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Letter To The Editor: From A Young Fan

My first race was two years ago. The 2021 Haskell Invitational S., the summer before my senior year of college. It was the post parade that hooked me.

When “Born to Run” sounded through the grandstand as Mandaloun, Hot Rod Charlie and Midnight Bourbon bounced onto the track, it didn't matter how the race would go. I was in. It was enough to latch onto despite the outrage I felt towards my home-state regulators for an ill-advised whip rule that took down Midnight Bourbon, along with my exacta box.

But though he fell, everyone came home safe that day.

I turned into a racing evangelist, with Hot Rod Charlie at the center of my devotion. I brought my friends along to his revenge tour at the Pennsylvania Derby, where he finally triumphed over Midnight Bourbon. We gutted out another inquiry, after which, I wildly bear-hugged a friend. We'd finally hit that exacta.

I loved racing. My dorm room was littered with Daily Racing Forms. I missed dinner to watch the Breeders' Cup Classic. Ducked into empty classrooms to watch Derby preps at Oaklawn. I drove three hours round-trip to Aqueduct at 8 a.m. on a Saturday to bet the Dubai World Cup because they didn't offer the superfecta on 4NJBETS.

After college I kept it up. In March of this year, I went with my girlfriend–one of our first dates had been at the 2022 Haskell–to Kentucky for the first time. We stayed in Midway, there for “Road to the Horse” at the Kentucky Horse Park. I left in the middle, hiked over to see Funny Cide and Silver Charm in their stalls. One afternoon we walked around Keeneland. Circled the paddock, went beneath the stand and onto the track. It felt like walking on hallowed ground. A few months before, we'd been brought to tears by Cody's Wish's win in the Dirt Mile and dazzled by Flightline's romp in the Classic.

So you know how I felt when I saw Maple Leaf Mel, the undefeated New York-bred, bounding away from a Grade I field as the camera zoomed in on her. She went fast early–44 and two for the half mile–and she went fast late, with a gutsy performance by turning away her classiest opponents yet. She was “six-for-six.” That's the line etched in my mind. It's the last thing I remember hearing from track announcer Frank Mirahmadi before she went down.

It felt like a gut-punch–it was the first time I understood what that word meant. I couldn't think for a few minutes. I couldn't talk. I couldn't watch Cody's Wish run afterwards.

I avoided watching Saratoga after that. But this past weekend I turned on the FOX broadcast for the first time since. It had been three weeks, I reasoned. Enough time to reset my mind. Anyways, my favorite active horse, Arcangelo, was running in the Travers, and I felt sure he'd win. What kind of sport would this be if I couldn't watch it live?

So I turned on the broadcast shortly after 3 p.m. I watched Gunite, under a great ride from Tyler Gaffalione, take down Elite Power along with his eight-race win streak. I saw that the next race was an allowance, turned the broadcast off, went back to my book. But I was back for the Jerkens. I saw the Baffert runners in the paddock, saw Jimmy Barnes sweating bullets. Saw New York Thunder looking flat, his coat dull. I pulled up the replay of his last race. Saw him blaze to victory without changing leads.

It was the post parade now. I kept watching, live on FOX. I even almost made a bet on Verifying, he was looking so muscled-up before the race.

When they burst from the starting gate, I watched New York Thunder stride out on top. He led the way through the far turn. The Baffert runners dropped back, New York Thunder having run them off their feet, each stride pounding the dirt and carrying him away from them. But then I heard Frank Mirahmadi call out the fraction of 44 and two in this $500,000 seven-furlong Grade I sprint for three-year-olds. A punishing half-mile. I shut my laptop. My nerves couldn't take it.

A minute went by. I reopened the laptop, fired up FOX. I hoped they'd come home safe. But then I saw the wide-angle camera shot, saw that the five horse wasn't in the drop-down of the top four finishers. I heard the empty unsteadiness of the commentators. I shut my laptop again, leaned back in my seat, looked blankly out the window.

