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Bobby Flay Talks Breeders’ Cup Triumph On Writers’ Room

Still riding high from a scintillating victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with fast-finishing Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), celebrity chef, restaurateur and owner/breeder Bobby Flay joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Tuesday afternoon. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Flay appreciated the significance of winning on racing's biggest stage with a homebred, teased a potential Royal Ascot trip with Pizza Bianca and discussed how he would approach racing's marketing challenges and more.

Flay made a huge splash at the 2014 Tattersalls October Sale when going to 1,250,000 guineas (around $2,122,050 U.S.) to purchase a regally-bred daughter of Galileo (Ire)–the highest-priced filly sold in the Northern Hemisphere that year–he named White Hot (Ire). But the filly never made it to the races. Flay could've cut his losses and sold the mare back at auction, but instead held onto her to breed, putting trust in her pedigree, and she rewarded him with a Breeders' Cup winner as her first foal.

“She has a lights-out pedigree,” he said. “She's by Galileo, she's a half to Pour Moi (Montjeu {Ire}), who won the English Derby, and that's just the beginning of the pedigree. It goes on for pages. It's a Coolmore family. And one thing about buying into a Coolmore family, those guys are so focused on making their families better and better that they're going to spend money all over that pedigree until the end of time. So I made that bet. I took a leap of faith and it didn't work out. The horse never ran, just wasn't good enough. But I knew I was going to keep this horse for the rest of her life. My feeling was, at some point, the blood will show up. If it's that good, something has to happen, directly or indirectly, that's going to help your family. But you have to be patient. You may have to invest more money actually to continue to breed, but at some point it will work. And I obviously did not expect it to work with the first foal, but it did. It's all gravy from here on out.”

Flay has become a breakthrough celebrity and, as a result, a de facto ambassador of racing. He was asked about how receptive people in his world are to the sport and what can be done to introduce more potential owners and bettors into the game.

“There's only one way to do it. You have to expose them to it,” he said. “If you ask me for a recipe and I just hand you a piece of paper or tell you to go download something off a website and you make it, it's going to be one way. But if I actually show you how to do it, it's going to come out differently and probably better, because I'm showing you as opposed to telling you. It's the same thing for racing. If I tell people about my experience, they're like, 'Oh yeah, that's great.' I take people to the big events, because I want them to see racing at its best, see the best horses and the biggest crowds, and then they're hooked. They're like, 'I can't believe I've never done this before.' I hear that all the time. Every year, I take about 25-30 people to the Belmont Stakes. Half of them have never been to a race before. They become racing fans.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, XBTV, Lane's End and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers discussed their takeaways from last week's interview with Travis Tygart and Tessa Muir of USADA, debated whether or not Lasix-free racing is a big deal anymore and addressed potential remedies for the wagering public in situations like the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf mess. 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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The Week in Review: Tygart, USADA Out to Clean Up the Game

We heard from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), its CEO Travis Tygart and the Director of Equine Science Dr. Tessa Muir last week when USADA released its anti-doping guidelines, rules and protocols. Once again, we saw that these are no-nonsense, dedicated people with a track record of cleaning up other sports. The release of the guidelines was an important step toward what will be a welcome change for racing–competent, dedicated policing from an outside entity replacing the current system, which just doesn't work.

(Quotes from this story were taken from Tygart and Muir's appearance on the TDN Writers' Room podcast and from Dan Ross's coverage in the TDN and his Q&A with Tygart and Muir.)

With Thursday's release of the details, there was a lot to digest. Here's what resonated with me:

(*) USADA is not going to rely solely on drug testing, which has been proven to be a woefully inadequate way of catching cheaters. There are always a number of potent drugs out there that can't be detected by standard drug tests. USADA may not have all the tools, including wiretaps, that the FBI had when it took down Jason Servis, Jorge Navarro and others, but Tygart made it clear that there are more ways to catch cheaters than just through drug tests.

