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Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners Founder Aron Wellman Joins Writers’ Room

Fresh off a Group 2 win last week at Royal Ascot, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' founder Aron Wellman joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday morning to talk about his ownership strategies, how he talks to new partners about concerns in the industry and much more.

Asked about Eclipse's ever-evolving purchasing power, Wellman, who called in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week said, “We made a point when we launched Eclipse about 10 years ago to really try to prove ourselves at being good at just about everything in terms of trying to buy horses. We believe that a good horse can come from anywhere at any time. I really cut my teeth early on in the game by starting to claim horses, because that was the immediate-action way to go. Then it evolved into trying to buy horses privately, going overseas and getting them to the States. We've been very fortunate to get support from our partners at the yearling sales as well as the 2-year-old sales and have been very lucky to buy Grade I winners and Classic winners out of them. It's tough to be really, really elite at all of those avenues by which you can acquire horses. But we've certainly done our best to provide our partners with a variety of opportunities year in and year out and the track record, fortunately, has spoken for itself that our partners continue to believe in the process.”

Wellman also commented on the challenges he faces in recruitment considering the scandal that has surrounded racing for the last few years, saying, “It's certainly a barrier to entry. It's a conversation that I have with just about every prospective partner that comes through Eclipse's doors. I think that the industry is slowly but surely making good strides towards appropriate reform. It's never enough and it's never fast enough, but on the Eclipse side, we try our best to surround ourselves with good people. We've always believed in that philosophy. I am a big proponent of the industry getting more serious about the penalties handed down to trainers who are violating the rules. We can't allow anyone, I don't care who you are, how big you are or how small you are, to operate by a different set of rules. There's no question that we need a unified, centralized governing body here in the United States to oversee the industry. For too long, we've swept issues under the rug. We've protected guys because we were concerned about the public image and guys that are too big to fail. Thinking maybe it would be worse for the industry to expose them rather than to protect them. But we've been accomplices for too long. We've aided and abetted for too long. It's really high time that we took swift and serious action.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, the Minnesota Racehorse Engagement Project and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers discussed a bombshell investigation of Bob Baffert in the Washington Post, talked about a possible hope for Arlington Park's survival and projected the successes and challenges of fixed-odds wagering. 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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Dennis Drazin Talks Eventful Monmouth Meet On Writers’ Room

While the 2021 meet at Monmouth Park is less than three weeks old, several years worth of drama has already been packed in at the Jersey Shore staple this spring, and Wednesday morning, the track's chairman and CEO Dennis Drazin joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to discuss it all. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Drazin talked about the fraught implementation of the New Jersey Racing Commission's whip ban, the latest attempt by the Jockeys' Guild to put pressure on Monmouth over it, the forthcoming experiment with fixed-odds wagering and more.

“I think it was a cheap shot on the part of the [Jockeys'] Guild to punish our jockeys that are riding at Monmouth Park for actions which were beyond their control and beyond Monmouth Park's control,” Drazin said of a Guild announcement that it will no longer insure Monmouth jockeys starting July 1. “About two years ago, there was a proposal for a rule change. The racing commission reached out to the industry to get some preliminary guidance. I remember very clearly going to the first meeting at Monmouth Park where the industry was invited by public notice. The Guild was there on behalf of the jockeys. As an attorney, I personally would have had a dozen jockeys in the first row to give their position on the rule and educate the commissioners. The Guild didn't do that. They didn't present any jockeys at those hearings. Now what they've done is punish riders for choosing to ride at Monmouth by taking away their coverages. I don't think that's the right course of action, and the Guild ought to think better of the actions that they took in writing that letter. I think they will receive notice from legal counsel. I think they're looking at litigation going forward if they continue this.”

While the first two weeks of the Monmouth meet were poor from a handle standpoint, likely in part due to rainy weather, the betting numbers improved drastically in its third week. Monmouth will have a chance to build on that momentum when it becomes the first major American track to implement a fixed-odds wagering system in the next month.

“We will definitely have fixed-odds wagering by the [July 17] Haskell because there is a pilot program right here right now that permits fixed-odds wagering on Grade I races as long as you conform to the Interstate Horse Racing Act,” Drazin explained. “It was offered on the Haskell in 2018 and 2019. The broader position, and this is something the whole country is looking at, is fixed-odds wagering is something we think is good for Thoroughbred racing and something that will be well received. But the racetracks around the country and the horsemen's groups that I have dialog with trying to study this, everybody's uncomfortable. Everybody tries to think, what's the right math? What's the right dollar amount, what's the right takeout? What's the impact of cannibalization? There are a lot of conversations going on trying to figure out how to do this correctly. And if everybody thinks about it forever and doesn't pull the trigger, we're never going to move it forward.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, the Minnesota Racehorse Engagement Project and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers reacted to the latest lawsuit from Bob Bafffert's legal team, broke down the Royal Ascot meeting from all angles and wondered what the news of The Stronach Group's potential sale of assets could mean for racing. 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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Sean Tugel Talks Tapit On Writers’ Room

