Ocean Reef Racing, a Key Largo, Florida-based syndicate made up of nine partners, has bought an interest in GII Rebel S. winner Confidence Game (Candy Ride {Arg}) from the colt's owner, Don't Tell My Wife Stable. Confidence Game is expected to make his next start in the GI Kentucky Derby for trainer Keith Desormeaux.
William “Billy” Paytner, who heads the Ocean Reef syndicate, would not disclose the percentage that was purchased, but said that it was less than 50% and that Don't Tell My Wife will remain the principal owner.
“Although I split my time between Versailles and Key Largo, I'm a Louisville native, so I'm over the moon,” Paynter said. “Our stable has only been in racing for about three years and never in a million years did I think we could have a horse in the Derby in our first three years. I can't even imagine what might happen. I'm going to be a nervous wreck until they come out of the starting gate on Derby day. It's very exciting for myself, my family and all my partners. It gives me goose bumps just thinking about it.”
“We are thrilled that Billy and his partners at Ocean Reef Racing have joined us on this amazing ride with Confidence Game, and look forward to going on this exciting journey with them,” said Don't Tell My Wife's Kirk Godby. “It was just five years ago that we had My Boy Jack run in the Derby and it's truly incredible to be back again. All the credit goes to trainer Keith Desormeaux, though, who continues to prove his elite horsemanship in buying young horses and getting them to this level. I can't thank him enough.”
When it comes to the Derby, Confidence Game was flying under the radar until he pulled off the upset in the Rebel at 18-1. With James Graham aboard, he won by a length. The Ocean Reef team noticed the effort and was soon in touch with Godby.
“I knew Kirk from Fort Worth through some business connections when I went to SMU business school,” Paynter said. “We liked the Candy Ride side of his pedigree and that he's out of a Bernardini mare, Eblouissante. Eblouissante is a half-sister to Zenyatta. But it wasn't even a thought until the Rebel. That race weighed heavily on our decision. There were the wet conditions and how he won and galloped out. That was very impressive. They have a pretty good track record. This is their second Derby horse and they were in the Oaks last year [with Candy Raid]. I haven't gotten to know Keith Desormeaux yet, but I am looking forward to racing with him. He obviously has a good track record.”
Paynter said the stable has been trying to focus on buying more expensive horses, but having a horse in the Derby was not necessarily a goal.
“At the level we've been buying at, we thought getting to the Derby was a possibility, but it never crosses your mind until it actually happens,” he said. “To be honest, we didn't expect to have a Derby horse. This is one of those pinch yourself moments.”
Dr. Heather Wharton, the veterinarian responsible for injecting WinStar stallion Laoban with a so-called “Black Shot” shortly before his death in 2021, has begun serving a 90-day suspension as part of a negotiated settlement with the Kentucky Board of Veterinary Examiners revealed Tim Sullivan with the LEO Weekly. Per the released report, Wharton is also obligated to pay a $30,000 administrative fine, complete at least four hours of continuing education, and has agreed to accept a written reprimand that will serve as a permanent disciplinary mark on her record.
A report prepared on behalf of North American Specialty Insurance Company described in detail the fatal efforts to spark Laoban's interest in breeding. Wharton injected the stallion with a mixture of four substances–three of them expired–and one intended to treat anemia in baby pigs, not horses. Attorney Harvey Feintuch concluded vitamins intended to be administered intrasmuscularly were instead injected intravenously, that expired Vitamin B12 was administered at five times the recommended dosage, and that expired Vitamin B Complex was administered despite a warning of anaphylactic shock.
WinStar attorney W. Craig Robertson provided a prepared statement from the farm's CEO, Elliott Walden, to Mr. Sullivan, and said no other comment from the farm would be made.
“Laoban's tragic passing has had a profound impact on everyone at our farm,” Walden said. “With more than 20 years of experience in the thoroughbred business, WinStar always has placed the utmost priority on the safety of our horses. We've accepted the board's decision, Dr. Wharton will remain on staff, and we will continue to review treatment protocols. Our commitment to our horses is unwavering, and we will work tirelessly to uphold the highest standards of safety and welfare in our sport.”
