Southern California | Horse Racing Free Tips

Ron McAnally Could Win His First Derby..as a Breeder

Twenty-four years after he last started a horse in the race, Ron McAnally could achieve as a breeder what he was never accomplished as a trainer–win the GI Kentucky Derby. Along with his wife Deborah, McAnally is the breeder of the GI Santa Anita Derby winner Rock Your World (Candy Ride {Arg}), who will be among the favorites come Derby day.

It is the latest chapter in a Hall of Fame career that has included wins with superstars like John Henry, Paseana and Bayakoa and three Eclipse Awards as the nation's top trainer but has fizzled out as McAnally has tried to deal with the prejudice owners seem to have when it comes to aging trainers. He is 88 and has been a part of the Southern California circuit since 1948. He has just six horses in his stable, five of which he owns. Since 2012, the most winners he has had in any single year is seven.

“The older you get, people don't want you,” he said. “They want a young trainer even if they don't have any experience. They won't choose an older trainer that has a lot of experience.”

But McAnally has not grown bitter. He is happy to still be training and says he enjoys every minute of it.

“I love being out here,” McAnally said last year. “It put me where I am, and I tell everybody, 'If you love something you're doing, it's not a job. People sit on the freeway five days a week and they can't wait till the weekend comes to get a couple of days off.”

And in Rock Your World he has a horse to follow and root for in this year's Triple Crown races, knowing that his fingerprints are all over this success story. He trained Rock Your World's sire, Candy Ride (Arg) and was the owner, breeder and trainer of his dam, Charm The Maker (Empire Maker). He also trained, owned and bred the colt's second and third dam.

“I give all the credit to the mare, Charm The Maker,” he said. “She has produced nothing but stakes horses and winners.”

McAnally's small stable includes She's Our Charm, the 5-year-old full sister to Rock Your World and the third-place finisher in the 2020 GIII Robert J. Frankel S. With Rock Your World, McAnally let him go through the ring at the 2019 Keeneland September sale, where he was bought for $650,000 and is now owned by the partnership of Hronis Racing LLC and Talla Racing LLC and trained by John Sadler.

“I thought the world of this colt,” McAnally said of Rock Your World. “I was in the stall with him before he sold.”

Looking back, McAnally wishes the horse didn't meet his reserve, which would have meant that he would still be his owner and trainer and, most likely, on his way back to Churchill Downs with a serious Derby contender.

“We didn't get to keep him. That's just the way life goes,” he said.

But he's happy with the way the story turned out.

“I have no regrets,” he said. “I've known John Sadler since he started off here many years ago working for a veterinarian. I've been friends with John for a long time. A couple of days after the Santa Anita Derby he came over to me at Clocker's Corner and I congratulated him and said he deserves a lot of credit because he has done a great job with this horse.”

McAnally's specialty was never young colts. Most of his major wins came with older horses and grass horses, but he did win the Arkansas Derby twice when it was a Grade II race. He won it in 1990 with Silver Ending and the following year with Olympio. He's also had a pair of winners in the GI Hollywood Futurity, with Valiant Nature in 1993 and with Matty G. in 1995. Starting with Super Moment in 1980, he has run 10 horses in the Kentucky Derby, the latest being Hello (Ire) in 1997. None have finished in the top three.

The problem, he says, is that he never came to Churchill Downs with the right horse.

“As I've told Bob Baffert a number of times, 'Just give me the horse.'” he said. “You are supposed to win when you have a horse like John Henry. A hotwalker could train a good horse. Everyone wants to get the credit when they win a big race. But I truly believe and will say for the rest of my life, you will never succeed if you don't have the right horse. If you don't have any good horses, you'll never do well.”

He hopes his next star is already in his barn. He owns and trains Rock Your World's full brother, a 2-year-old colt named He's Our Maker. He's not going to let this one get away and he's not going anywhere. Can he win the 2022 Derby as a trainer? You never know.

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Former Jockey, Racing Official George Taniguchi Passes At Age 94

George Taniguchi, believed to be America's first Japanese-American jockey and later a highly respected Southern California racing official, passed away at age 94 following a brief illness at his home in Palm Springs in early March, according to his niece Donna Johnson, who had served as his caretaker.

Born in 1926 in the farming community of El Centro, CA, Taniguchi's family moved to Los Angeles following World War II and he quickly became enamored with acting—which led to a chance encounter with major league horseracing at Hollywood Park in 1950.

In search of a producer whom he hoped would give him a leading role in MGM's “Go for Broke,” Taniguchi high-tailed it to the Track of the Lakes and Flowers, only to be denied entrance to the Turf Club. Although dejected, Taniguchi soon liked what he saw on the track and was told to contact a quarter horse trainer in Bakersfield named Jimmy Monji—who would later train quarter horses for Ed Allred, who would later become the owner of Los Alamitos Racecourse.

According to Taniguchi, in a story published in Discover Nikkei on Aug. 10, 2020, it was Monji who taught him how to ride with a horse, not just on a horse. His experience with Monji in Bakersfield led to him becoming a freelance exercise boy at Hollywood Park in 1952 and then a licensed jockey in 1954.

