Tag: Bob Baffert

New York Thunder Takes Perfect Record To GI Jerkens

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Unbeaten and hardly challenged so far through four starts, New York Thunder (Nyquist) will not be an unknown Saturday in his second visit this summer to Saratoga Race Course.

New York Thunder made a grand entry on the big stage at the Spa on July 28 with a resounding victory in the GII Amsterdam S. Sent off at 11-2 in his first race on dirt, he rolled to a 7 1/2-length score under jockey Tyler Gaffalione. Though he was eased up in the stretch when the outcome was no longer in doubt, New York Thunder completed the 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:14.65. His six-furlong split of 1:07.77 was faster than the 1:07.92 track record set in 2019 by Imperial Hint (Imperialism) in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. He got a Beyer Speed Figure of 110.

In the $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial, New York Thunder will step into Grade I competition for the first time. He drew Post 5 in the field of six and will be flanked by Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert's runners, Fort Bragg (Tapit) and Arabian Lion (Justify). Both of the Baffert horses are coming off wins at Belmont Park. Arabian Lion prevailed in GI Woody Stephens S. on June 10 Belmont Stakes program. Fort Bragg stumbled at the start of the GIII Dwyer on July 1, recovered and won by a nose over Saudi Crown (Always Dreaming).

If trainer Jorge Delgado had his way, New York Thunder would be a low-profile outsider in the Jerkens. He understands that it is not a likely scenario with a horse that has won his races by a combined 23 1/4 lengths and is now proven on dirt.

“Hopefully, we can stay under the radar and let the horse do the talking for me,” Delgado said. “I would not like too many expectations and just approach the race like we did last time. We didn't have any pressure from the outside.”

“When we were approaching the Amsterdam, no one was actually paying attention to him. When I was in the walking ring, I saw that they were interviewing a couple of other trainers on camera with other horses. With the way he won, I know he's going to be in the spotlight. People are going to be watching him and a couple of other horses. I'm sure people are going to be looking forward to see what he can do.”

Delgado, 33, is the nephew of trainer Gustavo Delgado, whose GI Kentucky Derby winning colt, Mage (Good Magic), will run in the GI Travers S. three races after the Jerkens. Jorge Delgado worked for his uncle in Venezuela and the U.S. before opening his own stable in 2017.

For Jorge Delgado, New York Thunder has been an exciting adventure. Though the colt with a dirt pedigree was bred in Kentucky and was purchased for $130,000 at the 2021 Keeneland September Sale, he was prepared for the races in Europe. New York Thunder arrived in Delgado's care last year from the training center with a reputation of being very fast.

“In the very beginning with him we really didn't know what direction to go as far as the surface,” Delgado said, “since he was training in (Europe) and they don't have a main track there to train on. They have grass, and run on synthetic and grass.”

New York Thunder connections | Sarah Andrew

Brazilian-born former jockey Robson Aquiar, was on the team that selected New York Thunder at Keeneland for Kai Joorabchian's AMO Racing USA and did the pre-training.

“Robson told me that he was excellent on both but he liked the synthetic more,” Delgado said. “That was the reason, since I was in Gulfstream in the winter, it makes sense to put him on the Tapeta.”

Delgado was right. New York Thunder debuted on Nov. 27 and scored in a five-furlong race by 6 1/2 lengths.

“He was like 70 to 80% ready for racing and when he wins the way he did it, you think he's a Tapeta horse or a grass horse,” Delgado said. “That's the first thought that comes to your mind.”

One month later, New York Thunder picked up his first level-allowance victory, taking a five furlong turf race by 1 3/4 lengths.

“He won but he wasn't as excellent like he was on the other surface,” Delgado said. “So I spoke to the owner and said, 'let's keep going the Tapeta direction.'”

Joorabchian, 52, is an Iranian-born entrepreneur, who has a long involvement in soccer in Europe and South America. He has been a horse owner in Europe for two decades and has had a North American AMO division since 2021. AMO's first U.S. graded stakes winner was Affirmative Lady (Arrogate), who earned that victory for trainer Graham Motion in the GII Gulfstream Park Oaks on April 1. She finished 11th in the GI Kentucky Oaks. Affirmative Lady and New York Thunder came to AMO out of the 2021 Keeneland sale, as did King of Steel (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who has emerged as a top 3-year-old in England with a narrow second in the GI Epsom Derby and a win in the GII King Edward II S. at Royal Ascot.

New York Thunder scratched out of the $250,000 Animal Kingdom S. on March 25 at Turfway Park and made his stakes debut on April 30 at Woodbine in the six-furlong Woodstock. He romped by 7 1/2 lengths.

“We won the race at Woodbine and right away, we were targeting a race on dirt,” Delgado said. “The owner was insisting he wants to run back in a graded stakes race.”

