Month: December 2023

Race For Winningest Horse Comes Down To Final Weekend Of ’23

North America's winningest Thoroughbred in terms of victories this year will have 10 wins, but the final weekend of 2023 will determine if the Midwest-based gelding Fayette Warrior (Exchange Rate) ends up alone atop the leaderboard or if he has to share the honor with two nine-win rivals in the mid-Atlantic who could tie the mark either Dec. 30 or 31.

The 7-year-old Fayette Warrior, who sports a lifetime record of 19-11-7 from 71 starts with $241,772 in earnings, has topped the continent since his last victory at Columbus against starter-allowance company Oct. 21. He then finished second Oct. 29, also at the Nebraska track, before owner/trainer Troy Bethke gave him a break to prepare for a 2024 campaign.

With Troy's son, Scott Bethke, riding Fayette Warrior in all 18 starts this year, the pair also posed for winner's circle photos at Energy Downs (three times), plus Fonner Park, Sweetwater County Fair, and Wyoming Downs (twice each).

“He's a little bitty horse. He probably barely reaches 15 hands. Just a small-statured horse, but he's got a big heart, and he likes to run,” Troy Bethke told TDN. “Every time we lead him up there, he gives you 100%. He's a spunky, cocky little guy; a good-looking rascal. He likes to train, likes to race–just a good little horse.

“We only had a couple of races where he didn't run great this year, and both of them he got in trouble,” Bethke said, noting that Fayette Warrior only finished out of the money three times. “One was on the backside where he got pinched into the rail, and then another one it was really muddy and he just didn't seem to handle the track that day. Scott's kind of grown attached to him, and in that particular race I think he kind of took care of him a little bit.

A $90,000 KEEJAN purchase for Calumet Farm back in 2017, Fayette Warrior debuted for trainer Wesley Ward at Saratoga in 2018 (seventh at the MSW level). But he won his next start at Kentucky Downs by 4 1/4 lengths, and was then was fourth and third in listed stakes at Belmont Park and Laurel Park

After that, Fayette Warrior drifted downward in class to circuits in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota while switching stables 13 times before finally landing with Bethke.

“I claimed him two years ago. We ran him at Canterbury, then in Nebraska and Colorado,” Bethke said. “This last summer, we started in Nebraska, then a gal who was an assistant for me went out to Wyoming and ran that circuit out there. Then he came back to Nebraska.

“We were trying to put him in races where he would run well. We knew that he was doing well, up towards the top [of the North American leaderboard],” Bethke said.

No matter the level of racing, achieving 10 victories “is a lot of wins” for any horse, Bethke said.

“He'll be coming back next year,” Bethke said. “He had a pretty hard, long campaign, so we stopped on him. I've got a little place in Minnesota, so we've got him turned out at the house here right now.

Anthony Farrior | Jim McCue

Reached by phone Dec. 29, Bethke said he wasn't aware there were two other horses entered this weekend to potentially tie Fayette Warrior.

Both of those runners are trained by Anthony Farrior, who told TDN in a separate phone interview that it wasn't his intent to go after the winningest horse title.

“It's just how the races came up,” said Farrior, whose stable primarily competes in Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Farrior will run the 4-year-old filly Divine Fashion (Divining Rod) in the third race Saturday at Mahoning Valley, where she's the 7-5 morning-line favorite for a $5,000 starter-allowance.

He's also got the 3-year-old gelding Uncaptured Storm (Uncaptured) on the also-eligible list in the first race at Laurel on Sunday as the 5-2 morning-line choice. That's a $25,000 claimer open to non-winners of three (any age) or straight 3-year-olds (regardless of the number of victories).

“Uncaptured Storm, me and [trainer Mario] Serey claimed him back and forth [twice each this year]. He just seemed to get better as a grew up as a 3-year-old,” Farrior said, adding that being able to take advantage of a condition that pits a nine-time winner against horses who haven't broken through the three-lifetime level is “a little advantage.”

