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Pin Oak’s Broken Vow Pensioned

Pin Oak stalwart Broken Vow (Unbridled–Wedding Vow, by Nijinsky II), the sire of 2016 Eclipse champion Champagne Room and 79 other black-type winners, has been pensioned from the stallion barn and will remain at his lifetime home.

Racing as a homebred for Pin Oak Stud, the nom de course of Josephine Abercrombie's historic racing and breeding operation, Broken Vow was a five-time stakes winner for trainer Graham Motion. His top wins included the 2001 GII Philip H. Iselin H. and the GIII Ben Ali S., as well as another four graded placings, including the 2001 GI Gulfstream Park H. Broken Vow retired to his birthplace to stand his first season in 2002 at age five for $10,000.

Broken Vow's first crop included GI Beldame S. winner Unbridled Belle and GII Futurity S. winner Private Vow. While he only topped 100 foals twice in 17 crops of racing age to date, the bay continued to deliver consistent quality, with runners including MGISW Sassy Image, GISWs Rosalind and Cotton Blossom, and MGSW Imprimis. Overall, the 24-year-old's 80 stakes winners include 26 graded winners to date and progeny earnings of more than $80 million. Broken Vow is also making a name for himself as a broodmare sire with the 36 black-type winners out of his daughters including champion and sire Runhappy (Super Saver).

“First as a race horse and then as an anchor to our stallion roster for 20 seasons, Broken Vow is the embodiment of Ms. Abercrombie's breeding program, producing sound, competitive racehorses whose bloodlines endure,” said long-time Pin Oak Stud manager Clifford Barry. “We appreciate the industry's support through the years, but mostly we thank Broken Vow for his loyal service to the farm and look forward to providing a well-deserved retirement for him here at Pin Oak.”

Broken Vow stood his final season this year for $20,000. Last month, Pin Oak Stud dispersed 23 mares and foals at a special sale held at Fasig-Tipton. In addition, Chris McGrath recently delved into the legacy of Pin Oak and Abercrombie.

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Congressman Rooney Named NTRA President & CEO

Thomas J. (Tom) Rooney, a former U.S. Congressman, has been named to succeed Alex Waldrop as the president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA). As has been previously announced, Waldrop will retire at the end of this year.

Rooney is an owner and breeder and has been part of his family's Shamrock Farm, a Thoroughbred breeding and lay-up operation in Maryland. The farm was founded by his grandfather, Art Rooney, Sr. He has also served on the board of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association for the past year. The Rooney family has been the majority owners and operators of the National Football League's Pittsburgh Steelers since 1933. Rooney family members also own the Palm Beach Kennel Club in Florida, owned Yonkers Raceway in New York until 2019, and owned former racetracks Green Mountain in Vermont and Liberty Bell in Pennsylvania.

“It is a great privilege for me to join the NTRA and serve as the organization's next leader,” said Rooney. “Having been immersed in horse racing my entire life, I know the issues and have a solid understanding of the needs of the industry. Coupled with my 10 years serving as a member of Congress, I know how to get things done in Washington, D.C. and look forward to increasing our advocacy efforts with our nation's lawmakers. I'm excited to join the team and look forward to working with all our member organizations to move our agenda forward.”

Rooney served with the U.S. Army as a lawyer in the JAG Corps. During his tenure, he was Special Assistant U.S. Attorney at Fort Hood, Texas, prosecuting all civilian crimes on post, and he served in the 1st Cavalry Division. After completing active duty with the rank of captain, Rooney taught constitutional and criminal law at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

“On behalf of the NTRA Board, I am excited to confirm Tom Rooney's appointment as the next president and CEO of the NTRA,” said Alan Foreman, Chairman and CEO of the Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (THA) and the NTRA Board member who led the NTRA's transition and search committee. “We are incredibly fortunate to have engaged such a talented and experienced individual as Tom as we position the NTRA to address the challenges facing our industry. I believe Tom's taking on this position will be a game-changer for the NTRA and the Thoroughbred racing industry. Tom's track record of experience and leadership will be invaluable as we move forward and as we expand our presence and advocacy on the federal level.”

In conjunction with Rooney's appointment, the NTRA will conduct a strategic review of the organization and its activities as it places additional focus on its role as the trade association for the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry. The NTRA plans to open an office in Washington, D.C., where it will focus primarily on federal legislative and policy issues. As part of his appointment, Rooney will also become President of Horse PAC, the NTRA's political action committee.

As a Congressman, Rooney focused on economic, agricultural, national security, and military issues. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida from 2009 to 2019. He served on the Committee on Agriculture, the Committee on Armed Services, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence where he played a prominent role in the House Intelligence Committee's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Rooney lives in Florida with his wife, Tara, and three sons.

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Coolmore’s Adrian Wallace Talks 2022 Stallion Roster On Writers’ Room

One day after Coolmore released its star-studded Ashford Stud stallion roster and fees for the 2022 breeding season, Coolmore's nomination sales head Adrian Wallace joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday morning. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Wallace talked about his upbringing in the Irish racing and breeding world, the surging Munnings and Caravaggio and early returns on Triple Crown winner Justify.

