July, 2023 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Daddy’s Lil Darling Daughter Savethelastdance Leads O’Brien Squad In Saturday’s Irish Oaks

The Curragh will stage another Classic two days of racing this weekend with Saturday featuring the Group 1 Juddmonte Irish Oaks with eight of the top fillies in Europe set to line up in the Group 1 contest.

Epsom Oaks runner up Savethelastdance and Warm Heart, winner of the prestigious Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot, lead a strong team trained by Aidan O'Brien, who will also be represented by Library and Be Happy.

Savethelastdance is the first foal out of American-trained Grade 1-winning millionaire Daddy's Lil Darling. The Galileo filly won the listed Cheshire Oaks in impressive fashion before her second-place finish in the Group 1 Epsom Oaks.

Other contenders include Ribblesdale Stakes runner up Lumiere Rock who represents Joseph O'Brien, Azazat trained by Dermot Weld, and Comhra trained by Jim Bolger, while the Ralph Beckett trained Bluestocking is the sole British trained runner and will carry the colors of the race sponsor Juddmonte.

The Group 2 Barberstown Castle Sapphire Stakes has attracted eight runners including the British trained pair of White Lavender and Art Power. The home trained team is lead by Ladies Church, Go Athletico and Ana Syra.

Okita Soushi, Rosscarbery and Emily Dickinson are among the eleven runners in the Group 2 Comer Group International Curragh Cup, while eight two year olds will face the starter in the Group 3 Jebel Ali Racecourse and Stables Anglesey Stakes including Buyin Buyin, Pearls and Rubies and Kairyu and The Caribbean.

A very competitive field will line up for the valuable Paddy Power Scurry with the Gordon Elliott trained Coachello set to carry top weight of 10 stone. Other notable contenders include Big Gossey, Verhoyen, Aussie Girl and Gustavus Weston.

The are ten runners in the La Celia Wines Sprint, eleven in the Barberstown Castle EBF Maiden while there are eleven juveniles in the opening Juddmonte EBF Maiden.

The post Daddy’s Lil Darling Daughter Savethelastdance Leads O’Brien Squad In Saturday’s Irish Oaks appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Horsemen Advisory: Testing Following A Breeze Is Not Limited To Vets’ List Works

The Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU) reminds horsemen and veterinarians that Covered Horses are subject to testing at any time, including following routine timed workouts (Post-Work testing). Testing following workouts is not limited to Vets' List workouts.

Please note that Post-Work samples are not collected after all routine timed workouts. Trainers will be notified of selection, and sampling will be performed, within one hour of the completion of the workout.

The following substances are prohibited in Post-Work samples:

Banned Substances
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS)
Corticosteroids
Local anesthetics
Analgesics
Intra-articular injections containing any substance are prohibited within 7 days of a routine workout, i.e., if the injection(s) is/are administered on Saturday, the horse cannot breeze until the following Saturday.
- A withdrawal interval of longer than 7 days may be necessary in consideration of factors such as the number of joints treated and dose of the administered corticosteroid, as well as the administration of corticosteroids by other routes (including, but not limited to oral, intramuscular, and topical).
The stacking of NSAIDS or corticosteroids is also prohibited.
The regulation of Banned Substances, NSAIDS, local anesthetics, and analgesics in Post-Work testing mirrors Post-Race testing.
For routine timed workouts, the following corticosteroids are regulated based on established Screening Limits in blood: Betamethasone, Dexamethasone, Isoflupredone, Triamcinolone, and Methylprednisolone.
All other Controlled Medications, including furosemide, are permitted to be present in a Post-Work sample, regardless of the horse's age or class.

Horsemen and their veterinarians are encouraged to consult the published Detection Times when considering treatments in advance of a routine timed workout.

More information about the differences in testing and procedures between routine timed workouts and Vets' List workouts can be found here.

The post Horsemen Advisory: Testing Following A Breeze Is Not Limited To Vets’ List Works appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Played Hard and Bauer, Work Towards Shuvee

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – While Clairiere (Curlin) and Nest (Curlin) are in the spotlight, attracting most of the attention in the runup to the GII Shuvee S. on Sunday, Played Hard (Into Mischief) is, well, lurking.

Stonestreet Stable's Clairiere has won consecutive Grade Is to climb to the top of the older dirt filly division. Nest, last year's 3-year-old filly champ co-owned by Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House, will make her first start of 2023. Meanwhile, Played Hard, trained by Phillip Bauer for Rigney Racing, has been building a solid resume. She gave her connections their first Grade I victory in the La Troienne on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs and has finished in the top three in her last 10 starts, six of them graded stakes.

Bauer said that Played Hard has established herself as a very capable and consistent runner while accumulating $1,480140 in purse earnings.

“I think she needs to be recognized as part of the equation this year in that division. However, it's, a tough division,” he said. “I'm sure with the years that they've had, Clairiere currently, and Nest last year, they deserve some respect and obviously some recognition.

But we're excited the way our filly is training and we've kind of mapped out a plan. So we just kind of put our blinkers on and whoever is in it, go to battle with them and see where we stack up at the end of the year. The main goal is the Breeders' Cup. How we get there is probably going to be different than some of the others, but the Shuvee is the first step.”