Jorge Delgado | Sarah Andrew

Drawing the rail in the Woody Stephens, he was scratched with a foot bruise before Delgado shipped him up from his summertime base at Monmouth Park for the Amsterdam.

“That for some people didn't make any sense,” Delgado said. “To switch the horse's surface in a graded stakes race is not like the best idea always. But it turned out to be something really good. Now the horse has a name. Most people in the country know him. We have received a few offers for the horse and the owner is actually not a big seller, but at least we were sitting in that spot.”

Speedy Ryvit (Competitive Edge) stumbled leaving the gate and New York Thunder was alone on the lead. He ran the first quarter mile in :21.48 seconds and followed that with a 22.08 to reach the half-mile in 43.46. Even-money favorite Drew's Gold (Violence) moved up alongside on the turn, but New York Thunder and jockey Tyler Gaffalione responded quickly to the threat and were gone.

Delgado said that since the Amsterdam and the Jerkens are only 29 days apart, he has been very careful with New York Thunder in the interim. The two breezes have been slow by the colt's standards: four furlongs in :52. Delgado said New York Thunder is showing him that he is ready for another big outing.

“This horse hasn't said no once,” Delgado said. “He hasn't said, 'I'm not eating' or 'I'm not feeling well,' or 'I don't have energy.' He hasn't given any of those signals. He hasn't communicated any of that.

“Actually, he's been the opposite. Since the day he came back, the day after the Amsterdam, he was proud, he was moving around in his stall, he was looking around.

I know it's very tough to repeat the same performance, to repeat the same number, but he's really going to need that and more to win the race. But I believe in the horse, I believe in his heart and I believe in what we do.”

 

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Friday’s Racing Insights: Not This Time Colt Tackles Two Turns In Spa Grass Debut

1st-SAR, $136K, Msw, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, 1:10 p.m.
Purchased by St. Elias Stable and Repole Stable for $875,000 at the '22 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, TIRELESS (Not This Time) will be taking on two turns in his first career bow over the grass at Saratoga on Friday. Trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by Irad Ortiz, the dark bay colt's dam Kitty Union (Union Rags) was purchased by Rosilyn Polan at the '21 Keeneland November Sale for $160,000 with a colt in-utero by Improbable. Tireless is out of an extended female family which counts third dam Tizso (Cee's Tizzy), who produced GI Haskell Invitational S. hero Paynter (Awesome Again) and is a full-sister to Horse of the Year Tiznow. TJCIS PPS

6th-SAR, $136K, Msw, 2yo, 6f, 4:00 p.m.
Switching to the Spa main, a pair of colts are set for their maiden trips. As a weanling, Change of Command (Into Mischief) went for $570,000 at the Fasig-Tipton November Mixed Sale before fetching $1.05-million less than a year later at the Keeneland September Sale. The Shug McGaughey trainee, who will have Jose Ortiz aboard, is out of a dam who is a full-sister to MGSW Mrs McDougal (Medaglia d'Oro).

Also entered is Kaleem Shah's Billal (Street Sense), a $725,000 '22 Keeneland September grad from Bill Mott's shedrow, who will be ridden by Florent Geroux. Dam Bambalina (Bernardini) was purchased by Repole Stables at the '20 Keeneland November Mixed Sale for $270,000 with Billal in-utero. She's out of Champion grass mare Perfect Sting (Red Ransom), who is also responsible for GSW Smart Sting (Smart Strike). TJCIS PPS

4th-DMR, $82K, Msw, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 7:29 p.m.
Heading out to Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, a competitive group of 2-year-olds will be looking to strut their stuff. Indispensable (Constitution) for trainer John Sadler was a $825,000 buy at the Keeneland September Sale and his extended female family includes MGSWs Gulch Approval (Gulch) and Rusty Slipper (Lemon Drop Kid). His dam High Performer (Candy Ride {Arg}), a full-sister to SW Chocopologie, was purchased by Hunter Valley Farm while in-foal–yielding a colt–to Omaha Beach for $130,000 at the '21 Keeneland November Mixed Sale and she was bred back to that sire, which produced a filly Mar. 15.

Bob Baffert has a pair of firsters ready to fire in Wynstock (Solomini), who initially sold as a yearling for $50,000 at the Keeneland September Sale before going this past spring for $700,000 during OBS April. The New York-bred is his dam's first offspring. Last but certainly not least, is Don Alberto homebred Ultra Power (Curlin), who is out of dual Champion female Unique Bella (Tapit). She is the daughter of GI Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic heroine Unrivaled Belle (Unbridled's Song), who is also responsible for her full-sister Vanishing Point, a $1.5-million purchase at the '19 Keeneland September Sale by Yuji Hasegawa. TJCIS PPS

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Medina Spirit’s Derby DQ Upheld at KHRC Level, Ripening Case for Court Challenge

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) on Tuesday closed the 27-month regulatory saga involving Medina Spirit's GI Kentucky Derby drug disqualification by unanimously voting to deny appeals by trainer Bob Baffert and owner Zedan Racing Stables while accepting a hearing officer's recommended order that the penalties originally imposed by the Churchill Downs stewards be affirmed in their entirety.

