the florida horse may 2009
DESCRIPTION
Florida Horse May 2009TRANSCRIPT
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FLORIDA FOCUS 8
DOWN MEMORY LANE 16By Jo Ann Guidry
FTBOA NEWS DIGEST 18
CALDER, FHBPA SIGN CONTRACT 26By Carlos E. Medina
A WINNING HAND 28Involved in the Florida Thoroughbred industry for 12years and counting,Fred and Jane Brei continue to
enjoy success in the name of their Jacks or Better Farm.By Jo Ann Guidry
ALL-STAR STABLE 36Orlando Magic’s All-Star forward Rashard Lewis isfinding success as horse owner. By Nick Fortuna
SUNSHINE STATE SIX PACK 40Florida Cup Day at Tampa Bay Downs featured sixstakes races worth $85,000 each. By Nick Fortuna
46 EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORYThermography can be used to detect abnormalitiesweeks before they cause lameness.By Denise Steffanus
50 WHAT’S BUGGING YOUR HORSE?Understanding pest behavior can help you betterprotect your horses.By Saundra Ten Broeck, Ph. D.
51 FLORIDA’S LEADING SIRES
52 A.P. INDY COLT TOPS OBSAPRIL SALEBy Nick Fortuna
58 FLORIDA-BRED GORGEOUS GOOSELOOKS THE PART
62 PLAYER’S PAGEBy Paul Moran
CONTENTS MAY 2009 • VVOOLL 5522 // IISSSSUUEE 55
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NOMINATED TOFlorida Stallion Stakes
899 S.W. 85th Ave., Ocala, FL 34481 � (352) 237-3834 � Fax: (352)237-6069
Also standing: AMERICAN SPIRIT �� PROUD AND TRUE �� WEKIVA SPRINGS
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Kingmambo—Commodities, by Private Account • $5,000 live foal
ElCrespo,Rey deCafe'shalf-brother,won the recentPalmBeach Stakes (G3)atGulfstreamPark!
The only graded stakes-winning sonof Kingmambo($250,000 stud fee) in Florida!Kingmambo is the sire of 73 stakes winnersand 8 champions.Rey de Café was a winner sprinting androuting on dirt and turf.
His offspring should also excel onsynthetic surfaces.
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FTBOA OFFICERS ANDBOARD OF DIRECTORS
Gilbert G. Campbell, PresidentEddie Martin, First Vice President J. Michael O’Farrell, Jr., SecondVice PresidentMark Roberts, Secretary Diane Parks, Treasurer
DIRECTORS
EXECUTIVEVICE PRESIDENTRichard E. Hancock
801 SW 60thAvenue • Ocala, Florida 34474(352) 732-8858 • Fax: (352) 867-1979 • www.thefloridahorse.com
American Horse Publications • FLORIDA MAGAZINE ASSOCIATION • MEMBER BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU
© THE FLORIDA HORSE (ISSN 0090-967X) is publishedmonthly except July by THE FLORIDA HORSE, INC., 801SW 60th Ave., Ocala, Florida 34474, including the annual Sta-tistical Review in February.
Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors anddo not necessarily reflect those of Florida Equine Publicationsor the Florida Thoroughbred Breedersʼ and Ownersʼ Associa-tion. Publication of any material originating herein is expresslyforbidden without first obtaining written permission from THEFLORIDA HORSE©.
Statistics in the publication relating to results of racing inNorth America are compiled from data generated by Daily Rac-ing Form, Equibase, Bloodstock Research Information Serv-ices, and The Jockey Club Information Systems Inc., thecopyright owners of said data. Reproduction is prohibited.
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Michael Compton
BUSINESS MANAGER
Patrick Vinzant
ADVERTISING MANAGER
Summer Best
ART DIRECTOR
John Filer
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
JoAnn Guidry
WRITERS
Carlos Medina • Nick Fortuna
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Beverly Kalberkamp
CORRESPONDENTS
Ben Baugh, Jay Friedman, Doug McCoy, Cynthia McFarland, Mark Shuffitt
PUBLISHERFlorida Equine Publications, Inc.
(A corporation owned by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association)
Executive Office - 801 SW 60th Avenue • Ocala, Florida 34474
BOARD OF DIRECTORSGilbert Campbell, President/Board Chairman
Eddie Martin, 1st Vice PresidentJ. Michael O’Farrell, Jr., 2nd Vice President
Mark Roberts, SecretaryDiane Parks, Treasurer
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Richard E. Hancock
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Michael Gilliam
Printed by Boyd Brothers, Inc. BOYD
THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 5
Fred Brei Sheila DiMareDonald Dizney Bonnie M. Heath III
Barry W. Eisaman George G. IsaacsMichael Mulligan Jessica Steinbrenner
Peter Vegso Charlotte C. Weber
Masthead.qx:Layout 1 5/5/09 10:30 AM Page 1
6 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
editor’s welcome
Michael Compton
Withthe close of the extended legislative session
inTallahassee just days away as this issue went
to press, Florida’s Thoroughbred industry
stood on the verge of some significant accomplishments.
Combined with strides the FTBOA has made on many
other fronts in the last year, and despite the unprecedented
challenges facing our business, Florida’sThoroughbred in-
dustry appears poised to move forward.
The Board of Directors of the Florida Thoroughbred
Breeders’andOwners’Association rolled out its Economic
Stimulus Plan for the state’sThoroughbred industry in Oc-
tober of 2008.
“Implementing amulti-platformplan of attack, in concert
withAssociationmembers, legislators, racetrackoperators and
horsemen, we will return Thoroughbred racing in the Sun-
shine State to its rightful rank as the
best place tobreed, raise, train, sell and
race Thoroughbreds,” FTBOA Presi-
dentGilCampbell said in announcing
the Economic Stimulus Plan.
As noted in this column last
month, the FTBOA has already
checked off one of the objectives out-
lined to themembership. In conjunc-
tion with the Florida Horsemen’s
Benevolent and Protective Associa-
tion andChurchill Downs, purses for
Calder’s juvenile racing program
have been increased this year.
Straight maiden purses have been
hiked to $32,000, which includes
$5,000 in FSS supplements and
$5,000 in Florida Owners’ Awards, making this year’s
Florida Stallion Stakes series the most lucrative ever.
Prior to the start of the Caldermeet, the FTBOApledged
an additional $300,000 for juvenile purses at the Miami
track to offset a similar amount ofmoneywhichwas threat-
ening to sink a purse contract between the horsemen and
the track. The contract was in peril after Calder’s parent
company, Churchill Downs Inc., objected to changeswhich
would have cost between $250,000 and $300,000.A listing
of the Calder stakes schedule and the six juvenile stakes
races that were bolstered appears on page 27.
“Thanks to our Florida Stallion Stakes Committee
Chairman Fred Brei, we are able to offer one of the best
juvenile racing programs out there,” said RichardHancock,
executive vice president of the FTBOA.“With the added
incentives, it will make it even better.”
Switching leads:At the State Capitol,The FTBOA sup-
ported legislation to secure a non-profitThoroughbred rac-
ing permit for Marion County to run a short race meet
similar to Keeneland and Oak Tree. The FTBOA backed
legislation to reduce the 50-percent tax rate on slots revenue
to 35 percent; and also pushed for legislation that will allow
formore flexibility of the Breeders’Awards program, in re-
sponse to rapidly changing awards programs in other states.
FTBOA’s partnership with
Max/West Environmental Systems
to produce environmentally friendly
energy using horse and wood waste
continues to progress andmay be up
and running by the end of the year.
Initial plans call for the conversion
of 100,000 tons of waste into energy.
The daily output of energy would
power more than 1,400 homes. Ear-
lier this year, the project received a
grant award in the amount of $2.5
million from the Florida Energy and
Climate Commission for a green-en-
ergy project.
In light of the challenges facing
our industry, the FTBOA held open
houses in an effort to increase communication with mem-
bers. The Association has also sent many e-mail blasts to
members with e-mail addresses on file, updating them on
legislative news and information impacting our industry.
To remain updated on news and events impacting
Florida’s Thoroughbred industry, e-mail our office to en-
sure your e-mail address is on file. Send addresses to
Enjoy the May issue.
MakingStrides
JOE
DIOR
IOPH
OTO
“Thanks to our Florida StallionStakes Committee Chairman FredBrei, we are able to offer one of thebest juvenile racing programs outthere.With the added incentives, itwill make it even better.”—Richard Hancock
EditorsWelcome.qx:EditorWelcome 5/6/09 10:19 AM Page 6
J. Michael O’Farrell, Jr. • P.O. Box 818, Ocala, FL 34478352/237-2171 • FAX 352/873-3223 • www.ocalastud.com
All stallions nominated to Breeders’ Cup, FSS & FTCSMark J. Barrett photo
Best of the RestSkip Trial - Obstinacy, by Valid Appeal
Fee: $1,500 LF
ConcertoChief’s Crown - Undeniably, by In Reality
Fee: $5,000 LF
Concorde’s TuneConcorde Bound - Parisian Tune, by Tunerup
Fee: $2,500 LF
DrewmanUnbridled - Lucky Soph, by Cozzene
Fee: $1,500 LF
New for 2009
Gottcha GoldCoronado’s Quest - Gottcha Last, by Pleasant Tap
Fee: $2,500 LF
High CottonDixie Union - Happy Tune, by A.P. Indy
Fee: $2,500 LF
MontbrookBuckaroo - Secret Papers, by Jet Diplomacy
Fee: $10,000 LF
SweetsouthernsaintSaint Ballado - Sweetsoutherncross, by Tri Jet
Fee: $2,500 LF
Stallions AvailableDaily For Inspection.
if you want a runner, look to Ocala Stud
New MultipleMare incentives
104605-OcalaStud-Roster-FH.indd 1 2/26/09 2:19:49 PM
By NICK FORTUNA
Freshman stallionWildcat Heir did the
equivalent of hitting a home run in his first
major-league at-bat onApril 1, when the first
starter from his debut crop of 2-year-olds won
a two-furlong race at SantaAnita Park.
Florida-bred filly Kitty in the Bag broke
sharply under jockey Tyler Baze to win a
$41,024 maiden special weight race by 3¼
lengths. The filly, out of the unraced
Friendly Lover mare Gold Bag Lady, cov-
ered the quarter-mile on the stretch-run por-
tion of the track in 21.11 seconds.
Kitty in the Bagwas bred by Ken Breiten-
becker Jr., the general manager at Journey-
man Stud inOcala, whereWildcat Heir stands
for a $6,500 stud fee.
“I’ve been saying all along that Wildcat
Heir could get winners early and often, so
we’re really excited about it,” Journeyman
Stud owner Brent Fernung said of the vic-
tory. “The filly won the race easily by three
or four lengths, and the jockey was look-
ing behind him during the second half of
the race.”
Kitty in the Bag is trained byMelvin Stute
for Patrick and Elizabeth Everard. She was a
$20,000 purchase at OBS in October 2007.
Wildcat Heir, a 9-year-old son of Forest
Wildcat, has 122 horses in his first crop of 2-
year-olds. He won six of his 12 starts from
ages 2 to 5 for $424,460 in career earnings.
His best season came at age 4 in 2004,
when he won the $300,000 Frank J. De
Francis Memorial Dash (G1) at Pimlico,
captured the $60,000 Icecapade Stakes at
Monmouth Park and ran second to Cana-
dian Frontier in the $100,000 Teddy Drone
Stakes at Monmouth. Wildcat Heir earned
his third and final stakes victory the fol-
lowing year in the Teddy Drone.
“I have fiveWildcat Heirs that I’m training
myself, and every one of them can run.” Fer-
nung said. “This horse seems awfully consis-
tent, so he’s going to make an impact on the
freshman sires list.”
8 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
Freshman Sire Wildcat Heir Gets First Winner
BY NICK FORTUNA
Florida-bred It’s a Bird and Honest
Man were both assigned the high weight of
119 pounds for the $500,000 Oaklawn
Handicap (G2), but at the end of the April
4 race at Oaklawn Park, it was clear who
the real heavyweight was.
It’s a Bird reached a pair of milestones
in romping to a six-length victory, earning
his 10th career victory and becoming
Florida’s newest millionaire. The horse,
bred at White Cross Farm, gave owner Ed-
mund Gann his third winner in the Oaklawn
Handicap, joining Medaglia d’Oro in 2003
and Florida-bred Peace Rules in 2004.
It’s a Bird ran just behind the paceset-
ter, Jonesboro, before taking command
around the final turn and pulling away for
the win, finishing the nine-furlong race in
a time of 1:48.96. The 6-year-old horse
was making his third straight start with
jockey Julien Leparoux aboard.
Brazilian colt Runforthedoe rallied to fin-
ish a distant second, while Jonesboro held on
for third. Honest Man, the 7-5 favorite, fin-
ished sixth.
It’s a Bird has finished in themoney in 16
of his 29 starts and earned $1.17million.The
son of former Florida stallion Birdonthewire
has won five of his nine starts since being
transferred to trainer Marty Wolfson from
Todd Pletcher last summer, including a 5 ¼-
length score in the SunshineMillions Classic
at Gulfstream Park in January.
“He’s in very good form right now and
came into this race training beautifully,”Wolf-
son said. “He’s probably one of the best hand-
icap horses around right now. He ran just like
he did in the Sunshine Millions. I was con-
cernedwhen they ran the half-mile in 46 and3,
It’s a Bird Flying High for WolfsonFlorida-bred hits milestoneswith Oaklawn Handicap win
COAD
YPH
OTO
Kitty in the Bag takes two-furlong sprint at Santa Anita
Kitty in the Bag
BENO
IT&
ASSO
CIAT
ESPH
OTO
Itʼs a Bird winning the Oaklawn Handicap.
Focus.May.qx:Layout 1 5/5/09 4:00 PM Page 8
BY NICK FORTUNA
Marion County-based consignors domi-
nated Keeneland’s sale of 2-year-olds in train-
ingApril 6 and 7 as Ocala’s EddieWoods sold
an A.P. Indy colt named Vallenzeri for $1.9
million, the highest price for a horse sold at a
public auction this year.
Vallenzeri’s sire was named Horse of the
Year in 1992, and his dam, the Jade Hunter
mareAzeri, wasHorse of theYear in 2002.The
colt, listed as hip No. 22, breezed an eighth of
amile in 10.2 seconds during the sale’s preview
day onApril 2. Trainer Bob Baffert signed the
ticket on behalf ofKaleemShah.The horse, the
only million-dollar purchase at the sale, was
bred by theAllen E. Paulson LivingTrust.
“The sales topper was a star,” Woods
said. “He has an international pedigree and
the looks to match, and he brought what he
should have brought. It wouldn’t have been
a surprise if he brought more.
He has everything you look for
in a horse. I was delighted with
the way he worked. That kind of
was expected of him, and he
stepped up and did it.”
Baffert said he was very pleased with the
purchase.
“I am really excited to get him,” Baffert
said. “He’s well-conformed, he has a fluid
way ofmoving, andwith that type of pedigree
– by a champion and out of a champion – you
have to step up to the plate and take a chance.”
Woods led theway during a two-day sale in
which 66 horses sold for $11.8 million, down
28 percent from last year, when 77 juveniles
sold for $16.3 million. Woods consigned nine
horses for a total of $3.13million, or an average
of $348,000, the highest average at the sale.
The sale’s average price was $178,864,
down 15.5 percent from last year’s average of
$211,675. This year’s median price was
$117,500, a dropof21.7percent from last year’s
mark of $150,000.The buy-back rate increased
from38percent last year to 44percent this year.
“The sale was like every other sale – it was
very spotty,” Woods said. “For the better
horses, we had a very successful sale and
were very pleased with it. For the better
horses that vetted well, there were people
there, but for the others, there was no one
there. Some of the middle-of-the-road horses
were very useful, and we were just mystified
that we weren’t able to move some of them.”
Woodshas enjoyed success at theKeeneland
April sale over the years, having consigned last
year’s Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness
Stakes (G1)winner,BigBrown, at the2007sale.
