Month: January 2024

MTHA To Host Community Meeting On MTROA Reports

An online community meeting for members will be hosted by the Board of Directors of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (MTHA) on Thursday, Jan. 11 at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the reports recently released on behalf of the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority (MTROA).

The MTROA has been examining options for the future of the Thoroughbred racing and breeding in the state, specifically facilities and operating models. The reports are to be considered by the Maryland General Assembly, which begins its 2024 legislative session Jan. 10.

MTROA Chair Gregory Cross and Alan Foreman, a member of the Board of the MTROA, will make presentations and field questions from attendees.

Registration is required. Join-in instructions will be provided by email following registration.

Read T.D. Thornton's Week In Review for further analysis.

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Letter to the Editor: A Tale of Two Frankels

I think we can all agree that Juddmonte both know what they are doing and have an eye on the bottom line.

Last year they had two Group 1-winning Frankel colts with stud potential. Both have similar profile dam-lines and both are good-looking colts. One was rated seven pounds superior to the other. 

You can't get in to the winner of the less-than-vintage renewal of the 2,000 Guineas the 119-rated Chaldean (GB) at Banstead, meanwhile the 126-rated Irish Derby winner Westover (GB) was quietly shuffled off to Japan without a whimper and I would suspect at a fraction of the €12million Prix du Jockey Club winner and his Arc conqueror Ace Impact is being syndicated for in France. Frankel's last son to win the Irish Derby is standing at Coolmore's National Hunt division for €6,000. There's your valuation.

Juddmonte know they would hardly get a Flat mare to Westover and certainly not at £25,000 because he is a mile-and-a-half horse and Flat breeders aren't interested in them, but the Champion two-year-old and Guineas winner is a different  proposition altogether. We can also assume that Juddmonte believe that Chaldean is the better stallion prospect and they would prefer to use him for their own mares rather than Westover, who was by far the better racehorse. 

Would Westover have won the same Irish Derby at 10 furlongs? As he only beat a Group 3 winner and a horse that never even won a Listed race (sadly the norm these days) we can assume so. Would he then have been worth considerably more? Yes.

So because the race is run at a distance that no longer interests European mare owners and, after all they are the ones that decide a stallion's value, Juddmonte's racing arm has missed out on the extra millions that a potential bidding war between European and Japanese interests would have attracted, and Japan has ended up with the better of the two Frankels.

The Prix du Jockey Cub is without any doubt the preeminent stallion-making race for middle-distance horses in Europe. The reason is simple. It is a 10.5-furlong race and a proven success in the stallion-making business since it became so. St Mark's Basilica (Fr), Vadeni (Fr) and Ace Impact (Ire) are the next three in line. All will be given a proper shot.

Westover is just the latest example of an Irish Derby winner who was both unloved and unwanted by European breeders. The present format makes no sense for owner, breeder, fan or even for the breed in Europe.

Shorten the Irish Derby. 

Patrick Cooper, BBA Ireland

Do you agree or disagree with this view? Please let us know your thoughts by emailing emmaberry@thetdn.com.

 

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Plumpton Goes Premier as BHA Experiment Makes Unconvincing Start

Anfield or Old Trafford it isn't, but that didn't stop Premierisation coming to Plumpton, a National Hunt track at the foot of the South Downs more easily associated with farmers, pensioners and Brighton sharps on country forays than marketing resets.

The second track to stage a Premier fixture in a two-year trial of 170 meetings each season, dear old Plumpton didn't need labels to tell you how good it is. In the most valuable race since racing began here in 1888, a 5lb claimer called Joe Anderson found himself hanging from his horse's neck after a bad mistake, rode a circuit with no irons, finally hooked his feet back in and then thundered up the hill to win the new £75,000 stayers' hurdle on Transmission.  It was a miracle ride. The Plumpton crowd fell in love with Anderson, who could make a living in rodeos.

Premierisation is on a debut tour of British racing, picking out sellable, mass market meetings and adorning them with prize-money, banners and high hopes for the sport's future. Racing is playing catch-up here. There is a Premier League of darts, an Indian Premier League in cricket and Premierships scattered across professional sport.

The use of a tag to bestow mystique on sporting events reflects trends in society, where seductive designations appeal to our social climbing. Premier accounts. Flex-Plus savings. Platinum clubs. And special-entry levels in short-term airport car parks that enable you to skip a whole flight of stairs to get to departures.

It's the cachet, you see. The message it sends about you. And in case anyone thought racing would simply swallow these trends by Premierising only Cheltenham, Ascot and Newmarket, Plumpton became the first 'gaff track' to be invited behind the velvet rope, with a card that featured an 86% increase in prize-money for Sussex National raceday, from £105,000 last year to £195,000.

