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Michael Banahan Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

The mighty Godolphin stable leads all Breeders' Cup owners with 16 wins, a testament to both the quality of the horses owned by Godolphin and its commitment to the Breeders' Cup. Godolphin won four Breeders' Cup races last year and is sending a strong contingent of U.S. and foreign-based horses to Santa Anita for this year's event. To find out more about the Godolphin runners for this year's Breeders' Cup and why the event is so important to the stable, the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland called on Godolphin Director of Bloodstock Michael Banahan to give us answers to our questions. Banahan was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

“We embrace the Breeders' Cup because it is championship racing,” Banahan said. “That's what we're trying to do. It's the biggest race day at the end of the year for us. And if we can be fortunate enough to get horses to compete at the Breeders' Cup, we know we're competing with the very best horses not only in America, but across the world. That's where we want to compete at, at the very top level. You see only the very best horses at the Breeders' Cup and we know by the Eclipse Award voting that people put a lot of emphasis on those races at the end of the year.”

While Banahan deals primarily with Godolphin's U.S.-based runners, he is well aware of the success trainer Charlie Appleby, Godolphin's head trainer in Europe, has had in North America. Since 2021 in North America, he's had 56 starters, 24 winners, 23 stakes winners and 15 Grade I wins. His winning percentage during that period of time is 43%. For his career, he's had nine Breeders' Cup winners. How does he do it?

“Charlie is an excellent trainer and a very good horseman,” Banahan said. “He had been with Godolphin for a long time before he took the mantle as the head trainer and would have traveled all around the world and would have seen firsthand the type of horse you need to bring to different destinations, whether it's America, Australia, continental Europe, or wherever it might be, or Dubai itself. He understands that very well, understands what his horses like and which ones will perform well in a race in America where there might be a lot of pace and the race is run over a flat track. They're good horses as well. But sometimes they look like they're elevated a little bit when they get to America in the pattern of a race and the style of a race. Obviously, he's got plenty of them, but he's identified the right horses and you don't really see him just throwing horses in a race and hoping that, you know, some of it'll stick a little bit.”

Godolphin owns Cody's Wish (Curlin), last year's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner. He was named for Cody Dorman, who was born with a rare genetic disorder called Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. Banahan said the Dorman family is hoping to be at Santa Anita to see if Cody's Wish can repeat in the Dirt Mile.

“When he ran in the Whitney in Saratoga, when the family was going to the paddock people were giving them a round of applause and cheering them when they went by,” Banahan said. “I think it's even goes further than racing itself. It's hit people outside the industry, just the general public. People who don't have any interest in racing or just a marginal interest have really caught on to this great story. Hopefully, they'll all make it out there and be there to cheer Cody's Wish on in what will be his last race.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by 1/ST Racing, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, WinStar Farm, Lane's End, the KTOB, XBTV and West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Zoe Cadman, Randy Moss and Bill Finley discussed the story of trainer John Pimental, the 68-year-old trainer who had won just one race this year but is facing a possible suspension of up to three years because a horse he trained tested positive for methamphetamine and because investigators from the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) found a container of Levothyroxine on his truck. Finley called for HIWU to begin to employ common sense when it comes to its decisions and, especially in this case, not upend the life and career of a trainer who quite clearly was not trying to dope his horses with performance-enhancing drugs.

Live from Santa Anita, Cadman gave her report card on some of the workouts she had seen during the week from Breeders' Cup horses. She was so impressed with a seven-furlong workout by Arabian Knight (Uncle Mo) that went in 1:24, she declared: “They're all running for second money behind Arabian Knight in the Classic.”

It's too late for 'TDN Rising Star' Nysos (Nyquist) to make the Breeders' Cup, but his 10 1/2-length win in a maiden race at Santa Anita on Saturday was a worthy topic of discussion. And why did trainer Bob Baffert choose to ride Kyle Frey on the colt? Cadman has the answer, and it might surprise you.

Click here to watch the podcast as a video or here to listen to the audio file.

