The trials of the jungle are ever-changing. We had started vaccinating the horses one evening when suddenly the sky opened and a downpour came. We returned the vaccines to the refrigerator and ran for shelter. In the evenings, I always read my book, “Where There Is No Animal Doctor,” to look for answers from my cases that day. I used my headlamp to read, but that night the rain brought swarms of small moths which were attracted to the light. I tried to wrap myself in a tarp so they could not fly in my face, but they managed to find an opening and fly right into my eye. I finally gave up and went to sleep early. The villagers said those moths come out during storms, and the next morning everything was covered in dead moths. Usually the bugs are not that bad this time of year with it being the dry season. Next trip, I am bringing a mosquito net! Bathing in a cold river used to be tough for me, but between the humidity, long hikes with the herd, and looking at parasites, I was always grateful to jump in that river at the end of the day. Lacking the vet supplies I need happen on a case-by-case basis, and I will never be able to pack enough to cover all my bases. It makes me appreciate the convenience of working in a fully-equipped hospital and having pharmacies readily available.

The vaccines stayed properly temperature-regulated this time. Other than the rain storm delaying our vaccine clinic and working with half-feral mules and ponies, the mule men successfully vaccinated the entire herd. I told the men the amount of vaccine to draw up according the animal's size and the area on the neck to administer the vaccine, but I left the hands-on work up to them. One of the men was missing most of his fingers; but despite his birth defect, he was able to figure out how to connect a syringe and needle, which requires a fair amount of dexterity.

I conducted a fecal test to get an idea of the types of parasites infecting the herd. I went to the human medical clinic to use their microscope and met some of the medics and students working there. They were very interested in what I was doing with horse stool, so it was easy to strike up a conversation in broken English. I learned one of the medics, named Naytaw, had recently graduated with a Masters in Public Health. He spoke English well, and he told me there are university programs for refugees, and that he had interacted with Harvard Medical School through the program. After graduating, he chose to return to his village to help his own people.

After finishing my parasitology observation at the clinic, I headed back to meet with the mule handlers. The tubes of horse dewormer had taken up a lot of space in my pack, but it was a high priority, especially in a tropical environment. The ponies and mules demonstrated again that they are only half broke, but the men did a great job of working together. It was humorous to see such a small pony take advantage of four of us trying to hold them down, but we did succeed in the end.

I had a friend donate dog and cat dewormer for my trip, which had not been on my radar until she reached out about the idea. There had only been one dog in that village the last time I visited. His name was Freddy, and Freddy has since passed but left behind a bunch of Freddy juniors. I watched the village kids running around carrying puppies, and I envisioned the canine parasites that can be passed to humans. I observed the dogs scratching often, and I wondered which external parasites they could be passing on, too.

Deworming the dogs one time would not make much of an impact, so I packed in a surplus of dewormers but needed to find someone who would maintain a regular deworming schedule. I remembered Naytaw with his MPH, which focuses on the interaction of animals and humans. I hoped he might see the importance in what I wanted to implement.

I found Naytaw at his house, and he happily accepted the assignment. He went into his house and grabbed a list of the homes in the village that had dogs or cats and how many. I was surprised and asked him why he had this list. He said they had told him a veterinarian was coming to visit, and he hoped he might be able to work with her. He had been too reserved to ask to me when we had met before. That was an encouraging coincidence. Naytaw's list guided our house visits, and he dewormed all the pets in his village. I wrote out instructions so he could remember the dosages, and he thanked me for teaching him a new skill.

The following day, I hiked with a few of the mule men, Poh, and a mule to a village who had questions regarding their water buffalo. I brought along a tube to teach them how to relieve bloat and a wound insecticide to prevent screw worms. When we arrived at the village after our long hike, I did not see any water buffalo. Apparently the message had not been relayed that a water buffalo needed to be present for the clinic. It was another good reminder of patience and flexibility when working in a foreign culture. We waited over an hour in a bamboo hut while they said they had someone trying to find a buffalo. A sack of rice on a bamboo floor was comfortable enough, and I took a nap while I waited for the buffalo round-up.