Asked about Munnings, whose stud fee has jumped all the way from $40,000 to $85,000 in recent years, Wallace said, “He's a very interesting horse because if you study how his stallion career has evolved, he's really, really done it the hard way. He was a high-priced juvenile at $1.7 million, a three-time Grade II winner, Grade I placed, he obviously had the speed and the precocity, but he retired without winning the all-important Grade I. We introduced him at a fee of $12,500 and while he was always popular, he was covering workmanlike, middle of the range mares. The thing that he seems to transmit that helped him through that sort of lull in his early books is [he produces] very durable horses. It's amazing how many four, five, six, seven, 8-year-olds he has that are still running. I think when you've got horses in your stable, as a trainer, as an owner, that are constantly earning a check at whatever level you're at, it leaves a good taste in your mouth. It's very important in keeping him relevant and popular in owners, buyers and breeders' minds. And now he's at a stage where he's receiving very good support from some of the best breeders in the world. The best is yet to come with him and I think is a horse we'll eventually stand for $100,000 having done it the hard way.”

New to Ashford this year was Caravaggio, who has gotten off to a rip-roaring start in Europe and currently boasts 21 winners. Wallace discussed the decision to bring the gray son of Scat Daddy, originally bred in America, back to the States.

“He was a horse that we wanted to have back here pretty much from the moment we heard he was going to retire,” he said. “So we begged to have him and luckily, we got him in his fourth year. I think when you look at him, he's very much an American type of horse. He's very well built. He's very broad across his chest. He's got a great forearm, a great gaskin on him. He looks fast. He looked like he should have been a dirt horse rather than a turf sprinter. Certainly he's off to a flying start in Europe and he bred 170 mares here in his first book of mares. He was very popular. American breeders like him physically, so I think he's a horse with a lot to offer.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, the New York Thoroughbred Breeders and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers picked the winner of their “Name the Colt” contest sponsored by Lane's End and Honor Code, broke down the implications of the Breeders' Cup decision on Bob Baffert, reacted to some troubling news out of Delaware Park and more. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Gelding in ‘Inhumane Treatment’ Case Settles in at New Home

Food and Wine (War Front), the 5-year-old gelding whose mistreatment for a bowed tendon resulted in a trio of “improper or inhumane” care rulings issued by the Delaware Park stewards last Friday, is settling in at his new home, a rehab farm in Townsend, Delaware, that serves as a satellite facility for MidAtlantic Horse Rescue (MAHR).

“He's very, very cool. He's just a real classy horse,” said Beverly Strauss, the co-founder and president of MAHR. “He's in beautiful condition except for his leg. It's just an unfortunate situation and it's really sad, because it looks as if he's got some talent but just ended up on the wrong side of the racetrack.”

Strauss said Food and Wine's owner, Jose Rosales, had asked her for help in trying to get the gelding re-homed earlier this fall by listing him on CANTER, but there were no takers.

“They had called me about taking him a couple of weeks ago, but we've been totally swamped,” Strauss said. “We do the aftercare for Delaware Park and we help with the Beyond the Wire program in Maryland, plus some kill pen horses here and there. So I suggested we list him and see if somebody wanted to rehab him.”

This was in the weeks before Rosales was fined $2,500 and suspended 30 days for ignoring his own veterinarian's recommendation to give Food and Wine up to a year off to heal a bowed tendon, then drugging the gelding in an attempt to mask his lameness from a regulatory veterinarian.

Strauss only learned about that darker side of Food and Wine's recent history last Friday when the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission (DTRC) ruling came out against Rosales.

According to that Oct. 15 ruling, Rosales had administered drugs to mask the gelding's pain from a bowed tendon in order to make it through a workout that Rosales hoped would get Food and Wine removed from the DTRC's restricted list. But Food and Wine went lame at the end of that Oct. 3 breeze, and the Delaware Park stewards launched an investigation into his care based on a tip from a veterinarian.

Food and Wine's trainer, Linda Manchio, was also fined $2,500 and suspended 30 days. Assistant trainer Belinda Manchio was fined $1,000 and suspended 15 days (details here).

DTRC executive director Sarah Crane told TDN that as of Oct. 19, no appeals to those rulings had been filed.

“As far as other horses that were in the care of that trainer, it is my understanding that there were not very many, and they have all been transferred out to a different facility,” Crane said. “So there are no horses at Delaware Park under the care of anybody who was listed in those rulings.”

Strauss said that once she learned that Rosales would be leaving Delaware Park immediately because of the ruling against him, she decided that MAHR would just care for the gelding instead of trying to place him through CANTER.

“I just said, 'We'll take him,'” Strauss said.

“Now he's in a paddock the size of a double round pen and he's moving around and comfortable,” Straus said. “With bowed tendons, I like to have them moving a little bit. I don't like to have them stuck in a stall. I know everybody rehabs bows differently, but I think it's better for him if he can move around a little bit. We don't have him on Bute now. He'll get it as needed, but he hasn't been on it in the few days since he's been with us. He's very sweet and very nice, and once he rehabs, I think he'll make somebody a really, really nice horse.”

Based in Warwick, Maryland, MAHR is a non-profit, accredited equine aftercare and placement organization with a 158-acre farm along the banks of the Sassafras River. Strauss said that since TDN last profiled MAHR in 2016, the operation has substantially expanded.

“I think when we last spoke we only had one facility,” Strauss said. “Now we've got the main farm and four satellite farms–two that we use for rehab and two for retraining and adoption. We have about 45 horses here at the main farm and close to 90 horses in the program at all times. So we've grown.”

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