Tag: The Paddock

The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Giving Horses And People A Second Chance

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation is our industry's oldest charitable organization devoted to aftercare, launched in 1982 by Monique Koehler and providing sanctuary or second careers to thousands of horses in the decades that followed.

Aftercare has grown significantly since the TRF's founding, in the number of organizations that provide opportunities for retired Thoroughbreds and in awareness among many in the industry that it is simply the right thing to do,

TRF's Kim Weir joins publisher Ray Paulick and news editor Chelsea Hackbarth in this week's edition of the Friday Show to talk about the TRF's Second Chances program that teams ex-racehorses with incarcerated men and women as part of a rehabilitation and vocational effort to get those individuals prepared for life outside of prison.

Weir is especially excited about an upcoming Horse Show on Oct. 21 that will be streamed live to showcase some of those inmates and the horses they care for. Go to www.trfinc.org for details.

Hackbarth had the opportunity recently to see real-world results of the program, writing about former Blackburn Correctional inmate Josh Ison, now working at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky. (Read the story here.)  “The TRF Second Chances program at Blackburn taught me patience with horses, and people,” Ison said.

Paulick and Hackbarth review Woodbine Star of the Week God of Love, Mark Casse's third consecutive Cup and Saucer Stakes winner. The 2-year-old colt is the 99th stakes winner for Eclipse Thoroughbreds, a partnership that had its first runner 10 years to the day before the Oct. 10 Cup and Saucer.

Watch this week's Friday Show, presented by Woodbine, below:

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The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: A Racetrack’s Private Property Rights

What does it mean when a racetrack – as opposed to a board of stewards or racing commission – suspends or excludes a trainer from its facilities? That's what happened a week ago when Gulfstream Park suspended five trainers for allegedly violating house rules regarding the use of clenbuterol.

This was not unlike Churchill Downs suspending Bob Baffert from participating in racing at any of its tracks prior to the stewards or Kentucky Horse Racing Commission conducting a hearing on the failed drug test of Medina Spirit following the colt's Kentucky Derby victory on May 1.

Attorney Bob Heleringer, author of “Equine Regulatory Law,” once again joins publisher Ray Paulick and editor in chief Natalie Voss in this week's edition of the Friday Show to explain the difference between a regulatory agency's license suspension and a racetrack's ability to exclude individuals by exercising private property rights.

Like many things in racing, the right of exclusion may vary from one state to another, and there is some case law that sets parameters, Heleringer said.

Voss pointed out that tracks may be exercising those rights more frequently lately in response to public pressure over equine safety and integrity issues while cases being heard by racing commissions can drag out for months, if not years.

Joe Nevills joins Paulick to review last weekend's Breeders' Stakes at Woodbine, won by British Royalty, making the English Channel gelding our Woodbine Star of the Week.

Watch this week's Friday Show, presented by Woodbine, below:

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The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Casse Bullish On Synthetics

“Horses were not bred to run on the dirt,” said trainer Mark Casse. “They were bred to run on the grass, and Tapeta is as close to grass as you can get.”

Casse – inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame this year after a 2016 induction in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame –  is this week's special guest on the Friday Show, joining Ray Paulick and bloodstock editor Joe Nevills to share his extensive knowledge and strong opinions about track surfaces. This week, Gulfstream Park in South Florida became the first facility in North America to have three unique racing surfaces: dirt, turf and the Tapeta Footings synthetic track.

Other tracks could follow suit, Casse said. “I think New York may be flirting with synthetic tracks somewhere down the line,” he said. “And I think it would be great and I think it would pay for itself in no time.”

What about the anecdotal contention by some horsemen suggesting that, while synthetics may result in fewer fractures or fatal injuries, more soft-tissue problems develop on a synthetic track?

“That is the biggest bunch of hogwash that I've ever heard,” said Casse. “That's the most ridiculous statement. I can tell you we have far more soft tissue injuries on dirt than we ever do on synthetics. That's somebody saying things and they don't know what they're talking about. Whenever I hear that I just laugh.”

Casse also brings viewers up to date on some of his stable stars, including two-time Grade 1 Fourstardave Stakes winner Got Stormy.

This week's Woodbine Star of the Week is Pink Lloyd, the Canadian sprint superstar who scored his 24th career stakes win last week in the Grade 3 Bold Venture Stakes.

Watch this week's Friday Show, presented by Woodbine, below:

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‘I See Both Sides’: Trainer Keri Brion Talks Realities Of Steeplechase Racing

Trainer Keri Brion was a guest on Steve Byk's “At The Races” radio show last week, following her rollercoaster of an opening day at Belmont Park on Sept. 16.

In the first race, the William Entenmann Memorial Hurdle Stakes, the Brion-trained Grade 1 winner Baltimore Bucko fell at fence three and suffered a fatal injury. In the second race, she saddled The Mean Queen to win her second Grade 1 of the year in the Lonesome Glory.

Baltimore Bucko's fatality sparked significant social media discussion about jumps racing, and Brion took the opportunity on Byk's show to speak out.

“Whenever a horse falls in jump racing, our sport gets absolutely crucified,” Brion said. “I understand it looks horrible, and it was, it was heartbreaking for all of us to watch. Not just us close to the horse, but obviously everyone else. The one thing I just want to say about that is, you know, our sport is dangerous, but so is flat racing. You see these horses that suffer catastrophic injuries on the flat, and it happens more on the flat than it even does over jumps, to be honest with you. It's very, very rare that we have a fall like that where they don't actually get back up.

“I don't want to cast this off as 'just one of those things,' because we do need to do better, and the NSA is currently and always trying to find better options. I think we're gonna switch to a different type of a fence. I think by the time we are up there again next year, there's gonna be a safer model of hurdle up there that we'll be running over, which is something to look forward to.”

Brion carries a strong social media presence, and extended an offer to talk about the realities of her sport with anyone willing to listen.

“I see both sides and I understand how uneducated people right away are like, 'I hate watching these races and I hate seeing them,' but do you really think we're going to force a 1200-lb animal to go jump over fences if they don't want to?” she asked. “I mean, honest to God, do you think we're capable of doing that? No, we're not. I'd love to take a group of people that wanna say they're being forced and they don't like it, I'd love to take them to watch these horses school in the mornings. When they realize they're going to the schooling field, their whole demeanor changes. They get so excited that they get to go jumping.”

Baltimore Bucko is Brion's first Grade 1 winner, capturing the G1 A. P. Smithwick Memorial on July 22, 2021. She talked about what the horse meant to her personally.

“He was very, very special to me,” the trainer said. “Obviously I talked to you at some stage, maybe after his Smithwick win, and he was just kind of the gift that just kept on giving for his owners and for me. What he might have lacked a little bit in ability, he made up in heart. I can assure everyone he was 100 percent going out there, and it was unfortunately just, it was one of those things. We'll never have him back, and it's hard to see his stall here in the barn in the morning – we haven't filled it yet. It was tough, but he did go out doing what he loved to do. There was nothing more in the world that that horse loved to do than to run and jump.”

Listen to the entire interview with Byk here.

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