2021 breeders' cup | Horse Racing Free Tips

Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Catalano’s Next Big Goal Is A Number

Thoroughbred trainer Wayne Catalano can count his career in the industry by a series of numbers.

At 15, the New Orleans, La., native first stepped onto the Fair Grounds racetrack and into the barn of Hall of Famer Jack Van Berg. At 18, he began riding and eventually became a jockey, a job he'd hold for almost 10 years winning 1,792 races.

At 27, plagued by knee issues, he struck out on his own and began training and 38 years later he's still at it. From the countless horses that have passed through his hands he can claim three Eclipse Award-winning champions in Dreaming of Anna, Stephanie's Kitten, and She Be Wild.

“I did not grow up around horses. I was never one of those guys that tell you how they were sat on a horse when they were two and grew up that way,” said Catalano. “I grew up in New Orleans, so I came really late to the game but I had a great opportunity because I started with Jack Van Berg. He was one of the greatest trainers and greatest teachers in the business. He taught horsemanship and hard work and those two ingredients will get you a long way in this business.”

Having banked more than $72 million in career purse earnings, Catalano has no intentions of ramping down. The number that would mean the most to him now would be 3,000—the number of victories he needs to join a class of trainers to have risen to the challenge.

“I have 2,937 wins at the moment,” said Catalano. “We're not too far away considering that there are only maybe 36 trainers in the country who have 3,000-plus wins. We're not slowing down yet; we've still got a lot of life left in us.”

Sixty-three wins, while daunting, seem within the horseman's grasp. Now 65, he's been on a bit of roll in 2021, hitting the board in 95 of his 223 starts to date, 42 of those being wins. For the first time in 10 years, Catalano returned to the winner's circle on the biggest stage in Thoroughbred racing when his 4-year-old colt Aloha West claimed the title in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint Nov. 6 at Del Mar. While the Hard Spun colt only began racing in February, he's proved himself to be a credible runner with plenty of potential to keep the momentum going as an older horse.

“It was really, really nice,” said Catalano of the Breeders' Cup win. “He (Aloha West) is a playful little boy but he's a good boy. He's a nice little horse. He gets a little excited sometimes but he's started to settle down. He's maturing and he's become a good racehorse.”

“We won the trainer's title at Churchill Downs and Kentucky Downs,” said Catalano. “I think we hold the record at Kentucky Downs of 15 wins in five days. We won over 100 races at Churchill, so we have done well.”

These days Aloha West is one of only about 20 horses in Catalano's barn, 12 or so of which are actively racing. He supplements his barn with horses he breeds and races from his own program in Illinois, raising small crops from a band of four mares with the help of his wife Renee.

“We've won a bunch of races with homebreds. They might not have been big races but just to breed a winner is hard enough,” said Catalano. “For more than 30 years we've been living on our farm. We've had a lot of winners and a lot of fun. My wife loves it and she gets to raise the babies in the backyard. It's great. We have three or four mares and we breed to small stallions. We enjoy it and to raise babies and then watch them win is the most incredible feeling.”

Lately, things have been in an ever-changing state for the Illinois resident. After nearly a century, Arlington Park has been closed to the public. The last race on the historic track was run in late September of 2021, and the Chicago Bears signed an agree to purchase the track the same month. Catalano said the general upheaval that the closure has caused in the industry is yet another sign of change in the industry, one that makes life a little bit harder on the horsemen.

“The game is not the same. It's just not the same as it used to be,” said Catalano. “A lot of racetracks are closing. If you're not established, it's even harder. In Chicago when we were there we had the horses and the clientele and it went well. Then they took that away and I got relocated to Kentucky.

“The foal crop and the horses are also light. The crops are so much smaller. There used to be 40,000 or 50,000 horses and now I think it's closer to 20,000. You can see that all the fields are light no matter the money they're giving away. It's also a deal that now the way the industry is today, it's taken a lot of fun out of the game. We used to have a lot of fun. We would gather up before and after the races and have fun. Of course, that being said, when you win the Breeders' Cup, it's always fun. Those are the moments you're there for and you hang on for.”

While his barn might have a smaller roster than his competitors, Catalano is not wanting for talent in his quest for 3,000 wins. At the moment, his most recent Breeders' Cup star Aloha West is taking time off ahead of 2022 campaign that is being mapped out by his owner, Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.

