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Gryder Appointed 1/ST RACING VP of Industry Relations

Retired jockey Aaron Gryder has been appointed to the position of Vice President, Industry Relations for 1/ST RACING. Gryder will serve as a liaison between 1/ST RACING and industry stakeholders to help advance health, safety and rider reforms with a focus on jockey outreach. He will act as an ambassador for 1/ST RACING in California, Florida and Maryland.

Gryder, who will be based in Florida and, reports directly to Aidan Butler, 1/ST's chief operating officer. He will be a media spokesperson for the company and also a primary point of contact for horsemen stabled at 1/ST RACING venues.

“We are excited to welcome Aaron to the 1/ST RACING team in this vital new role,” said Butler. “Aaron's depth of experience as a professional jockey and work with industry stakeholders is a perfect connection to ensure our communications and relations between tracks, stakeholders and the public is transparent, detailed and consistent. His extensive knowledge of the racetrack is incredibly valuable as we continue to elevate our safety protocols and promote 1/ST RACING.”

Added Gryder: “I am thrilled for the opportunity to work with the forward-thinking team at 1/ST RACING to bring our sport into the future. As a jockey I conducted myself in a manner that displayed my love for the horses and respect for the great sport of horse racing. I will bring the same enthusiasm and work ethic that helped me to be successful throughout my career as a jockey to my new role.”

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‘It’s Not Just The Big Guys’: Historical Horse Racing Supports Small Kentucky Tracks, Horsemen

As both the Kentucky State Senate and Kentucky House Committee for Licensing, Occupations and Administration Regulations passed SB 120 this week, Turfway Park horsemen are making their case for the importance of protecting Historical Horse Racing. They say protecting HHR, as it is known, is critical to saving Kentucky jobs, including their own.

HHR's future in Kentucky is uncertain following an opinion issued by the Kentucky Supreme Court in September. At risk is a significant revenue stream that has produced some of the best racing purses in the country, prompted track owners to make considerable facility investments and bolstered a year-round racing circuit on which Kentucky horsemen have come to depend.

Trainer Buff Bradley, a Kentucky native, left the state 11 years ago to winter in Florida and then New Orleans because purses had gotten so bad at Turfway Park. After purses increased last year, he convinced owners to stick around Kentucky.

“I was hoping Kentucky was going to be a stronger circuit, with Ellis doing well,” said Bradley. “It really looked like Turfway was going to be on the rise with Churchill buying it and purses increasing. Now I'm rethinking, 'Uh oh. I came here and it might have been too soon,' because things aren't looking as well with Historic Horse Racing machines maybe not going through. That's going to be the big question.

“Kentucky can be a great circuit,” he said. “I know last year everybody was thrilled. You've got owners who see a rising Kentucky, even with Ellis Park and Turfway's purses being better, they can afford to stay around here. And they live here. If they can do that, they're going to go to the sales and buy more horses. If we can keep more horses around here, we can keep everybody busy – more jobs. There's a lot to it.”

Bradley employees 12 people in his 20-horse stable at Turfway.

“The money has made a big difference,” he said. “It's not like we're getting rich off this, but it makes it affordable for people to stay and to meet people to buy horses. It's become a year-round circuit in Kentucky, which is a big plus. Because you keep the people here. This is our home.

“If we don't have HHR, I can see racing really decreasing here in the state. Horse racing will go down to Keeneland and Churchill basically. I can't see how Turfway, Ellis Park – those two tracks for sure – and even Kentucky Downs could survive. We'd probably decrease the number of days even at Keeneland and Churchill. And when that happens, it's tough to get stables to come in because there isn't going to be much racing. They're going to go to New York and Florida, areas where they have racing throughout the year.”

Groom Toni Ouzts, who has two children with her husband, veteran jockey Perry Ouzts, is concerned that if the Kentucky House does not pass the HHR bill, life will be more difficult for them.

“I need this job,” she said. “It's my livelihood. It's my passion. I'd be lost without it. And my husband would be out of work, too, if we would not have Turfway Park.”

Asked about people who would say that HHR just makes rich people richer, she said: “No. This is keeping me in a job. It's keeping my husband in a job, people I work with every day. We work seven days a week. This is more than a job. It's everything. My sister and I work here 'rubbing' horses together. And even her husband works on the front side. It's giving everyone a job.”

