Bill Spawr | Horse Racing Free Tips

Champion Sprinter Amazombie Euthanized at Old Friends

Eclipse Award-winner and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint champion Amazombie (Northern Afleet) was euthanized on Monday, Sept. 18, at Old Friends in Georgetown, KY, due to a fractured ankle. The 16-year old gelding had lived at the retirement facility since 2014 thanks to his owners, trainer Bill Spawr and Thomas Sanford.

“Amazombie was a lot of fun,” Spawr said. “He was so much fun, you just can't imagine. And, you know, he died doing what he loved to do–run! You guys [at Old Friends] did a great job. We appreciated that.”

Racing over four seasons, Amazombie amassed a career line of 29-12-5-6, $1,920,378. In addition to annexing the 2011 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, the California-bred bay won the 2011 G1 Ancient Title S., 2012 GI Bing Crosby S. and the GII Potrero Grande S. twice. He also and won or placed in eight other stakes and was honored as champion sprinter in 2011.

“Amazombie died doing what he did best–running like the wind,” Michael Blowen, President and founder of Old Friends said. “I like all of our retirees, I love just a handful, and we lost one of those when Amazombie outran his limitations, and I'm certain that I'm not the only one who is heartbroken.”

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Veteran Trainer Bill Spawr Retires

Bill Spawr, 83, announced his retirement and disbanded his stable after a 46-year career as a public trainer. According to the Santa Anita media team, Spawr was a star running back at Downey High School who got hooked on racing while working as a part time clerk in a local liquor store that served up Daily Racing Form and gravitated to the racetrack full-time at age 23. He spent 14 years as a veterinarian assistant before opening a public stable in 1977.

With 1,709 career wins, Spawr captured two Winter/Spring training titles at Santa Anita, in 1991 and 1996, two titles at the track's Oak Tree Meeting, in 2000 and 2001, as well as a pair of summer titles at Del Mar, in 1990 and 1994.

Among his many successful claims was Sensational Star, who Spawr claimed for $32,000 on Aug. 7, 1988. Ridden primarily by Rafael Meza, Sensational Star would go on to win three stakes and bank more than $440,000. Exchange, a $50,000 claim in 1991, went on to win the GI Santa Ana and Santa Barbara H. in 1993, as well as the GI Matriarch S. in 1994 and earned more than $1.2 million.

The highlight of Spawr's career came with Amazombie, with whom Spawr and co-owner Tom Sanford won the 2011 Breeders' Cup Sprint.

“Right now, I'm going to take a deep breath,” Spawr said of immediate plans. “I'm gonna be very active. I own small pieces of a couple of horses…I'll be out there in the morning. I need something to do, I've had a couple of my owners ask me to keep an eye out for horses to claim, so I'll keep my leg markings going…I don't want any money for it, I just want something to do.”

Asked how he would like to be remembered, Spawr said, “As a good horseman. As a guy that really cared about the horses, first.”

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Next Shares, Bordonaro Retired To Old Friends

Old Friends, the Thoroughbred Retirement Facility in Georgetown, KY, has welcomed two new retirees.

Next Shares, winner of the 2018 Old Friends Stakes at Kentucky Downs, and multiple graded stakes winner Bordonaro.

A Richard Baltas trainee and owned in partnership, Next Shares (Archarcharch – Two Dot Slew, Evansville Slew) retires after seven seasons with a record of seven wins from 49 starts and earnings of $1,891,971.

A multiple graded stakes winner, Next Shares also captured the 2018 G1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland, the G2 San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita, and the G2 Seabiscuit at Del Mar in 2019.

Bordonaro (Memo – Miss Excitment, Rajab), comes to Old Friends through the United Pegasus Foundation in Tehachapi, CA. A William Spawr trainee, the now 20-year-old gelding won the 2006 G1 Ancient Breeders' Cup Stakes at Oak Tree and is a two-time winner of the G3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (2006 and 2007) at Oaklawn Park. He retired with 10 wins from 20 starts and earnings of $938,128.

“We're so thrilled to have both of these wonderful athletes,” said Old Friends founder and president Michael Blowen. “Richard Baltus, who entered Next Shares in the Old Friends Stakes because it guaranteed his retirement, and Bill Spawr, who trusted us with Amazombie, are two very special old friends.”

The post Next Shares, Bordonaro Retired To Old Friends appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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California Horse Racing Board Issues Bisphosphonate Complaint Against Jeff Metz

The California Horse Racing Board issued a complaint against trainer Jeff Metz last week over a finding of bisphosphonates in the Sept. 27, 2020 post-race sample of the gelding Camino De Estrella, reports the Daily Racing Form. The drugs are not yet specifically classified in California, so the positive is being adjudicated under the “prohibited substances” rule with a Class 1, Category A penalty.

However, Metz's attorney Darrell Vienna believes the trainer will be exonerated. Popular at the claim box, Camino de Estrella has been in the care of five different trainers since 2019, including Tim Yakteen, Mark Glatt, Steve Knapp, Metz, and most recently Bill Spawr.

“There is a record of a veterinarian administering the drug when he was not in Mr. Metz's care, in 2019,” Vienna told DRF. “I can say with certainty that Jeff never administered bisphosphonates to that horse. We're confident that the truth will come out, because we think the CHRB already knows the truth.”

Bisphosphonates were approved for equine use in the United States approximately six years ago, to treat horses with symptoms of navicular syndrome, a common, nagging foot pain in older horses. Before the drugs were approved for horses in the U.S., they were used in Europe and veterinarians could legally import them to treat American horses. Having them available to American practitioners who perhaps couldn't previously afford the import process has made a world of difference to mature horses dealing with navicular syndrome – and there are a lot of them. Roughly a third of chronic front leg lamenesses are believed to be related to navicular pain. Generally, bisphosphonates have been safe and effective in the population they're intended for.

Bisphosphonates (sold commercially as Osphos and Tildren) are FDA-approved in horses four years old and up, and are not approved for use in mares who are pregnant or lactating. The reason for those restrictions is unanswered questions about potential side effects. Bisphosphonates do their work by reducing the action of cells called osteoclasts, which clear away damaged bone and make way for osteoblasts to lay down new bone. In a young equine skeleton, this could disrupt the growth cycle.

The CHRB did prohibit the administration of bisphosphonates beginning July 1, 2020, via rule 1867.1, which also prohibits any horse from entering CHRB grounds that has been administered the drug within six months.

Since Camino de Estrella would have been five years old in 2019, administration of a bisphosphonate was legal at that time only if the gelding had a diagnosis of navicular disease.

Vienna argued that “the available science on bisphosphonates clearly demonstrates that the drug can be found more than 2 1/2 years after the drugs have been administered, due to their unique ability to lie dormant in bone but become 'active' in the horse's circulatory system when bone is in need of repair.”