Stonestreet Farms | Horse Racing Free Tips

Bianco Named Highgate Sales Director

Kate Bianco has been named sales director at Highgate Sales. A native of New Jersey, Bianco has worked in the yearling division and in sales and nominations at Three Chimneys Farm, and served as Thoroughbred Administrator at Stonestreet Farms.

“I feel privileged to have worked for some of the best in the business and will forever be grateful for that opportunity. Sales have always been a passion of mine and I look forward to starting this new adventure with the team at Highgate,” Bianco said.

Starting her new role before the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearling Sale, Bianco will oversee client communications and various pre-sale and sale-day tasks as part of Highgate's sales team.

“I am thrilled to welcome Kate to the Highgate team,” said Highgate owner and partner Jill Gordon. “She has a wealth of experience, a great work ethic and an endlessly positive attitude that will make her an invaluable asset to our clients. We have grown a tremendous amount since launching Highgate last year, and Kate will play a pivotal role in continuing to best serve our clients.”

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StrideSAFE CEO David Lambert Joins The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

As the sport continues in its efforts to drastically reduced the number of fatalities that occur in races and in morning training, there's little doubt that StrideSAFE is going to play an important role in preventing breakdowns.

StrideSAFE is a biometric sensor mechanism that slips into the saddle cloth to detect minute changes in a horses's gait at high speed. Those changes can, and often do, signal that a horse is in the early stages of having a problem that could lead to a fatal injury. If the StrideSAFE data is made available to trainers and veterinarians, they can use it to make decisions that very well could save a horse's life.

To learn more about StrideSAFE, we brought in its CEO Dr. David Lambert for this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland to discuss how the technology works and what it can do to keep our horses safer. Lambert was the Green Group Guest of the week.

“We recognized early on that every horse has his own unique way of going,” Lambert said. “The sensors would pick up the same pattern for the same horse all the time. But if something were to go wrong with that horse, then that pattern changes and the sensors are able to pick that up. And so the preliminary work was to look at cases where we knew the horses had suffered a fatal injury and try to quantify the nature of the patterns that preceded the fatality. That was the basic research that we had to tidy up, and that's where we are now. We've got that pattern. We can identify each individual horse's style. We've got an elaborate model that can tell us when the changes that are happening in a horse's body are happening and putting them at greater risk of a fatal injury.”

How effective is it? Originally, horses were put into three categories, red, yellow and green. Red representing the horses at the highest risk of being injured, while green includes the ones at the least risk. They have since changed the categories with horses in category five the most likely to suffer a fatal injury.

“The animals that have the worst signal and are in category five, the worst data, are 300 times more likely to suffer a fatality than are the ones that get the normal signal,” Lambert said. “So we're able to quantify the amount of risk a horse is at once he's come out of a race. So the horse is wrong. Here he is. He's back at the barn. We get the results. And that horse, the data that horse showed us in that race tells us that he was he's now 300 times more likely to suffer a fatality. We give that to the trainer. This isn't an absolute. But that horse is a seriously increased level of risk. And all we're asking the trainer to do is have a special look, bring your vets in, because the vets know where these fractures occur.”

While no one is doubting that StrideSAFE's information is accurate and can be vitally important, the racing industry has yet to embrace it. It has been used on a trial basis at some tracks, including the NYRA tracks, but is not yet in regular use at any track. Why?

“I think the answer to that is probably just human nature,” Lambert said. “When you come with any idea to a large group of people there are going to be those unusual folks who jump on it straight away. And then there'll be those who get used to it a little bit later. The establishment and the political players, if you like, the management level, are going to be slower still. They have a complex responsibility to the sport at large. They must be absolutely sure that something is valid before they allow it to happen. They can't go off, you know, with a knee jerk reaction jumping in and causing more harm than good. And then, of course, at the other end of that, there's always the soothsayers that just want no part of it. And then all of them are bound by money. They might want to do it and can't afford it. So there's the whole spectrum of things that have, I think, been in evidence as we've tried to bring this forward. But slowly but surely we're making progress. People are getting on board. And I'm feeling pretty optimistic now that we're going to get this done.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored byhttps://coolmore.com/https://lanesend.com/ the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders,https://www.nyrabets.com/ WinStar Farm, XBTV.com, Stonestreet Farms, Lane's End andhttps://www.threechimneys.com/ West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Zoe Cadman, Bill Finley and Randy Moss discussed the remarkable safety record at the recently concluded Del Mar meet where not a single horses broke down during the running of a race. The discussion included a look at a pair of 'TDN Rising Stars' who exited stakes races on closing weekend at Del Mar, where Tamara (Bolt d'Oro), the daughter of Hall of Famer Beholder (Henny Hughes), was a very impressive winner of the GI Del Mar Debutante. The team was not quite as bullish on the victory by Prince of Monaco (Speightstown), who was hard pressed to win the GI Del Mar Futurity as the 1-20 favorite. Randy Moss previewed the “Win and You're In” races to be held Saturday at Woodbine and will be broadcast by Moss and his team on NBC.

