Dell Hancock, longtime chairman of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, accepted the Dinny Phipps Award at the Belmont Stakes Charity Celebration, which was held June 9 at Tavern on the Green in New York City.
Phipps, a prominent Thoroughbred owner and breeder, served as the chairman of The Jockey Club from February 1983 until he retired in August 2015. He received numerous honors and awards through the years for his commitment to the Thoroughbred industry. For more than 30 years, Phipps served as a board member of Grayson.
Earle Mack, an active participant in Thoroughbred racing and breeding for more than five decades, created the award in 2017 in memory of Phipps to honor an individual or individuals who have demonstrated dedication to equine health. Previous winners of the Dinny Phipps Award are the Phipps family, Frank Stronach, John Oxley, and Michael Del Giudice.
“Our families have always shared a common bond and common dedication to the horse, and I think that is what has kept us striving in that same direction toward equine health over all those generations and years,” said Ogden Phipps II, who presented the award. “[Dell's] work has resulted in innumerable contributions, not just to Grayson and the Thoroughbred industry, but the entire equine industry.”
Hancock joined the Grayson board in 1985 and was named chairman in 2004. She has been an active member of The Jockey Club for more than 25 years and served two terms on the board of stewards. She is currently a member of The Jockey Club's Thoroughbred Safety Committee. Under Hancock's leadership, Grayson has become the largest private funder of equine research. Since 2004, the year Hancock became chairman, Grayson has provided more than $21 million to fund 231 projects as well as an additional $480,000 to fund 30 career development awards.
“It was taught to my brothers, my sister, and me to give back to the horses who give us so much and give us such a lovely life,” said Hancock. “No one lived up to this mantra better than Dinny Phipps, which makes this recognition even more meaningful.”
The Belmont Stakes Charity Celebration is traditionally one of Grayson's largest fundraisers. In addition to the presentation of the Dinny Phipps Award, this year's event featured entertainment by Kentucky's own Wolfpen Branch, a bluegrass band co-founded by Arthur Hancock IV.
Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation is traditionally the nation's leading source of private funding for equine medical research that benefits all breeds of horses. Since 1983, the foundation has provided more than $32.1 million to fund 412 projects at 45 universities in North America and overseas. Additional information about the foundation is available at grayson-jockeyclub.org.
When a trainer drops a claim on a horse, it's done with the expectation that the runner will at least make their money back and hopefully earn a few trips to the winner's circle.
Kitodan put trainer Eric Foster on the fast track to that goal on June 4, when he closed like lightning to win the Audubon Stakes at Churchill Downs by a head, blowing up the tote board in the process at field-high odds of 40-1.
It was just three weeks earlier when Foster claimed the 3-year-old Point of Entry colt for $80,000 out of a Churchill optional claiming race, in partnership with Douglas Miller and William Wargel. In the Audubon, Kitodan more than earned back his claim price with the $116,990 winner's share of the purse, and he delivered Foster his first stakes victory in 11 years of training.
As a veteran of the Ellis Park platoon of Kentucky horsemen, dating back to his youth in nearby Owensboro, Foster is used to being an underdog when he ships east to Louisville or Lexington. In fact, he rather prefers the role; especially when it pays off.
“We thought we had a shot,” Foster said. “I guess next time, we'll be expecting him to win, but it was kind of nice not having those high expectations. You get let down so much, whether it's gambling, or if you own a horse or train a horse, or when you're rooting for a horse, you just get let down a lot, so you hate to get your expectations up real high and set yourself up.”
Kitodan's breakthrough stakes victory was the latest highlight of what has already been a career season for Foster. His earnings in 2021 were nearly double his previous high-water mark, and he has already surpassed that total in 2022. In addition to earning his first stakes win this season, Foster picked up his first graded stakes placing earlier this year when Johnny Unleashed finished second behind Golden Pal in the Grade 2 Shakertown Stakes at Keeneland.
Foster said the improved performance over the past two years is due in large part to a greater investment in his racing stock, whether that means claiming at a higher price point or spending a little more at auction.
“There's not any secret to it,” he said. “It's just hard for a guy that's starting out like I did to breed your own or buy something cheap at the sale. Even though it doesn't sound like a lot to some people, $80,000 is a lot to claim a horse for. There are guys that have been doing this their whole life and haven't claimed a horse for $80,000, and I feel blessed to be able to do that.”
It's been a steady, home-grown climb for Foster to get to this point. He started going fast in the saddle in local barrel races, where he became a nationally-ranked competitor.
“As a young man, I actually led the nation in barrel racing at several points, and was ranked in the top five in the world several years in a row,” he said. “My dad, Stewart, hauled me all over the country. We stayed on the road weekly.