When discussing the potential of Turfway likely shutting down unless the HRR bill passes, she said she is surprised that Turfway's existence is even in doubt and it makes her sad.

“It's scary. It really is scary.”

Turfway “gives so many people job,” she said. “So many people would be out of work. Just think of the hay and straw people, the feed man. There's so much involved in horse racing. It's not just the big guys.”

Trainer Jeff Greenhill left a career as chemical engineer in Alabama to go into horse racing. He's been training about 25 years, wintering at Turfway Park throughout.

“This is the place that the little guy survives — here and Ellis Park,” Greenhill said. “There are 1,100 horses here, and I've got 18 and I have eight employees. You can do the math: There are a whole lot of people here employed by the horse-racing industry. Unless purses stay at a reasonable level, I'm out of business or I'm moving to New York, Florida or Indiana.”

Veterinarian John Piehowicz, who has served clients on the local racing circuit since the early 1990s, also sees difficult choices ahead without historic horse racing.

“If SB120 isn't passed then I think this (Turfway Park) is done,” he said.

Piehowicz says racing “is the one industry where trickle-down economics works. If you look around the racetrack here, there are a lot of people who depend on the horses, depend on the income – whether it's a Sunoco station around the corner where half the people who work here go and buy their snacks or the local community. When this place closes it's going impact more than horse racing in the state of Kentucky.”

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Bloodlines Presented By Diamond B Farm’s Rowayton: Road To The Gold Mine For Medaglia d’Oro Had Many Twists And Turns

With the graded stakes victories of Moonlight d'Oro and Risk Taking over the weekend, their sire Medaglia d'Oro now has 76 graded stakes winners worldwide, from 148 stakes winners bred in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Moonlight d'Oro won the Grade 3 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 8, and shortly thereafter on Saturday, Risk Taking won the G3 Withers at Aqueduct. It was the first stakes victory for each horse.

Their sire is most famous for the champions Rachel Alexandra (Kentucky Oaks, Preakness Stakes, Haskell) and Songbird (Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and eight other Grade 1 races), but there is no question that Medaglia d'Oro is a gold medal stallion.

But it was not always so. A three-time winner at the G1 level himself, Medaglia d'Oro was a leading racer by his sire El Prado, who in turn was the lone successful representative of the Sadler's Wells line in the States at the time. Scarcity, in this instance, would not be considered a virtue among breeders, who flock to the horses who succeed the most and equally shun those who do not.

So the relative lack of success from the Sadler's Wells branch of Northern Dancer was a serious impediment to Medaglia d'Oro, and being out of a mare by the Damascus stallion Bailjumper, the horse's pedigree wasn't the sort that brought stallion farms racing to stand the horse, no matter how strong his racing career had been.

In the imminently capable hands of trainer Bobby Frankel, Medaglia d'Oro had won $5.7 million with victories in the G1 Travers, Whitney, and Donn, along with prestigious seconds in the Dubai World Cup, Breeders' Cup Classic (twice), and the Belmont Stakes. The race in Dubai was the last one for Medaglia d'Oro, and he was sold to Richard Haisfield in May 2004.

As a 6-year-old, the horse entered stud in 2005 with John G. Sikura at Hill 'n' Dale Farms, then was transferred to Audrey Haisfield's Stonewall Farm in 2006. Now an independent bloodstock consultant, Clark Shepherd was then the seasons and matings manager for Stonewall.

Shepherd recalled that “since the Haisfields already owned the horse, when the stallion barn was finished at Stonewall, he yanked the horses – Medaglia d'Oro, Doneraile Court, and Marquetry, as I recall – and put them all at Stonewall.”

In addition to these, Stonewall also stood champion older horse Lawyer Ron (by Langfuhr) and champion turf horse Leroidesanimaux (Candy Stripes), plus several others.

These were bullish years in racing and breeding, and Shepherd recalled that he didn't have “a lot of trouble getting mares to the horses, especially Medaglia. In part, that was because the farm had started a deal of awarding complimentary matings to mares who were either graded stakes winners or graded stakes producers. That kept the mare volume at a level that second- and third-year stallions don't usually enjoy these days.”

