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Mr Jefferson Gives Trainer Mike Trombetta His 2,000th Career Victory

R. Larry Johnson's homebred 2-year-old colt Mr Jefferson slipped through an opening along the rail in mid-stretch and outran stablemate Bold Leader to give trainer Mike Trombetta his 2,000th career victory in Thursday's featured eighth race at Laurel Park.

Ridden by Mychel Sanchez, Mr Jefferson ($14.20) completed about 1 1/16 miles in 1:45.43 over a fast main track to win the optional claiming allowance for juveniles by 1 ½ lengths. Street Hustle was third with pacesetting 3-5 favorite Mr. Mox fourth.

“It's really, really cool,” Trombetta said. “I didn't expect to be one-two in the race, by any means. I was hoping just to hit the board, honestly, but it was nice to get this kind of result.”

Trombetta, who turned 55 last week, is the second Maryland-based trainer to reach a career milestone at Laurel this fall. Claudio Gonzalez, the state's annual leading trainer since 2017, earned his 1,000th win with He's a Shooter Oct. 14.

A Baltimore native that maintains strings at both Laurel and the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., Trombetta had 1,993 wins heading into the month of October. He earned No. 1,999 with Conclusive Oct. 31 at Laurel and was off the board with his only other starter Thursday, U S Constitution, in Race 5.

“I was hoping it'd happen this year, by the way things were going,” Trombetta joked. “It's all good.”

Mr Jefferson, by Constitution, was making his fourth career start and first with blinkers. He is 2-0 on the dirt, having broken his maiden Aug. 25 at Colonial Downs, and finished off the board in a pair of turf starts.

Perennially one of the top trainers in Maryland who is also a player on the national stage, Trombetta has topped $1 million in purse earnings every year since 2005 and at least $3 million since 2007, with a career bankroll of more than $68.4 million.

Introduced to horses through his father, Trombetta began walking hots as a teenager and steadily worked his way up the ladder to becoming a trainer. His first winner came with Amant De Cour in 1986 at defunct Atlantic City Race Course in New Jersey.

The MTHA Trainer of the Year in 2005, Trombetta burst on the national scene with Sweetnorthernsaint, an ex-claimer turned Grade 2 winner who went off as the Kentucky Derby (G1) favorite in 2006 and ran second to champion Bernardini in the Preakness (G1). Among his local stakes wins were the 2006 Miracle Wood and 2007 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial at Laurel.

Other stakes horses for Trombetta include 2020 Forego (G1) winner Win Win Win, 2019 Highlander (G1) winner Wet Your Whistle, 2012 Nearctic (G1) winner Next Question, 2009 Commonwealth (G3) winner Eternal Star, 2009 Carry Back (G2) winner Not for Silver and Grade 3 winners Weigelia, Control System, Jimanator, Despite the Odds, Street Magician, Souper Escape, Global Access, Independence Hall.

Trombetta won Laurel's 2019 spring stand and shared the 2015 winter meet title with Claudio Gonzalez, to whom he has finished second in annual Maryland wins each of the past two years. He also ranks among the all-time leading trainers in Maryland Million history with eight wins.

On Friday, Trombetta has three horses entered in two of nine races at Laurel as well as a pair of stakes out of town – Biz Biz Buzz in the Atlantic Beach at Belmont Park and Can't Buy Love in the Cellars Shiraz at Gulfstream Park.

“I have a horse in the stake in New York tomorrow we're real excited about. He broke his maiden here,” Trombetta said. “Maybe we can get started with 2,001 tomorrow.”

Notes: Jockey Mychel Sanchez doubled Thursday aboard Askin for a Baskin ($2.40) in Race 3 and Mr Jefferson ($14.20) in Race 8. J.D. Acosta also had two winners, Gentleman Joe ($12.60) in Race 5 and Beneath the Stars ($19.60) in Race 9 … There will be carryovers of $3,940.62 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 and $1,050.94 in the $1 Super Hi-5 for Friday's nine-race card. Post time is 12:25 p.m.

