Horse Racing Free Tips

Through Starts And Stops Of Santa Anita Meet, Leading Rider Prat Stayed Focused And Fit

Flavien Prat won Santa Anita's riding title in a landslide. Going into Sunday's 12-race closing-day program at the Arcadia, Calif., track, the final numbers are a mere formality as Prat had an insurmountable 89-61 lead over runner-up Abel Cedillo after winning five races on Saturday.

He has no chance of breaking Laffit Pincay's record of 138 victories at a Santa Anita meet, set in 1970-71, but the 27-year-old Frenchman's achievement was a virtual fait accompli throughout the undulating “Races Without Faces” meet, especially after he won six races on the card May 17.

It's been a team effort.

Due to the pandemic, there were starts, stops and intermissions at the current campaign, so with regard to specific numbers such as wins, mounts and days raced at past meets, this was similar to the proverbial comparison of apples and oranges.

But considering the circumstances, Prat's agent, Derek Lawson, will take it.

“I don't know how Pincay won 138, even though he probably rode in more races and on more days,” said Lawson, agent six years now for reigning Kentucky Derby winner Prat. “As for us, it wasn't just what we endured, because the entire country endured a shutdown.

“Both Flavien and I stayed focused by watching races that were available to us, and physically, he trained as hard as he possibly could.

“He didn't slow down; just kept training and working out, riding the stationary bicycle in his garage 21 miles a day, swimming and using weights he purchased and had in his home.

“He also watched whatever old races that were available and kept his mind in the game. It was the same with me. We focused on one topic, and it was racing.

“I also maintained contact with trainers who were keeping their horses sharp, and one was Peter Miller at San Luis Rey. With guys like him, Richie Baltas, Richard Mandella and others, we had some good business when we came back. It was fun.

“Even so, I never thought we'd be riding at this level as far as win percentage (27), but one day led to another and it kept going on and on and on and it worked out really well.”

When it comes to deciding which horse to ride, both agent and rider put their heads together, for the most part.

“We talk about all the horses all the time,” Lawson said. “When it comes to the stakes races, there's greater discussion and a lot of communication between the two of us. It's not just me. I need help to choose in certain situations. It's not cut and dried.

“I'll tell him we have two horses here, what do we do in this situation? Sometimes he leaves it up to me, sometimes he says 'I've got no idea.' There's a lot of communication between the two of us. We have a common goal, to try and win racing titles from the beginning of the year.

“It's really a team effort.”

The team includes Santa Anita's racing department.

“They kept us informed,” Lawson said. “Chris Merz (Racing Director for Santa Anita's Vice President of Racing and Racing Secretary Steve Lym and his diligent staff) stayed in touch with me. We knew they were at the mercy of the (Los Angeles County) Health Department, but we appreciated that they kept us informed on a regular basis.

“Every week or two I would get in touch with them, knowing things were starting to loosen up a little bit. They did a great job having the condition book ready when we were able to get started again.

“It was a matter of extensive communication and making sure everyone was on the right page.

“It worked out great.”

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Horses Helped Heal Jockey Rocco Bowen

Rocco Bowen has always known how to work hard and achieve his goals. The Barbados-born jockey made his way to the United States and found a second home at Emerald Downs in Washington State. There, he was the leading rider at in 2016 and 2017, the first jockey to record back-to-back 100-win seasons at the track.

Bowen was en route to a third consecutive riding title in 2018 when his whole world changed in an instant.

The morning of Sept. 8 dawned like any other, with Bowen at the track before the sun and readying to breeze over a dozen horses. On this morning, however, his inside rein broke on a horse he was riding and he went down hard.

Unconscious for 25 minutes, Bowen finally came to inside the ambulance on the way to the hospital. He didn't know where he was or what had happened, but as soon as he figured out what day it was the jockey wanted to go back to the track for the afternoon's races.

Doctors told him that wasn't an option with his separated shoulder and serious concussion, but Bowen was determined. At the time of the accident, he was sitting at 97 wins and wanted to set the record with three straight 100-win seasons at Emerald.

After just one week out of the saddle, Bowen returned to win 12 more races and the title.

“I knew I had to take care of my body and get my hand fixed,” Bowen said. “My left hand wasn't working right. I may be right-handed, but I learned to be left-hand dominant in the saddle from Garret Gomez. I just kept horses in the clear and did the best I could to finish the season.”

Looking back at the time immediately following the injury, Bowen laughed and quipped: “You know, jockeys are notoriously stubborn and hard-headed. I'm no different. If our limbs don't have to be reattached, we get back on the horse.”

It was the long-term aftermath that began to break down Bowen's steely resolve. Doctors couldn't seem to find anything wrong with him, but he had persistent numbness in his left hand as well as occasional shooting pains from his neck all the way down his arm.

