mike rogers | Horse Racing Free Tips

Amid Repairs, New Date for Racing at Laurel Now Dec. 16

The new date for the resumption of racing at Laurel Park has now been pegged as Thursday, Dec. 16, with timed workouts expected to resume Friday, Dec. 10.

Both targets are pending a satisfactory safety review of the extensive base and cushion work now being done on the troubled main dirt surface at Maryland's most heavily used Thoroughbred venue.

With the exception of light training that continues to take place around cordoned-off areas of the dug-up oval, Laurel has been closed for racing and timed works since Nov. 28.

Seven Laurel horses have died since Nov. 6, and eight total have perished this autumn, all after sustaining fractures while racing or training over a completely new multi-million-dollar surface that had been installed over the summer.

Executives from The Stronach Group (TSG), which owns Laurel, were called before the Maryland Racing Commission (MRC) on Tuesday to explain the repair process and to face verbal grilling about why the problems escalated in the first place.

“There are seams that are being made in the base during starts and stops,” Mike Rogers, the president of TSG's racing division, said during the Dec. 7 meeting. “So our working theory is that some moisture got into [a seam in the homestretch] before it was able to cure, and it caused a slight depression.”

Rogers said that part of the repair job has been fixed, and now a consensus plan among “experts” hired by both the track and the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (MTHA) is underway to “add body to the cushion” by working sand into the mix.

John Passero, who years ago was Laurel's superintendent, has been retained by the MTHA as a consultant. He told the commission that the game plan outlined by Rogers should put the track in the “right direction” to resume racing and full training.

“All that happened was, as they started withdrawing water from the track, the cushion failed to do its job,” Passero said. “That was the long and short of it.”

Passero continued: “What's happening now is they're putting body back into the cushion, which [is] a little bit of a coarser sand that you can walk across the top of that will stop the horses from hitting the hardpan hard. That's the whole thing in a nutshell, and that's what they're aiming for now. The quicker you get that washed, clean sand into the track, the better off it's going to be.”

As expected, TSG officials faced considerable verbal blowback from commissioners. The key points revolved around the perception that TSG's reliance on scientific methods is occurring at the expense of not listening to the experienced opinions of riders and trainers. Commissioners also wanted to know what “measurable objectives” will be used to ensure safety moving forward.

Audio difficulties with the meeting's internet feed rendered large portions of the testimony unlistenable, and commissioners did not always identify themselves when speaking, making direct attributions difficult.

“We are all in this together,” said MRC chairman Michael Algeo. “The industry depends upon racing. We don't–need–negative–stuff,” he stressed, accentuating those final few words to make his point.

“This commission has an obligation, irrespective of our desire to be collaborative, to do what we think is right, irrespective of everybody's else's opinion,” Algeo said. “We have to act. Because at the end of the day, it's our obligation to [put] safety first. Safety, safety, safety.”

“Nobody's excluding anybody here,” Algeo continued. “It's a collaborative approach. I think we need both [science and experience]. No one's rejecting science. But when you have the science and something's not working, then you've got to scratch your head and go, 'Houston, we have a problem.'”

The cluster of fatalities is the latest safety blow at Laurel. The main track was in such bad shape last spring that Laurel ceased racing on Apr. 11 to begin an emergency overhaul of the main track, which got rebuilt from the base up over the course of four months while the race meet shifted to TSG's other track in the state, Pimlico Race Course.

Rogers said that, “Feedback from the trainers and the riders is critical. We welcome it, and we take it serious.”

But TSG's chief operations officer, Aidan Butler, said that ultimately, track executives have to take responsibility for the decisions that get made.

“There are always some people who want the track slower, some people who want the track faster,” Butler said. “We're all aware of that. But I believe…the maintenance routine that was done on the track this year was the same as last year and the year before…. Because of the complete change of the surface it just didn't react the way it should have done.”

The commission will meet again Dec. 14 to decide whether or not the final approval for the resumption of racing will be granted.

The post Amid Repairs, New Date for Racing at Laurel Now Dec. 16 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Horsemen Hopeful Laurel Park Racing Will Resume Dec. 10

Maryland Jockey Club officials are making adjustments to the dirt racing surface at Laurel Park in hopes of resuming timed workouts as early as Monday, Dec. 6, and returning to live racing on Friday, Dec. 10, according to Timothy Keefe, president of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.

Racing this weekend at Laurel was cancelled after an alarming number of fatalities – four from racing injuries and three while training – occurred between Nov. 6-28. It was the second time in 2021 that racing at Laurel was halted because of track conditions. The first occurrence was in April after a spike in musculoskeletal injuries, which led to racing being shifted to Pimlico on an emergency basis. Track ownership undertook a multi-million dollar track renovation project that wasn't completed until August, with racing resuming at Laurel in September.

