Tyler’s Tribe Fires Oaklawn Bullet

Iowa-bred sensation Tyler's Tribe (Sharp Azteca) worked five furlongs in 1:00 flat Saturday morning at Oaklawn Park, his third breeze since receiving a month off following a second bleeding incident when third in the Dec. 9 Advent S. in Hot Springs. He also bled and was vanned off after being eased home in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint in November. He previously went three furlongs in :36.40 (3/8) Feb. 18 and a half-mile in :48.60 (13/66) Mar. 4.

“Doing good,” said trainer and co-owner Tim Martin. “I'm just kind of working him and seeing where we're at. Working him and scoping him and he's looking good so far.”

The conditioner indicated that he would like to start Tyler's Tribe before the end of the Oaklawn meet May 6, but said he had no specific race in mind for the gelding's sophomore debut.

“I want to make sure he's right,” Martin said. “He's come back doing good and scoped clean every time. We're good, knock on wood.”

Tyler's Tribe won his first five trips to the post–four in stakes company–by nearly 60 lengths combined over sprint trips, and instead of stretching out for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, elected to stick to the Juvenile Turf Sprint. The 4-5 chalk in the Advent S., he set a reasonable early pace, but weakened late and scoped dirty yet again.

To date, Tyler's Tribe has amassed a record of 5-0-1 from seven starts overall and earnings of $320,169.

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Practical Move Back To Work

Practical Move (Practical Joke), upset winner of the GII Los Alamitos Futurity Dec. 17, returned to the worktab for the first time since at Santa Anita Saturday morning, drilling a half-mile in a strong :47.80 (7/60). Trainer Tim Yakteen told the Santa Anita press office that the bay colt–bred by Chad Brown and Head of Plains Partners–'moved well' in the work.

“Well give him a few more works and see where we're at, but we're looking at sometime in late February or early March,” said Yakteen. “We have a few options.” The conditioner indicated that there is a possibility Practical Move could ship out of town for his sophomore debut.

Should he remain local, the $90,000 Keeneland September buyback turned $230,000 OBS April breezer could take in the traditional GI Kentucky Derby preps in the GII San Felipe S. Mar. 4 en route to the GI Santa Anita Derby a month farther down the road.

Yakteen, who was the trainer of record for 'TDN Rising Star' Taiba (Gun Runner) and Messier (Empire Maker) in last year's Run for the Roses, is looking forward to potential return trip to Louisville.

“Anytime you have a nice 3-year-old in the barn it's always exciting,” he said.

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XBTV Nears 2K Works From Saratoga, Del Mar

Edited Press Release

With closing weekends on the horizon for this summer's Saratoga and Del Mar meets, XBTV.com has already successfully captured, cataloged and uploaded nearly 2,000 morning video workouts for racing's marquee meets. The XBTV workouts are available without cost to those with a 1/ST account.

“An analysis of a published workout based only on final time can lead to a faulty conclusion,” said Jeff Siegel, Xpressbet.com handicapper and one of the country's most respected analysts.  “How the breeze was accomplished, and which work mate it was accomplished with, can be just as important, if not more so, especially at Saratoga and Del Mar, where so many young horses make their debuts. Rather than relying on independent analysis, the XBTV.com video workouts allow horseplayers and horsemen to use their own insight and formulate their own opinions to solve the puzzle.”

With Del Mar's GI TVG Pacific Classic and Saratoga's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup set for Saturday, Sept. 3, most runners in the large fields expected in the full cards that day should have workouts on XBTV. As happens at Santa Anita Park and Gulfstream Park during the Winter and Spring, XBTV camera teams have been trackside each morning working with the Official Clockers at each track to record as many of the workouts as possible. The full XBTV library allows handicappers to the opportunity to look at how a horse's work pattern might have changed–positively or negatively–throughout its career.

Several syndicates / fractional ownership groups, including West Point Thoroughbreds, MyRacehorse, Little Red Feather and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, have separate portals on the XBTV.com site to follow their horses. The workouts are also featured on NBC Sports' Breeders' Cup Challenge Series coverage and on Fox Sports' Saratoga Live.

