Q and A | Horse Racing Free Tips

Longtime horseman Kip Elser recently announced he will be shifting his focus toward public and private bloodstock purchases, evaluations and racing stable management under the new banner of Kirkwood Equine Advisory. TDN sat down with Elser to offer a closer look at the upcoming changes.

TDN: We understand you did not open your training barn this year and will not be consigning at the 2023 2-year-old sales. You are obviously headed in a different direction. Can you discuss where your focus will be.

KE: Correct, we've measured the market as we always have and determined a strategic shift for Kirkwood is in order. My wife Helen and I decided that the timing was ideal do things a little differently. We are going to concentrate more on the buy side of the equation. We plan to continue to develop a clientele for whom to buy horses to race either individually or in partnership. Later in the year we intend to be purchasing yearlings and two-year-olds for clients to race. We will also continue our pinhooking partnerships, but I won't be preparing or presenting them myself. All in the name of identifying attractive opportunities for the benefit of our clients.

TDN: You have an incredible amount of experience in the racing industry; buying, selling and preparing horses all over the world. Talk with me about a bit about how your background as a consignor and lifelong horseman sets you apart as a buyer and advisor.

KE: I spent a 4 decades preparing 2-year-olds for the sales and racing. Good horses, brilliant horses, average horses. Oh, and some slow ones too. They all give you signs of what they are. Whether in the U. S., Europe, South Africa, New Zealand, or other stamps on the passport, I've tried to bring them along with the disciplined approach of, well you said it, a horseman.

TDN: With all that experience you probably know your way around a horse better than most. What do you look for in a horse that you're buying to race.?

KE: The most obvious is that they must show me they are capable of speed even if it is not a brilliant eighth of a mile. They have to be efficient and have the right attitude.

TDN: With all of the overseas business you have done over the years, can you talk with me a bit about the differences between the U. S. and say the European or South African or even the New Zealand market?

KE: In the UK and Europe your judgement has to be much more subjective since the breezing surfaces are not nearly as uniform as they are here. The South African market has had a more severe COVID setback than most and is really just getting started again. New Zealand is very different in that the horses breeze (quite often in pairs) in several different locations close to their home base and convene for the sale several weeks after they breeze. That is just a few differences for starters. An understanding these types of nuances has helped us uncover unique opportunities for our clients.

TDN: Our industry has not been short on controversy and people coming out of the woodwork to let the world know what needs to be improved. Talk with me about what IS. Going right in our sport right now.

KE: There are great developments in veterinary medicine being made all the time. We are making progress even if it is painfully slow in uniform regulation and enforcement. Aftercare is spreading a much wider net. Aftercare and accountability of our equine athletes after racing continues to make tremendous forward progress.

TDN: With all that you have accomplished over the years, both for your clients and customers, what is one of the biggest lessons you've learned in the business.

KE: Patience (though I'm still working on that) and that the little things matter, often more than we think.

TDN: You have played a role in the careers of some incredible horses. Can you tell us a few you are most proud of?

Mucho Gusto comes to mind as one of the more recent and relevant success stories. We believed the colt's value was significant and the early 2-year-old sale market just didn't reflect that view. We pivoted to a later-season sale and our conviction on behalf of our client was rewarded. The buyers were of course rewarded too with a Pegasus World Cup winner.

KE: Another one that was a lot of fun was Plum Pretty. Our friends, John and Elizabeth Fort, live right down the road from us in Camden, and John always pulls out a few of my horses at the sale to inspect. As a 2-year-old Plum Pretty was a bit of an ugly duckling to look at, but he had no trouble seeing her potential. I was as surprised as anyone when he bought her, because he never said a word about liking her that much, but it sure was fun and rewarding to watch the ride she took them on, winning the Kentucky Oaks and the Apple Blossom, among others.

TDN: This year is going to be much different for you than years past. What are you most looking forward to?

KE: What I am mainly looking forward to this year is the opportunity to go out and buy not just nice yearlings but also weanlings, broodmares and 2-year-olds for other people. Especially the 2-year-old sales that are coming up. For years as I have been preparing the 2-year-olds for the sales I have seen the qualities that have separated the good ones from the rest. It will be fun now to go out and buy some of those good ones.

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An incentive-based participation bonus program called the Breeders' Cup Dirt Dozen was unveiled by the Breeders' Cup this Thursday. The new program will award monetary credits, funded by Breeders' Cup, for first through third-place finishes in selected races for horsemen to use toward entry fees in six of the Breeders' Cup World Championships dirt races. Learn more here.

Also this week, Breeders' Cup announced that the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In schedule will feature 82 qualifying races in 11 counties. New for this year, the 2022 series in the U.S. has been restructured into a regional qualifying program in order to balance divisional competition across the country. Learn more here.

The TDN spoke with Courtney Reid, the Director of Racing and Industry Relations at Breeders' Cup, to learn more about these new programs ahead of this year's Breeders' Cup World Championships at Keeneland. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

TDN: How did the idea for the Dirt Dozen come about?

