Under Microscope of Heightened Vigilance, Racing at Laurel a ‘Go’

Amid glowing opinions from stakeholders that the work-in-progress new dirt surface at Laurel Park has improved dramatically after eight equine fatalities from main-track fractures there this autumn, racing has been greenlighted to proceed as scheduled Dec. 16 for the first time in 18 days.

The Maryland Racing Commission (MRC) determined during a Tuesday tele-meeting that it didn't technically need to take a vote for racing to resume, but the board made sure to solicit ample feedback from jockeys, trainers, track executives, track surface consultants and veterinarians before issuing a verbal approval for Thursday's already-drawn card.

The meeting's most insightful commentary was provided by commissioner R. Thomas Bowman, a veterinarian who chairs the MRC's Equine Health, Safety and Welfare Advisory Committee. He spoke bluntly and candidly while outlining a plan for how future horse deaths might be prevented.

“Transparency and trust and cooperation have not always been part of the culture on the racetrack,” Bowman said, noting how the financial interests of horse people and track managements have too often trumped health considerations.

“The safety of the horses and the riders has quite often been put in the background,” Bowman said. “That's not an accusation, and it's not an indication of what exists now. That's just a fact of a way that we have evolved over a long, long time…

“There doesn't seem to be any indication, in my mind, that there is any party or parties that are not willing to step up and try to straighten this situation out,” Bowman said. “And it's a daunting task.

“One of the things that bothered me the most, and still bothers me, is the fact that this last collection of tragedies should have been forewarned when the horsemen started screaming that the racetrack was too fast,” Bowman said. “I'm not pointing a finger at anybody. I'm saying that the process with which this information filters upstream to the commission…was not effective, was not working. And it irritates me to death that we have to go through this.”

Bowman said that since the Nov. 29 shutdown of the track, he has worked with backstretch stakeholders and executives from The Stronach Group (which owns the Maryland Jockey Club [MJC], which in turn owns Laurel) to come up with system that will allow everyone involved to have safety-related input that will be monitored on a regular basis.

“If the trainers had felt that they could go to someone and their complaints were not just dismissed, possibly we could have circumvented a lot of this,” Bowman said.

Bowman said the idea of having a weekly required meeting to accomplish that goal was first proposed, but that he wasn't in favor of having stakeholders air concerns that way because public meetings aren't always conducive to people speaking candidly.

Instead, he said he's working on a plan in which Heidi Thomas, the MJC's senior veterinarian, will actively make the rounds on the backstretch to routinely speak with horse people, other veterinarians, riders, and track executives before fashioning what they say into concise feedback that will be directly related to the MRC and its own team of veterinarians.

“That will give some sort of public voice to people that are concerned,” Bowman said. “That will help out. But even more important is trying to get a process where we don't have to wait until we see the broken legs before we start recognizing problems, and that's some sort of an early warning system…

“I don't think this is the end of this process. I think it's the beginning of the process. But at least it will give horsemen a chance to express themselves and know it's going to go somewhere,” Bowman said.

MRC chairman Michael Algeo agreed: “This is a new beginning, as Tom said. Maybe a watershed moment. We're going to stay on this on a regular basis, because we can't allow [equine injuries or deaths] to continue to happen.”

The cluster of fatalities is the latest safety blow at Laurel. After years of freeze/thaw and drainage troubles, the main track was in such bad shape last spring that Laurel ceased racing Apr. 11 to begin an emergency overhaul, which involved a multi-million-dollar rebuild from the base up.

When racing resumed at Laurel Sept. 9, the main track had no apparent safety issues. But the onset of cold weather revealed problems with seams in the base of the homestretch, then the cushion atop that layer needed substantial reworking to give it more body and depth.

“There's been a huge, huge learning curve with this material and this track from when it was put in in July to right now,” said Chris Bosley, the MJC's track superintendent. “We know that we still have a long way to go. But we're working with every industry expert we possibly can [and] we're not going to stop until this thing is perfect. And once it is perfect, we're going to do everything that we can to keep it the same, to keep it perfect.”

Two among that team of consultants have firsthand knowledge of Laurel: John Passero, who used to be the MJC's track superintendent several decades ago, and Glen Kozak, who served in that same capacity in the mid-2000s before being hired by the New York Racing Association and eventually promoted to the senior vice president of operations and capital projects.

“This is a changed racetrack,” Passero said. “They're adding a more medium-coarse sand to give it some body. We're going back to a system that I used to use–plenty of depth. It seems to be very kind to horses. I look at it, and I look at the hoofprints, and I rode the tractors. I think we're definitely heading in the right direction [and] I think it can only get better.”

