OwnerView announced today that the seventh Thoroughbred Owner Conference, originally scheduled to be held July 19-22, 2020, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., has been rescheduled and will be held in Lexington, Ky., from November 2-5, 2020, to coincide with the Breeders' Cup World Championships. The Breeders' Cup will be held November 6-7 at Keeneland.
“While we were disappointed that we were unable to host this year's Thoroughbred Owner Conference in Saratoga Springs, we are delighted to be able to bring the owner conference back to Lexington, the 'Horse Capital of the World,' during the week of the Breeders' Cup,” said Gary Falter, project manager for OwnerView. “We are thankful for the support and flexibility of the New York Racing Association and the Breeders' Cup.”
The rescheduled owner conference will be held at the Embassy Suites on Newtown Pike in Lexington, Ky. The conference agenda includes nine panels on topics including the economics of racehorse ownership, syndicates, safety reforms, aftercare, and diversity. The conference will open on Monday, November 2, with an evening reception at The Kentucky Castle. Other social events include a conference dinner at the Fasig-Tipton sales grounds and tours of stallion farms.
This year's owner conference will offer a new registration option for virtual attendance. A virtual conference registration enables access to all business panels and the ability to participate in question and answer sessions for those panels.
For guests who attend the owner conference in person, social-distancing protocols will be in place, including limiting the number of guests seated at tables and increased spacing of tables. OwnerView will be continually monitoring the status of COVID-19. If an in-person conference is deemed unsafe, in-person registrations will be refunded or converted to a virtual registration.
For more information about the owner conference, including the full schedule of events and registration, please visit ownerview.com/event/conference.
OwnerView is a joint effort spearheaded by The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association to encourage ownership of Thoroughbreds and provide accurate information on aspects of ownership such as trainers, public racing syndicates, the process of purchasing and owning a Thoroughbred, racehorse retirement, and owner licensing.
The need for a central resource to encourage Thoroughbred ownership was identified in the comprehensive economic study of the sport that was commissioned by The Jockey Club and conducted by McKinsey & Company in 2011. The OwnerView site was launched in May 2012.
GMB Racing's 7-year-old Tom's d'Etat, winner of the Stephen Foster Stakes (G2), leads the first week of tabulated votes for the 2020 Longines Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings, a weekly rating of the top 10 horses in contention for the $7 million Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington on November 7.
The Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings are determined by a panel of leading Thoroughbred racing media, horseplayers and members of the Breeders' Cup Racing Directors/Secretaries Panel. Rankings will be announced each week through October 13. A list of voting members can be found here.
In the Breeders' Cup Classic Rankings, each voter rates horses on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 system in descending order.
Tom's d'Etat, a Kentucky-bred son of Smart Strike, trained by Al Stall Jr., topped all Classic contenders this week with 292 votes. Earning a “Win and You're In” berth into the Breeders' Cup Classic with his runaway 4 ¼-length victory in the 1 1/8-mile Stephen Foster on June 27 at Churchill Downs, Tom's d'Etat scored his second triumph of 2020, following a win in the Oaklawn Mile Stakes on April 11.
Gary and Mary West, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith's 4-year-old Maximum Security (243 votes) is in second place. Now trained by Bob Baffert, Maximum Security won the inaugural $20 million Saudi Cup in February. A bay son of 2013 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) winner New Year's Day, Maximum Security was the 2019 3-year-old Male Eclipse Award winner. Maximum Security is expected to start in this Saturday's San Diego Handicap (G2) at Del Mar. Baffert won the Breeders' Cup Classic in consecutive years with Bayern (2014), American Pharoah (2015) and Arrogate (2016).
Sackatoga Stable's Tiz the Law (210 votes) is one of two 3-year-olds in the top 10. Ranked third, Tiz the Law is unbeaten in three starts this year, taking the Holy Bull (G3), the Florida Derby (G1) and the 1 1/8-mile Belmont Stakes (G1) on June 20. Trainer Barclay Tagg has pointed the New York-bred son of Constitution to the Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 8.
