Samantha was most recently the Marketing & Communications Director at the United States Pony Club. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and previously served in several capacities at The Jockey Club, including as its Industry Initiatives Specialist.

“I am honored to be joining TOBA and look forward to all aspects of this role,” Smith said. “I am thrilled to contribute to an industry I am passionate about.”

Samantha will oversee the association's marketing, communications, social media, seminars, clinics and special events.

“We are very excited to welcome Samantha to TOBA, as her commitment and knowledge of the sport will help shape our growth as a strong national advocate representing the economic and integrity interests of Thoroughbred owners and breeders,” said TOBA president Dan Metzger.

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At 15, the New Orleans, La., native first stepped onto the Fair Grounds racetrack and into the barn of Hall of Famer Jack Van Berg. At 18, he began riding and eventually became a jockey, a job he'd hold for almost 10 years winning 1,792 races.

At 27, plagued by knee issues, he struck out on his own and began training and 38 years later he's still at it. From the countless horses that have passed through his hands he can claim three Eclipse Award-winning champions in Dreaming of Anna, Stephanie's Kitten, and She Be Wild.

“I did not grow up around horses. I was never one of those guys that tell you how they were sat on a horse when they were two and grew up that way,” said Catalano. “I grew up in New Orleans, so I came really late to the game but I had a great opportunity because I started with Jack Van Berg. He was one of the greatest trainers and greatest teachers in the business. He taught horsemanship and hard work and those two ingredients will get you a long way in this business.”

Having banked more than $72 million in career purse earnings, Catalano has no intentions of ramping down. The number that would mean the most to him now would be 3,000—the number of victories he needs to join a class of trainers to have risen to the challenge.

“I have 2,937 wins at the moment,” said Catalano. “We're not too far away considering that there are only maybe 36 trainers in the country who have 3,000-plus wins. We're not slowing down yet; we've still got a lot of life left in us.”

Sixty-three wins, while daunting, seem within the horseman's grasp. Now 65, he's been on a bit of roll in 2021, hitting the board in 95 of his 223 starts to date, 42 of those being wins. For the first time in 10 years, Catalano returned to the winner's circle on the biggest stage in Thoroughbred racing when his 4-year-old colt Aloha West claimed the title in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Sprint Nov. 6 at Del Mar. While the Hard Spun colt only began racing in February, he's proved himself to be a credible runner with plenty of potential to keep the momentum going as an older horse.

“It was really, really nice,” said Catalano of the Breeders' Cup win. “He (Aloha West) is a playful little boy but he's a good boy. He's a nice little horse. He gets a little excited sometimes but he's started to settle down. He's maturing and he's become a good racehorse.”

“We won the trainer's title at Churchill Downs and Kentucky Downs,” said Catalano. “I think we hold the record at Kentucky Downs of 15 wins in five days. We won over 100 races at Churchill, so we have done well.”

These days Aloha West is one of only about 20 horses in Catalano's barn, 12 or so of which are actively racing. He supplements his barn with horses he breeds and races from his own program in Illinois, raising small crops from a band of four mares with the help of his wife Renee.

“We've won a bunch of races with homebreds. They might not have been big races but just to breed a winner is hard enough,” said Catalano. “For more than 30 years we've been living on our farm. We've had a lot of winners and a lot of fun. My wife loves it and she gets to raise the babies in the backyard. It's great. We have three or four mares and we breed to small stallions. We enjoy it and to raise babies and then watch them win is the most incredible feeling.”

Lately, things have been in an ever-changing state for the Illinois resident. After nearly a century, Arlington Park has been closed to the public. The last race on the historic track was run in late September of 2021, and the Chicago Bears signed an agree to purchase the track the same month. Catalano said the general upheaval that the closure has caused in the industry is yet another sign of change in the industry, one that makes life a little bit harder on the horsemen.

“The game is not the same. It's just not the same as it used to be,” said Catalano. “A lot of racetracks are closing. If you're not established, it's even harder. In Chicago when we were there we had the horses and the clientele and it went well. Then they took that away and I got relocated to Kentucky.

“The foal crop and the horses are also light. The crops are so much smaller. There used to be 40,000 or 50,000 horses and now I think it's closer to 20,000. You can see that all the fields are light no matter the money they're giving away. It's also a deal that now the way the industry is today, it's taken a lot of fun out of the game. We used to have a lot of fun. We would gather up before and after the races and have fun. Of course, that being said, when you win the Breeders' Cup, it's always fun. Those are the moments you're there for and you hang on for.”

While his barn might have a smaller roster than his competitors, Catalano is not wanting for talent in his quest for 3,000 wins. At the moment, his most recent Breeders' Cup star Aloha West is taking time off ahead of 2022 campaign that is being mapped out by his owner, Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.

“He [Aloha West] will take a couple months off, get ready for another campaign and we'll try to win the Breeders' Cup again,” said Catalano.

Also conditioned by Catalano is Manny Wah, a stakes-winning son of Will Take Charge who ran fifth in last year's Breeder's Cup Sprint.

“Manny Wah probably should have won the Breeders' Cup last year, but we're hoping he can win it this year,” said Catalano. “We can't wait to get him back on the turf. We also have a couple young ones coming.”

A personal triumph for Catalano is the up-and-coming Big Dreaming (by Declaration of War), who holds spot in the trainer's hear as the last foal out of Dreaming of Anna.

“He's a big, good-looking, good-running horse,” said Catalano. “She [Dreaming of Anna] passed away so he's the last baby and he's a good one. [Owner/breeder] Frank Calabrese was very nice to let me have the last baby out of her because we don't really train for him at the moment. He promised me the baby and we've done very well so far. He's a good horse and we're looking at big races going forward.

With a new year on the horizon and plenty of days on the racing calendar ahead, Catalano remains hopeful he'll add the elusive 3,000^th win to his résumé. Numbers aside, the lifelong horseman knows the real joy lies in just enjoying the ride.

“It'll be a little bit but we'll get there,” said Catalano. “We have been on a little run there. We've won seven races out of the last 19 and one was a Breeders' Cup. So I hope that roll continues.

