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After Gmax Tweaks, Del Mar Expects ‘No Problems With Turf Timing’

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club (DMTC) president Josh Rubinstein told the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) Sept. 24 that he expects the track will no longer have to rely on hand-timing turf races at its upcoming fall meet because its inaccurate Equibase Gmax GPS timing system has since been tweaked to fix problems that produced numerous wrong clockings throughout the summer season.

TDN reported back on Aug. 18 that some dirt and turf final times at Del Mar were mis-clocked anywhere between .07 seconds and 1.19 seconds by the industry’s official data-keeper during an August portion of the meet. Those times—initially derived from global positioning metrics—were retroactively hand-clocked, adjusted, and reposted as official without any public disclosure of the corrections.

In an Aug. 20 statement, Equibase acknowledged “inconsistencies” in its Del Mar turf clockings, but said its dirt timings were “highly accurate.”

At that time, Equibase also stated that its Del Mar chart callers would utilize hand-clockings for turf races for the remainder of the meet, which wrapped up Sept. 7.

The Gmax system had just been installed prior to the July-September season. It’s used at 11 other North America racetracks.

“On the turf, when rail positions were moved, there were some challenges,” Rubinstein said Thursday in response to a direct question about the accuracy of the Gmax system from CHRB vice chair Oscar Gonzales.

“So when we discovered the issue we hand-timed our turf races for the final week and a half [of the meet],” Rubinstein continued. “And [since] the conclusion of the summer meet, over the last two weeks, our turf course is being re-surveyed digitally. And that [data] will be installed into the new Gmax GPS system.

“We expect no problems with turf timing through the GPS system this fall,” Rubinstein emphasized.

“The main track was terrific,” Rubinstein added. “All of the [dirt] GPS times checked out with our backup hand-timed system.”

Gmax debuted in North America 2018. But problems date to at least 2019, when early-adopter Laurel Park discontinued its usage of the system for a period because of inaccuracies, according to an article earlier this month in The Racing Biz.

CHRB commissioners did not press DMTC officials any further on the issue on Thursday after Rubinstein’s assertion that the upcoming meet would be timed problem-free.

The Del Mar fall meet will span 15 race dates from Oct. 31-Nov. 29.

Tom Robbins, DMTC’s executive vice president for racing and industry relations, said stabling will open Oct. 25, with the main track open for training the next morning.

“Unlike the summer meet, where we usually stable around 1,900 horses, the fall meet is largely a ship-in meet with about 350 to 400 horses stabled on-site,” Robbins said.

Last week DMTC announced a 10% overnight purse hike compared to the same autumn meet last season. The reason cited was increased handle revenue.

Robbins also noted that “because of better-than expected business from the summer meet, four stakes races that appear in our license application at reduced levels [the GI Hollywood Debry, GI Matriarch S., GII Seabiscuit H., and GII Hollywood Turf Cup] have been restored to their previous levels.”

With regard to the purse hike, DMTC racing secretary David Jerkens said that “in today’s climate, with many tracks that are cutting back across the country, this is an accomplishment.”

Alan Balch, executive director of the California Thoroughbred Trainers, asked the CHRB to extend the previous race-meet agreement for Del Mar even though one isn’t currently in place, as is required for the track’s licensure.

“We’ve made ourselves available for further conversations and negotiations so we can try to get this resolved,” Balch said of the necessary contract. “But I would want to take this opportunity [to] express the trainers’ appreciation for [track management’s] continued efforts to improve the conditions at Del Mar.

Balch, in particular, lauded Del Mar’s “Ship and Win” bonus program.

“They’ve constantly monitored the objective data, and I just want to emphasize the point [that this bonus program] benefits all of California racing, and it’s critically important [to bringing] more horses to California.”

The CHRB unanimously voted to give Del Mar the go-ahead for its fall meet.

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Stewards’ Hearing On Justify’s 2018 Santa Anita Derby Continued To Oct. 29

A stewards' hearing of a complaint seeking disqualification of Justify from the 2018 Santa Anita Derby has been postponed from its original date of Sept. 20 to Oct. 29. A spokesman for the California Horse Racing Board told the Paulick Report Wednesday that parties needed more time to prepare.

