The Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission's executive director, Tom Sage, has been appointed the repeat chairman of the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI). Sage first served as chairman in 2020. The ARCI chairs generally serve one-year terms, but Sage was awarded a subsequent term due to the effects of COVID-19 on the industry and returns again for the coming year. The current outgoing ARCI chair is Louisiana Racing Commission executive director Charles Gardiner III.
The new chair-elect is Doug Moore, who was appointed to the Washington Horse Racing Commission's board after retiring as its executive director. Anthony Salerno of the Pennsylvania Racing Commission was named treasurer.
In his address, Sage said: “Our U.S. members face enormous problems caused by the uncertainty of the implementation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act [HISA] and its programs… There's an expectation in some parts of the industry that all regulatory turmoil and new costs will result in fewer breakdowns, fewer equine deaths, and apprehend more criminals. We'll see. We call it like it is, realizing not everyone will like what we say. To us, integrity counts more than narrative. Our agenda remains simple: To do the right thing.”
ARCI is the umbrella organization representing governmental regulators of horse and greyhound racing.
7th-Oaklawn, $103,000, Alw (NW2L)/Opt. Clm ($100,000), 3-9, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 1:45.38, sy, 1 1/2 lengths. MENDELSSOHNS MARCH (c, 3, Mendelssohn–Unappeased {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}) led the whole way when debuted over a mile on the grass at the Fair Grounds Feb. 2 just to be nailed on the line by a drifting rival and awarded the win via a steward's decision. A distant 8-1 behind heavily favored Heroic Move (Quality Road), the Triple Crown-nominated colt raced in the second flight along the rail, taking kickback on the dirt for the first time. Still rated in sixth as the tightly-bunched field, paced by Heroic Move, swung around the turn, Mendelssohn's March wove his way through traffic, finally got racing room with a furlong to run, and sprinted through an opening to clear off close to home. 24-1 longshot El Tomate (Runhappy) closed from last to get up for the exacta but was 1 1/2 lengths back from Mendelssohns March.
Unappeased, already responsible for Oaklawn S. winner and GI Kentucky Derby third Mr. Big News (Giant's Causeway), SW & GISP, $478,753, traces back to a prolific family that includes MGSW & G1SP Danon Ballade (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and MGISP Sligo Bay (Ire) (Sadler's Wells). Third dam Ballade also produced Canadian horse of the year Glorious Song (Halo), champion grass horse MG1SW Singspiel (Ire) (In the Wings {GB}), champion 2-year-old Devil's Bag (Halo) and MGSW Saint Ballado (Halo). Unappeased has a 2-year-old Hard Spun filly but did not produce a foal last year after breedings to both Constitution and American Pharoah. Sales History: $110,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $91,800. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
O-Harold Lerner LLC, Nehoc Stables, AWC Stables and Team Stallion Racing Stable; B-Don Alberto Corporation (KY); T-Kenneth G. McPeek.
Operation Heat Ukraine, a humanitarian effort begun by owner/breeder Earle I. Mack, who is also the former Ambassador to Finland, and former New York Governor George E. Pataki, will undertake a fourth mission to Ukraine. Mack and Pataki have already donated and delivered nearly 1,000 industrial and residential heaters benefitting over one million Ukrainian civilians. Operation Heat Ukraine is a non-profit focused on helping those suffering due to the continued Russian attacks.
“As we reach the one-year mark of the war in Ukraine, it has never been more important to bring awareness to the struggles of innocent civilians,” said Mack. “We hope that, through our support, some of the basic needs of Ukrainian civilians will be met and urge anyone who can help to get involved.”
Long known for his philanthropy, including founding The Man O' War Project which helps military veterans through the use of retired racehorses, Mack was honored with an Eclipse Award of Merit last year. With Operation Heat Ukraine, Mack has been raising awareness in support of Ukraine's civilians and has traveled to Ukraine a number of times to disperse millions of dollars' worth of heaters and generators for homes, hospitals, schools, and refugee centers.
Xtra Heat (Dixieland Heat–Begin, by Hatchet Man), winner of 25 black-type races in an overachieving career that saw her named the Eclipse Award-winning 3-year-old filly of 2001, passed away last December at the age of 24, according to a release from Woodford Thoroughbreds.
Bred in Kentucky by Pope McLean, Sr., Pope McLean, Jr., Marc McLean and P. Feringa, the diminutive Xtra Heat sold for less than five figures as a weanling, yearling and 2-year-old, but won her first six races before tasting defeat for the first time in the 2000 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, her lone career foray around two turns.
She went nine-for-13 during her championship season in 2001, breaking through at the Grade I level with a victory over Above Perfection (In Excess {Ire}) and Harmony Lodge (Hennessy) in the Prioress S. ahead of a runner-up effort to Victory Ride (Seeking the Gold) in that year's GI Test S. Following three subsequent facile scores against her peers in the Mid-Atlantic region by a combined 22 3/4 lengths, Xtra Heat was given her chance against the boys in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, and the fleet filly cut out the running before being run down in the dying strides by Squirtle Squirt (Marquetry).
Wire-to-wire winner of her first two starts at four, including the GII Barbara Fritchie H. with 128 pounds on her back and spotting her rivals between 13 and 16 pounds, Xtra Heat ventured to old Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in Dubai and finished a creditable third behind the repeating Caller One (Phone Trick).
Following a sixth-place effort in the 2002 Sprint, Xtra Heat was offered at the Fasig-Tipton Night of the Stars sale and was led out unsold when bidding reached $1.7 million. Owners Kenneth Taylor and Harry Deitchman sold Xtra Heat to ClassicStar in a private transaction and she closed her career with a successful title defense in the Barbara Fritchie. She was retired with a mark of 35-26-5-2 and earnings of $2,389,635 and was trained throughout her career by John D. Salzman. Woodford Thoroughbreds purchased Xtra Heat privately through a ClassicStar dispersal in 2006. She was inducted into racing's Hall of Fame in 2015.
The first three foals out of Xtra Heat achieved black-type, including the stakes-winning and Grade III-placed Southwestern Heat (Gone West), who went on to a stallion career in Australia; the stakes-placed X Rated Cat (Storm Cat); and SW & GSP Elusive Heat (Elusive Quality), a $750,000 FTFFEB graduate who serves as the granddam of multiple Grade III winner Scalding (Nyquist), SW & GSP Tracksmith (Street Sense) and SW Hot and Sultry (Speightster). Woodford pensioned Xtra Heat from broodmare duties in 2019 and since that time, she has enjoyed her time in the Florida sun at Woodford's Reddick, Florida, farm, according to the release.
“Xtra Heat knows her place in the world and is always first at feed time,” Woodford owner John Sykes said in 2022. “Xtra Heat is confident in her bearing, but easy to be around. The little brown mare with a great big heart inspires our team to look for potential in every horse.”
With the news of the mare's passing having been made public, Sykes said, “I have always been proud to have the privilege of owning and being responsible for a Hall of Fame horse. She will be greatly missed on the farm and by the team.”
