Kentucky Derby | Horse Racing Free Tips

Taking Stock: Notes on Medina Spirit and Breeders Hertrich lll and Fielding

As I sat down to write this column Monday, I got a text from a bloodstock agent that said, “Heard Medina Spirit broke down at Santa Anita a little while ago. Gonna be a shit storm.” I checked Twitter right away, but there was nothing yet about Medina Spirit (Protonico). I didn't have to wait long. Some minutes later, the “I heard Medina Spirit…” tweets started trickling out, and then the dam burst. Everyone had something to say, and most of it was derogatory or innuendo about his trainer, Bob Baffert, who's been a lightning rod for controversy, including for a post-race betamethasone positive on Medina Spirit after the colt had surprised many with a gutty win in the Gl Kentucky Derby this spring.

The negative response was expected, because Baffert went through a tough period some years back when a number of his trainees died of apparent “sudden-death” heart attacks, which was the immediate speculation about Medina Spirit. Although Baffert was mostly cleared of wrongdoing and never sanctioned in the prior deaths, they left a black mark that's never been erased. His recent medication violations have only infuriated his detractors and heightened tensions, creating the climate that was a tinderbox for the “shit storm” that hit after the news broke Monday morning.

Ironically, Medina Spirit had been in the news Friday evening, when Baffert's attorney had triumphantly released a statement that said that a lab had determined the betamethasone in the Derby positive had been from an ointment and not an injection.

It's always a gut punch for anyone in this business when a horse dies, especially the connections. I sent condolences via texts to both Baffert and Amr Zedan, the owner, and both responded, Zedan with the praying symbol and Baffert with one word, “Devastated.” When the Derby winner and a high-profile horse like Medina Spirit dies, emotions are understandably amplified, but because it was a Baffert horse, the angst and anger surrounding the death was at another decibel level altogether on social media, where he's positively toxic. Unfortunately, lost in all this were Medina Spirit's accomplishments, some of which were minimized by folks while he was alive because of the betamethasone positive and because he was trained by Baffert. That's too bad, because he was a Classic winner and also a rare type of horse.

Bred by Gail Rice in Florida in a “backyard” breeding program, Medina Spirit exceeded all expectations and was an inspiration to small breeders everywhere. A $1,000 yearling, he was purchased for $30,000 as a 2-year-old in training by Zedan Racing Stable but steadily climbed the ladder in Baffert's elite barn, stepping over high-priced yearlings one at a time to become the third-best 3-year-old for Baffert behind Life Is Good (Into Mischief) and Concert Tour (Street Sense), two Gary and Mary West-bred colts. But when those two failed to make the Churchill Classic, Medina Spirit stepped up to the plate off the bench and delivered the ultimate pinch hit, succeeding at 12-1. His win appeared to surprise even his trainer.

Medina Spirit's road to Louisville had included some tough races, notably two against the stable star, the handsome and brilliantly fast Life Is Good. In the Glll Sham S., Medina Spirit immediately caught the eye for closing the distance when Life Is Good had looked like was going to blow open the race. At the finish, less than a length separated the two horses, but it was Medina Spirit's “try” that caught the eye–he simply wouldn't give up, despite the excuses that were made for his stablemate's lack of focus in the race. That try is the characteristic that most defined Medina Spirit, and it was evident in all 10 of his starts, five of which he won. He placed in the other five races, and it's notable that he never let the popular Godolphin runner and Gl Belmont S. and Travers S. winner Essential Quality (Tapit), the champion 2-year-old colt last year who's touted as the favorite to win the Eclipse as champion 3-year-old colt, finish ahead of him in two meetings.

Medina Spirit wasn't particularly attractive, he wasn't a big horse, and he didn't appear to be a physically athletic standout unlike most in Baffert's barn, but that will to win and the will to never give up that he repeatedly exhibited is the rarest and most sought-after characteristic in racehorses.

Aidan O'Brien once told me that his G1 2000 Guineas winner Saxon Warrior (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) “would absolutely kill himself stone dead for you,” meaning he'd generously empty the tank and run on fumes if he had to.

That's exactly how I'll remember Medina Spirit. He was that type of warrior, and one of the few horses in recent years that I've admired for his try. He left it all on the track.

