A panel of New York turf writers, broadcasters, handicappers, racing analysts and photographers will vote on each division and for the New York-bred Horse of the Year. The winners will be announced at the NYTB Awards Dinner sponsored by the New York Thoroughbred Breeding & Development Fund on Monday, May 13 from 6-9 p.m. ET. at Sacred Saratoga on the property of GMP Farm in Schuylerville. Former jockey and NYRA TV personality Richard Migliore will again serve as host.

“Our organization is excited to celebrate this year's nominees. All are deserving and represent the best in New York breeding and racing. This year's awards will be a special night at an exciting new location,” said NYTB President Dr. Scott Ahlschwede, D.V.M.

Tickets are available–$150 for NYTB Members and $175 for non-members–for purchase by clicking here or by calling the NYTB Office at (518) 587-0777.

“The New York-bred Divisional Championship Awards is a special night because it recognizes the very best in Thoroughbred breeding and racing in New York,” said Brian O'Dwyer, Chairman of the New York State Gaming Commission and New York State Thoroughbred Breeding & Development Fund. “On behalf of the New York State Gaming Commission and Thoroughbred Breeding & Development Fund we are proud to work with NYTB and look forward to celebrating the connections of New York-breds who achieved success representing the New York-bred program last year.”

Also to be honored at the Awards Dinner with 2023 awards will be Broodmare of the Year, Champion Steeplechaser, Trainer, Champion Jockey and Outstanding Breeder.

“NYTB's annual awards is our marquee event. This year's nominees are no exception reflecting the quality and strength of the New York-bred program,” said NYTB Executive Director Najja Thompson.

A list of the 2023 New York-bred divisional championship nominees by category follows:

Champion 2-Year-Old Male: Antonio of Venice (Laoban), El Grande O (Take Charge Indy), The Wine Steward (Vino Rosso), Wynstock (Solomini).

Champion 2-Year-Old Filly: Brocknardini (Palace Malice), Caldwell Luvs Gold (Goldencents), Cara's Time (Not This Time), My Mane Squeeze (Audible).

Champion 3-Year-Old Male: Allure of Money (Central Banker), Eye Witness (City of Light), Hejazi (Bernardini), Maker's Candy (Twirling Candy).

Champion 3-Year-Old Filly: Downtown Mischief (Into Mischief), Gambling Girl (Dialed In), Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic), Stonewall Star (Flatter).

Champion Older Dirt Male: Bankit (Central Banker), Dr Ardito (Liam's Map), Sherriff Bianco (Speightster), Straight Arrow (Arrogate).

Champion Older Dirt Female: Classy Edition (Classic Empire), Know It All Audrey (Shackleford), Timeless Journey (Verrazano), Venti Valentine (Firing Line).

Champion Turf Male: City Man (Mucho Macho Man), Red Knight (Pure Prize), Spirit of St Louis (Medaglia d'Oro), Therapist (Freud).

Champion Turf Female: New Ginya (Tonalist), Runaway Rumour (Flintshire {GB}), Silver Skillet (Liam's Map), Whatlovelookslike (English Channel).

Champion Male Sprinter: Bold Journey (Hard Spun), Today's Flavor (Laoban), Rotknee (Runhappy), Thin White Duke (Dominus).

Champion Female Sprinter: Funny How (Overanalyze), Maple Leaf Mel, Rossa Veloce (Girolamo), Sterling Silver (Cupid).

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Winners in 17 horse and human categories will be handed out on FanDuel TV and other outlets, during the 53rd annual Eclipse Awards, presented by FanDuel Racing, John Deere, Keeneland, The Jockey Club and the NTRA, on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m. ET. The evening will culminate with the announcement of the 2023 Horse of the Year.

Of the 250 eligible voters represented by the NTRA, consisting of member racetrack racing officials and Equibase field personnel, the NTWAB, and Daily Racing Form, 219 (88%) took part in the voting. Finalists were determined in each category by voters' top three selections, using a 10-5-1 point basis. Eclipse Award winners are determined solely by first-place votes.

The 2023 Eclipse Awards Finalists, with the exception of Horse of the Year, (in alphabetical order) are:

Two-Year-Old Male: Fierceness (City of Light), Locked (Gun Runner), Muth (Good Magic)

Two-Year-Old Filly: Candied (Candy Ride {Arg}), Hard to Justify (Justify), Just F Y I (Justify)

Three-Year-Old Male: Arcangelo (Arrogate), Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), Mage (Good Magic)

Three-Year-Old Filly: Mawj (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}), Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief), Randomized (Nyquist)

Older Dirt Male: Cody's Wish (Curlin), Elite Power (Curlin), White Abarrio (Race Day)

Older Dirt Female: Clairiere (Curlin), Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper), Idiomatic (Curlin)

Male Sprinter: Cody's Wish (Curlin), Elite Power (Curlin), Gunite (Gun Runner)

Female Sprinter: Echo Zulu (Gun Runner), Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper), Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic)

Male Turf Horse: Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), Master of The Seas (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Up to the Mark (Not This Time)

Female Turf Horse: In Italian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), Inspiral (Frankel {GB}), Mawj (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus})

Steeplechase Horse: Awakened (Curlin), Merry Maker (Ire) (Malinas {Ger}), Snap Decision (Hard Spun)

Owner: Godolphin LLC, Juddmonte, Klaravich Stables Inc.