The injury dragged out for over a year, and Bowen just couldn't seem to find a solution. He'd be fine one day, then the next he'd drop a glass of apple juice on the floor. He was close to giving up by early 2020.

“It got me in a really bad place, and I was willing to give up everything and go back to Barbados,” Bowen said. “My weight went up to 152, but I didn't really care because the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. They wanted to send me back for light duty, but what am I supposed to do, wash buckets?

“I had people pulling me in a hundred different directions. Should I retire and take the insurance money, or try to come back, but where and how? I was lost.”

A telephone conversation with his mother, Nancy Bowen, who still lives in Barbados, finally began to put things in perspective.

“Mom said if I'm really not done, I need to get up and go do it,” Bowen said. “I tried to listen to doctors, but it wasn't working.

“I didn't know where to start to get back up. My brother reached out to jockey Rico Walcott, and we started by getting my weight down. Then I had to work on my confidence, but I just didn't feel like I was done riding.”

It was another conversation, this time with Kyle Watson, his brother not by blood but by choice, that really kicked Bowen into high gear to make his way back to the track.

“We were raised together – he's my brother from another mother,” Bowen joked, explaining that Watson lives in Barbados with Bowen's mother. “Through my comeback, we got even closer. He's my greatest critic, and we handicap together … he helps keep me in line from thousands of miles away. He told me, 'Roc, this is your time to shine.'”

On April 1, Bowen weighed in at 152 lbs. By May 22, he was down to 122 lbs. He was riding in the mornings everywhere he could and kept going by trainer Genaro Garcia's barn at Indiana Grand because his brother had noticed the trainer's success rate. On the ninth morning, Garcia finally let him work a horse, and the two hit it off.

His hand kept getting better and better; it was like the horses were healing him.

Bowen rode his first race back on June 4 at Belterra Park, after 640 days away from the races. He finished second aboard Dingdingdingding. On June 5, he won a $7,500 claimer aboard Hyndford, trained by Garcia.

“Once I rode that race, and the hand didn't go numb or anything, and I said I'm not back, but I'm coming,” said Bowen. “Genaro told me, 'I believe in you, I have the world of confidence in you,' and that was big for me.”

Bowen's entire family back home in Barbados was excited to watch him on television on June 11, when he got his first mount at Churchill Downs. He won the race by a nose.

“I called Mom and told her I got my first call, and all my family gathered at my grandma's big house to watch the race,” Bowen said. “I still can't believe I won my first ever race at Churchill. I cried from the winner's circle all the way back to the jock's room. … My agent, Mr. John Herbstreit, he put me on the map after 640 days!”

Bowen has now won six races since his comeback, and he is working hard to keep up the momentum.

“I love the Midwest, it's home for me right now,” said Bowen. “The feeling in my hand is all back, and it's like nothing but positive energy right now. I went from three weeks ago, my legs were at maybe 20 percent, and now they're up to 70 percent strength.”

In the short-term, Bowen wants to finish in the top three of the standings at Indiana Grand. Long-term, Bowen can see himself buying a house in the Midwest and trying to get a mount in either a Triple Crown or Breeders' Cup race by 2023.

“I'm just trying to be humble and keep moving forward,” Bowen said. “Hopefully I can take my career to next level. All these guys in Indiana are treating me like they've known me a long time, especially Joe Talamo. He's my brother's idol, he doesn't ride but he loves jockeys. Talamo was happy to sign a picture for him, and he got to meet Talamo via FaceTime from the jock's room. … This year, I want to surprise Kyle with a plane ticket to watch me in a big race: 'Here bro, get your suit ready and we're going to the big time.'”

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What’s in a Name: Gamine

GAMINE is “a girl with a mischievous, boyish charm,” according to Google Dictionary. It is therefore a fitting name for the terrific filly by Into Mischief who dominated her fellow females in the GI Acorn S. at Belmont Saturday.

GAMINE, 120, f, 3, by Into Mischief
                1st Dam: Peggy Jane (SP, $102,050), by Kafwain
                2nd Dam: Seattle Splash, by Chief Seattle
                3rd Dam: Grand Splash, by Bucksplasher

An Italian native, Andrea Branchini now lives in Lexington, Ky. where he works in the equine transport industry.

The post What’s in a Name: Gamine appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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The Week in Review: Laying Down the Law, ‘Tiz’ Shines Amid Difficult Year

We’re barely halfway through, but 2020 is already destined to go down as the year reality and normalcy got bent so far out of shape that our sport became unrecognizable. Race meets nationwide have been canceled or curtailed. The Triple Crown races have been shifted out of order with one radical distance alteration. Jockeys soar through homestretches wearing protective masks as a pandemic precaution in front of eerily empty grandstands, where fans have been ordered to stay away for everyone’s own good.