“Can you bring a case if you don't have a positive test?” Tygart said. “In some states today, I don't think that's even possible under the rules. But if you look at Article Two of the rules, it identifies about 12 different types of violations. Only one or two of those includes a positive test. So possession, trafficking, complicity, attempted administration, retaliation against a whistleblower, those are things that can be anti-doping rule violations.”

He said that scientific evidence will be combined with “buckets of evidence”, much like what you see each week on shows like Law and Order and NCIS.

Tygart said they will also rely on a tip line that is already receiving calls. All of which is a step in the right direction. Neither Navarro nor Servis had any serious violations on their records that were the result of testing, which just goes to show that a lot more beyond testing needs to be done.

(*) USADA appears to understand the importance of going after more than just the trainers. It stands to reason that in most cases where performance-enhancing drugs are used, a veterinarian is involved. And what about the owners? It's hard to imagine they don't know what's going on when their trainer is wining at 30% and 50% off the claim. They should have to pay the price when their trainer is caught.

“When the horse is in training, the owner, the veterinarian, anyone else involved with the horse, they can be held accountable if they're complicit and part of a doping or a medication issue,” Tygart said. “The strict liability of the positive test doesn't apply to them. So there will be a slightly different way that this is prosecuted, but they absolutely can be held accountable under these rules.”

He added: “It's not just the trainer training the horse that has responsibility for this culture of a clean sport. Everybody within the sport should have a responsibility to ensure that it's being done the right way.”

(*) One thing that was not addressed last week was the obvious problem of having a trainer turn the stable over to an assistant once they are suspended. Life goes on largely uninterrupted for that stable with the head trainer getting what amounts to a vacation. There's not nearly enough of a deterrent here. At least with the more serious violations, the stable should be penalized along with a guilty trainer.

(*) USADA is going to rely heavily on out-of-competition testing and trainers must let USADA know at all times where a horse is located. He also said that out-of-competition tests won't be done on a random basis. For obvious reasons, the focus will be on trainers whose results suggest they might be using something to get an edge.

“It's what we call intelligent testing,” Tygart said. “It's not random. Some call it smart testing. Some call it target testing. We will use data.”

(*) You might want to call this one the “Baffert Rule.” While USADA will distinguish between violations that involve performance-enhancing drugs and overages of therapeutic medications, Tygart believes that there is a point where enough is enough when it comes to overages. Four minor infractions or therapeutic overages within five years could result in a sanction of up to two years.

(*) Just because a horse passes post-race urine and blood tests doesn't mean that they can't be caught later on. If someone uses something illegal and a new test for that substance comes around after the fact, they could get nailed. This is another welcome development.

“We will have the ability to do what is called retrospective testing,” Tygart said. “Samples will be put into storage. And then when you develop new tests in the future, we're going to be able to bring those samples out of storage and actually then analyze them with the new methodology for those prohibited old-time substances. That's also a great deterrent to people using things where they say you can't detect it. But in the future, when those technologies and the capabilities are enhanced and changed, then we can go back and you will still be subject to sanction (for a positive test).”

(*) More than six months after the race, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has still not acted when it comes to this year's GI Kentucky Derby and the reported betamethasone positive on winner Medina Spirit (Protonico). That, Tygart said, will not happen after USADA takes over.

“I was pretty stunned to hear that (Medina Spirit's) Kentucky Derby case hasn't been resolved yet,” Tygart said. “That's not going to happen on our watch. I mean, it's crazy that it's taken that long to get to a final resolution, particularly when someone is competing the entire time.”

Lawsuits have been filed by horsemen's groups and six states to shoot down the Horseracing Safety and Integrity Act (HISA), which is what created the need for a new method of policing the sport, and USADA has yet to sign a contract with the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. Both factors could mean that the projected start date for HISA, July 1, 2022 will not be met.

But if and when HISA goes into effect, USADA will be ready. Tygart called the new rules a “gold standard program for the industry.” He's got that right. It's time for a new era.