Other local horsemen also were among
the leading consignors at this year’s sale.
John and Jill Stephens’ Morriston-based
Stephens Thoroughbreds ranked
second with sales of $1.35 mil-
lion from seven head. Niall Bren-
nan Stables was third with $1.34
million from five horses, while
Ciaran Dunne’sWavertree Stables
sold seven head for $1.18million.
They were followed by the
Scanlon Training Center, with
eight head sold for $1.14 million;
Leprechaun Racing, seven head for $1.13
million; and the Jerry Bailey Sales Agency,
three head for $900,000.
Baffert purchased Vallenzeri on Monday
and boughtTuesday’s highest-priced horse as
well. Hip No. 203, a Smart Strike colt out of
the Belong to Me mare Private Feeling,
brought a final bid of $475,000 from Baffert
on behalf ofMike Pegram, PaulWeitman and
KarlWatson.The horse, consigned by Bailey
as agent, had worked an eighth of a mile in
10 seconds flat during preview day.
“I wasn’t going to go home without him,”
Baffert said. “He worked well, and he’s a
good mover.”
Leprechaun Racing consigned Tuesday’s
second-highest-priced horse, hip No. 168, a
colt from the first crop of RockHardTen.The
son of the Deputy Minister mare Fiddlin
Devon drew a final bid of $440,000 from
Centennial Farms.
“We’re always looking for a classic colt,”
said Centennial President Donald Little Jr.
THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 20089 9
but hewas able to put away that horse (Jones-
boro) around the turn and draw off.”
Wolfson said one of the keys to the per-
formance was the condition of the track,
which was labeled as “fast.” Last month,
It’s a Bird ran in second place for much of
the New Orleans Handicap (G2) on a
sloppy track at Fair Grounds Race Course
but wasn’t able to rally down the stretch,
finishing third behind fellow Florida-bred
Macho Again.
“The New Orleans track wasn’t in good
shape, and I don’t think he liked the track,”
Wolfson said. “I think the track beat him
that day.”
The Oaklawn Handicap marked the sec-
ond career graded win for It’s a Bird, who
also captured the Spend A Buck Handicap
(G3) at Calder Race Course in October.That
race capped a three-race winning streak for
It’s a Bird that included a wire-to-wire vic-
tory in the $55,000 Plagiarize Stakes, his
first stakes win.
Local Consignors Lead the Way at KeenelandEddie Woods sells top horse for $1.9 million
Eddie Woods
Focus.May.qx:Layout 1 5/5/09 3:20 PM Page 9
10 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
BY NICK FORTUNA
At about 2 p.m. on Saturday,May 2, there
were few people at Calder Race Course wear-
ing a bigger smile than David Humphrey, and
he owesmost of the credit for his mood to the
Montbrook mare Pocketbrook.
During a one-hour span, that mare sent
two horses to the winner’s circle, and
Humphrey got to see both races – one on tel-
evision and one in person. Accredit captured
the $280,500 Churchill Downs Stakes (G2)
by 1 ¾ lengths at Churchill Downs, and with
a lot less cash on the line, Grand Times won
a $32,000maiden special weight race by four
lengths at theMiami track, giving Humphrey
a day he won’t soon forget.
“I’m not complaining,” Humphrey joked.
“You don’t get days like that too regularly. It’s
nice to know that a small breeder – the little
guy – still has a chance in the game. It’s not
just the big people who have a chance.”
Humphrey lives in South Florida in
Homestead and owns a 17-acre farm in Ocala
that’s home to half a dozen broodmares. The
best horse they’ve ever produced isAccredit,
whowent wire to wire to earn his first graded
victory on May 2.
Accredit set fast fractions of 22.94 sec-
onds for the first quar-
ter-mile and 45.59
seconds for a half-
mile with Julien Lep-
aroux aboard. He then
held on to finish the
seven-furlong race in
a time of 1:23.24 and
improve his record to
5-for-5 on wet tracks.
The colt returned mutuels of $10.60, $5.40
and $4 as the third choice in a field of nine 4-
year-olds and up.
Accredit has won six of his 16 starts for
$427,738. He’s the third-richest horse ever
sired by E Dubai, trailing only Desert Code,
with $1.09 million in earnings, and High
Heels, with $484,636.Accredit was purchased
byKenneth and SarahRamsey for $160,000 at
the Keeneland sale of yearlings in September
2006 and is trained by Michael Maker.
“He was always a nice, correct, long-
legged foal,” Humphrey said.
As a 3-year-old in
December, Accredit
won the $69,100 Par-
lay Me Stakes over a
sloppy track atAque-
duct. Earlier in 2008,
he won optional-
claiming races on
wet tracks at
Saratoga and Aque-
duct. The May 2 race was only the second
graded event of his career, following a third-
place finish behind Semaphore Man in the
$150,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3)
at Oaklawn Park onApril 10.
At Calder, Grand Times prevailed in his
second career start with ElvisTrujillo aboard.
The juvenile is a son of Greatness, a stallion
standing atAdena Springs South inWilliston.
GrandTimes had finished second to Mission
Impazible in his career debut, a $48,000
maiden special weight race at Keeneland on
April 16. Grand Times was purchased by his
trainer,WesleyWard, for $14,000 at OBS last
August.
Humphrey saidAccredit andGrandTimes
owe their ability to Pocketbrook, who had one
victory and earned $14,120 at the racetrack.
The mare has a weanling filly by Consolida-
tor at her side as well as a yearling that’s a full
brother toAccredit.
“She’s a beautiful horse,” Humphrey said.
“She didn’t do too well at the racetrack, and
I’m not really sure why, but I think it’s be-
cause in her first or second race, she knocked
herself into the rail, and she never really
seemed to take to racing after that. But she’s
a nice, big mare, and I like her. She’s from a
family with a lot of nice horses.”
Mare Gives Local Breeder Two Winners on Same Day
BY NYRA PRESS
Lael Stable’s Florida-bred My Princess Jess halted a three-race losing streak and
began her 4-year-old campaign as a winner last month, rallying for a 1 ¾-length victory
over the favored Carribean Sunset (IRE) in the 32nd running of the $109,000 Beaugay
for fillies and mares at a mile and a sixteenth on the inner turf course at Belmont Park.
The StormyAtlantic filly, whose previous victory was in Saratoga’s Grade 2 Lake
George last July, came on strong in the middle of the “good” course under jockey
Cornelio Velasquez after sitting well off a pace of 26.07, 50.57, 1:15.27 and 1:38.97.
AreWe Dreamin had been the early pacesetter but was overtaken on the turn by Sun-
shine for Life, who wilted in midstretch.
“Cornelio rode her perfectly,” trainer Bar-
clayTaggsaid. “I toldhimto tuckher inandwait
until she got past the quarter-pole. He started to
take a littlemoreposition there,whichwas fine.
She reallyexplodes ifyouwaituntil shegetspast
thequarter-pole.Shehas thatquarter-mile inher,
nomore.She reallygivesyouanexplosivequar-
ter-mile. I don’t knowwhat’s next for her.”
AccreditCO
GLIA
NESE
PHOT
O
Accredit captures $280,500 Churchill Downs Stakes
My Princess Jess Wins BeaugayPA
MDI
ORIO
PHOT
O
My Princess Jess
Focus.May.qx:Layout 1 5/5/09 3:20 PM Page 10
AD bleed check.qx:Layout 1 5/4/09 10:03 AM Page 1
12 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
Goldman was born Dec. 26, 1932, in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, son to Rose
and Bob and brother to Sam. He attended
Riverside MilitaryAcademy in Gainesville,
GA and then returned to the Boston area to
attend Brandeis Univer-
sity. Goldman was ac-
cepted to Harvard Law
School, but was then
drafted, serving in the
Navy from 1955-57.
His hobby and great-
est passion was Thor-
oughbred racing, his
father having been one
of the country’s original
turf writers. His love of
racing, together with
his unique gift for writ-
ing, eventually led him
to a life-long career devoted to the Thor-
oughbred industry.
Goldman began his career in Massa-
chusetts, and was a regular at all the New
England tracks, including those long
gone–Narragansett Park, Lincoln Downs,
Scarborough Downs and the county
fairs–Brockton, Northampton and Great
Barrington. He soon left for Ocala, when
he saw Florida emerging in national promi-
nence in theThoroughbred industry. Before
leaving for Ocala, in 1961 Goldman mar-
ried Susanne Ronai, mother to his sons,
Robert, 46, and Peter, 44.
In a career that would ultimately have
him writing for virtually every prestigious
racing publication, domestically and
abroad, he first landed in Ocala in 1962,
becoming the business manager for the
world-renowned Farnsworth Farms. He
then moved to South Florida where he be-
came a marketing executive, at various
times, for each of the racetracks: Hialeah
Park, Gulfstream Park, Tropical Park and
Calder Race Course and later, Florida
Downs near Tampa.
In 1976, he returned
to Ocala to become mar-
keting director for the
Ocala Breeders’ Sales
Company (OBS), and
later formed Florida
Thoroughbred Advertis-
ing, an advertising and
marketing agency. In that
position, he has been re-
sponsible for all the TV
advertising of OBS.
Goldman’s major
claim to fame as a
breeder was Caltech,
winner of the 1989 Budweiser (Washington)
D. C. International (G1) and an earner of
more than $700,000. He then reached his
crowning journalistic achievement (in a
multi-part series for Daily Racing Form),
“The Sunshine Boys,” which chronicled the
colorful and rich history of racing in Florida.
Goldman’s in-depth knowledge of rac-
ing pedigrees and the Thoroughbred indus-
try was unmatched.
In 1983, he married for the second time
–to Catherine Bloomfield Goldman–a
world-class equine artist. Dave then dis-
covered another joy–becoming the proud
grandfather of Julia (11) and Emma (9).
Although he will be sorely missed by
the entire racing industry and anyone who
had the privilege of knowing him, Gold-
man leaves behind a “stable” rich with
friends and family, who loved and adored
him more than words can express.
David Goldman Passes AwayDavid Goldman died on April 23, in Ocala after a longbattle with cancer. He was 76.
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14 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
Multiple graded stakes-win-
ningmillionaireWestern Pride sired
the first winner from his debut crop,
as 2-year-old filly Straight Western
went gate-to-wire in a Trial race on
April 17th at Turf Paradise.
Straight Western broke well and
opened up on the field of nine, tak-
ing a five-length advantage into the
stretch of the 4 ½-furlong heat. The
bay filly hit the wire on top in a
final time of 53.07 over a fast track.
Out of the Straight Man mare Straight
Time, Straight Western was bred in Florida
by William Schettine. She is trained by
Derek Couch for owner Matt Keneley.
Western Pride, a three-time Derby-win-
ning 3-year-old and four-time graded stakes
winner, stands at Signature Stallions in
Ocala for a fee of $2,500.
Florida-bred Dinner in Odemmade
a four-wide move into the final turn then
ran down the leaders in the final strides
to prevail in a three-horse photo in the
$75,000 Chris Thomas Turf Classic last
month at Tampa Bay Downs.
Fellow Florida-bred Sir Dave moved
from third to briefly gain a short lead in-
side the eighth pole, but had to settle for
second, a neck behind the winner.
Ridden by Phil Teator for trainer Peter
Wasiluk Jr., Dinner in Odem covered
about 1 1/8 miles over a firm turf course
in 1:46.68. The son of Quaker Ridge was
bred in Florida by T.H. Heard Jr.
Dinner in Odem Prevails inTampa’s Chris Thomas
Dinner in Odem
COOL
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Millionaire Western Pride Sires First Winner
LOUI
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Malawi, a 2-year-old filly from the first
crop of Bwana Charlie, became the first
starter and first winner for her sire, impres-
sively drawing off to win her debut by four
lengths in a 4 ½-furlong maiden special
weight race last month.
Heiligbrodt Racing Stable bred and owns
Malawi, a filly out of the Gilded Time mare
Malady. Steve Asmussen trains the filly.
Heiligbrodt and Asmussen also teamed to
campaign Bwana Charlie.
Multiple graded stakes winner Bwana
Charlie, a son of Indian Charlie, stands at
Brent and Crystal Fernung’s Journeyman
Stud. His 2009 fee is $5,000.
Bwana Charlie’s FirstStarter Wins at Keeneland
LOUI
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16 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
By JO ANN GUIDRY
Southern Image led an outstanding
class of 2004 Florida-bred champions,
which won 18 stakes races that in-
cluded 13 graded stakes wins and seven
Grade 1 victories.With a pair of Grade 1 vic-
tories and $1.6 in seasonal earnings, South-
ern Image was named the Florida-bred Horse
of theYear and champion older male.
A 4-year-old colt by Halo’s Image out of
the Dixieland Band mare Pleasant Dixie,
Southern Image kicked off the season in at-
tention-grabbing fashion. On January 24, the
Arthur I. Appleton-bred colt romped to a
three-length win in the $1-million Sunshine
Millions Classic at Santa Anita Park. South-
ern Image encored that with another tally in a
$1-million race, scoring a victory in the Santa
Anita Handicap (G1) on March 6.
Across country trip to theEastCoast did lit-
tle to slow Southern Image down. OnMay 14,
he captured the Pimlico Special (G1). Owned
by the partnership of Blahut Stables, Kagele
Brothers, andAllen and Josh Tepper, Southern
Image closed out his season with a runner-up
finish by a nose to Colonial Colony in the
Stephen Foster Handicap (G1) on June 12 at
Churchill Downs. The Michael Machowsky
trainee banked $1,612,150 on the year in three
wins and one seconds in only four starts.
Southern Image was consigned by Apple-
ton’s Bridlewood Farms to the 2002 Ocala
Breeders’Sales Company’sMarch 2-year-olds
in training sale.Hewas purchased for $300,000
by trainerMachowsky for his current owners.
Other 2004 Florida-bred champions which
wonGrade 1 eventswere: LadyTak, the cham-
pionolder femalewhowon theBallerinaHand-
icap (G1) and Gallant Bloom Handicap (G2);
Afleet Alex, the champion 2-year-old colt,
who won the Hopeful Stakes (G1) and San-
ford Stakes (G2); Splendid Blended, the
champion 2-year-old filly who won the
Hollywood Starlet Stakes (G1); Midas
Eyes, the champion sprinter who won the
Forego Handicap (G1) and Star Over the
Bay, the champion turf horse who won the
Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Champi-
onship Stakes (G1), Del Mar Handicap (G2)
and Sunset Handicap (G2).
Rounding out the season’s roster of
Florida-bred champions were: Limehouse,
the champion 3-year-old colt who won the
Hutcheson Stakes (G2) and Tampa Bay
Derby (G3); and Hopelessly Devoted, the
champion 3-year-old filly who won three
stakes including the listed Calder Oaks.
Bridlewood Farm stallion Halo’s Image,
the sire of Florida-bred Horse of the Year
Southern Image, was the leading Florida stal-
lion by progeny earnings with $3,478,969.
Wild Event, who also stood at Bridlewood
Farm, was the leading Florida juvenile sire
with progeny earnings of $722,940. Adena
Springs South stallion Running Stag was the
leading Florida freshman sire with progeny
earnings of $529,072.
The late John Franks was named the
FloridaBreeder of theYear for the second con-
secutive year. Franks was the leading Florida
breeder by Florida-bred earnings ($8,923,116),
Florida-bred stakeswinners (15), Florida-bred
stakes wins (23) and Florida-bred wins (466).
Lady Tak, the 2004 Florida-bred cham-
pion older female, was Franks’ leading
Florida-bred money earner. Raced by
Heiligbrodt Racing Stable, Lady Tak won
the Ballerina Handicap (G1), Gallant
Bloom Handicap (G2) and Winning Colors
Handicap on her way to earning $439,412
on the season. That total contributed to
Lady Tak becoming a Florida-bred million-
aire with a career bankroll of $1,155,682 at
the end of 2004.
