Letters to the Editor: Bob Fierro On Sam Huff

You should understand that from the time I could figure out pro football as a kid in the 1950s, I was probably the only one in New York City who detested the football Giants and loved the Baltimore Colts. Don't ask why, it just happened (and continues to this day–go Jets!). Thus, you would not be surprised to learn that through some machinations by the policeman father of a friend I wound up in the bleachers at Yankee Stadium with a dozen other young teens in December, 1958 for what turned out to be “The Greatest Football Game Ever Played,” as determined by a blue ribbon panel in 2019.

That I was probably the only one in stadium who stood and cheered and whooped when Colts fullback Alan Ameche swept past the Giants linebackers to score the winning touchdown was, in retrospect, a huge mistake, because I was immediately pounded into a pulp by my friends.

So, imagine many years later when as newly-elected president of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders I was at a reception for the state program presidents when the dining room doors opened up and in walked one of those Giants linebackers, a tall, fit, and totally mesmerizing man named Sam Huff.

I was beside myself with incoherent thoughts fleeting through my head and did not even have a chance to catch a breath after he was introduced to me and a couple of other presidents. He must have noticed my dropped jaw and for some inane reason I babbled, “I was at the Giants-Colts game when Alan Ameche scored the winning touchdown, and I was 13 years old and a Colts fan and when I went crazy after he scored my friends beat the crap out of me.”

Sam looked me in the eye while everyone around us took a deep breath and then smiled and said, “Would you like that to happen again?”

That was the Sam Huff I came to know–a sweet, determined, purposeful man who along with his partner Carol Holden brought quality, dignity and excitement to the breeding and racing industry in his beloved home state of West Virginia. The three of us got to know each other quickly and they actually invited me several times to be a guest on their radio program–once by cellphone as I was winding my way through the hills of his state on my way back home to New York from a sale in Kentucky.

Though he was stricken almost a decade ago by dementia, he still showed up at the sales at times and when he didn't, I missed a man who had become a star in two great sports–as well as a pal.

My condolences to Carol, his family, and West Virginia–to paraphrase John Denver, his state's country roads have taken him home.

MIKE SEKULIC
Churchill Downs' management is taking a hardline position by suspending Bob Baffert for two years. Baffert is an awfully successful trainer, so I am starting to wonder what might happen if his horses win all the big Derby prep races? Let's say Baffert wins the Santa Anita Derby, Florida Derby, Wood Memorial, Arkansas Derby, Blue Grass S., etc., will Churchill Downs double down on their position and run a Kentucky Derby filled with Derby prep also-rans and allowance horses? Or will they let Baffert's horses participate? Stay tuned. It seems like digging in your heels, even when you might be wrong, is the order of the day.

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Body & Soul: Empire State Perspectives

Been paying attention to what's going on in the Empire State lately (er, you might know it as New York)? We speak not of the mess in the Governor's Mansion or resulting headlines and cable news rumblings. Rather, we refer to the status of registered New York-breds, exploits of which are tickling the fancy of the state's breeders–many of whom went home dancing with dollars following the conclusion of the Fasig-Tipton sale for a brace of indigenous yearlings.

The sale continued a recent demand from owners, trainers, and pinhookers because New York-breds are winning important open company stakes, and a lot more of them are earning tons of money in bonuses and other rewards offered through the Empire State's incentive program.

However, we are not here to shill for these horses–they do well enough on their own. Rather, we are here to offer perspective on how this has come about, a perspective that will focus on the development of the state's stallion rosters since the program was initiated in the late 1970s. That's because without perspective there is no other way to explain the current success of the program.

First, let's get this concept of “perspective” defined relative to this exercise. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, putting something in perspective has two basic definitions (italics added): 1) “the art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point,” 'a perspective drawing'; and 2) “a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something, a point of view.”

Your correspondent is in a unique position to present this perspective because: 1) the algorithms for the biomechanical analysis we have utilized since the early 1980s generates a series of graphs for each horse measured, hence a “picture” of how the horse is constructed in terms of potential racing and breeding efficiency; and 2) your correspondent has been intimately involved in the New York Thoroughbred industry since the early 1980s in many ways including as an adviser to breeders and owners, newspaper publisher, compiler of state sire lists, and one who also helped shaped policy for the program.

As for the latter issue, without getting too deep into the weeds, suffice it to say that as president of New York Thoroughbred Breeders (NYTB), your correspondent wrote the rules and regulations passed into law in 1994 governing mare residency and stallion breed-back requirements, which in 2020 were altered modestly to expand the residency issue to attract more quality mares.

Over the years we have watched the comings and goings of stallions in New York and have come to several conclusions based on what the market wants, what the stallions brought to the breeding sheds in pedigree and biomechanics, and how the development of a stallion program in New York is not very different from those in other states, including Kentucky.

