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Brown Not Optimistic Jack Christopher Can Make Derby

Still recuperating from an injury that prevented him from running in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, 'TDN Rising Star' Jack Christopher (Munnings) is about two weeks away from rejoining Chad Brown's Florida division. However, the trainer said he was not sure if he has enough time to get him ready to run in the GI Kentucky Derby.

“He's going to be up against it, that's for sure,” Brown said when asked about making the Derby. “I don't want to rule anything out until I put my hands on him, but he's certainly behind. To get him to go a mile-and-a-quarter I'm going to need to have something under his belt. We'll see where he takes us and if he doesn't make [the Derby] we have several other races we'd love to target with him.”

Coming off a win in the GI Champagne S., Jack Christopher was expected to go off as the favorite in the Juvenile for Jim Bakker, Gerald Isbister and their new partners Coolmore and Peter Brant, who bought in after the Champagne. He subsequently had a screw inserted in his left shin to repair a stress fracture. The surgery was done by Dr. Larry Bramlage. Jack Christopher was then sent to WinStar Farm and Brown reports that he is now back under tack and should join his stable in “a couple of weeks.”

“It's been frustrating,” Brown said. “You hate to miss a race like the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, where he would have been the favorite. He was training so well. He's a really talented horse. The Derby is not the be all and end all, but it would be lovely to have one of the top contenders.”

Brown has another top 3-year-ld colt in Zandon (Upstart), who finished second, beaten a nose, in a roughly run GII Remsen S. He's had two recent four-furlong works at Payson Park and Brown remains high on him.

“He's worked really good both times and has settled in nicely,” he said. “He's possible for the [Feb. 5 GIII] Holy Bull. It's between the Holy Bull and the [Feb. 19 GII] Risen Star. I don't think I want to wait all the way to the [Mar. 5 GII] Fountain of Youth to run him. He's only had two starts and I think he would benefit from an extra race. I'm really pleased with him.”

Brown also believes that Early Voting (Gun Runner) is a potential Derby horse. Early Voting has had one start, winning a Dec. 18 maiden race at Aqueduct.

“Anything else I have will be a late bloomer,” Brown said. “Early Voting won first time out going a mile on the dirt at Aqueduct. He didn't earn a fancy figure or anything, but when you see a son of Gun Runner debuting at a mile on the dirt and winning first time out on kind of a dead track you have to take a little notice. I'm not one to have a horse cranked for their best number at that time of year. He's an interesting horse going forward.”

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Godolphin Topped Breeders’ List in ’21

Godolphin topped the list of individual breeders by North American earnings in 2021 at $18,447,150 according to statistics released by The Jockey Club Friday. Godolphin bred 172 starters who won 136 times with 126 seconds and 115 thirds from 804 total starts.

Calumet Farm, which topped the individual breeders list in both 2019 and 2020, was second in 2021 with $16,127,515 in earnings and 470 wins from 3,516 starts.

Godolphin also led the breeders list that includes partners with $20,705,957 in earnings and 195 wins from 1,297 starts. Calumet was second on that list. Calumet was again second with $16,216,072 in earnings and 475 wins out of 3,555 starts.

Rounding out the top 10 individual breeders were Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC, $13,188,853 (160 wins/880 starts); WinStar Farm, LLC, $9,146,093 (221/1,293); Kenneth L. & Sarah K. Ramsey, $7,113,597 (232/1,644); Gary & Mary West Stables Inc., $6,830,991 (156/1,010); Brereton C. Jones, $6,703,710 (176/1,327); Juddmonte Farms Inc., $6,432,063 (84/419); Angie Moore, $6,207,646 (14/41); and Spendthrift Farm LLC, $5,462,547 (135/884).

Completing the list of the top 10 breeders including partnerships were Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC, $13,415,180 (162 wins/906 starts); WinStar Farm, LLC, $12,074,918 (332/2,039); Kenneth L. Ramsey, $7,417,425 (238/1,722); Sarah K. Ramsey, $7,417,425 (238/1,722); Fred W. Hertrich III, $7,300,217 (165/1,109); Brereton C. Jones, $7,007,034 (191/1,425); Gary & Mary West Stables Inc., $6,831,934 (156/1,016); and Juddmonte Farms Inc., $6,432,063 (84/419).

A list of the top 100 breeders is available at equineline.com.

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Keeneland January Start Date Pushed Back to Tuesday

The Keeneland January Sale start date will be pushed back one day, to Tuesday, Jan. 11, as a result of the winter snow storm that has hit Kentucky, according to a press release from the sales company Friday morning.

“Due to the winter storm and hazardous travel conditions in Kentucky, Keeneland has shifted all operations related to its January Horses of All Ages Sale back one day and moved the start of the sale to Tuesday, Jan. 11,” the press release reads. “The sale will end Friday, Jan. 14. All sessions will begin at 10 a.m. ET.”

