‘An Idea Whose Time Has Come’: KHBPA Wants To Add KTDF To Claiming Races

Expanding purse supplements for Kentucky-breds to include claiming races would shore up the state's year-round horse-racing circuit, keeping horses and jobs in Kentucky, the leading horsemen's association told a legislative committee Friday.

Rick Hiles, president of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association (KHBPA), said that while Kentucky's racing industry is thriving on many fronts, the exception comes in the claiming races, especially at Ellis Park and Turfway Park. Claiming races, the blue-collar backbone of American racing, currently are not eligible to have Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) supplements added to their purses. Hiles told the Kentucky Legislature's Parimutuel Wagering Taxation Task Force that it's time to change that so that all horsemen benefit from the country's most successful state-bred incentive program.

“You need claiming horses in order to provide the opportunities for allowance and stakes horses,” Hiles said later. “It's time to acknowledge their important role and to let all horses born in the state and sired by a stallion in the Commonwealth benefit from being a Kentucky-bred.”

In claiming races, one of the conditions (along with distance, surface, age, gender, eligibility based on numbers of wins or earnings) is a price for which licensed owners can submit a “claim” before the race to buy the horse for that price. If successful, the new owner does not get money earned in that race but afterward takes possession of the horse. In Kentucky, claiming prices range from $5,000 up to $150,000.

Claiming horses are an essential part of American racing, filling out the race programs for the allowance and stakes horses. In Kentucky, claiming races make up about half of the races but account for only 17 percent of total purses. While no one advocates that claiming purses rival those of straight maiden, allowance and stakes races, Hiles said it's important that owners of those horses also have a shot to recoup at least part of their investment. That encourages owners and trainers to add horses, leading to added jobs for their care as well as increasing demand for Kentucky-breds.

The KTDF supplements, which often comprise 25 to 50 percent of a non-claiming race, are paid out only to registered Kentucky-breds. Those are horses born in the commonwealth and sired by a Kentucky stallion — a population which accounts for the vast majority of horses racing in the state and throughout much of the country.

While the other race purses have seen dramatic growth in Kentucky thanks to the implementation of historical horse racing, the money for claiming races has been largely stagnant in some areas. Ellis Park is the most impacted, being at a competitive disadvantage for those horses with Indiana Grand, three hours away, and this summer with many Kentucky stables deciding to race at Virginia's Colonial Downs. Ellis Park staged only eight races most days because of an inability to get enough entries to have full fields for claiming races. If those purses increased significantly, it would keep and attract horses to the state.

“If the KTDF were used to beef up claiming purses for Kentucky-breds, not only would I race a lot more horses at Ellis Park, I'd bring up horses from my Southwest and Louisiana divisions to run in the state,” trainer Bret Calhoun said earlier.

The concept was well-received by task force members Rep. Adam Koenig and Sen. Damon Thayer, who serve as committee chairs, as well as Rep. Al Gentry and Rep. Matt Koch.

“I agree with everything you said,” Koch, a breeder, told Hiles. “Especially the part about it costs just as much to keep a $5,000 claimer as it does an allowance horse. That's absolutely true. So many of the people who own those horses, they can win that month and the purse doesn't even cover the training and vet bills you have…. You go to Turfway Park this winter, those are the people keeping this industry running right here.”

Said Thayer: “This is not a new idea, but it's an idea whose time has come.… Not every horse becomes a stakes horse. Not every horse becomes an allowance horse. (Claiming races) are the bread and butter, the backbone of the sport. I think it's time we changed the statute and allow some of those KTDF monies to be used on Kentucky-bred horses that run in claiming races.”

Thayer advocated, and Hiles agreed, that the best way to implement such a policy would be through legislation enabling the expansion but with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and its KTDF advisory committee establishing the parameters. Koch cautioned about making claiming purses too high, to where it might incentivize someone to run an unsound horse. While agreeing that no one wants that, Kentucky HBPA executive director Marty Maline later observed that there are safeguards in place, including additional veterinary checks, to keep unsound horses at any level from competing and that horses making a significant drop in class get special scrutiny.

The Kentucky HBPA projects that KTDF on claiming races would add between $5 million-$10 million a year to those purses, if applied at the approximate percentages of other races. That is more than offset by the growth of historical horse racing, with no cannibalization of money offered on existing KTDF races, the organization said.

Claiming horses also provide a stream of revenue to the state's General Fund via the 6-percent state sales tax applied every time a horse is claimed. Through Nov. 13, a total of 923 horses had been claimed in Kentucky for a total of $22,400,500 with 27 days of racing left in the 2021. That accounts for $1,362,030 in sales tax.

“Anything that makes the sport stronger and more accessible, I'm for,” Gentry said of his support for KTDF expansion.

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Cafe Americana: Pharoah Colt Takes Unicorn S.