The CHRB voted during a closed session Aug. 20 to proceed with the complaint, which seeks disqualification of the horse and redistribution of the purse based on a laboratory finding of scopolamine. The Board determined at that time not to file a complaint against trainer Bob Baffert, citing evidence that the positive was likely a result of environmental contamination from Jimsonweed.

The hearing is part of a settlement agreement between the CHRB and Ruis Racing, owner of Bolt d'Oro, who ran second behind Justify in the Santa Anita Derby. Ruis Racing had sued the CHRB over its handling of the Justify case, which a New York Times story revealed was dismissed behind closed doors with no public announcement of the post-race finding.

Officials have since indicated that other horses also tested positive post-race for scopolamine, supporting their conclusion that Jimsonweed may have appeared in a shipment of hay delivered to the backstretch ahead of the race.

Learn more about Jimsonweed from this informational bulletin distributed by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium.

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Failure Of Stewards’ Checks And Balances To Blame For Wrong Order Of Finish At Golden Gate

A disruption in the system of checks and balances between racing officials is to blame for a strange incident at Golden Gate Fields Sept. 7 in which the incorrect order of finish was posted and made official for roughly 15 minutes before being corrected.

Initially, stewards posted the order as 5-2-3-4, when in reality it should have been 5-3-2-4, the difference lying in a photo for second place between #2 Blues Rapper and #3 Hold Me Close. A note from steward Richard Lewis published on the California Horse Racing Board website stated Lewis “spoke with the placing judges, who called the 2 as the place horse and 3 as show finisher. I misread the photo picture as well.”

Lewis admitted he failed to have fellow stewards Will Meyers and Dennis Nevin review the photo. At the same time as the outriders gave Lewis the “all clear” signal after the race, Meyers was telling Nevin to pull #5 Herdsman and #2 Blues Rapper (the second betting choice) for testing. As Lewis was listening to Meyers' suggestions on test horses, he looked at the tote board, which indicated the 5 and 2 were the top two finishers, and gave the go-ahead to make the race official.

Nevin had been checking with Equibase chartcallers to see if the #4 Arc Nation, who finished last in the four-horse field, had officially been eased when he heard the photo operator reading out the finish. When he realized the mistake, he immediately notified Lewis and Meyers and contacted the mutuels department to put a hold on the system until the issue could be sorted out.

According to Golden Gate announcer Matt Dinerman, he was instructed to let the public know horseplayers who had the correct order of finish would be paid out for exactas, trifectas and place wagers.

California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) spokesman Mike Marten reported that $528.40 was paid out on the incorrect order of finish to horseplayers cashing tickets in person at California brick and mortar betting locations before the error was caught. In the case of advance deposit wagering (ADW) monies, one company told Marten ADWs were responsible for removing incorrectly-cashed amounts from customers' accounts.

It remains unclear whether Lewis could face disciplinary action for the error.

“After gathering all of the information the CHRB will determine whether any action is appropriate with respect to the racing officials involved,” Marten said.

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CHRB to Seek DQ of Justify from 2018 SA Derby

The win by scopolamine-positive Justify in the 2018 running of the GI Santa Anita Derby is now going to come under official administrative scrutiny by the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB). But Bob Baffert, the trainer of the eventual undefeated Triple Crown winner, will not have a CHRB complaint lodged against him “due to substantial evidence that the scopolamine resulted from environmental contamination from jimson weed,” the CHRB stated in a Wednesday press release.

As part of a negotiated settlement stemming from a lawsuit filed against the CHRB by the owner/trainer of Bolt d’Oro, the runner-up horse in the 2018 Santa Anita Derby, the CHRB voted during a closed session Aug. 20 to reverse its previous course of no action and to proceed with a complaint seeking the disqualification of Justify and the redistribution of the purse from that stakes.

The CHRB has set a Sep. 20 stewards’ hearing date at Santa Anita Park to begin the complaint adjudication process. Left unanswered at this point–and possibly unanswerable at all–is what might happen to Justify’s subsequent Triple Crown race victories if Justify gets DQ’d from the Santa Anita Derby. Had Justify not finished among the top two finishers in that GI Kentucky Derby points-qualifying race at Santa Anita Apr. 7, 2018, he would not have made the cutoff for entry into the Kentucky Derby. And if he doesn’t get to enter and win the Derby, he certainly wouldn’t have been in the running for the Triple Crown. With regard to that question of eligibility, CHRB spokesperson Mike Marten wrote in an email: “In California, eligibility is determined at the time of the race. In this case, however, the [Kentucky Horse Racing Commission] would be in the best position to make [any Kentucky Derby eligibility] determination. The CHRB is not seeking any disqualification beyond the Santa Anita Derby.”

