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More Letters on Tracks Gone But Not Forgotten

In Sunday’s TDN, we published Bill Finley’s ode to shuttered racetracks, and asked others to try to beat his number of 28 at which he had attended live racing. The letters continue to pour in from readers sharing their own memories of their favorites. Here is a sampling.

Thanks for the article about all the race tracks that are now gone. I also grew up in Philadelphia and my parents were big horse race fans. I got my first exposure to horse racing at Delaware Park since they let children attend the races. Later I attended both Garden State Park and Atlantic City. When Pennsylvania legalized betting on horse racing I also attended Liberty Bell Park and got my first exposure to seeing winter racing. As noted those winter dates included some really cold days. When I became an adult I introduced my parents to some of the other racetracks around the country and made many trips to Hialeah as well as visiting Suffolk Downs, and the pre-fire-destroyed Arlington Park. I also visited on my own some of the other tracks mentioned such as Bowie, Bay Meadows and Hollywood Park. My job included traveling to other parts of our country and if there was a race track nearby I would always try to attend if live racing or simulcasting if it was offered. I have also visited the major tracks and attended all of the Triple Crown races. But as noted I preferred visiting the older, smaller, working-class tracks like Waterford Park now Mountaineer in West Va. As you can tell from all the old tracks I have visited I am an older fan. So I have seen first-hand how expanded gambling options and more tracks having longer meets have made it harder for any track to survive today. Let’s hope we are not the last generation to enjoy the excitement of attending a live horse race near our hometowns.
-John Chambers

Having spent much of my wayward youth on the Cape in Mass., my recollections of the Marshfield and Weymouth Fairs hold a special place in the horse racing crevices of my heart. Wasn’t there a Brockton Fair that had a one week meet, after Marshfield and Weymouth? Seems to me I recall going.. But it would be in the 60’s, if my memory serves. Anyway, thanks for the memories
—Tom Mina

Bill,
You wrote an entertaining but bittersweet tale.
I’ve been to 116 tracks worldwide (counting harness) but you’re way ahead of me on ones that no longer are running: Suffolk, Atlantic City, Hialeah, Hollywood Park, Bay Meadows, Portland Meadows, Greenwood (Toronto), Calder, Hippodrome de Montreal, Ladbrokes, DRC, Roosevelt. Just 12.

I’m sure if you counted harness that you’d have many more.
–Ed McNamara

Loved your piece that a friend passed on to me.

While my experience at North American tracks is not as extensive as yours, like you and your father, I’ve always tried to find new tracks whenever I traveled. I’ve done that throughout my travels, which fortunately have been extensive. I’ve even gone to a track outside of Paris that was later shut down: Evry.

Like you, I spent my formative tracks years in the U.S. in Massachusetts, when I was a graduate student at Brandeis in the 60s.

Two tracks that I went to then were Narragansett Park and Lincoln Downs. I guess by the time you were in Massachusetts, they’d been gone too. While Lincoln was still lively, Narragansett was on its last legs and was sad. I also went to Timonium once, visiting my parents in DC.

Like you in Philly, a colleague and I would pause our lab work in Waltham, drive the Mass Turnpike and then the tunnel to Suffolk. We arrived after the 6th, when it was free to enter. We’d pick up a program from someone leaving and bet four races. Then back to the lab the same way we came. Weekends were dedicated to Rockingham, easy to get to from Waltham: take 128 north to I-93, which led directly to the track. Lots of people there in those days.

I moved to Toronto in 1967 so my U.S. tracks days have been episodic since then. By the time I arrived here all the original tracks dotted around the city had been shuttered by EP Taylor as he consolidated racing at Woodbine, which then became Old Woodbine, then Greenwood and is now a park and housing. Fort Erie is only held together by political handouts, abandoned by the Ontario Jockey Club. It was a lovely summer track, not as grand as Saratoga, but with the same spirit.

All the best,
–Manuel Buchwald

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Derby Museum Announces New Board Members

Officials at the Kentucky Derby Museum have announced five new members to its Board of Directors.

Joining the Board are Brandy Harmon, Vice President of Ticketing & Venue Operations for Breeders’ Cup Ltd.; Ja Hillebrand, CEO of Stock Yards Bank & Trust; Briana Lathon, Senior Compliance Officer, Group & Military at Humana; and returning to the Board is Harold Workman, who is retired from his career in public service.