Breeder: Calumet Farm, Godolphin LLC, Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC,

Trainer: Chad Brown, Brad Cox, William I. Mott

Jockey: Tyler Gaffalione, Irad Ortiz, Jr., Flavien Prat

Apprentice Jockey: Axel Concepcion, Jamie Torres, Sofia Vives

In addition to honoring the 17 winners in the horse and human categories, Paul Calia will receive the Eclipse Award as the 2023 Horseplayer of the Year. Members of the media will be honored for outstanding coverage in six categories.

Eclipse Awards voting is conducted by the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB), the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), and The Daily Racing Form. The Eclipse Awards ceremony is produced by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.

The Eclipse Awards are named after the great 18th-century racehorse and foundation sire, Eclipse, who began racing at age five and was undefeated in 18 starts, including eight walkovers. Eclipse sired the winners of 344 races, including three Epsom Derbies.

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The 2023 Media Eclipse Award winners are as follows:

Multimedia – TDN Writers' Room Podcast – “Wade and Carson Yost,” Sept. 20, 2023; Thoroughbred Daily News

Gulf War veteran Wade Yost and his son, Carson, joined TDN Writers' Room podcast hosts Bill Finley, Randy Moss, and Zoe Cadman on Sept. 23 for an in-depth and emotional discussion of Carson, a 31-year-old stricken with Wolf-Hirschorn Syndrome and a Grade I-winning 2-year-old, Carson's Run, named in his honor.

“I was watching the NYRA show the day that Carson's Run made his first start at Saratoga, and Maggie Wolfendale interviewed Terry Finley in the winner's circle after he won, and they talked about the story behind the naming of the horse,” said Susan Finley, Thoroughbred Daily News Publisher. “Bill Finley contacted Terry and wrote a story for that day's TDN, and when Carson's Run won the GI Summer S., Bill decided to invite Wade Jost onto the Writers' Room. We were all very moved by his openness and honesty, and his willingness to discuss Carson's situation and struggles, and what Terry's friendship and the naming of the horse has meant to him.”

“All the credit to Wade Jost, and the incredible team that combines to produce the TDN Writers' Room every week; our hosts Bill Finley, Randy Moss, and Zoe Cadman, to our producers, the TDN's Katie Petrunyak and Anthony LaRocca, and our editors Alia LaRocca and Nathan Wilkinson from the PW Media Group.”

Wade Jost added, “It's phenomenal. Overwhelming is the only word I can use. It makes us feel good that people look at this and hear this type of story and say, 'you know what, we have a story we want to tell, too.' That's awesome. It's about Carson, but also the stories written about him and, of course, your podcast. You did a great job with that and I appreciate the opportunity to have had that conversation. We continue to grow with Carson's Run and the whole horse racing industry and can't wait to see where it takes us and where it takes Carson. All the stories that go along with him are pretty phenomenal.”

Writing – Feature/Commentary – Tim Layden, NBCSports.com – “Maple Leaf Mel and the long arc of a horse racing tragedy,” Nov. 1, 2023

Tim Layden, a writer-at-large for NBC Sports, won his fourth Media Eclipse Award for “Maple Leaf Mel and the Long Arc of a horse racing tragedy.” Layden related the story of Melanie Giddings, the trainer and cancer survivor of undefeated 3-year-old filly Maple Leaf Mel–named after Giddings–who suffered a fatal injury while leading the GI Test S. at Saratoga Aug. 5.

Writing- News/Enterprise – Sean Clancy, The Saratoga Special – “The Worst Test,” Aug. 6, 2023

Sean Clancy was not originally assigned to cover the Test S. at Saratoga on Aug. 5, but sprang into action and wrote a news account of the race of the tragic consequences of the fatal accident to Maple Leaf Mel and the reactions of individuals surrounding the event.

Clancy is the co-editor and publisher of The Saratoga Special along with his brother, Joe, which they co-founded in 2001. This is the second Eclipse Award for Clancy.

Live Television Programming – NBC Sports – “The Breeders' Cup World Championships,” Nov. 3-4, 2023; Lindsay Schanzer, Senior Producer

For the fourth consecutive year, NBC Sports has won the Eclipse Award for Live Television Programming for its broadcast on NBC, Peacock, and the USA Network, of the two-day coverage of the 40th Breeders' Cup World Championships from Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.

Feature Television Programming – Woodbine Entertainment: “SECRETARIAT The Last Race,” – Oct. 8, 2023. Airing on TSN (The Sports Network) in Canada. Tammy Gillanders, Producer

“In SECRETARIAT The Last Race,” the Woodbine Entertainment broadcast team produced a retrospective of the last race of the 1973 Triple Crown winner's career in the Canadian International on the turf at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto. The feature aired on Oct. 8, 2023, on TSN (The Sports Network) during the 2023 running of the Canadian International.