WinStar's Dr. Natanya Nieman, interviewed during the initial investigation, told the veterinary examiners board that she was unaware of any other horse at WinStar being treated with the combination of ingredients in the “Black Shot,” and that the farm had changed its protocols since the stallion's death.
“Things are much tighter,” she told St. Clair. “We have written a whole standard operating procedure.”
This story has also been reported by the Blood-Horse.
Former West Virginia trainer Harry Dodson of Martinsburg, WVa., is the subject of a criminal complaint of 14 counts of animal cruelty filed in local court in March. The complaint details a weeks-long investigation by animal control authorities into repeated complaints about the condition of horses – some of them former racehorses – in Dodson's care.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Jefferson County Magistrate Court, law enforcement began fielding calls about horses connected to Dodson in January of this year. In the criminal complaint, Lt. Robert Sell noted that Dodson was the owner of more than a dozen horses who were kept on a property on Leetown Road. An initial check found the horses with hay and water, and law enforcement didn't note any problems, but animal control officers continued to receive calls about the horses and and made additional visits to the property.
Three horses did show signs of malnutrition in late January, according to the report, and are identified as Another Buckaroo, an 18-year-old gelding who was owned and trained on the track by Dodson; Only Gota Minute, an 18-year-old mare, and Kyla's Treasure, an 18-year-old mare who ran on the track for Dodson.
Dodson told officers he suspected his siblings may have been responsible for the complaints about the horses as part of an ongoing family dispute.
Sell wrote that he ordered Dodson to seek veterinary care for those three horses within seven days. Ten days after that order, the document shows, Dodson told animal control officer he could not afford veterinary care for the horses. Animal control continued to post notices at the Leetown Road property, demanding Dodson comply with their order through mid-February.
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On Feb. 23, a private veterinarian visited the farm and discovered that Another Buckaroo had been euthanized prior to her visit. The vet gave Kyla's Treasure a body condition score of one out of nine. Only Gota Minute received a score of two out of nine. The veterinarian provided Dodson with a number of recommendations, including medicated shampoos for lice infestations and feeding/management strategies to improve their weight.
The complaint states that when officers returned on Feb. 27, they had received two more calls. This time, they found a downed horse who was unable to rise. The next day, they discovered Dodson with Only Gota Minute, who was down but alive. Dodson told officers he had euthanized the horse with a drug that took 30 minutes to fully work, the report states. He would later admit, it continued, that he had shot the horse and been unsuccessful in killing her before the arrival of animal control officers. A necropsy later revealed the horse weighed 827 pounds and died of unspecified trauma and hypoproteinemia (lack of dietary protein).
On March 2, law enforcement obtained a search warrant and permission from the court to remove animals from the property. They took 13 horses, 12 of which scored at or below a 3.5 out of 9 on the Henneke Body Condition Score scale.
“The field conditions were bare and minimal, lacking both grass/pasture and quality hay,” the complaint read. “The water sources varied from adequate to inadequate based on where the horses were located. The fencing was inadequate and dangerous to the animals in terms of protecting them or possible escape. All of the horses will need extensive care and treatment to return to a healthy body score and future.”
A neighbor later told police that Dodson had told them in text messages that he'd had four horses die on the property between Christmas and New Year's, prior to the start of law enforcement investigations. Dodson had indicated in one of his texts that one died from Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis.
One of the horses seized from former trainer Harry Dodson's property. Image courtesy Days End Farm Horse Rescue
One mare and foal were transferred to Hattingh Equine Rescue in Purcellville, Va., where they reportedly are making good progress. Thirteen seized horses were sent to Days End Farm in Woodbine, Md., where they are continuing their recovery.
DeEtte Hillman, equine programs director for Days End, said the 13 horses the organization took on are about three weeks into their recovery, and while they are showing signs of improvement, they have a long road ahead.
