Three of the bullet workers came from the Wavertree Stables consignment: a filly by Nyquist (hip 304) out of High Heeled Girl (Malibu Moon); a filly by American Freedom (hip 400) out of Limitless (Discreet Cat); and a colt by Shancelot (hip 421) out of Magnolias in Bloom (Flatter).

Wavertree also had a McKinzie colt who shared the :9 4/5 bullet time during Wednesday's first session of the under-tack show.

Eddie Woods sent out a pair of colts by WinStar Farm first-crop sires to share the bullet :9 4/5 time.

First up for the consignment was a chestnut colt by Promises Fulfilled (hip 316). Out of Hot Fun (Latent Heat), the Maryland-bred was purchased by the Quarter Pole Enterprises pinhooking partnership for $110,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“I expected him to work well,” Woods said. “He is an amazingly good-looking colt by kind of an off-the-wall stallion, so to speak. I thought he would work really quick and he did. He's been like that from the first time we ever worked him. He just jumps right in there. He's a tall, leggy colt with great angles to him.”

Also working in :9 4/5 Thursday for Woods was a colt from the first crop of champion Improbable (hip 395). The bay is out of Libby's Tail (Tiz Wonderful) and was purchased by Woods on behalf of Michael Rullo for $135,000 at Keeneland September.

“The work was spectacular,” Woods said. “I can't always tell you a big horse like him is going to work in :9 4/5, but we expected a good work from him and he did that and then some. He galloped out great. He's a beautiful, big, long-striding horse. I think a lot of people are going to like him.”

The colt was one of two sons of Improbable to work the furlong in :9 4/5 Thursday. Also sharing the bullet was hip 325, a colt by the WinStar stallion out of stakes-placed Inaugurate (Empire Maker) from the Majestic consignment.

“As yearlings, I thought they were taller, leaner kind of horses,” Woods said of the progeny of Improbable he has seen. “But we had several in training here and they have come along really well. The one thing they do is move beautifully. They get across the ground really well. They are not huge, robust horses, but they are very athletic.”

For the second day in a row, a filly by Munnings from the Niall Brennan Stables consignment worked her furlong in :9 4/5. Hip 229 is out of Firefoot (Tapizar), a half-sister to graded winner Bandbox (Tapit). The 2-year-old, a $125,000 Keeneland September purchase, is a half-sister to stakes-placed Freeburn (Mitole).

A Bullet Bolt for Horseology Partners

Sharing in the bevy of bullets Thursday at OBS, a colt by Bolt d'Oro (hip 422) worked the furlong in :9 4/5 for Katie Miranda's White Lilac consignment. The bay colt is out of Maisie (Stay Thirsty), a half-sister to multiple graded winner Lovely Bernadette (Wilburn).

“The horse has always shown us positive things,” said Miranda. “He's had lovely breezes at the farm all year. I don't think we've ever had a bad breeze from him. And he prepped in :9 4/5 here [at OBS] last week.”

Asked to describe the colt, Miranda said, “He's a tank. He is an absolute tank. He looks like a Quarter Horse and he has muscles popping out of every part of his body.”

The colt was purchased for $150,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton July sale by Brian DiDonato's Franklin Ave Equine on behalf of David and Jon Schlosser's Cliff Racing and Miranda and trainer Jena Antonucci's Horseology partnership.

“He was one of our stretch purchases of the year,” Miranda said. “Obviously, partnering with Cliff and Brian allowed that to happen. We had very high thoughts of him from the jump and he's proven it day in and day out. He's just a class act.”

Miranda and Antonucci have been working together for four years and this will be Horseology's second year of pinhooking partnerships.

“We have a good mixture of owners,” Miranda said. “Our big goal is to get new people involved. We do smaller shares to give people the ability to start at just a smaller level because this is an expensive game. We bought 10 [yearlings] for this year. The Bolt d'Oro is one of them. And we've got a pretty big group of owners involved, a mix of owners we have worked with for years and some new ones.”

Also earning the furlong bullet time Thursday: a filly by Caracaro (hip 225) consigned by Cesar Loya Training & Sales; a filly by Honest Mischief (hip 243) consigned by Jesse Hoppel's Coastal Equine; a filly by City of Light (hip 290) consigned by Top Line Sales; a colt by Violence (hip 301) consigned by New Hope AB; a colt by Twirling Candy (hip 398) consigned by GOP Racing Stable Corp.; a filly by Maximus Mischief (hip 418) consigned by Omar Ramirez Bloodstock; and a colt by Volatile (hip 420) consigned by Grade One Investments.

