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War Like Goddess Goes From Last To First In Grade 2 Glens Falls

In her trademark style, Bill Mott-trained War Like Goddess took the Grade 2 Glens Falls in a last-to-first thriller Aug. 7 at Saratoga Race Course under Julien Leparoux. The 4-year-old filly broke well in the 1 1/2 mile contest and settled in at the back of the pack as Dalika (GER) sprinted to a controlling position, stretching out to a five-length lead early and controlling the pace past the stands the first time and all through the backstretch. Call Me Love and Luck Money stayed together in second and third, eventually also separating from the remaining competitors. The field began clustering back together at the final turn as Leparoux asked War Like Goddess for run, swinging at least five wide into the stretch. The filly responded easily, passing fellow closers to prevail by 3 1/4 lengths at the wire.

My Sister Nat (FR) was second, followed by Temple City Terror and Luck Money.

War Like Goddess came to the race off a win in the G3 Bewitch at Keeneland and the G3 Orchid at Gulfstream. the race brings her to a lifetime record of five wins from six starts. Mott trains War Like Goddess for owner George Krikorian.

The filly was bred in Kentucky by Calumet Farm and is the daughter of English Channel and North Light (IRE) mare Misty North. She was a $1,200 weanling from the Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services consignment at Keeneland November, where she was purchased by Falcon L&L Stables and Lawrence Hobson. She as then sold for $30,000 as a 2-year-old at the 2019 OBS June sale, where H N D Bloodstock purchased her from the Hemingway Racing and Training consignment.

The final time was 2:27.55, with fractional times of 2:03.64, 1:38.84, 1:13.02, and :49.05.

War Like Goddess was the favorite and paid $3.70, $2.70, and $2.30. See the full chart here.

G2 Glens Falls Quotes

Bill Mott, winning trainer of War Like Goddess (No. 3, $3.70*): “She ran well. We freshened her up a little bit and brought her back today. She moved forward for us and beat a nice bunch of fillies today.

“Our filly was pulling a little bit and they were going slow up front, so you always hope they can close into that slow kind of pace. She was good enough. I saw a good finish similar to what we saw in the [Grade 3] Bewitch [won last out in April at Keeneland].”

Glens Falls Quotes, courtesy NYRA press office

George Krikorian, winning owner of War Like Goddess (No. 3): “I give all the credit to my bloodstock agent Donato Lanni. He called me one day and told me, 'I saw this filly, she looks really nice. She might need some time but when she grows up, I think she'll be a special horse.' He was right. She's been pretty special so far. She's bred for this distance, for sure.”

Julien Leparoux, winning jockey aboard War Like Goddess (No. 3): “She gave some kick in the end. I think today she broke good. We got bumped, so we were last because of the little bump in the beginning. But she still had the kick, so that was nice to see. I think she's going improve for it.

“She's very nice. I think she can endure any kind of ground and even when she was pulling a bit on me early on, she's fresh. She had a very nice kick, so I'm very excited to be able to ride her. She felt great.

Jose Ortiz, jockey aboard runner-up My Sister Nat (No. 5): “I had a good trip, but honestly, when I took back a bit, I knew it was going to be tough to beat the winner. My horse tried hard, but she was second-best.”

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Arapahoe Park To See Purse Increases For 2021 Meet

A recently announced $2,000 bump for all open-company overnight races is designed to reward loyal horsemen supporting the Bally's Arapahoe Park 2021 meet set to open Wednesday. The Aurora, Colo., racetrack pushed back the season from its usual mid-summer dates to allow the simulcast-driven purse fund to recover from pandemic-related OTB closures. The added time has resulted in a purse account that is as flush as it has been in many years.

In addition to the purse increase, Arapahoe is offering a new bonus structure for Colorado-breds competing against open company, with up to $2,000 in additional purse funds for a top-three finish.

First post will be 12 p.m. (Noon) MT, Wednesdays to Fridays, through Oct 15.

The mixed meet will offer Arabian, American Quarter Horse, and Thoroughbred racing. Select Thoroughbred races will be broadcast live on TVG and/or TVG2. All races are available on every prominent wagering platform.

Wednesday's Opening Day program kicks off with an Arabian maiden special weight, followed by six Thoroughbred races. The featured seventh race is a $15,500 allowance for non-winners of four races or non-winners in 2021 going 5 1/2 furlongs. The competitive field includes Docs Holiday, winner of last year's Colorado Thoroughbred Breeders Association (CTBA) Derby; Collusionist, a two-time stakes winner at Arapahoe in 2020; Doby, who ran one of the fastest races of the meet last year as a 3-year-old but was disqualified for interference; Maius, champion of the 2019 Gold Rush Futurity, the meet's most prestigious race; and King Parker, on the board in seven of 12 starts this year.