Go for Gin, shown in retirement, was by New York-based Cormorant | Sarah Andrew

Our conclusion: While dozens of stallions were either retired to stand in the state or moved from elsewhere, all faced a basic disadvantage regardless of the rules and incentives promulgated by the state. The majority of available mares lacked either the pedigree and/or biomechanical qualities to match many of the stallions available.

That said and “all Gaul” notwithstanding, the Empire State's breeding program can be divided into three parts (or, in this case, three time periods, or “cycles”). Each is defined by economic and regulatory factors that strongly affected the development of a competitive stallion roster within the state.

Five stallions emerged through those cycles that shaped the story of the entire program: two of which moved into the state and three of which retired to stud there. Parenthetically, each of those five had a favorable biomechanical profile to be successful irrespective of pedigree and, given the quality and quantity of the mares they attracted, all of them succeeded as expected on those scores.

In the late 1970s two stallions moved to New York early in their careers and, despite being completely different in pedigree and race records, dominated the state's sire lists for many years. One was Cormorant, a son of His Majesty who sired Kentucky Derby winner Go for Gin, Eclipse Award winner Saratoga Dew, and Grade I winner Grecian Flight among his 46 stakes winners. The other was Talc, a son of Rock Talk who did not sire as many stakes winners as Cormorant but who consistently battled that one on the sire list. In the 1970s and 80s it was not uncommon for several races a day at NYRA tracks and Finger Lakes to feature one or more offspring of these two.

New York's multiple leading sire, Freud | Sarah Andrew

Both were average sized, very well-balanced individuals who stamped their foals in their own image. Indeed, you rarely saw a Cormorant or Talc that was anything other than bay or brown except when toward the end of his career Cormorant got the gallant gray gelding Gander, a fan favorite. The irony here is that even though Go for Gin sired Grade I winner and sire Albert the Great, the His Majesty line–and therefore the Ribot line–in North America saw the beginning of its end in Cormorant. And the Rasper II line, of which Talc was a major part, also basically ended with his demise.

Yet these two were so consistent in getting winners from any pedigree or physical type that the only caveat during that time was the well-worn advice that you should make sure the mare you bred to Cormorant mitigated his personality (which was, how you say, difficult), but you could breed a dog to Talc and get a runner.

These two paved the way to the next cycle wherein two stallions who retired directly to stud in the state met the challenge in completely different ways. First came D'Accord, a Grade II-winning son of Secretariat out of champion Fanfreluche, by Northern Dancer, who was purchased by John Hettinger of Akindale Farm in 1984. He was unquestionably the most prominent “marquee” stallion prospect to stand in the state if only because of his pedigree.

He came along before his sire became better known as the broodmare sire of epoch-making stallions Storm Cat, Gone West, and A.P. Indy rather than as a sire of sires, and in many ways D'Accord turned out to be right up there among Secretariat's best sons at stud. Richly supported by Hettinger, his book was also very carefully monitored for quality, so he never had huge crops commercial sires required as a pivot for success. Though he got one good son who went on to become a sire in Montreal Red, it was his fillies among his 19 stakes winners who stood out. Thus, like Cormorant and Talc before him, D'Accord, in effect, was one of those who helped precipitate the end of a sire line.

On the other hand, a large multiple Grade III-winning speedball son of Danzig came into the stallion barn at Sugar Maple Farm, a few miles up the road from Akindale, and immediately became the star of the show. That would be Belong to Me, who was not only a phenotypical carbon copy of his sire (though larger) but given his opportunity in New York, a most propitious pedigree and physical match for the state's broodmares.

His first runners set the tracks on fire and after siring four crops at Sugar Maple, he was dispatched to Kentucky where he subsequently became a successful shuttle sire in Australia. By the time of his demise at age 31 last year, and without a son to establish a Danzig branch, it was most probably forgotten by many that he rang the bells initially in New York.

The young Central Banker is getting early, fast runners | Barbara Livingston

Which brings us to the third cycle which has been dominated by a horse with a name that should require him to explain everything to us: Freud. Retired to the state after a modest group-placed career in Europe, he was given a chance primarily because he was a full-brother to international champion Giant's Causeway, being by Storm Cat out of Mariah's Storm, by Rahy. First impressions might lead one to believe, as a friend once remarked, “well, that shoots the full-brother theory,” for Freud is a dark bay resembling Storm Cat while Giant's Causeway was a chestnut though much bigger than his similarly colored broodmare sire.