Part of the rationale behind that aggressive approach to bringing mares into the stallions' books was to make the resulting foals as commercially appealing as possible, as well as to get many mares of racing quality into the stallions' books.

The first-crop yearlings by Medaglia d'Oro made him a successful commercial sire at the sales in 2007, and he was well-ranked in fourth among the 2008 freshmen sires, led by Tapit (Pulpit), when Rachel Alexandra was her sire's first-crop leader, and the filly backed up that early promise with classic greatness in the 2009 Kentucky Oaks and Preakness Stakes.

Entrepreneur and sportsman Richard Santulli, along with businessman Barry Weisbord, had purchased a minority interest in Medaglia d'Oro in August 2008, as first the national, then the world, economy tipped into deeper collapse.

As that economic demise precipitated through the end of 2008 and reached its lowest point in the first part of 2009, bloodstock and the commercial equine market felt the sting even worse than the general economy. Then, as the financial side of the Stonewall operation began to unwind, Godolphin came in and bought the rapidly appreciating Medaglia d'Oro for a reported $40 million total valuation in a deal that closed in early June 2009.

The stallion shipped across town to Darley's Jonabell stallion farm, and that has been his base ever since.

One of the more successful shuttle stallions, Medaglia d'Oro sired two of his better colts Down Under with champion Vancouver and Group 1 winner Astern. In the Northern Hemisphere, as well, success for the stallion's progeny has become more equally divided between the colts and fillies, with such as Talismanic (Breeders' Cup Turf), and his sons at stud continue to have a following among breeders. Chief among these stallion sons is Violence, who stands at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, and Medaglia d'Oro's younger sons without foals of racing age include G1 winners Bolt d'Oro (Spendthrift) and Higher Power (Darby Dan).

Currently standing for $150,000 live foal at Darley, Medaglia d'Oro is one of the most popular and influential sires of the day.

The post Bloodlines Presented By Diamond B Farm’s Rowayton: Road To The Gold Mine For Medaglia d’Oro Had Many Twists And Turns appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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‘One Step At A Time’: Undefeated Maxfield Stars In Fair Grounds’ Mineshaft

Maxfield is finally getting the chance to make up for lost time. Godolphin's homebred was forced to miss the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) in 2019 and the Kentucky Derby (G1) last year but returned with aplomb in winning the local Tenacious to close out 2020. Saturday he starts as a prohibitive favorite in the $200,000 Mineshaft (G3) at 1 1/16 miles, which should serve as a perfect launching pad for what his connections hope will finally be a season-long campaign.

The Mineshaft is a worthy supporting feature on a six stakes, 13-race card dubbed “Louisiana Derby Day Preview Day”, which is highlighted by the $400,000 Risen Star (G2), presented by Lamarque Ford-Lincoln, and the $300,000 Rachel Alexandra (G2), presented by Fasig-Tipton. The Risen Star is by far the deepest and most competitive Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) prep to date and will offer a total of 85 Derby qualifying points to the top four finishers (50-20-10-5). The Rachel Alexandra will be offered for 3-year-old fillies, with the same 85 qualifying points up for grabs for the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1).

The Mineshaft, Rachel Alexandra & Risen Star are all part of the “All Stakes Late Pick Five” (races 9-13) with an estimated pool of $400,000 and the “All Stakes Late Pick Four” (races 10-13) with an estimated pool of $750,000.

Trainer Brendan Walsh has had to endure some obvious disappointments with Maxfield (post 4 at 4-5 on Mike Diliberto's morning line, with Florent Geroux to ride), a 4-year-old son of Street Sense who is perfect in four starts and has long thought to be among the most talented horses in training. Showing it in the afternoon has proven to be a bit more difficult, as he's started just four times in what is now his third season of racing. Maxfield missed the Breeders' Cup Juvenile with a minor foot injury and then got derailed off the Derby Trail last year when he came out of a June workout with a condylar fracture of his right front cannon bone.

Walsh regrouped, aimed for 2021, and checked off the first box when Maxfield returned in the Dec. 19 Tenacious and won easily by 2 ½ lengths. He also did it being much closer to the lead. He settled in second early, which was in sharp contrast to his first three wins, when he was no closer than eighth at the first pace call. For Walsh, the adaptability Maxfield showed only added another club to his bag.