The January Sale was previously scheduled to run Monday, Jan. 10 through Thursday, Jan. 13.

Keeneland announced Thursday that given transportation challenges and vanning and shipping cancellations due to the heavy snow, it was delaying the ship-in date for horses to arrive on the grounds from Friday to Saturday.

Preview days now will be held Sunday and Monday, Jan. 9-10.

“Our top priority is the safety of the horses and sales participants, and the delayed start to the sale will allow for their safe arrival and give consignors adequate time to show their horses,” Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy said. “Our customers have been virtually unanimous in their recommendation to make this change.”

Keeneland has cataloged a total of 1,631 horses for the January Sale, which offers in-foal broodmares, broodmare prospects, newly turned yearlings, horses of racing age, stallions and stallion prospects. Click here for the online January Sale catalog.

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SGF-1000 Salesman Kegley Gets 30 Months in Prison

Michael Kegley, Jr., the former sales director for the company that sold the purportedly performance-enhancing drug (PED) SGF-1000 that is at the heart of a years-long investigation of an international racehorse doping conspiracy, got sentenced to 30 months in prison on Thursday.

Kegley, 41, had pleaded guilty in July 2021 to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding. He had admitted in open court at that time that as sales director for the Kentucky-based MediVet Equine, he sold SGF-1000 and other products to trainers and veterinarians, knowing that there was “no medical prescription for those products” and that the substances were “not manufactured in an FDA-approved facility [nor] approved for sale by the FDA.”

Kegley's Jan. 6 prison sentence was six months shy of the maximum allowable term under federal sentencing guidelines. Just 24 hours previous to his sentencing, the same judge in the same court had handed down a maximum sentence for similar charges to Kristian Rhein, the defendant who is both Kegley's business associate and brother-in-law.

On Jan. 5, Rhein, a suspended veterinarian formerly based at Belmont Park who married Kegley's sister, got sent to prison for three years by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in United States District Court (Southern District of New York).

Prosecutors had previously acknowledged in a sentencing recommendation that Kegley should get a somewhat lighter sentence than his brother-in-law because of Rhein's standing as a veterinarian.

“Unlike Kegley, Rhein was a licensed veterinarian who predominantly treated racehorses; as such, Rhein was a more sophisticated actor than Kegley, and well-acquainted with the various legal regimes governing the sale and distribution of an adulterated and misbranded drug,” the government stated in its sentencing recommendation. “Likewise, Rhein, unlike Kegley, personally administered SGF-1000 to racehorses, concealed bottles of that drug, instructed others to do the same, and falsely billed customers for SGF-1000 under a false billing code.”

As a condition of Kegley's plea-bargained sentence, he was required to forfeit $3,310,490, which is a sum equal to the amount of the illegal substances seized by the government. But a court order accompanying the sentence stated that Kegley will only have to pay $192,615 if he does so within two years of his release from prison. If Kegley does not pay that amount by that time, he will be liable for the full sum.

One admitted doper of Thoroughbreds, the former trainer Jorge Navarro, last month got sentenced to five years in prison for administering myriad alleged PEDs, including SGF-1000.

Another barred trainer under indictment for alleged doping, Jason Servis, is scheduled to face trial in early 2022. Prosecutors have produced numerous intercepted communications involving Servis discussing using SGF-1000 on “almost every” horse under his care, including the disqualified 2019 GI Kentucky Derby winner Maximum Security (New Year's Day).

In one wiretapped call from July 16, 2019, Rhein and Kegley discussed how Servis and his associates were “buying literally as much” SGF-1000 as Rhein was able to source from MediVet.

It was further alleged that MediVet later in 2019 attempted to trick the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) into delisting SGF-1000 as a prohibited substance after Kegley's firm had already “reaped millions of dollars in revenue” by selling it illegally.

According to the government's evidence, MediVet and its associates emphasized “the potent effects of SGF-1000,” which were supposedly derived from “an innovative formulation consisting of Regenerative Proteins, Cytokines, Peptides, potent Growth Factors and Signaling Molecules derived from Ovine Placental Extract.”

Court documents filed by the feds had stated that SGF-1000 was explained to trainers as being similar to a vasodilator that would “increase stamina, performance, and overall health.” The materials even listed the growth factors that were purportedly found in SGF-1000, including some that were explicitly prohibited in many major racing jurisdictions.

The feds also alleged that despite what Kegley, Rhein, and other MediVet representatives claimed when they were parroting the company's marketing materials, no one pushing the product really had any accurate idea of what was in it.

“Notably, Kegley and his coconspirators did not know the precise contents of SGF-1000 until at least in or about August 2019–years after MediVet had started marketing and selling the drug,” court documents stated. “But [they] believed that no matter the component parts of the drug, it would enhance a horse's performance.”

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