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Keeneland January Sale To Include Paul Pompa Jr. Dispersal

Keeneland will offer 39 horses in the complete dispersal of the late Paul P. Pompa Jr. – including Turned Aside, winner of Saturday's Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship, and additional 2020 Grade 3 winners Country Grammer and Regal Glory – during the 2021 January Horses of All Ages Sale, to be held Jan. 11-14.

Lane's End will serve as agent for the consignment, which consists of broodmares, foals of 2020, horses of racing age and broodmare or stallion prospects.

The January Sale catalog is scheduled to be online at Keeneland.com on Dec. 8.

“Mr. Pompa's industry involvement was admirable on every level,” Lane's End sales director Allaire Ryan said. “He was dedicated to and ever enthusiastic about his investments as a breeder, owner and fan. He created strong relationships around a lifelong passion and never wavered from his philosophy to do right by his stock and enjoy the sport. The success of his breeding and racing operations is a direct result of his daily involvement with trainers, farm staff, agents and caretakers alike. We have valued the opportunity to care for his horses at Lane's End and will be proud to stand behind his offerings at the January Sale.”

Eight mares in the Pompa dispersal are in foal to Connect, a Grade 1-winning son of Curlin who raced for Pompa and stands at Lane's End.

Among the horses cataloged in the dispersal are these broodmares and foals of 2020:

Mary's Follies, a Grade 2 winner by More Than Ready who is the dam of multiple graded stakes winners Night Prowler and Regal Glory as well as 2020 Japanese multiple Group 3 winner Cafe Pharoah.
A colt by Connect-Mary's Follies foaled in 2020.
Sustained, a Grade 3-placed daughter of War Front who is the dam of Turned Aside and is in foal to Connect.

These fillies of racing age:

Off Topic, a Grade 1-placed 4-year-old filly by Street Sense.
Regal Glory, a Grade 2-winning 4-year-old daughter of Animal Kingdom who has earned $773,884. Winner of the Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf in her most recent race, Regal Glory also won the G2 Lake Placid and G3 Lake George at Saratoga along with the Penn Oaks and Stewart Manor Stakes.

These colts of racing age:

Country Grammer, a 3-year-old son of Tonalist who won this year's G3 Peter Pan.
Spirit Maker, a 2-year-old colt by Empire Maker who won his career debut Saturday at Aqueduct by 1 3/4 lengths.
Turned Aside, a 3-year-old colt by American Pharoah who won the G3 Quick Call at Saratoga in July and most recently captured the Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship by 1 1/4 lengths. He has four wins in nine starts with earnings of $241,967.

“We have great respect for Paul – as a horseman, businessman and person – and were so saddened by his passing. Keeneland is honored to be given the responsibility of presenting the Pompa dispersal,” Keeneland president-elect and interim head of sales Shannon Arvin said. “Our relationship with Paul includes his purchase of future Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown at the 2007 Keeneland April Sale, and we have been thrilled to have several horses from his stable win stakes races here at Keeneland.”

At the 2007 April 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, Pompa paid $190,000 for Big Brown through Hidden Brook, agent, from the consignment of Eddie Woods, agent. Raced by Pompa in partnership, Big Brown captured his first five races, including the 2008 G1 Florida Derby, Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. The son of Boundary closed the season with victories in the G1 Haskell Invitational and Monmouth Stakes en route to earning the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male.

At Keeneland, Pompa campaigned Night Prowler to win the 2015 G3 Transylvania. In partnership with Stephen Yarbrough and Anthony Grey, he raced Franny Freud to win the 2010 G2 Beaumont.

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Kirkpatrick & Co Presents In Their Care: Horses Are The Best Medicine For Agrinsoni

Few questions are needed to prompt Frank Agrinsoni into telling his life story in well under an hour.

Yes, he talks fast. And he is unflinching as he speaks of mistakes made as a two-time divorcee, an itinerant career typical of many racetrackers, a grim battle with cancer that is now in its fourth year and the passion that sustains him, his love of Thoroughbreds.

“Nobody gave us a manual when we signed up for life,” Agrinsoni, 54, began.

And he was off to the races during a phone interview that largely turned into a delightful monologue by a good man.

Although Agrinsoni lacked a manual, his father Jose's background as a jockey turned exercise rider turned trainer certainly shaped his life. Jose left Puerto Rico to come to New York, where he worked a night shift at Nabisco, then trained horses at Aqueduct Racetrack or Belmont Park each morning. His son accompanied him to the barn whenever possible.

“I fell in love with the horse as soon as I saw one,” Agrinsoni said.

He served as a hotwalker at a tender age. With his father as his role model, he developed a tremendous work ethic. He just never viewed it that way.

“It's not work. It's a lifestyle,” he said. “If you can't handle seven days a week, the 16-hour days you sometimes put in, then this is not for you.”

Agrinsoni tried to devote the hours necessary to being a good college student. He attended William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., only to realize after a year and a half that advanced studies were not for him.

“The horses were calling,” he said.

He happily answered that call. He has worked as a hotwalker, groom, foreman and assistant for so many trainers that he lost count of them all.

“I'm a utility man,” he said. “Wherever I'm needed in the barn, that's where I go.”

He has been employed by luminaries such as Dick Dutrow Sr., Carl Nafzger and Steve Asmussen, making sure to absorb knowledge from anyone he ever reported to.

Photo courtesy Frank Agrinsoni

“This is not a factory where you train as a forklift driver and you train for six weeks and you're done,” he said. “This is an ever-evolving business. I've been 40 years in this game. I'm proud to say that. I'm still learning. Certain horses have to be handled a certain way.”