Hollywood Park's leading apprentice and a winner of a career-high 230 races in 1954, Taniguchi more than held his own riding at tracks around the country with the likes of John Longden, Bill Shoemaker, Eddie Arcaro, Ray York, Milo Valenzuela, Bill Boland, Donald Pierce, Jerry Lambert and other top riders of the 1950s and 60s. With 203 wins in 1959, Taniguchi enjoyed his best money-won year, as his mounts earned $934,711, placing him 12th nationally.

A multiple leading rider on Pomona's half mile bullring, Taniguchi, who retired from the saddle in 1968, booted home a total of 1,597 winners from 11,354 mounts.

“My dad loved George and he won a lot of races with him at Pomona,” said trainer Gary Stute in reference to his father, the late Mel Stute. “My dad always said nobody rode that bullring out there better than George. He was fearless and a great judge of pace. I can tell you this, he was a great racing official also. He knew the game and he respected everyone.”

Among his biggest wins, as reported by Steve Andersen in Daily Racing Form, were the $218,940 Arlington Futurity in 1960 aboard Pappa's All, with whom he also won that year's Hollywood Futurity.

Taniguchi also rode Hall of Famer Round Table to victory in the 1957 El Dorado Handicap at Hollywood Park and in 1958, he won Santa Anita's San Felipe Stakes aboard Carrier X. A multiple stakes winner at Pomona, Twenty One Guns and Taniguchi also won the Del Mar Handicap in 1959.

Following his retirement, Taniguchi worked as a racing official at all major California tracks and served as Assistant Racing Secretary at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar.

“George was a good friend and a tremendous official,” said longtime Santa Anita Placing Judge, Bob Moreno. “He was always upbeat and he made the job fun. He was professional at all times and he knew the game thoroughly. A first class man in every respect.”

George Taniguchi is survived by his son Ryan and niece, Donna Johnson.

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‘Restart And A Reboot’: Drayden Van Dyke Will Shift Tack To Kentucky In April

Jockey Drayden Van Dyke will move his tack from Southern California to Kentucky beginning with the Keeneland meet in April, reports the Daily Racing Form. Represented by Hall of Famer Gary Stevens, Van Dyke will stay through at least the Churchill meet.

Though he earned leading rider titles at both Del Mar meets in 2018, Van Dyke has had a slow winter at Santa Anita, winning with six of his 72 mounts.

“We've got to do a restart and a reboot,” Stevens told drf.com.

Van Dyke won the Eclipse Award for champion apprentice jockey in 2014, and is originally from Kentucky.

Retired Trainer Julio Canani, Winner Of 1989 Big ‘Cap, Passes At Age 83

A native of Peru and a longtime trainer in Southern California, Julio Canani passed away at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena following a lengthy illness Friday morning at age 83, according to his daughter, Lisa. Retired for the past several years, Canani trained the longshot winner of the 1989 Santa Anita Handicap, Martial Law ($130.60), who was ridden by Martin Pedroza and owned in part by Jeff Siegel and Barry Irwin's Clover Racing Stable.

Self-made, Canani came to America as a teenager, initially working for a landscaping company before making his way to the racetrack, where his betting instincts and innate guile enabled him to establish a social and economic base from which he would eventually become a multiple stakes winning conditioner who forever spoke fractured English while readily dispensing a wide variety of nicknames—some complimentary, some, not so much.

Although the 1989 Big 'Cap surely helped to put him on the map, Canani gained national recognition by winning three Breeders' Cup races. The Mile, in 1999 and 2001 with Silic and Val Royal, and with Sweet Catomine, who won the 2004 Juvenile Fillies and was subsequently named Eclipse Champion 2-year-old Filly.

Although the truth quite often escaped him, Canani had an instinctive feel for what reporters were looking for and he often attracted notice by wearing a variety of hats, including natural fur chapeaus that were better suited for a Siberian Winter but nonetheless helped facilitate dozens of interviews, print and broadcast, over a career that spanned roughly 50 years.

Canani, who cut his training teeth via the claimbox, won his first stakes race in the 1975 Oceanside at Del Mar with Willmar, who he had haltered for $20,000. His lengthy list of stakes winners included Bruho, Putting, Silver Circus, Davie's Lamb, Tranquility Lake, Tuzla, Silent Sighs, Ladies Din, Special Ring, Amorama and others.

Canani, who saddled his last horse, Fantastic Mizz, to a second place finish on Oct. 23, 2015 at Santa Anita, finished with 1,137 wins and purse earnings of more than $49 million.

Divorced from his first wife, Jane, Canani is survived by their two children, Lisa and Nick, as well as his current wife, Svetlana and their two children, Isabella and Alexander. Julio Canani is also survived by two grandchildren and one great grandchild.

There are no funeral services planned at this time, but the Canani family has requested donations be made to the Edwin J. Gregson Foundation.

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