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The Week in Review: A Good Year to Have a Tough Horse

With undefeated phenom Flightline (Tapit) and sophomore star Epicenter (Not This Time) headlining a respectably deep GI Breeders' Cup Classic, one oft-repeated quip is that 2022 is turning out to be “a tough year to have a good horse” aiming for a divisional championship.

Yet a few rungs farther down the class ladder–more than a few, in truth–a blue-collar starter-allowance stalwart is tweaking that phrase so it better suits his grind-it-out style, proving that '22 is actually “a good year to have a tough horse.”

Last week at Churchill Downs, Beverly Park (Munnings) won his 11th race of the season in start number 23 on the year. Both those numbers are tops in North America; his next closest rivals have eight wins and 20 starts, respectively.

Emblematic of his speed-centric, hard-charging nature, the 5-year-old broke running in a 6 1/2-furlong $20,000 starter-allowance Sept. 21, took pressure at the rail in a three-way speed duel, then repulsed a deep-stretch threat to eke out a 3/4-length score under Rafael Bejarano for owner/trainer Norman Lynn Cash, whose horses race under the name Built Wright Stables.

Eleven wins and it's only the first week of autumn. For perspective, no North American Thoroughbred has won more than 12 races in an entire calendar year since 2011, when Rapid Redux ran the table with a gaudy 19-for-19 record. More than three full months of racing are left in '22.

In fact, by the time you read this, Beverly Park could well already be on the cusp of being entered for his next race.

Colleague Bill Finley profiled Cash's “throwback” operation in mid-May, when Beverly Park had racked up his first six wins of the year. After having owned racehorses in partnership with his wife, Lola, for about a decade, Cash took out his trainer's license in April 2021. He now runs a 40-head stable (split between Laurel Park in Maryland and the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, Kentucky) on the theory that as long as horses show they can thrive on frequent racing, they'll be in the entry box.

Cash claimed Beverly Park for $12,500 out of a NW3L win at Belterra Park on Aug. 5, 2021, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with a horse who had won his previous NW2L condition in his previous start at the $5,000 level by 15 lengths. That meant Beverly Park would be eligible for some lucrative starter-allowance spots. But because improved horses who once ran for low claiming tags generally scare away entrants for those restricted races, Beverly Park had to hit the road to extend his winning ways.

So far in '22, Beverly Park has raced at Oaklawn, Charles Town, Turfway, Laurel, Mahoning Valley, Keeneland, Monmouth, Belterra, Churchill, Thistledown, Delaware, Colonial and Timonium. In the 399-day span between Cash's claiming him and last week's win at Churchill, Beverly Park is 18-for-31 with $424,024 in purse earnings. His lifetime record stands at 21-for-40.

Finally a favorite

The $200,000 Parx Dirt Mile doesn't yet have the status of a graded race, but Mind Control (Stay Thirsty) has made it worth watching the past two years on the GI Pennsylvania Derby Day undercard.

A tenacious middle-distance horse who is often perceived as having something to prove, Mind Control is known for clawing back leads when he appears hopelessly beaten (like in the '21 Parx Dirt Mile), and winning races by thinly sliced margins (of his 11 lifetime victories, two were by noses, three by heads, and one by a neck).

Something of a fan favorite, the Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stables colorbearer for trainer Todd Pletcher has not been a pari-mutuel darling: Going into Saturday's Parx Dirt Mile defense, Mind Control had started in 15 consecutive stakes, dating all the way back to Mar. 7, 2020, without once being favored in the betting.

Although feats like this are difficult to pin down as actual “records” (help welcomed from anyone with a deep enough database), it's unlikely the sport has witnessed too many (if any) million-dollar-plus purse-earners competing strictly in stakes over a 2 1/2-year span without once going postward as the public's choice.

That changed Sept. 24, when Parx bettors installed Mind Control as the 3-5 choice for the Dirt Mile. The 6-year-old tracked the Pennsylvania-bred pacemaker Far Mo Power (Uncle Lino) every step of the trip before the dueling duo pulsed away from the pack on the far turn.

The 12-1 longshot and the odds-on favorite raced in lockstep and close quarters through the length of the lane, exchanging heads on the lead and some brief brushing, with the innermost Far Mo Power under Parx journeyman Dexter Haddock twice shifting outward toward Mind Control and Hall-of-Famer John Velazquez.

Under the wire, Far Mo Power prevailed by a neck, but the objection and inquiry signs soon blinked to life on the tote board. When the numbers stopped flashing, Mind Control was elevated as the winner, with Far Mo Power and jockey Dexter Haddock placed second for interference.