Florida-bred Skip Away, who was the
1998 North American Horse of the Year,
was inducted into the National Museum of
Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs,
New York. Bred by Anna Marie Barnhart,
owned by Carolyn Hine and trained by Hu-
bert “Sonny” Hine, Skip Away also gar-
nered Eclipse Awards as 1996 champion
3-year-old colt and 1997-98 champion older
male. In a remarkable career from 1995-98,
Skip Away won 16 graded stakes and was
stakes-placed 16 times in 38 starts to earn
$9,616,360. Among his 16 graded stakes
wins were 10 Grade I events: Breeders’Cup
Classic (G1); Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1),
twice;Woodbine Millions (G1); Hollywood
Gold Cup (G1); Haskell Invitational Hand-
icap (G1); Pimlico Special (G1); Gulf-
stream Park Handicap (G1); Woodward
Stakes (G1) and Donn Handicap (G1).
Down Memory Lane
‘04Down Memory Lane
HORS
EPHO
TOS.
COM
Southern Image 2004
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Situated on 100 grassy acres in northeastMarionCounty,the Florida Thoroughbred Retirement Farm is home to more than 50Florida-bred ex-racehorses. All of the horses arrive at the farm after theircareers on the racetrack are over. Sure, their racing days are behind them,but after rest and retraining, many of the horses at the Florida TRF areready for adoption. Many go on to enjoy second careers in dressage, trailriding, jumping, pleasure riding and other uses. Even those horsesthat are not rideable may find adoptive homes as companion an-imals. As more horses are adopted into new homes, more spacesare available for horses to join the Florida TRF program.
The farm is operated in conjunction with the Florida Departmentof Corrections and Marion Correctional Institution and all thehorses are cared for by female inmates from the LowellCorrectional Institute.Thewomen, all non-violent offenders, spendtheir days learning barn management skills including grooming,feeding, doctoring, and physical therapy and they help teach thehorses new disciplines. It’s a symbiotic relationshipwhereby the horses learnthe skills they need to go on to new careers and the inmates learn about team-work and trust. At the conclusion of the year-long program,having successfully passed 22written tests covering all aspects of horse care,inmates graduate with a vocational certificate in equine care technology.Upon their release, some of the graduates have gone on to work in theindustry as grooms and stable managers.
Two famous Florida-bred champions permanently reside at the farm:Carterista, the 1993 Florida ChampionTurf Horse andwinner of eight stakesraces, and Shake You Down, the 2003 Florida Champion Sprinter andwinner of nearly $1.5 million.
The Florida TRF currently has a waiting list for incomingThoroughbreds. In order to join the list, the horse should be aFlorida-bred Thoroughbred, coming straight from the track. The
horse should be retired due to age or physical condition. ContactFlorida Thoroughbred Charities for more information at 352-629-2160.A donation is requested along with each horse accepted into the program.
Founded in 2001, the farm is supported though the concentrated effortsof Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association, FloridaThoroughbred Charities, Ocala Breeders’Sales Company, Gulfstream Park,Calder RaceCourse,TampaBayDowns, the FloridaHorsemen’s Benevolentand Protective Association, the national Thoroughbred RetirementFoundation, as well as by many individuals who contribute through dona-tions and fundraising efforts.
For more information on adopting a retired Florida-bred racehorse, pleasecontact the FTBOA offices at 352-629-2160.
Since 1990 Florida Thoroughbred Charities, the non-profit, charitablearm of the FTBOA has raised more than $3.5 million for a variety ofcommunity and Thoroughbred industry causes. Much of the fundraisingefforts are made possible due to thesupport FTBOA and FTC receivefrom corporate sponsorship.
Mer
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Florida Thoroughbred Retirement Farm
FLORIDA THOROUGHBREDBREEDERS’ AND OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION
801 SW 60th Ave. • Ocala, FL 34474352-629-2160 • Fax: 352-629-3603www.ftboa.com • [email protected]
34387.FTC.Charities.WTW:Layout 1 4/29/09 11:26 AM Page 1
FTBOA, FHBPA and ChurchillDowns are raising purse money in
the juvenile racing program atCalder this year and growing the
Florida Stallion Stakes, making thepopular series more lucrative
than ever in 2009!
$32,000 minimum pursesfor maiden special weight,
which includes $5,000 FSSsupplements and $5,000Florida Owners’ Awards.
Take advantage of yournext opportunity to purchase
a Florida-bred at theOBS June sale in Ocala!
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THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 19
Asofpress time, several issues targeted by
the FTBOA as economic stimulus items
necessary to maintain and improve
Thoroughbred racing in Florida are still under
consideration by the Florida Legislature.
Updates will be released by the FTBOA via e-
mail as they are available. Anyone wishing to re-
ceive the latest updates on legislative action and
other issues affecting the Thoroughbred industry
in Florida can sign up by submitting their e-mail
address to our office.
Those wanting the updates can send an e-mail
to [email protected]. Please include your name, ad-
dress, phone number and FTBOA membership
number, if you have one, in the body of the mes-
sage. Membership is not required to sign up for e-
mail updates.
Among the items currently under considera-
tion by the Florida House and Senate are a not-
for-profitThoroughbred racing permit forMarion
County, the reduction of taxes levied on slot ma-
chine revenues from the current 50 percent rate to
35 percent and the Breeders’Flexibility provision,
which would allow more freedom in how breed-
ers’ awards can be distributed.
FLORIDA THOROUGHBREDCHARITIES RAISES $21,000IN AUCTION
The Florida Thoroughbred Charities’ 19th
annual Live/Silent Auction held on April 18
raised more than $21,000.
The event was held on the opening day of
the Ocala Breeders’Sales Spring Sale of 2-year-
olds in training and included such items as tick-
ets to the World Series, the Indy 500 and
Brickyard 400. Other items included a suite at
Gulfstream Park for the Sunshine Millions or
Florida Derby, memberships to Golden Hills
Golf andTurf Club and Golden Ocala Golf and
Equestrian Center and an equine care package
from OBS Feed and Supply.
Themoney raised during the auction is in ad-
dition to the nearly $105,000 the FTC raised dur-
ing its annual Stallion SeasonAuction, also held
at OBS in February. A season to Bridlewood
Farm’s stallion Put it Back received the top bid.
The 2009 foals of stallions who participated
in the auction will be eligible for the Florida
Thoroughbred Charities Stakes, which is run
during the Ocala Breeders’Sales Day of Cham-
pions races. This year Florida-bred Dukes Fly-
ingTiger, by former Hartley/De Renzo stallion
Tiger Ridge, won the race on Feb. 16.
Gilbert G. CampbellPresident
Eddie MartinFirst Vice President
J. Michael O’FarrellSecondVice President
Mark RobertsSecretary
Diane ParksTreasurer
DIRECTORSFred Brei
Donald DizneyBarry W. EisamanMichael Mulligan
Peter VegsoSheila DiMare
Bonnie M. Heath IIIGeorge G. Isaacs
Jessica SteinbrennerCharlotte C. Weber
Richard E. HancockEXECUTIVEVICE PRESIDENT
FloridaThoroughbredBreeders’ and
Owners’Association
801 SW 60th Ave.Ocala, Florida 34474
Phone: (352) 629-2160Fax: (352) 629-3603
visit us at www.ftboa.come-mail: [email protected]
FTBOA to Continue OfferingLegislative e-mail Updates
see Charity Auction page 20
FTBOA.NewsDigest.qx:Layout 1 5/6/09 4:33 PM Page 19
“We’d really like to thank all the stallion
owners and those who donated items to the
auctions, as well as our staff who put somuch
work into the auction.We are appreciative of
all those who participated to help support the
charities and the community organizations
they assist, especially in these difficult times,”
said Richard E. Hancock, executive vice pres-
ident of the FTBOA.
Since 1990, Florida Thoroughbred Chari-
ties Inc. has raised nearly $4 million to bene-
fit thoroughbred industry and community or-
ganizations.The FTC is the charitable arm of
the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and
Owners’Association.
The next FTC event is the annual golf
tournament in October.All proceeds raised at
the event will go toward the FTC scholarship
fund. The scholarship program is open to
FTBOA members, their children, their em-
ployees and children of employees. Last year,
more then $50,000 in scholarships were
awarded to 33 students planning on attending
accredited two or four-year colleges or uni-
versities
Additionally, the Florida Thoroughbred
Retirement Foundation, which is also admin-
istered by the FTBOA,was recently presented
with a check for nearly $6,000 from money
collected during the annual country barbecue
held in conjunction with the Adena Springs
2-year-olds in training sale in March.
20 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
Charity Auction continued
Florida-bred Dukes Flying Tiger won this yearʼs Florida Thoroughbred Charities Stakes.PA
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Calendar of eventsMay 16:Preakness Stakes (G1) at PimlicoJune 6:Belmont Stakes (G1) at Belmont ParkJune 13:Calder Race Course’s Summit of Speed Preview,featuring the $100,000 Unbridled Stakes,$100,000 Leave Me Alone Stakes,$75,000 Ponche Handicap and$75,000 U Can Do It HandicapJune 16-17:Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. June sale of 2-year-olds and horses of racing ageJuly 11:Calder Race Course’s Summit of Speed, featur-ing the $350,000 Smile Sprint Handicap (G2), the$350,000 Princess Rooney Handicap (G1),$200,000 Carry Back Stakes (G2), $200,000Azalea Stakes (G3) and the $150,000 BobUmphrey Turf Sprint Handicap
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Showing t22 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
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Florida-bredHooh Why led all the
way to upset heavily favored
champion Stardom Bound in
last month’s Ashland Stakes (G1)
at Keeneland. The daughter of
former Florida sire Cloud
Hopping covered the 1 1/16
miles in 1:43.80.
Owned by Derby Daze Farms
and Mark Hoffman, Hooh Why
was bred by co-owner Gail Gee
at her Derby Daze Farms. The
filly was broke and trained in
Ocala by Dominic Brennan.
KEEN
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BYZthe Way
THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 23
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24 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
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Florida-bredAdvice charged through the stretch toregister a come-from-behind victory in theLexington Stakes (G2) at Keeneland onSaturday, April 18. The son of SignatureStallions’ Chapel Royal earned himself aspot in the starting gate for the KentuckyDerby (G1) with the impressive score.
Bred by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Rogers,the WinStar Farm colorbearer was raised inMarion County at The Acorn and was sold byEisaman Equine.
Advice, who is trained by Todd Pletcher,covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.33.
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THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 25
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By CARLOS E. MEDINA
Calder Race Course and FHBPA officialssigned a purse contract days before theCalder meet was to kick off, ending the
prospect of a repeat of last year’s extendedstalemate.
The parties agreed to the contract after theFlorida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’Association stepped in and pledged an addi-tional $300,000 for juvenile purses to offset asimilar amount of money at the heart of thedispute.
Both Calder and the Florida Horsemen’sBenevolent and Protective Association ver-bally agreed to a contract in late March, butthe contract hit a snag after Calder’s parentcompany, Churchill Downs Inc., objected to aprovision that could have cost it between$250,000 and $300,000.
“I’m glad that we could help get this pursecontract signed, and I tip my hat to John Mar-shall (Calder general manager and vice presidentof racing) and Sammy Gordon (FHBPA presi-dent) for getting together and agreeing to whatcan be one of the best juvenile meets in recentCalder history,” said Richard E. Hancock,FTBOA executive vice president.
“With the contract now settled, I hope itwill give buyers attending OBS sales confi-dence that they will not only have a place torace, but they will be racing in one of the best
juvenile programs around,” Hancock said.Among the other items in the contract is a
minimum average overnight purse increase to$160,000, a minimum purse target of $10,000from $7,500 and improved reporting of handleand source market fees from Calder.
“I think it is a fair contract, and I am glad wegot it done just in time before the meet starts,”said Kent Stirling, FHBPA executive director.“We appreciate the (FTBOA) stepping up andadding the extra enhancements.”
Calder’s Marshall praised Hancock and theFTBOA board of directors for their efforts inhelping to get the contract signed.
“This agreement is a positive developmentfor everyone with a stake in South Florida rac-ing, especially Thoroughbred racing fans,” hesaid. “Our renewed partnership with the FTBOAand FHBPA could not come at a better time.”
The FHBPA’s Gordon was also thankful forthe FTBOA’s support.
“We are delighted to have a signed agree-ment for the upcoming season,” Gordon said.“We appreciate the partnership we’re formingwith the new management at Calder and lookforward to a successful year.”
The $300,000 in added purse money willbolster six juvenile stakes races. The six $50,000overnight stakes races will double in value to$100,000 with the additional funds pledged bythe FTBOA for winning Florida-breds. Two of
those races are the JJ’s Dream and the FrankGomez Memorial stakes on July 11.
Calder’s Juvenile Showcase card on Aug.29 will have an additional $200,000 in pursesfor four overnight stakes. Again, $50,000 inadditional purses for winning Florida-bredswould double the value of the Seacliff, theLindsay Frolic, the Turf Dash and theCatcharisingstar stakes.
The Juvenile Showcase features the Af-firmed and the Susan’s Girl divisions of theFlorida Stallion Stakes series, which would re-main valued at $150,000 each.
The added purse money further improves anagreement that enhanced the Florida StallionStakes series and increased purses for 2-year-oldmaiden special weight races, as well as theFTBOA Stakes Program.
The original enhancements specificallycalled for a contribution to FSS purses of$100,000 each from the FTBOA, Calder and theFHBPA. Purses for 2-year-old maiden specialweight races would increase to $32,000, whichwould include $5,000 in FSS supplements and$5,000 in Florida owners’ awards.
Last year, Calder operated almost threemonths of the meet without a contract. Calder’stotal purses were down almost $8 million from2007 numbers. Horsemen also lost as purses,some stakes and race days were cut because ofthe lost revenue. �
26 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
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Calder, FHBPASign Contract
FTBOA Pledges $300,000for Juvenile Purses
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For more information, contact the FTBOA at(352) 629-2160
RACE DATE VALUE DIST.Frank Gomez Stakes . . . . . . . . . . . . .7/11/2009 $100,000 (including $50,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 6 furlongsJ J’s Dream Stakes-fillies . . . . . . . . . .7/11/2009 $100,000 (including $50,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 6 furlongsFSS Desert Vixen Division-fillies . . . . . .8/8/2009 $100,000 FSS (including $50,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 6 furlongsFSS Dr. Fager Division . . . . . . . . . . . .8/8/2009 $100,000 FSS (including $50,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 6 furlongsFSS Susan’s Girl Division-fillies . . . . .8/29/2009 $150,000 FSS 7 furlongsFSS Affirmed Division . . . . . . . . . . .8/29/2009 $150,000 FSS 7 furlongsSeacliff Stakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8/29/2009 $100,000 (including $50,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 1 mileLindsay Frolic Stakes . . . . . . . . . . . .8/29/2009 $100,000 (including $50,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 1 mileTurf Dash Stakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8/29/2009 $100,000 (including $50,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 5 furlongsCatcharisingstar Stakes . . . . . . . . . .8/29/2009 $100,000 (including $50,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 5 furlongsBrave Raj Stakes-fillies . . . . . . . . . . .9/26/2009 $75,000 (including $15,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 1 mile and 70 yds.Foolish Pleasure Stakes . . . . . . . . . .9/26/2009 $75,000 (including $15,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 1 mile and 70 yds.FSS My Dear Girl Division-fillies . . . .10/17/2009 $400,000 FSS 1 1/16 milesFSS In Reality Division . . . . . . . . . .10/17/2009 $400,000 FSS 1 1/16 milesCassidy Stakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10/17/2009 $75,000 (including $15,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 5 1/2 furlongsBirdonthewire Stakes . . . . . . . . . . .10/17/2009 $75,000 (including $15,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 5 1/2 furlongs
FLORIDA MILLIONJoe O’Farrell Juvenile Fillies . . . . . .11/14/2009 $150,000 (including $75,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 7 furlongsJack Price Juvenile . . . . . . . . . . . . .11/14/2009 $150,000 (including $75,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 7 furlongsArthur I. Appleton Juvenile Turf . . . .11/14/2009 $100,000 (including $50,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 1 1/16 milesJohn Franks Juvenile Fillies Turf . . .11/14/2009 $100,000 (including $50,000 FTBOA Stakes Fund) 1 1/16 miles
Stakes Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,700,00040 Maiden Special Weight2YO races - $32,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,280,000(including $5,000 FSS & $5,000 FOA) $3,980,000
Quick ReturnsFor Florida-bred Juveniles at Calder
Buy a Florida-bredat the OBS June Sale to take
advantage of these opportunities.
THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 27
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gAWinningInvolved in the Florida Thoroughbred industry for 12 years and counting,
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THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 29
By JOANN GUIDRY
Call it a Thoroughbred royal flush.
After establishing their Reddick-based Jacks Or
Better Farm in 1997, Fred and Jane Brei began
to buy broodmares. At that year’s Keeneland
November breeding stock sale, they paid $80,000 for
Bayou Plans. The stakes-winning daughter of Bayou
Hebert had earned $308,959 and was in foal to Moun-
tain Cat. Longtime card players, it was arguably the best
$80,000 bet the Breis ever made.
Bayou Plans has since produced Florida-bred graded
stakes winners Midas Eyes and Bayou’s Lassie, as well
as Florida-bred stakes winner Bourbon N Blues. She is
also the damofCup o’Joe, a 2-year-old colt byMedaglia
d’Orowho theBreis sold for a
sales-topping $1.6 million at
the 2009 Fasig-Tipton Calder
selected juvenile sale.
“Obviously Bayou Plans
has been a great broodmare
for us,” said Fred Brei, who
hails from the Chicago, Illi-
nois area and was briefly in-
volved in that state’s
Thoroughbred industry.
“She’s definitely earned her
keep year after year. She’s the
kind of broodmare that everyone wishes they had.”
But even more impressive is that the Breis’ success
extends beyond Bayou Plans and her accomplished off-
spring. In the name of their Jacks Or Better Farm, the
Breis have bred and/or raced such outstanding Florida-
breds as graded stakes winner Radical Riley and stakes
winners Garter Belt, Honey Honey Honey, Hear No
Evil, Awesome of Course, Monsieur Cat, Ladyinared-
dres, My My Mine, Scrubs, Antsinmypants, Friday’s A
Comin’ and Winnie’s Pooh Bear. Still owned by Jacks
Or Better Farm,Awesome of Course, Hear No Evil and
Monsieur Cat stand stud at Jim and Sheila DiMare’s
Ocala-based Rising Hill Farm.
Jacks Or Better Farm has twice garnered the Needles
Award (2001& 2004), which annually honors the most
successful small Florida breeding operation. In 2008,
horses bred by Jacks Or Better Farm earned $1,045,420.
As an owner last season, Jacks Or Better Farm posted
earnings of $815,539.
COMING TO THE SUNSHINE
Fred and Jane Brei met at Canterbury Corporation,
a long-term retirement facility in Crystal Lake, Illinois,
in the mid-80s. Fred, a longtime builder/developer,
built and became chief executive officer of Canterbury
Corp., where Jane was the director of nursing. Married
in 1991, the Breis left Canterbury in 1995 with
thoughts of early retirement.
They bought a home in Savannah, Georgia, and the
plan was for Jane to renovate the 1910 Southern man-
sion while Fred played golf and went fishing.
“Basically we got bored,” said Fred. “Andwhen Jane
brought up my past involvement in the Thoroughbred
business in Illinois, we started thinking about giving it
another try. We decided against Lexington because we
didn’t want to be where it got cold again.We had heard
“When Jane brought up my past involve-ment in theThoroughbred business in Illinois,we started thinking about giving it anothertry.We decided against Lexington because wedidn’t want to be where it got cold again.Wehad heard plenty about Ocala but had neverbeen there. We took out a road atlas andplanned a trip to Ocala.” –Fred Brei
HandFred and Jane Brei continue to enjoy success in the name of their Jacks Or Better Farm.
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Fred and Jane Breihave found successin Ocala.
Brei.Fre.Jane.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 12:07 PM Page 29
plenty about Ocala but had never been there. We took
out a road atlas and planned a trip to Ocala.”
Driving down in the fall of 1996, theBreis knewOcala
was where they wanted to be. By the end of December,
they had bought an 88-acre farm on 225A. Previously
known as Double R Farm, the the card-playing Breis re-
named it Jacks Or Better Farm. Once renovations on the
farm were done, the Breis went broodmare shopping.
At the 1997 Ocala Breeders’Sales Company’s Janu-
arymixed sale, the Breis bought theMaudlinmareWin-
ning For Glory in foal to Silver Buck for $7,000. They
then bought three mares privately: Vogueing, Tudor
Guest and Picnic Basket. Off to Kentucky for the 1997
Keeneland November breeding stock sale, where in ad-
dition to buying Bayou Plans for $80,000, the Breis also
bought graded stakes winner and millionairess Lottsa
Talc for $575,000; stakes winnerMais Oui for $200,000
and multiple stakes producer Nifty Fifty for $170,000.
All money well spent.
From that first batch of mares, the 1998 Jacks Or
Better Farm Florida-bred foal crop produced graded
stakes winner Radical Riley, stakes winners Winnie’s
Pooh Bear,Antsinmypants, Friday’sAComin’andMon-
sieur Cat, as well as stakes-placed IAm Nifty.
“Looking back now, it’s hard to believe how many
years ago that was,” said Brei. “I guess our horses pretty
much hit the ground running.”
BAYOU’S BABIES
Bayou Plans’ successful offspring may have come a
couple of years after those initial stakes winners, but
they’ve definitelymadeup for lost time.BayouPlans’third
foal was Midas Eyes, a very appropriately named 2000
colt by Touch Gold. He made his first start carrying the
JacksOrBetter Farm silks and broke hismaiden by eight.
Sold privately shortly after to EdmundGann,Midas Eyes
definitely brought home the gold. He won the Forego
Handicap (G1), Swale Stakes (G3) andDerbyTrial Stakes
(G3) on his way to banking $616,528. Midas Eyes was
named the 2004 Florida-bred champion sprinter. He cur-
rently stands stud at Empire Stud in Hudson, NewYork.
BourbonNBlues, whowas Bayou Plans’2001 colt by
Lycius, was also raced by JackOr Better Farm.The stakes
winnerof$90,590 stands inNewMexicoatDeGrootFarm.
Also bred and raced by Jacks Or Better Farm was
30 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
AWinning Hand
The Breisʼ filly GarterBelt (below) recentlywon the Green Oaks
Stakes at Delta Downs.
“We really breed to race.We like racing and just don’t sell thatmany at the public auctions. But this Medaglia d’Oro colt was
something special from day one. He was the most gorgeous horseever born on our farm and he was always an extraordinary
mover even as a baby. He would just glide across the paddockwith no effort.We thought he’d be a nice yearling to sell.”–Fred Brei
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Florida Dept. of Agricultureand Consumer ServicesCharles H. Bronson, Commissioner850-488-4366 • Fax 850-922-0374
e-mail: [email protected] S. Calhoun • 412 Mayo Building, Tallahassee, FL 32399
Florida ThoroughbredBreeders’ and Owners’ Association801 SW 60th Ave. • Ocala, FL 34474352-629-2160 • Fax: 352-629-3603www.ftboa.com • [email protected]
COOK
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Dept.Ag.33546.qx:Layout 1 12/15/08 10:10 AM Page 1
graded stakes winner Bayou’s Lassie, a 2003 mare by
Outflanker. Racing three seasons, Bayou’s Lassiewon six
stakes, including three graded, andwas stakes-placed four
times in 21 starts to earn $707,207. She won a graded
stakes as a three, four and five-year-old: 2006 FrancesA.
Genter Stakes (G3), 2007 Stage Door Betty Handicap
(G3) and 2008 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes (G3).
Consigned by Hidden Brook, agent for the Breis, to the
2008 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November mixed sale,
Bayou’s Lassie sold for $450,000 to HaruyaYoshida.
“Since Bayou Plans is still going strong at 18 and her
2008 foal was a filly by LemonDropKid, we decided to
sell Bayou’s Lassie,” explained Brei. “She was a super
racehorse and I’m sure she’ll be a good broodmare.”
And it was with Bayou Plans’ 2007 Medaglia d’Oro
colt that Brei hit an even bigger jackpot in the sales ring.
“We really breed to race,” said Brei. “We like racing
and just don’t sell that many at the public auctions. But
thisMedaglia d’Oro colt was something special fromday
one. He was the most gorgeous horse ever born on our
farm and he was always an extraordinary mover even as
a baby. He would just glide across the paddock with no
effort.We thought he’d be a nice yearling to sell.”
The Breis entered the dark bay, nearly black colt now
named Cup o’ Joe in the 2008 Keeneland September
yearling sale. But when he failed to meet his reserve on
a final bid of $325,000, Brei had no qualms about bring-
ing the colt home.
“I’ve never believed in giving our horses away. I’ve
always said that we breed better racehorses than we do
sale horses,” said Brei. “I knew this colt was special. I
decided I’d break and train him then see where to go
with him from there.”
Where Cup o’ Joe eventually went was the 2009
Fasig-Tipton Calder selected juvenile sale. Consigned
by Wavertree Stables, agent for the Breis, the colt was
the sales topper when he sold for $1.6 million to John
Ferguson Bloodstock. The latter representing Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.
“Once the bidding on the colt got to amillion and then
past that, I was very happy,” said Brei. “It validated what
I knew about this colt. I would’ve been happy to race him,
but I’m also happy he sold for what he did. For someone
who doesn’t breed to sell, that was something special.”
Bayou Plans has a 2008 Lemon Drop Kid filly
named Shesnolemon and a 2009 Awesome of Course
filly. At this writing, Bayou Plans was scheduled to be
bred to Candy Ride (Arg).
BREEDING TO RACE
The Breis maintain a broodmare band of 20-25. In
addition to Bayou Plans, the current 22-member group
also includes stakes producer Sexy Stockings, dam of
2009 Florida-bred stakes winner Garter Belt; stakes
winner Ladyinareddress; stakes-placed IAmNifty; and
stakes winner Precious Feather. The Breis privately
bought Precious Feather, a 1997mare byGoneWest out
of the *Vaguely Noble mare Last Feather, following the
32 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
AWinning Hand
Brei.Fre.Jane.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 12:07 PM Page 32
1998 Keeneland September yearling sale. Racing for
Jacks Or Better Farm, Precious Feather won four stakes
andwas stakes-placed three times on her way to earning
$257,441. She is the dam of stakes-placed Brooks’n
Down, by Montbrook, has a 2006 Medaglia d’Oro colt
named Precious Beans, a 2007 Congaree filly named
Diary, a 2008 Awesome of Course filly and is in foal
again to the latter.
“We’re very hands-on with our horses,” said Brei,
who in addition to being a
breeder/ owner/ trainer, is also a
director on the Florida Thor-
oughbred Breeders’andOwners’
Association’s board. “I’m there
when every one of our mares
foal. We don’t feed in the pad-
docks so our horses are brought
in twice a day to be fed and han-
dled. We always know what’s
going on with our horses.”
After leasing stalls at various training facilities, the
Breis bought 13-acres at Nelson Jones Farms andTrain-
ing Center. The farm’s training operation includes a 24-
stall training barn, six-stall isolation barn, turn-out
paddocks and use of the facility’s training track. In ad-
dition to the horses in training at the farm, there are an-
other 21with Louisiana-based trainer KennyDecker and
nine with Calder-based trainer Stanley Gold.
“We break and train all our horses here at our train-
ing center,” said Brei. “And because they’re handled so
much early and often, most of our horses are easy to
bring along.We can usually put a bridle and a saddle on
them in the stall on the first day. On the second day, we’ll
get someone up on their backs while they’re still in the
stall. By the fourth day, they’re being handwalked in the
shedrow with a rider on their back. Then we progress to
jogging in the shedrow, usually for about twoweeks. By
then they’re ready to go the training track.”
Brei likes to ship the more advanced group of two
year olds to the track by earlyApril. By that time, they’ve
been to the gates once a week for a month and posted a
couple of half-mile works.
“Our horses are fit when they
go to the racetrack,” said Brei.
“The next step in their education
is acclimating to the racetrack
environment, which depends on
the horse’s personality. But if all
goes well, most of our two years
old are ready to make their first
start on average 28 days after
they got to the racetrack.”
Not surprisingly, Brei is a strong supporter of 2-year-
old racing.
“The FTBOA has been working with Calder to em-
phasize 2-year-old racing again,” said Brei. “The purses
for 2-year-old races, especially the Florida Stallion
Stakes, need to come up to attract owners and trainers.
There has to be purse incentives to encourage people to
buy two year olds and race them. My theory is, and I
could be wrong, is that if people come in as owners of
two year olds and can make some money, they’ll stay in
the game.And if they do that, it impacts not only racing,
but the breeding and sales markets as well.”�
THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 33
Hip #94 (left) brought$1.6 million at theFasig-Tipton Calderjuvenile sale.
JOEDIORIOPHOTO
“My theory is, and I could bewrong, is that if people come inas owners of two year olds andcan make some money, they’ll
stay in the game. And if they dothat, it impacts not only racing,but the breeding and sales mar-
kets as well.”–Fred Brei
Brei.Fre.Jane.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 12:07 PM Page 33
Ocala/Marion County is blessed with mineral-rich soil and water,moderate climate and high concentration of top industry professionals.Florida’s exceptional agriculture and business climate forbreeding, training and racing means Thoroughbredsfrom the Sunshine State start with an advantage.
All of this and more is why Ocala/MarionCounty, Florida, is known around the globeand throughout the equine industry asthe Horse Capital of the World.
DiscoverHorse Heaven on Earth.
DiscoverOcala/Marion/County,Florida!
Horse Heaven on
BARB
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D.LI
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HeavenOnEarth.32383.qx:Layout 1 5/30/08 1:24 PM Page 1
on Earth
FLORIDA DEPT. OF AGRICULTUREAND CONSUMER SERVICES
Charles H. Bronson, Commissioner850-488-4366 • Fax 850-922-0374 • e-mail: [email protected]
407 S. Calhoun • 412 Mayo Building, Tallahassee, FL 32399
FLORIDA THOROUGHBREDBREEDERS’ AND OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION
801 SW 60th Ave. • Ocala, FL 34474352-629-2160 • Fax: 352-629-3603www.ftboa.com • [email protected]
HeavenOnEarth.32383.qx:Layout 1 5/30/08 1:16 PM Page 2
By NICK FORTUNA
Asone of the best players on one of the NBA’s
top teams, Rashard Lewis already was as-
sured of a highly competitive playoff season.
But for the Orlando Magic’s All-Star power forward,
game-winning 3-pointers aren’t the only exciting
events he can look forward to this spring.
Lewis and a group of childhood friends have part-
nered to purchase three Thoroughbreds that have al-
ready taken them to some of the biggest races in the
sport of kings. Lewis said he didn’t know much about
horse racing before being introduced to the sport last
year, but now that it’s in his blood, it’s become a passion
that likely will end up becoming his second career.
“It’s most definitely something I see myself involved
in when I retire,” Lewis said.
“With horse racing, even though
I’mnot actually competingmy-
self, it’s still competing.”
Lewis shares ownership of his horses with a group
of friends fromHouston, where he went to high school.
One of those friends is his business manager, Jake Bal-
lis, a real estate developer whose father, John, owned
stakes winners such as Groovy, Cutlass Reality and
Goodbye Halo. Lewis’s other partners are Jake Ballis’s
brother, Reed, an attorney, and brothers Will and Rea-
gan Swinbank, who run a trash-collecting business.
Lewis said he was familiar with horses such as Ken-
tucky Derby winners Street Sense and Big Brown, but
it wasn’t until he saw his first race in person at Saratoga
last summer that he began to fall in love with the sport.
Prior to that race, Lewis and his friends had bought a
Sky Mesa colt named Join in the Dance and sent him
to trainerTodd Pletcher.The colt immediately rewarded
the basketball star for his investment, winning by three
lengths in a $74,000 maiden special weight race.
