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For Third Straight Spring, MSW Purses at Keeneland and Churchill Projected to Remain Level

Purses for maiden special weight (MSW) races are projected to remain unchanged for the third straight spring at both Keeneland Race Course and Churchill Downs.

Track executives disclosed the pre-condition book figures during the Feb. 1 Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory board meeting.

Keeneland expects to write $100,000 MSW races for 3-year-olds and older horses, with 2-year-olds competing for $80,000, according to Gatewood Bell, Keeneland's vice president of racing.

Continuing a condition that Keeneland tried last fall, Bell added that there will also be four maiden-auction races written for $70,000, one for each sex going both short and long.

Back during Keeneland's 2021 spring meet, the comparable MSW purse levels were $79,000 and $60,000 for older and juvenile races, respectively.

Keeneland's $100,000 and $80,000 levels have been in effect since 2022.

Churchill's MSW races for older horses will remain at the $120,000 purse level this spring, according to Ben Huffman, the track's vice president of racing. He did not state an amount for 2-year-old races.

In the spring of 2021, Churchill carded two levels of MSW money. For the lead-in week to the GI Kentucky Derby, the purses were $115,000. After that, MSW races were written for $100,000.

In 2022, Churchill's MSW purses for older horses got raised to $120,000 for the spring meet.

The purse levels stayed that way in 2023, even after Churchill's corporate ownership opted to move the remainder of the meet to another Kentucky track in its portfolio, Ellis Park, in the aftermath of 12 equine fatalities that occurred in the first six weeks of the Churchill season.

Bill Landes III, the chairman of the KTDF advisory committee, who represents the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders (KTOB) association on the KTDF board, briefly addressed both Keeneland and Churchill about potentially increasing those MSW purse levels in the future.

“If things come good for you, we would be amenable to any hike or anything you could afford us,” Landes said.

Braxton Lynch, who also represents the KTOB on the KTDF board, suggested that any available purse money would be better spent on upping the amounts carded for allowance races.

“As much as Bill likes to focus on the MSW numbers, [and] I think we're really lucky to be where we are on the MSW numbers, if we ever got a chance [to] put [a purse] increase somewhere, I'd love to see a bigger gap between MSW and allowance, with allowances going a little higher. They become so much harder to win that I think there should be a little more reward there.”

KTDF board member Rick Hiles, who serves as the president of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protection Association, agreed with Lynch.

“I've been saying for years there should be a bigger gap between maidens and the non-winners of two or 'a-other-than' [allowance conditions].”

The KTDF is funded by three-quarters of 1% of all money wagered in the state on both live Thoroughbred races and historical horse race gaming, plus 1% of all money wagered on Thoroughbred races via inter-track wagering and whole-card simulcasting.

On Thursday the KTDF advisory committee approved the recommendation of allotment requests that the Churchill and Keeneland purse estimates were based on, but the full Kentucky Horse Racing Commission still has to vote on final approval of the funding.

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OpenStable Launched to Engage Derby Fans

The sports marketing and technology startup OpenLocker, Inc. has launched OpenStable marketplace, a fan-friendly blockchain platform designed to engage a new generation of Thoroughbred racing fans. The Legendary Racing Prospects Collection of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) will initially include GI Kentucky Derby contender Epicenter and GI Kentucky Oaks hopeful Echo Zulu.

OpenLocker is looking to expand its Bone Yard Huskyz Club for sports fans at the University of Connecticut with a platform which allows racing fans to become part of an exclusive community.

“We are excited to bring together the technology solution we created for the monetization of college NIL to the racing industry. Fans of racing want to follow a horse over the course of its entire career and be part of a special club. Our model grants access to exclusive information, collectibles, and experiences so fans can fully enjoy the journey,” said Brian Klatsky, OpenLocker President.

Both Echo Zulu and Epicenter are campaigned by Winchell Thoroughbreds.

“It's so important that the industry supports innovative ideas that help grow, develop and engage a new generation of racing consumers,” said Ron Winchell. “I am delighted that Epicenter and Echo Zulu are a small part of this initiative to allow fans the opportunity to feel closer to our athletes.”

