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Ricky Courville Joins TDN Writers’ Room

Heading into the GII Rebel S. a lot of people may not have known the name Ricky Courville. That's the way it is when you're a small-time trainer based in Louisiana who, going into the Rebel, had never had a graded stakes winner, let alone one in a $1-million race.

They know who he is now. Courville pulled off the upset of the year when winning the Rebel with 75-1 shot Un Ojo (Laoban), a one-eyed horse who now has enough points to make it into the field for the GI Kentucky Derby.

Courville was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week on the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to tell his story and the story of a horse who has surpassed all expectations after losing by 24 lengths in his first career start.

A former jockey who began training in 2008, Courville went to work for owner Cypress Creek Equine, breaking babies and training some of their cheaper horses. Eventually, owner Mike Moreno started giving him some of his better horses to train. But Courville didn't make the trip to Oaklawn for the Rebel, leaving his son Clay in charge. He tried to watch the race on his phone, but said the picture froze.

“My son calls me and he's just screaming on the phone, he's just hollering and screaming,” Courville said. “Then I started getting texts and phone calls for hours after the race. I never got to watch the race until 10:00 that night.”

Courville said the fact that Un Ojo is missing his left eye hasn't caused any serious problems.

“Running, he's fine,” he said. “Handling him around the barn is different. You have to watch it because it's on the side you handle him from, on the left side. Actually, when he first came in, he was really, really timid and he would brush up on you. He put himself against you where he could feel you because he couldn't see you. He wouldn't walk on the side, he'd walk behind you and nudge you with his nose all the way around the barn. But on the track, it took him a long time to really get comfortable. He was maturing late, but once he started running there haven't been any problems. He'll go inside, outside. It doesn't matter to him.”

Courville said that Un Ojo will run next in either the GI Arkansas Derby or the GI Toyota Blue Grass S.

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, XBTV, the Pennsylvania Horse

Breeders Association and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers discussed the latest twists in the Bob Baffert story and speculated whether or not he will win his legal battle and be able to compete in this year's GI Kentucky Derby. They also discussed last week's stakes action and the story of D. Wayne Lukas winning the GIII Honeybee S. at Oaklawn with Secret Oath (Arrogate) and previewed this coming weekend's action.

Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The post Ricky Courville Joins TDN Writers’ Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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New Vocations’ Anna Ford, Randy Moss Join TDN Writers’ Room

As the Thoroughbred Program Director for New Vocations, the nation's largest racehorse adoption program, Anna Ford knows how important it is for a horse-related charity to find creative ways to raise money. And Ford and her team might just have landed on a winning idea.

It was announced this week that New Vocations and DJ Stable have joined forces for a Giving Tuesday campaign. DJ Stable will match all donations up to $25,000.

That was among the subjects discussed when Ford joined ths week's Thoroughbred Daily News Writers' Room podcast brought to you by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week. Ford's appearance coincided with Randy Moss' debut as one of the panelists on the podcast. Moss filled in for the vacationing Joe Bianca.

“We're really excited about this because, first, it's our first annual Giving Tuesday campaign,” Ford said. “To have Jon (Green) and his family step up and make this match is really going to boost the whole campaign. Hopefully, we can raise 50 or more thousand dollars.”

Jon Green, the general manager of his family's DJ Stable and a regular on the TDN Writers' Room, summed up why it is so important for owners to accept the responsibilities involved when it comes to properly retiring their horses.

“As our stable has gotten bigger it's more important for us to make sure that the horses that we have a good home after they are done racing,” Green said “The most important thing we can do as owners is recognize our responsibility. And when we raise our hand at an auction and buy a horse, or we decide to breed a horse and foal it out and have it run in our colors, it's our responsibility to ensure that those horses are cared for once their racing careers are over.”

Ford also spoke to changing attitudes in a sport that once attempted to sweep the problem of what to do with retirees under the rug. Ford said that the advent of social media has made her job a lot easier.

“We first saw a big change with Facebook,” she said. “Once there was more awareness of the issues people started asking questions. We started to see a shift around 2009, 2010. That's when more people started wanting to send us horses and more people wanted to fund our efforts because they saw the value in our efforts. I really feel like it was a matter of raising awareness and getting people educated on what was going on.”

In addition to Giving Tuesday, New Vocations relies heavily on its Breeders' Cup Pledge program, in which owners, trainers and others involved with Breeders' Cup starters pledge a portion of their winning to New Vocations. This year, there were eight Breeders' Cup winners who were part of the pledge, which raised $140,000.

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, Coolmore, Legacy Bloodstock and XBTV, the writers focused on the ongoing problems the sport is having accurately timing races. The times of several Breeders' Cup races had to be recalculated after the races were run. Moss, who is part of the Beyer speed figure team, was particularly critical of the Gmax timing system now in place at several tracks, among them Del Mar, the home of this year's Breeders' Cup.

“It amazing that it's 2021 and this sport is doing a worse job of timing races now than it did in 1971,” said Bill Finley.