Eric Foster was a nationally-ranked barrel racer in his youth.
Foster went on to work at Ellis Park under local trainers including Franklin Cooper, James Mattingly, Shirley Green, and John Hancock. He also worked in the Kenny McPeek barn when the trainer had Tejano Run.
“I was a pretty good rider, and I seemed to get all the bad actors,” he said. “Back then, anyone that was having any trouble, I usually got nominated to ride those.”
Foster briefly hung his own shingle as a trainer during his early 20s at the turn of the century, and then he returned to training full-time after a decade-plus hiatus.
“I couldn't quit thinking about [the horses] and came back to them,” he said.
Looking at his form, Kitodan didn't appear to fit the profile of a claiming horse. He entered the May 15 optional claiming race on a three-race winning streak, which started in the Gulfstream Park barn of trainer Jose Delgado and owner Joker Racing. Kitodan dominated a starter optional claiming field by 5 1/4 lengths, and he was picked up out of that race by trainer Mike Maker and owners Paradise Farms Corp. and David Staudacher for a $35,000 tag.
Under Maker's guidance, Kitodan closed hard to win another Gulfstream starter allowance by a neck, then he shipped north to Turfway Park, where he earned his first black type victory in the Rushaway Stakes by a convincing 3 1/2 lengths.
Kitodan was entered for an $80,000 claiming tag the following race at Churchill Downs, and he finished a late-closing third before ending up in Foster's barn after the race.
Why was a newly-minted stakes winner who was clearly maintaining strong form put in for the tag? Foster speculated the decision was rooted in economics and the condition book.
“They claimed him for $35,000 and won an allowance at Gulfstream, then they went and won the Rushaway,” he said. “They had already made money, and now they're going to sell him for double what they gave for him. They're in it to make money, and they couldn't lose at that point.
“Unless they just waited for this race, it might have been the only spot to run,” he continued. “I'm stuck like that with another horse I've got. Once you run those conditions out, there's not a lot of races.”
In the Churchill winner's circle following the Audubon, Foster admitted facing a similar conundrum with Kitodan, mostly entering him in the race because his options were somewhat limited off the claim.
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With that being said, Foster is slow to take too much credit for Kitodan's stakes win.
“This horse here, you claim him and run him back three weeks later, how much credit can you take for it, other than finding him and being gutsy enough to do it?” he said. “I'm blessed.”
The Foster team is a small one, with the key players being himself, wife Brooklyn Foster who manages the barn, and assistant trainer Juan Medina. Their operation is based on a 16-acre farm in Utica, Ky., near Owensboro.
Eric will still ride several horses in the mornings, but said he hasn't gotten on Kitodan, who he described as “a handful.”
However, he has spent plenty of time aboard Johnny Unleashed, a Colonel John gelding that he bought for $10,000 on the last day of the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, shopping out of the back ring. Foster has handled every aspect of the horse's training from breaking to the racetrack, and the gelding has rewarded him with $286,406 in career earnings, and the trainer's first graded stakes placing.
Johnny Unleashed will aim to continue Foster's upward trajectory on Saturday at Churchill Downs, when he'll compete in the Mighty Beau Overnight Stakes, going five furlongs on the turf.
“I'm thinking he's gonna have a good shot,” Foster said. “I'm proud of him.”
Trainer Michelle Hemingway is hoping the third time truly is a charm when it comes to her latest foray into a stakes race.
In the midst of her first year as a trainer, and her first summer stabled at Monmouth Park, the 38-year-old Hemingway will send out Wholebodemeister in Saturday's $100,000 Lady's Secret Stakes at the Jersey Shore track.
Manor House, the first horse she started in a stakes – the Discovery Stakes on Oct. 27 at Aqueduct, one of only three starters she had last year – “grabbed a quarter” in the race. Wholebodemeister was then set to go in in the Serena's Song Stakes on May 8 at Monmouth Park but flipped in the gate and was scratched.
“Luckily, for as scary of a situation as it was, she has come out of it no worse for the wear,” said Hemingway. “If anything I think she's better.”
Wholebodemeister, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Bodemeister-Wholelottashakin by Scat Daddy, has to overcome two obstacles if she is to give Hemingway her first career stakes winner. She has been idle since her seasonal debut on March 12 at Tampa Downs because of that gate scratch and has never tried two turns. The Lady's Secret Stakes is at a mile and a sixteenth for fillies and mares, 3 and up.
“I'm not really concerned about it,” said Hemingway. “The way she trains and the way she does things she is just a very professional filly when it comes to running. She is very competitive but she is also ratable, so I don't have any concerns with two turns.”
Wholebodemeister, owned by Holly Hill Stables LLC, enters Saturday with a victory in the Grade 2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park in her last start as a 3-year-old last Feb. 27. She was trained by Juan Avila then.
