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Santa Anita Releases Fall Stakes Schedule, Including Seven ‘Win And You’re In’ Events

Santa Anita's 2020 Autumn Meeting will kick into high gear on opening day, Saturday, Sept. 19, with the Grade III, $100,000 Chillingworth Stakes for fillies and mares at 6 ½ furlongs and will offer fans and horsemen a total of 24 stakes over 18 racing days, through closing day, Oct. 25.

(Most recently run as the Grade III LA Woman Stakes, the Chillingworth has been renamed in honor of the late Sherwood Chillingworth, a longtime Director of the Oak Tree Racing Association who was held in the highest regard throughout North American racing).

Customarily high on the Autumn Meet stakes agenda is a series of Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” Challenge Races, which provides the winners of each race an automatic fees-paid berth in the Breeders' Cup World Championships at Keeneland on Nov. 6 & 7.

In addition to the Grade III Chillingworth on Sept. 19, the $100,000 Speakeasy Stakes, for 2-year-olds at 5 ½ furlongs on turf, is the first of seven “Win and You're In” events, with the Speakeasy serving as a prep for the Grade II Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

On Saturday, Sept. 26, four “Win and You're In” stakes, the Grade I, $300,000 Rodeo Drive, a prep for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf; the Grade I, $300,000 American Pharoah, for 2-year-olds prepping for the Grade I Breeders' Cup Juvenile; the Grade I, $300,000 Awesome Again, for 3-year-olds an up prepping for the Grade I Breeders' Cup Classic, and the Grade II, $200,000 Chandelier Stakes for 2-year-old fillies prepping for the Grade I Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, will all be offered on what promises to be a blockbuster afternoon that will include a total of six stakes.

The remaining two Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” stakes, the Grade II, $200,000 Zenyatta, a pivotal steppingstone to the Grade I Breeders' Cup Distaff, and the Grade II, $200,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, which preps 3-year-olds and up for the Grade I Breeders' Cup Sprint, will both be offered on Sunday, Sept. 27.

The always-popular Grade II, $200,000 Eddie D Stakes, named in honor of one of racing's all-time great jockeys, retired Hall of Famer Eddie Delahoussaye, is for 3-year-olds and up at 5 ½ furlongs on turf and will be run Friday, Sept. 25.

Fans are encouraged to watch and wager via XpressBet.com or 1stBet.com. For additional wagering information, please visit santaanita.com.

Santa Anita's complete 2020 Autumn Stakes Schedule is available at www.santaanita.com/stakes-schedule/. In addition to our website, fans can get additional information regarding the upcoming Autumn Meet, by calling (626) 574-RACE.

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Louisiana Department Of Agriculture Requests Restraining Order Against Kill Pen Operation

The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry and the Louisiana Board of Animal Health have filed documents in court to limit the operations a well-known bail pen in the state. The two state agencies filed a petition for temporary restraining order, as well as a request for a preliminary and a permanent injunction against Gary Thompson and his son Jacob Thompson, both of the parish of Vernon, to stop buying and selling livestock.

A court date to hear the agencies' request is set for Aug. 17.

According to the petition, both Thompsons have been expressly prohibited from buying and selling livestock after Jacob Thompson's livestock dealer permit renewal was denied by the Board of Animal Health in 2018. The petition alleges Gary Thompson never held a livestock dealer permit, which is required in Louisiana. The two have ownership interests in Thompson Horse Lot, which has marketed horses on social media under various page names as being available for “bail” from a spot on a truck headed to Mexican slaughter facilities. The petition would also prevent anyone from acting as a livestock dealer on the Thompsons' behalf.

Tara Sanders, longtime partner of Jacob Thompson, told the Paulick Report the petition could not apply to her because she maintains residency in Oklahoma, where she said livestock dealer permits aren't required. Sanders is identified in the documents as the public face of the kill pen, and is well-known to film and advertise horses out of the Pitkin, La., facility.

“I personally have no use to defend myself, those horses wouldn't have an avenue away from slaughter without someone advertising them,” Sanders told the Paulick Report. “So I stand by what I do. And I do it for the horses.”

Sanders also maintained she “had nothing to do with that [petition].”

An attorney for Jacob Thompson did not respond to a request for comment at press time.