“My horse is a fighter but, when [Far Mo Power initially] came out and touched him, I was okay,” said Velazquez. “[Mind Control] got a little intimidated, but my horse got head and head with him again…. At the sixteenth pole [Haddock] hit [his mount] left-handed and he touched [Mind Control], kind of got him off balance. That really got my horse intimidated and off balance and I couldn't get back on it.”

Regardless of the stewards' reasoning for the DQ, it's difficult not to view the takedown through the eyes of the demoted connections.

Far Mo Power's owner, Joseph Sutton, has only started 18 horses lifetime with a two-horse stable, according to Equibase. Trainer Louis Linder Jr., has been conditioning for a decade, and has never won a stakes at the graded level. Haddock, riding since 2017, has a lone Grade III victory atop his riding resume, earned only last month. A win in a $200,000 race over their home track would have been a big deal for everyone involved, yet Far Mo Power's people were diplomatic in the aftermath of the outcome.

“That's horse racing,” said Linder. “It hurts, but we'll live to fight another day. From the minute this horse has been in the barn I knew he was special.”

Added Haddock: “My horse tried hard. I am sad. I get on him in the morning every day. I am sad for me. I am sad for the trainer.”

As for Mind Control, his win-via-DQ earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure. After running the vast majority of his races around one turn, he has now earned his only three triple-digit Beyers in his only three two-turn races at a flat mile.

Perhaps those figures will stand him in good stead in the November renewal of the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland. A fever knocked Mind Control out of last year's Dirt Mile at Del Mar.

Midwest musings

It's a little early to get the crystal ball fired up to see what changes might affect regional racing calendars in 2023, but three separate news items from last week hinted at some subtle shifting in the Midwest.

The pending $79-million sale of Ellis Park to the gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), was greenlighted by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission Sept. 20. Although Ellis is scheduled to race essentially the same block of 24 dates next year over the same summer template, CDI will naturally want to put its own stamp on operations there. Considering the deal was in large part billed as a way to shore up year-round racing in Kentucky, you can bet that the new management will be making a sizable push to recruit and retain outfits that might have traditionally raced elsewhere.

Meanwhile, on Sept. 22, Hawthorne Race Course was granted a slate of '23 dates by the Illinois Racing Board that will return a summer Thoroughbred season to greater Chicago after a one-year absence in the aftermath of the sudden and permanent closure of Arlington International Racecourse. Hawthorne will race Saturdays and Sundays Mar. 4-June 3, then add Wednesdays through Sept. 4.

That schedule could put a downstate squeeze on the former Fairmount Park, which is now known as FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing. Those two Illinois tracks have some overlap at the lower end of the class hierarchy, and with FanDuel's Tuesdays/Saturdays schedule from Apr. 18-Nov. 18, there will be conflicting summer Saturdays within the state.

Another wild card in the Midwest mix is Canterbury Park up in Minnesota. Despite ending its 64-date season Sept. 17 with a reported record total handle rise to $97.6 million, Canterbury faces an uncertain future because a 10-year agreement between the track and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (that provides purse funding in exchange for the track and horsemen not pursuing additional forms of gambling) is set to expire Dec. 31.

Andrew Offerman, Canterbury's senior vice president of racing, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune the day after the meet ended that the '23 schedule will depend on how much purse money is available. The Tribune reported that Canterbury paid $15.7 million in purses this season, with $7.28 million coming from the purse-enhancement agreement.

Less purse money likely would mean fewer racing days next summer, Offerman told the Tribune, adding that Canterbury might consider running three days per week instead of four.

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Hawthorne’s Fall Thoroughbred Meet Shows 29 Percent Handle Increase

In a year that saw a break during the summer harness meet for racing, limited to no fans in the facility, and uncertainty throughout the industry with virus concerns, the fall Thoroughbred meet at Hawthorne in Stickney, Ill. wrapped up with strong handle and field size increases. While the vast majority of handle came from locations off-site due to Covid-19 restrictions, great support from the horsemen in the entry box, beautiful weather, and support of the wagering public made for sizeable gains during the 34 day fall meet.

For handle, with restrictions in place throughout 2020, the only true comparison comes with total handle as $65,658,122 was wagered over the 34 racing days in 2020. This was compared to $44,763,380 wagered on the 30 cards in the 2019 October through December timeframe. This translated to a 29 percent per card increase in handle of $1,931,121 wagered per card in 2020 compared to $1,492,112 in the fall of 2019. For the 2020 meet, 15 cards surpassed $2 million in handle, compared to just one in 2019.

