California | Horse Racing Free Tips

Proposed Berkeley City Council Ordinance Threat To Golden Gate Fields

A proposed Berkeley City Council ordinance has been introduced that, if passed into law, would put Golden Gate Fields' future in serious jeopardy.

The proposed ordinance makes it illegal to keep a horse stabled for more than 10 hours a day and requires that every horse has access to a minimum of one-half acre pasture turnout.

While reaffirming state and federal laws surrounding animal abuse and cruelty, the proposed ordinance also makes it a crime to conduct training and racing under a “reasonable expectation” that it could substantially injure or harm the animal.

“Such reasonable belief would be based upon substantial evidence, which may include, without limitation, the animal's physical condition, indicia of pain or suffering, musculoskeletal limitations, age or other relevant factors,” the ordinance states.

“Obviously we're concerned,” said Craig Fravel, chief executive officer at 1/ST Racing and Gaming, a company under The Stronach Group (TSG) umbrella, which owns Golden Gate Fields.

Fravel said that he was alerted to the ordinance on Friday. As such, TSG has not yet had a chance to conduct a legal analysis of the ordinance, or to plot a clear response, he said.

“I'm not going to over-react at this point, and just try to be constructive in our approach,” said Fravel. “There will be some time to engage and I think educate people on our safety record and our protocols and efforts that we go through.”

The proposed ordinance, introduced by Berkeley City councilmember Kate Harrison, has been referred to the Council Health and Life Enrichment Committee for hearings. The ordinance would need a recommendation from the committee before being taken up by the Berkeley City Council.

Harrison declined an interview, saying that she was on vacation. Harrison added, however, that she would discuss the proposed ordinance when committee discussions begin.

The nine-page proposed ordinance is specifically focused on horseracing and excludes other facilities within city limits where animals are housed, including animal rescue and adoption agencies.

It makes, however, several glaring misrepresentations and distortions of the Thoroughbred racing industry. This includes an erroneous suggestion that Thoroughbred racehorses, on average, live to only three to five years of age.

“Many fatalities in horseracing are euthanizations after horses suffer catastrophic injuries, cutting their lives unnaturally short,” the ordinance states. “When CBS Bay Area reported on the most recent horse death at GGF in May of this year it cited the fact that 'live into their 30s, but the average age of is [only] three to five years old.'”

The ordinance also states that “horse deaths continue to rise at the horse racing tracks within City limits.”

According to the Jockey Club Equine Injury Database, race-day equine fatalities are declining nationwide. Last year saw the lowest statistical equine fatality rate since 2009, when record keeping began–1.29 fatalities per 1000 starts.

When it comes to Golden Gate Fields, the track's equine fatality rate has been consistently below the national average since 2017. Last year, the rate was 0.56 fatalities per 1000 starts–a number less than half the national average.

“I'd like to push back pretty solidly against some of the suppositions,” said Scott Chaney, executive director of the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB), who added that the CHRB is “aware and certainly concerned” about the ordinance.

Golden Gate Fields | Vassar Photography

“Fatalities are not on the rise at Golden Gate Fields. The opposite is true,” said Chaney. “And while it is true that racehorses generally race from three to five, that is not their average life expectancy.”

The ordinance argues that the City of Berkeley, a charter city, has the legal authority to “establish regulations” and the jurisdiction to “protect and promote the public health, safety and welfare by establishing safeguards for animals” as long as those regulations don't conflict with state and federal law.

“It is in the public interest to adopt an ordinance prohibiting inhumane or abusive treatment of animals held, owned, used, exhibited or otherwise kept for sport, entertainment or profit within the City limits,” the ordinance states.

Chaney is less sure of the city's ability to establish such a law. “I believe that there would be some major legal hurdles in attempting to pass such a thing,” said Chaney.

He added, however, that the CHRB hasn't yet conducted a thorough legal analysis of the proposed ordinance to identify what those legal obstacles might be.

One possible hurdle would presumably concern how Golden Gate Fields straddles two adjacent cities, Berkeley and Albany.

The ordinance outlines a set of tough penalties, beginning with minimum fines of $5,000 per animal, per violation, per day, or imprisonment for periods between 30 days and one year.

In explanation of the proposed requirement to provide racehorses access to open pastures for a good portion of the day, the ordinance argues that how colic, laminitis, and pleuropneumonia are issues worsened by excessive confinement.

