Tag: People

“I just knew there was a lot of upside to this horse and room to get better,” said Hall of Famer Mike Smith.

Based on that belief, Smith flew from Del Mar, where he had a successful opening day on Friday, to Monmouth Park to pilot Geaux Rocket Ride in the Grade 1 Haskell on Saturday.

The panel of racing experts honored Smith as Jockey of the Week for July 17 through July 23. The award recognizes jockeys for riding accomplishments and who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 1,050 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys in the United States.

Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella called on Smith to ride Geaux Rocket Ride for the first time in the 1 1/8-mile Haskell. Breaking from the rail in the field of eight, which included Kentucky Derby hero Mage and the highly regarded Arabian Knight, Smith guided his mount to the three path and into a stalking trip going into the first turn.

With Smith giving his mount the cue leaving the backstretch, Geaux Rocket Ride was in pursuit of Arabian Knight as Mage continued to draw closer while racing wide. The trio raced in union entering the home stretch. Both Geaux Rocket Ride and Mage inched ahead, but Geaux Rocket Ride found another gear and pulled away to post a 1 3/4-lengths win over Mage while Arabian Knight held on for third. Off at 12-1, Geaux Rocket Ride paid $27.40 and completed the nine furlongs in 1:49.52.

Smith collected his record fourth Haskell and Mandella his second.

“This horse is super intelligent,” Smith said. “When you have a horse that has a brilliant mind, you just work together. It's so much easier. It's like slicing butter with a hot knife. He just moves when you tell him to move. He does everything he's supposed to do.”

“This was the deepest Haskell field I've seen in a long time,” Smith said. “For him to perform, that is credit to Mr. Mandella and his whole crew. Of course, Geaux Rocket Ride deserves all the credit, too.”

The Haskell is a “Win and You're In” test for the G1 Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar in November.

For Jockey of the Week honors, Smith outpolled Javier Castellano who won the G1 United Nations, Irad Ortiz, Jr. who won 14 races including five in one day and two graded stakes, Flavien Prat who won the G1 Coaching Club American Oaks, and Joel Rosario with four stakes wins including three graded.

The post ‘Big Money’ Mike Smith Voted Jockey Of The Week After Haskell Triumph appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The Kentucky Race Track Chaplaincy, a Christian ministry serving Kentucky and Southern Ohio Thoroughbred race tracks, is seeking an experienced and dynamic Executive Director to lead our organization in its next phase of growth. The Executive Director will be the chief operations manager for a well-established, mission-based non-profit serving those who work on and around these Thoroughbred race tracks.

The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of success in non-profit management, with experience in fundraising, grant writing, and program development. They will be an excellent communicator with strong leadership skills and the ability to build relationships with stakeholders at all levels.

The Kentucky Race Track Chaplaincy is a ministry of presence, providing for the spiritual and physical needs of all people in the horse racing industry and their families through Christian ministry. If you are passionate about making a difference in the horse racing industry and have the skills and experience we are looking for, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity.

The job description is available here: KRTC Executive Director Job Description (July 2023).

Resume and Cover Letter should be sent to personnel@kychaplaincy.org

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Milton C. Toby was a Renaissance man who embraced life and never did anything halfway. Tall, lanky and a bit Lincolnesque in appearance, his wit was dry, his humor quick, his passions intense. Toby's interests were many, some profound, some whimsical, ranging from Star Wars, golf, Jack the Ripper, and Fiona the hippo, to travel, law, publishing, criminal justice, animals, and mysteries. Above all he loved to write—most notably about Thoroughbred racing, to the everlasting benefit of the sport.

Toby was born on October 26, 1949, to William and Laura Susan Toby of Campbellsville, Ky. Although raised around American Saddlebreds, Thoroughbreds became his passion. Days after graduating at 22 from the University of Kentucky with a degree in Animal Science, he accepted a sports writing job at the Aiken Standard in South Carolina. His first assignment had to do with the Belmont Stakes, and he was hooked.

A year later Toby was hired on at The Blood-Horse magazine back in his home state, just before Secretariat's historic 1973 Triple Crown bid. The 70s represented a golden era for racing, and Toby was there to witness it, photograph it, and write about it. For 12 years he honed his journalistic skills, and toward the end of his Blood-Horse tenure he trekked west to supervise photography for the Olympic Games' equestrian events in Los Angeles.

In 1986 Toby launched a freelance career that would take him around the globe and into situations not for the weak of heart. As a photojournalist, he worked while living abroad in China, Costa Rica, Colombia—writing for, among other publications, the famous (some might say infamous) Soldier of Fortune magazine.

Returning stateside, Toby met and married Dr. Roberta Dwyer and by his mid-forties was looking for more worlds to conquer. He chose the legal profession, graduating in 1995 from the University of Kentucky School of Law. His subsequent practice would be wide-ranging and successful, encompassing equine law to death penalty litigation.