We hear repeatedly how everyone in the industry is doing the best they can under arduous and unprecedented circumstances brought on by COVID-19. There is truth in that statement, but people can only do so much. For horse racing to persevere during difficult times, the best chance to pull us through is the Thoroughbred itself.

Now, after his tour-de-force romp in the GI Belmont S., it is clear that Tiz the Law (Constitution) has emerged the sport’s horse of hope.

It’s probably unfair to saddle Tiz’s compact, powerful bay shoulders with so heavy a burden. But the charismatic colt has been up to the task of handling everything thrown at him so far. His race record is a near-perfect 5-for-6, but that stat doesn’t fully encapsulate the flair and panache with which he’s dispatched his overmatched foes.

As an aggressive stalker, Tiz the Law’s early races were hallmarked by a knack for putting himself into precarious positions and then extricating himself with a Houdini-like flourish. He won sprinting in his Saratoga debut against New York-breds, then leapt the chasm to Grade I stakes company by annexing the Champagne S. after stumbling at the start and getting trapped on heels before finishing full of run.

His connections–owner Sackatoga Stable and trainer Barclay Tagg–thought the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile a month later might be too much too soon, so they instead pointed Tiz to the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. at Churchill Downs Nov. 30. Off as the 3-5 favorite in a sea of slop, jockey Manny Franco repeatedly had to ride the brakes to keep Tiz from getting pocketed on the backstretch and again in the home straight. The colt ended up third, beaten three-quarters of a length, his only defeat to date.

After a brief Florida freshening, Tiz had his 3-year-old unveiling in the GIII Holy Bull S., a prep on the GI Kentucky Derby trail that has evolved into a notorious annual trap for highly touted sophomores (favorites going down in defeat in nine of the previous 11 runnings). Tiz shot out of the gate, cruised four deep into the clubhouse bend, then dove to the fence. This maneuvering meant yet another dicey backstretch placement for Tiz, who steadied off heels under more momentum-drag braking. But once repositioned outside, he relished the pursuit of prey, collaring the pacemaker and leaving the remainder of the field reeling with a 100 Beyer Speed Figure win that was easier than the three-length final margin suggested.

After missing a few days of training in early March because of a minor foot bruise, the GI Curlin Florida Derby was next. Tiz broke running and enjoyed a clean trip while energetically forcing the issue. He powered past the frontrunners at will, and for the first time left the impression that he was merely toying with the competition while honing a fast-maturing level of confidence into something akin to a swagger.

The pandemic had already disrupted the Triple Crown prior to Tiz’s Florida Derby win, but you didn’t hear the colt’s connections carping in public about how fate had stolen away their chance at favoritism in the Run for the Roses. Instead, Tagg and Sackatoga managing partner Jack Knowlton pretty much said they’d take on all comers at whatever race spacing and distances the Triple Crown turned out to be, perhaps even with a Saratoga stakes in between for good measure.

The Belmont S. ended up being first in the series, shortened to a one-turn nine furlongs out of deference to the coronavirus disruption. Tiz was once again fleet from the starting stall and Manny Franco gathered him up in hand while allowing the two main speed threats to come through to his inside. Always in striking range within 2 1/2 lengths of the lead, Tiz was a formidable presence while in authoritative stalk mode, coiled but not fully unleashed until the head of the vast Belmont Park homestretch. He nosed his distinctive white blaze in front coming off the turn, shot into an unmatchable gear when cued to quicken, and even while assertively handled through the lane didn’t appear to be fully extended or at the limits of his stamina reserves in another 100-Beyer trouncing.

Tiz the Law is an easy horse to root for. He can press the pace at a high cruising speed against the best East Coast sophomores and still stick around to win going away by open lengths. Every one of his victories has been decided by the eighth pole. He runs major-league speed numbers and never looks sapped or wilted. He’s sensibly managed by connections that clearly enjoy the journey as much as the outcome, and they’re transparent and highly quotable when asked to share their plans for Tiz. Even Tagg, known for decades as a “horseman’s horseman,” can come across as charmingly crusty, like he did on Saturday when he reportedly told a Belmont television interviewer that the trophy presentation and post-race questions had better be quick because he had work to do back at the barn.

Next up for Tiz is the GI Runhappy Travers S. at Saratoga. The New York Racing Association just announced last week that the showcase race of the summer would be moved up several weeks to Aug. 8 in order to better mesh with the remaining two legs of the Triple Crown (Derby Sep. 5 and GI Preakness S. Oct. 3).

Fittingly, the date of the 2020 Travers will coincide with the one-year anniversary of Tiz the Law’s winning debut at Saratoga.

British turf writer Simon Barnes once wrote that “Too much hope is perhaps the worst sin in horse racing.”

That may be true. But right now our sport can use all the optimistic anticipation it can get. So bring on the hope–and the hype–for Tiz the Law.

The post The Week in Review: Laying Down the Law, ‘Tiz’ Shines Amid Difficult Year appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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