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Wesley Ward Joins Writers’ Room Breeders’ Cup Preview Show

The TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland produced its third annual comprehensive Breeders' Cup preview show Wednesday, analyzing and handicapping all 14 World Championships races in depth, and welcomed trainer Wesley Ward later as the Green Group Guest of the Week to discuss his five combined Breeders' Cup starters in the GI Turf Sprint and GII Juvenile Turf Sprint and future goals for his barn.

Asked whether he's happy with the niche he's carved out for himself as mainly an elite 2-year-old and turf sprint trainer or if he has bigger goals to win Classic races, Ward said with a laugh, “I'm glad I'm good at something. I'm fortunate that I have a good number of owners who are backing me with these types of horses. But obviously, I'd like to get into different categories and Classic distances. I had my first [Kentucky] Derby starter this year [Like the King]; ultimately he was a grass horse, but it sure was a lot of fun getting over there and I would like to get back with a really good chance.”

Elsewhere on the Breeders' Cup preview extravaganza, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, XBTV, West Point Thoroughbreds, Lane's End, the New York Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund and Legacy Bloodstock, Joe Bianca, Bill Finley and Jon Green gave out longshots to watch this weekend, explained which favorites they think are vulnerable and broke down all the pace scenarios in a potential Breeders' Cup Classic for the ages. 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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NBC, NYRA TV Host Laffit Pincay Joins Writers’ Room

As one of the most recognizable television personalities in racing, Laffit Pincay has a front-row seat to some of the grandest spectacles in the sport, and as the son of one of the greatest jockeys who ever lived, he also has had first-hand experience with some of racing's most iconic moments from a very young age. Wednesday, the excellent broadcaster for NBC and the New York Racing Association joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to preview next month's Breeders' Cup, relive some of his favorite memories from growing up in a household steeped in racing and talk about how his perspective has shifted as he has become one of the faces of the sport.

Asked about his upbringing and when he figured out that he wanted to work in racing, Pincay said, “I didn't grow up following [racing] all that closely. I was a huge baseball, football, basketball fan. I always knew I wanted to be involved in sports in some capacity. Riding was never an option. I was wearing my dad's suits to the track on the rare occasion when I would go when I was 12 or 13. Even if I wanted to ride, he wouldn't have allowed it. He said, 'If you do it, you'd better be really good, because it's a really difficult life.' It's not quite what it's made out to be. The way he had to starve himself. No offseason.

“It wasn't something, even if I was built to be a jockey, that he would have allowed. It wasn't until my teenage years that I took an interest in the sport and that was just father and son figuring out a way to bond. It was me taking an interest in his business. I found cabinets full of VHS tapes of big races he had won. I watched those over and over and over again. So I kind of taught myself the history of the sport in that way. When it came time to decide what I wanted to do for a living, as much as I love sports, I wasn't going to be an athlete. Television seemed like the right avenue. My first job was at News 12 in The Bronx. Covering high school sports and occasionally the Yankees. Then I fell into horse racing just looking for a job when I got back from New York, and it's gone on from there.”

Pincay also reflected on the importance of being able to broadcast racing last year during the COVID-induced shutdown, saying, “We were going through such a trying time and the anxiety that comes with that, with no other sports going on. So many people told us that was their escape on a day-to-day basis. To just check out. We didn't have to watch the news and worry about everything for those few hours during the course of an afternoon and what a difference that made to [people], it was special for us to hear that. If ever there was a sport designed to thrive during the course of the pandemic, it was horse racing, where you don't have a lot of human-to-human contact. We were fortunate to be distracted and be able to do our jobs. I can't tell you how many people I know in the media, in sports media specifically, who weren't able to work or who were laid off or lost jobs, adding more anxiety to an already anxious situation.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers appreciated the consistency of presumptive champion Letruska (Super Saver), debated the idea of penalizing trainers for equine fatalities and discussed the alleged Gulfstream betting coup that led to a jockey suspension. 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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