“We've developed a lot of horses. I've been very fortunate to have had opportunities that I took advantage of and been able to race some really nice horses.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Catalano’s Next Big Goal Is A Number appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Navarro entered his guilty plea to the charge in August and will be sentenced Dec. 17. He may be ordered to serve as much as five years in federal prison.

On Dec. 3, Navarro's defense attorneys filed their pre-sentencing report, accompanied by 100 pages of character references from family, friends, and racing connections. The report indicated that although Navarro legally immigrated to the United States from Panama some 35 years ago, he faces “almost certain deportation to a country where he has almost no familial, social, or economic ties.”

Due to his immigration status, his attorneys say Navarro will likely not be permitted to serve a federal prison term in a minimum-security facility, which means he may be sent to a prison out of state, far from his home and family. At the conclusion of his sentence, he may be transferred into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and sent to one of their prisons ahead of deportation.

“Jorge recognizes that his conduct in this case calls into question his care for his horses, but those that know him as a horseman and trainer recognize his genuine love and devotion to his horses,” read the defense report. “At this juncture, having been absent from horse racing for almost two years, Jorge realizes the errors of his ways and is contrite, remorseful, and wishes he could roll back the hands of time.”

A number of former racing connections of Navarro wrote character references on his behalf, including former employees, owners, horse transporters, jockeys, and feed suppliers. Supportive former owners include Ron Hendrickson, Joseph Casciato, Jason Provenzano, Frank Rupolo, Dennis Amaty, and others. Jockeys Jose Ferrer, Isaac Castillo and Manny Jiminez, as well as former jockey Rene Douglas also wrote on behalf of Navarro. 

For several letter writers, Navarro's relationship with X Y Jet seemed to stand out.

“Because of his delicate knee conditions, the horse stayed in Ocala for a few months of the year every year to rest and rehab,” wrote veterinarian Dr. Joel Lugo of Ocala Equine Hospital, who noted the horse had two knee operations in 2015 and 2017. “We never discussed the use of any illegal or unethical treatment with him or with any of the other horses. The horse return [sic] to race when we though [sic] the horse was healthy and ready. There was never any pressure from Navarro or the owners. We even discussed his retirement on multiple occasions.”

“That horse loved Jorge; I mean I never seen anything like it,” wrote Navarro's mother-in-law, Cindy Harries. “That horse was mean with everyone and not easy to deal with. That horse was such a diva. Jorge would just stand there and X Y Jet would pin his ears flat against his head and come at Jorge who never twitched, and he would just stop and let Jorge pet him and kiss him on the nose. When X Y Jet died walking in the shed row after a routine gallop, a part of Jorge died too.”

X Y Jet was among the horses specifically named in the federal indictment as having been doped by Navarro, who admitted he gave the horse a blood builder before an allowance optional claiming race on Feb. 13, 2019, at Gulfstream Park and the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen.

The prosecution's sentencing report is due to the court Dec. 10.

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Question: Why and when might a veterinarian decide to perform a C-section on a pregnant mare?

Dr. Rolf Embertson, Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital: Most C-sections are performed as an emergency procedure in the horse. The procedure is usually performed when other methods to deliver a foal have failed. C-sections are infrequently performed during colic surgery on a term broodmare and infrequently performed as an elective procedure in the mare. Indications for the latter would include a compromised birth canal due to a previous pelvic fracture or soft tissue trauma, a compromised cervix, previous episodes of postpartum hemorrhage, and previous difficult dystocias.

Dr. Rolf Embertson

Before discussing success rates, a basic understanding of dystocia in the mare is warranted. Dystocia means difficult birth. In the mare, once the chorioallantoic membrane ruptures (the mare breaks water), a foal is usually delivered in about 20 minutes. If a foal is not delivered within about 45 minutes, the probability of foal survival starts to rapidly decrease. Thus, this can become a true emergency where minutes can make the difference in survival of the foal. Although less of an emergency for the mare, her reproductive future and even her life may also be at risk. The goal should be to deliver a live foal in a manner resulting in a live, reproductively sound mare.

There are essentially four procedures used to resolve dystocia in a mare. Assisted vaginal delivery (AVD) is when the mare is awake, possibly sedated, and is assisted in vaginal delivery of an intact foal. This is done primarily on the farm. Controlled vaginal delivery (CVD) is when the mare is anesthetized and the clinician is in complete control of delivering an intact foal vaginally. This is usually done in a hospital environment. Fetotomy is when a dead foal is reduced to more than one part to remove the foal vaginally from an awake or anesthetized mare. This can be done at the farm or in a hospital. C-section is when the foal is removed through an abdominal and uterine incision. This is best performed in a hospital. These procedures are used as needed to produce the most favorable result.

The success rate for live foals and live mares that go through a dystocia is significantly better when the farms are close to a hospital that can perform these procedures. This is primarily due to the duration of the dystocia prior to resolution, although this can be influenced by other factors. Realistic example: A mare breaks water and 15 to 20 minutes later, the foaling attendants realize they can't correct the head back posture of the foal. Within five to 10 minutes (now 20 to 30 minutes since the water broke) the mare is loaded on the trailer, the mare arrives at the hospital in 15 to 40 minutes (now 35 to 70 minutes into the foaling attempt). A brief exam, IV catheter placement, anesthetic induction within five to 10 minutes (now 40 to 80 minutes overall), attempt CVD for five to 15 minutes (now 45 to 95 minutes). If the attempt is not successful, the team will perform C-section, foal is delivered in 15 to 20 minutes from when the decision was made (now 60 to 115 minutes from when water broke).

Dystocia mares that are sent to our hospital go directly to a dedicated induction stall. The mare is anesthetized, her hind limbs hoisted so her pelvis is about three feet off the floor. The foal is examined, repositioned, the mare dropped to the floor, and the foal pulled out of the mare. This CVD procedure is successful in resolving about 75 percent of hospital dystocias. About 25 percent of the hospital dystocias are resolved by C-section.

Following CVD, about 39 percent of those foals survive to discharge from our hospital and about 94 percent of those mares survive to discharge from our hospital. Following C-section about 30 percent of those foals survive to discharge from our hospital and about 85 pecent of the mares survive to discharge from our hospital.

Elective C-sections have a better success rate. There is about a 95 percent survival to discharge rate for foals and about a 95 percent survival to discharge rate for mares.