“These horses were suffering from a severe lice infestation, so their bodies just hurt and itched,” said Hillman. “These guys, on top of being starved, were ill and fighting infections. They still are. We're still dealing with it and we're three weeks in.”
Days End has three mares with foals, two stallions, two geldings, and three mares. So far, the organization has found Jockey Club registration information for six of them, although they all appear to be Thoroughbreds. Hillman said lack of dental care and vaccines have contributed to the horses' condition.
“We can say now the majority of them are improving. Others are still struggling through ongoing illness issues,” she said.
Hillman said she expects it will take a minimum of six months for the group to regain health, and it may be 12 months before they may be ready for adoption. On average, Days Ends finds that horses getting rehabilitative care can cost $2,200 or more per month due to the intensive veterinary work required to safely refeed, deworm, and address other chronic medical issues.
A horse receives a veterinary check-up after it was removed from Dodson's property and transferred to Days End Farm. Image courtesy Days End Farm Horse Rescue
Dodson's training career was sporadic and most of his starts took place in 2014 with a lifetime record of one win in 43 starts. In 2015, he was ejected from Charles Town after the track said he had engaged in “conduct detrimental to the best interest of racing.” Dodson later said track management made a series of allegations against him, including that he attempted to exercise a sore horse, that he entered a 9-year-old horse that had not raced before and was euthanized in its third start, and accused him of “generally entering poor performing horses in races at PNGI,” according to a report in the Thoroughbred Daily News.
Dodson appealed the ejection to the West Virginia Racing Commission, which determined that Dodson had not violated any rules of racing and that the track had violated statutory requirements for ejection. The commission reversed the track's ejection. Still, Dodson brought suit against Charles Town in federal court, claiming that the ejection forced him to “engage in a fire-sale/giveaway of horses he had on PNGI's premises.”
He sought $100,000 in damages plus $10,000 in lost wages, along with punitive damages. The racetrack made a motion to dismiss, which was granted by a judge when it went unopposed by Dodson. Dodson's attorney later explained in a court filing that he misunderstood the requirements for filing a response.
According to Jefferson County court records, Dodson was issued a notice to appear for a pre-trial hearing on May 16 for the misdemeanor animal cruelty charges. He has not yet entered a plea. He is no longer licensed by the West Virginia Racing Commission in any capacity.
Veterinarian Dr. Heather Wharton has had her veterinary license suspended 90 days and has been ordered to pay $30,000 in administrative fines for her role in the death of the stallion Laoban, according to a report from LEO Weekly.
Wharton was working for WinStar Farm in May 2021, at which time Laoban was standing stud at WinStar and was showing reduced interest in breeding mares. Writer Tim Sullivan noted that a report by the Kentucky Board of Veterinary Examiners showed Laoban had been diagnosed with arthritis in his neck which made breeding uncomfortable. The report indicated the horse had been treated with shockwave and anti-inflammatories and showed initial improvement, but his reluctance returned.
Wharton injected Laoban with a vitamin cocktail referred to as The Black Shot in the hopes of stimulating energy. Less than a minute after receiving the injection surveillance cameras showed the horse went into distress and died quickly.
Cypress Creek Equine LLC later filed a civil suit in Fayette County Circuit Court in Kentucky against insurance companies which refused to pay out mortality coverage on the horse due to the circumstances of his death. That case remains unresolved.
Court documents prepared by the legal team for one of the insurance companies later revealed that the contents of The Black Shot given by Wharton included four vitamin substances, three of which were expired, one of which was not labeled for use in horses, and one of which was given at a dose well above the recommended amount. One or more of the ingredients was supposed to be given intramuscularly but the mixture was instead given intravenously.
Wharton also agreed to complete at least four hours of continuing education and will receive a reprimand in her record in the state veterinary licensing system.
A statement by WinStar CEO Elliott Walden indicated Wharton would remain on staff at WinStar and that the farm “will continue to review treatment protocols.”