Added Kozak, “It's certainly trending in the right direction…. The products that are being used on the track are on-site, so this is something that can continue in getting this thing prepared for winter racing. It certainly is a different track than it was a week ago when I saw it, and it all seems like it's heading in the right direction.”

Tim Keefe, the president of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, said, “I think we're definitely in a much better place than we were.”

Jockey Xavier Perez said, “The difference on the surface of the track is 20 times better than what it was.”

Fellow rider Victor Carrasco concurred.

“I feel like the track is in great shape,” he said.

But Carrasco added that moving forward, it's the responsibility of jockeys and exercise riders to let trainers know if a horse has soundness issues or doesn't feel right instead of saying nothing and letting another person get on a potentially dangerous mount.

“It's not only the track,” Carrasco underscored.

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Stakes Winner Anna’s Bandit Retired

No Guts No Glory Farm's 7-year-old mare Anna's Bandit, whose resume includes 11 stakes wins at three different tracks in two states as well as purse earnings of $806,655 over six seasons, has been retired from racing and will become a broodmare.

Bred and owned and trained by Maryland-based John 'Jerry' Robb and his wife, Gina, and ridden in 33 of her 39 lifetime starts by Xavier Perez, Anna's Bandit retires with a career record of 17 wins, five seconds, and eight thirds.

The Maryland Jockey Club will honor Anna's Bandit with a retirement ceremony between races during the 37th Jim McKay Maryland Million Day program Oct. 23 at Laurel Park.

“We're very excited. It's always hard, especially with a horse like Anna that's done so much, that you have to make this decision,” Gina Robb said. We couldn't be prouder of her. Now she's coming home and I'm so grateful, I really am.

“She means the world to us. She's like one of our children, basically. I think anybody who breeds horses can kind of relate to that, especially when it's a mom and pop kind of thing like we are,” she added. “We're a little operation. They're all there with us on the farm, and bringing her home to the farm that we built means so much to us. I'm really happy for her that she had such an incredible career, and now she's able to start over in a new chapter.”

In her most recent race, the daughter of Great Notion out of the No Armistice mare Onearmedbandit ran fifth in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance July 26 at Colonial Downs in New Kent, Va., behind fellow multiple stakes winner Never Enough Time.

“We were pretty much decided that this was going to be her last year regardless, it didn't matter if she was good, bad, or indifferent,” Gina Robb said. “She came out of that Colonial race a little tired, and we were kind of shaking our heads because we thought it was one of her easier spots.

“When she came back from Colonial, we just kind of didn't like the way she was going,” she added. “She doesn't have anything major where we had to stop her, but I think in all of our minds and our hearts and how much she means to us, we really didn't want to take any more chances.”

Perez, who reached 1,000th career wins in June at Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del., rode Anna's Bandit to 14 wins, four seconds, and seven thirds, and all but $114,540 of her purse earnings. Other jockeys to ride Anna's Bandit were Eric Camacho and Katie Davis in 2016 and 2017 and Gerald Almodovar in the May 29, 2020 Original Gold at Charles Town in Charles Town, W.Va., her last win.

“She deserves it,” Perez said of retirement. “She doesn't owe anything to anybody. She did her job and she made us proud. She's safe and where she belongs. I'm happy for her.”

In 2019, Anna's Bandit won nine of 11 starts and more than $400,000 in purses, tying for the most wins of any horse in North America. Her career stakes wins included the 2018 and 2019 Conniver, 2019 Maryland Million Distaff and 2019 Politely at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md., and 2019 Timonium Distaff.

In West Virginia, where she was bred, Anna's Bandit won the Down Town Allen and Sadie Hawkins in 2018; Original Gold, Sadie Hawkins, and West Virgina Cavada Breeders' Classic in 2019; and Original Gold in 2020.

Her Maryland Million win came just a week after Anna's Bandit won the Cavada, a feat Gina Robb felt was at the top of a laundry list of accomplishments.

“That one year that when she won all those stakes, it was kind of like a blur,” she said. “After she won the West Virginia-bred race and came back in seven days … I have the goosebumps thinking of it. That had to be the most incredible of all the races.”

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Anna's Bandit also placed in 10 other stakes, including a third behind Majestic Reason and Victim of Love in the 2020 Grade 3 Runhappy Barbara Fritchie, her lone graded-stakes attempt. Majestic Reason was a three-time stakes winner that was retired following the race, while Victim of Love went on to win back-to-back editions of the Grade 3 Vagrancy in 2020 and 2021 and run third in the 2020 Grade 1 Ballerina.

“She's amazing. She's always going to be one of the best horses I ever rode, or anybody rode,” Perez said. “They don't come around too often. You have to be lucky and be in the right place at the right time. It worked out for me.”

