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Destin Colt Tops OBS Open Session

A New York-bred short yearling colt by MGSW Destin (Giant's Causeway) was the priciest lot to change hands during Wednesday's open session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Winter Mixed Sale.

Consigned by Sue Vacek, Agent II as hip 505, the grey–already named Last Drink–was acquired by Rosewood Farm for $95,000. Casey Newick LLC bred the session topper. Dam I Drink Alone (Intidab) has produced three prior stakes winners in the Empire State.

Destin's oldest foals are two. The 2016 GII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby winner and full-brother to GISWs Creative Cause and Vexatious began his career in New York before relocating to Saudi Arabia for the 2021 breeding season.

The day's top mare was 11-year-old More Than a Party (More Than Ready), who brought $52,000 while in foal to Jess's Dream. Shooting Star Thoroughbreds purchased the hard-knocking MGSP runner from Lisa McGreevy's Abbie Road Farm as hip 562.

For the session, 186 transactions yielded gross receipts of $2,075,600. That gross eclipsed 2021's corresponding figure of $2,023,500 when 236 horses sold during the session. Subsequent post-sale transactions will likely add to the totals. The session average was $11,159 (up 30.1% from $8,574) and the median also rose to $7,000 (up 75% from $4,000). The RNA rate was just 8.8% at the time of print. It was 19.7% 12 months ago.

For the entire sale–which also featured consignor preferred and horses of racing age sessions on Tuesday (click for more)–416 offerings found new homes for a total of $6,573,100 ($5,612,300 in 2021) at an average of $15,801 ($13,756 in 2021) and median of $8,500 ($4,000 in 2021).

Visit www.obssales.com for more.

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2021 California Handle & Purses by the Numbers

California's purse and handle numbers are in, and after the pandemic-stricken figures of last year, there's plenty of reason for encouragement.

A 13% increase in California races over 2020 translated into a 17% increase in all source handle and a 19% increase in purse generation.

“Handle is up everywhere, including Southern California, which generated really nice purses for us in 2021,” said Gary Fenton, chairman of the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC).

“It's created this momentum for us,” Fenton said, pointing to the purse enhancements offered by Santa Anita and Del Mar in recent years. “I'm actually sitting down with Del Mar this Friday, hear their thoughts about this summer.”

Click here for a look at the complete numbers, which go back the last four years.

To gauge the current health of California's industry, however, it's probably wise to compare 2021's numbers with 2018–the last year California wasn't grappling with a welfare crisis or a global pandemic.

In doing that, a number of things stand out, including a swift yet unsurprising movement away from brick and mortar wagering towards ADW platforms–a paradigm shift that appears here to stay in the short-term, at the very least.

When looking at the total wagering in 2018 from within California, for example, 62.5% was brick and mortar and 37.5% was ADW.

Cut to last year, and 41% was from brick and mortar wagering and 59% was ADW.

“I think we had steady growth in ADW over an extended period of time,” said Fenton. “Now, the question is, as satellites are opening back up and as racetracks are opening back up, are we going to see them return where they used to [be]?”

Another intriguing dynamic is that Californians have increased substantially their wagering on out-of-state races compared to four years ago.

In contrast, Californians have decreased the amount they wager per-race on California races in that same period.

“I think you can look at how we don't run Wednesday and Thursday anymore,” said Fenton, in explanation.

“Horseplayers seem like they're wagering the same if not more every day of the week, but there's less product in California to wager on, so that dollar has gravitated to out of state,” Fenton said.

When it comes to possible reasons behind the decrease in the amount Californians are wagering per-race on California races, Fenton said it's hard to comment without “diving deeper” into the numbers.

“For example, Del Mar and Santa Anita could be up big per race,” he said, while Golden Gate and the Fairs could be down.

“The good news is overall handle from all sources on CA races is up per race,” he added. Indeed, a key driver of that is a sharp spike in out-of-state wagering on California races.

One key unanswered wrinkle to the numbers, however, concerns the rise to prominence in recent years of Computer Assisted Players (CAW) and high-volume wagering outlets.

In other words, how much of these revenues is driven by high-volume players? That information is proprietary to the companies, explained Fenton.

Nevertheless, “we've gone through a lot in the past two years,” said Fenton, adding that “a lot of people should feel a lot of pride” in last year's handle and purse numbers.

