bob hess jr. | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘Words Matter’: Owner Changes Horse’s Name From Royal Trump To Peaceful Transfer

When Thoroughbred owner Steven McCanne partnered with trainer Bob Hess Jr. to claim a 5-year-old California-bred gelding for $40,000 at Del Mar last Nov. 27, he said he was taken aback somewhat by the horse's name: Royal Trump.

McCanne assumed breeders Larry and Marianne Williams named the son of Ministers Wild Cat after Donald J. Trump, the 45^th president of the United States. The horse, produced from a mare named Royal Woodman, was foaled on May 8, 2015, a month before Trump announced his candidacy for president. He would have been named at a later date.

“I didn't want to make a political statement, but it just felt controversial,” said McCanne. “The election had just happened. Trump is a character, but I thought, 'It's a little like Covfefe” – a reference to the LNJ Foxwoods-owned runner named after a Trump late night Tweet. Covfefe, would go on to win six of eight starts including the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint and be named champion female sprinter of 2019.

Royal Trump hasn't been quite as successful, though he won six of 24 starts, earning over $200,000, when McCanne and Hess claimed him last November.

Then the insurrection of Jan. 6 happened, when thousands of Trump supporters who refused to accept the fact that Joe Biden defeated Trump in the election, stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

At that moment, McCanne said, he wanted nothing to do with a horse connecting the term “royal” with “Trump.”

“He probably would like to be king,” McCanne said of the former president.

McCanne called Hess, asking if they could change the name. “I'm not that experienced as an owner,” said McCanne, a Northern California software entrepreneur who bought his first horses a few years ago. “Bob said, 'You have to make a request to The Jockey Club. So I sent an email.”

McCanne came up with an appropriate substitute: Peaceful Transfer. That name is a reference to what is supposed to occur between the time of the presidential election in November and inauguration day in January when a new president is sworn into office. The Trump-Biden transfer of power was a rocky one.

McCanne emailed The Jockey Club on Jan. 8.

Dear Jockey Club,

I am writing to request a name change for the racehorse “Royal Trump,” claimed by me and Robert Hess, Jr. at Del Mar this past November.

At that time, I understood the name had a controversial connotation but it seemed to me a harmless joke.

Unfortunately, things are different now. After the events of this week, I feel the name has become critically controversial. No matter what one's politics are, there are many strong emotions around the name “Trump.”

Names and words matter and their meaning and implications can evolve. I feel that the name “Trump” is now controversial enough that it may detract from the spirit and positivity of the racing culture. The last thing the sport (and the horse) need are loud boos from (some in) the crowd because “Royal Trump” enters the winner's circle.

For these reasons, I humbly submit to the Jockey Club this proposal to change Royal Trump's name to “Peaceful Transfer.”

Thank you for your consideration. Bob and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

According to The Jockey Club's Rule Book, names can be changed at any time prior to a horse's first race. “Ordinarily,” the rule continues, “no name change will be permitted after a horse has started in its first race or has been used for breeding (mating) purposes. However, in the event a name must be changed after a horse has started in its first race, both the old and new names should be used until the horse has raced three times following the name change.”

Royal Trump ran on Jan. 16, one week after McCanne's request, then again on March 21 and on May 9 – all under his original name.

After the most recent start, McCanne was curious why the name hadn't changed and sent another email to The Jockey Club. This time, he said, he received a response from The Jockey Club saying the change was approved.

Peaceful Transfer will be running under his new name for the first time on Saturday at Los Alamitos in Cypress, Calif., carrying a $40,000 claiming tag in an allowance race/optional claiming event.

This, incidentally, wasn't the first Royal Trump in American horse racing. A Nebraska-bred Thoroughbred by that name, born in 1993, was a seven-time winner from 57 starts over six racing seasons.

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Lenzi’s Lucky Lady Takes To The Turf for Abundantia At Gulfstream Park

David Bernsen LLC and Jeffrey Lambert's Lenzi's Lucky Lady will take to the turf at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., for Friday's $75,000 Abundantia after really showing her affinity for the surface in her most recent start.

A stakes winner on dirt, the 4-year-old daughter of With Distinction debuted on turf in a Dec. 13 optional claiming allowance at Gulfstream Park with a front-running victory at the five-furlong distance of the Abundantia.

“It looks like she found a new home on turf,” trainer Bob Hess said.

Formerly trained by Kathleen O'Connell, Lenzi's Lucky Lady won two stakes during her juvenile season, including the $100,000 Florida Sire Stakes Desert Vixen. She returned from an 11-month layoff to finish second in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance on dirt Aug. 22, when she was claimed by her current connections for $75,000. The Florida-bred filly was forwardly placed before fading to ninth in the Charles Town Oaks (G3) Aug. 28 in her first start for Hess.