However, the tale of the tape shows that they were virtually twins phenotypically and in body measurements, so much so that on several key biomechanical tests they scored almost identically. Thus, it was not so much of a surprise to those who bred to him early on with this knowledge that Freud would be successful, at least in a state-bred program. That he has sired nearly 70 stakes winners including 17 graded victors thus far has certainly solidified his standing as the most successful stallion to retire to stud in the Empire State. The fact that two of his leading earners are out of mares by D'Accord sweetens the pot.

Freud has been New York's leading sire many times but in the past two years he has been challenged and now surpassed by Central Banker, a son of Speightstown who benefitted from huge books in his first few years to gain a reputation for getting a lot of early, fast runners. He needs to step up with more than the few black-type earners he has at this time to justify a prognostication for leading a future cycle, but as of now his yang to Freud's yin at the top of the list of stallions retired directly to the state is somewhat analogous to the counterbalance that Cormorant and Talc brought with them when they hopped on vans all those years ago and settled in the Hudson Valley.

Bob Fierro is a partner with Jay Kilgore and Frank Mitchell in DataTrack International, biomechanical consultants and developers of BreezeFigs. He can be reached at bbfq@earthlink.net.

 

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Letters to the Editor: May the Horse be With Him

Like tens of thousands of racing fans in the Northeast, I became addicted to Harvey Pack when he began broadcasting his “Pack at the Track” radio program during the 1970s. Anyone who could get away with the kind of the totally 'Noo Yawk' attitude he put forth in a sport that always prided itself on being serious about its “Sport of Kings” sobriquet had to be someone who could probably get away with anything–and for the most part, that's what Harvey Pack did.

When I first met him in the mid-1980s, it was as part of a project a friend had developed with NBC to explore the inside of horse racing. The way he greeted us put into perspective what he always was known to do: he could throw the bull with the best, but he never gave you bull. If he liked you from the start, you were welcomed into his lair; if he didn't, you did not get past the cave entrance.

I was lucky that he smiled on me even if that TV project was dead on arrival.

His lair was on the second floor of Aqueduct, in the basement at Belmont and trackside at Saratoga, where fans from upstate and New England also loved his bantering way. I was fortunate that by being allowed into the lair I got to meet many people who developed into strong acquaintances like John Pricci and John Imbriale–or future business associates like prominent owner Bob Spiegel.

Somehow, he managed to worm me onto his Tuesday night racing recap shows even when I became prominent in the New York breeding industry whose product he privately disdained with a sobriquet of his own which is not quite fit for a family newspaper. I still have the video tapes from those shows and suppose they should be converted to digital since the VCR is long gone, but the memories are strong without having to rewind the lives we lived.

Harvey was a pal for a long time. He was also a perfect New York mensch–a hero to the horseplayer and (secretly at times) more than a few of the hobnobs of the sport. When the news came of his passing, what popped into my brain was that NYRA should do something permanent to honor a man who, in many ways, helped save the sport he loved when it needed all the help it could get.

So, since there is a statue in the Saratoga paddock of a horse that epitomized the lifetime achievement of a pillar of the sport of “kings”–Sea Hero; and, since there is a statue in the Belmont paddock of the great “savior” of racing–Secretariat; should there not be one placed in the horseplayer's perfect paddock–Aqueduct–to honor a man who, like the horse, will always be with us.

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Body & Soul: Another Freshmen Future Book

Following the completion of the last major 2-year-old sale of the season in each of the past three years, we looked at the potential success of the freshmen sires by creating a handicapping event, noting that the freshmen sires of each year were very competitive bunches, i.e., many of them were capable of rising to the top five or so of their contemporaries after a few crops had raced.

With the aberration in sales dates last year caused by the COVID-19 situation behind us, this season's major sales proceeded as traditionally scheduled, from March through June. Now that the graduates of those sales are starting to race some observers might infer that we will prejudice our picks toward some stallions that have already had a few impressive winners.

To answer that: 1) Fewer than two dozen graduates of the sales sired by freshmen have started thus far; 2): Our task is to lay odds on how the offspring of these sires are likely to compete over the long term, not to identify the Leading Freshman Sire–although both outcomes could be the case in some years.

We concentrated on freshmen of 2021 that had at least 10 of their offspring breeze at the major 2-year-old sales. While we look at pedigrees in context of commercial appeal, we utilize only video and biomechanical data to assist us in our prognostications. The video data details how their offspring compared as individuals to all the other 2-year-olds which breezed regardless of their sires. The components of this data are included in DataTrack's BreezeFigs™ service which is partially based on breeze time, stride length, and efficiency of angulation. Since 2006, this product has been utilized at sales by buyers and sellers, as well as being offered every day as a handicapping tool at Daily Racing Form's website.

We also took into consideration the results of stallion projection profiles which were compiled in 2018 when these horses went to stud. These profiles are based on biomechanical measurements and the probabilities of these stallions siring race-efficient foals from books of biomechanically balanced mares.