Poh woke me up, telling me there were two very sick teenage boys that would be passing by from another village who were trying to reach the medical clinic. I offered them the mule we had brought in with us and wondered if he was broke to ride. They nearly took me up on the offer, but instead the people from the village appeared with a hammock strung on bamboo and carried the boys themselves through the mountainous terrain to the clinic. I watched them head out–working together to carry the boys and was once again blown away by the way they care for each other.
After they left with the boys, we returned our focus to the water buffalo clinic. It was another reminder to me of the importance of being patient and flexible with my planning. If we had not had to wait so long, I would have missed out on an amazing demonstration of selflessness.

The villagers were unable to find where the buffalo had gone, so I decided we could just have a sit-down meeting where I would do my best to answer their questions. Sitting on a hard bamboo floor for hours is another jungle challenge I am learning to appreciate.

I had been refreshing my knowledge of common cattle pathologies in preparation for the trip, and I was able to answer more questions than I expected. The most peculiar question was that some buffalo had eaten their clothes which were hanging to dry, and the clothes became trapped in their stomach. Even Poh laughed while translating that one. They wanted to know if there was something they could give to break down the fabric. When I worked as a small animal vet, I was shocked by the items we scoped out of dogs' stomachs; things which they had spontaneously decided looked appetizing. I never knew water buffalo had some much in common with golden retrievers.

My time in the jungle ran out, but I believe that important nutritional changes had been made which, in time, would do a lot to improve the herd's overall health. Several days after my departure, one of the volunteers still at the village reached out to assure me that the mule handlers were still turning the herd out to pasture and still cutting down banana leaves for them to eat with their increased portion of grain.

When I made it back into town, I returned to the vet shop with a translator to find medications that I had promised to send back to the village for their water buffalo. One of those items was dewormer. After witnessing how little the buffalo from that village are handled, I realized it was important to find a topical solution rather than an injection, as it is far easier to pour liquid on their back than inject them with a needle. It took a lot of translating and charades to identify what I was looking for, but we found the medications and the buffalo will be receiving their first dewormer treatment any day now.

My last stop in town was to visit ECHO, a nonprofit farm that carried a copy of the book, “Where There Is No Animal Doctor.” I wanted another copy to send back to the mule handlers in a second language (theirs is in English). Most of the mule handlers are illiterate, but they told me if they have the book in two languages they can show it to other villagers who can read it to them. Thankfully there are illustrations on every page, too.

When I went to ECHO and told the staff that I was a veterinarian, they asked me to come look at three of their sick calves. I assessed the young calves and gave their intern, Christina, a basic treatment plan. Christina and I discovered we were from the same hometown, Sacramento, CA, and now here we were both using our unique interests to serve on the other side of the globe. It really is a small world.

Christina gave me a tour of the rest of the farm, which had livestock that they were using for nutritional assessment. She taught me which plants are hardy and easy to propagate in the jungle and which ones have higher protein content. I took a special interest in that, as I want to continue building the herd's nutritional plan even as I return to the U.S.

That concludes this journey. It was a special time to foster new and old relationships, teach and learn from the local villagers, and do my part to make a small difference in the lives of animals and the people connected to them.

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I had my first meeting with my new team: the five men who are given the job title in their village as the “mule handlers.” They were all new acquaintances to me, as the mule handlers I worked with in the past became human medics and others moved to new villages. The translator that was going to work with me was an old acquaintance who felt like an uncle to many of us. His name is Poh and he is a human medic, which is helpful when he translates medical concepts for me. One of the mule men pulled out the book, “Where There Is No Animal Doctor,” that I had left with the past mule team. It was a miracle after the disappointment of my failed attempt to bring them their own copy when I had to rearrange my schedule after missing my connection. I suppose my missed flight connection was not as detrimental as I had originally thought.

The mule handlers, Poh, and I sat together, and they told me about the problems they had been witnessing with the herd. Listening to the mule men's questions gave me a sense of their compassion for their herd and attention to detail, and knew I would enjoy working with them. The herd's problems mostly originated from their digestive tracts, so I would be looking for a common denominator there.

I got up early the next morning and walked into the village, when one of the mule men alerted me that one of the mules had a stomach ache. I was planning to teach them how to do a colic workup by the end of the week. Here was a real life example instead, so we sprung into action.

