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Letter to the Editor: ‘Fans Could be Racing’s Best Cheerleaders’

Dear TDN Editor:

Some may argue that Thoroughbred racing is a contact sport. Twelve-hundred-pound athletes running at 40 mph around an oval and navigating through holes as tight as the eye of a needle might support that reasoning. Our racing stewards are there to guard against the worst from happening and protecting the integrity and safety of the sport of Thoroughbred racing. With the eyes of a hawk, they are doing their job well from their perch atop the clubhouse. All are accredited with experience and must be commended for what they do. For example, in just 18 days of the 2023 Saratoga meeting, five jockeys have been censured for careless riding. All but one, Tyler Gaffalione, was suspended. Gaffalione appealed and had his suspension stayed.

It becomes less effective when their on-track decision making fails to be communicated to fans and players. In each of the incidents above, stewards were silent to racing constituents about why they made their decision. The reports on the New York Gaming Commission site refer to careless riding. Without the details, damage occurs. With the lack of information, the rumor germinates in social media. Thousands of fans conveniently grow their own explanations without facts and embellish the rumor. Soon the stream flows to enemies of racing and we are under attack. The last thing racing needs is the unnecessary promotion of more racing haters. Like brushfires, lies about racing and the unethical that run it and the cruel that participate in it will saturate social media. Not necessary; there are solutions.

First, each track that runs a Thoroughbred racing meet could host a symposium, virtual or live, before a meet begins where the track's stewards explain the rules that apply and how they might adjudicate an inquiry. Vignettes, real or fictional, could be used to underscore the points made. Fans and players could interact and raise questions. Such a forum would be educational. When an inquiry sign appears fans and players would better understand the stewards' thought processes as they evaluate the incident. The emotions of the pending decision would be less fueled by the loss of a wager or placement of a horse.

Second, when an inquiry is decided the stewards might immediately appear on the tote board and video feed explaining how and why in this specific case they arrived at their decision. The current approach of a flashing inquiry or objection sign followed by minutes of silence and selected replays and then the public address officer announcing, there would be “no change in the finish position” doesn't serve racing well. This model frustrates fans and players and fosters conspiracy theories and fictional explanations by anyone dissatisfied with the outcome. If there is a legitimate reason to withhold an explanation it could be offered by the stewards or their spokesperson. Fans understand the litigiousness in gambling and would accept the explanation without blame.

Finally, racing would do well to recognize the value of the millions of racing fans and players across the country. Inviting them to participate on committees or workgroups that advise racing/gaming commissions or for that matter HISA would be an initiative-taking move. In this time where transparency is a buzz word for ethical behavior more would be gained than lost by such a move.

The call to action from fans of Thoroughbred racing is “keep us in the loop.” Many of us come to this sport from professions that would benefit racing if included. Fans, if their voice is recognized and matured, could be racing's best cheerleaders.

Michael Amo

ThoroFan

Editor's Note: The Stewards' Corner section of the NYRA website has now been updated with explanations of recent decisions at Saratoga Race Course, including last Saturday's GII Jim Dandy S.

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Becky’s Joker Continues to Defy Odds with Unconventional Spa Schedule

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.–Trainer Gary Contessa believes in Becky's Joker (Practical Joke) and is not going to waver from his against-the-grain approach with the massive 2-year-old filly.

On the opening day of the Saratoga season, July 13, Contessa had her make her career debut in the GIII Schuylerville. She won for fun by 3 1/4 lengths at 21-1. According to Equibase, she is just the fifth horse since 1991 to start its career with a graded-stakes victory.

After she worked four furlongs in :48.40 seconds on July 26, Contessa said she was a probable starter in the GIII Adirondack S. on Sunday. Following her :48.77 half-mile work on Tuesday, Contessa said Wednesday he definitely would enter her in the Adirondack rather than wait for the GI Spinaway S. on Sept. 3.

The last time a Schuylerville winner ran back in the Adirondack was in 1999 when Magicalmysterycat (Storm Cat) ended up fourth in the second leg of Saratoga's juvenile fillies series.

Contessa is a veteran horseman who is not bound by current norms.

“I'm kind of old school. I race a horse if they're ready to run,” he said. “I don't say, 'Oh my, God, I ran a 2-year-old. I have to give it six weeks to the next.' Nah. I'm old-school.”

Contessa touted Becky's Joker to everyone before the Schuylerville and was not surprised when she won. He said after the race that he and owner Lee Pokoik would look to the Spinaway for her next start.