“He [Aloha West] will take a couple months off, get ready for another campaign and we'll try to win the Breeders' Cup again,” said Catalano.

Also conditioned by Catalano is Manny Wah, a stakes-winning son of Will Take Charge who ran fifth in last year's Breeder's Cup Sprint.

“Manny Wah probably should have won the Breeders' Cup last year, but we're hoping he can win it this year,” said Catalano. “We can't wait to get him back on the turf. We also have a couple young ones coming.”

A personal triumph for Catalano is the up-and-coming Big Dreaming (by Declaration of War), who holds spot in the trainer's hear as the last foal out of Dreaming of Anna.

“He's a big, good-looking, good-running horse,” said Catalano. “She [Dreaming of Anna] passed away so he's the last baby and he's a good one. [Owner/breeder] Frank Calabrese was very nice to let me have the last baby out of her because we don't really train for him at the moment. He promised me the baby and we've done very well so far. He's a good horse and we're looking at big races going forward.

With a new year on the horizon and plenty of days on the racing calendar ahead, Catalano remains hopeful he'll add the elusive 3,000^th win to his résumé. Numbers aside, the lifelong horseman knows the real joy lies in just enjoying the ride.

“It'll be a little bit but we'll get there,” said Catalano. “We have been on a little run there. We've won seven races out of the last 19 and one was a Breeders' Cup. So I hope that roll continues.

“We've developed a lot of horses. I've been very fortunate to have had opportunities that I took advantage of and been able to race some really nice horses.”

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Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Looking Back At Breeders’ Cup, Ahead To HISA

What are the takeaways from the embarrassing mistakes made at the Breeders' Cup world championships' Future Stars Friday program when Modern Games was removed from wagering pools and then allowed to run for purse money only in the Grade 1 Juvenile Turf at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., on Nov. 5?

Was this simply a human error or something compounded by ill-preparedness, faulty communications and regulations not in step with modern technology?

To help answer some of those questions, Pat Cummings of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation joins publisher Ray Paulick and editor-in-chief Natalie Voss in this week's edition of the Friday Show to discuss what could have been done differently and would should be done going forward to avoid a similar occurrence. The mistake had a multi-million impact on horseplayers.

The trio also discuss the just-released draft of anti-doping and medication control rules from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. How will medication policies differ under the Authority, which is scheduled to be active by July 1, 2022?

The Woodbine Star of the Week is the ageless Pink Lloyd, the ageless wonder who won his 25th career stakes race last weekend at the grand old age of 9.

Watch this week's Friday Show, presented by Woodbine, below:

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They Ran a Lasix Free Breeders’ Cup…And Nothing Happened

The biggest story when it comes to the ban of Lasix in the Breeders' Cup is that there was no story. It was, simply, a non-factor.

A total of 148 horses competed in this year's Breeders' Cup, all of them running Lasix-free. There were no reports of any horses being in distress or bleeding from the nostrils. I did not hear of one trainer blaming a defeat on the ban of the diuretic. Nor did I hear of or read about any trainers saying they were passing the Breeders' Cup because Lasix wasn't being allowed.

And there was a record handle, so, clearly the bettors weren't reluctant to play races without Lasix.

Dr. Jeff Blea, the equine medical director for the California Horse Racing Board, said that he hadn't seen any signs of serious or obvious problems.

“There was no informal data collected to evaluate EIPH in horses that ran on Friday and Saturday,” he said in an email. “Anecdotally, I had surveyed several of the local attending veterinarians to get an understanding of what they were seeing endoscopically, specifically horses that bled a grade 3 or 4. I'm still waiting on responses from two practitioners, but it doesn't appear that it was a significant problem.

“One practitioner commented that grade 3/4 was noted in less than 10% of the horses he scoped. That said, I don't know his denominator. Others commented that they were surprised that they didn't observe severe episodes of EIPH. Furthermore, to my knowledge, I am not aware of any incidents of epistaxis on those two days.”

What happened to all the dire prognostications, that horsemen would suffer irreparable injury if the drug were taken away from them? That innumerable horses would no longer be able to race without it? That horses would bleed through the nostrils in full view of a horrified public? That it is inhumane to force horses to race without Lasix?