Give them better runners and a prize-money injection and the crowd swells, the excitement grows, and the nectar-like local Harvey's Ale runs out even quicker than usual in the racecourse bars.

As a Plumpton regular for 40 years, I motored down Sussex lanes half proud for the course and half in trepidation that Premierisation might compromise its character. Much as non-league football is a haven from the money mania of the Premier League, so Plumpton trades on its picturesque setting and authenticity. On Monday afternoons, mostly, a familiar cast of characters greet winners with murmurs of approval or resignation.

This is National Hunt racing's heartland, and nobody ever expected to see it reclassified as 'Premier' sport, which is meant not as an insult but a compliment. The undemonstrative but hardcore Plumpton crowd knows what it wants on a cold January Monday, and none of it corresponds to what you might call glamour.

But they know their horses. Give them better runners and a prize-money injection and the crowd swells, the excitement grows, and the nectar-like local Harvey's Ale runs out even quicker than usual in the racecourse bars. Plumpton's management are skilled at looking after the regulars while also trying to entice the uninitiated. Premierisation is largely about focusing attention on the top end while rebranding the rest as the sport's 'core' (in football, they call that the second-tier 'Championship.')

Sundays are considered ripe for plunder, which is why Plumpton was followed by a scrubbed-up evening card at Wolverhampton, with £160,000 spread across eight races. Of the 1,468 fixtures in 2024, 170 are Premier. The launch could charitably be called low-key. Cheltenham kicked it off on New Year's Day without plastering itself in logos. At Plumpton the tannoy announcements made frequent reference to the course's first Premier event but it felt like any other Sussex National day. Unlike newcomers, aficionados don't need to be told what they're watching.

From the directors' box a thoroughly enjoyable day was observed by Plumpton's joint-owner, Peter Savill, who also happens to be one of the prime movers behind Premierisation. And here's an irony. Savill, who has held secret talks with major players to improve the Premierisation concept, told the Nick Luck podcast recently that all his horses are now trained in France and Ireland. Why, Luck asked. “Prize-money,” Savill replied.

At Plumpton, Savill's son Tom told me they have an interest in a horse trained by Charlie Johnston. Otherwise, Savill snr has voted with his feet while also doubling back with a mission to rescue British racing from its broken business model.

 A £90million funding boost over five years is an ambitious target, if labelling and higher prize-money are not backed up by better marketing and improved racecourse facilities. An overlooked part of racing's great survival debate is that the experience offered by many racecourses has not changed in 30 years. In other sports, what you might call infrastructure investment is far more conspicuous. Dated catering, too few toilets and a lack of comfortable places to sit are unlikely to appeal to a generation not inclined to tolerate a 1980s ambience.

Was Plumpton's jump into the big time a success? You bet it was. But I doubt whether many attended just because someone called it a 'Premier' meeting. They went because Plumpton has charm and always draws a big Sussex National day crowd. 

Maybe Joe Anderson's ride on Transmission was an allegory for racing. You can be hanging on for dear life but recover and still come through to win. Dressing up 170 meetings a year may set off a rebirth. In its very earliest days, though, it seems to lack conviction. The theory will need supporting evidence.

 

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Effortless Victory for Omaha Beach Filly in Santa Ynez

Spendthrift stallion Omaha Beach got the first graded win of his nascent sire career with a blowout victory by Kopion (f, 3, Omaha Beach–Galloping Ami, by Victory Gallop) in Santa Anita's GIII Santa Ynez S. Sunday. Three of the four fillies in the gate were by first-crop sires, but it was the least experienced of the newly minted sophomore fillies whom the public pegged at 1-5 and who put herself firmly in the early GI Kentucky Oaks conversation. The Santa Ynez was worth 10 points on the Oaks trail on a 5-3-2-1 scale.

Kopion broke smoothly from the Santa Ynez rail, but there was trouble just to her inside as 5-2 second-choice Tambo (Enticed) stutter stepped and stumbled. She was quickly left several lengths back as Kopion continued unbothered and under a hold while in front with authority. As the chestnut cruised through a :23.70 first quarter with her ears flicking back and forth, Tambo went outside horses and caught up with the short field.

Both Kopion and rider Flavien Prat had enough of the stalking Don't Bring Crazy (Maximus Mischief) by the :46.55 half as Prat imperceptibly gave the filly his blessing to let it out the smallest of notches. She quickly opened up and the race was over before the stretch as Kopion put 5 3/4 lengths on the field while Prat sat almost motionless and never asked her. It was clearly a special performance. Don't Bring Crazy held second over Tambo, who got up for third.

“Her trip was good,” said Prat. “She was a bit sharper today but she jumped well out of there and she looked around a bit when she was on the lead. Besides that she did everything perfect. It's always special when I ride for [Richard] Mandella.”