Here are some key points from a comparison between the 2021 and 2018 data:

HANDLE

1 – All-source handle in California only saw a 1% decrease between 2018 and 2021.

What are some of the main trends underpinning that dynamic?

One key area is from wagering that Californians are making on out-of-state races.

2 – Very broadly, despite a 21% decrease in races in California between 2018 and 2021, total wagering within California on all races–both domestic and out-of-state–increased by nearly 3% during that time.

Why is that? In part, because of a 28% increase in the amount Californians are wagering out-of-state.

In 2018, California handle on out-of-state races was $742,479,886. Last year, it was $951,551,946.

3 – In contrast, we see a decrease in the amount Californians are wagering per-race on California races.

In 2018, that number was $196,612 per race. Last year, it was $189,331.

That amounted to a near 4% decrease.

4 – Importantly, there's huge growth in out-of-state wagering on California races.

In 2018, the average per-race handle from out-of-state wagering on California races was $379,753. In 2021, that number was $459,155.

That constitutes a near 21% per-race increase from 2018's numbers.

PURSES

1 – Despite a 21% decrease in the number of races in California between 2018 and 2021, total purse generation decreased by less than 6% during that time period.

So, let's dig down into the numbers.

2 – The biggest shift appears to be the increase in purse generation from out-of-state wagering on California races.

In 2018, the average per-race purse generation from out-of-state wagering on California races was $12,813. In 2021, that number was $16,015.

That constitutes a 25% per-race increase from 2018's numbers.

3 – When it comes to total wagering from within California on all races–both domestic and out-of-state–overall purse generation decreased by nearly 8% between 2018 and 2021, but again, that's with 21% less California races.

There's more to this story.

Indeed, comparing 2018 to 2021, there has been a 23% increase in purse generation coming from wagering that Californians are making on out-of-state races.

4 – In contrast, we see a per-race decrease in purse generation from Californians wagering on California races between 2018 and 2021.

In 2018, that per-race number was $14,229. Last year, it was $13,394. That amounted to a near 6% decrease.

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‘Social Licensing’ The Day Two Focal Point of Baffert/NYRA Hearing

The concept of perception versus reality has been a core plank on both sides of the highly publicized “detrimental conduct” case ever since the New York Racing Association (NYRA) first tried to banish trainer Bob Baffert eight months ago. On Tuesday, the second day of a hearing process that could lead to Baffert's exclusion from New York's premier tracks, the murky interpretation of who should be considered the true victim and which entity is in need of protection from harm rose to the forefront in the form of arguments over “social licensing” that at times played out in tense and pointed fashion.

Although Baffert is the most easily identifiable Thoroughbred trainer in North America, the key witness who testified Jan. 25 was not at all a recognizable name within the sport. Some 7 1/2 hours of testimony and cross-examination from four witnesses were anchored by about 90 minutes of debate regarding the opinions and PhD expertise of Dr. Camie Heleski, a University of Kentucky equine sciences professor who specializes in what the general public thinks of as horse racing.

“If somebody carries a lot of weight, if they have a strong visual branding in a certain piece of the industry, that's going to be noticed by a larger group of the public, a larger group of, let's say, horse racing fans than if it was not such a memorable person,” Heleski testified. She later added that, “Anybody that's paying attention to racing is going to know who Bob Baffert is.”

Heleski explained that in general, the public tends to regard any highly publicized news about pharmaceuticals in horse racing as something that could be damaging to the sport's social licensing, which is a way of terming general acceptance.

“Most of the time, they're simply feeling if there was a drug or a medication violation noted, they feel like it's bad. They kind of put it all under the umbrella of doping,” Heleski said.

And when Kelly McNamee, a lawyer representing NYRA, asked her to tie in the public's collective thought process and how it relates to Baffert's history of equine drug positives, his trainee Medina Spirit's betamethasone overage when winning the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby, and the “over 70 horses that have died under the care of Mr. Baffert,” Heleski didn't hesitate to answer that all of those things combined could adversely affect racing's social license to operate.

“I think drug and medication [positives] from a very prominent person carry more weight than people that are not followed as closely…” Heleski said. “[And] if a trainer has a large number of deaths in their stables, that's going to be looked on poorly.”

