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Lukas Argues Drug Threshold Levels

Bob Baffert has been placed the squarely in the cross hairs over Medina Spirit (Protonico)'s Betamethasone positive following last week's GI Kentucky Derby and amid the chorus of criticism, admonishment and outright verbal assault, a fellow Hall of Famer took up the mantle of defense for his beleaguered colleague.

“Unfortunately, it is the story of this Preakness,” said D. Wayne Lukas, who has won the second jewel of the Triple Crown six times. “Racing doesn't deserve to get the black eye for something this minor. Now, if there is an all-out performance- enhancing drug, that's obviously different. But that just wasn't the case in this instance.”

Lukas, who created his own stir earlier this week with a statement made in defense of Baffert when he suggested a test at this level should be thrown out, underscored what he felt was the central idea lost in the dissemination of his comment making its way through social media.

“The thresholds are so low now that [trainers] are all fair game,” he explained. “I'm here looking at my horses and think I could be next. It could be any one of them in the Preakness or any of these races the way the thresholds are set.”

In regards to the ensuing media nightmare ignited by this week's revelation, Lukas argues that many outside of the industry might not fully understand the facts in a case like the latest to take the nation by storm.

“The average fan following the news doesn't really get the scale of a picogram,” he said. “They think it's a blatant violation and that the horse had something in his system that enhanced his performance. And we can't explain that to everyone, so racing overall gets a black eye.”

He continued, “Testing is so sophisticated and sensitive nowadays that even a negligible level could fail. The drug thresholds have just gotten lower and lower and I really think we've legislated ourselves into a hole here. I really think we've painted ourselves into a corner with what I believe to be, in many cases, unrealistic levels.”

“Trainers have become so conscious of what we're giving to our horses,” he said. “I know that certain eye ointments have substances that would cause a violation. You have to be very careful what's on the label these days. Even then, with everything we feed them and everything we put on them now you are scrutinized pretty intensely.”

A trainer for over five decades, Lukas said he takes a basic approach in his own operation, while trying to navigate the razor-edge balance between maintaining optimal health in his animals while steering clear of a much-dreaded raceday positive.

“Part of the issue is that the withdrawal times we are given are often very limited,” he said. They're not always accurate or don't take into account all the factors. They tell us the withdrawal time is four days and somebody still gets a positive test even though they withdrew at six days. So, what I do is I just double it. If they tell us there is a four-day withdrawal, I automatically double it, so that's eight days on our books. You have to go beyond what they tell you because there are a lot of inaccuracies in that regard. There have been a lot of positives of late where trainers followed the guidelines they were given and still got a positive.”

And as the sport continues to regain its footing after its latest assault, Lukas offered a pragmatic approach to maintaining the health of sport.

“I hope the Horse Racing Integrity Act takes a realistic approach and sets the thresholds at a reasonable level and in a uniform way, so we're not failing for topical dressings and eye ointments, as in the case this week. Bob is under the gun right now, but it could have been any one of us.”

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Risk Taking, Unbridled Honor Added to Preakness

Next weekend's GI Preakness S. continues to take shape as GSW Risk Taking (Medaglia d'Oro) and Unbridled Honor (Honor Code) are expected to be added to the fray during Monday's draw at Pimlico.

Winner of the GIII Withers S. in February, Risk Taking had been initially tabbed to contest the nine-furlong GIII Peter Pan S. at Belmont Saturday, but has been rerouted to join his Klaravich Stables stablemate, Crowded Trade (More Than Ready), in the second jewel in the Triple Crown. Chad Brown trains the colt for Baltimore native Seth Klarman, who was the co-owner of Brown's 2017 Preakness winner Cloud Computing.

“After a couple of lengthy discussions with Mr. Klarman, we feel that this horse is better around two turns,” explained Brown. “That, along with the defections, it just seemed like a good opportunity to take a chance with the horse. I know he is the morning-line favorite for the Peter Pan and we are giving that up, but the reward is: if we are able to get lucky in this race and have him run the race of his life and potentially win or be right there, it's a huge purse. Along with that, it's a little better for him around two turns with the extra distance. Of course, it's a tougher race, but it just came down to a risk-and-reward situation and getting the opportunity to try him around two turns.”

The Preakness will be Risk Taking's first start since he finished seventh as the 2-1 favorite in the Apr. 3 GII Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. He broke his maiden at the Big A in December prior to his Withers score.

“Our optimism is really based on being able to confidently draw a line through the Wood,” Brown said. “If we do that, and if he was to move forward off his previous two races, another step forward, finishing strong at a mile and three-sixteenths, it could potentially put him in the trifecta or maybe better.”

Jose Ortiz will ride the Risk Taking in the Preakness.

