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Stanley Hough, 72, Retires From Training Career For The Second Time

Longtime Thoroughbred trainer Stanley Hough first retired in 2012, but he was coaxed back into the shed row in 2018 by mentee Hunter Rankin on behalf of Kevin Plank's Sagamore Farm. Hough and Rankin, racing manager and president, respectively, had been rebuilding the Sagamore program since 2015, and there were a couple special 2-year-olds Hough wanted to keep a closer eye on.

One of those was Global Campaign, a half-brother to G1 winner Bolt d'Oro. The colt's career got off to a good start in 2019 with wins in the G3 Peter Pan and the G3 Monmouth Cup, but he really blossomed in 2020 with a victory in the Grade 1 Woodward and a third-place finish in the G1 Breeders' Cup Classic. Global Campaign earned a total of $1,321,080 on the track with six wins from 10 starts.

The 4-year-old son of Curlin has since been retired to co-owner WinStar Farm to prepare for a career at stud, however, and Sagamore Farm announced the termination of its horse racing involvement in early November.

Now 72 years old, Hough made the decision to head back into retirement.

“When WinStar decided it was better for the horse to go to stud—because he is being very well received—for me, it was a bittersweet thing, but it helped me make the decision,” Hough told bloodhorse.com. “I still have some horses I own part of and that will go on for a while, but in terms of training, I'm going to let someone else do it. COVID-19 has been hard for everybody, and I've been away from home a lot. I'm not getting any younger, which is obvious, but I decided I would pack it in for good this time.”

Hough's resume at his retirement stands at 2,212 wins from 12,921 starters with total earnings of $47,892,444.

Frankie Dettori Named Longines World’s Best Jockey For Third Consecutive Year

Lanfranco “Frankie” Dettori has won the title of 2020 Longines World's Best Jockey, meaning the legendary rider has received the award for three consecutive years. Dettori, who also took the competition in 2015, has been named the Longines World's Best Jockey four of the last six years.

In 2020, Dettori won five of the world's Top 100 Group or Grade 1 races, with his qualifying victories coming in the Gold Cup (Stradivarius), St James's Palace Stakes (Palace Pier), King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Qipco Stakes (Enable), Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup Stakes (Stradivarius), and Prix du Haras de Fresnay‐le‐Buffard ‐ Jacques Le Marois (Palace Pier).

The scoring process rewards jockeys for finishing in the top three, giving Dettori a total of 102 points on the year. He narrowly defeated Ryan Moore, the 2014 and 2016 Longines World's Best Jockey, who finished 2020 with 98 points. William Buick was third with 66 points, while Irad Ortiz, Jr., was just behind him in fourth with 64 points.

The awarding of the Longines World's Best Jockey title is based upon performances in the 100 highest-rated Group 1 and Grade 1 races as established for the year by the Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings Committee. The scoring incorporates races from Dec. 1 of the previous year until Nov. 30 of the current year. Jockeys accrue 12 points for a win, 6 points for placing second, and 4 points for placing third.

Dettori is the only four-time winner of the Longines World's Best Jockey award, which was established in 2014. Historically, a ceremony has been held to honor the winner during the gala dinner of the Longines Hong Kong International Races in December, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the in-person ceremony will not take place this year. Instead, Dettori will be honored in mid-January when the 2020 Longines World's Best Racehorse and Longines World's Best Horse Race winners are announced.

The full and final standings for the 2020 Longines World's Best Jockey competition can be found at www.ifhaonline.org.

The Longines World's Best Jockey Award was established seven years ago by Swiss watch brand Longines and the IFHA as a way to quantitatively recognize a jockey as the best among his or her global peers. It marked the first time a rider was honored in such a way.

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Four Stakes Wins Earn Junior Alvarado Jockey Of The Week Title

Four stakes wins over the Thanksgiving weekend led to Junior Alvarado named as Jockey of the Week for Nov. 23 through Nov. 29. The award, which is voted on by a panel of racing experts, is for jockeys who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 950 active riders in the United States as well as retired and permanently disabled jockeys.

With no racing scheduled on Thanksgiving Day, Alvarado made the most of the three days of racing at Aqueduct with mounts in 10 stakes races. On Friday, Alvarado scored by a nose with City Man for trainer Christophe Clement in the Gio Ponti over a stubborn Bodecream.

“Every time Christophe Clement brings a horse over, it doesn't matter the odds, they always seem to be fighting to win the race,” Alvarado said.

Also on the Friday card, Alvarado was aboard Feel Glorious, again for Christophe Clement, winning the Forever Together by three-quarters of a length.

“I had the best filly,” said Alvarado. “Turning for home, I put her in the clear to the outside and when she switched leads, she started picking it up.”

Fresh off a successful Friday, Alvarado had the mount on Forza Di Oro for trainer Bill Mott in the Grade 3 Discovery on Saturday. Around the far turn, Alvarado guided Forza Di Oro through an opening and drew off by 3-3/4 lengths.

“When he switches leads like he did today, he gives that next gear, Alvarado said.

On Sunday, trainer Bill Mott gave a leg up to Alvarado in the Tepin aboard Lovestruck who repelled a threat by Invincible Gal to hit the wire in 1:47.14.

“We were expecting the kind of run from her that we saw today,” said Alvarado. “There's still room for her to improve.”

As the leading rider by stakes wins, Alvarado posted a 22.72 percent win rate while in-the-money on 54.54 percent of his mounts. With five wins, three seconds and four thirds from 22 mounts, his purse earnings totaled $383,602.

Alvarado out-polled Rafael Bejarano who was the leading jockey by purse earnings, Irad Ortiz, Jr. who won three stakes races at Del Mar, Joel Rosario who won two stakes races at Del Mar and Tim Thornton who was the leading jockey by total wins with 10.

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Broodmare Field Turned Training Center: Michelle Nihei’s Story Of Success

Michelle Nihei's Circle 8 Ranch was originally nothing more than an old broodmare field with unseen potential according to Thoroughbred Racing Commentary. When she laid eyes on it, it became a series of furlongs and gallop sets in her mind, and would eventually contribute to her multiple graded stakes wins as a trainer.

The broodmare field eventually turned into a one mile circuit that Nihei has her horses complete three times as part of their daily training and a six-furlong left-handed reseeded turf course. She has seen great results with this facility. The horses are more relaxed and happy and not quite as high strung as you might see on the racetrack.

“When they go back to the racetrack after a couple of months,” said Nihei to Thoroughbred Racing Commentary's Patrick Lawrence Gilligan. “everyone who has ridden them both before and after says it is remarkable how much stronger they are and how much better they takes the turns because now they know how to lift that shoulder instead of just flattening around the turn.”

Nihei was born in Calgary in Western Canada. Her father was a scientist and her mother was a lawyer. Before she began her career in the Thoroughbred industry, Nihei followed in her father's footsteps as a neuroscientist.

Nihei eventually realized she wanted to ride horses for a living instead of neuroscience and made the switch from lab coats to jeans and a helmet by becoming an exercise rider and then assistant to Todd Pletcher. She had the opportunity to gallop some of Pletcher's most well known horses like Scat Daddy, English Channel, and Pollards Vision.

“It was an amazing fantastic experience,” said Nihei to Gilligan. “Everything I know about breezing horses I learnt from Angel Cordero and Johnny Velasquez. I was getting on ten a day sometimes. It was the best education you could get.”

Eventually a riding injury caused her to take a step back from exercise riding and led her to becoming a trainer. That is how she ended up in the presence of her future Grade 1 winner, Prince Will I Am. Michelle still rides Prince Will I Am to this day and now refers to him as her Prince Charming.