kentucky horse racing commission | Horse Racing Free Tips

McGaughey Suspended 30 Days for ‘Ace’ Positive in Kentucky

Trainer Shug McGaughey, III has been suspended 30 days and fined $500 by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) after one of his trainees, Smokin' T (War Front), tested positive for a metabolite of acepromazine after finishing second in the $200,000 Audubon S. at Churchill Downs June 4.

But McGaughey won't be out of action for an entire month. The Nov. 20 ruling stated that the Hall-of-Fame conditioner will only have to serve half of that suspension because of “mitigating circumstances (number of violations in relation to overall record).”

The 15-day stay of the suspension is also conditional on McGaughey not triggering an additional Class A or B drug ruling against him within one year from the date of the ruling.

Acepromazine, a tranquilizer, is listed as a Drug/Penalty Class 3B on the Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances list maintained by the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI). The KHRC threshold limit for acepromazine is 10 ng/ml in urine.

The ruling stated that Smokin' T's post-race urine sample contained 61.2 ng/ml of 2-(1-hydroxyethyl) promazine sulfoxide.

A voicemail message left for McGaughey seeking comment on the story on Monday afternoon did not yield a return call prior to publication of this story. TDN wanted to know if McGaughey is planning an appeal, or whom he might designate to run his stable while the Dec. 5-19 suspension is in effect.

Class 3 is considered a middle category within a tiered ARCI classification system in which Class 1 Drugs are the most severe or harmful and Class 5 are the least. The B Penalty category is also a middle value on an A-B-C severity scale.

The ARCI's recommended minimum/maximum suspension and fine penalties for Class B infractions are 15-60 days and $500-$1,000 for first offenses. According to the ruling, McGaughey waived his right to a formal hearing.

Smokin' T, owned by DATTT Stable, has been disqualified, and his $37,900 in purse winnings are to be forfeited and redistributed.

The post McGaughey Suspended 30 Days for ‘Ace’ Positive in Kentucky 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: A Good Year to Have a Tough Horse

With undefeated phenom Flightline (Tapit) and sophomore star Epicenter (Not This Time) headlining a respectably deep GI Breeders' Cup Classic, one oft-repeated quip is that 2022 is turning out to be “a tough year to have a good horse” aiming for a divisional championship.

Yet a few rungs farther down the class ladder–more than a few, in truth–a blue-collar starter-allowance stalwart is tweaking that phrase so it better suits his grind-it-out style, proving that '22 is actually “a good year to have a tough horse.”

Last week at Churchill Downs, Beverly Park (Munnings) won his 11th race of the season in start number 23 on the year. Both those numbers are tops in North America; his next closest rivals have eight wins and 20 starts, respectively.

Emblematic of his speed-centric, hard-charging nature, the 5-year-old broke running in a 6 1/2-furlong $20,000 starter-allowance Sept. 21, took pressure at the rail in a three-way speed duel, then repulsed a deep-stretch threat to eke out a 3/4-length score under Rafael Bejarano for owner/trainer Norman Lynn Cash, whose horses race under the name Built Wright Stables.

Eleven wins and it's only the first week of autumn. For perspective, no North American Thoroughbred has won more than 12 races in an entire calendar year since 2011, when Rapid Redux ran the table with a gaudy 19-for-19 record. More than three full months of racing are left in '22.

In fact, by the time you read this, Beverly Park could well already be on the cusp of being entered for his next race.

Colleague Bill Finley profiled Cash's “throwback” operation in mid-May, when Beverly Park had racked up his first six wins of the year. After having owned racehorses in partnership with his wife, Lola, for about a decade, Cash took out his trainer's license in April 2021. He now runs a 40-head stable (split between Laurel Park in Maryland and the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, Kentucky) on the theory that as long as horses show they can thrive on frequent racing, they'll be in the entry box.