While at Saratoga, Lewis also met University of
Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino, a Thorough-
bred owner who told him how much fun he’s had in
the sport over the years.
“I brought him to Saratoga, the best track you can
go to and the best environment,” Jake Ballis said.
36 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
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THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 37
“Join in the Dance broke his maiden there, so there
was a lot of excitement. It got him hooked.”
Since then, Join in the Dance has provided plenty
of excitement for Lewis and his friends. The 3-year-
old colt led for most of the $300,000 Tampa Bay
Derby (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs in March before fin-
ishing second to Musket Man by a neck as a 35-1 long
shot. Join in the Dance also ran fifth last month in the
$750,000 Blue Grass Stakes (G1) at Keeneland and
set the pace in the $2 million Kentucky Derby (G1) at
Churchill Downs before finishing seventh.
Ballis said Join in the Dance might run in the $1
million Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico on May 16.
Lewis and his partners also own Beyond Our
Reach, a 3-year-old, Irish-bred filly. She made her first
three starts in Europe last year before making her U.S.
debut in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at
Santa Anita, where she finished last in a 12-horse
field. Beyond Our Reach spent the winter preparing
for her 3-year-old season at J.J. Pletcher’s Payton
Training Center in Ocala.
Lewis said he was surprised that one of his horses
made it to the sport’s biggest stage in his first year as
an owner.
“It was a fun, but at the same time, it was strange
because they say a lot of people would die to go to the
Breeders’ Cup or the Kentucky Derby, and for me to
be in my first year in the business and have a horse in
the Breeders’ Cup, hopefully it’s a good sign that
they’ll be good things to come,” he said. “But I know
Stable
Join in theDance mightbe slatedfor thePreaknessStakes.
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it’s very tough, and it’s not something that just hap-
pens normally. Some people never get a horse that’s
good enough to run in a race like that.”
In addition, Lewis and his friends recently pur-
chased a juvenile colt from the first crop of Florida-
bred Limehouse. Ballis said the horse likely will be
named Dream Shake in honor of Hakeem “The
Dream” Olajuwon, a Hall-of-Fame basketball player
with the Houston Rockets who invested in real estate
deals with the Ballis family. The colt was purchased
from Juvenal Diaz, who owns Omega Farm in Ocala.
Ballis said the colt likely will make his first start in
May at Belmont Park, and plans call for all three of his
group’s horses to compete at Saratoga this summer.
Though Lewis saw the Tampa Bay Derby in person,
his busy schedule with theMagic prevents him from at-
tending many of his horses’ races, including the Breed-
ers’ Cup. Still, Ballis said the basketball star is far more
than just a silent partner.
“He gets updates every day,” Ballis said. “He calls
me about three times a day asking about the horses. He’s
a lot more involved than anybodywould ever think he is.
It’s a lot of fun.”
For Lewis, success in horse racing has come even
quicker than in basketball.After entering the 1998NBA
draft straight out of high school, Lewis watched as his
hometown Rockets chose three players instead of him
in the first round. Lewis was drafted by Seattle in the
second round and averaged just 2.4 points during his
rookie season with the SuperSonics.
Since then, Lewis has blossomed into one of the
NBA’s best talents. He was named an All-Star for the
second time this year, his second season with Orlando
following nine years in Seattle. For his career, he’s aver-
aged 16.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. This sea-
son, he’s partnered withAll-Star center Dwight Howard
to give Orlando one of the best front-court tandems in
the league and a Southeast Division title.
Lewis joined theMagic in 2007with a six-year, $118
million contract. That kind of money obviously can buy
a lot of horses, but Ballis said he plans on keeping the
stable small for the foresee-
able future.
“We have three, and we’ll
probably stick to three for a
while,” he said. “That’s the
plan right now, but it depends
on how the other ones run. If we have success, I’m hop-
ing to get a couple other basketball players involved and
keep it a small group.”
Lewis said he also plans to grow his stable slowly,
though his interest in the sport has grown by leaps and
bounds.
“I’ve gotten really into it,” he said. “When I watch
ESPN, if I see ‘Horse’at the bottom of the screen, I wait
on it to see who they’re talking about and what they’re
talking about. I’ve been readingmore about it and look-
ing at other horses that are running. I catch myself
watching other horses.” �
38 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
NBA star Lewis finding success as horse owner
“It’s most definitely something I see myself
involved in when I retire. With horse racing, even though I’m not
actually competing myself, it’s still competing.” —Rashard Lewis
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Winners – both equineand human – possess a keeneye for opportunity.
Don’t miss yournext opportunity toacquire race ready,Florida-breds!
OBS JuneTwo-Year-Olds & Horsesof RacingAge Sale – June 16-17
Florida’s breeders have produced 46 national champions, including 2008Eclipse Award-winning sprinter Benny the Bull. Two other Florida-breds –Ginger Punch, a previous Eclipse winner, and Vineyard Haven – were alsoEclipse finalists this year.
Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs has been honored as the nation’s leadingbreeder for five consecutive years and swept top breeder and owner cate-gories at this year’s Eclipse Awards.
Success like this is why Florida is the ideal place to breed, raise, sell,and race champion Thoroughbreds.
Don’t let the chance to acquire a po-tential future champion bred and raised in
the Sunshine State pass you by!Florida Dept. of Agriculture
and Consumer ServicesCharles H. Bronson, Commissioner850-488-4366 • Fax 850-922-0374
e-mail: [email protected] S. Calhoun • 412 Mayo Building, Tallahassee, FL 32399
Florida ThoroughbredBreeders’ and Owners’ Association
801 SW 60th Ave. • Ocala, FL 34474352-629-2160 • Fax: 352-629-3603www.ftboa.com • [email protected]
ThinkFast.FH.qx:Layout 1 5/5/09 12:26 PM Page 1
By NICK FORTUNA
Asthe horses were loaded into the start-ing gates for the Hilton Garden InnSprint, trainer Lynne Scace couldn’t help
but notice that one of the leading contenderswasn’t very happy to be there. How’sYour Halowas in gate No. 9, just to the inside of her horse,On theVineyard, and was making his displeas-ure known to everyone within earshot.“He was acting up, and I could hear the
banging around in there, and I said, ‘Oh, myGod,’” Scace said. “But On the Vineyard juststood right there and never batted an eye. Henever even twitched.”
40 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
PackSixSunshine State
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THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 41
Florida Cup Day featured sixstakes races worth $85,000 each
FloridaCupDay.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 2:45 PM Page 41
On the Vineyard’s professional approach paid div-
idends that day, as he earned his first stakes victory as
a 30-1 long shot. His performance was part of a mem-
orable Florida Cup Day at Tampa Bay Downs onApril
4, when six stakes races worth $85,000 apiece were
contested by horses bred in the Sunshine State.
On the Vineyard ran just outside the pacesetter,
Stradivinsky, for much of the six-furlong race before
making his move near the top of the stretch. He fin-
ished in a time of 1:09.59 withWillie Martinez aboard
to win by 1¾ lengths and earn his fifth victory in 12
career starts. The 5-year-old son of Lite the Fuse has
earned $130,447 for Scace, who bred him at her Dou-
ble S Farm in Ocala and still owns him.
Scace had scored another victory earlier in the day
with Snow Lass, who won the seven-furlong Stone-
hedge Farm South Sophomore Fillies Stakes by 3 ¼
lengths in a time of 1:23.78. The 3-year-old filly led
the race most of the way to remain undefeated in three
starts and boost her earnings to $77,320. The daugh-
ter of Stormy Atlantic was bred and is owned by
Ocala’s Bridlewood Farm.
“She has a nice turn of foot, and I wanted to get
her away first and keep the other filly with speed in-
side me,” winning rider Rosemary Homeister Jr. said.
“We were clear going to the turn, and I looked around
at the quarter pole to see if anyone was coming – there
wasn’t. I was pretty sure then she would be alright get-
ting seven furlongs for the first time. We were just
breezing along at the wire.”
Along with Scace, trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. and jock-
eys Daniel Centeno and Elvis Trujillo were the big
winners of the day with two stakes victories apiece.
Trujillo steered Quiet Meadow to her first stakes
victory in the 11⁄16-mile L and D Farm Distaff, for fil-
lies and mares ages 4 and up. The 4-year-old filly, bred
by the late Arthur Appleton and owned by Hidden
Brook, entered the top of the stretch with a one-length
lead and held off the favored Scolara to win by half a
length.
The victory gave Quiet Meadow three wins in 11
starts and earnings of $135,008.
“We got away really well early,” Trujillo said. “She
can be a bit eager, and I had to make her relax getting
into the backstretch. We got a break when the leader
drifted out entering the turn and we were suddenly on
the lead, maybe a bit too soon. A horse came at us in
the stretch, and I touched her twice with the whip; she
didn’t like that, so I went back to hand riding, and she
was going again at the end.”
Trujillo also won the nine-furlong Kinsman Farm
Turf Classic aboard Fearless Eagle, who rallied past
Marquet Cat to win by a neck. Fearless Eagle, a son of
Rising Hill Farm stallion Invisible Ink, earned his fourth
42 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
Florida Cup Day
Quiet Meadow (below)held off Scolara to win
the L and D Farm Distaff.
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stakes victory. He had also won the Lord Juban, Jackie
Wackie and PeteAxthelm stakes at Calder Race Course.
FearlessEagle haswon six of his 18 starts for $253,870
for breeder/owner IsaacMuhtar and trainer Plesa.
“I had never ridden the horse before, so I wanted to
be careful and save all the ground I could,” Trujillo
said. “He wanted to get after them in the backstretch,
but I kept him behind horses and made him wait.
When the rail opened going into the stretch, he really
went for it. It might have looked close at the wire, but
we were eating up the ground.”
Centeno and Bee Cee Cee won the seven-furlong
Ocala Breeders’ Sales Sophomore Stakes by three
lengths for Plesa and owner J. Robert Harris Jr. The
3-year-old son of Songandaprayer, bred by Ocala’s
Marion Montanari, had gone winless in seven straight
races since capturing the B L’s Sweep overnight stakes
at Calder in June.
Bee Cee Cee has won three of his 10 starts for
$159,900.
THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 43
Snow Lass remainedundefeated in threestarts while winning theStonehedge FarmSouth SophomoreFillies Stakes.Fearless Eagle (below)won the Kinsman FarmTurf Classic by a neck.
FloridaCupDay.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 2:46 PM Page 43
“When we got clear going into the turn, he really
started to roll,” Centeno said. “Going seven furlongs
was no trouble for him at all.”
Centeno also piloted the heavily favoredTamborim
to a win in the 11⁄16-mile DaytonAndrews Dodge Soph-
omore Turf. Tamborim, a 3-year-old son of Belong to
Me, beat Duke of Mischief by three-quarters of a length
to earn his third victory in seven starts. The colt, bred
and owned by Ocala’s Haras Santa Maria deAraras, also
won the Arthur I. Appleton Juvenile Turf at Calder in
November and has earned $138,976.
“We broke well and got across just off the leaders,
and he did relax nicely,” Centeno said. “I went after them
going into the turn, and he had to work hard to get by.
Maybe he was tiring because he was trying to get in on
me in mid-stretch, but I got him straight, and he pulled
away. I knew something was coming fast outside us, but
we were there first.” �
44 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
Florida Cup Day
Heavily favored Tamborim(above) wins the DaytonAndrews Dodge Sopho-more Turf. Bee Cee Cee(at right) won the seven-furlong Ocala Breedersʼ
Sales Sophomore Stakesby three lengths.
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Florida Dept. of Agricultureand Consumer ServicesCharles H. Bronson, Commissioner850-488-4366 • Fax 850-922-0374
e-mail: [email protected] S. Calhoun • 412 Mayo Building, Tallahassee, FL 32399
Florida ThoroughbredBreeders’ and Owners’ Association801 SW 60th Ave. • Ocala, FL 34474352-629-2160 • Fax: 352-629-3603www.ftboa.com • [email protected]
Breeders&StallionOwners Awards$7.0 million
Owners’ Awards
$7.0 millionThe Sunshine Millionsat Gulfstream Park
The Florida Millionsat Calder Race Course
Florida Cup Dayat Tampa Bay Downs
$3.0 million(Paid by individual Florida racetracks to the owners ofFTBOA registered Florida-bred winners)
Florida Stallion Stakes$1.3 million(Only foals by eligible Florida Sires registered with the FTBOA)(Total Florida Stallion Stakes Program)
TToottaall FFlloorriiddaa--bbrreedd AAwwaarrddss PPrrooggrraamm$18.3 million
FTBOA Stakes Program
Florida Owners’ Awards
Dept.Ag.33361.qx:Layout 1 11/6/08 11:31 AM Page 1
46 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
Thermography can be used todetect abnormalities weeksbefore they cause lameness
Tells a StoryEquineCare
By DENISE STEFFANUS
Pain and swelling often are the first
signs that a horse is going lame.
The groom or trainer may notice
the problem when the horse comes back
from the track, or it may appear out of
the blue with no apparent cause. At this
point, the horse has to be sidelined or its
training cut back to allow time for the
horse to be treated and recover.
EquineCare.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 3:29 PM Page 46
Thermography, a noninvasive diagnostic
tool, can enable a veterinarian to detect sub-
tle alterations in blood flow weeks before
clinical signs appear. Many times, this early
warning allows trainers to make changes in
the horse’s care and training or seek medical
treatment that can prevent it from becoming
lame.More importantly, thermography’s abil-
ity to reveal stress fractures may save horses
from catastrophic breakdowns.
Tracy Turner, D.V.M., M.S., has been
studying the efficacy of thermography for
more than a decade. His work with actively
racing Thoroughbreds has shown that ther-
mography has merit, although it was received
with skepticism when it was first introduced
to equine veterinary medicine in the 1990s.
RACEHORSES BENEFIT
Thermography records the skin tempera-
ture and presents a pictorial representation of
the surface of the horse. Although images
measure only skin temperature, they also re-
flect alterations in circulation of deeper tissues.
Unusually hot or cold areas may be indicative
of some underlying pathology. This ability to
noninvasively assess inflammationmakes ther-
mography an ideal imaging tool to aid in the
diagnosis of certain lameness conditions, such
as those affecting the upper hind limb.
“We did a study at Canterbury Park in
Minnesota over a two-year period,” said
Turner, a board-certified surgeon at Anoka
EquineVeterinary Services in Elk River,Min-
nesota. “On average, we could pick things up
two weeks before they became clinical.”
Turner performed his first racetrack study
in 1998 at Canterbury Park and Ellis Park in
Kentucky when he was a researcher at the
University of Minnesota. At first, trainers
were skeptical that an image of the skin tem-
perature of the horse could reveal deeper
problems. But as veterinarians looked more
closely at areas flagged by the thermal images
and found underlying problems that no one
knew existed, trainers became more con-
vinced of its validity as a diagnostic tool.
“Several trainers were convincedwemade
their horses winners because we discovered
muscle injuries they were not aware of that
they subsequently treated,” Turner said in
1998 upon completion of the study. “And we
found one horse in every trainer’s barn [who
participated in the study] that the trainer sent
home because of what we found. They were
not lame but had training problems, and we
kept discovering more and more inflamma-
tory spots.”
Turner and his colleagues found that some
stables seemed to have more of a particular
problem, such as sore tendons or inflamed
joints, than other issues. They concluded that
the injuries might be related to the trainer’s
management practices and/or training style.
So they made suggestions on how the trainer
could avoid such injuries, and most trainers
took their advice.
THERMAL PATTERNS
Thermal patterns are the key to thermog-
raphy. Normal horses have a familiar pattern
of temperature variations. Different tempera-
ture ranges are displayed on the image as dif-
ferent colors. Local circulation determines the
thermal pattern.
EquineCare.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 3:29 PM Page 47
While factors such as poultices or lini-
ments may indicate the presence of heat on
the thermal image, experienced thermologists
usually can differentiate between artifacts and
valid readings.