“I didn't want to run her three times at the meet. But if you really do the math, this is 23 days to this race. Not bad,” Contessa said. “And she's training great and she's a happy horse. Then it's 28 days to the Spinaway. It's not like we're not getting

some time in between.”

Contessa said that if she runs well in the Adirondack, she will go on to the seven-furlong Spinaway. The last Schuylerville winner to run in all three races was Turnback the Alarm (Darn That Alarm) trained by Red Terrill in 1991. She was third in the Adirondack and second in the Spinaway.

The last horse to complete the rare sweep was Over All (Mr. Prospector) in 1989.

Contessa bought Becky's Joker, already an above-average sized filly, as a weanling at Keeneland November 2021 for $130,000. She didn't reach her reserve when offered as a yearling or as a 2-year-old. Contessa had her shipped to his stable at Saratoga in early May and began getting her ready to run in Pokoik's colors. Her size, once considered a negative, has turned out to be an asset. Contessa said she stands about 16.3 hands and estimates that she weighs 1,250 pounds. He figures she will be 17 hands.

When he purchased her, Contessa acknowledged that he wondered whether she would be able to get to the races because big, young horses are prone to injuries.

“But you never know how precocious a horse might be,” he said. “She has defied the odds. There's an exception to every rule. Sometimes there's many exceptions to every rule and this filly is the exception to every rule.

“I'm sure, there are a lot of people that looked at her at the 2-year-old sales and said, 'I like her a lot, but she's too big.' And to me, she was never really too big. I always liked her.

Contessa said the Becky's Joker has made a believer out of some doubters.

“The day that I bought her as a weaning at six months and sent her to Taylor Made, Frank Taylor picked up the phone and said, “As a yearling, Frank called me and said 'Gary, she's kind of big.' Then as a 2-year-old in training, he said, 'Gary, she's kind of big.' Then, after she won the stake, he called me and he said, 'I guess she's not too big.'”

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Nakatani Headlines 2023 Hall of Fame Class

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – At the very least, Aug. 4 will always be a mighty important day in jockey Corey Nakatani's life. For good and bad reasons, but memorable nonetheless.

Exactly, five years after he earned his final victory then suffered career-ending injuries in a spill at Del Mar, Nakatani will be inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame on Friday morning at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion. The event, which is open to the public, begins at 10:30 a.m.

Nakatani, 52, is a member of the Class of 2023 elected in the contemporary category with three champion horses all in their first year of eligibility: Arrogate (Unbridled's Song), California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) and Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro). Jockey Fernando Toro was elected by the Historic Review Committee. The Pillars of the Turf honorees are John Hanes II, Leonard Jerome, and Stella F. Thayer.

During his freshman year in high school, Nakatani made a visit to Santa Anita Park with his father and discovered the sport that would become his life's work. Soon after, he found a job working around horses, went to jockey school and began building toward a career as a jockey. He made his professional debut at the Stockton Fair in June 1988 at the age of 17, had a couple of mounts at Del Mar and headed south to Aqua Caliente in Mexico, where he picked up his first victory.

In January 1989, Nakatani started riding at Santa Anita and grew into a top rider on the Southern California circuit, winning 10 titles. He won 3,909 races with purse earnings of $234,554,534. Nakatani's resume is topped by 341 graded stakes victories, including 10 in Breeders' Cup races. He ranks No. 14 in career earnings and 11 times finished in the top 10 of annual earnings nationally. The Covina, California native ranks in the top 10 in overall wins and stakes wins at both Santa Anita and Del Mar.

The long list of the accomplishments earned Nakatani a spot in the Hall of Fame, where he will take his place among racing's all-time greats.

“I'm excited about it,” he said. “Obviously, you want to thank a lot of people. There's a lot of trainers you were involved with, but at the end of the day it's for your family. There was a lot of the time you were away from them, at work riding races.

“It's all glamorous and everything, but it's a lot of hard work out there. Dreams come true. If you work hard enough and you're able to be successful at it, then being in the Hall of Fame is once in a lifetime.”

Though he had no background in the sport, Nakatani was the ideal size for be a jockey–he said he weighed 89 pounds as a freshman wrestler–was very athletic and fiercely competitive. Those attributes helped him find success competing against a slew of Hall of Fame riders based in Southern California. He said he went to school on what that gifted group of riders did every day and said Laffit Pincay, Jr. was his idol and mentor.

