This Side Up: Horsemen Worthy of Their Heritage Will Enhance it

What is it, beyond our obvious bond in the Thoroughbred, that most vitally comprises the fabric of the Turf?

It’s a question answerable in too many ways, requiring definition of too many intangibles, to be easily condensed. But I think we’ll get somewhere close if we ponder the retirement this week of Stan Hough, an old-school horseman of a type largely overwhelmed in the era of the super-trainer. And especially because his departure from the stage coincides with the removal of two key features of the scenery: Calder Race Course, where Hough won five consecutive training titles from 1976; and Sagamore, his final patron, now being disbanded as a Thoroughbred farm.

For three such names to recede simultaneously from our sporting theater is surely a prompt to reflect on those elements in our heritage as precious as they are liable to slip through our grasp.

That is not to invite any conflation of the factors determining each of these withdrawals; nor any presumption about their validity. But each will perhaps remind us of a collective stake in the way individual strands are entwined in our sport, and its history.

Hough’s personal legacy has long been secure, having nurtured many important horses and horsemen. The latest of these, of course, is GI Breeders’ Cup Classic third Global Campaign (Curlin)–whose return to WinStar, where he was bred, circumscribes a two-year comeback for a trainer who picked him out, along with Sagamore president Hunter Rankin, as a yearling.

Without deprecating the opportunities available to those apprenticed to the industrial trainers of today, Rankin prizes the disappearing privilege of a mentor who, in turn, directly represents not just the era of Woody Stephens and Allen Jerkens but also a forgotten generation of hardboots. Hough learned the ropes under one William Tompkins at River Downs, whom he describes as “still the best horseman I’ve ever been around.”

“There’s no better description of Stan Hough than ‘old-school’,” Rankin says warmly. “He just is the consummate horseman. He knows his horses really well. He loves his horses. Everybody knows about Stan, and everybody respects the way he went about his business: the way he trained horses, the way he interacted with the horsemen.

Global Campaign took the Sept. 5 Woodward | Sarah Andrew

“But ‘old school’ doesn’t necessarily mean stuck in his ways. He’s really innovative in the way he trains. He works horses from a lot of different poles. He gallops them different every day. He doesn’t jog a whole lot. He obsesses over what they’re going to do next day–and not just Global Campaign. It’s every horse. I would say, ‘Stan, you don’t need to worry so much about this one, or that one.’ He can’t help it, you know?

“I think that’s the mark of a true horseman. Not that you’re right all the time, but just that you’d do anything to make it work. He’s a master. Doesn’t say a whole lot, doesn’t have any interest in being the center of attention. He has always just loved the game.”

Rankin’s admiration, moreover, is not confined to the horse lore. Hough has seen a lot of life. He was only 16 when he joined Tompkins; and little older, when becoming a husband and father for the first time.

“Trust me, no matter how great a horseman he is, he’s an even better man,” he says. “He’s like a second dad. We are borderline inseparable. My dad is the best, but Stan has just been such a gift to me. I can’t imagine my life without him, really. You won’t find anybody that would say a bad word about him.”

Part of what we are losing, in the retreat of men like this, is the trainer whose “eye” oversees the whole process: not just the conditioning, but the original discovery of potential. If the focus was wrong, when Hough worked the sales or made a claim, he would have to tighten that belt an extra notch. That kind of thing concentrated the mind in a fashion you don’t see so often, now that barns are largely stocked by agents and managers and so on.

While Hough did gain one or two powerful patrons, along the way, he started out claiming horses at places like Hazel Park, Detroit. As Rankin says: “For the most part, he did it on his own; and he did it his own way.” In time, he gathered the seedcorn to buy Proud Appeal (Valid Appeal) at the Hialeah 2-year-old sales in 1980, with a partner, for $37,000. True to that old-school grounding, the following year he trained him up to Kentucky Derby favoritism with five stakes wins in 10 weeks, culminating in the GI Blue Grass S. In the meantime, John Gaines and Robert Entenmann gave seven figures for a stake in the horse. Clients similarly profited from his talent, as when Paul Robsham sold Discreet Cat (Forestry) to Godolphin after he won on debut at Saratoga. Or they just banked the purses, as when Half Iced (Hatchet Man) won the 1982 Japan Cup in the Firestone silks, his 16th sophomore start.

Discreet Cat eventually won the 2006 Cigar Mile | Sarah Andrew

But what gives ultimate symmetry to Hough’s retirement, aged 72 and after 2,212 winners, is that Calder closed its doors the same day. That was where Hough made his name, and you can’t help but feel that its loss should focus our community’s attention on what it is prepared to forfeit, what it wishes to preserve, and how. That is not a simple process.