“Poultices and things like that tend to give
very telltale signs, so we can look at the image
and determine it was due to a poul-
tice,” Turner said. “But if I’ve had a
poultice on two front legs and I take
it off and look at the horse, and one
leg is still way hotter than the other,
you better look at that leg because it
usually is an indication that some-
thing else is going on.”
Skin temperature increases with
muscle activity, so even subtle
changes in temperature can raise a
red flag for closer investigation. For
example, a horse whose front legs
show up as slightly different col-
ors—one has more blood flow than
the other—may reflect an effort by
the horse to guard a leg that is both-
ering it by moving it more restrictively.
“You have to learn how to read these little
nuances,” Turner said. “It’s not just find the
hot spot and you’re OK. It’s looking for other
subtleties, too.”
Besides problems with tendons, ligaments,
muscles and other soft tissues, thermography
can shine a light on stress fractures that, if left
unattended, could escalate to catastrophic
breakdowns.
“It’s a good screening tool, although it’s not
an absolute,”Turner said. “It can pick up a lot
of stresses before you ever know they’re there.
We can certainly see stress fractures. And
there are things that I’m starting to see now
higher up—stress fractures in tibias and other
things that I’m beginning to recognize. What
you will see are patterns that become abnor-
mal, and once it becomes abnormal, then you
have to figure out why it’s doing that.”
When thermography first was introduced
in equine medicine, both veterinarians and
horsemen were disillusioned when they found
it entailed an extensive learning curve. Lame-
ness problems already showing clinical signs
of heat and swelling displayed as bright-red hot
spots. The challenge was to identify problems
that no one knew existed, and this required ex-
pert interpretation of the thermal image.
An experienced thermologist learns to rec-
ognize certain abnormal thermal patterns and
associate them with specific lameness issues.
When one of these patterns, which Turner
calls “an index of suspicion,” occurs, other di-
agnostic modalities—radiographs, ultrasound
scans, bone scans or magnetic resonance im-
aging (MRI)—can be used to investigate the
areas of concern more closely.
“What everybody would like is for the
thermal image to have a hot spot right where
the problem is, and you could go there and
find the stress fracture,” Turner said. “It’s not
quite that simple. Skin temperature is directly
related to the circulation and the blood flow,
and that’s all regulated by how the animal uses
the leg. If you expect it to be like the StarTrek
tricorder, where it beeps and finds the spot,
it’s not going to do that for you. It does require
some interpretation, but it can be really use-
ful.”
ROUTINE OR LAST-MINUTE
To achieve the best benefit, a trainer ide-
ally should incorporate thermography into
his or her training program. In his racetrack
studies, Turner took 20 key, whole-body im-
ages of each horse at seven- to 14-day in-
tervals. These 20 images, which typically
take about 10 minutes to complete, are ones
that he and his colleagues determined are
the most pertinent and provide the most in-
formation.
Using this protocol, Turner es-
tablished a routine that enabled him
to follow each horse through train-
ing and racing, noting changing pat-
terns in the thermal imaging. If he
found changes that did not look nor-
mal, he would discuss them with the
trainer, and they would decide how
to proceed.
Establishing a baseline reading
and following a horse throughout its
training program is not necessary,
however.
“We can go in blind and look at
them,” Turner said about perform-
ing a thermography scan before en-
tering a horse to ensure it is sound going
into the race. “What you’re trying to do is
make sure nothing happens [to injure it].”
None of the horses in Turner’s study suf-
fered a catastrophic injury, but he is reluctant
to say it was because of the thermographic
monitoring. One horse whose tendon Turner
monitored throughout the study finally
bowed a month after he left the program.
“We had one horse whose tendon we
watched all year long, and it always had
some heat in it, but it never got really hot,”
Turner recalled. “We did some ultrasounds
and watched it and got the horse through the
whole meet, only that 30 days after it left
here, it bowed a tendon finally. I felt like we
had kept it under control by following it
along.”
As veterinarians become more experi-
enced at using thermography, the knowl-
edge base associated with this diagnostic
modality will continue to expand. Once
horsemen recognize its value, imaging a
horse before a big race may become part of
the protocol for making racing safer. �
48 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
EquineCare
“Several trainers were convinced we made
their horses winners because we discovered
muscle injuries they were not aware of that
they subsequently treated. And we found
one horse in every trainer’s barn [who par-
ticipated in the study] that the trainer sent
home because of what we found. They were
not lame but had training problems, and we
kept discovering more and more inflamma-
tory spots.”—Tracy Turner, D.V.M., M.S.
EquineCare.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 2:55 PM Page 48
THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 49
By CARLOS E. MEDINA
Florida-bredTrust Or Bust has busted out with three straight
wins in 2009, including his second stakes win in a row, after
taking the $75,000 Panhandle Handicap May 2 in gate-to-
wire fashion at Mountaineer Park.
Bred in Florida by Briggs/Cromartie and CraigWheeler’sMont-
gomery Farm, the 4-year-old son of Trust N Luck has hit the board
in all six of his starts this year.The streak goes back to his 3-year-old
campaign. After a sixth-place finish in March at Gulfstream Park,
Trust Or Bust won or hit the board in his next four sophomore races.
The gelding, out of the Nureyev mare Dance Lead, has only
missed the board twice in his career.
“He is a very versatile horse,” saidWheeler, who sold the horse
privately to Happy Hour Stable a few months ago. “He can run on
the grass, the dirt and the slop. It’s a good thing to have that versa-
tility.We always liked him; we just happened to be in the spot where
it was time to move some horses, and he got caught up in that.
“The only race he ever blew was his first one, when he got
mixed up in the pack and got bumped around some.That’s the only
bad race he’s ever had,” he said. “The new owner has found a niche
for him and has picked his spots well.”
Trust Or Bust went off as a 3-1 pick in the
five-furlong race, but he ran like the favorite.
He broke on top from the third spot and
never let go of the lead. Staying toward the
inside, Trust Or Bust led easily and came
around the turn with a one-length lead. He
was asked by his jockey at the top of the lane
and responded, extending his lead through
the stretch to win by 3 ¼ lengths.
Trust Or Bust paid $7.80 for the win and
extended his career record to five wins in 13
starts. He has now earned $177,120.
In his last start April 18, he won the Webb Snyder Stakes at
Charles Town. Trust Or Bust won that 4 ½-furlong contest by half
a length and scored a Beyer Speed Figure of 95, equaling his best,
which he earned in an allowance race just 16 days earlier.
“We are tickled to death for the owner. When you sell a horse,
you want people to do well with them so they come back,” said
Wheeler. “The owner is also the trainer, and it’s a very hands-on op-
eration.”
Wheeler remembers Trust Or Bust as a easy-going horse.
“They put blinkers on him.We never did becausewe didn’t think
he needed them. He is the kindest horse you’ll ever come across.
When we ran him down south, PeteAnderson had him, and he just
loved him. He was a nice mover and always was easy on himself.
Pete said he almost trained himself,” Wheeler said. “I hope they
bring him back to Florida.We wish him all the luck.” �
Florida-bred Trust Or BustWins Second Straight Stakes
FLORIDANEWS
Craig Wheeler andFlorida-bred TrustOr Bust (above)
have three straightwins in 2009.
Page49.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/6/09 11:40 AM Page 49
What’s
Your Horse?By SAUNDRA TEN BROECK, Ph.D.,University of Florida EquineExtension Specialist
Ifyou own horses, you will certainly have
flies. Horses and horse manure are pow-
erful attractants to a large number of fly
species. Though flies are seasonal, Florida’s
mild winter climate provides ideal conditions
for some species of fly pest year round. Un-
derstanding the seasonal patterns of these
pests, the conditions that are hospitable to
their reproduction and their feeding behaviors
will help horse owners develop strategies to
protect their animals.
The most common fly pests of horses in
Florida are stable flies, house flies, tabanids
(horse, yellow and deer flies), mosquitoes,
horn flies and cullicoides (no-see-ums). Life
cycles of flies vary but they are time depen-
dant upon temperature and moisture. The life
stages include egg, larva, pupae and adult.
The life cycle from egg to adult in ideal
conditions for house flies is 6.5 days, for sta-
ble flies is 10-4 days, and for horn flies is 21
days.
Stable flies thrive in cooler, wet months
when hay residue is available as a breeding
medium.These flies are persistent blood feed-
ers delivering a painful bite. Both male and
females take blood meals during the day and
the preferred feeding site is the lower legs. If
you see a lot of foot stomping, it is likely that
your major problem is stable flies. Cleaning
up hay residue, compostingmanure and drag-
ging pastures are the best methods of control.
Tabanids include several fly groups, most
notable the horse fly, deer fly and yellow fly.
The females take blood meals by inserting
their bayonet-like mouthparts into the horse,
creating a wound and lapping up the blood.
Horses react to the bite and often dislodge the
fly, interrupting the meal. The fly then makes
another wound and continues until full. They
also inject an anticoagulant into the wound so
the blood drip remaining is an attractant to
other flies.They produce only one generation
per year in marshy areas and emerge in early
summer.
Horn flies are cattle pests and the horse is
a dead end host. Horn flies remain on the host
animal at all times, leaving only to lay eggs
in fresh cow patties. If your horses are near
cattle pastures, you will likely see horn flies
on their backs and bellies. Though they take
blood meals and are a nuisance, they are of
little economic consequence.
Cullicoides, also known as no-see-ums,
punkies or biting midges are small flies that
feed on the ears, neck, chest, belly and tail of
horses. Many horses are hypersensitive to
these pests and will develop what some refer
to as muck itch. They feed at dust and dawn
but do not seem to like to come indoors. Fans
and housing horses indoors at night seem to
limit exposure.Application of fly spray in the
evening is also helpful.
House flies can develop in almost any de-
caying matter, but horse dung is a favorite
breeding medium.Though house flies do not
bite, they typically leave a vomit droplet along
with a fecal drop when they visit a feeding
site.Thus, they can serve asmechanical trans-
mitters of harmful microorganisms and are an
intermediate host for stomach worms in
horses. Due to a very short life cycle, house
flies can establish very large populations in a
short time. �
50 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
Controlling theFly control is best accomplished by
using several management strategies.Flies need breeding materials, optimummoisture and adequate warmth to com-plete their life cycles. Elimination ofbreeding materials, control of moisture,mechanical control and judicious use ofinsecticides in combination are the bestapproach. Good sanitation, composting,use of fans and removal of standingwater are relatively inexpensive, environ-mentally friendly approaches to fly con-trol. These practices can also get youhigh marks with the neighbors.
about Mosquitoes?Mosquitoes require water to lay eggs
and have a relatively short life cycleunder good conditions. During dryweather, mosquito numbers may below, but 10 days after a rain event, thehatch rate will be noticeable. Mosquitobites are not only irritating, they cantransfer diseases such as Encephalitisor West Nile Virus. It is critical thathorse owners vaccinate prior to theJune rainy season so that horses will beprotected when mosquitoes emerge.Boosters need to be given throughoutthe year based on where you live, theamount of standing water and the rain-fall which will dictate mosquito preva-lence. Mosquitoes feed from dusk untildawn and are not strong fliers. Bringinghorses inside in the evening and run-ning fans can limit the number of mos-quitoes feeding on them.
Understanding pestbehavior can helpyou better protect
your horses.
hatW
lieF s
BugStory.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 1:21 PM Page 1
THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 51
The following list includes currently active, deceased, and pensioned stallions, with racing resultsupdated through May 5, 2009. Statistics provided by The Jockey Club Information Systems Inc.
Leading Florida Sires
CHAPEL ROYALPUT IT BACK MONTBROOKNA Stk Gr Leading Leading Yrlg Yrlg 2yo 2yo
Name Sire Name Farm Name Earnings Strtrs Wnrs SW's Wins SW's Earnings Earner Earnings Sold Avg Sold Avg
Put It Back Honour and Glory Bridlewood Farm $1,119,068 93 38 4 5 1 $1,166,786 High Resolve $177,000 5 $12,300 5 $23,000
Chapel Royal Montbrook Signature Stallions $1,011,524 78 29 2 2 1 $1,084,755 Advice $224,240 45 $30,646 9 $44,222
Montbrook Buckaroo Ocala Stud $987,683 89 34 2 2 0 $987,683 Oilgonewile $90,000 13 $19,246 16 $40,013
Concerto Chief's Crown Ocala Stud $943,099 64 26 1 1 1 $943,099 Finallymadeit $270,000 5 $10,500 4 $34,500
Graeme Hall Dehere Winding Oaks Farm $832,182 88 38 1 1 0 $832,182 Stoneyer $50,319 20 $30,370 5 $105,400
Milwaukee Brew Wild Again Adena Springs South $801,477 77 32 2 3 0 $810,746 Milwaukee Appeal $98,760 32 $14,363 14 $32,750
Halo's Image Halo Bridlewood Farm $730,613 72 24 1 1 1 $730,613 How's Your Halo $115,450 6 $19,617 6 $25,583
Alphabet Soup Cozzene Adena Springs South $672,353 109 31 1 1 0 $675,329 Walloon $38,468 19 $23,030 3 $31,667
Double Honor Gone West Get Away Farm $632,849 83 30 0 0 0 $654,577 Double Or Nothing $50,860 8 $6,113 8 $11,525
Untuttable Unbridled Stonehedge Farm South $648,401 51 14 1 2 1 $648,401 This Ones for Phil $265,000 1 $19,000 5 $20,500
LeadingSire.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 4:38 PM Page 1
By NICK FORTUNA
AnA.P. Indy colt brought a final bid
of $675,000 to top the OBS spring
sale of 2-year-olds in training, be-
coming the highest-priced juvenile sold at
OBS this year. The
horse was purchased
by John Ferguson,
the chief bloodstock adviser for SheikhMo-
hammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Godol-
phin and Darley racing operations.
Seventeenhorses sold for$100,000ormore
at the four-day saleApril 20-23.A total of 809
horseswere sold for $20.2million.That figure
was a 10.6 percent decline from last year’s
sale, where 772 head grossed $22.6 million.
The average price at this year’s sale was
$24,962, a drop of 14.6 percent from last
year’s average of $29,246.The median price
this year was $15,000, down 16.7 percent
from last year’s figure of $18,000. The buy-
back percentage fell to 23.1 percent this year
from 27.6 percent last year.
Barry Eisaman’s Williston-based
Eisaman Equine operation was the leading
consignor at the sale, with 30 head selling
for $1.27 million. Ocala Stud Farm ranked
second with 35 horses going for $981,000.
The sales-topping colt, listed as hipNo. 38,
was consignedbyM.NealSims forCarlBowl-
ing, who purchased the horse for $175,000 at
last September’s Keeneland sale of yearlings.
During the OBS
under-tack show,
the colt breezed an
eighth of amile in 10 2/5 seconds.
Sims said the horse had been scheduled
to be sold in March at Fasig-Tipton’s sale of
selected 2-year-olds in training at Calder
Race Course, but he was pulled out of the
sale after sustaining a deep cut to his hip.
“Carl Bowling told everybody when he
52 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
A.P. Indy Colt Tops OBS’s AprilSale of Juveniles
FLORIDA HORSENEWS
JOE
DIOR
IOPH
OTO
Seventeen horses go for $100,000 or more at four-day sale
Hip #38 sold for $675,000 at the OBS Spring saleof Two-Year-Olds in training
OBS.April.NEWS.52,53.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 1:23 PM Page 52
THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 53
bought him howmuch he liked him and that
if they didn’t give him $400,000 or above, he
wasn’t going to sell the horse. He was going
to race him and prove that he was a race-
horse,” Sims said. “He has a standout pedi-
gree, and he’s a standout individual. He
trained really well, and he just
has an air of class about him. I
think everybody that was here
looking for the standout horses
really liked him.”
The colt’s sire was the 1992
Horse of theYear after winning
the Belmont Stakes (G1), the
Breeders’Cup Classic (G1) and
the Santa Anita Derby (G1) on
his way to $2.98 million in career earnings.
The colt is out of the Signal Tap mare Got
Koko, who won seven races for $960,946.