“It's doing a worse job than it did in 1941,” Moss said.

Other topics under discussion included Peter Miller's decision to step away from racing and the debate over who should be the 3-year-old male champion. Moss threw his support behind Medina Spirit (Protonico), while Green and Finley supported Essential Quality (Tapit).

Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Ron Winchell Talks Ky Downs, Gun Runner on Writer’s Room

One of the great success stories in American racing over the last decade or so has been the emergence of Kentucky Downs, which opens its 2021 six-day meet on Sunday. Much of that has to do with the stewardship on Ron Winchell, who, along with partner Marc Falcone, purchased the track in 2019.

Thanks in large part to Historical Horse Racing machines, Kentucky Downs was already making plenty of money when Winchell and Falcone took over, but they never grew complacent. Rather, they have continually looked to make Kentucky Downs an even greater success. Part of that has included an expansion of the gaming, entertainment and dining areas, but it has also meant growing the race meet.

During his interview on the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland, Winchell explained why his team has never stopped trying to grow the race meet, which now includes 16 stakes worth $10 million and three $1 million races. With many tracks affiliated with gaming, racing is an afterthought.

“Obviously, I am heavily involved in horse racing,” said Winchell, the Green Group Guest of the Week. “You don't have an ownership here that is segregated from horse racing, which sometimes happens, especially in other states. Our meet is so unique, with six days and the purse levels, with 16 stakes races and three $1 million races. Really, it has turned into this cool, boutique meet, which is fun and we do well. We don't lose money, where with many locations it's not the same and they lose money and they don't have that tie to horse racing. They really try to make the racing as minimal as they can. We're the opposite. We are willing to spend money every year to grow this into something bigger and better all the time. That's the focus we have when it comes to racing.”

A short meet clearly works for Kentucky Downs, but Winchell said he'd like to see it grow to beyond six days. He said Kentucky Downs will apply for seven racing dates in 2022 and added that management is also interested in possibly running some days in May in the future.

“At some point, we might want to do a few days in May,” he said. “We'd like to do something that would, hopefully, attract some European horses. So, there is some potential to grow more going forward. But we don't want too many days. The short boutique-style meet is what makes it special. It's never just another day at Kentucky Downs.”

Winchell is also a prominent horse owner and he and his family have campaigned a number of stars, including super sire Tapit (Pulpit) and Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}), who has gotten off to a fast start at stud.

“The Gun Runners are capable of winning races at six furlongs or shorter, and that's what we are seeing,” Winchell said. “But I think they all really want to go longer. We've shown everybody that these guys can really run, but I can't be more excited to see what the next phase will bring. He's going to have runners in the Hopeful, the Spinaway, the Sapling and I believe there are two that are going to run in the Del Mar Futurity. This weekend will be a pretty defining moment for him, to see if he can take the next step. I'm pretty excited. Gun Runner is my favorite subject right now.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, Spendthrift Farm, Legacy Bloodstock, the writers reviewed the GI Runhappy Travers day card at Saratoga, generally giving glowing reviews to a day of racing that was among the best offered anywhere and at any time this year.

Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The post Ron Winchell Talks Ky Downs, Gun Runner on Writer’s Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Eric Gustavson Joins the TDN Writers’ Room

Following the tragic loss of Coolmore's cornerstone stallion Galileo, champion sire Into Mischief has suddenly found himself at center stage as the top stallion in the world in just about every category. On this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland, the crew sat down with Eric Gustavson of Spendthrift Farm, a new sponsor of the show, to talk about their rise of success with the son of Harlan's Holiday.

“For us to have Into Mischief is the classic case of how a rising tide lifts all boats,” said Gustavson, who joined in as the Green Group Guest of the Week. “He's our rising tide and he brings so much attention to the farm. He's so powerful and dominant in so many categories as a stallion and it's mind blowing that you could ever have one like this. That he is considered one of the all-time greats, if not the best in the world, is really humbling.”

Gustavson, who serves on the Board of the Directors for Breeders' Cup, also spoke out on racing's urgent need for change.

“The industry is so fractious…with the issues of lack of uniformity in medications and things like that,” he said. “The industry cannot grow unless these things start to change. We need to have innovation. We need to have inclusion. We need to have uniformity to the point where we're not dysfunctional and referring to a weak regulatory system. These are the kinds of things that I would like to help change because we're just stuck. There is a lot of talk about the pros and cons of the government coming in and being involved with control over the drug issues. A lot of people are against it, but my feelings are that we have to do something and if this is the only way to do it, then so be it. Let's have the uniformity and have some kind of oversight that has some teeth.”

Elsewhere on Wednesday's podcast, which welcomed the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association 2021 Yearling Sale in joining additional sponsors West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers recapped another great week of racing at Saratoga, discussed the recent controversy with trainer Marcus Vitali and looked forward to this weekend's racing at the Spa and beyond.

Click here to watch the podcast on YouTube.

Click here for the audio-only version.

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