Hayward: ‘No Other Realistic Option’ Besides USADA To Enforce HISA

Longtime racing executive Charles Hayward published a commentary at thoroughbredracing.com on Tuesday, suggesting that the demise of negotiations between the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency could spell the end of horse racing in the United States.

“If the USADA/HISA business arrangement does not get done, I cannot imagine that horseracing and breeding has a future in the U.S.,” Hayward wrote. “While this is not a problem of anyone's making on either side, the harsh reality is, if the two parties cannot find a clear path forward, there are no 'other leading independent enforcement agencies' that can properly fill the void.”

Citing the federal investigation that led to the high-profile arrests of trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, Hayward argued that the individual state racing organizations have proven they are unable to police the sport effectively.

In addition, Hayward argues that the USADA was poised to take a “broader role” than simply enforcement. He cited the USADA's statement in it's 2020 annual report: “USADA has been assigned the anti-doping responsibilities detailed in the [HISA] Act and will implement uniform rules through an independent model in service of clean competition and participant safety. Throughout 2021 and beyond, USADA and the relevant authorities will establish and manage a robust system that includes education, testing, results management and investigation.”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Racing Commentary.

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The Comments Section: Owner Responsibility And An Appreciation For The Workers In The Barn

Nearly a year after permanently disabling comments on The Paulick Report, the comments section is back! Well, sort of. We can't fire up story comments again. The number of hours our staff was collectively losing in moderation (which, despite automation tools, often failed to remove libelous or trolly comments) was too great, and the few bad actors out there made it too labor-intensive to continue, even as we tried many different systems to combat them. The good news is, we are bringing back reader voices here on the Paulick Report with this new feature. Read a previous edition here.

In response to Chelsea Hackbarth's piece 'Help Wanted: KEEP Helping Kentucky Farms With Strategies To Improve Employee Retention In A Tough Labor Market'

I love working with horses and the equine industry in general.

Why would anyone not involved with horses from a young age want to work these types of jobs when they could make more at a restaurant, work less hours and get paid overtime when they work it? Retail, warehouse, factory, restaurants and just about every other industry pays far more than farm industry.

If most general farm managers can make six-figure salaries and department managers make $60-$80k, regular employees should start out making at least $35k a year after taxes, employees shouldn't have to work six days a week, should get paid overtime if they work more than 40 hours and have access to benefits.

This industry keeps talking about how vets suffer from long hours and low pay and poor treatment, if they're treating the doctors who treat their horses like this, how do you think they treat the grooms, night watchman and the lower tier personnel? Do you think our personal well-being is valued more than a vet?

Most equine workers are there six days a week in the rain, snow, ice, blazing heat or below freezing temperatures. We're constantly filling up buckets in the summer and breaking up ice in the winter. We're watching for illness and signs of distress. We're anticipating weather movements so we can determine what to do with our horses that day. We're waiting for a mare to foal and stay as long as it takes to make sure it's all taken care of before we even consider leaving for that day.

Are we not important enough to keep happy? Are vets the only ones that matter? We are there for the horse every day while vets are there for your horse every so often, shouldn't we be part of the focus?

The love of the horse goes a long way in helping us stay in the industry but that love doesn't pick up where the low pay ends. Morale on a lot of farms is down. Spirits are low. Help is scarce.

The pandemic has and still is driving up the cost of everything and the wages are staying stagnant while most other industries have started to raise theirs to retain and gain new employees. The equine industry has refused to do this thus far and it's hemorrhaging skilled workers and deterring new ones.

I've watched more horsemen and women walk away than stay and it's still happening. More farms are losing help, they then overwork what help they have to compensate and then more leave because of that. It's a vicious cycle and until pay and hours worked and overall treatment of the equine employee gets better, it'll continue to die a slow painful death.

Jon Hyman, fan, groom, and foreman

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In response to Ray Paulick's commentary 'View From The Eighth Pole: Soul Searching, Restitution In Order For Owners Who Supported Jorge Navarro's Stable':

Regarding your View from the Eighth Pole about restitution to owners of horses who finished behind Jorge Navarro horses: my wife and I are owners of Aaron Racing Stables and had a very nice mare named Mia Bella Rossa, who in the years 2019 through 2021 and won eight races for us after being claimed for $12,500.

