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Voss: American Pharoah’s Hall Of Fame Induction Marks A Complicated Moment For Racing

To say the combined 2020/2021 Hall of Fame induction ceremony was surreal seems an understatement. The public gallery in the Fasig-Tipton pavilion was packed with people well before the 10:30 a.m. start time, as might be expected in a year that saw the first admission of a Triple Crown winner since 1981 when Seattle Slew was enshrined. Still spinning from the cancellation of last year's ceremony (and much else) due to COVID-19, people were “just happy to be here this year.”

It's appropriate that the ceremony is held with a day of racing at Saratoga as its backdrop – the pinnacle of achievement, recognized in one of the toughest places to win a horse race. It's supposed to be a pure moment each year to honor the very best accomplishments in our sport. This year, it was a cloudy one.

Indeed, the stretch run of the 2015 Belmont, which so many of us have seen over and over again, was played a few more times. The crowd stirred a little. Everyone remembered how they felt in the moments when Larry Collmus called those immortal words into his microphone: American Pharoah is finally the one.

According to the eligibility rules for the Hall of Fame, this is the first year American Phaorah was on the ballot to enter the Hall, and he got in on the first try, as he should have. But in the six years since his retirement, the men united by his accomplishments are no longer thought of as solely the engineers of racing's favorite history-making moment.

Bob Baffert saddled another Triple Crown winner, who was later discovered to have tested positive for scopolamine and had that test result buried by California regulators while he was on his way to winning the roses. He has had a slew of other therapeutic drug positives among his other graded stakes winners, followed by an apology, followed by the biggest scandal of all – a betamethasone overage in this year's Kentucky Derby winner.

The legal fallout from the Medina Spirit saga is still unrolling and probably will continue for many years to come. It's the public trust in racing that will suffer for far longer. In a sport that already had two black eyes from the 2018-19 California breakdowns and the 2020 federal indictments, Baffert has knocked us right in the kisser. Everywhere I've gone this year, non-horse people have asked me (with absolutely no prompting from me) about 'why the white-haired trainer doped that horse' or why he 'thinks he can get away with it' as Baffert and his lawyer went on a public relations blitz, making clear they would fight a disqualification. People who hadn't watched a race in years remember this one, and probably the last time you could say that about a horse race, it was the 2015 Belmont.

Ahmed and Justin Zayat look on as a highlight reel of American Pharoah's career plays on the monitors at this year's Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Photo by Joe Nevills

Ahmed Zayat ran through the money American Pharoah won him with dizzying speed and took out $23 million in loans barely a year after the horse crossed the wire in the Belmont. He had run out of money to prop up his racing operation, telling MGG Investments he was already in debt and wanted to buy more horses. At the start of last year, MGG took Zayat to civil court, claiming he had not only failed to pay back that loan, but also that he sold breeding rights to his Triple Crown winner in violation of contract. Zayat has since declared bankruptcy, with a bunch of trainers and other horse industry professionals listed as his creditors – hard-working people who endured early mornings and bad weather trying to take care of his animals, people who now may not see a dime for it.

There's a tendency in horse racing – among fans and journalists alike – to cringe away from discomfort. It's human. When a person in racing does something we don't like, I hear people say they prefer to focus on the horse and the horse's accomplishments, laying to one side the problematic connections they'd rather not think about.

It is true, after all, that the horse can't choose his or her connections, and I, like many people in this sport, am in this because of my fascination with the horse more so than the people.

But I'll just say the thing I'm not supposed to say: it wasn't American Pharoah accepting a bronze plaque acknowledging his immortality on Friday morning. It was Ahmed Zayat.

Just as horses have no say in what their owners or trainers do, they also have no use for the accolades we do or don't give them. Becoming an Eclipse Award winner or a Hall of Famer will not change a horse's day. While I believe horses are highly intelligent, I also think they live in the moment; they are not worried about human constructs, for better or for worse, but the people around them will add to their own net worth with such honors.