Dr. Rolf Embertson graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology in 1976. He also attended Michigan State where he graduated from Veterinary School in 1979 followed by an internship at Illinois Equine Hospital. Dr. Embertson completed a Large Animal Surgery Residency at the University of Florida, followed by an Equine Surgery Residency at The Ohio State University. In 1986, he became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. Dr. Embertson is a surgeon and shareholder at Rood & Riddle.  

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Races run on the world renowned E.P. Taylor Turf Course generated an average handle of $577,895 per-race, with an average field size of 9.5. The Inner-Turf Course, which opened in June of 2019, held 99 races, with an average handle of $459,637 and field size 8.8.

A total of 26 stakes races were run on the E.P. Taylor, including six Grade 1 events, while eight stakes were run on the Inner Turf.

“Despite our season being delayed by two months due to the pandemic, we had another terrific year of turf racing at Woodbine Racetrack,” said Jim Lawson, CEO, Woodbine Entertainment. “We are really looking forward to starting our 2022 season on time and running the most turf races in a single season in our history. Woodbine is a premier turf destination in North America and the best is yet to come.”

In 2019, Woodbine ran 363 turf races on the E.P. Taylor Turf Course and the Inner Turf Course combined, the most turf races its ever run in a single meet.

Highlights of turf racing in 2021 includes the Ricoh Woodbine Mile, won by Town Cruise, and the return of the Pattison Canadian International, captured by Walton Street (GB), were held on September 18 as part of Woodbine's Turf Festival weekend. The pair of Grade 1 turf races had $2.2 million and $1.7 million wagered, respectively, to help push a Woodbine Mile card record handle of $13.8 million.

Woodbine played host to three Breeders' Cup Challenge Series “Win and You're In” races (Ricoh Woodbine Mile, Summer, Natalma) in 2021, with all three contested on the E.P. Taylor Turf Course.

The final turf race for the 2021 meet was contested on October 28 and the Woodbine Racing Surfaces has immediately begun preparing the course for 2022.

The 2021 Woodbine Thoroughbred season runs until December 5 with live racing held every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For more information, visit www.Woodbine.com.

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Our scores on our two tests weren't the highest we've ever gotten, but they were solid and the tests themselves were the best we've ever put in. We came 40^th out of a group of 89, many of whom were dressage professionals. I am thrilled with that outcome.

I started this series with a list of early lessons I took away from my first months with an off-track Thoroughbred (OTTB). (You can find that post here.) That seems like a good way to sum up the many things we learned from this wonderful, crazy, exhausting experience.

• Last-minute hoof issues aren't necessarily the end of the world. Any time Blueberry experiences any kind of discomfort, he is pretty dramatic about it. We say he's a sensitive flower, which has its advantages in the dressage ring. I actually consider it a good thing that he's unafraid to express to me when he's in pain, because I know right away when something is wrong. This also meant that when he got his first hot nail (the first one my farrier has been responsible for in a decade working at my barn, just my luck), he acted like he was dying. Naturally, this happened about nine days before we were due to ship in to the Kentucky Horse Park. Initially we weren't sure whether he had a hot nail or a brewing abscess and I quickly learned that the former will resolve very quickly while the latter, though similarly minor in terms of seriousness, would probably take more than a week to get him back to full strength.We spent three days with his shoe off, diligently packing the foot round the clock and soaking it just before the farrier's recheck just in case he had both a hot nail and an abscess. In three days, the nail hole had closed clean and we were dealing with minor bruising from the time the shoe had been off. We practiced our Training 2 test two days before shipping, charging into the biggest horse show week with exactly two training sessions in the previous 10 days. By the time he arrived at the Park, he was sound, rested, and ready to go, if a little lighter on practice and fitness training than I had intended.

  So the next time I hear about a Derby prospect with a last-minute foot issue, I'm not going to throw them out until I know more about what's going on. A turnaround can be possible, even in what feels like the eleventh hour.

  

  A moment from our Training 2 test

• Horses don't always fit into the timelines we've laid out. Ok, I knew this one already but I'd always thought of it upside down – that if anything, you have to move slowly doing anything with any horse just on principle. But that's not right for everyone. With a month or two to go until the Makeover, I was aware we'd need to step up from the Intro Level tests we'd been performing in competition to the Training Level 2 test we'd be required to do at Makeover. I also knew in advance that we'd only have one show prior to Makeover where we'd have a chance to ride that test. Each level contains three tests, which get progressively more difficult, so Training 2 is actually the fifth and most difficult test we've tried. With a few weeks to go, I still believed it was possible that after Makeover we'd need to step back down to Intro C, the test I figured we'd have been riding if we hadn't had the Makeover as a goal. The one time we competed Training 2, I forgot part of the test and missed a few key technical marks. We were still struggling to get our correct canter leads on the first try. It was — not quite a mess, but not an auspicious beginning.We got a lot of practice in during Makeover week, drilling Training 2 over and over. Leaving the Rolex, I knew I was sitting on a Training Level horse. In just a few short weeks, we belonged at that level. I didn't think we could both improve that quickly but we did.
• A bored baby Thoroughbred in horse show stabling will eventually, with great determination and practice, find a way to poop into his water bucket. And his feed tub. My mare did not prepare me for this level of depravity. Gross, dude. He will also not learn from the experience and may do it again tomorrow if he has finessed his aim.
• The notion that a seam ripper is a critical tool in your horse show kit is not a suggestion. I had Blueberry professionally braided because my braids are absolutely awful and I wanted him to look amazing. He did, and the braider sewed the braids in (which explained how they stayed in so well, no matter how he rubbed his neck along the door frame). She did a beautiful job. I reluctantly took them out at the end of the evening, in the dark, carefully hunting for black thread with bandage scissors so as not to cut holes in his mane. When eventers (at least the eventers I know) braid, it's usually with bands that are easy to pull, but the hunters mean business, even when they do button braids. Seam ripper = vital equipment next time.
• Do not underestimate the bombproof nature of a well-behaved 4-year-old Thoroughbred. Our stabling for the Makeover faced out onto one of the busiest parts of the park for vehicle and foot traffic. We hacked through the show grounds and around the edges of the cross country course to get to our schooling area every day. Although Blueberry had been to small horse shows many times before this, he had to see and hear a lot during this particular week, and he feared nothing. Other horses spooking, bolting, galloping cross country, dogs, golf carts, backfiring tractors – he thought about none of it. Even the echoey Rolex grandstand and brightly-decorated judges' booths were of very little concern to him.The only thing he looked at was the giant rack of colorful jump poles that was being unloaded by volunteers on our first day at the Park and must have looked to him a little like windmills looked to Don Quixote. Fair enough. He stared, planted his feet, and shook in his bell boots. I was nervous, not knowing if he would try to bolt. I considered dismounting, but I sat still in the saddle. I patted him. I let him think for a few minutes, trying consciously to lower my own heart rate. He took a breath, chomped on his bit, and decided to believe me when I promised him they were safe. Is there a greater feeling than your horse saying, 'I trust you'?
  

