Ed Allred | Horse Racing Free Tips

In CHRB Reversal, Los Al Gets Year-Long QH License

The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) voted 4-3 Jan. 21 to grant Los Alamitos Race Course a full-year Quarter Horse racing license for 2021, superseding a 5-1 vote from last month that awarded only a six-month license out of concerns that management wasn't doing enough to mitigate the 29 equine deaths that occurred at the track in 2020.

In the immediate aftermath of that controversial interim licensure in December, Los Al owner Ed Allred had threatened to close his track and develop the property for a purpose other than racing, which would also affect the afternoon Thoroughbred meets that Los Al hosts in June/July, September and December. Allred had cited concerns that Los Al could not compete with other national Quarter Horse venues under only a six-month license, because owners, trainers and the track's racing office all need to make plans for an entire year of racing.

Striking a much more conciliatory and cooperative tone than at the last meeting, Allred and other Los Al executives, in asking for a reconsideration, testified on Thursday that they now have a more comprehensive equine safety plan in place, including the recent hiring of three retired CHRB investigators to oversee improvements related to horse health.

Yet even as Los Al officials spoke of those beefed-up efforts to improve equine safety, the CHRB pressed track officials about two Thoroughbred training-related deaths that occurred at Los Al Jan. 17. One horse suffered a catastrophic leg fracture during a workout, and a filly that had just completed a workout and was about to be endoscoped in her stall by a veterinarian died suddenly. Both incidents are under CHRB investigation.

It's worth noting that back at the December meeting, an initial motion to grant a standard one-year license to Los Al failed after the board–which was short by one member because commissioner Alex Solis was not in attendance–deadlocked 3-3. A second motion to grant the one-year license conditional upon a mid-year safety review also came up tied 3-3. Faced with not granting any form of licensure to Los Al, the CHRB eventually settled 5-1 on the half-year license, with chairman Gregory Ferraro, DVM, the lone dissenter.

On Thursday, the CHRB took nearly three hours of testimony and public commentary on reconsidering the one-year license for Los Al. Prior to the vote, Ferraro reiterated his point from last month that granting only a half-year license made no sense considering the CHRB has the power to halt any California track's racing at any time over safety issues.

“What does a six-month license achieve, except animosity within the industry?” Ferraro asked rhetorically. “I don't see the need to limit the length of the license. Given the economic hardships resulting from the pandemic, why should the CHRB put at risk the financial viability of Los Alamitos and the Quarter Horse racing industry?”

Vice chair Oscar Gonzales, who had pushed hard for the six-month license last month, lauded Los Al Thursday for its renewed commitments to horse safety. But he said he still wasn't going to change his mind about wanting the track to be more closely watched because of its high number of equine fatalities.

“When I see an industry or a racetrack react in the way [Los Al] did by [giving] pushback on a one-year versus a six-month license, it makes me wonder what happens when the newly established federal regulatory powers take full effect,” Gonzalez said, alluding to the recently enacted Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act.

Gonzalez then told his fellow commissioners who support granting a one-year license that they should be aware that “this phase of engaging with Los Alamitos is a new one. And I don't want anyone to think for a minute that the powers that have been vested by the state of California in the CHRB, that [those standards] are going to be compromised in any way. In fact, [closer scrutiny] is just a start if we don't see immediate and quick improvements when it comes to horse safety and the welfare of workers at Los Alamitos.”

Commissioner Wendy Mitchell said she sided with Gonzalez in this sense.

“There are some serious credibility issues, from my perspective, with the [Los Al closure] threats that were made at the last meeting,” Mitchell said. “This is our job and our responsibility…. If we do something you don't like and then you threaten to shut down, that's not the way to work with a regulatory body. And that's not an appropriate response.”

With the full seven-member board voting on Thursday, there was no chance for another round of deadlocks.

Voting in favor of granting a full-year 2021 license to Los Al were commissioners Ferraro, Solis, Dennis Alfieri and commissioner Damascus Castellanos.

Voting against were commissioners Gonzalez, Mitchell, and Brenda Washington Davis.

In other CHRB business, the agenda for Thursday's meeting included an option for the board to convene a closed session to hear two separate requests to overturn and appeal a Dec. 9 stewards decision not to disqualify Justify and Hoppertunity based on their 2018 scopolamine positives. With the open portion of Thursday's CHRB meeting extending to nearly five hours, it was not immediately clear before deadline for this story if those matters were taken up in the executive session or what action might have resulted.

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The Week in Review: Could Breakage be Used to Pay for Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act?

As the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act resurfaced last week as part of an omnibus spending bill passed by the House and Senate, the same questions were being asked all over again. What will the new way of doing things cost and who is going to pay for it?