Cash claimed Beverly Park for $12,500 out of a NW3L win at Belterra Park on Aug. 5, 2021, hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with a horse who had won his previous NW2L condition in his previous start at the $5,000 level by 15 lengths. That meant Beverly Park would be eligible for some lucrative starter-allowance spots. But because improved horses who once ran for low claiming tags generally scare away entrants for those restricted races, Beverly Park had to hit the road to extend his winning ways.

So far in '22, Beverly Park has raced at Oaklawn, Charles Town, Turfway, Laurel, Mahoning Valley, Keeneland, Monmouth, Belterra, Churchill, Thistledown, Delaware, Colonial and Timonium. In the 399-day span between Cash's claiming him and last week's win at Churchill, Beverly Park is 18-for-31 with $424,024 in purse earnings. His lifetime record stands at 21-for-40.

Finally a favorite

The $200,000 Parx Dirt Mile doesn't yet have the status of a graded race, but Mind Control (Stay Thirsty) has made it worth watching the past two years on the GI Pennsylvania Derby Day undercard.

A tenacious middle-distance horse who is often perceived as having something to prove, Mind Control is known for clawing back leads when he appears hopelessly beaten (like in the '21 Parx Dirt Mile), and winning races by thinly sliced margins (of his 11 lifetime victories, two were by noses, three by heads, and one by a neck).

Something of a fan favorite, the Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stables colorbearer for trainer Todd Pletcher has not been a pari-mutuel darling: Going into Saturday's Parx Dirt Mile defense, Mind Control had started in 15 consecutive stakes, dating all the way back to Mar. 7, 2020, without once being favored in the betting.

Although feats like this are difficult to pin down as actual “records” (help welcomed from anyone with a deep enough database), it's unlikely the sport has witnessed too many (if any) million-dollar-plus purse-earners competing strictly in stakes over a 2 1/2-year span without once going postward as the public's choice.

That changed Sept. 24, when Parx bettors installed Mind Control as the 3-5 choice for the Dirt Mile. The 6-year-old tracked the Pennsylvania-bred pacemaker Far Mo Power (Uncle Lino) every step of the trip before the dueling duo pulsed away from the pack on the far turn.

The 12-1 longshot and the odds-on favorite raced in lockstep and close quarters through the length of the lane, exchanging heads on the lead and some brief brushing, with the innermost Far Mo Power under Parx journeyman Dexter Haddock twice shifting outward toward Mind Control and Hall-of-Famer John Velazquez.

Under the wire, Far Mo Power prevailed by a neck, but the objection and inquiry signs soon blinked to life on the tote board. When the numbers stopped flashing, Mind Control was elevated as the winner, with Far Mo Power and jockey Dexter Haddock placed second for interference.

“My horse is a fighter but, when [Far Mo Power initially] came out and touched him, I was okay,” said Velazquez. “[Mind Control] got a little intimidated, but my horse got head and head with him again…. At the sixteenth pole [Haddock] hit [his mount] left-handed and he touched [Mind Control], kind of got him off balance. That really got my horse intimidated and off balance and I couldn't get back on it.”

Regardless of the stewards' reasoning for the DQ, it's difficult not to view the takedown through the eyes of the demoted connections.

Far Mo Power's owner, Joseph Sutton, has only started 18 horses lifetime with a two-horse stable, according to Equibase. Trainer Louis Linder Jr., has been conditioning for a decade, and has never won a stakes at the graded level. Haddock, riding since 2017, has a lone Grade III victory atop his riding resume, earned only last month. A win in a $200,000 race over their home track would have been a big deal for everyone involved, yet Far Mo Power's people were diplomatic in the aftermath of the outcome.

“That's horse racing,” said Linder. “It hurts, but we'll live to fight another day. From the minute this horse has been in the barn I knew he was special.”

Added Haddock: “My horse tried hard. I am sad. I get on him in the morning every day. I am sad for me. I am sad for the trainer.”