  All smiles after our second and final dressage test at the Makeover.

• The greatest lessons sometimes evolve from a tough warm-up. Blueberry handled the atmosphere of the Rolex Stadium brilliantly, but we did have a bobble in our first schooling session on Monday, several days before our competition on Thursday. We were running through our test and were just passing the judge's booth when someone dropped something inside the grandstand. It sounded like something heavy, maybe a folding table, making a big, echoey boom. I watched Blueberry's ear move towards it, process, and ignore the sound … but unfortunately, about two steps later, it was time for me to ask for a left lead canter. I wanted the transition to be sharp, and I rotated my knee about a half inch too far, touching him gently with more spur than heel instead of the other way around. I don't know if it was the sonic boom or the unexpected spur poke, but he took off bucking. It was a short episode and I sat it well, but I did have long enough to think about how much I did not want to fall and have my horse run loose through one of the more famous outdoor arenas in this country.I can't lie – this moment rattled me. I spent two days overanalyzing it, and then I realized that 1) He had almost certainly been reacting out of indignation and not fear 2) He had almost certainly forgotten about it as soon as I sat up, gathered my reins, and taken us through a 20-meter circle still in the canter and 3) I came out of this moment just fine. I didn't even lose a stirrup.

  All along this journey I have doubted myself more than Blueberry – am I a good enough rider to teach him this new sport? Do I know him well enough to read his moods and his emotional needs? Am I capable of putting the pieces back together when things go wrong? And thanks to our amazing support team – my husband, my trainer, my barn friends – I came away from that schooling session eventually recognizing that my horse has faith in me, and I should, too. (It helped that after a couple of days of long workouts and daily walks around the park, he was also probably too tired for a repeat.) This is something that I know will come up again and again. Unshakable confidence doesn't grow overnight, but it does come through repeated good experiences, and I know Blueberry can give me those.

The post The Blueberry Bulletin Presented By Equine Equipment: Lessons From The Thoroughbred Makeover appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Prepare to be inspired! For more than two decades, thanks to extraordinary support from the Thoroughbred industry and the Florida Department of Corrections, this unique program has been “Saving Horses and Changing Lives”. With the success of each graduate, the ripple effect on friends, family, colleagues and neighbors in society is beyond measure.

Read more about the impact of the Lowell program in this week's edition of our In Their Care series. Writer Tom Pedulla spoke with women say their lives were altered (or in one case, saved) by their powerful bonds with off-track Thoroughbreds.

Paulick Report News Editor Chelsea Hackbarth met a successful graduate of another, similar program at the Blackburn Correctional Facility in Lexington, Ky. That TRF program gave Joshua Ison the job skills he needed to launch a new career after completing his sentence. Read more here.

The livestream is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET and will be available in the embedded video player below.

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More than a year later, it looks like whoever burglarized the test barn has probably gotten away with it.

On a backstretch where rumors normally spread like wildfire, almost no one seems to have heard about the burglary when it first happened. The meet was winding down, and a lot of trainers had already begun shipping their horses out. Kerry Kemper, who trains Colorado runners on the side of his business hauling horses, was pulling his rig through the backstretch gate on Aug. 31, the same day the burglary was discovered. Kemper spotted Bruce Seymour, director of Mile High Racing and Entertainment.

'Did you hear what happened in the test barn?' he remembers Seymour asking him.

'No,' said Kemper.

'You will,' Kemper remembers Seymour saying.

The tale of two suspensions

Kemper was notified on Aug. 11 that his horse, Midnight Maverick, had a “pending positive” test after winning the sixth race at Arapahoe on Aug. 3. Fellow trainer Miguel Pena was informed Aug. 26 that his horse, One Rare Jess, had a “pending positive” test following a victory in the second race on Aug. 10. While many states do not pursue investigations until their labs have completed both initial screening and confirmatory analysis, Colorado's commission gets a screening report showing which test samples have been held back for further testing, and its investigators begin looking into the operations that may (or may not) have violations coming to them. Commission investigators requested copies of both trainers' veterinary records from the veterinarian they shared, Dr. Jim Dysart. No one searched either trainer's barn or vehicle after notifying them of the pending positives, which sources say was a departure from the standard procedure.

When the trainers were later summarily suspended (Kemper on Aug. 25 and Pena on Sept. 2) and informed that further testing had confirmed the presence of 3-hydroxylidocaine, both said they were puzzled. Kemper had no idea how the metabolite of lidocaine could have gotten into his horse. Pena said the only thing he could think of was an accidental contamination through some topical, possibly from a Caslick procedure he thought his vet had performed on another horse just before seeing One Rare Jess. (The vet later confirmed he hadn't used lidocaine in that procedure and also couldn't figure out how it could have been introduced to One Rare Jess.) Neither horse's veterinary records indicated use of the drug by Dysart.

Perhaps it was a mistake, they reasoned. Both submitted requests for split sample testing.

In Colorado, like most other states, there are two containers of blood and urine taken from selected horses post-race. The winner from each race is tested, and additional horses may be tested by request from the stewards. One set of samples is sent off to Industrial Labs in nearby Wheat Ridge for testing, while the other set is preserved in a locked room in the test barn – the theory being that this set will remain sealed and will not be handled by the same people responsible for doing initial testing, just in case initial testing had in some way compromised the sample. When a Colorado trainer requests a split sample test, they are given a form letter telling them when and where they are to meet with commission officials to supervise its removal from storage, verify chain of custody records, and oversee its packaging as it is sent off to a referee lab. Trainers may be accompanied by a representative from their horsemen's organization to act as their witness and to ensure all the correct procedures are followed.