Newly-minted Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher also confirmed Whisper Hill's Unbridled Honor will take aim at the Preakness, the only Classic which the 53-year-old has yet to win.

A narrow winner in his third career start going just over a mile at Tampa in February, the colt was fourth in the GII Tampa Bay Derby before a runner-up finish in the GIII Lexington S. at Keeneland Apr. 10.

“He's a horse that we've always had high hopes for,” Pletcher said Friday. “He's always trained really well and he's still sort of putting it all together in race situations. We thought he made a move forward in the Tampa Derby when he ran a sneaky-good fourth and was finishing arguably the best of anyone in the field. He came back and was second-best in the Lexington. That was another improving effort.”

The grey will be Pletcher's 10th Preakness runner and his first since Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming finished eighth in 2017. His best finish was a third with his first starter, Impeachment, in 2000.

Unbridled Honor will have his final Preakness work Saturday morning and is scheduled to ship from Belmont Park to Pimlico on Tuesday.

Pletcher indicated that the 1 3/16-mile race could provide an ideal scenario for the colt.

“We like the way he's training and if he could get a decent pace up front to run at, we feel that if he can take another step forward and he's in the mix,” Pletcher said.

Jockey Luis Saez will replace Julien Leparoux in the saddle for the Preakness, his first mount on the colt.

“We've had a lot of luck with Luis,” Pletcher said. “He's riding great and we're happy to have him.”

In related Preakness news, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas told Maryland Jockey Club racing officials Friday that Christina Baker and William Mack's Ram (American Pharoah) has not been ruled out and he expects a decision to be made Saturday.

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Buff Bradley, Local Hall of Famer

On the same day it was announced trainer Todd Pletcher had so deservedly been chosen as a member of racing's Hall of Fame, another conditioner confirmed to Daily Racing Form's Marty McGee that he was retiring at the conclusion of the Churchill Downs meeting next month.

This was the first year Pletcher was eligible and the announcement certainly came as a surprise to no one.

Pletcher is one of the most successful trainers of all time, having won more than 5,000 races and holding the earnings record (increasing every day) of more than $405 million.

Last Friday, he sent out Malathaat to win the grade I Kentucky Oaks, his fourth victory in that race. He has won the grade I Kentucky Derby twice and saddled the winners of 11 Breeders' Cup races.

Pletcher has trained 11 champions, won 166 grade I races and been the leader at the conclusion of 60 race meetings at various racetracks.

The 53-year-old has been voted the Eclipse Award as the sport's leading trainer seven times: 2004-07, 2010, 2013 and 2014.

Buff Bradley, on the other hand, will never be nominated for the Hall of Fame, located in the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, NY. But if his hometown of Frankfort, Ky, of which I am a native and resident, had a Hall of Fame, his inclusion would be a no-brainer.

Located between Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky's capital city is full of racing fans and, like many of the state's towns, after horses and bourbon, well, what else really matters.

Buff Bradley and I both grew up in Frankfort the sons of prominent attorneys who also had a penchant for politics.

My father, Herb Liebman, was in law school at the University of Kentucky when he met Fred Bradley, then an undergraduate student. They became close friends and would remain so for more than half a century. Fred Bradley and I had something in common, both of us earning our degrees in journalism.

Bradley took a short detour before law school. Having graduated from UK with designation as a Distinguished Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corp graduate, he headed off for military service before returning to UK to attend law school. Following active duty, he would spend 30 years in the Air National Guard, retiring as Gen. Bradley.

My dad was a police court judge, served four terms on the county school board, and worked tirelessly in state and local political races.

Bradley served as Franklin County Judge and for 18 years was a Kentucky State Senator. We joked about how he owned a small trucking company named “Fred's Fast Freight.”

Above all else, however, Fred Bradley loved his farm and his Thoroughbred horses. He bred on a small scale, never spending much on stud fees and foaling the mares himself.

That is until he had children and they could help with the farm chores.

Some wondered if young Buff Bradley could really train horses or if his father simply wanted him to head in that direction when he took out his license in 1993. Those who knew the family were not surprised when Buff quickly silenced the naysayers.

Many winners came over the years but in June, 2004 the first “big” score occurred, when homebred Brass Hat (Prized) took the Grade II Ohio Derby.

Brass Hat would become the family's first grade I winner when he won the 2006 Donn H. The gelding retired to live out his days at the Bradley's Indian Ridge Farm near Frankfort with 10 wins (nine stakes) in 40 starts, two track records, and $2,713,561 in earnings.

One of the proudest moments of my life was during Derby week 2010, when the city of Frankfort asked me to serve as emcee for Brass Hat Day. Fred Bradley was beaming, as he should have been. Brass Hat was there, too.

