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‘Frozen Pizza And A Cold Beer’: Drury Celebrates Blue Grass Win In Style

Bruce Lunsford's homebred Bernardini colt Art Collector returned to his home base at Skylight Training Center in Goshen, Ky., on Saturday night following his 31/2-length victory under jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. in the $600,000 Toyota Blue Grass (G2) at Keeneland.

The victory gave trainer Tom Drury Jr. his first graded stakes triumph.

“It was a pretty special day,” Drury said Sunday morning, noting there was not much time for celebration. “You know how we horse trainers are. I had to get him back to Skylight last night and I had to be at Churchill Downs at 5:30 (this morning) for the first set. I wound up having a frozen pizza and a cold beer.”

With the Toyota Blue Grass victory, Art Collector picked up 100 qualifying points toward the $3 million Kentucky Derby (G1) to be run Sept. 5. That total is good for fourth place on the Derby leaderboard with only six points races remaining for the classic, which is limited to the top 20 point earners that pass the entry box.

“I am going to get with Bruce in the next couple of days and figure out what we will do,” Drury said about the eight weeks remaining before the Derby. “Art Collector will stay at Skylight for a little while because it is quieter there and then like we have done before, two weeks or so before he runs we will bring him back to Churchill.

“If we do anything, it likely would be Ellis (the Ellis Park Derby on Aug. 9).”

On Saturday evening, trainer Kenny McPeek tweeted that Peter Callahan's Toyota Blue Grass runner-up, Swiss Skydiver, “came back in good order. Very proud of her race today. We will likely point towards the Kentucky Oaks.”

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War Of Will Adds To Grade 1 Résumé With Maker’s Mark Mile Victory On Keeneland Turf

Gary Barber's War of Will eased past longshot Parlor in the final yards to win the 32nd running of the $300,000 Maker's Mark Mile (G1) for 4-year-olds and up by a nose Friday afternoon at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.

With Tyler Gaffalione aboard, War of Will raced in the clear after breaking from post 10 and tracked the pace set by High Crime and Parlor, who raced through fractions of :23.17 and :46.91.

Approaching the stretch, Parlor put away High Crime, completing six furlongs in 1:11.09. Under Florent Geroux, Parlor opened a daylight advantage but was unable to hold off the final surge from War of Will and Gaffalione.

“Getting the last race out of the way (May 25 Shoemaker Mile-G1 at Santa Anita on the turf) got the nerves out,” said Gaffalione. “Taking the blinkers off helped him relax beautifully going around there. And when I called on him he finished up nicely.”

Trained by Mark Casse, War of Will covered the mile on a firm turf course in 1:34.55. It is the first Maker's Mark victory for Casse and Gaffalione.

“We're so excited,” said Casse, who was not at Keeneland, where War of Will was saddled by assistant trainer David Carroll. “It's great for everybody. We're just so excited.

“Tyler gave him a tremendous ride,” Casse added. “I wasn't sure (at the finish if he won). I wasn't sure until they put (his number) up. (My wife) Tina and I were just jumping up and down. It's means so much to the horse. We love him so much. And it means so much for a stallion prospect and everything (to be a Grade 1 winner on dirt and turf). Gary Barber and I will have to talk about (if he goes back to dirt or remains on turf). But everyone knows how much we love him, and it's so wonderful.”

The victory was worth $180,000 and increased War of Will's earnings to $1,796,069 with a record of 16-5-1-2 that includes a Grade 1 dirt victory in last year's Preakness.

A Keeneland sale graduate, War of Will is a 4-year-old Kentucky-bred son of War Front out of the Sadler's Wells mare Visions of Clarity (IRE).

War of Will returned $13.80, $6.80 and $3.60. Parlor paid $20.40 and $7 and finished a neck in front of favored Raging Bull (FR), who paid $2.40 to show under Joel Rosario.

It was another half-length back to Without Parole (GB), who was followed in order by Emmaus (IRE), English Bee, Hembree, High Crime, Everfast and Next Shares.

“That was a tough one to lose,” said Mike Maker, Parlor's trainer. “He's had a tough trip last couple of times and I thought he had a good chance today. He ran his race. I sure thought he was going to hang on. He got out of the gate well and handled the turf well. No excuse. He was just second best.”

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The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Diversity In American Racing

In the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the topic of racial disparity has been all over mainstream news outlets. Questions about diversity, inclusion, and racism in horse racing have been simmering since the start of Black Lives Matter protests earlier this summer.

This week, the topic took center stage in horse racing news after a bloodstock agent was condemned for making racist posts on social media. Keeneland later announced it was ruling Tom VanMeter and his associated companies off its property while the organization investigates. VanMeter has apologized for his comments.

In this week's edition of The Friday Show, editor-in-chief Natalie Voss sat down with Alicia Wincze-Hughes, career turfwriter and now communications director for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, to get her thoughts on where the sport stands with diversity – and how it can improve. Hughes recently authored a column on the topic for the Thoroughbred Daily News which is available here.

Watch the Friday Show below and share your thoughts.

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Report: Baffert’s Lidocaine Findings Not Likely A Sign Of An Effort To Mask Injury

Now that the results of split sample tests are back on Bob Baffert trainees Charlatan and Gamine, both of whom won races at Oaklawn Park in early May, Baffert's attorney has confirmed the positive tests were for lidocaine. Dr. Mary Scollay, executive director and COO of the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, told The Blood-Horse this week that it seems unlikely a trainer would use lidocaine intentionally to mask a lame horse before a race.

Lidocaine has a number of accepted therapeutic uses — as a topical numbing agent, it can be deployed before a veterinarian puts in stitches to a wound, or can be helpful to relieve pain or swelling from a bug bite or other skin issue in a spot that's hard to bandage. It can also be injected as a temporary nerve block as part of a standard lameness exam. In order to isolate the source of a lameness, veterinarians will carefully apply short-acting nerve blocks to work out, by process of elimination, which structures are responsible for a horse's gait abnormality and then target their diagnostic imaging from there.

It seemed unlikely to Scollay that someone would numb a horse with lidocaine before a race to mask a problem or gain a competitive advantage because it's well-known as a substance easily detected in drug tests.

Still, Scollay told writer Eric Mitchell, she's of the opinion that horses should be disqualified in the case of medication violations, because not doing so unfairly disadvantages the horse that finished second with no medication overages. In the case of Charlatan and Gamine, Arkansas guidelines would allow for disqualification and reallocation of purse money if the commission determines a violation occurred.

Baffert's attorney told media Monday the overages were the result of a pain patch a member of Baffert's staff was using to relieve back pain, and that he intends to defend the cases before the commission.