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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A Wonderment of German Bloodlines the Draw for Thayer

Torquator Tasso, Danedream, Novellist, Star Appeal, Protectionist, Manduro, Shirocco, Lando, Almandin. All winners of some of the world's best races and with one thing in common: they were made in Germany. 

The strength and depth of German breeding will not have escaped the attention of those who pay close attention to the subject, and in fact, such is the regard in which German families are held that the country, with a diminishing pool of mares which is now well below 1,000, could be deemed to be at risk losing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Hopefully, however, a younger wave of German breeders will be encouraged to continue this brand of excellence for which their forebears have become renowned, and ample encouragement for that can be drawn from the support which has been afforded the BBAG's main yearling sale in recent years.

A little less than a fortnight ago, the most recent edition was topped by a Gestut Fahrhof-bred son of Kingman (GB), bought by American agent Jason Litt for LNJ Foxwoods, the racing name of the Roth family who employ a transatlantic approach to their racing and breeding interests. Also among the list of buyers that day was Stella Thayer, president and owner of Tampa Bay Downs racecourse in Florida, who has enjoyed some notable success as an owner and breeder in France. 

“I'd lived in France as a student, so I always thought in the back of my mind that I'd come back and spend some time,” says Thayer during her visit to Baden-Baden, having spent some of the summer in Chantilly and Deauville. “And then I thought, well, having racehorses would be quite special, since Chantilly is, to me, the most extraordinary garden for horses and people to exist. And so I bought horses.”

With the help of German-born, French-based and multilingual bloodstock agent Tina Rau, Thayer set about assembling a small but select string in training with Nicolas Clement in Chantilly, and the project was rewarded with almost instantaneous success. 

“It was extraordinary really, because Tina found me my first Grade I winner,” says the 81-year-old. “It was kind of late in life, but better late than never.”

The filly in question, Wonderment (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), won the 2018 G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud, and though she was bought in France, she owns a decidedly German pedigree. Her dam Wiwilia (GB) (Konigstiger {Ger}) is a half-sister to the dual German Group 3 winner Wake Forest (Ger) (Sir Percy {GB}), who later won the GI Man o' War S. for Chad Brown, and they hail from the same black-type-laden family as Waldgeist (GB) (Galileo {Ire}).

Thayer continues, “So when you have that kind of success, it tends to whet your appetite. It's certainly been a very wonderful friendship with Tina and Nicolas, and a great experience to be involved with that. To have a 2-year-old win over a mile and a quarter was pretty amazing. She came from dead last, so it was quite exciting.”

With Wonderment now ensconced at Claiborne Farm, where she has a War Front filly and is back in foal to the stallion, Thayer currently has the homebred Group 3 and Listed winner Control Tower (Fr) (Youmzain {Ire}) in training with Clement, among others. The winner of the Prix Belle de Nuit over 1m6f last October and subsequently fourth behind Alpinista (GB) in the G1 Grosser Preis von Bayern, Control Tower is out of the Monsun (Ger) mare La Tour Rouge (GB), another of Rau's shrewd purchases for Thayer, from Darley back in 2013 for just 5,000gns.

“I've really been interested in trying to secure that good, strong-bred stock,” Thayer says. “It seems to be appreciated in the European process. I just hope enough of the German breeders keep their own lines as well, because I think it's very important for horses everywhere, that you have that sturdiness.

“I'm interested in the fact that the stamina lines and the hardiness is still here, especially in German bloodlines, and I think we shouldn't forget about that. I'm certainly no expert in breeding, but from a personal perspective I think that we could all, at least in the US, try to move a percentage of our races more towards the middle or long-distance again, which they once were, but they've become speed-dominated. And not to take away from speed, I mean, it's exciting, and you don't want to race a slow horse, but I just think from a balance perspective, and for the horse, its safety and development, as well as from a spectator's or bettor's perspective, it's good to have that variety.”

Germany's celebrated late stallion Monsun has been of great appeal to Thayer as a broodmare sire influence, and with Arc winner Waldgeist (GB), Breeders' Cup winner Yibir (GB), and this season's star 3-year-old colt Vadeni (Fr) just some of the recent big names out of mares by Monsun, who could argue with this approach? The devotion to Monsun's line continued in the purchase of Wildwood (Fr), by his son Maxios (GB) and a winner at Chantilly earlier this year. Maxios pops up again as the broodmare sire of the latest BBAG yearling recruit, a daughter of Holy Roman Emperor (Ire), also selected by Rau.

As the offspring of Wonderment mature in the paddocks at Claiborne, their blend of dirt and turf bloodlines should afford them the potential to race on either side of the Atlantic: the perfect situation for a Francophile breeder with an American racecourse among her portfolio, as well as horses in training in her native country with Arnaud Delacour.

Tampa Bay Downs has been owned by Thayer in partnership with her brother Howell Ferguson since 1986. A lawyer by profession, her love of horses, and later racing, was kindled from a young age.

“I rode as a child, and as minors we weren't allowed to go to racetracks in Florida at the time,” she recalls. “A friend of my father owned a local racetrack and so at the age of nine or ten, we would go and get on the top of a car, and watch the races. Later my husband and I lived on a breeding farm in New Jersey when we were first married. I think that planted the seed of gravitating my equestrian interest into racing.”

