View From The Eighth Pole: A Coup d’Etat Of Kentucky Horsemen

Horse owners and trainers should very much beware when a racetrack advocates on behalf of a new horsemen's organization. That is what is happening in Kentucky as Churchill Downs Inc. in Louisville and The Red Mile in Lexington have endorsed a fledgling group to rival the 47-year-old Kentucky Harness Horsemen's Association to represent horsemen at the new casino/harness track in Oak Grove near the Tennessee border, an hour's drive northwest of Nashville.

In fact, “endorsed” may not be a strong enough term. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch to say Churchill Downs Inc. and The Red Mile have masterminded a quiet coup d'etat of an existing harness horsemen's organization and that the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission obsequiously rubber-stamped it in April, giving legitimacy to a nebulous entity called the Kentucky Harness Association.

Approval of this dubious move is on the agenda of the Kentucky General Assembly's Legislative Research Commission at the state capitol in Frankfort on Thursday. There's no reason to believe the commission will do anything but accept the changes recommended by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

There is so much wrong with this, not the least of which is that Churchill Downs Inc. appeared to work in collaboration with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on language for the regulation that helps create this new organization while neutralizing the longstanding harness horsemen's representative.

Last Nov. 22, Mike Ziegler, executive director of racing for Churchill Downs Inc., sent an email to Marc Guilfoil, executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, stating: “Per a conversation between John and Secretary Russell, attached are the proposed regulation changes in a word document for the track extension regulation and the Standardbred horsemen group.”

The email was acquired from the commission via public records requests.

Interestingly, Nov. 22 is also the date of a  letter Ziegler sent to Guilfoil saying that “it has been brought to our attention that the Kentucky Harness Association has requested approval from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to serve as an association representing Standardbred horsemen in the Commonwealth. Churchill Downs Incorporated is fully supportive of this request.”

It's amazing how Ziegler and Churchill Downs Inc. simultaneously went from having something “brought to our attention” to actually proposing language for the regulation to make it happen – all on the same day.

In that Nov. 22 email from Ziegler to Guilfoil, “John” would be John McCarthy, a powerful lobbyist in Frankfort representing Churchill Downs Inc. “Secretary Russell” would be Gail Russell, then secretary of the Public Protection Cabinet for lame duck Gov. Matt Bevin, who lost his bid for reelection on Nov. 5, 2019.

While the wheels were set in motion during Bevin's tenure as governor, his successor, Andy Beshear, will share in the blame if these changes are approved by the general assembly.

By their own admission, this new Kentucky Harness Association had a grand total of three members when the issue came before the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission for recognition. Let me repeat that: three total members.

The person said to be the organizer of the Kentucky Harness Association, Bob Brady, is brother-in-law of Ken Jackson, a member of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Jackson voted in favor of recognizing the organization started by his brother-in-law that could be charged with negotiating contracts on behalf of hundreds or thousands of horse owners and trainers.

Brady and Jackson are partners in a Lexington-based Standardbred auction company co-owned with the entity that owns The Red Mile harness track. The latter endorsed Brady's new organization, an association it might negotiate contracts with. This is about as incestuous as you can get.

It should also be noted that Jackson, in his role with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, made the motion in 2018 to award the Oak Grove casino and harness license to Churchill Downs Inc., which partnered with the Keeneland Association on the proposed project. There were other viable bidders.

Why should anyone in the Thoroughbred industry care about what organization represents harness owners and trainers at a small Kentucky casino/racetrack?

If you are a Thoroughbred owner or trainer, don't think this can't happen to you. I've seen this movie play out in Florida, where loopholes in state law are exploited to create bogus race meetings that operate with the approval of sham horsemen's organizations. The organizers do this to exploit revenue from casinos, card rooms or simulcasting and they don't have to share revenue with the sham horsemen's organizations. Can this happen in Kentucky? I wouldn't bet against it.

Churchill Downs pulled a bait and switch scheme at Calder Race Course in Florida, getting horse owners and trainers to support a slots machine referendum and then, after public approval, tearing down the grandstand and eventually connecting the casino license the horsemen helped secure to a jai-alai permit.

I can't blame Churchill Downs Inc. for trying to overthrow a legitimate harness horsemen's organization and replacing it with hand-picked toadies. Company executives are only trying to maximum revenue to shareholders and increase the potential for their own bonuses. They are not looking out for the best interests of the horse industry.

That's my view from the eighth pole.

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Beat Ray At Del Mar Online Contest: A Bear Trap On The Beach

The only good thing I can say about racing being cancelled last weekend at Del Mar is that I didn't have to lose another round in the track's Beat Ray Everyday online handicapping contest.