Photography – Carolyn Simancik – “Trading Horse Paint,” (Cody's Wish/National Treasure battle in Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile) The Press Box, Nov. 4, 2023

Carolyn Simancik, who has been photographing for Eclipse Sportswire since 2018, captured the most dramatic finish of the 2023 Breeders' Cup World Championships in “Trading Horse Paint,” which appeared on the Press Box website on Nov. 4, 2023.

Media Eclipse Award winners will be presented their trophies at the 53rd Annual Eclipse Awards Ceremony and Dinner at The Breakers Palm Beach in Florida on Thursday, Jan. 25.

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But for every good story there seemed to be 10 bad ones.

With the animal rights community and some portions of the media putting unrelenting pressure on the sport, there's never a good time to go through a rash of breakdowns, but for it to happen surrounding the running of the GI Kentucky Derby was bad timing at its worst. There were 12 deaths at Churchill Downs crammed into just a few weeks and it got so bad that racetrack management decided to pull the plug on the remainder of the meet and move everything to Ellis Park.

Then Saratoga happened. When New York Thunder (Nyquist) broke down strides before the wire in the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. the number of horse fatalities at the meet had soared to 12. It was a horrible sight to behold for a national television audience and the 48,292 in attendance. And it was a ghastly reminder of what happened three weeks earlier to Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) in the GI Test S. She, too, broke down right before the wire in a spill that was as ugly as it gets.

The Breeders' Cup was not immune to tragedy. Though no one was seriously injured on the day of the races, Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}) and broke down and had to be euthanized and Practical Move (Practical Joke) suffered an apparent heart attack and died, both while training for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

The fatalities obviously caught the attention of 60 Minutes, which, in November, aired a story that focused on the breakdowns and the sport's doping problems while casting a brutally negative light on the sport. Then we learned that we will get more of the same sometime in 2024. In December, FX, a subsidiary of Disney Entertainment, announced that there would be an upcoming documentary, “The New York Times Presents: Broken Horses,” which it said would examine “systemic issues, questionable practices and urgent calls for change that have shaken horse racing to its core.”

When it comes to the economics of the sport, there was more troubling news. Through November, handle was down nearly $500 million on the year or 4.39%. That means we are on our way to seeing the steepest declines in handle, outside of the COVID year of 2020, since 2011. Does that have anything to do with the computer-assisted wagering (CAW) players? Probably. They have tilted the pari-mutuel pools to a point where the regular horseplayer is getting killed and getting out.

In July, 1/ST Racing announced that Golden Gate Fields would be shutting down for good at the end of the year, throwing the Northern California circuit into chaos. The track got a reprieve, but a brief one. It is now scheduled to cease operations on June 11. That's when it will join Arlington Park, Calder, Hollywood Park, Bay Meadows and others that couldn't make it to the finish line. Some wonder whether Santa Anita, which sits on property that is estimated to be worth $1 billion, will someday join them.

Racing can't afford to have another year like this. Things need to change. While there are no magic bullets, here are what I believe are some practical and common sense solutions to some of the problems.

The sport needs to fully embrace StrideSAFE. StrideSAFE is a biometric sensor mechanism that slips into the saddle cloth to detect minute changes in a horses' gait at high speed. Those changes can, and often do, signal that a horse is in the early stages of having a problem that could lead to a fatal injury. The technology has been around since 2011 and, while it has been experimented with here and there, it remains largely absent from the backstretch of America's racetracks. Why? There's no doubt that widespread employment of StrideSAFE will cut down on the number of horses that break down and there's no excuse for the sport to continue to drag its feet when it comes to embracing the concept.

The CAW factor is a major issue that's not going to go away, no matter what harm it might be doing to the overall health of the sport. It has become an unmanageable runaway train, with these players betting so much money that no track is going to turn away their business. But some guardrails would help. More tracks need to do what NYRA has done. They have effectively closed the CAW players out of the win pool by no longer allowing them to place bets at the very last second. They have also been excluded from NYRA's Late Pick 5 and the Cross Country Pick 5.

The betting product also needs to be better and more geared toward the booming market that is made up of sports bettors. The sport has not been nearly aggressive enough when it comes to getting the on-line sports betting websites to start accepting bets on racing. To date, the only one that has been signed up is FanDuel. That also means adopting fixed-odds wagers, which are what the sports bettors know. Only Monmouth Park has gone down this road and two years after it was implemented in New Jersey the concept is limping along. No other tracks or states have tried fixed-odds betting and, in New Jersey, only the second-level tracks are available to the fixed odds bettors.