Of her involvement with Tampa Bay Downs, she adds, “Just perchance, we had been investors, and then through a number of transactions, my brother and I ended up owning it from 1986 forward, so I was dedicating a big portion of my business life and my personal life to hearing about that track.”

Much has changed in racing in the intervening years, not least the intense focus on welfare issues surrounding the worldwide thoroughbred population. And in a move that should suit Thayer's avowed love of European bloodlines, the American turf racing programme has expanded notably.

“I think there are always the challenges,” she says of running a racecourse. “But the fortunate thing for us is that we're small, and we have a very dedicated staff that really loves racing. Because we're in Florida, we have the weather, and we put in a wonderful turf course, and we care for that. 

“I think that people who love racing really do appreciate turf racing when they see it. And the handicapping, I mean, just from a business perspective, the racetracks do about 30% more on a similar number, so if you have 10 horses in a similar race, you'll bet about 30% more on the turf race. And I do notice that there are more people trying to buy turf horses.”

Thayer continues, “Most tracks have a turf course, it's just a matter of having a balanced programme. And since we race frequently, it makes it more difficult, whereas in Europe, they move around from course to course.

“So that's the challenge of expanding; we have a kind of limitation from nature. You can't tear over [the turf] too many times. We're very careful about that; we pride ourselves in trying to maintain the course, and not overuse it, so that's it's a safe surface, as safe as one can make it for horses. I've always felt the first dollars should be spent on making your track surfaces as good as you can.”

With a summer European tour now under her belt, the indefatigable owner-breeder, whose various roles in American racing include being a vice president of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, as well as a previous stint as president of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America (TRA), has her sights set on returning before too long.

“I hope to maybe come back for Arc weekend,” says Thayer, who has Control Tower entered for the G1 Prix de Royallieu. “I think the international quality of racing is a wonderful attribute to those who love the sport. I'd like to go to almost every racetrack, but I never made that. I've been to quite a few, but I've missed a lot of them. It's a really shared passion, and I think you're immediately drawn positively to people who care about it in the same way.”

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35 Years Ago, Sundays Were Silent At Tampa Bay Downs

Sunday racing returns to Tampa Bay Downs on Dec. 26, the day after Christmas, which is welcome news for families, tourists and bettors seeking to enjoy an exciting weekend afternoon of Thoroughbred action or just soak up sunshine and atmosphere at the Oldsmar, Fla., track.

While a Sunday spent handicapping by the rail and watching kids toss Frisbees in the Backyard Picnic Area seems commonplace, it wasn't always so. The first Sunday card in Tampa Bay Downs history took place on Dec. 7, 1986, and there was no way to predict how it would be received by the public.

Sunday racing became a reality after the state legislature decided to move Florida into step with more progressive fiefdoms.

“We are expecting a large crowd comparable to our Saturday crowds and maybe even better,” Lorraine King, the late Tampa Bay Downs general manager, said on the eve of the occasion. “If we can introduce new people to the sport of Thoroughbred racing by running on Sundays, then we are confident that they will enjoy themselves and come back on a more regular basis.”

At least one thing seemed to be working in the track's favor: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were playing in Chicago, and you had to be kind of a masochist to stay home and watch the Buccos get plastered 48-14 by the defending Super Bowl champion Bears.

Still, King knew putting on a brave face wasn't going to lure fans. So she instituted free grandstand admission and half-price clubhouse admission and added a free soft drink to go with every hot dog purchase.

Tampa Bay Downs also offered a handicapping seminar by noted Ocala turf writer and racing expert Bernie Dickman, plus a slate of races that included the first running of the Big John Naughton Ford Inaugural Stakes for 2-year-olds, offering a grandiose $15,000-added purse.

One thing King was sure of: the history-making event would draw lots of media attention. Reporters from the St. Petersburg Times, the Tampa Tribune and the Clearwater Sun all showed up to document the proceedings.

What they witnessed exceeded the expectations of the most optimistic observers. The turnstiles kept clicking throughout the day, with attendance of 5,893 surpassing the Opening Day crowd of 5,396 four days earlier.

While it's unclear if King was sticking the needle to the Bucs when she told a Times reporter “Today was very much like the Super Bowl,” she had reason to feel giddy.

Total wagering handle was $496,680 (this was before the simulcasting era), and youthful faces made up a larger-than-usual portion of the crowd (minors were not legally allowed inside Tampa Bay Downs until two seasons later).

These days, calling it an “experiment” seems silly, but 35 years ago it was a big deal, and an avenue to so many of the positive changes that have taken place at Tampa Bay Downs in ensuing years.

“Sunday racing means that people who work the other days of the week now have the opportunity to come out and enjoy the races,” said track owner Stella F. Thayer, the Oldsmar oval's president and treasurer, on the big afternoon.

“We're really hoping Sundays will bring a whole new dimension for attendance opportunities.”

So, maybe the day was more of a Super Bowl-type event than anyone realized at the time (including Bucs' fans, who would suffer through a 2-14 season).

“Naturally, if people unfamiliar with the sport are going to come out to Tampa Bay Downs, they are not as likely to wager as much as our more sophisticated patrons,” King said beforehand. “But … what I want to see is a lot of people. That means they will at least be exposed to the excitement of Thoroughbred racing.”

It would be fascinating to know how many are still coming. Probably more than anyone expected.

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