Ward Thinking Breeders’ Cup For Royal Approval Following Sharp Matron Victory

Three Chimneys Farm's Royal Approval overtook pacesetter Union Gables in the final furlong and closed strongly to register a three-quarter length victory for her first stakes score in Sunday's Grade 3, $100,000 Matron for juvenile fillies on the  inner turf course at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

Royal Approval broke sharply from post 7 under jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. and tracked Union Gables as she led the seven-horse field through an opening quarter-mile in 22.53 seconds and the half in 46.28 on the firm course. Out of the turn, the 1-2 favorite pressed on and bypassed Union Gables from the outside once inside the eighth pole. Magisterium, who was at the back at the pack a quarter mile in, made a strong bid from the rail, and Union Gables continued to dig in, but Royal Approval completed the six-furlong sprint in 1:09.10.

“I rode her like the best horse in the race,” Ortiz, Jr. said. “With this one I got the perfect trip. She broke well, she put me right there and when I asked her to go, she was there.

“She [Union Gables] was game,” he added regarding the stubborn pace setter. “She was fighting and she tried to come back. My filly responded really well. She has a nice turn of foot.”

Trainer Wesley Ward said before the race that Royal Approval much preferred firm turf, which the daughter of Tiznow thrived on in her previous start with a 6 1/4-length romp on September 9 at Kentucky Downs in a maiden special weight.

Following a second-place effort upon debut to stablemate Campanelle on May 31 going five furlongs on Gulfstream Park's firm grass, Ward shipped Royal Approval to England to run at Royal Ascot in the Group 2 Queen Mary in June, where a wet surface proved problematic in a 17th place finish. Campanell, victorious in the Queen Mary, exited that effort to win the Group 1 Prix Morny at Deauville.

Under dryer conditions, Royal Approval has now won two in a row and improved to 2-for-2 since Ward took the blinkers off.

“I try to take [the blinkers] off at the end of the year,” said Ward, who won the 2017 Matron with Happy Like a Fool. “At the beginning of the year, I just want to keep them focused and looking straight ahead and not looking at whatever is beside them. As we get to the fall, they get to different tracks and so many different countries, that it helps to stretch their speed when you take the blinkers off.

“When I took the blinkers off her last time, she ran very well and if you analyze the race at Kentucky Downs, it almost looked like you had to get worried and then the rider went to the stick and she opened up five or six lengths,” he continued. “Irad said that he was just riding, and she was just kind of right there, but when he hit her, she took off. I think this filly may stretch out.”

Royal Approval returned $3.10 for winning the 113th edition of the Matron. Ward said the effort gave him confidence to pursue a spot in the Breeders' Cup next month at Keeneland, with either the Grade 2, $1 million Juvenile Turf Sprint against males going 5 ½ furlongs or the Grade 1, $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf going one mile in play and a possible rematch with Campanell, who is targeting that race.

“We definitely will go to the Breeders' Cup with her. I'll sit down with [Three Chimneys Farm vice chairman] Doug Cauthen and [chairman] Mr. [Gonçalo Borges] Torrealba and see just which direction they want to go,” Ward said. “Just after talking to Irad, the mile [Juvenile Fillies Turf] might be the better option for her, but again, we'll sit down and see how she is. As we get a little closer, we'll have to really watch the weather, as this filly doesn't handle the soft turf. At Keeneland in the fall, sometimes you'll get that.”

Union Gables, conditioned by Todd Pletcher, held off Magisterium by three-quarters of a length for second.

“She was pretty comfortable, she broke pretty well,” said Union Gables' jockey Luis Saez. “She's going to be all right next time. She fought until the end, the winner was just too tough. She's going to be OK.”

Amalfi Princess, Fabricate and Rossa Veloce completed the order of finish. Niente was pulled up in the stretch run and vanned off.

Bravo Regina was scratched.

Originally contested on dirt, the Matron – along with its male counterpart the Grade 3, $100,000 Futurity – was moved to the grass in 2018 upon introduction of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint to give 2-year-old turf sprinting fillies an opportunity to garner black type. The historic race has seen some of racing's finest fillies notch a victory early on in their storied careers including Maskette (1908), Top Flight (1938), Busher (1944), Bed o' Roses (1949), Cicada (1961), Numbered Account (1971) and La Prevoyante (1972).

Live racing resumes with a special nine-race Monday holiday card at Belmont with a first post of 12:50 p.m. Eastern.

