“This is quite humbling and most appreciated, as it has been bestowed by my peers and those I covered,” Privman said. “I get very emotional seeing whose names have also won a Special Award, like the greatest rider I ever saw, Laffit Pincay, Jr., and the great racing journalist Charles Hatton. The number 30 is used in print journalism to signify the end of a story, so I find it incredibly moving to be the 30th recipient of the Special Award at the close of my career.”

Privman's storied career as a reporter began when working part-time as a college student for the Los Angeles Daily News and he covered his first race in 1980–the GI Malibu S. won by future Hall of Famer Spectacular Bid. He assumed a full-time role with the publication from 1981-1991, then became the West Coast editor for The Racing Times (1991-1992) and a West Coast correspondent for the New York Times from 1992-1998. From 1983-1998, he was also a correspondent for The Thoroughbred Record and Thoroughbred Times.

Privman joined DRF in 1998 as national correspondent and taking over the 'Derby Doings' column launched several years earlier by his mentor, the late Joe Hirsch. Privman joined Hirsch on the National Museum of Racing Roll of Honor in 2021 and retired last September, a short time after covering Flightline's historic victory in the GI TVG Pacific Classic at Del Mar, the first track he ever attended. He and his wife, Anne Warner, reside in nearby Carlsbad.

Privman covered each running of the Kentucky Derby from 1982 through 2019 (missing 2020 and 2021 because of covid and surgery for bladder cancer, respectively) before returning for the 2022 Triple Crown. He was also on hand for every Breeders' Cup from the inaugural in 1984 through 2021 (missing 2020 because of the pandemic).

Privman is actively involved in many charitable endeavors, and as a key member of the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, has provided invaluable guidance on matters affecting his colleagues and the sport.

In addition to his distinguished career in turf writing, Privman also covered horse racing on television for CBS, ESPN, Fox, NBC, and NBCSN. Privman also was the longtime co-host of the radio show Thoroughbred Los Angeles on KLAA-AM 830.

“For over three decades, Jay Privman has been the gold standard of professionalism and objectivity in news reporting,” said Steven Crist, former Editor-in-Chief at The Racing Times and former CEO and Publisher of Daily Racing Form. “He is widely respected by both his readers and his fellow journalists throughout the sport, and his exemplary coverage will be missed.”

The post Privman To Receive Special Eclipse Award appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Most exciting race you watched this year that wasn't Flightline?
Jockey Club Mile on Nov. 20 when Golden Sixty ran down California Spangle with a closing quarter in 21.32. I watched it on tv so not sure if it counts.

One positive change you'd like to see in racing in 2023?
Positive communication from those who enjoy the sport. Words matter. If you love it and you know it, then your words should surely show it.

If you could bring back one racetrack from the past, which would it be?
Rockingham Park, my hometown racetrack. Honorable mentions to Arlington and Hialeah.

Who's the best executive in racing right now?
Me. If I say anyone else, I place myself at unnecessary risk.

If you could have dinner with one historical figure, who would it be?
Martin Luther King

Best advice you've ever gotten?
My Mom – “Just be yourself.”

What does racing look like in 10 years?
Japanese horses will be a big part of the picture in major three-year-old Grade I classics on dirt. Sports betting will be available at most racetracks. The popular racetracks will continue to thrive.

Do we need more tracks or fewer tracks?
Fewer.

Favorite horse of all time (and why)?
Spectacular Bid, for what he accomplished after losing out on the Triple Crown. His four-year-old season was incredible.

Best race you've ever seen?
The 1998 Belmont Stakes when Victory Gallop denied Real Quiet a Triple Crown. That was an absolute thriller.

Hardest working person you've ever worked with?
Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, CEO of The Hong Kong Jockey Club and IFHA Chairman

All I want for Christmas is…?
To spend it with my daughter Martina in Solvang, California.

