American Pastime, a Grade 3-placed son of Tapizar, has been relocated to White Farms in Granville, Ohio for the 2024 breeding season, where he will stand for an advertised fee of $1,500.
The 9-year-old previously stood at Swifty Farms in Indiana, where he entered stud in 2022. His oldest foals are weanlings.
American Pastime won three of 13 starts during his on-track career, earning $280,035.
He was a debut winner at Santa Anita Park, drawing away to win by 4 1/2 lengths. He won a pair of allowance optional claiming races in Southern California before shipping east to run in the Grade 3 Gallant Bob Stakes, where he finished second to Coal Front by a half-length. American Pastime then tested the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar, where he finished fourth.
American Pastime is out of the winning Valid Expectations mare Ryan's Inheritance, who is the dam of seven winners from nine foals to race. His third dam is the multiple Grade 2 winner Foresta, with Grade 2 winner Lunar Bounty and Grade 3 winners Wising Up and Wised Up further down the page.
Grade 1 winner Mor Spirit will relocate to Swifty Farms in Seymour, Ind., for the 2024 breeding season, where he will stand for an advertised fee of $2,500.
The 10-year-old son of Eskendereya previously stood at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., where he entered stud in 2019. He'll stand in Indiana for a partnership led by Nicks Farm Thoroughbreds, and lifetime breeding rights established during the stallion's time at Spendthrift Farm will continue to be honored.
A $5,000 bonus will be offered to the breeder of the first Indiana-sired stakes winner by Mor Spirit.
Mor Spirit's oldest runners are 3-year-olds of 2023, led by Prince of Wales Stakes winner Velocitor. His runners of note also include stakes winners Weslan and Mor Victory.
In total, Mor Spirit has sired 45 winners, with combined progeny earnings in excess of $3 million.
Mor Spirit won six of 14 starts during his on-track career, with earnings totaling $1,668,400.
He won the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity and ran second in the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes as a juvenile, then he came back at three to win the G3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes and run second in the G1 Santa Anita Derby. His 4-year-old season was highlighted by victories in the G1 Metropolian Handicap and the G3 Steve Sexton Mile.
Mor Spirit is out of the Grade 3-placed stakes-winning Dixie Union mare Im a Dixie Girl. He hails from the family of champion Stellar Wind and Grade 1 winner Great Hunter.
Trainer Bob Baffert has sued two horseplayers for defamation and extortion in connection with what his attorneys said were damaging social media comments and threats to publish a video one of them said would “end Baffert.”
The suit was filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, by Baffert and Bob Baffert Racing Stables, Inc., against New Jersey residents Justin A. Wunderler and Daniel Dicorcia. Wunderler is known on the X social media platform (formerly Twitter) as @SwiftHitter; Dicorcia posts as @barshoelife. Each is described in the complaint as a “part-time pari-mutuel thoroughbred racing bettor” with a “substantial social media presence.”
The complaint states that over the past two years, following a failed drug test by Medina Spirit after a first-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, Baffert “has been working with industry participants and through the legal process to repair his reputation and standing in the industry.”
Over that same time frame, the complaint alleges, Wunderler and Dicorcia “have engaged in an escalating pattern of unlawful and threatening behavior directed specifically at Baffert and his family. This escalating pattern of outrageous behavior is specifically intended to accrue more followers and personal monetary gain.”
Before the 2023 Belmont Stakes on June 10, the complaint states that Wunderler “specifically asked his followers to bring dangerous objects to hurl at Baffert and his family,” and claimed that Baffert “slaughters horses on national TV.”
A Baffert-trained colt, Havnameltdown, suffered a fatal injury during a national telecast three weeks before the Belmont on Preakness day at Pimlico.
The complaint also said Wunderler and DiCorcia “spearheaded a conspiracy theory alleging that Baffert was scratching his horses because of an adverse reaction” to blood-doping with erythropoietin, or EPO. “Specifically,” the complaint alleges, “Mr. Wunderler accused Baffert of scratching the thoroughbred racehorse 'Muth' because of a 'reaction to EPO. 100 %%%' and claimed at least twice that a 'bad shipment of EPO has hit (Baffert's) barn.'”
“Baffert does not engage in blood doping,” the complaint states, “and public investigations into various racing incidents have repeatedly noted that there is no evidence that Baffert engages in blood doping.”
