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Linda Rice Joins The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

It's been a remarkable year for trainer Linda Rice, who either won outright or tied for the lead at five straight meets at the NYRA tracks, and it might get even better. She entered the week with 157 wins at the three NYRA courses this year and needs just eight more to break the single-season record held by David Jacobson. Her stable has already amassed $10 million in earnings, a record for her barn, and $4.3 million more than her stable made last year.

How has she done it? Those were among the question she was asked when she joined the TDN Writers' Room podcast sponsored by Keeneland. Rice was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

“I would say some of the things that really moved me forward in my business was the decision to stay in New York year-round,” she said. “I used to split my stable in the winter and send a division to Miami while keeping the main division here in New York. I found out over the years that it was expensive. I spent all winter trying to recover my expenses, and I didn't feel like it moved us forward in any way. So when the VLT money kicked in in New York and was added to the purses, which was about 2013, I abandoned ship on Miami. I said, 'look, we're going to try something different. We're going to stay in New York.' I'm going to consolidate my workforce. Frankly, we had a lot of work right here in New York in the winter. It's a tough job in the winter. And I needed all my best people right in front of me. So I think that is the one thing that I see on my career that was very helpful was to consolidate and consolidate in New York when the VLT money showed up.”

She also largely abandoned buying at the sales.

“I used to buy a lot of young horses, yearlings, 2-year-olds in training and I'd shop all of the auctions, which I loved to do,” Rice said. “But I became it became very frustrating to me. We would go to the auctions. We'd spend a lot of money and there were all the expenses between hotels and everything else involved. And we had to invest a lot of time. I felt frustrated when we came home and we weren't getting the horses bought that we wanted. We were buying horses that really weren't on the list of horses to take home. So you go home with nothing. So I changed it up and I said, 'Well, let's try something different.' And that's when I started claiming more horses.”

She is so New York-centric that she has won only two races outside of the NYRA tracks all year, which has put her in position to break Jacobson's record. Is that something that is important to her?

Linda Rice | Coglianese

“I really hadn't thought about it much, but a few of my friends have been prompting me lately that I need to become a little more aggressive with my entries for the next couple of weeks,” Rice said. “I think we only have about eight days of racing left. The wins have been coming kind of slow and hard the last couple of weeks. So I don't know. And I told them, 'look, no matter what, it's been a great year.' And they pooh poohed that idea. They said, 'Oh, no, oh, no, you need to dig down, dig deep, get this done.'”

Rice also scored a major victory in the courtroom during the year. The New York Gaming Commission was looking to suspend her for three years for allegedly receiving favorable treatment from the racing office that could have given her an advantage over her rivals. The courts intervened and called the three-year suspension “shockingly unfair,” which forced the Gaming Commission to drop the ban.

“It was a very trying long process to finally get there,” she said. “My family has told me, that the fact that I've been able to maintain the level that I have professionally under that type of pressure is quite amazing. But it has been a huge relief to have it finally behind me. It was very stressful, very hard on myself, my family, to watch me go through that. But we were very pleased with the appellate decision and glad to have it over.”

Also on the show the hosts discussed the Coolmore Stallion of the Week, Corniche (Quality Road), an undefeated champion two-year-old now standing at stud at Coolmore America.

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association,https://www.kentuckybred.org/https://www.nyrabets.com/ West Point Thoroughbreds, WinStar Farm and XBTV.com, the team of Randy Moss and Bill Finley debated NYRA's decision to move the GI Belmont S. to Saratoga for 2024 and, most likely 2025. Finley was all in favor of the move and while Moss conceded that Saratoga was probably the right place to hold the race the distance should not have been shifted from 1 1/2 to a 1 1/4. Moss and Finley also discussed Pat Valenzuela's plans to begin riding again after a seven-year absence brought about by knee problems. Both agreed that he has an uphill climb in front of him.

Click for the video of the latest podcast or the audio-only version.

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A Loving Owner Takes a Chance, Spares No Expense to Save a Claimer’s Life

Minutes after a $40,000 claimer named Jack a Rose (Midshipman) broke down in an Apr. 3 race at Parx Racing, part owner Lisa Novak got a call and was told she had two choices, have the gelding euthanized or go through with an expensive and complex surgery that may or may not save his life. She didn't see it that way. There was only one choice. She would do whatever it took to save Jack a Rose's life.

“I have so much love for him,” Novak said. “You can't just throw a life away.”

Not everyone would have seen it that way.

It was the tenth race at Parx that day, a $40,000 claimer for the type of horses who come and go without hardly anyone noticing. Trained by Michael Stidham, Jack a Rose had won two of eight career starts and earned $87,430. He would never be a stallion, be a star or make a lot of money, but Novak didn't care. She instructed the veterinary team at Parx to send Jack a Rose to Dr. Patty Hogan's clinic, where he would undergo a surgical procedure known as arthrodesis. An arthrodesis is where surgeons artificially fuse the joints through the use of ancillary devices like plates and screws.