Hemingway, a third generation trainer who took out her license last fall, had a win and a second from her three starters last year, posting her first career victory on Oct. 16.
She has her sights set on a stakes win as her next goal.
“I think there would be no words (when she wins her first stakes race),” Hemingway said. “I think if I have that first stakes winner … I tend to get slightly emotional. The tears would be coming.”
Hemingway, who has four wins from 29 starters this year – two victories from four Monmouth Park starters – has 30 horses stabled at Monmouth Park and another 31 at Thorostock Farm in Ocala, Fla.
Her father was a trainer who spent time on the New Jersey circuit at now defunct Atlantic City Racetrack and Garden State Park.
“My dad raced at Atlantic City all of my summers as a child, so I spent a lot of time there growing up,” she said.
A native of Virginia, Hemingway is a graduate of Sweet Briar College in Virginia, where she received a degree in International Equine Business and Marketing while participating on the riding team all four years.
“My dad said `you can train race horses but you have to go to college first,' ” she said.
Hemingway then spent parts of seven years as an assistant in South Africa to notable trainers Joey Ramsden, Glen Kotzen and Mike DeKock.
“I wanted to go somewhere my dad had not trained,” she said. “An opportunity opened up in South Africa. It was a great experience.”
Now Hemingway is hoping Wholebodemeister will provide another great experience.
She made her seasonal debut at Tampa Downs following a 13-month layoff, finishing a close third in a handicap race.
“I was really happy with that,” Hemingway said. “I knew we were about a race short. But the race came up and I wanted to get one in her to prepare for the Serena's Song Stakes and the Lady's Secret Stakes. She ran a very credible first race back. I was very pleased.”
Jorge Vargas Jr. has the mount aboard Wholebodemeister, who has three wins in eight career starts.
The Riding A Dream Academy which supports young riders aged 14-18 from diverse ethnic backgrounds, under-represented communities and urban equestrian centers has been awarded three years' seed funding by the Racing Foundation to expand its programs following a hugely successful pilot year.
The Academy currently runs the year-long Khadijah Mellah Scholarship for talented riders and a rider-based Residential Week which acts as an introduction to British horse racing. Moving forward, it will also add a non-rider Residential Week to cater for the large numbers of young people who have applied to the Academy but lacked access to horses and sufficient riding experience, and Regional Weeks to take the Academy out to local communities. All programs will be delivered by the hugely talented team at the British Racing School.
Rob Hezel, Chief Executive of the Racing Foundation said: “The Racing Foundation would like to congratulate Naomi Lawson and Oli Bell, two individuals with a genuine desire to drive change in the racing industry, on launching the next stage of the Riding a Dream Academy. We are delighted to fund the Academy as it builds on the success of its pilot year and delivers tangible, life-enhancing opportunities for young people passionate about racing.”
Co-founder Naomi Lawson, who will move from Great British Racing to lead the Academy said: “Being able to provide amazing opportunities to talented riders and young people with an interest in horse racing from a wide range of communities is at the heart of the Academy and we are excited to be able to expand our programs and reach many more individuals thanks to the Racing Foundation's funding. The pilot has demonstrated the impact that the Academy can have in making racing more diverse and inclusive with our students already working in the industry, applying for the Foundation course and taking up other opportunities within the sport.”
ITV Racing's Oli Bell, co-founder of the Academy, said: “We are incredibly grateful to the Racing Foundation for their enduring support of the Riding A Dream Academy and for sharing our vision of a more diverse and inclusive sport. The Foundation have been with us from the start when they helped to fund the original Riding A Dream documentary which followed Khadijah Mellah's incredible story, through to our pilot year. For us to be in the position to support many other young people from diverse and under-represented backgrounds through their funding is a fitting legacy to all that Khadijah achieved and will help racing identify and support diverse talent from across the country.”
A parent of one of the current Academy students said: “My daughter is part of the Riding A Dream Academy and the positive impact it has had on her life has been immeasurable. Her lifelong dream of training as a jockey has been made possible by this opportunity and I hope she can continue to work towards her goals now that this door has opened. It has literally changed her life in ways I could not have made possible – I am forever grateful.”
The Academy was set up as a legacy to the achievements of Khadijah Mellah who became the first British Muslim woman to win a horse race in the UK when landing the Magnolia Cup at Goodwood in 2019 and aims to increase diversity and inclusion in British horse racing.
To date, 60 percent of the Academy's applicants have been from a diverse ethnic background, with 73 percent of students in the pilot year coming from a diverse ethnic background. This compares to just 2 percent of jockeys from a diverse ethnic background and between 3-5 percent of individuals who currently go on the industry's entry level Foundation Course.