Both Kemper and Pena were board members of the Colorado Horsemen's Association. They thought it was a little odd when the forms they received had the standard 'test barn' location covered over in liquid paper and the address of Industrial Labs written in. Pena went to the lab on Sept. 9 on behalf of both trainers.

As Industrial lab director Petra Hartmann would later testify, the sample containers she brought into a conference room before Pena and commission investigators were the remainders of the primary samples. Pena pointed to the broken evidence seals on the containers and crusted blood around the rims.

“That's not a split sample,” he said.

It was only then he learned that there were no split samples left for him or for Kemper. They had been destroyed in the test barn burglary, but the commission was planning to pursue the cases against them anyway.

The investigation that wasn't

No one seems to know exactly when the test barn at Arapahoe was broken into. Racing had taken place Monday, Aug. 24, with the meet's closing card taking place on Wednesday, Aug. 26. The Tuesday, Aug. 25, card was cancelled, meaning no one was supposed to be at the test barn in between the Aug. 24 and Aug. 26 race days.

The fridges and freezers where split samples are kept are each secured by two padlocks, both of which must be unlocked at the start of each racing day. One key is kept by a racing commission employee, and the other is held by the Colorado Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association. Representatives of both entities are supposed to be present for lock-up at the end of the day, but because the locks are padlocks, test barn employees have told the commission they just close the locks themselves at day's end.

The commission investigators' inquiries into the situation were brief. Investigator Richard Thomas filed a three-page report detailing his discovery of the scene along with Agent In Charge Ed Kulp at around 6:30 on the morning of Aug. 31. They found the cut padlocks lying on the floor, the bags of urine piled in the sink, and discovered a second office on the other side of the building had also been breached, with the locks on its freezer cut. Later in the morning, information technology personnel were sent to the racetrack to help the investigators access the video from the surveillance camera installed at the barn. They determined that the camera had been hooked up to a malfunctioning hard drive earlier in the season, and no video had been recorded at all.

Sources tell the Paulick Report that at the beginning of the season, the surveillance camera in the test barn had been functioning properly. With a couple of weeks left in the meet, Kulp had been informed that something was wrong, and that the camera no longer seemed to be recording. When asked whether he wanted the camera fixed, Kulp had dismissed the idea, saying that the end of the meet was so close he didn't think it made any difference. It's unclear how many people may have been aware it had stopped working.

Thomas and Kulp called local law enforcement to report the burglary, and according to testimony from a third investigator working for the commission, that seemed to be the end of the commission investigators' role.

The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office dispatched an officer to investigate criminal mischief, theft, and second-degree burglary. When they arrived, officers learned that Kulp and others had already touched “everything in the office.”

Kulp told the responding officer “that he believes someone did this so that their horse would not be able to test positive for drugs or any other enhancement supplements.” Kulp also told the officer he'd be conducting his own investigation but had no case number yet.

At the time of the burglary, Kemper and Pena hadn't yet requested their split samples be tested. Pena's case wasn't even confirmed as a violation, and Kemper had just been handed his summary suspension but hadn't submitted his request. There were only four other samples marked as “pending” during that time – three which cleared once Industrial tested them further, and one which became a confirmed positive on Sept. 4, several days after the burglary. The trainer in that case settled the case with the commission.

Kemper and Pena say they were never questioned about their whereabouts that weekend, nor was it suggested to either of them that investigators thought they could be involved in the burglary. In fact, an open records act request for investigative documents in this case turned up only initial incident reports from Kulp and Thomas, with no indication that either questioned any other licensees about the incident.

“Because this was a criminal investigation, the Division investigators contacted and reported the crime to Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office to complete the criminal investigation. Therefore, any actions taken the sheriff's office to investigate this burglary would be contained in reports by that agency,” said Suzanne Karrer, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Revenue, which oversees the Division of Racing Events.

When asked whether the investigation was still active, Karrer said: “I cannot comment on the investigations of other agencies. The report was made to Arapahoe County. I suggest you contact Arapahoe County for their investigation report.”

On Sept. 1, the day after commission investigators called the sheriff's office, Kulp called to let the officer working the case to let him know he had no surveillance footage to show them. In lieu of any other information about potential suspects, the case was deactivated by law enforcement that day, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office's incident report.

Far from being a focus for the Colorado Racing Commission in the months afterwards, the burglary was a passing mention in one meeting of the commission after it took place. At the time, the commission was told the sheriff's department's case was “still open pending additional leads,” according to meeting minutes. The commissioners were told Donia Amick, director of racing events, planned to suggest steel doors and reinforced windows be added to the building, as well as better locks and cameras.

In the seven racing commission meetings since, commissioners have been provided with no updates on the search for the perpetrators of the burglary, according to published meeting minutes.

Have we been down this road before?

It's not the first time the test barn in Colorado has had difficulties handling evidence. At the end of a prior racing season (no one can quite remember when) Arapahoe Park maintenance staff cut power to the test barn, allowing fridges and freezers inside to thaw and rendering stored split samples useless. According to Karrer, the workers were closing up the backstretch for the season and made a mistake. There were three pending split samples in the test barn at that time. When asked what investigators discovered about the event, she said that “no action was taken by the division or the commission in this incident.”

Then there was a civil case filed in 2010 over the handling of a positive test from Quarter Horse mare Cedar Creek. The mare won a trial for the Rocky Mountain Derby that year but was kept out of the final after a test came back positive for an intra-articular corticosteroid. The horse's owner said the drug was left over from a treatment five months earlier, and the horse had raced at two other tracks after the treatment with no positive findings. A sizable part of the legal case focused on the laboratory's testing for picograms of therapeutic drugs, which was a new level of test sophistication at that time in Colorado, but it also brought up concerns about the security of the test barn.

Lavern Fein, then an assistant to trainer Brad Bolen who had taken Cedar Creek to the test barn, had been appalled when she saw how easily people could access the area where split samples were stored, even before she had any reason to think there would be a positive test on the horse in her care. People came in and out to chat with test barn employees, open and closed unlocked refrigerators at will, and stored their lunches and caffeinated drinks in the same fridge as blood samples.