As a 3-year-old in 2002, Got Koko earned
the biggest victory of her career in the La
Brea Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park. She
also earned Grade 2 victories at the Califor-
nia track in the El Encino Stakes, the La
Canada Stakes and the Lady’s Secret Breed-
ers’ Cup Handicap.
The horse who brought the sale’s second-
highest price was a Sky Mesa colt, hip No.
105, who sold for $240,000. The colt was
consigned by Casey Newick, agent, and pur-
chased by John Oxley. The horse breezed an
eighth of a mile in 10 3/5 seconds at the
under-tack show.
The colt’s sire won theHope-
ful Stakes (G1) at Saratoga in
2002. The juvenile is out of the
Dr. Blum mare Impulse Shop-
per, who had four victories for
$157,043. That mare has pro-
duced two winners – Dubliner
and Second Marriage.
Hip No. 237, a Tapit colt,
brought a final bid of $190,000
from Bear Stables. The horse, consigned by
Ricky Leppala, agent, breezed a quarter of a
mile in 21 2/5 seconds at the OBS training
track. His sire won theWoodMemorial (G1)
at Aqueduct in 2004. The juvenile is out of
theWildWonder mare Luvthat’ Jackie.
A Florida-bred Snow Ridge filly sold for
$180,000, the fourth-highest price at the sale.
Ferguson purchased the filly, listed as hip
No. 443 and consigned by Leprechaun Rac-
ing, agent. At the under-tack show, the filly
worked an eighth of a mile in 9 4/5 seconds.
Leprechaun Racing owner Mike Mulligan
had purchased the horse for $20,000 last
September at the Fasig-Tipton sale of year-
lings in Timonium, Md.
“She’s just a really special filly,”Mulligan
said. “She worked great and galloped out
perfectly. I got her in 20 flat for the quarter-
mile. She’s done everything right and never
had a bad day. She’s just a superior filly. She
was really impressive and balanced. I just
wish I could have a year where I had 10 or 15
fillies like her. She’s a lovely filly, and every-
body who knows what a good horse looks
like was bidding on her.”
Snow Ridge won the San Carlos Handi-
cap (G1) at SantaAnita in 2002 on his way to
$711,989 in career earnings. Hip No. 443 is
out of the Gilded Time mare Placerita, who
was a winner at age 3 and earned $84,800.
The broodmare has produced four other reg-
istered foals, including three winners.
Rounding out the sale’s top five horses
was a Stormy Atlantic filly who brought a
final bid of $170,000. The filly was con-
signed byRandyMiles, agent, and purchased
by Roger Dreyer.
The horse is out of the Mr. Greeley mare
Virginia Miss, who won three races and
earned $116,375 at the racetrack. Hip No.
859’s sire won the Damitrius Stakes at
Delaware Park and finished his career with
$148,126 in earnings.At the OBS under-tack
show, the filly breezed an eighth of a mile in
10 seconds.
“When she was at the farm, she was just
another good horse,” Miles said. “She did
everything right. But from the time she came
here, she acted like she owned the joint. She
walked to the track like she was a 3-year-old.
She was 110 percent A-plus and handled
everything with class while she was here.
She just thrived.”�
NICK
FORT
UNAP
HOTO
Neal Sims
JOE
DIOR
IOPH
OTO
OBS.April.NEWS.52,53.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 1:23 PM Page 53
By BETH HARRIS AP Racing Writer
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Calvin Borel
was in a familiar place, along the rail and
urging Mine That Bird to fly through the
mud. Trainer BennieWoolley Jr. was some-
place he never imagined—the Kentucky
Derby, with his horse in the lead.
Together they pulled off one of the great-
est upsets in 135 years ofAmerica’s most fa-
mous horse race.
“It was a Street Sense move,” Borel said
May 2nd, referring to the same rail-hugging
ride he gave that colt to win the Derby two
years ago. “They can only go so fast, so far.
When I hollered at him, he just went on.”
Sent off at 50-1 odds, Mine That Bird
pulled away in the stretch to score a 6¾-
length victory at Churchill Downs, the sec-
ond-biggest upset in Derby history. His
margin was the largest sinceAssault won by
eight lengths in 1946.
The gelding ran 1¼miles on a sloppy dirt
track in 2:02.66 and paid $103.20 to win -
second-largest payout in Derby history be-
hind Donerail ($184.90) in 1913.
Pioneerof the Nile, trained in Ocala at
theMcKathan Bros. Farm in Citra, finished
second for freshly minted Hall of Fame
trainer Bob Baffert, a three-time Derby win-
ner. Musket Man, winner of the Tampa Bay
Derby, was another nose back in third, fol-
lowed by Papa Clem.
Friesan Fire, the 7-2 wagering favorite of
153,563 fans, was 18th in the 19-horse field.
Earlier in the day, IWant Revenge became
the first morning-line favorite to be scratched
onDerbyDay after inflammationwas detected
in the colt’s left front ankle.The injury wasn’t
believed to be career-threatening but worri-
some enough to prompt trainer Jeff Mullins
and owner David Lanzman to withdraw.
MineThat Bird got squeezed coming out
of the starting gate, but Borel took a firm
hold and wrestled the horse to the rail while
they were in last place.
They were 12th and going strong with a
quarter mile to go, after working their way
around Atomic Rain. Borel quickly angled
MineThat Bird back to the inside with three-
sixteenths to go and shot the gelding through
a tight spot approaching the eighth pole.
“I had enough room,” Borel said. “He’s a
small horse.”
Once free,MineThat Bird quickly accel-
erated toward an improbable victory.
“I salute Calvin for his terrific ride,” said
trainer Todd Pletcher, whose Derby losing
streak extended to 0-of-24. “It’s an amazing
story. It just shows you how special this race
is. Anything can happen.”
Woolley, a former Quarter Horse trainer
who spent time on the rodeo circuit as a bare-
back rider, hobbled on crutches to the win-
Calvin Borel celebrates afterwinning the Kentucky Derbyaboard Mine That Bird.
54 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
Mine That Bird Pulls Off Upset in Kentucky DerbyFLORIDA HORSENEWS
JOE
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DerbyNEWS.54,55.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 1:25 PM Page 54
THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 55
ner’s circle. The 45-year-old self-described
cowboy fromNewMexico broke his right leg
in a motorcycle accident two months ago.
“I’m feeling like I never have before,”
Woolley said. “I was just blown away.”
He met up with a tearful Borel, whose
mind was on his parents and paid them trib-
ute by crossing the finish line with his whip
pointing to the overcast sky.
“If they could only be here to seewhat I ac-
complish inmy life,” he said, his voice choking.
Borel became the first jockey since 1993
to complete the Oaks-Derby double, having
ridden Rachel Alexandra to an eye-popping
20¼-length victory Friday.
Woolley joined a parade of trainers who
won with their first Derby starter, the sixth
time in seven years it has happened.
Still, he outfoxed Baffert and three other
Hall of Fame trainers. Bill Mott was 12th
with Hold Me Back, while Nick Zito was
17th with Nowhere to Hide, and D. Wayne
Lukas was last with Flying Private.
“Those cowboys,” Baffert said. “They
came with a good horse.”
MineThat Bird, the son of 2004 Belmont
Stakes winner Birdstone, became the ninth
JIM LITKE AP Sports ColumnistLOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - The horse came out
of nowhere.The trainer might as well have, too.Maybe the reason no one saw Mine That Bird
and Bennie Woolley Jr. coming is because theystarted one of the most improbable journeys inKentucky Derby history some 21 hours and1,700 miles away.
The one-time bareback rider-turned-trainerhitched a horse van to the back of a pickup at hishome base in New Mexico, loaded Mine That Bird,then pointed it toward the finish line at ChurchillDowns. A tick past 6:30 p.m., EDT, they arrived.
“Theyʼll know me now,” Woolley said, “wonʼtthey?”
He was leaning on crutches and drinking inthe scene behind dark glasses, a broad-brimmedblack cowboy hat added the finishing touch. Hishorse got squeezed coming out of the gate, andWoolley had no problem admitting he lost sight ofthe small bay gelding soon after that.
But he had enough confidence in jockeyCalvin Borel, who already had one Derby winunder his belt, that he wasnʼt the least bit worried- not when Mine That Bird got squeezed comingout of the gate and had to settle for dead lastheading into the first turn.
“I never gave him instructions,” Woolley said.“All I asked him was to lay back and pick hisspots.”
Fittingly, he missed the two breathtakingmoves that locked up the race: the first, whenBorel took Mine That Bird off the rail at the farturn and around Atomic Rain; the second, in
mid-stretch, when the jockey squeezed pasttwo more challengers along the rail just beforepulling away.
“I looked up at the eighth pole,” Woolley saidthrough a widening grin, “and he was already in thelead. I was just blown away. ... Usually, when youstart out a race in trouble, it never gets any better.”
Truth be told, Woolley already felt like he wasin the Derby on a free pass.
Mine That Bird won four of five starts atWoodbine in Toronto and was Canadaʼs 2-year-old champion. The plan was torace him at Sunland Park and ifthe gelding did well there, starttalking about the KentuckyDerby. But Mine That Bird ran adisappointing fourth and the tar-get became the Lone Star Derbyin Texas instead. Then Woolleybroke his right leg in a motorcy-cle accident and had to turn mostof the training duties over to hisolder brother, Bill.
“In the meantime, horsesstarted dropping out of theDerby and we kicked up another notch, anothernotch, another notch,” he said. “We finallyreached the point, we were 17th (in gradedstakes earnings) and this is an opportunity youmight never get again,“
When he finally reached Louisville, Woolleyshared the backstretch with Hall of Fame trainershe knew only by reputation. But all those tales heʼdheard about the town and the knowledgeable fansturned out to be true. Reporters largely left him on
his own during the week leading up to the race,but just about every night at a restaurant, fans ap-proached him for an update on Mine That Bird.
“To be honest,” he recalled, “I didnʼt have anyreal feeling that I could win the Derby. All I knewis that weʼd be more competitive than anybodythought we would.”
That could turn out to be the understatementof this thoroughbred racing season.
Like his horse, Woolley just stepped up inclass big-time. Heʼll get plenty of attention from all
those trainers who walked bywith a friendly nod or a few en-couraging words, and little else.He can also count on more at-tention from the same reporterswho scurried by his barn dayafter day on their way to inter-view somebody else.
All Woolley asked is that thenext time his story gets told, thejourney from New Mexico slips afew paragraphs down in the copy.
“Thereʼs been a lot made ofthat and maybe now,” he said
to laughter, “they will start talking about some-thing else.”
That began bright and early the next morning,outside his barn, and that something else was theTriple Crown. Hard as it might be to imagine anundersized gelding going on to win the Preaknessand Belmont, that journey canʼt be much more im-probable than the Kentucky Derby winner arrivingat Americaʼs most famous horse race in a vanhitched to the back of a 40-year-old pickup.
Out of Nowhere
BennieWooley
DerbyNEWS.54,55.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 1:25 PM Page 55
By WILL GRAVES AP Sports Writer
LOUISVILLE,Ky. (AP) -DolphusMorri-
son is a racing purist: The Kentucky Derby is
for theboys; theKentuckyOaks is for thegirls.
Youwon’t hear any of the Derby owners
complaining.
Morrison’s spectacular filly Rachel
Alexandra crushed the field by a record
20¼ lengths in the $500,000 Oaks on May
1 at Churchill Downs, perhaps stamping
herself as the best 3-year-old horse in the
world, boy or girl.
“If she stays sound, she’ll be the next
Secretariat,” jockey Calvin Borel said.
She certainly put on a performance that
harkened back to the legendary Triple
Crown winner.
Rachel Alexandra eased past Gabby’s
Golden Gal on the far turn then poured it
on as she entered the stretch, extending the
lead as 100,000 spectators roared with
every stride of her eye-popping victory in
the filly version of the Kentucky Derby.
Borel blew a kiss and tapped her on the
neck as they crossed the finish line for her
fifth straight win, all by convincingmargins.
“I’ve never been on a horse that good, to
tell you the truth,” said Borel, who won the
2007 Kentucky Derby aboard Street Sense.
Stone Legacy was a distant second, with
Flying Spur third.
TrainerD.Wayne Lukas joked during the
week that his three entries - Stone Legacy,
Be Fair and Tweeter - would have a better
chance against RachelAlexandra if they de-
cided to turn the 1 1/8mile Oaks into a relay
race while the bay filly went it alone.
That probably wouldn’t have worked,
either.
“There is no disgrace to get beat by the
winner,” Lukas said. “Once Rachel
Alexandra took off, the front-runner was of
no consequence.”
Rachel Alexandra took her time, loping
along behindGabby’s GoldenGal down the
backstretch before Borel nudged her to the
outside as they entered the far turn. A cou-
ple of quick strides put her in front and
Borel knew it was over.
“I just let her cruise, let her do her
thing,” Borel said. “She loves to do what
she does. When I stood up, I didn’t know
she had won by that far.”
The win was so dominant it did little to
quell speculation that she could more than
hold her own against the boys in Saturday’s
Run for the Roses.
Morrison, however, said there was never
any serious discussion about running
RachelAlexandra in the Derby even though
she ripped off four straight victories after
teaming up with Borel last fall.
“I don’t think a stallion should be
messed up by the occasional really, really
outstanding filly,” the owner said. “They
should run on their own.”
The way she looked as she zoomed
down the stretch, ears pricking, hardly ex-
erting herself as she steadily pulled away,
the guys should consider themselves
lucky she’s not heading to the post on Sat-
urday.
The scary part? Borel still hasn’t
needed to ask her to really run. That lov-
ing pat on the neck as they hit the wire
was the only time he touched her all day.
“As fast as you want to go, you can
go,” Borel said.
Justwhistledixie appeared to have the
best shot at pulling the upset, but was
scratched hours before the race due to a
hot spot in her left front foot.
The decision sent Rachel Alexandra
off as the overwhelming 1-5 favorite. She
covered the distance in 1:48.87 and was
well into her gallop out before the rest of
the field hit the line.
“If I’d have reached and grabbed her by
the 16th pole, she’d have went a lot farther
and broke the track record,” Borel said.
Morrison isn’t sure what’s next. It may
be hard to find enough fillies to take her
on. Walking back to the barn, she didn’t
look like a horse who had just put together
the race of her life.
“She’s the epitome of race cool,” Mor-
rison said.
Jockey Corey Nakatani, a distant speck
in Rachel Alexandra’s rearview mirror
while finishing fifth aboard Nan, isn’t
quite sure there’s a horse out there that can
hang with racing’s leading lady.
“We’d have been all right if I’d have
had a rocket,” he said. “What can you say?
She just ran away and hid.” �
Rachel Alexandra winningthe Kentucky Oaks.
56 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
Rachel Alexandra RompsIn Kentucky Oaks
FLORIDA HORSENEWS
PAM
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OTO
OaksNEWS.56.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 1:54 PM Page 56
For the second consecutive year, The Florida Horse magazine washonored as the top equine regional publication in the industry by
American Horse Publications.
Judges’ comments included:“attention to detail and a catchyeye for imagery help the actionleap off the page.You can almostfeel the ground shaking as youturn the pages.”
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Publisher: Richard HancockEditor in chief: Michael ComptonBusiness manager: Patrick VinzantAdvertising manager: Summer BestArt director: John Filer
Get noticed!Advertise in The Florida Horse
Call to reserve your space today
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(ex•cel•lence) nounthe fact or state of excelling;superiority; distinction;possessing good qualitiesin high degree.
AHP.Adv4Gen.Excellence.qx:Layout 1 8/26/08 9:56 AM Page 1
By NICK FORTUNA
Gorgeous Goose’s late-closing running style had been her
undoing in several graded stakes races in which she had
to go very wide to find running room, if she could find
any at all. But on May 2, the Florida-bred filly finally got the
trip she wanted and took full advantage of it, capturing the
$100,000 Wilshire Handicap (G3) at Hollywood Park for her
first graded victory.
Gorgeous Goose ran just off the
pace during the one-mile turf test be-
fore finding a crease and rallying to
gain the lead in deep stretch. She beat
the 9-10 favorite, the British mare Di-
amond Diva, by three-quarters of a
length, finishing the race in 1:34.54
with jockey Corey Nakatani aboard.