Opening week also includes Quarter Horse trials for the $75,000 Mile High Futurity (Thursday) and the $75,000 Mile High Derby (Friday). The stakes schedule features 15 Thoroughbred stakes, including six for Colorado-breds, as well as seven for Quarter Horses and three for Arabians.

Last year's leading trainer, Stetson Mitchell, is back to defend his title with 60 horses stabled here. Adrian Ramos is favored to lead the jockey standings after sharing last year's title with the legendary Scott Stevens, who retired in March.

Admission will be free for live racing. Much of the grandstand will be closed due to precautionary measures for COVID-19 but the ground-level concessions and bar will be open.

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Voss: American Pharoah’s Hall Of Fame Induction Marks A Complicated Moment For Racing

To say the combined 2020/2021 Hall of Fame induction ceremony was surreal seems an understatement. The public gallery in the Fasig-Tipton pavilion was packed with people well before the 10:30 a.m. start time, as might be expected in a year that saw the first admission of a Triple Crown winner since 1981 when Seattle Slew was enshrined. Still spinning from the cancellation of last year's ceremony (and much else) due to COVID-19, people were “just happy to be here this year.”

It's appropriate that the ceremony is held with a day of racing at Saratoga as its backdrop – the pinnacle of achievement, recognized in one of the toughest places to win a horse race. It's supposed to be a pure moment each year to honor the very best accomplishments in our sport. This year, it was a cloudy one.

Indeed, the stretch run of the 2015 Belmont, which so many of us have seen over and over again, was played a few more times. The crowd stirred a little. Everyone remembered how they felt in the moments when Larry Collmus called those immortal words into his microphone: American Pharoah is finally the one.

According to the eligibility rules for the Hall of Fame, this is the first year American Phaorah was on the ballot to enter the Hall, and he got in on the first try, as he should have. But in the six years since his retirement, the men united by his accomplishments are no longer thought of as solely the engineers of racing's favorite history-making moment.

Bob Baffert saddled another Triple Crown winner, who was later discovered to have tested positive for scopolamine and had that test result buried by California regulators while he was on his way to winning the roses. He has had a slew of other therapeutic drug positives among his other graded stakes winners, followed by an apology, followed by the biggest scandal of all – a betamethasone overage in this year's Kentucky Derby winner.

The legal fallout from the Medina Spirit saga is still unrolling and probably will continue for many years to come. It's the public trust in racing that will suffer for far longer. In a sport that already had two black eyes from the 2018-19 California breakdowns and the 2020 federal indictments, Baffert has knocked us right in the kisser. Everywhere I've gone this year, non-horse people have asked me (with absolutely no prompting from me) about 'why the white-haired trainer doped that horse' or why he 'thinks he can get away with it' as Baffert and his lawyer went on a public relations blitz, making clear they would fight a disqualification. People who hadn't watched a race in years remember this one, and probably the last time you could say that about a horse race, it was the 2015 Belmont.

Ahmed and Justin Zayat look on as a highlight reel of American Pharoah's career plays on the monitors at this year's Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Photo by Joe Nevills

Ahmed Zayat ran through the money American Pharoah won him with dizzying speed and took out $23 million in loans barely a year after the horse crossed the wire in the Belmont. He had run out of money to prop up his racing operation, telling MGG Investments he was already in debt and wanted to buy more horses. At the start of last year, MGG took Zayat to civil court, claiming he had not only failed to pay back that loan, but also that he sold breeding rights to his Triple Crown winner in violation of contract. Zayat has since declared bankruptcy, with a bunch of trainers and other horse industry professionals listed as his creditors – hard-working people who endured early mornings and bad weather trying to take care of his animals, people who now may not see a dime for it.

There's a tendency in horse racing – among fans and journalists alike – to cringe away from discomfort. It's human. When a person in racing does something we don't like, I hear people say they prefer to focus on the horse and the horse's accomplishments, laying to one side the problematic connections they'd rather not think about.

It is true, after all, that the horse can't choose his or her connections, and I, like many people in this sport, am in this because of my fascination with the horse more so than the people.

But I'll just say the thing I'm not supposed to say: it wasn't American Pharoah accepting a bronze plaque acknowledging his immortality on Friday morning. It was Ahmed Zayat.