On July 16, 2019, she ran very well and lost a close battle with a Navarro horse named Cuddle Kitten. We were three and a half lengths ahead of the next horse and the rest of the field were far behind. Navarro received Cuddle Kitten from her owners, Flying P Stables, a start before this one, and she promptly won four races in a row including a starter at Saratoga. The Equibase numbers in those races were 10 to 20 points higher than she had ever run before.

It would be nice for a small owner, one or two horses at a time, to receive the $12,800 difference between first and second in that race. While we doubt that Navarro will pay restitution to all of the owners so cheated, we look forward to following the path of this issue.

Andy Aaron, owner

I disagree with applying restitution if the prosecution is not required to prove the medication given changed the order of the races involved. For example, the federal charges are things like “misbranding conspiracy, obstruction, smuggling, and unlawful distribution of prescription drugs.” These have a far lower standard for proving guilt than proving a drug is both performance enhancing and forbidden. As a result, the punishment should be far less as well.

In Navarro's case he admitted to using a blood booster, which I assume is Erythropoietin (EPO). It is a Class 1 drug with a Class A penalty that would result in a loss of purse. However, other trainers like Servis are accused of using clenbuterol, which is permitted under certain circumstances, and SGF-100, which both the Australian and Hong Kong racing authorities have stated their belief that it is useless.

The key problem with Navarro is the concept of an estoppel. My understanding is that the racing commission's failure to assert its right to enforce the rules in a timely manner makes the rules unenforceable. Navarro's juice man shoes illustrate that he was making little effort to disguise his behavior and that the commission made even less effort to punish it. The commission's complacency may have encouraged other trainers to join the “dark side.” I assume I am in the minority with my opinion.

Richard Neil Braithwaite, horseplayer

Although it didn't make it into a Paulick Report story, Ray tweeted last week questioning the choice of trainer by NYTHA president Joe Appelbaum, who was running a horse with Juan Vazquez via his Off The Hook stable. Those questions prompted this response from writer Tom Noonan: 

“In his statement to me, Joe Appelbaum accepted responsibility for retaining Vazquez. He also responded to my query promptly (within hours on a Friday afternoon) and exhibited the transparency that is so rare in racing. Would that New York's State Gaming Commission had the same level of accountability. After all, they granted Vazquez a license after denying him with no meaningful explanation in early 2018.

Racing has plenty of room for examining the accountability of owners as I argued in this post about owners much more prominent than Joe Appelbaum. And it must be done with transparency.”

–Read Noonan's complete op/ed on his blog here.

2021 has been a busy news year for horse racing, and we know there will be more stories that spark discussion and reaction from our readership. As always, you can send your letters to the editor, tips, comments, and rants to our publisher and editor here.

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For Bloodstock Agent Ingordo, Flightline Always Had The ‘It’ Quality

Halley's Comet comes around once in a lifetime. Someday, the same might be said of Flightline.

In three starts, the 3-year-old colt by Tapit has won by a combined 37 ½ lengths, going six furlongs in 1:08.75 in his debut, the same distance in 1:08.05 next out, and then racing seven furlongs in 1:21.37 while winning the Grade 1 Runhappy Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita on Sunday's opening day of the winter-spring meet. Jockey Flavien Prat was like a statue down the lane as Flightline won under wraps by 11 ½ lengths for trainer John Sadler.

His Beyer Speed Figures were 105, 114 and 118, respectively. The latter is the highest Beyer Speed Figure given to any horse this year, according to Daily Racing Form's Jay Privman.

“That puts this horse in a different stratosphere,” said West Point Thoroughbreds' CEO Terry Finley, one of Flightline's owners.

An hour before the Malibu, the 3-year-old filly Kalypso won the G1 La Brea Stakes with a seven-furlong final time of 1:24.78, fully 3 2/5 seconds slower than Flightline.

