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ARCI: Financial Impact, Implementation Details Should Be Known Before Passage Of HISA Bill

Expressing concerns about undefined cost mandates and implementation issues associated with S.4547, the proposed Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020, the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) believes Legislators should require more information about how the legislation will impact individual States before moving forward with the proposal.

“The RCI Board believes there are some very good things in this bill,” said Ed Martin, President of the ARCI. “But there is a huge financial unknown concerning the cost, especially how it will impact smaller and mid-sized racing entities and exactly how this is to be implemented.”

Martin said the ARCI is committed to a smooth transition once the proposal is enacted into law, noting that the legislation addresses issues long advocated by the association, specifically uniform rules and testing. “This legislation accomplishes that and also solves the funding issue that has been an annual headache for every racing commission,” he said.

The ARCI Board met this week and discussed the proposal at length. “There are many questions about how this will work and a general concern about how smaller and midsized racing venues will survive if required to pay additional regulatory expenses,” he said. A staff analysis of the legislation noted at least 35 racing venues in 19 US States that should be monitored to assess the extent to which they will be able to withstand additional financial mandates imposed by the legislation.

The RCI Board felt that there were too many unanswered questions to embrace the legislation at this time although directors from Kentucky spoke in favor, West Virginia against, and some other jurisdictions withheld comment pending direction from their full Commission.

Other than shifting medication rule making authority and in some jurisdictions the responsibility for operating and paying for the enforcement program, the State Racing Commissions are perhaps the entities least impacted by this legislation.

There is a concern that in an attempt to strengthen racing, this bill may reduce racing opportunities in some communities with a ripple effect on local economies, particularly in the agricultural sector.

“The RCI Board believes the sponsors and proponents of this bill should allay those fears by providing details about the anticipated costs associated with the new Authority and the Enforcement Agency as well as state specific operational costs should they assume the entire enforcement program now operated by the State,” Martin said.

Martin said that the statute, when implemented, will be similar in some ways to the system in place for RCI Members in Canada, except that investigations there and adjudications are handled by Provincial Racing Commissions with testing and screening limits handled by a federal agency uniformly.

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Kentucky Downs Hoping for Better News From Graded Stakes Committee

Every year, the Kentucky Downs stakes schedule seems to get richer and attract better horses. This year, there were 16 stakes worth a combined $8.6 million and many were won by horses that could have an impact at the Breeders’ Cup. The stakes schedule is a source of pride among the track’s management team, but also a source of frustration. Only five of the stakes are graded and those are all Grade III events, which the track’s senior vice president and general manager Ted Nicholson called “dumbfounding.”

“It’s frustrating,” Nicholson said. “Graded races are important. It’s not that our races don’t get filled. They do fill and they fill very well. But to attract the top horses, it does help to get higher level graded races.”

A perceived lack of respect from the graded stakes committee has been an issue for years at Kentucky Downs. As recently as 2016, there was only one graded stakes on the schedule, what was then called the GIII Kentucky Cup Turf.

Though Nicholson is hoping the committee will look at all of the Kentucky Downs stakes, there are a couple that he said have been particularly slighted.

“The Tourist Mile is the one that is the most baffling,” he said. “We had a Breeders’ Cup winner come out of there and other horses who have done extraordinarily well.”

The Tourist Mile S. is a $750,000 race that is ungraded. It was renamed after Tourist (Tiznow) went on to win the GI Breeders’ Cup Mile in 2016 after winning what was then known as the More Than Ready Mile S.

The stakes program also includes the $750,000 Gun Runner Dueling Grounds Derby. It and the Tourist Mile are the richest non-restricted stakes races run in North America that are not graded.

Nicholson also wondered how the race now known as the Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup can only be a Grade III event. With a $1 million purse, it is the richest race run at Kentucky Downs. Arklow (Arch) won the race in 2020 and in 2018 and is a Grade I winner. So is 2019 winner Zulu Alpha (Street Cry) {Ire}).