I watched the Travers that evening, only after I'd known Arcangelo had won and had come back in good shape. I couldn't enjoy it, even after he sailed past the wire. When he seemed to take a bad step in the gallop-out I held my breath, despite having read that he was fine. I wanted to look away the whole time.

That's my favorite horse winning the Midsummer Derby.

I'm drawn to racing, in part, for the history. Today I watched a replay of the 1988 Breeders' Cup Distaff. Thirty-five years ago. Personal Ensign running down Winning Colors under the Churchill Downs wire. A hard-won performance from an undefeated champion. It should have been rousing. Instead during the stretch drive, I felt nothing but worry that she might fall.

That's what I see when I watch racing now.

Horse racing fan Isaac Hart lives in Glen Rock, New Jersey.

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Bill Strauss, Bret Jones Named to DMTC Board of Directors

Bill Strauss and Bret Jones have both been named to the Board of Directors of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. The two, who are the first new members added to the board since three members were added in 2018, bring the total number of current board members to 11.

“We've made ourselves better and stronger with the addition of these two fine gentlemen,” said board member and Del Mar CEO Joe Harper. “When you can pick up a pair of individuals who love racing and have rich histories in the game like they do, it was easy to get a unanimous vote to bring them on.”
Strauss, 65, was originally a New Yorker who had a successful financial career in Manhattan before making a coast-to-coast switch to Del Mar in 1992. There he helped found Provide Commerce, which became one of the nation's top e-commerce companies, including its popular ProFlowers.com and Shari's Berries.

He and his brother, Jeffrey, a master chef, partnered in a hugely popular restaurant they called the Pamplemousse Grille just across the street from Del Mar racetrack. They named their first horse The Pamplemousse and he became a stakes winner. Since then Bill has been a partner in such topline horses as double Breeders' Cup winner Mizdirection and $5.6 million earner Hot Rod Charlie.

“As a long-time Del Mar resident with my wife Margie, and a long time horse owner, I am honored to have been selected to serve on the prestigious Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Board of Directors,” Strauss said. “I am looking forward to working with my fellow board members to carve out a successful future for horse racing in California.”

Jones, 43, is the president of Airdrie Stud. In addition to his new role at Del Mar, he has served on the Breeders' Cup Board of Directors since 2011 and sits on the Keeneland Advisory Board, as well as the Board of Trustees for the University of Kentucky's Markey Cancer Foundation.

“I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity to work with the incredible leadership team at Del Mar,” Jones said. “Anyone who has ever walked through its gates knows how truly special that racetrack is, and anyone who cares about the future of our sport recognizes how vitally important its continued success is for our industry. California racing is a true lynchpin for our sport and its prosperity should be the business of all of us; whether you're from San Diego County or Woodford County, KY. I look forward to helping in any way I can and am honored to be working with an organization I so deeply respect.”

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This Side Up: Whether For Hard Profit Or Soft Power, Passion Is No Commodity

It's the transfer window over in Europe–and not just because they're between soccer seasons. They have also seen big money paid, both at auction and in private trade, to switch jockey silks at Royal Ascot this week.

A couple of the top races have been won by a significant new investor, Wathnan Racing. Apparently, the people involved were eager to maintain a low profile, but it's tricky to remain incognito when the meeting's most storied trophy is being presented by the new King of England while Frankie Dettori, that least retiring of retiring jockeys, is cavorting in your colors in the foreground.

Though unable to be present himself, the man behind Wathnan was duly revealed as the Emir of Qatar, whose brother and cousin have already been valued investors on the European Turf for some time.

The British breeders who respectively sold the Emir homebreds to win the G1 Gold Cup and G2 Queen's Vase are both indebted to the priceless heritage of British racing, which keeps it far more competitive than its internationally inadequate prizemoney would otherwise allow. Investment from overseas–whether in deals like these, or at public auction–is often the only thing that can keep a British racing and breeding program in the game.