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Paul Pompa Jr. Dies At 62; Campaigned Big Brown, Connect

Paul Pompa Jr., a prominent Thoroughbred owner and breeder best known as the co-owner of Big Brown, winner of the 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness, died on Friday at the age of 62. Daily Racing Form's David Grening indicated the New Jersey resident's death may have been from an apparent heart attack.

Pompa entered Thoroughbred ownership in 2000 and enjoyed  considerable success, campaigning at least 15 graded stakes winners including Connect, winner of the G1 Cigar Mile Handicap in 2016 and now standing at Lane's End in Versailles, Ky.

Other major winners include multiple graded stakes winners Backseat Rhythm (G1 Garden City); Zakocity, D'Funnybone, Night Prowler and most recently Regal Glory, a homebred by Animal Kingdom who won the G3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf Stakes on Sept. 12.

But it was Big Brown that put Pompa on the map as a Thoroughbred owner. President of Truck-Rite Corp. in Brooklyn, N.Y., Pompa purchased the Boundary colt for $180,000 from Eddie Woods, agent, at the 2007 Keeneland April Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. He named him Big Brown, a nickname for UPS, a major client of his trucking company.

After a first-out win at Saratoga while trained by Patrick Reynolds, Pompa sold majority interest in the colt to IEAH Stables and Big Brown won six of his next seven starts, including the G1 Florida Derby, G1 Kentucky Derby, G1 Preakness Stakes and G1 Haskell Invitational Stakes for trainer Rick Dutrow. His only career defeat came when turning in a puzzling effort while being eased in the G1 Belmont Stakes while going for a sweep of the Triple Crown.

In recent years, Pompa had horses with Chad Brown, Todd Pletcher and Linda Rice. Some were homebreds, some purchased at auction and he also claimed a few that he called “action horses.”

Five years after Big Brown entered stud, Pompa paid $150,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Yearling Sale for a Curlin colt consigned by VanMeter Sales that would be named Connect. Winner of two races in his juvenile season for Brown, Connect would go on to win the G2 Pennsylvania Derby at 3 and then beat older horses in the Cigar Mile in 2016.

Connect came back to win the G3 Westchester Stakes  the following year in a prep for the G1 Metropolitan Mile Handicap, but a suspensory injury sustained in training prompted his retirement.

Known for having an even keel when it came to the ups and downs of ownership, Pompa told Daily Racing Form's Grening, “One day you have the favorite for the Met Mile. The next day, the horse will probably never run again. That's pretty much the way owners live.”

Upon learning the news of Pompa's death, Pletcher told Grening: “Devastating loss for everyone, great man, great owner. He always saw the bright side of everything.”

Pompa is survived by his wife Elisa and sons Paul III and Michael. Arrangements were pending.

 

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Galileo Fillies Set Records At Tattersalls October Book 1

A pair of Galileo yearlings set the sale ring alight on the third day of Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale as they became the two highest priced yearling fillies to be sold in the World in 2020. A strong final session saw a further four lots sell for 1 million guineas or more, taking the number of seven figure lots to nine for the sale.

Leading the way was the much-anticipated Galileo filly out of Shastye who lived up to expectations when selling for 3.4 million guineas (US$4,616,489) to the bid of MV Magnier, the highest priced yearling sold in Europe or North America this year.

Bidding on the beautifully bred filly mostly took place outside the sale ring with David Redvers, Oliver St Lawrence and MV Magnier all placing bids via the bid-spotters. In the end it was the Coolmore team, stood alongside Georg Von Opel, who were successful.

“It is a great result for everybody involved, she has been bought in partnership with Westerberg,” said MV Magnier. “She is a very nice filly, she is a very nice mover, like Japan and Mogul. The mare produces great-looking stock and great racehorses, let's hope she does it one more time.”

The Newsells Park Stud consigned filly is a sister to the Group 1 winners Japan and Mogul and is set to join her full-brothers at Ballydoyle. Her foals have enjoyed a remarkable time in the Tattersalls sale ring, with Sir Isaac Newton, Mogul and this filly all realizing 3 million guineas (US$4,073,482) or more and all occupying a spot in the top ten prices at Tattersalls yearling sales.

“Those are the easy ones to sell,” said an emotional Julian Dollar of breeder and consignor Newsells Park Stud. “The team lead by Mark Grace, the yearling manager, has done a wonderful job. He loves that filly so he will be very sad, but he has done a great job.”

The seven yearlings out of Shastye to be sold at Tattersalls have realised just shy of a remarkable 14 million guineas.

