Sports betting has shown steady growth across the United States in the three years since the Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on the activity, with more than $53 billion legally wagered on sports since June 2018.
More and more states are authorizing sports betting, with Canada close to approval as well. New Jersey lawmakers have recently passed legislation that would permit fixed odds wagering on horse racing, allowing bookmakers there to set betting prices on horses as they do on baseball, football and other sports.
Are there opportunities for horse racing to grow, even though the amount already being wagered on sports far exceeds horse racing's annual betting handle? While fixed odds wagering opens up new types of bets and guaranteed payoffs, could it have unintended consequences on racing's traditional pari-mutuel pools or on the computer-assisted “whales” who get rebates in return for their betting volume?
To discuss these and other issues, Pat Cummings, executive director of the Thoroughbred Idea Foundation (www.racingthinktank.com), joins Ray Paulick and Joe Nevills in this week's edition of the Friday Show. Ray and Joe also review Woodbine's Star of the Week, LNJ Foxwoods' Boardwalk, a Constitution filly who won her first graded stakes last week in the Whimsical Stakes.
Watch this week's show, presented by Monmouth Park, below:
Publisher Ray Paulick has interviewed all sorts on The Friday Show, but this time around, the spotlight is on him.
On this week's episode, bloodstock editor Joe Nevills asks Ray about his beginnings, both in horse racing and covering the sport, which horses inspired him along the way, and what about the sport compelled him to make it a career.
Ray and Joe also discuss how the Thoroughbred industry, and reporting on it, has changed in the three-plus decades since Ray moved to Kentucky.
We then unveil a new and improved Star of the Week segment, in which the hosts look at a notable winner from the previous week at Woodbine.
Watch this week's show, presented by Monmouth Park, below:
Unsolved during an action-packed Sunday featuring five stakes worth $475,000 in purses, the Maryland state record carryover jackpot in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 stands at $1,093,866.44 when live racing returns to historic Pimlico Race Course Friday.
Post time for the first of eight races is 12:40 p.m.
A total of $270,155.04 was put into the popular multi-race wager on top of a $1.07 million carryover Sunday, when multiple tickets with all six winners each returned $671.74. Included in the sequence were wins by Valued Notion in the $75,000 Ben's Cat, Pixelate in the $100,000 Prince George's County, undefeated Chub Wagon in the $100,000 Shine Again and Street Lute in the $100,000 Stormy Blues.
Grade 3 winner Blame Debbie, racing for the first time in 200 days, opened Sunday's stakes action with a victory in the $100,000 Searching.
The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day's pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 40 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
Introduced in Maryland April 2, 2015 on opening day of Pimlico's spring meet, the Rainbow 6 had its previous state record carryover reach $345,898.33 spanning 31 racing programs before being solved by one lucky bettor for a life-changing $399,545.94 payout April 15, 2018 at Laurel Park. The winning ticket was purchased through Maine off-track betting.
Friday's Rainbow 6 begins in Race 3 (1:37 p.m.), a starter-optional claimer for 3-year-olds and up scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the grass which attracted an overflow field of 15 including 2019 Maryland Million Turf winner Mr. d'Angelo and King Causeway, Maryland Jockey Club host and analyst Naomi Tukker's “must-use” horse in the sequence.
King Causeway will be making his just second start since last November for trainer Justin Nixon, having rallied to be third in his comeback in a similar spot May 23 at Pimlico. It was only the second time racing away from Woodbine for a 5-year-old gelding that has been third or better in 10 of 17 career starts.
“This horse is an out-and-out closer and they didn't go fast up front, meaning anyone would struggle to make up ground, and still he ended up making six lengths,” Tukker said. “I feel like if the flow sets up in his favor, he could be much impressive in the latter stages of the race and quite the danger at 6-1.”
No Guts No Glory Farm's Blue Sky Painter, owned and trained by Jerry Robb, is favored at 7-5 in Race 4 (2:09 p.m.), a 1 1/16-mile claimer for 3-year-olds and up which have never won three races, or 3-year-olds. The 4-year-old Paynter gelding won first off the claim Feb. 4 at Laurel Park and has been narrowly beaten in three of four subsequent starts, including one each by a nose and a neck.