To watch the Writers' Room, click here. To view the show as a podcast, click here.

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Mark Casse: “I’m Not Proud Of Our Sport”

Appearing as the Green Group Guest of the Week on this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse grew emotional when the subject of the rash of fatalities that have plagued the sport this year came up. Believing that the industry has not done all that it can to help alleviate the situation and that tracks must embrace a return to synthetic surfaces, Casse admitted that his outlook on his profession and the sport has changed for the worse.

“This is sad to say, but I'm not as proud to be a horse trainer as I used to be,” he said. “I'm not proud of our sport. That's sad. In my opinion, it's dangerous and I'm going to do whatever I can do to help it. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn who I piss off or upset.”

Casse came on to discuss some of the opinions he expressed earlier in the week from a Q & A that ran in the TDN. Because he has stables at Woodbine, where all racing is conducted on either the Tapeta surface or turf, and at U.S. tracks where the predominant surface is dirt, Casse, perhaps more so than any other trainer, is well versed in the differences between the various types of surfaces. He has become an outspoken supporter of synthetic tracks and insists that U.S. racing needs to make the conversion from dirt to synthetic.

“I think it is,” he answered when asked if the time has come for dirt racing to be replaced. “We've got years and years of data that says it's far safer. The path we're going down right now is ugly and we have to do something and we have to do it quickly. It's going to take a drastic measure.”

Some believe that the end of dirt racing would be a huge blow to the breeding industry, where hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in sires and bloodlines meant to produce top-class dirt horses. Casse argues that the potential problems have been exaggerated.

“It's not as big a worry as they make it out to be,” he said. “From my experience, maybe one out of ten horses don't like synthetic. Most good horses will run on anything pretty well. And I can tell you, they'll run a lot longer and last a lot longer.”

This isn't the first time that Casse has been outspoken about industry issues. He has also been vocal about what he saw as the widespread and ill-advised use of clenbuterol. He said his only motivation is to try to make this a better, safer sport.

“I'm going to give you everything I have,” he said. “I'll go down fighting. You can only do so much but I will do my best. I'm doing my best. I'm not a good loser.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, NYRABets.com, WinStar Farm, XBTV.com, Stonestreet Farms, Lane's End and West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Zoe Cadman, Bill Finley and Randy Moss also tackled the subject of synthetic surfaces, an issue that drew more attention after a tragic Saturday afternoon at Saratoga, which included the breakdown of New York Thunder (Nyquist) in the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S. All three agreed with Casse that switching to synthetics has become a necessity. There was also a look at the GI Travers. S., won by Arcangelo (Arrogate) and an admission from Moss that he underrated the horse that is now the sport's leading 3-year-old male. The team also took a look back at the remarkable career of Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard, who passed away this week at the age of 82.

To watch the Writers' Room, click here. To view the show as a podcast, click here.

The post Mark Casse: “I’m Not Proud Of Our Sport” appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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WindRacer A Winner For Banke And Furth

While the next crop of Thoroughbred champions are making their entrance into the world at Barbara Banke's Stonestreet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, Banke and her friend and business partner Peggy Furth were hailing the arrival of another likely headline-maker at Keeneland on Saturday when debuting WindRacer Wines.

With some of the most notable faces in the racing industry in attendance at the track for Stonestreet Lexington day, Banke and Furth, co-founders of WindRacer, took the opportunity to share their latest project with a discerning audience. It appeared to have been met with unanimous approval.

There are six wines in the boutique WindRacer collection-two Chardonnays and four Pinot Noirs–four of which were unveiled on Saturday. The wines are crafted from grapes sourced from highly select blocks of vineyards in Mendocino County's Anderson Valley and Sonoma County's Russian River Valley. These are areas of “extreme viticulture”-high elevations, coastal winds and rocky, nutrient-poor soils mean that the growing conditions there are challenging and that grape yields are low. But those dedicated enough to nurture them are rewarded with berries that are intense, concentrated in flavour and complex.

