thoroughbred | Horse Racing Free Tips

Hot Rod Charlie ‘Getting More And More Confident’ For Team O’Neill

Idle since a close third in the Kentucky Derby on May 1, Doug O'Neill's Hot Rod Charlie drilled five furlongs before Friday's first race at Santa Anita in 1:00.48, his final prep for the Grade I Belmont Stakes at a mile and one half a week from Saturday, June 5.

With Flavien Prat aboard, Hot Rod Charlie, who was accompanied by O'Neill's Hall of Fame gelding Lava Man and workmate Liam's Pride, came on Santa Anita's main track via the quarter mile chute at 12:14 p.m. PT, jogged by the Grandstand and was then set down for his work at the five furlong pole with Liam's Pride positioned about two lengths in front of him as a target.

With Prat sitting still, Hot Rod Charlie rattled off splits of 24.06 and 48.32 while gaining the advantage an eighth of a mile from the wire. With Prat remaining motionless, Hot Rod Charlie galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.62.

“Very happy with his breeze today,” said O'Neill. “Flavien was happy with the way he did it and that makes me happy. He had a good strong gallop going into this work and now he's got a strong work and gallop-out going into the race.

“We just want to stay injury-free and we're pumped up and optimistic about a week from tomorrow. This horse is getting more and more confident and he's starting to separate himself from the others. He'll leave Saturday morning at about 3 a.m., along with Lava Man, who's going to take him to the post for the Belmont.”

A winner of the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby two starts back on March 20, Hot Rod Charlie, who broke his maiden at Santa Anita going a flat mile in his fourth start on Oct. 2, was third, beaten a neck three starts back by eventual Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit in the Grade 3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes here on Jan. 30.

Owned by Roadrunner Racing, Boat Racing, LLC, Strauss Bros Racing and Gainesway Thoroughbreds, Ltd, Hot Rod Charlie, who is a Kentucky-bred colt by Oxbow, out of the Indian Charlie mare Indian Miss, is 8-2-1-3, has earnings of $1,305,700.

Prat, who won the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes on May 15 aboard the Santa Anita-based Rombauer, made the decision to stick with Hot Rod Charlie, who skipped the Preakness, for racing's third and final jewel of the Triple Crown.

Hot Rod Charlie just completed his final work in preparation for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday June 5th. Take a look at him going 5F with Flavien Prat aboard for @DougONeill1 & @BoatRacingLLC at Santa Anita Park pic.twitter.com/Xj6YLw7NlK

— TVG (@TVG) May 28, 2021

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Del Mar, Santa Anita Planning To Ban Thoroughbreds Racing In 1,000-Yard Events At Los Al

With the increasing popularity of running Thoroughbreds in 1,000-yard (approximately 4 1/2 furlongs) mixed-breed races at Los Alamitos, Del Mar's first condition book has stipulated that horses starting in two of those races at Los Al will be banned from racing at the Del Mar meet, reports the Daily Racing Form.

Held under allowance conditions over the past several months, the 1,000-yard races at Los Al have drawn entrants based at Santa Anita, which has, in turn, struggled to attract full fields for its dirt races.

The new policy will be enacted on July 16 at the start of the Del Mar meeting, and will extend through Santa Anita's autumn meet.

The terms in the Del Mar condition book urge trainers to communicate with racing officials at Del Mar, Santa Anita, and Golden Gate before entering at Los Al.

Longtime Fasig-Tipton Auctioneer Steve Dance Passes At Age 78

Steve Dance, a senior member of Fasig-Tipton's auction team for five decades, passed away suddenly on Tuesday morning, May 25, at his home in Jarrettsville, MD, he shared with his wife Nancy. He was in his seventy-eighth year and it was suspected he suffered a massive heart attack. Steve worked until the last day of his life and the many sellers and buyers at Fasig-Tipton's 2-year-old sale, just a week ago in Timonium, MD, would have seen him plying his lifelong trade in the auction stand at Timonium in his beloved home state.

Hiram “Steve” Dance was born in 1943 in the small, country town of Towson, just a few miles north of Baltimore. The then-struggling Thoroughbred auction company, Fasig-Tipton, in the late 1940's had appointed Humphrey Finney, another Towson resident, as its president. Although Finney left Towson in 1953, Steve's uncle, “Laddie” Dance, Humphrey's son John Finney and Larry Ensor, all subsequent luminaries at Fasig-Tipton and all “Towsonites,” befriended the younger Steve and found a variety of jobs for him at a rapidly expanding number of the company's nationwide auctions.

Honing his horse auction skills under the likes of George Swinebroad, Laddie Dance and Ralph Retler was a daunting task but Steve's hard work, reliability and enthusiasm paid off and he became a full-time auctioneer and bid spotter for the company in 1972.

From that time forward, Steve did not miss a single Fasig-Tipton auction in a career which lasted for an enviable fifty years.

But the glamor and celebrity of the Thoroughbred world did not monopolize Steve as it did with many of his peers. Again, until the day he died, Steve owned and operated the company founded by his grandfather in 1912, the Milton J Dance Auction Company. From the company's present base in Towson, Steve sold everything from pots and pans, to antiques, to multi-million dollar mansions. And, if there was such a thing as spare time, he traveled the length and breadth of the country selling and bid-spotting at celebrated motorcycle auctions from Daytona, FL to Sturgis, ND.

His “metier” was undoubtedly the Thoroughbred horse, but his passion was motorcycles – BMW motorcycles to be precise. Steve was a riding encyclopedia of BMW bikes and owned up to 20 at a time in his busiest years. He rode them all over North America – Alaska to New York to Florida. He converted me to BMW's in the mid 1980's and, without question, our ride together from the two-year-old sale in Miami to the two-year-old sale in Dallas was the greatest road trip two friends could make.

Steve found great happiness in later life, when, in 2011, he married his soul-mate and loving companion Nancy, who survives him in Jarrettsville, MD. Steve is also survived by his two daughters Erica and Whitney, his son Lee, step-daughter with Nancy, Layne, and three brothers, Andy, Scott and Tom.

Notice of funeral arrangements will follow.

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Bacterial Infection Linked To Abortions In Japanese Mares

Mycobacterial infections, which are generally uncommon in horses, have been linked to ten abortions in Japanese mares. The mares were housed on seven Thoroughbred farms in the Hidaka district of Hokkaido. There were no reports of direct contact between the horses.

Dr. Yuta Kinoshita studied the abortions, which took place from 2018 to 2019. Most of the placentas had a yellowish-white exudate on them and included considerable lesions. Lesions aren't common with pathogenic bacteria like Streptococcus zooepidemicus and Escherichia coli.

Researchers located Mycobacterial granulomas on the placenta and the fetal organs. Bacterial samples were taken from both of these areas, with the greatest number of bacteria found in the necrotic placental lesions. The bacteria were genetically tested and identified as Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis. The strains were all identical, suggesting that the horses had been infected by the same unknown contagious source.

Read the case report here.