Americanrevolution

You've already read in TDN about the notable accomplishment of breeders Ashview Farm and Colts Neck Stables being represented by the juvenile duo of Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) and Nest (Curlin), two Todd Pletcher trainees who won the Gll Remsen and Gll Demoiselle, respectively, at Aqueduct Saturday. They can dream about the Derby and the Gl Kentucky Oaks over the winter.

Pletcher also won the Gl Cigar Mile Saturday with CHC Inc. and WinStar's ascendant 3-year-old colt Americanrevolution (Constitution), who was bred by in New York by Fred W. Hertrich lll and John D. Fielding, who've been having a dream of a year. Alone or in partnership, Hertrich, at the least, should be considered for an Eclipse Award as breeder of the year, because he's had a hand in breeding five Grade l winners in 2021–quite an accomplishment, especially for a fairly small breeding entity that's based at Watercress Farm in Lexington.

Aside from Americanrevolution, a winner of five of seven starts, the other Grade l winners are Beyond Brilliant (Twirling Candy), Juju's Map (Liam's Map), Pinehurst (Twirling Candy), and Maxim Rate (Exchange Rate).

Hertrich and Fielding, along with Robert L. Tribbett, bred Beyond Brilliant, who won the Gl Hollywood Derby for trainer John Shirreffs on Nov. 27.

Hertich alone bred Juju's Map, winner of the Gl Darley Alcibiades at Keeneland on Oct. 8 for trainer Brad Cox.

Hertrich and Fielding bred Pinehurst, who won the Gl Runhappy Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 6 for Baffert.

Hertrich and Fielding bred Maxim Rate, who won the Gl Gamely at Santa Anita on May 31 for Simon Callaghan.

Hertrich and Fielding are commercial breeders who sell with Taylor Made, and these are the prices they got for these five future Grade l winners: Maxim Rate was a $130,000 weanling; Pinehurst sold for $180,000 as a weanling; Juju's Map was a $190,000 short yearling; Beyond Brilliant sold for $50,000 as a fall yearling; and Americanrevolution was a $275,000 summer yearling.

If I were shopping for young horses, I'd be looking carefully in the Taylor Made consignments for horses bred by Hertrich and Fielding.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

The post Taking Stock: Notes on Medina Spirit and Breeders Hertrich lll and Fielding appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Medina Spirit Collapses, Dies After Santa Anita Workout

This year's Kentucky Derby first-place finisher Medina Spirit collapsed and died after a workout at Santa Anita Park on Monday morning, the California Horse Racing Board's Equine Medical Director Jeff Blea confirmed. Trained by Bob Baffert, the 3-year-old son of Protonico had just completed five furlongs in 1:01.40 in his second work since finishing second in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

“I spoke to the attending veterinarian, and when they got to him on the track he had already expired,” said Dr. Blea, former American Association of Equine Practitioners president, speaking from the AAEP convention in Nashville, Tenn. “Not sure where on the track it happened but it was post wire.

“I will have them draw blood and pull hair and will try and get urine for testing. He'll go out to UC Davis in San Bernardino, for a full and
comprehensive necropsy including toxicology, forensics and tissue sampling. We will take a close look at the heart to try and identify the cause of death.”

The colt's Derby win remains in jeopardy due to a positive post-race test result for betamethasone, a therapeutic medication that is not allowed on race day. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has not yet held a hearing, required to disqualify Medina Spirit, but on Friday attorneys for Baffert released a statement claiming that tests conducted by a New York laboratory have “definitively confirmed” Medina Spirit tested positive for a corticosteroid not through an injection but because of an ointment used to treat a skin rash.

Medina Spirit was bred in Florida by Gail Rice, mother of Eclipse Award finalist Taylor Rice (apprentice jockey) and mother-in-law to top jockey Jose Ortiz, out of the Brilliant Speed mare Mongolian Changa. The mare failed to produce milk when Medina Spirit was first born, and Rice had to turn to her only other broodmare, Scribbling Sarah, for assistance. The young Medina Spirit thrived, and his own mom started producing milk several hours later.

Unfortunately, Rice's divorce forced the sale of Medina Spirit as a yearling. He brought the bottom-dollar bid of $1,000 at the OBS Winter Mixed sale in early 2019.

Bloodstock agent Gary Young saw the 2-year-old Medina Spirit at the 2020 OBS July sale, and recommended the purchase to Amr Zedan, who was able to purchase the colt for $35,000.

Medina Spirit won the G3 Bob Lewis, then underwent throat surgery after a sound defeat in the G2 San Felipe. The colt rebounded to run a good second in the G1 Santa Anita Derby before heading to Louisville.