Divine Fashion is going to have to prove she's able to win on the road. All nine of her wins this season have come at Charles Town. The two times she's shipped elsewhere in 2023 (both to Laurel), she's lost.

“She just loves Charles Town,” Farrior said. “She always shows up and runs her race. When you get a nice starter filly at Charles Town [the condition goes back to] two years from the date, so that helps out a lot. She'd probably have won more if my other filly wasn't beating her earlier in the year.”

Farrior was referring to Dulcimer Dame (Mineshaft) a 6-year-old who won seven straight before the month of March ended but has been 0-for-5 since. She'll aim for win No. 8 on Sunday at Laurel.

“They're just sound horses and you can keep them running. So it's worked out great,” Farrior said.

All three of those Farrior-trained winners are owned, either in whole or in partnership, by Richard Burnsworth, whose record as a solo owner in 2023 is an impressive 79-for-298 (26%).

Beverly Park | Coady Photography

“He likes to win. He doesn't mess with me, and he lets me put them in where they belong,” Farrior said of his client.

One other gelding with nine wins, the 6-year-old Never Compromise (Graydar), most recently ran third at Charles Town Dec. 16 and won't make a subsequent start before the year is out. He's owned by Robert Cole Jr. and trained by Stephen Murdock.

In 2022, the continent's winningest horse was Beverly Park (Munnings) with 14 victories. He came back to win four this year.

Between 2012 and 2021, the North American leaderboard was topped by horses who won between eight (in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign) and 12 times.

You have to go back to 2011 to find a truly freakish outlier, which was when the Cole-owned starter-allowance stalwart Rapid Redux ran the table with a 19-for-19 record for trainer David Wells.

The post Race For Winningest Horse Comes Down To Final Weekend Of ’23 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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In His New York Swan Song, Golden Oldie Greeley And Ben Looks For 26th Career Win In Gravesend

Forty-two starts into his career and with 25 wins, Greeley and Ben (Greeley's Conquest) is in top form as he will look to close out 2023 with a win over four rivals in Saturday's Gravesend S. at Aqueduct. It will, however, be his last ever start at an NYRA track, where horses who are 10 or older are not allowed to compete. That's fine with his connections. They can race him next year at just about anywhere else and are confident that the story of one of the true iron horses in the sport will continue for some time.

“I think he's a long way from being done,” said trainer Horacio De Paz.

It's easy to see why De Paz doesn't think that age has caught up with Greeley and Ben and why he'll be bringing the horse back off of just one week's rest in the Gravesend. Greeley and Ben won last year's GIII Fall Highweight H. at the advanced age of eight and, after a layoff of nearly 12 months, has come back running this year. After finishing sixth in an allowance race at Laurel, he's won two straight, including the Dec. 23 Dave's Friend, also at Laurel.

Greeley and Ben began his career racing for trainer John Ortiz and won six times before being claimed for just $10,000 on March 7, 2021 by Karl Broberg. He won 13 of 17 starts for Broberg before he was claimed again and wound up in the barn of David Jacobson. He made three starts for Jacobson, his last in a 2022 $40,000 claimer at Saratoga. It was there that he caught the attention of his current owner, Darryl Abramowitz.

“His age didn't bother me,” Abramowitz said. “This game is about dreams and taking chances. I thought that for $40,000 the worst-case scenario was we'd have to drop him into a $20,000 claimer and we'd win and get our money back. You only live once.”

So Abramowitz spent the $40,000 to claim a horse who was eight at the time and, at least according to his Beyer numbers, was starting to slow down. Little did he know that the future for the gelding would include four wins in his next seven starts and two stakes wins, including his first graded stakes victory in the Fall Highweight.

“He's a combination of Mike Tyson and Cal Ripken,” Abramowitz said. “He's an iron horse and he's a fighter.”

Greeley and Ben | Coglianese

After winning the Fall Highweight, Greeley and Ben disappeared, but that would not prove to be the end of his career.