Everyone would agree that the fate of Sagamore, for instance, is the unique prerogative of its owner. Yes, it’s gratifying that Hough should have secured for Global Campaign the chance to extend a sire line tracing to the “Gray Ghost” himself, Native Dancer. And we’d all be delighted should someone, someday, decide that the Kevin Plank chapter in Sagamore’s Turf history need not be the last. In the meantime, however, everyone accepts that he can do as he wishes with his own property. Presumably the only way to salvage the farm, for Thoroughbreds, would be an offer to purchase sufficient for him to abandon whatever other purposes he may be favoring.

Now it must be said that the same indulgence is seldom extended to the owners of “Gulfstream Park West,” as Calder was unhappily rebranded. They are not in this business as knights in shining armor; not trustees for our community. They are here to get the best possible dividends out of their property for their shareholders. Without a neutral authority to arbitrate a South Florida racing calendar, it’s a perfectly coherent accounting decision to decide that competition with Gulfstream isn’t sufficiently viable for their purposes.

Horses leave the starting gate for the last time at Gulfstream Park West Nov. 28 | Nicole Thomas

Few of us have any idea about how things unravelled over the lease that had brought Gulfstream’s owners into play for Calder’s final years; or, indeed, what the future priorities of that operation may be, for its hugely valuable real estate round the country. In the case of Churchill Downs Inc., however, people know exactly what they are dealing with. And while we may despair over the consequences for Calder or Arlington, then we must at least acknowledge that when they do commit to a track, as a sustainable business proposition, they will do a professional job of making it work. Seeing what they are doing up the road at Turfway, certainly, they seem likely to make Kentucky the sport’s center of gravity even as the opposing coasts are bogged down by diverse problems.

Looking around, and looking ahead, you have to ask how vigorous competition is likely to be among track owners. That’s a concern, whether or not Churchill themselves prove interested in other historic sites that may become available. If they are, well, we all know that stronger competition would be healthier for the consumer. And if they aren’t, then just who is going to step up?

Running a racetrack as a profitable business is not straightforward, especially when so much can hinge on state regulation, slots, etc. E.P. Taylor famously led the consolidation of the sport in Ontario, shutting down the leaky-roof circuit and throwing everything at a state-of-the-art track at Woodbine. That kind of process can be brutal, and there can also be undesirable side-effects. After Calder’s closure, for instance, you seriously fear for the surfaces at Gulfstream, most obviously the turf course.

Nonetheless, Taylor’s vision and leadership showed the fearlessness required for the grasping of nettles like this.

The fact is that ruthless pursuit of profit can only be thwarted by its removal as a consideration. In Britain, The Jockey Club has surrendered its original function as a governing body and evolved into custodian of such historic racetracks as Newmarket and Epsom, where it also owns the communal training facilities. And Ascot, of course, is owned by the Queen herself–not terribly likely, you would say, to sell up for housing any time soon.

That’s not a solution available to Americans, of course, since 1776. But it’s no good wringing your hands over the cynical indifference of commercial operators to tradition, or community, or legacy. If enough people of sufficient wealth are sufficiently concerned, perhaps something might yet be done.

Hough, center, in the 2019 Peter Pan winner’s circle | Coglianese

The Breeders’ Cup, after all, was founded on communal contribution toward the corporate benefit of the industry. It’s not as though all racetracks are doomed to lose money. Otherwise Churchill wouldn’t be in the game. And if the profits of tracks owned and run by stakeholders were routinely ploughed back, then you could aspire to a virtuous circle: better product, better handle, better gates, better television, better purses.

So, as ever, it comes down to the caliber of people. Let’s return to the question asked at the outset, about the fabric of the Turf. Many would suggest that a horseman like Hough is where the answer starts. He guarantees the interests of the horse, whatever it takes. The question is whether the same standards can be met by everyone else involved in getting the show on the road. Because the choice is either to keep blaming other people for neglecting the interests of our sport, or to get together and do a better job ourselves.

The fabric of the business is never more literal than in the bricks and mortar of a racetrack. But those, too, no less than the condition of a horse prepared by Stan Hough, will always reflect the quality of the people responsible.

Remember what Rankin said about Hough. It’s not that you’re right all the time, just “that you’d do anything to make it work.”

The King of Calder has abdicated, and his kingdom has disappeared. But the wider realm can still be defended, and those who can afford a suit of armor should maybe get together and show some knightly qualities of their own.