None of that has been proven to be true.

Lasix was banned on 2-year-olds in many jurisdictions in 2020. This year, it was also banned in graded stakes races at most of the top tier tracks. This year's Triple Crown was also contested Lasix-free, also without any problems. There is not much available so far in the way of data regarding how horses fared without Lasix, but, just as was the case with the Breeders' Cup, the number of serious problems appear to have been minimal. The sport simply adjusted and moved on.

By the time we got to the Breeders' Cup, the Lasix debate, once among the most controversial subjects in the game, had turned into a non-issue. Probably a lot of you never even took it into account that this Breeders' Cup would be contested without the diuretic. That's because the results of this year's Lasix-free races have proved that taking it away is, well, no big deal.

That's just it. Is Lasix really necessary? Trainers no longer give it just to bleeders but to every horse in their barn. It became a matter of not preventing bleeding but not allowing the competition to have an edge on you.

Racing is conducted everywhere else in the world without it and American racing had done just fine without it for one-hundred-plus years before its use became widespread in the 80s.

So why allow it? It's been evident for a long time that U.S. racing is too dependant on drugs, which has created an image problem for an industry that keeps on having to prove that it is on the level and that it is safe.

But my biggest problem with Lasix is that there is credible evidence that it is a major factor when it comes to why horses race so infrequently these days. In 1970, before Lasix had permeated racing's landscape, the average number of starts per runner per year was 10.22. It's now down to about 6.15.

The slide in the number of average starters per year began just about the same time that Lasix started being legalized across the country. That's not surprising since Lasix's is a diuretic that acts to dehydrate horses. When dehydrated, a race takes something extra out of a horse and they need more time to recover. That's just common sense.

That's anecdotal evidence that Lasix has contributed to a situation where we have the most unhealthy, least durable collection of horses ever seen in modern times.

The good news is that there are more changes on the horizon. When the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Act (HISA) goes into effect, the clock will start ticking on the drug. Under HISA, a racing commission that wants to prolong Lasix use can do so for three years. After the three-year period, a unanimous vote from HISA would be needed to continue the legal use of the drug. It's on its way out.

Yes, the sport has many problems that are a lot more serious than the use of Lasix. We've seen that with the rash of breakdowns at Santa Anita in 2019 and the 2020 indictments of trainers Jason Servis, Jorge Navarro and others on charges that they were using performance-enhancing drugs. That doesn't mean that the sport can't assess each issue independently and act. Getting rid of Lasix won't solve all the drug issues, but it's a step in the right direction and the right thing to do.

And horsemen, those who were predicting doomsday scenarios, can relax. They will do just fine without the drug. This year's Breeders' Cup proved just that.

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View From The Eighth Pole: Sublime To The Ridiculous At Breeders’ Cup

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the Breeders' Cup?

Putting aside for a moment the unprecedented fiasco that began when the horses for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf were loaded in the starting gate (and which continued for days while officials revised their take about what happened), there were many positive stories that came out of this 38^th edition of what is moving closer toward its self-proclaimed status as Thoroughbred racing's world championships.

Let's begin with the fact there were no serious injuries or fatalities sustained by any of the horses competing over the two days at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., on Nov. 5-6. Considering how the final race of the 2019 Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita ended with the fatal injury to Mongolian Groom, it was extremely important to have an injury-free event.

California, by necessity, has led the way on equine safety reforms after the spike in fatalities at Santa Anita in the winter and spring of 2019 that put the sport in the crosshairs of animal extremists, national media and a growing number of politicians.

One of those reforms, which has nothing to do with musculoskeletal injuries, is the elimination of the race-day administration of Lasix, the anti-bleeder diuretic whose use is not permitted close to competition in any major racing countries outside of North America. Some horsemen raised concerns about the absence of Lasix, especially on older horses that had been running on it previously, but we have yet to see the predictions of doom come true about numerous horses gushing blood from the nostrils or jockeys coming back with red-splattered pants.

It turns out American horsemen can do what the rest of the world has proven it can do: race Thoroughbreds without giving them race-day medication to treat exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage.