A pair of juveniles shared Thursday's fastest quarter-mile time of :20 4/5: a filly by Uncle Mo (hip 252) consigned by Pick View and a colt by Cajun Breeze (hip 271) bred and consigned by Tom McCrocklin.

While headwinds were a major factor later in Wednesday's first session of the under-tack show, conditions were more consistent throughout the second session Thursday, according to Miranda.

“The headwind yesterday was terrible,” Miranda said. “We probably had a much more consistent track today. They said it was going to be overcast–which to me means you can't see the sun. And there was just one cloud in the sky. Which was annoying just because the track gets so hot and sticky so quick. But the track seemed to play fair all day.”

Of wind conditions, Miranda said, “If anything we had a little bit of a tailwind at times, but definitely not the 12mph headwind people had to deal with yesterday.”

The under-tack show continues through Saturday with sessions beginning daily at 8 a.m. The March sale will be held next Tuesday through Thursday. Bidding begins each day at 11 a.m.

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At Lane's End, Ebbert found a team that was experienced with and even enthusiastic about his desire to be involved in the next chapter of the dual Grade I winner's career.

“John had a tremendous experience with the horse and really the ride of a lifetime, as he's said, but the fact that he wants to keep the whole horse and stay involved to that degree is pretty rare,” said Lane's End Farm's Bill Farish. “You don't see people doing that very much anymore and it's great to see. The last horse that we had that was kind of similar was Curlin, but there have been others over the years where the owner has stayed in. It's fun to work with him. He's involved in the mares we've selected and he just loves the horse. He wants to give him every chance at stud.”

Newly crowned as the 2023 Eclipse Champion 3-Year-Old Male, Arcangelo has fully recovered from a surgery to repair a condylar fracture and all systems are go ahead of the 2024 breeding season.

On the racetrack, Arcangelo made history for trainer Jena Antonucci. Now as a stallion, he looks to do the same for his late sire Arrogate, who has produced five Grade I winners from just three crops. Three of those top-class performers were fillies and the other was Cave Rock, who passed away from laminitis, and while the ill-fated stallion's final crop has only just turned three, for now it appears as though Arcangelo may provide the only opportunity for breeders to access a Grade I-winning son of champion Arrogate.

“[Arcangelo] being a son of Arrogate is pretty exciting for us,” said Farish. “There's no telling how good of a sire he would have been and he's certainly showing through this horse and others how good he could have been. So a son of his out of this female family–it just doesn't get much better than that.”

Arcangelo's dam Modeling (Tapit), a $2.85 million purchase for Don Alberto Corporation, is a half-sister to GISW Streaming (Smart Strike) and SWs Treasuring (Smart Strike) and Cascading (A. P. Indy). Another generation back in the family shows broodmare of the year Better Than Honour, whose produce records features Belmont-winning siblings Rags to Riches and Jazil.

Lane's End's bloodstock agent David Ingordo explained just how influential he believes this pedigree to be.

“It's one of the best families in the stud book,” he said. “It's one of those pedigrees that if you're in the breeding business, you want to have access to it. There are so many matriarchs in there. You can do a lot of creative things in breeding with him and because Arrogate is gone now, where are you going to find another one? We are so lucky to have him here.”

Arcangelo secures his position as the top 3-year-old colt of 2023 in the GI Travers S. | Sarah Andrew

Ingordo said he considers Arcangelo to be a better version of his sire physically.

“I'm a balance person and he's exceptionally well-balanced. He's got great proportions and a lovely shoulder. When you see him standing from the side, he's got all these great qualities and is even improved on what his sire had. When you look at his hip and how his hind leg sits, he's an improvement on his sire.”

Both Farish and Ingordo made a point of noting that based on the requests coming in from breeders, Arcangelo's first book is shaping up to include some intriguing matings.

“Arcangelo's book of mares includes a lot of the best-producing mares that went to Arrogate himself because those mares probably would have been bred back to Arrogate had he been here,” explained Ingordo. “So we're getting a lot of graded stakes winners and producers, including some mares that have horses on the upswing on the Derby trail.”

“I think he represents a very interesting mating for people because he's pure dirt and that appeals to a lot of people,” added Farish. “The fact that he had the speed and precocity that he did and then the ability to carry it a distance also is really appealing to a lot of breeders.”

With a stud fee set at $35,000, Arcangelo joins Up to the Mark (Not This Time), who also brought home an Eclipse Award as champion turf male and is profiled by Chris McGrath here, as the newcomers to the Lane's End stud barn for 2024.