As for Mind Control, his win-via-DQ earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure. After running the vast majority of his races around one turn, he has now earned his only three triple-digit Beyers in his only three two-turn races at a flat mile.

Perhaps those figures will stand him in good stead in the November renewal of the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland. A fever knocked Mind Control out of last year's Dirt Mile at Del Mar.

Midwest musings

It's a little early to get the crystal ball fired up to see what changes might affect regional racing calendars in 2023, but three separate news items from last week hinted at some subtle shifting in the Midwest.

The pending $79-million sale of Ellis Park to the gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), was greenlighted by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission Sept. 20. Although Ellis is scheduled to race essentially the same block of 24 dates next year over the same summer template, CDI will naturally want to put its own stamp on operations there. Considering the deal was in large part billed as a way to shore up year-round racing in Kentucky, you can bet that the new management will be making a sizable push to recruit and retain outfits that might have traditionally raced elsewhere.

Meanwhile, on Sept. 22, Hawthorne Race Course was granted a slate of '23 dates by the Illinois Racing Board that will return a summer Thoroughbred season to greater Chicago after a one-year absence in the aftermath of the sudden and permanent closure of Arlington International Racecourse. Hawthorne will race Saturdays and Sundays Mar. 4-June 3, then add Wednesdays through Sept. 4.

That schedule could put a downstate squeeze on the former Fairmount Park, which is now known as FanDuel Sportsbook and Horse Racing. Those two Illinois tracks have some overlap at the lower end of the class hierarchy, and with FanDuel's Tuesdays/Saturdays schedule from Apr. 18-Nov. 18, there will be conflicting summer Saturdays within the state.

Another wild card in the Midwest mix is Canterbury Park up in Minnesota. Despite ending its 64-date season Sept. 17 with a reported record total handle rise to $97.6 million, Canterbury faces an uncertain future because a 10-year agreement between the track and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (that provides purse funding in exchange for the track and horsemen not pursuing additional forms of gambling) is set to expire Dec. 31.

Andrew Offerman, Canterbury's senior vice president of racing, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune the day after the meet ended that the '23 schedule will depend on how much purse money is available. The Tribune reported that Canterbury paid $15.7 million in purses this season, with $7.28 million coming from the purse-enhancement agreement.

Less purse money likely would mean fewer racing days next summer, Offerman told the Tribune, adding that Canterbury might consider running three days per week instead of four.

The post The Week in Review: A Good Year to Have a Tough Horse appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

KHRC Greenlights $79M Ellis Sale to CDI

The pending sale of Ellis Park to the gaming company Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI), cleared a necessary regulatory hurdle Tuesday when the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) swiftly approved the transaction by a unanimous voice vote.

The KHRC members in attendance at the “special” meeting greenlighted the $79-million transaction in just 6 ½ minutes after a perfunctory read-through of the basic terms of the deal and a statement that the commission expects CDI to follow through with development projects that had been agreed to by the outgoing owner, which is the business entity for the Pueblo of Laguna tribe in New Mexico.

There was zero debate prior to the approval and not a single member of the KHRC posed any questions to CDI executives.

The transaction, which hinged on the KHRC's approval, is expected to close in the near future.

The intended sale was first publicly announced last Thursday, Sept. 15.

Within Kentucky, CDI already owns Churchill Downs Racetrack and Turfway Park.

Using the current schedule of Kentucky racing as a template, when the deal is finally inked, it will give CDI control of the vast majority of dates on the state's annual calendar. The Keeneland Race Course meets in April and October and the Kentucky Downs boutique meet in early September will be the only exceptions.

The only pre-vote comment at the Sept. 20 meeting was made by KHRC commissioner C. Frank Shoop, who said, “It is not only a great move for Churchill Downs, it's a tremendous economic enhancement for the state of Kentucky, and it's also great for Kentucky horsemen. It's a win-win for everybody.”