Fein is a former law enforcement officer and said she was “blown away” by the “violations of all the procedures.”

“The handling of evidence is something I've done my whole life,” she said. “I expect these splits to be handled at the level of law enforcement. This is a government position so there should be rules and standards.”

Fein said she later learned the records of samples en route to the testing lab were also unclear. There are supposed to be records showing who mails samples to the lab and when, but Fein said samples were frequently handed off to people who happened to be heading in the direction of the mailing center, rather than taken by authorized employees.

“It was insanity the whole way,” she said. “I'd never seen it like that before. You couldn't get anywhere when you made complaints. It was really a good ol' boys system like I'd never seen before.”

Fein took videos of the conditions she found at the test lab (with permission of the test lab employees and horsemen's representative Shannon Rushton) and said she remembers submitting them to the commission. She said no one she complained to seemed concerned.

The case goes forward

Pena and Kemper declined to have Industrial Labs send out the remainder of their primary samples in place of a split, so Colorado stewards issued rulings against them without split sample tests.

Colorado adheres to ARCI model rules with regard to medication classification, which means that due to its ability to block pain, lidocaine is considered a Class 2 substance. Class 2 drugs are those that “have a high potential for affecting the outcome of a race.” The most common use for lidocaine in a veterinary setting is as part of a lameness exam, where a veterinarian will use it as a nerve block to knock out pain to select structures in a leg in order to localize the source of a problem.

Of course, lidocaine entered the consciousness of many racing fans last year when embattled trainer Bob Baffert fought sanctions for two lidocaine positives in Arkansas, attributing them to contamination from an over-the-counter pain patch used by one of his employees. In that case, stewards disqualified Charlatan from a win in the 2020 Arkansas Derby and Gamine from an allowance win on that undercard. They also issued a 15-day suspension for Baffert. On appeal, the commission rescinded both the suspension and the two disqualifications, and issued a $5,000 fine per positive.

Colorado stewards hit Pena and Kemper with fines of $2,500 and 180 days of suspension. Initially, the commission told them they would require that suspensions run over racing days, not calendar days. Because the state only hosts a single, short meet in the summer, that means that in practical effect, the suspension would have gone on for six or seven years, depending on the number of race cards in future seasons.

Both trainers decided to fight the suspensions.

“I don't like how the commission handled it,” Pena said. “It was very vindictive, and they didn't really want to investigate anything at all … they wanted to make an example out of us, in a bad way. It's like they know they're in the wrong and they just want me to quit fighting it.”

The appeals hearing before the commission focused primarily on the language of Colorado's code and whether licensees have a legal right to a split sample test or not. Kemper and Pena argued they did, while the commission's attorneys argued they did only if the split sample was available to be tested.

In the end, the commission not only upheld the stewards' suspension, but increased the fine to $5,000. They did retreat from their earlier position regarding the suspension, agreeing that it could be served on calendar days instead of race dates, but also waited to start the clock on the suspension until May of this year.

Kemper and Pena both say they have appealed the commission's ruling, as well as its refusal to grant them a stay of the suspension. Both recently received notice in the mail that their fines have been increased to $10,000 for nonpayment, even as their cases await a court hearing.

So, who committed the burglary?

Perhaps strangely, the issue of who may have been responsible for stealing the split samples didn't seem to come up in either trainer's appeal hearing before the commission.

Around the time of the test barn burglary, Pena and Kemper found themselves the instigators of a battle within the Colorado Horsemen's Association. Before the start of the 2020 meet, longtime CHA executive director Shannon Rushton had taken on the role of racing secretary for the racetrack while remaining in his position with the CHA. Some board members, including Pena and Kemper, worried that this was a conflict of interest. Pena and Kemper say they believe that by the end of the 2020 race meet, Rushton knew they wanted him out of his CHA role.

One of Rushton's duties prior to taking on the racing secretary job was to use the CHA key to open the test barn each morning. When he began working for both the CHA and the racetrack, the board decided someone else should represent trainers during barn searches and in the test barn.

According to testimony from Dr. Joni Smith, state veterinarian during the 2020 meet, Rushton's stand-in for test barn access was Jim Weimer, who was then vice president of the CHA. Weimer was also approved by the commission earlier that year as a security worker for the racetrack, but in practice served as the track's stall man, with his role as a security officer more of an accessory. He was also licensed as an owner and trainer at the time.

When news of the stewards' suspension reached the backstretch, Kemper remembers that Rushton immediately tried to get both trainers removed from the board in the middle of a regularly-scheduled board meeting. He was unsuccessful because the cases were under appeal and the CHA's bylaws were unclear on grounds for removing board members based on regulatory action against their licenses.

Ultimately, Rushton resigned from his position as executive director of the CHA following a disputed vote of its board members. As the Paulick Report detailed earlier this year, board members were asked to vote on whether they wanted to renew Rushton's contract ahead of the 2021 race meet. Board members submitted their votes via text to the organization's then-president, Kent Bamford. Bamford reported that the board had voted to keep Rushton, but some board members, including Kemper and Pena, later discovered that five of the eight had voted not to renew his contract. Rushton, Bamford, and Weimer resigned before a new vote could be taken.

“I find it very weird, because me and Kerry, we've been trying to make a change, trying to make things better around here,” said Pena. “Anytime somebody has a bad test on the backside or any kind of problem with the division or the commission, they go to my barn instead of going to Shannon for me to represent them because I know the rules. I know how to defend myself a little bit and I think that pisses them off a lot.”

Pena said he was never provided with any copies of police or investigative reports, or any photo or video evidence of the burglary. Until he learned from this reporter that a police report existed, he doubted whether the crime had taken place at all.

“I personally believe there was never a break-in,” he said. “Both of us getting a lidocaine test…that's just something you don't do. We all know as horsemen, you can't block horses' legs. It's going to test. We're not going to do it. The two people that are trying to make changes and trying to make people's lives better get a bad test … it's pretty suspicious to me.”