“The Calumet Turf Cup has been won three years in a row now by Grade I winner, it’s a $1 million race and is still a Grade III,” he said. “I don’t know how that can be.”

Kentucky Downs has been able to pour money into its stakes program thanks to the revenue that is accrued from its historical horse racing machines. It may be true that, seven or eight years ago, some top trainers didn’t focus on the meet and the quality of the stakes fields was lacking. But that has changed, and the track now regularly attracts the likes of Bill Mott, Graham Motion, Shug McGaughey, Chad Brown, Mark Casse and Doug O’Neill, as well as Kentucky mainstays like Wesley Ward, Brad Cox and Steve Asmussen.

While the committee has since given graded status to four additional races, Nicholson doesn’t think it has done enough to recognize the quality of racing his track offers.

“Over the last few years we have seen such an enormous response, not only in stakes nominations, but who actually comes,” he said. “Trainers are circling our meet on their calendars and it’s not just all the usual people. We’re seeing guys coming in from all over now, including from California. It really helps when you have a year like this year when the Breeders’ Cup is in Kentucky. They know they can ship in, run here for big money and stick around for the Breeders’ Cup.”

Horses coming out of this year’s Kentucky Downs meet have gone on to win a number of major races around the country, which has Nicholson hoping that better news from the committee is just around the corner.

Harvey’s Lil Goil (American Pharoah) just won the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup after finishing second in the Dueling Grounds Oaks. The winner of that race, Micheline (Bernardini), came back to finish second in the Queen Elizabeth. Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}) came back to win the GI Shadwell Turf Mile S. after finishing third in the Tourist Mile. Got Stormy (Get Stormy), Plum Ali (First Samurai) and Royal Approval (Tiznow) have also won graded stakes since racing at this year’s Kentucky Downs meet.

Harvey’s Lil Goil and Ivar became the 32nd and 33rd horses since 2010 that went on to win a Grade I race in North America after racing at Kentucky Downs.

“After seeing the results of our meet and seeing how the runners from our recently concluded meet are performing at Keeneland, Belmont, Pimlico, I really would be surprised and extraordinarily disappointed if we don’t see elevations in some of our graded races and grades for some of our non-graded races,” Nicholson said. “You can look at our whole stakes schedule and look at where those horses have gone and how they have performed and it is amazing. I’m not someone who has a vote. I just have to hope they are seeing the same things that I am.”

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Jockey Juan Gutierrez Becomes All-Time Leading Rider At Emerald Downs

Juan Gutierrez made riding history Wednesday afternoon at Emerald Downs, supplanting Gallyn Mitchell as the track's all-time leading rider.

With a 1¼-length victory on Stay in Grace in the featured $17,000 Muckleshoot Casino Purse, Gutierrez moved one ahead of Mitchell—1,420 to 1,419—to become No. 1 all-time at Emerald Downs. He had tied Mitchell's mark with a victory aboard Mike Operator earlier on the card.

“You know, I was excited the last eighth of a mile when I was pretty sure we would get there,” Gutierrez said in the winner's circle after the victory on Stay in Grace. “This is a great record because it has taken a long time to get there.”

Gutierrez, 51, notched his first Emerald Downs' win April 29, 2000 and has been a mainstay here ever since. He recorded 15 consecutive top-five finishes in the riders' standings during one stretch, including a riding title in 2012 with 117 wins. He also ranks No. 1 in track earnings with over $15 million and No. 3 in stakes victories with 68, including three wins in the Longacres Mile. He ranks second at the current meet with 47 victories through Wednesday.

A 2018 inductee into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame, Gutierrez has 2,031 overall wins, hitting the 2,000 mark aboard Semi Sweet in July.

Gutierrez will be honored with a winner's circle ceremony before Thursday's first race.

Mitchell, the leading rider at Emerald Downs since 2002, retired four years ago and now resides in southern California.