Field size greatly increased as well. With 298 races run in 2020, compared to 277 in 2019, a total of 2,694 horses started this fall, compared to 2,251 last season. Total average field size for the meet increased from 8.13 per race in 2019 to 9.04 in 2020. The nice weather paid off for turf races as 49 races were run on the grass in 2020, compared to just 19 in 2019.

On the track, jockey Victor Santiago won his second Hawthorne riding title, winning 32 races. 2019 champ Jareth Loveberry had another strong meet, finishing with 28 wins. Loveberry was followed by Chris Emigh, Julio Felix, and newcomer Francisco Arrieta, each with 27 wins apiece.

Trainer Hugh Robertson took his second consecutive training title, winning 26 races this fall. Scott Becker finished second with 16 wins. A strong first Hawthorne meet from Karl Broberg had him in third with 14 victories, tied with Brittany Vandenberg.

A big closing day pushed Novogratz Racing Stables to the owner's title, winning 16 races, followed by William Stritiz with 13 victories and End Zone Athletics, Inc. with 10 wins.

Two horses won five races during the fall meet as Wake Up Joe and Verrazano First both accomplished that feat. Readthecliffnotes scored four times during the fall racing season.

“2020 has been a year unlike any other at Hawthorne,” stated Hawthorne President and General Manager Tim Carey. “We faced uncertainty with the racing schedule, fans on-site, and working around casino construction at our facility. Working hand in hand with our horsemen made a great difference though. They are excited about what is just around the corner at Hawthorne for racing and showed their support all meet long. While 2020 turned out to be a strong fall meet for us, I cannot wait for what we can do for racing in Illinois in 2021 and beyond.”

The post Hawthorne’s Fall Thoroughbred Meet Shows 29 Percent Handle Increase appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Illinois Grants 2021 Dates Amid Distrust for Arlington’s Corporate Ownership

Citing distrust in Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), the gaming corporation that owns Arlington International Racecourse, the leadership of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (ITHA) on Sept. 16 asked the Illinois Racing Board (IRB) to impose a condition on 2021 race dates that would withhold millions of dollars in purse fund “recapture” money from the track if it did not end up racing its applied-for 68 days next year.

The IRB, which was meeting with three newly appointed commissioners for the first time on Wednesday, probed Arlington president Tony Petrillo about CDI’s intentions for racing in suburban Chicago in 2021 and beyond.

Board members specifically wanted clarification on earnings-call comments made July 30 by Bill Carstanjen, the chief executive officer of CDI, that said the corporation will honor its 2021 race meet contract with the ITHA “if we elect to do so” and that the Arlington property “will have a higher and better purpose for something else at some point.”

But after the IRB received advice from its attorney that statutory provisions covering recapture don’t allow the attachment of such a stipulation to dates orders, board members voted 6-0 to grant Arlington’s schedule with no strings attached.

The IRB also unanimously approved 2021 racing at Hawthorne Racecourse for 50 dates. Since 2016, the two Chicago-area tracks, Arlington and Hawthorne, have presented a unified race dates and dark-day host status template for the IRB’s approval.

Fairmount Park, which is 350 miles south and not considered part of that Chicago circuit, got its requested 53 dates.

Prior to the ITHA’s request for the recapture provision, Petrillo told the IRB that Arlington anticipates “running eight races per day during those 68 days and being able to offer a purse structure that will allow us to attract a sufficient horse population to fill those races, as well as conducting a stakes schedule that is necessary to support a long race meet over five months over the most competitive time of the year.”

John Walsh, Hawthorne’s assistant general manager, said the 10-month Chicago circuit arrangement “is good for the industry. The horsemen will have a place to be, and they’ll have something to look forward to in 2022 as we hopefully finish our casino sometime toward the end of next year.”

But despite the news of apparent accord, ITHA representatives made it clear the horse community didn’t have 100% faith that CDI would follow through on its contracted commitment to 2021 racing.

ITHA executives cited last year’s stunning decision by CDI to intentionally miss a deadline to apply for newly legalized racino licensure that would have bolstered purses at the track, plus an acrimonious eight-month battle with Arlington over recently inked contracts for 2020 and 2021.

“[Arlington saying] that they’re going to run in 2021 after the difficult time with the contract we had this year, that’s purposeful. It’s meaningful. We’re grateful for that,” said ITHA president Michael Campbell. “However, Arlington is the organizational licensee. CDI is not. And CDI will do whatever is in their best interest to fulfill their [corporate] fiduciary responsibility. And that’s a problem for us given [the disconnection] that we are greatly concerned about. We cannot go through another year as horsemen [with] even the possibility that there’s going to be some disruption or the cancellation of the racing season.”

David McCaffrey, the ITHA’s executive director, then made the request for the recapture provision.

