A field of nine 3-year-olds is entered for the Grade 2, $250,000 Hill Prince Stakes on the turf at Aqueduct, with one more entered should the race be moved to the main track. Six of the nine entered for turf won their most recent race and the other three finished second or third in their last start, leading to the immediate conclusion this is a well-matched group.
Category: Horse Racing News
OOCT, Contamination And Other Topics From The HISA Town Hall
On Nov. 15, officials with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, together with the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit, hosted the second in a series of virtual town hall meetings designed to answer stakeholder questions about the organizations' programs.
HISA is the national regulatory authority created by federal legislation to oversee safety and welfare rule-making. HIWU is the independent body housed under Drug Free Sport International which was appointed by HISA to collect samples, get those samples tested, and adjudicate any positive findings. HIWU began testing post-race and out-of-competition test (OOCT) samples just before this year's Belmont Stakes. HISA's safety and welfare regulations went into place in July 2022.
Here are a few takeaways:
–There have been 26 cases of atypical findings, which is the term used for tests showing substances that are suspected to be the result of environmental contamination. Atypical findings are not reported publicly on the HIWU website. Of those, 15 cases are resolved with the other 11 still in process. Fourteen of the 15 were dismissed as the result of environmental contamination and considered negative tests. One was pursued as an adverse finding.
–HIWU has tested around 42,000 horses with 11 findings for human drugs of abuse.
“I know people are frightened that may happen, but you have to understand that's .26 of a percent,” said HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus.
It's difficult to compare the rate of positive findings under HIWU with the rate under the previous state system because the testing parameters weren't uniform previously, and because states had different definitions of what substances were considered controlled or banned as compared to HISA/HIWU.
We do know that roughly a third of the positive tests under HIWU have been for banned substances.
–Dr. Mary Scollay, chief of science for HIWU, said the first few months of the program have revealed to her that the previous system was light and inconsistent on out-of-competition testing, which is supposed to become more common and standardized under HIWU.
“Clearly there were states that weren't performing OOCT … there were other states that said they were doing OOCT and what they were doing was sampling horses on the way to the paddock for a stakes race,” said Scollay. “I think we can say we're confident our program represents an equitable program across jurisdictions.”
–The recent 60 Minutes feature on doping and safety in horse racing was brought up by more than one attendee. Lazarus was interviewed on camera for the segment, which was 13 minutes long.
Lazarus said that behind the scenes, the interview ran for two hours during which time she pointed out the positive steps the sport has made in safety and medication regulation and praised the many trainers who have been successfully following the rules.
“They didn't choose to report any of that,” she said.
Although HISA/HIWU are not charged, per the law creating them, with doing anything resembling public relations or media relations on behalf of the industry, officials said they do reach out to mainstream media to request corrections when they see a factual inaccuracy that overlaps with their regulation – like the 60 Minutes report referring to betamethasone as a “banned” substance when it is in fact a restricted therapeutic. Lazarus noted she thinks trade media have correctly made the distinction between the two types of violations in the course of their reporting.
–One attendee asked why possession of a container of a substance was against HISA/HIWU rules if no horses have tested positive for the substance inside. Officials reminded attendees that all substances that lack approval from the Food and Drug Administration are considered illegal under HISA rules. (They were also illegal in some states under previous regulation.) That applies not just to drug tests but to possession, because investigators don't know which horses may have gotten a substance when, or how readily it may be tested.
“We can't test every horse every day,” said Ben Mosier, executive director of HIWU, which is tasked by HISA with organizing the collection and testing of samples.
Scollay pointed out that both organizations have reiterated to licensees that this restriction on use and possession was coming up and encouraged everyone to clean out their tack rooms of any items that would fall outside the regulations – including Thyro-L, which has been cited in a number of HIWU violations thus far and which is not FDA-approved.
Lazarus said that if you're charged with possession of a non-FDA-approved drug, you can get a six-month reduction in your sentence by accepting the sanction, or you may be able to get a greater reduction if you provide an explanation to the organization and work towards a settlement. Once the process goes to an arbitrator however, HISA/HIWU can no longer advocate for a reduced sentence.
Finally, Scollay emphasized that the restriction to FDA-approved products is designed to protect not only horses, but horsemen from adulterated product. Several illegal products have been seized and tested by the organization and multiple products were found to contain restricted ingredients that weren't listed on their labeling. One contained a banned substance which was missing from its label.
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Kentucky Derby Runner Mr. Z Headed To Saudi Arabia After Keeneland November Sale
Mr. Z, a multiple Grade 1-placed stakes winner who ran in the 2015 Kentucky Derby, will continue his stallion career in Saudi Arabia after selling to FMQ Stables for $15,000 on Wednesday at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
The 11-year-old son of Malibu Moon previously stood at Calumet Farm in Lexington, Ky., where he entered stud in 2018.
From three crops of racing age, Mr. Z has sired 30 winners, and his runners have combined for earnings of more than $1.7 million. His progeny is led by Eminent Victor, a stakes winner and Grade 1-placed runner.
FMQ Stables, the nom de course of Faisal Mohammed Alqahtani, campaigns Saudi Crown, the winner of this year's Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby. Though the winning bid was placed online, Zach Madden of consignor Buckland Sales said the buyer had people looking at the stallion on the sales grounds leading up to his time in the ring.