“It has been a tough year on many businesses, but especially for non-profit organizations like the Kentucky Derby Museum,” said Pat Armstrong, President & CEO. “Our Museum is navigating challenges in 2020 with steady direction from our Board. With their experience and sharp minds, the incoming Board members will further strengthen our organization moving forward in these challenging times.”

Current Board Member David Nett has been appointed Secretary. Departing Board Members are Theresa Canaday, Michael Rust and T. Hunter Wilson.BraB

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Into Mischief Mare Tops Keeneland November Sunday

Able to Smile (Into Mischief) (hip 2509), a 4-year-old broodmare prospect, topped Sunday’s seventh session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale when bringing a final bid of $135,000. I’ll Need a Little Luck was the name on the ticket for the gray filly, who was consigned by Indian Creek. Out of Grade I placed Teamgeist (Arg) (Mutakddim), Able to Smile is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner House Rules (Distorted Humor), as well as to multiple Grade I placed Win the Space (Pulpit). A $385,000 Keeneland September yearling, Able to Smile won once in seven starts on the racetrack.

“Able To Smile was a beautiful broodmare prospect, she was very popular showing and we were hopeful she would be one of the top offerings on the day,” said Indian Creek’s Sarah Sutherland. “She was a standout physically and on paper and would have held her own earlier in the sale as well. We are delighted with the sale.”

Able to Smile was one of two mares to bring six figures on the day. John Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa purchased the 6-year-old mare Stormy’s Song (Unbridled’s Song) (hip 2450) for $125,000. She is out of Stormy Tak (Stormy Atlantic), a daughter of multiple Grade I winner Lady Tak (Mutakddim).

The Army Mule partnership purchased Stormy’s Song for $102,000 at the 2018 Keeneland November sale. She sold in foal to Army Mule and was followed into the sales ring Sunday by her weanling colt by that Hill ‘n’ Dale stallion, who was the session’s top-priced foal when selling for $80,000 to Castleton Stables. The weanling was bred by Elevage II and St Elias Stables and both mare and foal were consigned by Hill ‘n’ Dale Sales Agency.

A total of 265 horses sold Sunday for $5,235,300. The session average was $19,756 and the median was of $12,000. While only 305 of the 410 catalogued head went through the sales ring Sunday, 265 sold for a buy-back rate of just 13.11%.

“The session was very good to us,” Sutherland said. “It felt similar to the second week of [Keeneland] September. I don’t think you can expect fireworks, but you can sell horses very comfortably if you are fair and realistic.”

Through seven sessions, Keeneland has sold 1,512 horses for a gross of $140,214,700. The cumulative average is $92,735 and the median is $42,000. The buy-back rate stands at 22.18%.

The November sale continues through Wednesday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

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The Week in Review: In Its Best Fillies, Racing Does Have Lasting Stars

The announcement last week that GI Kentucky Derby and GI Breeders’ Cup winner and likely Horse of the Year Authentic (Into Mischief) had been retired was disappointing, but very much expected. It would have been nice to see him run another year, but it was never going to happen. From the business side of the sport, there was no other call, not when you have a son of super sire Into Mischief who will stand for $75,000 and likely go to 200-plus mares.

Unless there is a seismic shift in the economics of racing and breeding, the elite male horses will continue to have short careers, many of them not racing after their 3-year-old years. It wasn’t just Authentic. The Classic was the last start for Improbable (City Zip), Maximum Security (New Year’s Day) and Tom’s d’Etat (Smart Strike). Global Campaign (Curlin) is also headed to stud, but may first start in the GI Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park. Among the top five choices in the Classic betting, only Tiz the Law (Constitution) is scheduled to run next year.

But that doesn’t mean that the sport can’t cultivate stars. It just needs to look elsewhere.

While marquee males can’t be retired fast enough, the opposite trend is now taking place with the elite fillies and mares. We are seeing them come back at four, five, even six. Again, it’s a matter of economics. Even the very best broodmares aren’t worth anywhere close to what the best stallions are worth. With a rich slate of races available to them, it can make sense to keep the fillies racing.

