juan vazquez | Horse Racing Free Tips

The Week in Review: Nest Belongs in the Travers

For Nest (Curlin), the easy route to the Breeders' Cup includes a stop in the GI Alabama Aug 20. It's a prestigious race, has a $600,000 purse and Nest would be an odds-on favorite against many of the same horses she thrashed Saturday in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks. But what fun is that?

Owners Mike Repole, Michael House and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and trainer Todd Pletcher have already shown that they will think outside the box. They ran their filly in the GI Belmont S., where she finished second despite stumbling and getting bumped at the start. It was a huge effort and proved that she can handle herself if thrown into the mix with the sport's best 3-year-old males.

Yet, there had to be a sense of disappointment that she ran so well but lost. Now, there is a chance to make amends, one that could put Nest into the conversation when it comes to the Horse-of-the-Year picture. There's a race out there where she could make history and it's not the Alabama. Nest should go in the GI Travers S.

It's a race the connections will consider.

“We're leaning towards [the Alabama],” Pletcher said Sunday. “I had a brief conversation [with her owners] though and we did not completely rule out the Travers. She showed she can hold her own against [males] and we know the mile and a quarter suits her. So, we'll keep it in the back of our mind. I'd say all things being equal, we'll probably see her in the Alabama.”

The Travers is the right call. For one, she can win it. She got a 104 Beyer for winning the CCA Oaks, two points better than the number Cyberknife (Gun Runner) received for winning the GI Haskell S. on the same day. Among those eyeing the Travers, only her stablemate, Charge It (Tapit), who got a 111 Beyer when winning he GIII Dwyer S., is notably faster. Nest is in the same range as all the other top colts.

And, yes, the Travers will be a very tough race, but it got a lot easier Saturday when Jack Christopher (Munnings) finished a tiring third in the Haskell, all but cementing his status as a horse that wants no part of 1 1/4 miles. The race has also lost Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo), who beat Nest in the Belmont but has since been sidelined.

This has become a sport where there are few chance-takers and the sportsmen have given way to the businessmen. But there remain some out there who get it, that it doesn't always have to be about the money and that you can't put a price on challenging yourself and doing something special. Get Nest to the Travers winner's circle and you have done something that will stamp her as one of the greatest fillies of her generation. In modern times, no filly has won the Travers. Seven fillies have won the race but none since Lady Rotha in 1915. That's 107 years.

It will take a special filly to erase 107 years of history and owners and a trainer who understand the historical significance of pulling off such a feat. In Nest, Repole, Eclipse, House and Pletcher we may just have that combination. For them, winning the Alabama would fall under the category of “just another race.” The Travers would be so much more.

A Missed Opportunity

Fixed odds wagering may some day become a big part of how people bet on the sport, but the slow progress the concept is making is frustrating. It remains available only on Monmouth Park races and only to on-track customers at Monmouth.

Just imagine, though, for a minute, what might have happened last week had fixed odds bets have been available and had they been available to sports betting customers through their on-line wagering accounts.

The Wednesday following the MLB All-Star game is the single slowest day of the year for sports betting. When it comes to the four major sports, nothing is available. It's normally the only day of the year when that is the case.

There's a huge void and maybe some day racing can fill it and fill it in a way that can expose the sport to hundreds of thousands of sports bettors craving action on a Wednesday. But that can't happen until much more progress is made, starting with the advent of fixed odds and getting the product available on sports betting websites. This is something everyone needs to get behind.

Juan Vazquez and Fake News

The New York Gaming Commission came out last week with a press release crowing about how Juan Vazquez has beeen banned from running horses in the state through Jan. 26, 2025. That's sort of like announcing that today is Sunday.

The New York regulators did nothing other than honor the reciprocity agreement that exists among all horse racing states and has been around forever. Vazquez was suspended by the Pennsylvania Racing Commission, so New York, and everyone else, had no choice but to honor the suspension. There was absolutely no need to tell everyone that New York was honoring the suspension and by doing so it looks like the New York commission was looking to take credit for something it had absolutely nothing to do with.