Court documents outline a history of law enforcement dealings with the Thompsons, including a discovery in 2019 by Livestock Brand Commission officers of malnourished horses and 20 to 25 dead animals, as well as a horse suspected of having strangles at a property owned by Gary Thompson that shares the address of Thompson Horse Lot. Jacob Thompson is alleged to have shipped horses into the state without appropriate paperwork, left deceased horses in a pit in the kill pen, and to have continued buying and selling animals after his application to renew his livestock dealer's permit was denied due to past violations.

The petition also details several sales of horses he purchased from Dominique's Livestock Market and resold within 30 days for prices around $1,000 or more – significantly higher than the typical price paid for horses by slaughterhouses, which is calculated per-pound and ranges from around $400 to $600 for a large horse.

Horses listed on the company's website Friday carried prices as high as $2,500.

Thompson's and other bail lots place a price and a shipping deadline on a horse, giving Facebook followers the option to purchase the horse outright for the named price or to crowdsource the funds to raise the bail and then find someone to take physical possession of the horse. For many, concern for the animal's welfare and the tight turnaround are chief motivators in a contribution or purchase.

Interviews with purchasers of horses from Thompson Horse Lot demonstrates most of the company's purchases come from social media users. One buyer stated she hadn't intended to purchase a mare but did so to keep her from shipping south.

“I don't know how or why it came through my newsfeed, but it's called Thompson's Livestock and they were showing horses and the particular mare that I ended up buying, I seen them riding her and she looked so pathetic I offered to put up half her bail hoping that someone else would cough up the other half and get her out of there,” said an unidentified purchaser in interviews with investigators. “But nobody did and that was June 16 and a few days later, I paid her full bail because they were threatening to ship her and I didn't want to see that happen so I paid the rest of her bail and she became my horse.”

Some critics have questioned whether horses sold via Thompson's Horse Lot as bail prospects were ever in real danger of going to slaughter, given the high prices attainable for them online. Sanders maintains that while Jacob Thompson does not have a contract with a slaughterhouse himself, he supplies other dealers who do and horses are guaranteed to ship if not bailed. Others point out that the kill pen bail business serves to fund the purchase of more animals to be sent into the slaughter pipeline.

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Country Grammer ‘Keeps Improving,’ Inspires Chad Brown To Try Travers Off Short Rest

An opportunity to run at a desired distance, in the race he's wanted to win more than any other but has yet to add to his already lengthy list of accomplishments, was too tempting to pass up for trainer Chad Brown.

The Mechanicville, N.Y. native will send out Paul Pompa, Jr.'s Country Grammer in Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million Runhappy Travers for 3-year-olds, the highlight of both the Saratoga season and a loaded 12-race program featuring five graded-stakes worth $1.95 million in purses.

Country Grammer will be the 11th Travers starter for Brown, his best finish coming with Gift Box, who ran fourth in 2016. Growing up a half-hour south of Saratoga, where his family has gathered at the same backyard picnic table on Travers Day for decades, Brown is hoping to break through in a year when coronavirus protocols will prevent fans from attending.

“I was thinking about that; if I finally win and nobody's here, does it count?” Brown said. “It's so depressing to not have the fans here, but at least they have the meet going. NYRA's done a super job, at least from the horsemen's side, to make it feel comfortable as they can. The racing product's been super, as you can see from the wagering, and the surface is extremely safe. The Travers will be a little different, but we'll take it if we can get it.”

Country Grammer enters the 1 ¼-mile Travers off a neck victory over fellow Mid-Summer Derby aspirant Caracaro in the Grade 3, 1 1/8-mile Peter Pan on July 16, opening day at Saratoga. He has never gone less than a mile in any of his five races, and Brown said he has been relishing the chance to go further.

“Two turns is his thing, and we've been wanting to get a mile and a quarter all along,” Brown said. “Hopefully this horse will get the distance. I'm confident he can. He's going to have to take a step forward in this race and hope a couple of the top contenders can't go that far.”

Irad Ortiz, Jr. will ride Country Grammer from post 2 in a field of eight led by even-money program favorite Tiz the Law, the Grade 1 Florida Derby and Belmont Stakes winner this year, and Grade 3-winning California shipper Uncle Chuck.