Grabbing my stethoscope, I showed them how to take a heart rate, which took a few tries for the first man to come up with the same number as I did. With a horse's heart beat having a distinct “lub-dub,” they had a tendency to double count. I observed them correcting each other as each man took his turn with the stethoscope while I gathered supplies.

I fetched my nasogastric tube and showed them how to pass it through mule's nose and into her stomach. Poh was there beside me as I described the signs to check to be sure they passed the tube down the esophagus and into the stomach and not down the trachea and into the lungs, an easy and lethal mistake.

After emptying the mule's stomach, I pulled the tube and had the mule men pass it themselves. We all worked together as one person would hold the tube in place, another would funnel in water, and another would hold the bucket for the siphoned stomach contents. The men continued checking vitals, but our mule quickly went downhill. It became apparent to me that this colic would require surgery, which is not an option in the jungle where we do not have an anesthetic machine nor a sterile environment. The mule did not make it, but she provided a valuable teaching opportunity that will help the mule men to treat future sick members of her herd.

I spent the next day in data collection and observation. I believe a lot can be learned from simply studying and getting to know your patient. I stayed around the herd all day, sometimes watching from afar and other times sitting on a rock near them. It was fun to see different members of the herd come up to check me out. I usually won them over with scratches.

On my past trips, the herd would wander far off and forage all day. I noticed this herd was staying in the center of the village waiting for their breakfast and dinner. The mule men were feeding pellets for breakfast, and dinner was rice hulls which had been ground into a powder. I realized the herd was consuming all concentrates and no fiber, which is not conducive to the function of the equine gut.

At breakfast the next morning, I brought this up with the other volunteers. None of them had a horse background, but everyone was concerned about the herd and asked for updates at every meal we shared. I told the coordinator that we needed to increase their pellets for calories, but most importantly the herd needed plant fiber that they can eat throughout the day. He said they could send in more pellets and they would hire porters to carry them in. Unfortunately, to bring in enough hay would be too impractical long-term. One volunteer at the breakfast table had worked in another region of Asia and said he had seen horses eating banana leaves. Fortunately, there were plenty of banana plants surrounding the village here.

Banana leaves and bamboo adds necessary fiber to the mules' diet | Ferrin Peterson photo

When the mule men came to feed the herd their breakfast, I had them add salt and water to the grain and asked them increase the quantity. They told me they would run out of grain by the end of the week if they fed more, but I assured them that more grain was on the way. Then I asked if they could help me get a few banana leaves to see if the herd would eat them. They grabbed their machetes and chopped off a few branches and the herd loved it! The mule men were excited by this finding too and went back to chop down more banana leaves.

I started taking the mules hiking. They needed to build their fitness in order to be useful for packing, and I wanted to see what plants they chose to eat along the route. It also helped me get to know their personalities, and I certainly discovered which mules were the most stubborn of the group. I learned they enjoyed dry banana leaves as well as the fresh ones, and they loved bamboo, both the leaves and the young shoots. That was another exciting discovery, as there is a surplus of bamboo in the jungle.

On one of my mule treks, I came across a fenced-in rice field. I mentioned it to the volunteer coordinator, and he said they had seen the herd out in that field in the past after the rice was harvested. He brought it up to the owner of the rice field, and they gave permission to turn the herd out on it. It was a 45-minute hike from where the herd was staying. I asked the mule handlers to help me turn them out overnight and bring them back in the morning. I did not want to make a sudden feed change and cause one of them to founder. The mule men happily obliged. I left them to work on some things for an hour then returned to move the herd to their pasture, but the herd was gone. I went on my own out to the rice field and found the herd grazing in the rice paddies. One of the mule men was still there, and he showed me the buckets he had filled for their water source. I was extremely impressed with their initiative.

Tomorrow: horses and water buffalo.

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Once we reach the village, we set up camp which means successfully tying up your hammock between two sturdy trees to sleep in overnight. We bathe and wash our clothes in the river, and the pack animal team roams freely like a herd of wild horses. They always return at feed time, of course. The villagers cook for us, which consists of a rice dish with meat from one of their village animals and a vegetable. My past two trips were during my Christmas breaks from school, and on Christmas Day the villagers offered us their delicacy: cooked chicken feet. Thankfully there were always enough people around that I could nonchalantly pass that dish on to the next person.