Because the Pennsylvania suspension did not take effect until a few days after it was announced, Vazquez was able to run six horses in Saratoga after it was announced that he had received the lengthy suspension after the Pennsylvania regulators alleged that a horse he shipped from Belmont to Parx arrived in such bad shape with a severe case of laminitis that it had to be put down. The Pennsylvania stewards said his actions were “grossly negligent, cruel and abusive,” yet there he was running in Saratoga. That's a terrible optic.

If the New York Gaming Commission really wanted to do something about Vazquez, it should have taken steps to keep him from running in Saratoga.

On Jack Christopher

So, Jack Christopher is not a two-turn, mile-and-an-eighth horse. At least he sure didn't look line one in the Haskell. But that doesn't mean he still can't have a sensational ending to his 3-year-old campaign. He's still a very fast horse. Trainer Chad Brown can now look to races like the GI Allen Jerkens Memorial and, maybe, the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, where we could see what could be a scintillating showdown between Jack Christopher and Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music).

“We tried!,” began a tweet Saturday from Liz Crow, who purchased the colt for his owners. “Jack Christopher doesn't want nine furlongs. Cut him back to one turn and we will enjoy the ride from there.”

The post The Week in Review: Nest Belongs in the Travers appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

NY Equine Medical Director Scott Palmer Talks StrideSafe Technology On Writers’ Room

As the New York State Gaming Commission's Equine Medical Director, Dr. Scott Palmer is responsible, more than anyone else in the state, for horse safety. It's a responsibility Palmer takes very seriously, and with new wearable biometric technology called StrideSafe, Palmer and his team are doing revolutionary work in detecting potential musculoskeletal injuries, which lead to the majority of horse fatalities, in their earliest stages. Tuesday, Palmer joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to explain the technology and process of a program that, if adopted nationwide, could help get the U.S. Thoroughbred fatality rate as close to zero as possible.

“As we know from our 20 years or so of research in this area,

85% of the horses that break down have preexisting musculoskeletal disease or damage, and if we can identify that damage early, we can intervene and take care of it,” Palmer said. “You've probably heard a lot about PET scans and CAT scans and advanced imaging. These are great diagnostic tools, but they're not great screening tools because first of all, they're not readily available. Second of all, they're not inexpensive. Third of all is that they are not necessarily accurate as to what we're measuring. So they're terrific, but we need a screening device to identify horses that need to go get that imaging, because we can't do a PET scan on every Thoroughbred racehorse. It's just not practical.

“[StrideSafe] is like a check engine light in your car. When you're driving down the road and the check engine light comes on, that doesn't mean you have to stop the car immediately, but it means you're going to get this thing looked at because something's going on here. If you don't do that, something bad is going to happen. So that's what we've got here is a check engine light, and with that kind of information, that's going to help us to identify these horses at risk of injury, because we can see lameness before a human being can see it or before the jockey can feel it.”

The StrideSafe device is about as big as a cell phone and is put in the saddle cloth of racehorses at New York tracks when they run. It detects any deviation in each facet of a horse's stride and labels that horse in the colors of a traffic light–green, yellow and red. From their pilot study last year, Palmer and his team found that horses labeled red were much less likely to run back in the same amount of time as green or yellow horses.

“If a horse is a red-flag horse, it means this horse has got something significantly abnormal about his gait. And that is meaningful,” Palmer said. “That's a danger sign if we see these red signals. A horse can have a different degree of variation from normal, and we're not too worried about the yellow horses. The yellow means okay, caution light, slow down. Take a look. The red light means you really have to get this horse looked at because something's going on here. And maybe it's not obvious to the human eye right away. The horses that were red [in our study], only 40% of those horses made it back to train or race within four months. Almost 80% of the greens and yellows did. So in other words, what this means is that I can accurately tell a trainer, if you get a red alert, you've got a 40% chance of making it back to race in four months. That's a really bad business model, if nothing else, and it also means that your horse is likely at risk of injury. So we're going to record every horse in every race at Saratoga, and we've been working with Joe Appelbaum and NYTHA, where for all the red reports, I will notify Joe and he's going to send an email to the trainer of that horse, saying this is what it means, this is what it doesn't mean, this is what you need to do.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, XBTV, West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers previewed the highly-anticipated Saratoga meet, discussed the suspension of Juan Vazquez and celebrated the penny breakage era starting in Kentucky. Click here to watch the show; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The post NY Equine Medical Director Scott Palmer Talks StrideSafe Technology On Writers’ Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