After the no-opposition vote, chairman Jonathan Rabinowitz said, “Thank you to Churchill Downs for its commitment to our year-round circuit, and for everything they do for the commonwealth. It's really exciting for Ellis.”

The transaction will be CDI's second attempt at owning Ellis, which it bought in 1998 but offloaded eight years later, describing it as an “underperforming asset” in Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Ellis Park opened as Dade Park in 1922, and it's currently the state's only Thoroughbred venue in the western part of the state. From a demographics perspective, its unique geographic location in a little slice of Kentucky on the northern bank of the Ohio River that is contiguous with Indiana makes it more of an extension of the roughly 450,000-person Evansville, Indiana, metro market.

For much of the 20th Century, Ellis-with its folksy nickname “the pea patch”-was a summer staple of the Kentucky circuit that catered primarily to lower-level racing.

But the advent of historical horse race (HHR) gaming over the past decade has boosted its stature as a business opportunity, and in recent years other tracks in the state have come together to share gaming revenues from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund with Ellis an effort to shore up year-round racing statewide.

When CDI bought Ellis in 1998, it became only the fifth owner in track's history. Once this latest CDI re-buy closes, it will mark the fourth different owner for Ellis in the past 16 years.

CDI paid $22 million in cash, plus stock, to acquire Ellis from Racing Corporation of America back in 1998. That deal also included what was then known as the Kentucky Horse Center, a training facility in Lexington that in 2000 was bought by Keeneland for $5 million.

In September 2006, CDI sold Ellis to Louisville businessman Ron Geary for undisclosed terms.

Two years later, Louisville Business First reported that “Ellis Park has been in the red for eight consecutive years, including all seven it was owned by Churchill Downs.” The publication also quoted Geary as saying that CDI lost $17 million during its time running the track, and that Geary himself lost $2.7 million in his first full year at the helm.

Geary persisted, eventually teaming with the Saratoga Casino and Hospitality Group (SCHG) by selling that entity a 30% stake in Ellis for $4 million. Geary then invested that money into bankrolling the launch of HHR at Ellis.

In 2018, Geary sold his remaining 70% stake in Ellis to SCHG for undisclosed terms.

One year later, Ellis was flipped again, this time for $11 million to Ellis Entertainment, LLC, a subsidiary of Laguna Development Corporation in New Mexico. The Pueblo of Laguna Tribe later held Ellis under a different gaming subsidiary, Enchantment Holdings, Inc.

Waqas Ahmed, the KHRC's director of pari-mutuel wagering and compliance, read into the record details of the pending transaction at Tuesday's meeting, noting that beyond the $79 million purchase price, CDI plans to “further invest $75 million” to develop Ellis and its off-site HHR facility in Owensboro, although specifics on exactly how that money would be spent were scant.

“Due to the preliminary nature of the project CDI was not able to provide further details, but I would like to note that upon review of the purchase agreement, Ellis Park will maintain responsibility for the capital improvements promised to the KHRC earlier this year,” Ahmed said.

The installation of lights for twilight or night racing and the expansion of the turf course were big-ticket items that the outgoing Ellis management had previously told the KHRC were in the pipeline for improvements.

Ahmed said CDI is expected to make “substantial changes” operationally, but that the gaming corporation intended to honor the 2023 race dates request for 24 programs (up one date from 2022) that Ellis had already submitted to the KHRC for next year.

Earlier this month, CDI unveiled its completely rebuilt Turfway Park, which in recent years has hosted Kentucky's December-through-March portion of the circuit. That massive project has been viewed positively in Kentucky as a way to bolster winter racing in the state.

But although CDI appears to currently enjoy a benevolent reputation among regulators in Kentucky, its history of acquiring then shutting down other racetracks has been a major cause for concern for the sport in general over the last two decades.

Under CDI's stewardship this century, the gaming corporation closed Hollywood Park and Calder Race Course, and it is in the process of finalizing the sale of Arlington International Racecourse so the property can be potentially used for a new football stadium. All three closures have strained or wreaked havoc upon their respective circuits in California, Florida, and Illinois.

