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TBA Annual General Meeting Held

The Annual General Meeting of the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association was held online for the first time on Sunday. TBA Chairman Julian Richmond-Watson detailed several key strategic priorities, while also acknowledging the challenges created by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to the UK Thoroughbred industry. Five 2021 focal points for the TBA Board of Trustees and executive team are as follows:

Resolving issues arising from the UK’s exit from the EU; to include working with industry partners at home and abroad to ensure best possible outcomes for the industry, its people, trade and horse movement.
Maintaining and developing relationships with key industry and government figures who can potentially influence and support TBA activities.
Providing further direct support for breeders, including development of the Great British Bonus scheme.
Participating and influencing industry decisions on prize-money, ensuring racing is adequately funded at every level, while maintaining the appeal and competitiveness of Britain’s top-level races globally.
Improving the TBA’s digital services, including developing and launching a new e-learning platform to provide easy and affordable access to industry training.

Several positive developments in 2020 include: the TBA gaining approval from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) for the Great British Bonus scheme which has already paid out over £1 million in prize-money. The quick adaption of communications and services for members through the coronavirus crises was also recognised as a success.

“British breeders need more support,” said Richmond-Watson. “GBB [the Great British Bonus] is a great start, but if racecourses wish to run the size of the programme they desire, they will need us to maintain and produce more foals on the ground and that will only happen if breeders feel confident about the future.”

Also during the meeting, the term of the incumbent chairman was increased from six years to eight after a special resolution was adopted, with upcoming challenges ranging from Brexit, COVID-19, prize-money issues, and Levy reform. A new membership category was also created, the associate subscription, allowing discounted or free access to TBA courses and events for £60 per year. In addition, Laundry Cottage Stud owner Colin Bryce and Kate Sigsworth of West Moor Stud were elected to the Board of Trustees. For more details on the TBA Annual General Meeting, please visit www.tba.co.uk.

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Baffert Unveils Another Into Mischief Monster

With likely Horse of the Year Authentic (Into Mischief) recently retired to stud, the Bob Baffert barn wasted no time unveiling its next speedy superstar by the nation’s leading sire as CHC Inc. and WinStar Farm LLC’s Life is Good (Into Mischief) demolished his competition to become a no-brainer ‘TDN Rising Star’. The bay prepped for this with a head-turning 1:00 flat (1-of-51) gate breeze last Saturday (XBTV Video), and drifted up to 1-5 at the off after spending much of the betting cycle at 1-9. Zipping off to lead them by open lengths through speedy splits of :21.80 and :44.84, he was always in complete control and streaked home 9 1/2 lengths clear in 1:15.50 while flashing similar brilliance to the same ownership group’s undefeated monster Nashville (Speightstown). Fellow firster Wipe the Slate (Nyquist) was second best.

The winner, who was a $525,000 KEESEP yearling, is bred on the same cross as MGISW and promising young sire Practical Joke (Into Mischief). His dam, herself a $435,000 September buy, never won in five tries but hit the board in maiden special weights in both Kentucky and Arkansas. She has a yearling filly by Blame and was bred back to Candy Ride (Arg).

Life Is Good’s second dam is SW and MGISP Bonnie Blue Flag (Mineshaft), who sold for $1.5 million in 2011 but just $15,000 last November in foal to California Chrome at the age of 12 after having little success with her produce on the track. Bonnie Blue Flag is a half to MGISW and group producer Diamondrella (GB) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}).

2nd-Del Mar, $57,000, Msw, 11-22, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 1:15.50, ft, 9 1/2 lengths.
LIFE IS GOOD, c, 2, Into Mischief
                1st Dam: Beach Walk, by Distorted Humor
                2nd Dam: Bonnie Blue Flag, by Mineshaft
                3rd Dam: Tap Your Feet, by Dixieland Band
Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $34,200. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton. Free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
O-CHC INC. & WinStar Farm LLC; B-Gary & Mary West Stables Inc. (KY); T-Bob Baffert. *$525,000 Ylg ’19 KEESEP.

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Hugh McMahon Gets Career Win No. 1,000: ‘Everything That We Have Is A Gift’

Larry Rabold's Polished Gal provided trainer Hugh McMahon with his 1,000th career victory in thrilling fashion, getting her nose down on the wire ahead of late-running Splendor Gal in Sunday's sixth race at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

Polished Gal ($8.60), a 4-year-old Maryland-bred filly ridden by Victor Rosales, ran six furlongs in 1:12.93 over a fast main track to earn her fourth lifetime win from 19 starts in the claiming event for fillies and mares 3 and older.