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Op/Ed: NY Gaming Commission Gets It Wrong..Again

When the news was reported earlier in the week that a NYRA clocker had been charged with altering a published workout, it may have seemed at first that a significant penalty was in order. Workouts are an important part of a horse's history and gamblers must be able to have trust in their accuracy. The New York Gaming Commission is alleging that clocker Richie Gazer played around with the workout of a horse named Papi On Ice (Keen Ice) and suspended him for 30 days and fined him $2,500.  He was charged with “altering a published work of a horse to make the horse eligible to race.”

But, in this case, dig just a little bit deeper and apply just a modicum of common sense to the situation and you'll likely conclude that Gazer did nothing wrong. Unfortunately, when it comes to the Gaming Commission common sense seems to be in short supply.

Thanks to the reporting by Dave Grening in the Daily Racing Form, we know what happened. On May 1, Papi On Ice was credited with a five-furlong work in 1:04.60 over the Belmont Park training track for trainer Randi Persaud. The work was important because the horse needed to have a satisfactory workout in order to get off of NYRA's poor performance list. The poor performance list was created in 2015 and was part of an effort to increase safety at the New York tracks.

If a horse is beaten by 25 lengths or more, the stewards have the option of placing the horse on the list. On April 16, Papi On Ice was beaten 26 3/4 lengths in a maiden special weight race at Aqueduct, finishing fifth in the field of five. To get off the poor performance list, a horse must come back with a subsequent four-furlong workout in :53 seconds or better. For whatever reason, workouts longer than four furlongs do not count.

Because, by the letter of the law, Papi On Ice had not done what was needed to come off of the poor performance list, the NYRA racing office would not accept the entry when Persaud tried to get the colt into a race. The racing office had no choice because it had to adhere to the rule, even if the rule makes no sense. If a four-furlong workout is sufficient to make the horse eligible, why would a five-furlong workout not be? The longer the work, the better the gauge of a horse's fitness and their ability to be competitive in a race.

Gazer did indeed change the workout, but not the time. He changed the distance. Gazer checked with the clockers assigned to the training track and was told that during Papi On Ice's May 1 work, the horse went the first four furlongs in :51.33, fast enough to get off the list. So, knowing that only a four-furlong workout would get the horse eligible to run again, he changed the work from five furlongs to four.

Maybe Gazer should have left the workout alone. Since the May 1 work, Papi On Ice has had two four-furlong works, one coming May 11 and the next May 25. Both were faster than the :53-second criteria, meaning the horse would have found himself off of the list in short order if the May 1 distance had not been changed. Everyone involved could have just waited it out.

But he chose to change the distance and is now facing a penalty that in no way fights the “crime.” A veteran of some 40 years clocking horses on the NYRA circuit, Gazer, in no way, was trying to deceive gamblers, the racing office or anyone else. Probably, he thought that what he did was no big deal..and it wasn't. And if the rule was not so poorly conceived this never would have been an issue. At the very worst, Gazer deserved a phone call from someone at the Gaming Commission telling him not to do this again. Nothing more.

This isn't the first time we've seen head-scratching rulings or decisions from the New York Gaming Commission. This is the same commission that ruled that aspiring jockey agent and recent college graduate Philip Miller couldn't be an agent because he had no hands-on experience on the backstretch. That doesn't make any sense. You don't need to have been a trainer, a jockey or a groom to be an agent and if the same rule had been applied over the years probably half the agents working the New York tracks now would not meet the criteria to be a jockey agent. Apply a dose of common sense and that rule goes away.

Then there was the case of jockey Trevor McCarthy and his wife, Katie Davis. Thanks to a nonsensical Gaming Commission rule, when both appeared in a race the horses they were on had to be coupled in the wagering. The rule was in place to prevent married jockeys from conspiring to alter the outcomes of races, which is preposterous. The rule, widely criticized as being outdated and sexist, led to fewer betting interests in some races, costing NYRA handle. Apply a dose of common sense and that rule never would have existed in the first place.

(The New York Gaming Commission has taken steps to change the married jockey rule, but the rule remains as it has yet to clear a number of bureaucratic hurdles. A rescission of the rule is expected shortly).

There's nothing wrong with a gaming or racing commission being vigilant and going after-rule breakers. If anything, that's the type of thing the sport could use more of. But pick the right battles. Don't go after married jockeys or a clocker who merely changed a five-furlong workout to a four-furlong workout. Not everything is so black and white. Gazer has appealed his suspension, and, hopefully, once his case is heard he will be exonerated. There was no real harm here. There should be no foul.

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