shug mcgaughey | Horse Racing Free Tips

Letter to the Editor: Rules

As many people are aware, I have been a member of WHOA and a supporter of HISA from the beginning. I want what we all want. Uniform and sensible medication rules and testing that promotes the integrity of our sport while protecting the innocent and punishing the cheaters. So when I received a call advising me that a horse I help manage was disqualified for an acepromazine positive, I was surprised to say the least.

My initial reaction and explanation to the owner was the horse must have had the drug administered and it failed to clear his system in the expected time. Texting back and forth with his Hall of Fame trainer, I learned this was not the case. He was adamant no one in his barn administered the horse ace at anytime. So the $64,000 question: how did it get there? Contamination, nefariousness by some unknown person? And more importantly, what sense does any of this make? Here is a horse who ran his heart out beaten a nose in a graded stakes. So he certainly didn't perform like a horse with a tranquilizer in his system.

I have had it explained to me several times why we test to the minuscule levels that we do and how these levels can have an effect on a 1,200-pound race horse. But, honestly, the explanation still doesn't resonate with my layman brain. And although my desire and conviction is not diminished that we as an industry will benefit from uniform rules and testing, I am at a loss to understand how rulings like this serve this purpose. Forget the fact that a Hall of Fame trainer with a record of now two violations in his 43-year career is penalized. The real harm to our sport is an innocent owner loses the purse and no one has a good explanation of how the illegal (and minuscule) amount of the drug got in his horse's system. How does that keep an owner in the game or attract new ones? Now that HISA has hit the reset button, can't we please come up with sensible rules and testing so the innocent are protected and the guilty are punished? The system remains broken. There must be a better way.

Craig Bandoroff is the owner of Denali Stud in Paris, Kentucky.

The post Letter to the Editor: Rules appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

McGaughey Suspended 30 Days for ‘Ace’ Positive in Kentucky

Trainer Shug McGaughey, III has been suspended 30 days and fined $500 by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) after one of his trainees, Smokin' T (War Front), tested positive for a metabolite of acepromazine after finishing second in the $200,000 Audubon S. at Churchill Downs June 4.

But McGaughey won't be out of action for an entire month. The Nov. 20 ruling stated that the Hall-of-Fame conditioner will only have to serve half of that suspension because of “mitigating circumstances (number of violations in relation to overall record).”

The 15-day stay of the suspension is also conditional on McGaughey not triggering an additional Class A or B drug ruling against him within one year from the date of the ruling.

Acepromazine, a tranquilizer, is listed as a Drug/Penalty Class 3B on the Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances list maintained by the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI). The KHRC threshold limit for acepromazine is 10 ng/ml in urine.

The ruling stated that Smokin' T's post-race urine sample contained 61.2 ng/ml of 2-(1-hydroxyethyl) promazine sulfoxide.

A voicemail message left for McGaughey seeking comment on the story on Monday afternoon did not yield a return call prior to publication of this story. TDN wanted to know if McGaughey is planning an appeal, or whom he might designate to run his stable while the Dec. 5-19 suspension is in effect.

Class 3 is considered a middle category within a tiered ARCI classification system in which Class 1 Drugs are the most severe or harmful and Class 5 are the least. The B Penalty category is also a middle value on an A-B-C severity scale.

The ARCI's recommended minimum/maximum suspension and fine penalties for Class B infractions are 15-60 days and $500-$1,000 for first offenses. According to the ruling, McGaughey waived his right to a formal hearing.

Smokin' T, owned by DATTT Stable, has been disqualified, and his $37,900 in purse winnings are to be forfeited and redistributed.

The post McGaughey Suspended 30 Days for ‘Ace’ Positive in Kentucky appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Thursday Insights: Tapit Homebred Stars At Aqueduct

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

1st-AQU, $85K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 12:20 p.m.

Owned and bred by Mr. Joseph Alen, BILOXI BLUES (Tapit) makes her first start for trainer Shug McGaughey at the Big A Thursday. Out of the winning Speightstown mare Accepting, herself a half-sister to MGSW Campaign (Curlin), Biloxi Blues hails from the extended female family of GISW Acoma (Empire Maker), GISW and leading sire Arch (Kris S.), dual champion & MGISW Covfefe (Into Mischief), and MGSW & MG1SP Albiano (Harlan's Holiday). Her last work from the gate was a near-bullet four furlongs in :47 (2/167) Oct. 22 and she picks up jockey Dylan Davis for her afternoon debut. TJCIS PPS

The post Thursday Insights: Tapit Homebred Stars At Aqueduct appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Skims Becomes Newest Graded Winner For Frankel in Sands Point

Skims (GB) (Frankel {GB}) took over on the GII Sands Point S. turn under Hall of Famer John Velazquez and kept finding from there to turn the tables on Vergara (Noble Mission {GB})–who beat her by a head last time in the Dueling Grounds Oaks–while giving her superstar sire yet another graded winner. Victorious in her first two turf routes, the Andrew Rosen homebred was subsequently third in the GII Appalachian S. at Keeneland in April and again in Belmont's GII Wonder Again S. over yielding sod June 9. Fifth in the GIII Lake George S. at the Spa July 22, she disappointed as the favorite when seventh in that venue's restricted Riskaverse S. Aug. 25, but bounced back last time to be second when stretched to 1 5/16 miles at Kentucky Downs.