“I think Arcangelo could end up with a pretty tight, nice book of mares when this is all over because of the quality he's getting at the price point that he's at,” said Ingordo. “We think we stood him very reasonably and breeders are sending mares that would go to a horse double his stud fee. All of the right people are breeding to him and that's so important when you're trying to curate these stallion books. The right people bring the right mares and then do the right job with those offspring. That's what helps these horses make it as stallions.”

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But for every good story there seemed to be 10 bad ones.

With the animal rights community and some portions of the media putting unrelenting pressure on the sport, there's never a good time to go through a rash of breakdowns, but for it to happen surrounding the running of the GI Kentucky Derby was bad timing at its worst. There were 12 deaths at Churchill Downs crammed into just a few weeks and it got so bad that racetrack management decided to pull the plug on the remainder of the meet and move everything to Ellis Park.

Then Saratoga happened. When New York Thunder (Nyquist) broke down strides before the wire in the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. the number of horse fatalities at the meet had soared to 12. It was a horrible sight to behold for a national television audience and the 48,292 in attendance. And it was a ghastly reminder of what happened three weeks earlier to Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) in the GI Test S. She, too, broke down right before the wire in a spill that was as ugly as it gets.

The Breeders' Cup was not immune to tragedy. Though no one was seriously injured on the day of the races, Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}) and broke down and had to be euthanized and Practical Move (Practical Joke) suffered an apparent heart attack and died, both while training for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

The fatalities obviously caught the attention of 60 Minutes, which, in November, aired a story that focused on the breakdowns and the sport's doping problems while casting a brutally negative light on the sport. Then we learned that we will get more of the same sometime in 2024. In December, FX, a subsidiary of Disney Entertainment, announced that there would be an upcoming documentary, “The New York Times Presents: Broken Horses,” which it said would examine “systemic issues, questionable practices and urgent calls for change that have shaken horse racing to its core.”

When it comes to the economics of the sport, there was more troubling news. Through November, handle was down nearly $500 million on the year or 4.39%. That means we are on our way to seeing the steepest declines in handle, outside of the COVID year of 2020, since 2011. Does that have anything to do with the computer-assisted wagering (CAW) players? Probably. They have tilted the pari-mutuel pools to a point where the regular horseplayer is getting killed and getting out.

In July, 1/ST Racing announced that Golden Gate Fields would be shutting down for good at the end of the year, throwing the Northern California circuit into chaos. The track got a reprieve, but a brief one. It is now scheduled to cease operations on June 11. That's when it will join Arlington Park, Calder, Hollywood Park, Bay Meadows and others that couldn't make it to the finish line. Some wonder whether Santa Anita, which sits on property that is estimated to be worth $1 billion, will someday join them.

Racing can't afford to have another year like this. Things need to change. While there are no magic bullets, here are what I believe are some practical and common sense solutions to some of the problems.

The sport needs to fully embrace StrideSAFE. StrideSAFE is a biometric sensor mechanism that slips into the saddle cloth to detect minute changes in a horses' gait at high speed. Those changes can, and often do, signal that a horse is in the early stages of having a problem that could lead to a fatal injury. The technology has been around since 2011 and, while it has been experimented with here and there, it remains largely absent from the backstretch of America's racetracks. Why? There's no doubt that widespread employment of StrideSAFE will cut down on the number of horses that break down and there's no excuse for the sport to continue to drag its feet when it comes to embracing the concept.

The CAW factor is a major issue that's not going to go away, no matter what harm it might be doing to the overall health of the sport. It has become an unmanageable runaway train, with these players betting so much money that no track is going to turn away their business. But some guardrails would help. More tracks need to do what NYRA has done. They have effectively closed the CAW players out of the win pool by no longer allowing them to place bets at the very last second. They have also been excluded from NYRA's Late Pick 5 and the Cross Country Pick 5.

The betting product also needs to be better and more geared toward the booming market that is made up of sports bettors. The sport has not been nearly aggressive enough when it comes to getting the on-line sports betting websites to start accepting bets on racing. To date, the only one that has been signed up is FanDuel. That also means adopting fixed-odds wagers, which are what the sports bettors know. Only Monmouth Park has gone down this road and two years after it was implemented in New Jersey the concept is limping along. No other tracks or states have tried fixed-odds betting and, in New Jersey, only the second-level tracks are available to the fixed odds bettors.

