The Fixer to London Sale En Route to Ascot 

One of the quickest juveniles out of the blocks in Europe this season has been The Fixer (Ire), who is trained in Chantilly by Francis Graffard and is now en route for Royal Ascot. Whether or not the young son of No Nay Never appears there in the same colours in which he won Sunday's Listed Prix La Flèche remains to be seen, however, as he will first go under the hammer at the Goffs London Sale on the eve of the royal meeting.

The Fixer is out of the Group 3-placed Kodiac (GB) mare Fixette (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), who was herself fast and early, winning on her 900m debut at Saint-Cloud in April. Her son has followed suit, and has already made four starts, winning twice after being runner-up on debut on March 23. It is a family with which Graffard is already very familiar.

“I trained his dam, and she was very sharp and precocious, and then I had the brother, and he was the same,” he says.

The brother in question is Faro De San Juan (Ire), who became the first winner for his sire Almanzor (Fr) two years ago.

Graffard continues, “It's a very sharp family, and we don't breed horses like that very much in France, so it is hard to find horses of this profile.

“Another aspect is that the [French] premiums are very high on two-year-olds. A lot of people are looking for horses with premiums. On one hand we don't breed this type of horse and on the other hand everybody is looking for premiums. So the early sprint races can be easy for owners to win.”

After failing to reach his reserve in the ring at Arqana's August Sale, The Fixer was bought privately by Graffard and his wife Lisa-Jane for €95,000 and now races for a syndicate which includes the couple under their Stamford Bloodstock banner. The group of fellow owners features Guillaume de Saint-Seine, who is enjoying a particularly good year so far as he is also the part-owner of Angers (Fr) (Seabhac),  the recent winner of the German 2,000 Guineas.

Graffard says, “At the sales with Lisa I always to try to find this type of horse. The Fixer ticked a lot of boxes but he didn't have the premiums, and that makes a huge difference, but we took the risk, and at some stage you need to go for the right horse, not for the premiums only. But if you buy horses on spec without premiums it is always harder.”

The Fixer set about making things easier when, in mid-April, he posted an eight-length victory at Saint-Cloud on his second start. However, things didn't go so smoothly the next time he ventured to Paris. 

“My plan was to aim him towards Ascot, so I organised the programme around that and he ran in a conditions race at Longchamp and was very hot favourite,” Graffard explains. “He knocked himself down in the stalls and shouldn't have run. But they opened the gates, and he completely wasn't in the race. He's usually very sharp and this time he couldn't do it. He finished fourth, and I was very down, but when he came in he had scrapes everywhere, on his knees and all around his head, so there was a reason that he ran so poorly.

“I had the plan to run in the Listed race and fortunately we managed, with the team, to get him right in time for this. We saw the real The Fixer at Chantilly.”

With a trip to Ascot for the G2 Norfolk S. now very much back on the agenda, the decision was taken this week to enter The Fixer for Goffs' boutique auction a week on Monday.

“Everybody was happy again at Chantilly, but after Longchamp, and the experience of how high it can go and how low it can go, we said there was nothing to lose to go to the sales,” says the trainer. “If he is sold, we are happy, and if he is not sold we are happy because we run on Thursday in the Norfolk.”

He adds, “For a French horse to have had four runs already at this time of the year is quite unusual. At Chantilly, we beat those who came to challenge us, but there are very few five-furlong races in the French programme so we have to travel now.”

 

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Data, Data, Data: The “New Frontier” for Horse Racing

Last week at Royal Ascot, The Ridler (Brazen Beau) sprang a surprise in the G2 Norfolk S. when out-performing his odds of 50-1. That wasn't the only odd spell The Ridler cast during the race.

Into the final furlong, The Ridler drifted markedly left across the field, hampering the chances of several other runners. Controversially for some, The Ridler kept the race after a steward's inquiry.

During a presentation at Wednesday's Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, Will Duff Gordon, CEO of Total Performance Data, which provides in-running horseracing data, provided another intriguing way to examine the race.

Duff Gordon presented a chart showing the acceleration and speed of a horse during the race, and how it was impeded by the winner.