But with the return of racing on Friday kicking off a four-day, stakes-packed weekend at the seaside track, I am loaded for bear … literally.

Chris Fallica, the ESPN College GameDay personality known as The Bear and a skilled horseplayer in his own right, has been recruited by Del Mar to trounce challenge me in the second celebrity round of Beat Ray Everyday.

As its name implies, Beat Ray Everyday is an online contest offered every racing day of the Del Mar summer meet. It's free to play and you can still sign up here. All you have to do is bet a mythical $100 each day on the selected contest race in win, place or show bets on any horse or horses. You can read the specific rules here. At the end of the meet, the player with the highest bankroll with those wagers  becomes the “Beach Boss” and wins two VIP tickets to the 2021 Breeders' Cup at Del Mar. Other prizes are available to top finishers and anyone who finishes ahead of me is entered in a drawing for even more prizes.

Every Saturday, a racing or sports celebrity will be a guest handicapper and take their turns beating me like a drum.

The Bear will join fellow handicapper Michelle Yu and me on Saturday at 11 a.m. PT on Del Mar's social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube) to handicap the day's contest race, the Grade 2 San Clemente Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going a mile on turf as the ninth race. Tune in to hear our handicapping strategies and our bets for the contest.

Based on his Tweet, The Bear seems a bit overconfident going into this round.

I've spent hours reviewing replays and poring over past performances for the San Clemente. By any estimation, it's a wide-open race, though I'm pretty sure I've found the right horse, the late-running Irish-bred Croughavouke from the barn of Jeff Mullins. She's 6-1 on the morning line and overdue for a winning race after recording three seconds and a third in seven U.S. starts.

Despite that confidence Croughavouke, I'm placing a hedge bet on 15-1 outsider Over Attracted, who spent her early days in France and will be making her second U.S. start for trainer Carla Gaines and jockey Mike Smith.

Ray's Beat Ray Everyday plays:
July 10: $100 win on Hit the Road. Result: Won and paid $5.20 ($260 total)
July 11: $100 win on Voodoo Song. Result: Fifth as 2.90-1 favorite
July 12: $100 win on Going to Vegas. Result: Sixth at 6.10-1
July 24: $50 win/place on Surrender Now. Result: To come
July 25: $40 win/place Croughavouke; #20 win Over Attracted: Result: To come

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Chad Brown’s First 100 Grade 1 Wins: Individual Management, Imagination Fuel Meteoric Rise

Since 1973, when the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association began designating the best American stakes as Grade 1, 2 or 3, no trainer has won his first 100 Grade 1 races – the sport's most prestigious  –  faster than Chad Brown.

Brown registered his first Grade 1 victory on July 30, 2011, when Zagora won the Diana at Saratoga. His 100th came less than nine years later, on July 11, 2020, when Guarana won the Madison Stakes at Keeneland. The four-time (2016-'19) Eclipse Award winner as outstanding trainer added his 101st Grade 1 win that same afternoon when Rushing Fall took the Jenny Wiley at Keeneland.

Thirty years earlier, D. Wayne Lukas put the pedal to the metal almost as quickly as Brown would do, winning his first Grade 1 with Codex in the Santa Anita Derby March 30, 1980, and crossing the 100 mark a little over nine years later. Lukas is the all-time leader by Grade 1 wins, with 219, followed by Bob Baffert, who won his first Grade 1 with Thirty Slews in the 1992 Breeders' Cup Sprint. Baffert didn't reach 100 Grade 1s until 2010, although he has been the most productive trainer at the Grade 1 level in the last decade, winning 111 in the U.S. from 2010 until the present. He is second behind Lukas, with 207.

At 41 years old, Brown is the youngest trainer to reach the century mark in Grade 1 victories.

Based on available data compiled from Equibase, only seven trainers have exceeded 100 American Grade 1 victories in their careers.

They are:

Wayne Lukas…219
Bob Baffert…207
Robert Frankel…171
Todd Pletcher…158
Charles Whittingham…138
Shug McGaughey…129
William Mott…122
Chad Brown…101

Caveats: The list does not include Grade/Group 1 victories in Dubai, Europe or Asia. Because Equibase does not list any graded stakes prior to 1976 on trainer profiles, Ron McAnally (with 94 from 1976 to present) may be the ninth trainer to make that list.  For the purposes of the above list, stakes results for Charlie Whittingham from 1973-'75 were taken from the Jay Hovdey biography, “Whittingham: The Story of a Thoroughbred Racing Legend,” and added to what Equibase includes on his trainer profile page. Not included are pre-1973 races that would become Grade 1 fixtures once grading of stakes began.