The takeout remains too high. With betting on a horse race often involving a rake of around 20%, the game is always going to have a tough time competing with other forms of gambling, where the effective takeout rate is lower. We're seeing some progress in this area, with a number of tracks lowering the takeout on horizontal wagers like the Pick Four and Pick Five. In 2023, Hawthorne took a major step in the right direction by lowering its takeout on win, place and show wagers to 12%. But we need a lot more of the same. With so much of purse money now coming from alternative sources like slot machines, there's no reason why tracks in places like New York and Kentucky can't at least experiment with reduced takeout rates.

Fix the Triple Crown. It needs it. The GI Preakness S. is no longer coveted by the sport's major trainers and has become a weak link in the Triple Crown. Everyone wants to run in the Derby and then they scramble, some pointing for the GI Belmont S., some ready to put their horses on the shelf until the big summer races. The 2022 Derby winner, Rich Strike (Keen Ice) passed on the Preakness and, this year, Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) was the only horse to go in the first two legs of the Triple Crown. The result is that the Preakness is less important than it has ever been and that only weakens the Triple Crown as a whole. When 1/ST floated the idea of running the Preakness four weeks after the Derby, NYRA reacted by announcing that it had no intention of moving the date of the Belmont. Yes, a Belmont run five weeks after the Derby works well for NYRA, but it needs to put its self interests aside and do what's best for the sport and shift the Belmont to late June or early July.

While we're at it, the purses for the Triple Crown races are too small. In this day and age, the $1.5-million purse for the Preakness is not going to motivate anyone to run. These are supposed to be the most important races in the sport and their purses should reflect as much. For all three races, the purses should be raised immediately to $3 million with the goal of eventually making them $5-million races.

These are things that can be done. Let's not let another year go by in which the sport embraces the status quo while the outlook for its future continues to get worse. The year 2024 is upon us, let it be the year where the sport takes much needed steps in the right direction.

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The post What Was Your Favorite Moment of 2023: Delrene Sims appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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1) Europeans Unleashed As Santa Anita is Struck by Tragedy, by Emma Berry (96,627 views). TDN European Editor Emma Berry arrived at Santa Anita as the sport and the Breeders' Cup was dealing with another blow, the death of Practical Move (Practical Joke) and the injury suffered by Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}), who would eventually be euthanized. She marveled at the beauty of Santa Anita and watched the European contingent prepare for the races, but found it hard to forget that it had been another difficult week for the sport. “Even with such brilliant beauty close at hand, it was hard to revel in what should have been a joyful morning as the image of the prone Practical Move lingered on in the mind's eye,” she wrote.

2) Racing Word Mourns Death of Lady O'Reilly, by Emma Berry (96,536 views). Berry reported on the passing of highly successful and longstanding owner-breeder Lady Chryss O'Reilly, the owner of Haras de la Louviere in Normandy, who died at the age of 73.

3) Fatalities Mar Travers Saturday at Saratoga, by Bill Finley (51,660 views). The Saratoga meet saw an unusually high number of breakdowns, but two stood out. Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) broke down a jump or two before the finish of the GI Test S., a race she was well on her way to winning. In an eerily similar scenario that had occurred on the GI Travers S. card, New York Thunder (Nyquist) had the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. all but won before breaking down a few feet before the finish. On the same card, a horse named Nobel (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire} was also euthanized. Bill Finley wrote of a Travers Day that was supposed to be about everything that is great with the sport turning into one of the ugliest afternoons ever at Saratoga.

4) Everything Was Done to Save Him: Derby Hero Desert Crown Euthanized, Staff Report (50,946 views). The story reports on the death of Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), the brilliant winner of the 2022 Derby, who was euthanized at Newmarket Equine Hospital after failing to recover from an injury sustained on the gallops in August.

5) Jockey Alex Canchari Passes Away, by Bill Finley (50,438). In one of the sadder stories of the year, Midwest-based jockey Alex Canchari passed away in March at the age of 29 after taking his own life, sparking discussions about jockeys' mental health.

6) Horse of the Year Havre De Grace Passes Away, by Alan Carasso (48,136). Havre de Grace (Saint Liam), the 2011 Horse of the Year, passed away in April. Wayne Sweezey, who boarded Havre de Grace at his Timber Town Farm, confirmed that the 16-year-old mare hemorrhaged multiple times and died after producing a colt by Into Mischief the afternoon of Apr. 28.

7) Pretty Mischievous Wins Test; Maple Leaf Mel Breaks Down at Wire, is Euthanized, Staff Report (41,426). Like the breakdown of New York Thunder later on in the meet, the breakdown of Maple Leaf Mel in the Test S. shook Saratoga and cast a pall over the meet.

8) HIWU Descends Upon a Shedrow, Upending Life For a Mom-and-Pop Stable, by TD Thornton (30,863). John Pimental is a small-time trainer who was well-liked, worked hard and had never been in any trouble during his long career. That all changed when agents for the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) descended upon John's stable and upended his world: one of his horses had tested positive for 193 picograms per milliliter of methamphetamine, a street drug of abuse that is classified as a “banned” substance in racing. The story details Pimental's fight to clear his name and takes a look at the tactics HIWU used to make the case that Pimental had violated its rules.