“To me, he's the best strongest finisher on a horse,” Nakatani said. “When I when I was learning to ride I took a little bit from Laffit, a little bit of Eddie D. [Delahoussaye], a little bit of Chris McCarron, a little bit of Gary Stevens, and [Bill] Shoemaker and put it into one rider. That's the way my mentality was.”

Toro, 82, was a top rider in his native Chile before moving to California in 1966. He retired in 1990 with North America totals of 3,555 victories and purse earnings of $56,299,765. He won 80 graded stakes. At the time of his retirement, he was sixth in stakes wins at Del Mar, eighth at Hollywood Park and tied for eighth at Santa Anita.

Though based in Southern California, Toro won major races all over the United States and in Canada. In Nov. 1983, Toro took over as the regular rider of Royal Heroine for British-born, California-based trainer John Gosden. A Hall of Fame inductee in 2022, Royal Heroine flourished with Toro up, winning a division of the Hollywood Derby, the Inglewood, the Beverly Hills Handicap, the inaugural Breeders' Cup Mile, and the Matriarch.

Arrogate seized national and international attention on Aug. 27, 2016 when he won the GI Travers S. at Saratoga–his first graded-stakes start–by 13 1/2 lengths with a track-record time of 1:59.36. The Bob Baffert trainee went from that Travers triumph to a half-length victory over California Chrome in a memorable GI Breeders' Cup Classic. The Juddmonte colt easily won the inaugural running of the GI Pegasus World Cup in January 2017, over a field that included California Chrome, and the GI Dubai World Cup in March 2017. He retired at the end of the 2017 season with record earnings of $17,422,600.

“I'll always be remembered for training the only two Triple Crown winners since the 1970s,” Baffert said, “but if Arrogate had made it to the track early enough as a 3-year-old there is a very good chance I would have trained a third. Stride for stride, furlong for furlong, from gate to wire, Arrogate was every bit as good as American Pharaoh and Justify.

In the Dubai World Cup, Arrogate extended his winning streak to seven despite a terrible start that left him at the back of the field of 14. Though Arrogate typically used his speed early in his races, Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith did not panic and gave the colt a patient ride. He made his way into contention and managed to beat Gun Runner by 2 1/4 lengths.

Baffert, a 2009 Hall of Fame inductee, called it the “greatest performance of any horse I ever trained.”

Arrogate was the 3-year-old male Eclipse Award winner and was named the Longines World's Best Racehorse of 2016.

California Chrome, a two-time Horse of the Year, had a great story to go with his remarkable success on the track. The California-bred rose from modest beginnings in state-bred company as a 2-year-old in 2013 to win the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness for trainer Art Sherman. He fell short of the Triple Crown sweep with a fourth-place finish in the GI Belmont S. In 2015, he was second in the Dubai World Cup. Healthy and in top form again in 2016, he won the Dubai World Cup, the GI Pacific Classic and the GI Awesome Again.

When California Chrome was retired after the Pegasus World Cup, he had two divisional titles to go with his pair of Horse of the Year awards, was a Grade I winner on dirt and turf, had 16 wins in 27 starts and earnings of $14,752,650.

Songbird was never worse than second in 15 starts for Rick Porter's Fox Hill Farms. She was good from the start of her 2-year-old season in July 2015, and won 11-consecutive races. Among those scores were Grade I wins in the Del Mar Debutante, the Chandelier, the Breeder's Cup Juvenile Fillies, the Santa Anita Oaks, the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Alabama. Her streak ended in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Distaff where she lost by a nose to Beholder–elected to the Hall of Fame last year–in an epic showdown.

Trained by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer, Songbird was a two-time Eclipse Award winner who earned $4,692,00 on the track.

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Thursday’s Insights: War Front Juvenile Seeks Brevet In Del Mar Maiden

1st-DMR, $82K, Msw, 2yo, 5fT, 5:00 p.m.
EISENHOWER (War Front), a juvenile homebred colt for Ramona S. Bass and Perry R. Bass II, debuts for Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella in the Del Mar opener. Ridden by Ramon Vazquez, the bay is out of GSW and MGISP My Miss Sophia (Unbridled's Song), who counts GI Florida Derby champ Materiality (Afleet Alex) as a half brother. In addition to Eisenhower, she is also responsible for his full brothers: GISW Annapolis, who is also campaigned by Bass Racing and Alpha Delta Stables homebred MSP Nevisian Sunrise. TJCIS PPS

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