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In American Pharoah's case, we were fairly warned. Zayat was sued in 2009 by Fifth Third Bank for allegedly defaulting on $34 million in loans, and then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for his Zayat Stables. Baffert's history of therapeutic violations prior to American Pharoah has been well-documented – so well-documented, in fact, that an animal rights activist who protested Friday's induction ceremony carried what I assume was supposed to be a poppyseed bagel. So was the 2013 investigation into the number of sudden deaths suffered by his horses in California, which were never completely explained but eventually blamed on thyroid medication Baffert was administering to horses who did not have a medical need for it.

The voting body (of which I am a member) could hardly have refused American Pharoah's enshrinement based on all this. His accomplishments were historic. But it's time to stop pretending that 2015 was a fairy tale, and that this moment isn't a complicated one.

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Pletcher, Casse, American Pharoah Highlight Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony

The combined ceremony for the 2020 and 2021 Hall of Fame induction classes was, as usual, filled with laughter and tears for the honorees, highlighted by trainers Todd Pletcher and Mark Casse. The ceremony took place Aug. 6 at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Pletcher, who was introduced with a fond series of recollections by longtime owner Mike Repole, received a standing ovation when accepting his plaque. Pletcher, who shows no signs of slowing down, already has seven Eclipse Awards to his credit alongside five Triple Crown wins, 11 Breeders' Cup victories, and 60 individual meet titles, including 14 at Saratoga.

Pletcher is widely cited as one of the jewels in the prominent training tree of fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, whose tutelage he acknowledged during his acceptance speech. Pletcher said he is often asked what the most important lesson was that he took from his time with Lukas.

“The answer is there's not one thing, it's everything,” said Pletcher. “Every horse matters. Every owner matters.”

Pletcher set his sights on training from a young age, encouraged by his father, who is a former trainer and owns a Florida training center, and his mother, who helped him take out his first loan when he wanted to open his own barn. He put out his shingle in 1995.

Mark Casse also became a Hall of Famer on Friday morning – an incredible evolution for the man who remembered visiting the hall with his father in 1972 at the age of 11.

“At the end of the visit, I confidently told my dad, 'I'll be in here some day,'” an emotional Casse remembered. “As any good father would do, he told me, 'Yes, Mark, you will.' Well, we did it.”

Casse has won 13 Sovereign Awards, two American Triple Crown races, eight Canadian Triple Crown races, five Breeders' Cup races, and was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2016.

Casse and Pletcher both acknowledged the tremendous support from owners, family, and staff that helped them reach this moment in their careers. Although Casse was shepherded into the racing world by his father Norman, who built Cardinal Hill Stable in Ocala, Fla., and was chair of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company, Mark Casse recalled that he owes his mother just as great a debt for his career. When his parents divorced, Casse was asked to choose which parent he would live with. His mother would be leaving the farm, and his father would continue to be hands on with the horses. Overwhelmed with emotion, Casse asked his wife Tina to read the part of his speech that acknowledged her contribution to his career.

“I asked my mom a simple question that would change the course of my life,” Casse had written. “'Mom, do you truly love me?' 'With all my heart,' she said. I said, 'Mom, if you truly love me, you'll let me stay with Dad.' I know that had to have killed her, but she granted me a true sign of love by letting me stay on the farm. Who knows where my life would be today if it wasn't for her sacrifice.”

The induction ceremony also marked the entry of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah into the Hall of Fame. Embattled owner/breeder Ahmed Zayat accepted the plaque on behalf of the horse. Zayat recalled his favorite moments from the horse's career, including the enormous fan following generated by “America's horse.”

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“I've never seen 20,000 people come in the morning to see a horse gallop,” said Zayat, recalling the horse's workout at Saratoga ahead of his loss in the Grade 1 Travers. “I don't think we'll ever see that again. American Pharoah loved the crowd. He loved the people.”

Wise Dan also took his place in the Hall, marking the crowning achievement in a career that included two Horse of the Year awards, four other Eclipses, earnings of $7.5 million, track records at three tracks, and 19 graded stakes wins.