In a crowded and often fickle stallion landscape, one North American sire at Gainesway Farm has stood out above all the rest for over a decade strong now. He may not win the general sires title every year, but no stallion in this country has produced the consistent excellence of Tapit since he went to stud in 2005, and Saturday was yet another elite-level reminder when his champion son Essential Quality streaked across the wire as his remarkable fourth GI Belmont S. winner. Wednesday morning, Gainesway's director of stallion sales and recruitment Sean Tugel joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to discuss the gray giant's everlasting and ever-improving legacy.

“It's a real pleasure and privilege to get to work in this business and be so close to an absolute legend,” said Tugel, calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week. “I can remember when I first came to Kentucky and Storm Cat was still breeding and commanding $500,000. I would take mares over there when I was at Hill 'n' Dale and you just remember that allure of a legendary stallion. Tapit is that now. You're in awe of him. Every year, he continues to raise his stature and produce champions. He's a horse that makes people's dreams come alive.”

Tapit is on pace to pass Giant's Causeway and become the all-time leading North American sire at some point this summer, as his progeny have banked, at last count, $170,556,107 on the racetrack (Giant's Causeway sits at $172,393,625). Tugel talked about what that would mean for the farm and the Beck family, whose patriarch Graham Beck bought Gainesway from founder John R. Gaines in 1989.

“One thing about Gainesway is it's steeped in the history of the game,” Tugel said. “Part of our farm is the old Greentree facility and farm of the Whitney family. So horses like Peter Pan, Domino, some unbelievable stallions have stood here. When Mr. Gaines had the farm he stood Lyphard, Riverman, Cozzene. Now there's a new chapter in the long history of Gainesway with the Beck family, who have stood what is arguably the best sire of modern history. For him to be the all-time leading North American sire, that's what Mr. Beck bought the farm for and what his son Antony has been able to carry on the legacy with. So for them, I don't think anything would be more special.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, the Minnesota Racehorse Engagement Project and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers reacted to a monster Belmont Day card, questioned the merits of the latest legal action by Bob Baffert and Amr Zedan, and remembered the great Rick Porter. 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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Legendary Racecaller Tom Durkin Joins Writers’ Room

For decades, Tom Durkin was the singular voice of Thoroughbred racing, not just from his perch in the announcer's booths at New York Racing Association tracks, but also on nationally-televised broadcasts, where he brought colorful life to so many of the iconic memories etched in racing fans' minds the world over. He has been less visible since stepping down from racecaller duties in 2014, but is still involved in the game, and he joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by JPMorgan Private Bank Wednesday morning as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about what he's been up to, reminisce on his favorite and least favorite GI Belmont S. moments and much more.

“I can tell you right off the bat, the worst Belmont memories are when I get up on Belmont morning and it's sunny,” Durkin said when asked his favorite and least favorite memories from the Test of the Champion. “The Belmont is almost run at sunset and Belmont Park is one of the few racetracks that faces north. So the sun sets in the west and when the horses turn for home, they're all backlit. They are mere shadows from the quarter pole to almost the eighth pole. So you have to have a photographic image of those horses in your brain right before they make that turn into the stretch because they become invisible. If the sun is out, it's a real bitch. You want cloud cover on Belmont Day. My favorite memory would have to be Real Quiet and Victory Gallop [in the 1998 Belmont]. That was an absolutely astonishing stretch run and it was as close a finish as ever. The photo sign was up forever. They slow-mo'ed the video over and over and over, and every time they went by the finish line, you could hear the crowd of 80,000 people gasp. It was just thrilling.”

Asked about his post-announcing life, Durkin said, “Once the Saratoga meet gets going, I'm pretty busy. I give tours at the Racing Museum every racing day, and do a lot of public speaking. I go to the track a couple of days a week, just to go to the track, as I live right down the street. I sit on a couple of horse racing boards, including the Backstretch Employees Service Team. I do a little what I call, 'kissing hands and shaking babies' for West Point Thoroughbreds. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, I travel, I go to Pinehurst, North Carolina in the winter to get out of the northeast for a couple of months. Other than that, life is good.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Keeneland, West Point Thoroughbreds, the Minnesota Racehorse Engagement Project and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers analyzed all of the Memorial Day Weekend stakes action, gave their first impressions of whip-less Monmouth meet and previewed a blockbuster Belmont Racing Festival. Plus, after the news broke while the show was wrapping, they talked through their initial thoughts on Medina Spirit (Protonico)'s split-sample test coming back positive. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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