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Letter To The Editor: It All Begins With Churchill Downs

Horse racing is at an existential moment. Just weeks after a series of breakdowns at Churchill Downs cast a shadow over the Kentucky Derby, a wave of horrifying horse deaths at Saratoga Race Course has once again brought questions about safety to the forefront of public consciousness.

This is a tragedy, as every horse that breaks down also breaks our hearts. However, I believe our sport has reached a tipping point, and I predict there will be a Silver Lining emerging from all these tragedies. In the past week, I have engaged with industry leaders, including the current NYRA Board of Directors as well as Dave O'Rourke, NYRA's President & CEO. They are in the process of analyzing relevant data regarding synthetic surfaces and the potential installation at our NY racetracks.

This is significant. As a reminder, the Stronach Group eliminated synthetic tracks from their California venues due to insufficient industry support. Keeneland was also compelled to remove its synthetic course because too many owners and trainers were unwilling to prepare for major races, such as The Kentucky Derby, on synthetic surfaces.

This is precisely why we need the entire industry to embrace change collectively. The New York Racing Association (NYRA), which operates Saratoga, is already a leader in horse safety. These recent tragedies are serving as a catalyst to advance additional safety initiatives, including an increased commitment to investing in transformational science and technology, including synthetic surfaces.

NYRA is currently installing a Tapeta track at Belmont Park, which will serve as the fourth racing surface. In light of the recent events at Saratoga, NYRA is contemplating an expansion of this commitment. Additionally, NYRA quickly adopted measures to enhance veterinary scrutiny, such as requiring a trainer's attending veterinarian to attest to the horse's soundness prior to entry. NYRA will also be investing in the most advanced PET and CAT scan technology to help detect pre-existing injuries before they become more serious.

Track superintendent Glen Kozak and the NYRA team excel in constructing and maintaining the current racing surfaces at all NYRA facilities. They are leaders in the field, even consulted by competing tracks around the country. However, dirt track safety remains an industry-wide concern. The surface is outdated when compared to newer engineered alternatives.

As trainer Mark Casse, who trains the majority of his stable on the synthetic course at Woodbine, points out, “What if we had kept the Model T? Instead, look at what we've done with automobiles, how we've made them so much safer. We're still using a racetrack that's been around for 125 years, and there's only so much you can do for it.”

A mounting body of evidence indicates that synthetic tracks are safer for horses. A study by the University of Kentucky found that horses were less prone to injuries on synthetic tracks compared to dirt tracks. A University of Pennsylvania study discovered that synthetic tracks were linked to a lower risk of catastrophic injuries. Most recently, data from The Jockey Club Equine Injury Database conclusively demonstrates that synthetic courses were considerably safer than dirt surfaces in every year from 2019 to 2022, over three times safer in 2022.

The future of horse racing hinges on a bold collective effort from the industry. However, achieving this requires industry-wide consensus on necessary steps to enhance safety for both the cherished animals and the brave jockeys risking life and limb. A fragmented endeavor, however well-intentioned, is likely to fail, dooming our sport to historical insignificance.

Past attempts to introduce synthetic surfaces faltered, partly due to the industry's collective reluctance to embrace change. The horse racing industry stands at a pivotal juncture and should move together in a unified way to ensure horse safety and industry survival.

I call upon the country's leading racing organizations to embrace science and technology by quickly moving to adopt synthetic surfaces.

This silver lining all begins with The Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs Inc. Board.

Earle Mack was a member of the Board of Trustees, New York Racing Association, Chairman of the New York State Racing Commission, Member of the New York State Thoroughbred Racing Capital Investment Fund and a Member, Board of Directors, of the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund Corp. He was honored with the Eclipse Award of Merit in recognition for a lifetime of outstanding achievement last year.

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An Argument for Dirt: Letter to the Editor, by Steven Crist

To the Editor: The campaign to abolish dirt racing in favor of synthetic surfaces may be well-intentioned, but is a dangerous knee-jerk overreaction that would accomplish little but the destruction of Thoroughbred racing as we know it.

These advocates seem to have forgotten that we tried this a generation ago, when Southern California, Keeneland, and Dubai all switched to synthetic racing–and then tore out those tracks when it became obvious that they were producing misleading results and undeserving Grade I winners and champions. As Bob Baffert correctly said at the time, synthetic surfaces make mediocre horses look good and good horses look mediocre.

Do we really want to return to a randomizing form of racing under which Street Sense struggled home in the Breeders' Futurity and Blue Grass on synthetics, as opposed to his definitive dirt victories in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Kentucky Derby? Would Curlin be the breed-changing stallion he has become if his dull fourth-place finish on synthetic in the Breeders' Cup Classic was as good as we had ever seen from him?

