Churchill Downs | Horse Racing Free Tips

Why I Chose To Work With Hisa To Make It The Best It Can Be

by Dr. Sara Langsam

After having read Dr. Thomas Little's Open Letter to the Industry regarding HISA, I thought it was important to share a different voice and perspective. For the last 20 years, I have practiced as a private racetrack practitioner with one of the largest racetrack veterinary practices in the country. I agree with Dr. Little that private veterinary practitioners are a critical component of making sure horses are ready and sound for racing. However, I disagree with his views on HISA and its relationships with private practitioners.

HISA has been a big change for us all. However, I have always firmly believed that horseracing needs uniformity in its rules and regulations. It wasn't easy for veterinarians, or anyone for that matter, to have to adapt to different rules from state to state. Having to consult websites and calling colleagues to double check local rules in a different state was onerous and complicated. It wasn't good for either horses nor horsemen and bred confusion in general. In addition, we need to accept that standards have changed, our social license to operate as a sport is more in jeopardy than ever before. We cannot escape the fact that highly visible fatalities like the ones that took place at Churchill Downs and Saratoga this year put the industry under heavy scrutiny. Therefore, we must show the public that we are always doing the best for the horse. And as practitioners, we are the experts in the room to help the industry minimize equine injuries. We need to come together and help provide solutions. HISA can be a part of that solution.

So while we may not all have been there at the conception of HISA, something like it has been coming on for years. Previous groups have tried and failed to create uniformity and our threatened industry needed some clear direction. I will wholeheartedly agree that HISA is far from perfect, but it has always been described to me by it's stewards as a living and breathing, evolving document. The safety rules are being edited as we speak. I can tell you from first-hand information that numerous private veterinarians, myself included, have been asked to go over the current rules and proposed revisions.

And while our suggestions have not all been taken, they have all been considered. All of the current governing documents, the ADMC rules included, have had public comment periods where private attending veterinarians, along with other people in our industry, have been asked to voice their opinions. If you have a constructive revision they want to hear it. As a group, we are terrible at complaining amongst ourselves but not being productive and taking those complaints and suggestions for improvement to the powers that can change them. In addition, Lisa Lazarus created HISA's Horsemen's Advisory Group almost a year ago. Three private racetrack veterinarians are currently part of the 18-member group. The rest of the group is comprised of owners, trainers and industry executives. She and other members of the HISA board have used this group as a place to discuss issues that have come up as well as rule revisions. We represent the industry and all of us have taken questions and concerns from our fellow horsemen not in the group to the Board and they have listened.

Like I said, HISA is not perfect, but it is the best chance the industry has to guarantee that horseracing is around forever. Its success needs everyone's input, and so I encourage my colleagues to come forward and share constructive suggestions so that we can move forward together instead of dividing ourselves further. I chose to work with HISA to make it the best it can be rather than continue to fight it and then head back to our individual corners where we lived before.

Dr Sara Langsam is a shareholder in TFB Equine and is based out of Belmont Park in New York. She currently is serving as the chair of American Association of Equine Practitioners' (AAEP) Racing Committee and is a member of HISA's Horsemen's Advisory Group.

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Taxed For $50,000? Great Deal For Bahde

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.–Credit owner Richard Bahde with nailing the description of Taxed's (Collected) climb from modest beginnings to a start Saturday in the historic GI Alabama S. at Saratoga Race Course.

“It is a Cinderella story. It's something that doesn't happen very often,” Bahde said. “I'm sure that over time there have been $50,000 claiming horses that have gone on to win graded stakes races, but there's just not that many.”

Veteran trainer Randy Morse claimed the gray filly for Bahde at Churchill Downs on Nov. 20 in her third career start and first in claiming company. She won that race, has since won the GII Black-Eyed Susan and has placed second in a pair of GIII starts.

“When we talked about possibly claiming her, we did a lot of research, of course, looked at her previous two races and just felt like there was something there,” Bahde said. “As it turned out, there was really something there.”

In the 1 1/4 miles $600,000 Alabama for 3-year-old fillies, Taxed will reconnect with a pair of familiar foes: the Godolphin homebred Wet Paint (Blame) and Katsumi Yoshida's Defining Purpose (Cross Traffic).

“Pretty Ironic,” Morse said. “Go all the way to New York and go look at the same horses I was running against all winter at Oaklawn Park.”