The post Twelve Questions: Bill Nader appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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“I think Secretariat would have beat him,” Secretariat's jockey Ron Turcotte said of a hypothetical match up between the two legendary horses. “That's no knock against the other horse. He's a beautiful horse. Well put together. I can't fault him in any way. But he has hasn't done enough for me to say he is better than Secretariat.”

That's not to say that Turcotte isn't a Flightline fan.

“He's a fabulous horse,” he said. “We don't know how fast he could run.”

Turcotte, 81, resides in Drummond, New Brunswick, Canada. He watched the GI Breeders' Cup Classic live on television and took a look back at Flightline's previous races on YouTube. He sees some similarities between Flightline and Secretariat.

“He's very muscular like Secretariat,” Turcotte said. “He's got a real large stride like Secretariat and it looks to me than he's taller than Secretariat was.”

But Turcotte added that he finds it difficult to compare a horse who ran only six times to Secretariat, who made 21 career starts.

“There aren't enough races for me to really judge him,” he said. “It's very hard to judge a horse against Secretariat when he only had six races. Secretariat was a machine  The same goes for some of the great horses like Kelso. He won the Gold Cup five times in a row. I rode against him and know what a great horse he was.

“I would have loved to see Flightline run another year because it's very hard to judge him on just six races. it would have been much better for racing if they ran him another year, but I can understand why the people did what they did, with all the money there is now in breeding.”

Turcotte said another factor that makes a comparison difficulty is that Secretariat did not run as a 4-year-old while Flightline did.

“Comparing a 4-year-old and a 3-year-old, that's awful hard to do,” he said. “Secretariat was just maturing when he was retired. His last two races were just unbelievable.”

He also pointed to Secretariat's versatility and the track records Secretariat set in his three Triple Crown wins.

“Secretariat would run in the slop , the mud, on a fast track, the grass. He would run on anything.” he said. “The other horse only ran on fast tracks. And he never broke a track record, like Secretariat did.”

It's been 49 years since Turcotte rode Secretariat and there have been some tremendous horses that have come after him, like Seattle Slew, Affirmed, Spectacular Bid, Cigar, Zenyatta and, of course Flightline. But will there ever be a horse that compares to Secretariat?

“I've always said we'd never see a horse as good as Secretariat,” Turcotte said. “But you never know.”

The post Turcotte: Secretariat Was Better appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Secretariat broke Gallant Man's 16-year-old track record by 2 3/5th seconds while running 2:24 in his historic tour de force in the 1973 Belmont S., at the demanding 12-furlong distance. Flightline missed the track record by less than 1/5th second in his 1:59 2/5 romp at 10-furlongs.

Many other horses over the years have run 1:59 2/5, or better, for 10-furlongs, including Spectacular Bid (world record), Quack, Secretariat, Affirmed, J.O. Tobin, Ghostzapper, Skip Away, Alysheba, In Excess, Candy Ride, Game On Dude, Best Pal, Gentlemen, Crystal Water, Ancient Title, Kennedy Road, Native Diver, and John Henry (via DQ…but he was only a nose behind). The list goes on and on, actually. Oh, and let us not forget Ancient Title's powerhouse victory in the 1977 Del Mar H., when it was contested at “120 feet less than 10-furlongs” and he ran 1:55 2/5, which the Los Angeles Times projected translated to 1:57 3/5 for the distance, which would have been a world record.

Obviously, many excellent horses have equaled or bettered Flightline's 10-furlong time, but Secretariat's 2:24 accomplishment stands alone for the 12-furlong distance, as no one has approached his time record. The closest anyone has come was Prove Out (while defeating Secretariat) in the 1973 Woodward S. in 2:25 4/5. Easy Goer clocked in at 2:26 in his Belmont S. win over Sunday Silence, while Hechizado and Nasty And Bold matched that clocking in respective Brooklyn H. victories.