“Confining a 1200-pound animal to a 12×12 stall is akin to confining an elephant to a box car or a killer whale to a swimming pool. Equine veterinarian, Dr. Kraig Kulikowski, compared this to locking a child in a 4×4 closet for 23 hours a day, abuse punishable by law,” the ordinance states.

In recent years, Golden Gate Fields has found itself the target of animal rights activists.

In March of 2021, protestors disrupted racing by running onto the track before lying in a circle with interlocking pipes.

The protestors belonged to animal rights organization, Direct Action Everywhere, which seeks to see Golden Gate Fields shut down.

The post Proposed Berkeley City Council Ordinance Threat To Golden Gate Fields appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Does HISA Remedy CHRB, VMB Turf War?

The ongoing stand-off between California's Veterinary Medical Board (VMB) and the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) has amounted to a regulatory turf war over California's backstretch veterinarians.

So far, the state's VMB has flexed its primacy, issuing dozens of records requests and, in a number of instances, complaints against vets within this colony. The highest profile such case concerned a settlement last year with CHRB equine medical director, Jeff Blea.

In that settlement, the VMB issued Blea a fine of more than $130,000, required him to undergo continuing education classes and placed him on probation–this, for issues that a consensus of prominent equine veterinarians said amounted largely to relatively minor record keeping violations, those typically resulting in just fines.

At the crux of the interagency dispute is this question: To whose set of rules should California's racetrack vets adhere? The VMB's rules built around the California Veterinary Medicine Practice Act, or the CHRB's own set of regulations?

This is a crucial question for the vets with complaints issued against them as the VMB is often seeking punitive actions for veterinary practices that are permitted under the CHRB's rule book.

This means that if a veterinarian settles their case with the VMB and returns to work under a probation order, they face potentially serious consequences–the loss of a license even–for breaching the VMB's standards of equine care, all the while abiding by the CHRB's rule of law.

But given federal preemption of state law, does the advent of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) anti-doping and medication control program (ADMC)–now set for launch later this month–change the dynamic of this regulatory impasse by becoming the ultimate arbiter of backstretch veterinary practice?

The answer is not altogether clear.

According to wording of the act, “HISA rules preempt State laws or regulations with respect to matters within the jurisdiction of HISA,” wrote Monica Vargas, a spokesperson for the Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the VMB.

In other words, HISA preempts state law only to the rules written into its books. The HISA Authority–the broad non-profit umbrella established by the act–takes a similar stance.

“The Act states that HISA rules preempt state law and regulations on the particular matters that the HISA rules address. In other words, if no HISA rule has been promulgated on a particular matter, a State is free to continue regulating it,” wrote a HISA spokesperson.

Scott Chaney | CHRB Photo

According to CHRB executive director, Scott Chaney, the broader matter of racetrack veterinary oversight is therefore far from resolved, with the advent of HISA meaning that California's backstretch vets are now essentially subject to three main regulatory bodies–the CHRB's rules still applying when neither HISA nor the VMB's rules are applicable.

“To me, this is the worst of all worlds–some areas preempted by HISA and other areas not,” said Chaney.

Craig Robertson, outside counsel for the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), also views the issue through muddy legal waters.

“If HISA speaks on a subject, it's intended to be pre-emptive. But you're likely to get into arguments about whether a specific subject is one that HISA speaks on and then preempts or not,” Robertson said. “I just don't think it is going to be black and white.”

As such, Robertson said that he is gearing up for a slew of lawsuits around the country, seeking to define who has ultimate jurisdiction over what when it comes to backstretch veterinary practice.

“There's enough grey area and nuance that I think it's going to make for creative lawyering for people like me to be able to argue various sides of these particular issues,” Robertson added.

Among some of the areas of conflict between the VMB and the CHRB that HISA appears to have resolved concerns drug administration.

This includes the use of what the VMB terms “dangerous drugs”–like the ubiquitously administered sedative acepromazine–and the use of non-FDA approved compounded medications like dantrolene, used on horses that tie-up.

Though the use of compounded medications are a standard practice in veterinary medicine, the CHRB's own Rule 1867 (b) has long stated that “the possession and/or use on the premises of a facility under the jurisdiction of the Board of any drug, substance or medication that has not been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in the United States.”

The medical board has interpreted that rule categorically, detailing in complaints how no compounded drugs are FDA approved for use on CHRB licensed grounds, even if compounded from FDA approved parent drugs.

This prompted a recent CHRB emergency rule modification changing the language of the rule to permit awfully prescribed, compounded medications manufactured to federal and state guidelines.

