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LA Times Columnist John Cherwa Joins Writers’ Room

Los Angeles Times columnist John Cherwa has seen a lot in just a handful of years on the Southern California racing beat, and Wednesday morning he joined the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland to discuss the past, present and future of racing in the Golden State. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Cherwa talked about the progress in Santa Anita's safety record, the top 3-year-olds on the west coast and the effect of last week's protest at Golden Gate Fields.

“I wrote tens of thousands of words on the horse breakdowns at Santa Anita,” Cherwa recalled. “I was on the phone with a source who was at the track when Battle of Midway went down and then it just mushroomed from there. Last week at Golden Gate, you saw where protesters went on the track over some recent deaths there. At that point, there were five deaths. One was a sudden death, which was probably a heart attack. There were only two what we call breakdowns. At a similar point in 2019 at Santa Anita, there were 20. I think a lot has been done [since], mostly I think through pre-race evaluations. If you watch the Los Alamitos races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, you'll see a lot of scratches, and a lot of those are because of pre-race evaluations. So I think the progress has been immense. However, until the number [of deaths] becomes zero, it's never enough [for anti-racing protestors]. And zero is, in many terms, unattainable number.”

Asked about the challenges to presenting the sport for a national audience, Cherwa said his dispassionate approach to racing has led to some backlash both from within the industry and outside of it, but that having only covered racing for a few years affords him a fresh view of things.

“I get hate mail from a lot of the horse racing people because I cover horse deaths and things like that,” he said “I get threats from the animal rights activists because I'm not covering it enough. I've even gotten death threats from the animal rights people. Frankly, no one is covering that more than I have, not because I want to, but because it is a big story in California. The fact that I'm kind of new to this myself, means that I'm learning along with my audience and I do on a lot of things. I've got like three or four, I'll just call them sources, that I will call all the time to have them explain something to me just to make sure of what I think I know.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, in a jam-packed West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, the writers discussed the first sentencing domino to fall from last year's indictments, the official news of Gulfstream adding a Tapeta surface that first broke on the show back in December, and the Golden Gate protests. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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Gulfstream to Install Tapeta Surface

Gulfstream Park may soon be able to offer races on three different surfaces as officials are in the process of finalizing plans to install a Tapeta track on the outer section of the turf course. The story was originally reported by the Daily Racing Form.

“It's going to happen,” Bill Badgett, executive director of Florida racing The Stronach Group told the DRF's Mike Welsch. “Right now, we're just trying to find a time frame to implement the project that will be least disruptive to our racing schedule. We had the engineers out here on Tuesday surveying the course. The Tapeta track will be installed over what is now the outer 60 feet of the turf course. That will still give us enough room for two rail settings on the inner turf.”

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Gulfstream To Install Tapeta Surface Between Turf, Dirt Courses

Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla. will install a Tapeta synthetic racing surface over the outer 60 feet of its turf course, the Daily Racing Form reported on Friday. The installation will give Gulfstream three surfaces over which to race.

“We had over 100 races taken off the turf last year, and that becomes a major blow to our handle due to the inevitable reduction of field sizes,” Gulfstream's Bill Badgett told DRF. “With the option to switch those races to the Tapeta track rather than a wet main track, we'll be able to keep the fields intact, which keeps the handle intact, which in turn helps keep the purses intact.”

The Tapeta will also be able to be used for morning training, as well as an option for a surface change if the main track becomes too sloppy.

No timeframe has yet been established for the installation.

Southern California Shipper Rombauer Tops Saturday’s El Camino Real Derby

A field of nine is entered to take flight in the feature race at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday afternoon, the Grade 3, $100,000 El Camino Real Derby for 3-year-olds. The El Camino Real Derby, run at the distance of one mile and an eighth on the “all-weather” Tapeta main track, offers ten Kentucky Derby points to the winner and an all-expenses paid, free berth into the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. In order for the winner to earn the latter incentive, he or she must be Triple Crown nominated.