All anyone really knows at this point is that the states will be expected to foot the bill and their share will depend on how much racing there is in each state. Kentucky, with year-round racing, will have to pay more than Arkansas, where Oaklawn is the only track and it is open for only about four months. A state like Pennsylvania, where there are three Thoroughbred tracks, two of which run year-round, and three harness tracks, will get hit the hardest.

It appears that each state will be left to its own devices when it comes to figuring out how to come up with an amount that will likely be in the millions for the major racing states. If that turns out to be the case, it raises the possibility that the money will come from an increase in takeout, which is the very last thing this sport needs.

While not offering any specifics, the bill suggests that the money could come from foal registration fees, sales contributions, starter fees and track fees. But taking money out of the pocket of owners, in the form of purse cuts or fees to start a horse, is another bad idea. Owners and bettors are the two most important participants in the sport and neither group can afford to have any more money come out of their pockets

Which is why the sport needs to come together and find clever and alternative ways to raise the money. Here’s my idea: use the money that accrues each year from breakage.

In most states, payoffs are rounded down to the nearest 20-cent increment on a $2 bet. That means if the exact payoff on a horse to show should be $2.79, the actual payoff will be just $2.60. While a few pennies here or there may not seem like a lot, breakage can add up fast. The Thoroughbred Idea Foundation estimates that breakage adds up to about $50 million a year. During the 2018 Triple Crown alone, breakage on win bets on Justify (Scat Daddy) totaled more than $1 million for the three races.

In a perfect world, all bets would be broken down to the penny and the horse that should pay $4.18 would pay $4.18 and not $4. Horseplayers may deserve that money, but it’s highly unlikely that they will ever see it. That’s what makes this different from a hike in the takeout rate. Diverting breakage to pay for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act will not mean that the gamblers will be asked to pay any more than they are now.

Of course, that estimated $50 million has to come from somewhere. The money from breakage is used to fund such things as purses and breed development funds. In some states, the tracks are allowed to keep some or all of the money. The breakage money is retained by the bet-taker, which means more and more of that $50 million is now going to the ADW companies, which can afford to take a small hit. The money would be missed, but it is currently spread among so many entities that the hit will be minimal. And it can also be argued that this is money the tracks, breeding funds and purse accounts shouldn’t be getting in the first place.

Another source of revenue could be uncashed tickets. According to the 2019 Maryland Racing Commission annual report, there were $981,618 in uncashed tickets in the state in 2019. Multiply that by the 30 or so states that have pari-mutuel wagering and you will likely come up with $10 million or so.

The breakage plus uncashed tickets, is that enough? Until The Jockey Club, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority or, perhaps, the United States Anti-Doping Agency or whomever, release a budget or an estimated budget, it’s impossible to tell. But even if the breakage money pays for just a fraction of the program, it is a good place to start.

The passage of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, which appears to be inevitable despite President’s Trump’s reluctance to sign the omnibus spending bill that includes the Act, promises to be a tremendously positive, much-needed development for the sport. It will come at a cost, but that shouldn’t be too much of a cost. This is not something that horseplayers should have to pay for. The same goes for the owners. Whether it’s with the breakage money or something else, when it comes to paying for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, the sport needs to get this one right.

Charlatan Sensational In His Return

Bob Baffert said that he thought Charlatan (Speightstown) was going to need the race in the GI Runhappy Malibu S. Saturday at Santa Anita. He could not have been more wrong.

Before being sidelined in June due to a filling in his ankle, Charlatan looked like he might be the most promising horse in racing. He demolished the competition in all three of his races, including the GI Arkansans Derby, where a medication violation cost him the official win.

What appeared to be a match race on paper, didn’t really develop because the highly regarded Nashville (Speightstown) didn’t run to expectations. But, nonetheless, the Malibu was loaded with talent and Charlatan thrashed his opponents, winning by 4 1/2 lengths. He got a 107 Beyer figure.

On Sunday, Baffert said he wasn’t sure what was next for Charlatan. It will be interesting to see if his team shoots for the big money in races like the G1 Dubai World Cup or the Saudi Cup or gets more conservative and keeps him home. But wherever he goes, he will be the headliner. Until proven otherwise, he’s the most exciting horse in the sport.

The other story out of Santa Anita Saturday was the handle. The $23,003,159 wagered was a record for an opening day at “The Great Race Place.” It sure looks like the bettors are not turning away from Southern California racing over the new, strict whipping rules.

Los Alamitos Deserved Better

The California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) should be demanding that every track in the state do its very best when it comes to safety. But the CHRB was being unreasonable when it voted to only give Los Alamitos a six-month license to run in 2021. They did so because there had been a reported 29 fatalities at the track during 2020. The commissioners said they would let Los Alamitos run during the second half of the year if they were convinced that the track had been making positive steps when it came to safety.