9) Sire Of Sires, WinStar Farm's Champion Speightstown Euthanized, Staff Report (30,066). The story reports on the passing of WinStar Farm's top sire Speightstown (Gone West) and his remarkable career as a sire.

10) The Week in Review: With Forte Non-DQ, NYRA Stewards Owe Public an Explanation, by Bill Finley (29,977). The Saratoga stewards decided not to disqualify Forte (Violence) from his win in the GII Jim Dandy S. at Saratoga, despite what appeared to be rough-riding tactics by Irad Ortiz Jr. that caused Forte to bump Angel of Empire (Classic Empire). But writer Bill Finley thought the bigger story was that there is next to no transparency in racing when it comes to stewards' decisions and that the bettors deserved an explanation over why there was no disqualification.

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Yet, by just about any measure, it was not a good meet. Saratoga came into 2023 with the wind at its back. Every year the racing seemed to get bigger, the handle would grow and more and more fans would pile into the historic racecourse. Taking out the covid year, handle had risen at Saratoga for five straight years.

Would Saratoga ever lose its momentum or would it keep growing exponentially?

It turned this year. The 12 fatalities, including two particularly gruesome ones that occurred in full view of packed grandstand and before a national TV audience, were as bad as it gets. How many racing fans were turned into ex-racing fans on those days? NYRA has always taken the safety of the horses and jockeys very seriously and will no doubt continue to put in place measures to keep both safe.

They have some control over horse safety, but none over the weather, which was a huge problem at the meet. During the 2022 meet, only 15 races came off the grass. Through Sunday of the 2023 meet, 65 races had come off the grass. There had been 189 grass races run in 2022 versus 129 this year. That always leads to the same problems. When races come off the turf there are always a number of scratches, typically creating off-the-turf races with four or five-horse fields. On Aug. 10, an off-the-turf race actually turned into a match race. This is stuff no one wants to bet on.

NYRA is ready to do what it can to address that problem. NYRA President and CEO Dave O'Rourke has said that there is serious interest in installing a synthetic track at Saratoga by the 2025 meet. It wouldn't replace either the dirt main track or the two turf courses but would give NYRA a third option when it comes to racing surfaces and the synthetic track would largely be put to use when the rains washed races off of the turf.

The weather has been a problem, but if you dig a bit further you can find some signs that Saratoga handle was affected by more than the rain. On GI Travers Day 2023, when two races came off the turf, the handle was $50,183,71. In 2022, the handle was $55,559,315 when one race came off the grass. This past Saturday, on GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Day, they bet $27,400,509 on a day not impacted by weather. The year before the handle was $32,505,600.

“I think what happened is with all the earlier rain we lost some momentum and when that happened it's hard to get it back,” O'Rourke said.

Field size fell by 2.5 percent, from 7.75 to 7.56. A more telling number was the average handle per betting interest. It was $255,773 this year and $272,599 last year, for a drop of 6.2%.

What's done is done and there's nothing to do now but turn the page and hope Saratoga 2024 is one of the safest meets in history and the weather is gorgeous from opening day to closing day. The place is still magical and popular, but everything peaks at some point. Maybe that's happened to Saratoga.

European Dominance On The Turf

This is getting a bit ridiculous. U.S. racing is used to second-flight European horses coming over and winning some of our biggest grass race, but the year European shippers are having this year shows that our grass horses are vastly inferior. Take Saturday's GIII $2 million Mint Millions at Kentucky Downs. There was only one European shipper in the field, Ancient Rome (War Front), who is trained by Charlie Hills and was ridden by Jamie Spencer. Facing the likes of GI winner Annapolis (War Front), he came into it off a win in a handicap race. Before that you had to go all the way back to 2021 for his last graded win, a victory in the GIII Prix des Chenes in France. He won that by a half-length. He won the Mint Millions by a half-length.

A week earlier, it was Bolshoi Ballet (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). He came into the GI Sword Dancer after losing by 21 1/2 lengths in the GI King George VI and Queen Elizabeth I Stakes, where he went off at 125-1. Yet, that was good enough to win the Sword Dancer by 4 1/2 lengths. The win broke a nine-race losing streak, going back to the 2021 GI Belmont Derby where he also took advantage of a weak group of U.S. turf horses.

Then there's Aspen Grove (Ire) (Justify). She was sent off at 50-1 in the GI Irish 1,000 Guineas and finished last beaten 14 1/2 lengths. But that was good enough for her to take home first prize of $500,000 in the GI Belmont Oaks Invitational in her next outing.

Good luck to our horses in the Breeders' Cup turf races.

