TDN Writers' Room | Horse Racing Free Tips

New NTRA President, CEO Tom Rooney Joins Writers’ Room

It's a hell of a time in racing to become the new head of one of the sport's foremost national organizations, but new National Thoroughbred Racing Association president and CEO Tom Rooney says he's ready for the challenge. Wednesday morning, the former U.S. congressman joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland's final show of 2021 as the Green Group Guest of the Week to discuss what the NTRA's top priorities will be under his stewardship, how his previous experience on the Hill can benefit the industry, what he thinks the NTRA's role should be in racing's ongoing public relations battle and much more.

“One of the things I think the board of directors wanted when they brought me on was to really sharpen our focus in Washington, D.C.,” Rooney said. “So much so that we're going to be opening an office there to make sure that I'm back in front of my old colleagues on a daily basis to make sure they don't forget about this issue or that issue. Specifically, the big issues that we deal with are the tax code, immigration–H-2A and H-2B visas for both at the farms and at the track–those are hugely important issues for keeping the trains running on time. And one of the things that I'm very excited about and looking forward to working on very closely is sports betting as it becomes more and more legalized across the United States and includes more sports. We used to be the only game in town when it came to legalized gambling, but now horse racing is separate from the other sports you might find on DraftKings or FanDuel, so if my son, who's in college, is putting a $20 bet on the 76ers and the Packers and wants to boost with a bet on the Breeders' Cup Classic, he can't necessarily do that because of the way everything is set up. We have to make sure–and I'm not sure this is a legislative fix yet–to be in that ballgame if we want to have a new generation of horseplayers. I think I would be neglectful in my job if I wasn't making sure that the one sport that was legal [to bet on] all along continues to be at least part of that game going forward, so I'm going to be working hard on that.”

Asked what he thinks the NTRA's role will be in trying to win the narrative in the court of public opinion when catastrophe strikes, as it so often has recently, Rooney said, “I think it's going to be absolutely huge. Publications and media outlets look for a response from somebody, and we just hired a new communications director who is going to be starting this month, and we are hopefully going to be one of the go-to voices in response to [crises]. For all those people who get up at God knows what hour every day and go down to the racetrack or the farm barn or cover this stuff like you do and want the sport to be successful and something we can be proud of, I think they're sick of being lumped in with this idea that we're all a bunch of cheaters who are drugging horses and don't really care about them and are just using them for our personal benefit. I just don't believe that, and I'm looking forward to being the voice to push back against that. Now, if something went wrong, there also has to be accountability on our side, which is a good thing. [Calfiornia] Senator [Dianne] Feinstein wrote a letter saying she wants transparency and thoroughness in the process [of investigating Medina Spirit's death]. Great. We agree. We want that too. One of the first things I learned in Congress was that you cannot let an accusation that harms you or your constituency go [unanswered], because if you do, it's almost an admission that what they're saying is right. You have to respond. And sometimes the response is tough love. But I think it's incumbent upon groups like the NTRA to make sure that the public has the other side of the story.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, XBTV, Lane's End, Three Chimneys, Hill 'n' Dale and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers discussed the impending sentencing of the Jorge Navarro and, in their year-in-review segments, picked their favorite races and biggest stories of 2021 as well as what horses they're most looking forward to seeing in 2022. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Writers’ Room Tackles Medina Spirit News, Baffert, Ortiz Suspension

It was a busy news week, headlined by the unfortunate sudden death of GI Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit (Protonico) and the 30-day suspension handed down to leading rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. Wednesday morning, Joe Bianca, Bill Finley and Jon Green of the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland discussed and reacted to all of it, rekindled the debate over whether trainer Bob Baffert is good for the sport, and welcomed the director of the upcoming film “Jockey” as the Green Group Guest of the Week.