Rosales settled Polished Gal in third as Midnight Crossing led the way through splits of 24.86 and 47.92 seconds before being passed by 6-5 favorite Gottaflathaveher midway around the far turn. Once straightened for home, Polished Gal steadily reeled in Gottaflathaveher down the stretch and held off a furious late run to her outside by Splendor Gal for the milestone victory.

McMahon, a 52-year-old native of Doncaster, England, has won with four of his last nine starters, winning once on each of Laurel's four racing programs this week. Polished Gal – his only starter on Sunday's card – was preceded by Paynterbynumbers Nov. 19, He's Zippin On By Nov. 20 and Gary Doing Biz Nov. 21.

“I'm excited. It's a significant landmark,” McMahon said. “It's humbling as well. I was just speaking with one of our grooms and he congratulated me and I told him it's not really me, it's a team, But, we're more than a team, we're a family. My name is up there but it's not really me. There are a lot of people that are involved in this, but more than anything it's God's gift to us. Everything that we have is a gift.”

A steady presence among Maryland's leading trainers since first going out on his own in 2011, McMahon was the state's overall wins leader in 2013. This year, one abridged by the coronavirus pandemic, he has 33 wins from 206 starters with purse earnings of more than $930,000. McMahon has topped the $1 million mark in each of the past nine years, with highs of 166 wins and $3.981 million in 2013.

McMahon is currently tied for fourth with nine wins from 37 starters at Laurel's calendar year-ending fall meet, which began Oct. 8.

McMahon was introduced to the sport by watching the races on television with his father, a coal miner in northern England. He was encouraged to become a jockey and attended the riding academy there, winning 59 races after coming to the U.S. in the 1990s before hanging up his tack in 1998.

In 2005 McMahon became an assistant to trainer Scott Lake, at the time running one of the biggest operations in the country with a peak of 287 horses in 2008. McMahon worked for Lake, a winner of more than 6,100 career races, through 2010, having saddled 108 winners in his own name starting with Flying Retsina Run June 9, 2005, at Pimlico Race Course at odds of 35-1.

McMahon won 98 races the first year on his own and followed with seasons of 146, 166 and 108 wins from 2012-14. He won individual meet titles at Laurel's 2013 winter and fall stands and shared its 2014 winter crown, and has also been the leading trainer at Timonium and Colonial Downs.

Ranked third overall in 2012, McMahon's 74 wins led all Maryland trainers in 2013. His first big horse was Don'tgetsuspicous, who he inherited from Lake and trained to 10 wins, three in stakes, and $324,817 in purse earnings from 28 starts from 2010-12.

Other top horses for McMahon include 2018 Dave's Friend winner Colonel Sharp, 2017 Jameela winner Daylight Ahead and 2017 Camptown winner Northern Eclipse. He trains a 5-year-old Maryland-bred gelding named Brooks Robinson for owner-breeder Mary Boskin and helped facilitate a meeting between the horse and its namesake, a Hall of Fame third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles from 1955-77, in mid-February.

“A lot of what gets lost is that we wouldn't be here if it weren't for the owners. I've been lucky to have a lot of great owners over the years that have carried us, especially through the dry spells,” McMahon said. “They've been very loyal to us, even through the losing streaks, and gotten us where we are.”

Notes: Jockey Sheldon Russell bookended card with wins in Sunday's opener aboard Bound for Broadway ($6.40) and the eighth-race finale with Champagne Toast ($29) … Live racing returns with a special Thanksgiving Day holiday program Thursday. Post time for the first of eight races is 11:25 a.m. … There will be carryovers of $9,593.05 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 and $5,237.62 in the $1 Super Hi-5 wagers. Tickets with four of six winners in Sunday's Rainbow 6 each returned $218.28.

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Woodbine Cancels Remainder of Sunday Card Due to Inclement Weather

Shortly after announcing that the final three weeks of its Thoroughbred meet would be cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions, Woodbine was forced to cancel races seven through 13 on Sunday’s card due to inclement weather, effectively ending the meet. Among the races cancelled Sunday were renewals of the GIII Grey S. for 2-year-old males and GIII Mazarine S. for juvenile fillies.

In a brief statement, Woodbine said, “Woodbine Racetrack was forced to cancel the remainder of its live Thoroughbred racing program on Sunday, Nov. 22 following the sixth race due to inclement weather conditions in the Toronto area. For the safety of the horses, participants and staff, races seven through 13 were cancelled as a result of the inclement weather, including accumulating snow and forecasted fluctuating temperatures and mixed precipitation.”

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