“It’s not meant to be antagonistic or provocative in any way. And there really shouldn’t be any resistance, in my judgment, on Arlington’s part if their intention is to truly race,” McCaffrey said. “Because if they race, this would be meaningless. [It] would at least give some surety to the horsemen. Or, if for some reason, the meet doesn’t happen, at least it preserves the $4.5 million in recapture that would be taken out of the purse account.”

IRB chairman Daniel Beiser asked Petrillo to clarify CDI’s intentions for 2021 and beyond. But the Arlington president’s drawn-out reply was vague and laden with corporate-speak.

“Although 2022 will be here before we know it, there is some time needed to sort this out,” Petrillo said, in part. “And I know that these conversations have come up daily within the confines of the strategic team at Churchill Downs. And I know that they are working on some solutions. What they are at this time I don’t think that anybody could comment on publicly on that right now. But we…do feel our responsibility to the industry as well as the community. And we intend to fulfill that in 2021, and beyond that when the opportunity does exist.”

Beiser, after considering the ITHA’s request to use recapture payments as a cudgel for compliance, asked if Petrillo could provide written clarification from CDI regarding the gaming corporation’s intentions for Arlington.

Petrillo replied that the IRB would get that written assurance in the form of a signed dates acceptance letter that licensees are required to submit to the commission after getting dates orders. He bristled at the proposed “unprecedented conditions” over recapture that “might cause a flurry of legal matters to arise.”

Petrillo continued: “I think we’re opening up a can of issues that then also impede upon the agreement that we have with the horsemen’s association. Again, I just want to reiterate that it is our intent to race in 2021. When that acceptance is signed, that’s written in stone. If we do not comply, the IRB has a number of mechanisms to try and enforce that acceptance or penalize Arlington if there’s a failure to fulfill those commitments.”

Beiser again told Petrillo he’d prefer a separate form of written commitment. The IRB then recessed and voted upon the slate of dates after hearing advice from the board’s attorney. It was noted that while the IRB doesn’t have the authority to attach the recapture stipulations to the dates order, it does have the power to set the recapture payment schedule, and board could consider that when it certifies recapture payment amounts in January. But that would be nearly four months before the track even opens for racing.

Next year will see the return of a spring Thoroughbred meet at Hawthorne (Mar. 6-Apr. 25), which had been cancelled this season to allow for racino construction at the property.

Arlington’s dates will span Apr. 30-Sept. 25.

Hawthorne races again in the autumn, Oct. 1-Dec. 26.

Fairmount races Apr. 27-Sept. 6.

The actual race dates were awarded in blocks. The days cited above account for the dark days at the beginnings and ends of meets that were indicated in each track’s application.

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Arlington Contract Finally Inked, New Controversy Erupts Over Hawthorne Stabling

The long-overdue contract between Arlington International Race Course and the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (ITHA) was inked just minutes before a 9 a.m. Monday Illinois Racing Board (IRB) meeting, enabling racing commissioners to finally approve a 30-date summer season at the suburban Chicago track that will run July 23 through Sep. 26.

Racing will be conducted Thursdays through Saturdays, with no open stakes races in 2020, including the track’s signature event, the GI Arlington Million. TDN requested purse level specifics from ITHA representatives, but received no response prior to deadline for this story.

By state law, the contract was supposed to have been submitted to the IRB prior to Jan. 1. Acrimonious negotiations delayed the process for months, then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing talks beyond what was supposed to have been a May 1 opening for Arlington.

In the month of June alone, the IRB met four times to vote upon the issue. But each time the agenda item had to be put on hold as the two sides squabbled over details that included how many years the agreement would be for, the daily average purse levels, projections for a 2021 meet, and what might happen in the event of another pandemic or force majeure problem that halts racing.

Monday’s IRB meeting was actually a continuation of one that started last Thursday, got recessed into Friday, and then was delayed again over the weekend as the two sides scrambled to come to terms and to also resolve an editing mistake that resulted in several rounds of changes to the contract being lost.

David McCaffrey, the ITHA’s executive director, told TDN in a post-meeting email that the contract is a two-year deal covering 2020 and 2021.

“Next year, I guess, after hearing the testimony of the IRB today, is a bit up in the air,” McCaffrey wrote. “There was a presumption of 65 race days next year, but that may or may not happen. Stakes races [in 2021] will only be funded from the purse account if certain amounts of overnight purse money is generated.”

Following the unanimous vote to award the 2020 dates, IRB commissioners, an Arlington executive, and members of the ITHA took turns thanking and lauding each other for persevering to get a deal done.

“We had our bumps–more than bumps,” Arlington president Tony Petrillo acknowledged.