Anna's Bandit's success has been nothing short of remarkable. She showed she was special early on, debuting with a 6 ¾-length maiden special weight triumph May 6, 2016 at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md., and jumping straight into stakes company. She finished third in the Astoria at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., and second in the Debutante at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., the latter in July, before going to the sidelines.

She went 14 ½ months between races, the result of multiple operations to repair leg injuries that went undiagnosed during her formative years.

Anna's Bandit was limited to four starts in 2020, due to both the coronavirus pandemic that paused live racing in Maryland for 2 ½ months from mid-March to late May, and a minor foot issue in late summer that prompted Robb to give her the rest of the year off. She began this year running fifth in the June 13 Shine Again at historic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., and second in the July 10 Dashing Beauty at Delaware Park.

Plans call for Anna's Bandit to be bred in 2022, though the details have yet to be worked out.

“We are just trying to get over the fact that she's retired. We do have time to discuss where we're going on February 15th, because we plan on trying to get her in foal early,” Gina Robb said. “We would like to ship her and bring her home and not have her stay anywhere else. I don't know that I'm ready to let her go. I'm just getting her back.

“I think the first year we might keep her local, to a Maryland sire or on the East Coast, somewhere close so we can ship and go and keep her home where I don't have to worry about anything else. I'm very excited to be a part of her broodmare career, and to have her first foal on this farm is going to be one remarkable day.”

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Valued Notion Wins Stakes Debut In Ben’s Cat

Valued Notion made his stakes debut a memorable one for owner Hillwood Stable LLC and trainer Rodney Jenkins when he led gate-to-wire under jockey Xavier Perez to win the $75,000 Ben's Cat by two lengths over Air Token. Oldies But Goodies checked in third while favored Hemp, who broke slowly, finished fourth.

Valued Notion, a lightly raced 4-year-old gelded son of Great Notion, covered the 5 furlongs in :58.19 over the main track after the races were taken off the turf.

Breaking from post 10, Valued Notion broke out of the gate quickly and was chased from the outside by longshot Xmasinthecity past an opening quarter in :22.22 and a half in :45.47. But entering the stretch, Perez put away Xmasinthecity and held off the remainder of his opponents.

“He was in contention right away. I was just trying to let the 12 [Xmasinthecity] go ahead of me,” Perez said. “I watched a couple of his races and he kind of slowed down at the end. As soon as I put my horse against the bit, he took me to the front and I just cruised. He was doing it so comfortable and I just let him do it himself until we got to the top of the lane.”

Valued Notion, who broke his maiden at third asking in February, followed up that victory with an allowance victory before finishing a tired fourth in his last start April 9.

Bred, owned and trained by Hall of Fame horseman King Leatherbury, Ben's Cat won 32 of 63 career races, 26 stakes, and more than $2.6 million in purses from 2010 to 2017. A four-time Maryland-bred Horse of the Year, Ben's Cat died July 18, 2017 from complications following colic surgery.

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Street Lute Wings To Victory In Stormy Blues

The silks jockey Xavier Perez wore said it all – Lucky 7.

Despite an awkward start while breaking from the outside post, Street Lute won her seventh stakes race when she gamely drove around the field to win Sunday's $100,000 Stormy Blues at historic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md.

Trained by Jerry Robb and ridden by Xavier Perez, Street Lute covered five furlongs on the main track in :58 for her seventh stakes win and eighth career win in 11 starts.

The 13th running of the Stormy Blues Stakes for 3-year-old fillies capped a 10-race program featuring five stakes worth $475,000 in purses. Both the Stormy Blues and $75,000 Ben's Cat Stakes for Maryland-bred/sired 3-year-olds and up were moved from the grass to the main track and kept at five furlongs. Horses scratched from the Stormy Blues included two from the barn of Wesley Ward, Wink and Amanzi Yimpilo.

After Street Lute broke awkwardly at the start, Proper Attire, beaten on the turf in the Hilltop Stakes last out, went to the front with Malibu Beauty in pursuit. But as those two entered the turn, Perez began moving Street Lute. Past Beautiful Grace, past Prodigy Doll, Street Lute drove down the center of the stretch gamely passing Malibu Beauty and then Proper Attire for victory number seven.

“To be honest I thought it was kind of over,” said Lucky 7 owner Joey Lloyd. “But when I saw her coming down the final homestretch I knew she has the heart, bigger than this world. My heart was in my throat, but as soon as I saw her coming down the stretch right outside [Proper Attire], I knew she was going to catch her.”

Stormy Blues was one of the top 2-year-old fillies of 1994 whose four wins in six starts that year included the Grade 1 Matron Stakes, Grade 3 Sorority Stakes, and Grade 3 Selima Stakes, the latter at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md. Trained by late Hall of Famer Scotty Schulhofer, she finished third in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.

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