If investigators had wanted to look for licensees with a motive to burglarize the test barn, the two trainers agree they should have been targets of the investigation. Kemper has a fairly clean record, with only one drug violation since he became a licensed trainer in 2011. That was for a high flunixin meglamine level in 2013. For that, Kemper said he knew he had given the therapeutic medication and accepted his penalty without appealing.

Pena, on the other hand, has a somewhat more checkered history with regulators, although he has no medication violations on his record.

In 2019, he ran into trouble in Oklahoma when he and another man allegedly broke into the dorm room of a groom and assaulted the groom, resulting in a summary suspension that stretched on for several weeks.

In 2018 Pena was discovered with needles and syringes in Colorado around the same time he had a confirmed drug positive for clenbuterol. Pena observed the packaging of a split sample in that case along with commission representatives, but when it arrived at his chosen lab for testing, technicians determined the sample had been “destroyed” during shipping.

As a result, the division informed Pena it was dropping the charges related to the clenbuterol finding – demonstrating, he believes now, that standard procedure in absence of a split should be the commission dropping the case.

When the Paulick Report submitted a Colorado Open Records Act request seeking correspondence between commission personnel about the 2020 test barn burglary, there was only one email responsive to the request. It was a note sent from Tyra Barnett, the safety steward at Arapahoe Park that season, who indicated she'd only just heard about the burglary weeks after it occurred.

“My question is, what happens now?” Barnett wrote in the email, sent to the Zach Ceriani, legal assistant for the Division of Racing. “Does the case just go away or can we use the 'prima facie' element to proceed with the case? This is an unbelievable turn of events that seems to surround the trainers involved, and destroying evidence has happened with at least one of them. Although it was never been proven, lightning doesn't seem to strike twice in the same place.”

Pena maintains he had nothing to do with any destruction of samples.

“I know they hate me because sometimes I get people out of trouble who aren't supposed to be in trouble,” said Pena, who recalled one investigator who contacted him after retiring from the division. “He went down to the barn and said, 'Miguel, if I were you, I wouldn't come back here next year. You have a target on your back.'”

The post Case Of Missing Horse Blood Reveals Oddities, Gaps In Colorado’s Integrity System appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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She was facing a five-year sentence for money laundering. She accepted responsibility for what occurred while insisting she was an unwitting victim of a man she once loved, a man she thought would someday be her husband. She felt the shame associated with the crime was more than she could bear.

“If I was around, I was a huge embarrassment to my family,” Bonds said. “I just couldn't take it.”

She saved three months' worth of her blood pressure medication, bought a bottle of Tylenol PM, and ingested it all. She narrowly avoided the outcome she wanted badly when someone checked on her. She spent a week on a ventilator before she gradually recovered.

When she began a sentence that was accompanied by 25 years of probation and an order to make financial restitution, thoughts of suicide returned.

“Being in prison was really starting to play with my head,” Bonds said. “I thought, 'There is no way I'm going to be able to do this. You're not going to be able to do this. Just end it.'“

Her grim outlook changed forever in 2014. That is when she became involved with the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation's Second Chances Program, overseen by John Evans at Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, Fla.

“When we drove over that hill there in Ocala and I saw that farm, something changed,” Bonds said. “But the main change in me was when I got assigned Frosty Grin.”

Bonds had never been around horses. She did not know what to expect the first time she called out to Frosty Grin.

“He come running up to the gate and something inside of me started crying like a baby,” she said. “Somebody does want to see me. It changed me. It truly changed me.”

Bonds finally had someone to talk to – without fear of judgment.

“He would look right at you and he would know if I was having a blue day. I felt that horse looked right into my soul,” she said. “I talked to that horse like he was a human being and he would come back at me like 'I know. I know.' I had some heart-to-heart talks with that horse.”

The blue days became fewer. Then they were gone.

“I went from 'Damn, I woke up again' to 'Thank you, God!' “ Bonds said.

Her transformation provides one of the most inspiring stories as the Second Chances program at Lowell marks its 20^th anniversary with a horse show that will be livestreamed on Oct. 21 from 8-9 p.m. ET. The show takes viewers inside the gates of the correctional facility for women to demonstrate how the program saves horses from potential slaughter and changes lives.

Bonds with Frosty Grin

Gigi Brown provides another example of someone profoundly impacted by Second Chances. She began working with retired Thoroughbreds at Lowell in 2018 while serving a four-year sentence for selling drugs.

“That was the only way I thought I could make money and succeed in life,” Brown said. “But come to find out that is so far from the truth. I would never in my life go back to anything like that again.”

She credits Evans – and the horses – with helping her see a path to a better life.

“He is one of a kind,” Brown said of Evans. “He will do everything in his power to help you succeed, if that is what you really want out of life. I've never met a man like him. He is amazing.”

The skills he taught her proved invaluable because she gained employment at Tickety-boo Farm in Melrose, Fla., a long way from peddling drugs and far more rewarding emotionally. “I like working. At the end of the day, I feel I accomplished something,” Brown said.

Evans, 73, arrived at Lowell in 2005 and works as the equine educational instructor and farm manager.

“That man, he has such a heart for the ladies out there and the program,” Bonds said. “He doesn't look at you like 'Oh, you're a convict' or 'Oh, you're a criminal.' He never once, never once, made you feel like that. He made you feel you were somebody.”

Evans initially planned to stay at Lowell for one year. Despite the blistering summer sun in Ocala, he found the work too fulfilling to leave.

“I couldn't believe how much better you felt when you influenced someone who had not had very good life experiences,” he said. “The most amazing thing was seeing the transformation of these people when they got around a horse, even if they never touched a horse before.”

Many women endure the pain of knowing they cannot be there for their children. They turn their strong maternal instincts to horses that welcome their care and affection.

“You start seeing them nurture,” Evans said. “You start seeing them wanting to be better in their lives, not to have the addictions that they've had.”

There are failures, too. Evans noted that one of his first students was a heroin addict who initially feared horses. She overcame that fear and did so well in the program that she landed a job in the industry upon her release. He and others did everything possible to see that she was successfully rehabilitated, assisting with living arrangements and the purchase of a car. Tragically, there was no escaping her heroin addiction and she eventually returned to prison.

Bonds fully embraced her second chance at life. After filling out more than 1,000 job applications in vain, she found gratifying employment with Lighthouse Ministries in Lakeland, Fla. She fills some of her spare time by volunteering at Hope Equine Rescue.