The raw data that has led people to conclude that synthetics are safer is deceptive, an apples-to-oranges comparison that disregards the poor condition of the nation's lower-tier dirt tracks and ignores the anecdotal evidence of increased soft-tissue injuries on synthetic surfaces. The more important data is the sharp reduction in breakdowns on dirt tracks in the last decade. That is a record of major improvement that, coupled with other new procedures and technology, can continue to the point where dirt is every bit as “safe” as synthetics without discarding centuries of breeding for dirt and grass.

There have been more catastrophic deaths on grass than dirt this summer at Saratoga. Should we therefore abolish grass racing too, and continue signaling our alleged virtue by urging the rest of the world to uproot its grass courses and go all-synthetic as well?

Switching to synthetics will irreparably harm American racing and breeding and will not placate a single foe of our sport.

Steven Crist

Hempstead, NY

The writer covered racing for nearly 40 years for The New York Times, Racing Times and Daily Racing Form. He was among the inaugural inductees to the Racing Hall of Fame's media honor roll in 2011 and received the Eclipse Award of Merit in 2016.

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Funny Cide’s Ashes Buried in Public Location at Track

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – During a ceremony Sunday morning prior to the annual upstate New York Showcase Day, some of the ashes of the late GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness winner Funny Cide (Distorted Humor) were interred at Saratoga Race Course.

The popular New York-bred foaled at the nearby McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, and owned by the New York-based Sackatoga Stable, died at the age of 23 on July 17 from complications of colic at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. He won the 2003 Derby and Preakness and his attempt to sweep the Triple Crown series ended with a third-place finish in the GI Belmont S.

While five other Thoroughbreds are buried under markers on the grounds of America's oldest racetrack, Funny Cide is the first to be placed in a location–under a tree just behind the clubhouse–that is accessible to the public. Sackatoga managing partner Jack Knowlton said he is pleased the that New York Racing Association agreed to his request to place the memorial where it did. Knowlton said he worked with NYRA President and CEO David O'Rourke, NYRA executive VP Glen Kozak and Najja Thompson, the executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc.

“I think they got the right spot,” Knowlton said.

Four horses–Fourstardave, APhenomenon, Mourjane and Quick Call–are buried near the jogging track in Clare Court in the backstretch. Hall of Famer and champion Go for Wand is buried in the infield. Knowlton said he pushed back on the suggestion to put Funny Cide's ashes in Clare Court.

“Different people said, 'Oh, great horses are buried there, do that. Maybe do something in the walking ring,” Knowlton said. “He's the people's horse and we wanted people to have access and let the fans see him. That's what was agreed upon and I think it's a great spot. All racing fans are going to have access to it and hopefully have good memories. Right now, we need good memories.”

Knowlton and Sackatoga partner Lew Titterton placed the metal box with the ashes in the site that had been prepared as Thompson addressed the crowd of about 50 people who attended. Trainer Barclay Tagg and his assistant Robin Smullen and his regular rider, Hall of Fame jockey Jose Santos, participated in the event.

Later, Knowlton said that some of the gelding's ashes will be buried at the Kentucky Horse Park, where he lived for 15 years and was a favorite of visitors, and at the McMahon farm.

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The Week in Review: No Plan? No Problem for Castellano in Travers

After getting brushed and shuffled in the early stages of Saturday's GI Travers S. while losing momentum and position, Javier Castellano decided to wing his trip aboard 2.7-1 second choice Arcangelo (Arrogate). He would later explain with a laugh–in the way that only winning jockeys can find humor when their riding tactics go off-kilter–that “it seemed to me that everybody had a plan, except myself.”

Sometimes no plan ends up being the best plan, as demonstrated by Arcangelo's artful dissection of a “loaded” Midsummer Derby that brought together not only the winners of this year's three Triple Crown races, but also the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile champion colt from last season.

Yet while Arcangelo's team–owner Blue Rose Farm, trainer Jena Antonucci, and the now seven-time winning Travers jockey Castellano–deservedly basked in the glory of the colt's well-improvised, 105 Beyer Speed Figure score that came 11 weeks after a 7-1 upset of the GI Belmont S., the connections of the high-profile Travers also-rans might have been rightfully questioning how their own pre-race strategies also seemed to disintegrate shortly after the starter sprung the latch for Saratoga's annual showcase race.

Take 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence), for example. The reigning 2-year-old champ and winner of three of five graded stakes at age three was favored to win the Travers at 1.75-1 odds. But I wouldn't bet that too many people expected him to outbreak the field, especially considering he was fractious in the gate from post one and that he had never led at the first call in any of his previous nine races. Yet he popped out on top and spearheaded the pack for the first 100 yards before jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. decided he wanted Forte back in his comfort zone of targeting pacemakers and not being one himself.