The undefeated SW Café Pharoah (American Pharoah), the even-money pick in Tokyo’s 1600-meter G3 Unicorn S., made that price look like a gift on Sunday, as he won that Japanese Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifier by five easy lengths and set a new stakes record in the process (1:34.90). Dieu du Vin (Jpn) (Declaration of War) was second, 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Kenshinko (Jpn) (Pyro), as American-bred sires were responsible for the first three home. It was the first winner on dirt at the graded/group level for his Ashford Stud-based sire.

The $475,000 OBSMAR breezer was aggressive from the bell and was a good four paths off the fence in a battling fifth through a first quarter in :23 flat. Still shooting the breeze out in the middle of the course nearing the bend, he was full of run as he tugged his way up to second with the first three furlongs covered in :34.20. Able to sit just off the flank of the pacesetting filly and 2-1 second choice Lecce Baroque (Uncle Mo) on the turn while finally saving a bit of ground, Café Pharoah took dead aim and cruised past in a few strides at the 400-meter pole, pouring it on through the stretch to win with ears pricked. Dieu du Vin and Kenshinko unleashed good closing efforts for place and show honors, but they were never going to touch the winner.

“I had a good start, but I had a fast horse inside and used my mount to get [into] second,” jockey Damian Lane told Yahoo Japan. “Still, after I got second, the pace was slow. I was worried about the reaction when I first used my mount, but I was relaxed even when I entered the straight and [he] responded 300 metres out.”

A 10-length winner at first asking going 1800 meters at Nakayama Dec. 14, the bay earned 30 points on the Japanese Road to the Kentucky Derby with a victory in the Listed Hyacinth S. cut back to a mile Feb. 23. After Sunday’s score, he now has 80 points and sits atop the point standings in Japan, with just the July 8 Japan Dirt Derby (40-16-8-4) at Ohi remaining in the series.

Pedigree Notes:

One of seven stakes winner for his sire, Horse of the Year and 2015 Triple Crown Winner American Pharoah, Café Pharoah is the fourth group or graded winner, and first in Japan. American Pharoah’s Sweet Melania, who won the GII Jessamine S. at Keeneland at two, added the GIII Wonder Again S. at Belmont Park June 20. He also has GII Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint victor Four Wheel Drive Stateside-also out of a More Than Ready mare–and the G3 Prix du Bois hero Maven at Chantilly in France.

The fifth foal of his dam, who won the GII Mrs. Revere S. and GIII Boiling Springs S. and placed in both the GIII Lake George S. and GIII Athenia S., Café Pharoah is a half-brother to the gelded GIII Dania Beach S. and GIII Transylvania S. hero Night Prowler (Giant’s Causeway), as well as the 4-year-old filly Regal Glory (Animal Kingdom), who saluted the judge in the GII Lake Place S. and GIII Lake George S., both at Saratoga. His year-younger Uncle Mo half-brother died, while Mary’s Follies, a granddaughter of Wavering Monarch MSW Wave to the Queen, has since produced a yearling colt by Candy Ride (Arg) and a colt by Connect Apr. 16.

Sunday, Tokyo, Japan
UNICORN S.-G3, ¥67,410,000 (US$630,772/£510,813/€564,321), Tokyo, 6-21, 3yo, 1600m, 1:34.90 (NSR), my.
1–CAFE PHAROAH, 123, c, 3, American Pharoah
                1st Dam: Mary’s Follies (MGSW-US, $338,889),
                                by More Than Ready
                2nd Dam: Catch the Queen, by Miswaki
                3rd Dam: Wave to the Queen, by Wavering Monarch
1ST GROUP WIN. ($475,000 2yo ’19 OBSMAR). O-Koichi
Nishikawa; B-Paul P. Pompa (KY); T-Noryuki Hori; J-Damian
Lane. ¥35,567,000. Lifetime Record: 3-3-0-0. *1/2 to Night
Prowler (Giant’s Causeway), MGSW-US, $475,682; and Regal
Glory (Animal Kingdom), MGSW-US, $455,084. Werk Nick
   Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Dieu du Vin (Jpn), 123, c, 3, Declaration of War–Jealous Cat,
by Tapit. O-Three H Racing; B-Shimokobe Farm (Jpn);
¥14,162,000.
3–Kenshinko (Jpn), 123, c, 3, Pyro–Matriarca (Jpn), by Cryptic
Rascal. (¥5,832,000 Ylg ’18 JBBAUG). O-Katsuhiko Amano;
B-Shizunai Yamada Farm (Jpn); ¥8,881,000.
Margins: 5, 1 3/4, 1. Odds: 1.00, 5.20, 161.50.
Also Ran: Thunder Blitz (Jpn), Kitano Octopus (Jpn), Full Flat, Kids Agacha (Jpn), Sunrise Hope (Jpn), Lecce Baroque, Meisho Bengal (Jpn), Lovely Angel (Jpn), Aurora Tesoro, Tagano Beauty (Jpn), Machaon Blanc (Jpn), Satono Rafale (Jpn), Apollo Abelia (Jpn).
Click for the JRA chart & video or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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