Surprise, Surprise, Still No News Out Of Saudi Arabia

Back in 2020, Maximum Security (New Year's Day) crossed the line in front in the 2020 $20 million Saudi Cup. Just a few days later, his trainer, Jason Servis, was arrested and charged with using performance-enhancing drugs on most of the horses in his barn. When that news broke, the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia said it was withholding the purses until it could investigate the situation

It's been 29 months since Servis was indicted, he has pled guilty and in November will begin a four-year prison sentence. The case is over, but the Saudis still haven't paid out the purse. Presumably, the winner's share of $10 million will eventually go to Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute). But no one has been paid as the Saudis, who should have all the evidence they'll ever need, do nothing and don't seem to be in any hurry to write a check. We tried to get an update on the situation this week, but the answer we got didn't really answer anything.

“Due to the extended nature of the judicial process in the USA, the JCSA has been unable to fully conduct its own investigation into the awarding of the winner's prize for The Saudi Cup 2020,” wrote the JCSA's Sarah Tregoning in response to an email sent by the TDN. “Now that the legal process in the USA has finished, the JCSA expects to swiftly conclude its own investigation and make an announcement in the coming weeks.”

I wouldn't hold your breath.

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When “Born to Run” sounded through the grandstand as Mandaloun, Hot Rod Charlie and Midnight Bourbon bounced onto the track, it didn't matter how the race would go. I was in. It was enough to latch onto despite the outrage I felt towards my home-state regulators for an ill-advised whip rule that took down Midnight Bourbon, along with my exacta box.

But though he fell, everyone came home safe that day.

I turned into a racing evangelist, with Hot Rod Charlie at the center of my devotion. I brought my friends along to his revenge tour at the Pennsylvania Derby, where he finally triumphed over Midnight Bourbon. We gutted out another inquiry, after which, I wildly bear-hugged a friend. We'd finally hit that exacta.

I loved racing. My dorm room was littered with Daily Racing Forms. I missed dinner to watch the Breeders' Cup Classic. Ducked into empty classrooms to watch Derby preps at Oaklawn. I drove three hours round-trip to Aqueduct at 8 a.m. on a Saturday to bet the Dubai World Cup because they didn't offer the superfecta on 4NJBETS.

After college I kept it up. In March of this year, I went with my girlfriend–one of our first dates had been at the 2022 Haskell–to Kentucky for the first time. We stayed in Midway, there for “Road to the Horse” at the Kentucky Horse Park. I left in the middle, hiked over to see Funny Cide and Silver Charm in their stalls. One afternoon we walked around Keeneland. Circled the paddock, went beneath the stand and onto the track. It felt like walking on hallowed ground. A few months before, we'd been brought to tears by Cody's Wish's win in the Dirt Mile and dazzled by Flightline's romp in the Classic.

So you know how I felt when I saw Maple Leaf Mel, the undefeated New York-bred, bounding away from a Grade I field as the camera zoomed in on her. She went fast early–44 and two for the half mile–and she went fast late, with a gutsy performance by turning away her classiest opponents yet. She was “six-for-six.” That's the line etched in my mind. It's the last thing I remember hearing from track announcer Frank Mirahmadi before she went down.

It felt like a gut-punch–it was the first time I understood what that word meant. I couldn't think for a few minutes. I couldn't talk. I couldn't watch Cody's Wish run afterwards.

I avoided watching Saratoga after that. But this past weekend I turned on the FOX broadcast for the first time since. It had been three weeks, I reasoned. Enough time to reset my mind. Anyways, my favorite active horse, Arcangelo, was running in the Travers, and I felt sure he'd win. What kind of sport would this be if I couldn't watch it live?

So I turned on the broadcast shortly after 3 p.m. I watched Gunite, under a great ride from Tyler Gaffalione, take down Elite Power along with his eight-race win streak. I saw that the next race was an allowance, turned the broadcast off, went back to my book. But I was back for the Jerkens. I saw the Baffert runners in the paddock, saw Jimmy Barnes sweating bullets. Saw New York Thunder looking flat, his coat dull. I pulled up the replay of his last race. Saw him blaze to victory without changing leads.

It was the post parade now. I kept watching, live on FOX. I even almost made a bet on Verifying, he was looking so muscled-up before the race.

When they burst from the starting gate, I watched New York Thunder stride out on top. He led the way through the far turn. The Baffert runners dropped back, New York Thunder having run them off their feet, each stride pounding the dirt and carrying him away from them. But then I heard Frank Mirahmadi call out the fraction of 44 and two in this $500,000 seven-furlong Grade I sprint for three-year-olds. A punishing half-mile. I shut my laptop. My nerves couldn't take it.

A minute went by. I reopened the laptop, fired up FOX. I hoped they'd come home safe. But then I saw the wide-angle camera shot, saw that the five horse wasn't in the drop-down of the top four finishers. I heard the empty unsteadiness of the commentators. I shut my laptop again, leaned back in my seat, looked blankly out the window.

I watched the Travers that evening, only after I'd known Arcangelo had won and had come back in good shape. I couldn't enjoy it, even after he sailed past the wire. When he seemed to take a bad step in the gallop-out I held my breath, despite having read that he was fine. I wanted to look away the whole time.

That's my favorite horse winning the Midsummer Derby.