American horses of the 21st Century do not compete nearly as often as their 20th Century counterparts. Should any of today's hothouse flowers be compared to the greats of the past who raced constantly? The heroes of the 1970's were battle-tested and danced every dance. During a 3-month period in 1972, the great Susan's Girl ran eight times! Also, in 1972 Cougar II won an 11-furlong turf race in 2:11 (New American record) and was wheeled back 3 weeks later to win at 8 1/2 furlongs on dirt in 1:39 1/5 (missing the world record by 1/5th second), which is a phenomenal achievement. At the end of 1973, Secretariat ran Sept. 15, Sept. 29, Oct. 8, and Oct. 28! These horses didn't need three to six months between starts! How would today's best fare with that kind of schedule?

Over the last 10 years or so, California Chrome, Arrogate, American Pharoah, Justify, or Flightline have been crowned “the best of all-time,” or “the best horse since Secretariat.” If you know the history of the sport you understand that many excellent racehorses have come along in the time span between Secretariat, in 1973, and now. However, it seems that all these horses are ignored, and only Secretariat is remembered. Secretariat and whoever the new “greatest horse of all time” is at the moment.

Forego, Seattle Slew, Affirmed, Ruffian, and many other all-time greats, stepped into the spotlight in the wake of Secretariat's 1970's reign. However, the most astonishing thing is that when today's flavor-of-the-month bandwagon comes along, it's bad enough that the four champions mentioned above are ignored, but what's worse is that the best horse since Secretariat–Spectacular Bid–is forgotten.

Spectacular Bid was a perfect 24 for 24 in the middle-distance range of 7 to 10 furlongs, and his career total was 30 starts, 26 wins, 2 seconds, 1 third. He set multiple track records and even a world record. How does he get ignored or dismissed as these other horses are crowned heir apparent to Secretariat?

Leapfrogging over a horse like Spectacular Bid is unthinkable.

It's important to remember the great horses and performances of the past to put things in perspective and to consider that what you're witnessing now may or may not be the greatest thing that ever happened. But the discussion about great horses is fun, and Flightline surely is part of that debate.

Although the field that Flightline beat this weekend was not very strong, as evidenced by the fact that it took Country Grammer, who didn't offer his best effort, 2:03 to negotiate 10 furlongs, and the others 2:04 and much worse. Still, that takes nothing away from Flightline, because he certainly is sublime. I share the excitement and enthusiasm about him. From the standpoint of sheer talent and ability, he's as good as a horse can possibly get…maybe better.

Mike Sekulic, Thousand Oaks, CA

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

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Sowers got his start in the racing industry rubbing horses for J.P. Simpson in the late 1950's before taking time away from the backstretch to begin a career in the racing offices of the West Virginia and Maryland circuits in the decade that followed.

He would then once again find himself back at the barn in 1974 when he became an assistant trainer for Bud Delp, overseeing a shed row of 50 horses until 1978.

Most notably in his time with Delp, Sowers called his boss to tell him he had seen something different after laying eyes on the first workout of a dark gray colt who had shipped into his barn several weeks prior. The colt, who turned out to be 1979 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Spectacular Bid, would go on to win 26 of 30 lifetime starts in his Hall of Fame career.

After leaving the backstretch for the final time in 1978, Sowers reprised his role in the Charles Town racing office, working his way up to the position of Racing Secretary in 1995 – a role he held until the track was sold. With his love of the racing industry, Sowers continued on to work as an assistant mutuel manager in the mutuels department until his retirement in 2007.

Sowers is survived by his wife of 61 years, Margaret “Peggy” Lynn Horsley Sowers; two children, including Charles Town's current Racing Manager Duane Sowers, eight grandchildren and fifteen great grandchildren. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by one brother, Thomas Sowers, Jr.

Funeral services will be held 1 p.m. Monday, February 7 at the Jefferson Chapel in Ranson, West Virginia with the family receiving friends from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Sunday at the Chapel.

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Gotimer remembers being all in on General Assembly, who he thought could take the same route as his sire Secretariat to stardom. He was surprised when he took a hefty wager from a horseplayer on another 2-year-old — who turned out to be Spectacular Bid.