“The guys that represent FMQ were there and were taking a bunch of videos of him in the back ring, so I knew they were probably live on the horse,” Madden said. “He's a really cool horse, and I wish him the best. We just had him in the barn for a few days, but he's a big, beautiful horse, and he caught everyone's eye in the back ring. It was sort of a spectacle back there.”
Mr. Z is the second former Calumet stallion to be purchased this year to stand in Saudi Arabia, after Grade 3 winner Optimizer sold to Youssef Mohammed Alturaif's YMT Farm for $35,000 at the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale. Mr. Z was himself part of the slate of Calumet offerings at that sale, finishing under his reserve with a final bid of $90,000.
Bred in Kentucky by Richard Maynard, Mr. Z initially raced for Zayat Stables and trainer D. Wayne Lukas.
After winning on debut as a juvenile at Churchill Downs, Mr. Z earned second-place finishes in the G3 Sanford Stakes and G2 Saratoga Special Stakes. He continued to chase an elusive graded stakes win in the second half 0f his 2-year-old campaign with a runner-up effort in the G1 Breeders' Futurity, a fifth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita Park, another second in the G3 Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes, and a third to finish the year in the G1 Los Alamitos Futurity.
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If you appreciate our work, you can support us by subscribing to our Patreon stream. Learn more.He continued to consistently be in the mix during the Kentucky Derby prep season of 2015, culminating in a third-place effort in the G1 Arkansas Derby behind fellow Zayat-owned runner American Pharoah. He finished behind that one again in the Kentucky Derby, where Mr. Z faced repeated traffic issues under jockey Ramon Vazquez and settled for 13th.
Between the Derby and the Preakness Stakes, Mr. Z was sold privately to Calumet Farm to race in the second leg of the Triple Crown, still under the Lukas shedrow. He finished fifth to American Pharoah in the Preakness, but after escaping the shadow of the eventual Triple Crown winner, Mr. Z earned his first stakes victory in the Ohio Derby.
That would be Mr. Z's final win, and after finishing second in the G2 Indiana Derby in the ensuing start, he never hit the board again. He finished his on-track career with two wins in 25 starts for earnings of $1,177,378.
Mr. Z is out of the unraced Storm Cat mare Stormy Bear, whose four winners from seven foals to race also includes Ibn al Nafis, who is stakes-placed in the U.A.E., and stakes-placed Andean. He comes from the family of two-time Canadian Horse of the Year Chief Bearhart and Grade 1 winner Explosive Red.
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$80,000 Broodmare Precipitate Leads Wednesday’s Penultimate Day Of Keeneland November Sale
Precipitate, a 5-year-old daughter of Pioneerof the Nile in foal to Tacitus, sold to James Wyenandt for $80,000 to be the highest-priced purchase of Wednesday's next-to-last session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
From the family of champion Close Hatches, 2023 Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Idiomatic and Grade 2 winner Tacitus, Precipitate was consigned by Lane's End, agent for Juddmonte. On Tuesday, her half-sister Forenoon sold as a broodmare prospect to JCB Stables for $150,000.
Lane's End, which sold horses that brought five of the 10-highest prices Wednesday, was the day's leading consignor with sales of $593,600 for 34 horses.
For the session, Keeneland sold 258 horses through the ring for $3,065,300, a 28.93 percent decrease from the eighth day of the 2022 November Sale, when total receipts were $4,313,300 for 260 horses. The average of $11,881 was 28.38 percent below $16,590 for the corresponding session last year. The median of $9,250 declined 15.91 percent from last year's $11,000.
With one session remaining in the auction, 1,873 horses have sold through the ring for $173,925,300, which is 15.45 percent below last's year's cumulative gross of $205,696,600 for 1,826 horses sold through eight days. The average of $92,859 is 17.57 percent lower than last year's $112,649, while the median of $40,000 declined 20 percent from $50,000 last year.
Scarabea, a 5-year-old winning stakes-placed daughter of American Pharoah bred to Hightail for her first foal, sold Wednesday to The Racing Advisory for $75,000. Buckland Sales (Zach Madden), agent, consigned the mare, who is out of Grade 3 winner Starstruck (IRE), by Galileo (IRE), and a half-sister to stakes winner Turf War. Scarabea is from the family of Irish and English highweight Agnetha, Group 2 winner Areion and Group 3 winner Dancing King.
Lane's End, agent, also consigned the day's most expensive weanling, a colt by Tonalist purchased by Raylan Givens for $60,000. Out of the winning Distorted Humor mare Playful Humor, he is from the family of champion Pleasant Stage along with Grade 1 winners Marsh Side and Seattle Meteor.
Tonalist also is the sire of a weanling filly consigned by Lane's End, agent, who sold to Boyd Crowder for $50,000. Out of the winning War Front mare Quant, she is from the family of 2023 Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby winner Saudi Crown as well as Grade 1 winner Noble's Promise, Grade 2 winner New Economy and Grade 3 winner New Normal.
Wednesday's leading buyer was Triple Crown, which purchased 10 horses for $159,500.
Thursday is the final day of the November Breeding Stock Sale. The session starts at 10 a.m. ET.
On Friday, Keeneland will kick off the November Horses of Racing Age Sale at noon. Click here for the online catalog.
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