Tukker's price play comes in Race 5 (2:40 p.m.), a waiver maiden claimer for fillies and mares age 3, 4 and 5, also scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf where Kinda Lucky, racing first time for trainer Brittany Russell after four starts last year for Eclipse Award winner Brad Cox, is the 2-1 program favorite.
Richard Golden's 3-year-old Maryland homebred filly Fire in the Hole is one of two horses among 16 entered trained by Graham Motion, listed at 6-1 on the morning line. She debuted running third behind Replicant and next-out winner Sebastian, beaten 1 ¼ lengths, May 8 in an off-the-turf maiden claimer.
“What I very much liked about her is, she's not prominent early but she has this really big, large, reaching stride which makes me think she can easily skip over the turf,” Tukker said. “Plus, she seems to stay for days.”
Claimers 3 and up which have never won three races will sprint six furlongs in Race 6 (3:12 p.m.). Robb and stable rider Xavier Perez once again have the program favorite in Maryland-bred Zip the Lip, off the board in three races since breaking his maiden beating older horses in a six-furlong claimer April 22 at Pimlico.
Back to the grass for a scheduled 1 1/16-mile claiming event for 3-year-olds and up in Race 7 (3:45 p.m.), trainer Hugh McMahon entered the pair of Laddie Liam, making his turf debut in just his fourth start since winning the 2019 Maryland Juvenile Futurity, and Rohrbacher, a five-time winner unraced since February 2020. Breaking side by side from Posts 4 and 5, they are respectively listed at 4-1 and 7-2 odds.
Completing the sequence in Race 8 (4:17 p.m.) is a 5 ½-furlong claiming sprint for maidens age 3, 4 and 5. The 4-5 program favorite from Post 6 in a field of nine is Lugamo Racing Stable's Golden G, making his second start for leading trainer Claudio Gonzalez after running second as the favorite going six furlongs May 30 at Pimlico over a sloppy track. Gonzalez and jockey Angel Cruz have connected at 29 percent from nearly 200 starters over the past two years.
Notes: Three horses scratched when the Ben's Cat was moved from the grass to the main track return in Saturday's Race 7, a five-furlong allowance for Maryland-bred/sired horses scheduled for the turf – Joseph, Matta and Railmaster. Also among the overflow field of nine are Grateful Bred, racing first time since finishing fourth behind Fiya in the Maryland Million Turf Sprint last October, and Little Bold Bandit, the 3-year-old younger full brother to 11-time stakes winner Anna's Bandit who graduated in a 4 ½-furlong maiden special weight May 15 at Charles Town …
The next scheduled stakes during Pimlico's Preakness Meet, extended through Aug. 22 with ongoing renovations on Laurel Park's main track, come Sunday, July 4 with the $100,000 Concern for 3-year-olds sprinting seven furlongs, $100,000 Lite the Fuse at seven furlongs for 3-year-olds and up and $100,000 Caesar's Wish going one mile for females 3 and older – both part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series – and $75,000 Jameela for Maryland-bred/sired fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting five furlongs on the grass. Nominations close Friday, June 25.
At a hearing in Kentucky's Franklin Circuit Court on June 11, Judge Thomas Wingate determined that the legal team for Medina Spirit's connections will be permitted to do extra testing on a urine sample taken from the colt after the Kentucky Derby; the only question will be how much urine an independent lab will have access to.
Counsel for Medina Spirit trainer Bob Baffert and owner Zedan Stables filed a civil suit against the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission earlier in the week demanding their right to test the split urine sample, which sat undisturbed in the commission's freezer.
An initial post-race test from Medina Spirit was positive for betamethasone, and that was later confirmed on a split sample test. Attorneys for Baffert and Zedan now want to do further testing on biological samples from the horse in hopes of proving that the betamethasone present came from a topical cream and not an injection, which they say would be permissible under KHRC rules.