Taxed was fourth in Defining Purpose's victory in the Year's End Stakes on Dec. 31, then second to Wet Paint and three-quarters of a length ahead of Defining Purpose in the Martha Washington S. on Jan. 28. Wet Paint won the GIII Honeybee on Feb. 25 with Defining Purpose sixth and Taxed ninth after pressing the pace from her outside post.

Morse watched Taxed fade in the stretch and figured it was time to make a change with the oh-so determined, sometimes rank filly.

“She was just always on the bit too much,” he said.

When Morse suggested to Bahde that they take the blinkers off for the GIII Fantasy on April 1, the Omaha, Neb. resident resisted an experiment in a $600,000 stake.

“I was a little reluctant, quite honestly,” Bahde said. “He said that we've got one last breeze before the Fantasy, let's take those blinkers off for the breeze and see what happens. We did and [jockey Rafael] Bejarano was over the moon. He said, 'What a change. What a change. This horse was far more relaxed and finished so strong.' It was decided right then and there that the blinkers were coming off. She's run, just terrific every race since the blinkers came off.”

“She wants to get into the bit, but she's learned to rate and wait for the signal to go and then she's just full of run. It was a great move by Randy. And I know it's made a big difference.”

Although Wet Paint prevailed in the Fantasy, beating Taxed by 2 1/2 lengths, Morse said that the equipment change has helped transform the filly into a more balanced athlete.

“She's a different horse than she was at Oaklawn, I can tell you that,” he said. “She's, bigger, stronger. She's just mature. She seems like she knows her job now, a lot more so than she did back then.”

Trainer Kenny McPeek took Defining Purpose back to Kentucky where she won Keeneland's GI Ashland by a half-length. She was a well-beaten seventh in the GI Kentucky Oaks on May 5. Wet Paint went straight to the Kentucky Oaks, where she was fourth as the favorite. Taxed tied in points with champion Wonder Wheel for the final berth in the Oaks field, but lost the tie-breaker on earnings and landed on the Oaks also-eligible list. Unlike the Derby, the field stayed intact and she did not draw in.

Two weeks later at Pimlico, Taxed turned in a textbook performance to win the GII Black-Eyed Susan by 3 3/4 lengths over Hoosier Philly. Morse said it was the best race of her career.

After considering the GI Coaching Club American Oaks on July 22 at Saratoga, Morse and Bahde settled on the GIII Indiana Oaks on July 8 at Indiana Grand–an easy ship from Churchill Downs–for Taxed's first start of the summer. She drew the rail in the field of seven and at the end of a frustrating trip under Bejarano was second to Defining Purpose by 1 1/4 lengths.

“She didn't break good and she got boxed in behind horses with a slow pace,” Morse said. “I'm not saying she would have won, but I think if he if he could have got her out it would have been a lot closer race. Put it that way. If you watch the replay, he was trying to get outside. He couldn't even do that. He was just struck.”

By the time Taxed as able to make her run, Defining Purpose and Brian Hernandez Jr. had a safe advantage.

The Black-Eyed Susan at 1 1/8 miles was the longest race of Taxed's career and Morse figures the extra furlong on Saturday is within her range.

“I don't think it'll be a problem. You never know till they do it,” he said. “That's the way she's been training. Her works, she just gallops out strong. She'll never seem to get tired.”

Bejarano will be aboard for the Alabama. Taxed shipped from Kentucky to Saratoga Sunday night.

Bahde has been involved in racing for better than 20 years and he graduated from Nebraska bullrings to major U.S. tracks with Morse handling his stock. The Black-Eyed Susan was his first graded stakes victory. The Alabama will be his first start in a Grade I race anywhere.

Ten years ago, Bahde's Kid Sidney (Lemon Drop Kid) was third in each of his three starts at Saratoga. In recent years, Bahde has sold his beer distribution business and spends his free time managing a small racing stable and some breeding stock. Taxed is taking him back to Saratoga for one of the Spa's marquee events late on a Saturday afternoon in August.

“These are very exciting times,” he said. “You never expect to have a horse this talented, that just seems to be getting better.

“You can't even dream of this when you race sort of in my world, which isn't high-level racing. I don't spend a lot of money at auctions for horses. I try to do it on a budget and to be able to land with a horse like Taxed is really a dream come true.”