The post Gotimer: You Never Know Where The Next Big Horse Will Come From appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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On this week's episode, bloodstock editor Joe Nevills asks Ray about his beginnings, both in horse racing and covering the sport, which horses inspired him along the way, and what about the sport compelled him to make it a career.

Ray and Joe also discuss how the Thoroughbred industry, and reporting on it, has changed in the three-plus decades since Ray moved to Kentucky.

We then unveil a new and improved Star of the Week segment, in which the hosts look at a notable winner from the previous week at Woodbine.

Watch this week's show, presented by Monmouth Park, below:

The post The Friday Show Presented By Monmouth Park: A Publisher’s Retrospective appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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By most accounts, the handsome, tough, and brilliant Fletcher Jones had it all. He was enthusiastic about the future; about his two sons; his extensive art collection that included a famous Picasso; his horses; and his company that made it all possible, which was the cutting-edge Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) that had turned him a multi-millionaire in his 30s. But unless you’re in your 70s or older, you’ve probably never heard of him.

On a rainy evening in early November of 1972, shortly after an election that subsequently featured one of the greatest crooks of presidential history in Richard Nixon, Jones left his offices in Century City and piloted his small plane towards home. His destination was the nearly 4,000-acre Westerly Stud Farm in Santa Barbara County near the Danish-settled village of Solvang, about an hour northwest. He’d bought the place in 1965, a smaller parcel first, the Sigvard Hansen Ranch of transplanted eastern socialite, painter, poet, author, and breeder Amory Hare Hutchinson, who’d died the previous year. Later, Jones added a massive chunk of adjoining acreage from the Rancho Piocho and developed Westerly into what’s been universally described as an immaculate state-of-the-art facility for breeding, foaling, and training–a home at one point to more than 300 horses, half of them owned by Jones, with the others boarders. Promised Land was one of three stallions at Westerly at the time, and it’s where his California-bred daughter Spectacular was conceived. She would foal Spectacular Bid in 1976.

The only place comparable to Westerly in California back then was nearby Flag Is Up Farm in Solvang, which was developed by publishing heir Hastings Harcourt and Monty Roberts and housed a number of stallions, including Petrone (Fr) and Successor, the Bold Ruler champion 2-year-old colt of 1966 who’d been purchased for a reported $1 million from Wheatley Stable. Both showplaces were nestled in a verdant northern Santa Barbara valley between the Pacific Ocean and the foothills of the Santa Ynez mountains, in a region not known at the time as a place for breeding and raising high-class racehorses. Later, other prominent farms would follow, including in 1975 Marty Wygod’s River Edge Farm near Buellton, a leading California nursery for years and the home of California leading sire Pirate’s Bounty. Wygod, incidentally, once worked for Jones at CSC, and Jones reportedly gifted Wygod with Wygod’s first two horses.

Jones never made it home from that election night, reaching neither the Santa Ynez airport nor the landing strip on a driveway at Westerly that he also sometimes used. Instead, he crashed into a ridge about eight miles from the airport and died, aged 41 and in his prime. He was a skilled pilot in good health, by all accounts, and there’s never been an explanation of how and why the plane crashed.

In late October of 2020, shortly before an election that featured one of the most divisive, civics-challenged, and chaotic presidents in history, The Fletcher Jones Foundation announced that it was granting $1 million to endow a chair in Citizenship and Civic Virtue in the Honors College at Azusa Pacific University. “Students will learn what democracy requires of its citizens and will benefit from an education that promotes moral and political principles and practices concerned with the welfare of the community as a whole,” the Christian university said in a statement upon receiving the grant.

In 2019, the foundation awarded $6.4 million in grants and it has altogether given more than $230 million since it first began operations under John Pollock, who was Jones’s longtime attorney.