Jennifer Wolsing, general counsel for the KHRC, declined to speculate on whether a topical administration of betamethasone would require an exoneration in the case or whether it could be considered a “mitigating circumstance” with regards to penalty. She did point to the commission's drug classification guidelines, which make reference to betamethasone without specifying what form of betamethasone The only question at hand for this proceeding, she asserted, was what was to be done about further testing of the remaining biological samples.
Documents filed by the KHRC on Thursday revealed that in fact, the commission did not refuse requests from Baffert and Zedan to send blood and urine samples for additional testing after the split sample came back positive.
“This is a case about a litigant who will not take 'Yes' for an answer,” began the KHRC's response to the lawsuit.
After the split was positive, the KHRC agreed to release the remains of the primary blood and urine samples to an RMTC-accredited lab chosen by Baffert and Zedan, which was eventually identified during Friday's hearing as New York's Equine Drug Testing Program housed at Morrisville State College. There are four total samples at play here — two primary blood and urine samples, and two split blood and urine samples. Some of the primary blood and urine samples were tested after the race by Industrial Laboratories, which prompted the betamethasone finding in blood. The split blood sample was then sent to University of California-Davis for the split sample analysis. That means the split urine sample has remained in a freezer maintained by the KHRC. It also means each of the two labs may have some biological sample left over after they did their testing.
Industrial packaged portions it had left over of Medina Spirit's primary blood and urine samples and sent them off to New York. It turned out the vial containing the blood shattered, either en route or upon receipt at the New York facility. Since the vial was in the same bag as the urine container, Baffert and Zedan's attorneys voiced concerns that the leaked blood may have contaminated the urine container.
Then, KHRC said, it agreed to send commission equine medical director Dr. Bruce Howard to its freezer and film him opening the unused split urine sample, dividing it, and then have him personally transport a portion of it to the New York lab. When the Baffert/Zedan attorneys objected to the use of Howard, KHRC suggested it could find a substitute staff member and allow one or more team members from Baffert/Zedan counsel to also be present for the thawing and division of the sample. That option was also rejected.
As Wingate eventually determined, the parties agreed Baffert and Zedan should be able to test remaining blood and urine to see whether those samples could prove the origin of the betamethasone. They agreed that both the horse's connections and the commission should have representatives overseeing the move of the samples. Their only real sticking point was how much urine the New York lab should get for testing.
Wolsing argued that the KHRC needed to retain some of the sample, in case future testing should ever be needed.
“This is a situation where really anything could happen,” she said, pointing to the shipping issues with the blood sample as proof that it's a good idea to have some sample retained somewhere just in case.
Craig Robertson, attorney for Baffert, said he didn't want to restrict the New York lab to use a set amount of urine, since he didn't want them to be in any way limited in the quality of their testing.
The size of the split urine sample is estimated to be between 25 and 27 milliliters. Wingate said he would enter an order in the middle of next week requiring at least 3 milliliters to be kept by the KHRC, with the hope the two parties could agree to something privately before then.
Wingate did press Wolsing somewhat on the question of whether all of this will end up mattering — meaning, will the outcome of these tests impact whether or not Medina Spirit is disqualified. Wingate said that while he had not reviewed KHRC code, his initial feeling was that it wouldn't make much difference if the form of betamethasone Medina Spirit received did or didn't impact performance. Wingate also presided over the lengthy civil suit of Graham Motion, who fought a drug positive for methocarbamol. Wingate had overruled the KHRC in that case and was later reversed on appeal. He felt the methocarbamol did not influence the outcome of the race in question, but that the appeals court made it clear the rules did not allow for a determination about a substance's influence on race results.
“It's going to be very hard for this court to overturn [a potential ruling against Medina Spirit connections] based upon the Graham Motion case,” said Wingate, who clarified he was not pre-judging the Baffert case. “That's the way I look at it. I'm not prejudging it, but I've already dealt with the Graham Motion, which I thought was very unfair to Mr. Motion, I really did.”
Baffert did appear at the proceedings, which were held via video conference, but did not speak.