The post Mr Jefferson Gives Trainer Mike Trombetta His 2,000th Career Victory appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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‘Exciting Stuff’: Trainer Mike Trombetta Closing In On 2,000-Win Milestone

As fate would have it, Mike Trombetta has the opportunity to celebrate two milestones in the same week.

Perennially one of the top trainers in Maryland who is also a player on the national stage, Trombetta turned 55 on Tuesday. The Baltimore native stands just two shy of 2,000 career wins, which he can reach as soon as Thursday when live racing returns to Laurel Park.

Trombetta has three horses entered in two of Laurel's nine races Thursday – 3-year-old gelding Mr Mosley in the opener for maidens 3, 4 and 5 going 1 1/16 miles on the Bowl Game turf course, and both Fifteen Royals and Ellanation in the seventh, an optional claiming allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on the Exceller layout.

In addition, Trombetta will be represented by 3-year-old filly Imagery in Thursday's sixth race at Woodbine, a six-furlong optional claimer on the grass where she is the narrow 3-1 program favorite. On Friday, Trombetta has five horses entered in four races on Laurel's nine-race card.

“We're trying to get there. We have a little bit more to do with it. We need two more. It's exciting stuff,” Trombetta said, adding that it “would be cool” to get No. 2,000 at home in Maryland. “I can't really control it, but maybe it will work out that way. It would be a lot of fun.”

According to Equibase statistics, Trombetta's 1,998 wins have come from 11,238 career starters, including 91-for-581 this year. He has reached more than $1 million in purse earnings every year since 2005 and at least $3 million since 2007, with a career bankroll approaching $68.3 million.

“Time goes by so fast, as we all know. Fortunately, I still enjoy this a whole lot and that makes it fun,” Trombetta said. “When those times do come up and you reflect a little bit, I'm grateful that I've been able to do this as an occupation.”

Based primarily at Laurel and the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., Trombetta runs horses up and down the East Coast. He spends part of the summer in Saratoga and winter in South Florida, and this year branched out with a small string at Delaware Park.

“We had a few more than we could fit at the other two places [Laurel and Fair Hill],” Trombetta said. “So, we get scattered about and that makes it a little bit more challenging for all of us, but that's part of the game.”

Trombetta's introduction to horses came from his father, at tracks such as historic Pimlico Race Course and the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, and he steadily worked his way up the ladder to becoming a trainer.

“My dad owned some horses when I was a teenager and I got some exposure to it that way. I liked the sport and I liked the horses, and I got an opportunity to start working with them a little bit,” he said. “I was walking hots when I was 13 years old and I was grooming horses by the time I was 15. When I was in school I did school, but when I wasn't in school I was at the track.”

Trombetta's first winner came in 1986 with Amant De Cour at Atlantic City Race Course in New Jersey, which closed in 2015. He picked up No. 1,000 Nov. 27, 2011 at Charles Town with Allwewantforxmas.

For his career, Trombetta said 'The Saint' meant “everything. That was a turning point for me. That's when we went from just doing this job to everybody kind of getting a chance to know who we were, and that meant the world to us. That just put fuel on the fire that I could have never expected.”

Over the years, Trombetta has had some major owners as clients such as Live Oak Plantation, R. Larry Johnson and the Meyerhoff family, best known for campaigning Hall of Famer Spectacular Bid.

“We've had a lot of good owners for a lot of years, and we're obviously very grateful to them,” Trombetta said. “It's a team effort. Everybody works so hard. To think about all the people that get up at 3:30 or 4 o'clock in the morning to do this job, it's pretty amazing stuff. I can't say enough. These guys work tremendously hard for us. They're very dedicated. I've had some really good people for a lot of years, and I'm grateful to have them.”

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Louisiana Commission Sides with Broberg in CDI Exclusion Dispute

The Louisiana State Racing Commission (LSRC) unanimously passed a motion Tuesday that owner and trainer Karl Broberg believes will allow him to race horses at the upcoming Fair Grounds meet despite an exclusion order imposed last month by that track's corporate owner, Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI).