But under stern cross-examination from Baffert's lead lawyer, W. Craig Robertson III, the University of Kentucky professor at times seemed overwhelmed when challenged to explain how it could be Baffert's fault that the general public doesn't understand the difference between therapeutic medications and doping.

Robertson also hammered home points about Baffert's history of awards for sportsmanship and good deeds within the industry, plus his well-documented contributions to aftercare. He wanted Heleski to explain how, if Baffert is such an allegedly detrimental presence who could hurt NYRA, why didn't any activists protest his presence at Saratoga last summer, and why did the track enjoy record betting handles at that meet despite Baffert trainees being in the entries?

Robertson also attempted to dismantle Heleski's “amorphous” concept of social licensing, which, she admitted, has nothing to do with an actual “license” that a person or entity could apply for based on regulated standards, like a racing license.

But assuming such a concept exists, Robertson asked Heleski if it wasn't also part of NYRA's obligation to treat all trainers fairly as part of that social license to operate.

“They should treat trainers fairly, yes,” Heleski agreed.

And if NYRA singled out one trainer–like Baffert–for allegedly unfair punishment, Robertson wanted her opinion on whether “the public might not like that, either. That could hurt a social license to operate, couldn't it?” Robertson queried.

NYRA's legal team objected to that line of questioning, and hearing officer O. Peter Sherwood wouldn't allow Heleski to answer the question.

Baffert himself was not called upon to speak during the day-long proceedings in New York City. On the Zoom webcast made available by NYRA to the media, the Hall-of-Fame trainer could occasionally be glimpsed sitting alongside his lawyers in a conference room, dressed in a dark sport coat and open-collared white shirt.

Although his facial expressions were hidden behind a mask for pandemic precautions, Baffert's posture suggested tedium more than anxiety. He generally kept his hands folded in front of him, sometimes absently working his thumbs together repetitively while occasionally reaching up to flick his thick, silver-white hair off his forehead. For the most part, he looked more like a gent waiting for a bus than a seven-time Derby-winning trainer waiting to find out if he'd be exiled from one of America's most prominent racing circuits.

In previous legal pleadings that failed to keep Baffert's hearing from happening at all, his attorneys have described these proceedings as a “fait accompli.” Yet despite the fact that NYRA came up with the newly invented process for holding the hearings, the list of charges against Baffert, and was responsible for selecting the hearing officer who will decide Baffert's fate, a federal judge ruled last week that NYRA has a right to move ahead in that manner.

NYRA had outright banished Baffert May 17, 2021, in the wake of Medina Spirit's still-not-adjudicated Derby drug positive, noting that four other Baffert trainees had tested positive for medication overages in roughly the year before that. On July 14, a federal judge granted Baffert a preliminary injunction that allowed him to race at Saratoga, Belmont and Aqueduct. That injunction has since been made permanent, but with the legal stipulation that NYRA must afford Baffert a hearing process before deciding whether to kick him out or not.

NYRA is charging that Baffert's alleged conduct is or has been “detrimental” to three entities: 1) The best interests of racing; 2) The health and safety of horses and jockeys; 3) NYRA business operations.

Dr. Pierre-Louis Toutain, a France-based veterinarian considered an expert in pharmacology and toxicology, testified earlier Tuesday for 1 3/4 hours.

Some of Toutain's testimony tended to drag, in part because he was asked to offer definitions of and uses for phenylbutazone, lidocaine and betamethasone, three of the substances that NYRA purports are related to Baffert's alleged wrongdoing. Toutain also good-naturedly apologized a number of times for English not being his first language as he testified remotely while on a six-hour European time difference.

Toutain provided one of the lighter moments of the day when he politely interrupted a drug question from one of Baffert's attorneys, Clark Brewster, to ask, “Are you a scientist or a lawyer?”

When Brewster replied that he was a lawyer, that cued Toutain to know he shouldn't give too technical an answer,

“Ah, so I have to explain simply–okay!”

General laughter broke some of the inherent tension.

But there was no hint of humor from anyone in the room when a NYRA attorney, Hank Greenberg, asked Toutain if the presence of 21 picograms of betamethasone in Medina Spirit's post-Derby blood would have had the capacity to affect his performance.

“Yes, definitively,” Toutain replied.