The takeout remains too high. With betting on a horse race often involving a rake of around 20%, the game is always going to have a tough time competing with other forms of gambling, where the effective takeout rate is lower. We're seeing some progress in this area, with a number of tracks lowering the takeout on horizontal wagers like the Pick Four and Pick Five. In 2023, Hawthorne took a major step in the right direction by lowering its takeout on win, place and show wagers to 12%. But we need a lot more of the same. With so much of purse money now coming from alternative sources like slot machines, there's no reason why tracks in places like New York and Kentucky can't at least experiment with reduced takeout rates.

Fix the Triple Crown. It needs it. The GI Preakness S. is no longer coveted by the sport's major trainers and has become a weak link in the Triple Crown. Everyone wants to run in the Derby and then they scramble, some pointing for the GI Belmont S., some ready to put their horses on the shelf until the big summer races. The 2022 Derby winner, Rich Strike (Keen Ice) passed on the Preakness and, this year, Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) was the only horse to go in the first two legs of the Triple Crown. The result is that the Preakness is less important than it has ever been and that only weakens the Triple Crown as a whole. When 1/ST floated the idea of running the Preakness four weeks after the Derby, NYRA reacted by announcing that it had no intention of moving the date of the Belmont. Yes, a Belmont run five weeks after the Derby works well for NYRA, but it needs to put its self interests aside and do what's best for the sport and shift the Belmont to late June or early July.

While we're at it, the purses for the Triple Crown races are too small. In this day and age, the $1.5-million purse for the Preakness is not going to motivate anyone to run. These are supposed to be the most important races in the sport and their purses should reflect as much. For all three races, the purses should be raised immediately to $3 million with the goal of eventually making them $5-million races.

These are things that can be done. Let's not let another year go by in which the sport embraces the status quo while the outlook for its future continues to get worse. The year 2024 is upon us, let it be the year where the sport takes much needed steps in the right direction.

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My favorite '23 moment was watching Jena Antonucci and her team, 'vigorously' rooting home Arcangelo in the Belmont and then becoming the 'spokesperson extraordinaire' on behalf of our industry!
–Headley Bell, Mill Ridge Farm

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“I am honored to be chosen as the next president of NYTHA,” said Bond. “It is an important time for our industry and the future of horse racing. I look forward to working with NYRA and the New York breeders to continue the great work of keeping New York racing at the top of our industry. We have the best owners, the best trainers, the best employees, and soon we will have the best facilities. I want to thank Joe Appelbaum and our past board members for all of their work and support. And I want to congratulate our new board–I look forward to working with all of you.”

Also in NYTHA election results released Wednesday, owner/directors to the board are: Tom Bellhouse, Dan Collins, Sanford Goldfarb, Dr. Jennifer White, Aron Yagoda, and alternate Andrew Aaron.

Trainer/Trainer-Owner directors are: Jena Antonucci, David Donk, David Duggan, James Ferraro, John Terranova, and alternate Linda Rice.

“I'd like to recognize everyone who put themselves out there to run for a position,” said outgoing NYTHA president Joe Appelbaum. “NYTHA's strength is in our community and the more that participate, the better. Good luck to the incoming board, they are going to need our support.”

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Trainer Jena Antonucci sat down with the NYRA Press Office to discuss her accomplishments, MGISW Arcangelo (Arrogate) and the memorable moments that happened to her this year.

NYRA: What did it mean to you personally to win the GI Belmont S. and GI Travers S.?
Antonucci: “It opened the window for people to see what we've been doing. I've chuckled a little bit at the people who say, 'Oh, she's only ever had one horse.' No, we've actually had a lot, and have won stakes beforehand. Yes, these are our first Grade 1s, but our goal is to continue doing us. If it has afforded us to have a better quality of horses, then we will just continue to do all of that the best possible way we can. We'll just continue to be true to who we are.

“It's honestly most gratifying watching the team. When you take those little moments during an event and look at a team member's face and see how proud they are–to watch that and to see the people accomplish career and lifetime goals and dreams, it's literally the most gratifying part.

“I will forever be grateful for the horse and what he gave us, and him believing in us, but to watch your team check boxes in a way that maybe they never thought would happen and to potentially make that happen for them is by far and above the most rewarding and gratifying.”

NYRA: You've said before that you would need some time to think about exactly what this means for women in this sport. How have your thoughts come together with time?
Antonucci: “I think it's resonated more hearing it from other people and what it means to them. Hearing how it made women who have watched the journey feel and to make people excited about our sport and what we have accomplished is such a gift.