The very next year, the Bradley's newest star hit the racetrack. Groupie Doll (Bowman's Band), bred by Buff and Fred, was the champion sprinter in 2012 and 2013, years in which she won the grade I Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint. For the father/son and longtime partners Carl Hurst and Brent Burns, she retired with 12 wins in 23 starts, two track records, and earnings of $2,648,850.

With Fred in failing health but seated on a bench outside the Keeneland sale pavilion, Groupie Doll was sold at the 2013 November sale for $3.1 million.

Proving he could win at the top level with a horse not bred by his family and raised at their farm, Buff guided Gunpower Farm's Divisidero (Kitten's Joy) to wins on three Kentucky Derby undercards. He won the grade II American Turf in 2015 and the next two years scored in the grade I Woodford Reserve Turf Classic.

And who could forget possibly Buff's favorite horse, The Player (by Street Hero), who in 2018 won the GIII Mineshaft S. and subsequently broke both sesamoids in the New Orleans Handicap. The Player, bred by Fred and Buff Bradley and Hurst, had also destroyed his suspensory apparatus. But because of the love between Buff and The Player, the trainer went to extreme lengths to save the horse nicknamed “Angus.”

Fred Bradley was 85 when he died May 20, 2016. He was happiest spending a sultry summer day not at Saratoga but at the “Pea Patch”–Ellis Park. He had 60 years of The Blood-Horse stacked on shelves in the upstairs of his home.

Buff Bradley's world changed when his father died. But with 575 wins to his credit and the aforementioned stars in the stable, he achieved much on the racetrack.

Now, because of various reasons, he has decided to call it a career.

At only 57, Bradley plans to remain a small owner and breeder and perhaps find someone willing to give him a job at a racetrack or within an industry organization.

To those in Frankfort, Ky., he doesn't have to achieve anything else. He's a Hall of Famer.

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American Pharoah, Todd Pletcher To Enter Hall Of Fame In First Year Of Eligibility

Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (KY), seven-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher, and 13-time champion steeplechase trainer Jack Fisher comprise the National Museum of Racing's 2021 Hall of Fame class. American Pharoah and Pletcher were elected in the contemporary category in their first year of eligibility and Fisher was chosen by the Museum's Steeplechase Review Committee, which meets once every four years.

The class of 2021 will be enshrined along with the 2020 inductees — trainer Mark Casse, jockey Darrel McHargue, horses Tom Bowling and Wise Dan, and Pillars of the Turf Alice Headley Chandler, J. Keene Daingerfield, Jr., and George D. Widener, Jr. — on Friday, Aug. 6, at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs at 10:30 a.m. The ceremony will be broadcast live on the Museum website at www.racingmuseum.org. An announcement regarding public attendance at the ceremony will be made at a later date.

American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile—Littleprincessemma, by Yankee Gentleman) ended racing's 37-year Triple Crown drought when he swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes in 2015. A bay colt bred in Kentucky by owner Zayat Stables, American Pharoah was trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert and ridden by Hall of Famer Victor Espinoza. Beginning his career in California, American Pharoah won the Eclipse Award for Champion 2-Year-Old Male in 2014 thanks to Grade 1 victories in the Del Mar Futurity and FrontRunner Stakes.

As a 3-year-old, American Pharoah won the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes and the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby before becoming America's 12th Triple Crown winner. Following the Triple Crown series, American Pharoah went on to win the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational and the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic, setting a track record of 2:00.07 for 1¼ miles at Keeneland in the Classic. Overall, American Pharoah posted a record of 9-1-0 from 11 starts and earned $8,650,300. He was voted Horse of the Year and Champion 3-Year-Old Male for 2015.

“He's certainly among the all-time greats. I don't think there is any question about that,” Baffert said. “He did everything so effortlessly and with such class. The way he moved, his mechanics were absolutely flawless. He also has such a wonderful personality. Pharoah is really a sweet and kind horse and he loves humans. I went and saw him the other day (at Coolmore's Ashford Stud) and he looks as good as he's ever looked, if not better. Winning the Triple Crown with American Pharoah was the greatest sports moment of my life. It was so emotional and such a terrific thing for racing. He deserves all the accolades he gets.”

Todd Pletcher, 53, a native of Dallas, went out on his own after working as an assistant to Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas from 1989 through 1995. He won his first race in January 1996 with Majestic Number at Gulfstream Park. A graduate of the University of Arizona, Pletcher owns records for career earnings ($405,791,977) and Eclipse Awards (seven) and ranks seventh all time in wins (5,118). He has won the Kentucky Derby with Super Saver (2010) and Always Dreaming (2017) and the Belmont Stakes with Rags to Riches (2007), Palace Malice (2013), and Tapwrit (2017). Pletcher has won 11 Breeders' Cup races, including the 2019 Classic with Vino Rosso. He has led all North American trainers in earnings 10 times.