“You can see how that horse in blue, how much its velocity was cut off,” said Duff Gordon, pointing to the marked deceleration of a beaten runner at the time of The Ridler's antics.

“That's a much better way of telling the story rather than running the replay 700 times, which is what the TV companies have done to date,” said Duff Gordon. “The stewards can't yet use that information,” he added, “but hopefully they will soon.”

TPD's chart shows the deceleration of the impeded horses in the Norfolk

Duff Gordon was part of a panel looking at some of the data collection technologies forging a new path in equine welfare and performance during racing and training, and racecourse customer experience.

“This is a new frontier,” said Scott Palmer, equine medical director for the New York Gaming Commission, about the StrideSAFE sensor, which TDN has written about here.

Nevertheless, the panelists emphasized how, in many regards, the stamp from data collection on the racing world is still very much a fresh one.

Greater accuracy comes from sheer depth in numbers, and pick-up of these technologies among industry stakeholders at large has been finicky at best.

Correct interpretation of the data is also key. Racing is hardly awash with number crunchers, data analysts and epidemiologists. That's why, said Palmer, “this is baby steps right now.”

Duff Gordon agreed.

“We create in-running odds. That's making 10,000 calculations per-horse, per-second to predict who's going to win the race. We can refine that all the time,” he said.

“The last few years has been about acquiring the data, getting onto as many racecourses as possible. The present and the future's all about producing front ends and mining that data, so we're hiring huge numbers of data scientists,” Duff Gordon added. “Any budding data scientists, please do get in touch with me. We can never get enough of them.”

Presided over by New York Thoroughbred Horseman's Association president, Joe Appelbaum, the panel also included Valentin Rapin, managing director and co-founder of Arioneo, a horse performance company.

The technologies that Arioneo produces are geared around morning training, including heart-rate monitoring, locomotion and stride data, and GPS tracking of speed, distance and acceleration.

Broadly speaking, these discreet, easy-to-use technologies can be utilized to gauge things like the overall fitness level of the horse, it's optimum speed, suitable distances and ground preferences.

There's a welfare element, too, explained Rapin, as the heart-rate monitor gives trainers the ability to check for cardiac abnormalities.

“Let's say the horse is about 125 beats a minute every day. If one day you see the heart rate go up to 140, 150, it will probably mean there is something wrong,” said Rapin.

“You can contact your vet directly or your vet can also have access to the data via distance to monitor this for you,” Rapin added.

“It's really in the strike-rate,” interjected Duff Gordon.

“The trainers who have that huge, extra level of insight, their horses are ready to rumble and you have trainers with less horses punching above their weight,” Duff Gordon said, pointing towards the likes of George Boughey, a young UK-based trainer with an English Classic win to his name into just his fourth year with a license.

“He's got less than 50 horses, and [has] no right to be winning [like he is],” said Duff Gordon, adding how the likes of Boughey have harnessed the use of performance monitoring technologies with shrewd purchases at the sales.

StrideSAFE is a technology that fits into a horse's saddle towel with the ability to detect at high speeds lameness invisible to the naked eye. Since last summer, it has been used on thousands of starters across Saratoga, Belmont and Aqueduct.

“What were able to do with this device is actually detect lameness in early stages to provide for timely intervention,” said Palmer.

“We can work with the trainer and say, 'Your horse is not lame today, but the warning signs are clear. You need to get this horse evaluated by a veterinarian. It needs a good diagnostic workout because something's going on here,'” Palmer added.

Hundreds of times a second, this wireless iPhone-shaped device takes an assortment of measurements to capture in minute detail the movement of the horse at high speed.

These measurements include the horse's acceleration and deceleration, the up and down concussive movement of the horse, and its medial-lateral motion–what is, in other words, the horse's movement from side to side.

It works like a traffic light signal, providing a green for all-clear, an amber for possible caution, and a red for possible danger. These ratings are calculated by how many standard deviations the horse is from the norm.

“If they exceed three standard deviations from the mean we have what we call red alert, and that means there's something happening in this race that needs to be investigated,” said Palmer. “There's a change here.”

