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The Friday Show Presented By Walmac Farm’s Core Beliefs: Colebrook Duo Hits The Derby Trail

Trainer Ben Colebrook can be forgiven if he wasn't in the Aqueduct winner's circle following last week's Gotham Stakes victory by Andrew and Rania Warren's Raise Cain, a Violence colt who rallied from off the pace on a sloppy track to win by 7 1/2 lengths at 23-1 odds. With the win, Raise Cain earned 50 qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby, virtually assuring him a spot in the starting gate on the first Saturday in May.

Colebrook, who saddled Raise Cain and gave jockey Jose Lezcano a leg up, watched the race in an Uber en route to nearby Kennedy International Airport for a flight to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport and a short drive to Turfway Park to saddle Scoobie Quando in another Derby prep that night, the John Battaglia Memorial.

Scoobie Quando, an Uncle Mo colt also owned by the Warrens, ran well over the Tapeta synthetic surface but could do no better than finish second to Congruent under jockey Luan Machado – earning eight points. To qualify for the Derby, he'll likely need to come back with a top three finish in the March 25 Jeff Ruby at Turfway, where the stakes will be much higher: 100 points to the winner, 40 to second, 30 to third, 20 to fourth and 10 to fifth.

Colebrook, a former Christophe Clement and Fred Seitz assistant who took out his trainer's license in 2012, is looking forward to his first Kentucky Derby starter – and maybe even two in the same year.

Colebrook joins Ray Paulick and bloodstock editor Joe Nevills on this week's Friday Show to talk about his big day at Aqueduct and Turfway, and what's down the road for both Raise Cain and Scoobie Quando.

Watch this week's episode of the Friday Show below:

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‘We Owe An Apology To The Racing Public’: Sunland Park Stewards Admit DQ Error

The board of stewards at Sunland Park in New Mexico mistakenly disqualified a Quarter Horse from second to fourth place on March 3, and the executive director of the state racing commission has issued an apology to horseplayers who may have lost money as a result of the error.

Raul Saucedo's A Separate Star, breaking from the No. 2 post position and ridden by Omar Iturralde, was beaten a neck in the 400-yard claiming race, but shortly after the field of 10 crossed the finish line the stewards lit the inquiry sign. After about two minutes of deliberations, they disqualified A Separate Star for interference and placed him fourth.

As with many disqualifications, horseplayers took to social media to complain. In this case, their complaints were entirely legitimate. At no point in the race did A Separate Star interfere with or come close to any of his rivals.

Izzy Trejo, executive director of the New Mexico Racing Commission, said the stewards erred in the disqualification. A second set of stewards will review the race on Thursday, March 9, and issue a ruling that is expected to restore the original order of finish.

It's not clear if the stewards who made the wrong call will be sanctioned.

Pari-mutuel payoffs will not be affected. While the owner will get about $5,500 in additional purse money once the order of finish is corrected, those who bet on A Separate Star to place or show or in exactas and trifectas apparently will not be compensated. A total of $14,584 was wagered in win, place, and show bets, $13,641 in exactas, and $8,247 in trifectas.

“We want to apologize to the people who put their hard-earned money on this race,” said Trejo, who called the incident an “oversight” by stewards Connie Estes, Gary Terrien, and David Lupo.

“These are good stewards and I applaud them for being honest and admitting to the error, immediately after it happened,” said Trejo. “They took the blame from the get-go. Despite that, we do owe an apology to the wagering public that bet on this race.”

While the stewards may have admitted their error to Trejo, no public statement was issued when the mistake was discovered.

Trejo said he could not comment on how the mistake was made until after the March 9 hearing, though one Sunland Park horseperson who asked not to be identified said, “Word around here is they watched the wrong replay.”

The track's television feed showed the correct head-on replay multiple times while the stewards deliberated. At most tracks, that feed represents what the stewards are viewing. If they were watching the wrong replay, it's worth noting that in the previous race, the horse breaking from the same No. 2 post position veered out causing a chain reaction at the start. There was no inquiry or disqualification from that incident as the horse finished seventh.

The post ‘We Owe An Apology To The Racing Public’: Sunland Park Stewards Admit DQ Error appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The Friday Show Presented By Walmac Farm’s Pinehurst: How Jason Beem Found His Calling

Like many involved in horse racing, either as fans or people who work in the industry, Jason Beem started going to the track with his father at a young age. That was at Longacres racetrack near Seattle, Wash.

Gary Henson was the track announcer and Beem started doing pretend race calls, mimicking the cadence and voice of Henson (son of longtime Hollywood Park and Del Mar's gravelly-voiced announcer Harry Henson).

When Longacres was sold and developed and Beem went off to college, he lost interest in the game, but that was reignited when his father took ill. “When my dad got sick, I started going back to the races with him, and after he died I just kept going,” he said. In 2005, Beem heard Vic Stauffer's call of Cesario winning the American Oaks at Hollywood Park, and decided he'd found his calling.

“I remember the hair on my arms standing up hearing it and I thought 'I can do that,' so I went and got binoculars and started practicing the next day.”

Seventeen years after calling his first race, Beem serves as track announcer at Tampa Bay Downs and Colonial Downs, in addition to hosting the Jason Beem Horse Racing Podcast. He may be best known as the creator of the Beemie Awards, a satirical online awards show that was wildly popular on social media but is now on hiatus.

Beem joins Ray Paulick and bloodstock editor Joe Nevills on this week's Friday Show to talk about his career and some of the unusual things he's witnessed from the announcer's booth, including last week's appearance on the Tampa Bay turf course of an alligator.

Watch this week's episode of the Friday Show below:

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The Friday Show Presented By Walmac Farm’s Core Beliefs: Racing’s Unbreakable Records

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen's unprecedented 10,000th career win, registered at Oaklawn on Feb. 20, came just a couple of weeks after LeBron James surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the National Basketball Association's all-time leading scorer. The latter record, 38,387 points, set by Abdul-Jabbar at the end of a 20-year career in 1989, was a mark that many sports fans thought could stand forever.

That's also true of Asmussen, who surpassed Dale Baird as North American Thoroughbred racing's all-time leading trainer by wins with his 9,446th victory at Saratoga on Aug. 7, 2021. With each win, Asmussen is putting more and more distance between himself and his closest pursuers in that category (Jerry Hollendorfer, also a member of the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame, is second among active trainers with 7,759 wins).

At 57 years old, Asmussen would appear to have many years ahead of him to further pad his lead.

In this week's Friday Show, Ray Paulick is joined by bloodstock editor Joe Nevills to discuss Asmussen's seemingly unbeatable record and those of some other well-known and not so known horses and people who figure to be in the record books forever.

Not all records are meant to be broken.

Watch this week's episode of the Friday Show below:

The post The Friday Show Presented By Walmac Farm’s Core Beliefs: Racing’s Unbreakable Records appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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