Reid: Just like the Challenge series, we try to make our races more attractive for our horsemen to participate in each year. We decided that offering bonus money toward these 12 graded stakes races is a great way to defray the entry fee costs into the Championship dirt races. The incentives offered with this program will not only add starters to our Championship dirt races, but also hopefully help bolster the field sizes of the 12 races selected for the Dirt Dozen. We have received positive feedback so far from the racing secretaries included in the program.

TDN: How are the divisions in the program set up and how will the bonus credits be allocated?

Reid: Of the 12 races, there are two races per division. So for example, in the Breeders' Cup Sprint division, the first Dirt Dozen race is the GIII Smile H. at Gulfstream Park on July 2. The first three finishers of this race will receive a bonus tier of credit funds that will go toward entry fees for the Championship race. The first-place finisher will receive $30,000, which is half of the entry fee. They would just need to pay the remaining $30,000 to run in the GI Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint. The second-place finisher will get $15,000 and the third-place finisher will receive $7,500.

With these races, a horse could technically get complete free entry into the Championship if they ran in both races in the division. With the Qatar Racing Breeders' Cup Sprint example, if they ran in the GIII Smile H. and the GII Santa Anita Sprint Championship, they could have the entries fully paid for if they won both.

TDN: Do you think that in the past, entry fees have held horses back from attending the Breeders' Cup?

Reid: I don't think that entry fees have been the main factor that has held horses back, but I will say that over the years, prohibitive favorites have discouraged some outfits who might be on the fence. But if you take last year for example, we had three heavy favorites in Jackie's Warrior, Gamine and Letruska who were all defeated, so you never know. We hope that this new program will be additional incentive for connections who might be on the fence.

TDN: Why was there a need to create this program specifically for dirt races?

Reid: We have 56 turf races in the Breeders' Cup Challenge series program, so we think there is ample room to automatically qualify in a Challenge race for a turf race. We wanted to give more opportunities for dirt races. Historically, dirt races around the country–particularly in stakes races–haven't been filling as much as they have in turf races. This was an opportunity to bolster our dirt races.

TDN: Could you give an overview of the restructured format this year for the regional qualifying program in the U.S.?

Reid: The Breeders' Cup Challenge Series is in its 15th year this year. We will have 82 challenge races worldwide in 11 countries covering all the divisions. We have 43 domestically and 39 international.

Domestically, we have restructured the program to establish regional balance throughout the country with an East, West and Midwest division. In 11 of the 14 divisions, there will be one Breeders' Cup Challenge Series race per region. We wanted to ensure that one part of the country did not have an advantage over the other.

TDN: What are some of the most notable changes with races that will or will not be considered a Win and You're In?

Reid: For example, in New York, the Jockey Club Derby, the John A. Nerud S. and the Personal Ensign S. are no longer Challenge races, however they gained the Pilgrim S. and the Miss Grillo S. Some of these categories had too many races in certain parts of the country, so this was an effort to balance it out. For some of the dirt races that lost Challenge series designation, we were able to add them to the Dirt Dozen program.

The GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic is an outlier here. It's our richest and most poplar race, so we are continuing to give more opportunity to earn automatic qualifying in this division. With that, four of the six U.S. Classic division races will be nationally televised on NBC and CNBC for Breeders' Cup Challenge Series programming.

TDN: With this new setup, do you expect to see regional rivalries form on the road to the World Championships?

Reid: Absolutely. Rivalries are part of what makes sports more interesting and exciting. We want to see fans have a rooting interest for horses in their part of the country. Surely there will be racing fans in California who will be rooting and betting on horses in their region to beat the best in the East and Midwest at Keeneland this fall.

TDN: The Breeders' Cup Win and You're In Challenge Series has evolved since it was launched 15 years ago. What do you think has made it so successful over the years?

Reid: Each year, we assess the races and we have had a lot of participation from our horsemen. We think it's special to participate in a Challenge series race. We're thankful and proud of our owners and trainers who have channeled their efforts into training horses toward winning a Challenge series race so they can take advantage of gaining that automatic starting position. The horsemen have always told us that if they are deciding between two races and one is a Challenge series race, they typically will point for the Challenge race.

TDN: As you plan for the Breeders' Cup World Championships at Keeneland this fall, how do you envision the entries shaping up in respect to these new formats and programs.

Reid: We always get a significant number of our Challenge winners to run in our Championship races and we hope that our Dirt Dozen program will have the same results. We hope it will add one or two, if not three or more starters per dirt race. Our goal is to bolster field size for our races. We want to offer the most competitive betting races and provide entertaining races for our fans each year. We think that this year at Keeneland will be an exceptional experience.

TDN: Will there be any major changes or updates this year specifically with respect to international participation, given their incredible results last year?

Reid: The only international change in regard to the Challenge series is that at Royal Ascot, the King's Stand S. will replace the Diamond Jubilee S. The King's Stand is a five-furlong race, which better suits a runner for our Championship Turf Sprint division.

We expect to have another strong international contention as we did last year. We're constantly reaching out to connections there. Josh Christian will be making a few trips abroad and we have our international liaisons, John Fulton in South America and Kate Hunter in Japan, who do a great job for us with creating awareness and helping recruit horsemen to come to the Championships.

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