“This horse is just so sweet, kind and intelligent,” Novak said. “I had to do this for him.”

The injury occurred in the left hind leg.

“You hear the common term breakdown injury all the time, on the newscasts and TV shows,” said Hogan, who would perform the surgery on Jack a Rose. “They are very serious injuries that happen to the ankle. It's when the horses lose the integrity of the function of the ankle whether by breaking a sesamoid or suspensory. These surgeries are difficult and they are expensive. It has a lot of complications associated with it. It's a huge investment.”

Jack a Rose on his day of admission | Hogan Equine

Performing an arthrodesis on a horse is not uncommon. Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) underwent the surgery after she broke down prior to the Breeders' Cup and so did Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}) before he was also injured while preparing for the Breeders' Cup. Echo Zulu survived; Geaux Rocket Ride did not. For those horses, the surgery made economic sense. Both had tremendous residual value and were worth far more than the cost of the surgery. No matter what happened with his surgery, Jack a Rose would never race again and could not even be ridden. He would be a pasture pet, one with no economic value.

“The people who owned this horse are working-class people who bred and loved this horse,” Hogan said. “He was a modest race horse but they didn't feel like bailing on him. They wanted to fix him even if that meant he was just going to live somewhere for the rest of his life. He has no economic value whatsoever. What they did, that kind of got to us. It was really touching that they took this to the extremes they did as responsible horse owners. Euthanasia was an absolutely reasonable choice for this kind of injury.”

And there were no guarantees that he would survive the surgery.

“There are a lot of problems with this surgery,” Hogan said. “They are prone to laminitis in the other leg. They get infections because of all the metal. There's a lot of stress and a lot of tissue trauma. It's a big undertaking. Even if you have a horse that is insured many insurance companies consider the surgery an extreme measure and they won't honor the insurance policy.”

Jack a Rose's fused ankle | Hogan Equine

Hogan normally gives a horse a break of a few days between the time they are injured and when she operates. Novak could have changed her mind, something a lot of people might have done when they started to add up the numbers. The cost of the operation plus the payments for the time the horse is laid up and recovering would come out to about $25,000.

Novak grew up in Chicago and followed racing since she was very young. The first horse she fell in love with was Timely Writer, who had to be euthanized after breaking down in the 1982 GI Jockey Club Gold Cup. She said she was always haunted by his death and that it was never far from her mind when she had to start making decisions about Jack a Rose. Then there was the finances.

“I am a supervisor at a carwash here in Chicagoland,” Novak explained. “I've made $61,000 so far this year and my take home pay has been about $48,000. No, I really didn't have the money to do this. I've been through hard times financially before. I had to do it.”

She said she used credit cards to make the payments.

Jack a Rose was operated on Apr. 18 and everything went according to plan.

“We removed all the cartilage of his joint and put it back in perfect alignment with screws and wiring and a plate and let bone heal to bone so it becomes one single unit of bone that's very functionable,” Hogan explained. “It no longer bends but horses who have had this surgery can get around fine.”

Jack a Rose in the paddock | Dr. Patricia Hogan

Hogan said that she and her entire team rallied around the horse.

“This was a completely heart-warming story,” Hogan said. “We do this surgery for horses, but it's always for ones that are worth a ton of money. To do one for a horse who is a 5-year-old gelding was just amazing. Our whole crew, we were heavily invested in this horse. He's a wonderful horse. Just an amazing animal. To know how much these people cared about him was special. It was very satisfying to have been able to do a good job for them. Horse racing get bashed so much. I like to get these stories out there to educate people and show them there are plenty of people out there who really love their horses.”

Unable to have a second career, Jack a Rose is among the newest arrivals at Old Friends. Novak is hoping to visit him in January.

“I love animals,” she said. “If I could save every horse I would.”

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Len Green Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

Who better to be the Green Group Guest of the Week Than Mr. Green Group himself, Len Green. Green joined the 'TDN Writers' Room' podcast presented by Keeneland to discuss the latest goings-on with his DJ Stable as well as to offer advice on how those in the Thoroughbred industry can best prepare for the upcoming tax season.

The best horse DJ Stable campaigned in recent years was Wonder Wheel (Into Mischief), who won the 2022 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on her way to being named champion 2-year-old filly. She did not live up to expectations this year, going 0-for-3. But Green said that, as much as racing is a hobby to many, it should also always be considered a business. The Greens bought Wonder Wheel as a yearling at Keeneland September for $275,000 and sold her at this year's Fasig-Tipton November Sale for $3.2 million. It was, Green said, the proper business decision to make.

“If you decide that you want to run this as a business, and I think it's very, very important that people see this as a business, you have to make business decisions,” he said. “And the business decisions are that when a horse is no longer a racing horse, it's time to cut bait. I might have said it's not worth taking a horse out of training after a tough campaign. Instead, wait several months and try to get her back into racing form. Maybe with other horses, it works. Now was the time to sow it as opposed to racing on. So that's the difference between people who are in this thing for a hobby and not as a business. Businesses, you make business decisions.”