“If that was his definition of bumps, I’d like to know what an explosion was,” McCaffrey said during the meeting. “But all is well that ends well.”

Yet the newfound calm on the Chicago racing circuit lasted only moments before an entirely different controversy erupted.

The next item on the agenda seemed perfunctory: It was a measure to assign dark-date simulcasting host status to Arlington that had occurred as a result of the track’s previous request to suspend the start of the 2020 meet.

But before commissioners could vote on that item, John Walsh, the assistant general manager of Hawthorne Racecourse, was granted time to speak. He told the IRB that in light of Hawthorne agreeing to keep its backstretch open to stable 194 horses that otherwise would have resided at Arlington, Hawthorne wanted either some form of financial compensation or the granting of dark-date simulcast hosting status until Arlington starts running live to make up for incurring that expense.

“We’ve had our backside open for three months while Arlington did not have theirs open, at a cost of $239,000 per month,” Walsh said. “So to start our [Oct. 2] fall meet, we’ve got four days of purse money that we received, and that is not enough to sustain a fall meet.”

He added that purses, based on the money that has accrued so far, could sink to as low as $60,000 daily.

“This is the last chance [for the IRB] to equalize what’s happened because of COVID virus,” Walsh said.

Petrillo took umbrage with Walsh’s request, and over the course of the next hour during testy back-and-forth dialogue among stakeholders, he enumerated reasons why he felt Hawthorne’s request was out of line.

Petrillo cited circumstances beyond Arlington’s control that prevented its own stabling area from opening, noting that Hawthorne gave those horses a home “upon their own free will.” He cited the pandemic-related stabling costs in other states incurred by Arlington’s parent company, Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI), “that will eventually hit our bottom line.” He doubted the veracity of Hawthorne’s financial figures, and threatened that changing host status would invite a legal challenge from CDI. And he suggested that instead of the IRB mandating a solution, the two tracks could sit down and “try to pound out a 2021 race meet agreement” to settle the stabling cost differences because “we’ve always been fair in that process.”

Walsh countered by saying, “I don’t believe that there will be any change in next year’s agreement between Arlington and Hawthorne, because I don’t know that we can have an agreement after their actions this year toward the industry.”

Petrillo said “We don’t need any further distractions for moving forward with racing…. Talking about repayment or reparations for damages due to the COVID-19 virus to Hawthorne is just ludicrous.”

Petrillo continued, “Any adjustments…are just going to cause a purse cut here at Arlington. We’ve already lost $5 million. We’re already going to spend another $450,000 to open up our backstretch because of the COVID-19 pandemic….And that has shown our commitment to racing. In addition, I would bet that if you look at the bottom line of each racetrack at the end of the year, Arlington will lose more money than both meets at Hawthorne combined.”

Walsh said that if the IRB granted even 15 dark-host dates to Hawthorne instead of Arlington, the difference would be about $200,000, which he said meant more to the smaller, family-owned Hawthorne than the corporate-backed Arlington. He suggested another alternative could be for Arlington to make a similar-sized payment directly to Hawthorne as a “thank you” for stabling horses that otherwise might have left the state.

Petrillo said based on Walsh’s math, that means average purses at Arlington would drop by about $7,500 per day.

“Just to all the horsemen out there, this clearly puts our meet in jeopardy,” Petrillo said. “To penalize the horsemen that are waiting at our gates, that, to me, is not in the best interest of anyone.”

Commissioners seemed to sympathize with Hawthorne’s argument, but didn’t know how to address it. They discussed alternate methods of funding, and there were periods of silence on the teleconference when IRB chairman Daniel Beiser asked if any board members wanted to take action on the agenda item.

“I know we don’t have a pile of money that we’re sitting on that we can just throw all at once,” Beiser said. “I don’t think anyone would disagree that they’ve incurred expenses that no one could have foreseen.”

IRB commissioner Marcus Davis moved to assign 15 dates of dark-host status to Hawthorne, but the motion was not seconded.

Beiser then recessed the meeting. When it resumed 38 minutes later, additional testimony was heard. Then the board moved to award the dark-date hosting status to Arlington, as the item originally appeared on the agenda. That vote passed, 5-1.

IRB commissioner Thomas McCauley, who cast the lone dissenting vote, closed the meeting by acknowledging that Hawthorne should be due some sort of future consideration.

“In effect, they took on a burden that would have been Arlington’s in both the direct cost and overhead of keeping the backstretch open, which [was a] huge benefit [to] Illinois horsemen,” McCauley said. “I’m not going to forget the contribution that Hawthorne has made. I urge that my colleagues remember it as well, and that we put our heads together with staff to figure out a way to basically honor what they did for the horsemen and other parties.”

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