“He broke good, he was right outside the pace horse, and it worked out good,” Walsh said. “He's a horse that doesn't need to be ridden any particular way, he's very easy to rate as well. If someone wants to go quick, that's fine, we can sit off of them as well. We can ride him any way the race suits.”

The Mineshaft will also be just the second time Maxfield has been able to put back-to-back races together. He did it to start his career, winning on debut at Churchill in September 2019 before blasting Grade 1 foes by 5 ½ lengths in Keeneland's Breeders' Futurity a month later. Maxfield won the Matt Winn (G3) at Churchill in June before his injury, then was off until the Tenacious. Needless to say, Walsh is looking forward to getting his stable star on an extended run for the first time in his career.

“I'm excited that we can get him on a schedule and build a foundation,” Walsh said. “The succession of the races is relatively close so you don't have to be as hard as them as you probably do going into the first race (off a layoff). Hopefully he can get into a nice little mode from here on in and we can keep ticking over. I think he'll improve for having had that first run. He was a little fresh too. And fitness-wise he should improve as well with that run off the bench.”

As with any trainer with a star horse, Walsh is left to balance the present with the future. Add in a horse like Maxfield, and the highwire becomes that much trickier to cross. Walsh expects to know a lot more after the Mineshaft.

“He's taught me not to look too far ahead but I have plenty of things going around in my head,” Walsh said in regards to the rest of his campaign. “You try to take it one step at a time. Saturday is going to be a big step for the horse. We'll get a great idea where we stand with him and where we are going forward.”

John Oxley's Enforceable (post 1 at 6-1 with Adam Beschizza) won the local Lecomte (G3) last year and was eventually seventh in the Kentucky Derby for trainer Mark Casse. The 4-year-old son of Tapit never could quite get back to his local win, as he lost six straight, though four came against the best of his generation. Enforceable put that all behind him Jan. 17, when he dazzled winning a local optional-claimer by eight lengths in extremely fast time, which has Casse's Fair Grounds assistant Dave Carroll eagerly looking forward to the Mineshaft with a horse that's been a barn favorite.

“He's loves the Fair Grounds and he's been near and dear to us with all the big races like the Kentucky Derby that he's taken us to,” Carroll said. “We were so proud of him last time; we weren't expecting that. Can he reproduce that back-to-back? We'll have to see but he's really doing well and we're looking forward to it.”

Madaket Stables, Wonder Stables, and Clint and Lance Gasaway's Wells Bayou (post 2 at 6-1 with John Velazquez) should improve off a third-place finish in the local Jan. 16 Louisiana (G3), as that was his first start since running fifth in Oaklawn Park's Arkansas Derby (G1) last May. The 4-year-old son of Lookin At Lucky wired the Louisiana Derby (G2) last year for trainer Brad Cox, who expects to see a tighter version of Wells Bayou Saturday, who has been training with Cox's talented 3-year-old Mandaloun, one of the favorites in the Risen Star.

“He had a fantastic move (on the 6th) working a bullet with Mandaloun and I'm excited about running him,” Cox said. “He should move forward, but he'll have to move way forward to beat a horse like Maxfield.”

Calumet Farm's homebred Blackberry Wine (post 7 at 5-1 with Gabriel Saez) set a slow pace and held second in the Louisiana and has finally been able to string a few strong races together. The 4-year-old son of Oxbow has flashed plenty of brilliance throughout his career for trainer Joe Sharp but has had trouble backing it up. Blackberry Wine romped in an optional-claimer here in December prior to the strong run in the Louisiana, which signals he could be poised for another strong effort in a race without a lot of early speed. He is cross-entered in the Fair Grounds on turf (race 11).

Completing the Mineshaft field from the rail out: the Estate of James Coleman Jr.'s Chess Chief (post 3 at 8-1 with James Graham), who won an optional-claimer here December 18 for trainer Dallas Stewart; Al Rashid Stables' Dinar (post 5 at 15-1 with Shaun Bridgmohan), third in the Tenacious for trainer Cherie DeVaux; and Courtlandt Farms' Sonneman (post 6 at 8-1 with Joe Talamo), second in the Tenacious and fourth in the Louisiana for trainer Steve Asmussen.

First post for Saturday's 13-race “Louisiana Derby Preview Day” card will be at noon CT.

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