Tom Pedulla wrote for USA Today from 1995-2012 and has been a contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Blood-Horse, America's Best Racing and other publications.

If you wish to suggest someone as a potential subject for In Their Care, please send an email to info@paulickreport.com that includes the person's name and contact information in addition to a brief description of the individual's background.

The post Kirkpatrick & Co Presents In Their Care: TRF Program Gives Bonds Back Her Mental Health, Purpose appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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For one ownership group however, the goal of going to the 2021 edition of the Thoroughbred Makeover was born four years and eight months ago, before the horse in question had even stood and nursed.

Ryan Watson, Adolfo Martinez, and Heath Gunnison collectively form RAH Bloodstock and knew that the little bay colt out of Thunder Gulch mare Talking Audrey would be special to them. The trio had purchased the mare out of the 2017 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages sale for $1,200. She was in foal to a stallion none of them had ever heard of — Doctor Chit, a Grade 2 placed son of War Front who stands in Oklahoma.

They were drawn to the mare because Watson and Martinez (who is now the manager of Heaven Trees Farm) had worked with her female family at Darby Dan. Watson is stallion manager at Darby Dan, and Gunnison is the head hunt seat coach at Midway University. The three wanted to go in on a mare together, but they knew they wouldn't want to sell the very first horse that had RAH Bloodstock listed as his breeder.

“We thought, if we don't know anything about [Doctor Chit], we won't be selling the foal,” said Martinez. “We've gone to a couple of stallions with her since and had some nice foals, but the first one is pretty special. Your first child is always the one.”

The group struggled to get a registered name for their first horse; most combinations of the two parents' names ended up being rejected by The Jockey Club as too vulgar. (Talking Chit was a favorite but didn't make the cut.) Finally, they settled on naming him This Is Me after a song made famous in The Greatest Showman, which had come out around the time they were submitting name requests. Around the barn, the bay with a thin white blaze remained “Chit” or “Lil Chit.”

Chit became what's known around the track as a “morning glory” who showed lots of talent in his workouts but failed to deliver in the afternoons. Martinez said he was “a very polite runner — he let everybody go first.”

The colt's very first start, in a maiden special weight at Indiana Grand in October 2019, made them briefly hopeful that he had serious potential.

“He showed a little bit of talent by closing on the frontrunners,” recalled Watson. “After the race we're walking back, waiting for the runners to be unsaddled and I see the outriders go tearing around the backside of the track, going in opposite directions. You look, and there's a horse they can't pull up coming around the far turn. It was him.”

It was really on the strength of that gallop out that RAH Bloodstock and trainer Ronald Kahles continued on for another four starts, trying to unleash that drive without success. Watson remembers fighting a snowstorm to get to Turfway Park in February 2020 for what would be Chit's last start, a distant ninth in maiden claiming company. He asked jockey John McKee if he thought the horse under him had any talent at all, and McKee admitted he didn't think so. Watson, grateful for the honesty, happily took Chit home to begin the wait until they could begin re-training in December.

Chit with dam Talking Audrey

All three men grew up riding – Gunnison and Watson doing ranch work and team penning, and Martinez mostly casual trail and pleasure riding – so they had a good idea of what they were looking at as they considered a new career for Chit. Gunnison has made a name for himself in the hunter world, and they all agreed Chit's natural, smooth gait would set him up for success there. Gunnison did much of the riding, with Watson and Martinez standing by to watch, set fences, and lend support.

It wasn't until this summer that they wondered whether Chit might have some aptitude for ranch work. Watson was always happy to support the Thoroughbred Incentive Program Western pleasure classes at Scheffleridge Farm's hunter/jumper shows, so they threw Western tack on Chit and saw him maintain his long and low frame as though nothing much had changed.

It's an improbable combination for any horse – excelling in both show hunters and ranch work. Hunters are often thought of as somewhat narrow in their worldview, working mostly in arena settings, while ranch horses must be a little more rough and tumble and very brave with cattle. A level head and a smooth movement will be rewarded in both disciplines, however.

“He's really taken everything we've thrown at him,” said Martinez. “He's very level-headed and calm.”

Martinez said they brought Chit into an arena full of cattle along with several other ranch horses to make him feel safe in a group, gradually removing the other horses until he was working the cows alone.

“It's very much sink or swim,” said Watson. “He has to learn about them just like any other discipline – learn to track them, learn to follow them. He actually got good enough this summer where he was able to anticipate how they were going to move.”

A busy show schedule throughout late summer had the team out nearly every weekend at one kind of competition or the other. The hard work paid off, with Chit heading to the finals as the leader in both disciplines. Horses will be horses however, and a sudden stop at the very first fence in the hunter finale took him down to fifth in the overall standings. Gunnison brought him back to finish second in the ranch work division, and Watson said the trio could not be more thrilled with their experience.

“We were just happy to get to the finals in one category, and two categories was just a bonus,” said Watson. “This horse has done so much for us. He is currently leading the Beginner Horse [division] in the Kentucky Hunter Jumper Association by 90 points or something like that. He's just been a phenomenal horse this year. We'll live to fight another day.”

The group expects Chit to move on to the three-foot hunters (an increase from the two and a half foot heights he saw at the Makeover) and the Take2 hunter series next season.

Not all owner/breeders can necessarily invest four years in a horse with the hopes of competing in the Makeover, rather than hoping to pick up a check. Still, Watson is hopeful that others in the racing industry can take away something from the RAH journey with Chit.

“A horse is a breeder's responsibility throughout their entire life,” said Watson. “It did not ask to come into this world. You are the one who brought it here. So it's definitely a breeders' responsibility to ensure that it's going to not end up where it doesn't deserve to be.

“It's so rewarding. Obviously they're bred for racing, but to see him compete in the preliminary rounds earlier last week, it was just such a proud moment to have everybody coming up to us and talking about what a nice horse he was. It's a very rewarding experience to know that something you have been responsible for creating is kind of the talk of the town and goes on and does something so significant in a second career. It's a really good feeling.”

The post ‘A Breeder’s Responsibility’: Racing Owner/Breeders Take Horse From Foaling Stall To Thoroughbred Makeover appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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