Just as horses have no say in what their owners or trainers do, they also have no use for the accolades we do or don't give them. Becoming an Eclipse Award winner or a Hall of Famer will not change a horse's day. While I believe horses are highly intelligent, I also think they live in the moment; they are not worried about human constructs, for better or for worse, but the people around them will add to their own net worth with such honors.

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In American Pharoah's case, we were fairly warned. Zayat was sued in 2009 by Fifth Third Bank for allegedly defaulting on $34 million in loans, and then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for his Zayat Stables. Baffert's history of therapeutic violations prior to American Pharoah has been well-documented – so well-documented, in fact, that an animal rights activist who protested Friday's induction ceremony carried what I assume was supposed to be a poppyseed bagel. So was the 2013 investigation into the number of sudden deaths suffered by his horses in California, which were never completely explained but eventually blamed on thyroid medication Baffert was administering to horses who did not have a medical need for it.

The voting body (of which I am a member) could hardly have refused American Pharoah's enshrinement based on all this. His accomplishments were historic. But it's time to stop pretending that 2015 was a fairy tale, and that this moment isn't a complicated one.

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Ask Your Veterinarian Presented By Kentucky Performance Products: How Do Crushed Heels Happen?

Veterinarians at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital answer your questions about sales and healthcare of Thoroughbred auction yearlings, weanlings, 2-year-olds and breeding stock.

Question: How do crushed heels happen, and how might they impact an athletic horse (racehorse or sport horse)?

Dr. Scott Fleming: The modern Thoroughbred has been continuously refined for speed and this is reflected in the light, often thinner walled hooves they possess. A lighter hoof is more susceptible to forces acted on it at speed and can manifest itself in hoof deformation and eventual dysfunction of anatomical structures in the caudal or “back” part of the hoof. Crushed or significantly underrun heels are a hoof conformation fault encountered in all breeds, but very common in the Thoroughbred.

This condition typically develops over time and can be prevalent by early adulthood. There are varying degrees of crushed heels. Depending on the observer, you can describe the degree of heel dysfunction as “low heels” being milder and “crushed” being more severe. Crushed heels can be seen by the eye, but hidden within the hoof, there are often changes that take advanced imaging such as radiography, CT, or MRI to define. Often, crushed heels are accompanied by negative palmar (forelimb) or plantar (hindlimb) angles of the coffin bone, a broken back hoof-pastern axis, and degradation of the digital cushion which is the lifeblood of caudal hoof function.

A hoof is a functioning framework of bone, soft tissue and hoof wall/sole keratin all working together to support and provide traction for the horse. This highly specialized unit must endure tremendous load and stress whether at rest or speed. Proper development from an early age is critical to maintaining a healthy hoof into and throughout adulthood. Timely and attentive hoof care early in life along with activity providing impact/concussion while growing are very important factors for development. The wings of the coffin bone are very short in early life and grow caudally as the horse matures. Strong healthy wings are critical for maintaining health in the back of the hoof as they share load with the digital cushion. We often see underdeveloped or resorbing coffin bone wings with crushed/low heels.

Crushed heels can significantly impact performance through unsoundness or physical breakdown of the hoof with heel or quarter cracks. Often, these horses are heel sore and may have bruising or “corns” present. Low heels or negative palmar/plantar angles also increase stress that can lead to soft tissue injury further up the limb. A good physical exam of the hoof is an integral part of diagnosing a problem and formulating a treatment plan. While prevention is the best medicine, therapeutic shoeing/trimming protocols including bar shoes, sole support, and addressing mechanical needs of the hoof can all help with this problem. Unfortunately, the effects can often linger if severe.

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Scott Fleming, originally from Northeast Texas, grew up riding Western performance Quarter Horses and working with cattle. Upon graduating from high school, Fleming attended farrier school and maintained a quarter horse centric farrier business in Northeast and central Texas until moving to Lexington. He also served in the Marine Corps Infantry for four years.

Fleming graduated from veterinary school at Texas A&M University in 2013. He then completed an internship at Rood & Riddle in 2013-2014, continued at the hospital as a fellow, and is currently an associate veterinarian at Rood & Riddle.

Outside of Rood & Riddle, Fleming enjoys spending time on the farm with his wife, Tina and their two children, Callie and Case. A special interest for Dr. Fleming is participating in Equitarian Initiative trips to Central America to help working equids in the region.

Do you have a question for a veterinarian that you'd like to see in Ask Your Vet? Email natalie at paulickreport.com

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