Genuine Risk | Horse Racing Free Tips

With trainer Kenny McPeek declaring to send multiple Grade 1 winner Swiss Skydiver (by Daredevil) to the Preakness Stakes on Oct. 3, our memory turned to the last filly to win the classic against the colts: Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d'Oro) in 2009.

The striking dark bay wasn't the only filly to win that classic, however. Although Rachel Alexandra is the only filly to win a classic in the 21st century, four other fillies had won the Preakness in the preceding century. Flocarline had been the first filly to win a Preakness in 1903, then Whimsical won the race in 1906, Rhine Maiden won in 1915 (the same year that Regret won the Kentucky Derby), and Nellie Morse won in 1924.

Although it was 85 years after Nellie Morse until another filly won the Preakness, 10 more had tried the classic during the interim. The most famous of these had been the champions and Kentucky Derby winners Genuine Risk (Exclusive Native) in 1980 and Winning Colors (Caro) in 1988.

In 1980, the fetching chestnut Genuine Risk had become the second Kentucky Derby winner in three years for the Raise a Native stallion Exclusive Native. Neither Exclusive Native nor his sire had made any waves in the classics during their racing careers, but both had proven notably more capable of getting classic stock as sires.

Raise a Native sired 1969 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Majestic Prince, as well as Alydar, who finished second in each of the Triple Crown races behind Affirmed, the first classic winner by Exclusive Native.

Both Affirmed and Genuine Risk were scopy chestnuts with quality; their good looks made them noticeable on the racetrack and helped win thousands of fans for racing. Following her historic Derby success 65 years after Regret, Genuine Risk then finished second in a controversial Preakness when she was carried wide coming into the stretch by subsequent winner Codex (Arts and Letters). An objection lodged against the winner was not allowed.

Genuine Risk went to the Belmont Stakes, even without the Triple Crown as the historic attraction, but this time the beloved filly finished second to the mud-loving Temperence Hill (Stop the Music), who later was voted the champion 3-year-old colt.

No other filly previously had raced in each of the races of the Triple Crown, and Genuine Risk showed her high class and athletic ability as she finished in the money in each race. As a result, Genuine Risk ranks as one of the great race fillies of the past 50 years.

But just eight years later, another filly ran in each of the Triple Crown races.

A thrashing big filly, Winning Colors had brought $575,000 as a Keeneland July yearling, and the leggy daughter of the gray stallion Caro took some time to strengthen and fill out her big frame. After winning a pair of races at two, she advanced rapidly to top-class form in winning the Santa Anita Derby and then the Kentucky Derby. In the latter race, Winning Colors defeated the previous season's top juvenile colt, Forty Niner (Mr. Prospector) by a neck, with Risen Star (Secretariat) in third.

Brought back by trainer D. Wayne Lukas for the Preakness and a possible tilt for the Triple Crown, Winning Colors was challenged early and aggressively by Forty Niner, and at the finish, Risen Star was the fast-closing winner, with Winning Colors in third.

Both classic winners came back for the Belmont Stakes, and Risen Star prevailed by 15 lengths in the fast time of 2:26 2/5, which at the time was the second-fastest Belmont ever run behind only his great sire's 2:24. Since 1988, Easy Goer and A.P. Indy each have won the Belmont in 2:26.

Winning Colors had made the early pace, tried to stay with Risen Star when he was winding up his convincing impression of Secretariat, and finished unplaced in sixth. Winning Colors never won another top-level race, but the lovely gray did finish second in both the G1 Maskette and Breeders' Cup Distaff to the unbeaten Personal Ensign (Private Account).

In the latter race, run under cold and wet conditions at Churchill Downs later in 1989, Winning Colors had taken the lead and controlled the race to such an extent that Personal Ensign appeared to have little chance of even hitting the board as the field came into the stretch. The imperturbable bay filly refused to give up, gained with every stride through the stretch, and won her 13th and final start in one of the most exciting and heroic efforts imaginable.

These fillies secured the status of supreme champions by overcoming adversity and capturing victory when the probability or circumstances didn't favor them. If Swiss Skydiver can live up to these supreme examples of the race filly, she will make the Preakness one more great race to remember.

The post Bloodlines Presented By BloodstockAuction.Com: Swiss Skydiver Set To Join Sorority Of Top Fillies To Test Preakness Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

As a dark-skinned native of Puerto Rico trying to break into U.S. racing in the early Sixties against a largely white rider colony in New York, Angel Cordero Jr. may have faced more racism than anybody working in racing today. It happened to him inside and outside of the sport.

More than 50 years later, much has changed in racing and Cordero said he was proud of the strides Hispanic jockeys have made. At most tracks, they dominate the riders’ standings. But Cordero said there remains a problem for the jockeys from Spanish-speaking countries, who have not been given a chance to succeed in racing once they have retired.