“I am allowed to enter and run at the Fair Grounds,” Broberg told TDN hours after the LSRC ruled that the private-property exclusion by CDI doesn't carry the same reciprocity as a ruling issued by a board of stewards or state racing commission.

According to the Blood-Horse, which first reported the story, the LSRC questioned whether Broberg had been afforded due process when CDI barred him from participating at all of its properties over allegations that he didn't properly care for a gelding who returned sore after a race at Churchill Downs Sept. 18.

According to previously published reports in the Blood-Horse and the Paulick Report, the Broberg-owned and trained Rockandahardplace (Hard Spun) came back sore after a sixth-place finish in a $10,000 claiming race. The 5-year-old had been claimed, but the claim was voided post-race when the horse was determined to be lame by a Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) veterinarian.

After a preliminary investigation, CDI alleged that “the horse was returned to his stall [but] there was no responsible representative of the trainer on-site to make veterinary decisions or to take appropriate steps to protect the welfare of the injured horse.”

Broberg, the nation's winningest trainer by victories between 2014-19 (he was second in both 2013 and 2020), had said last month that Rockandahardplace was indeed treated, but had been left in the Churchill receiving barn because he was too sore to travel immediately, according to the Paulick Report.

Broberg pointed out to TDN that CDI didn't want to hear his side of the story before issuing the multi-track ban, yet the Churchill stewards did not sanction him in any way after explaining what happened when he met with them last month.

CDI, Broberg told TDN in an Oct. 26 phone interview, “just came with this out of nowhere, with no facts or reason.”

Broberg continued: “I was sad that I never even had the opportunity to weigh in with the facts that Churchill, to this day, still hasn't even heard. The stewards were willing to [hear me out], which is why they made no ruling, because there was [no wrongdoing] there.”

Broberg was at Tuesday's LSRC hearing, but he didn't get to testify there, either. Neither did Dr. Will Farmer, the equine medical director for CDI. The commissioners did hear from CDI's attorney, Haley Nix, but after ascertaining there were no known rulings against Broberg in this matter, the board voted unanimously to pass the measure in Broberg's favor.

On the way out of that meeting, Broberg said “I did hand [CDI's] counsel some information that I wish they had prior to them making the decision that they did. I can only hope that it doesn't fall on deaf ears.”

Broberg continued: “This is the epitome of cancel culture just going crazy. I can only try to hope and work to mend the relationship. I mean, obviously, I don't want to poke the bear. I want to be able to get along with everyone. Most racing secretaries love me with the way they get starts per stall.”

Asked if he has a Fair Grounds stall application pending or plans to file one soon, Broberg said, “It's way too early to say at this point. This is unchartered territory I'm in right now.”

As to whether he plans to challenge CDIs ban of him at its flagship track in Kentucky via the KHRC or through the courts, Broberg said, “One step at a time.”

The post Louisiana Commission Sides with Broberg in CDI Exclusion Dispute appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Harness Trainer, Alleged Navarro Co-Conspirator Oakes Pleads Guilty To PED Charges

Harness trainer Christopher Oakes pled guilty to one count of misbranding and drug adulteration with intent to defraud or deceive on Wednesday, when he appeared before federal judge Mary Kay Vyskocil via teleconference. According to the Thoroughbred Daily News, Oakes is the 10th of the original 27 indicted in March 2020 to plead guilty in a scheme to use performance-enhancing drugs in racehorses.

Oakes was allegedly overheard on wire taps speaking to Jorge Navarro (who was also indicted and pled guilty) about the distribution and use of performance-enhancing drugs to Thoroughbreds. Specifically, the TDN reported that Oakes and Navarro were overheard making plans to administer performance-enhancing substances to X Y Jet, who later died suddenly.

Navarro changed his plea from not guilty to guilty this summer, but has not yet been sentenced.

Oakes told Vyskocil on Wednesday: “I purchased medications from Dr. Seth Fishman and Dr. Gregor Skelton and his assistant Ross Cohen and administered the medications to the horses in my care to gain an unfair advantage.”

Oakes will be sentenced on Feb. 17, and faces up to three years in prison.

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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