I'm drawn to racing, in part, for the history. Today I watched a replay of the 1988 Breeders' Cup Distaff. Thirty-five years ago. Personal Ensign running down Winning Colors under the Churchill Downs wire. A hard-won performance from an undefeated champion. It should have been rousing. Instead during the stretch drive, I felt nothing but worry that she might fall.

That's what I see when I watch racing now.

Horse racing fan Isaac Hart lives in Glen Rock, New Jersey.

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I was at Saratoga on both Whitney and Travers Day. Maple Leaf Mel and New York Thunder's injuries were the most gruesome I've ever seen in my decades in horse racing. I left the track in tears this past Saturday, having my own visceral reaction, believing strongly that NYRA should have shut down racing immediately.

A friend of mine is a crisis communications expert and she was with me this past Saturday. She's done work for the NFL and some of the world's most complex companies. She currently is the head of U.S. Communications for one of the largest law firms in the world.  She has come to racing later in life, but is a horsewoman first and foremost. After witnessing New York Thunder's demise on Saturday, she summarized her thoughts below:

   I get the complexities of shutting down the massive machinery of a racetrack. The business model impacts countless others that depend upon the race meet continuing. But you cannot dismiss the concerns of the public. While I can understand the need to take a broader look at the whole situation, the reality is that the optics of the breakdowns are awful. And you can't have horses running down the stretch on three legs. To give an NFL analogy, as soon as plaintiffs' lawyers could prove a causal link between football and head injuries, the sport had to change [because it risked losing everything]. Every time a horse breaks down, racing's license to operate gets shredded. Change has to happen immediately.

While I wasn't born into the sport, I've been in it my entire life. My passion for Thoroughbred racing has been a driving force in much of my professional and personal life; but this life straddles two worlds because no one else in my family or even my lifelong, closest friends are part of the sport. Because of them, I'm acutely aware of what people outside of the sport are saying. Saratoga residents who've been casual fans over the years are done. Friends around the U.S. texted me and were aghast. They were turned onto the sport because of me and now I feel responsible for the images they can't get out of their heads.

In the past few weeks, driven by this passion, I have communicated directly with various NYRA board members about my concerns and offered solutions and encouragement. This past year, with the breakdowns at last year's Breeders' Cup, on every Triple Crown Day and the country's elite meet suffering from the most awful of repeated tragedies on its biggest days…well, the damage is incalculable.

I come from a science background; and I'm a trial lawyer and general counsel by trade. I get needing to have the evidence to justify corporate decisions. However, what I don't get is being frozen and ill-prepared for such a crisis as what has befallen Saratoga this year given all of the knowledge we already have.  Let's be clear, this is an industry-wide problem. We've known for years through the research of Dr. Susan Stover and others that the vast majority of catastrophic breakdowns are the result of pre-existing, micro-factures and injuries. We have observed both historical and recent patterns that breakdowns routinely occur after dirt tracks are sealed. We know rain-sodden turf tracks become uneven, slippery, and/or unsafe, particularly on the turns. We already have the data that dirt tracks are significantly more dangerous than turf; and that synthetic tracks are safer than turf. We know that biometric and diagnostic technologies can help trainers and veterinarians identify the slightest changes in horses' biomechanics and that having a standing MRI on-site at every racetrack could help veterinarians diagnose earlier and prevent fatal injuries.

The general public may not know all of these details, but it witnesses the consequences of not prioritizing safety in every aspect of the sport. Businesses cannot be so data-driven that they forget the emotions of the day, compartmentalize away the sorrowful humanity of recent events; and fail to implement immediate changes. Sometimes business needs to conduct itself with more heart. The younger, larger generations demand that; and they are the future of this sport.

I do have faith that this generational awareness is something NYRA's CEO appreciates as he regularly invites families from Saratoga's “Backyard” into the paddock to get them closer to these magnificent animals of which we are all stewards. WE ARE STEWARDS, as Jena Antonucci has reminded us this year, and that includes each track operator, racehorse owner, training operation, veterinarian, breeder, handicapper, and fan. A steward is a person who is responsible for the safety and welfare of another; and thus, it is incumbent upon each of us who professes to care for these animals to do everything in our power to ensure their well-being. This means each stakeholder, at every level, needs to adjust its business model.

What can be done now, with the information we have today?

(1) Ensure on-site access to, and immediate utilization of, the biometric and diagnostic technologies at the racetracks.

(2) Replace the dirt. The data we have NOW proves racing on synthetics is the safest. U.S. racing and breeding industry cannot keep justifying breeding for, and racing on, dirt. Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse zeroed in on that in his recent TDN interview. Every track, including each of the tracks that hosts the Triple Crown races and Breeders' Cup, needs to convert their dirt tracks to synthetic, and HISA needs to consider this as a mandate. These synthetic tracks would also ensure that races that need to come off the turf can transition safely.

(3) Breeders and owners/buyers need to get behind this; and

(4) they absolutely must, regardless of the importance of a race, empower their trainers and veterinarians to scratch horses if they have the slightest bit of concern about a horse's soundness. It is irresponsible, to say the least, to take the opposite approach.