The parallels between producing a fine wine and a Grade I racehorse would not have been lost on those in attendance on Saturday.

“There are so many similarities; the dedication, the passion and the precision that it takes to raise a Thoroughbred and to raise a grape,” said Furth. “People may not think those two are related at all, but being in both industries, there are many similarities and it does require an incredible team of people; you can't do either one of these things alone no matter what your dreams are; it takes a lot of professionalism.”

The scarcity of the grapes used for WindRacer mean that the wines are a cherished commodity-only around 200 cases of each variety has been produced. The good news for racing enthusiasts, however, is that they will be among the first to get their hands on it: in addition to being available direct to consumer, WindRacer will be rolled out around major race meetings in Kentucky, New York, California and Florida. It will not be available for purchase in retail shops; it will, however, be served this summer, for instance, at some of Saratoga's most popular restaurants.

“What they're trying to do with this is to keep it very targeted,” said Tom Gannon, advanced sommelier with The Spire Collection of elite wines. “The wines are really only available in California, Kentucky, Florida and New York and targeted at the tracks and the restaurants around the tracks and in a direct to consumer way. We'll do events at certain restaurants in Saratoga-we're already lining it up at the restaurants that Barbara and Peggy like to go to, like the Adelphi, 15 Church, Wishing Well and Village Pizzeria.”

Banke noted they have the option to expand their offerings down the road, but that mass production isn't the goal for WindRacer.

“We can, but we don't want to get big,” she said. “We want to take great little sections of the vineyards and produce wines that are really the Thoroughbreds of their class.”

WindRacer is a labour of love for Banke and Furth, who were highly successful in their individual professional pursuits before pouring their talents and resources into their family vineyards. Banke was a prominent land use and constitutional law attorney before joining forces with her late husband Jess Jackson to help grow Jackson Family Wines. Furth was the first female executive at Kellogg's as vice president of public affairs, and she founded Chalk Hill Estates and Vineyards with her late husband Fred Furth. Prior to WindRacer, Banke and Furth worked together on numerous business and philanthropic pursuits, including founding the Imagine Wine Auction (now known as Sonoma Paradiso), which raised around $6-million for local children's causes.

Horses, likewise, are pivotal in the lives of both women. Banke, of course, is a perennial breeder of Grade I-winning racehorses, while Furth is an international-level dressage rider.

“We've been neighbors in Sonoma County and we've been vintners in Sonoma County so professionally we were at a lot of events together,” said Furth. “Barbara's interest in horses is different than mine; when Jess started his interest in Thoroughbred racing they went in that direction. I'm a dressage rider so I do old and slow horses, and she does young and fast horses. It's interesting in the whole story that we are distinct personalities-we sometimes diverge in our wine tastes as well. We can argue about that and have different preferences, but over many, many years we decided it would be nice to have a wine brand together as girlfriends and have a woman-owned business, so that's how WindRacer was born.”

Banke added, “We have shared interests in horses; Peggy in dressage, and her grandkids do hunter jumper, and me in racehorses. We wanted something that had a horse on the label and we love Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, so we decided to curate some of the vineyards that I own in California and take selected pieces. I have a really good winemaker–Nikki Weerts, who is from South Africa originally–make the wines for us so it's a combination of our interests in wine and horses.”

Furth said that while she has never used Thoroughbreds in dressage, she is “very interested in the lifecycle and care of the racehorse. And I'm very respectful of the New Vocations program and what this industry does for its horses.”

It's not out of the question, either, that Furth and Banke could be enjoying another collaboration this summer, with Furth saying she may take a piece of one of Stonestreet's Royal Ascot-bound runners. Furth said she experienced a “hall of fame moment” when witnessing Lady Aurelia's G2 Queen Mary S. victory with Banke in 2016, and while in town for the WindRacer launch she visited Lady Aurelia and her first foal, a Curlin colt, at Stonestreet.

“It was a hall of fame moment in my life to be with my best friend and watch Lady Aurelia, not really understanding the significance of what it takes to do that,” Furth said. “But I'm learning.”

Banke and Furth have both, however, already worked their way to the top of the wine trade, and their collaboration with WindRacer is sure to be a winner at the major races this summer.

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