“A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a story about two state legislators in New York looking to take all the slot money away from NYRA, and last year it was the governor of Pennsylvania,” Finley said. “Every time something like [Medina Spirit's death] happens, it makes their case stronger. And you know what? I bet you there are some politicians in California right now that are thinking, maybe it's time to introduce a bill to ban horse racing in the state. I think a lot of people don't think this will ever happen. It's not going to happen tomorrow or the next day, and it may not ever happen, but you have to be very scared of this. It is a realistic threat. Fifteen years ago, if I suggested that the circus would no longer exist, it would have been laughable to think about something like that.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, XBTV and Legacy Bloodstock, the hosts asked whether Ortiz will become a more careful rider after his suspension and the outcry that followed two incidents he was involved in over the weekend, and reacted to the news of the police arresting members of the Rossi family in France in an alleged doping and race-fixing conspiracy. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Ken McPeek Talks 2YOs, HISA, Lasix, Training Future On Writers’ Room

The story of a high-quality Thanksgiving weekend of racing at Churchill Downs was undoubtedly Ken McPeek, who sent out four impressive winners on Saturday's all-2-year-old Stars of Tomorrow card, including GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. hero Smile Happy (Runhappy) and 'TDN Rising Star' Cocktail Moments (Uncle Mo), to follow up a six-length victory by his Envoutante (Uncle Mo) in Thursday's GII Falls City S. Tuesday, the thoughtful McPeek sat down for an expansive interview with the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to talk about his loaded barn of promising juveniles, how much longer he sees himself training, his thoughts on the first proposed rule set of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act and more.

Despite having two graded stakes winners over the weekend, one could argue Cocktail Moments was McPeek's most impressive runner at Churchill. Drifting all the way up to 26-1 off a modest worktab, the $190,000 Keeneland September graduate dropped all the way back to 10th in the 12-horse field before steadily advancing while wide on the turn. Taking charge in mid-stretch, the Dixiana Farms colorbearer put on a show in the final furlong, rocketing away to a 9 1/4-length romp.

“That was a pleasant surprise,” said McPeek, this week's Green Group Guest of the Week. “But I'll tell you, she had been training fantastic going into the race. Typically when we get a young horse ready, we don't force the issue. We let them come [around]. I like to get a race under their belt. I'd almost call the first race a schooling race. I tell the rider to take a little bit of a hold, settle, wait, wait, finish. When they do that, they take dirt in their face, they've got all this adversity, and you lose races doing that, but you also teach them. The young horses that we've gunned away from the gate, they don't learn as much as the ones that take dirt, learn to negotiate the traffic and finish. Well, she finished alright. She came like a bullet. She's been a really happy filly the last couple of weeks, but to be able to predict that first time out is difficult.”

Already with a trio of winners Saturday, Lucky Seven Stable's Smile Happy cemented the day as one to remember for McPeek, settling off the pace and blowing past 7-5 chalk Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway) in the stretch to a 3 1/4-length score in the Kentucky Jockey Club. That was the second victory in two starts for the $185,000 Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearling buy, who joined fellow graded stakes winners Rattle N Roll (Connect) and Tiz the Bomb (Hit It a Bomb) in the McPeek barn as potential GI Kentucky Derby contenders.

“This horse has out-trained just about every horse he's worked against,” McPeek said. “He's a very physically imposing horse to be around, and he's fast. I stretched him out long the first time and he handled it like a pro, and to beat some of the horses he ran against second time out–he's got the mind of a good horse. I think there's still some fitness that's needed there too. We're going to shelve him for a little while, and I think you're going to see an even better horse when we get to the spring … He's got an interesting pedigree. There wasn't much black type, the first three dams were practically blank. But his second dam is by Relaunch, third dam by Graustark, fourth dam by Bold Ruler, and Funny Cide is under his fourth dam. We're really excited to have him.”

The conversation later turned to McPeek's increasingly impressive training resume. Starting in 1985, his career took off in the 2000s and the 59-year-old now boasts over 1,800 winners and over $95 million in total earnings. Asked to reflect on his career, McPeek went on to break a bit of news in saying he doesn't plan on training for all that much longer–with a caveat.

“I'm probably most proud of finding a lot of these horses at auction, even for modest prices,” he said. “The first 10 years that I trained, I struggled, but I convinced Roy Monroe to let me buy yearlings for him. The first yearling I bought was a Lord At War (Arg) filly that ended up running first, second or third in 15 stakes in her career for Roy and me. Then he let me buy [millionaire and 1995 Derby second] Tejano Run, who launched me. Training horses is not rocket science, but you've got to get good horses to train, and I'm in a unique stage right now where people are giving me bigger budgets. But I'm still buying for what I call the under-50 [thousand] people. I still like working the back end of the sales. I'll wear out a pair of tennis shoes. And Dominic [Brennan] is probably deserving of as much credit as me, because he's been in the trenches with me for 30-plus years. He's one of those unsung heroes–a rock-solid Irish horseman … But I'm going to lay something out there that I don't know if most people want to hear or not. I'm going to do this for 10 or 11 more years. I'm going to train until I'm 70. Unless, of course, I have horses like I've got in the barn right now. But I'm looking at doing it until I'm 70 and then I'd like to work horse auctions for people worldwide.”

