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NYRA To Honor Late Bruce Johnstone On Whitney Day

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) announced Wednesday that it will honor the legacy of Bruce Johnstone during Whitney Day on Saturday, August 7 at Saratoga Race Course.

NYRA will honor the late horseman by bestowing the “Bruce Johnstone Best Turned Out Horse Award” to the groom of the horse deemed by NYRA racing officials to be best presented in the paddock ahead of the Grade 1, $500,000 Longines Test. The winning groom will receive a $150 gift card.

Johnstone, who passed at age 76 on February 6, 2020 following a lengthy battle against cancer, transitioned from a successful career as a trainer to management at NYRA, where he spent the last 13 years of his career as Manager of Racing Operations.

At NYRA, Johnstone served as the bridge between management, horsemen, and riders, working with everyone from the stewards to jockeys, the gate crew, outriders, and anyone else connected to racing. Imposing at 6'4″ and with a deep, baritone voice, Johnstone stood out for his commanding presence at the track and for his knowledge, wise counsel, experience, and diplomacy in times of stress.

“Bruce was a true horseman who used the lessons of a lifetime to make all of us better in so many big and small ways,” said NYRA President & CEO Dave O'Rourke. “He was a man of impeccable integrity who was a beloved member of the Thoroughbred racing community here in New York and around the country. Bruce was universally admired for all the right reasons –and he is missed.”

NYRA created Johnstone's position when he joined the organization in 2007.

“If I'm talking to a trainer, I know what they're saying,” he said of his duties in a 2018 interview. “I'll know how to address a concern or an issue. I have an office, but that's not where I live.”

Instead, Johnstone could often be found in the paddock, on the edge of the track, the backstretch or the barn area, navigating between groups and attending to any and all issues. Those issues could range from something as basic as a sauna without hot water to immediate decisions needing to be made on whether to postpone or cancel racing in poor weather conditions and ensuring the horses were adequately hydrated and sponged down in hot weather.

In 1974, Johnstone went to work at the Phipps Stable with accomplished trainer John Russell and Hall of Famer Angel Penna. Johnstone took out his own training license in 1980. Among his career highlights were wins with Secrettame in the 1983 Shirley Jones Stakes at Gulfstream Park and Buck Aly in the 1986 Bay Shore Stakes (G2).

Secrettame, a daughter of Triple Crown winner Secretariat, was campaigned by Venezuelan owner Jose “Pepe” Sahagun and his Villa Blanca Farms.

While at NYRA, Johnstone also served from 2018-19 as chairman of the famed Aiken Training Center in Aiken, S.C.

Born and raised in Santa Barbara, Calif., Johnstone attended the University of California at Berkeley on an athletic scholarship as a swimmer and a water polo player, and also played rugby. After earning a degree in International Relations and Diplomacy, Johnstone was recruited by the U.S. Coast Guard for the Special Coastal Forces Program, an elite group of college graduates who had been Division 1 athletes.

It was through time spent with his father, Charles “Sandy” Johnstone, a New York-based veterinarian, that he turned to horse racing. Visiting his father in both New York and Kentucky, Johnstone, in his mid-20s, became smitten with Thoroughbreds to the point where he made it his new career.

“I got the bug with horses,” Johnstone said in the 2018 interview. “It must have been the pedigree. So I packed up my orange VW van and my two dogs and headed to Kentucky.”

In 1972, Johnstone joined trainer Victor J. “Lefty” Nickerson at Elmendorf Stable, where he was a part of one of racing's biggest upsets, Big Spruce's victory over Forego in the 1974 Marlboro Cup at Belmont Park.

“I live racing seven days a week,” Johnstone said in 2018. “And when I go to the neighborhood bar to get away from it, I find that people want to talk about what I do—not their jobs, but mine. That's always fun—and it makes me realize how much I enjoy this life.”

Johnstone is survived by his daughter, Kelly Johnstone.

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NYRA to Honor Johnstone

The New York Racing Association will honor the late horseman when it presents the Bruce Johnstone Best Turned Out Horse Award to the groom of the horse deemed by NYRA racing officials to be best presented in the paddock ahead of the GI Longines Test at Saratoga Aug. 7. The winning groom will receive a $150 gift card.

Johnstone, who passed last February, transitioned from a successful career as a trainer to management at NYRA, where he spent the last 13 years of his career as Manager of Racing Operations.