Magnier Strikes Again for Daughter of Prize Exhibit

The Galileo filly out of the Grade 1-placed Prize Exhibit had held the accolade as the most valuable yearling filly to be sold in the world this year for a couple of hours when selling for 2.8 million guineas (US$3,802,898) before that price was eclipsed by the daughter of Shastye.

Prize Exhibit, who was also a dual Grade 2 winner in the U.S., is a full-sister to this year's Group 1 Sussex Stakes winner Mohaater as well as a half-sister to Roodle, dam of the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes winner Accidental Agent. She was purchased at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in 2017 by David and Diane Nagle's Barronstown Stud and this is her first foal.

She was knocked down to MV Magnier after he saw off underbidder David Redvers as well as Tammy O'Brien, sat alongside Demi O'Byrne. She is the fourth-highest priced filly sold at October Book 1.

“She's a very nice filly, Aidan and all the lads liked her,” said Magnier.

“Breeder David Nagle has been saying for a very long time how good a filly she is. We are very lucky to have been able to buy her with Michael, Derek, Georg Von Opel and everyone; we are lucky to have her now. She has a great page, she comes from a very good nursery.”

Reflecting on her pedigree, Magnier added: “These kind of fillies are collectors' items, with Galileo and how he is doing as a broodmare sire. She is just exceptional. Sheikh Hamdan's horse [Mohaather] was a very good horse, and it is a very active pedigree.”

Sister To Dream Of Dreams Set For America

A final highlight of the third day was a prolonged bidding battle for another regally bred daughter of Galileo offered by owner-breeder Ibrahim and Pinar Araci's first Old Mill Stud draft.

The filly was knocked down to U.S. agent Mike Ryan for 1.4 million guineas (US$1,901,729) who saw off the attentions of an online bidder to buy the half-sister to this year's Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup winner Dream of Dreams, from the family of top-class fillies Airwave, Meow, and Jwala.

“I thought she was an exceptional filly, she is by an exceptional sire, from a terrific family – there is really nothing more to add, she was absolutely gorgeous and looks like a runner,” said Ryan. “I knew she was going to be expensive, you know what it takes to buy Galileos and she is a sister to a Group 1 winner. I am delighted we got her because I waited all day for her.

“How many more years are we going to be seeing Galileos? He is the greatest sire in my lifetime, probably in anybody's lifetime for that matter! She'll go back to the States. She'll get a bit of turnout, we'll break her in a month or so – hopefully you'll see her in Saratoga in the summer.

“And hopefully,” he added, pointing to the sale ring wall, “we'll see a picture like that one of Newspaperofrecord over there. The first time I saw her was in the rain on Saturday and she blew me away. I saw her two or three times since then – it was a no brainer, there is no real skill picking out a filly like that!”

Ryan has bought 14 horses at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, and of his trip to Europe and the state of the market Ryan commented:

“I have been runner-up to Shadwell, Godolphin, Roger Varian, Henri Devin, we have run hard on some horses to 450,000 guineas, 550,000 guineas… but we have bought some very nice horses and I am pleased with what we've got. I am very happy to be here, and as I have said before, no disrespect to Japan or Australia or anywhere else for that matter, the best grass horses in the world are here and this is the best sale in the world for top-class grass horses. We've bought some good ones here and I hope the luck continues.”

Bloodstock manager Rob Speers of Old Mill Stud was delighted with the sale.

“She genuinely is a beautiful filly, she was born and raised with us and she has done everything very easily,” he commented. “Prep was straightforward for her and she oozes class. We own the mare and have daughters of hers in the paddock, and the mare is just 16 so hopefully there will be more daughters to come.

“It was with a slightly heavy heart when I see a filly like her leave, but she is in great hands with Mike Ryan and his team in America, and I wish them every success and I am sure she will be a star.”

Chairman's Statement

At the conclusion of Book 1 of the 2020 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Tattersalls Chairman Edmond Mahony commented:

“First and foremost we would like to express our sincere thanks to everyone who has participated at Book 1 of this year's Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, in whatever capacity. Since the early part of this year every walk of life has been thrown into turmoil and the global bloodstock industry is no exception. The scale of the disruption which everyone has faced is best illustrated by the fact that this week's sale has been the first 2020 British, Irish or French yearling sale to have taken place at both its originally intended location and date. Nevertheless, since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic we have worked collaboratively alongside Goffs and Arqana to explore every possible means by which to stage sales and to ensure that trade continues to take place as normally as possible. Everyone must take enormous credit for the way they have reacted to the difficult circumstances and responded to all the rules and regulations under which we have had to operate in order to provide the safest possible working environment for all concerned.