“He's an old war horse and as time has gone on he has come up with a few leg issues,” Abramowitz said. “Nothing serious. He just needed the time to heal up. Would other people spend 352 days on the shelf and spend all that money while he wasn't racing? I don't think so. I could have brought him back earlier, but if we did, we'd have to have dropped into a lower level of claimers. We coaxed him along and gave him the time that was necessary. He's sound and he's solid right now. With the way he's going he could keep running for another two years. This guy loves to run. He just thrives on it.”

Abramowitz initially had the horse with Jeffrey Englehart and then moved him into the barn of Faith Wilson for the Fall Highweight. The next move was to give him to De Paz, who has had him since September. Greeley and Ben could do no better than to finish sixth in his return race, but De Paz was not discouraged.

“When we got him he had to build back the foundation that he had lost,” the trainer said. “He carries good flesh, so we had to work past that. In his first race back, we figured we'd give him a race rather than just breezing him. We thought a race would do him more good than breezing him every week. That first run showed he still wanted to compete. He just got tired.”

Twenty-two days later, he won the allowance and followed that up with the win in the Dave's Friend, which upped his career earnings to $981,138. After that start, De Paz and Abramowitz started searching for a race. On whether they should enter him in the Gravesend, it came down to the question of, why not?

“That we're running here doesn't have anything to do with the rules in New York,” Abramowitz said. “We were watching nominations for this race and knew there would be a small field and I didn't think the race would be that difficult. At Laurel, he ran three solid furlongs. It was like having a spectacular workout. For the first three furlongs he was in the back just enjoying himself and having a good time. I knew he was going good and Horacio told me he's better than ever and is going extremely good. We looked at all the factors, like the $150,000 purse, and decided to give it a go.”

Abramowitz is so bullish on the gelding's future that he said if the horse runs well in the Gravesend he will consider sending him to the Middle East–Saudi Arabia and Dubai.

First though, they have to get past the Gravesend. On paper, Greeley and Ben is stepping up in class and could have a tough time in the six-furlong stakes. But Abramowitz doesn't think that will be the case.

“He fits in this race and I think he might surprise a lot of people,” the owner said.

Win or lose, Greeley and Ben's place in the sport has already been assured. Where else can you find an active 9-year-old who is still at the top of his game and has won more races than he has lost?

“It's a tremendous story,” De Paz said. “He's run at all these different racetracks and has run for different trainers and he's been honest for everyone who has had him. He's just a special horse.”

The post In His New York Swan Song, Golden Oldie Greeley And Ben Looks For 26th Career Win In Gravesend appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Kyle Frey Finds ‘Power In Being Open’ About Mental Health

Veteran jockey Kyle Frey returned from a self-imposed seven-week break with a goal: to be successful.

Unsurprising, right?

The thing that made Frey's goal unique was its impetus: he took time away from the races in order to get a better handle on his mental health, a fact he freely shares with anyone who asks. Frey wanted to prove that the racetrack's negative stigma against talking about mental health is fading.

“Thing that I prayed about was to come back and do well, not for myself, but for those who are still struggling,” he explained. “I wanted to show that: just because you come out and say you have a problem, it does not mean that you are damaged goods and will be discarded.”

That attitude, and a healthy dose of luck, helped Frey earn the biggest win of his career on Dec. 16. Piloting the Bob Baffert trainee Wynstock, Frey scored a 14-1 upset in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity.

“It was just so out of this world,” the 32-year-old said. “I feel such an overwhelming sense of gratitude and grace. I'm grateful to Bob, the owners, to my wife and family, and of course to my agent who stuck with me through all of this. Most agents, or even people, would have said this was too much baggage, but Jack Carava really stood by me so I really appreciate that. He didn't have to; that's a very rare thing.”

Frey had struggled with mental health and addiction since his youth, growing up in what he called a “dysfunctional” home and lacking a clear sense of direction for his life.

“My parents tried their absolute best, but they had their own demons as well,” he said. “After my parents split, I started to act out seeking attention. I figured if my older brother, who was a deviant, was getting attention, then I was gonna be worse. I started partying, regular teenage stuff that got out of hand.