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Frank L. Jones, Jr. Succumbs to Long Illness

Frank L. Jones, Jr., a prominent owner, breeder, and servant to the horse industry through decades of work on the boards of several Thoroughbred organizations, passed away Thursday, Aug. 10 after a long illness. The Louisville businessman was 87.

In addition to other roles, Jones spent more than 30 years as the owners' vice president of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA), where he was instrumental in negotiating contracts for owners and trainers with racetracks. He was also chair of the Kentucky HBPA's finance committee and a legislative liaison. He was vice chair of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC), first appointed in 1997 by Gov. Paul Patton, reappointed in 2008 by Gov. Steve Beshear, and appointed again in 2020 by Gov. Andy Beshear. Jones was also a long-time board member and secretary of the Kentucky Racing Health & Welfare Fund, which provides health resources and financial assistance to the Commonwealth's backstretch workers.

Jones was also president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners in 1998-1999 and was a member of the American Horse Council, Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association. Last October he was selected as a member of the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Authority (HISA)'s Horsemen's Advisory Group. He was honored with the Warner Jones Award, which recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to Kentucky racing, in 2019.

“The Kentucky horse racing and breeding industry wouldn't be in the strong position it is in today without the passion, commitment, and leadership of Frank Jones, Jr.,” said Churchill Downs CEO Bill Carstanjen. “From his meaningful contribution to the Kentucky HBPA to his impact on the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and as past president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners, our sport and community lost a dear friend and tremendous advocate, and we at Churchill Downs lost a valued partner. He will be greatly missed, and our thoughts are with his family and countless number of friends and colleagues during this difficult time.”

Born in Louisville in 1937, Jones attended Western Kentucky University and spent time in the U.S. Air Force. A variety of savvy business dealings, including in swimming pool equipment and supplies, led to him being nominated as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 1989 and 1990. However, it was a chance encounter with trainer Jerry Romans, Sr. that led to his decades in the horse industry. He bought his first horse in 1968 for $1,500 and exclusively used Romans and his son, Dale, as trainers. He was leading owner at the spring meets at Churchill Downs in 1989, 1990, 1992, and 1995. The star of his stable was Tapitsfly (Tapit), who won the inaugural Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, as well as the GI Just a Game S. and GI First Lady S. Jones sold the filly in 2012 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale for $1.85 million to Katsumi Yoshida.

A number of industry leaders released statements as news spread of Jones's passing Thursday. Among them were KHRC Chairman Jonathan Rabinowitz, who said, “The passing of Frank Jones is a huge loss for not only his family and friends, but the entire horse racing industry. As a valuable member and vice-chairman of the KHRC Commission and secretary of the Kentucky Racing Health and Welfare Fund, he used his voice to elevate other horsemen, serving and providing guidance to backstretch workers who cannot afford medical assistance on their own. We have all lost a great friend who will be dearly missed.”

Jones is survived by his wife, Nancy Delony Jones, to whom he has been married four years. His first wife, Gloria Jones, passed away after 58 years of marriage. Arrangements are pending.

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Fall MSW Purses At Churchill ($120k), Keeneland ($100k) To Be Level With ’22 Money

Both Churchill Downs ($120,000) and Keeneland Race Course ($100,000) are projecting maiden special weight (MSW) purses this autumn to be level with the money paid out at the same meets in 2022.

Those figures were revealed by representatives of the two tracks Thursday during a meeting of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory committee.

The Churchill MSW purses for this year's two fall meets (Sep. 14-Oct. 1 and Oct. 29-Nov. 26) have been unchanged since 2020.

In 2020, Churchill offered split MSW purse values in September-$97,000 during the pandemic-rescheduled GI Kentucky Derby week, then $75,000 for the balance of that month. In November 2020, Churchill's MSW races were $85,000.

Keeneland's fall meet this year spans Oct. 6-28. The MSW races there were worth $84,000 back in 2021. In 2020 they were $70,000 after the track lost the entire April meet to COVID-19 and instead ran during July.

The KTDF is funded by three-quarters of 1% of all money wagered on both live Thoroughbred races and historical horse race (HHR) gaming, plus 2% of all money wagered on Thoroughbred races via inter-track wagering and whole-card simulcasting.

The KTDF advisory committee approved the recommendation of the fall meet allotment requests that the Churchill and Keeneland MSW purse estimates were based on. The full Kentucky Horse Racing Commission still has to vote on final approval of that funding.

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