“Dave Bernsen is the principle owner and he picked her out. Kathleen is a friend and a top-notch horsewoman, so I really had no illusions of moving the horse up at all,” Hess said. “She ran great the day we claimed her. We had a fiasco up at Charles Town and I brought her to Del Mar trying for the 'Ship & Win.' I worked her on the turf and she worked great, but the race didn't fill and we brought her back to Gulfstream.”

Emisael Jaramillo has the call aboard Lenzi's Lucky Lady.

Three Diamond Farm's Jakarta will seek her third victory over the Gulfstream Park turf in as many starts Friday. The Michael Maker-trained 6-year-old mare is coming off a 2 ¼-length victory in the Claiming Crown Distaff Dash at five furlongs.

The daughter of Bustin Stones has also shown versatility, having won the off-the-turf Powder Break at a mile over a sloppy Gulfstream track last May.

Luis Saez has the return mount aboard Jakarta.

David Melin, Leon Ellman and Laurie Plesa's Miss Auramet, who has also enjoyed success on dirt and turf, is scheduled to seek her fourth straight victory Friday. The Eddie Plesa Jr.-trained 5-year-old mare won back-to-back off-the-turf races at Delaware Park and Laurel Park before returning to South Florida to win an optional claiming allowance at Gulfstream Park West Oct. 18.

Paco Lopez has the call aboard the daughter of Uncaptured.

Team Valor International's Victory Kingdom, who finished a close second in Ontario Fashion Stakes (G3) over Woodbine's synthetic surface two starts back, returns to turf for the Abundantia. Group stakes-placed in Europe, the 6-year-old daughter of Animal Kingdom has made three starts in the U.S. for trainer Rodolphe Brisset, including a fourth-place finish in the Smart N Fancy stakes on turf at Saratoga last August.

Julien Leparoux is scheduled to ride Victory Kingdom for the first time Friday.

Cara Oliver's Hear My Prayer will seek her third victory in five starts over the Gulfstream Park turf course, where she captured the five-furlong Melody of Colors in March.

Irad Ortiz Jr. is scheduled to ride the daughter of The Big Beast for the first time.

Kenwood Racing LLC's Tracy Ann's Legacy will seek her fourth victory on the Gulfstream turf course, over which the 5-year-old daughter of Shackleford has finished in the money in all seven starts.

Edgard Zayas has the call aboard the Kelly Breen trainee.

Compensate, Disieincandyland, Miss Deplorable and Spun Glass round out the field,.

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Northern California Icon, Trainer Bob Hess Sr., 86, Dies After Contracting COVID-19

An iconic figure at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, Calif., for five decades, trainer Bob Hess Sr. succumbed to the effects of COVID-19 early Saturday morning at age 86. Consistently among the leaders in Northern California dating back to the 1970s, Hess, who was the father of trainer Bob Hess, Jr., began his training career at Playfair in Spokane, Wash., in the late 1950s, then moved south to Agua Caliente in Tijuana, Mex., in the 1960s and to Bay Meadows and Golden Gate in 1971. He was a highly respected horseman throughout his career.

Initially hospitalized in mid-November with COVID-19 following a test administered by track officials, Hess was subsequently released and then re-admitted when symptoms returned. This heartbreaking news comes just one day after Golden Gate officials announced the continued suspension of live racing through Dec. 25.

“Our hearts and prayers are with the entire Hess family at this time,” said David Duggan, general manager at Golden Gate Fields. “To lose a longtime trainer and friend is simply heartbreaking to our entire horse racing family.”

Hess was born in the Lancaster County, Pa., town of Lititz on Oct. 10, 1934, and moved west to the Pasadena, Calif., area after high school. After serving in the U.S. Army while stationed in Washington state, he found his way to the racetrack, first at Playfair in Spokane and then at Longacres near Seattle. It was when he migrated to Agua Caliente that he met the love of his life, Maria Elena, at a bowling alley across from the racetrack. The two were married for 56 years and had four children, Bob Jr., Howie, Erica and Anna.

Bob Hess Sr. in the Golden Gate winner's circle with No Name Fred and jockey Kent Desormeaux on March 8, 2020

When advised Hess, who spoke fluent Spanish, had passed away Saturday morning, jockey Abel Cedillo was moved to tears.

“When I was riding up north, he was like a second father to me,” said Cedillo, a Guatemalan native who was the leading rider at Del Mar's recently concluded Bing Crosby Meeting. “I had so much respect for him. I'm shocked. I'm going to really miss him.”

Golden Gate Fields' Director of Racing, Patrick Mackey, echoed the sentiments of many in the California racing industry.

“Bob was a wonderful horseman who was always there for his fellow race tracker,” he said. “His stories were legendary. He was a wealth of knowledge and imparted that knowledge to many over the years. He was a great man and his presence here at Golden Gate Fields will be sorely missed.”

Over a distinguished career that saw him saddle 1,592 winners from 10,448 starters, Hess's runners earned more than $17.2 million. His last winner came on Oct. 29 at Golden Gate with the Thoroughbred Just Like Fred and his final starter ran there on Nov. 8. He won with 11 of 80 starters in 2020, with 11 seconds and 15 thirds.