Nakatani had ridden the horse
once before, steering her to a third-
place finish in the $85,000 Sandy
Blue Handicap at Del Mar inAugust.
Nakatani became available to ride at
Hollywood Park when his mount in
the Kentucky Derby (G1), Square
Eddie, was scratched because of a
shin injury.
Back in Ocala, Gorgeous Goose’s
victory was met with cheers from
Mary Anne Denes and Mary Ellen
Woelfel, friends and next-door neighbors who bred and own the
horse.
“We were very excited,” Denes said. “It was wonderful. We
just love this filly. We watched the race here, and we really en-
joyed it.We were really happy to have Nakatani ride her. He rode
her once before and did a great job with her.”
Gorgeous Goose returned mutuels of $25.80, $8.80 and
$5.20, while Diamond Diva paid $2.80 and $2.60. The Irish mare
Charming Legacy finished in third place, 1 ½ lengths behind the
winner, and returned $5.20 to show.
Gorgeous Goose has won four of her 14 starts for $223,574
in earnings. The 4-year-old daughter of Mongoose also won an
optional-claiming race at SantaAnita in March following a five-
month layoff. Her other victories came in 2007, when she broke
her maiden at Hollywood and captured the $85,200 Blue Norther
Stakes at Santa Anita.
Gorgeous Goose had come up short in her five previous at-
tempts in graded races, including a loss by a nose to Florida-
bred Tasha’s Miracle in the $106,100 Harold C. Ramser Sr.
Handicap (G3) at Santa Anita in Oc-
tober.
Denes said she and trainer Mike
Puype were expecting big things from
Gorgeous Goose on Saturday because
she had been training sharply, includ-
ing a bullet workout at Hollywood on
April 26 in which the filly handily
covered five furlongs in 59.8 seconds.
“We felt really good about the
race,” Denes said. “With her style,
she relaxes down the backside and
lets the jockey make the call. Being a
come-from-behind horse, she had
gotten blocked or had to go way wide
in a lot of her races, so I thought she
was very unlucky last year. It was
nice to see her get through on Satur-
day. She has that burst of speed at the
end, and she just impresses every-
body when she turns it on like that.”
Denes andWoelfel also bred Gorgeous Goose’s dam, the Big
Spruce mare Gorgeous Me, and sold her a few years ago. The
horse was named Gorgeous Me because Mary Ellen Woelfel’s
first two initials spell “ME.”
Denes and her husband, Paul, own Sidehill Farm in Ocala and
breed four to 10 horses per year, with most of the foals being
born at Bridlewood Farm in Ocala. They bred Forty One Carats,
who set a track record for six furlongs at Calder Race Course in
winning the 2000 Smile Sprint Handicap in a time of 1:08.95.
That horse also won the Pegasus Handicap (G2) at The Mead-
owlands in 1999 before retiring with seven victories and
$828,843 in earnings. �
Gorgeous Goose Looks thePart in Wilshire Handicap
FLORIDANEWS
58 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
Florida-bred filly earns first graded victory
Gorgeous Goose
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IATES
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GorgouseGoos.NEWS.pg.58.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 1:30 PM Page 1
THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009 59
Trainers BobBaffert and Janet Elliot,
jockey Eddie Maple and the horses
Ben Nevis II, Silverbulletday and
Tiznow have been elected to the National
Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame.
The Class of 2009 will be inducted on
Friday, August 14 in Saratoga Springs in a
ceremony at 10:30 a.m. at the Fasig-Tipton
sales pavilion.
Baffert, Maple, Silverbulletday and
Tiznow were elected in the contemporary
categories by the 181 members of the Hall
of Fame’s voting panel.
Elliot, the secondwoman elected and the
Hall of Fame’s first female trainer, and Ben
Nevis II, winner of the English Grand Na-
tional in 1980, were selected for induction
by the Steeplechase Committee. In 2000,
jockey Julie Krone was the first woman
elected to the Hall of Fame.
Baffert, 56, and the late RobertWheeler
were the finalists in the contemporary train-
ers category. Maple, 60, finished ahead of
Randy Romero and Alex Solis in the con-
temporary jockeys voting. It was Maple’s
seventh time on the ballot.
Tiznow, the only two-time winner of the
Breeders’Cup Classic, received more votes
than Best Pal and Point Given in the con-
temporarymale division. Silverbulletday fin-
ished ahead of Open Mind and Sky Beauty
in the contemporary female category.
Baffert has trained the winners of eight
TripleCrown races, sevenBreeders’
Cup races andhashandled10cham-
pions, including Florida-bred Silver
Charm and Mike Pegram’s Silver-
bulletday.Hewas elected in the first
year that his name appeared on the
ballot. He had been eligible in 2007
and 2008, but had not received
enough votes in the nominating
committee process to become a fi-
nalist and appear on the ballot.
After rising to prominence as a
Quarter Horse trainer, Baffert
began a transition to Thoroughbred racing
at the end of the 1970s. He saddled his first
Thoroughbred winner, Flipper Star, at Ril-
lito Park in Tucson,Arizona on January 28,
1979. Flipper Star’s victory came in a four-
furlong race for 3-year-olds that carried a
purse of $600.Thewinner’s sharewas $330.
In the early 1990s, Baffert completed the
move to Thoroughbred racing and devel-
oped a distinguished record.
He was the leading money-
winner trainer three consecu-
tive years (1998-2000) and
through 2008 ranks fifth all-
time among trainers in earn-
ings at $134,822,227. He has
won the Kentucky Derby
three times, the Preakness
four times and the Belmont
Stakes once.
Baffert wasn’t sure how to
react when told that he has
been elected.
“That is awesome. That is really awe-
some,” he said. “I don’t knowwhat to say. I
never expected this when I got in the busi-
ness. I’m sort of at a loss for words.”
Baffert was quickly back in stride.
“It’s an honor,” he said. “It’s a very hum-
bling feeling right now. I’ve always thought
about it but I really wasn’t mentally pre-
pared for it when I heard about being on the
ballot this year.
“I feel honored. It’s a great honor to be in
the Hall of Fame. I guess I’ve got to call my
mother up and tell her. She’s going to be
happy. She says she’s coming.”
Baffert and Silverbulletday are the first
trainer-horse combination to be inducted
in the same year since Neil Drysdale and
A.P. Indy entered the Hall of Fame to-
gether in 2000.
“I’m excited about Silver-
bulletday,” Baffert said. “She
was a great mare and it will be
great having Mike Pegram
there. Mike Pegram and Hal
Earnhardt are the ones who
motivated me to get in the
Thoroughbred business. Mike
Pegram put me on scholarship
to get into the business and it
looks like it paid off well. It’s
certainly fitting that I get in
with one of Mike’s horses.”
Maple, 60, retired in 1998with a resume
of 4,398 wins in a 34-year career. He won
the Belmont Stakes onTemperenceHill and
Crème Fraiche, three runnings of the Met-
ropolitan Handicap, two Travers and two
Suburban Handicaps. Maple rode Arbees
Boy, Florida-bred Foolish Pleasure and
Quiet Little Table to victories over Forego
and he rode Secretariat to victory in the
Canadian International, the colt’s final start.
He rode regularly for Hall of Fame trainer
Woody Stephens, who put him on
such top horses as Horse of the
Year Conquistador Cielo, Devil’s
Bag, Swale and Forty Niner.
“I’m tickled to death,” Maple
said when told he had been elected.
“It’s an honor. There’s nothing but
great riders, great horses, great
trainers in the Hall of Fame. It’s
just a great honor. I enjoyed riding
all those years and to have some-
thing like this come back is really,
really thrilling.”�
Bob Baffert (above) andTiznow (below) are
elected into RacingʼsHall of Fame.
Six Elected to Racing’s Hall of FameFLORIDA HORSENEWS
NYRA
PHOT
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HORS
EPHO
TOS.
COM
HallOfFameNEWS.59.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 3:50 PM Page 59
Before the horses lined up at the gates at Churchill Downs
onMay 2 to run in the KentuckyDerby, veterinarians took
samples of their blood and urine.
Those samples, along with samples taken from the winner and
a few other horses after the race was complete, made their way to
the Florida Racing Laboratory at the UF College of Veterinary
Medicine. There, lab employees tested and analyzed them, look-
ing for drugs that may have enhanced the horses’performances and
unfairly altered the outcome of the race.
Within three working days of receiving the samples, the lab
must submit preliminary results to the Kentucky Horse Racing
Commission, the state agency that monitors the approximately 350
horse races that take place in Kentucky each year.
Full results must be turned in “within 10 work-
ing days of receipt of the samples,” said Richard
Sams, Ph.D., the lab’s director and a professor in
the College ofVeterinaryMedicine’s department of
physiological sciences. Officials will not award
prize money to the winner of the race until these
results are submitted.
The UF racing lab was one of six labs that bid
for the job of analyzing the samples taken before
and after Kentucky’s horse races. It is one of five
labs in the nation accredited by ISO
17025 standards established by the
International Organization for Stan-
dardization.
The selection process required
facilities to conduct proficiency tests
to identify drugs present in samples,
submit written proposals, participate
in interviews and give presentations.
“We had a small group that is affiliated with the racing com-
mission who reviewed all the candidates and University of Florida
stood out as the best of the applicants we reviewed,” said Lisa Un-
derwood, executive director of the KHRC.
The contract is for one year but could be extended without re-
peating the bidding process. Sams said the job will require the lab
to expand its staff and buy additional instruments.
In a tough economy, this increased revenue also helps the lab to
stay open and continue providing services to Floridians, said Glen
Hoffsis, D.V.M.,M.S., dean of the College ofVeterinaryMedicine.
“It is quite an accomplishment to successfully obtain the con-
tract from the state of Kentucky,” Hoffsis said. “And it’s a tribute to
the people that operate and lead this laboratory. This has become
one of the premier, truly high-quality leading laboratories that does
this kind of work in the United States and in the world.”
The lab also does some sampling work for private individuals
and tests samples from horses and greyhounds for Florida’s Divi-
sion of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, a state agency that oversees racing
in Florida.
Standards against drug use in racing horses are higher than those
for Olympic athletes, according to Sams.
“Only two substances are permitted for admin-
istration within a 24-hour period before race time
in Florida,” Sams said.
Why such stringent regulations? He cited three
reasons for the strict rules.
Safety is one issue.An injured horse receiving
drugs before a race to mask pain could be hurt
more than helped by the medicine.
“It may injure itself even more,” Sams said,
“possibly to the extent that there could be a cata-
strophic injury that not only could have conse-
quences to the horse, but other
horses, jockeys.”
Another concern is the betting
that surrounds horse and greyhound
racing.
People placing bets need to be-
lieve the races are fair. Racehorse
owners also are concerned about
fairness for another reason.
“For those horses in the most prestigious races, those horses
will become breeding animals,” Sams explained. “The owners
make very substantial investments in those horses, and a horse
owner wants their horse to compete with other horses without any
of those horses being treated with drugs.”
Sams said there’s a saying that “the horses should compete on
hay, oats and water.”
“Even a drug that you and Imight take for relief of aminor ache
or pain is prohibited in racing for those three reasons,” he said.�
UF Racing Lab SecuresKentucky Derby Contract
FLORIDANEWS
60 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
“For those horses in the most prestigiousraces, those horses will become breeding
animals. The owners make very substantialinvestments in those horses, and a horseowner wants their horse to compete withother horses without any of those horsesbeing treated with drugs.”–Dr. Richard Sams
Dr. Richrd Sams
RacingLab.NEWS.pg.60.qx:Florida Horse_template 5/5/09 3:31 PM Page 1
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with photgraphs, music and text.
Call for details [email protected]
Eleanor M. HancockFreelance Photographer
Photography, People, Pets, Events and MoreOn Location
Memory VideosCapture your past and present
with photgraphs, music and text.
Call for details [email protected]
Eleanor M. HancockFreelance Photographer
Photography, People, Pets, Events and MoreOn Location
Memory VideosCapture your past and present
with photgraphs, music and text.
Call for details [email protected]
BARN FOR RENT12 stall concrete barn with
2 apts/feed/tack room.Wash rack. 20 acres fenced.
7 paddocks with water.Located near Morriston.
352-207-1494 or 352-624-3030
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May is the bestmonth of the year; or the worst.This
Triple Crown thing can go either way.
The first four months of the year are anticipation
wrapped around the first Saturday of May, the day on
which, despite perhaps the lowest media profile in rac-
ing’s history, everyone is paying attention.A star is born
at Churchill Downs on this day and, as we saw last year,
horrific tragedy can be played out before dozens of
camera angles and the largest audience the game will
enjoy in any year. Always, hearts are won; occasion-
ally, hearts are broken.
There may be less racing than ever on television
and the sport has been shunned by most of the nation’s
most influential newspapers, but Derby day defies
gravity. The winner is immediately larger than life and
sets the tone for the two weeks that follow, a process
that has made famous Big Brown, Barbaro, Smarty
Jones, Funny Cide, War Emblem, Charismatic, Real
Quiet and Silver Charm in the last dozen years. All of
these, save Barbaro, won the Preakness and set the
stage for the sport’s
greatest drama. Barbaro,
undefeated until then,
became the most famous
racehorse in many years
when he was injured in
the Preakness and wrote
his own epic.
The people con-
nected to each of these
horses illustrate in small part the diverse cast of human
characters involved in the sport, each story unique and
plots that go from the homespun group of high school
friends who were partners in Funny Cide to the fabu-
lously wealthy Saudi Prince who died mysteriously in
his native country not long afterWar Emblem stumbled
at the gate in the Belmont Stakes. Real Quiet brought
the Mike Pegram-Bob Baffert story to light for the first
time and Smarty Jones made a temporary celebrity of
his owners, small-time breeders, one wheelchair-bound
but still playing the game. These stories are around all
year long and involve the many people who work at the
game without finding their way to the winner’s circle at
Churchill Downs in a flurry of rose petals. But they are
too seldom told.
Even thebad things thathappenat this timeofyearhave
a beneficial impact beyond the immediate body blow.
Barbaro brought attention to aspects of the sport that
are seldom examined – veterinary medicine, equine
anatomy, the need for research funds and safety. The
long-term benefit: Fans of Barbaro, an organization that
came together at the time, nowadays devotes itself to
fund-raising, rescue and anti-slaughter issues.
The death of Eight Belles after the Derby last year and
discussions during the Triple Crown centered upon ana-
bolic steroids and their use in racingbrought radical animal
rights activists to the streets outside Pimlico and Belmont
Parkbut alsoheightenedawarenesswithin the industry that
has resulted in positive change beginning with a wide-
spreadbanof anabolic steroids inmost racing jurisdictions
and including the NationalThoroughbred RacingAssoci-
ation’s efforts in the areas of safety and integrity.
A thorough self-examination of the racing industry,
which is for lack of a better term the sum of its very dif-
ferent if singularly purposed parts, would lead to an ad-
mission that there is a crisis of public confidence that
persists and is sometimes nourished by the participants.
These stories will provide background noise through
the five-week span between the Derby and the Belmont
and they have nothing to do with horses running against
one another.
Even while this group of three-year-olds was show-
ing signs of being deeply competitive and interesting,
the stories that demanded the biggest headlines and most
discussion revolved around a detention barn violation at
Aqueduct and a horrific revelation of unconscionable
inhumanity on a upstate New York farm operated by a
high profile owner from which 177 neglected and mal-
nourished thoroughbreds were rescued. As Pogo once
said: “We have met the enemy and it is us.”
It’s May.We may see the nextTriple Crown winner.
But in the meantime hold your breath. �
PLAYER’S PAGE
There may be less racing than ever on tele-
vision and the sport has been shunned by
most of the nation’s most influential news-
papers, but Derby day defies gravity. The
winner is immediately larger than life and
sets the tone for the two weeks that follow
The BestAnd theWorst
62 THE FLORIDA HORSE • MAY 2009
by Paul Moran
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