Brown, a native of Mechanicville, N.Y., has come a long way in a short time since saddling his first winner, Dual Jewels, in a $5,000 claiming race at Churchill Downs on Nov. 23, 2007. His first graded stakes winner came in 2008 when Maram won the Grade 3 Miss Grillo. The filly would give Brown his first Breeders' Cup victory later that year while winning the inaugural Juvenile Fillies Turf, a race would that would become a Grade 1 in 2012. It was the first of his 15 Breeders' Cup championship races.

Brown was accustomed to working with Grade 1 winners years before he hung out his shingle as a public trainer, having worked for two Hall of Famers, Shug McGaughey and Bobby Frankel. The latter spent much of his career dominating the claiming ranks, but once he proved what he could do with good horses, there was no looking back. Frankel was voted Eclipse Awards as outstanding trainer five times (1993, 2000-'03) and inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1995.

Brown was an assistant to Frankel in 2003 when the latter established an all-time record for most Grade 1 victories in a single year: 25.

“It seemed like we were winning Grade 1s every week,” said Brown, who spent time that year with Frankel strings at Hollywood Park in California and Belmont Park in New York. “We had a murderer's row of great horses, and I learned a lot. It was hard to believe all these horses were in the same barn. You try to take it all in, every day. He and  Humberto (longtime Frankel assistant Humberto Ascanio) trained you to be so focused on your task every day.

“I remember Frankel carefully managing each horse individually,” Brown said. “It's where I started to learn about managing horses at the top end, how he did it on an individual basis, and recognizing how important it is to do it that way. We were winning Grade 1s on dirt, turf, long, short, male, female, young and very old. It really stuck with me to really pay attention every day, every hour, every minute.

“Bobby was a perfectionist. He set high goals for himself and had an incredible feel for horses and animals in general. The other thing with Bobby that I saw in managing horses was this: Anyone can say I wish I had that guy's or that girl's horses. But when you have them, you find out they're not all easy. With Bobby, when I say I learned so much, the one thing I feel I have in common is imagination. Bobby had an imagination to see into the future, how things were going to turn out. When you train horses at this level, that would be a common trait, that you have an imagination.

Ghostzapper was not always a great work horse,” Brown said. “Bobby knew that this was the best horse he ever trained. He said it all the time, before that horse became who he was. I couldn't figure it out, not until the Iselin, when he finally showed how good he was.” The Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin, Ghostzapper's eighth career start and his second race at 4 when he was voted Horse of the Year, was followed by Grade 1 victories in 2004 in the Woodward, Breeders' Cup Classic and the 2005 Met Mile.

“I caught him at the perfect time,” Brown said of Frankel. “He had the best horses and he was the smartest trainer. I was a huge beneficiary.”

Fast forward to the present, where Brown has applied the many lessons learned from Frankel, who died in 2009.

“Our system, our roster of horses has been built over time to compete in all categories,” he said. “I want to be able to individually train and manage horses across the board. Frankel was very rare to be able to do that.”

Has Brown set Frankel's single-season record of 25 Grade 1 victories as a goal for his stable?

“I am a goal-oriented person, just conceptually to motivate me and my team to try and get somewhere, not for personal recognition or satisfaction,” he said. “We try to do better than in the previous year. That record did cross my mind the last two years, only because it was Bobby. When we got to the high teens, I thought we had a chance. I always thought this was a record that no one could ever hit, but then I saw a couple of scenarios: if, if, if …”

Each year Brown maxed out at 20 Grade 1 victories.

With all the disruptions to racing in 2020 from the coronavirus pandemic (including several Grade 1 races not being run), it's highly unlikely anyone will approach Frankel's record this year.

But success begets success, and Brown has a steady pipeline of high-end racing prospects and proven imports coming his way from some of the sport's leading owners.

In a sense, he's just getting warmed up.

“I'm lucky to have an amazing team,” said Brown. “We've built a talented roster of teammates, co-workers. It's pretty obvious that it's a team effort.”

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The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: COVID-19 And Positive Drug Tests

It's been a busy news week in horse racing. COVID-19 continues to disrupt the racing business, most recently with the cancellation of this weekend's racing at Del Mar. How might a second wave of coronavirus cases impact the racing business as a whole?

Also this week, Arkansas officials announced the disqualification of Bob Baffert trainees Charlatan from the G1 Arkansas Derby and Gamine from an allowance race at Oaklawn Park due to lidocaine overages. Baffert has also been handed a 15-day suspension. Baffert asserts those tests were the result of the horses' exposure to a Salonpas patch used by an employee. That raises the question — should the means of exposure to a substance factor in to a commission or steward's decision when disqualifying a horse?

Ray Paulick and Natalie Voss sit down to discuss these questions in this week's edition of The Friday Show. Watch below and share your thoughts.

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