Brown Stablemates Viadera And Blowout Could Face Off Again In Grade 1 Matriarch

Trainer Chad Brown reported that his one two-finishers of Saturday's Grade 3 Noble Damsel, Viadera and Blowout, both emerged from their efforts in good shape and will likely square off once more in the Grade 1, $300,000 Matriarch on November 29 at Del Mar.

Owned by Juddmonte Farms, Viadera notched her second stakes victory in her third start in the United States in the one mile test over the Widener turf, where she was placed at the rear of the field early on, saved ground to the inside and prevailed to get up at the right time by a neck under jockey Joel Rosario.

“He rode a really good race,” said Brown, who secured a fifth straight victory in the Noble Damsel. “He was able to save some ground and she was able to get up at the last jump.”

Rosario also piloted Brown-trained Off Limits (2017) and Uni (2018) to Noble Damsel triumphs, both of whom won the Matriarch at the end of their respective years.

Viadera, a 4-year-old bay daughter of Bated Breath, arrived at the Noble Damsel off a narrow victory in the De La Rose on July 17 at Saratoga, where she defeated stable mate Noor Sahara (fourth in the Noble Damsel) by a neck. A victory in the Matriarch would give Juddmonte Farms a record seventh triumph in the race after previously winning with champions Ryafan (1997), Heat Haze (2003), and Intercontinental (2004).

But it was Blowout who Brown said impressed him the most. Peter Brant's consistent daughter of Dansili out of Group 1 winner Beauty Parlour set torrid fractions on the front end, and the favorite still had enough left to hang on for second.

“Those were just insane fractions,” Brown said. “It showed the heart and the talent that she has to nearly still pull it off. It was remarkable to me. I was most impressed with her. Both horses ran terrific and so far, they look good. If they do well this next month, we'll point them both to the Matriarch.”

Never off the board and never beaten more than three-quarters of a length in 10 lifetime starts, Blowout is still in search of her first graded stakes win but scored triumphs in the Wild Applause last June and the Pebbles last September going one mile over the Widener turf.

“She's very consistent,” Brown said. “She's been very unlucky in a couple of her losses, but she's a developing horse with a lot of ability and super well-bred as well. I'll believe she'll have her day winning a graded stakes.”

Earlier on the card Brown saddled the Brant-owned American West to a debut victory going a one-turn mile over the Belmont main track, where she earned a 65 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort. The juvenile daughter of Curlin is out of stakes placed Jacaranda, who is a half-sister to leading second crop sire Constitution.

“She came out of the race well, we'll talk to Peter Brant about what we'll do with her and just see how she trains,” Brown said.

Bred in Kentucky by Alpha Delta Stable, American West was purchased for $925,000 from the Mill Ridge Sales consignment at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

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CHRB: Several Fair Dates Moved To Golden Gate, Serious Concerns Aired About National Bill

The California Horse Racing Board conducted a meeting by teleconference on Thursday, September 24. The public participated by dialing into the teleconference and/or listening through the audio webcast link on the CHRB website. Chairman Gregory Ferraro chaired the meeting, joined by Vice Chairman Oscar Gonzales and Commissioners Dennis Alfieri, Damascus Castellanos, Brenda Washington Davis, and Wendy Mitchell.

The audio of this entire Board meeting is available on the CHRB Website (www.chrb.ca.gov) under the Webcast link. In brief:

  • Chairman Ferraro and others welcomed Commissioner Davis to her first meeting since her August 26 appointment to the Board by Governor Gavin Newsom.
  • The Board approved license applications for four race meets, all of which are scheduled to be run without fans in attendance due to COVID-19 and under strict protocols established by local health officials designed to protect all racing participants. As approved:
    • The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club will run its fall meet beginning October 31 through November 29 with mostly three-day racing weeks, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
    • Watchandwager.com will run a harness meet at Cal Expo beginning November 21 through December 19 with mostly two-day racing weeks, Fridays and Saturdays.
    • Pacific Racing Association II will run an extended thoroughbred meet at Golden Gate Fields (GGF) due to the reallocation of race dates that have been relinquished by the Big Fresno Fair. The additional two weeks extend the current race meet to October 18.
    • After the conclusion of the current meet, including the additional dates relinquished by the Big Fresno Fair, Pacific Racing Association will run a separate thoroughbred meet at GGF beginning October 22 through December 13, all four-day race weeks, Thursday through Sunday.
  • The Board approved agreements between the Thoroughbred Owners of California and the racing secretaries at GGF and Del Mar regarding entry conditions limiting specific drug substances for entered horses.
  • Dr. Rick Arthur, equine medical director, advised he was in constant contact with management at Los Alamitos, GGF, and Del Mar and with safety personnel at those locations pertaining to heat conditions and also air quality issues created by widespread fires.
  • There were no heat-related problems with horses during the recent heat wave throughout California, but air quality conditions caused a major reduction in training and also prompted GGF to cancel one weekend of racing. Santa Anita postponed the start of its fall meet by one week to September 25.
  • Dr. Arthur stressed the relationship between racehorse injury and rider safety, an issue he raised due to the serious injuries sustained by jockey Vinnie Bednar. He reminded the Board that research at the University of California, Davis, confirmed the relationship between horse injury and jockey injury and noted that a video on Racing Injury Prevention can be viewed on the CHRB website. He also advised that a GoFundMe account has been established for Bednar ( https://gf.me/u/yvswsm ).
  • Executive Director Scott Chaney reported serious concerns with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act that is moving swiftly through Congress. These concerns were echoed by some commissioners. Chaney said safety rules and protocols in California are the strictest in the nation. Therefore, national standards, as called for in HISA, may actually be less strict.
  • Chaney reminded everyone that a revised rule governing use of the riding crop will go into effect October 1. The CHRB issued a news release earlier on this subject. He also noted improvements to the CHRB website pertaining to the listing of equine fatalities and a list of reforms that are either completed or in process for the protection of horses and riders.
  • For continuity purposes, the Board temporarily suspended through December 25 the new rule prohibiting Lasix in 2-year-olds, which will only impact quarter horses.
  • In compliance with a procedural matter raised by the Office of Administrative Law, the Board re-approved a rule strictly limiting the use of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) on racehorses.
  • The Board suspended Rule 1845(h), which required syringes used to administer Lasix on race day be retained. An amendment permanently eliminating the requirement will be heard in October.
  • In two separate but related actions, the Board authorized Los Alamitos to distribute a total of $26,580 in race day charity proceeds to four beneficiaries.
  • The Board authorized Los Alamitos Equine Horse Sale, LLC, to conduct horse sales at Los Alamitos on October 3 and 4.

Public comments made during the meeting can be accessed through the meeting audio archive on the CHRB website

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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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Larry Collmus To Again Fill In For Trevor Denman At Del Mar

With Trevor Denman again opting to stay home out of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, Del Mar once more has called on his ace substitute – Larry Collmus – to take up the mic at the shore track's fall race meeting beginning on Saturday, October 31.

The 15-day session, named the Bing Crosby Season in a salute to the track's founder, will have a Saturday/Sunday opening weekend, then three Friday-thru-Sunday weekends before finishing up with a four-day run keyed on Thanksgiving Thursday (November 26) through to Sunday, November 29.

Denman, Del Mar's announcer at every meet since 1984, chose to stay at his Minnesota farm this summer instead of working the Del Mar meet in light of fears for himself and his family presented by the virus. He indicated to track officials that he planned to return for the fall stand. In his stead, the nationally prominent race caller Collmus filled in admirably with his sharp calls and enthusiasm shining through over the course of the summer.

“We talked to Trevor right after our summer meet and it was obvious he was torn,” said Del Mar Thoroughbred Club's CEO Joe Harper. “There still was concern about the pandemic and his family, yet he also wanted to keep a commitment he'd made to us. But in the end we told him to stay home and stay safe; he appreciated that.”

Del Mar's next move was to reconnect with Collmus, the veteran announcer who has called at major race meetings from coast to coast over the past 35 years and who has been NBC television's voice of the Triple Crown for the last decade. Collmus quickly gave a thumbs up to the idea of returning to the seaside oval for another go-round and was signed on for the fall meet.

“I truly enjoyed calling the races this summer at Del Mar and look forward to the opportunity to return for the Bing Crosby meet,” Collmus said. “It's such a special place and I'm honored to be asked to come back.”

The seventh Bing Crosby Season, highlighted by 16 stakes and a strong emphasis on high-class turf racing, will see racing begin each day at 12:30 p.m. During the stand, Del Mar will serve as the California host track for the Breeders' Cup Championships, which will take place on November 6 and 7 at Keeneland in Lexington, KY.

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