Performance numbers are one way of measuring a horse's ability. David Ingordo, the bloodstock agent who bought Flightline on behalf of West Point Thoroughbreds and several other partners for $1-million at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale, said the colt also passed the eyeball test.

“He's a brilliant horse and you don't need Ragozins or Beyers to see that,” Ingordo said. “You can tell that he doesn't have to put a lot into what he's doing. He does it so easily.”

Ingordo first laid eyes on Flightline when he and Bill Farish from Lane's End visited breeder Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Farm in Georgetown, Ky., to look at a different Tapit colt from the 2018 foal crop, a chestnut-coated half brother to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. Lane's End consigns the Summer Wind horses and Ingordo said there was interest in buying the colt off the farm privately.

“There was another horse in the paddock and I said to Bill, 'I like the brown one.' Bill said, 'We're here to see the chestnut one.'”

The brown horse turned out to be Flightline. The chestnut colt, who remained the property of Summer Wind, was named Triple Tap and turned over to trainer Bob Baffert. Two-for-two going into the Malibu, Triple Tap finished 18 ¾ lengths behind Flightline in fourth place.

Ingordo saw the two horses several more times and his preference for the brown colt never wavered.

When it came time for the Saratoga sale, Ingordo hitched a ride to New York on a Tex Sutton flight to ride with a group of yearlings. “I was sitting in the back with one of the guys I knew well,” Ingordo said. “He said it was going to be a bumpy ride and asked if I would grab a couple yearlings. “One of them had a pretty good head on him and I noticed his name was Flightline. I looked up his pedigree and saw it was the horse from Summer Wind that I liked so much.”

Ingordo began representing West Point Thoroughbreds in 2017 and the Tapit colt out of the graded stakes-winning Indian Charlie mare, Feathered, is the kind of prospect Finley said his partners are looking for. Finley knew it would take serious money to buy Flightline, so put together a group that included Hronis Racing LLC, Siena Farm LLC, Farish's Woodford Racing LLC and Summer Wind. The hammer price was $1-million.

“Stephanie Hronis was there and David has done great work for them (she and husband Kosta Hronis),” said Finley. “She fell in love with the horse at the Lane's End consignment. We've had good luck partnering with Siena (Anthony Manganaro), buying five together and getting two Grade 1 winners, a Grade 2, and a stakes winner. We had not done anything with Jane Lyon before, but that really makes a difference when a breeder has the confidence to stay in, especially when it's big dollars. She bypassed the chance to take $250,000 off the table, and that's a strong statement.”

Finley confirmed that Summer Wind owns 25% of Flightline but didn't want to disclose how the remaining share of the horse was divided among the four additional partners.

There is no textbook for picking potential athletes, whether they are equine or human. Ingordo said he spent time with a couple of professional baseball scouts who are also interested in horse racing and found it's the same in both professions. There's an “it” quality with some athletes that is hard to miss, he said, whether it's a LeBron James in basketball or Bo Jackson, one of the greatest two sport athletes of all time who was named a Major League Baseball All Star and an All Pro running back in the NFL. (The two scouts, Ingordo said, both thought Jackson would be better at baseball if he stuck to one sport.)

“Horses are the same way,” he continued. “I remember when Garrett O'Rourke (Juddmonte Farms general manager) showed me a bunch of 2-year-olds. One of them just stood out, and it was Empire Maker (eventual G1 Belmont Stakes winner). Same thing with Zenyatta. I said, 'This is a horse we have to have.' Honor A.P. (G1 Santa Anita Derby winner) is another. I said, 'I don't give a crap. I'm buying this horse.'

“Flightline is another one of those. Each time I saw him I liked him more. There was just something about him. Of course the history books are littered with stories about trainers getting great unraced 2-year-olds where something happens.”

Something did happen to Flightline, but, fortunately, it only postponed his racing career.

In January 2020, Ingordo went to visit Flightline and other clients' horses at Mayberry Farm in Ocala, Fla., an operation run by Jeanne Mayberry and her two daughters, April and Summer.