The Week in Review: McPeek is Different, And That’s Why He’s Successful

The book on training the modern racehorse goes something this: Give them at least six weeks off between races, start them no more than five times a year and never take a chance. It's a book that, apparently, Ken McPeek has never read.

Among top-tier trainers, there is no one like him. He'll run fillies against the boys, run back in a week and he's not afraid to throw a 50-1 bomb into a race or, in the case of 2022 GI Belmont S. winner Sarava (Wild Again), a 70-1 shot. It hurts his winning percentage, which is at 17% on the year. But McPeek doesn't seem to care. His job is to make money for his owners, and he understands that the more chances he gives his horses, the more money his clients are likely to make.

McPeek dipped into his bag of tracks Saturday when he entered Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway) in the Caesars Belmont Derby Invitational, a decision that led to a Grade I win in a $1-million race.

The colt had shown a lot of promise early in his career and was among the top contenders for the GI Kentucky Derby after winning the GII Tampa Bay Derby. Then trained by Brian Lynch, Classic Causeway went off form and finished eleventh in the GI Florida Derby and eleventh again in the GI Kentucky Derby. The owners made a move after the Kentucky Derby and turned the horse over to McPeek. In his first start for McPeek, he ran third in the GIII Ohio Derby, a sign that maybe he was about to come around.

That might have set him up for some of the big dirt stakes coming up for 3-year-olds. Instead, McPeek targeted the Belmont Derby. Never mind that Classic Causeway would have to come back in two weeks or that he had never run on the grass. It was a $1-million race, and McPeek decided to take a shot, something few other trainers would have done with this horse.

It didn't hurt that Classic Causeway was the recipient of a lucky break. Emmanuel (More Than Ready) was not only a top contender in the race but the clear speed. But he was scratched by the stewards for reasons that remain unclear. The New York Gaming Commission tweeted the following: “The Commission Steward has ordered the scratch of Emmanuel, scheduled to run in today's Belmont Derby, due to issues relating to veterinary records. The matter remains under review.”

With Emmanuel out, Classic Causeway was the only speed in the race. Jockey Julien Leparoux picked up on that and put in a heads-up ride. Classic Causeway led by a length after a half-mile had been run in :48 and, from there, they couldn't catch him.

McPeek's aggressive handling of horses was also on display at Horseshoe Indianapolis, where he had a good showing Saturday. He got a win in the $100,000 Mari Hulman George S. with Semble Juste (Ire) (Shalaa {Ire}), who was coming back in nine days after winning an allowance at Churchill. In the GIII Indiana Oaks, he ran Runaway Wife (Gun Runner) off an eight-day layoff and Silverleaf (Speightster) off a nine-day layoff. Runaway Wife finished second and Silverleaf was third. McPeek also ran Rattle N Roll (Connect) in the GIII Indiana Derby, just a week after he won the American Derby. He finished seventh.

On Saturday, McPeek also won the GIII Iowa Oaks with Butterbean (Klimt). She was coming back in 28 days, by McPeek standards a long layoff.

The only horse he ran all day that had more than four weeks off was Tiz The Bomb (Hit It a Bomb), who was making his first start since the May Kentucky Derby in the Belmont Derby. He finished ninth.

On the day, McPeek ran horses in five different races, all of them stakes. He won two and had two others, both fillies, finish in the money and pick up black type. Among that group, everyone was running back in 28 days or less. That just doesn't happen anymore.

