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View From The Eighth Pole: Sublime To The Ridiculous At Breeders’ Cup

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the Breeders' Cup?

Putting aside for a moment the unprecedented fiasco that began when the horses for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf were loaded in the starting gate (and which continued for days while officials revised their take about what happened), there were many positive stories that came out of this 38^th edition of what is moving closer toward its self-proclaimed status as Thoroughbred racing's world championships.

Let's begin with the fact there were no serious injuries or fatalities sustained by any of the horses competing over the two days at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., on Nov. 5-6. Considering how the final race of the 2019 Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita ended with the fatal injury to Mongolian Groom, it was extremely important to have an injury-free event.

California, by necessity, has led the way on equine safety reforms after the spike in fatalities at Santa Anita in the winter and spring of 2019 that put the sport in the crosshairs of animal extremists, national media and a growing number of politicians.

One of those reforms, which has nothing to do with musculoskeletal injuries, is the elimination of the race-day administration of Lasix, the anti-bleeder diuretic whose use is not permitted close to competition in any major racing countries outside of North America. Some horsemen raised concerns about the absence of Lasix, especially on older horses that had been running on it previously, but we have yet to see the predictions of doom come true about numerous horses gushing blood from the nostrils or jockeys coming back with red-splattered pants.

It turns out American horsemen can do what the rest of the world has proven it can do: race Thoroughbreds without giving them race-day medication to treat exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage.

Another reform taken by California regulators is restricting the use of the riding crop, or whip. The crop can only be used in an underhand manner, according to the regulations, and jockeys are limited to six strikes and no more than two in succession. While there were violations and rulings against three jockeys for going over the limit or raising the whip above the shoulder, I heard no suggestions that the whip restrictions altered the outcome of any races. Two of those races – the Sprint and Distaff – were decided by no more than an inch or two.

The storyline that could have the biggest impact on the Breeders' Cup over the long term were the two victories by Japanese-based horses: Loves Only You as the third betting choice in the Filly & Mare Turf and 49-1 outsider Marche Lorraine in the Distaff.

Japanese horsemen have been dipping their toes in American racing waters for at least 35 years, dating back to 1986 when Japan Triple Crown winner Symboli Rudolf traveled to California to run in the San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita. That's around the time Japanese breeders like the late Zenya Yoshida and his family, among others, began injecting significant funds to their upgrade breeding stock.

For the next 30 years, while there were a handful of Japanese runners who competed in the U.S., there was no serious effort by Breeders' Cup or racetracks to recruit those horses, largely because Japan – which has enormous wagering numbers annually – was a closed market for simulcasting. That changed in 2016.

Since select races are now permitted to be simulcast into Japan for separate pool wagering, we've seen Churchill Downs incorporate a Japanese Road to the Kentucky Derby, the New York Racing Association offer a bonus to a Japanese horse that wins the Belmont Stakes, and the Breeders' Cup actively recruit horses for its races.

That recruiting paid off this year, with seven Japanese runners in six Breeders' Cup races – by far the largest number ever. Separate pool wagering in Japan was permitted on three races, and fans there bet US$12.4 million (despite the extreme time difference, with post time Sunday morning in Japan between 7 and 9 a.m. The first of the three races, the Filly & Mare Turf handled US$3.7 million, the Mile US$3.9 million, and the Turf US$4.8 million.

Those numbers, supplied by Graham Pavey (@LongBallToNoOne on Twitter), pale in comparison to what Japanese fans bet on the 2021 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe from France. That race, run late on a Sunday night in Japan, handled nearly US$48 million.

The good news for the Breeders' Cup (and Triple Crown tracks Churchill Downs, Pimlico and Belmont) is that the successes by the Japanese runners will likely lead to more participation from that country's horsemen, which should lead to greater awareness of the Breeders' Cup and American Triple Crown by Japanese racing fans and increased handle.

One story that got lost in the swirling controversy surrounding the Juvenile Turf was the victory earlier on the Future Stars Friday program by Bobby Flay's Pizza Bianca, which gave the accomplished trainer Christophe Clement his first Breeders' Cup victory after 41 consecutive defeats. The late Hall of Famer Robert Frankel saw a similar string of frustration, losing 38 Breeders' Cup races in a row before breaking through with Squirtle Squirt in the 2001 Sprint at Belmont Park. Frankel would go on to win five more Breeders' Cup races, winding up with a 6-for-82 mark overall.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Clement add several more winners to his resume before long.

On to the bad news.

First, it is embarrassing to the sport that races can not be timed properly. Times were revised after the fact on two Breeders' Cup races on Friday and another on Saturday – all turf races. Inaccurate timing of races has become almost an epidemic in American racing at multiple tracks to the point that you no longer can trust the fractional times posted as the race is being run.

We should be getting better at this, not worse.

The mistaken scratch from wagering pools of Modern Games in the Juvenile Turf began with human error by a veterinarian who apparently was being asked to perform a regulatory job that he doesn't do on a regular basis.