Pletcher has trained 11 Eclipse Award-winning horses — Hall of Famer Ashado, English Channel, Fleet Indian, Lawyer Ron, Left Bank, Rags to Riches, Shanghai Bobby, Speightstown, Wait a While, Uncle Mo, and Vino Rosso — and 20 horses that have earned $1.8 million or more. He has won a total of 60 individual meet training titles: 17 at Gulfstream, 16 at Belmont, 14 at Saratoga, six at Aqueduct, five at Keeneland, and two at Monmouth.

According to Equibase data, Pletcher has won 708 graded stakes, including 166 Grade 1s. He is enjoying another standout year so far in 2021 with 81 wins and earnings of $7,686,786 through May 4. He recently won the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks for the fourth time in his career with the undefeated Malathaat. Pletcher has also won four or more editions of the Beldame, Champagne, Coaching Club American Oaks, Florida Derby, Mother Goose, Spinaway, Spinster, and Wood Memorial, among others. He has won four Canadian Triple Crown races.

“I'm really humbled to be elected to the Hall of Fame. It's an incredible honor and something that doesn't happen without having great support around you,” Pletcher said. “I've been extremely fortunate to have a great team to work with and my family has been there every step of the way. There have been so many great owners who have trusted me with their horses and those horses have meant everything to me. Along with my family and team, I had amazing opportunities to learn from the likes of Wayne and Jeff Lukas and working winters alongside Kiaran McLaughlin, who taught me a lot about horses and also how to work with owners and communication skills. It really was a stroke of good fortune to come up with people like that around me.

“Training horses is all I ever wanted to do. I remember being 11 or 12 and telling my mom I wanted to train and she said it was wonderful. From that point on with her endorsement I never thought of doing anything else.”

Jack Fisher, 57, a native of Unionville, Pa., won his first race as a trainer in 1988 at Middleburg, Va., with Call Louis and has been a consistently dominant force atop the National Steeplechase Association standings for the past 20 years. Fisher topped all steeplechase trainers in wins for the first time in 2003 and has led the list an additional 12 times since. In 2004, he led the earnings list for the first of eight times to date. Fisher has ranked in the top five in both NSA wins and earnings each of the past 20 years. Through May 4, Fisher has won 593 career steeplechase races and ranks second all time in purse earnings with more than $17.8 million (behind only Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard).

Fisher is the only trainer in steeplechase history to surpass $1 million in purse earnings in a year, something he has accomplished five times. He trained two-time Eclipse Award winner and Hall of Fame member Good Night Shirt, one of only three horses to earn $1 million in steeplechase racing (along with Hall of Famers Lonesome Glory and McDynamo). Good Night Shirt won a total of 10 graded stakes, including eight Grade 1 events, and twice set the single-season NSA earnings record. Fisher also trained Eclipse Award winners Scorpiancer (2017) and Moscato (2020). He has trained an additional 18 horses that have won NSA division championships: timber champions Bubble Economy, Call Louis, Charlie's Dewan, Doc Cebu, Gus's Boy, Saluter, and Two's Company; novice champions All Together, Paradise's Boss, Moscato, and Snap Decision; filly and mare champions Footlights and Ivy Mills; and 3-year-old champions Hope For Us All, Ice It, Machete Road, Schoodic, and South Of Java.

Fisher has won the Temple Gwathmey six times (including 2021 with Snap Decision), five editions of the Iroquois, four runnings of the A. P. Smithwick, three renewals of the Lonesome Glory, and both the Colonial Cup and Grand National twice. With timber champion Saluter, Fisher won six consecutive editions of the Virginia Gold Cup and four runnings of the Virginia Hunt Cup. Fisher has won the Virginia Gold Cup 12 times as a trainer and nine times as a rider — both records. Fisher rode Saluter to each of his Gold Cup victories. According to Equibase, Fisher won 57 races as a jockey with earnings of $953,243, including $394,189 as Saluter's pilot.

“I've always loved being around horses. It's been my life,” Fisher said. “I was terrible in school and didn't want to be there. I loved riding and I love training. I learned a lot from my father (trainer John Fisher) and from guys like (Hall of Fame trainers) Mikey Smithwick and Tommy Voss. They were examples to me of the work it takes to be successful and also how they built a good team. You can't do it alone.
“I'll never forget horses like Call Louis and Woody Boy Would and Saluter that made my career at the beginning. They got the ball rolling for me. Saluter was really the one. My license plate says Saluter on it. He meant everything. I've had some wonderful and patient owners and great talent in the barn. To have horses like Good Night Shirt, Scorpiancer, Moscato, and Snap Decision has been incredible beyond words. I'm pretty darn lucky.”

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