But the legal battle to restore Medina Spirit's win in America's most historic and important horse race appears to be just now ramping up.

That's because now that the KHRC's decision is final at the state administrative level, it is ripe for being elevated to the court system and challenged by the losing parties.

Medina Spirit crossed the wire first in the 2021 Derby but subsequently tested positive for betamethasone in a KHRC post-race drug screening.

The Aug. 22, 2023, final order denying the appeals on behalf of Baffert and Medina Spirit's owner, Amr Zedan, officially elevates Mandaloun as the official winner of the 147th Derby.

Not only does the denial of the appeals uphold Medina Spirit's DQ, it lets stand the 90-day KHRC suspension that Baffert already served in 2022 but wanted expunged from his record. Also upheld was the $7,500 fine the KHRC imposed upon Baffert.

Baffert did not respond to TDN's request for comment prior to deadline for this story.

But the Hall-of-Fame trainer's attorney, W. Craig Robertson III, said he will soon be outlining next-step legal strategies with Baffert.

“It's disappointing that the KHRC engaged in no analysis whatsoever of the Hearing Officer's Findings of Fact or Conclusions of Law,” Robertson wrote in an email. “Neither did the KHRC's Order address any of the many objections we raised to the Hearing Officer's ruling.

“Instead, the KHRC did what it does best–rubber stamped its own foregone conclusion. I will discuss with Mr. Baffert, but believe it is highly likely the matter is appealed so that it can finally be presented to an impartial Court,” Robertson wrote.

Eight days after the 2021 Derby, Baffert first disclosed the betamethasone positive at a press conference outside the barn where Medina Spirit was stabled at Churchill Downs. In doing so, he was getting out in front of the official announcement that would come later by the KHRC.

In Kentucky, betamethasone is classified as a Class C drug (on an A-through-D scale with A being the most severe). It is prohibited in any amount in a post-race test.

At first, on May 9, 2021, Baffert chose to implicate various non-specific circumstances as the underlying culprit in the positive test. Two days later, on May 11, Baffert's legal team issued a press release stating that Medina Spirit was treated with the betamethasone-containing ointment Otomax as late as the day before his Derby win to help deal with a skin lesion.

Baffert and Zedan's lawyers would eventually build more than two years of court cases and administrative appeals around the contention that the betamethasone that showed up in Medina Spirit's post-race positive test was the type that came from a permissible topical ointment and not via some other restricted means, like an intra-articular injection.

The Twitter account for Zedan Racing posted a statement on Tuesday that underscored that this method-of-delivery argument would continue to be a central plank in any future court case.

“Today's decision by the KHRC finding the use of a commonly used topical ointment to be a medication rule violation relating to Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit was expected. We now look forward to a court's review and legal analysis of the express rules and basic constitutional principles involved. We genuinely believe that the wisdom and guidance that a court can provide will bring clarity benefitting all industry partners and particularly trainers and veterinarians.”

Although no KHRC ruling was issued in the first nine months after Medina Spirit's positive finding, the gaming corporation Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), in June 2021 barred Baffert from competing at its portfolio of tracks for two years.

Medina Spirit died on Dec. 6, 2021, collapsing to the track after working five furlongs at Santa Anita Park. A necropsy conducted by the California Horse Racing Board stated that a “definitive cause of death was not established despite extensive testing.”

In 2022, Baffert initiated a federal lawsuit that challenged CDI's ban. The case dragged into 2023, when it was dismissed.

The KHRC finally held its hearing on Medina Spirit's positive test on Feb. 14, 2022, and issued the rulings against Baffert and Zedan a week later.

When stay requests pending appeals filed with the KHRC were denied, Baffert and Zedan took the matter to court, with the KHRC case unfolding around the same time as Baffert's unsuccessful lawsuit against CDI.

In the spring of 2022 Baffert failed to get an injunction against the KHRC that would have kept him from serving his suspension, so he stepped away from training between early April and early July of that year to sit out his penalty.

The KHRC appeals then led to six days of evidentiary hearings in August 2022. The process got delayed a month later when the hearing officer had to recuse himself after one of Baffert's attorneys bought a horse at auction that the hearing officer co-owned.

A new hearing officer, Eden Stephens, took over, and in May 2023 issued a report that concluded that “the stewards' decision was made on reliable, substantive evidence that the horse, Medina Spirit, was administered and carried the prohibited substance, betamethasone” and that “the KHRC's regulations do not state that any route of administration excuses a post-race betamethasone positive.”