It’s one thing to give Los Alamitos such an ultimatum. It’s another thing to do so two weeks before the beginning of the year. That’s especially a problem for a Quarter Horse track because most of the money for major races in the sport comes from sustaining payments. Track owner Dr. Ed Allred correctly noted that it was hard to ask Quarter Horse trainers and owners to keep making the payments when they would have no idea if any of the races scheduled later than June 30 would actually be run.

When California was desperate for a track to step up and fill the void after Hollywood Park closed down, Allred went above and beyond, converting his track so that it could hold Thoroughbred racing. Since then, it seems like he never gets a break from the CHRB. The guess is that Allred will back down, but his threat to shut the track down rather than agree to the six-month license is something that can’t be taken lightly. Because of its racing dates and the fact it provides stabling for hundreds of Thoroughbreds, Los Alamitos has became a part of California racing that would be greatly missed of it were ever to go away.

The right thing to do would have been to grant Los Alamitos a one-year license while letting the track know that this would be its last chance and that there would be a stiff price to pay going forward if it didn’t improve on its safety record.

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Los Alamitos Owner Threatens to Close Track

According to reports in the Los Angeles Times and The BloodHorse, Los Alamitos owner Dr. Ed Allred told the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) Thursday that he plans on withdrawing his application to run Thoroughbred and nighttime Quarter Horse races in 2021. Allred said he would look to convert the Los Alamitos property to real estate.

Allred made the announcement after the CHRB voted to grant the track a six-month license instead of a license for a full year. The decision to give Los Alamitos what amounted to only an interim license was in response to the track having had an unusually high amount of fatalities this year. According to the Times, since Dec. 27 there have been 29 racing or training fatalities at Los Alamitos.

The move to grant Los Alamitos a six-month license was spearheaded by CHRB Vice Chairman Oscar Gonzales. Should the CHRB conclude that steps had been taken to cut down on the fatalities and that racing had been conducted without any serious problems, Los Alamitos would then be approved to run during the second half of the year.

Initially, the CHRB vote to give Los Alamitos the six-month license ended in a tie at 3-3. Commissioner Alex Solis did not take part in the virtual meeting. Two commissioners, Dennis Alfieri and Damascus Castellanos, reversed course and joined Gonzales. The dissenting vote came from CHRB Chairman Greg Ferraro who called issuing Los Alamitos a six-month license a “mistake” and lobbied for the one-year license.

Allred told the board that the track could not operate with only a six-month license because horsemen need to make plans for an entire year of racing.

“If you’re going to do it only for six months, people can’t make preparations and plans, going forward,” Allred said, according to The BloodHorse. “This is devastating to Los Alamitos. It will become a real estate development. I don’t want that to happen.”

Gonzales replied: “If the kind of improvements continue, then racing continues at Los Alamitos, as will be the case at other racetracks. But I just don’t feel that a racetrack that has not lived up to the expectations that we’ve set forth in reform–and a very serious-minded board–that we should allow for a carte blanche of racing dates without any conditions or stipulations.”

Los Alamitos will ask the board to reconsider its decision.

“Los Alamitos will be requesting reconsideration of the action taken by the board and hopes that its request will be acted on in an expedited manner,” said Los Alamitos Vice President Jack Liebau.

Though racing only a limited Thoroughbred schedule, Los Alamitos has become an important part of the Southern California circuit and its closure would have serious ramifications. It was slated to conduct two two-week Thoroughbred meets in 2021 and provides stabling for hundreds of Thoroughbreds on a year-round basis.

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Allred Threatens To Cease Racing At Los Al After CHRB Approves Only Six-Month License

Los Alamitos owner Dr. Ed Allred threatened to withdraw his racing license application and cease racing at the Cypress, Calif. track on Thursday, reports the Los Angeles Times, when the California Horse Racing Board was preparing to vote whether to approve only a six-month license during its regular meeting.

Allred had applied for a year-long Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing license at Los Alamitos, but the six-month idea was proposed by vice-chairman Oscar Gonzales in light of Los Al's 29 racing or training fatalities since Dec. 27, 2019.

Allred was allowed to speak at the virtual board meeting prior to the vote, and argued that Los Alamitos can't operate with a six-month license because horsemen need to be able to plan for an entire year.

Commissioners were tied 3-3 on the six-month license in the first vote, and tied again on a proposal to grant a one-year license with a six-month review process. Gonzales was eventually able to convince two of the dissenting board members to vote for a six-month license, and the measure passed 5-1 with chairman Gregory Ferraro the lone nay.

“Los Alamitos will be requesting reconsideration of the action taken by the board and hopes that its request will be acted on in an expedited manner,” Jack Liebau, the track's vice president, told the Los Angeles Times.