Keefe said he joined Maryland Jockey Club officials and racing surface experts – Dennis Moore from California, Glen Kozak from the New York Racing Racing Association, and former MJC track superintendent John Passero – in inspecting the track's cushion and base. The top layer, or cushion, was peeled off from the rail out approximately 30 feet to facilitate inspection of the base.

One change that's being made, Keefe said, is to add a three-eighths-inch layer called a hard pan or pad between the cushion and limestone base. The pan will be the same material as the cushion but more compacted.

Keefe also said a coarse sand will be mixed into the cushion to help the material bind together and serve more effectively in softening the impact of a horse's hooves hitting the ground.

“They're hoping to lay the cushion back down on Saturday,” Keefe said. Horses have been allowed to exercise on the outer portion of the track, but there have been no breezes or timed workouts. They could resume as early as Monday, Keefe said, and if all goes well he is hopeful racing will resume on Friday.

The Maryland Racing Commission will address the safety of the main track at a regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 7 and are expected to press Maryland Jockey Club officials for a path forward. Mike Rogers, longtime executive with the Stronach Group that owns Laurel Park and Pimlico, has been acting president and general manager since former president Sal Sinatra left the company for a position at Equibase earlier this year.

“Mike has been great, very helpful, as we've addressed this situation,” said Keefe. “And Aidan Butler (Stronach Group's chief operating officer) is focused on this, too.”

The post Horsemen Hopeful Laurel Park Racing Will Resume Dec. 10 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Cluster of Deaths At Laurel Puts Maryland Racing In Limbo

Seven Laurel Park horses have died since Nov. 6, and eight total have perished this autumn after sustaining fractures while racing or training over the newly installed main dirt track there.

The most recent death occurred in Laurel's eighth race Nov. 28, and training has been curtailed in the three days since then. A portion of the surface has been dug up in mid-stretch to allow an influx of track maintenance consultants to try and discover if there is an underlying problem that needs to be addressed.

Laurel's next scheduled racing date is Friday, Dec. 3, but it could be in jeopardy, according to Alan Foreman, an attorney who represents the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.

“We've looked at every potential factor, and what we're focusing in on right now is the racing surface at Laurel,” Foreman said. “I think everybody understands that's what we're looking at, because with this red-flag cluster of fatalities, most of them were happening at about the same spot on the racetrack,” which he described as being in the middle of the homestretch.

“If there is a short-term remedy, then we'll try to implement a short-term remedy. If it's a longer-term issue, we'll have to address all of those factors. The expectation is that we're going to be able to start training on the surface this weekend, and we can resume racing next week,” Foreman said.

But, Foreman was quick to add, “We should not allow these horses to race on this surface until we feel certain that it's a safe racetrack.”

At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Mike Rogers, the president of the racing division for The Stronach Group (TSG), which owns Laurel, told TDN via phone that he could not immediately comment on when racing would resume. He said a press release detailing that decision was in the process of being drafted by TSG executives.

No timed workouts have been allowed at Laurel since Sunday, although horses have been permitted to gallop around the cordoned-off section of the homestretch, Rogers said.

Rogers said that on Nov. 23, a “minor maintenance” issue was identified in the homestretch. “It was a minor settlement in the base that we dealt with. Our crew found it. We're dealing with it. So that was the reason that the 'dogs' were up. We pulled up the cushion, and did some maintenance to that little bit of settlement that took place….before the sixteenth pole,” he said.

“We're planning timed workouts for Saturday, Dec. 4,” Rogers said.

The cluster of fatalities is the latest safety blow at Maryland's premier racing and training venue. Laurel had ceased racing back on Apr. 11 to begin an emergency, multi-million-dollar overhaul of the main track, which got rebuilt from the base up over the course of four months in an effort to solve substantial deterioration brought on by years of near-daily usage and piecemeal repairs to fix myriad problems.

“Whenever you put a new surface down, that can create problems of its own, so you have to be careful when you come back,” Foreman said. He added that when the new main track at Laurel opened Sept. 9, “We started out fine with it.”

The Maryland Racing Commission (MRC) confirmed the names and dates of the horses who have perished by providing an equine fatalities report to TDN on Wednesday. Counting only deaths from fractures on the main track since the new surface was installed, Laurel's first catastrophic injury occurred Oct. 3, when a $10,000 maiden-claiming filly named Kyosha lost her action near the three-quarters pole in a seven-furlong sprint. The Equibase chart stated she was vanned off.

There were then no main-track fatalities until Nov. 6, when the 3-year-old filly Bella Thyme died either during or after a workout.

On Nov. 13, Bust'em Kurt, a 2-year-old colt, was racing in the first flight of a pack of horses in a MSW six-furlong sprint when he unseated his rider at the top of the stretch after suffering a fatal injury.