Medina Spirit has run four times since his Kentucky Derby win, finishing third in the Preakness Stakes and recording victories in the Shared Belief Stakes and the Grade 1 Awesome Again. Overall, the colt's record includes five wins, four seconds and a third from 10 starts, with earnings of $3,545,200.

Baffert had been aiming Medina Spirit at the Saudi Cup in February.

The post Medina Spirit Collapses, Dies After Santa Anita Workout appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Medina Spirit Dies of Apparent Heart Attack at Santa Anita

by Bill Finley & Dan Ross

Medina Spirit (Protonico) died of an apparent heart attack following a five-furlong workout Monday morning at Santa Anita. The colt's owner, Amr Zedan, confirmed the news to TDN.

The incident happened after Medina Spirit completed a five-furlong workout in 1:01.40.The breeze took place at about 7:45 a.m. PT.

“I just heard. He had a heart attack,” Zedan said. “It was quick and he didn't suffer. It's unfortunate. In a moment like this there is not much that we can do. All I can say is that he gave us the ride of our lives and brought everyone together. We are mourning this loss, Bob [Baffert], myself, our team and Johnny [Velazquez], as well. We are all very sad.”

California Horse Racing Board Equine Medical Director Jeff Blea said after watching a video of the breeze that there were signs of trouble near the conclusion of the workout.

“He looked like he was struggling the last part, and the rider was pulling him up,” Blea said.

Blea added that by the time a track veterinarian reached Medina Spirit, the 3-year-old colt had already died.

It was Medina Spirit's second work since he finished second in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic.

“We had such high hopes for him and so many plans,” Zedan said. “We were going to go to the Saudi Cup and possibly to Dubai. We wanted to campaign him all next year. The last thing I expected was to hear something like this. It is God's will.”

Throughout Medina Spirit's racing career, Zedan has stood by Baffert and continued to do so Monday.

“We have a great team and Bob is an amazing friend and an amazing trainer,” he said. “This unfortunately happens sometimes. I have full confidence in my team and in Bob. Unfortunately, this happens.”

As per usual in California, Medina Spirit will now undergo a full necropsy examination. A panel of experts will also conduct a review of the fatality.

When asked if he believed there were any suspicious precipitating circumstances behind the sudden death, Blea responded in the negative.

“Absolutely not. We'll address this like we do all our fatalities, try to find out the reason for it and how to prevent it in the future,” Blea said. “But at this point, there is nothing that's untoward that I'm concerned about.”

Monday's news was the latest and most tragic twist during a career filled with dizzying highs and lows.

Medina Spirit was sold for just $1,000 as a yearling and later for $35,000 as a 2-year-old at the OBS July 2-Year-Old Sale. After breaking his maiden in his lone start at two, Medina Spirit won the GIII Robert Lewis S. before finishing second in both the GII San Felipe S. and the GI Santa Anita Derby. Dismissed at 12-1, he led every step of the way to cross the wire a half-length in front in the GI Kentucky Derby.

Afterward, however, it was revealed that he had tested positive for the medication betamethasone. That led Churchill Downs to issue a two-year suspension to Baffert, which, as things now stand, will keep him out of the 2022 and 2023 Kentucky Derbies. The New York Racing Association has also attempted to ban Baffert. Its case against him has yet to be resolved.

The post Medina Spirit Dies of Apparent Heart Attack at Santa Anita appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Ken McPeek Talks 2YOs, HISA, Lasix, Training Future On Writers’ Room

The story of a high-quality Thanksgiving weekend of racing at Churchill Downs was undoubtedly Ken McPeek, who sent out four impressive winners on Saturday's all-2-year-old Stars of Tomorrow card, including GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. hero Smile Happy (Runhappy) and 'TDN Rising Star' Cocktail Moments (Uncle Mo), to follow up a six-length victory by his Envoutante (Uncle Mo) in Thursday's GII Falls City S. Tuesday, the thoughtful McPeek sat down for an expansive interview with the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to talk about his loaded barn of promising juveniles, how much longer he sees himself training, his thoughts on the first proposed rule set of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act and more.