A Record-Breaking Belmont Meet For Chad Brown

Chad Brown winning a training title at the NYRA tracks is no longer big news, but what Brown accomplished at the Belmont meet that ended Sunday was historic.

With 153 starters, he won 47 races, setting a new record for most wins by a trainer at the Belmont spring-summer meet. The old record was 44, set by David Jacobson in 2013. But Jacobson compiled those numbers during a year in which the meet ran for 56 days. This year's meet ran for 44 days.

Twelve of Brown's winners came in graded stakes races and four were in Grade I's. He won 14 stakes overall. He won 27 turf races and 20 on the dirt. But his winning percentage on the turf was 26%, while he won with 41% of his dirt starters.

More Small Fields

They could only find five horses to run in the GII Suburban S. Saturday out at Belmont–a race that has been won by Easy Goer, Dr. Fager, Forego, Buckpasser, Kelso, Bold Ruler–and one came from the barn of the racing secretary's best friend, Uriah St. Lewis. The winner, Dynamic One (Union Rags), had never before won a graded stakes.

Between the June 11 GI Metropolitan H. and the GI Woodward S., likely to be run this year on Oct. 1, NYRA will offer five graded stakes for males on the dirt. (The other two are the GI Whitney S. and the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup). Please don't try to tell me this isn't a problem.

Juan Vazquez and the Pennsylvania Racing Commission

For years, the Pennsylvania Racing Commission seemed like a do-nothing organization run by bureaucrats who had better things to do than to truly police the sort. But it looks like that has changed.

Juan Vazquez, who has a long and troubling history of breaking the rules, shipped a horse in January from Belmont to Parx. The horse, Shining Colors (Paynter), arrived in such bad shape that she had to be euthanized due to what the stewards said was a case of severe laminitis. Vazquez was suspended for 2 1/2 years Friday, and the stewards called his actions “grossly negligent, cruel and abusive.”

This was not your typical slap on the wrist, but a penalty that fit the crime. Obviously, the racing commission has had enough of Vazquez's flouting the rules and it brought its hammer down on a trainer who should have been thrown out of the game years ago.

He is eligible to return on Jan. 26, 2025. Will someone–a racing commission, a track?–let him race at that time? One would hope that the sport can show enough backbone that Vazquez will never participate again. Just don't count on it.

The post The Week in Review: McPeek is Different, And That’s Why He’s Successful appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Potts, Vazquez Among Trainers Denied NYRA Stalls

Six trainers, including Wayne Potts and Juan Vazquez, have been informed by NYRA officials that they will no longer be allowed to stable at Belmont Park and that their horses must be off the grounds by Wednesday. However, all six will still be permitted to race at the NYRA tracks, at least for the time being.

The story was first reported by the Daily Racing Form's David Grening.

NYRA's decision to not outright ban the trainers stems from a ruling issued in the Bob Baffert matter last July by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The court ruled that trainers cannot be banned at the NYRA tracks without due process, starting with a formal statement of charges. Denying or revoking stalls may not fall under the same guidelines. It was not known Friday whether or not NYRA will eventually take the steps that would be required to ban any or all of the six trainers.

The other trainers notified that they would no longer be permitted to stable at the NYRA tracks are Marvin Richardson, Luis Miranda, John McAllen and Michael Simmonds. In addition, Bonnie Lucas, an assistant to Potts, was also denied stalls, which she applied for after Potts' stall application was denied.

“NYRA retains the exclusive right and discretion to grant, deny, revoke, or reduce stall space for licensed trainers at its properties,” NYRA spokesman Pat McKenna said in a statement. “Following the completion of the stall application process for the 2022 spring meet at Aqueduct Racetrack and 2022 spring/summer meet at Belmont Park, NYRA has denied stall allocations to trainers Wayne Potts, Juan Vazquez, Marvin Richards, John McAllen, Luis Miranda and Michael Simmonds. The trainers were notified of this decision earlier this week and will be required to vacate their current stalls or transfer horses under their care by Mar. 30. Bonnie Lucas, an assistant to Potts, submitted a stall application following the denial of stalls to Potts and her application was rejected.”

