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Sen. McConnell Introduces Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martha McSally (R-AZ), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act today to help set national standards to promote fairness, increase safety, and help preserve Thoroughbred racing. At a press conference last week in Lexington, the Horse Capital of the World, Senator McConnell joined U.S. Congressman Andy Barr (KY-06) and leading Kentucky stakeholders, including Keeneland, Churchill Downs Incorporated, Breeders' Cup Limited, and the Jockey Club in announcing the introduction of the bill.

They also announced the launch of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, an independent, non-governmental regulatory body responsible for improving current regulations and bringing a new level of transparency. The Board will set national standards for track safety, anti-doping and medication rules, and lab protocols. Senators McConnell and Gillibrand's bipartisan bill will provide federal recognition and enforcement power for the Board to enable them to develop uniform, baseline standards for Thoroughbred racing.

“It's been a privilege throughout my Senate career to deliver for Kentucky's signature horseracing industry and the workers who support it. The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act we introduce today will help protect this sport for the future with uniform, national standards. Baseball, football, and other professional sports have a central regulatory authority, and Thoroughbred racing should too,” said Senator McConnell. “I am proud to join Senator Gillibrand, my colleague from another Triple Crown state, in introducing our bipartisan legislation, along with Senator McSally and Senator Feinstein. Together, we can make Thoroughbred racing as fair and as safe as possible. We owe nothing less to the jockeys, trainers, breeders, equine athletes, and fans.”

“Having grown up near the races at Saratoga Raceway, I know how important it is to protect horses at Saratoga and across the country. Congress must put an end to the harsh treatment of racehorses and solidify health and safety standards for both racehorses and racetracks,” said Senator Gillibrand. “I'm proud to work with Majority Leader McConnell on the bipartisan Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act. This legislation will do the important work of creating an independent regulatory process tasked with implementing anti-doping and safety programs to help ensure health and safety in America's historic horseracing industry.”

“The misuse of potentially dangerous substances in racehorses to boost performance harms horses and has led to numerous injuries and deaths,” said Senator McSally. “I have worked for years to protect racehorses against this abuse and uphold the integrity of the sport. I'm pleased to join Majority Leader McConnell and other bipartisan Senators to do just that by creating uniform racetrack safety standards that will better enforce anti-doping measures.”

“I'm pleased to join Leader McConnell in introducing a bill to finally establish uniform, nationwide standards to protect racehorses, jockeys and the integrity of the sport,” said Senator Feinstein. “Given the troubling number of racehorse deaths in recent years, this legislation is a step in the right direction, and I will continue working to ensure that increased safety standards, like those adopted in California, are applied nationally.”

U.S. Congressmen Andy Barr (KY-06) and Paul Tonko (NY-20) will sponsor identical legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Senator McConnell delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the introduction of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act:

“On Saturday, the world of sports once again revolved around my hometown of Louisville for the 146th Kentucky Derby.

“Like so many other events, the coronavirus made this year's Derby look a little different.

“The race had already been postponed for only the second time in history. And none of the 150,000 spectators who normally fill Churchill Downs were there to sing My Old Kentucky Home.

“But the Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports refused to be defeated. The Derby remains the longest continuously-held American sporting event. And this year's Labor Day Derby proved worth the wait.

“The winning Thoroughbred, Authentic, outlasted a ferocious challenge from the favorite. I'd like to extend the Senate's congratulations to the entire Hall of Fame team.

“This year's Derby showed our great traditions can adapt to overcome any challenge. But our sport must be protected.

“I've been proud to stand up for Kentucky horseracing throughout my career.

“I introduced a check-off bill to promote the sport domestically. I assembled a coalition to open new markets in Japan and Hong Kong. I worked to make sure Internet regulation didn't unduly restrict the racing industry. I've secured tax provisions to promote equine equity and grow investment in Kentucky.

“It's been my privilege to deliver for this sport and Kentuckians behind it. Today, I'm introducing new legislation to keep it up.