W.S. Farish's 4-year-old Code of Honor is ranked fourth with 200 votes. Winner of the Westchester Stakes (G3), and a third-place finisher in the Metropolitan Handicap (G1), Code of Honor won both the Travers Stakes and The Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) before finishing seventh in last year's Breeders' Cup Classic for trainer Claude R. “Shug” McGaughey.
Garnering the fifth-most votes in the poll is Bloom Racing, Madaket Stables and Allen Racing's 5-year-old mare Midnight Bisou. The Steve Asmussen-trained dark bay daughter of Midnight Lute stormed from the back of the pack against male rivals in the Saudi Cup in January and finished second, just three-quarters of a length behind Maximum Security at the wire. Midnight Bisou (174 votes) continued her solid form in her return to the races last month, dominating the Fleur de Lis (G2) at Churchill Downs, for fillies and mares, romping to an 8 ¼-length victory.
CRK Stable's Honor A. P. is the second 3-year-old in the top 10 of this week's rankings, taking the sixth position. Trained by John Shirrreffs, who saddled Zenyatta to victory in the 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic, Honor A. P. (125 votes) won the Runhappy Santa Anita Derby (G1) on June 6.
Allied Racing Stable's By My Standards (122 votes) is next in seventh place. By My Standards has won two Grade 2 stakes this year for trainer Bret Calhoun. The 4-year-old bay son of two-time Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) winner Goldencents registered victories in the New Orleans Handicap and the Oaklawn Handicap before finishing second to Tom's d'Etat in the Stephen Foster.
Juddmonte Farms' 4-year-old Tacitus (92 votes), in eighth place, ended a long winless drought in his last start, rolling to a 8 ¾-length victory in the Suburban Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park on July 4. His trainer, Bill Mott, has saddled Breeders' Cup Classic winners Cigar (1995) and Drosselmeyer (2011).
R.A. Hill Stable and Gatsas Stable's 4-year-old Vekoma, is next in ninth place with 83 votes. Trained by George Weaver, Vekoma is unbeaten in three starts this year, two of those being Breeders' Cup Challenge Series races at shorter distances. The chestnut son of Candy Ride (ARG) won both the Runhappy Carter Handicap (G1), for the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1), and the Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap (G1), for the Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1).
Rounding out the top 10 is the 4-year-old Improbable (82 votes), owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club International and SF Racing. Trained by Bob Baffert, Improbable won the 1 ¼-mile Hollywood Gold Cup (G1) at Santa Anita on June 6.
Breeders’ Cup and Maker’s Mark have announced the 2020 limited edition Maker’s Mark bottle from the Charity for Champions program which will honor former Keeneland and Breeders’ Cup president James E. ‘Ted’ Bassett. The Charity for Champions program began in 2015, with the goal of helping to raise money for Thoroughbred industry charities.
Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Facility in Georgetown, Kentucky, has been named as one of the official charity beneficiaries. Old Friends is home to former Breeders’ Cup champions Alphabet Soup, Eldaafer, Little Mike and Amazombie. Old Friends cares for over 200 retired Thoroughbreds in six locations.
“Old Friends is honored to team up with the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame and the Race Track Chaplaincy of America to pay tribute to Ted Bassett,” said Old Friends President and founder Michael Blowen. “Mr. Bassett, who has visited Old Friends on numerous occasions, is an enthusiastic supporter. His ambassadorship on behalf of these great Thoroughbreds is unparalleled and we are overjoyed that Breeders’ Cup and Maker’s Mark are saluting him with this magnificent bottle.”
One of the early mileposts for just about any racehorse purchased at a 2-year-olds in training auction is to finish that season with a win in a Breeders' Cup race.
By that standard, Tasso's road from the sale ring to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner's circle was an unmitigated success, making him the first 2-year-old sale graduate to win the race in the same year. By the standards of a commercialmarket racing prospect, Tasso was an economic dud whose true value would only be appreciated after his time in the ring.
From the first crop of Grade 1 winner Fappiano, Tasso was bred in Florida by Timothy Sams of Waldemar Farm and his business partner Gerald Robins. The same operation had produced Hall of Famer Foolosh Pleasure a decade earlier. Both men owned five shares in Fappiano, purchased during his racing career, meaning their incentive to get the stallion off to a fast start was high.