Kopion debuted Nov. 26 in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden special weight at Del Mar with a sharp win and an 83 Beyer Speed Figure. Prat was aboard that day as well. Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella and Prat also teamed up to win this race last year with Ice Dancing (Frosted); Prat was making it three in a row and four of the last six in the Santa Ynez with additional wins in 2022 with Under the Stars (Pioneerof the Nile) and in 2019 with Bellafina (Quality Road). Just a week prior to Kopion's Santa Ynez, Mandella and Prat had joined forces to close out 2023 with Forbidden Kingdom (American Pharoah)'s win in the GII Joe Hernandez S. Forbidden Kingdom is co-owned by Spendthrift; Kopion is owned outright by the farm as a $270,000 Keeneland September buy.

“It looked like when she went out to the track she settled down, she warmed up nice, and went to the gate nice,” said Mandella about Kopion's first graded win. “She left there running and she kind of gave us that feeling when we were in the paddock. She showed her class.

“The only time she didn't work good was with Tamara; I can't explain it but she just didn't want any part of it.”

It was just a few months ago that Tamara (Bolt d'Oro)–a 'TDN Rising Star' and winner of the GI Del Mar Debutante S.–was the undisputed star of the crop for both Spendthrift and the Mandella barn. The daughter of the Spendthrift/Mandella multiple champion Beholder (Henny Hughes) has been sidelined since coming out of the Breeders' Cup with a fractured splint bone in her left hind leg.

Pedigree Notes:

Much has been made of the perceived underperformance of the 2023 freshman sires in the graded department, but Omaha Beach finished top of the class for the year by both graded performers with four and black-type horses with 11 before coming out firing with his first graded winner in the first week of 2024. The MGISW son of War Front–like Kopion, also trained by Mandella–has 25 winners in his first crop and three black-type winners. In addition to Kopion's graded victory, his GSP-Ire daughter Launch finished second Sunday in Gulfstream's Glitter Woman S.

Kopian is out of a daughter of 1999 champion older horse Victory Gallop, reportedly still standing in Turkey at the age of 29 this year. Victory Gallop has 37 stakes winners as a broodmare sire.

From the prolific 'Ami' family, Kopion is a half to 2016 Canadian champion Amis Gizmo (Giant Gizmo) and to GSW & GISP Ami's Flatter (Flatter). Others in the immediate family include dual 2017 Canadian champion Ami's Mesa (Sky Mesa). Kopion's dam has a 2-year-old colt named Authentic Gallop (Authentic), a yearling filly by Essential Quality, and was bred to Uncle Mo for this term. The juvenile was a $300,000 Keeneland September buy by Greg Tramontin.

Galloping Ami was honored with Canada's Sovereign Award for Outstanding Broodmare for 2016; her full-sister, Victorious Ami, was given the same award for 2017.

Sunday, Santa Anita
SANTA YNEZ S.-GIII, $98,000, Santa Anita, 1-7, 3yo, f, 7f, 1:23.89, ft.
1–KOPION, 120, f, 3, by Omaha Beach
1st Dam: Galloping Ami (Outstanding Broodmare-Can), by Victory Gallop
               2nd Dam: Secret Ami, by Secret Claim
               3rd Dam: Sybelle Ami, by Alwasmi
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($270,000
Ylg '22 KEESEP). O-Spendthrift Farm LLC; B-Tall Oaks Farm
(KY); T-Richard E. Mandella; J-Flavien Prat. $60,000. Lifetime
Record: 2-2-0-0, $96,600. *1/2 to Aragorn Ami (Aragorn
{Ire}), SW, $112,535; 1/2 to Ami's Flatter (Flatter), GSW &
GISP, $536,931; 1/2 to Amis Gizmo (Giant Gizmo), Ch.
3-year-old Colt-Can, GSW, $800,022. Werk Nick Rating: B.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or the free
Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
*1st graded winner for first-crop sire (by War Front).
2–Don't Bring Crazy, 120, f, 3, Maximus Mischief–Lily Maria,
by Paynter. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE.
($60,000 Wlg '21 KEENOV; $140,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP).
O-Mark Davis; B-Mullikin Thoroughbreds (KY); T-Doug F.
O'Neill. $20,000.
3–Tambo, 120, f, 3, Enticed–Flatter Me First, by Flatter. 1ST
GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($29,000 Ylg '22 KEEJAN; $25,000 Ylg
'22 KEESEP; $70,000 2yo '23 OBSMAR). O-SAF Racing,
Neil A. Haymes, James E. McCadden, and William Strauss;
B-Thoroughbred by Design LLC (KY); T-Peter Eurton.
$12,000.
Margins: 5 3/4, 4 3/4, 5 3/4. Odds: 0.20, 16.00, 2.90.
Also Ran: Bossy Bruin Gal. Scratched: Petit Filet.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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