Pollock knew Jones well, liked and admired him, and wrote a succinct and unvarnished biography of him. According to Pollock, Jones wasn’t a particularly charitable man. He wrote: “Although today the world remembers the philanthropic accomplishments of The Fletcher Jones Foundation and its special support for the colleges and universities in California, Fletcher did not, in his lifetime, spend money or time to help his fellow man. His income tax returns for the last few years of his life show charitable gifts of less than $200 per year. The creation of The Fletcher Jones Foundation as the beneficiary of the bulk of his estate was prompted more by his desire to minimize estate taxes than it was to support in perpetuity the various charitable and educational organizations that today receive over $7 million a year.”

It wasn’t Jones’s intent to help and educate young people, but it’s his legacy that he has done so, transcending anything he did in racing, where he did quite a bit in a short time.

Typecast Versus Convenience

Jones bought his first yearlings in 1964, a year before establishing Westerly, and one of them was Fleet Host, a California-bred son of My Host who won the California Derby and a division of the San Luis Rey and later went to stud at Westerly. His best, however, was the Prince John mare Typecast, who at six in 1972 defeated males in the Sunset H., Man O’ War S., and Hollywood Park Invitational Turf H. and was named the Eclipse champion handicap mare.

Craig Bernick, 42, who runs Glen Hill Farm, is that rare youngster who knows of Jones, and it’s not only because he happens to be well read and a student of pedigrees and racing history. His grandfather Leonard Lavin, then president of the cosmetics giant Alberto-Culver Co., established Glen Hill in Ocala at about the same time Jones was setting up his Santa Ynez property, and the two titans clashed when Jones issued that time-honored challenge to Lavin: My horse is faster than yours and let’s put up money for a match race and settle it.

Reports at the time said that Jones was irked that Lavin’s trainer, Willard Proctor, had suggested that Convenience, a 4-year-old daughter of Fleet Nasrullah who’d defeated Typecast in the Vanity H. by a half-length with a five-pound advantage, was just as good as Jones’s mare, who’d finished second with trouble.

The Typecast versus Convenience match race materialized at Hollywood Park in mid-June of 1972 with each owner putting up $100,000 and the track adding another $50,000 for a winner-take-all purse of $250,000 over nine furlongs on dirt at level weights–a record purse for a match at the time. The race was memorable, with Convenience winning by a head in 1:47 3/5, and Jones, always pragmatic, was a gracious loser.

Five months later, Jones was dead, and the following January his stock was dispersed for $4.4 million at a special auction at Hollywood Park that drew buyers from around the world. Heron Bloodstock, as agent for Shigeo Yoshida (not to be confused with Zenya Yoshida, who purchased eventual leading Japanese sire Northern Taste as a yearling for $100,000 in 1972), bought Typecast for a then-world record of $725,000 for a horse at auction. She was bred to Sir Ivor that spring and sent to Yoshida’s farm in Japan, where her second foal, the filly Pretty Cast, was the champion older mare in Japan in 1980. There’s been only one other stakes winner from the family since then, the aptly named Australian-bred Group 3 winner There’s Only One, whose fourth dam is Typecast. Convenience, on the other hand, is ancestress of too many stakes winners to list here, and Bernick said that Glen Hill still owns four mares that trace to her – which is also a connection to his grandpa and tangentially to Jones.

As for Westerly Stud Farm, it was split into parcels and sold. Most notably, D. Wayne Lukas utilized part of it for his Westerly Training Center, where horses such as Gl Kentucky Derby winner Grindstone were prepared for the track. It later morphed into part of what’s now Tommy Town Thoroughbreds.

Perhaps the biggest growth in Santa Ynez since the breakup of Westerly has been in the wine-growing sector. Michael Speakman bought the Westerly label three years ago, and he’s been curious about Fletcher Jones since. By chance, I spoke to him about Typecast and suggested that he name a bottle after her, and he loved the idea and promised to do so in this new year.

I suppose Fletcher Jones’s racing legacy isn’t quite done yet.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.

The post Fletcher Jones’s Unusual Racing Legacy appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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