey or a horse in a race.” There is no mention of equipment changes for horses after the publishing of the overnight in the ruling as stated on the Gaming Commission's website.

Trainers, horsemen's representatives and the NYRA expressed confusion over what the impetus for the rule was, and concern over the repercussions.

Right now, NYRA races are drawn either five, three or two days in advance of the race, with any late changes announced on the t.v. and general address system at the track, and off.

“NYRA has mechanisms in place to inform the betting public in the event of a late equipment change,” said NYRA spokesman Patrick McKenna. “This new rule does nothing to further protect horseplayers and will likely penalize owners for administrative errors that can easily be corrected in real time.”

“I think there are several issues with it,” said trainer Todd Pletcher. “My first concern would be over an occasional shoe situation. We've had scenarios where a horse sheds a frog and we train the horse in an aluminum pad, and we try to keep it on to complete their training, which is usually right up to the day of the race. If you want to make that shoe change you sometimes literally don't know until game day. Entries in most jurisdictions are becoming further and further out, so that's one concern.”

Secondly, he said, “everyone makes mistakes occasionally, and maybe you made an honest mistake and didn't enter with blinkers, and caught it after the overnight came out, or maybe the racing office made a mistake and didn't note blinkers on. It seems as if there should be a 24-hour grace period.”

Trainer David Donk conceded that in a perfect world, trainers would and should indicate changes of equipment at entry time, but that the current system of taking entries by phone, rather than by computer with mandatory fields filled out, made it more likely for errors to be made.

“Why can't I enter online?” said Donk. “Listen, it is the trainer's responsibility. I probably don't have a real problem with it, but is it the commission overstepping? I don't see where it's coming from, and why there can't be a grace period? Common sense says there should be some compromise.”

Donk said that he imagined that the equipment changes hinted at would be blinker changes or the addition of a bar shoe. Attorney Drew Mollica—who has represented numerous clients in conflicts with the Gaming Commission, including two currently–said that he envisioned that the rule would not only make it more likely to cause unnecessary scratches, but could be subject to legal challenges.

“No shoe changes after entry puts the horse in jeopardy and hurts the track,” said Mollica. “Say a horse pops a small quarter crack and needs a bar shoe. If that is announced, does that not protect the owner, the public, the horse and the track? But under this rule, he must scratch. Why?”

“And how about blinkers?” he continued. “Say a horse breezes on the day after entry and the trainer thinks blinkers would help, but now has to scratch or run without equipment that could benefit his performance because the new rule says he must scratch or not wear them? Who does this help? In a game that has enough natural landmines, do we have to plant more?”

Will Alempijevic, the executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, replied in an email, “NYTHA is currently engaged in discussions with both the NYSGC and NYRA to understand the issues that precipitated the change. We will continue to play an active role to see if we can collectively come up with proposed solutions to everyone's mutual benefit.”

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