Arrogate | Asuncion Piñeyrua

We also took into consideration the biomechanical profiles of their offspring taken at the 2021 2-year-old and the 2020 yearling sales.

As mentioned, we limited our interest to stallions for which we have biomechanical data which also had at least 10 offspring that breezed at the major sales–that came down to 17 that began their careers in Kentucky (one, Arrogate, has since died), plus one in New York. In addition, we separated each sire's offspring by sex and in the process discovered that while a few had solid data for both colts and fillies, several others were stronger for one sex. However, several, including some with huge crops represented, returned disappointing results for both sexes.

Fifteen of the Kentucky stallions were separated into three groups according to stud fees that were in effect when they retired to stud–ironically, there are five in each of those groups. Theoretically, they are competing against each other in “races” according to a hypothetical condition book. In addition, Arrogate was set apart because he left only one crop behind, and the other, Mohaymen, entered stud for $7,500 and was grouped with Union Jackson, who stands in New York.

Based on our dataset, which has more than half-dozen components, what follows is our “Future Book” on how each of these stallions stack up as the best long-term prospects within their individual groups.

Group 1 (Stud Fee=$25,000 Plus, Kentucky)

∙              8-to-5                  Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg})

∙              5-to-2                  Lord Nelson (Pulpit)

∙              5-to-2                  Practical Joke (Into Mischief)

∙              3-to-1                  Mastery (Candy Ride {Arg})

∙              6-to-1                  Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile)

Comment: Gun Runner was a heck of a runner and despite that he had fewer 2-year-old representatives than any other in this group, this guy delivered all the promise his biomechanical profile suggested he possessed–and along with Mastery gives his sire a super shot of continuing on his path as a serious sire of sires. Indeed, this group is so close together on the datasets that it may take a couple of years before one or two of them can shake loose from the pack–or battle each other through their lifetimes. Practical Joke was a talking-sire at the sales and they are off and running fast. Lord Nelson popped up as a bit of surprise and adds credence to the belief that his sire left us too soon (viz Tapit, California Chrome, and see American Freedom in Group 3 as well). Classic Empire has a strong chance of moving up as his crops mature.

Group 2 ($12,500 to $20,000, Kentucky)

∙              8-to-5                   Midnight Storm (Pioneerof the Nile)

∙              5-to-1                   Astern (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro)

∙              8-to-1                   Connect (Curlin)

∙              10-to-1                 Cupid (Tapit)

∙              15-to-1                 Bal a Bali (Brz) (Put It Back)

Midnight Storm | Taylor Made Stallions/Amy Lanigan

Comment: Irony here is that Midnight Storm, whose dataset is strong across the board, has a shot at topping off this entire crop and along with Classic Empire solidify their sire as another who left us too soon. Astern (Aus) is another example of his sire's ability to get serious prospects in two hemispheres and his dataset is strong. Connect and Cupid will probably not be contending for Leading Freshmen Sire honors but when they go further, they could emerge sharply, Bal a Bali (Brz) is his sire's first shot at proving his exportation was a premature event, and he has the goods to send them out early.

Group 3 ($10,000, Kentucky)

∙              3-to-1                   American Freedom (Pulpit)

∙              5-to-1                   Gormley (Malibu Moon)

∙              8-to-1                   Unified (Candy Ride {Arg})

∙              15-to-1                 Keen Ice (Curlin)

∙              15-to-1                 Klimt (Quality Road)

American Freedom | Sarah Andrew

Comment: American Freedom was consistent in sending out offspring that were consistently good performers on the track–watch out Lord Nelson! Gormley and Unified sent out huge numbers of breezers who look like they might get runners that can perform at any distance. Keen Ice and Klimt are likely to need to wait to see their kids score big time, but that could happen toward the end of the year.

Group 4 (Below $10,000, Kentucky & Regional)

∙              5-to-2                   Mohaymen (Tapit) (Kentucky)

∙              5-to-2                   Union Jackson (Union Rags) (New York)

Comment: Everyone should keep in mind that Mohaymen was a terrific early juvenile, so his stud fee may look like a bargain soon. Union Jackson comes from a very clever outfit and more of them came out than is usually the case for a freshman not based in Florida, and they impressed.

And then there is Arrogate. Suffice it to say that if had more than one crop he'd be up there challenging Gun Runner for long-term honors. We would not be surprised if he battles for the lead at the end of this year, thus underscoring what might be a growing legacy for Unbridled's Song–his best siring sons were, as they said in other times, the last of the wine.

There you go, place your bets!

(Bob Fierro is a partner with Jay Kilgore and Frank Mitchell in DataTrack International, biomechanical consultants and developers of BreezeFigs. He can be reached at bbfq@earthlink.net).

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