The extortion allegation, the complaint states, stems from two “videos of unknown content” Wunderler claims to have. He posted on X Sept. 5: “There is a video out there that will end Baffert.”
“Based upon information and belief,” the complaint states, “the alleged videos are deceptively edited to cast Baffert and his staff in a false light with the specific intent of manufacturing a scandal, whereas the full context and character of the video would affirmatively refute such characterization.”
The complaint alleges that Wunderler and Dicorcia engaged in a “conspiracy to extort money from Baffert, sent a text message demanding a sum certain (sic) of money, with specific payment instructions for wiring money, in exchange for a promise not to release information defendants allege is so damaging that it will end Baffert's career.
“In furtherance of this conspiracy,” the complaint continues, “Mr. Wunderler instructed a third party to deliver that message to Baffert's representatives, and that message was in fact delivered to Baffert when it was forwarded to Baffert's wife.”
Wunderler and Dicorcia's conduct, the complaint states, was “reckless; callously indifferent to Baffert's rights; and motivated by the specific, malicious intent to harm Baffert, his family, his business, and his reputation; entitling Baffert to punitive damages in excess of this court's jurisdictional minimum.”
Defamation allegations include online comments that Baffert blood-doped Medina Spirit and that Triple Crown winner Justify was “juiced.”
The complaint states that “collectively, and as of Sept. 8, 2023, defendants' statements have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media platforms.”
Baffert is seeking compensatory damages in excess of $75,000 in addition to punitive damages, along with an order “requiring defendants to produce the video to the Court for the Court's and Plaintiffs' review.”
Baffert is represented by attorney Shepard S. Kopp. Attorney Clark Brewster, who has represented Baffert and Medina Spirit's owner, Amr Zedan, in other cases, has also been retained. Brewster said information contained in the complaint has been turned over to law enforcement officials.
On Wednesday night, Wunderler posted excerpts of the complaint on his X account with multiple comments, including: “Why they scared of videos ? Lol . No one is extorting Baffert and no one is hollywood editing em lol”
After several additional posts, he wrote: “Lawyer is advicing my take a breather stay off X for a little and lets dig in.”
Wunderler is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed in New Jersey against Baffert by several horseplayers who allege they were “cheated” out of winnings when Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby while carrying a prohibited substance in his system on race day. A second, similar lawsuit filed in Kentucky, was dismissed earlier this year.
As a shortage of equine veterinarians grows, everyone from universities to veterinary hospitals to farm managers have been brainstorming how they can help inspire young people to take up the profession, or keep young vets from switching to small animal practice. You might not think of the upcoming Thoroughbred Makeover as a pivotal event in this area, but thanks to the efforts of Dr. Shannon Kelly Reed, clinical associate professor of large animal surgery at Texas A&M University, it has become that for some students.
The Thoroughbred Makeover is a training competition hosted by the Retired Racehorse Project and is designed to showcase the significant progress an ex-racehorse can make with just 10 months of training in a new career. The event evolved from a demonstration to a small competition between professional trainers to a giant event with cash prizes which draws hundreds of Thoroughbreds and people to the Kentucky Horse Park each year.
Reed is a longtime advocate of off-track Thoroughbreds, having competed in the Makeover event herself in 2017 and 2018 and aimed some of her academic research at better understanding the demographics of horses leaving the track for new careers.
While trainers must apply and be approved to enter the Makeover, many of them are amateurs who don't ride or train as their full-time job. For some of them, their Makeover horse may be one of their first Thoroughbreds. As she watched the event grow from a competitor's perspective, Reed saw an opportunity for continuing education.
“I heard a lot of people saying, 'You can't put weight on Thoroughbreds' or 'They're always footsore' and I wanted to say no – you just have to change the standard, or help people reach it,” she said.
Reed suggested to event organizers that this could be accomplished by a mandatory veterinary exam on arrival, and they suggested she launch a program to make it happen. The arrival exam, which horses must pass in order to compete, includes evaluation of the horse's body condition score, soundness, heart rhythms and lung sounds, and basic vitals before they're cleared to compete.
Dr. Reed helps conduct an arrival exam ahead of the 2022 Thoroughbred Makeover
Reed said it's rare for a horse to fail the arrival exam, but the goal isn't to weed out potential competitors – it's to help Makeover hopefuls anticipate what Thoroughbreds need that other breeds may not. The exam process is explained thoroughly to competitors during the year as they're training their horses, giving them the chance to anticipate and troubleshoot some common challenges with horses transitioning from racetrack to show ring. Reed and the RRP staff make themselves available for continuing education webinars and troubleshooting, all with the knowledge that the let down period between track and new career can be a learning process not just for the horse, but also for the owner.