Another reform taken by California regulators is restricting the use of the riding crop, or whip. The crop can only be used in an underhand manner, according to the regulations, and jockeys are limited to six strikes and no more than two in succession. While there were violations and rulings against three jockeys for going over the limit or raising the whip above the shoulder, I heard no suggestions that the whip restrictions altered the outcome of any races. Two of those races – the Sprint and Distaff – were decided by no more than an inch or two.

The storyline that could have the biggest impact on the Breeders' Cup over the long term were the two victories by Japanese-based horses: Loves Only You as the third betting choice in the Filly & Mare Turf and 49-1 outsider Marche Lorraine in the Distaff.

Japanese horsemen have been dipping their toes in American racing waters for at least 35 years, dating back to 1986 when Japan Triple Crown winner Symboli Rudolf traveled to California to run in the San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita. That's around the time Japanese breeders like the late Zenya Yoshida and his family, among others, began injecting significant funds to their upgrade breeding stock.

For the next 30 years, while there were a handful of Japanese runners who competed in the U.S., there was no serious effort by Breeders' Cup or racetracks to recruit those horses, largely because Japan – which has enormous wagering numbers annually – was a closed market for simulcasting. That changed in 2016.

Since select races are now permitted to be simulcast into Japan for separate pool wagering, we've seen Churchill Downs incorporate a Japanese Road to the Kentucky Derby, the New York Racing Association offer a bonus to a Japanese horse that wins the Belmont Stakes, and the Breeders' Cup actively recruit horses for its races.

That recruiting paid off this year, with seven Japanese runners in six Breeders' Cup races – by far the largest number ever. Separate pool wagering in Japan was permitted on three races, and fans there bet US$12.4 million (despite the extreme time difference, with post time Sunday morning in Japan between 7 and 9 a.m. The first of the three races, the Filly & Mare Turf handled US$3.7 million, the Mile US$3.9 million, and the Turf US$4.8 million.

Those numbers, supplied by Graham Pavey (@LongBallToNoOne on Twitter), pale in comparison to what Japanese fans bet on the 2021 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe from France. That race, run late on a Sunday night in Japan, handled nearly US$48 million.

The good news for the Breeders' Cup (and Triple Crown tracks Churchill Downs, Pimlico and Belmont) is that the successes by the Japanese runners will likely lead to more participation from that country's horsemen, which should lead to greater awareness of the Breeders' Cup and American Triple Crown by Japanese racing fans and increased handle.

One story that got lost in the swirling controversy surrounding the Juvenile Turf was the victory earlier on the Future Stars Friday program by Bobby Flay's Pizza Bianca, which gave the accomplished trainer Christophe Clement his first Breeders' Cup victory after 41 consecutive defeats. The late Hall of Famer Robert Frankel saw a similar string of frustration, losing 38 Breeders' Cup races in a row before breaking through with Squirtle Squirt in the 2001 Sprint at Belmont Park. Frankel would go on to win five more Breeders' Cup races, winding up with a 6-for-82 mark overall.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Clement add several more winners to his resume before long.

On to the bad news.

First, it is embarrassing to the sport that races can not be timed properly. Times were revised after the fact on two Breeders' Cup races on Friday and another on Saturday – all turf races. Inaccurate timing of races has become almost an epidemic in American racing at multiple tracks to the point that you no longer can trust the fractional times posted as the race is being run.

We should be getting better at this, not worse.

The mistaken scratch from wagering pools of Modern Games in the Juvenile Turf began with human error by a veterinarian who apparently was being asked to perform a regulatory job that he doesn't do on a regular basis.

The mistake was compounded by false statements from the California Horse Racing Board that were later retracted, miscommunications between stewards and Del Mar's mutuels department, and wagering rules that are outdated.

Breeders' Cup took no responsibility for what happened, saying in a statement it was the CHRB's problem. The CHRB insisted at first it was a Breeders' Cup-hired veterinarian who blew the call before realizing that same veterinarian reported to the CHRB's equine medical director.

With apologies to the men and women who make their living as clowns, this was a clown show. The industry must do better for the men and women who bet a record of nearly $183 million on this event. An independent review of what happened is needed, not a navel-gazing exercise conducted by the same people who made the initial mistake and then kept digging a deeper hole.

That's my view from the eighth pole.

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