At the same time, GI Kentucky Derby upsetter Mage (Good Magic) also broke with more early energy than usual, leaving Flavien Prat with an unexpectedly hard-to-handle, keyed-up colt as the field scrambled for position into the clubhouse turn.

With both Ortiz and Prat committed to conceding their positions in efforts to get their colts to settle, Castellano had to adjust his own rhythm and cadence in their wake, dropping back to fifth while securing a rail spot for Arcangelo.

The two colts who projected to be the main speeds on paper–the GI Preakness S. wire-to-wire victor National Treasure (Quality Road) and the all-the-way Curlin S. winner Scotland (Good Magic)–then came around Forte and Mage while Arcangelo, taking the shortest route at the fence, edged up into second.

Onto the backstretch, the Travers pack sorted itself into a more logical procession after opening quarter-mile splits of :23.46 and :24.54.

But then the 12-1 'TDN Rising Star' Tapit Trice (Tapit) surged up with an early bid for third behind Scotland and National Treasure, and these tactics, too, were out of the ordinary for a colt who has historically lagged and had to be scrubbed on in the early stages.

But on Saturday, Tapit Trice was newly adorned with blinkers for the first time in a race, and jockey Jose Ortiz had already started nudging him for run at the mile pole to see if the equipment change would produce a prolonged bid that would be able to sustain giving up five paths of real estate through the initial turn.

By the time the field crested the half-mile marker through a third-quarter split in a speeded-up :23.63, the body language of the contenders was telling: Scotland was all-out under pressure, with National Treasure being pushed along but not making headway while three-quarters of a length behind. Tapit Trice continued his wide journey three deep through the second turn, while Arcangelo fluidly clicked into a higher cruising gear, with Castellano tipping him out to the four path and appearing primed to pounce turning for home.

Forte at this point was rallying admirably considering his dire, self-inflicted circumstances, but the favorite's wide move from last under Irad Ortiz was accompanied by a whiff of too-little-too-late desperation. The punchless Mage dropped back to trail the field and was not hammered on for run by Prat when it was evident he was in no way in it to win it.

Banking off the bend through a fourth-quarter split in :24.65, Arcangelo drew abreast with what had essentially been a six-furlong middle move by Tapit Trice and the stubbornly staying-on Scotland.

Castellano gave one cursory look over his right shoulder to size up the threat from Forte, and he saw enough to know he wouldn't have to glance back in that direction again while hustling his colt with a vigorous hand ride in upper stretch.

Three-sixteenths out, Arcangelo put away both pacemakers, then braced for a fresh challenge from the late-striding Disarm (Gun Runner). A bit of judicious right-handed stick work outside the eighth pole elicited just enough torque from Arcangelo to keep Disarm at bay, with the final margin between them a length at the wire and Tapit Trice 2 1/2 lengths farther back in third.

In order, Forte, National Treasure, Scotland and Mage rounded out the finish.

Although Arcangelo's winning Beyer represents a three-point bump over his 102 for the Belmont S. and continues the colt's upward arc of always running a faster figure than his previous race over six lifetime starts, his final time of 2:02.23 for 10 furlongs was the slowest winning time for the Travers since V.E. Day stopped the timer in 2:02.98 back in 2014.

Arcangelo also made his winning move through a final quarter- mile clocked in :25.85, which is the slowest final split for the Travers since Keen Ice required :26.49 to upset American Pharoah in the 2015 edition.

Your Travers takeaway will depend upon how much emphasis you put on each of the above-mentioned factors.

On one hand, the winner looked visually impressive, and resonates as a colt who doesn't need to have everything go his own way to run his “A” race.

Arcangelo's speed figure came back more than respectable, but when the raw times get compared to the race's recent history, they're only so-so.

You also have to factor in that the next time Arcangelo meets Grade I competition, three of his main contenders are probably not going to suffer the disadvantageous types of trips that skewed the efforts of Forte, Mage, and (to a lesser degree) Tapit Trice.

On Sunday, the connections of the Travers top four reported all colts emerged from the race in decent shape. Mage's team posted on Twitter that he was doing well after “a bad day at the office.”

Antonucci was non-committal about a next start for Arcangelo. The GI Breeders' Cup Classic, though, would afford the same 11-week spacing as the colt's wins between the Belmont S. and the Travers.

That time frame would also match the same 11 weeks that Arcangelo's sire utilized when he won the Travers and the Classic in succession in 2016.

And let's not forget that Arrogate then parlayed those emphatic wins at age three into a sweep of the GI Pegasus World Cup and G1 Dubai World Cup early in his 4-year-old season.

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