“Because, unfortunately, the coronavirus isn't Thoroughbred racing's only challenge. In recent years, tragedies on the track, medication scandals, and an inconsistent patchwork of regulations have cast clouds over the future.

“A national publication's editorial board even called for this sport to be abolished altogether.

“We needed action to protect the sport we love, defend our history, and the 24,000 Kentuckians who work in the Thoroughbred racing industry.

“So, in Lexington, Kentucky—the Horse Capital of the World—I announced with my friend Congressman Andy Barr that we'd found a way forward.

“Today, I will introduce the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act to recognize a uniform, national standard for Thoroughbred racing.

“Baseball, football, and other professional sports have a central regulatory authority. Thoroughbred racing should too.

“Some of the biggest names in the sport — Churchill Downs, Keeneland, the Breeders' Cup, and the Jockey Club, just to name a few — are supporting our plan to provide federal recognition and enforcement power to an independent Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.

“The Board will be made up of both industry-selected and independent members. It will set national standards for track safety, anti-doping and medication practices, and lab protocols. This will make Thoroughbred racing as fair and as safe as possible.

“I'm proud to partner with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on this bipartisan legislation. New York is home to another leg of the Triple Crown.

“Their junior Senator has previously introduced similar legislation to protect our sport. I'm also glad to have the senior Senator for California and the junior Senator for Arizona as original co-sponsors on this bipartisan bill.

“Today, Congressmen Barr and Paul Tonko will present this legislation in the House.

“I'm grateful for Congressman Barr's years of leadership on this issue, and I'm glad we are making bipartisan, bicameral progress with our bill.

“This way, when we can all return to the grandstands to watch Thoroughbreds round the final turn toward a thundering finish, we'll be taking pride in a fair and safe race.”

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Bloodlines Presented By Gary Contessa’s Integrity Bloodstock: Authentic, Flawless Reward Blum’s Faith With Kentucky Derby Roses

In the normal scheme of Peter Blum's breeding program, he's quite as likely to be planning progeny of a female line he's had for four or five generations, perhaps more. To produce Kentucky Derby winner Authentic, however, Blum sent the broodmare Flawless, only a first-generation “Blum-bred,” to the high-class stallion Into Mischief (by Harlan's Holiday) back in the spring of 2016.

The breeder did note, however, that he “had some experience with this family that made me want to buy [second dam] Oyster Baby, who was a lovely mare” and one who produced a beautiful foal in Flawless, the dam of the Kentucky Derby winner.

Nor was this the only unusual factor in Flawless being a part of the Blum broodmare band. The decades-long experience that Blum has with racing and breeding has encouraged him to balance the books whenever possible, and he sells his better stock, especially colts, at premium sales around the country.

Since he typically keeps some of the fillies, Blum bought back Flawless for $285,000 at the 2008 Keeneland September yearling sale. It looked like a damned good idea after that good-looking daughter of leading sire Mr. Greeley had won her maiden impressively by 13 1/4 lengths at Belmont Park. Flawless, however, bowed a tendon in her second start, gaining no black type, and after Blum and trainer Bill Mott had rehabbed the filly and returned her to training, the tendon flared up again and made it necessary to retire her permanently. The mare's dam, the Wild Again mare Oyster Baby, was unraced and produced only three foals before her death at age seven.

As a result, Authentic went to the sales with two blank dams. This is the bugaboo of commercial breeders because nearly all buyers want to purchase performance, black-type performance, not its absence. Blum said, “People were questioning why I'd keep her: she didn't win a stakes, would catalog with two blank dams, and I told Bill Mott that I'd have a lot of trouble selling foals out of this mare, but he said, 'Sell all the other mares and keep this one.'”

Blum kept Flawless, in particular, he said, because “I've had some really good fillies over the years, but I've never had a filly who was as brilliant; as far as speed goes, nothing compared to Flawless.”