Bob Hess Jr. said his father had a very simple philosophy about life.

“Everything he did was honest,” Hess Jr. said. “He never allowed anyone to make him do what he knew wasn't right. He could look in the mirror and be proud. He would say to me, 'Son, if you don't tell lies, you never have to remember them. Just always tell the truth.'”

Services for Bob Hess, Sr. are pending.

Paulick Report staff contributed to this article.

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Del Mar’s Red Carpet Stakes Has Eastern Flavor; TVG’s Hoover Savors 2019 Victory By $8,000 Claim

The field of 10 for the Thanksgiving Day featured Red Carpet Stakes includes four horses that last raced in New York or Kentucky on assignment from nationally-renowned trainers. Three of them will have elite Eastern-based jockeys that venture west only when the stakes are most plentiful and highest – as they will be through the four final days of the Bing Crosby Season.

So the Grade 3, $100,000 Red Carpet figures to be a tasty hors d'oeuvre for the feast that will follow—six graded stakes on grass in three days in what amounts to a “Turf Festival” – to the November 29 close of the meeting.

Three notable equine travelers for the 1 3/8-mile Red Carpet marathon for fillies and mares are Orglandes for one of the nation's leading trainers, Chad Brown, Woodfin for Victoria Oliver and Blame Debbie for H. Graham Motion. And Peter Miller has had California Kook, runner-up in the G1 Del Mar Oaks last summer, in training at San Luis Rey Downs for a month since returning from a fifth-place finish in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup on October 10 at Keeneland.

Irad Ortiz, Jr., No. 1 in North America for purse earnings with nearly $20 million, will ride Orglandes, a 4-year-old import from France making her third U.S. start and coming in off a win at Belmont Park on October 9. Joel Rosario, No. 2 in winnings with nearly $17 million, has the call on California Kook. Manny Franco, No. 10 with more than $11.4 million will be aboard Blame Debbie after their initial collaboration resulted in victory in the G3 Dowager at Keeneland last month.

The field from the rail with jockeys in parenthesis: California Kook (Rosario); Never Be Enough (Tiago Pereira); Colonial Creed (Flavien Prat); Orglandes (Ortiz, Jr.); Going to Vegas (Mario Gutierrez); Woodfin (Jose Valdivia, Jr.); Aunt Lubie (Victor Espinoza); Blame Debbie (Franco); Hollywood Girl (Mike Smith), and Quick (Umberto Rispoli).

When TVG commentator Kurt Hoover saw the entries come out for the Red Carpet, he took special interest in looking over the field. Partly out of professional obligation, of course, but also for sentimental reasons.

“It's a race that doesn't mean a hell of a lot to a lot of people, but it does to me,” Hoover said by phone from the Los Angeles area.

Hoover, his friend from high school days Brian Ferguson and Jeff Lambert of Del Mar, a longtime client of trainer Bob Hess, Jr., comprised the ownership group of Zuzanna, an $8,000 claim of theirs that they watched win the 2019 Red Carpet at odds of 23-1.

“I remember watching her cross under the finish line and I remember being in the winner's circle, but I don't remember going down to the winner's circle,” said Hoover. It was the first stakes win as an owner for Hoover, who said he has had pieces of four or five horses with only Zuzanna succeeding at the stakes level.

“I suggested to Bob that we enter because I thought maybe we could hit the board,” Hoover recalled. “If it hadn't been a mile and three-eighths we wouldn't have entered. We were planning on going to the Claiming Crown (event) in Florida with her.”

The traditional Thanksgiving Day feature of the Bing Crosby Season was moved to Saturday in 2019 after rains early in the week compromised the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. That resulted in Paco Lopez, arriving from the east, being able to ride Zuzanna skillfully to a 1 ½-length victory.

After more than 30 career starts, Zuzanna has recently been retired and will be sold as a broodmare in January.

For the first time in 30 years, Hoover has a Thanksgiving Day off from work. But he said he'll be watching the Red Carpet with professional and sentimental interest.

“I like John Sadler's horse Quick,” Hoover said when asked for a 2020 selection. “Her last outing was a really good effort and I think she's ready to run big. Besides Quick, I think Graham Motion's horse coming in from Kentucky, Blame Debbie, will be very tough.”

In Thursday's edition, trainer Richard Baltas has the duo of Going to Vegas and Colonial Creed. Going to Vegas comes in off a runner-up effort, beaten only a neck by Warren's Showtime, in the G3 Autumn Miss at Santa Anita. Colonial Creed was second in the Katherine Crosby Stakes on the opening day of this meeting.

“Going To Vegas ran really good last time with the blinkers off,” Baltas noted. “It's a little far for her, but if she can get the distance, who knows? Obviously she's in a little tough because she's a 3-year-old running against older, but we're going to see because she's training really well.

“Colonial Creed has never been this far either, but she's coming off the pace now more and more, so maybe she will like the distance. I think they've both got a good chance.”

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