The mistake was compounded by false statements from the California Horse Racing Board that were later retracted, miscommunications between stewards and Del Mar's mutuels department, and wagering rules that are outdated.

Breeders' Cup took no responsibility for what happened, saying in a statement it was the CHRB's problem. The CHRB insisted at first it was a Breeders' Cup-hired veterinarian who blew the call before realizing that same veterinarian reported to the CHRB's equine medical director.

With apologies to the men and women who make their living as clowns, this was a clown show. The industry must do better for the men and women who bet a record of nearly $183 million on this event. An independent review of what happened is needed, not a navel-gazing exercise conducted by the same people who made the initial mistake and then kept digging a deeper hole.

That's my view from the eighth pole.

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Panza Leaving NYRA Role As Senior VP Of Racing Operations

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) today announced that Martin Panza will depart from his position as Senior Vice President of Racing Operations at the conclusion of the Belmont Park fall meet on Oct. 31.

Since joining NYRA in 2013, Panza has been responsible for the leadership and oversight of racing functions at NYRA, including the overall development, planning, and execution of NYRA's premier stakes offerings and daily racing programs.

“Martin has successfully maintained the history and traditions of New York racing while also modernizing the program to adapt to changes in the sport and the overall industry,” said NYRA President & CEO Dave O'Rourke. “His contributions have strengthened thoroughbred racing here in New York and across our sport. During his tenure, Martin has established a talented racing office team that will serve as the foundation for continued success. We extend our thanks to Martin for his years of service to NYRA and wish him the best as he enters a new phase in his career.”

Panza successfully led NYRA's efforts to create significant events by bundling major stakes races into either a single day or across a series of days. The strategy resulted in blockbuster Travers and Whitney days at Saratoga Race Course, and the three-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival and Stars and Stripes Racing Festival at Belmont Park. Panza was also instrumental in the creation of the Turf Triple Series, which emulates the American dirt classics to shine a spotlight on the finest 3-year-old turf runners on the male and female side.

“I would like to thank my colleagues at NYRA and the NYRA Board of Directors for their dedication to this organization and the sport, which has allowed us to innovate together to enhance NYRA's world class racing product,” said Panza. “I'd also like to thank the horsemen, jockeys, and horseplayers who support our racing on a daily basis throughout the year.”

NYRA's organizational commitment to safety and integrity now sets the industry standard. Panza played a leading role in the formation of a coalition of leading Thoroughbred racing associations and organizations committed to phasing out the use of Lasix. Subsequently, NYRA and its coalition partners eliminated the use of Lasix in all 2-year-old races in 2020 followed by all stakes races in 2021. As a result, the three Triple Crown races are now contested without the use of race day medication.

Panza served as chair of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Safety Committee, establishing the NTRA Code of Safety Standards in the process. NYRA was a founding member of the Thoroughbred Safety Coalition, which was launched in 2019 to create and implement a series of significant safety, medication, operational, and integrity guidelines across Thoroughbred racing to ensure the well-being of horses and jockeys while increasing transparency and accountability.

Over the last eight years, NYRA has embarked on a sustained effort led by Panza to recruit prominent international horses and trainers to compete on the New York circuit. Driven by the interconnected nature of the sport, as well as the increasing popularity of turf racing, this initiative has generated an increase in global interest in NYRA and strengthened the foundation of New York racing.

“I've been lucky to have learned the craft from some of the best in the business,” Panza said. “It's a responsibility to share that knowledge with the next generation, and I look forward to watching the NYRA racing office flourish and succeed for many years to come.”

Panza sits on the board of the NTRA, the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, the Racetrack Medication and Testing Consortium and the Thoroughbred Racing Association. He also serves on the advisory board of the University of Arizona Racetrack Industry Program.

In addition, Panza has served on a number of racing committees and organizations, including the American Graded Stakes Committee, the Breeders' Cup Selection Committee, and the North American Ratings Committee.

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West Virginia Advances Model Rules; 2022 Implementation Hinges On Legislature

After a failed attempt last year to adopt a group of drug-related model rules that every other racing jurisdiction in the mid-Atlantic region has already implemented, the West Virginia Racing Commission (WVRC) on Monday voted 2-0 to advance to the state legislature new regulations concerning medication abuse and stepped-up penalty scales.

The July 12 passage of new rules concerning clenbuterol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, intra-articular injections and the adoption of the most current Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances list did not come without drama and several detours.

In fact, much of the wide-ranging debate centered not on the actual rules themselves, but on over-arching reasons for whether the board should even be voting on the rules package at all.

Back at the May 18 WVRC meeting, when the rules package was approved and sent out for its public commentary period, chairman Ken Lowe, Jr. said he would not support the system of fines included within some of those Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) model rules because he believed they were too onerous for West Virginia trainers to bear.

Yet at Monday's meeting, Lowe didn't follow through on his vow to tinker with the penalty system.

“You can't pick on every little bitty nanogram out of a 1,200-pound animal when there are people out there doing things that are a lot worse,” Lowe said.