If the sport truly puts its money where its mouth is, then it would put equine welfare first in all things and change. In the end, this sport will either adapt, evolve, or be forced out of existence by a repulsed public.

Amanda Luby, Welbourne Stud

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Indeed, the numbers at Saratoga this meet are harrowing. New York Thunder was the eighth racing fatality. At least another four have died during morning training at Saratoga, bringing the total to 12. All 12 were trained by different trainers, including some of racing's most respected names–Christophe Clement, Graham Motion, Brendan Walsh and Kenny McPeek, among them.

Racing, it seems, just limps from one tragedy to the next.

It didn't, and doesn't, have to be like this. We've known for nearly 15 years how to reduce catastrophic breakdowns by 50% or more: synthetic tracks. I know these numbers have appeared in the TDN in recent months, but they bear repeating. According to The Jockey Club's Equine Injury database, from 2009 through 2022, there were 6,036 fatal injuries from 3,242,505 starts on dirt during the course of racing in North America.

That's a rate of 1.86 per start. (These numbers don't include fatalities that occur during morning training.)

On synthetics, there were 534 fatal injuries from 482,169 starts, a rate of 1.11. That's a 68% difference. Put another way, had dirt tracks matched the safety of synthetic tracks during that stretch, there would have been 2,437 fewer fatalities.

Despite great progress being made in California in recent years, the last two years have been even more striking. In 2021, the dirt rate (1.51) was more than twice the synthetic rate (0.73). In 2022, it was more than three times (1.44 vs. 0.41). At Gulfstream last year, there were eight fatalities from 5,886 starts on dirt, a pretty respectable 1.36. But on its synthetic track? One fatality from 7,085 starts, or a rate of just 0.14.

These stats show not just how much safer synthetic tracks are, but also illustrate why those who blame permissive medication or breeding trends are wrong. You simply wouldn't see this stark a difference between surfaces if those were the driving factors in racing fatalities.

As sad as it is, if racing continues this business-as-usual approach to racing surfaces, it's not hard to envision how all this ends: the end of the sport in all but a few parts of the country.

Most anyone could sketch the outline: the drumbeat from animal rights groups and unsympathetic media coverage gets loud enough to convince politicians to embrace either ballot referendums or the pulling of slot subsidies. The former, as it did with greyhound racing–now illegal in at least 42 states–kills horse racing jurisdictionally. The latter upends the sport's economics, depleting purse accounts and turning racing truly into the Sport of Kings, with small stables simply unable to justify the investment. Crop size, down from 40,000 in 1990 to roughly 17,000 last year, plummets further. Small breeding and stallion operations falter, with only the largest farms able to absorb the blow. Racing ultimately becomes an enterprise based largely around Kentucky and New York tracks. But once-popular tracks in Florida, California and Louisiana shutter. All the while field size dwindles and the betting product becomes less desirable.

This may take a decade or two, but we've been seeing this play out in real time, and if I was approaching 30 and not 50, I'd be very worried about my long-term prospects in the business.

Which brings us to racing's ability to attract people to it, be they horseplayers or owners or workers.

Every person reading this, and every fan and existing handicapper, myself included, has consciously or not decided that a certain level of catastrophic breakdowns isn't a disqualifying factor to our involvement in the sport. We recognize it is tragic and we mourn, but at the end of the day we conclude that our love of the sport and the animals themselves trumps that loss. But some in racing seem oblivious to the fact that there are many others who don't come to that conclusion; who have heard about the breakdowns at Santa Anita or Churchill or Saratoga and decided to do something else with their Saturday afternoons that doesn't potentially involve the death of an animal. They go to the mall, they go to the casino, they spend their disposable income elsewhere. The results of this are fewer people at the track or watching from home; fewer potential handicappers; fewer potential owners; fewer potential fans; fewer potential employees. And because there's no way to measure this, it's easy to pretend it's not happening, that jackpot wagers and bad advice from pundits and, yes, CAW wagering, are racing's biggest problems.

But talk to your friends and family outside of racing. Ask about their impressions. It's a pretty safe bet that animal welfare will be the first thing they bring up, and it's hard to believe that this isn't a huge impediment in attracting new fans. In recent weeks alone I've had several conversions with non-racing friends about the breakdowns at Churchill this past spring. A friend from NYC made the trip to Saratoga on Whitney Saturday and we spent the day texting about who to bet. After the Test, she texted, “Ah shit. I think that's it for us.” She and her husband left the track before the Whitney. Of course they did. How many people left before the Travers Saturday?

Racing's leaders have never cared to be vocal about this issue. This can't continue. Because if the current Saratoga meet has taught us anything, it's that we don't have a viable sport if we routinely break the hearts of our customers. And we can't attract new fans if people think we're not doing everything we can to protect our equine and human athletes. And right now, we aren't.

Lucas Marquardt is the owner of Thoro-Stride and a former writer for the Thoroughbred Daily News. 

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