Braxton Lynch, OpenLocker's Racing Director, added, “We look forward to supporting the owners, trainers and jockeys with an additional revenue stream that they can use to cover the costs associated with Thoroughbred racing or contribute to charitable causes.”

Other contenders and racing collections are expected to be announced in the near future. For more information about

OpenStable and to view the Legendary Racing Prospects Collection, visit www.openstable.io.

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Blue Grass Contender Hidden Stash ‘Looking More And More Like A Diamond’

Under operation for less than three years, BBN Racing is proud of its accomplishments with such runners as Grade 1 winner Concrete Rose, raced in partnership with Ashbrook Farm, and Grade 2-placed Hidden Stash. Concrete Rose sold for $1.95 million to top Keeneland's 2020 November Breeding Stock Sale, and Hidden Stash, purchased at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, is to make his next start here in Saturday's $800,000 Toyota Blue Grass (G2).

“It's incredibly exciting for us to be running in the Blue Grass,” said Braxton Lynch, a Founding Partner of BBN Racing with Brian Klatsky and Brendan O'Brien. “As a syndicate manager, I can't promise winners or earnings, but what we did promise was enormous amounts of fun and great communication. I feel like we have delivered on that thus far with Concrete Rose and Hidden Stash and if the wins and earnings follow, that will be icing on the cake.”

In Kentucky, “BBN” means only one thing: the University of Kentucky fandom. The enthusiastic group inspired the racing operation's name.

“BBN Racing does stand for Big Blue Nation, not because all the partners are from Kentucky – most of the partners are huge sports fans,” Lynch said. “Big Blue Nation is known for its enthusiasm and passion and that's what we wanted to capture with BBN Racing. It's made up of friends and family who watched horse racing from the sidelines and has given them a chance to participate, while spreading the (investment) risk. Several of the partners will be at Keeneland on Saturday.”

Hidden Stash, a colt by Constitution bred in Kentucky by Rhineshire Farm, comes from the family of Grade 1 winner and sire Sky Mesa and Grade 1 winner Maxfield. Vinery Sales, agent for Rhineshire Farm, consigned him to the September Sale, where he sold to BBN for $50,000.

“He was quite immature at the time,” Lynch said, “and I remember thinking that we might have just found a diamond in the rough. Either that or just a piece of coal. Luckily, he's looking more and more like a diamond.”

Trained by Vicki Oliver, Hidden Stash received his early training at Keeneland. He scored his first career victory here during the 2020 Fall Meet and next won an allowance race at Churchill Downs. Hidden Stash was third in the Sam F. Davis (G3) and second in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby (G2) in his first two starts at 3.

In the Toyota Blue Grass, Hidden Stash drew post 1 and will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano.

“This horse is tactical and can adapt to whatever options are thrown at him,” Lynch said. “He's a horse that has improved with every race. We've been itching to stretch him out, and I think he's slowly maturing into the kind of horse we hoped he would be. He tries hard every time, and that's all you can ask these athletes to do.”

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The Stage is Set for Phyllis Wyeth’s Dancing Rags

Dancing Rags, the 2016 GI Alcibiades S. heroine, will be offered at this year’s Fasig-Tipton November Sale on Nov. 8. and will represent the end of the line of an esteemed story in Thoroughbred racing and breeding as one of the last broodmares owned by the late Phyllis Wyeth. The daughter of Union Rags is in foal to top sire Curlin, and already has an Into Mischief yearling filly and a War Front weanling filly on the ground.

“I think Dancing Rags should appeal to a lot of people,” said consignor Braxton Lynch of Royal Oak Farm. “She is beautifully balanced. She has a lovely head and eye, and has plenty of power, length and athleticism. Both her yearling and weanling look very much like her.”

Raced by philanthropist and Thoroughbred breeder Phyllis Wyeth, who passed away in January of last year, Dancing Rags’s greatest appeal comes in the legacy she will carry on as a producer.

“She was an amazing person,” longtime associate Bill Farish said of Wyeth. “She was paralyzed in a car accident when she was in college, but never let that slow her down in life. She was a very big advocate for disabled Americans. I’ve been told that all the ramps on the sidewalks in New York City and other cities are really because of her and her efforts.”