“I hope every cheater gets caught and is suspended from the game–the big stuff, not the minor stuff, if it is an error,” Lowe said. “I'm not trying to convolute all this stuff–I swear I'm not. I'm just trying to help people understand that it's the bad people that I want to get caught and [be put] out of business. It's not the ones that screw up slightly or overlook something.”

Prior to the vote, Kelli Talbott, an attorney representing WVRC, advocated that board members seriously consider the model rules, lest West Virginia remain out of step.

“For what it's worth, we're the only mid-Atlantic state that does not have these,” Talbott said.

“I understand, commissioner Lowe, you pointed out that we should be mindful [that] West Virginia is different in some ways, that we should take that into account,” Talbott said. “But on the other hand, when you have [neighboring] states now having had these rules for a year or more…that's a concern.”

Talbott also pointed out that the commission “can't ignore the elephant in the room,” which is the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act [HISA].

The federal regulatory system that will be created by that law is scheduled to go into effect July 1, 2022, and Talbott said it would supersede existing state regulations pertaining to racing (West Virginia is a plaintiff in a lawsuit trying to keep HISA from being implemented).

“You just have to be somewhat mindful of looking at what's going on at the federal level,” Talbott said. “I think it's highly likely that HISA will adopt rules that look a whole lot like these model rules that [we're proposing] and other states already have.”

Talbott also told commissioners that the governor in June had handed down a streamlining mandate telling state agencies to only send rule proposals to the legislature that were “deemed necessary.” She also noted that West Virginia's horsemen's groups had filed written comments opposing the model rules, which could lead to a “battle in legislature.” And even if the model rules do get adopted by the legislature, it will be about a year before they are actually implemented at the state's two Thoroughbred tracks.

“At this point, I don't think we can deny that West Virginia's an outlier in the mid-Atlantic with regard to these rules,” Talbott said. “But on the other hand, you have opposition from the horsemen, you have the governor's executive order, you have the HISA implementation. And so I think the legitimate question is, 'Is it really something that you want to take on this year?'”

Lowe responded to Talbott's briefing by reminding her that it was not her place to advocate one way or the other for model rules.

“I'll say this in all due respects: The commission will decide the policy,” Lowe told Talbott firmly but politely. “You're always welcome [to provide] your legal opinion. But we need to make the policy decisions ourselves.”

Quixotically, Lowe then veered away from discussing the pending agenda item, seemingly to defend himself for not having spoken up at ARCI meetings against the crafting of these sorts of model rules.

“Don't ever think because Ken Lowe didn't vote against something [at an ARCI meeting] he voted for it,” Lowe said, referring to himself in the third person.

At the ARCI meetings, Lowe said, “I'm so damn outnumbered I feel like the lone ranger sitting there…. I think differently than many of these fine folks do.”

Talbott spoke up to tell Lowe that she never raised the issue of what Lowe did or didn't vote for at the ARCI level.

Lowe then diverged again, getting to what he said was the crux of the issue.

“The biggest point I have in this whole ordeal, to me, is the diminishing or doing away with Lasix, furosemide,” Lowe said. “I think that's one of the biggest travesties that's occurring in horse racing in this country right now. Because I've seen it. I've witnessed horses bleed. I've seen horses choke on their own blood. To do away with that is a fatal mistake.”

This time Lowe's digression was interrupted by WVRC executive director Joe Moore, who pointed out that Lasix isn't even included in the rules package that the board had up for a vote.

“The statement you just made has nothing to do with the three medication rules that are before this commission to vote on today, correct?” Moore asked. Talbott confirmed that Lasix was not up for any sort of vote.

After the conversation got steered back to the agenda item, Lowe asked if any commissioner would make a motion to either support or quash the proposed model rules.

Commissioner J.B. Akers moved to advance the rules package to the legislature, noting that last year, he was the only commissioner who supported essentially the same proposal.

“I know West Virginia is not New York or Kentucky or California. I realize that these rules, to some extent, can be more onerous on the horsemen in this state,” Akers said. “I realize that some people don't like these rules. But we're the only state in our region that has not adopted these model rules.”

Commissioner Tony Figaretti voted in favor of the motion with Akers. Lowe asked if there was any opposition, then said, “Hearing none, the motion passes,” without casting his own audible voice vote.

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Maryland THA Issues Warning on Adjunct Bleeder Medication

The Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association issued the following statement to its members Tuesday:

“Effective immediately, horsemen are urged to discontinue the use of any and all adjunct bleeder medications for horses in training, including in particular, aminocaproic acid–commonly called Amicar.

Amicar and several other adjunct bleeder medications were placed on the Prohibited List in 2013 under the Association of Racing Commissioners International Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances and Recommended Penalties Model Code and the National Uniform Medication Program. Aminocaproic acid, for example is a Class 4 substance and penalty Class C.

“It is important to understand that these medications cannot be regulated by withdrawal time guidance and/or a testing threshold and their use, no matter how far in advance of a race, may trigger a positive post-race test.

“Any trainer who chooses to continue the use of these medications for training in the future will run the risk of a post-race positive test.”

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