The Waldemar Farm consignment had a pair of Fappiano colts on offer for the 1984 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale, with the first selling to $250,000 – the most anyone paid for a foal by the stallion at the marquee auction. Tasso, on the other hand, was brought home after hammering at $50,000, under his reserve.
In the months that followed, Tasso was trained toward the 1985 Fasig-Tipton Florida Selected 2-Year-Olds In Training Sale at Calder Race Course. After being the less-impressive half of the Fappiano tag team among Waldemar's Saratoga consignment a year earlier, the bad luck continued for the colt who was cataloged as Hip 1; a notoriously hard spot for a horse to maximize its value, while buyers are still straggling onto the sales grounds, finding their seats, or saving their bullets for later offerings or sessions.
Sams knew he was going to be up against it in that spot, so called in a favor from prominent owner Bertram Firestone, a Virginia-based horseman who earned the 1980 Eclipse Award for outstanding owner with his wife Diana. That early in the sale's proceedings, Sams knew he'd need someone to prime the pump for him.
“Bert is a good friend of ours, and I saw him in the walking ring before the sale and asked him if he would bid this horse up to $100,000 for us,” Sams said in a 1985 interview with BloodHorse. “He said 'Sure.' Then he came up to me later and asked me if I liked the colt, and I told him that I did. He suggested that we send the horse to Aiken to Marvin Greene and see what Marvin thought about him, and said 'If Marvin likes him maybe we can make a deal.'”
The colt went to South Carolina to begin his formal racetrack training, but an injury kept him on the shelf for much of his time there, Greene decided there wasn't room for him in his barn, and Firestone walked away from the arrangement.
Newspapers reported that Tasso's beleaguered owners spent more time trying to shop the horse out for private sale, but at some point, a juvenile has to prove himself on the racetrack to be worth selling. Tasso was placed in the California barn of Neil Drysdale, and he made his debut in May of his 2-year-old season, three months after his trip through the sale ring at Calder.
Tasso quickly cast aside whatever the buying public failed to see in him, winning five of seven starts during his juvenile year. Showing the ability to win from a deep close or a stalking trip in the preceding starts, Tasso earned his first major win in the G1 Del Mar Futurity. The going was much smoother two starts later when he dusted the G2 Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland by six lengths.
The colt was not nominated to the second-ever Breeders' Cup in 1985, but his purse earnings from his Breeders' Futurity rout were just enough to cover the $120,000 late entry fee, ensuring him a spot in the gate at Aqueduct.
Despite coming into the race off an impressive victory, Tasso left the gate in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile as the field's third choice. Everyone looked up to even-money favorite Mogambo, a homebred for Peter Brant who obliterated the G1 Champagne Stakes by 9 3/4 lengths, and beat several of the field's hopefuls in the process.
The betting public's second choice was Storm Cat, a Grade 1 winner who appeared to have the race in hand after a well-placed stalking trip until the very last jump, when Tasso and jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. completed a wide-running closing move to outkick the future superstar sire by a nose. Mogambo never threatened, and ran sixth.
The Breeders' Cup win later clinched Tasso's case for the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old male of 1985.
Tasso wasn't the first graduate of a 2-year-old sale to win a Breeders' Cup race. That honor went to Wild Again, the winner of the inaugural Breeders' Cup Classic, who was an RNA during the 1982 Fasig-Tipton juvenile sale at Calder. However, Tasso's victory was proof of concept that a young horse could go through the ring at a 2-year-olds in training sale and win at the fledgling marquee event just a few months later. The fact that he was essentially unwanted at the sale is just icing on the cake.
Tasso continued to race into his 4-year-old season, but he never won another graded stakes contest after his juvenile season.
He retired to Lane's End in Kentucky for the 1988 breeding season, but he never found significant footing at stud domestically. Tasso finished his stud career in Saudi Arabia at Al Janadriyah Farm, an operation once owned by the late King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz that became a popular stop for visiting U.S. presidents.