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Thursday’s Insights: $1.5m Uncle Mo Colt Makes Keeneland Debut

8th-KEE, $100K, Msw, 2yo, 7f, 4:44 p.m. ET.
Hammering down for $1.5 million at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, juvenile STOP THE PRESS (Uncle Mo) makes his debut for the ownership group led by West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing. After a sharp work for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey at the Belmont Park training track (Oct. 20, 4f, :48.34, 1/55), the bay colt comes to Keeneland primed for his debut.

Out of Secret Sigh (Tapit), Stop the Press is a half-brother to Summer Wind Equine's horse-in-training Pippi Longstocking (Frankel {GB}), who debuted a well-beaten sixth over the turf Sept. 16 at the Belmont at the Big A meet.

Second dam MGSW India (Hennessy) is also responsible for Japanese G1 Yasuda Kinen S. and G1 February S. superstar Mozu Ascot (Frankel {GB}). This is an extended female family which includes full-sibs GI Woodward S. hero To Honor and Serve (Bernardini) and GI Chandelier S. heroine Angela Renee, plus their half-brother GISP Elnaawi (Street Sense). TJCIS PPS

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Chancey to Chair ARCI Drug Testing Committee

Dr. John Chancey will lead the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) Drug Testing Standards and Practices Committee as the new Chair, according to a release from the organization. Chancey is a long-time regulatory veterinarian and is currently the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission.

Chancey replaces Duncan Patterson, the Chair of the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission, who will now lead the ARCI Continuing Education Committee.

“Duncan has been a great steward for the Association, but the time has come to put a veterinarian in charge of this committee as well as someone with direct experience not limited to only Thoroughbred racing,” said ARCI Chair Tom Sage of Nebraska. “With the role now being played in the U.S. by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, this committee must recommend equine welfare and anti-doping policies that are applicable to all horses regardless of breed. Dr. Chancey is the right person to lead this committee.”

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Treadmill Test Or Magic 8 Ball: Can Max Speed Predict A Racehorse’s Record?

Racehorses which don't perform up to their expected potential can be an enigma for veterinarians asked to determine whether something is actually wrong. Studies done on poor performance often rely on the opinion of owners and trainers, which are subjective, or they try to quantify performance through parameters that can be measured. “Fitness” can also mean different things to different people.

A standardized set of parameters, such as those obtained on a treadmill, would be helpful to assess fitness and agreement on what measurements quantify racing performance would be beneficial, reported a study team out of the University of Milan.

The scientists, led by Dr. Chiara Maria Lo Feudo, hypothesized that fitness parameters measured though treadmill tests may be able to predict the racing career of racehorses that perform poorly.

The scientists looked retroactively at the performance of 245 Standardbred racehorses that underwent an incremental treadmill test when they were referred to the Sports Medicine Unit of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital between 2002 and 2021. It also looked at the horses' race results.

In addition to the treadmill test, the horses had baseline physicals, blood tests, and electrocardiograms performed. Multiple fitness parameters were assessed while the horses were on the treadmill. If a specific diagnosis was suspected, additional diagnostics were performed.

The team then evaluated the racing data for the three months before and six months after the treadmill test and correlated the number of starts, wins, and placings with exam findings. The scientists also tried to utilize treadmill findings to associate and predict lifetime racing results and earnings.

The team utilized fitness parameters to construct models that could predict the total number of lifetime starts, wins and earnings, controlling for the horse's weight, age and sex. They discovered that the maximum speed and the speed at the horse's aerobic threshold were parameters that correlated with the most racing results in the three evaluation periods.

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Maximum speed reached was correlated with all racing outcomes before admission in 3-year-olds and in the entire career of adult horses. Max speed was also significant in prediction models of wins and earnings. The team concluded that peak treadmill speed should be considered one of the most important parameters for performance evaluation and career success prediction.

They also found that:

The horses that raced more in the three months before admission had longer, more successful careers.
The number of wins and placings in the three months before admission correlated to a better lifetime career.
Horses taking part in more races after examination also had longer and more successful careers.

The scientists concluded that a standardized treadmill test is useful for the evaluation of poor performance and the prediction of racing outcomes for Standardbred racehorses. Monitoring racing results right after hospitalization may aid trainers making decisions regarding their racehorse's careers.