Green believes he knows the tax business when it comes to racing inside and out because he has owned so many horses himself and has been active in the sport for decades.

“I know these things having owned 200 horses every year myself,” he said. “I know what the expense is. I know what the ratios are. I know what you're missing. Have you donated any horses? Where is this horse? Where did you buy it? Well, I bought it, but I didn't pay for it yet. It doesn't make any difference when you pay for it. It's when you take a title and when you put it in use, that's when it's deductible. Whether you use me or somebody else, you have to have someone who is knowledgeable. Someone who can look at your expenses and tell you, okay, here's the way to do it.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association,https://www.kentuckybred.org/https://www.nyrabets.com/ West Point Thoroughbreds, Lane's End, WinStar Farm and XBTV.com, the team of Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley reviewed last weekend's races at Aqueduct where the fare included the GII Cigar Mile H. and a thrilling rendition of the GII Remsen S., won by Dornoch (Good Magic), the full-brother to 2023 GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage. The focus turned to Del Mar, where Chad Brown added to his incredible record at the seaside oval, winning two Grade I's, including the GI Matriarch S., where his quartet of starters finished one, two, three and four. Cadman and Finley also gave their take on the latest developments in the scopolamine case from the 2018 GI Santa Anita Derby, that has, at least for now, resulted in the disqualification of Justify (Scat Daddy).

Click here for the podcast video, or here for the audio version.

The post Len Green Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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White Abarrio Owner Mark Cornett Joins TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

It's been a roller coaster year for White Abarrio (Race Day), but it ended on the highest of possible notes, with a victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. To talk about the Breeders' Cup, future plans for the horse, the decision to hire Rick Dutrow as the trainer and more, co-owner Mark Cornett was the Green Group Guest of the Week on this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast, which is presented by Keeneland.

With the status of Saffie Joseph, Jr. in limbo after he was temporarily banned by Churchill Downs when two of his horses died in the lead-up to the GI Kentucky Derby, Cornett, who owns White Abarrio in partnership with his brother Clint and Los Milagrosa Stable, needed to find a new trainer. He said he narrowed the choice down to two, Dutrow and Chad Brown. In the end, he thought Dutrow was the perfect fit.

“I had Rick in my mind all along,” Cornett said. “I've known him for a long time. Paul Pompa and I were really good friends. I put numerous horses in Rick's barn through some partnerships with Paul and had a lot of success. I know what a good horseman he is. He's one of the best, top five in the world, in my opinion. He was trying to rebuild his stable at the time. We were basically being forced by Churchill and NYRA to make a trainer switch. It's hard enough to manage these horses without having politics and racetracks and state vets and everybody else try to step in and make you do things you don't want to do. It was a bold move to hire Rick and I don't know too many people that would have done what we did. We have all the confidence in the world in Rick and his abilities and it all worked out.”

So far as next year's racing schedule goes, the $20-million Saudi Cup is definitely on the schedule. Cornett said there's a possibility White Abarrio could race beforehand in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational.

White Abarrio's Co-Owner Mark Cornett Joins Writers' Room from Thoroughbred Daily News on Vimeo.

“The main goal is going to definitely be the Saudi Cup,” Cornett said. “If we were designing the perfect race for this horse it would be one turn at a mile and an eighth. And then they put the $20 million behind it. The timing of the race is a question mark. It's about four months after the Breeders' Cup. The only thing we really have to figure out is how to get him there at a peak. Do we run him in between? Do we send him over there to acclimate? Those are things that Rick and I will talk about and discuss what's the best way to win that race.”

White Abarrio's first big win on the year came at Saratoga in the GI Whitney S., but Cornett saw signs as early as May that the horse was about to take things to another level.

“I went to Churchill Downs in May and I hadn't seen him in 45 days, 60 days before that,” he said. “I couldn't believe my eyes on the physical maturity of this horse. He had probably gained 200 pounds. There was a physical transformation, from a boy to a man, which is what you want to see. He matured at the right time.”

White Abarrio | Benoit

So far as the race for Horse of the Year goes, Cornett realizes that Cody's Wish (Curlin) will likely earn the honor over White Abarrio.

“Whatever the voters decide is fine,” he said. “We're going to be around next year so we can take another shot. Maybe for Cody's Wish, it's meant to be for obvious reasons.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, West Point Thoroughbreds, WinStar Farm, XBTV.com, 1/ST Racing and Lane's End, the team of Zoe Cadman, Bill Finley and Randy Moss touched on the heartbreaking loss of Cody Dorman, the inspiration behind Cody's Wish, who died the day after the Breeders' Cup at age 17. The team reviewed the entire Breeders' Cup program, the dominance of the New York and European stables and the poor showing by the California barns, and gave their opinions on Horse of the Year, all agreeing that it should be and will be Cody's Wish.

To watch the Writers' Room, click here. To view the show as a podcast, click here.

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