Furthermore, the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit–the arm of HISA charged with rolling out its ADMC program–has issued its lists of controlled and banned substances, making clear which drugs are permitted for use in covered horses and when. HIWU's controlled substances list includes medications like dantrolene and acepromazine.

“HISA obviously talks about medications and the treatment of horses,” confirmed Robertson.

HISA also has a provision that says, “the administration of medications and treatment methods to covered horses should be based upon an examination and diagnosis,” Robertson added.

This leads onto another backbone of the VMB's complaints against California's backstretch veterinary community: Alleged problems with their record keeping and with their veterinarian-client-patient relationships (VCPR), which covers a vet's familiarity with an animal before diagnosing and treating a medical condition.

According to the VMB, multiple California veterinarians have allegedly failed to establish an appropriate VCPR before administering, prescribing, dispensing, or furnishing medications and other medical treatments to the horses in their care.

In this regard, several equine veterinary experts have argued that the VMB has misconstrued the basic nature of backstretch veterinary practice, mistakenly substituting common standards of care around small animal practice for that in large animal practice, including herd animals.

Once again, HISA law appears to preempt the state in these matters, with statutory language covering both veterinary record keeping and the VCPR.

Indeed, “Any HISA regulation that requires veterinary records to be provided to the Authority preempts any state law that would require client consent for the veterinary records to be provided,” confirmed a HISA spokesperson.

But grey areas remain. For one, HISA fails to establish a clear set of protocols around some of the more nuanced aspects of general equine veterinary care, such as the prophylactic administration of medications, along with the use of certain medical procedures like endoscopies (otherwise known as “scoping”), said Chaney.

“The harder cases are when it comes to standard of care and quote, un-quote negligence,” said Chaney. “I can imagine the vet' med' board still wanting or believing that they regulate in that space, and with good reason. But given how HISA is dancing around those issues, has that space been preempted? I think that's murky.”

Equally murky, it seems, is whether the California VMB will unilaterally pursue disciplinary actions against licensees who are sanctioned by HISA for HISA rule violations.

According to HISA, the VMB is prohibited from taking that course of action under specific circumstances.

“The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act dictates that, now that HISA's Anti-Doping and Medication Control regulations have been approved by the FTC, HISA preempts any state agency from taking enforcement, investigation or disciplinary actions with respect to medication administration by a veterinarian regulated by the Authority in connection with a Covered Horse,” wrote a HISA spokesperson.

The VMB on the other hand appears to view that door as being much wider ajar.

Vargas wrote how under California's Business and Professions Code, the VMB may “discipline a Board licensee on the grounds of conviction of a charge of violating any federal statutes or rule regulating dangerous drugs or controlled substances or a violation of any federal statute, rule, or regulation regulating dangerous drugs or controlled substances.”

In addition, the same code authorizes the VMB “to take disciplinary action against a Board-licensee on the grounds of disciplinary action taken by any agency of the federal government for any act substantially related to the practice regulated by the Board. Each disciplinary matter involving a Board licensee would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine whether formal disciplinary action should be taken,” Vargas added.

To help realign the regulatory disconnect between agencies overseeing backstretch vets, the VMB established last year an equine practice subcommittee.

Respected equine veterinarian, Barrie Grant, was also recently appointed to the VMB, remedying what had hitherto been a noticeable void of equine expertise on the board.

Still, the ongoing legal uncertainty surrounding backstretch veterinary practice in California is making it a shaky enterprise, said Chaney.

“How can one not be concerned given what's happened over the last year and a half and given overlapping jurisdiction,” said Chaney. “At the end of the day, your regulations and rules have to be clear.”

All this prognosticating on jurisdictional authority, however, might prove premature if HISA is quashed in the courts, warned Robertson.

“Obviously, there's a big question as to whether or not HISA will survive legal challenge,” Robertson said.

“And if you get past that, the next question would be: What form does HISA look like if it survives legal challenge?” Robertson added. “Is it in its current form, or will the courts say that certain parts of it are non-enforceable or somehow limited in some way?”

The post Does HISA Remedy CHRB, VMB Turf War? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Earning Their Stripes: Dan Blacker

Last year, we conducted a popular Q and A series called 'Smaller But Still Super,' where we featured veteran trainers who have built a competitive racing stable with relatively small numbers (click here to view the archive). This year, we will highlight trainers who have already cut their teeth as novice trainers, but now have a few years of experience under their belt and are looking to make a name for themselves as they grow their stable. We'll talk about the challenges that come with hanging out your single, advice for trainers setting out on their own, how the incoming class of young trainers differs from previous generations and more.