Over the years, of course, the wider debt of horsemen everywhere to Middle Eastern investment has been incalculable. Primarily this has been animated by personal passion, for the horse. With time, however, the Maktoums also began to explore sport's value to the kind of agendas that come under the umbrella of “soft power.”

Two Phil's | Coady Photography

That's an increasingly important element in the other, far more prominent transfer window of the European sporting summer. This week A.C. Milan supporters were shocked by the abrupt defection of young midfielder Sandro Tonali to Newcastle, a British club recently catapulted into the elite by new Saudi ownership. Tonali, a boyhood Milan fan, is a born leader and nobody envisaged him being anything other than club captain a decade from now. That even he should turn out to have his price, then, will have spooked even supporters of rival clubs, who will see that no player can nowadays be considered safe from poaching by wealthier leagues. Indeed, a massive recruitment surge by Saudi Arabia's own domestic league may yet require the English Premier League, accustomed to devouring the best of the rest, eventually to have a taste of its own medicine.

In our own sport, the Big 'Cap once represented the most glittering of prizes. But nowadays its obvious candidates are more likely to head halfway round the world to contest staggering purses in the desert. While racing obviously represents a trifling branch of the soft power tree, the insouciance with which the Saudis could lay on a prize so much bigger than even the G1 Dubai World Cup means that we cannot be surprised by the recent experiences of golf and now soccer.

Yet whatever prompts the injection of cash, whether soft power or hard profit, everyone needs to remember that the lifeblood of all sport is investment of another kind: emotion. And if passion is treated as a commodity, you will ultimately invite disaffection. Because the one thing that can't be quantified on a balance sheet is the heart of a fan. That's about heritage, identity, formative experience.

This is just as true of racetracks as it is of soccer clubs. Okay, so you might make more money in the short term, for instance, by cashing out one of the most cherished spectator experiences anywhere on the Turf, at Arlington Park. But if we end up with a bunch of soulless gaming facilities, which happen to maintain ancillary ovals in front of deserted concrete sheds, then in a generation or two we won't have a sport at all.

In a world where everything is for sale, then, a horse like Two Phil's (Hard Spun) stands heroically against the tide. He reminds us that sport often depends, for fan engagement, on things money can't buy: pluck and luck.

Reverting to soccer, a lot of American investors (accustomed to sealed franchises) were perplexed when proposals for a European Super League had to be abandoned overnight after the clubs' own fans furiously rejected the removal of jeopardy. They understood, as the club owners didn't, how vital it is that even the biggest clubs, if performing badly enough, should be vulnerable to relegation; and equally that the little guy, showing sufficient merit, can supplant the underachiever.

Lord Miles | Ryan Thompson

Imagine what the Kentucky Derby would be like if restricted to horses that either cost seven figures, or homebred by six-figure covers. As it was, we could root for a blue-collar hero, whose connections had in effect been evicted from their cherished Chicago circuit by the ruthlessness of the same company that hosted the Derby.

Two Phil's was bred from the only Thoroughbred ever bought by the Sagan family (for $40,000) and was ignored by every expert in Book 1. Yet he absorbed a pace that burned off all those around him, before seeing off all bar a single closer.

Unlike Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), who once changed hands for $17,000 before showing a similarly big heart on the Classic trail a couple of years ago, Two Phil's was not asked to grit out another Triple Crown race. Instead, he resumes his campaign Saturday, eyeing an open sophomore championship, in the GIII Ohio Derby.

It's a hop from Lake Michigan to Lake Erie for many around his ownership crew, who will doubtless have noticed that the GIII Chicago S.–a race, it goes without saying, formerly staged at Arlington–has found its latest sanctuary downriver from Ohio, at Ellis Park, while the Churchill team deal with other issues. Their initial efforts to do so included standing down not just Lord Miles (Curlin), who also resurfaces in the Ohio Derby, but even the champion juvenile.

