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Michael McCarthy Joins Writers’ Room

Fresh off the first Classic win of his career with his first Triple Crown starter, trainer Michael McCarthy joined the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by JPMorgan Private Bank Wednesday morning. Calling in via Zoom from his Santa Anita stable as the Green Group Guest of the Week, McCarthy discussed getting Rombauer (Twirling Candy) to run his peak race in Saturday's GI Preakness S., whether he has any regrets about not running in the GI Kentucky Derby, what he learned from former boss Todd Pletcher and more.

“When the horses came to the quarter pole, I started getting excited and I almost had a bit of disbelief,” McCarthy recalled of his emotions Saturday. “The first thought that went through my head was, all right, the horse carried himself to the quarter pole and at least I can say he put up a respectable performance in a Triple Crown race. When they straightened up for home and Flavien [Prat] wheeled outside and they were three across the track, I could see the other two guys inside of him working. Flavien still looked like he was in a little bit of a rhythm and hadn't really gotten after him all that aggressively yet. Then, it was almost like my world went silent from the quarter pole to the wire. When he did strike the front and was pulling away from those horses, it was like an out-of-body experience.”

Asked about what he learned in his eight years working as an assistant to Pletcher, McCarthy said, “If you're around Todd, he leads by example. He shows up and gives it his best every day. He's got some things that I think he does better than anybody that I've been around. His attention to detail. His organizational skills. His big picture kind of thinking. This is something that he set out to do. As I read it, he had said to his parents at 12 or 13 that he'd like to be a racehorse trainer. So when you've got someone that's dedicated their life, like Todd has, to training racehorses, obviously he's left no stone unturned. It doesn't take thousands of races won or championships or Triple
Crown races to see the kind of person he is.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Keeneland, West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers reacted to the news that the New York Racing Association is suspending Bob Baffert and, in the Minnesota Racehorse Engagement Project Story of the Week, debated whether or not the punishment fit the crime for Linda Rice's suspension. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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Quick Call to Be Laid to Rest at Saratoga’s Clare Court

This week, the New York Racing Association will bury the ashes of Saratoga legend Quick Call at Clare Court, the bucolic, half-mile jogging track located behind the track's seven-furlong chute named in honor of Clare Belmont, wife of the late August Belmont II. An unveiling of the memorial will be scheduled in July, along with a Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation event to celebrate his life in coordination with the running of the GIII Quick Call S. on Opening Day, July 15.

After winning nine of his 17 starts from 1986 to 1991 at the Spa, Quick Call transitioned in his post-racing career to another starring role in the TRF's pioneering “Second Chances” vocational training program, working with inmates at Wallkill Correctional Facility in upstate New York.

“Few Thoroughbreds ever had that kind of dual career and did it so well for so long,” said TRF Director of Major Gifts & Planned Giving Kim Weir of Quick Call, who died in October 2019 from the infirmities of old age, at 35. “He had an aura about him. Quick Call was a legendary horse who earned respect from the other horses and from the men at Wallkill. To know he'll be at rest at Saratoga Race Course, which he loved so much, is a great ending.”

Quick Call is the fourth horse to be laid to rest at Clare Court, following Fourstardave, Mounjare and A Phenomenon. Like the others, Quick Call will have a headstone commemorating his accomplishments.

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New NYSGC Clenbuterol Rules Go Into Effect June 2

The New York State Gaming Commission voted Monday to amend its rules for the use of clenbuterol in New York State to follow the model proposed by the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) and these rules will go into effect state-wide, including at all three New York Racing Association tracks as of June 2, NYRA announced Wednesday.

The full text of the rules for the NYSGC's amendment for the use of clenbuterol in Thoroughbred racing [Rule 4043.12(b)(6)], which includes a requirement for approval from the Commission for any clenbuterol treatment, can be found at https://www.gaming.ny.gov/proposedrules.php.

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Industry Voices: A Bargain Cast in Deep and Abiding Love

Note from the publisher: If you're like many of us, you have been assailed by friends, family and members of your community as you have gone about your daily life for the past two weeks. “Was the horse drugged? Was it the cream?” I never thought I'd be discussing picograms at pickleball, but here we are. Sunday brought a new wave of texts and emails with the publication of an op/ed from the New York Times editorial board, and a devastating article in the New Yorker. People I haven't heard from in years sent me the latter, and as I asked others in the industry how they were explaining this to people, my friend Bob Duncan forwarded me his response to a friend. Bob is one of the smartest people I know, and for years has been an advocate for change in the way horses are handled in racing. As such, I thought his response was not only unique, but a perspective that should be shared. -Sue Finley

Our back is against the wall. How do you explain to people the relationship, the partnership that has evolved over thousands of years? Our relationship with the horse isn't about dominance and subjugation. It's about mutual understanding and cooperation. It's one of the purist symbiotic relationships on earth. It's about two species adapting to survive. Without each other it's conceivable neither would exist to this day. Is racing essential? Of course not. But think of what we lose by allowing these magnificent, majestic creatures to fade into extinction. We have lived, breathed and died alongside each other in service of our long-term survival. We live in an environment with the horse that places us in trust of our mutual existence. It's a bargain cast in deep and abiding love.
I guess it's inevitable, as the world “advances” to more high-tech, sanitized pleasures, that our relationship with these beings will seem trivial, possibly cruel and self-serving, but I feel blessed to have had the relationship, the knowing, including the scars of learning that brought me to realize what love truly is.

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