“In terms of the market, none of us can pretend that all is plain sailing and a slightly lower clearance rate reflects prevailing commercial realities from which none of us are immune, but we can also reflect on a resilience and sustained demand for quality yearlings in spite of the wider challenges. Book 1 of the 2020 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale has yet again produced the highest price for a yearling sold in Europe and North America, as well as the highest priced yearling filly in the world and three of the ten highest prices ever at this fixture. Inevitably the market is down, in broad terms to around the levels of 2015 after a sustained period of growth, but the global appetite for our sport remains intact and buyers from throughout the world, albeit in reduced numbers, have made a huge contribution to Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale, as have the British and Irish buyers who continue to recognize this particular yearling sale as the key fixture in the European yearling sales calendar. Success – fueled demand from American and Australian buyers has been very evident from start to finish and the support and commitment from throughout the Gulf region, in particular Dubai, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, continues to be hugely influential and massively appreciated by the whole industry.

“The significance of the lucrative October Book 1 Bonus, arguably greater than ever, has also been a feature of the sale and having distributed almost £5.5 million (US$7,110,276) in bonus prize money to date, it has been rewarding to see so many owners, trainers and syndicates actively pursuing future bonus winners. Opportunities to win significant prize money have never been more crucial and the importance of incentives such as the £20,000 (US$25,855) Book 1 Bonus, as well as the Great British Bonus, should not be underestimated in the current climate.

“Equally significant has been the outstanding quality of the yearlings on offer this week. This was without doubt the cream of the European yearling crop; a true showcase for so many of the best yearlings to be found anywhere in the world and we must pay tribute to the breeders and consignors. The market may not fully reflect the quality of the horses at Park Paddocks this week, but everybody should be applauded for what they have achieved in the face of extraordinary challenges and we will now turn our attention to Books 2, 3 and 4 of the October Yearling Sale which are catalogues with all the ingredients to appeal to buyers at all levels of the market.”

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Thoroughbred Idea Foundation: Jackpot Wagers Are Bad For Racing

Churchill Downs is the center of racing this weekend as the 2020 Kentucky Derby is finally contested at the famed Louisville track in a year that has been unlike almost any other in modern memory.

Among the special bets available across the two days is the Oaks/Derby Pick Six, which carries a $2 minimum investment, a mandatory payout and a low 15% takeout.

This special bet harkens back to what has seemingly become a bygone era – where pick six bets carried $2 minimums and were absent any jackpot provisions. The twist, of course, is that six graded races across the two days comprise this bet, the Alysheba, La Troienne and Kentucky Oaks on Friday, followed by the Derby City Distaff, Old Forester Turf Classic and Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Horseplayers have grown both weary of, and disdainful at, the proliferation of jackpot bets – be them pick fives, pick sixes, or other iterations of wagers where a portion of every daily wager is retained for a jackpot paid on the occasion where there is only one individual winning ticket, while another portion is used as a “minor pool” which the multiple ticket winners for the day share.

For customers to really understand the pricing on these bets, it often takes more than just a cursory glance at a number – the takeout – to grasp the impact. Are players betting them? Sure. But, as outlined in our recent report, “Racing Not Only For (the) Elite,” an increasing number of these bets seem to be won by computer-driven high-volume bettors chasing jackpots with massive investments. Last Sunday at Del Mar, a $36,722 investment from a “single” player landed the jackpot of $686,660.

JACKPOT DECEPTION

Jackpot bets are tricky. They deceive.

For now, horse racing wagering in America is presented as almost exclusively a pari-mutuel. The sport earns a guaranteed cut on wagers, and should want as much wagering as possible. In jackpot bets, an amount of every wager is retained and paid to only one customer on the occurrence of that single customer having the only winning ticket in a particular bet.

There may be a belief that jackpot bets drive attention, because horseplayers are always able to shoot for some big carryover or, in the event the bet is not hit for a prolonged period and “forced-out,” wagering on a particular day will be outsized as horseplayers seek to claim the money they know they have a much better chance of winning.

By adding an artificial provision – the single ticket requirement to pay the jackpot – tracks have effectively limited overall wagering churn on other races and greatly increased the takeout on those “lucky” enough to have a winning ticket good enough for only the day's minor pool payout. A segment of informed horseplayers question the long-term, detrimental effects of offering bets where very few customers ever win. Their concerns are well-founded.

A paper from the March 2020 edition of Contemporary Economic Policy offers horse racing some potential lessons as to the long-term impact of actions similar to the proliferation of the jackpot bets in racing. Levi Perez, associate professor of economics in Spain's University of Oviedo and Ph.D candidate Alejandro Diaz are the authors of “Setting The Odds Of Winning The Jackpot: On The Economics of (Re) Designing Lottery Games.”