Dan Blacker said he always knew that he wanted to be a trainer. His first job was with British jump racing champion trainer Nicky Henderson and he spent school holidays riding out in his native England and in France. But it wasn't until a trip to the U. S. during the Godolphin Flying Start program that he fell in love with the racetrack way of life.

As part of the Flying Start program, the horseman spent time learning from Richard Mandella and he returned to work for the Hall of Fame trainer in 2007.

After working under Mandella for two years, Blacker spent two years with Tom Albertrani on the East Coast. In 2011, he jumped at the opportunity to launch his own stable.

Since then, Blacker has made a name for himself within the training ranks in California. Last year he not only reached 100 career wins, but he also celebrated his best season yet with 16 wins on the year and over $880,000 in earnings.

Blacker's name has long been associated with his leading earner Hit the Road (Medaglia d'Oro). After going through the ring unsold during Book 1 of the 2018 Keeneland September Sale, Hit the Road was picked out by Blacker and associate Craig (Boomer) Rounsefell for $160,000. Hit the Road took Blacker to his first Breeders' Cup at two and then gave his conditioner his first Grade I victory as a 3-year-old in the 2021 Frank E. Kilroe Mile S.

How did you ultimately take the plunge in going out on your own?

Jamie Lloyd, a bloodstock agent in England now, was training here in California and he was going back to England. He asked me if I wanted to start up, but I wasn't sure if I was ready financially. But Jamie got me a few owners and I started with three horses.

I had met Gary Stevens when I was working in France for Jonathan Pease. When I was starting out, Gary had just finished training. I asked if I could borrow some equipment. He told me to go to this container in Sierra Madra and take whatever I needed. I opened it up and grabbed two saddles, some webbings, all the stuff I needed, and took it back to Hollywood Park. I went and got my first three horses from Jamie and then found two grooms and asked if they wanted to work for me. I didn't have a whole lot of money, but thankfully I had some friends who helped me get going.

We've built it up from there and now 10 years later, we have 30 horses.

Blacker got to spend plenty of time with future supersire Into Mischief during his time with Richard Mandella | Horsephotos

What was the biggest challenge in those first few years as you were getting started?

The first major challenge is going from an assistant to a head trainer. As an assistant, you always have an idea of how you want to do things when you're the boss. You take a piece of the routine from everyone you work for and then formulate your own routine that's unique to you. So you have this idea in your head, but then when you do take the plunge, it's a massive difference when you don't have that person to ask what to do. You're the person that has to make the decisions for everything and ultimately if something doesn't work out, you're the one that has to answer to it with the owners. You never really deal with owners when you're an assistant, but when you go out on your own, all of a sudden you have all this responsibility. There are a lot of things you don't think about when you're an assistant that you now have to do on a day-to-day basis.

You have to learn to wear many hats. You have to be a good communicator, a good horseman and you have to be good with finances. I started my business having no real background in running a business and I had to learn as I went. I opened a QuickBooks program and started learning.

Is there anything the industry as a whole should do to make it easier for trainers starting out?

That's what is really unique about America. It's one of the best places for young trainers to start without a huge amount of financial backing. Back home in England, it's so hard to get going as a trainer. You need a lot of financial backing because you need your own private yard. Here you can have three horses and three stalls and away you go.

In general, I think young people in America are given opportunities much more readily, especially compared to where I'm from back home in England. I think Americans in general are much more open to giving young people a chance if you prove that you work hard and you're passionate about what you do. You don't need a well-known last name and it doesn't matter what you look like. If you have a bit of success, people will give you a chance.

I think the finances are the hardest point. Running a business in any industry takes a lot of planning. I was really winging it in the beginning and it would have been nice to have some sort of guidance in terms of setting up a viable business.

What do you think makes your stable or your training style unique?

We really focus on individual routines for each horse when it comes to training and feed.

We put a lot of emphasis on communication. We send out weekly updates. We film every workout and send workout reports. Most of my owners are not local, so it's great for them to be able to see the works. I think that's one of the most important things. It's why we're here. If I can get the owners more involved with the process of getting a horse ready for a race, I think I'm doing my job. The more you can get them involved, I think the more they enjoy it and the more likely they are to be longtime owners.

I like to think that in terms of training horses, I can train any type of horse. I know I have a British accent but ironically, my statistics are actually a little bit better on the dirt just because we've had a run of decent dirt horses lately. I worked for Richard Mandella and he has won Grade I races on every distance on every surface. I hope that one day I can get close to his kind of record.