Palmer told the story of early on into the trial of a horse that finished second in a maiden special weight at Saratoga.

Immediately after the race, the horse appeared healthy and sound. But when Palmer received the StrideSAFE read-out of the race the following day, it showed worrying abnormalities in the horse's balance.

“When I got this data, I didn't know exactly what it meant,” said Palmer, who said that he called the trainer, asked about the horse.

“The trainer said, 'Well, this horse finished the race great.' Jockey had hopped off. Trainer was there in the unsaddling area. Everybody was happy, finished second in a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds at Saratoga,” said Palmer.

By the time the horse had walked back to the test barn and began to cool-out, it became lame–so much so, the horse had to be shipped back to the barn. A subsequent radiograph showed the horse had suffered an acute fracture of the third carpal bone.

“It was a very dramatic example for me that we were measuring something important,” said Palmer.

While researchers are still analyzing the data from the longer study, Palmer shared some numbers showing attrition rates among a small cohort of horses studied at Saratoga: 15 that had received red alerts, 25 with a yellow alert, and 91 with green alerts.

Broadly speaking, the horses with a red alert generally did not make it back to race for a “significant amount of time” as compared to the yellow and green horses, said Palmer.

The red horses didn't compete in as many races as the yellow and green alerted horses during a four-month follow-up period, nor complete as many high-speed workouts, added Palmer.

“Interestingly, only 40% of the horses that had a red classification were able to race at all over the next four months after the analyzed race compared to almost 80% of the greens and the yellows,” said Palmer. “I thought that was powerfully significant.”

In his “zealot's pitch” at the end of the panel discussion, Appelbaum implored the industry to accelerate its adoption of these kinds of technologies.

“There's not a human football player or soccer player at the professional level that's not using a catapult vest. In F1, the drivers all use gloves that track their heart rate and perspiration. Weightlifters are all using push-bands to understand their load,” said Appelbaum.

“Humans sports are about 10 years ahead of us,” Appelbaum added. “But we can catch up and we should catch up. It's not just for the benefit of the betting public, but it's really for the benefit of the horses.”

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Seamie Heffernan: ‘Time To Take Prize-Money Off Guilty Jockeys’

Multiple Classic and Breeders' Cup-winning rider Seamie Heffernan thinks taking prize-money off winning jockeys found guilty of careless riding is the best way to avoid controversial climaxes to races.

Heffernan was speaking shortly after Paul Hanagan was handed a 10-day ban for careless riding after winning the G2 Norfolk S. at Royal Ascot aboard 50-1 outsider The Ridler (GB) (Brazen Beau {Aus}).

Hanagan, who was recently demoted as Richard Fahey's stable jockey, allowed The Ridler, trained by his former boss, to drift across the track, hampering a number of his rivals in the process.

Despite the fact that an inquiry was called, the stewards found that The Ridler, who had just under two lengths to spare from 7-4 favourite Walbank (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) at the winning line, had not improved his finishing position by veering across his rivals.

However, Heffernan, who has ridden big-race winners all across the globe, including a memorable Breeders' Cup triumph aboard Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in 2016, thinks the prospects of guilty jockeys losing out on prize-money could make the sport much safer.

He said, “There's no consistency in the stewarding in Britain and Ireland. Different stewards take a dislike to different riders and trainers. When they have the power to do them, they'll do them. I have seen it countless times, the exact same incident could generate a completely different result, depending on the stewards and the trainers and riders involved.”

Heffernan added, “The best way of dealing with it is taking away the prize-money. It's a grey area and the stewarding is inconsistent. It's a win-at-all-cost mindset at the moment but I bet if you told some of the riders that they would lose the prize-money if you wiped out another rider they'd think twice. I know I'd think twice about what I was doing.”

The Norfolk S. was worth £65,120 to the winner, of which, Hanagan, who described The Ridler as “babyish” and didn't seem to see much wrong with his efforts in the saddle, received just under 10% of the prize-money on top of his riding fee.