Beginning in 2003 Toby took his talents to the classroom, teaching at several Kentucky colleges and universities, and for a time chaired the Central Kentucky Bar Association's equine law division. During these years, he also served as President of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, advocating on behalf of freelance writers, and sat on the board of the American Horse Publications (AHP).

His insatiably curious mind eventually drew him back to racing. He loved nothing more than an unsolved mystery he could sink his journalistic chops into and was especially intrigued by the juicy cold cases served up by the Sport of Kings. This is where he shined brightest. In 2011 Toby was honored with the industry's most lucrative literary prize, the $10,000 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, for Dancer's Image, The Forgotten Story of the 1968 Kentucky Derby, a meticulously researched tale of racing's most famous doping scandal. Subsequent honors would include a 2018 Book of the Year nod from AHP for Taking Shergar, about the kidnapping of the 1981 Epsom Derby winner. Toby's awards through the years were many, but the real winners were his readers.

By 2023, Toby had written hundreds of articles (including 125 cover stories for The Blood-Horse) and authored nine books. In his early seventies, his skills remained in full bloom, and he continued to push himself. A month before passing, he delivered a one-hour Zoom lecture about copyright before an AHP conference. As always, Toby chose to blaze his own path throughout his life—as a lawyer, professor, photographer, world traveler, public speaker, blogger and, ultimately, as one of the best investigative reporters horse racing has ever known.

Next month, the University Press of Kentucky will publish Toby's tenth book—Unnatural Ability, The History of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Racing. It is fitting that this posthumous volume comes at the end of a remarkable half-century career, as Unnatural Ability will stand as his magnus opus, a work of extraordinary breadth, insight, and importance to the industry he so loved.

Milt Toby passed away at his home in Georgetown, Kentucky, on July 24, 2023, following a courageous battle with cancer. At his side were his wife Roberta, Echo the Doberman, and Winston the surveillance cat. He is also survived by extended family and the many friends who loved him.

No service or visitation is scheduled, although a gathering of remembrance may be announced later. Donations in his name can be made to Bluegrass Care Navigators, Lexington, KY.

The post Award-Winning Author, Journalist, And Attorney Toby Dies At 73 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Del Mar Thoroughbred Club has added two new members to its Board of Directors: Bill Strauss, a business executive and horse owner who calls Del Mar home, and Bret Jones, the head of Airdrie Stud, a major 2,500-acre breeding operation in Midway, Ky.

The pair are the first additions to the Del Mar board since three new members were brought on board in 2018. The current board consists of nine members headed by chairman David Batchelder. The two additions raised that number to 11 when they were voted in at a board meeting at Del Mar on Saturday, July 22.

“We've made ourselves better and stronger with the addition of these two fine gentlemen,” said board member and Del Mar CEO Joe Harper. “When you can pick up a pair of individuals who love racing and have rich histories in the game like they do, it was easy to get a unanimous vote to bring them on.”

Strauss, 65, was originally a New Yorker who had a successful financial career in Manhattan before making a coast-to-coast switch to Del Mar in 1992. There he helped found Provide Commerce, which became one of the nation's top e-commerce companies, including its popular ProFlowers.com and Shari's Berries.

He and his brother, Jeffrey, a master chef, partnered in a hugely popular restaurant they called the Pamplemousse Grille just across the street from Del Mar racetrack. They named their first horse The Pamplemousse and he became a stakes winner. Since then Bill has been a partner in such topline horses as double Breeders' Cup winner Mizdirection and $5.6 million earner Hot Rod Charlie. His wife is Margie and he has a son and a daughter.

“As a long time Del Mar resident with my wife Margie, and a long time horse owner, I am honored to have been selected to serve on the prestigious Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Board of Directors,” Strauss said. “I am looking forward to working with my fellow board members to carve out a successful future for horse racing in California.”

Jones, 43, is the president of Airdrie Stud in Midway, KY. One of the leading breeding farms in the Bluegrass, Airdrie is home to 12 stallions, among them Collected, winner of Del Mar's signature Grade 1 Pacific Classic in 2017. In addition to his new role at Del Mar, Bret has served on the Breeders' Cup Board of Directors since 2011 and sits on the Keeneland Advisory Board as well as the Board of Trustees for the University of Kentucky's Markey Cancer Foundation. He lives in Lexington, KY with his wife, Tyler, and their four young children.

“I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity to work with the incredible leadership team at Del Mar,” Jones said. “Anyone who has ever walked through its gates knows how truly special that racetrack is, and anyone who cares about the future of our sport recognizes how vitally important its continued success is for our industry. California racing is a true lynchpin for our sport and its prosperity should be the business of all of us; whether you're from San Diego County or Woodford County, KY. I look forward to helping in any way I can and am honored to be working with an organization I so deeply respect.”

Del Mar's 84th summer season is underway and will run until Sunday, September 10.

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