“I'm a competitive type, so I figured if I'm gonna be bad, I'm gonna be the best at it!”

Frey's father worked on the track, so when Frey was old enough he decided that his love of horses was a good place to start chasing a future.

“Coming to the track saved my life, I'm positive about that,” said Frey. “I was forced to get a good work ethic. I didn't want to party any more, I wanted to drive forward and be the best at my craft. In the first year I felt like I accomplished that, but then I had a bad injury, a broken femur. I felt like I was on top of the world and dropped back into reality.”

After winning the Eclipse Award as Outstanding Apprentice Jockey in 2011, Frey began using alcohol to combat the ups and downs of the jockey's profession.

He eventually got sober with the help of the Winners Foundation, but Frey's mental health had been precarious since the death of promising rider Avery Whisman in early 2023. The 23-year-old jockey and horseman committed suicide in January.

“I was really good friends with Avery,” Frey said. “I spoke to him two weeks before it happened. I really wish I was in a better place with myself then; it would have been a miracle if I could have just noticed something.”

Over the summer, Frey began to struggle with his sobriety. 

“I've had a few relapses over the years, and I began feeling like I was headed in that direction,” he said. “It seemed so impossible and miserable to be sober, but instead of going back to my old ways, I wondered if there was something more going on.”

The Winners Foundation and chaplains at Santa Anita helped Frey find therapeutic alternatives to alcohol. It was hard to walk through those doors, in full view of the backstretch community, but Frey was sure he was making the right choice.

“There's more power in being open about issues than not,” he said. “We're only as sick as our secrets. I think I was a little more open to the mental health aspect, because with alcohol abuse and sobriety, it was made open.

“What I found with my journey, I discovered that alcohol isn't the issue, it's the symptom of a much greater problem. I just struggle with the ability to deal with life on life's terms.

“I sought therapy of all kinds. I tried DBT therapy, CBT therapy, those types of wide umbrella stress tolerance coping mechanisms, cold therapy, internal self-dialogue, and meditation. There were a lot of different things.”

Ultimately, Frey decided to take the step back from racing for seven weeks. He was concerned about the reaction of the racing community, given the unrelenting physical and mental demands that the sport has of its participants, but he found himself pleasantly surprised.

“I was very shocked and surprised at how many people were concerned about me personally,” Frey said. “To hear that was very, very moving. Someone said, 'Well, he's not going to be on my horse, but is he okay?' 

“Typically, If you're not at the hospital, you better be on the horse! We create this big monster of rejection and judgment if we don't show up and perform to our best, but most people are a little more human than we give them credit for. 

“We all get a little bit fixated on success, and that's great, but I think keeping in mind that we can be loving and supportive while doing those things is extremely important.”

Frey spoke about his journey to better mental health with Jockey Cam's Nathan Horrocks for a documentary, and was thus invited to Tucson, Ariz., in early December to speak on a panel about jockeys' mental health at the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program's Global Symposium on Racing.

“I was mortified at first,” he admitted. “But, I felt like if I was asked to speak up about something, even if I was to get judged or ridiculed, if one person found the strength to get help, it was worth it for me.

“I found out that a lot of people were very supportive, and it's very liberating to know that. Now, people come up to me and they might say, 'Hey, I'm struggling too, how do I get help?' To be able to help somebody else is just the most beautiful and freeing thing.”

Returning to the races at Los Alamitos Sept. 22 after missing most of the Del Mar summer meet, Frey won two races on his first day back, then doubled the next day as well.

“It was really good for other people to see that, but for me it was a validation that I did the right thing,” he said. “I just feel very blessed. I feel that God put something in my heart, put this feeling of unease on me that pushed me to see what I needed to work on and reflect on. Coming back after that and being successful, it's just even more so a testament to my faith.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Kyle Frey Finds ‘Power In Being Open’ About Mental Health appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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