That could change in the years ahead as more and more Hispanic riders retire, but, for now, racing’s executive offices and stewards’ stands are, as a whole, definitely lacking when it comes to the hiring of all minorities.

“They have a lot of jobs they could give to jockeys, like stewards,” he said. “You have three stewards at every track and at least one of them should speak Spanish. There are lot of jobs that a jockey could have when they retire. We don’t have a chance on the track to get a good job, the Spanish guy or the Black guy. I know it is true. I don’t see any Black or Spanish people working in one of those important jobs.”

It’s a matter of politics, Cordero said. Too often, the hiring of racing officials or track executives is not based on what you can do but who you know. That doesn’t help minorities.

“So many of them are political jobs and I think that’s why they don’t hire Spanish people to important jobs,” he said. “It’s tough for these jockeys to get a job on the racetrack. When you retire you are retired.”

Cordero, who is the agent for Manny Franco, works the New York circuit, which may have the most diverse group of stewards in the sport. There is a Hispanic (Braulio Baeza Jr.), a female (Dr. Jennifer Durenberger) and a white male (Brook Hawkins). But at many jurisdictions, the stewards stand is occupied by three while males.

Cordero also noted that there isn’t much of a Hispanic presence on racing broadcasts. Laffit Pincay III, among the most visible people in racing television, is the son of the Hall of Fame rider and Panamanian native Laffit Pincay Jr. But no other Hispanics have broken through in his profession. Cordero said he would like to see others have a chance.

When Cordero first came to ride in the U.S. in 1962, having a Black or Hispanic in the stewards’ stand or on television would have been inconceivable to him. His focus then was on navigating his way through society and breaking in in New York at a time when most top jockeys were white.

“When I first came here in the Sixties, racism was big,” said Cordero. “They wouldn’t serve me in certain restaurants and in a lot of places I had to go to a different bathroom. I couldn’t rent a house in certain neighborhoods.”

At the racetrack, Cordero said there were often reminders that he was different. He said he was more likely than a white rider to get a careless riding suspension and that he was told that conversing in Spanish in the jockeys’ room was not allowed. He’s also still bothered that investigators strip searched him before the 1971 Belmont looking for a battery and did not do the same to any other rider in the race. He said most owners were always very nice to him, but does single out a now-deceased Hall of Fame trainer who did not ride him, which Cordero always thought was because of the color of his skin.

But nothing could have prepared him for what he faced in 1980 after he won the Preakness aboard Codex, beating Kentucky Derby heroine Genuine Risk. On the far turn, Cordero, on Codex, forced Genuine Risk wide and many believed it was a case of rough riding that cost the popular filly the race. Afterward, Cordero was subject to threats on his life and said that many of the threats had racial overtones.

“I was getting all this hate mail. They said they were going to kill me and blow my house up,” he said. “In those letters, they would say ‘you’re a (n-word)’ or ‘go back to your own country.’ They attacked my color a lot.”

The situation got so intense that, after he returned to New York, the NYRA stewards told him someone was threatening to shoot him during a post parade.

“One day the stewards called me and said I should get off the horses and go home because they had an anonymous call from someone saying they were going to shoot me in the post parade,” he said. “I told them that wasn’t going to solve anything because they’d still be after me whenever I did come back and ride. They killed President Kennedy and he had people watching him. If they wanted to kill me, they’d kill me.

“They made me parade for one week all by myself. I’d come out of the jocks room first and spend five minutes on the track before the other jockeys came on the track. Instead of trying to fix the problem, they sent me out there all by myself as a target. If someone wanted to shoot me, they made it easier for them. They put a bullseye on me for a whole week.”

The retired rider said that if a white rider had been aboard Codex and did what Cordero did the controversy would not have been nearly as intense or so fueled by hate.

As he has watched the unrest spread over the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, Cordero worries that many of the strides the country had made on race since he came here in the Sixties have been reversed.

“I think this country is going back to being very racist again,” he said. “There are too many Black people getting killed. These people have been unarmed. It would be different if the guy was armed and causing trouble. They arrest them and they beat them up and sometimes they kill them. It’s a good thing so many people have cameras. Imagine if they didn’t and all the things they could be getting away with.”

Despite the problems he faced early on his career and the hatred he had to deal with in the aftermath of the Codex-Genuine Risk race, Cordero said he does not believe that horse racing is a racist sport.

But he isn’t willing to give the sport a complete pass. Particularly when it comes to hiring minorities to important management jobs, Cordero said he knows horse racing can do better.

Editor’s note: As many people in the United States and around the world question their personal views on diversity and racial inclusion, we decided to look inwardly on our industry, and we found it wanting. So we asked a tough question to several industry members: How do we make racing at its highest level more diverse? If you’d like to participate in the series, email katieritz@thetdn.com.

The post Diversity in Racing: Angel Cordero Jr. appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post