I have an exciting, yet testing journey ahead of me. Veterinary medicine is challenging enough, working with patients who do not speak and amongst species that are so different from one another. A sedative that can relax one species can cause euphoria in another species. Each species has their unique Achilles heel: it is not always their feet and gut.

The pack team currently consists of seven mules and nine Mongolian ponies. I plan to vaccinate the pack animal team against rabies and Japanese encephalitis. I attempted this on my last trip, but when we reached our destination and I retrieved the vaccines from the transport cooler, I saw they had frozen, which ruined their efficacy. That was disheartening after packing them all that way and wondering when the next opportunity would arise for someone to vaccinate the herd. Hopefully I improve with temperature regulation this go-around.

Some of the training sessions I have planned for the pack animal handlers include: basic observations of a healthy versus a sick animal, checking vital parameters, body condition scoring, hoof care, wound care and bandaging, medication routes, nasogastric intubation for choke, and fecal flotation to detect parasites (the medical facility is equipped with a microscope).

Another important aspect I wish to address is selecting for their pack team. One or two of the village leaders travel to the city to select the Mongolian ponies and mules. In the past, they had introduced a gray mare with very poor conformation who could not stand up to the demands of her new job, and as a result she slowed down the entire team. They told me that in the city there is a Monkhood ceremony where the young monk rides in on a “white” horse. When the village leader saw this gray mare for sale, he assumed she must be a good deal. I just spent weeks looking at top Thoroughbreds going through the sales ring in Kentucky. I will have to readjust my lens for the type of horses best equipped to trek through mountains and thrive in jungles.

I also plan to teach the villagers to pass an orogastric tube down a water buffalo's esophagus and into its stomach to relieve bloat. I taught a village this technique on a past trip despite only learning it from a YouTube video. The entire village came to watch me do this crazy “magic trick.” To my relief, I successfully passed it into the rumen and then watched several villagers do it, too!

I have learned to go in with a plan but to be adaptable and always ready to rise to the occasion. I believe it is important to give back and share the knowledge a person has acquired, but to never underestimate the importance of local understanding about someone's culture and environment. Most importantly, I am going in with an open mind to see how the villagers and I can learn from and help each other.

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Helping the under-served groups of the world was modeled to me from a young age. My parents had worked in Mexico before raising our family, and I have had relatives who served in China, Turkey, India, and Spain as engineers, teachers, and musicians. This was foundational in my upbringing, and it instilled in me a passion to use my individual interests and skillsets to help those in need.

While pursuing my Bachelor's in Animal Science at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, I had colleagues who were part of organizations such as Engineers Without Borders and Doctors Without Borders. I saw a breach in the care for the animals that support the livelihood of people living in under-served parts of the world. I reached out to several of my professors, and one connected me with a humanitarian organization called The Free Burma Rangers (FBR). This group helps refugees in the jungles of Southeast Asia and uses a pack animal team comprised of mules and Mongolian ponies to carry supplies to remote villages, where they have no veterinary care.

On my initial trip, the refugees had lost several of their pack animals due to an unknown illness, and diagnosing the lethal disease became the focus of my first trip to Southeast Asia. I had little veterinary training at the time but connected with my future professor, Dr. Eric Davis, at UC Davis who guided me in sample collection and provided the lab upon my return. We diagnosed the disease as trypanosomiasis, which is carried by a tsetse fly vector and is endemic in Asia and Africa.

I returned two years later while I was a veterinary student at UC Davis. The pack animal team had stayed relatively healthy, so the focus of my second trip was to branch out to help other species. The villages we visit are far off the grid and we backpacked 10 hours into the jungle through steep mountains to reach our first village. Those villagers had never met a veterinarian, and although I was not officially a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) yet, I provided training in basic animal husbandry. I experienced the gratitude they shared by improving the health of their animals who were essential to their livelihood. It was apparent that the villagers appreciated their animals and were providing the best care they knew under limited conditions and no training. I helped them with their water buffalo, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats, and even a monkey.

I am sitting in the airport about to embark on my third trip, my first as an official DVM. Just weeks after breezing some of the top Thoroughbreds in the world in preparation for the Breeders' Cup, I now have the opportunity to work with some of the most underrated equids I know: tough, selfless, and also life-changing to their owners. I think that is one of the beautiful things about horses worldwide: to witness the important role they play in a wide variety of uses.