Never was that more apparent than with the decision to bring Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) back. At just about the same time that Spendthrift Farm was formulating plans to retire Authentic, it was reaching into the ring at Fasig-Tipton November to buy Monomoy Girl for a whopping $9.5 million. Much of that investment will eventually be recouped through the breeding of Monomoy Girl but, first, she will return next year and race at 6. For good measure, Spendthrift also purchased Got Stormy (Get Stormy) for $2.75 million at the Fasig-Tipton sale and will race her next year, also as a 6-year-old.

Monomoy Girl, Valiance (Tapit) and Dunbar Road (Quality Road), the first three finishers in the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff, are scheduled to race in 2021. So is Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil), who will be named 3-year-old filly champion. To start 2021, Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver will be the sport’s two brightest stars.

They continue a pattern that started to take hold with Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}). She raced through her 6-year-old season. Then came Beholder. Also owned by Spendthrift, she was a champion at two, three and five and still came back for her 6-year-old campaign in 2016. In one of the best Breeders’ Cup races ever run, she landed still another Eclipse Award when nosing out Songbird (Medaglia d’Oro) to win the 2016 Distaff. It had been 18 years since a mare five or older had won the Distaff. Fast forward to 2020 and four of the last five Distaff winners have been five or older and two have been six.

It could also help that the connections of both Swiss Skydiver and Monomoy Girl either have or are ready to embrace the challenge of facing males. Swiss Skydiver already did it twice, finishing second in the GII Toyota Blue Grass S. and winning the GI Preakness S. The 2021 racing plans for Monomoy Girl have yet to be revealed, but trainer Brad Cox has said there is a possibility she could be tested against the boys next year.

The most important, most scrutinized horses in training will probably always be the dirt males, particularly the 3-year-olds who spend five weeks under the glaring spotlight of the Triple Crown. But, considering the trends, the sport should do a lot more to promote racing for fillies and mares. The best place to start is by creating a filly Triple Crown. That’s a no-brainer. After losing so much in on-track revenues this year because of the pandemic, the Breeders’ Cup probably isn’t in a position to raise purses any time soon, but when it is, the first place to look at is the $2 million paid out in the Distaff. It’s far too important a race to have one-third the purse of the $6-million Classic.

We all wish horses like Authentic, American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) and Justify (Scat Daddy), would keep going well after their sophomore seasons are behind them. It’s just not going to happen, which is why the industry needs to do what it can to promote its distaff stars.

Revisiting Casse’s Remarks on Clenbuterol

If anyone thought trainer Mark Casse was guilty of exaggerating when he wrote a Mar. 2 editorial for the Thoroughbred Daily News that called Clenbuterol “the most abused drug in our industry,” they need to take another look at this controversial subject.

The bronchodilator was back in the news last week when New York State Gaming Commission Equine Medical Director Dr. Scott Palmer revealed that tests taken on horses trained by the individuals indicted in March for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs revealed that 77% of those horses had Clenbuterol in their systems.

“In the Thoroughbred breed, 77% of those horses [initially] had levels of clenbuterol in their blood,” Palmer said. “[We then] asked for the medical records on these horses. We haven’t gotten through them all yet, but we haven’t found any that had clenbuterol administration listed in their medical records. That’s a strong indication that this drug is being given for purposes other than the normal prescribed reason for giving clenbuterol.”

Casse and others have said that trainers use Clenbuterol for its steroid-like effects, which causes horses to artificially build muscle. Palmer’s findings strongly suggests that both the Thoroughbred and Standardbred trainers that were indicted were using the drug for something far more nefarious than its ability to treat asthma and respiratory diseases.

To its credit, the sport is clamping down on the use of the drug, but half measures aren’t going to be good enough. Casse had called for a total ban on its use throughout North America. Considering Palmer’s findings, that can’t happen soon enough.

A Gratuitous Plug for TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

The 2020 finalists for America’s Best Racing’s Fan Choice Awards have been announced and the TDN Writers’ Room podcast is among the choices in the Favorite Radio Show/Podcast category. Everyone at the TDN is proud of the podcast and would be honored to receive this award from the fans. The competition is stiff, so we welcome all the help we can get. To vote, click here.

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