 

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The Week in Review: For Plesa, a Bittersweet Ending to Calder Saga

From a racing standpoint, there could not have been a more appropriate way for Calder to go out. There when the track ran its first ever race in 1971, trainer Eddie Plesa, Jr. won the last race run at the track that had been rebranded as Gulfstream Park West. Plesa won for the 1,326th time at Calder/GPW Saturday when Diligent (Temple City) won the final race that will ever be run at the South Florida racetrack.

“I didn’t ask anybody to put me in the last race. It just happened. Like it was meant to be,” said Plesa, a member of the Calder Hall of Fame.

It was an emotional day for Plesa, made even more so by the twist of fate that saw him win the final race. Calder wasn’t beautiful like Hialeah and the racing could never compare to Gulfstream, but to those who called it home, it was a special place where careers and great memories were made. That it is gone is hard to accept.

“To see it go, that’s life,” Plesa said. “But it’s like losing someone that was close to you. And I’m not the only one who feels that way.”

Plesa was working for his father, who had a string at the time for Fred W. Hooper, when Calder opened in 1971 and drew so many people for the first ever card that thousands of fans had to be turned away because the stands were filled to capacity. He would later take on the role of assistant racing secretary at Calder before opening up his own stable there. Calder is also where he me his wife, Laurie.

Over the years, Plesa has learned to accept change, and he knows that Calder is far from the first track to close in an era where it is hard to make a profit operating a racetrack. The hard part, for him, has been watching racing become so impersonal, much less of a sport than it was 1971 and, now, much more a business.

Calder was purchased in 1999 by Churchill Downs, a company where little else matters but the bottom line. When Churchill opened a casino at Calder in 2010, it needed racing because, without offering some sort of pari-mutuel wagering, it could not have a casino license. So eager to get out of the racing business in South Florida, Churchill entered into a six-year agreement in 2014 with the Stronach Group (TSG), the owners of Gulfstream. The Stronach Group would take over the racing operation at Calder, which was renamed Gulfstream Park West. Well before the lease expired, Churchill had the Calder grandstand torn down in 2015.

Some four years later and with the deal with the Stronach Group about to expire, Churchill made an argument to the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering that any form of pari-mutuel wagering would suffice when it came to the casino license. Churchill announced plans to go forward with a jai alia fronton, which is much less expensive to operate than a racetrack. Both the regulators and the courts signed off on their plan, which sealed Calder’s fate.

“Churchill Downs, they’re business oriented,” Plesa said. “But to a lot of people, horse racing isn’t a business, per se. The owners, they’re not in it to make money. They are in it because they enjoy the sport. They don’t want to lose a ton of money but, to them, this is not a business. For Churchill Downs, all that matters is the business aspect. So you have a clashing of cultures, so to speak. Who’s right and who’s wrong? It depends on what side of the fence you are sitting on.”

Sitting on the racing side of the fence, Plesa said Churchill did everything it could to run Calder into the ground.

“Absolutely, there is a lot of anger among the horsemen and it’s all directed at one company, Churchill Downs,” he said. “From my standpoint, they took a viable racetrack that was important, not just to South Florida, but to horse racing as a whole and they had no regard for it. To see what they did, there are many examples I can talk about. There was the time the escalator up to the second floor broke and they never bothered to fix it for the longest period of time. That was part of the plan. They didn’t want to spend any money. When they closed down the floor that housed the Hall of Fame, people asked what did you do with all the pictures and there was no answer. They must have thrown them all away. They stopped maintaining the barn area. They literally tore down the clubhouse and the grandstand. Then Churchill Downs snuck behind everyone’s back and they got a jai alia license so they could extricate themselves from the agreement that brought them a casino in the first place and so that they don’t have to pay the horsemen any money.”

It wasn’t that long ago that South Florida had three racetracks and Calder, Hialeah and Gulfstream were in a never-ending fight for the choicest dates. Now, Gulfstream is all that is left and will go forward in 2021 with the unenviable task of having to operate year-round. It remains to be seen how its turf course will hold up without getting any sort of meaningful break.

“There are some issues that will have to be looked at,” Plesa said. “Can you race 12 months of the year on one racetrack and on a turf course that is used so frequently? I don’t know. Will there be a little break in between meets? I don’t know. How long of a break would it be? It’s going to be an interesting transition without the two months of racing away from Gulfstream Park.”