The Free Burma Rangers reached out to me this past spring, as they had lost four members of their pack animal team this year, three of which I had worked with on previous trips. The symptoms sound like a combination of parasites, colic, and malnutrition. Their base camp lost their entire flock of chickens and herd of swine this year, so there have been some devastating losses. The base camp provides essential medical care, as it is the only medical facility of its kind within days of travel. FBR has trained local medics and built a basic facility to care for people. In previous trips, I witnessed a woman who had walked all night in labor to reach the medical facility. I also met a man who had traveled for several days with a snake bite that needed treatment. To realize that the medics serving at the base camp lost two important food sources in their pigs and chickens is very concerning.

When my plane lands in Southeast Asia, I will connect with a mentor of mine, Dr Peter Quesenberry, who is also a UC Davis Veterinary School alumni and has dedicated his career to the underserved animals and their owners in Asia. He wrote the book “Where There Is No Animal Doctor,” inspired by “Where There Is No Doctor,” the most widely used health care manual in the world. I use Dr. Quesenberry's book in my training sessions with the villagers. We can turn to the same page and while I read in English they follow along from their copies written in their own language and accompanied with simple illustrations. It has been instrumental in the language barrier hurdle.

Dr. Quesenberry will take me to local shops in town to purchase the rest of the supplies I need: vaccines, dewormers and ointments to name a few. While I am bringing a large pack with me from home, it is important to source as much as possible from local stores. This supports their economy and familiarizes the local people with the brands of vaccines and medications so that they can purchase more on their own for long-term care. Through the generosity of my supporters, I will be stocking up on essential supplies before I head off the grid.

I will backpack in everything needed to live off the grid for two weeks. Anyone who has backpacked understands the delicate balance of bringing the necessities while keeping your pack as light as possible. On my first trip, I started handing off the snacks I had packed out of desperation to lighten my load as we ascended yet another mountain. The 10 hours of backpacking is up and down steep mountains. Upon reaching the summit of one mountain, you have to go back down the other side, only to do it all over again on the next mountain. FBR makes these trips during the dry season, which is our winter and early spring, as they say it is too difficult to travel during the rainy season. I have been training for the mountainous terrain as best I can by running hills and stairs in Kentucky, but I know it cannot compare. It is always humbling as I agonize up a mountain, despite fitness and proper hiking gear, and then look over to see a villager easily traversing the same terrain in plastic flip flops. I am always impressed by how tough these people are who have never known the comforts I take for granted.

The first leg of the trip ends with a bit of trouble, as my flight to London arrives late and I miss my connection by 15 minutes. But all in all, it's a small price to pay, and I appreciate the encouragement and support of others who helped make this happen- my connections in racing who support my absence from the circuit for a few weeks, Back on Track USA who helped with outfitting me for the trip, and every one who donated through www.freeburmarangers.com.

Tomorrow: Day 1-What's On Tap

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The BLC plans to host several FaceBook Lives at the event to present their transformative work with equine workers and families. They will also recognize members of the community who have demonstrated an extraordinary level of dedication to their mission. To participate in the online silent auction, purchase a Derby Week Suite for 40 raffle ticket, donate and more, visit the Benefit for the Backstretch website.

“This event is a great and fun opportunity to gather those who believe in our mission, and who want to support those who play such a vital role in the success of the horseracing industry,” said Executive Director Sherry Stanley. “The Backside is such a vibrant and diverse community right in the heart of the city that most people never think about. We serve the hundreds of workers and their children who are members of our community and who will soon be our next generation of leaders.”

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Drawn widest of all in post nine, Crackalacking (f, 2, McCraken–Sacred Moon, by Malibu Moon) forced the issue from an outside third, gained command around the far turn and blew the race apart from there to graduate by five lengths at odds of 18-1.

Extremely well-backed, rail-drawn firster Grand Oak (Ire) (Speightstown), off as the even-money favorite from a 6-1 morning-line quote for trainer Rusty Arnold, was a good second after a tough trip.

It was the first career wins at Keeneland for winning jockey Ferrin Peterson and trainer Sarah Hamilton, respectively.

After producing a colt by Klimt in 2021, the winner's dam was bred back to that sire for 2022.

