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Messineo Windfall for Use in CARMA Placement Program
Seven months after learning they were one of a handful of racehorse rehoming and animal rescue organizations bequeathed a large sum of money by owner Nancy Messineo, the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA) have received the “significant gift” and are in the process of figuring out how to best use it.
“We received this gift the end of last year right before Christmas,” said Lucinda Lovitt, executive director of the non-profit founded 15 years ago to raise money for the state's fleet of retired racehorses.
“It's timely in the sense that we have this big shift coming in California,” Lovitt added, alluding to the planned closure of Golden Gate Fields in June. “It gives us some flexibility and freedom to meet the needs where they are or where they will be.”
Messineo, who died in June at the age of 74 after a long battle with cancer, left CARMA, the Wild Horse Sanctuary, Red Bucket Sanctuary, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Thoroughbred Charities of America sums totaling roughly three-quarters of her estate.
Messineo's gifts came as a welcome surprise to these organizations, but didn't surprise those who knew her well. “She just loved animals,” said Bruce Sands last June, of his close friend, a long-time racehorse owner.
While CARMA is still in the process of deciding how to deploy the funds, Lovitt said that Messineo had specified in her will for the money to be used in the organization's placement program.
In short, that program acts as a bridge to funnel a retired racehorse toward the right aftercare organization–to prevent, for example, a horse with the skills for a fruitful second career from going to a lifetime retirement sanctuary.
“We're providing a service for our horsemen and we're providing a service to our aftercare partners because we're making sure that they're getting horses that fit their program,” said Lovitt.
CARMA's placement program comes with caveats. The owners must have participated in California's CARMA purse contribution program. The horse must have raced or worked at a CHRB (California Horse Racing Board)-licensed track or training center in the last six months. And the horse must be a gelding, filly or mare.
Lovitt declined to specify the amount gifted but stressed its impact on the organization. “Right now especially, it's really wonderful to have this safety net,” she said.
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For Third Straight Spring, MSW Purses at Keeneland and Churchill Projected to Remain Level
Purses for maiden special weight (MSW) races are projected to remain unchanged for the third straight spring at both Keeneland Race Course and Churchill Downs.
Track executives disclosed the pre-condition book figures during the Feb. 1 Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory board meeting.
Keeneland expects to write $100,000 MSW races for 3-year-olds and older horses, with 2-year-olds competing for $80,000, according to Gatewood Bell, Keeneland's vice president of racing.
Continuing a condition that Keeneland tried last fall, Bell added that there will also be four maiden-auction races written for $70,000, one for each sex going both short and long.
Back during Keeneland's 2021 spring meet, the comparable MSW purse levels were $79,000 and $60,000 for older and juvenile races, respectively.
Keeneland's $100,000 and $80,000 levels have been in effect since 2022.
Churchill's MSW races for older horses will remain at the $120,000 purse level this spring, according to Ben Huffman, the track's vice president of racing. He did not state an amount for 2-year-old races.
In the spring of 2021, Churchill carded two levels of MSW money. For the lead-in week to the GI Kentucky Derby, the purses were $115,000. After that, MSW races were written for $100,000.
In 2022, Churchill's MSW purses for older horses got raised to $120,000 for the spring meet.
The purse levels stayed that way in 2023, even after Churchill's corporate ownership opted to move the remainder of the meet to another Kentucky track in its portfolio, Ellis Park, in the aftermath of 12 equine fatalities that occurred in the first six weeks of the Churchill season.
Bill Landes III, the chairman of the KTDF advisory committee, who represents the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders (KTOB) association on the KTDF board, briefly addressed both Keeneland and Churchill about potentially increasing those MSW purse levels in the future.
“If things come good for you, we would be amenable to any hike or anything you could afford us,” Landes said.
Braxton Lynch, who also represents the KTOB on the KTDF board, suggested that any available purse money would be better spent on upping the amounts carded for allowance races.
“As much as Bill likes to focus on the MSW numbers, [and] I think we're really lucky to be where we are on the MSW numbers, if we ever got a chance [to] put [a purse] increase somewhere, I'd love to see a bigger gap between MSW and allowance, with allowances going a little higher. They become so much harder to win that I think there should be a little more reward there.”
KTDF board member Rick Hiles, who serves as the president of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protection Association, agreed with Lynch.
“I've been saying for years there should be a bigger gap between maidens and the non-winners of two or 'a-other-than' [allowance conditions].”
The KTDF is funded by three-quarters of 1% of all money wagered in the state on both live Thoroughbred races and historical horse race gaming, plus 1% of all money wagered on Thoroughbred races via inter-track wagering and whole-card simulcasting.
On Thursday the KTDF advisory committee approved the recommendation of allotment requests that the Churchill and Keeneland purse estimates were based on, but the full Kentucky Horse Racing Commission still has to vote on final approval of the funding.
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Yuugiri Half-Brother Kicks Off Career at Kyoto
In this continuing series, Alan Carasso takes a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this Saturday running at Kyoto and Tokyo Racecourses:
Saturday, February 3, 2024
4th-KYO, ¥11,850,000 ($81k), Newcomers, 3yo, 1800m
AIR SAMSARA (c, 3, Nyquist–Yuzuru, by Medaglia d'Oro) is the latest to the races out of this stakes-winning dam, whose daughter Yuugiri (Shackleford) pieced together a very productive 4-year-old season in 2023, winning the GII Thoroughbred Club of America S. ahead of a gallant runner-up effort behind repeat champion Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. According to Winchester Farm's Dr. Naoya Yoshida, Yuugiri has been retired and is booked to Elite Power for the upcoming breeding season. The family has served these breeders very well, as Yuzuru's half-sister Nokaze (Empire Maker) has bred five winners from five starters–all in Japan–including Group 2 scorer Air Almas (Majestic Warrior) and Air Fanditha (Hat Trick {Jpn}), a two-time listed stakes winner. The colt's third dam Angelic Song (Halo) was a full-sister to Devil's Bag, Saint Ballado, et al. B-Sekie & Tsunebumi Yoshihara (KY)
5th-TOK, ¥11,850,000 ($81k), Newcomers, 3yo, 1600mT
RAINBOW TOPAZ (JPN) (c, 3, Ghostzapper–Lady Dyna, by Tapit), a $125,000 in-utero purchase at Keeneland November in 2020, is a maternal grandson of Dr. John Chandler's Dynaforce (Dynaformer), a stakes winner and Group 2-placed in France for Andre Fabre and later winner of the GI Beverly D. S. and GI Flower Bowl S. while under the care of Bill Mott upon her repatriation to the U.S. The dam of English SW & GSP Aljezeera (GB) (Frankel {GB}), Dynaforce is kin to 12 winners out of Aletta Maria (Diesis {GB}), including MGISW Cetewayo (His Majesty), GSW & GISP Bowman Mill (Kris S.), SW Ntombi (Quiet American) and De Aar (Gone West), the MGSP dam of three-time graded winner and multiple Grade I-placed Willcox Inn (Harlan's Holiday). B-Yuki Dendo
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