But Toutain had been talking strictly about an intra-articular injection of betamethasone, which he said was the prevailing way that drug is administered to horses. So when it was Brewster's turn to cross-examine Toutain, he made sure to ask about betamethasone contained within a topical salve or ointment for a skin rash, which is how Baffert has alleged that the betamethasone found its way into Medina Spirit.

“Topical? I am not sure they use it [that way],” Toutain answered.

Toutain then seemed to be confused about whether Brewster was asking if betamethasone was sometimes administered via patch, like lidocaine (which the attorney was not asking).

Brewster then quickly ended his cross-examination of Toutain.

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Jury Hears Wiretaps in Fishman Trial

The jury in the federal horse-doping trial of Seth Fishman heard Jan. 25 a portion of a Federal Bureau of Investigation wiretap in which the veterinarian discusses whether the drugs he sold to horse trainers involved doping.

“Any time you give something to a horse, that's doping,” Fishman says in the conversation recorded by the FBI Apr. 5, 2019. “Whether or not they test for it is another story.”

On the call with Fishman was an unidentified individual who had wanted to know more about the drugs.

“But it's not doping, yeah?” that person asks.

“Don't kid yourself,” Fishman also tells him. “If you're giving something to a horse to make it better, and you're not supposed to do that, that's doping. You know, whether or not it's testable that's another story.”

The wiretap was played in court on the fifth day of the trial as testimony resumed after a day's interruption. On Jan. 24, Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil declared a mistrial in the case of Fishman co-defendant Lisa Giannelli. Giannelli's attorney tested positive for COVID-19 before court on Monday, warranting the mistrial.

As the day began Tuesday, Vyskocil announced a ruling rejecting a motion for a mistrial by Fishman's attorneys. They moved for a mistrial because of the positive COVID-19 test they believed upset the flow of the trial and because of remarks the attorney for Giannelli made during openings statements last week that they said could prejudice the jury against their client.

That attorney, Louis Fasulo, had described his client as the “proverbial sheep” to Fishman's “sheep master.”

Vyskocil countered that Fishman had not been prejudiced.

“Dr. Fishman has received a fair trial so far and will continue to receive a fair trial,” Vyskocil said.

Fishman was one of more than two dozen members of the horse racing community charged in sweeping indictments in March 2020 with conspiring to dope horses at race tracks across the country with illicit performance-enhancing drugs that wouldn't show up in post-race testing. Those charged included top trainers Jason Servis, who awaits trial, and Jorge Navarro, who pled guilty to conspiring with others to dope horses and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Fishman is charged with two counts of conspiring to violate drug adulteration and misbranding laws. He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted.

As part of their case, prosecutors allege Fishman accepted tens of thousands of dollars from Navarro in exchange for untestable drugs.

On Tuesday, prosecutors called Dr. Jean Bowman, veterinary medical officer in the division of surveillance for the FDA, as a government expert witness.

During her testimony, prosecutor Sarah Mortazavi introduced into evidence photos taken on the day of Navarro's arrest in 2020 that showed him in possession at his Florida home of four alleged PEDS that came from Fishman.

Mortazavi drilled down on those drugs, named BB3. The indictment described BB3 as a customized “blood building” PED that when combined with intense physical exertion thicken a horse's blood. A horse doped with BB3 ran the risk of a heart attack, the indictment said.

The photo of BB3 seized by the FBI from the Navarro residence shows only the product's name on the bottle.

Bowman testified that BB3 had not been approved by the FDA and that she could find no studies in an FDA database about BB3 and its effectiveness and safety to horses.

Bowman also told the jury that the label on the BB3 bottle should have contained more information to pass muster with the FDA. She said the label should have contained the name of the prescribing veterinarian, how and when it should be administered, the identity of the manufacturer, and what precautions should be taken before administering it.

The doctor testified that BB3 and the other drugs Fishman sold should only be prescribed after a physical examination of the animal.

Prosecutors contend Fishman never did that before shipping his PEDs to buyers.

At one point during questioning, Mortazavi had Bowman read from an email Fishman sent to Giannelli on Jan. 5, 2019, that contained a list of drugs available from Fishman's South Florida business Equestology.

“BB3: would only let trusted clients have this,” Bowman quoted the email as saying.

Fishman's lawyers Maurice Sercarz and Marc Fernich will have an opportunity to cross-examine the FDA expert when the trial resumes Jan. 26.

The Thoroughbred industry's leading publications are working together to cover this key trial.

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