McCraken, a three-time graded winner and runner-up in the GI betfair.com Haskell Invitational S., stands for $5,000 at Airdrie Stud in Midway, Ky.

2nd-Keeneland, $72,400, Msw, 4-21, 2yo, f, 4 1/2f, :52.67, my, 5 lengths.
CRACKALACKING (f, 2, McCraken–Sacred Moon, by Malibu Moon) Sales history: $15,000 Ylg '21 KEEJAN; $20,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $47,120. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
O-Randy Finegan; B-Mullikin Thoroughbreds (KY); T-Sarah Hamilton.

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Trained by Rory Huston and ridden by Ferrin Peterson, Roselba resisted the prolonged attempt by Bramble Bay to go by in posting her first career stakes victory and second win in the past three starts.

The winning time for the five furlongs over a firm turf course was :56.98. It was another 8½ lengths back in third to Ask Around.

“My strategy was to get the lead,” said Peterson. “There wasn't much pace in the race. When the outside horse (Jersey Jewel) was gunning for it right away I thought that I didn't want to burn my horse up early, so I let her go on with it. But then as we were approaching the turn she was coming over on us to force pressure. I decided I didn't need to get squeezed out and get in trouble, it's five furlongs, you have to let her go. So I let her go again and she was happy to go.

“My main concern was Bramble Bay and I felt going in that I had to open up enough so that Bramble Bay had a lot of ground to make up. I didn't expect him to be that close early on in the stretch. I could hear (jockey) Paco Lopez yelling, I could hear his horse breathing, and I'm screaming to my horse. I love winning that way, when it's really a duel and it takes a horse to show a lot of heart.”

Roselba, a Colonial Farm homebred, paid $5.20 to win in the field of seven Jersey-bred distaffers.

The 5-year-old daughter of Private Interview posted her fourth victory in 16 career starts and is now 2-for-3 sprinting on the grass.

“She's getting better as she gets older,” said Huston. “The other grass race she won she was game in that race as well.

“She is always close (to the speed) early. We figured, as long as she didn't get into a speed duel, she would be fine. Ferrin Peterson had to back off a little bit early on but then made the move for the lead at the right time midway through the backside.”

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So racing will have to wait until he can legally participate.

For now, though, his enthusiasm is contagious.

“I like Monmouth Park more than Chuck E. Cheese,” says Minervini, a Middletown, N.J. resident who aspires to be a bugler, which is why he practices prior to each race by humming along with Luckenbill.

With racing at Monmouth Park taking place Friday through Sunday throughout the summer, Minervini and his family are usually in attendance from the first race to the last, with Dan playing his toy bugle, feeding horses and wishing good luck to the jockeys walking out of the paddock.

He will celebrate his sixth birthday on Sunday at Monmouth Park with a special day that will include an appearance in the announcer's booth, playing the “Call to the Post” prior to the second race, and presenting the trophy in the winner's circle following the second race.

Fans have taken to him as a crowd favorite when they watch him play the bugle each race day.

“Monmouth Park is his happy place, and he never wants to leave,” said Stephanie Minervini, Dan's mother. “When we bring him there, he listens to everything we say since it's his favorite place in the world.”

Dan's love for horse racing started before he was even born, according to his mother. The family's Monmouth Park “lifestyle” was passed down two generations, from Dan's grandfather, who took Dan's father, John, to Monmouth Park when he was little.

As a 2-year-old, Dan made it to Monmouth Park for the first time and could be seen feeding apples and carrots to the outriders' horses as they returned to the tunnel that leads to the track. It was during that time that the youngster first heard horse racing's signature call.

“When he was 2 years old, he was feeding the horses there and that's when he started watching Joe (the bugler),” said Stephanie. “One time we went to Monmouth Park and he started mimicking Joe playing the horn, and since then I think we have been stalking him for the last three years.”

Luckenbill says he enjoys sharing the spotlight prior to each race with Minervini.

“I love when he comes around. He's a great kid and he always says something that makes me laugh when I see him,” Luckenbill said. “I would tell him to continue to come to the track and learn from the people here.”