Trainer Charlie LoPresti was on hand to accept the plaque for Wise Dan.

“My only regret is that Mr. [Morton] Fink is not here to accept this award because he was so proud of that horse,” said LoPresti. “He used to tell me all the time, 'Charlie, the only thing that keeps me alive is that horse.' …I think it put years on his life.”

Additional honorees Aug. 6 included steeplechase trainer Jack Fisher, historic review jockey Darrel McHargue, Pillars of the Turf J. Keene Daingerfield, Jr., George D. Widener, Jr., and Alice Headley Chandler, and historic review horse Tom Bowling.

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More Than Ready, It’s Pletcher’s Time

For at least a decade, there were no “if” or “when” questions about Todd Pletcher and the Hall of Fame.

If? By the time he won the GI Kentucky Derby for the first time with Super Saver in 2010, Pletcher, then a month away from his 43rd birthday, already had nine champions, four Eclipse Awards as outstanding trainer, four national money-earned titles, had topped the Saratoga trainers table six times and had earned the Gulfstream Park training title for the seventh consecutive year. Super Saver's Derby triumph was his 72nd Grade I victory.

When? With that remarkable resume in place halfway through his 15th season as a trainer, Pletcher already was a lock to be elected to the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing. It just became a matter of time for him to become eligible in 2021, meeting the Hall of Fame requirement of 25 years as a licensed trainer.

As a result, the announcement in May of the first-time-on-the-ballot elections of Pletcher and 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah might rank as the biggest non-story in racing this decade.

Pletcher, 54, will be formally inducted during the annual Hall of Fame ceremony Friday morning at Fasig-Tipton's Humphrey S. Finney Sales Pavilion. Since the 2020 ceremony was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hall of Fame classes from both years–a total of seven people and three horses–will be inducted and honored. Pletcher will be the final inductee on the stage and said that he will deliver an acceptance speech that will last between six and seven minutes. If Pletcher's attention-to-detail past is prologue, he will hit the mark.

Pletcher with his father, JJ | Joe DiOrio

While he grew up in a racing family based in Texas, graduated from the University of Arizona's Racetrack Industry Program and was promptly hired by superstar trainer D. Wayne Lukas, Pletcher said the Hall of Fame was not something he aimed for in his youth.

“I never thought about the possibility of that happening,” he said. “Once things start going well you're aware of it. Certainly, having worked for Wayne while he was inducted, I was aware of that. But I didn't start off thinking that's my goal.

“The goals that we try to, as a team, put in place are pretty simple. We try to do the best job we can with each and every opportunity we get with each and every horse. In some cases that's winning a maiden New York-bred or a claiming race or whatever.”

That approach quickly carried Pletcher to the top of sport and ultimately to the Hall of Fame. He became racing's career leader in purse money earned in May 2014 when he passed Lukas with Jack Milton's victory in the Poker at Belmont. In September 2015 Pletcher became the first trainer to crack $300 million in earnings. He led the way to $400 million on January 30.

Since his father Jake trained Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses in the Southwest, horses and racing have always been a part of Pletcher's life. He began helping his father when he was in elementary school.

“I knew early on that I wanted to train horses. The only time there was any question was just when I was going to do it,” he said. “I wanted to go to work right after high school and both of my parents felt very strongly that they wanted me to go to college. The one compromise that we made was that I go get a college education. I'm glad I did. It was a fun four years of my life.”

Thanks to his father's involvement in racing, Pletcher had summer jobs in high school and college with top trainers Henry Moreno, Charlie Whittingham and Lukas. In December 1988, during senior year in college, Pletcher met with Lukas. At that point, Lukas was operating a huge national stable with divisions being managed by his son Jeff and other talented young assistants, including Randy Bradshaw, Kiaran McLaughlin, Mark Hennig and Dallas Stewart.