The statement continued: “No matter the point of origin, all horses shipping in to race at NYRA tracks are subject to the same level of health and safety scrutiny as horses stabled on NYRA property. These protocols are effective in mitigating risk, enhancing equine safety, and protecting the integrity of the sport in New York.”

Potts and Lucas were suspended last year for 30 days by the New Jersey Racing Commission, which charged that they defied a request from a state veterinarian to have a horse vanned off the track following a claiming race. Both have appealed. Potts also ran afoul of authorities during last year's Saratoga meet when it was alleged he violated rules regarding a claim, which resulted in a 30-day suspension. The New York Gaming Commission charged that the horse, Mach One (Air Force Blue), was claimed by Potts' owners Frank Catapano and Nicholas Primpas by trainer Amira Chichakly and then transferred to Potts. Potts claimed another horse from the same race and trainers are not allowed to claim more than one horse in any given race. Additionally, Potts was banned from the Maryland tracks in 2020 amid allegations that he was a paper trainer for Marcus Vitali.

Potts won a career-best 61 races last year and was the leading trainer at Monmouth. He said he has 47 horses in New York and plans to relocate them to a training center in New Jersey.

“I was shocked when they told me I wasn't being allocated stalls,” Potts said. “I supported the NYRA circuit strong the last two winters when they have short fields. If this is an act to clean things up, there are other people that should be gone before myself. I don't have a whole list of mediation violations. I have done some stupid things in life, but there are other people there that have done much worse than I have.”

When asked if he fears NYRA will eventually ban him outright, Potts said: “I don't think that will happen. I had a meeting today with the racing secretary and with Frank Gabriel. They said I am still free to enter and I can conduct my business as I was before. That's what I'm going to continue to do.”

Vazquez received two consecutive 15-day suspensions from the Pennsylvania Racing Commission after two of his horses tested positive for the dewormer levamisole in races at last year at Parx. One, Hollywood Talent (Talent Search), tested positive after winning the GIII Turf Monster S. at odds of 108-1. Vazquez has filed an appeal. Vazquez has numerous suspensions and violations on his record. In one ruling, issued in 2017 in Pennsylvania, it was noted that Vazquez had eight drug positives during a 23-month period. Vazquez, who did not return a phone call seeking comment, is fifth in the Aqueduct trainer standings.

While Potts and Vasquez are prominent trainers, the others are not. Richards is 0-for-6 on the year and has won only five races in a career that began in 2017. He is facing a suspension of up to one-year from the New Jersey Racing Commission after his horse, Awesomenewyear (New Year's Day) tested positive for the prohibited medications oxazepam and ibuprofen following a Sept. 3 race at Monmouth. He has six horses stabled in New York.

“That would be something that is easy for NYRA to lean on,” Richards said of the drug positives in New Jersey. “They can say you have a positive so we're not going to give you stalls. I can't say for sure that's what it is. It might be. I'm still at Belmont, so they haven't kicked me off the racetrack yet. Where am I going to go? I'll have find a place where I can put my horses up. I'll have to try to get stalls elsewhere. It will be a great inconvenience. I live right next to [Belmont]. I don't even want to think of not being at Belmont.”

The Racing Form, citing sources, reported that McAllen was denied stalls for allegedly demonstrating an inability to properly care for his horses. He is 2-for-54 on the year and said he has 12 horses at Belmont.

“If someone wanted to come and see my horses I'd have no problem showing them to you,” McAllen said. “They are 100% perfect.”

McAllen said he will look for stall space somewhere before eventually taking his stable to Monmouth Park.

Miranda has won with just 4 percent of his career starters and is 2-for-94 since 2020. Simmonds is 1-for-19 on the year after going 2 for 75 last year. It was not immediately clear why those trainers were denied stalls.

The post Potts, Vazquez Among Trainers Denied NYRA Stalls appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post