“I prefer more time in between races with my horses, but I thought it was a great opportunity to take another shot at the Travers. It's a little bit of a shorter field than normal and the Kentucky Derby, some people waiting for that,” Brown said. “It's a unique year to maybe give it a shot with a horse that keeps improving. Even though we're running on short rest, I think the reward is probably a little bigger than the risk.”

Prior to the Peter Pan, Country Grammer ran third in a 1 1/16-mile allowance on June 4 at Belmont Park, his first start since finishing fifth in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth in February at Gulfstream Park in his sophomore debut. He debuted on the Belmont turf last fall before breaking his maiden second time out going 1 1/8 miles at Aqueduct.

“We just drew a line through the race at Belmont. He's really never even trained well there. That's why I debuted him on the turf, actually, the first start of his life. It's something I wasn't really looking to do when I got him in,” Brown said. “He looked like a dirt horse but he just didn't train well enough so I took a shot and he didn't run good on the turf. When I got him over to Aqueduct, anywhere away from Belmont, his races have been good on the dirt.”

Brown has been pleased with how Country Grammer has taken to Saratoga's main track, newly refurbished for 2020, in both his training and racing.

“It's definitely more similar to Aqueduct than it is Belmont. It reminds me of Keeneland, too, a little bit. This new surface has been great,” Brown said. “It's my 13th year of training racehorses on my own, and this is one the best racetracks I've ever trained on or raced on.”

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Rice Hoping Rosario Keeps Max Player Closer To The Pace In Travers

George Hall and SportBLX Thoroughbreds' Max Player, whose two-race win streak concluded when third in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes in June, has the chance to return to his winning ways in Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million Runhappy Travers at Saratoga.

The 151st running of the 1 ¼-mile Mid-Summer Derby will mark just the fifth career start for Max Player, a 3 ¼-length winner of the Grade 3, 1 1/8-mile Withers in his 3-year-old debut on February 1 at Aqueduct.

Trained by Linda Rice, Max Player didn't run back until the Belmont, shortened to 1 1/8 miles in leading off the revamped Triple Crown lineup. The Travers offers 100-40-20-10 qualifying points to the top four finishers for the next leg, the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby on September 5.

“I knew from February to June, based on the way he was training, that he was going to take a big step forward. Obviously he needed to,” Rice said at Wednesday's post-position draw. “This time around, I don't know that we're going to see the same progression we did from February to June, but if he takes baby steps that would be good [to] get us to September.”

Max Player will be the second career Travers starter for Rice, the only woman to win a training title at Saratoga. The 2009 meet champion was fourth in the 2014 Travers with Kid Cruz.

Rice opted to keep most of her string downstate this summer at Belmont, where Max Player has done the bulk of his training. He arrived in Saratoga Wednesday afternoon and went to the track Thursday and Friday.

“He's trained fine. I've been training at Belmont, not at Saratoga, which is a little unusual,” Rice said. “Coming into the Belmont he was off a 5 ½-month break, so I trained him pretty aggressively. Coming into this race, I backed off him a little bit, [with] a little bit more maintenance breezes. We weren't quite as aggressive with him, but I think he's ready.”

Joel Rosario, aboard for the first time in the Belmont, rides back from post 4 in a field of eight led by even-money program favorite Tiz the Law, the 3 ¾-length winner of the Belmont considered the top 3-year-old in training.

“I'm OK with post 4. I'd rather try to save a little ground in the first turn, on both turns, and not get caught too far outside,” Rice said. “Joel, this will be the second time that he's ridden the horse. It was a learning curve last time. He watched his previous races, he saw that the horse doesn't run into kickback very well, so I think based on the learning curve he was a little too far back [in the Belmont], had a little too much to do. I'd like to think that Joel will work a little more aggressively to keep him closer.”

The late-running Max Player will be stretching out to 10 furlongs for the first time. He has never been worse than third in any of his four starts, winning a one-mile maiden special weight last December at Parx in his juvenile finale, and Rice is hoping to see an honest pace for her closer.

“Racing's funny,” Rice said. “Sometimes when they run shorter distances they go faster early and you have a better chance to close with a horse like him that has a strong closing kick, so on occasion it works against you.”

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