Speaking after the race, Hanagan said, “He's still very green and babyish. I always felt I was clear. I don't think they had to stop riding [in behind], that's the impression I got. There's a lot of emotions going through me at the minute. I'm delighted to ride Richard and the owners this winner, so I'll enjoy the moment.”

One of the constants at Ballydoyle for over two decades, Heffernan, famed for his sense of humour, volunteered another way of policing the sport if the governing bodies failed to examine the careless riding rules following Thursday's controversy.

He explained, “Sometimes I'm guilty and I get done for it. Sometimes I'm guilty and I get away with it. That's just the way it is. It's a game of doubt. It's inconsistent.

“Racing is a dangerous sport. There is a reason two ambulances follow horses around in a race. The minute you swing your leg over a horse, you are in danger and, if we could reduce the risk and keep it safe, then that is the right thing to do.”

Heffernan added, “Do you know the lie detector machines? Maybe they should bring them into the stewards room. If you are in racing, you have to be a very good liar. Stick the lie detector on them and watch them sweat!

“A lot of the stewards are there for the greater good of racing but it would be great if we could get a lie detector on some of the jockeys, trainers and owners.”

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Perfect Power Scores Breeders’ Cup Berth In Norfolk

Jockey Paul Hanagan timed a late charge to perfection when winning the G2 Norfolk Stakes on Perfect Power, the opening contest on day three of Royal Ascot. The win earned Perfect Power an expenses-paid berth to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint this fall at Del Mar.

Protagonists in this five-furlong dash for 2-year-olds were spread across the width of the track, but it was the Richard Fahey-trained Perfect Power (14/1) who burst from the pack down the stands' side to prevail.

Go Bears Go (6/1) was beaten a head racing on the far side, with Project Dante (6/1) a nose behind in third on the stands' side rail.

Victory gave Hanagan a fifth Royal Ascot success, and first since 2015, while Fahey was scoring for the eighth time at the meeting.

Hanagan, who returned from a broken back in August, said: “I don't usually get emotional, but I'm probably lucky to be here at all after the accident. It's an amazing feeling just to even get back here, never mind a winner at Royal Ascot. I am pretty lost for words.

“I actually fractured my back in three places in a fall at Newcastle, and it was just touch and go whether I was going to be back. I owe so much to a lot of people – the Injured Jockeys Fund, Jack Berry House in Malton, my family and friends, and obviously Richard Fahey, who has been amazing, Richard Hale and just everyone at the yard.

“The period after my accident was a very character building few months. The accident was a pretty bad one and I'm lucky to be here at all, let alone riding winners, and I'm so grateful. I just appreciated I had a second chance, and I took it with both hands. This is what it's all about – what the comeback means. This tops the lot. It's so nice to see the crowd back, and what a buzz that was, when I eventually found out I'd won – the cheer of the crowd was something special.”

He added: “The race itself – they went quite hard and I just had to sit and suffer on him. I'm glad I did, because he didn't half power home and really ran through the line. I must have passed about 10 jockeys pulling up who [thought they] had won, and I wasn't quite sure because it was so far away the other side. I think the way I finished the race I had every chance, because he really powered home.

“You couldn't really get a horse with a better attitude. He takes it all in and has a great temperament. I think that's what got him beat first time, because we were all expecting him to win. First day at school – I think he just had a bit of stage fright, but he's come out of that race so well, and as we saw at Hamilton, that race brought him on again.”

Fahey said: “The Norfolk Stakes has been a bogey race for me. I have been second in it a few times and as they flashed past I thought we got beat. I'm just glad we got there. I got emotional for a couple of seconds, I'm getting soft in my old age.

“It's a fantastic result. Me and Paul have been together for such a long time. He left us for around 18 months, but it's been such a long relationship and it's great to have another Royal Ascot winner together.

“We were very sweet on Perfect Power. We haven't had him very long and he missed the kick first time out when third and that probably helped us. He won well at Hamilton and we were quietly confident coming here.

“We discussed going up to six furlongs but after chatting it through with the team, we came here. He was bought to win a Norfolk and it's great when a plan comes together.”

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