The post NYRA to Honor Johnstone appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Jockey Club Round Table To Be Held Aug. 15

Edited Press Release

The 69th Annual The Jockey Club Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing will be held virtually for the second consecutive year Sunday, Aug. 15, at 10 a.m. ET. It will be streamed on The Jockey Club's website at jockeyclub.com on and will also air be aired on NYRA's YouTube channel, the FOX Sports app, and Racetrack Television Network's respective platforms. The Jockey Club Chairman Stuart S. Janney III will preside over the conference.

Kristin Werner, senior counsel for The Jockey Club and administrator of The Jockey Club's Thoroughbred Incentive Program, will moderate an aftercare panel that will discuss issues in the current aftercare landscape and programs in development to address them.

Dr. Yuval Neria, professor, Clinical Medical Psychology, Columbia University, Departments of Psychiatry and Epidemiology, and director, Trauma and PTSD at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, will talk about the Man O'War Project. The Man O'War Project, founded by Ambassador Earle I. Mack, was the first university-led research study to examine the effectiveness of equine-assisted therapy in treating veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Emily Lyman, the founder and chief executive officer of Branch & Bramble, a digital marketing agency utilized by America's Best Racing, will detail how her organization analyzes data to assess and react to public sentiment, build brand trust, and develop fans.

Will Duff Gordon, the chief executive officer of Total Performance Data (TPD), will provide an overview of TPD's timing products, its work with Equibase Company's Gmax system, and potential opportunities for TPD in the areas of sports betting, fixed odds, and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA). Charles Scheeler and Dr. Tessa Muir will provide an update on HISA, which was signed into law at the end of 2020. In May, Scheeler was named the chairman of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's board of directors. He is a retired partner at DLA Piper, and his background includes serving as lead counsel to former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell in connection with his independent investigation of performance-enhancing substance use in Major League Baseball (the Mitchell Report).

Muir, who is the former anti-doping manager at the British Horseracing Authority and has served as a regulatory veterinarian at Racing Victoria, joined the United States Anti-Doping Agency in March to assist with the implementation of HISA and facilitate a smooth transition to the new regulatory structure that will exist as a result of HISA.

David O'Rourke, the president and chief executive officer of the New York Racing Association (NYRA), will discuss NYRA's investment in its facilities, expanded television coverage, and NYRA Bets, its national advanced deposit wagering platform.

James L. Gagliano, president and chief operating officer of The Jockey Club, will deliver a report on the activities of The Jockey Club.

The full agenda and bios of all speakers will be posted on www.jockeyclub.com in advance of the conference.

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Normalcy Returns as Saratoga Meet Opens

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Once again, Saratoga opens its world-renowned race meet with the question: How many?

During the COVID-19 summer of 2020, the issue was whether there might be some loosening on the ban on spectators during the 40-day season. That never happened, though a limited number of owners were allowed to see their horses run, and some of the world's best Thoroughbreds played to a oh-so quiet empty house at America's oldest race track.

With restrictions completely lifted in New York State in time for the 153rd season, the challenge of the week is to predict the size of the crowd that will attend the 10-race card on opening day Thursday. While the range varies, the consensus is: huge.

“I think the place is ready to explode,” said trainer H. James Bond. “Every phone call, every person that I talked to about Saratoga, everybody just can't wait to get here and get going. I think it's going to be a coming-out party like they've never seen before.”

New York Racing Association officials knew that enthusiasm for the 2021 meet was high even before they announced free admission on opening day for people who could prove that they are vaccinated. The free admission offer was announced after New York reached a 70% vaccination level in mid-June.

NYRA president and CEO David O'Rourke chuckled at the suggestion that it might be a Saturday-sized crowd on Thursday.

“That seems it's a really good way of putting it,” he said. “Yeah, I would think 30,000 plus, if I was to put a line on the number of attendance.”

This will be the third season to open on a Thursday since NYRA reworked the Saratoga schedule, moving to five-day weeks– Wednesdays through Sundays–and starting proceedings a week earlier in July. NYRA announced a crowd of 22,591 for the rainy opener in 2019.

Saratoga's opening day has long been a festive occasion at the track on the south side of Union Avenue. This time around, the excitement level is expected to be a few notches above the norm.