Played Hard | Mike Kane

With both trainer and owners from Louisville, the 38-year-old Bauer has trained for Richard and Tammy Rigney since 2013. The Rigneys topped the owner's table at the 2022 Churchill Downs Spring Meet and had a spectacular Saratoga season, winning six of 13 starts. Played Hard delivered one of the Saratoga victories and has been in graded company since, finishing first in three of five starts. In the oh-so-important La Troienne victory she held off Secret Oath (Arrogate) by a neck.

“To me, she showed maturity,” Bauer said. “She's really figured the game out. Early on, it almost looked like she wanted to get rank in her races and stuff like that. She still likes to show pace, but it's some maturity, that I think has helped her and then, obviously, just the desire to win.”

Bauer smiled at the suggestion that the sixth win of her 16-race career was something of a coming out party.

“I would have to think so,” he said. “She showed up and danced her dance.”

In her next start, Played Hard ran third to Clairiere and Search Results (Flatter) in the GI Ogden Phipps on June 10. With hindsight, Bauer said he regrets the decision to leave Louisville with the questions swirling about safety issues at Churchill Downs and ship the 5-year-old mare to New York.

“I think maybe a little trainer error on my part going up to the Ogden Phipps,” he said. “We changed gears with everything that went on at Churchill. I don't necessarily think that it was the filly, I think it was more so a mistake that I made.

“We originally were targeting the (GII, July 1) Fleur de Lis, so we kind of changed course. Obviously, the Grade I was appealing, too. The fact we had one if you could get two you really enhanced your odds of winning an Eclipse Award.

Played Hard was forwardly placed by John Velazquez, but finished three lengths behind Clairiere in the one-turn Phipps at Belmont Park.

“We told ourselves, we're not going to regret our decisions,” Bauer said. “She still got third in a Grade I. As far as a page for her when she becomes a broodmare, it doesn't hurt.”

Played Hard has breezed three times since the Ogden Phipps, including a bullet five furlongs on July 7 at Churchill Downs. She worked a half-mile at Saratoga on Saturday.

Played Hard and Phil Bauer last summer at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew

“It'll be interesting to see who else goes in there, how the race sets up,” Bauer said. “I anticipate us being part of the mix early. If nobody else is in there maybe it will aid our chances. She loves it up here. She's won a couple of races and we're excited to be back and try again.”

Bauer and the Rigneys have been racing at Saratoga since 2016. They had a productive summer in 2021 with a 3-5-2 record from 21 starts. Last year, they had a remarkable run.

“We were very fortunate,” Bauer said. “It seemed like every time you opened the condition book, there was a race exactly where you wanted it all the way from maiden claimings to two-other-thans. Everything just fit like a glove. We didn't miss a beat and I think that was part of the reason for some of the success.”

Bauer said he and his owners understand what they have known all along, that it's tough to win at Saratoga.

“We're kind of making sure we realize that coming into this meet,” he said. “You don't come up here expecting to win that many. We want to come up, be competitive and leave here proud of what our horses have accomplished, whether it's wins or not.

You want to lead them over there to run their best race. And if they do it up here, sometimes it's not good enough.”

Bauer brought 14 Rigney horses to Saratoga this year, a couple more than in past seasons. Played Hard is the star of the stable and in the Shuvee faces the tough task of facing Clairiere and Nest, two horses Bauer admires.

“Just phenomenal horses that if you ever run across those kind you're lucky to have,” he said. “Played Hard is the best horse I've ever hung a bridle on. It's exciting to be in the mix. That's what we all strive for in this game, to reach that level and have horses like that. I'm obviously a fan of what those fillies and mares have done and at the same time, hope to beat them.”

The post Played Hard and Bauer, Work Towards Shuvee appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Case Study: German Veterinarians Get Creative Treating Horse’s Abscessed Spleen

A horse that had received a penetrating abdominal injury from running into a metal rose trellis developed complications more than a month after the event. The initial puncture wound healed slowly, but the horse developed a fever, showed signs of abdominal pain, and lost weight weeks after the accident. The Polish Warmblood was taken to the Clinic for Horses at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover in Germany, where veterinarians found that the horse had an abscess on his spleen.

The 13-year-old gelding was treated by Drs. Alexander Schwieder, Tobias Niebuhr and Florian Geburek, who noted that he looks tucked-up behind his 18th rib and was reluctant to have the area palpated. When palpating the horse via the rectum, the vets found that the surface of the spleen felt irregular and firm, and adhesions between the spleen and the abdominal wall were suspected.

The doctors placed a drain in the spleen using ultrasound guidance, deeming it the least invasive way to treat the abscess. This is the first time a procedure of this type has been done on a horse's spleen, though transabdominal abscesses have been drained in other parts of the equine abdominal cavity.

Ultrasound images showed a small amount of fluid low in the abdomen and an abnormal, irregularly shaped structure in the spleen. Some fluid was drawn out by a needle; it was yellowish and odorless with a high white cell count. The veterinarians then aspirated the abscess with ultrasound guidance.

They also confirmed that the side of the spleen had adhered to the abdominal wall. Abscesses of the spleen are rare in horses; they may be caused by perforation of the intestinal tract by wire.

The vets then used ultrasound to place a silicone drainage tube through the abdominal wall and into the abscess to help it drain. They also inserted a balloon catheter into the abscess. The horse was given antibiotics for the infection.

The drain remained in place for two weeks. After its removal, the horse returned to his previous level of work as a 1.10 meter jumper and pleasure mount. The adhesions of the spleen to the abdominal wall remained, as the vets had anticipated they would.