More Than Ready, the first of Pletcher's top runners to find prominence as a sire | Horsephotos

“I sort of had an informal interview with Wayne at Santa Anita,” he said. “He told me I could count on a job, to give him a call when I graduated and he would tell me where to go. When I did that he said go to Belmont. Part of what was so great about that was going to work, not only for Wayne, but Jeff, who was the assistant for half a year and Kiaran was an assistant for the other half. I got to work under those two guys.

“Jeff was a huge influence. He was a pretty strict disciplinarian, but he was a good coach. He expected things done a certain way. I think learning under him was important. And then the other half of the year working with Kiaran, I got to work with two guys, very different personalities, that were both very talented horseman. It was a really good balance for me.”

Pletcher has said through the years that being hired by Lukas was important to the development of his career.

“It was such a great learning environment, to not only being exposed to so many good horses, but seeing the organization itself and how that operated,” he said. “Plus, by being in a larger organization, you were able to get some additional responsibility that you might not in a smaller barn.”

Lukas said that it was clear from the beginning that Pletcher was a good fit for his stable.

“He started out right. He had a very strong work ethic and he had a great attention to detail,” Lukas said. “One of the things that we impart to those guys is attention to detail and organization. We organize the barn. That comes from my coaching background probably, but we organize the barn. He adapted to that and fell into that very quickly and became very, very strong.”

In 1991, Pletcher was promoted to assistant trainer. He stayed on with Lukas, managing barns in New York and Florida until late in 1995 when, at the age of 28, he took out a license to open his own stable.

“It was very difficult to leave,” he said. “You're walking away from a tremendous assistant job. You're working around the best horses in the country. To leave that and open up a stable where I had seven horses, none of which had ever won a race; it was intimidating to leave that but for me it felt like it was time to. If you're ever going to do it, you just got to do it.

Pletcher and Lukas in 2006 | Horsephotos

“Sometimes as an assistant, you kind of think the phone's going to ring one day and 'Hey, you've got 20 horses that I want you to train.' I think after a little while you realize that you've just got to get out there and try to do it yourself and see if you can succeed. I talked to my parents a lot about it, to my wife a lot about it and we decided it was. Let's give it a shot.”

Pletcher's first career starter, Paramount, finished sixth of 12 on Jan. 13, 1996, at Gulfstream Park. Thirteen days later, Pletcher won with his second runner, Majestic Number, in a maiden claimer race for 3-year-old fillies. Jerry Bailey, who had been Pletcher's babysitter on occasion years before when he prepping for what turned into a career as a Hall of Fame jockey and whose father was Pletcher's dentist, was up for that important first victory.

In July 1996 at Monmouth he picked up his first stakes win with Stu's Choice in the $40,000 John McSorley. The first graded stakes win came in 1998, the year that the 31-year-old won the first of his 14 Saratoga titles. According to Equibase, through Sunday, Aug. 1, Pletcher was seventh in career wins with 5,155 and his $409,890,881 in career earnings was more than $48 million clear of runner-up Steve Asmussen. Pletcher's website shows a total of 1,328 stakes won by his runners. That list of stakes includes two Derby wins; three in the GI Belmont S.; four GI Kentucky Oaks; six GI Florida Derbys; three in the GI Whitney and two GI Travers. He has won a total of 11 Breeders' Cup races in nine divisions. Many of his top horses have been ridden by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez in a longstanding partnership.

Pletcher said that the filly Jersey Girl and More Than Ready, who won of a total of 13 stakes between them from 1997 to 2000 were the horses that put him on the map. His legacy, he said, is likely to be the colts that raced for him and went on to become prominent stallions, starting with More Than Ready. When it is posed, Pletcher gently pushes away an obvious question on the eve of his Hall of Fame induction: does he have a favorite horse?

Pletcher got his first Classic win with Rags to Riches | Horsephotos

“No, and I try to avoid that,” he said. “I've always said the most excited I've ever been after a race was when Rags to Riches won the Belmont (2007). That's still holds true for a lot of reasons. One, just the enormity of a filly winning a Belmont. But the fashion that it happened when she stumbled at the start and the stretch-long duel (with Preakness winner Curlin). My first Classic win and Johnny's first Classic win. It was just so much to be excited about.