Despite having two graded stakes winners over the weekend, one could argue Cocktail Moments was McPeek's most impressive runner at Churchill. Drifting all the way up to 26-1 off a modest worktab, the $190,000 Keeneland September graduate dropped all the way back to 10th in the 12-horse field before steadily advancing while wide on the turn. Taking charge in mid-stretch, the Dixiana Farms colorbearer put on a show in the final furlong, rocketing away to a 9 1/4-length romp.

“That was a pleasant surprise,” said McPeek, this week's Green Group Guest of the Week. “But I'll tell you, she had been training fantastic going into the race. Typically when we get a young horse ready, we don't force the issue. We let them come [around]. I like to get a race under their belt. I'd almost call the first race a schooling race. I tell the rider to take a little bit of a hold, settle, wait, wait, finish. When they do that, they take dirt in their face, they've got all this adversity, and you lose races doing that, but you also teach them. The young horses that we've gunned away from the gate, they don't learn as much as the ones that take dirt, learn to negotiate the traffic and finish. Well, she finished alright. She came like a bullet. She's been a really happy filly the last couple of weeks, but to be able to predict that first time out is difficult.”

Already with a trio of winners Saturday, Lucky Seven Stable's Smile Happy cemented the day as one to remember for McPeek, settling off the pace and blowing past 7-5 chalk Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway) in the stretch to a 3 1/4-length score in the Kentucky Jockey Club. That was the second victory in two starts for the $185,000 Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearling buy, who joined fellow graded stakes winners Rattle N Roll (Connect) and Tiz the Bomb (Hit It a Bomb) in the McPeek barn as potential GI Kentucky Derby contenders.

“This horse has out-trained just about every horse he's worked against,” McPeek said. “He's a very physically imposing horse to be around, and he's fast. I stretched him out long the first time and he handled it like a pro, and to beat some of the horses he ran against second time out–he's got the mind of a good horse. I think there's still some fitness that's needed there too. We're going to shelve him for a little while, and I think you're going to see an even better horse when we get to the spring … He's got an interesting pedigree. There wasn't much black type, the first three dams were practically blank. But his second dam is by Relaunch, third dam by Graustark, fourth dam by Bold Ruler, and Funny Cide is under his fourth dam. We're really excited to have him.”

The conversation later turned to McPeek's increasingly impressive training resume. Starting in 1985, his career took off in the 2000s and the 59-year-old now boasts over 1,800 winners and over $95 million in total earnings. Asked to reflect on his career, McPeek went on to break a bit of news in saying he doesn't plan on training for all that much longer–with a caveat.

“I'm probably most proud of finding a lot of these horses at auction, even for modest prices,” he said. “The first 10 years that I trained, I struggled, but I convinced Roy Monroe to let me buy yearlings for him. The first yearling I bought was a Lord At War (Arg) filly that ended up running first, second or third in 15 stakes in her career for Roy and me. Then he let me buy [millionaire and 1995 Derby second] Tejano Run, who launched me. Training horses is not rocket science, but you've got to get good horses to train, and I'm in a unique stage right now where people are giving me bigger budgets. But I'm still buying for what I call the under-50 [thousand] people. I still like working the back end of the sales. I'll wear out a pair of tennis shoes. And Dominic [Brennan] is probably deserving of as much credit as me, because he's been in the trenches with me for 30-plus years. He's one of those unsung heroes–a rock-solid Irish horseman … But I'm going to lay something out there that I don't know if most people want to hear or not. I'm going to do this for 10 or 11 more years. I'm going to train until I'm 70. Unless, of course, I have horses like I've got in the barn right now. But I'm looking at doing it until I'm 70 and then I'd like to work horse auctions for people worldwide.”

Asked for his thoughts on the early HISA rules as proposed by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, McPeek offered, “I think it's fantastic stuff. I think they need to unify the licensing. If I get a driver's license in Kentucky, I can drive all over the country. And then allow reciprocity to take effect when you have a violation. These rules need to be streamlined, there's no question. They need a horseman on those committees making those decisions that has the power to say, 'Hey, wait a second, time out, you're going too far.' But at this point, there aren't horsemen sitting on those, and that bothers me.”

Elsewhere on the Writers' Room, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, Lane's End, XBTV and Legacy Bloodstock, Joe Bianca, Bill Finley and Jon Green discussed the implications of Gun Runner breaking the earnings record for first-crop sires and looked forward to an intriguing GI Cigar Mile H. card Saturday at Aqueduct. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The post Ken McPeek Talks 2YOs, HISA, Lasix, Training Future On Writers’ Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post