The 2017 colt out of Flawless, when he came to the sales, was a striking yearling. Even as a May foal, Authentic possessed the body mass and length to suggest that he was on the way to becoming a serious athlete. He had enough scope and presence to appeal to horsemen looking for athletic prospects, either to race or to resell, and once the bidding started for the handsome bay, it reached $350,000 before all others gave up and allowed a partnership of SF Bloodstock and Starlight West to sign the ticket for the colt.

Sent into training with Bob Baffert, Authentic won his debut on Nov. 9 last year at Del Mar and made his stakes debut on Jan. 4 of the new year in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes, which he won like a very good thing, indeed. To date, the bay colt has won five of his six starts and notably filled out his dam's lack of black type on the pedigree page.

Authentic is the fourth foal and third winner out of Flawless. The others sold profitably, but he was the mare's first foal to make a seriously impressive price at $350,000. That's a really good figure for a yearling with two blank dams, no matter what he looks like, and that sum also was the second-highest among all the yearlings sold on the second day of the September sale's Book 3 (session 8 overall) in 2018.

The Kentucky Derby winner has a 2-year-old half-brother named Mint (Bodemeister) who is yet unraced, as well as a yearling half-brother, also by Bodemeister, who has been named Push Button. Blum said that he was retaining the two half-brothers to race. Flawless was bred back to Into Mischief for 2021 and is in foal on a February cover.

That cover date guarantees that the full brother to Authentic will not be a May foal like the Derby winner. In an interesting aside to the biases of the commercial market, last year's Kentucky Derby winner Country House, first-place finisher Maximum Security, last year's English Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck, and this year's Kentucky Derby winner are all May foals.

When the foal from Flawless arrives in late January, Blum noted, he will go into exactly the same program as his big brother. He said, “Bridie, her family and staff, we've been together a lot of years. They deserve all the credit for raising Authentic and a lot of other fine horses,” Blum said. “She doesn't tell me what I want to hear, but we think a lot alike.”

And then Blum summed up what it means to breed a winner of the Kentucky Derby: “When he was in the winner's circle, it was a special moment. Winning the Derby isn't something you really think you're going to do. It's a once in a lifetime thing, but I don't know if I'd be any happier if I'd kept him. We breed and sell horses. To be able to breed and sell a Derby winner; you can't get a better endorsement than that. I don't believe I could be any happier.”

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Commissioner McCauley Resigns From Illinois Racing Board; Quorum No Longer In Place

Commissioner Tom McCauley has issued his resignation from the Illinois Racing Board, citing “personal reasons,” reports bloodhorse.com. The Board now has just five members remaining, one shy of the quorum necessary to conduct official business like the approval of racing dates for 2021.

According to executive director Domenic DiCera, the Illinois Governor and Senate are working to appoint replacement members, and McCauley will be missed “tremendously” by the IRB.

“Tom has been a huge support mechanism for the management team, both because of his depth of knowledge and history but because of the person he is,” DiCera told bloodhorse.com. “His racing knowledge and his character is off the charts.

“He was a source to go to when we needed any type of interpretation or background.”

The Jockey Club Projects Foal Crop Of 19,200 In 2021

The Jockey Club is projecting a 2021 North American registered Thoroughbred foal crop of 19,200. The estimation for the 2020 foal crop remains at 20,500.

The foal crop projection, traditionally announced in mid-August, is computed by using Reports of Mares Bred (RMBs) received to date for the 2020 breeding season. RMBs are to be filed by August 1 of each breeding season.

“The Jockey Club delayed publication of the estimation of the 2021 foal crop to provide stud farms that may have been affected by COVID-19 additional time to submit their RMBs,” said Matt Iuliano, The Jockey Club's executive vice president and executive director.

Additional foal crop information is available in The Jockey Club's online fact book at jockeyclub.com/factbook.asp and in the online state fact books.

Stallion owners who have not returned their RMBs for the 2020 breeding season are encouraged to do so as soon as possible. Interactive Registration, which enables registered users to perform virtually all registration-related activities over the Internet, is the most efficient means of submitting RMBs and is available at registry.jockeyclub.com.

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