To that extent, at least, they understand how community engagement is crucial to commercial viability. Because the one transfer window that will never close is the one that allows fans to take their hearts–not to mention their business–elsewhere.

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Unique Partnership of Breeders Brings Mind Control to New York

Tenacious to the end, Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stable's Mind Control (Stay Thirsty) closed out his career with a win in the 2022 GI Cigar Mile, his third Grade I win and his 11th black-type victory. In a remarkable 29 starts over five years, Mind Control amassed total winnings of $2,185,834. In that race, as in all of Mind Control's stakes wins, he beat an impressive field of competitors, including favored Zandon, White Abarrio, and Get Her Number. Big numbers, indeed.

Numbers, as it turns out, will also be critical to his next career, as the Red Oak Stables homebred will stand at Rockridge Stud for a partnership that includes Red Oak and Madaket Stable, who raced him in partnership, as well as almost every New York farm invested in the Thoroughbred breeding business, including Irish Hill Farm, Rockridge, Dutchess Views Stallions, Waldorf Farm, and Hidden Lake Farm. Shareholders also include Joe McMahon of McMahon Farm, Saratoga Glen, and New Hill Farm.

Out of a fellow Rockridge homebred Feel That Fire (Lightnin N Thunder), a stakes-winning half-sister to MSW & GSP King For A Day (Uncle Mo) and a full to MSW Ima Jersey Girl, “He is probably one of the better horses, if not the best horse, that has ever come to New York,” said Michael Lischin of Dutchess Views Farms. The winning of the GI Cigar Mile is a great prep for being a stallion.”

Speaking to the TDN after the Cigar Mile, Todd Pletcher, who began training Mind Control in 2020, said, “If you like horse racing, you've got to love this horse. He's cool. He's done it consistently year after year at multiple distances. He's a great horse to be able to train. He's remarkably consistent and shows up every morning.”

“When we got the partnership together, it grew very quickly because, just like anything else, word of mouth goes very quickly,” said Lere Visage, owner of Rockridge Stud. “These are the bigger farms, all bound together to support a horse that they all think is going to be legit and that can improve the state and improve the mare base that we have. There's never been a partnership like that done in New York with any of the farms.”

The partners said they were confident in the quality of Mind Control's first book. Just before breeding season, to boost the stallion's chances, partners and prospective supporters purchased additional mares in Kentucky. And the partners' phones ring constantly, they said.

“Several trainers have booked mares to Mind Control,” said Visage. “They saw him as a racehorse. With that much heart and stamina, this horse is worth taking a look at. Nothing like Mind Control has ever stood in New York.”

In impressive New York style, Mind Control took his first Grade I in the 2018 Hopeful S. at Saratoga and his second in the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S., also at Saratoga. In his first start for Pletcher, Mind Control won the GII John A. Nerud S. He won the Parx Dirt Mile two starts later, was third in the 2022 GI Carter H. Two months after that, he beat Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) in Monmouth's GIII Salvator Mile. In his last start before the Cigar Mile, he finished a neck behind the leader in the Sept. 24 Parx Dirt Mile, but was promoted to first via DQ.

“He won from six furlongs to a mile,” said Lischin. “To win a Grade I race at seven furlongs at two and three, and then continue on with stakes wins every year and closing out with a Grade I stakes race at six and over $2 million is a great race record. He beat Knicks Go, Firenze Fire, Instagrand, Zandon, and Hot Rod Charlie, amongst numerous others.”

Bringing the New York farms together as a stallion just like he brought racing fans together in his career, Mind Control has created excitement in the New York Thoroughbred breeding scene.

“He comes with a lot of credentials and that's kind of a solid beginning to a horse,” said Visage. “It is also very exciting to see, and kind of refreshing to know, that the farms can all work together and, you know, support a horse that they feel is worth supporting.”

Mind Control is will stand at $8,500 LFSN.

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