It took nearly three more months before the KHRC's vote on the hearing officer's recommendations made it onto the Aug. 22, 2023, monthly meeting agenda. In the interim, CDI extended its private-property banishment of Baffert through 2024.

On Tuesday, the KHRC did not discuss any specifics of the appeals prior to the unanimous voice vote to reject them. The item was listed last on the meeting agenda, and it occurred after a break for the commission to have discussions in an executive session.

When the KHRC reconvened in open session, chairman Jonathan Rabinowitz asked if any commissioners wanted to “abstain due to conflicts of interest, or perceived conflicts of interest.” Four did: Michael Dudgeon, Lesley Howard, Charles O'Connor and Catherine Parke.

Rabinowitz then called for a vote “approving a final order as stated.” But exactly what the KHRC commissioners were voting on was not read into the public record.

TDN had to subsequently ask for and receive a copy of the order from KHRC staff after the meeting to learn what it stated.

“The Hearing Officer's Recommended Order is approved, adopted, and incorporated herein by reference as a part of this Order,” the five-page document read, in part. “Petitioners' appeal is therefore DISMISSED. This is a FINAL AND APPEALABLE ORDER…”

The document listed the procedures for just such an appeal, which, according to state statue, must happen in a Kentucky circuit court within 30 days after issuance of the final order.

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Travers Candidates Breeze On Both Coasts

No fewer than four of the seven 3-year-olds expected for Saturday's GI Travers S. got their final tune-ups Saturday morning, three over the Saratoga main track and one at Del Mar.

Mage (Good Magic), the GI Kentucky Derby hero who figures no worse than the second betting choice behind Forte (Violence) in the 10-furlong feature, breezed three-quarters of a mile in 1:15.56 for trainer Gustavo Delgago. In what was described as a maintenance move beneath exercise rider J.J. Delgado, the son of former 'TDN Rising Star' Puca (Big Brown) went in splits of :13.60, :26.40 and :50.40 before galloping out seven panels in 1:29.33.

“He did well. It was just a maintenance breeze,” said Gustavo Delgado, Jr., assistant to his father. “He did exactly what my Dad told J.J. to do. He wanted 1:15 or 1:16 for six furlongs and that's exactly what he did.”

It was the third work locally for Mage, who will look to step forward off a runner-up effort in the GI TVG.com Haskell S. July 22.

“He likes it here. It's been three weeks already that we're here and he shows us all the good signs,” Delgado, Jr. said. “It helps him to be at the track with time. In the Preakness, we arrived Wednesday and ran Saturday and for the Haskell it was the same thing, we got there earlier in the week and ran that Saturday. But here, he's been able to adapt.”

 

 

 

Forte, who did not wear blinkers in his four-furlong workout that was timed in :48.33 last Saturday, was refitted with the equipment Saturday morning and covered a similar distance in :50.50 in the company of his year-older stablemate Bright Future (Curlin).

“He looked super, was moving really well and got into a nice rhythm,” said Pletcher of the recent GII Jim Dandy S. winner. “Sometimes if you put them [blinkers] on all the time, you lose a little effect. We were just looking to keep him as good as he is going into this. We got a good, steady work and a good strong gallop out. He was well within himself throughout and I think he's moving terrific. He seems really happy, so we're trying to just keep him happy.”

Stable companion 'TDN Rising Star' Tapit Trice (Tapit) was wearing blinkers for the first time Saturday morning when going a half-mile on his own in :49.22. Jose Ortiz, who replaces Luis Saez aboard the gray colt, was in the irons. Saez picks up the ride on Mage, while Javier Castellano sticks with GI Belmont S. hero Arcangelo (Arrogate).

“His weakness so far has been getting out of the gate and getting into a good position,” said Pletcher. “We're hoping that will help a little with that, maybe keep him a little more focused throughout the race. We galloped him earlier in the week with blinkers and he seemed to be dialed in a little more, and it seemed like that was the case breezing this morning.”

 

 

 

National Treasure (Quality Road), who defeated Mage into third in the GI Preakness S. May 20, went five furlongs over the Del Mar main track in 1:00.40 Saturday morning.

“It went well,” said trainer Bob Baffert, who took the blinkers off the colt and will leave them off for the Travers. “I was happy with him and everything went as planned. He's doing well and we're looking forward to it.”

National Treasure, a latest sixth in the Belmont, is scheduled to depart Southern California Tuesday, weather permitting, and will be accompanied by 'TDN Rising Star' Arabian Lion (Justify), winner of the GI Woody Stephens S., and GIII Dwyer S. hero Fort Bragg (Tapit), each an intended runner in the GI H. Allen Jerkens S. One horse that will not make the trip is Reincarnate (Good Magic), who will pass the Travers in favor of the GI Pennsylvania Derby Sept. 23.

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