The prospect of examining every horse in a field that this year includes 404 horses is a daunting one, however. Reed knew from the first year of the procedure in 2019 she was going to need some help.
“The first year we started it was me and multiple veterinarians from Hagyard and Boehringer-Ingelheim because they were co-sponsors of RRP,” she said. “It was seven veterinarians getting through well over 300 horses. That was the first year I put out a call for vet students. I had a whole bunch show up and at the end of the day they said this was the best experience they'd ever had.”
The next year, Reed created a formal program and asked interested students to apply for a spot on the examinations team. She got 350 applications for 30 spots, well beyond anything she could have expected, and several years in, there are still ten or more applications for every one spot on the examination team. The response has been so encouraging that practicing veterinarians have pulled together stipend money to help students who don't live locally to afford the trip to Kentucky.
Small teams of veterinary students are matched with veterinarians and each other based on their equine experience level, pairing more experienced students with those with less handling experience. They work 30 hours in the course of three days, which is a real crash course in the type of working conditions that can be part of a working equine vet's day.
Reed said most of the applicants already have an equine interest, but she gets many who are on the fence about whether they want to go into a horse-oriented practice – and who may not have been sure whether their non-riding backgrounds would dampen the industry's welcome.
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“The AAEP helps us out a lot, but I don't limit it to student AAEP chapter members. We want to open it up to students who think they might be interested,” said Reed. “There's no pre-requisite that you have worked with horses before you get there. We try to keep it inclusive, and I randomize how I choose the students. Then, a lot of them leave there saying, 'You know, I think I could do horses.'
“It's unique in the hands-on part of it because nowhere else can you say we're going to examine 400 horses. They're all going to have lumps and bumps on them because they raced, but we can talk about those, we can look at radiographs, we can do soundness checks. They get a huge experience seeing horses, some of which are normal, some of which are rehabbed. I don't think there's many experiences that allow them that much repetitive, rapid, learning to assess a horse which is the baseline for all of their physical exams when they go out for their career.”
The students get a great experience interacting with horse owners, because Reed points out the culture of the Makeover is the “happiest horse show on earth” wherein most competitors are just thrilled to have made it to their season-end goal. Owners in this setting are much more cheerful than the typical show barn, where a lot of money is on the line and everyone's attentions are divided and strained.
Student feedback after the event has supported Reed's impression that those three days are proving to be hugely influential in some students' career paths.
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“I do have at least two alumni from the first year that have at least discussed and negotiated with people on the racetrack to work with them there, and that's a big deal,” said Reed. “There are people out there who want to do equine medicine; we just have to catch them. It's not that they don't want to work, they just want to work with purpose.”
Anna Botiller, who is a second-year veterinary student at Mississippi State University, participated in the arrival exam program at last year's Thoroughbred Makeover. After starting a career as a veterinary technician focusing on horses in Central Kentucky, Botiller already had experience with Thoroughbreds prior to veterinary school, but found the process incredibly helpful for developing a sense for which exam findings are normal and which are less so. It also gave her the chance to see equine veterinarians at work, and to change some of the preconceptions she had about the job.
“As a first-year vet student, at the time of last year's RRP, I was sitting in classes where professional development professors told me I could expect to make half as much in salary and work over twice as many hours as my small animal counterparts,” said Botiller. “I admit, prior to RRP last year, I was a little heart-broken thinking it might be impossible to be a full-time equine vet and have any financial stability or life outside the job. Particularly concerning (then and now) were my mounting stack of student loans in contrast with the prediction of a low salary. I was seriously considering that small animal emergency work might have to become my focus, relegating equine work to on-the-side. And then I spent three days surrounded by full-time equine vets who are vivacious, laughed hard and often, supported one another, worked together like a well-oiled machine, are financially stable, and still have time to find fulfillment in family and hobbies outside of work.
“Due in large part to my experiences with the RRP vet arrival team, I'm actively looking for equine clinics where I can fulfill externship requirements that will help me continue down the path of becoming an equine veterinarian. I look back on those three days last October and realize that it's the people who put on programs like this who are reshaping equine vet med, one vet student at a time.”