“I'm watching these sets train and saw lots of beautiful horses,” he said. “I'm waiting for the next set and I hear this big crash, a loud bang. The Tapit colt scared himself, something startled him. He had his tack on and was ready to go out, but caught his butt on a stall door latch. It was a pretty deep wound and took a long time to heal. You can see that scar back there. One of those fluke things that will happen. We gave him plenty of time to heal, then COVID hit, and a lot of people were on a holding pattern.

“The Mayberrys are a big part of the program,” he said. “Jeanne (working alongside her late husband, Brian) trained a Kentucky Oaks winner (Sardula in 1994 for Ann and Jerry Moss). They called me very early on about Zenyatta. And two years ago they called me and said we might have another good one, Honor A.P. And then April called me early last year to say, 'You're going to think I'm crazy, but we might have two or three horses that are better than the group we had with Honor A.P.”

It's tempting to get overly excited about a horse after one start. Flightline won his April 2021 debut by 13 ¼ lengths at Santa Anita, then didn't show up again until Sept. 5 at Del Mar, Sadler giving him plenty of time to overcome a foot bruise. He won that allowance race by 12 ¾ lengths.

That second win brought more hype and speculation that Sadler might point the lightly raced colt to the G1 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar. No dice. He instead circled Dec. 26 on the calendar. Flightline didn't miss a beat in his training up to the Malibu.

Flightline passed this latest test with flying colors, even though this was not the deepest Malibu field we've seen and the other leading 3-year-old colt in training, G1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Life Is Good, is in Florida with Todd Pletcher training up to a start in the G1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 29.

Sadler, according to Daily Racing Form's Steve Andersen, is looking at a possible start in the G1 Met Mile on the June 11 Belmont Stakes day card for Flightline and possibly three other starts in 2022.

“John will steer the ship,” Finley said when asked about possible races for Flightline. “He's done so well. He's been training 40 years, and it's really something to see his passion and intensity – not just John's but the whole barn. John's assistant, Juan Leyva, is talking about this horse in a way that I've never heard someone at a barn say before.  Rene Quinteros, the barn foreman, every single day at 4:15 in the morning, walks this horse for 30 minutes. Everyone is just zeroed in on him.”

Ingordo has been down this road previously with one of the greatest horses of the modern era, Zenyatta, who didn't lose a race until her 20th and final career start, coming up a head short of Blame in the 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.

“John has referred to Flightline as his Zenyatta,” Ingordo said.

“We've all been let down before,” Ingordo said of horses that showed early promise then failed to sustain it. “That's why when you expect a great performance and everybody has done everything right and then it really happens, it's that jaw-dropping.

“This one does everything so easily,” he added. “He's so smart. He's got it all. We're not looking to rush him off to the (breeding) shed. We want to run, just as much as the fans want to see him run. We might have to temper our desire to run more than the fans do. But you know how it goes sometimes. Horses will laugh at our plans.”

There's no telling just what Flightline may be capable of doing. Let's just hope he has the opportunity to show us.

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‘That Gave Me Goosebumps’: Racing Industry Reacts To Flightline’s Malibu Performance

In just the third start of his career, Flightline lit up the racing world with a monster performance in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita Park, completing seven furlongs in 1:21.37. The 3-year-old son of Tapit is undefeated through three starts by a combined 37 ½ lengths, and his big run on Sunday earned the year's best Beyer Speed Figure of 118.

Trainer John Sadler has not committed to a next start for Flightline, though he mentioned the Saudi Cup and the Met Mile as possible targets in 2022.

“The bigger picture point I was trying to make is that he could run in any race, but we haven't honed in on anything, obviously,” Sadler told the Santa Anita publicity department. “The horse is on a different level. All has to go right, but we might be looking at a historic-type horse before it's all over.”

Owned by his breeder, Summer Wind Equine, as well as Hronis Racing, Siena Farm, Woodford Racing, and West Point Thoroughbreds, Flightline commanded a million-dollar price tag at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select yearling sale.

The horse racing industry was quick to react to Flightline's big win on Twitter, lauding his natural talent and even comparing the colt to some of history's greatest runners. Here's a selection of top Tweets:

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