After Diligent’s victory, Plesa, who did not attend Saturday’s card, said he heard from about 100 people who reached out to congratulate him on winning the race. Many of them wanted to share their own memories of Calder with him.

“It was something special,” he said of the many messages he received. “I didn’t think I would get so emotional over something like that. It brought back a lot of memories. That was heartwarming, but it was under sad circumstances. It was almost like someone had passed away.”

Whales Cash In Again

At some point racing has to take a look at its love affair with jackpot bets. At the expense of the everyday player, they are too often won by the bettors who have the resources to plow a huge amount of money into the pools and rely on sophisticated computer programs to place their wagers.

The latest example occurred Saturday at Aqueduct. According to the Daily Racing Form‘s David Grening, the winning ticket on the Empire Six was purchased through the Elite Turf Club, which is the go-to wagering platform for some of the sport’s biggest bettors and is based in Curacao. The winning payout was $482,817.70.

Later that same day, an Elite Turf Club customer cashed in for $55,157.16 at the Meadowlands. The player had the only winning ticket on the Pick-5 and included a 75-1 winner on his or her tickets.

While those wins may be good news for some high rollers, the sport shouldn’t lose sight of where that money came from. It is the $10 and $20 bettor who is responsible for those pools building up. With so much money often ending up in the hands of a high-volume player, the run-of-the-mill bettor is going broke.

Tracks cater to the big players because they wager such huge amounts. But what’s happening is not sustainable. The bettors from places like Elite Turf Club are so dominating the wagering that they are making it that much harder for everyone else to keep their heads above water. The risk is that the big players will cause their competition to go broke, driving them out of the game. Some day, it will just be whales-versus-whale. That’s something the sport can ill afford.

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Pegasus World Cup Is ‘Likely Next Spot’ For Newly-Minted Grade 1 Winner Bodexpress

Top Racing, Global Thoroughbred and GDS Racing Stable's Bodexpress is set to make his return journey to South Florida on Monday following his 11-1 upset victory in Friday's Grade 1, $500,000 Clark presented by Norton Healthcare at Churchill Downs

“Everything is good,” said Gustavo Delgado Jr., the assistant to his father. “He'll spend a few days in Ocala, Fla. before returning to Gulfstream Park West. Gulfstream Park is our home track. So, the likely next spot could be the ($3 million) Pegasus (G1).”

Bodexpress, most known for his antics in the 2019 Preakness Stakes, gave jockey Rafael Bejarano his first victory in the Clark.

“It means a lot to my career to win this race,” Bejarano said. “I spent many years at Churchill in the past and this was always a big race to win in the Fall Meet. I'm glad we were able to do so now that I'm back home in Kentucky.”

Bodexpress improved his overall record to 4-4-3 through 17 starts. The 4-year-old son of Bodemeister has now banked $694,600 in earnings.

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$347,136 Rainbow 6 Jackpot Pool, Mandatory Payout In Gulfstream Park West Finale

A mandatory payout of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 pool will highlight the closing-day program at Gulfstream Park West Saturday.

A jackpot pool of $347.136.72 will be carried over to Saturday's card after the popular multi-race wager went unsolved for the 17th consecutive racing program Friday.

Gulfstream hosts and analysts Jason Blewitt and Ron Nicoletti look at the races in Saturday's sequence, and they have a difference of opinion on some of them.

Video:

The Rainbow 6 carryover jackpot is usually only paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day's pool usually goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool. However, on mandatory-payout days, the entire pool is paid out to the bettor or bettors with the most winners in the six-race sequence.

Mandatory payouts of the Late Pick 5 and the last-race Super Hi-5 are also scheduled.

Saturday's Rainbow 6 sequence will span Races 5-10.

Zayas (Jockey) Crichton (Trainer) Seek to Wrap Up Titles
Edgard Zayas heads into Saturday's final card at Gulfstream West with a 41-38 edge over Emisael Jaramillo in the jockey's race. Zayas has been named to ride 10 horses, including two main-track-only entrants, Saturday. Jaramillo is scheduled to ride in seven races, including an also-eligible entrant. Miguel Vasquez, who took closing weekend off, completed the meet with 39 winners.

Rohan Crichton, who is seeking his first U.S. training title, holds a 19-16 edge defending champion Saffie Joseph Jr., going into Saturday's card. Crichton has two horses entered for the last GPW program, while Joseph has three horses entered. Antonio Sano, who has 15 winners, has five horses entered Saturday.

Crichton, who saddled a pair of winners Friday, also holds a 6-5 edge over Paradise Farms Corp. for the owner's title.

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