Horse racing and Monmouth Park have become an integral part of Dan's daily life as well. According to his parents, when he is home, the youngster can be heard announcing races, re-enacting his favorite phrase from announcer Frank Mirahmadi, “And they're off at Monmouth Park!”

In addition to attending the races on each live day, Dan Minervini said he wants to “race the ponies.” According to his mother, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he received riding lessons at a local farm in hopes of one day following in the footsteps of his favorite Monmouth Park jockeys — Nik Juarez, Tomas Mejia, Paco Lopez, and Ferrin Peterson.

Juarez and Mejia have made it a point to seek out Dan on race days, often taking pictures with him and even giving him the race goggles they wore in exchange for high-fives. According to his mother, there have even been occasions when Dan and Mejia have shared popcorn while they talk about the upcoming races on the card.

“It's really nice how the jockeys all come out and speak to him, and it makes a huge difference,” said Stephanie Minervini.

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Get to the front, slow down the fractions and leave plenty in reserve. Good in theory but even better in practice, as it turned out.

Por Que No led every step out of the gate and then cruised to a 4½-length victory, posting her fifth win in her past six starts and first in stakes company.

Seasons, the 7-10 favorite in the field of six 3-year-old fillies, faded to third after chasing the slow fractions set by Peterson and Por Que No throughout the mile and a sixteenth turf feature.

“I knew there were some really good horses in this race and my thinking was I need to make them catch me. I'm the speed in the race,” said Peterson, who notched her first stakes win of the meet. “So if I can get the lead, save ground and let her relax – which she did; in the backstretch, she was in her own element – and then take a deep breath and don't stress I thought she would be able to do what she did.

“At the three-eighths pole, I saw out of my peripheral vision another horse coming, so I thought `okay, I've got to make them catch us, I've got to break their confidence.' I shook her up a little and she had another gear. At the top of the lane, she just took off.”

The winning time over a turf course rated firm despite rain showers prior to the race was 1:42.43.

Por Que No, a daughter of Wicked Strong owned by Fano Racing, returned $9.60 to win.

Peterson basically won the race in the opening half, with a first quarter in :25.82 and the half-mile in :49.60. Seasons and jockey Paco Lopez chased most of the way around before fading late. Shantisara, making her U.S. debut for trainer Chad Brown, finished second, three lengths ahead of a tiring Seasons.

“I know she can fight her jockey sometimes, so I was trying to slow her down as much as I could without taking energy away from her,” Peterson said.

Lopez said the moisture in the turf from the rain did not appear to affect Seasons.

“She got frustrated chasing those slow fractions,” he said.

For Sweezey, it marked his first stakes win at Monmouth Park since capturing the Good Magic Stakes with Phat Man in 2019.

“Ferrin was aware we were the lone speed and what the game plan needed to be,” said Sweezey. “I didn't think Paco Lopez would be that close, especially with the slow fractions. We wanted to make (Seasons) catch us. I knew my filly was doing good. I knew she'd be fine on the lead and would last.

“I wasn't worried with the rain before the race. I thought it would make everyone else a little more timid. It wasn't going to affect what we wanted to do. I knew she would be good today and she was.”

Por Que No had raced exclusively at Gulfstream in her first six career starts before Sweezey shipped her north for this race.

He said the ownership group, which owns a house in nearby Monmouth Beach, “wanted to see her run at their home track.”

The post Por Que No Sets Pace, Sails To Easy Win In Boiling Spring Stakes At Monmouth appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Amid concerns that jockeys would either be protesting Monmouth Park's May 28 opening-day program or not riding at all during the meet because of their concerns over a new state rule that prohibits whipping outside of emergency safety usage, it took until 5:30 p.m. Tuesday for Friday's overnight at Monmouth Park to be released, with six races drawing 45 entrants ridden by 14 jockeys.

Now that Friday's opening day program appears to be a “go,” the looming larger question is what will the jockey colony and field sizes look like in the near future as Monmouth embarks upon a season under a figurative microscope with the New Jersey Racing Commission (NJRC) mandating the most stringent anti-whipping rules on the continent.

Or, put another way, was the light riding colony turnout in the entries just a one-day act of protest, or a sign of a stressful summer to come at the Jersey shore?