“As far as all-time favorites, I've been blessed to have a lot of good ones.”

Like Lukas and other prominent horsemen who found early success and established their Hall of Fame credentials, Pletcher had to wait until he reached his year of eligibility to be placed on the ballot. Lukas said Pletcher had made his mark long ago.

“His career, exemplifies so much perfection, so many good things,” Lukas said. “That's what it's all about. He's why we put people in the Hall of Fame when they have the character and work ethic and achievements that he's put together. That's why we get guys in. I'm glad to welcome him to our fraternity.”

Pletcher's wife Tracy, their three children and his parents will be part of the group of about 15 family members that will attend the induction. Typically composed in victory and defeat, Pletcher said he's not sure how he will react when it's his turn to be inducted.

“Everyone that I've talked to said yes, be prepared to be emotional,” he said. “Hopefully I can hold it together, say the right things. I'm going to be careful about naming too many individuals because I fear leaving someone out.”

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Hall of Fame Jockey John Rotz Passes Away at 86

Hall of Fame jockey John Rotz, a GI Preakness S. and GI Belmont S. winner, passed away peacefully Monday at his farm in Warrensburg, Illinois after battling a number of brain diseases, including dementia. He was 86.

Classy, polite and down-to-earth, Rotz was known as “Gentleman John,” a nickname he earned shortly after his riding career began in the fifties. After retiring in 1973, he worked as a steward at the NYRA tracks as well as at tracks in Louisiana, Ohio and Delaware. After ending his stint as a steward, he stayed involved with the equine world, competing in cutting and reining horse competitions, something he did until he was 81.

His widow, Mary, remembered Rotz as someone who had a fierce desire to win, but always remained humble and kind.

“My husband walked in humility,” she said. “He was such a wonderful, wonderful human being and I was so blessed to be married to him. He was the biggest man I ever met in my life.”

Rotz was born Dec. 16, 1934, in Niantic, Illinois. After graduating from high school, he started out at the racetrack as a hotwalker, groom and exercise rider at Fairmount Park. He started riding in 1953 and it did not take him long to graduate to bigger circuits.

He was North America's leading stakes-winning rider in 1969 and 1970 and was riding some of the best horses in the country.

Rotz became the regular rider of Gallant Bloom, herself a Hall of Famer and a champion 2-year-old filly in 1968 and a champion 3-year-old filly in 1969. He also rode Hall of Famer mare Ta Wee, the sprint champion in 1969 and 1970. Rotz teamed up with her to win 10 stakes races.

In a 2016 interview, Rotz said Gallant Bloom was his favorite horse and that he was most proud of his wins aboard Ta Wee. She twice beat males in the Fall Highweight H., including the 1970 running when she carried 140 pounds.

Rotz had two Classic wins, in the 1962 Preakness with Greek Money and in the 1970 Belmont with High Echelon. His other major stakes victories include wins in the Metropolitan H., the Alabama S., the Florida Derby, the Delaware H. and the Woodward S.

In 1973, he was named that year's George Woolf Memorial Award winner.

Rotz finished his career with 2,907 winners. He had to stop riding because an operation to remove a tumor on his right leg left him with damaged nerves.

In 1979 he was named the steward representing The Jockey Club at the NYRA tracks.

“[Being a steward] is tougher for me than riding was,” he said at the time. “You have to enforce rules, and it's tough to keep people happy when you enforce rules.”

He retired as a steward in 1983, the same year he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, but stayed involved in the equine world. Despite his age at the time, he became a top competitor on the cutting and reigning horse circuit. In 1987, he won the National Reining Horse Association Novice Horse Non-Pro World Championship. According to Mary Rotz, her husband was still riding in those events at age 81 and only stopped because he had to have a hip replacement.

“He was thrilled to win the Preakness and Belmont, but he got the same kick when he won at a cutting show or at reining show,” Mary Rotz said. “Any time he was on top of a horse he was happy.”

In addition to his wife, Rotz is survived by his sister, Ann Wubben.

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