“I think it's going to be a little bit of a celebration, right?,” O'Rourke said. “Last year was a strange year, to put it lightly, for everyone and being up there, racing without fans. Now, to be able to welcome everyone back and in one way, celebrate the success we've had in terms of getting through this with the vaccination rates in New York, we figured it was a nice little gesture just to offer free admission as a celebratory kind of nod.”

Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown grew up in nearby Mechanicville and embraced racing at Saratoga Race Course. He is anxious to turn the page back to the Saratoga he knew before the pandemic and said he expects a special opening day.

“I've definitely been looking forward to it for a long time now,” Brown said. “I'm so happy everyone's going to be back and full capacity and things are looking pretty lively already.”

Brown said that the 2020 meet was sort of depressing.

“We tried to maintain some positivity because NYRA did offer the nice races up here,” he said. “We had a lot of nice horses to run and we won some big races, but it was so different to go through it with no fans there, no family there. It's just a very empty feeling throughout the meet, I think for everybody. Like I said, at the end of the meet last year, hopefully that's the only time we ever have to do that.”

As has been the case since the mid-1950s, the GIII $150,000 Schuylerville S. for 2-year-old fillies is the headliner of the opening-day program. It will be the 103rd running of the six-furlong race. The Schuylerville will be preceded by the GIII Quick Call S., the 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint for the sophomore set. Following the four-day opening weekend, Saratoga will have six five-day weeks and will complete its upstate New York run with a six-day week closing on Labor Day, Sept. 6.

The season will include 76 stakes worth a total of $21.5 million. Saratoga is the home to 20 Grade I stakes, the most of any track. The lineup this year includes the $600,000 Flower Bowl and the $1-million Jockey Club Gold Cup, which were moved from Belmont Park and will be contested on Saturday, Sept. 6. The $1-million GI Whitney S. is scheduled for Aug. 7 as the marquee race on a program with five stakes.

The GI $1.25-million Runhappy Travers S., the highest-profile race on the Saratoga calendar every summer, returns to its familiar late-season date on Aug. 28–it was moved ahead a few weeks to be prep for the GI Kentucky Derby in 2020–and will cap a program with six Grade I races. Belmont S.-winning trainer Brad Cox is aiming Godolphin's GI Belmont S. winner Essential Quality (Tapit) for the 152nd Travers, the oldest stakes for 3-year-olds in the U.S.

Essential Quality has been in Saratoga for a couple of weeks and worked four furlongs on :50.44 July 10. He is on course for the local Travers prep, the $600,000 GII Jim Dandy S. July 31.

Standing in front Essential Quality's stall this week, Cox, the 2020 Eclipse Award-winning trainer, acknowledged that it's nice to have a standout 3-year-old colt in the country in his care.

“Well, yeah, It's good,” he said, pausing a second for emphasis, “if they win.”

Cox said the gray son of Tapit will be on a Saturday work schedule for his Saratoga races.

“My job is to make sure everything's right for him,” Cox said, “and he's prepared, prepared properly and everything's going the way it needs to go and giving him every shot to succeed up here. And, so far, so good.”

On Friday, Aug. 6, Bob Baffert's 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah–who lost in the Travers at the Graveyard of Favorites–will be inducted in the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing. The other members of this year's class are trainers Todd Pletcher, who, like American Pharaoh, was elected in his first year of eligibility, and steeplechase trainer Jack Fisher.

The ceremony could not be held last summer, so the 2020 class will be inducted: racehorses Tom Bowling and Wise Dan; jockey Darrel McHargue; trainer Mark Casse; and Pillars of the Turf the late Alice Headley Chandler, J. Keene Daingerfield, Jr. and George D. Widener, Jr.

Pletcher's unbeaten stable star, Shadwell's 'TDN Rising Star' Malathaat (Curlin), is scheduled to make her first start since winning the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks July 24. Pletcher won his 14th Saratoga training title, but said his current stable does not have the balance to get the job done this year. He said he is looking forward to a typical Saratoga season with thousands of people on the grounds.

“Well, I think it's going to feel normal again,” he said. “I think bigger question is like how strange did last year feel? Saratoga is the one place where we race that has the most electric crowd, the most enthusiastic crowd. The fans are very knowledgeable. It's what you've grown accustomed to your whole career and last year just didn't seem right. At the same time, we were blessed that we're able to continue racing and because of the television product, maybe hopefully we've gained some new fans. Maybe, you know, there was some silver lining to the whole thing, but it'll be nice to get back to normal.”

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