According to Agrinsoni, his greatest lessons derived from overseeing modest horses at small tracks.

“I grew up with horses that used to run for $3,000, for a ham sandwich,” he said. “I know what it is to take care of a horse that, after a race, he can't stand and eat from a feed tub. You actually had to put the feed tub on the ground because he was so sore.

“Being at a lot of cheap tracks, you get horses that nobody wants from the big tracks. I'm good with the problem children. It's like I tell everybody, 'I can treat the physical. It's the stuff between the ears we've got to work on.'“

Pearl Hagadorn, an assistant to trainer Cherie DeVaux, hired Agrinsoni two years ago to help her with a string of horses at Trackside Training Center in Louisville. He was grateful to gain a place in the operation because he believes DeVaux, a former assistant to Eclipse Award-winning Chad Brown, is on her way to becoming an outstanding trainer. He enjoys a great rapport with Hagadorn, who readily admits she often assigns him the barn's “problem children.”

“He would never complain about it,” she said. “He gets along with all horses.”

Hagadorn treasures employees such as Agrinsoni because he is devoted to the horses entrusted to them.

“It's just a totally different type of human being than the ones just there for the paycheck,” she said. “They have empathy. They understand the body language. They know how to interact and read their facial expressions, which you cannot say about a lot of people in the business anymore.”

Agrinsoni is as gregarious as he is loquacious. He speaks English and Spanish fluently. He moves around the track with the ease of a politician working a crowd.

“Anywhere you go with Frank, everybody knows him,” Hagadorn said. “It doesn't matter what state you're in or what track. There are at least three or four people who will say hello to him.”

She noted that Agrinsoni often gives of his time to help other workers with needs away from the track.

Said Ken Snyder, a long-time friend: “He's one of the nice, good people on the backside. I've never heard a bad word spoken about him.”

Agrinsoni spoke lovingly of his three children: Francisco, 15; Shandra, 14; and Asia, 10. He lives with his parents in Louisville. Jose is 80. Olga, his mother, is 78.

“I have no money,” he said. “So my reputation is everything.”

So is health. He finally hopes to regain that once he undergoes a prostate operation to remove malignant cells. The procedure has been on hold since last January due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His battle with cancer began when a colonoscopy revealed a tumor in 2017.

“It's been hell,” he said. “In and out of hospitals. In and out of chemotherapy.”

Agrinsoni said doctors are confident they can eradicate the few cancer cells that remain. He looks forward to returning to the backside and the track in the spring, if not sooner. He views that atmosphere as critical to his recovery.

“When the trumpet blares for the call to post, I'm like an old gelding that feels it's time for business,” he said. “There is no drug that I could ever take that beats a horse coming down the lane in front and you had something to do with it. From that quarter pole down, I still get goosebumps. The hair on the back of my neck still stands up.”

Words spoken by a man who has much to live for – and much to give.

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 a backstretch worker 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 employee's background.

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Grade 2 Winner Air Strike To Stand At Ohio’s Duncan Farms In 2021

Grade 2 winner Air Strike (Street Sense-Omnitap by Tapit) has been acquired by Daryl and Sally Duncan and will enter stud at their Duncan Farms in Warsaw, Ohio in 2021.

Raced in partnership by Sol Kumin's Madaket Stables, Slam Dunk Racing and Michael Nentwig, Air Strike won the Grade 2 Triple Bend at Santa Anita (seven furlongs on the dirt), defeating the likes of multiple-graded stakes winners Cistron and American Anthem. He also twice finished fourth in the G1 Bing Crosby at Del Mar and the G1 Forego at Saratoga; the latter behind champion Mitole. He retired with career earnings of $338,810.

“We were looking to add a true dirt-sprint pedigree with some depth on the dam side, and we found it in Air Strike,” said Daryl Duncan.

That depth comes from his first dam, Omnitap by Tapit, who is a half-sister to three black type performers including multiple stakes winner Classify (by Unbridled's Song), stakes winner and multiple stakes placed Simplify (by Pulpit), and Grade 2-placed Seeker (by Hard Spun). Those stakes performers are all out of Air Strike's second dam, Classic Olympio (by Olympio), who won four stakes races and was multiple graded stakes-placed, all in dirt sprints.

Air Strike joins Duncan Farms' other graded stakes-winning stallions, Corfu (Grade 2 winner by Malibu Moon), and Fort Larned (three-time Grade 1 winner, Breeders' Cup Classic winner, and earner of over $4 million). He will stand his first season for $2,000 Live Foal.

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Del Mar Stewards: Baffert Fined $2,500, Brinkerhoff Handed 45-Day Suspension

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has been fined $2,500 by the Del Mar stewards, reports the Daily Racing Form, over Merneith's positive for Dextromethorphan in her second-place finish in the fourth race on July 25.

“A number of my staff were sick with COVID this summer, including Merneith's groom,” Baffert told the Paulick Report after the positive result was made public. “I learned he had been taking over-the-counter cough syrups that contained Dextrorphan. This has been an issue in other states where contamination has lead to positive tests. That's what happened here. This is clearly another case of contamination. Ultimately, this is my responsibility. It's really embarrassing for the barn, but that's what happened. #2020 sucks.”

Del Mar stewards also took action against veteran trainer Val Brinkerhoff, suspending him for 45 days and issuing a $3,000 fine over Girl Can Partie returning a positive for Metaproterenol after winning the seventh race on Aug. 1, 2019. Sunday's ruling stated that the penalty was inclusive of a syringe found in Brinkerhoff's truck, which the trainer told DRF was a precaution for colic while shipping a horse to Emerald Downs, also in August of 2019.