In the paper, Perez and Diaz contend that customer behavior in light of bigger jackpots, combined with reduced chances of winning a popular Spanish lottery game, changed outcomes for the negative.

“Bigger jackpots no longer translate into higher sales but rather the opposite: it is quite common for the same jackpot size to currently produce lower sales than before [the odds were substantially increased]” in the Spanish lottery game, La Primitiva.

“Players,” they say, “have now become less sensitive” to the jackpots.

This is no surprise to economists.

In racing, the awareness of the customer to their own sensitivity can be masked, as tracks market jackpot bets with one takeout rate, but realistically, charge daily winning customers a different, effective rate. Those who might have picked six winners in a day, but weren't the only ticket, experience a rate that is, in some cases, more than four times higher than the published rate.

WOULD COMMISSIONS APPROVE A BET WITH TAKEOUT AT 62.5%?

Unquestionably, Churchill's Single 6 is the best of the jackpot bets from a pricing standpoint, offering a daily effective takeout of just 23.5%, still significantly lower than even some traditional bets – like a trifecta at Penn National which carries an absurd 31% rake. Below is a sample of several jackpot bets that exist today. It should be clear not all jackpot bets are the same.

If $100,000 is bet into the Single 6 today, and it has a 15% takeout, the net pool is now at $85,000. If there are multiple winning combinations on the six-race sequence, the bet carries a provision that 90% of the net pool goes to any daily winners with all six winning horses and 10% goes each day to the jackpot. That means $76,500 is returned to winners and $8,500 goes to the jackpot.

For this given day, with $76,500 returned from an initial investment of $100,000, the effective takeout is 23.5%.

On the other end of the spectrum, a bet like Assiniboia's Jackpot Pick 5 is just ridiculous.

Picking five winners is, obviously, easier than picking six. That also means that having a single winning ticket for five winners becomes an almost impossible task. In fact, it hasn't happened once in 2020, through 45 days of racing. On two of those days, the jackpot was forced out, releasing the built-up carryover to any customer that picked five winners that night. But for the other 43 days, anyone with all five winners paid an effective takeout of 62.5%. Would a racing commission approve a bet with this high of a daily, effective takeout if they knew this to be the reality?

Promoting such bet-types beyond more traditional plays is pushing customers into bets with incredibly slim chances of winning, and when they do, but others do too, the return is significantly smaller than expected.

But “racing” benefits when customers churn winnings into subsequent bets – jackpot bets reduce overall churn. MANY people winning is good for racing, in the short and the long term. Customers respond on days when they know that a jackpot is being paid out – with days, weeks or even months of money which has been held is finally released. On these occasional days, effective takeout paid by winners is much lower than the published rate.

Here is the takeaway message: jackpot bets are bad for horse racing.

While jackpot bets might sporadically create intense participation from customers on days when the jackpot is “forced-out”, their widespread presence is, on the whole, detrimental to the greater sport.

There are many bettors who know this, and might find it laughable that some still don't.

Granted, not all jackpot bets are the same, but customers should stay attentive to the splits on each bet and the effective takeout (which is not published by the track) and compare it to the actual takeout rate (which is published). Tracks have made generally bad decisions for the greater business in last two decades – the proof is, unarguably, in the numbers.

Overall wagering on racing is not only down, but the composition of that handle is substantially different – play from a small number of heavily-rebated, computer-assisted bettors who can transmit their bets direct to the pools, bypassing traditional ADW setups, is up an estimated 114% in the last 16 years. Meanwhile, play from all other customers – the vast majority of them – is down an estimated 63% adjusted for inflation in the same period.

The two-day, Oaks/Derby Pick 6 with a $2 minimum and 15% takeout is a throwback to well…not all that long ago. It's a decent bet, engaging and “good” for racing. Churchill's own jackpot pick six is one of the “best” of a very troubling lot of jackpot bets, with a daily effective takeout of just 23.5%.

But if faced with an option, as you are on these Oaks/Derby days, it is worth supporting the lower takeout pick six.

For all the discussion around these last few months being a great time for racing to attract new players, we can't think of anything worse than new players being attracted and pushed towards churn-killing jackpot bets.

As racing enjoys a strange edition of one of its premier events, customers who still enjoy having a bet on racing should be provided with greater transparency on the prices they are really paying (takeout) when winning. Racing – including horsemen – cannot afford to continue treating a large segment of customers so poorly.

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