In particular, the shutdown of Arlington last year capped a decade-long series of acrimonious relations with horsemen, who are still reeling from CDI's decision to sell off one of America's most historic and aesthetically beautiful racing venues, even while the corporation continues to pursue other gaming interests in the very same Chicago market.

Earlier this spring, CDI entered a $2.4 billion agreement to buy Colonial Downs and its network of HHR gaming facilities in Virginia.

In July, before that deal was even formally finalized, CDI's chief executive officer, Bill Carstanjen, said during an earnings conference call that the corporation planned to nearly double Colonial's race dates over the next few years, from 27 to 50, to comply with a Virginia law that ties HHR expansion to live racing dates.

In response to Carstanjen's comments, Frank Petramalo Jr., the executive director of the Virginia Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, told TDN back in July that such a drastic expansion might be detrimental to the overall circuit and the spirit of cooperation that exists in the mid-Atlantic region, given the “diminishing number of horses” and a horsemen's desire for the Virginia track not to be “running over other race meets.”

In addition to the aforementioned three Kentucky tracks and Colonial Downs, CDI also has two other Thoroughbred tracks in its portfolio-Fair Grounds in New Orleans and Presque Isle Downs in Pennsylvania.

The post KHRC Greenlights $79M Ellis Sale to CDI appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

United Tote Fined for Penny Breakage Miscalculations

After failing to properly calculate Kentucky's newly implemented penny breakage at two Standardbred race meets in July, the totalizator services provider United Tote Company has been fined and ordered to “seed” a future exotic wagering pool with $4,445.77, which equals the amount that the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) determined should have been paid out to bettors had the calculations been correct.

According to an administrative ruling dated Sept. 12 and signed by Waqas Ahmed, the KHRC's director of pari-mutuel wagering and compliance, United Tote “provided improper totalizator services” on races conducted at Oak Grove (July 17-19) and The Red Mile (July 31).

The first of those violations occurred two days after Kentucky first rolled out its mandate that dime breakage be replaced by bettor-friendly penny breakage.

According to the ruling, the mistakes also occurred despite the fact that United Tote “completed pre-meet totalizator tests with KHRC personnel using the correct breaks.”

The ruling stated that on July 20, United Tote submitted an Oak Grove incident report “showing that prices were calculated with ten-cent breaks instead of the required penny breaks, with a $1,916.56 liability owed to the public.”

Then on July 31, a separate incident report from The Red Mile stated “that prices were calculated with ten-cent breaks instead of the required penny breaks” but only for “remote sources outside of Kentucky that wagered on Race 2 onward on that date.” The liability owed to the public was $2.529.21, according to the KHRC.

According to the ruling, “ordinarily, the fine would total $1,000 for each day of violation; however, due to mitigating factors, that amount is reduced to $500 from July 17 through July 19 and July 31. According to the KHRC, those factors were:

“Oak Grove Racetrack has been conducting pari-mutuel wagering before the new breakage requirement that went into effect on July 14. The above events only impact the last three race dates of this track's 2022 race meet.

“[United Tote] calculated and paid the correct prices for all Kentucky sources for the wagering conducted on Red Mile Racetrack's meet. However, the penny break was not applied to Race 2 onward for all other sources due to a software defect.

“The violations were not intentional [and] the [United Tote] fully cooperated with the KHRC on determining the liability due,” the ruling stated.

Bettors will theoretically get repaid through the mandated pool seeding, which must occur “at a harness racetrack in the calendar year 2022 [with] all details…approved by the KHRC.”

In addition, United Tote “must submit its process for complying with regulatory requirements related to providing totalizator services,” the ruling stated.

It was unclear at deadline for this story whether United Tote is appealing the penalties.

The post United Tote Fined for Penny Breakage Miscalculations appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post