Away well from the rail, Skims tugged her way forward to sit just behind the leading duo and outside of familiar foe Vergara. She continued to apply pressure to the top two after an easy half in :50.90, and took over midway on the bend as frontrunner Hail To (Kitten's Joy) dropped anchor and backed up into Vergara. Skims was a couple lengths clear as she pointed for home and she comfortably fended off Vergara from there. Favored Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), last year's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf heroine, could only manage fourth from the back of the pack.

“She had really trained well since her last race,” said winning Hall of Fame conditioner Shug McGaughey, who was celebrating his second Sands Point win. “We were kind of in between this one and the [GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup] at Keeneland. [Owner/breeder] Andrew [Rosen] thought this race might be the right spot and when he said that I felt the same way. We figured it could come up a little more to our liking and all she had to do was ship down the road.”

He added, “I said from the inside, I thought if [Velazquez] broke well, then maybe he would be on the lead. He felt those two horses would go and he said he just wanted to reverse from what beat her at Kentucky Downs. He said he held her in there and then when he went, he said he had a lot of horse.”

McGaughey said the GI American Oaks Dec. 26 at Santa Anita could be a next target for Skims.

Rosen is an investor in the Kim Kardashian co-founded clothing and shapewear brand Skims.

“It's amazing. It's good to have a plan and have it come together and work out the way it did,” said Rosen, the retail and fashion executive best known for founding fashion label Theory.

“[Frankel] has really taken over, I think, as the best sire in the world. I was wondering when my Frankel was finally going to win a stake and it's exciting that it was today and I could be here.”

Saturday, Belmont
SANDS POINT S.-GII, $200,000, Belmont The Big A, 10-15, 3yo, f, 1 1/8mT, 1:51.14, gd.
1–SKIMS (GB), 118, f, 3, by Frankel (GB)
1st Dam: Royal Decree, by Street Cry (Ire)
2nd Dam: Ticker Tape (GB), by Royal Applause (GB)
3rd Dam: Argent Du Bois, by Silver Hawk
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($235,000 RNA Ylg '20 KEESEP). O/B-Andrew Rosen (GB); T-Claude R. McGaughey III; J-John R. Velazquez. $110,000. Lifetime Record: 9-3-1-2, $281,485. *1/2 to War Decree (War Front), GSW-Eng, GSW-Ire, $312,212. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Vergara, 118, f, 3, Noble Mission (GB)–Figure of Beauty, by Street Cry (Ire). ($130,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Gary Broad; B-Neil Jones (KY); T-H. Graham Motion. $40,000.
3–Eminent Victor, 118, f, 3, Mr. Z–Juliet Victor, by Unusual Heat. O-Michael Dubb, The Elkstone Group, LLC (Stuart Grant), Louis Lazzinnaro LLC and Michael J. Caruso; B-Calumet Farm (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $24,000.
Margins: 1, 1 1/4, HF. Odds: 4.60, 3.65, 4.20.
Also Ran: Pizza Bianca, Spirit And Glory (Ire), Canisy, Hail To, Lady Baffled. Scratched: Baby Man, Golden Rocket.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

Pedigree Notes:

It's a rare weekend that doesn't have a group/graded winner by Frankel, who ranks among the elite sires in the world with his 103 black-type winners from a mere seven crops of racing age. Skims is the Banstead Manor Stud's 73rd group/graded winner worldwide and he's one of the truly special stallions who can boast Grade/Group 1 winners on four continents: Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America.

Skims is out of an unplaced Street Cry (Ire) mare, a $385,000 Keeneland November broodmare purchase by Hugo Merry Bloodstock in 2012. Now the dam of two GSWs, including War Decree (War Front) in England, Royal Decree is out of Ticker Tape (GB) (Royal Applause {GB}), whose GISWs included the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S. in 2004. Ticker Tape traces to the spectacular mare Terlingua (Secretariat), her fourth dam, through that legend's GSW daughter Chapel of Dreams (Northern Dancer). English G1SW Crowded House (GB) (Rainbow Quest) and French G1SW Brando (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) are part of this family, but most significant is Terlingua's GISW and breed-shaping son, Storm Cat (Storm Bird).

Royal Decree had fillies the last two years: a now-yearling by Lope de Vega (Ire) and a foal by Kingman (GB). She is back in foal to Too Darn Hot (GB). Skims is the 120th black-type winner out of a Street Cry daughter, four of which have been by Frankel.

The post Skims Becomes Newest Graded Winner For Frankel in Sands Point appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post