Stay in Grace, a 5-year-old Oregon-bred mare by Understatement, has three wins in her last four starts and improved to 10 for 22 lifetime with earnings of $78,347. Rigoberto Velasquez is the trainer for owners Jerry Carmody and John Sneesby.

In Wednesday's victory, Stay in Grace ($3.20) gained command into the turn and held off B C Z Middleton in the drive, running six furlongs in 1:09.79

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Belmont Partners With Keeneland For Saturday Cross Country Pick 5

Saturday's Cross Country Pick 5 will feature action from Belmont Park and Keeneland Race Course in a wager hosted by the New York Racing Association, Inc.

Live coverage will be available with America's Day at the Races on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. Free Equibase past performances for the Cross Country Pick 5 sequence are now available for download at https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/cross-country-wagers.

Keeneland will start the action in Race 7 at 4:24 p.m. Eastern with a maiden contest for juvenile fillies going seven furlongs. Willful Woman, a $400,000 purchase at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton New York Select Sale, has been training at Keeneland ahead of her anticipated debut for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. Trainer Tom Amoss will send out a pair with Miss Dial and Wicked Bisou as part of a 12-horse field.

Belmont gets in on the action with the 80,000 Floral Park in Race 9 at 4:47 p.m. Graded stakes-winner Mitchell Road will get her first career test at Belmont when she competes as part of a full 13-horse field for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up contesting six furlongs on the Widener turf course. Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, Mitchell Road enters off a runner-up effort in the Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Ladies on September 12. Rose Flower, a German bred who has gone 1-0-2 in four starts since arriving from Europe last year for trainer Christophe Clement, will look for class relief after running sixth in the Grade 3 Intercontinental on June 6 over a yielding Belmont turf.

Action will again alternate to Keeneland for the third leg in Race 8 at 4:57 p.m. when a full field of 12 3-year-olds and up will run at nine furlongs on the turf in an allowance tilt. Trainer Mike Maker will send out a pair in Temple and Apreciado. Conditioner Jack Sisterson will also saddle multiple graded-stakes placed Ritzy A.P., who will break from the inside post.

Belmont's second and final leg will be the card's 10th-race finale, where 10 New York-bred fillies and mares 3-years-old and up will compete over seven furlongs on Big Sandy at 5:20 p.m. Jc's Shooting Star, a stakes-winner who also bested allowance company on August 16 at Saratoga, drew the far outside post for trainer David Donk. Playtone, second in last year's Key Cents at Aqueduct Racetrack, will go for trainer George Weaver.

The Grade 2, $200,000 Raven Run in Keeneland's Race 9 at 5:30 p.m. will close the curtain on the Cross Country Pick 5, with 10 sophomore fillies vying for supremacy going seven furlongs on the main track in Race 9. Graded stakes-winners Venetian Harbor and Four Graces will look for additional blacktype in a race that could set up a spot in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on November 7 at the same Lexington track. Nine of the field's entrants are either graded-placed or stakes winners.

Trained by Richard Baltas, Venetian Harbor won the Grade 2 Las Virgenes in February at Santa Anita Park and has run second in three straight graded stakes, falling just short to divisional leaders Swiss Skydiver, Speech and Gamine.

The minimum bet for the multi-track, multi-race wager is 50 cents. Wagering on the Cross Country Pick 5 is also available on ADW platforms and at simulcast facilities across the country. Every week will feature a mandatory payout of the net pool.

The Cross Country Pick 5 will continue each Saturday throughout the year. For more information, visit NYRABets.com.

Cross Country Pick 5 – Saturday, October 17:
Leg 1 – Keeneland, Race 7: (4:24 p.m.)
Leg 2 – Belmont, Race 9: Floral Park (4:47 p.m.)
Leg 3 – Keeneland, Race 8: (4:57 p.m.)
Leg 4 – Belmont, Race 10: (5:20 p.m.)
Leg 5 – Keeneland, Race 9: G2 Raven Run (5:30 p.m.)

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