This year's El Camino Real Derby field is packed with Southern California shippers. The likely favorite, Rombauer, draws the outside post in the field of nine and is one of six entrants who make the trip north from their home base at Santa Anita Park. Rombauer makes his 3-year-old debut in the El Camino Real Derby, having most recently placed fifth in the Grade 1 Breeders Cup Juvenile in November. Earlier in the fall, Rombauer finished as the runner up in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita. The current leading rider at the Golden Gate Winter/Spring meet, Kyle Frey, picks up the mount for trainer Michael McCarthy. Frey won the 2017 El Camino Real Derby aboard longshot Zakaroff while McCarthy scored a victory one year later with the filly Paved.

Javanica seeks to become the second filly in the El Camino Real Derby's 40 year history to take home the gold medal. Javanica, a royally bred gal by Medaglia D'Oro out of Grade 2 winning mare Shuruq, has finished second in her last three starts, all against stakes competition. Eoin Harty trains for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's Godolphin LLC, with veteran rider Frank Alvarado slated to navigate. Javanica will be breaking from post position 7.

Hall of Fame conditioner Richard Mandella saddles a 2021 El Camino Real Derby contender in Petruchio, by white-hot stallion Into Mischief. After breaking his maiden on turf two starts ago, Petruchio tried winners for the first time in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity and completed the trifecta. Local jockey Irving Orozco rides for the first time.

Trainer John Shirreffs sends Waspirant to the Bay Area for another shot against stakes company. Most recently, Waspirant ran fourth in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes behind two of the top 3-year-olds in California, the Bob Baffert trained pair of Life Is Good and Medina Spirit. The son of Union Rags is out of the Storm Cat mare Life Is Sweet, who won the 2009 Grade I Breeders Cup Ladies Classic (now named the Breeders Cup Distaff). Jockey Assael Espinoza has the call for owners Pam and Marty Wygod.

Owner Reddam Racing LLC and trainer Doug O'Neill won the 2016 El Camino Real Derby with Frank Conversation and, five years later, campaign the California-bred Play Chicken. Winner of the King Glorious Stakes for state-breds at Los Alamitos last December, Play Chicken looks to rebound after an off-the-board finish in the California Derby on January 16 at Santa Anita. Evin Roman is named to ride; Roman guided Kingly to a second-place effort in the 2019 El Camino Real Derby.

Positivity rounds out the list of Southern California contenders. His best run to date came in the summertime as a 2-year-old, winning the Graduation Stakes at Del Mar while sprinting on dirt. He also ran second in his next start, the Golden State Juvenile. Both aforementioned races came against California-breds. Trainer Paddy Gallagher employs his go-to Northern California rider, Julien Couton, to ride.

Three local contenders look to play spoiler for the heavy hitters from Southern California. It's My House, trained by Jamey Thomas, broke his maiden sprinting two weeks ago and stretches out in distance. Tesoro, who unofficially hit the wire first in his career debut, was disqualified for interference with another rival and enters the El Camino Real Derby still a maiden. Recent starter allowance winner Govenor's Party completes the trio of local talent and is expected to go off at a big price for trainer Dan Franko. William Antongeorgi III rides It's My House, Catalino Martinez hops aboard Tesoro and Cristobal Herrera retains the mount on Govenor's Party.

The El Camino Real Derby is Race 8 on a 9-race program at Golden Gate Fields.

First post on Saturday is 12:45 PM PT, with scheduled post time for the El Camino Real Derby stamped at approx. 4:15 PM PT.

The $100,000 El Camino Real Derby (3-year-olds at one mile and an eighth)

Positivity (trainer Paddy Gallagher, jockey Julien Couton)
Waspirant (John Shirreffs, Assael Espinoza)
Tesoro (O.J. Jauregui, Catalino Martinez)
It's My House (Jamey Thomas, William Antongeorgi III)
Petruchio (Richard Mandella, Irving Orozco)
Play Chicken (Doug O'Neill, Evin Roman)
Javanica (Eoin Harty, Frank Alvarado)
Govenor's Party (Dan Franko, Cristobal Herrera)
Rombauer (Michael McCarthy, Kyle Frey)

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