Hit the Road gives Blacker his first Grade I victory in the 2021 Frank E. Kilroe Mile | Benoit

What was the main takeaway from your time working for Richard Mandella?

There are so many different things I learned from him that I still think about today. He's the best horseman I've ever been around.

The main thing would be attention to detail and really focusing on each horse. Training a horse is not just about what they're doing on the track. It's their whole life–how they behave in the barn, how they behave in the paddock, how they're eating. The whole package of a horse's life can impact the outcome of a race.

As assistants for Mandella, we spent our entire time in the barn watching how they were behaving. It was about all the little things that I don't think a lot of people think about. Winning and losing is a matter of inches sometimes, so for Mandella it was about trying to tweak these horses and their routines to gain every kind of advantage.

What is something that this incoming generation of trainers does better or different than previous generations?

The obvious one is communication. There is a lot more emphasis on communication these days.

In terms of training, I think training horses has evolved everywhere around the world. There is a lot of talk about how horses race less often than they used to. I think it's a combination of many different things at play. Maybe the breed has been bred over generations to run faster and possibly the breed might have become tougher to keep sound. But more likely, with statistics and numbers being analyzed more these days, trainers have been able to see that horses run better with more time between races. When you're spacing out races more, horses tend to run bigger and have better performances. If you're running against a trainer that spaces his races out, you're going to be at a disadvantage.

That's not always the case. You can get a horse that runs well every two weeks. But statistically on the whole, I think that trainers have learned over the years that horses run a much bigger race when the races are more spread out. It's difficult to compete with the guys that do that unless you're doing the same thing, so I think it's just the way that training styles have developed over the years.

Could you tell us a bit about the Keeneland Files you did with Boomer Bloodstock? Will we see those again this year?

I really owe all of that to Vicky Leonard and Boomer [Craig Rounsefell]. They came up with the idea and I was just along for the ride. I was a little skeptical at first as I'm not one to jump in front of the camera. But once we got going, I realized that what they were trying to achieve was great and it was crazy how much positive feedback we got from it. So many people were coming up and saying how much they loved the videos. If it can shed some light on the process that we go through with buying horses, then I think we're doing our job. Boomer really does his homework leading up to it and in the videos you can see how much work he puts in. I had some calls afterwards and people were interested in coming in, so I think we definitely got some new partners from it.

Who is your favorite horse that you've trained?

That's a pretty easy one–Hit the Road (More Than Ready).

He had some minor injuries after the Pegasus last year so we gave him some time off. He has come back and was a bit disappointing, but after his last race a splint bone became inflamed so we've been going easy with him recently. This will be his last year of training. Hopefully we will have him back to the races before Del Mar this summer.

I genuinely believe he deserves a shot as a stallion. He has a great pedigree, he was precocious and he has always had a great mind. As a trainer, those are the kind of horses I want to train. He had a spotty racing career, but that was mostly due to the pandemic. He really has everything that I would hope to have in a racehorse. He's so competitive and he's won a stakes race at two, three and four. I hope he gets a chance to be a stallion because has all the attributes you look for in a racehorse.

Is there an up-and-coming horse in your barn that we should know about?

A horse called Arrowthegreat (Arrogate). He ran second in a straight maiden last summer at Del Mar. After a little issue we ran him back and he was a bit disappointing here last month, but was really sick after the race. He's a really beautiful horse and I have high hopes for him for the second half of the year. He'll be getting back on the work tab next week.

We have some exciting 2-year-olds arriving soon, including one by Good Magic. We've heard good reports about him from Ocala.

If you aren't at the racetrack, what can you be found doing?

I have three daughters. I spend a lot of time with them. They're all active in softball and soccer.

What is your favorite restaurant to go to after celebrating a win?

My wife [TVG host Christina Blacker] and I like to go out and try new places. There's a good one in Pasadena, a new Italian place called Piccolo. But all you Breeders' Cup people, don't be taking up my reservations.

The post Earning Their Stripes: Dan Blacker appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

With Rain Ongoing, Santa Anita Cancels Friday Racing

Due to ongoing inclement weather, Santa Anita has cancelled their Friday race card. Track officials said racing will continue as scheduled on Saturday and Sunday. Santa Anita will add a race day next week to make up for the cancellation. The track remains open for simulcasting on Friday.

The post With Rain Ongoing, Santa Anita Cancels Friday Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post