“What a privilege it was to get to know Mrs. Wyeth,” said Fasig-Tipton’s Boyd Browning. “Many people that faced a disability and the challenges that she faced from a physical perspective would have felt sorry for themselves. But Mrs. Wyeth was a character. She brightened the sales grounds. I loved visiting with her and hearing her stories. She had a great wit about her and a great spirit of life.”

Wyeth grew up near her family’s farm in Virginia, where their racing and breeding operation was most noted for Devil’s Bag and Gone West. After marrying the acclaimed painter Jamie Wyeth in 1968, she and her husband resided at her family’s Point Lookout Farm on the Pennsylvania-Delaware border. Despite her physical disability, Wyeth’s love for horses never faltered and she was a carriage driver and active Thoroughbred breeder throughout her life.

Her biggest success in racing came when a homebred colt by Dixie Union went on to become 2012 Belmont S. winner Union Rags.

A fourth-generation homebred, Union Rags was initially sold as a yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale, but Wyeth bought the colt back one year later for $390,000.

“He sold for just above the reserve she had set, but she still wasn’t very happy with the sale,” Farish recalled. “She got reports that he was training really well as a 2-year-old. She had really high hopes for him, and he ended up living up to it.”

Wyeth’s instincts proved to be correct when Union Rags went undefeated in his first three starts as a juvenile, and later retired to Lane’s End Farm as a four-time MGSW with Grade I victories in the Champagne S. and Belmont S.

“She was very attached to her horses, and Union Rags was a great example of that,” Farish said. “She came and visited Union Rags as often as she could and really loved seeing him.”

A few years after Union Rags’s Belmont S. victory, Wyeth found a filly at the 2016 OBS March Sale from the first crop of Union Rags that she couldn’t leave without. She purchased Dancing Rags, who had worked a speedy :10 breeze, for $210,000.

Again, Wyeth’s horse sense turned out to be accurate when Dancing Rags broke her maiden at second asking and then sailed to Grade I stardom in the Alcibiades S. at Keeneland for Graham Motion.

“When Dancing Rags won the Alcibiades, it was an incredible day,” said Farish. “To see Phyllis not only race Union Rags, but then race a Grade I winner by him was a real thrill for her and a thrill for anyone that knew her.”

The now six-year-old mare is out of Grade III-placed Home Court (Storm Cat), a daughter of Eclipse Award-winning older mare and Breeders’ Cup champion Jewel Princess (Key to the Mint). Following her racing campaign, Home Court was purchased for $1.4 million in foal to Gone West at the 2005 Keeneland November Sale.

As Browning reflects on the purchase, he said the buyer of the mare makes Dancing Rags’s story even more special to him.

“Our long-time friend and associate Bill Graves bought Home Court for Gordon Stollery’s ASG Thoroughbreds,” he said. “So it’s got the personal connection for us, with both Mrs. Wyeth and Bill Graves, in terms of the pedigree influences.”

Home Court was sold again at the Keeneland November Sale in 2012. Soon after, she produced her first blacktype winner in dual MGSW and sire Coup de Grace (Tapit), followed by Dancing Rags herself.

Lynch says that Wyeth’s family plans to gradually trim down the horsewoman’s broodmare band, and that they found this year’s ‘Night of Stars’ sale to be a perfect fit for the unique offering.

Dancing Rags will be sold as Hip 261 with Lynch’s Royal Oak Farm consignment.

“She’s almost like the complete package for a breeder that’s looking for either success as a commercial operation or a racing operation,” Browning said. “Not only was she the product of many years of really astute horsemen and women’s matings, she demonstrated her quality on the racetrack. Now the family has set the stage by breeding her to two of the most preeminent stallions that have offspring, and she’s in foal to Curlin-arguably one of the world’s greatest stallions.”

“Dancing Rags represents one of the last opportunities to buy anything from [Wyeth’s] program,” Farish said. “She has Phyllis written all over her. She’s got a great pedigree, and I think she’s going to be a great broodmare.”

Browning added of the women the mare represents and her inspirational life’s tale, “It’s a story filled with tradition. It’s a story filled with hope. You look at what she was able to accomplish and it should inspire all of us to get up and make a little extra effort today because we know that she had to make a little extra effort every day.”

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