Asked for his thoughts on the early HISA rules as proposed by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, McPeek offered, “I think it's fantastic stuff. I think they need to unify the licensing. If I get a driver's license in Kentucky, I can drive all over the country. And then allow reciprocity to take effect when you have a violation. These rules need to be streamlined, there's no question. They need a horseman on those committees making those decisions that has the power to say, 'Hey, wait a second, time out, you're going too far.' But at this point, there aren't horsemen sitting on those, and that bothers me.”

Elsewhere on the Writers' Room, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, Lane's End, XBTV and Legacy Bloodstock, Joe Bianca, Bill Finley and Jon Green discussed the implications of Gun Runner breaking the earnings record for first-crop sires and looked forward to an intriguing GI Cigar Mile H. card Saturday at Aqueduct. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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New Vocations’ Anna Ford, Randy Moss Join TDN Writers’ Room

As the Thoroughbred Program Director for New Vocations, the nation's largest racehorse adoption program, Anna Ford knows how important it is for a horse-related charity to find creative ways to raise money. And Ford and her team might just have landed on a winning idea.

It was announced this week that New Vocations and DJ Stable have joined forces for a Giving Tuesday campaign. DJ Stable will match all donations up to $25,000.

That was among the subjects discussed when Ford joined ths week's Thoroughbred Daily News Writers' Room podcast brought to you by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week. Ford's appearance coincided with Randy Moss' debut as one of the panelists on the podcast. Moss filled in for the vacationing Joe Bianca.

“We're really excited about this because, first, it's our first annual Giving Tuesday campaign,” Ford said. “To have Jon (Green) and his family step up and make this match is really going to boost the whole campaign. Hopefully, we can raise 50 or more thousand dollars.”

Jon Green, the general manager of his family's DJ Stable and a regular on the TDN Writers' Room, summed up why it is so important for owners to accept the responsibilities involved when it comes to properly retiring their horses.

“As our stable has gotten bigger it's more important for us to make sure that the horses that we have a good home after they are done racing,” Green said “The most important thing we can do as owners is recognize our responsibility. And when we raise our hand at an auction and buy a horse, or we decide to breed a horse and foal it out and have it run in our colors, it's our responsibility to ensure that those horses are cared for once their racing careers are over.”

Ford also spoke to changing attitudes in a sport that once attempted to sweep the problem of what to do with retirees under the rug. Ford said that the advent of social media has made her job a lot easier.

“We first saw a big change with Facebook,” she said. “Once there was more awareness of the issues people started asking questions. We started to see a shift around 2009, 2010. That's when more people started wanting to send us horses and more people wanted to fund our efforts because they saw the value in our efforts. I really feel like it was a matter of raising awareness and getting people educated on what was going on.”

In addition to Giving Tuesday, New Vocations relies heavily on its Breeders' Cup Pledge program, in which owners, trainers and others involved with Breeders' Cup starters pledge a portion of their winning to New Vocations. This year, there were eight Breeders' Cup winners who were part of the pledge, which raised $140,000.

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, Coolmore, Legacy Bloodstock and XBTV, the writers focused on the ongoing problems the sport is having accurately timing races. The times of several Breeders' Cup races had to be recalculated after the races were run. Moss, who is part of the Beyer speed figure team, was particularly critical of the Gmax timing system now in place at several tracks, among them Del Mar, the home of this year's Breeders' Cup.

“It amazing that it's 2021 and this sport is doing a worse job of timing races now than it did in 1971,” said Bill Finley.

“It's doing a worse job than it did in 1941,” Moss said.

Other topics under discussion included Peter Miller's decision to step away from racing and the debate over who should be the 3-year-old male champion. Moss threw his support behind Medina Spirit (Protonico), while Green and Finley supported Essential Quality (Tapit).

Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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