Darrell Vienna, the attorney for plaintiff Mick Ruis (Ruis Racing LLC), told TDN that he is pleased with the CHRB’s executive session vote to move ahead with a hearing. He added that seeking punishment for Baffert or having Justify stripped of his status as a Triple Crown winner was never the intent of his client’s litigation.

“This is what we’ve been fighting for,” Vienna said. “We had never sought to have [the CHRB] file a complaint against Mr. Baffert for anything. We just weren’t privy to those facts.

What we were privy to is the fact that the horse tested positive for a Class 3/Penalty B substance, which requires automatic disqualification.”

Vienna has consistently cited CHRB rule 1859.5, which requires forfeiture of the purse and disqualification of a horse that tests positive for a class 1-3 prohibited substance regardless of the trainer’s responsibility.

“The key terms [of the settlement agreement] were simply that there would be a complaint filed and a hearing with regard to the potential forfeiture and disqualification of the winner,” Vienna said. “All we were ever asking for was a hearing. We weren’t asking for an outcome. We were asking for a process.”

TDN reached Baffert on his mobile phone Wednesday, but he didn’t want to speak about the CHRB’s decision, deferring to his attorney for comment.

“Craig Robertson III, the lawyer who represents Baffert, said “We’re very disappointed and surprised at the action that the CHRB is taking. We don’t think that it has any legal basis whatsoever, and we intend on fully fighting it. We’re contemplating those options right now. There are a number of different avenues that could be pursued, including the courts. But we haven’t made a final decision in terms of which avenue we’re going to pursue.”

Although Justify has been the focal point of the case since the story of his post-race positive test (and the CHRB’s alleged dragging-out over how to handle the results) belatedly broke in September 2019, another Baffert trainee, Hoppertunity, is also going to be the subject of a CHRB hearing over his own scopolamine positive.

“The CHRB is seeking the disqualification of Hoppertunity, winner of the [GIII] Tokyo City Cup S. at Santa Anita on April 8, 2018, and the redistribution of that purse based on laboratory findings that his post-race sample for that race tested positive for scopolamine,” the CHRB release stated. “While not the subject of current litigation, this medication positive was similar to the one involving Justify.”

Baffert has consistently denied that he has ever intentionally administered scopolamine to any of his horses.

A CHRB supporting document emailed to TDN by Marten stated: “The decision to file a complaint against a trainer for a medication positive is discretionary for the CHRB…In certain instances, where environmental contamination occurred, the CHRB has chosen not to file such complaints. Examples of medications often associated with environmental contamination where the CHRB has elected not to file trainer complaints are scopolamine and zilpatero..”

“We determined that the cause of the positives in the Justify and Hoppertunity matters were environmental contamination,” the release continued. “In the last few months, the CHRB did file several trainer complaints alleging scopolamine positives in post-race samples, but recommended, and the stewards issued, warnings based on those violations. Given that the Justify and Hoppertunity positives occurred over two years ago and at most the CHRB would only seek a warning, the CHRB chooses not to file complaints against Mr. Baffert in these matters.”

TDN asked Marten to clarify whether the CHRB’s executive-session votes on these matters were unanimous. He replied via email that “Any action by the Board in closed session requires at least four approvals. As for the breakdown of the voting among the six commissioners, we will need to check with counsel to determine whether that is public information.”

TDN also wanted to know if the CHRB would have undertaken a review of the Justify case had it not been for the pending litigation. Marten wrote back that “The CHRB cannot speculate on a hypothetical question about what the commissioners might have done.”

On July 24, when news broke that Ruis reached an agreement in principle with the CHRB regarding a settlement of his pending litigation in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Vienna told TDN that the agreement would be “in exchange for the dismissal of the entire litigation,” including any possible damages.

Court records indicate that on Aug. 4, both parties jointly petitioned the court to have an upcoming Sep. 4 hearing continued to a future date “because the parties are currently engaged in settlement negotiations.” That request was granted, and the judge in the case set the next court date for Feb. 5, 2021.

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