“Recently, I was able to speak to an all-girls school from fifth graders to seniors, and did a talk with the group of almost 700 young ladies. To see where their questions fell and what they got excited about, and to be able to speak about what we've accomplished in our sport, it definitely resonates. To be able to look at young girls and say, 'This hadn't happened in 155 years,' and to see how they receive that is special.

“You watch other women accomplish things in other sports and careers, but to watch it from the front row is very interesting and a gift that I will absolutely carry with much regard for a very long time to make sure it is meaningful and we can push the ball forward to encourage a young girl to rock on and to do her.”

NYRA: One of your most repeated and applauded comments about your accomplishments was your metaphor of making your own seat at the table. What does it mean to you that it resonated so well with so many?
Antonucci: “There was a space that was missing something, and that filled that space for people. I like to be behind the scenes making things happen, and we have created what we did because of what we've built. Being able to organize that into something that was short and concise for people is flattering. I hope it helps anybody, any gender or any age, fulfill something and understand that sometimes you've got to do it a different way.”

NYRA: Patience and working on the horse's schedule were always central to your plans with Arcangelo and each of your trainees. How does your training program revolve around that model?
Antonucci: “Fiona [Goodwin, assistant] and I talk non-stop about every single horse. It's just making sure we are doing our best to tend to each individual horse specifically. If it's a colt or filly that needs a little more time, or something that we need to be a little tighter on and they need to be on a more stringent schedule–we just really try to give the breathing room to each horse.

“I greatly understand owners get a little impatient, so I just try to be respectful and mindful of, 'Yes, we need to be running, but here are these things and here is why.' Allowing the owner to be part of the process instead of just, 'No, we're not ready.' I've found over my career that trying to explain it to them and allowing them to be part of the 'whys' is important.”

NYRA: After winning two of racing's most prestigious events, what are some other goals you hope to achieve?
Antonucci: “We're just going to stay present. We have a handful we really like in the barn and the ones we are hopefully getting as 2-year-olds for the coming season, and we're going to let them tell their story like we let Arcangelo tell his. To put a burden on anyone in the team–as far as expectations–I don't think is fair. We'll let them run their races and tell their story.”

NYRA: With Arcangelo now retired, what will you remember most about him and his career?
Antonucci: “His personality. He's such a cool guy, and his personality was bigger than the stall or the barn. We were able to get him to focus for the two minutes of his races and put that big personality to work. His desire to win and to want to be a Champion is something that you can't bottle.

“He still has a ton of personality. I keep in touch with the farm [Lane's End], and the stallion manager and I have some chuckles. His personality is in full effect. He's doing awesome and they're very much enjoying having him there. It will be wild and cool to train some of the kiddos one day.”

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“For me personally, National Treasure winning the Preakness! It was my third win in my favorite race of the year. My favorite racing moment outside of my stable was watching Jena (Antonucci) win the Belmont S. Pure joy! Loved seeing it.”
–Sol Kumin

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The candidates are as follows: Tina Marie Bond (President), Chad Summers (President), Andrew Aaron (Owner/Director), Tom Bellhouse (Owner/Director), Kevin Brady (Owner/Director), Daniel Collins (Owner/Director), Matthew Cutair (Owner/Director), Sanford Goldfarb (Owner/Director), Michael Iannaconi (Owner/Director), Patrick Lewis (Owner/Director), Steven Rocco (Owner/Director), Vincent Vivolo, Jr. (Owner/Director), Dr. Jennifer White (Owner/Director), Aron Yagoda (Owner/Director), Jena Antonucci (Trainer), Amira Chichakly (Trainer), David Donk (Trainer), David Duggan (Trainer), Robert Falcone, Jr.(Trainer), James Ferraro (Trainer), Leah Gyarmati (Trainer), Linda Rice (Trainer) and John Terranova (Trainer).

The ballots for the NYTHA election were mailed Nov. 10 and voting for the NYTHA Election will take place, in person or by proxy, at the NYTHA Annual Meeting, to be held Dec. 27.

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The procedure was recommended to expedite the healing process and ensure his long-term soundness. The findings were made during precautionary radiographs that were performed after missing training and scratching from the Breeders' Cup Classic.

“We expect a quick recovery and return to normal activities for Arcangelo,” said Bill Farish. “We do not anticipate this having any impact on his 2024 breeding season.”

Arcangelo, who arrived at Lane's End in good order upon his retirement, will return to the stallion barn following the surgery to recover.

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