On Nov. 19, the fatally injured 3-year-old gelding Gale Winds was vanned off after being pulled up in the early stages of a six-furlong NW2L $10,000 claiming sprint.

On Nov. 25, the 5-year-old gelding Manicomio fell while on lead at the three-sixteenths pole. The Equibase chart stated he was euthanized on the track.

The MRC fatalities report lists a horse named Golden Sky as having died during or after a Nov. 27 workout (Equibase does not list any currently active horses of racing age under that name).

Two horses trained by prominent Maryland conditioner Dale Capuano also recently perished: One was the 2-year-old gelding American Playboy, who, according to Equibase, was “injured past the eighth pole and had to be vanned off” this past Sunday in a six-furlong allowance/optional claimer.

The other was the promising Moquist, a 3-year-old filly with a 4-for-4 record who was a half-sister to recent GI Breeders' Cup Sprint victor Aloha West (Hard Spun). According to the MRC, she died Nov. 21 during or after a workout.

Michael Hopkins, the MRC's executive director, told TDN that from his perspective, all stakeholders appear to be working together in an effort to solve whatever is causing the fatalities.

“The commission's concerned about it, number one,” Hopkins said. “Number two, TSG has brought their people in from California. [Noted track superintendent] Dennis Moore is here. The horsemen have hired John Passero, who used to be the track superintendent [in Maryland] as an independent party to give his opinion of what he sees one way or the other.

“Hopefully, they'll come to a conclusion of what is best to address any issues that the track may have,” Hopkins continued. “My understanding is that they're being collaborative [and] understanding each other's positions and points of view. [But] where that sits right now I just don't know. John has been here since Monday. Dennis came in Tuesday night, I think.”

One aspect that has been a factor in the stability and safety of previous versions of the Laurel main track could be coming into play right now: the most recent seven fatalities have all occurred since the onset of colder weather, which, when coupled with moisture, can cause unevenness to develop.

During a Nov. 10 teleconference, Laurel track superintendent Chris Bosley said that the clay content in the new dirt track “is higher than was anticipated, so we'll be adding straight silica sand, which is 100% pure and has smaller grains. It will help break up the material a little bit, help loosen up the track, and help dry it out quicker. Moisture stays underneath and the material is bonding, so we'll introduce silica sand to break it up and probably slow down the track a bit. Silica sand is aggressive–and expensive–so we're going to do the process really slow.”

Although both Hopkins and Foreman told TDN the onset of colder weather could be a contributing cause to the racetrack's problems, they both underscored that equine fatalities can be deeply multi-factorial in nature, which makes it difficult to pin down any one issue that needs to be corrected.

“They're looking at everything. They're looking at a very broad spectrum here to make sure everything is right. Just from what we see, something's not right. It doesn't feel right,” Hopkins said. “Are there problems with the horses? I don't know. We have not had the opportunity to gather the facts as far as medical histories, vet records, and those types of things off of those horses to sit down and evaluate them one by one.”

Added Foreman: “It's not the horsemen. It's not medication. It's not running bad horses. You look at everything, but you look for the common denominator. It appears to be the racing surface, and that's what we're focusing in on.”

If the fix ends up being more complicated than expected, the prospect of having to transfer racing over to Pimlico Race Course (TSG's other Maryland track some 30 miles north in Baltimore) would be a much more daunting endeavor during the winter than it was last spring, when Pimlico was getting ready for its GI Preakness S. meet but ended up hosting Maryland racing through August. At that time, all horses were moved out of Laurel and split between stabling areas at Pimlico and the Timonium fairgrounds. But at this point in the year, neither of those venues is winter-ready to host massive numbers of horses.

“The problem with Pimlico is there's no place for the horses to train, unless we allow training at Laurel,” Foreman said. “That's the problem with the consolidation of racing here–we don't have a backup if the dirt surface at Laurel is out of commission.”

The post Cluster of Deaths At Laurel Puts Maryland Racing In Limbo appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Florida Senate Committee Advances Decoupling Bills

A trio of gaming bills were advanced by the Florida State Senate Regulatory Industries Committee on Monday, reports the Tampa Bay Times. The legislation would decouple live racing and jai-alai at most of Florida's gaming venues and create a new gaming commission.

The Stronach Group President Mike Rogers flew in to Florida to contest the bills, arguing that passing them would lead to fewer race days in the state. TSG owns Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

“The consequences of creating an uneven playing field amongst slot permit holders would be devastating to the Florida Thoroughbred industry, which is one of the largest agricultural sectors in the state of Florida,'' Rogers said. “Any reduction in casino purses would significantly impact local jobs and the underlying stability of the horse racing industry.”