“While I understand the jockeys' frustration with the new whip rule and I appreciate the jockeys' concerns that they're putting their lives at risk…the whip rule was created by the New Jersey Racing Commission. It is the law in New Jersey, and there's nothing that Monmouth Park can do about it,” Dennis Drazin, the CEO of the management company that operates the track, told TDN.

“Having said that, I am pleased that we were able to draw the card and get jockeys who were willing to ride to that we can put on the show and not disappoint the public and not create a significant hardship to Monmouth Park by having a financial loss,” Drazin said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Drazin said that he was concerned that certain veteran riders and perhaps even The Jockeys' Guild were pressuring jockeys not to ride. He said there would be “repercussions” if riders or Guild representatives tried to stage a coordinated job action.

Terence Meyocks, the president and chief executive officer of the Jockeys' Guild, told TDN after the overnight came out that the Guild played no role in trying to influence riders on whether or not to accept Monmouth mounts.

“The Guild's position hasn't changed. The rule is dangerous. We've maintained all along that it's not safe for the horses and riders,” Meyocks said. “We have not told one jock [whether to ride at Monmouth or not]. The jocks have made their own opinions whether to ride or not.

“Now, I know a number of riders that felt pressured by the track who decided to ride,” Meyocks continued. “They're willing to risk their lives. Other jocks are just concerned about their safety. We still think it's in the best interest of everybody–the racing commission the track, the horsemen, the owners, the trainers, the jocks, the betting public–to get this rule changed where it's safe and we don't have to worry about litigation.”

The Monmouth colony is expected to get a boost from several riders (Nik Juarez and Ferrin Peterson) who are currently sitting out suspensions, but are expected to accept mounts in New Jersey. Leading rider Paco Lopez will ride at Gulfstream Park on Friday. Then he has to serve an upcoming suspension and accept mounts that have been lined up at Delaware Park and Belmont Park, his agent, Cory Moran, told TDN. A decision on whether to ride at Monmouth will be made after that.

Drazin said he knows Monmouth's top all-time rider, Joe Bravo, is personally committed to sitting out the meet in protest of the strict new whipping regulations, and Drazin said he doesn't expect that decision to change.

But beyond that, Drazin said, “We would expect more jockeys to be willing to ride. I think that jockeys chose the wrong methodology to try and boycott Monmouth Park because of a rule that Monmouth Park did not create. And unfortunately, we had all this controversy, which puts a little bit of a damper on opening day and getting excited for the meet.

“If they're not going to ride [in New Jersey], they probably should choose where they're going to ride and go there instead of trying to get other jockeys not to ride and approaching trainers and asking them not to enter,” Drazin said.

“Look, if a jockey does not want to ride because of the rule and decides to go elsewhere, we can't stop them,” Drazin said. “But jockeys trying to–call it anything you want–set a boycott and engage in conduct that is detrimental to racing could end up having those jockeys get in a lot of trouble, which we certainly did not want to happen.”

Earlier on Tuesday Drazin had explained to TDN how the NJRC could enforce a rule that involves “conduct detrimental to racing,” although it is unclear exactly how or if that regulation pertains to not accepting mounts over a principled boycott.

Also earlier on Tuesday, Drazin had outlined three in-house possibilities that were under consideration for how Monmouth could penalize (or incentivize) riders who were deemed uncooperative or disruptive: 1) A meet-long ban for any rider who boycotted opening day; 2) A civil lawsuit against the Guild and/or individual jockeys to try and recoup lost handle revenue, or 3) Implementing a meet-long jockey-title bonus that would not be available to any riders who chose not to ride on opening day.

But after the overnight came out, Drazin told TDN he was rethinking those options.

“Given that we're able to put the races on and not have to shut Monmouth Park down, I don't probably contemplate there will be a civil lawsuit seeking damages. We'd rather get along with the jocks. And as far as the racing commission taking any action against anybody, that's up to the racing commission. I can't speak for that. But whatever policy [racing secretary] John Heims put in place as to jockeys who refuse to ride will probably stay intact.”

Both Drazin and Meyocks were in agreement on one issue: That New Jersey's controversial whip rule could become a moot point about a year from now when federal oversight mandated by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act is up and running and a uniform, nationwide whipping rule possibly gets put into effect.

The post Monmouth Opening Day: 45 Horses, 14 Jockeys, No Whipping & Lots of Controversy appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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